Ideas for School Lunches

I bet all of you moms reading this are morning people and just love to slave over your kids' lunches in the morning. I know, "Yea right!" 

I've come up with a great way to give you one less thing to occupy your mornings with. Most of the time, my kids want a sandwich in their lunch so I thought about how I could crank out the sandwiches that didn't take up too much time in the wrong time of the day. So, I pre-make dozens of sandwiches, cut them (square for PB&J, triangle for tuna), and place them on a large cookie sheet and place them in the freezer for a few hours until frozen solid. Then when they're frozen, I put them in large zip-lock bags. So when you're gathering lunches in the morning, all you have to do is take out how many squares or triangles you need. By the time lunch comes around, they're ready to eat! Doing sandwiches this way solved a small problem for me. Serenity couldn't eat a full sandwich at lunch, but a 1/2 wasn't enough. So now I can just pull out 3/4 of a sandwich and I'm not wasting. By the way, I make a bunch of these at night when I'm watching TV. :D

For other quick snack/side items for kids' lunch, I go to Costco and buy bulk veggies, fruits, crackers, etc and divide them in snack bags. I do that at the beginning of the week, so I can just grab the bags and go.  I love to buy Trader Joe's style "go-gurt". There's no "horrible" ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, etc. You can also stick these in the freezer and just toss one in the lunch bag on the day of school. Makes the mornings quicker!

When my oldest first started school, I bought the best thermos possible. None better than a wide-mouth Stanley. They run about $20-$25 unless you can get them on sale, but worth every penny! Sometimes I will heat the previous night's dinner and stuff it in the thermos. It's not just luke-warm by the time they eat it at lunch, it's still hot!

I have a few recipes I will share to help you utilize the thermos. My kids' favorite thing to get is a pizza pocket. A home-made pizza pocket! Again, I make these in bulk and freeze them just like the sandwiches. Then the day I want to use them, I just heat them in the microwave and shove it in the Stanley Thermos. 

So here's the recipes. Another *TIP*, pre-make rice in a rice cooker (I have a 5 gallon bucket that I mix brown basmati rice, black rice, quinoa, and jasmine rice) and once it's done, stick about 2 cups in a ziplock bag and stick in the freezer. You can thaw it in a few minutes when you need to make the following recipe or when you're using it for another dish. 

Tips for Getting Ready for the New School Year

Are you prepared to send your kids off to school? I am. I try to be an organizational freak. I'm going to give you a few tips to get on the right path to staying organized this school year. 

Last year, I came up with a good way to keep Serenity's influx of paperwork that came home organized as soon as she brought it into the house. Doesn't that blow your mind??? I was talking with a few friends and they said they have bins stacked with cute drawings, their writings, and of course some of those cute crafts that get sent home. Yuck! Who wants to figure out how to go through those bins when we  turn around and realize our kids our in high-school?! 

So I created a "School Organizer" that shows a current photo of your child on the front. Inside is questions that you can fill out with them that shows things that they like with their personality. Then, just keep it in a handy spot in your house (mine was on my mantle) and when your child dumps out their backpack papers, sort out in that moment what you want and toss the rest. The ones you want, just simply slide into the sheet protectors. Viola! You already have started a chronologically pleasing book that showcases your child's work. 

*TIP* Instead of keeping the large crafts your child brings home, take a picture of them with the craft and insert the photo into the School Organizer.

Here's the simple materials that you need to get started: 

* Clear cover report book (costs between $1-$5 depending on how fancy you want to get)
*Clear insert page protectors
*A current 8x10 picture of your child
*Copy and Paste the following text and fill it out with your child

Name: _______________________

Kindergarten 2012-2013

Age ____

September ___, 2012

How I write my name: __________________________________

___________________________________

My favorite color is:__________________________________

My Favorite Book is:_________________________________

My favorite movie is:___________________________________

What I did the summer before school started:____________

____________________________________________________

My Favorite Sport:___________________________________

My Favorite Activities:________________________________

____________________________________________________

My favorite food is:__________________________________

I am ________feet and ______inches tall and weigh ________ 

pounds.

About school:

How I feel about going to school: ______________________

Things I know how to do already: ______________________

____________________________________________________

I am going to: _______________________________________

My Teacher's name will be: ____________________________

In the following pages, put in some of your favorite work from

 school!

On on question, I was really enthused with one of Ila's answers. The "Things I Already Know How to Do" slot, Serenity was able to put a lot down. Ila's not as academically advanced as Serenity is; but she came up with some good answers for this question. She came up with "Read, Know my ABCs, Count, Draw VERY well, Be nice to people, share, love".  Those answers melted my heart. I also left her favorite sport as "coloring" like she insisted. It reminds me of "Meet The Robinsons" where the kid said that inventing was his favorite sport!

