Skinny/Lazy Housewife

Smoothie Packs will make your life easier.  Take a half hour on the weekend and make a few of these packs to make your morning/afternoon snack easier.  It's healthy, but it's simplifying SO it's both Skinny and Lazy Housewife approved.

Another thing I do to help me have healthy snacks without effort during a busy day/week is mix up our own trail mix.  Honestly, some of the pre-packaged stuff isn't really healthy (you should be reading labels!) and the TRULY healthy stuff is usually $$$ out of my budget.  So, I buy the items we want in bulk (cashews, almonds, raisins, mini-m&m's or marshmallows-c'mon it can't ALL be healthy!-dried strawberries/bananas/blueberries) and mix them in a big tupperware container so I can just scoop out some when the kids want it.

Done.

Wordy Wednesday: Kindness and Service

In the last 48  hours these posts by others have crossed my path.  I am always looking for ways to show my kids an example of kindness to others.  I am always reminding them to be kind to each other (and let's just be honest, sometimes it's REALLY hard to be kind to your siblings.)  I was thinking about ways of helping them "get it" this year during the upcoming holiday season.  24 Acts of Service has some great SIMPLE (I need simple, I can be honest) ideas for servicing others and showing kindness to random people.  I love it.  I needed it.  It may help get your own wheels turning about other things too.

The 2nd article is a Harvard study about raising nice kids (did the title give it away??) and has some things to try if you feel like you need help in those areas.  Enjoy!


24 Acts of Service

Are You Raising Nice Kids?

Two for Tuesday

Color By Number Thanksgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving:  Roll, Add, and Color

Thanksgiving ABC Order

Doubles Facts

Water Cycle


So, it's more than two.  Here's some of the stuff  I'm printing out for our upcoming week.  All FREE from teacherspayteachers.com  If you haven't checked out this site, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it.  Not everything is free, but I've used lots of free stuff and a handful of paid items from there and loved everything.

Sunday Snapshots

Manic Monday

I didn't teach this morning, so instead I practiced some new choreo (my new session starts next week, and we have lots of new songs on the playlist!)  Then, I started climbing up and down the stairs to the attic. Getting rid of toys and clothes that we no longer need. Moving stuff around. 18 months ago I did the same thing. It feels good to get it done. 

Now, I'm sitting down doing school with the boys (they are coloring a Veteran's Day color by letter as I type) then it'll be lunch prep, and Tae Kwon Do. 

My new running shoes are due to arrive today, and hopefully they will come early enough that I can get in a run. These are my first REAL running shoes, and they were my reward for completing the Half and becoming a "real" runner (in my head.).  My shoes that I trained and ran in are TOAST.  Both soles were busted and there are holes in the toes. They served well. 

Sunday Snapshots

Four doing some reading. 

Three making some change for my purchases from his store. 

One and Four (my bookends) being goofy. 

Impromptu hand holding makes my heart melt. 

Three and Four on one of their fav rides at the state fair. 

From the bottom of the Ferris wheel. It was windy y'all, I was terrified. 

Laser tag. 

Military base they built together. 

Being a real scientist. Our museum is AHHHHHHMAZING. 

One and Two on Halloween. They hung out with my mom, and their cousin and passed out candy.  One did all the make-up. 

Four playing a video game at the "fun park."

Boozy-maple-bourbon shake.... red robin, get there ASAP 

This is what it looks like when you have two tired dirty little boys. 

Legos rule. 

16 yr old snuggles. 

My children love to steal my phone for selfies: 

Christmas list making outtake!  *these kids make me laugh*

Friday night we attended a rave for a 5 yr old friend's birthday. Here is Three with half a dozen glow sticks as an eye-mask. 

Two for Tuesday

Habitats Unit on Pinterest  a bunch of links to different habitat resources

Shoebox Habitat Activity

Manic Monday!

PHEW!  We are bouncing back from a week of family visiting.  While it's always fun to have Aunt Ancy around, getting back to our normal flow is my happy place (I think we all knew that...I'm such a creature of habit.)  Also, in unrelated news:  I loathe the time change.

I crashed last night around 7:30 due to an incredible migraine.  I buried my head in the pillows and my body shut down on me.  Luckily, The Punk finished up all the parenting (baths, dinner, and bedtime) and let me sleep it off.

I'm up today and can still feel the remnants of the headache behind my left eye.  I have class to teach, house to tend, and kids to educate today...so you just go about your merry way Mr. Migraine.  K?

In more unrelated news, I loathe iTunes.  I LOVE my iPhone.  I've totally drunk up the Apple kool-aid, but I can't believe they can't give us something more user friendly than iTunes.  C'mon geniuses....