Exploring St. Louis

We are just home from an action-packed trip to St. Louis! My husband attended a full week of training and brought us along. We have a family vacation planned soon, so this was a very special and inexpensive bonus trip for us! Here are some shots of the sights in St. Louis:

Our hotel was just up the street from Union Station. The back parking lot was so pretty with a pond a fountains! We stopped by one evening to split a chunk of fudge from The Fudgery.

Our hotel was downtown, but the I didn't have a car in the middle of the day. We walked quite a bit, took the Metro, a bus, and even a taxi one day. I think the transportation was a definite highlight for the kids.
On Monday we walked all the way down to the arch. Our hotel was on Market Street, so the arch was straight down that street and it was almost entirely green spaces, fountains, and gardens. Good thing, because the walking to and from totalled about three miles.

Pinocchio was just one of the sculptures at the City Garden on Market Street.

We packed lunches from home. We didn't end up eating them because we ate two big breakfasts at the hotel every day. And had popcorn and lemonade at the hotel every afternoon. And the hotel had a Pepsi soda fountain and I wasn't even tempted to get Mt. Dew. Not even once! (Those of you who know me well know that's my downfall. Former downfall. My New Year's Resolution was no Mt. Dew and I've stuck to it!)

We were very surprised to find St. Louis FREEZING! We survived by walking so much we couldn't possibly be cold.

This is a shot of the riverfront by the Arch. It was very flooded.

And here's the main attraction - the Arch! Guess what? It's big!

A fountain and statue of a runner on Market Street. This is the first vacation where we've actually been jealous of all the runners we saw at the Arch park and Forest Park. I'm definitely getting weird compared to my former self - not craving Mt. Dew and wishing I could go for a run.

Yet another pretty spot on Market Street.

St. Louis also has some super cool restaurants and lots of free attractions. I hope to post more pictures soon!

Midwest Homeschool Conference Lectures, Part 3

I'm really enjoying going through my notes again! It was just too much information to take in all at once, so this really helps. I hope it gives you some good exposure to all the rich information that's out there to encourage you in home education!

4. Susan Wise Bauer & Jessie Wise, "The Well-Trained Mind"

This was very exciting for me - seeing the authors of my favorite homeschool book in person! Since I read their book 6 years ago and have been referring to it ever since, I had a pretty good idea of what they were going to say. Still, seeing them speak really brought some clarity to my classical ideals.

Language is the foundation of a modern classical education. A language intensive education trains the mind to learn and demands self-discipline. In comparison, image-based thinking is simpler and reactive. Given the two options, language vs. image, our brains default to the easier option. Classical education prioritizes the harder way of learning in the early years so it becomes easier as the student grows. Classical education emphasizes written and spoken language as the main way to learn.

Content of a lesson is secondary to the process of learning. The classical educator is not afraid to tell kids to do tasks that aren't immediately pleasurable. But that task must have a benefit down the road. One more tip - a living book means it has an author's name on the cover. Out with textbooks!

So that's the foundation - language. Three walls of classical education are the stages of learning (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the fourth wall is the use of living books and original sources. I did not take many notes on the stages of learning because I've studied them so long, but if you are curious you should definitely learn about them by checking out The Well-Trained Mind from your library.

The roof of classical education is the chronological study of history. This is what drew me into classical education in the first part. See if you think this makes sense: in year one study the ancients, year two study the middle ages, year three study early modern times, and year four study modern times. Tie in science and literature, repeat twice, and you've got an education! Oh, how I wish I had been educated that way. But wait, I will be educated that way still! Hooray for homeschooling and my second chance at an education!

Okay...I'm getting super excited about starting The Story of the World next year! Better calm down and wrap this up!

I loved seeing Mrs. Wise's and Mrs. Bauer's personalities come through. One big criticism of following The Well-Trained Mind is that it's too much. You can't do it all and it will drive you crazy. But this isn't a day, week, or even year of schooling. This is a life of education. It doesn't all have to be done at once. This book was written by country folks who have given themselves a good education out on the farm. It's not meant to be a tense, stressful way to educate while you run down a checklist of stuff to do. I was worried that I, too would go crazy trying to attain a classical education. But now I think I understand the big picture.

