Beginnings

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My girls started 4 yr old preschool on Monday. This was a big step for our household. We are entering our the school system! This is still really hard for me I think. These are my babies! Can they really be ready for school? Is this going to be good for Sofie? Is Livi going to feel too much pressure and responsibility? Will they both be successful and make good friends?

So far, both girls are loving it. Livi is excited for the projects she gets to do at school and is very excited for her turn at show and tell in a few weeks. Sofie excitedly runs in to the classroom and plops herself down at one of the activity tables exploring the activity. I kind of think I’m imaging it but I think I’m seeing Sofie develop already! She seems to be responding more to questions and talking way more! After just a week? I kind of feel like she is just a walking miracle sometimes.

I’m pretty happy with this school so far. They seem to be doing a lot of different activities that are challenging each of my girls. There is so much more parent involvement here too, which I love. The preschool that Livi went too for a few months last year is not even comparable to this school. This is so much better for my girls. Sofie’s TA seems to be pretty in tuned for Sofie too!

Livi is watching out for her sister, as I expected, but I think staying close for her own feelings of security too. It’s not all for watching out just for Sofie’s sake. This week she has started out playing with Sofie for a few minutes before going off on her own, but for each circle time she always finds Sofie to sit beside her. I think it is interesting that she searches for Sofie during transition times. She loves her sister and I love that Sofie is a comfort for her 🙂 She will figure it out though, make friends and feel confident in her new surroundings.

What am I going to do with those 2.5 hours, three times a week? Well, for the first few months, I’ll be trying to nap! And after the baby comes… well, I’ll still probably be trying to nap!

This month also started our extra curriculars! Gymnastics is something we’ve all been looking forward too. Sofie is in the parent and tot class right before Livi’s class. Sofie did A.MAZE.ING! By the second week she blew me away. She ran with all the kids for the warm up game, did most of the stretches, and walked on the balance beams with just holding my hands! I was so impressed. Livi, unfortunately didn’t get to enjoy her first class. She had an EPIC meltdown just as class was starting. I felt so bad for her but we had to stick to the consequence. She was removed from the situation kicking and screaming. It was terrible. I think her melt down was caused by numerous things… too excited for gymnastics to sleep well, she had to wait an hour through Sofie’s class first, and then she wanted to go on the slide, which is reserved for after class. Cue epic meltdown to proportions we have never seen. The following week was much better though 🙂 She did great, waited patiently and got put in the group with 5 year olds! I was proud of her 🙂

Music class starts next week. We went to a demo class today. Sofie loved it as usual, even though there is a new teacher. It will be different but I think Sofie will flourish! She jumped in singing with two feet! This class is so great for Sofie and excellent for her speech development.

This is going to be a busy fall with preschool, gymnastics, music, a speech development class I’m taking to help Sofie, and all the doctor appointments for the pregnancy and a few for Sofie. Wish us luck!

Meal Planning Week 2

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If you are interested Week 1 is posted HERE.

Week 2 has been going great too!

Wednesday was a left over day so I didn’t have to cook!

Thursday Jon wasn’t home… He ended up going out for dinner with a friend. Us girls stayed home and baked some cookies to serve some guests coming the next day and ate Brown Rice Past Spaghetti with Mushroom sauce. I had bought prepared sauce and added some shitake mushrooms that I fried in some margarine. It was a bit of a treat dinner for me 🙂 Livi doesn’t like mushrooms though.

Friday we spent $39 on Vereniki, drinks and rolkuken at the MCC Fair. That is traditional Mennonite food that is SERIOUSLY delicious.

Saturday we invited ourselves over to Jon’s mom and got dinner out of the deal!

Sunday, since I work a few hours on Sundays, Jon gets to cook. He chose the Black Bean Skillet from my list of meals posted on the fridge. It is another family favorite, vegetarian and filled with protein! He made a double batch so he has two left over lunches in the fridge and two in the freezer!

Monday we ate a broccoli, cheese and rice bake that I thought was okay but no one else did. I may need to alter the recipe if I want to serve it again.

