Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden

We’ve stalled a bit indoors as I won’t be able to set up the toddler’s playroom or my craft area until my kindergarten materials, books, and decor are delivered to my new classroom later this week.  Dear Husband checked the trees in our yard today instead, looking for branches that needed to be trimmed while the kids and I checked on the seeds that we planted for “filler-type” greenery and flowers for the remaining summer months.

The nasturtiums and pumpkins have sprouted, though I’m not sure if we’ll actually get any pumpkins grown in time for Halloween with such a late planting.  The kids were inspired by the pumpkin photos at Chance Family Happenings:

Dear Husband trimmed back some branches that were obscuring traffic/street signs:

…and he discovered a few branches that the electric company will have to come out to cut and remove (see where the power line is?):

Later this afternoon I’ll re-pot some of my indoor plants into larger containers, anticipating what new greenery I can find to put into the newly emptied pots!

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Thanks for being green, Kermit:

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~SmittenKitchen shares a recipe for Sauteed Radishes (yes, radishes!), Sugar Snap Peas and Dill

~Paper-and-String is working on Christmas in July (check out her trees, reindeer, and puddings)

~Doug has “heavier” reading on his summer book list than I do, but I’m intrigued after reading his thoughts on Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine.  NCLB is an issue that has ties that stretch much further than our classrooms, school district offices, states, even country.

~Dear Daughter enjoyed her birthday, but wanted a plain ol’ vanilla cake (with purple streaks swirled in) with strawberry icing.  Guess I’ll have to wait for another celebration to try The Pioneer-Woman-Cooks’ Yogurt and Orange Marmalade Cake.

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Happy Monday!

Tags: family, friends, links, photos, recipes

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Girl:

…my creative and girlie Dear Daughter…

…today you’ll eat birthday cake for breakfast, go shopping for new clothes and learn how to *gulp*, apply makeup, because you’re fourteen now, not five.

This time around, I’m hoping you’ll go for a more subdued look.  At five years of age, you never scribbled when you colored…except when Rissa and Amy let you play in makeup:

Wow.

You’re almost a freshman now, but you’ll always be my “Muffin,” and Daddy’s “Sweet Pea,” and I’m sure you’re probably *thrilled* that I’ve posted these photos of you online for the world to see.

You’re very welcome, Miss-Ten-Pounder-at-Birth.

We love you and hope you enjoy your special day!

Tags: family

… because it’s just around the corner!

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If you have a kindergartner gearing up for the first day of school, it’s time to put yourself in his/her shoes in regard to LUNCH.

*Soggy sandwiches aren’t fun to eat, so try coating both pieces of bread with peanut butter with some jelly in the middle to avoid jelly-soak-through.

*Orange chips stain clothes. Yes, kids still wipe their hands all over their shirts and pants, ignoring the cute napkin you included in their lunchbox.  Lunch time is social time so kids are too busy chatting, visiting, and listening in on conversations to remember the good manners you taught them.

*Those little plastic wrappers on the straws for juice boxes don’t always have a slit cut into them.  Juice boxes tend to be easier to punch straws into than the pouch style drinks.

*Though teachers discourage it, food bartering/swapping still takes place at lunch or snack time.  Please remember that some students have food allergies, occasionally severe. It’s important that your child knows he/she is still a good friend even though s/he won’t share peanut butter cookies (or offer “just a taste” of some other treat) with classmates.

*If your child likes to save leftovers for a snack later in the day, please practice fastening those plastic storage lids or ziploc baggies NOW, otherwise, be prepared for very messy spills and mountains of crumbs in backpacks or lunch sacks.

*If you send a thermos with lunch, make sure your child knows which way is “up” when it comes to putting the thermos back in the lunch box, otherwise s/he will be back in Leak-and-Spillsville.

*Not every classroom has a refrigerator available, so if you live in hot climate, plan on skipping the mayo and milk.

*Snack packaging (the wrappers on cookies, chips, graham crackers, trail mix, fruit snacks, etc.) isn’t always easy for little hands to open.  Cut a small slit in the top of each to help ease your child’s frustration. The same goes for the tips of bananas, or the peels on oranges.

*Yes, teachers are happy to help your young ones learn how to open milk cartons and lunch wrappers, but children feel such a sense of accomplishment, independence and helpfulness when they can do it on their own and teach their friends the “tricks of the trade” as well.  Small milk cartons are available at most grocery stores if your kindergartner would like to practice before school starts.

*Not every child knows that you’d rather not open a lunchbox full of wrappers, banana peels, or used juice straws at the end of every day.  Additionally, kids don’t always know that you might want their plastic containers returned home!  Decide and discuss which items morph from “food wrappers” or containers to disposable trash, and which don’t.  You’ll keep a lot of  your Tupperware collection intact if you address this sooner rather than later. Ditto for silverware!

