Green Chef Delievery Review

I finally decided to try and home delivery meal service. The first one I am trying is Green Chef. The food is 100% organic, delivered right to your door, and mostly already prepped for you. All you have to do is follow the simple recipes and dinner is ready! Overall, we really enjoyed this past week's box of dinners. I love that it's all fresh and the simplicity of it all. Even though it still takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare. It would take longer if everything wasn't already ready and prepared for you. They truly are gourmet meals. We are doing the two servings and add extra sides or meat for the kids. The main con of this is the price. We got a promotional price of $9 for three organic dinners this week. After this week it will cost $82 per week for three meals. It's not the most economical but about the same or a little cheaper than going out to eat. Also it's all organic so I know we're not getting all of the GMOs and pesticides in the food.

I think we'll try this for a month or so and see if we continue to like it. I love not having to think about three dinners each week.

Here's what we made this past weekend.

Thursday: Summer Vegetables Soup with Lemon-Basil Pistou

Friday: Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Skewers, Roasted Carrots and Potatoes (rather than peppers), and Baked Beans

Saturday: Spice-Crusted Steak and Tabbouleh

Here's what the box looked and how it was packaged. It comes with freezer packs so you don't have to be home when it's delivered. 

Thursday: Summer Vegetables Soup with Lemon-Basil Pistou

Friday: Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Skewers, Roasted Carrots and Potatoes (rather than peppers), and Baked Beans

Caden loved helping make the skewers!

Here's how it came

I added organic carrots and potatoes (forgot to take a picture of the potatoes and added extra sausage)

Saturday: Spice-Crusted Steak and Tabbouleh 

This was our favorite!

30.5 Weeks!

Monday I had my  regular 2 week check-up. I'm now going every two weeks and will continue until the baby is born. Our son looks great! He's going to be a big boy! At 31 weeks he weighs 4 lbs, 5 oz. Thankfully, my fluid looks great and he does too. We finally got to see his cute face! My doctor advised me to limit my carbs and sugar. I failed the first glucose test by 2 points. They checked my blood sugar and it was normal and we decided not to go ahead with the 3 hour test. I didn't want to take it as I almost passed out from it when I took it in Germany. That was the only option there. I told her I'd do my best. 

Baby boy was measuring 10 days early and based on his size, my new due date would be August 16th rather than August 26th. My doctor said if I made it to my normal due date we'd be looking at a 9 lb baby. I'm having flash backs to being pregnant with Blue Rock. He came on his own 9 days early and was a good 8 lbs. Ultimately, I just want to be healthy and have a healthy baby. 

How far along? 31 weeks tomorrow

Baby’s size? As of Monday, at 30.5 weeks, he weighed 4 lbs, 5 oz!

Total weight gain/loss: I have gained 24 lbs!

Maternity clothes? Absolutely! There's no turning back until the baby is born right now!

Stretch marks? No new ones for this pregnancy. Although I'm 2 lbs away from my pregnancy weight when I gave birth to Caden 6 years ago.

Sleep: I wake up to pee about once, sometimes twice. Gracie is sleeping in her room and usually sleeps until 6:30am. So if I go to bed before 11, I get about 7 hours.

Best moment this week: Seeing my baby's sweet face in the sonogram for the first time!
 
Miss Anything? Sleep and feeling better. 

Movement: He moves constantly.

Food cravings: Fruit and ice cream.

Anything making you queasy or sick: No.

Gender: Boy!!

Labor Signs: I've started having some contractions.

Symptoms: Fatigue, big belly, baby movements, and early contractions.

Belly Button in or out? In but will poke out if I cough or laugh.

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and blessed!

Looking forward to: Meeting my son.

Please pray for: A healthy baby and mama!

Easy Cloud Dough

We are getting some nice rain again this week. Today we decided to make cloud dough. It was so easy and super fun. It's a lot like moon dough but without the funky smell. All you need is 4 cups of flour and half a cup of baby oil (or you can use vegetable oil). We mixed it in a gallon sized bag to keep the flour contained then put it in a big container to play with. The kids had fun playing with it. Although Princess ended up wanting to take handfuls of it and drop it on the ground. Blue Rock enjoyed making cloud balls and other fun things. It was a nice sensory activity. I used lavender baby oil so our cloud dough smelled extra nice. 

Pickling Cucumbers!

We have gotten a lot of rain this year and our garden is loving it! This past weekend my husband and Blue Rock harvested lots of cucumbers from our garden. We're hoping to make pickles with them. 

A yellow cucumber! It got a little too ripe!

Both Front Teeth are Out!!

