Life is in the Details

Word (of the Week) interrupted

This week's Word of the Week (debris) has been interrupted due to some recently uncovered criminal events of my pre-teen daughter. Not to be alarmed... they are only a crime against our rules.

It was discovered that J had her phone with her in her room after being tucked in (she isn't allowed to have it except on weekends unless she has our permission) and was texting way past bedtime.... THE NIGHT BEFORE HER LAST standardized test at school. Grmpmhf!!

And so in it's place of the originally scheduled word, I present to you the new Word of the Week.

We're thinking of letting J find this about our discovery on her own (as she passes the new word up on the wall in our hallway). Her phone has been taken away at least until the end of school (and in my mind, indefinitely, or at least until further notice).

Thank you, Mike, for you continued humor and keen intellect!! We had so much fun laughing together about this incident and how we're handling it this afternoon!!

Word of the Week

I just realized I'm a few days days late on changing our "word of the week" (something I started doing a couple of months ago to help bring new words into the kids' vocabularies to encourage them to be stronger readers and to enrich their writing). It's no secret that I adore words and am a voracious reader and my kids are no different. Ryan loves to read and is going through a Pokemon phase. Jessi has chosen to take a creative writing class during a summer program she's enrolled in that offered jewelry making and mixed-media art in the same time block.

I suppose I haven't changed last week's word because I am enamored with it and wanted to live with ILLUMINATE a bit longer.

I love its meaning.
I love its sound.
I love its richness.

Sketchbook peek (family collaboration)

Another sketchbook peek from a page that was started a few months ago. My drawings are on the left; Ryans are on the right. The kids both loved my waterbrush and watercolor set so much that we had to make a quick detour to Michael's when we were traveling in Novemeber to get them their own watercolor sketchbook so that we could all do it at the same time (because what was happening is that when I'd want to paint, the kids wanted to, I handed the sketchbook over to them, did a few tidying up things in our hotel room, and then I'd never get the sketchbook back. The pages were super thick and hard to just rip out and we didn't have scissors.) For the holidays each child received their own waterbrush and set of travel watercolor set. Now we're all happy to do watercolors together in our own sketchbooks (and it's really fun to pass our sketchbooks around to each other to draw in so we have each other's art in our own books).

Metamorphosis

 

We had been raising these guys (above) since they looked like these guys (below).

 

I highly recommend doing this! It has been one of the most incredible things to witness up close and be a part of! I was just as excited as the kids were (maybe more so) to see these little guys crawling about, weaving their silk, forming their "J" and then the chrysalis, and then transforming into butterfies. We were actually there at the exact time that one of our little babies emerged from the chrysalis. It was amazing!!

Four out of five of them have stretched their wings to fly away from our nest. We even think we saw one a the next day). One wasn't ready when the other ones were (we think this is the one that was born last, a full day and half after the others) so s/he's still with us a bit longer until its also ready to spread its wings and FLY. 

Plan on more butterfly photos in future posts. Don't say you weren't warned.

All bread, all the time

All bread, all the time... or least it's going to look that way when you see what I've been baking up in the kitchen lately. The smell of freshly baked bread just makes me so happy.

I think we've found a good daily sandwich bread (or breakfast w/almond butter bread) based on how quickly the family finished THREE loaves!!! This was from two weeks ago and I made another batch today. I've tweaked this recipe to be mostly whole wheat. So far it has been a very forgiving recipe... as the first time I was feeling confident and replaced all of the honey with sugar and the bread still came out great. Today I used honey. We'll get the taste test results tomorrow.

And while this isn't daily bread, it's certainly some of our favorite weekly or monthly bread:

This gorgeous loaf is the Pane Integrale from Lahey's My Bread. Yes, it takes 2 days but is entirely worth it!!I cooked it in a Lodge cast iron pot with lid a la Chad Robertson's Tartine.

Here's how it started out (well this is after it sat out overnight and through the morning and early afternoon on the counter).

Look at those bubbles.

Everyone gets really excited when I make this (me included)!!

Then one night before bed I got a craving to work through some more recipes in HBI5MAD so the next morning I mixed up a batch of Whole Wheat Flaxseed bread dough (using flaxmeal, ground up flax seeds).

After 2-3 hours of sitting on the counter the dough had risen to meet the lid and then collapsed in on itself and it was time to stick it in the fridge (where it still lives until I'm ready to cook with it). That's the beauty of it... it's waiting for me when I need it. I will likely get to it tonight or tomorrow and I'll report back! 

On Sunday Jessi and I spent HOURS cooking in the kitchen together. We made delicious whole wheat cinnamon buns that made for an awesome afternoon snack for the four of us!! Lots of flour, water, and yeast being played with over here in our kitchen and we're having so much fun with it!! And all of this doesn't even include the HUGE success in finally finding a successful chana masala recipe (that I tweaked a bit)... AND cooking three seperate Indian dishes that created the most wonderful, authentically Indian meal for the first time ever! All the other things have, in my opinion, been Indian-style or Indian-inspired (even Madhur Jaffrey's Chana Masala recipe, which, sadly, I didn't like it at all.) I'll have to save the details for another post but Jessica and I are seriously so excited about the results of our Sunday lunch.

Healthy back-to-school lunch ideas list (that promote independence)

Next week the kids start school and this will be the first time that Ryan will be able to eat lunch at school now that he is in school full day as a first grader. Eating lunch at school, in the school cafeteria is something that he's REALLY looking forward to.

