Monday Menu Plan

This is my menu plan. Because of budget issues, upcoming changes and trying to prepare for our new little baby, I am having fun with an experiment to find very inexpensive meals that are also that my family will eat. So far my family is loving most of the recipes I have found that fit into my criteria, their favorite by far is Bacon Pasta.

Monday: Sausage Casserole
Tuesday: Southern Fried Cabbage
Wednesday: Creamy Chicken Ramen w/ Mushrooms
Thursday: Lazy Golumbkis
Friday: Chili Dog Casserole
Saturday: Bacon Pasta
Sunday: Mexican Chili Lasagna

SAUSAGE CASSEROLE

1 pkg. hot dogs (sliced crosswise)
1 med. onion
1 pkg. frozen mixed vegetables
2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 c. minute rice
1 (16 oz.) can stewed tomatoes
Salt & pepper to taste

Saute onions and hot dogs in butter. While they saute, cook the vegetables (in 1 1/2 cups of water). Add stewed tomatoes to the onions and hot dogs. Add rice to the hot dogs. Add vegetables and water to the hot dogs. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with biscuits.

Southern Fried Cabbage

Ingredients:
7 slices bacon
1 head cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped
thinly sliced potatoes (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet, and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon slices on a paper towel-lined plate.
2. In the same skillet, stir cabbage and potatoes if used in the bacon drippings until coated. Place lid on skillet and cook over medium heat until cabbage and potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook uncovered, stirring constantly until cabbage is crisp and brown on the edges. Serve cabbage with bacon crumbled on top.

Creamy Chicken Ramen w/ Mushrooms

1 package chicken ramen noodles
2 cups water
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken
1 3oz. can mushrooms

What to do:
Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. Heat soup concentrate, mushrooms and 1/4 seasoning packet and can of chicken flaked over medium heat for five minutes. Top noodles with sauce.

Lazy Golumbkis

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 small head cabbage, shredded
1 (28 ounce) can canned tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In a slow cooker, combine ground beef, onion, rice and cabbage. Pour in tomato sauce. Season with parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well, and cook on low, for 6 to 8 hours.

Chili Dog Casserole

Ingredients:
2 (15 ounce) cans chili with beans
1 (16 ounce) package beef frankfurters
10 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 (8 ounce) package Cheddar cheese,shredded

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Spread 1 can of chili and beans in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Roll up franks inside tortillas and place in baking dish, seam side down, on top of chili and bean 'bed'. Top with remaining can of chili and beans, and sprinkle with cheese.
3. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil, and bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Quick Bacon Pasta

1/2 pack bacon
2 cups Any Dry Pasta like Macaroni
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I'll use cheddar as it is what I have on hand)
Olive oil
Butter (I'll probably just use oil and some of the grease from the bacon)
1 cup Milk
1 cup Chicken Stock
1 Onion
Salt / pepper — to taste

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, cut up the bacon into bite sized pieces. Fry the bacon in a skillet at low heat until extra crispy, remove to a paper lined plate and blot the oil. Set that aside for now, in the oven if you want. Taking it out of the pan and then adding it back only at the very end keeps the bacon more crispy. If you don’t care about that, you can leave the bacon in the pan and continue.

Drain off all but 1 tbsp or so of fat. Add 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. Add onion and brown. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk, scraping it well. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. You want it to thicken a bit. (I added a little cornstarch) Watch out for the mixture foaming over though. You might need to add a bit of water and reduce heat.

When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parm cheese. Cook for about 1-2 minutes more. Off heat add salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved bacon, mix and serve.

Mexican Chili Lasagna

Ingredients

* 5 8-inch flour tortillas
* 1 box of frozen corn (10 ounces), defrosted
* 1 can black beans (15 ounces), drained and rinsed
* 2 cups leftover Chili con Carne (or canned chili)
* 2-3 cups shredded white cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
* 1/2 cup pitted green olives, chopped
* 1/2 cup cilantro leaves (a couple of handfuls), chopped

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 350°F.

In a medium size bowl, mix together the corn and black beans.

Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add a tortilla to the skillet and let it toast until it starts to slightly scorch, then flip it and do the same on the second side. Repeat with all the tortillas. Place two toasted tortillas in the bottom of an 8-inch x 8-inch baking dish. Top with one third of the corn/black bean mixture, one third of the chili and a handful of cheese.

