Library Lesson

I swear, I could come up with a lesson for about anything. :)

Tomorrow, we are having a lesson on the library.  We are at the library EVERY SINGLE week and my kids know where everything they need is located, but do they really know how a library is set up?? I'm speaking of the Dewey Decimal System.  Now if my kids were in public school, they would probably have gotten this lesson by now, but they're not, so it's up to me to teach them. :)

 

Until now, I probably would not have thought about teaching them this. They know how to get on the library website and look up books, but what if they need to write a research report on something and they do not know where the book is located in the library??  They know where the nonfiction section is and they could find a book according to the call number, but I don't think they know that they are actually classified in a certain way.

For the next four weeks, Megan has to write a research paper on her state.  I'm going to count this as Nebraska history. :)  And because I don't want her getting all her research off the Internet, I am going to make her check books out from the library. I also don't want to just show her where the Nebraska history books are located and pick them out for her. I want her to learn how to find them on the computer and how the nonfiction books are categorized on the shelves. 

I have a couple worksheets we are going to work through tomorrow and then I copied off some charts of how the Dewey Decimal system is arranged. I think we just talk about it a little bit and then head to the library and really see it and look at the shelves more closely.

By the way, do you think it is important that I teach my kids about card catalogues?? We will probably never go back to them as a society, so is there a need to discuss them?? Do they just need to be aware of them??

Something new for breakfast!

I tried this recipe this morning for breakfast. I am determined to get everybody off of cereal...everyone except Matt, he can eat what he wants. :)

http://www.satisfyingeats.com/uncategorized/frosted-corn-flakes-cereal/

I got up early, put it together, and put it in the oven while the kids sat in front of the TV. It smelled wonderful, but when the kids tasted it, I got, "Yuk! This is gross." I liked it though! I think I am kind of losing my sweet tooth...

Unfortunately, they ended up with a bowl of cereal because I didn't have another option. I think I am going to try again tomorrow to see if they like it again.

Breakfast is the hardest meal to find something without grains or sugar and I don't want to eat eggs everyday (remember, just got back from being off eggs for two years!). If you have any good options, let me know!!

Nutrition Lesson!

Since I have been trying to cut out sugar and eat not as many carbs these last couple of weeks, I have decided to restrict my kids on some of those foods too.  The problem is that I didn't pay much attention to nutrition before this and I find myself telling my kids that they can't eat as many starches or carbs and they respond with, "What is a starch?? What is a carb??" They do know what sugar is though!!

To counter this, we are going to have a nutrition lesson at our house THIS MORNING!

Our first step is to learn about the different food groups! I am going to take (how many food groups are there exactly??) 11 X 14 sheets of construction paper and label each one with a different food group. Then, as a group, we are going to draw/ write the different foods on them.  I might split up vegetables and fruits though. I also want to know what they get from each of these food groups, so we are going to write down what minerals and vitamins we get too. I thought this website would be helpful for that.

http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=284&id=1443#2

We are also going to use this site if we need to come up with more ideas.

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/

Difference between a vegetable and a fruit:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/difference-between-fruit-and-vegetable.html

I am having trouble in one certain area.  My doctor told me to not eat so many grains, starches, rice, flour, etc, but on everything I see, it is saying to eat equal amount or more of grains to everything else.  She also told me that we need fat (good fat), but that isn't even on any chart!  She told me to buy a certain kind of milk because it had more fat in it!  I was also supposed to up my protein and fiber, and that is again not emphasized. I may need to call her or make a chart of my own!

Honestly, we are probably only going to get one or two food groups done today, so this will be an on-going lesson.

I have also decided that this will take place of our Bible lesson time for the week, I am going to name it "Food that God Provides For Us!" We are at a good stopping point in our Bible curriculum and we won't get through the next unit within the next month, so I was looking for something anyway to fill in the gap until the end of the school year. :)  We will only spend about a week on this and then I will have to find something else to finish the next couple of weeks!

Winner, winner!!

When I was at the store last Thursday, I took some of the new food suggestions my doctor gave me and purchased a few new items.  These included a zucchini and a cucumber.  I have never bought these and honestly, the last time I tried a cucumber, I didn't really like it and I don't think I have ever had a zucchini!

Last night, I cut both of them up and offered them to the family. Guess what? They were both gone by the end of our meal!! They all loved them! I did too! Winner!!

This morning I told myself that my children were not going to eat cereal breakfast and I knew that I had to beat them to the kitchen before they hit the cereal so I could stop them. :)  I got downstairs first and pulled out a gluten free cookbook and started looking for something to make. I found a recipe for waffles and it called for eggs, milk, yogurt, and gluten free flour. I can have all of these now!! I made them and they were gone instantly! I made a gluten-free four batch and a gluten-filled batch (I used wheat flour). These are definitely a keeper!