Check out my next blog on ways to keep school meals simple!

Losing a friendship...

I've had some rough patches with a friend in the last few years. I felt moved to write her a letter why its time to put our friendship to rest. How would you react to get this?  I just hope I had God giving me all the right words...

                 Oil and perfume rejoice the heart; so does the sweetness of a friend's counsel that comes from the heart. Proverbs 27: 9

Dear      xxxxx     ,

I wanted to let you know in writing what has been going on through my head and heart on the matter of our friendship. We both know, several years back, we were pretty inseparable. Then xxxxx lost his job and your life shifted. You were unable to be the friend I desperately needed when I went through my own rough patches. It was hard, but I was a patient, supportive friend and waited for you… Waited for you to find whatever you were looking for. During that time I lost my best friend and 4 nieces. 

When I poured my heart out to you that one time, it was hard for me because I knew you had already gone through so much, I felt horrible if I was the one who added guilt onto your problems. However, I vowed to God and myself I would always be honest with my friends and so if I added to your burdens at that time, I am sorry. I needed to be honest. After that, I hoped for a gentle renewal of our friendship, but t never really blossomed despite attempts on both sides.

Then, more time has gone by and to reach out for help with the impending surgery and your response was something of the sort of "Call me to (fill in action)." brought me a pang of hurt to an old wound. I so desperately wanted to know you loved me by you taking the initiative to call me. This again is my fault. I should have been honest with you in that moment and laid out that feeling. It led to resentment and distrust that perhaps you didn't care about me. So, when I had to face you at the family BBQ….Well, we both know how cold I was. Again, another moment I failed in. I am sorry because I never wanted to treat somebody like that. 

Since then, in my recover, I've had a lot of time to pray. I felt all the things each of us that did wrong to our friendship was illuminated. In reflecting and praying, I've felt the calmness of God's arms reassuring me that there are seasons for friendships and there are seasons for rest. 

This is a season for rest. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

It's definitely not the answer I was seeking as I desperately miss the friendship we created and I have spent the last 2 years seeking somebody worthy of filling that position-- that place in my heart. That is something I deserve. I crave. That's God's promise to me: 

My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. Psalm 121:2-3

So with all this and the inserted scriptures that I feel led me by God's own hand, I hope I bring you some peace. I hope you can forgive my wrong, un-rightful acts and move forward. This doesn't mean I won't talk to you-- it means I'm letting our friendship nestle peacefully in my heart instead of pushing it where God does not want it to go. 

Wishing you and your Family the Best,

Mandy

They have testified before the church of your love and friendship. You will do well to forward them on their journey [and you will please do so] in a way worthy of God's [service]. 3 John 1: 6

Surgery has past!