Repeat this procedure, layering tortillas, corn/bean mixture, chili and cheese. Top with remaining single tortilla and remaining cheese.

Transfer to the oven for 20 minutes or until you see the sides bubbling. Garnish with chopped olives and cilantro.

Good Things

Princess Belle was watching the movie, "Over the Hedge" last night. And suddenly she came running down the stairs so excited, "Mommy, guess what?" When I answered, she said, "I was watching the Hedge movie and they said that turtles were reptiles!" She remembered our lessons on animal groups and was excited to see one mentioned in her movie! I was happy to see her so excited about her lessons.

Today we woke up and it was an awful day. She woke up in an awful mood. She gave me a hard time about every little thing, her breakfast, her clothes, her various body parts hurting, every little things she could think of. She looked at me and said, "It is going to be a bad day!" I was dreading starting her schooling today and considered reconsidering our plans for today. When I sent her to public school on days like that in the past, I was always called in for a meeting with the teacher and the principal and the school psychologist to see what we could do about the horrible behavior she had had in school that day, some horrible, outrageous thing she did that day. But, today, I took the plunge and started right in and got to work. And surprisingly, when we started our schooling and the bad behavior just stopped. She was so interested in her work, she just got right to it. After about an hour, she looked up and said, "Mommy, I thought it was going to be a bad day, but it's not. It is a great day." After our day was over, I looked at her and asked her how her day was and she put her hands over her face and said, "I thought it was going to be like this" and she opened her hands revealing a grumpy face. She covered her face with her hands again and said, "But it was actually like this" opening her hands to reveal a great big grin on her face." She had fun. I know we are doing something right when we can turn a day around like that.

Preoccupied

Due to recent happenings in our area, big changes are afoot at our house. I have been a little preoccupied with those changes, and homeschooling and the new baby and cloth diapering etc. So much is going on in my mind, I am not even able to sleep properly. When I get my head in order, I will share more. I just wanted to let you know where my head was at right now.

First Week of homeschooling

One full week of homeschooling went by fast. I have to say I am really enjoying it. We are still learning and adjusting but all in all it has been good. We had one rough day when she hadn't gotten enough sleep because she got up early and refused to go back to bed. She has always had days like that and those are the days when I used to dread sending her to public school. It never failed that I would hear from the teacher on those days, she would get nothing done, she would be disruptive. After our day was over, I looked back on it and we had still gotten things done, so I still felt a like even that was a success. Then I hugged her, I told her I was sorry we had had a rough day and asked her how we could make it better for next time. We came up with a plan that we were both happy with. In that way we were able to exercise a flexibility they could never do in public school.

I am learning so much about her and that is the part I am loving the best. She shares things while we work. She tells me her thoughts. And I am learning her strengths and weaknesses. I learned that she is really good at language, reading and social studies and science. She has some difficulties in Math, but that with the introduction of manipulatives, she has really gotten a lot more confidence in Math. Today, I even gave her a gold star for doing a whole page with no help and getting it all right. I learned that writing things out is hard for her and if I can avoid her having to write things out all time we get a lot further. She loves when she has to do anything creative. She blossoms when she can be creative and she remembers so much more when she has to draw out examples and illustrations. We learned that trying different methods of learning also help. We do some things in the books, some things on work sheets, some things in game format, some things creatively and some things on the computer. It breaks it up for her and helps to keep it fun for her.

We also added to our School wall.

delay

I had intended to do a post full of info about my first week of homeschooling, but I had kind of a yucky day (nothing to do with homeschooling) and I am just not up to it. So, I will delay that post until I can be my normal cheery self. Talk at ya later

Thursday Thirteen #86 (a little smile)

Thirteen relatives on the Family Tree of Vincent Van Gogh: His dizzy aunt ------ Verti Gogh The brother who worked at a convenience store ------ Stop N Gogh The grandfather from Yugoslavia ------ U Gogh His magician uncle ------ Where-diddy Gogh His Mexican cousin ------ A Mee Gogh The Mexican cousin's American half-brother ------ Gring Gogh The nephew who drove a stage coach ------ Wells-far Gogh The ballroom dancing aunt ------ Tang Gogh The bird lover uncle ------ Flamin Gogh The fruit-loving cousin ------ Man Gogh An aunt who taught positive thinking ------Way-to-Gogh The little bouncy nephew ------ Poe Gogh A sister who loved disco ------ Go Gogh And one bonus one . . . . And his niece who travels the country in an RV --- Winnie Bay Gogh there ya Gogh! Time to Gogh....