5. Cathy Duffy, "Choosing Curriculum to Fit Each Child"

Cathy Duffy...does that sound familiar? Ahh, so she's the face behind that Cathy Duffy Reviews website that always pops up when I investigate curriculum! Cool.

I should have really paid attention to this lecture, but I only wrote down a single line, "Our tendency is to teach the way we learn best."

This could be a problem.

I definitely wish there was a one size fits all curriculum. We could save so much time and money! And go insane in the process.

I do recall that Mrs. Duffy spoke on learning styles and personality types and how we can pay attention to those when we select curriculum.

Did you see how much curriculum there was to choose from in that gigantic vendor hall???

{sigh} I need to pay more attention to this. Such a shame that I have no notes.

Midwest Homeschool Conference Lectures, Part 2

4. Rebecca Kochenderfer, "Inspired Learning"

Mrs. Kochenderfer is the founder of Homeschool.com and has recently published the book Homeschooling and Loving It. This was her first time speaking at a conference.

All I can say is WOW. If anyone reading this was in attendance at her lectures, you know what I mean. She blew me away. Seriously, this would have been the most important lecture for my husband to attend with me. You should have seen the faces of the people leaving her talk. I think we were all about to jump up from our squished in spaces (yes, there was not even standing room left by the time the lecture started), raise our hands in the air in victory, and shout, "Yes! We can do it!" This was certainly a time of inspired learning.

She started out asking what our number one goal is. What is my child's number one goal? She encouraged us to take our kids' goals seriously and to pay attention to what they are attracted to and excited about.

"With goals, it's not just about crossing the finish line, it's about who you
become while you're running the race."

Goal setting is interest-led learning. Then you don't have to worry about motivation.

"Motivation can come in many forms - you can coerce, you can force, or you can
bribe. But what we really want to do is inspire our children, and there's
only one way to do this, and that's by getting inside our kids and lighting a
fire." -- Amos

Goals are important because your dreams matter. Goals help you discover your special gifts and talents. Achieving goals builds your self-confidence and your self-trust.

Mama, you are the role model, even with goals! Mommy's and Daddy's dreams matter. An individual's goal can become a family goal as you help one another along. Achieving a goal like this becomes a family celebration.

Mrs. Kochenderfer has developed a failure-proof system for acheiving your goals:
1. Start with a small, do-able goal. (But little kids can start with big goals!)
2. Be careful who you tell your goals to. Beware of dream killers.
3. Write your toals down in positive, motivating words. Go into future mode and write it today as if it has already happened.
4. Visualize yourself completing your goal.
5. Take action every day towards your goal. that way you're not having to start fresh every time. There's no "where was I?" time waster.

She also gave us a list of things to do to become more goal minded. Write a huge list of everything you want to do in your life. Write down five things that you're really good at. Go to that "five things" list and apply it all the time. Celebrate completed goals! Don't say, "I can't!" Say, "How can I?" It opens up your eyes for opportunities.

To win in homeschooling remember this:
W = What is your child's #1 goal?
I = Identify their learning style.
N = Never forget to include their favorites

As you wrap up the school year, set small goals and finish with a bang!

Mrs. Kochenderfer mentioned some great resources:
learningsuccessinstitute.com for personality types and learning styles quiz
homeschool.com for interviews on podcast
Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow by Marsha Sinetar

I'm excited to hear what Mrs. Kochenderfer has to say over the next couple years because she's wanting to closely watch the trend of alternatives to college. I got through college, but life is what has made me love learning. I know there are much more effective ways to learn than college, so I hope this trend really develops in the next ten years!

Everyone attending her lectures received a free copy of her book, and you can get a free copy too! There are forms in the back of the book that walk you through the goal setting process. I can't wait to read this one! (I'm going to be saying that about lots of books over the next few days.)

