Well, it's been a while. Everything is fine here, just super busy on all fronts. Hope to get some detailed blogs about that by this weekend (no promises, things will still be busy). But while you wait...
At work...
...We had grandparents' day at preschool nearly two weeks ago now. Love the grandparents, but I always get a bit nervous with so many other adults in the rooms that are not fully aware of how preschool works. Things went well, by the way.
...We had two field trips last week. On Thursday we traveled to Osceola and our preschoolers along with the other preschoolers in our county had a track and field day. On Friday our preschool took 28 children and at least that many adults to the zoo in Des Moines. Both trips were successful. Both were exhausting.
...The end of the school year is next week for preschool. However instead of winding down, things actually feel like they are revving up, as we have packed lots of activities into the last few weeks.
...This week we have federal reviewers in our center observing, going through files, and asking lots of questions. We have a good program, but this is all nerve wracking.
...Today we had high school students working with us all afternoon. They needed to do a project for their Health Occupations class. We needed some guest speakers for health lessons. Win-win.
...As of now, I only have three more days with my kiddos. While I am anxious for the end of the school year and the change in routine for me (nope, won't get less busy...the busy-ness will just change) I will miss those little guys.
...I have an IEP meeting and several home visits that I need to prepare for and all this has been put on the back burner to deal with the more pressing issues of field trip planning and preparing for this review.
At home...
...Two boys have started baseball. Practices three nights a week have turned into games three nights a week. Throw in supper and baths and it makes for a hectic night three times each week. We are all out of the house by 7 every morning, so it can also make for a stressful morning after a later bedtime.
...Our washer broke last week. We got a used one. It works fine, but is smaller. I'm trying to get used to it.
...Farmers' Market will start before we know it. I have lots of preparations to do. Signs need to be made and distributed. Gardens need to be planted (Ron is in charge of this, but I plan to help more this year). I need to plan my baking and figure prices/prepare ingredient lists/signage for our table.
...Freezer Meal group meets this w/e. I have actually started some of what I will take. Woo Hoo! But I seem to research recipes for this about once a week or so. I will be working on that over the next few days.
...Cub scouts are winding down, but we have a campout this weekend. I will not be camping, but I will participate in some of the activities. There's a few more fun cub scout activities planned for this summer, and I have some sign-up deadlines approaching.
...The boys have been having a hard time balancing all these activities and keeping up with their normal responsibilities and staying in a good mood. I know this is short term due to overlapping activities. I refuse to overschedule, and this is why.
Whew, now that I got that all down, I think I am finally ready for bed. Thanks for waiting for me. I'll be back soon. :)
Showing posts with label Freezer Meal Swap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freezer Meal Swap. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
An Eventful Weekend
Ron decided that we would have a family day at Incredible Pizza in Urbandale on Saturday. We were slow to get started and didn't get there until 2 or so. We paid $130 for the five of us. That covered an all you can eat buffet (we had both lunch and dinner, plus snacks) and four twenty dollar swipe cards for arcade games. We did go carts, bumper cars, mini golf, mini bowling, lots of arcade-style games, and some preschool games/rides. It was lots of fun. The food was decent. We were there until after nine. It was worth the cost. Ron had to talk me into it. I hate those kinds of places--too much noise, flashing lights, etc and I feel like we are just throwing money into a hole. But the kids were surprisingly good and had a blast (that part was not a surprise).
Sunday was our first monthly freezer meal swap. My friend Kim has been looking to do this for about a year or more. We finally got it done and it was so simple the way she set it up. There are various ways to go about doing a freezer meal swap. Some groups decide on menus, purchase the ingredients, divvy the cost, and come together to cook for an afternoon in someone's home. They make several family sized meals and divvy these out to the various families involved. Other groups assign types of meals to each family and each family brings enough of that meal for the other families to take home.