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Wordless Wednesday - Sunset on my Step

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First Day of Homeschool

So we had our first day of homeschool yesterday and it went really well. We mostly had a fun day of celebration and preparation yesterday and really got to work today. Princess Belle had a lot of fun and is still really excited about the whole endeavor.

We started out by making pancakes. For fun, we put some chocolate syrup and some chocolate chips into them.


Then we made our Grade Two sign. She decorated it and we used it with our pictures and then hung it up on our school wall.




While we schooled, Princess Maggie mostly enjoyed munching on pancakes and then went down for a nap for the rest of the morning. It was really convenient.


We sat down and decided on the rules we thought that our homeschool should have. Mostly, she dictated and I wrote them out for her.


We took Princess Belle's height and made a note of it so that we can compare it to the end of the year to see how much she grew over the course of the year.

We took some first day of school pics. It was windy and chilly as we had had a tropical storm the night before. But she braved the wind and stood there in her favorite color to get her pics taken.




You can just see how excited she is to be homeschooling in these ones.


Then we made a poster collage of things she wants to learn about this year.


And here is our homeschool wall. I think we have a good start to it and we will continue to add to it as the year goes by.

Monday Menu Plan

This is my menu plan. Because of budget issues and trying to prepare for our new little baby, I am on an experiment to find very inexpensive meals that are also that my family will eat. So far my family is loving most of the recipes I have found that fit into my criteria.

Sunday: Beef Stew with french fries and cheese.
Monday: Loco Moco Mini
Tuesday: Bacon Pasta
Wednesday: Fried Bologna Meal
Thursday: Mix-in-the-Pan Dinner Strata
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Hot Dog Casserole

pizza

pizza crust mix
cheese
pepperoni


Loco Moco Mini

6 cups cooked sticky rice
3 egg
1 lb hamburger meat
1 onion, sliced
mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup flour
1 can chicken stock
3 tbsp Bread crumbs
Dash soy sauce
6 tbsp oil
Salt / pepper / water

Warm up the rice in microwave if cold. Spread out the rice fairly thinly on a large plate and set aside. Heat a small pan on high. Mix the hamburger meat, bread crumbs, soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Form a “patty” that is not round like a hamburger but elongated, like a Salisbury Steak almost. It should be very thin, so it will cook fast.

When pan is hot, add 1/2 tbsp of oil and sizzle that hamburger patty, about 1 minute on either side. It should be nice and chared. Remove to the plate on top of the rice and put it in the oven to rest. Now, DON’T wash the pan… add 1 tbsp of the oil in the pan and throw in the sliced onions and mushrooms. Sizzle that for about 5 minutes on medium or until onions are soft.

Meanwhile, get another small non-stick pan going with 1/2 tbsp of oil. Crack an egg in there and fry it, turning once through the cooking, until done as desired. Put that egg on top of the hamburger patty and put it back in the oven.

Returning to the onions and mushrooms - reduce heat to low and sprinkle flour evenly over mixture. DON’T mix it yet; let it stand there for about 3-5 minutes. This will cook the flour, preventing the gravy from tasting flour-ey. Now increase the heat to medium and slowly add chicken stock in thin stream, stirring frequently with wooden spoon. You may need more or less liquid to get the desired thickness. When gravy is done, add some black pepper to it, pour it over the hamburger/egg and you have a mini loco moco!


Quick Bacon Pasta

1/2 pack bacon
2 cups Any Dry Pasta like Macaroni
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I'll use cheddar as it is what I have on hand)
Olive oil
Butter (I'll probably just use oil and some of the grease from the bacon)
1 cup Milk
1 cup Chicken Stock
1 Onion
Salt / pepper — to taste

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, cut up the bacon into bite sized pieces. Fry the bacon in a skillet at low heat until extra crispy, remove to a paper lined plate and blot the oil. Set that aside for now, in the oven if you want. Taking it out of the pan and then adding it back only at the very end keeps the bacon more crispy. If you don’t care about that, you can leave the bacon in the pan and continue.

Drain off all but 1 tbsp or so of fat. Add 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. Add onion and brown. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk, scraping it well. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. You want it to thicken a bit. (I added a little cornstarch) Watch out for the mixture foaming over though. You might need to add a bit of water and reduce heat.