Another food item we had for the first time this week was pistachios.  I had bought these awhile ago, but didn't what they tasted like or how you were supposed to eat them, so they just sat in the cupboard.  I pulled them out the other day and asked Matt if he knew how to eat them or what they tasted like. He said, "You have pistachios? Those are soooo good. All you do is take off the shell and eat the inside." Needless to say, that bag is almost gone too!

Did I ever mention that I made pizza for the first time last Monday night? It had a crust made out of rice flour and tapioca starch and it had eggs and rice in it. The kids also loved it, except for Courtney.  Unfortunately, I could not put cheese on mine, but it was still good! I bought some feta cheese at the store Thursday, so we will try that here shortly and see how that goes.

I wonder what I can come up with for lunch!

Fix the doorbell!!

Our doorbell has been broken for awhile. Well, broken on purpose. We were having trouble with "somebody" ringing our doorbell at 1-2 am, so Matt rigged it into his computer and he made it so the doorbell would only ring between 8 am and 10 pm.  This worked for awhile until he got a new computer or a new server, or something! Since then, our doorbell is no longer hooked up through the computer and it does not work at all!

Oftentimes, we don't know there is anybody at our door. This has been great at times (solicitors), but not so great at others.  Usually when we know somebody is coming, we open the door and watch for them!

Yesterday was a day when it would've been nice to have the doorbell working! In the past, we have received May Day  baskets, but we hadn't in a couple of years, so I didn't even think about it. One person delivered them in person and we knew they were coming (Thanks Holly!! Super cute!), but last night, Matt stepped out the front door and stepped right into a cup of popcorn! He said he spilled it all over! Along with the cup of popcorn, there was a different cup filled with more popcorn and candy PLUS three more paper baskets with chocolate chip cookies!! And he didn't go outside until 8 pm!

We had three different people deliver us May Day baskets and we didn't know about any of them because our doorbell doesn't work!!! How long would it had taken us to discover them if Matt hadn't went out the front door last night??

And of course, Matt said last night after this happened, "I should really fix the doorbell!" I can't tell you how many times I have heard this!

Today he was talking about it again and Christian said, "Does the doorbell need new batteries?? That will fix it!"

Grocery Shopping

Today I went and got groceries for the first time since I had to change what I eat! It is frustrating because I had everything figured out already;I knew exactly what I could buy and I didn't have to read labels anymore.  Until today!!! I felt like I had to start completely over!!!

We were in the store for about an hour and Megan looked at the few items in my cart and said, "We have been here almost an hour and we only have these groceries!" I think she was getting frustrated at me, I got the last few items on my list and we left. Poor thing!

I was told yesterday that I still eat too many starches and I need to incorporate more good fats and protein into my diet! I have got the sugar completely out and even everything made with vinegar.  I think that is a good start! My doctor gave me quite a few ideas about what to eat for "good" fats and proteins and gave me a limit of only eating one starch food item a day. I think that is a great goal!

I also mentioned that I would like to get the kids tested and put them all on sugar restriction too! I was telling her about Courtney and how she loves her sugar and block cheese.  My doctor replied, "By what you are telling me, I almost guarantee that she has a yeast problem too!"  As I look at what the kids are eating, I tend to agree with her. Yeast came up on both Courtney's and Christian's tests, but like mine, the doctor didn't seem too worried and I just took away yeast from bread baked items. I had NO IDEA that there was so much more involved, like all the sugar and starches! I think I am going to work gradually to get them to eat what I do, it would sure make life easier (or harder!)

I told them the other day that as soon as our cereal is gone, I wasn't going to buy anymore and their jaws dropped. "You can't do that!" I responded with, "Yes, I can. You guys need to eat something besides sugar for breakfast." But that's the problem, what else can we eat quickly in the morning?? I am constantly looking for something for breakfast that does not include sugar and starches.  I need to keep going through cookbooks!

I was also told I need to rotate my food more. I try, but it doesn't always work out so well. I just need to get enough food options that I can rotate every four days.  This is such a lot of work, but I know it will work in the end!!

What IS your name??

Tonight at supper we were talking about names and Megan said, "Christian, what is daddy's name?"

He replied, "Matt!"

Matt said, "What is mommy's name?"

Christian looked at me with this questionable look and said, "What IS your name??"

Apparently we never use my first name around the house because he had NO clue what my name was!! I can't decide if that's kind of sad or if that makes me happy!

(As I was writing this, I asked him again what my name was and he responded, "MOMMY!")