Midwest Homeschool Conference Lectures, Part 1

I have nearly 20 pages of notes from the conference and I'm looking forward to going through them all to share with you. This stuff is just too good to leave folded up in a binder on my shelf! I hope you enjoy the wide variety!

1. John Stonestreet, "Making Sense of Your World in a Silly Culture"

This lecture was part of the teen track and the subject was worldviews. I was late getting into this session, but my notes pick up when Mr. Stonestreet remembered how Babylon physically took the Isrealite youths captive. In our culture, people are being taken captive emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. We've got to be taking our own thoughts captive like 2 Corinthians 10:25 directs us.

He went on to teach us that our worldview develops as part of our spiritual formation, discipleship, and education. From our worldview we form our values. From our values come our actions. A worldview helps us know how we fit into ultimate reality. And every cultural expression communicates worldview ideas. As a mom, I want to take hold of this concept because I believe our family culture and spiritual heritage culture can shape my children's wordviews more than the worldly culture.

I liked the mention of Babylon since I'm so deep in my Beth Moore Daniel Bible Study. When Mr. Stonestreet spent time going over birthrates of cultures with differring spiritual agendas I was reminded again how our view on children may not be lined up exactly with the Bible since we Christian Americans so severely limit our family size. And I loved it when Mr. Stonestreet encouraged the audience that fashion and fashion design was important because designers are the ones who gets to promote what is "beautiful". I do enjoy pretty clothes, so I appreciate all the credibility I can get in that area!

2. Catherine Levison, "An Overview of the Charlotte Mason Method"

In this brief overview I got a feel for the general ideas behind the Charlotte Mason Method. Some of the big guidelines behind this method include realizing that the students carry the responsibility to learn. The parent should not be the middleman. I need to give the material directly to the children and stay out of the way so they can learn! First teach broadly, then specialize.

Classics should be unabridged. (A big AMEN to that from me!) Use whole books that carry only one topic. Use living books about real people. That gives you the chance to identify with the characters on an emotional level so you can remember more. All these unabridged, living books clothes the children in literary language.

Doing many short lessons in succession is an effective teaching tool. Short lessons last 10 - 20 minutes for young children and vary widely. If one lesson is writing, the next should be quite different. Narration takes the place of testing. Learn to focus so you and your children can read something once and know it.

Mrs. Levison demonstrated how to teach art appreciation. Hold up a full color page of artwork for the children to look at for a minute or two and tell them the name of the artist. Then the parent looks at it while the children narrate, or tell what they saw. Do this once a week, using a different work from the same artist for six weeks. That's all it will take for the children to get a grasp of an artist's style and appreciate the artwork.

A couple quotes from Mrs. Levison stand out to me in my notes. "The love for learning is the opposite of boredom." "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life." "Why do we tell the children what to think when they discover it for themselves?"

I have been so curious about the Charlotte Mason Method but I've had a hard time really understanding it. I picked up Miss Mason's Home Education about a year ago and tried to read it during those early morning and late night nursing sessions. If you've attempted to read Miss Mason's works, you realize that's not the best way to glean her fine points. There was much reading and re-reading, I can assure you! Still, I had a fuzzy idea of the type of education she promoted. Mrs. Levison's lecture made a lot of sense to me and I'm so excited to start reading her book on the Charlotte Mason Method soon! (Yep...should have gotten it autographed!)

3. Stephen Guffanti, MD, "Guffanti, you'd forget your head if it wasn't attached!"

Dr. Guffanti taught a silly way to remember simple everyday lists and numbers that was silly an effective. I'm not sure if I can explain what he taught. I couldn't find a link on the web to help either. It's getting late so I'm going to give up on explaining his system, but you might want to look up his product, Rocket Phonics, if you have an ADHD student or a very active learner. He works with these type of children in his medical profession and his teaching approach is very funny and innovative.

That's a cool thing about this conference. The lectures were essentially given by regular people who became entrepreneurs when they saw a need and stepped up with a solution. Did you see that huge vendor hall packed full of family businesses? Just being around all those people taught me a big lesson in paying attention, taking initiative and working hard.