When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parm cheese. Cook for about 1-2 minutes more. Off heat add salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved bacon, mix and serve.


Mix-in-the-Pan Dinner Strata

What You Need
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
1 box (120 g) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix, any flavour
1 cup chopped ham
1 cup chopped vegetables, such as green peppers and onions, or frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup KRAFT Double Cheddar Shredded Cheese
Make It

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix eggs with milk in a 9-inch. greased square baking dish.

STIR IN dry stuffing mix and remaining ingredients.

BAKE 40 min.

Best of Season
Use any combination of chopped fresh vegetables that you have on hand, such as peppers, asparagus, green onions and broccoli.


Fried Bologna Meal

* pound of German bologna
* potatoes
* can of corn

Cook potatoes so that you have mashed potatoes and warm up the corn. Then fry the bologna in a pan, don't worry they will curl up like a bowl and that's what you want. Fry up two or three per person. Then on a plate put the fried bologna, in the middle of the bologna put some mashed potatoes and put on some of the corn on top of that, enjoy. Now that us kids are out of the house, my mom told me the other day that instead of frying the bologna in a pan, she puts it in a muffin pan just like she would on a plate and then adds cheese to it. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds real good to me.


QUICK & CHEAP HOT DOG CASSEROLE

1 pkg. hot dogs (sliced crosswise)
1 med. onion
1 pkg. frozen mixed vegetables
2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 c. minute rice
1 (16 oz.) can stewed tomatoes
Salt & pepper to taste

Saute onions and hot dogs in butter. While they saute, cook the vegetables (in 1 1/2 cups of water). Add stewed tomatoes to the onions and hot dogs. Add rice to the hot dogs. Add vegetables and water to the hot dogs. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with biscuits.

Hurricane Bill

Just a note to my friends. We are expecting Hurricane Bill to hit here sometime in the next few hours. With any luck, it won't be that strong, or it will miss us, or in some way it won't be that big of a deal. But if I disappear off my blog for a while, we may have some power outages due to the weather. I will post back as soon after the storm hits as I can.

Rambling Thoughts

I have to admit, I will be happy when summer is over. I usually live for the summer time, but this year, it is beating my butt. Being pregnant just makes me soooo hot anyway and now I am walking around in a constant state of hot, sweaty, headachey, pregnant. I mean this is gross, but I have sweat rolling down my forehead all the time. They say that men sweat and women prespire, but I will tell you what, this pregnant momma is sweatin' up a storm!! It is gross and yucky and I am so done.

On the other hand, I am watching Hurricane Bill carefully. I am scared that he will hit us. They are saying he is going to, but I hope he gets downgraded before he gets here. I will never forget when Hurricane Juan hit us in Nova Scotia. Losing a full freezer of food, the never ending power outage, the middle of the night terror, the roof of the building next door coming in through our wall, the forced move, the entire thing. It was horrible and scary and to this day, I can't stand when the wind blows so hard it rattles the windows. It scares me.

I start homeschooling tomorrow. Any advice from any of you experts out there? I am looking forward to it, but I am nervous too. At this point, I am scared to screw up my kid. She is too special of a prize to fumble at this point. I am going to make tomorrow as fun as I can for her, make it as fun as I can to celebrate out new beginning. We will really get down to work on Tuesday.

PhotoHunt: Ripples

Saturday Photohunt this week was Ripples. When I thought of this theme, I immediately thought of taking a trip down memory lane when my big Princess Belle was younger. So here are my ripples for this week.

Saturday 9: I Ran

Saturday 9: I Ran

1. When's the last time you ran? The last time I was late for the bus before I got pregnant.

2. Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them? Ummm . . . . some of the older ones probably have a little one or two.

3. What are you dreading right now? This hurricane they say we are getting. I survived a hurricane a few years ago and sent the roof the building next to us into my bedroom wall and then spent countless days without power. I hope this one misses us or at least isn't like that.

4. Do you like Mexican food? I LOVE it. I just found this great little Mexican place and I can't wait to try it out.

5. Favorite ice cream? Turtles. I love the chocolate and caramel! Yummmmmmy!

6. When was your last doctor's visit? Just last week. I have them once a month for my pregnancy.

7. Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep a night? Not usually. The other day I got 10 1/2 hours and I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I even go to get up and get a bath before being inundated with mom duties.

