Meal Planning Monday

So here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday - Spaghetti Bolognese - nice and easy as the boys are butters after they finish preschool.

Tuesday - Fish curry - thermomix recipe

Wednesday - Homemade Tuna fishcakes and salad

Thursday - Sweet and Sour chicken - Hairy dieters recipe

Friday - Steak, some type of potato and veg

Saturday - Homemade pizza night

Sunday - BBQ

We'll also be making a frittata for lunch and some sort of cake/flapjack.


Yum!

L x

This weeks HomeEd set up

I finally pulled my finger out and rearranged the activity shelves for Ethan as well as putting out Butterfly Lifecycle corner together. The boys have been attending our local Montessori Preschool but they finish on Friday. Nathan will be turning 5 in August and will be the official school age and Ethan, well he just doesn't want to go anymore and would rather have fun being out and doing things.

With this all in mind I need to make sure we have plenty to do at home. Here are our shelves at the moment.

Transferring activity

Colour sorting and fine motor grip

Lacing card

Transferring, control of pestle and mortar and will smell amazing!

We have also been observing our caterpillars as they have rapidly grown and are now in their Chrysalides. With this is mind I set up a nature/science corner with a few activities.

A selection of fiction and non fiction books, the butterfly garden which we will transfer the chrysalides into tomorrow and their magnifying glasses.

Here we have the Butterfly Life Cycle cards and booklet purchased from here and also a Spielgaben nature card which helps with control of error.

We'll see how this week goes but with their daddy away working I've made sure we're pretty busy going out and seeing friends so it may be that these activities last longer than a week. Once these butterflies hatch out we're going on a new caterpillar hunt to start all over again.

Heres looking forward to an amazing week.

L x

Ethan turns 3!

Wow what a busy week. Our days seem to merge into weeks and before you know it we're halfway through summer!

This week saw our littlest boy turn 3. He's such a beautiful person, so kind and caring but also a little tornado as well full of energy and mischief.

This year has seen us have terrible financial strains due to all of our predicted work contracts being pushed back until the end of the year. This has meant us living off of our savings which have just about run out. Luckily it is now picking up and there is light at the end of the tunnel. It did however make us re-evaluate how we have been with money the last few years. Pretty frivolous. 

For Ethans birthday I had to look hard at what he would like, shop around and keep it to a minimum. He received his bike, this was in the sale and a fantastic price, a couple of Peppa Pig books and puzzles and the blanket that I had made for him. Do you know what? He was ecstatic and it was the best birthday/christmas celebration we have had. Nathans birthday is a couple of weeks away and the same will happen for him. If I'm honest I've always over bought because I thought more was better. How wrong I was. I can't wait for Christmas this year because instead of scrabbling to buy them loads of stuff they don't want I'm going with:

Something they want

Something they need

Something to wear

Something to read

One more thing to please

I've also reduced the amount I spend on my food bill by at least half if not more. That used to be outrageous, as was our wasted food. I will be meal planning every week, and even once our work balance is back to normal and we have managed to get out of the debt that has unfortunately built up around us we'll never go back to how we were. Do you know why? Because we're happier. We've had more fun and been more appreciative of everything we have.

I hope you've had a great weekend.

L x