*Make sure you write your child’s name on that lunch box or lunch sack, because there’s always at least one classmate who will have the same one, or one similar looking enough that mix-ups will occur.

*If your child will purchase lunch at school each day, make sure you find out the “routine” in advance and see if you can prepay so your child won’t panic or experience a meltdown if lunch money has been lost on the playground.

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Do you have any tips or helpful hints for lunch time?  Please share by commenting!

Tags: kindergarten, school

…about *moi,* in case you were wondering:

1) My favorite hobby would have to be crocheting blankets, but I think I’ll be inspired to crochet scarves now that we’re living someplace with much cooler winters!

2) My favorite season is winter, though autumn is a close second, especially since leaving Alaska several years ago.

3)  I’m not into hunting and fishing like other members of my family, but I wander through antique malls whenever I get the chance. I’m on the lookout for a specific salt cellar that will complete my collection. I…WILL…FIND…IT.

4) I prefer vanilla/spicy scents over fruity, any day.

5) I don’t get nervous about shots or getting my blood drawn since having children.  A flu shot comes nowhere near the pain level that childbirth does.

6) I think love manifests itself in many different tones and forms, but none of them are cruel.

7)  I have two favorite Christmas songs: Little Drummer Boy (duet) by Bing Crosby and David Bowie, and Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (instrumental) by J.S. Bach.

I prefer to drink “foo foo” coffee in the morning, but occasionally will drink tea.

9) I can’t swim, but have made sure my children don’t have a water phobia.

10) I prefer walking to running, and only in cooler temperatures.  Having gallons of sweat rolling off of me while getting sunburned holds no appeal for me whatsoever.

11) My favorite piece of jewelry is my wedding set, though I love my charm bracelet too.

12) I can whistle, but don’t get me started or I’ll never stop.  As a teen, my mother and I tried to re-enact this scene but never made it all the way through because we’d burst out laughing:

13) I neither sing nor hum in the shower.

14) My favorite candies are peanut M-n-M’s and Smarties. Never together though.

15) I’m an Eskimo who loves ice cream…big surprise. Dairy Queen’s Peanut Buster Parfaits (with extra nuts) can just about make my day. So can plain ol’ Tin Roof Sundae. And Rocky Road.

Tags: meme

There is ONE advantage to packers dumping, shuffling, and resorting your belongings when you move: you stumble across wishes and inspiration from your past!

This was my “dream wedding gown,” torn from a bridal magazine when I was either a senior in high school, or a freshman in college, twenty years ago:

What you can’t see is the powder pink embroidery along the bodice hem and train.  The foofy hair?  I *still* try for that look to this day!  I love the feminine seed pearls and tulle rosettes along the neckline, and I even love the ribbons hanging from the-not-quite-Star-Wars-fantasy hair barrettes.  It’s strangely funny and interesting to me that when Dear Husband and I got married so many years later, I wore a white gown, with “rum pink” embroidery, and had ribbons hanging from a bouquet made of tulle and satin rosettes with seed pearls.

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*One of my favorite bloggers, Saucy at Bloggedy Blog Blog, just flipped a house with her husband Veto.  Here are some before and after photos (amazing!), and while I’m not brave enough, nor have the time or inclination to flip a house myself, she’s posted some pretty incredible renovation tips here.  Ladies, she even included suggestions for how to store your lip gloss and how to protect your hands, nails, and manicures while you’re on site!

*Lisa at Crazy Adventures in Parenting… is making her own military move, family style.  HER story had me laughing and crying after our own trip necessitated by Uncle Sam.  Military spouses, unite!

*Vicki at This Art That Makes Me Happy has inspired me to try my hand at paper covered letters…once I finish unpacking of course!

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Let’s get back to the foo-foo-froo-froo, shall we?

It’s everything the name implies:

For the Love of Cupcakes and Everything Pink

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Tags: fashion, links, Show and Share

SpeakerSue shared this on her blog, but I had to share it here just for the sheer child advocacy of it all in regard to what our children see and think about when they watch television and movies today. Mr. Rogers is speaking before the Senate in this video, regarding funding for PBS, seven months before I was born:

Tags: child advocacy

Though I’m a chocoholic, here’s what I’ve been craving and enjoying this summer:

Yep, apples, celery, raisins, and walnuts.

My family doesn’t care for this salad (more for me!), so I only make enough for one:

1 apple

2 or 3 stalks of celery

1/4 cup of raisins

1/4 cup of chopped walnuts

1 tsp. of mayo, just enough to coat the apples so they don’t brown too quickly

Chop up the apple and celery stalks, toss in the raisins and walnuts, and coat with the mayo.  It’s even better if the apple and celery have chilled in the fridge overnight- cool, crispy, fruity and green at the same time.  I suggest you make this the same day you plan on eating it as the apples still brown rather quickly, and if the salad is left overnight in the fridge, the walnuts and raisins get soggy.