8. How many pets do you have? Two cats.

9. "First Loves Are Never Over;" is this true for you? Not really . . . well I guess so, sort of. It depends on what you call a first love. (how is that for a straight answer?) I have no feelings at all for my first crush. But I do still love and adore my first true love, Prince Charming.

Friday Five

1. We bought our homeschool supplies yesterday. Princess Belle was with us and helping us pick out things. It was such a fun time and it was great to see her so excited. We have a few things we still want to get, (such as a World map, a Canada map, a white board (or chalk board) for household messages, notes for future homeschool days etc., and a table top white board for using to help her with her school work.
   
2. When I asked her if she was excited, she said, "Yes, because in school she just tells me what to do. You can help me when I need you." It warmed my heart. I even created a schedule for the first week and put in on the fridge for her to see. She loves the visual reminder and she keeps looking at it.
   
3. Princess Belle is so excited about homeschool that she has asked that we start on Monday instead of September 1st. I decided that I wanted to capitalize on her excitement and we are going to start on Monday. We are even crossing off the days on the Calendar. Her first words to me this morning were, "Three More Sleeps Mommy!!!"
   
4. There have been some definite hits on our menu plan this week. Hamburger soup was a huge hit and it was sooo easy!!!
   
5. Princess Belle and I worked to finish cleaning up the nursery this morning. It is sparkly clean. All that is needed is to move the toddler bed up from the basement for Princess Magpie before Baby Victoria is born.
   

First day of Homeschool Ideas

I have been obsessing a little on the upcoming school year and how it will have changed for me. Here are some ideas I have heard about that I really like:

1. Do some back to homeschool shopping, let her choose a backpack, for when we study on the outside our house, also get some pencils, notebooks and other school supplies that are usually on sale at this time of year. Let her choose a lunch box in which to pack field trip lunches. She was in public school before and she might even want to pack lunch somedays even when we are just eating at home. Those school supplies are a traditional ritual, and there is no reason for homeschooled kids to miss out on them.
2. Choose a few decorations that fit our school curriculum-borders, posters and so on. Get Princess Belle to make some as well. Decorate one area of our house with previews of the coming year.
3. Let Princess Belle help plan our curriculum. She has things she wants to learn about in music, and she has ideas for field trip.
4. Let her catch me making things for school that I try to hide, saying they are a surprise for school. Make big plans for the first day of school-special lesson plans, a big craft, lunch out or whatever makes it fun.
5. Plan favorite meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner the first day.
   
6. Go somewhere in the afternoon, such as library time--it is practically empty!
7. Take a family portrait for our Family Homeschool Yearbook

What do you do on the first day of school? What traditions do you have?

A start

I have placed my order for the cloth diapers for Princess Magpie! I am so glad to have it placed. I am getting some stuff for Princess Belle's homeschooling today as well. I am excited to have gotten a start on some things. It feels like some stress has lifted. The lady I talked to about ordering the cloth diapers was wonderful. She has a 15 month old and she has some friends who have 1 year olds so she had great advice on what I should order and what sizes of things I should get. I was so impressed with her.

I am also planning on starting homeschool a week early, on September 1st. That will help with any time I may lose in her schooling when I have Victoria. I will also probably have the baby over Christmas when the public schooled kids are off for Christmas holidays so that will help with any schooling we may miss as well. So I am confident that I can make sure my girl gets enough time in her schooling even though we are going to be having a baby this year.

Free Homeschool Resources

I found some free stuff for homeschooling moms that I thought I would share:

• Incentive Bee b&w color
• Welcome Stationery b&w color
• Blank Calendar page b&w color
• Student of the Week b&w color

Primary Classroom Resources - lots of great free stuff here!
FREE and PRINTABLE for the classroom
Grade Level Help
FREE classroom worksheets

Wordless Wednesday - Oh, Hi Mom!

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I Will Survive - Homeschool Version

I haven't talked about it much but I have been really stressed about the upcoming year. I am starting so many new things and I worry about whether i am strong enough to do the right things for my kids. I am cloth diapering, I am homeschooling my special needs seven year old child, I am going to be a momma to two kids under two. I am thrilled with my life, but I am terrified too. That being said, I have seen some things lately on blogs and on Youtube which made me smile and gave me hope. I thought I would share this one with you.

This one is called "I will survive - Homeschool Version"

woohoo Second Place!!!

A pic I took of Princess Magpie took second place in the Cutie Pie Baby Contest in Facebook . . . AND she used my pic as the header for the blog she posts the winners on! I am really proud of that.

