Here is the great thing about Meal Planning. When you plan all your meals and go to the store to get all your food for the week, you don’t have to worry about what will happen if you get snowed in.
We were stuck in the house from Thursday to Sunday and it was ok. We had enough food, we didn’t need to fight the ice and snow to get milk or chicken or anything. I knew what I would make for dinner and I had everything necessary to make it. It was a nice feeling
On Monday I made Tomato Parmesan Basil Tortellini soup and Baby Sid thought it was the most wonderful thing.
Menu Plan 2/10-2/16
Mon: Basil Parmesan Tomato Tortellini Soup (the recipe doesn’t call for Parmesan cheese, but really, why would you not. I also didn’t use condensed soup so now need for milk/cream)
Tue: Pepper & Garlic Chicken in the Crock Pot with rice
I had some epic crock pot failures last week. OK, so maybe they weren’t epic, but I did have to make a whole new dinner one night.
This week I will not use my crock pot. I am tempted….
I think Baby Sid is going through a growth spurt. He is eating nonstop!
After eating, continuously munching, at my sisters all day on Sunday he came home and ate a huge dinner. More than his brother.
Also on Thursday night last week, I had to help my mom pick up her new floors. It took too long and my sister got my boys from the sitter and made them dinner. Baby Sid came home and ate dinner again.
He is so cute! The Hubster was eating dinner and Baby Sid kept begging and stealing bites so I made him a plate.
I love reviving old family traditions, and making new ones. I love remembering fondly the things that I did as a child at Christmas time and the things I couldn’t wait to do again.
As an adult, I get to make sure our family participates in our traditions and make new ones.
Our Zoo does a light display that runs from Thanksgiving through the first weekend of the new year. There is no holiday theme to their display, it is of course about animals.
Typically we go see the Zoo Lights before Christmas, but that didn’t happen this year. There wasn’t as much time between the two holidays and Christmas came before I knew it. There was one week where we had time, but it was wicked cold out and thought of taking the boys out in that weather did not sound fun.
We kept saying ‘if the weather is nice we will do it tomorrow.’ Then tomorrow came, and we had no time. So we ended up going after Christmas. It was cold, but it was dry and there was no wind, so it wasn’t that bad.
Sid was mesmerized by the lights and the people. Ian loved the lights, but was disappointed the animals were not out. On the way home he said “I only got to saw one monkey. He climbed for me, an stayed up dat one night.”
I love the displays that look like the picture is moving. You know, the ones where the lights are on a timer and turn off and on down the line.
But my favorite thing about Zoo Lights is that they take in old lights. They used to use the lights they took in after determining what was wrong with them. Our zoo now only uses LED lights, but they do recycle lights strings. If you have lights that don’t work, or tangled, or you just want new ones, take them to the zoo. Don’t throw them away!
I love reviving old family traditions, and making new ones. I love remembering fondly the things that I did as a child at Christmas time and the things I couldn’t wait to do again.
As an adult, I get to make sure our family participates in our traditions and make new ones.
Christmas Crafts! Part Two
It is no secret I love hand and foot print art. Last year we made these Mistletoes plates. We gave them to some family as gifts. I had thought we might make them again, but decided I wanted to do something different.
We made salt dough ornaments with the kids fingerprints to give to family.
OK, admittedly, I am not as pleased with them as I was with the plates. Mostly because you can’t tell the difference between Ian’s & Sid’s thumb prints.
They are really easy, and I could make a lot of them all at once. Ian is much more cooperative with these projects than Sid is. So I needed something that I could quickly make a lot.
To make these Christmas Tree Fingerprint Ornaments you will need:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water (+/-)
rolling-pin
cookie sheet
paint (or food coloring)
ribbon
thumbs belonging to your favorite kids
Preheat oven to 250°.
Mix salt and flour together, add water a little at a time until a dough if formed. If using food coloring to color ornaments add to water prior to mixing with four & salt. Knead until dough becomes elastic, smooth and stickiness is gone, adding little bits of flour as needed.
Roll out dough to 1/4″ thick on a greased surface. Use Christmas tree cookie cutter to cut out ornaments, I was able to make about 15. Poke a hole for the ribbon at the top of the tree.
Have kids use finger/thumb prints to make ornaments on the cut out trees.
This is a good assembly line project. Ian just went through and put two prints on each one. I did have to tell him not to put them on the edge.
Little guys might need some help or persuading to get their thumbs on there. Sid was not very enthusiastic about this.
Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 2 hours. Remove from oven and allow to completely cool before painting. I used whatever craft paint I had on hand. One was acrylic and one was enamel, both worked fine.
Thread a length of ribbon through the hole and tie in order to hang up.
There is no ornament on a tree better than the ones your children make. At least, according to me.
I Tri and Craft 