Just Keep Swimming...

Have you ever seen Finding Nemo?  I luuuurve that movie.  Dory speaks to me in so many ways.  I am terrible at remembering names, for one.  Secondly, I feel like I am swimming against the current most of the time.

This week, and maybe last week...or perhaps the last year or seven, have been so busy.  Life just keeps going, whether I am ready to move on to the next thing or not.  Craziness, yes?  Anyone else feel that way?

So, I am going to try to catch up on a few things here.

In Juli's homeschooling adventure, we have read several chapters of Genesis - we read about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and Noah's Ark so far.  She is very interested.  The books we have read otherwise are these:

Baby Says by John Steptoe

 This is a really cute book and the cool thing about it is that it only uses seven words to tell the whole story.  They are just repeated over and over again in different patterns.  Really great for working on sight words or word recognition.

The next one we read was this one:

Noah's Ark by Peter Spier

This is the same familiar tale that most of us know, but it is told almost entirely in pictures.  There are really only words on the first and last page.  Really thought provoking and it encouraged a lot of discussion in our house.  Nothing is sugar coated here, people.  The ark was full of poop after awhile and people and animals did die.  I was uncomfortable with this at first (not the poop part, but the dying part) but then I realized that if a child is to fear sin, then they need to know what the consequences are.  Great book.  This is one that Juli has chosen to read over and over again since we first explored it a week ago.

The next one was a little more light-hearted:

Seriously, one of the cutest children's stories ever told.  Also a great way to look at cause and effect.  Finally, a great excuse to bake cookies with your child.  This has inspired Juli to want to help me in the kitchen, and I am loving that time with her.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Lastly, tonight we read this:

George Shrinks by William Joyce

I love the illustrations in this book.  It is about a boy who dreams that he shrinks and then wakes up to find that he has.  He has a list of chores to do, though, while his parents are out and this book details the adventures he has while trying to take care of his baby brother, brush his own teeth, etc.  Cute, cute, cute.

The Whole Foods Adventure that this family is on is continuing and, I think, going really well.  For those of you who don't know, we are basing this loosely on the 100 Days of Real Food challenge.  I say loosely because sometimes we just like to go out to eat and not every restaurant that we want to try does the "whole food" thing.  We don't want to miss out on new things for this experiment, but we are still sticking to it 90% of the time or more.  Following is what we have been eating:

Day1:

This was Juli's birthday, so we ate cake after dinner.  It was store bought.  It was good and we did not feel badly about eating it.  Other than that, though, we ate:

Breakfast:  Whole wheat banana pancakes, real maple syrup and a sliced pear
Lunch: (just me - the kids eat at school (and you have seen what I send in Abby's lunch) and Dan eats at work)  Plain yogurt drizzled with honey and topped with blueberries
Dinner: Wild caught cod, baked sweet potatoes and fresh steamed green beans

Day 2:

B: Homemade granola cereal (so easy to make!) topped with blueberries and served with milk
L: Organic peanut butter (just peanuts and oil) and spreadable fruit (blueberry for me) sandwich on whole wheat bread, 1/2 of a banana and some raisins
D: Vegetarian fajitas on spinach tortillas served with  monterey jack cheese, sour cream, avocado and cilantro

Day 3:

B: Plain oatmeal (bought in bulk aisle), topped with honey, cinnamon, raisins and milk
L: Another organic PBJ with banana and raisins
D: Quesadillas made from leftover fajita veggies

Day 4:

B: Granola cereal with blueberries and milk
L: Abby and I met Dan for lunch.  Yippee!
D: Baked chicken, roasted potatoes, roasted garlic & roasted onions (only for me)

Day 5:

B: Oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, raisins and milk
L: organic PBJ with triscuits
D: Peanut butter and butternut squash soup with triscuits

Day 6:

B: Leftover defrosted banana pancakes with real maple syrup and pear
L: Leftover butternut squash and peanut butter soup and triscuits
D: We put the leftover baked chicken into whole wheat tortilla wraps with cheese, tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and sour cream.

Day 7:

B: Whole wheat waffles (using a Belgian waffle maker that DeDe and Craig bought us a while back) and honeydew melon
L: Organic PBJ and pretzel sticks
D: Rotisserie chicken enchiladas with sour cream, red leaf spinach and cheese

Day 8:

B: Oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, raisins and milk
L: Leftover chicken enchiladas and honeydew
D: Farmers Market stir fry with bok choy, mushrooms, carrots, homemade teriyaki sauce, and leftover chicken served over brown rice - yummo!  No leftovers here, people!

Day 9:

B: Granola cereal with blueberries and milk
L: Organic PBJ and pretzel sticks
D: Homemade whole wheat macaroni and cheese with breadcrumbs on top and green peas on the side.

I have not been good about taking pictures of these meals, but they are good - trust me.  If you want the meal plans or recipes, just go to 100 Days of Real Food.  I tweak them a bit for my family (some people don't like onions, sausage, etc.) but we try to follow it for the most part.  I think I am dropping some pounds, which is a nice bonus, but not sure because I have not unpacked the bathroom scale yet.

That's it for now, folks.

Mindi