Check it out here: http://cutiepiewinners.blogspot.com/

14 Days of Homeschooling

This made me giggle! I thought you would like it too. If you can't see it here in my post, it is at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN4o3OxFzqA&feature=player_embedded




To the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas."

On the first day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can you homeschool legally?"

On the second day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the third day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the fourth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the fifth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "YOU ARE SO STRANGE! What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the sixth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "How long will you homeschool, YOU ARE S0 STRANGE, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the seventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the eighth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the ninth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "They'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the tenth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "What about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the eleventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the twelfth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can they go to college, I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the thirteenth day of homeschool I thoughtfully replied: "They Can go to college, yes you can do this, they can have graduation, we don't like the prom, we do it cuz we like it, they are missing nothing, we'll homeschool forever, WE ARE NOT STRANGE!, We give them P.E., and we give them tests, they are socialized, AND WE HOMESCHOOL LEGALLY!

On the fourteenth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "How can I get started, why didn't you tell me, where do I buy curriculum, when is the next conference, WILL PEOPLE THINK WE'RE STRANGE? I think we can do this, if you will help us, we'll join a sports team, and we'll homeschool legally."

Win a $500 Zooper Stroller

Two of a Kind Working on a Full House is hosting the giveaway of a $500 Zooper Tango 2009 double stroller! Make sure to enter HERE!

I hope I win! I would love to have one before our new baby is born!

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS

Reviews. For the love of God. is hosting the giveaway of a the irresistibly funny romantic comedy HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS! Make sure to enter HERE!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I absolutely DID NOT realize that since I moved Poor Princess Magpie, I have been unable to hear her unless she is REALLY UPSET. My poor baby!! I would never forget to plug in her baby monitor. NOPE! NOT ME!

I certainly DID NOT go in to get my Princess Magpie out of crib and find her sitting up, naked as a little jay bird, grinning at me, saying, "Hi!" NOPE! NOT ME!

I really DO NOT find that letting Princess Magpie run around and stand at my knee eating off my plate gets to her eat a bigger supper. I would never start bad habits this early in her life! NOPE! NOT ME!

I DID NOT send Princess Belle to day camp without her permission slip for their field trip. I would never forget such things forcing her to run home to get her slip signed. NOPE! NOT ME!

And a few hours later, I DID NOT find that Princess Belle had to come back home again to get a supper because they were going to be gone for lunch and supper today. I do not suffer from preggo brain and find myself forgetting things more often than I should. NOPE! NOT ME!

Monday Menu Plan

This is my menu plan. Because of budget issues and trying to prepare for our new little baby, I am on an experiement to find very inexpensive meals that are also that my family will eat. So far my family is loving all of the recipes I have found that fit into my criteria.

Sunday: Hash Brown Casserole
Monday: Bacon Pasta
Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie
Wednesday: Pizza Mac and Cheese
Thursday: Easy Hamburger Soup
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Creamy Chicken noodles w/ Mushrooms


Hash Brown Casserole Recipe

Ingredients

* 1 package frozen shredded hashbrowns
* 1 can cream of chicken soup
* 1 can cream of mushroom soup
* 8 oz. cheese, grated or to taste


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Spray 9x13 baking pan with Pam. (I lined the pan with foil for easy clean-up)
3. Combine soup and hash browns.
4. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, taking pan out 10 minutes before the end to spread the grated cheese over top and placing it back in the oven to finish cooking and melt cheese.

Quick Bacon Pasta

1/2 pack bacon
2 cups Any Dry Pasta like Macaroni
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I'll use cheddar as it is what I have on hand)
Olive oil
Butter (I'll probably just use oil and some of the grease from the bacon)
1 cup Milk
1 cup Chicken Stock
1 Onion
Salt / pepper — to taste

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, cut up the bacon into bite sized pieces. Fry the bacon in a skillet at low heat until extra crispy, remove to a paper lined plate and blot the oil. Set that aside for now, in the oven if you want. Taking it out of the pan and then adding it back only at the very end keeps the bacon more crispy. If you don’t care about that, you can leave the bacon in the pan and continue.

Drain off all but 1 tbsp or so of fat. Add 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. Add onion and brown. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk, scraping it well. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. You want it to thicken a bit. (I added a little cornstarch) Watch out for the mixture foaming over though. You might need to add a bit of water and reduce heat.