Starstruck...but not overwhelmed.

I attended the Midwest Homeschool Convention last week and I'm still trying to collect my thoughts. I went to more than 15 lectures in two and a half days and have pages and pages of notes I want to go through. My first sight of the vendor hall made me want to run and hide, but I learned so much in the lectures that my focus was streamlined and I ended up taking home nearly all of our curriculum for next year.

The list of speakers was impressive. I've been immersed in homeschool books since the birth of my eldest nearly 7 years ago, so brushing elbows with all the authors was absolutely surprisingly shocking to me. Catherine Levison! Jessie Wise! Susan Wise Bauer! John Rosemond! And even Tim Hawkins! Those are just the big names I knew. I became so startstruck and shy that I didn't even get my books autographed. Pathetic.

In the next few days I plan to outline many of the lectures I sat through, show off my beloved (and very heavy to carry at a convention) books, and give some pointers for attending this hugest of huge homeschool conference next year. Hopefully I'll remember them when the time rolls around!

Lessons Learned in March

March was a great month for holding onto those last few special moments of winter and welcoming in spring. I'm learning to run again, so I loved the time I had to notice the changes as the earth warmed and the sun shone. Last year I followed the Couch to 5K running plan and ran my first 5k on my 30th birthday.

Here I am in the 90 degree smothering humidity nearing the finish line.

What a time to have lost my ponytail holder! But I did it, I really did it, I ran a 5K!

My husband joined me and ran his first 5k with me on Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving is the time to run! Much better than Auguest.

I think this is going to be our new family tradition.

This year running has been even more fun because my friend H--- sold me her old jogging stroller for $10. My husband spruced it up with $15 worth of new innertubes and some screws. I have loved taking either J--- or C--- out with me! It's to the point that I don't even want to go if I can't take a little buddy with me. Learning to run again has been just about as hard as it was last year, so I started completely at the beginning of the program. I'm happy to say that it only took a couple times out to figure out how to run with the stroller. If you are thinking about getting a jogging stroller, I definitely recommend it!

I was hoping to learn how to wean a toddler without gaining five pounds. I kinda succeeded. I gained three pounds. Does anyone else struggle with packing on the weight during weaning? My new goal in April is to learn how to lose five pounds while not nursing. We'll see how that goes here in a few weeks, but I can say that I'm still trying! (Except for those times when I forget to try...)

Parenting was still parenting in March. My new prayer became a prayer of surrender, hence the white flag. I prayed specifically to yeild my "rights" to God and for the fruit of His Holy Spirit in me to be what defined my parenting. It is so hard to completely surrender in this area, so this has become a constant prayer for me.

Reading still took place, but as I aniticipated, my previously scheduled reading times were not to be replaced very easily. Now my reading must take place with heavy eyelids during the dark ends of the days. My Bible reading and Daniel Bible study seem to be about all I can complete. I am exactly two weeks behind in the Bible, although I really enjoy the Old Testament. I have passed the halfway point in the Beth Moore Daniel Bible Study and it has turned to prophecy. I love our class at church because the teaching is fascinating and has fascilitated some great conversations with women I'm enjoying getting to know. Check out LifeAsMom for more great book reviews!

I am in the middle of Rural Free: A Farmwife's Almanac of Country Living by Rachel Peden. I found this while browsing the shelves at the library. It was written by a thoughtful Indiana farmwife and published in 1961. Reading this makes me wish I lived on a farm! It is written in journal style with lots of random entries organized by month. Although I don't live on a farm, the beautiful way Peden writes makes imagining life on a farm easy. I feel so mellow when I read this! Here is a little excerpt if you need a good mellowing out:

The greening rain came in the night Tuesday. There were some tossed-up coals of lightning; here was a wind that began in a careful whisper as if trying to waken one person without waking a small sleeper next to him. But the wind's joy increased as it sang until finally it was roaring and shouting and not caring who heard.

And then the rain began, the tonic, greening, transforming rain that comes only once a year.