To make us both happy I've created a lunch idea list that gives him some choices while reminding him of the importance of making them nutritionally sound. This way we'll both be happy. He'll love that he has such an important job and that he'll get to pick what he can eat. I'll love that this is reminding him that he's an important member of this family (we all have jobs to do to make the house run smoothly), promoting independence, and educatung him on the principles of meal planning and nutrition. Ryan is my wheat and cheese boy... I'm trying to get him to broaden his horizons but need to keep some wheat and cheese things options so he doesn't freak out and has a safety net. Lately he's added quinoa to his approved food list (which he surprisingly LOVED! Who knew?!) and he's regularly been eating refried black and pinto beans but only in smooth form (and I'm okay with that). 

This is a living document... a work-in-progress and is something that I put together in 15-20 minutes while Ryan had a swim lesson earlier today so I imagine that it will evolve and change as other ideas come to mind. For example, I know I didn't list all the possible fruit and veggie options but there are enough and we'll add to it as the need arises. I've made the list so that Jessi can also look at it if she wants to as well as she loves lists and check-lists (so you'll notice vegetarian and non-vegetarian options since she is the former and Ryan is the latter).

Download School Lunch Ideas List (.docx)

Download School Lunch Ideas List (.pdf)

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear what your kids favorites are!

Updated: I've updated the list because there was a formatting issue on one of the items and I've added a couple of suggestions from you. Thank you!! Keep those lunch favorites coming and I'll keep updating it. We love OPTIONS around here! 

 

Silly Guy and Hot Buttered Pretzels

This silly guy can roll a mean pretzel shape (and an R too)!

This photo is a part of August Break. Read more and feel free to join in.

Miss my girl

Today the little girl that asked me to please buy some birdseed and peanut butter so that she could make bird feeders to hang outside less than two weeks ago will go off to camp later today. A little big piece of my heart will go with her.

I look forward to hearing all about the great time that she is having in that first letter home. I'm so happy for her as I know how much she absolutely loves it, and at the same time, I miss her to pieces.

Summer Fun 2011 List

The kids have asked me to do Summer Bingo again and, to be honest, it was a bit more work for ME than I wanted. The kids were only doing things to mark it off and get a bingo instead of doing the things that I want us to do every day (or every week). So I plan on creating a little summertime family rhythm by having us do certain things each day like swim team practice (in the mornings), reading time, and "brain work" (to borrow the term from my friend Tiffany - Hi Tiff!) like logic puzzles, math/analogies/handwriting practice (depending on the child), etc. Then it'll up to us to decide what we want to do with the rest of the day. This is where the list comes in so that I remember all the things that we'd like to do. Is it only me that goes totally blank when trying to think of something fun to do when asked? That's why I LOVE LISTS! 

The kids have given me some of their ideas but they still have more to give me. I plan to go through last year's Summer Bingo list of activities and some of them here. This list is flexible and will evolve as more ideas roll in and others get crossed off (as some already have). I won't have to make bingo cards each week or think of prize ideas and we can simply go with the flow, yet still have plenty of things to do.

Summer Fun 2011 List

Away From Home

 Port Discovery & Science Museum - Baltimore

Torpedo Factory - Alexandria
Local hikes/nature walks
National Arboretum

Botanic Garden
Ida Lee Garden and picnic
Pick veggies/fruit @ farm
Letterboxing/Geocaching

Museums that are new-to-us (Asian Art, Textile, others)

Smithsonian Museum of National History
Smithsonian Museum of Art (West & East)

National Children's Museum http://ncm.museum

Sprinkler park

Other nearby parks

Bowling

Go the movies

Miniature golf

All of Us

Family game night

Family movie night

Minor league baseball game

See a summer concert

Build a sandcastle

Lasertag

Batting cages

At Home

Daily: Journal/Write Stories, Read, Brainwork

Jump rope

Cloud gazing

Dance to music or make up dance routine

Harvest in our garden/plant more seeds

Bike to our favorite Indian restaurant

Basketball out front

Tennis at the courts nearby

Bike to the lake or on the trail

Play in the sprinklers

Lemonade stand

Build a fort

Make an obstacle course

Swing on the hammock

Blow bubbles

Color scavenger hunt http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/holiday-seasonal-crafts/summer-crafts-backyard-activities/backyard-nature-crafts/world-of-color-892796/

Have a picnic in the sunroom

Play board games

Play card games

Go to library

Do a puzzle together

Learn more Italian (or Spanish)

In the Kitchen

Make: fruit leather, hot buttery pretzels, popsicles, ice cream

Different smoothies and find our favorite

Make frosted cupcakes

Make and deliver baked goods to friends, neighbors, family

Make bread

Plan a get-together with friends

Creativity

Create a movie using Flip and iMovie

Paint/draw/sculpt

Paint rocks

Watercolors outside

Try different journal/book bindings

Make and fly paper airplanes

Science experiments

Sewing

Sew bags with sewing machine

Paper Poppies - http://multiplesandmore.blogspot.com/2011/04/crafting-with-kids-mothers-day-art.html

Sun prints

Write music/songs (with guitar or keyboard)

Tape paintings - http://pinterest.com/pin/37465731/

Paint sticks - http://pinterest.com/pin/33044468/

Sidewalk chalk gallery

Design/paint/color/tie-dye t-shirts

Create collaborate work of art on big canvas (maybe with our handprints - a tree??)

 

Snow Day : Art Day

This was one of our days last week when school was closed due to snow, Mike was away at a tropical, all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean without me (for work), and I felt like if we didn't have an art day then I was going to explode, or implode, or some other not-too-good-for-you-ode.

Ryan was excited to get to use my watercolors for the first time.

I was doodling in my notebook and adding watercolors here and there.

Jessi was feeling more in the mood for temperas for a project she is working on (the summer craft sale that she dreamed up last month and has been creating her little heart out to stock the sale with precious homemade items).

 

Ryan's painting:

Some more from my notebook:

Jessi's drip/splatter art that she is using to create some mobiles.

Thank goodness for art days.