Class Parent

I had a big decision to make last week... a notice was sent home from Princesses school regarding "Class Parents". The noticed asked whether or not you wanted to be considered for the role of Class Parent... here is peek at my inner dialogue:

Super Mom: Of course you want to be class parent! It will be so much fun, Princess will be so happy, maybe you will get to do some crafty kind of stuff, you can become friends with the teacher and get to find things out first... oh you really want this!
Realistic Mom: Are you NUTS - how will you handle being class parent and working full time... she is in kindergarten, you have 6 more years to do this! Wait until next year!
Super Mom: But if I don't say I want to be class parent this year they might put me on the list of parents who they will never allow to be class parent!
Realistic Mom:  There is no such list - you are being ridiculous...
Super Mom:  I know that list exists! If I don't say I want to be class parent they will think I don't care about my daughter and her class.
Realistic Mom:  Who is they? Why would anyone think that?
Super Mom:  The person/people who decides who gets to be the class parent! And people do think like that!
Realistic Mom:  You should not care what other people think and besides you have a lot on your plate right now.
Super Mom:  I know... you are right, but what if no one wants to be class parent! I do not want the class NOT have a class parent.
Realistic Mom: That is not going to happen...
Super Mom:  Oh I know... because I signed the form and said I would be happy to be class parent. Realistic Mom: Of course you did - for your sake I hope you do not get picked.
Super Mom: Oh same here... Hey, I wonder what will be my first task as class parent will be?

Princess's lunch today: Ham sandwich (cut into flowers), a hard boiled egg (white only), cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges and cookies. She also requested a sun capri (otherwise know as a capri sun).





Preparing for the week

As I told you yesterday I am somewhat obsessed with coming up with ideas for my daughters lunch... and in order to subside some of the stress (I have created for myself) I created a spreadsheet. Some people like to go for a walk to relieve stress, others may lay down with cucumber slices over their eyes... I like to create lists and spreadsheets. They are comforting to me... each item sitting nice and pretty in its own cell and separated by columns... just waiting and ready to be checked off or crossed out. Can't you just feel the stress leaving your brain while thinking about it! (OK I know this may only be the case for some people, but you should try it!)


Saturday morning I created the following table of meals and snacks for the upcoming week:

 

From this table I created my shopping list - I like to organize my list according to the lay out of my supermarket and the different sections within the store...

 

• Produce
• Deli/Prepared Goods
• Meat/Seafood
• Frozen
• Dairy
• Grocery
• Non-Food Items

  

I believe this a fairly common practice for creating grocery lists... I started doing it after I read it in Ina Garten's Back Basics cookbook - I think Ina likes lists too!

We (meaning the whole family - which yes you are correct is totally insane) went food shopping Saturday afternoon. Then Saturday night ADG and I went out to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law - it was a lovely dinner at a greek restaurant followed by a block-party fundraiser where I met my new best friend... the margarita fountain! Rita (that is what I call her) is an electric light-up fountain of margaritas - don't worry I have already put it on my Christmas list! As you can only imagine this new friendship resulted in a slow start for me Sunday morning.

Once my dose of 2 Aleve and a large cup of coffee kicked in I began preparing the beef brisket to go in the slow cooker for 6 hours and then made a double batch of turkey meatballs. Lastly I prepped the chicken breast by cleaning and pounding them a little bit. Last night's dinner was on the table in less than 10 minutes! One day down... 5 more to go! 

 

My evenings this week are pretty booked up - Princess had her 1st gymnastic class on Monday night, Butterball has his gym class tonight(Tuesday), my first PTO meeting is Wednesday and dinner with my girlfriends (don't worry Rita is not attending) Thursday... Friday I planning on going to bed at 6:59pm!

 

 Here are pictures of the lunches I made for yesterday and today:

 



Monday

Tuesday

Kindergarten

So Princess is now officially a Kindergartner!  I am officially a wreck... my head is spinning with all the changes and additional events happening in our lives.  All of these changes are good, and I know things will calm down in a couple of weeks/months (at least I hope they will).  I am struggling with the idea of the kids being in 2 different schools (Butterball at daycare and Princess at the elementary school at the end of my street) - this translates to 2 drop offs and 2 pickups... that's a lot of in and out of the car, buckling and unbuckling of seatbelts, parking, wandering around trying to figure out where to go, etc.  I know I will get the hang of things, but no one likes being the "new girl" in an otherwise known process. 

Now that Princess is in public school we are responsible for providing her lunch... don't misunderstand me we have always been responsible for providing her lunch - I paid the daycare to feed her!  And that process worked out beautifully!  The public school offers lunch and I could buy that too... but Princess is so excited to bring her lunch to school (transaltion - I make the lunch) she can't barely contain herself!  So in true fashion of being me I have become obsessed with her lunch (and snacks).  I wanted the lunches to be balanced, nutritional meals that were also eco-friendly... I like to make things difficult for myself (you might have noticed that about me).

