Mommy of Many®

Recycle, reuse, repurpose! It goes for your leftovers too!

Leftovers get a bum wrap because they’re no fun when they’re simply reheated and reserved. But repurposed and reserved?! That’s a whole different game.

Tonight I took leftover Mr. Yoshida’s chicken from last night, saved some, too-wilty-too-be-eaten-fresh, tricolor peppers from being thrown in the trash, paired them with garlic and a whole, sliced, purple onion and made fajitas. They were served with the choice of refried beans, tortillas, cheese and salsa. Several of the kids ate the chicken/pepper/onion mixture without a tortilla and beans and others enjoyed them fajita style. No matter how the dish was enjoyed, the important part was the fact that leftovers got used and veggies got saved from the trash and everyone had a great dinner.

Use your leftovers! Make them into something completely new and help save your budget in the process.

Doing the Dance of the Children and of Dinner~

Sometimes the solution to a problem is so simple that it’s hard to believe we haven’t seen it.

Here’s a solution to 2 common household problems;

Problem #1) How many hundreds of times have you picked up and dumped water bottles that have been partially enjoyed and then left sitting around?

Problem #2) Do your ice packs seems to disappear as often as the match to almost all your children’s socks?

Solution!- Fill those 1/2 full water bottles with tap water, mark an X on the top (this is how my kids know not to defrost and drink them), throw them in your freezer & BAM! No more searching for ice packs (though these are a little large for lunch boxes, if you DO choose to use them that way, I’d suggest putting them in a plastic zipper bag to keep everything else from getting wet) and no more frustration over dumping all that water!

Doing the Dance of the Children & Finding Practical Solutions Along the Way~

I LOVE this!!!!

Max came home on the 1st day of school and told me about this system in his classroom. His teacher also explained it to me and let me know that Max was already using the “Compliment Card” and the “Breaking News!” forms. In the last couple of days Max has received Compliment Cards from classmates. He’s LOVING this! Even better are the Breaking News! forms, because it enables a kiddo like Max, who has a really tough time NOT speaking his mind the very moment an idea or story pops into his head, to jot down what he has to say and to feel confident that when the teacher or parent who gets the form, has time, they will give it proper attention.

Max’s teacher let me know that he promptly grabbed a stack of each form, to be ready for when he would need them. Today he brought some home so I could utilize this great system at home.

The third form is “Tattling Turtle” and is to be used when a child feels upset about something or is having a problem with someone or something. GREAT! Now, if I can make a zillion copies, wallpaper the walls of my home in them, hand each kiddo a pencil and listen to their closed mouths and scribbling pencils! If only~

Seriously, I love the idea of this program for all kids, not just my super verbal, “I’ve got an idea”, Asperger’s kiddo. I hope he uses the forms at school AND at home and I’m open to my other kiddos using them too!

Here’s to great ideas that bring the hope of a little peace in the home and classroom!

Doing the Dance of the Children and Always Searching for a Better Way~

Parenting many different ages of kids can really be tricky. There are plenty of times that I have trouble figuring out how to make something work for everyone. But one thing I’ve learned that always works best is to set aside my emotions and turn on my brain. I said it works best, I didn’t say I’m always capable of doing it. But today-today I did just that.

One of the kids came running in to let me know that they’d been “kicked off” the computer by an older sibling and that the older sib had then put a password on the computer so that the younger one couldn’t get back on. I approached the teen and asked why they did it. They had decided that, even though I had given the younger kiddo permission to be on the computer, that they felt that the younger sibling needed to focus on different activities. I then explained that I gave permission for using the computer and that I wanted  the computer logged back on for the younger sib. I was told “no”.

How’s that?

“No”. She let me know that not only would she NOT log the computer back on, she also refused to give me the new password. You can imagine the steam that began coming out of my ears! I explained that she had no right to override my parenting and to decide to take that kind of control. She still refused. You can also imagine that I wanted to snap!

But instead, I walked away, sat down, turned off my anger and turned on my brain. Ok-teen is NOT going to give in and I’m going to get angrier which will only end badly. Where is my power? I can’t force her into chores. I can’t even demand that she not leave the house (we can go into those things another time) but I CAN decide that she will NOT drive ANY vehicle for the next week. She’s still working with her permit and without anger, I can take away a privilege. I emailed her father to ask that he be on-board with my punishment, and why and then walked out to calmly let her know what the consequences of her actions would be.

Once I delivered that news I turned to the younger sibling and told him to follow me to my computer where I would log him on and set a timer.

M.O.M. Brain=Good Stuff! I am not as powerless in the face of difficult kiddos as I sometimes feel.

