Lazy morning smoothie

I love breakfast. Typically when you think of breakfast you probably start thinking about bacon, eggs, toast & cereal.
The problem is:
I'm not a huge fan of bacon.

We have a little boy who doesn't care for eggs.  So even though we do have them a few times a week and he just has to eat them when we do, the other days I try to make things I know he would like too.

It's hard to find bread here that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it (or we have to pay a weeks worth of wages to feed our family of 5 organic bread)... So even toast isn't a  very healthy option.  My homemade bread doesn't toast well.

And don't even get me started on cereal! Seriously what is that crap? 
Trust me you don't want to know, but you really need to do your research and find out. Even healthy looking cereal can be deceiving. Don't get me wrong I eat the stuff too on occasion.  But you do not want to make these regular staples in your diet.
The food you put in your body has to do with how you look, yes.  But also how you act, how long you'll live and how well you will live. The food we are eating is causing birth defects, fertility problems, cancer, diabetes and so much more.  Get educated.

* steps down from soap box *

Alright so you came here to learn about this easy smoothie right?
This is a terribly lazy way to make an alright breakfast. We don't normally buy orange juice but we had some leftover from a breakfast my husband served a couple weeks ago. I also try not to buy yogurt.  I like to make my own... Well that's not entirely true, I don't like to make my own... It's just much cheaper & healthier. 
I would call this baby steps to healthy eating.  Because there's so much more you can do with this recipe to make it even healthier.

I used:
Two Momma bear sized handfuls of frozen strawberries
Two scoops of frozen blueberries, because using your hands for these would make a mess.
One frozen banana
About a cup of yogurt
Enough OJ to make it smooth.

And then you just blend it together. The kids and I each had a glass for breakfast and I froze the rest in little mason jars to have as a treat when the man of the house gets home.

Love mason jars, & I love that man.  Do you do anything special for when your guy gets home?  Maybe I'll do a post about that next week.  I'll also do a post about the frozen Gogurt in our freezer, and why we aren't eating it. 

Thoughtful Thursday's

Through our summer homeschooling journey we have started a new tradition called Thoughtful Thursdays.
Last Thursday we went to Chuck E Cheese.  We played and had a wonderful time. In the end we had almost 300 tickets between the four of us. We gave the tickets to someone else, rather than spending it on ourselves.
Our 10 year old girl threw a fit and walked out of there with her head down & tears in her eyes. Surprisingly the 5 year old boy was just fine with giving away the tickets.
Although it was embarrassing to see her upset and it would have been easier to just keep the tickets and let her pick something out, it was a teachable moment and I'm happy with how we handled it.

Folks, consistency is key when you're raising little people.

What I really want to share with you are two snapshots from my children's thankful journals.  It blesses my heart so much to see the things that they are thankful for and I hope that it blesses you too.

Ps.  Our rule with the thankful journals is that spelling and punctuation do not count.  You just need to pour your heart out and thank God for what you have.  That being said... I'm sure number 80 is supposed to say tattoos.  As in temporary tattoos.  The kids love those things!

Week 2 Preparation & Execution.

Sunday night, after the two youngest fell asleep, I was semi-frantically putting together our 2nd week of homeschool.

Thankfully I kind of had a plan already in place (I jot down ideas on my phone when they come to me).  So all I needed to do was pull all the papers into one place and load the work boxes.

When the morning came, I scrambled eggs while the kids worked on their thankful journals.  This worked out well for the girl, but not for the boy.  He needed me to sit with him while he fidgeted with his pen and scribbled a word or two. Smile.  He still needs his momma.

The kids then just worked through their drawers and let me know if they needed help.  

I sat with the boy most of the day.  He was learning new work sheets and needed lots of help.   The rest of the week should go smoother now that he has gotten a sample of what it will be like.

Flag Day

 

This Friday June 14th marks Flag Day. This also happens to be the wedding anniversary of my loving parents.
My father tells a great story about how he fooled my young mother into  thinking he hung flags all around town for their first wedding anniversary. ;)

If you are looking for a song to teach your children about Flag Day try out this fun one we found on YouTube.
Watch "Flag Day Song for Kids (FREE LYRICS BELOW) DidiPop Kids Music" on YouTube

Homeschool- A Public School Teacher's Perspective

I've told you before, I don't have all the answers.  I just typed into Google "homeschool what should I be teaching".  Yes, I really did.
 I can teach my 5 year old just fine, but my almost 5th grader?  I haven't a clue what she is supposed to be learning right now. 
You see, I'm learning too. 
So I stumbled across this article, and it reaffirmed my stance on homeschool. 
Public School Teacher Talks Homeschooling

Okay, like, WOW!  Just as I typed that, my daughter walked into the room and said "I really want to do school.  It sounds like homeschool is fun because you have a lot of really cool activities". 

SWEETNESS!  Now I'm off to find something "cool" for my girl to do! 

PS.  Don't go jumpin' on my back-  This is just one teachers opinion, and I kinda liked it so I thought I'd share.  That's all. ;-)