At gray daylight, silver drops still clung to the undersides of peach limbs; but the rain had stopped, and now every living blade and stalk whose destiny it is to be green was suddenly astonishingly green.

This miracle happens every year at the beginning of spring.

I also found HomeSchooling at the speed of life by Marilyn Rockett at my local library. I like this book because her name is Rockett and the title's about speed and has a rocket on it. Okay, silly, but it makes me smile. Anyway, about the book. (Since I can't judge it by the cover, right?) It teaches how and why to get yourself, your home, and your school organized. As I grapple with how to handle our education and homemaking at the same time, I've been wondering if we need to make a priority of doing no housework during the day. Mrs. Rockett (zoom!) discourages that kind of thinking and recommends a real life approach to your family's education. You know, the kind of real life that includes dirty socks, debris-covered rugs and three meals a day. Plus snacks. This is just the kind of encouragement and advice I need as I continue to learn to run our home wisely.

We also read more Boxcar Children books. These books are fun because they pique our interest on a wide variety of topics. As a result of this, I now have several meteor showers on our calendar. If your curious, the Lyrids meteor shower is next week on April 21.

We began reading Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories by Brisley but didn't finish it. It was sweet and full of good character examples, but it couldn't compare to the Boxcar Children, I guess. The children enjoyed reading it but didn't beg for more. The same with me.

Well, that's the end of reading books in our home, but not the end of learning. Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking posted about creating a homemaking planner. I was so encouraged that I made one and have been using it for several weeks. My favorite part is a form that can be obtained from The Intentional Planner by Sherri Graham. It asks a few questions that every week gets me to think about the condition of my heart and my relationship with God. The weeks go by so quickly, and this form has been a great reminder to stop, examine myself, and pray before I make my plans.

I also tried out a couple of new recipes with our delicious beef. Keep in mind that my husband doesn't like hamburger or gravy. The hamburger will be reserved for me and the kids and parties and such. I'm trying to figure out how to make the most of the rest of the beef for the entire family's nourishment and enjoyment.

The first recipe was Grilled Beef Gyros. I sliced a sirloin tip roast, marinated it, and my husband grilled it. We served it on homemade pitas with a cucumber sauce. Everything about the recipe was scrumptious, but it made about three times too much cucumber sauce. I served it with a hummus platter from Passionate Homemaking and it was the best meal I've eaten in a long time. And the cool thing about the meat - it didn't shrink up as it cooked! Does anyone else think that's fascinating and totally worth writing about?

Recipe number two - Shredded Mexican Beef. I was aiming for something like the shredded beef at Qdoba. The recipe used chuck roast, and I'm so glad I have a ton of chuck roast because we loved this! About 5 or 6 pounds of roast made enough for 6 or 7 meals for our family. We used it in fajitas, nachos, and quesadillas. I've got two more meals worth in the freezer all cooked up and ready to go, too!

I know this is a really bad picture, but I just had to share it anyway. I'm so proud of him!

Oh, one more thing since this is a forever-long post, anyway. I'm SO PROUD of my son! He is in kindergarten and this was his first year in Junior Bible Quiz. He has worked so hard and studied more than 100 minutes every week so that he would be prepared to compete. He has done great all year, earning first place in his division more than once. Because our church had so few competitors, he had to be bumped up to an older division for the state tournament. He was competing against mostly 2nd and 3rd graders who had studied twice as many questions as him. But he still played hard, didn't get discouraged, and came in 7th in the state! I am so proud of how hard he prepared and competed, and I'm so thankful for all the study time we had together to talk about God and the Bible!

Beef! (and a potato recipe)

We've been progressively purchasing more whole foods as often as possible directly from farmers, so why not buy a whole cow? That's DEFINITELY a whole food!

Well, we didn't really buy a whole cow, just half of one. My pappaw is a cattle buyer and I asked him to seek out a grass-feed beef for our family.

Cows were created to eat grass, but apperently commercially raised cattle eat a lot of corn, and local cows from little farms eat some, too. The grain is hard on a cow's digestive system, resulting in decreased health of the animal. Resulting in increased antibiotics. And growth hormones to speed up the process. All resulting in a tasty but lower quality meat.