I ordered a bento box set from Laptop Lunches, then spent an entire weekend trying to find a lunch bag that it would fit in (and yes you are correct I should have just purchased the lunch bag from the site as well... but I didn't so just keep your eye rolling to yourself).  I also purchased a thermos (Princess refers to this as a "Heater") so we could send pasta and/or soup for lunch, a water bottle, and yesterday I picked up a separate small insulated bag for her snacks. 

I spent hours searching for lunch menu ideas that would work with the bento box situation, and there are a surprising number sites with photos and ideas for inspiration.  I was starting to feel more confident I could make this work.  To really give myself another level of comfort I created a full listing of Princess's lunches and snacks, as well as our dinners for the week in a lovely comforting spreadsheet... aaahhh who doesn't love a nice neat spreasheet!  I get a warm feeling just thinking about it!

I will share my spreadsheet with you tomorrow, along with what I did to get a head start for the week!  For now I will leave you with a photo of her 1st day of school lunch:

Ham Sandwhich, hard boiled egg, strawberries & bananas, and oreos

I am back....

and I am tan!  Yes I have spray tanned my lovely self and I can honestly say this could become addicting!  Let me clarify - I did not actually spray the tanning stuff on my own body... I had a lovely gal from Beach Bum Tanning do the application.  And yes it is somewhat awkward to stand in front a slim, toned, overly tanned 20 something year old and have her spray you down with tanning solution... all the while trying not to think about what is going through her mind.  I definitely think I provided some potential birth control thoughts... because I (and  many other women who) have had 2 c-sections (and rarely get the appropriate amount of exercise) can instill a fear of a flabby, stretch marked stomach into all those who lays eyes upon it!  Look away - just LOOK AWAY I tell you!

I am off to Philadelphia this weekend for a wedding (hence the need for the spray tan) - thank you to my in-laws (once again) for being our saviors and watching Butterball and Princess! 



taken with the Hipstamatic App on my iPhone



I am seriously considering...

When I find a specific brand of a product - be it food, cleaning supply, beauty item, etc. - that I like I stay true to that brand.  I am loyal.  I am supportive.  I become a champion of that brand and will sing its praises whenever I can catch someones ear... you can often find me in the supermarket telling other shoppers why I think a particular product is superior.  Some people appear to be genuinely interested in my product "review" others just nod and back away slowly. 

There are 2 products that I may have to start (ok I already started) stockpiling...



 Victoria's Low Sodium Marinara Sauce and GE Reveal 60 watt light bulbs - 2 items I wish to not live without........ EVER!

Victoria's Marinara is (in my opinion... which is always correct and is should be shared by many) one of the best jarred marinara sauces found on the shelves of a supermarket.  It is delicious, all natural (only has 7 ingredients and I can pronounce all them!) and not too expensive.  When I can find the coveted Family Size jar - I (really it is ADG) will purchase 3 or 4 at a time.  But now I have sampled the Low Sodium variety and it is even more delicious than the original marinara. There are other brands on the shelves that are delicious and all natural, but most of them are priced too high for me.  You may be thinking gosh if you are that passionate about marinara sauce and all natural...blah, blah, blah... why not make your own.  Well, I will tell you I do make my own marinara on occasion and I have contemplated making/canning a years worth of homemade sauce... but let's face it that takes a lot of effort and if you know me (or read other entries from this blog) I am not one to put too much effort into tasks such as this.  I am fairly certain if I were to go ahead with making/canning my own homemade marinara sauce I would be out a lot money and have nothing to show for it (or feed my family with)... I would have to purchase the jars, the lids thingies, a special pot, special tongs, not to mention store all the sauce once it is in the jars and all the canning equipment.  And since I am not the best at following directions... I would probably end up with 40 or 50 jars of contaminated and/or poisonous marinara sauce.  And that is not a good use of storage space in my mind.  So for now I will continue to maintain my usual 2 to 3 jar supply of Victoria's Marinara sauce in my pantry and keep my eyes peeled the Family Size jars - get taste at and even better savings!

ADG read (in the newspaper - I think... I don't pay very close attention) the other day that "they" are considering outlawing regular light bulbs!  I am not exactly sure who "they" are but I am not happy with them.  I am not a fan of the newer energy saving, corkscrew like bulbs... they are ugly looking and give off the most hideous light!  It is a gross blue light that makes everything look sad and dreary... if you ask me... which I know you did not, but you are reading this sooo you kinda did.  Do not try and fool me with the whole "now they cover the corkscrew thing and it looks just like the old bulbs"... not true! They do not look the same AND they still give off the bluish sad clown light... yuck!
I like the GE Reveal 60 watt light bulbs - they give off a soft clean white light.  People and things look nice in this light.  I am seriously considering buying (many) cases of these particular bulbs to have for my home should "they" actually outlaw them... which I guess means that "they" will no longer sell them at the store... and not be searching peoples homes and arresting them for using non-energy efficient light bulbs.