Doing the Dance of the Children~

Grocery shopping-It’s not my favorite chore. I’ve blogged about the huge task it is and how I hate the number of times I have to touch my groceries before they’re actually on my shelves and ready to be used. BUT…after the last 19 days of making due with what was in the house, I was EXCITED to go! I’d been making an ever-growing list as I used things up and I was ready to go. Today I hit Trader Joes and Costco. I still need to decide if a trip to the commissary is in order or if I should just pick up the remaining items at Vons. But that will have to wait for another day or two. Long list-VERY LONG list!

And what did I learn from not grocery shopping for all that time? What items should a house always have? What can we live without?

Well, it’s true that the basics are needed! If I hadn’t have had bread or tortillas things would’ve been a lot more difficult. Milk, pasta, beans (I had canned kidney, black and refried stocked on my shelves when I began), butter or oil, frozen chicken, eggs, sugar, oatmeal. These are all the things I really fell back on. It was handy to have a few frozen meals that didn’t take any thought.

I learned that I could live without cheese. We ran out pretty early on and it’s usually added to a good portion of our meals, but things tasted fine without it. I also learned that I could be creative. We made cookies out of the ingredients in the house when we ran out of snack items. There was lots of thought involved, but all the food I prepared was good.

All-in-all, I am patting myself on the back. It’s good to know I can make due and it’s even better to know that my kids weren’t too difficult to please. We spent more time together over food prep. And it’s good to go through and use up what you’ve had stored. BUT…now it’s time to restock. This means BIG shopping trips and more $ put out than normal. I’m wondering if it all balances out. Did I save $ by using what I had when I am ending up needing to replenish it? Hmmm…Let’s look at it as Spring Cleaning of the cupboards, freezer and fridge.

Doing the Dance of the Children With 2 Shopping Carts & Full Cupboards~

My kids have come to count on a visit from a tricky leprechaun, each year on St. Patty’s Day. They spend great amounts of time brainstorming the design of their traps and exactly what they will do when they finally DO catch that tricky lil leprechaun. Last night was no different! They broke out bowls and the tambourine, a pocket watch, various pieces of Tupperware and pieces of train tracks. Oh the traps they built! There was lots of talk before they finally went to sleep. And when they woke they were only slightly disappointed to find that even though their well thought out traps, indeed, lured a tricky lil leprechaun, they had not been successful in catching him.

Our leprechaun likes to speak in rhyme. This is the note he left behind.

Max’s trap, ruined by the leprechaun, but at least the lil guy was good enough to leave behind some sweet treats!

Max, gathering his loot.

Gabi’s trap, tipped over and missing the golden pocket watch she had used as bait. Left behind was a green carnation and some sweet candy.

She was excited to have been visited!

The 3 trappers and their note. I love the look on Max’s face (“I’ll get you yet!”)

Doing the Dance of the Children on St. Patrick’s Day~

March is all about rainbows, the beginning of spring and leprechauns.

Here’s a fun way to review the #’s you’ve already learned.

Give each child a 1/2 Dixie sized cup of Skittles and a paper plate

Have them gently pour the cup out, onto the plate

Have the kids separate the Skittles into piles of each color and then ask them to count one color at a time, moving through the colors of the rainbow. We found that using 1/2 a cup was a good amount because they were familiar with those #’s. Any more than that was confusing for them (we did this 2 days in a row, as with all of our projects, and on day 1 we filled the cups and it didn’t work well). The BEST was when we got to Blue. There are no blue Skittles in a regular pack of Skittles, so it was a great lesson in “0″ and “none”.

We went around the class through each of the colors, charted the kids’ answers and then totaled each child’s Skittles. We then talked about less and more and left the chart up for a couple of days.

Doing the Dance of the Children~

It’s Day 14 in this challenge and I’ve got to say that I’m REALLY proud of myself!

Lunches have been the most difficult, but I’ve still managed to make them happen. Tomorrow’s lunches will surely be the VERY last of what I can possibly make happen with what’s available. I’ll let you know if I come up with some FABULOUS idea and go beyond tomorrow.

Tonight’s dinner is nachos-I took 1 can of refried beans, 1 can of black beans (drained), a smallish chunk of Velveeta and about 1/3 jar of salsa. I cooked all of that together in a pot. In a separate pan I cooked about 3/4 lb of ground beef. I poured the bean mixture over tortilla strips that I laid in a 9×13 pan. I topped that with the ground beef. I drained a can of corn and sprinkled that on top of the whole thing and offered sour cream to anyone that wanted to top their nachos with it.