It turns out that grass-fed beef is full of nutrients you won't find in supermarket beef. Grass-fed beef is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a proven cancer fighter, as well as vitamins A and E, branch-chain amino acids, digestive enzymes and essential nutrients that are known for their antioxidant properties. Healthier cow, healthier you!

Having my Pappaw buy a cow for me also helps in other ways. I think it respects my heritage a little. And there is the issue of treating the cow, farmer, and butcherer kindly and ethically.

So I've been saving up and just a couple weeks ago my Pappaw called to say he'd found us a limosine yearling that hadn't been started on much corn yet. It was a bargain and we took. Now, this isn't some certified organic grass fed beef. But it is much healthier for us than the alternative. I think what's getting us through this transition into natural eating is not being perfectionists about everything.



Ever wonder what a cow looks like in a van? Maybe this isn't what you had in mind, but there's a cow in there alright! We split it with my parents and each brought home about 188 pounds, for the grand sum of $275. Yes, that includes filet mignon! I was thrilled at what a great deal this was!

Now, here's the catch. In our 11 years of marriage, I'm sure we've spent much less than that on beef. My husband doesn't like hamburger, and when we were young college students we just didn't want to pay for expensive cuts like roasts and steaks. I was inexperienced at preparing it anyway, so we just ate chicken. I never got out of the rut of thinking beef was too expensive. Until now!

My cooking skills have definitely come a long way since 1998, and I love to experiment! We've been beef deprived and I'm looking forward to some good red meat. Almost every time I cook this it's going to be an experiment because I have so little previous experience with beef. I plan to post the best recipes we find, just in case you're a little stumped about how to prepare beef, too.

Here's our first meal - grilled sirloin steak. Okay, not really an experiment here but I'd like to point out that the beef was SO tender. We served it with Pappy Potatoes. My dad made up this method for grilling potatoes. We've always eaten them so much that I'm shocked that everyone doesn't grill their potatoes all summer long, too. If you're unfamiliar with grilled taters, here's a little primer for you.

Pappy Potatoes

white or sweet potatoes, scrubbed, pierced and microwave until tender
butter or olive oil
montreal seasoning and salt
or salt, pepper, garlic powder, and other seasonings you like
Optional: honey or cheese
ketchup or ranch dressing for dipping

Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and cut some slashes into the flesh so the oil or butter can get down into them. Grill on a pre-heated grill for about 20 minutes. Brush with oil or butter and sprinkle liberally with seasonings. You may like them best when they're really brown and crispy (like me), or you may prefer them golden and tender (like my husband).

You can mix some honey in with the butter to give the potatoes a slightly sweet crust. My parents like to melt cheese on the potatoes a few minutes before they're finished. At our house, we like them basic the best.

Showering

I have to post this picture because I'm so glad it's dress season again! I wear skirts and dresses every day in warm weather. Even for garden work! They're definitely cheaper, but I also think they're prettier and much more comfortable. I love my dresses, and I especially love it when my little girl coordinates with me!

C--- and I were invited to attend my cousin's baby shower last week and we got to provide the games. This was perfect for me because through all the baby showers I've hosted, I've found out what games really work. It is so easy now to plan games for showers since I no longer have to search for ideas!

I really only have two absolute favorite shower games. They work especially well for large showers. For the first game you do what C--- is doing in the snapshot below. That's right, you freeze little plastic babies in ice cubes! Each guest gets a cube in her drink at the shower. Whoever's baby is "born" first - completely thawed out - wins. The one rule is that you can't suck on it. I've bought the babies at Hobby Lobby and Michael's.

The next game is "Stork Bingo." This is the must-have game for large showers. I recommend having lots of prizes for this one, too. Each guest fills out a bingo card with baby items she thinks the new mom will receive. Things like diapers, bottles, onesies, blankets...you get the picture. As the gifts are opened, squares on the card get crossed off just as in regular bingo.