Tuesday we had we had butter garlic shrimp pasta. Another family favorite that we haven’t been able to eat because my pregnancy hasn’t allowed fish in the house until now.

I made it through the first two weeks and I have food left over for a few more meals! I’ve still only spent the $149… although we were skimping on the milk consumption for the last two days. Time to go grocery shopping!

Meal Planning Week 1

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Over this summer, with me feeling TERRIBLE because of this pregnancy and the move, I have been pretty my the worst home maker ever. My house was never clean, unless people were coming over, and I didn’t make a meal that took more than 6 minutes of prep. We spent SO much money on groceries and eating out this summer… I’m not even going to write how much we actually spent because it is just embarrassing. 
From what I can gather from the 5 or 10 minutes I spent on Google trying to research, I found that the average family of 4 last year in the States, two adults and two young kids, spends between $500 and $1200 on groceries per month. Since the dollar is basically on par and our eating habits are so similar to the States in Canada, I’m going with these numbers. According to last years USDA Food Plans I should be spending $537.90 for a thrifty plan and $1045.70 for a liberal plan. 
My budget on the app on my phone has been set to $500 for groceries since I started budgeting. I have made that budget in the past… not this summer. I think we can cut that number down though too with meal planning and learning sales. I don’t know how to sale shop at all yet. That is step two. Meal planning is step one. When I meal plan, I generally make my budget. I have never actually crazy, low-cost meal planned before though. I decided that September was a good start off point! 
So, last week I made a plan for 13 meals, mostly low-cost and all easy! I chose to do a 2 week plan because I just don’t have the time or energy to go shopping weekly. I printed out all the meals with recipes and directions if needed and posted them on my fridge. I went shopping and spent $149. I stuck to the list pretty closely but did pick up a few easy quick meals and snacks… like a frozen lasagna, some chips and sherbert.
I was a little unsure of how much of some things to buy. For example I have no idea how much milk we go through in a 2 week people or how much sour cream we would need for tacos and quesdillas. I figure I might need to get Jon to grab a few things on his way home from work once or twice in the next 2 weeks.
Wednesday I made two Chicken Cauliflower casseroles. One for that night and one for the freezer. We eat it over rice that I have a bunch of. Delicious! Not the cheapest meal but I had cauliflower that needed to be used and a flat of mushroom soup on hand.
Thursday I made Sweet Potatoe Quesidillas. This is also a meal that I had all the supplies from previous shops. Tortillas were in the freezer and the sweet potatoes had to be used.
On Friday I had a whole fryer chicken in the freezer that needed to be used so I made a herb roasted chicken that had been marinating since the night before in the slow cooker over potatoes and carrots. I whole chicken’s are pretty cheap to buy.
Saturday was a leftover day! No cooking!
Sunday we had an easy meal day… Jon was cooking 🙂 He chose Chicken Salad Wraps. It was made with canned chicken which I was hesitant about but it was really cheap. I gave it a shot and it was really yummy! The kids even liked it 🙂
Monday I made another family favourite, Black Bean and Beef Taco Salad. Super easy and yummy! At the same time I did all the prep for two simple Shepherds Pies, everything but the potatoes. I froze one and left one in the fridge for Jon to finish for Tuesday when I wasn’t going to be home most of the day.
Tuesday, today, Jon finished the potatoes for the Shepherd’s Pie!
Tomorrow is going to be another leftover meal day! No cooking!
So far, week one of meal planning is right on target! I have another week to go to see if these meals and groceries last us. Friday is the MCC Fair that we usually go out for a Vereniki dinner for, so that will be our one big eat out meal in the two week period!
I’m excited about this plan and can actually see it working, as long as I am diligent! But could I actually cut our groceries to under $300 a month! I’m going to just go along with this meal planning until I feel really on top of it before I start sale following and possibly even couponing! My boss needs to teach me about couponing… her last two weekly shopping trips cost her $0.19 and $0.25. How the heck did she do that!??!