Garden Goals & Goals for the Week

I like the idea of documenting my goals for the week like the prudent homemaker does on her blog.  I think it keeps me more accountable and helps me organize my time and be able to look back and remember what I did at certain times of the year or what was accomplished.  (Wow!  That was quite the run-on sentence!)  So here are my goals for this week:

Garden:

• Plant Armenian cucumbers, bunching onions in the blackberry bed and lima beans, pole beans, and jade bush beans in far sunny bed.  Also plant nasturtiums around tomatoes and a few sunflowers in front flower bed and butterfly garden.
• Weed around plum tree.
• Weed butterfly garden and far sunny garden.
• Add border to blackberry garden.
• Fertilize tomatoes, strawberries, plum tree, front flower bed, and peppers.  Fertilize pomegranate with whey from homemade yogurt.
• Spray peppers for slugs and set out snail trap.
• Deadhead blanket flower and keep for seeds.
• Trim rosemary, bulbs and tidy up butterfly garden.
• Take pictures!

Frugal goals:

• Cut boys' hair
• Make granola, homemade yogurt.
• Cook beans and freeze for future.
• Plan menus for two weeks.
• Go through clothes for next size for Levi

Sewing/Craft:

• Finish baby gift.
• Maybe start Evie's sundress.
• Find a bonnet to make for her (free pattern?)

Family History:

• Catch up on blog

Children:

• Help boys catch up on scouts
• Play games with Levi; guide him in his chores daily
• Start planning summer goals/activities

Spiritual:

• Record scripture study and impressions in journal.  Look for patterns as to what the Spirit is teaching me and specifically ask what I need to learn.

Music:

• Make flashcards for piano student.
• Find and make copies of Primary songs for students.

Physical:

• Do exercise daily.

Other:

• Update 72 hour kits
• Create a cleaning schedule that will work

Menu

I've tried some delicious new recipes from Mel's Kitchen Cafe this past week.  My family loved all of them!!  We tried Skillet Taco Pasta with ground turkey, Smothered Pork Chops (these were a little extra work in the morning but a great crockpot meal and SOOOOOO good!), and crockpot Beef Stroganoff.  We also tried Chicken Ceasar Wraps that were super good but I like my version of Pioneer Women's better.

This week I want to try this Baked Potato Pot Pie. So here's my menu for the next 2 weeks:

Monday- Baked Potato Pot Pie (see above link)

Tuesday- Chicken Salad Wraps

Wednesday- Korean Beef and Rice, carrots

Thursday- White Bean and Tuna Salad with homemade Wheat Crackers
Fruit and Cottage Cheese

Friday- Pizza Night

Saturday- Mexican Haystacks

Sunday- Fauxtiserie Chicken (our best bites), Mashed Potatoes and Gravy (in freezer from smothered pork chops), green salad or green veggie

Monday- Taco Shell Pasta

Tuesday- CHicken Taquitos  (Best Bites- make ahead)
Corn, Black beans
Start beans in crock****

Wednesday- Bean Burritos

Thursday- Tuscan Pasta

Friday- Pizza Night

Saturday- Baked Spaghetti

Sunday- Kalua Pork

Monday- Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili, cornbread

Tuesday- BBQ Pork

Wednesday- Baked CHimicanguas

Q is for Q-tips and Curly-Q piggy tails (Number 3)

Q is for Q-tips!  So easy.  We started off painting a letter Q using Q-tips.  I also had these pictures for them to paint if they wanted: http://therapyfunzone.net/blog/q-tip-painting-with-templates/

For the number 3 we focused on The Three Little Pigs, I found lots of variations on the story from our library but first read the basic story so that we could practice it.

We had fun acting out the story.  I planned to make piggy noses from egg cartons for the 3 pigs but didn't get around to it.  They wanted to act it out over and over again and got really good at the parts like "little pig, little pig, let me in...not by the hair on my chinny chin chin..then I'll huff..."

Then we experimented building our own houses out of different things: pretzel sticks, marshmallows, Legos, and used a blow dryer (big bad wolf) to see if the it could blow them down.  I got the idea here.

We then used these pictures to sequence the story.

And we made puppets for them to use to tell the story.  I printed them on cardstock.  They colored them, I cut them out and glued popsicle sticks on the them.

T is for Teeth

We had fun learning about T for Teeth.  We had a yummy and fun snack that the kids thought was so fun.  These apple smiles with marshmallows for teeth! :)

I got these books from the library to read.  I especially loved Clarabelle's Teeth!  Such a cute book!

I used these cute flannel board pictures to talk about how to take good care of our teeth by eating good foods.  They liked playing with them afterwards.

Then we "practiced" brushing with a toothbrush and toothpaste on a picture of a tooth I drew on construction paper.

Their favorite part was this fun game.  I cut out a mouth shape from pink paper and drew 16 small circles inside.  They placed a mini marshmallow on each circle.  Then they took turns rolling the dice and whatever number they rolled, they got to eat that many marshmallows.  The person to "loose" all their teeth first, won!  A great way to practice counting to 6.

The kids loved this fun treat!  Apple slices with peanut butter and marshmallow teeth.

R is for Rainbow/ St Patrick's Day

Our preschool day landed on St Patrick's Day so we combined the holiday with R is for Rainbow.  There are so many fun activities to do with both themes and I only had one day to do them but I plan on doing more of these with my son throughout the week. Here's the plan for our 3 hour preschool group (but not necessarily in this order):

Gathering:  Lucky clover rainbow necklaces
While they worked on these I helped each individually make a 4 leaf clover hand print

Books:

Game: Pot of Gold (Played like hot potato but with a pot of gold chocolate coins)
This link also has some great St Patty's Day printables

Art:  Suncatchers
Easy paint rainbows (this is a maybe)

Science:  This is something I will probably just do with my son on our own because I think it would be quite a mess with 6 preschoolers and my infant.  But I know he will like it.
Rainbow Jar
Magic Rainbows and Magic Milk Rainbows

Snack:  Rainbow fruits and veggies; Rainbow goldfish

Optional: Edible rainbow playdough

I also want to do these this week:
Color Hunt
Planting a rainbow: http://wildflowerramblings.com/homeschooling/planting-rainbow-literature-science-learning/
Rainbow art collages
Rainbow transperencies

Great printables for practicing letters

March menu

Tues 3/3- Quiche with swiss chard, Berry Salad
Wed 3/4- Chicken Salad with grapes and cashews on multigrain rolls, Kale Salad
Thurs- Blue and Gold Banquet
Fri- Pizza night
Sat- Chicken Brocc Casserole
Sun- Mel's Spaghetti Pie with chopped spinach in freezer, Breadsticks
Mon- Drumsticks and Red potatoes
Tues- Salmon Patties
Wed- Beef Stew
Thurs- Cafe Rio Salad
Fri- Pizza

Cleaning Schedule

I have made this so many times and not kept to it or lost it so here goes another try.  At least I won't loose it this time!
Mon- laundry
Tues- wash sheets and towels; clean bathrooms (bathtubs every other week)
Wed- Dust and vacuum
Thurs- Kitchen
Fri- bills and papers
Sat- Vacuum, help boys with rooms, grind wheat, make granola and granola bars

Other projects:  organize a closet, wash windows & mirrors, doorknobs, light switches