Sometimes (dare I say it?) opening gifts can get a bit boring at a large shower. This makes it much more fun! If you'd like to play this game at a shower, try clicking on the image below and then printing it with no header or footer. If it prints out nicely, this could save you a lot of work!

My mom was in charge of the third game at this shower. She melted candy bars in diapers and had the ladies guess what kind of candy bar each is. It's supposed to be gross, but I know a gross diaper, and these didn't phase me. Yeah, I could scrape that candy out and it if it I were desperate! Okay, enough of that! This game went over well, too.

I've figured out my favorite shower prizes, too. I make a bunch a of truffles to use as prizes. I like to make them, and I try to be frugal, and I don't like nic-nacs, so I think these are the perfect shower prize.

Menu Plan - Spring's beginning!

Menu planning gets a little more exciting when the seasons change, don't you think? I've been trudging through my menu plans lately. Yesterday my friend J--- went on a milk run with me and our conversation reminded us both that we need to stay on top of our meal plans!

And C---, don't you peek at what we're having when you visit Sunday night,because you'll be pretty disappointed if I get lazy and just get Little Caeser's pizzas for dinner!

By the way, meals are also more fun when you have a little girl with Shirley Temple hair!

Saturday: Green Smoothie, Gingerbread Waffles w/ pb; out to lunch; leftovers

Sunday: Hashbrown and egg casserole; leftovers; Grilled Beef Gyros, tossed salad, hummus platter, fruit, mocha truffle brownies

Monday: yogurt parfaits; chili; leftovers

Tuesday: Hashbrown and egg casserole; Out to lunch; Tuna Salad, pitas, butternut squash fries

Wednesday: 7-grain cereal; chili; grilled salmon, onions, and peppers with rice and corn

Thursday: Green Smoothies and banana millet muffins, tuna salad, copycat Passover dinner

Friday: Hot Cross Buns and fruit; BBQ and chips; leftovers

Saturday: cold cereal; Potato Soup and Soft Pretzels; homemade pizza

Sunday: Breakfast at church; Family Easter Dinner; leftovers

We are having a Passover dinner, but we may or may not be serving lamb. I'm not sure if that will be easy to find or too expensive. We'll probably end up roasting a chicken instead. So very kosher of us. I've really enjoyed changing up our menus to embrace springtime, but I may be pushing it with serving so many cold breakfasts.

Oh, and about the green smoothies. I was all gung-ho about eating healthy a couple weeks ago and we made several batches of green smoothies and kale chips. I just kept buying those big 'ol bags of kale! One morning the smoothie was looking quite good but smelled a little pungent. Well...really pungent. It didn't take long to realize that I had accidentally bought mustard greens instead of kale. YUCK! That is one green that doesn't work in a green smoothie!

Are you ready to give up casseroles, roasts and bowls of steaming hot cereal? What are some of your favorite recipes to pull out in the springtime?

Bargains at CVS

I've been couponing for almost a year now and I'm hooked on bargain shopping at CVS! I love being stocked up on health and beauty aids. I love the how helpful, patient, and friendly the employees have been at every CVS I've ever gone to. I love getting to try new products like TrueNorth nuts. I love using name brand diapers on my baby. And I love the thrill of saving so much money!

I've done some fun things with my CVS finds. For our anniversary, I made my husband first aid kits for his car and his desk at work. I was able to include all sorts of medicine plus really nice things like ThermaCare heat wraps. These kits cost almost no money. For Christmas, I gave my mom several of my CVS freebies. She doesn't coupon shop. She said she looked at some of the things on the store shelf, wanting to buy them, but just not willing to pay retail. We were also able to use freebies to fill up our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes and a hygeine kit for Convoy of Hope. I have some more free goodies starting to pile up in my closet and I know I'll have fun giving those away, too!

Here are my most recent CVS purchases. I'm not going to tell you how I got everything in the pictures for such a low price, but I will link you up to someone who will! Visit Money Saving Mom to learn how to get great deals at CVS. I also like the weekly shopping lists I can tailor and print out at Southern Savers.

March 11

$7.00

March 19

$9.57


March 25
$11.62