Menu Plan Monday - Aug 25

Back to the drawing board with a little help from orgjunkie!! I'm getting organized again - everyone watch out! I'll put a check (✓) after each meal we eat at home this week!
I'm seriously getting in practice for next week, when we have about a million things happening after a nice relaxing summer, suddenly dd will be out doing stuff and I'mnot sure how our menus will fare, but if I figure if I've planned well, we'll be good and eating right!

So this week's Menu should shape up like this....

Blue is Lunch, Black is Dinner (yup both again!)

T26 - Mac Attack or Noodles, Tuscan Pork Chops in Portbello Mushroom Sauce
W27 - Veggies Dip, Deli Meat, Turkey Burgers (Veggie for me)
T28 - Out, homemade Burritos
F29 - Cheese, Veggies, Dip, Steak (Pork or Fish) w/Rice & Broc
S30 - ???, OUT
S31 - Sandwiches, Baked Ziti w/Grnd meat (or not!)
M1 - Fruit, Veggies, Dip, Leftovers, Homemade WW Linguine Alfredo

If this is something you'd like to try head on over and view more menus for this week here

Ballet - Tights or Sweats?

I'm so not a ballet mum! I lack everything in the area of being a girly girl mum! I buy simple shorts and ts for the girls, granny, babi and the aunties buy the dresses for them.

I'm hoping this will be a passing phase, that dd will NOT get serious about ballet, but alas I fear she will! Why not Hip Hop? Jazz ... I fear ballet, despite having wanted to try it out in my youth.

My poor IRL friend, I thinks she thinks I'm a lunatic! I emailed her a couple days ago asking where one could find a simple black leotard and tights, and heaven help me shoes that didn't costs an arm and 2 legs, and what do you mean they can't do ballet in sweats and gym shoes? She about died of laughter. Yes I was being funny but part of me was serious. For the new folks (if there are any!) my dd is 7, she is more girl than I was. She is taking a real ballet class for the first time, one that runs the year instead of a week! She has long hair, I don't even know how to do a bun! My IRL friend again, died of laughter when I told her that! She was telling me that most ballet folks take it very seriously - this is supposed to be fun for my dd - I can't abide seriousness at this stage. I hope they're ready for us, I seriously have no clue! If dd gets sent home because her hair is wrong or her clothes are wrong we're done for... I'm a simpleton, this is for fun. In all seriousness, I'm starting to stress over ballet - what has my life come to?

I want a ballet class done in sweats. This ballet business is expensive.

FWIW - if there is another out there as hopeless as me.... dd (7) found this for me so we could practice making a ballet bun!

Now all we need is some glue and scrunchies and a little time and practice to make it right!

Chores = Fight with 7 yr old ..... OR Do they?

Everyone has a different school of thought on rewarding kids for chores.

In our family we reward for chores... but only some chores. For the last couple years I've been paying M a quarter ($0.25) per task that I think of on the fly unless it was a difficult task and then it was rewarded accordingly! She'd fill her piggy bank, and when she had enough money to buy the item she wanted (+ at least 1/4 of the amount extra for the bank) - I'd convert the change into bills... and off to the store we'd go (and the bank to make a deposit!) A bit of a pain, but it taught concepts of money, earning, saving and portioning the money! The problem was if she wasn't in the mood to do the chores they didn't get done, and she didn't have a ready list of all the things she needed to do.

So in rolls the homeschool loops that I visit - recently one of them posted a link to a website called HandiPoints. You can set up a list of up to 35 chores for your child to do and a set of rewards that they might want to earn and how much they have to earn in order to get their reward. Our chores are still a quarter a piece (unless I say otherwise!)

Well, M has been working her little bootie off - saving for a new webkinz ('cause mean ole mummy isn't buying her anymore) , an American Girl Dolly (Mia, I think though she loves Felicity) and a Petting Zoo crab (which isn't available anymore though the babies are!)

So needless to say I'm putting in a little plug for this free website - which is helping me to help them to realize that the toys and things they like have a cost, that they have the freedom to earn what they want and help around the house too!! :)

For once my house is mostly guest ready for the guests arriving today! ..... now if I could just declutter a little at a time over the next little while and organize well... I'd be doing wonderfully!