And for dessert-Oatmeal cookies! We don’t usually have dessert and the point of making these wasn’t to have them for dessert, it was so that Lex and I could enjoy some time together AND to add them to tomorrow’s lunches. But, everyone got the bonus of a cookie for dessert.

There you have it-Day 14′s dinner and dessert from my cupboards, fridge and freezer.

Doing the Dance of the Children and Using What I’ve Got~

Since the beginning of the month I’ve been making meals with only what’s already in my house. I was fairly well stocked when I began, but under normal circumstances, I would have made a trip to the grocery store for items that I always use, that I didn’t already have. But instead, I took inventory and made a mental list of what meals I could prepare with what was here.

I’m 9 days in and so far, so good! I still have some meals that I can easily put together before I have to get too creative. Though, you can bet that my grocery list for next time is getting quite long, as I empty the pantry!

What have I made? Well, I wrote a list from memory and I can only come up with 8 meals for the last 9 days. I guess the 9th meal wasn’t all that memorable!

1-Veggie Radiatore with ground beef, pine nuts and alfredo
2-Kale, tri-color peppers & tomatoes with veggie broth, over spaghetti
3-Spaghetti with red sauce and meatballs
4-Chicken & veggie stir fry over brown rice
5-Vegetarian chili with cornbread
6-Mac n Cheese (straight from the box)
7-Shells n Cheese with ground beef and mixed veggies
8-Oriental chicken salad

These aren’t listed in any particular order. Not bad, huh?

I must say that the Lenten season is a good time to take on an experiment like this, because if the kids don’t like something or ask why you’re not including a particular ingredient or “normal” choice, you can just tell them to offer it up.

Always thinking and ALWAYS Doing the Dance of the Children~

After nearly 22 yrs of dragging babies and toddlers around on errands, I finally have a practical tip to share.

How many times have you loaded up the car/mini van/van with your lil kiddos to run a zillion errands and after only a couple you realize you have a vehicle full of sleeping kiddos that you REALLY don’t want to wake up. It’s too early to quit your errands, too soon to go pick up the other kids from school and going home would be a waste because the sleepers would, surely, just wake up. After years of this frustration I’ve come upon a practical solution for still getting some work done, but allowing your lil ones to get their rest.

Find a local Starbucks. A drive-thru is ideal. Go through the drive-thru, order your drink and then park in their parking lot. Pull out your laptop. You’ll be able to get their Wi-Fi and use that time to get some work done! No drive-thru? Then it’s for you to make a judgement call on whether or not it’s ethical to sit in the parking lot and log in. But Starbucks isn’t the ONLY retailer that offers free Wi-Fi! Many McDonald’s are actually offering it and ALL of them have drive-thru’s. I’m not much of an advocate for eating McDonald’s food, but drinking their unsweetened iced tea with a little added lemon isn’t going to hurt anyone! There’s a shopping complex near my girls’ high school that has both a McDonald’s and a Starbucks and I’m able to log in depending on how close I am to either shop.

There you have it! Now, go get some work done!

Doing the Dance of the Children With a Little Help from Free Wi-Fi~

Since late November I’ve been seeing crunchy peppermint sprinkles in different stores. I was tempted to pick them up for sprinkling on top of all sorts of baked goodies and desserts. But at $5-$7 for a bottle the size of regular colored, sugar sprinkles, I kept passing them by.

Today when I was in Target, I saw that there were boxes of candy canes for 90% off. I decided to make my own Peppermint Crunch Sprinkles. I bought 2 boxes of candy canes for a total of (are you ready?!)…16¢! Then I brought them home and…

unwrapped each candy cane and broke it into a bowl. Then I dumped the contents of the bowl into a large Ziploc bag.

Then for the fun part-

crushing them!

And the finished product, ready for sprinkling on all sorts of goodies!

There you have it-About $15 worth of Peppermint Crunch Sprinkles for 16¢!

Now, that’s what I call Good Stuff~

After the busyness of Thanksgiving, Clay’s retirement & all the prep and celebration for and of Christmas, I decided I needed to take a few days to breathe deeply, sleep in, watch movies, visit with family and friends and work on the computer-all very good ideas. But somehow, within an hour of walking out the door, I get the clarity that doesn’t happen in the house in the middle of Doing the Dance and suddenly I have a zillion ideas of how I want to do things better. I can think of all the ways in which I want to better focus on my kiddos and all the books I want to read to them, all the stories they tell, that I want to better focus on, all the fun things I want to do that we haven’t gotten to. Then I get to where I’m going and all I can think of is getting back so I can start putting into action all my wonderful thoughts.