When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parm cheese. Cook for about 1-2 minutes more. Off heat add salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved bacon, mix and serve.

Quick and Easy Chicken Pot Pie

* a few cooked boneless chicken breasts (or for less money and prep time buy canned chicken breasts and cut into cubes)
* one can of chicken broth (or use water and chicken boullion)
* two small cans cream of mushroom soup
* one bag of frozen soup mix vegetables
* Pillsbury homestyle biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix vegetables, cream of mushroom soup, chicken broth, and chicken breasts and put in a casserole dish.
2. Place uncooked Pillsbury homestyle biscuits on top, and bake for about 35 minutes at (or per package instructions, if you're using a different variety of biscuits). Ffter about 30 minutes, carefully check the bottom of a biscuit to see if it's still raw. If so, separate biscuits and place them on their sides, leaning against each other (you can form little pyramids) to finish cooking for 15 minutes more. However, if you like the texture of a boiled dumpling, don't do a darn thing to the biscuits - the flaky biscuit will have a dumpling like bottom.

Pizza Mac and Cheese

Take 2 pkg. (225 g) Kraft Dinner Macaroni and Cheese cook according to directions on package. add:
1/4 lb./125 g pepperoni, sliced (about 1 cup)
1 cup chopped green peppers (about 1 medium),
2 cups chopped tomatoes (about 2 medium)

Heat through.

Easy Hamburger Soup

1 pound hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 oz) can pork and beans
1 (15 oz) can mixed vegetables drained (like Veg-All)
1/2 (46 oz) can vegetable juice
1 (14 1/2 oz) can stewed tomatoes

Brown hamburger and onion together. Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly. Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken Noodles w/ Mushrooms

2 package chicken ramen noodles
4 cups water
2 can cream of chicken soup
2 can chicken
1 3oz. can mushrooms

What to do:
Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. Heat soup concentrate, mushrooms and 1/4 seasoning packet and can of chicken flaked over medium heat for five minutes. Top noodles with sauce.

pizza

2 Store bought pizza crust mix for $0.99 each
grated cheese
pepperoni
2 Store bought pizza sauce for $0.99 each

Simple supper. Make crust according to directions. Spread pizza sauce over crust. Sprinkle with grated cheese and top with pepperoni. Cook for time on package of pizza crust.

19 weeks and other random thoughts

On Friday we had a doctor's appointment. He went over the results from our Ultrasound with us. He showed us with his hands how big our baby's body parts were and how big she was as a whole. He let us know that she was transverse which was no surprise because every one of my babies has spent the entire pregnancy that way. I must be more roomy sideways than up and down. (Is that code for I am short and fat??) He also let me know that the placenta is anterior. That explains why the doctor has a hard time getting her heartbeat on the doppler he has (which he confessed was a cheap model he bought off amazon!!). It also explains why her movements feel different to me, less sharp less . . . um . . .what is the word . . . defined I gess, more like pushes and stretches. But I was definitely feeling her because she was exactly where I was feeling her. And that made me smile, made me feel more connected to my baby. I noticed that I feel her when eat spicy food, or when I happen to drink coffee with real caffiene. The doctor has said he feels I may have low iron which may explain the headaches, tiredness, and heart palpitations. I have to go get some bloodwork done to find out for certain. He also said that my weight gain is within normal expectations. I am glad to hear that. I know I am overweight and I am always nervous that a doctor will give me a hard time about it, but he didn't at all.

On another note, my new cheaper, money-saving menu plan is a hit with the family so far. Prince Charming has always said that when I am forced to be creative because of budget, diet or available grocery limitations, I come up with some of his favorite meals and so far that is holding true.

And another thought I wanted to share, I watched a show today about a family that moved to the Country and restored an old stone farmhouse by hand. I watched as they settled into the hard work of living in the country and restoring the house and land and I was envious. Not that I don't have lots of hard work, but I think in my soul, I am a Country girl. I love the community of the country; I love the pace of life; I love the way you work hard and reap the benefits. I would love to be a country mom, cooking, canning, sewing, and taking care of my kids and my home. Instead I live in the city, sharing a wall in my house with neighbours. It is better than an apartment but I would love to live somewhere with lots of land, walking along the beach, letting my kids have the run of our yard, feeling they were safe and sound. I guess that is why I loved living on the west coast of Newfoundland when I did. It felt that way to me. And it explains those occassional longings I have to pick up all our stuff and just take off back the west coast for the rest of our lives.