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Dear Daughter is expressing interest in learning about “meal preparation.”  In tiny, baby increments. She’s good at mac and cheese, makes a terrific toasted ham/cheese/potato chip sandwich, and has learned how to make chicken flavored ramen noodles.  I know, I know, basic stuff.  Today she had some excess broth left over from the noodles as Toddler only wants “oodles” when it comes to ramen, no “juice.”  For a reason that still escapes me, she put the left over broth into a glass, intending to let it cool off completely before pouring it into a sippy cup for the toddler, to see if he likes the taste of it.  I asked her how she’d explain the “juice” to him.

She said she’ll tell him it’s chicken juice.  From freshly squeezed chickens.

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*Michelle at Scribbit shares her Aunt Nancy’s recipe for Asian Chicken Salad (hey, more ramen!)

*If fruit smoothies are more your style, The Pioneer Woman Cooks a Blueberry Yogurt Smoothie (the color alone will amaze you!)…

*Amy at AngryChicken is making me wonder just where, oh where in my yard I can plant rhubarb, so I can make Rhubarb Hand Pie.

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Finding so many great blogs since my spring blogroll update means I’ll have to try to find time to update my links before school starts.  I’ll keep you posted!

Tags: family, humor, recipes

* We opened, emptied and broke down 20+ more boxes downstairs yesterday. Now there are piles of books, equipment, baskets and more books all over the place, effectively replacing the stacks of boxes. Messy, messy, messy, but still a sign of progress.

* Dear Husband will have an office this year. It might not be the largest place to hang his work hat, but he’ll be able to take some of his military decor with him to spruce things up a bit. Once I’m able to get into my classroom, all of my classroom materials, decor, and books will be out of our house as well. It will be interesting to see how the whole home decor thing works out afterward. No Army influences, no kindergarten themes- just who we are outside of the workplace with our family.

* I’ve found my seat cushions and Somerset Magazines.  They were in boxes marked “Baskets” and “Outdoor Storage.”  The seat cushions were used in our dining room year ’round, and the magazines were in my creative cubby space.  Neither were used near baskets or outdoor storage.  The box marked “Baskets” plural had only one basket in it.    I know.  I’m a nitpick.

* Amanda at GoodyBlog got my toddler’s attention this morning when she posted this:

Happy Tuesday!

Tags: blogs, family, video

Tags: humor

As organized as I try to be at work and at home, once our family has to relocate, the packers, however nice and polite they may be, seem to think it’s GAME ON.

Boys, I made you all lunch, three days in a row.  Granted, the first day was pizza, but hey, day two was homemade sub sandwiches. We certainly kept the fridge stocked with Gatorade, water and soda so you wouldn’t dehydrate or run out of energy.  We even pushed Otter Pops on you when the temp got unbearable!

So would you mind telling me where my dining room chair pillows are?  How about half of my Somerset magazines (that were all in one spot when you started)? The receiver for our cordless phone?  Because the way things are going, I’m thinking I’m not going to find these things until I open my SCHOOL-SUPPLIES-THAT-HAVEN’T-SEEN-THE-LIGHT-OF-DAY-IN-OVER-A-YEAR that *you* opened and “re-boxed” because of some packer/moving company policy.

Soon-to-be-teaching-colleagues, I’ll apologize right now for any outbursts of exasperation you might hear coming from my new classroom two weeks from now.  It’s not you, and no, I’m not some psycho hose beast.  I’ve just finally found my crochet hooks~ in exactly the furthest location from where they originated in our home.

Darn packers.

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My finger and toenails are happy this morning.  After enduring two weeks without a mani-pedi, I gave in, removed what little polish was left on them last night, buffed, filed, and polished with a non-summer color.  MUCH better now.  Yes Bev, you read that right: my nails were in disrepair for two weeks!  Nope, I didn’t go looking for an emergency bottle of polish for the chips and nicks either.  Scary, huh?

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With the repairs and modifications we’re having to do to the rental, we’re stuck, shuffling boxes and piles around and around and around as we get each new area designated, arranged, and decorated.  The upstairs is  nearly done, but the only reason why is because the downstairs still looks like a bomb hit it.  My desk is upstairs, along with most of my crafty stash that was stored beneath it in Texas… but it will be clutter free when what I hope will be my crafting area is set up and ready downstairs.

Now if I could only find my three remaining ribbon boxes.

Maybe I should have made the packers extra cookies.  Lesson learned.

Tags: colleagues, family, military life, organization