A week ago Blue Rock lost one of his front top teeth. A few days later he was able to pull the other one out. He looks pretty stinkin' cute! Since it's not Christmas time but his birthday is right around the corner, I find it only fitting for him to sing, "All I want for my birthday is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, see my two front teeth..." The Tooth Fairy was generous and apparently loves the top front teeth because she/he gave $5 per front tooth. We're not sure if the Tooth Fairy is a man or a lady. What a cool way to finish up his kindergarten year. 

Good Behavior Jar

The longer I'm a parent the more I'm realizing I learn toward the attachment/peaceful parenting way of parenting. I want to have open and honest relationships with my children. I want them to know I love them and teach them to have respect for themselves and others. I don't want to have to resort to harsh words or spankings to get them to do what I want. I want them to learn and make the right decisions on their own. Obviously we give consequences when needed but overall we want to raise our kids in a very positive environment. 

Thanks to Pinterest I came up with the Good Behavior Jar. Although the post I saw the person's child was saving up for something. We have an allowance system in place but there are a few behavior issues with Blue Rock that we're having to really work with. Some of them are: listening, following directions right away, not interrupting, having a good attitude, and staying seated while eating. He's a very caring and thoughtful boy. But he's also very energetic. It's hard for him to sit still. He truly has to work at it. Many kids sitting still comes easily. Not our boy! Also if he's really focused on something he might not hear us. So we're working on listening to mom and dad. 

Okay, so here's our Good Behavior Jar and how it works. I had him think of three things he wants to do. When he displays good behavior he gets a pom pom. Also he gets a pom pom at the end of the day if he completes all of his chores. I wanted some goals to come easily so he sees success. He's someone who takes compliments really well and when he's doing well, tends to continue doing really well. He came up with these three things: See an IMAX, Have a Friend Over, and Go to Chuck E Cheese or Peter Piper's Pizza. He'll probably earn the IMAX this weekend, possibly have a friend over next week, and in another week we'll take him out for pizza and games.Once we fill the jar up, we'll think of three more things and start over again. Eventually we might just have one or two things listed. But for now we want to make sure he knows how much we appreciate his good behavior. When Princess is older we'll have one for her too. 

Blue Rock is loving the Good Behavior Jar! He's told me I'm the best mom recently and he likes all of these new things we're doing. I feel like I have not always noticed all that he truly does since Princess was born since she takes up so much of my time. I really want to make a conscience effort to notice the positives he does and let him know I'm noticing them. He responds very well to this kind of thing. 

Folder Chore Chart with Allowance

Trying to figure out a good solution for getting your child to do chores can be tough. I bought Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Junior a few years ago and although I liked it, I didn't think my son was really ready to save money. He knew what different coins were but I'm not sure he understood exactly what their value meant. Now that he's almost 6, he gets it. He's also getting to an age where I'd like him to save and buy his own things. He has also started asking to earn money. So now I'm confident he's ready to earn an allowance. 

When he was 4 we tried Accountability Kids. While their system is neat, it consisted of too many things. So for my chore chart, I decided to focus on what I wanted him to improve upon and that he struggles with. I also included something I struggle with, making my bed, which I'm now doing along with him. Things that are expected of him are not tied to getting paid. These things are: bring your dishes to the sink after eating, helping set the table, putting dirty clothes in the right dirty clothes bin, brushing your teeth, etc. 

These are the chores I chose for him.

- Make Bed

- Pick up toys (this includes things his sister got out, although we'll have her help)

- Pick up crafts (he's very creative and will make things with paper and other items and they will spread all over the house)

- Read a book (this is the only educational thing I've added. He needs to read to us anyway but I thought I'd add it because in life, the more you learn, the more you are likely to be able to earn)

- Vacuum kitchen floor (this is done after meals or snacks)

The chore chart I made was basically free. There is no reason to spend a lot of money on a chore system. I used a folder I got with information from a private school we looked at and used an envelope I had on hand. I typed up some chores on my computer, cut them out, and taped them inside the folder. Then I added $1 per day. He has the same chores Monday-Saturday. I made it where I can change the chores up from time to time but for now I want these chores to become a habit. I also didn't want to overwhelm him with chores and wanted him to succeed. At the end of the week we'll divide the money into three categories: give, save, and spend. He'll put $1 in give, $2 in save, and $3 in spend. I'm thinking after he saves some we'll go down to our bank and open a free kids checking account for him. If he wants to save more or give more he's welcome to. At first someone said that $24 is a lot for a 6 year old to earn each month. Well, really, he's only earning about $12 to spend. With today's prices $12 won't get you much. But he also gets money for losing teeth and can make more for helping out with bigger chores. Also birthdays and Christmas he gets money. At the end of the day, we go over his chores and if he completed everything, he gets a $1. There's an envelope on the other side of the folder for him to put the money at the end of the day. 