REALITY-

I walk through the door after a couple days gone and have every intention of beginning all these wonderful, motherly things and I begin to pick up the items that I don’t want to trip over, start a load of laundry, ask someone why they’re upset, tell kids to stop arguing, start thinking about the prep of whatever meal comes next, get asked to drive someone to wherever they need/want to go…

It’s so much easier to be a better M.O.M. when the kids aren’t actually involved!

Doing the Dance of the Children With Great Ideals in My Head~

I’ve discovered that a dryer sheet in every other load works the same as a dryer sheet in every load. Make your dryer sheets last twice as long!

Doing the Dance of the Children and Finding Ways to Stretch the Budget~

I don’t usually write about work, but every so often, we do a project or have an event that’s too good not to share.

Yesterday the teacher I work with came up with this fun and beautiful project. It did take time, but the end result is worth it!

You will need-

Brown paper bags

red, yellow, green, brown, copper and gold paint

Paper plates

Wire, ribbon or string (we used copper wire)

Leaf templates

Scissors

Glue sticks

Tape

Cut brown, paper grocery bags. Use the 2 large portions. Discard the rest. Crumple each section.

Cut the center out of paper plates (we saved the centers for future projects).

Cut out leaf templates (we got ours from familyfun.com)

Dilute red, yellow and green paint with water. Have children paint the entire section of bag with each color, encouraging them to overlap colors.

While bags dry (they dried quickly), paint each of the paper plates with brown paint. If you are working with younger children you may want to paint the wreath portion for them. Older children can do this step while they are waiting for their bags to dry.

Then have the children sponge gold and copper paint onto the dried and painted bags.

Use a toothbrush dipped in brown paint to lightly splatter across the bag.

Let bags dry.

Trace the leaves onto the painted and dried bags. Cut out the leaves. Have the children use glue stick to glue the leaves around the painted paper plate wreaths.

Cute wire, ribbon or string, loop and tape to the back of the wreaths.

Fall Leave Wreaths!

We love how these came out!

Sometimes you come to a place where you clearly understand your strengths and your weaknesses. Tonight was one of those times.

I opened an email from my 2nd grader’s room mom that said that they were looking for people to offer up their talents to the kids. We could come in and spend an hour teaching the kiddos anything from games to cooking. “Yippee!” was my first thought. But quickly, I started wondering what the heck I could teach 2nd graders. *Think, think, think* I’ve had 6, 2nd graders before now. What have I taught them? What have I brought to their little lives that would be fun and inspiring to teach kiddos that don’t live under my roof?

Let’s see…all of my 7 and 8 yr olds knew how to-properly brush their teeth, lay out their uniforms for the next day, put their laundry away, clear their places at the table, unload the silverware from the dishwasher, play outside with a younger sibling, read to themselves or a sibling, unload their laundry basket in the laundry room, find a pair of socks in the sock bag/basket, put away 25 toys in the playroom, get all the trash out of the van/car, get the mail, unload groceries from the car, entertain a younger sibling, run a bath, wash their faces, say their prayers, offer something up for the good of something bigger than themselves, take a trash bag out of the bathroom/kitchen and reline the can, switch milk from the freezer to the fridge if the milk in the inside fridge is being used up, boil water for hot cereal or top ramen, bring a diaper and wipes to me or Dad or an older sibling and dispose of the used diaper, make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, make a Nutella sandwich, open a yogurt, pour milk, make a glass of ice water, pull a chair up to the counter to get a snack/paper/pens/crayons…,

Ok, you get the idea. I realized that what I’ve taught my kids is how to be self-sufficient when they need to be. They will not go hungry, naked or terribly bored. But then I had to pause to think of what FUN things I’ve taught them. Surely I haven’t just taught them how to work. Surely they know how to PLAY!

Oh yeah, they know how to have fun! They know how to appreciate some music, tell a joke, make a scavenger hunt, fill an entire street with sidewalk chalk drawings, roll down a hill, pretend, make up a song…

But how do you translate those things into something to teach OTHER children? How do you give others a love of the ocean, an appreciation for seeing where ants will lead you, for digging until you can’t dig anymore?!

Wow! I guess what I’m best at giving my kids isn’t how to knit, speak a foreign language, make origami pets or play an instrument. What I’ve given my kiddos is Life Skills! Now that I’ve realized my strength, my THING, how the heck do I give it to a classroom?!

Tell me what you would teach your child’s classroom. We all have special talents (even if we find it hard to identify them). What’s yours? I had one mom suggest I teach them what it’s like to be blind or sight impaired. I liked her ideas. What are yours?

Doing the Dance of the Children and Trying to Make it Fun~