So excited to inform you all that the come and gone date for my surgery has past and I am still among the living! YEA! 
So I went in on the 14th and had a very low-key admittance. I said good-bye to Joe and they started to take me to the back area and I just kind of slunk back on the bed and the nurse said, "Oh good, that's finally kicking in." I was like when did she give me anything? lol I don't even remember making it into the operating room. 
I do remember waking up though. Crying my eyes out. Oh, the pain and trauma caused to my pubic symphysis was bad! I knew it was going to hurt, but my goodness this hurt worse than child birthing! The nurse, bless her heart, was stroking my forehead and asking what I needed and I just said, "Get me down to Inland Imaging and get them to do a steroid shot into my pubis symphasis!" They whisked me off, and in what felt like only 15 minutes after waking from surgery, I was going in and and out of the CT scanner getting yet another needle jammed in between my pelvis plates. I was hoping the short term pain of having this would help long term when I needed it the most. Most of this procedure, I was still did not have all of my cognitive functions working! However, I was able to get the message to Joe that they were taking me down to Inland Imaging to get the procedure done. 
They wheeled me into my room early afternoon Tuesday. They had me going on morphine along with a nice mix of other meds. As I came around, my knight in shining armor showed up with a nice vase of roses. It's certainly impressed when they choose to spend on items like these when you know they're too cheap to otherwise! Most of Tuesday was a blur. On Wednesday morning, they tried taking out my catheter, but with no luck in me going pee on my own, we ended up putting it back in. Now, I didn't have amazing "on the ball" type nurses, so wednesday and thursdays are just heaped together at this point in confusions of them trying to take the catheter out, having no success with it, me getting behind on pain meds because of nausea that they couldn't solve until they got an IV back in me, etc. I mean, at one point wednesday I believe, I went a full 7 hours without any pain meds. I thought I was going to have to rip somebody a new hole!
Then Thursday evening, the wonderful time arrived for me to come home, catheter still in it's rightful place in my vagina. We were hoping that once we got home, we would be able to manage the timing of the meds better than my nurses did. We were pretty successful with that. We were unsuccessful at keeping food and liquids down me. I started retching worse than when I was hospital. Thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday all jumble for me again here because I was in a bad way. A lot of vomiting...wondering if I could pull through. Joe kept trying to get me to eat or drink but I was at the point I just felt like I was waiting for a bad flu to pass and once it did, I would be able to start eating and drinking again. When Joe felt like I needed to go back to the hospital, I made him call the docs instead. I was right. 
Can I just do a little dance over that?
I was right! 
The docs just added another anti-nausea pill that knocked-me-out! I had crazy weird dreams. I mean dreams that could have covered the lives over that Joe and I shared but in a weird, alternate reality sort of way. Then today, Monday, I woke up still tired, but up.... Like the storm had finally passed. I'm up eating, drinking, and even catching up on the latest Web feeds. Of course, I even made time to watch one of my favorite shows, "Grimm"!  
So, now, looking forward for me, I will just keep on healing. I've weened myself off the worst of my meds and am now just taking Tylenol with Codeine, some groovy stuff that turns my pee blood orange that coats the urethra, and simple ibuprofen. Somewhere, in the midst of my medical drama, I decided, to myself, that I would take the quick downfall and just jump ship off my anti-depressant. I figure while my body is adjusting to it's new self, why not see how it does without the anti-depressant? If it goes well, then great and no need to wean myself off it like the doctor said it would be a miserable experience...if it goes poorly, well, I want to try to herbal support that I've been taking to see what that does by itself. If worst, I just get back on the pills. But this is the one change I have to get things under control while my kids are gone, in other people's houses. 
Wish me luck and look forward to my un-edited, unrated, true life tales of how maybe one mommy can go from med-mommy to hopefully less scary mommy without the meds. :D

Surgery is quickly approaching...

So this weekend I had a minor melt-down. Things have been getting all kind of screwed up trying to get the help I need for my children when I will be recovering. I think I've got things pretty well set in stone, but nothing is ever guaranteed. 

This week will probably speed by because of things that need to get done in preparation for the surgery. I need to get my kids packed and ready to go to their respective homes. I am also going to the west side this weekend for a family reunion so it leaves me monday to get things unpacked and repacked. I also am going to have to try to get things ready for the 1st day of school because that's about 2 weeks after my surgery.

I keep on trying to think upon how to make my weekend easier on me. Do I leave later and come home earlier or do I just not go at all? There's always so many variables. I wish my husband could just take all the kids and then I could stay home and get things prepared but that can't happen because we have to take two vehicles over. 

Normally, I am so well prepared for everything; I am typically well organized. Not this time though. I just keep trying to figure out how to get my plan figured out. It's frustrating that my spouse just knows that I will get things done. Granted that's part of my role in the family. However, when he goes through these circumstances, it's me taking care of everything. So when it's me going through this, doesn't it seem he should step up and take care of the organizing of everything? I know, that sounds too good to be true. I have no animosity against my spouse. He's been doing his own things, it's just at this point, I feel like I'm falling apart. I'm trying to lean onto God and the other people that are helping me through this. 

Lord, help me because I'm gonna need it!

"Adopting" my kids out for my recovery

I've always heard asking for help is hard. This time, I'm finding it very easy to ask for help.

My own parents hated to ask for help. I think this is where I learned it's better to ask for help than try to go alone. Since they didn't ask for help, the things that they went through were harder than it ever needed to be on them. I also think a lot of family members or friends of the family felt shunned by my parents. I know from my point of view, I want people to know that if they think of me as a good enough friend, I should be a good enough friend to be confided in and a good enough friend to help. There's no judgment for asking for help.

Right now I've asked my friends, church and MOPS group for people that might be willing to help take  my 4 kids for my six week recovery period. It's asking a lot, I know, but would be easier than having people come to my home to help take care of them.

Right now, I have 2 of my kids that have been "adopted" for that period. I feel so blessed that people are willing to help. Am I scared for having my children gone for so long? Absolutely. I have rarely ever been away from my children and it has always been either my husband or I caring for them. The only exception has been when I was in child labor and my brother in law took care of the kids, but that was in my own home.

During my six week recovery period, my son's second birthday will be during that time. I imagine we will still do a small birthday celebration for him. I worry the most about Rowen because he is such a mama's boy and it will be hard having him gone from me for so long. I have faith that God is guiding me in my choices.