We are finishing up our first week of our new chore system and we are all loving it. In the morning he'll quickly pick up and do some chores and ask for a $1. I tell him at the end of the day because some of the chores he'll have to do a few times a day. Which brings me to another thing we started which we call The Good Behavior Jar. 

How to Make Slime

I have wanted to make slime with my kids for a while now.  To make sure we made some, I included it as one of the activities in our Fun Jar. Low and behold, it was the first stick my son picked. If you have 5 minutes, you can make this! Allow plenty of time for your child to play with it.

Making slime was really easy and doesn't take very long. Blue Rock made it, I just supervised. He thought it was really neat. And yes, when you first mix it, your hands will turn the color of the food coloring. However, once it's all mixed well we noticed the color no longer stuck to our hands. 

Easy Slime Recipe

Here's what you need:

2 bowls, water, glue, food coloring, and borax

1st bowl mix:
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of glue
several drops of food coloring

2nd bowl mix: (I just used a Pyrex Measuring Cup)
1/2 cup of warm water
1/2 tsp borax

Once both bowls are mixed well, add the 2nd bowl mix to the first. I had Blue Rock use a wooden stick to stir everything. Mix well then use your hands. You can drain some of the extra water if you want. The mixture will all stick together and create slime. Princess even had fun playing with it. Just be careful not to let your child put it in their mouth because of the borax and glue. When done, store in a plastic bag.

Summer Fun Jar

I was inspired by this project from something I saw on Pinterest a while back. Since we homeschool year-around but are not as formal in the summer, I like to keep educational things and ideas on hand to do with the kids. If you know me, I really limit television in our house and agree with American Pediatrics that children under 2 should not watch any television. My children get a lot of free play and I love watching them use their imagination. They also, however, enjoy doing fun projects and things with me and their dad. Most of these activities will be easy for Blue Rock to do but we can include Princess in most of them. 

 I'm going to call this project a Fun Jar which is filled with lots fun activities to do with the kids over the summer. I created three categories: (1) Things to Make, (2) Energy Buster, and (3) Quiet Time. Depending on what is planned for the day or my mood, I'll have Blue Rock or Princess pick a colored stick. Then we'll do the activity. Some of the Energy Buster ones I won't be able to do while pregnant like ride a bike or jump on the trampoline, so their Dad can do that with them. Also due to my own limited energy, I didn't create as many energy busters as I normally would. All of the Things to Make and Quiet Time activities are things we have supplies for and can do at anytime. I want to make sure we do everything at least once. Obviously we will go swimming more than one time but I still wanted to include that stick. This morning we did our first activity which was Make Slime.   

All I used for this project was craft sticks, washi tape, permanent marker, and a jar.

This is what is listed on all of the sticks.

Quiet Time:
Play a Board Game
Q-Tip Painting
Build a Marble Maze
Make a book
Googly Eye Drawings
Play with blocks
Crayon Etching
Watch a Movie
Read a Book
Play with Legos
Play with Trains
Play a learning app

Things to Make:

Make Slime
Cloud Dough
Make Chalk Paint
Ivory Soap Clouds
Build with recyclables 
Make a Puzzle
Make Play Dough
Make Smoothies
Make Popsicles
Do a science experiment
Bake Cookies
Build with Marshmallow toothpicks
Make Popsicle Stick Puppets

Energy Busters:
Make a mini golf course
Jump on the trampoline
Build an obstacle course
Go Swimming
Ride Bikes
Jump on the Pogo Stick
Go on a walk

How to Make Your Own Crayon Etching Page

I wrote previously about buying some homeschool bundle books, which by the way, these books are awesome even if you don't homeschool. I got this idea from another book called Hands-On Art Activities by Marcia K. Washburn. I was able to easily transfer all of the e-books that I wanted to my Kindle and can access them on my Kindle, phone, or computer.

For our first art project from this book we did Crayon Etching. I gave us each a white piece of copy paper. We colored a shape with different bright colors. Then we covered the shape with a thick coat of black crayon. You have to completely cover the layer underneath. Last we took a pencil and drew a picture or wrote a name, we even played tic-tac-toe. The colors came through the black layer, revealing the colors beneath. Blue Rock loved it! We found that lighter colors worked best such as yellow, pink, and light green.

We talked about the neat color of surprises hiding under the black crayon. Then we talked about how even on the toughest days, God can still bring blessings to our lives. Romans 8:28 (NIV): ^"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."