And finally, here's all about what's technically going on in my pregnancy!

Fetal development - 19 weeks pregnant



You're halfway there! The top of your uterus now reaches your belly button and will grow about a centimetre per week. The fetus measures around 6 inches/ 15 centimetres long from crown to rump and weighs about 9 ounces/ 240 grams.

She has started to swallow amniotic fluid, and her kidneys continue to make urine. Hair on the scalp is sprouting.

Sensory development reaches its peak this week. The nerve cells serving each of the senses -- taste, smell, hearing, seeing, and touch -- are now developing in their specialised areas of the brain. Nerve cell production slows down as existing nerve cells grow larger and make more complex connections. If you're carrying a baby girl, she already has roughly six million eggs in her ovaries. By the time she's born, she'll have about one million.

You no doubt feel the kicking and somersaulting of your growing baby. At times, she may be so mobile that you can't sleep. The next ten weeks or so will be your baby's busiest and most active time, until the womb gets too crowded. Two will soon be three and that will mean lots of changes.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Artificial

Saturday Photohunt this week was Artificial. When I thought of this theme, I will admit I was a little stuck. I had troubles thinking of anything artificial that I may have photographed. Then I remembered something artificial I take a pic of every year, our ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREE!! So here are the pics I have taken of our artificial Christmas Tree starting in 2004 when Princess Belle was almost 3 years old.







Sidenote: I notice that nobody has noticed what is special about my new header. Look at it a few minutes and let me know what you see.

Friday Five

1. Today is my Anniversary, 8 years ago Prince Charming and I vowed to spend the rest of our lives together and I am grateful every day that we are together. He is my friend, my defender, my confidante, my masseuse, and father to my girls. While he isn't perfect, neither am I and we can spend the rest of our lives being gloriously imperfect together.
2. I also have a doctor's appointment today. I don't expect much to happen. He will try to find the heartbeat, he will ask me questions and he will do nothing. I don't like my doctor. However, I am just waiting until I get my referral to the OB-GYN that I will be seeing. I hope I get the same one I had with Princess Magpie.
3. I am tired today. At 2 am neighbourhood cats were yowling at our windows. Then, Princess Belle woke up at 4 am and kept trying to sneak downstairs. Lucky for us, her bedroom is next to ours and it was still dark so I kept herding her back to her room and telling her it was night and it was time for her to go back to sleep. (Incidentally, she is still sleeping now). At 6 and 6:30 our gosh darned cats were crying at our bedroom door. UGH And finally at 6:44 Princess Magpie decided it was time to get up for the day. I am not a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Mommy this morning.
   
4. I am getting groceries today and seeing as how things are tight these days with stuff I have to get for homeschool, for Princess Magpie and for the new Little Princess, I have decided to try to experiment with a menu filled with inexpensive and easy meals. I'll let you know how it turns out.
5. So now, while I am sitting here blogging, with Princess Magpie watching Big Comfy Couch, listening to the rest of the house sleep, I am contemplating how much I would love a giant cup of coffee and a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich! Btw, check out my new header. Watch it for a few minutes, let me know what you see.
   

Supper Tonight

I wanted something quick and easy for supper tonight. I am tired and tomorrow is grocery day so I had to be creative. This is what I came up with:

Easy Pasta Chicken

"Boil up some soup and add uncooked pasta along with your favorite frozen vegetable medley, and you have a nutritious and easy foundation for sauteed chicken."

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 1/4 cups water
1 package frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
2 cups rotini pasta

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, brown the chicken in oil over medium low heat until cooked through and juices run clear. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside. Add the soup, water and vegetables. Heat to a boil.

2. Add uncooked pasta to soup mixture in skillet (the pasta cooks right in the soup!). Stir all together and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add cooked chicken and cook another 5 minutes or until pasta is done, stirring often.

New Header and Blogroll Request!

I have been doing some creative work and as you can see I have a new, larger more creative header. I love the look, but I do have a request.

While I was working, my blogroll disappeared! If I have linked to you in the past, or if you are interested in exchanging links, would you mind letting me know in your comments? Thanks guys!

Wordless Wednesday - Meet Our New Little Princess

Click the pic above to get to other Wordless Wednesday Participants.

For more Wordless Wednesday go check out 5 minutes for mom and 7 Clown Circus!