Our swap was the simplest variety. Each family brought in as many family sized servings as they wanted. We then took turns picking out as many items as we brought to take home. There were so many yummy items to choose from--mac and cheese, manicotti, tilapia, pulled pork, meatballs, just to name a few. All of the items are freezer friendly and now we each have a few home cooked meals in our freezer for those short evenings we all have. So much better than the tv dinner style frozen meals. New foods for the family too! I brought home a pan of homemade mac and cheese and one of manicotti. I didn't have time to prepare more due to our impromptu trip on Saturday. I did save some of the pulled pork I brought in my own freezer though. I'm excited to make this a monthly tradition.
In other news, both older boys had great conference reports from their teachers. Both have made great strides in reading and math. Colby needs to talk less (he gets that from me...) and Braedon could use some flash card work on math facts. I just love their teachers this year. I feel like the boys are making great progress and the personalities of their teachers match with those of my boys, makes for a good year.
I'm hoping to get past this writer's block. I'm a bit frustrated with some stuff at work that involves my kiddos and for confidentiality purposes I can't blog about it. So whenever I try to think of something preschool-related to post I can't get past that stuff. I have a post about ADD bouncing around (appropriately) in my head as well as some other reading and baking related posts. I will try to post a bit more frequently, but I can't make any promises...
As a reward for reading to the bottom of this disjointed post, I'm posting here the pulled pork recipe I got off allrecipes.com (love that site!).
Pulled Pork
Need--pork roast, root beer, bbq sauce, buns
1. In the crock pot place the pork (I had a large tenderloin I cut into manageable pieces and cooked 4 lb at a time) and 2-3 cups of root beer. Cook on low for ten hours. Cool.
2. Pull apart pork. Mix in a bottle of bbq sauce.
3. This is where I placed it into freezer baggies (approximately 8 servings per bag to go with the pkg of buns I bought) and labeled.
4. The morning prior to serving, move the meat to the fridge to thaw. Warm and serve on buns. Yum!
Sunday was our first monthly freezer meal swap. My friend Kim has been looking to do this for about a year or more. We finally got it done and it was so simple the way she set it up. There are various ways to go about doing a freezer meal swap. Some groups decide on menus, purchase the ingredients, divvy the cost, and come together to cook for an afternoon in someone's home. They make several family sized meals and divvy these out to the various families involved. Other groups assign types of meals to each family and each family brings enough of that meal for the other families to take home.
Our swap was the simplest variety. Each family brought in as many family sized servings as they wanted. We then took turns picking out as many items as we brought to take home. There were so many yummy items to choose from--mac and cheese, manicotti, tilapia, pulled pork, meatballs, just to name a few. All of the items are freezer friendly and now we each have a few home cooked meals in our freezer for those short evenings we all have. So much better than the tv dinner style frozen meals. New foods for the family too! I brought home a pan of homemade mac and cheese and one of manicotti. I didn't have time to prepare more due to our impromptu trip on Saturday. I did save some of the pulled pork I brought in my own freezer though. I'm excited to make this a monthly tradition.
In other news, both older boys had great conference reports from their teachers. Both have made great strides in reading and math. Colby needs to talk less (he gets that from me...) and Braedon could use some flash card work on math facts. I just love their teachers this year. I feel like the boys are making great progress and the personalities of their teachers match with those of my boys, makes for a good year.
I'm hoping to get past this writer's block. I'm a bit frustrated with some stuff at work that involves my kiddos and for confidentiality purposes I can't blog about it. So whenever I try to think of something preschool-related to post I can't get past that stuff. I have a post about ADD bouncing around (appropriately) in my head as well as some other reading and baking related posts. I will try to post a bit more frequently, but I can't make any promises...
As a reward for reading to the bottom of this disjointed post, I'm posting here the pulled pork recipe I got off allrecipes.com (love that site!).
Pulled Pork
Need--pork roast, root beer, bbq sauce, buns
1. In the crock pot place the pork (I had a large tenderloin I cut into manageable pieces and cooked 4 lb at a time) and 2-3 cups of root beer. Cook on low for ten hours. Cool.
2. Pull apart pork. Mix in a bottle of bbq sauce.
3. This is where I placed it into freezer baggies (approximately 8 servings per bag to go with the pkg of buns I bought) and labeled.
4. The morning prior to serving, move the meat to the fridge to thaw. Warm and serve on buns. Yum!
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