So if you see me at the Stop n Shop with a cart full of Victoria's Marinara sauce in Family Size jars and GE Reveal 60 watt light bulbs, giving other shoppers my personal reviews of my favorite products just wave and walk on by like I am totally normal... because I am... right?

I am sure other parents have made the same mistake... right?

So the other day I was working on planning some family day trips for this summer and I happened to be on the Sesame Place website.  That was when I noticed something strange... I was sure this Sesame Street character:



was named Margarita. 

Apparently her name is Rosita - Rosita is an upbeat, playful Muppet whose full name, Rosita la Monstrua de las Cuevas, means “the monster of the caves.” Her name may sound scary, but there's nothing dark or frightening about this bright character; she is named that because she is a fruit bat. Rosita loves to play with her friends and help them learn more about Spanish, her native language. She comes from Mexico, and is the first regular bilingual Muppet on the show. Rosita often combines English and Spanish when she speaks, and shows her affection by touching and hugging the person she’s talking to.

I can not be the only parent who thought her name was Margarita... not only do the two names rhyme, but both are from Mexico!  And let's face it Sesame Place would be 10 times more fun if they had Margaritas available instead of (or at least in addition to) Rosita.





Early wake up call!?!?... not exactly!

I mentioned in earlier posts that I had not kept up my hope of waking up early in order to get myself ready before the kids wake up... well today was slightly different.  Butterball awoke at approximately 5:40 am - I know this because I opened one eye to check the clock as I heard him calling for ADG... yeah it is pretty awesome that he ALWAYS call out "DADDY" when he wakes up in the morning, he actually gets pissed when I walk in the room to get him.  So I have basically decided ADG should always be the one to go in (others do not share this opinion)... I prefer to not piss off anyone first thing in the morning (because I am thoughtful that way).  Back to this morning... so it was 5:40am (which is 5 minutes before my alarm* goes off) and after a few minutes ADG rolled out of bed and went to Butterball, a diaper was changed and they both came back into the bedroom and got into bed.  Butterball requested a bah-bah** and to watch Barney.  It was 6 o'clock at that point and I turned on the TV - Butterball drank his milk while ADG snored and I tried to sleep for a few more minutes.  Then I was rudely awakened by an excruciating headbutt to the nose... yeah that's right a 2 year olds rock of a skull slammed into my nose!  I let out a yelp (sort of) and jumped out of bed - which resulted in Butterball bursting into tears!  I never appreciate when a small child crys when they are the one who inflected the pain... yeah I know I startled him with my scream yelp, but really I was the one who should have been crying!  Not the best way to start the day, but thankfully there was very little blood and no swelling... Happy Friday to me!

*My alarm starts to go off at 5:45am, but then I hit the snooze button 3 or 4 times before I actually get out of bed.  I tried setting a second alarm - my cellphone - to go off 20 minutes after the first alarm.  I even put the phone on my dresser which would force me to get out of bed to turn it off... you would think well you are out of bed just head into the bathroom at this point - YOU ARE ALREADY OUT OF BED FOR GOD SAKE!  Yeah... that did not work after the 1st day... honestly I blame day light savings time and the weather.  It is so dark in the morning I swear (everyday) that the clock must be wrong, I actually ponder whether I may have accidentally changed the time on the clock when I turned on the alarm the night before...  I seriously think about that every morning!  It actually happened twice in my life - yes 2 times and I continue to think about it everyday (Monday through Friday... weird how I do not think about it on the weekends... huh?).

** Yes I admit my 2 year old son stills drinks milk from a bottle - one before bed and one first thing in the morning... I know you are "suppose to" discontinue the bottle soon after they turn 1 but I just could not.  I am actually feeling pretty proud of myself for not giving him any bottles during the day (even though he still asks).  We thought we were the last parents to stop sending a bottle to daycare for naptime but now we think one of the kids in his daycare class still drinks formula!  I can't wrap my head around a 2 year old still drinking formula- it is SO expensive!  I stopped buying formula the second Butterball turned 1 - I think I may have even run out a few days shy of his first birthday and did not buy anymore.  So we are still working on the whole bottle thing - it is comforting for everyone involved... it soothes Butterball and I hate to say it, but it gives me a few minutes of quiet as well.  I am sure we will be weaned off the bottle soon, but for now I am good with just the 2 a day... don't judge me (out loud anyway)... I generally keep my judgements to myself... unless you count this blog where I tell it all... whatever!