I was thinking of making a reward board for a long time, but never got in to it. Until my son fixated on having this expensive talking Buzz Lightyear, I didn’t want to buy it for him obviously. But had to do something to get his mind out of convincing me to buy that. So I made this reward board, and told him if he gets 5 happy faces each week he gets some allowance and then he can save his money and buy that toy himself, because I’m not buying it.

He has to behave and be good to his sister to receive a happy face at the end of the day. I can’t tell you how many times a day we change from happy face to sad face and back to happy face again, but we are more focused on getting the happy face instead of the Buzz Lightyear.

Here is how to make the reward board. Read the rest of this entry »

This recipe is wonderful when you need to make something quickly for those little hungry fellows.  Or when the play date gets to stay for lunch at the last minute.

I make this recipe with all kinds of pasta, even spaghetti, but my favorite type of pasta is Rotini Vegetable pasta. I like this type mostly because it has vegetable powder and is lighter to my taste (less starch) and the shape holds more sauce and cheese. It is also colourful and fun for the kids to enjoy their meal visually.

A few days ago I had to make a quick lunch, both of my kids were starving when we arrived from park. So I came up with this quick recipe the whole process took about 15 minutes which worked for me because both loved it.

Here it is: ( the amount of ingredients are approximate as there was no time to meager )

Direction:  Pre heat oven to 450

Cook pasta as per package. A few minutes before draining the pasta add frozen vegetable to the pot. Drain pasta and vegetables and transfer to an oven safe dish, then mix in the sour cream, salt and pepper, mix well but gently to avoid breaking the pasta. At the end, mix in ½ cup of cheese when well mixed, spread the rest of cheese on top. Place the dish in the oven on the lowest rack for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted but not colored, then quickly change the setting to broil to create that golden color and crispy cheese factor, for about 1 minutes.

Finished, lunch is ready, kids and mom are happy

Bon a petite

If you have a quick recipe for kids or have another version of this dish, feel free to leave your link here.

As I said before, ever since my kids started going to day camp together I’m looking for simple ways to accomplish as much as possible before I have to pick them up.

So here is a list of things that can be done in less than ten minutes:

1.       Load the washer

2.       Clean up breakfast table

3.       Quickly go through my daily budget

4.       Browse this week’s newspaper flier

5.       Make the beds

6.       Put away dirty cloths

7.       Unload the dishwasher

8.       Pick a small area and organize it as best as possible (my biggest challenge)

9.       Keep up with keeping things organized

(It only takes a few minutes if it’s done regularly. So, I’ve been told!!!!! )

10.   Lay out my next post, or maybe come up with another list like this

There you go, I’ve done most of these in ten minutes or less as I have 30 minutes to waste between picking up my daughter and then my son. I’m sure all of you have lists like this, please add your items here. I would love to explore my ten-minute accomplishments and my readers will enjoy that too.

Until later,

Well I chose Tuesdays to post the project I finished just because I have the Weekend and Monday morning free of children for few hours just to tackle some of those projects that I left to do later.

This week was organizing my medicine cabinet (I call it my pharmacy). Here is the before picture.

Yah, that messy!!! I’m not messy in heart but somehow I always have more important things to do. Well last week I decided I want to organize this chaos and on one of the days I had the kids in Summer Camp, went shopping and bought few stackable clear containers which was actually designed for CD. It worked perfectly; here is the after picture, my pride.

I’ve to say I’m quite proud of myself and I managed to keep it the same so far. I’m good in organizing momentarily but keeping it tidy is a challenge which I’m working on. Surprisingly it didn’t take that much of a time either. I thought I had to spend so many hours on this but after the initial buy of the containers, it took me half an hour to go through all the medicine and throw away expired vitamins and organize everything buy category. Now when I need bandage for kids or a pill for my headache I don’t have to go through the things I don’t need I just pick up the proper box. It saves me a lot of time and a lot of nagging if my husband has to get something from there.

I credit the whole idea to the fact that now I have 1.5 hours three days a week to thin and plan in peace. There are no one to interrupt a thought, or an act, or what ever I was doing. The fact that I bought the containers was that I wasn’t running to get out of the store I was actually walking on the aisle and looking at the displays.  Project number one done, next stop is organizing our garage. I have three weeks to do this and then boom back to reality. Do you have organization challenges like me? Share it with us, together we learn more and even challenge each other.

Until Later,

My son is very shy, it takes him a while to get to know other people and get comfortable around them. He’s been kicking and punching a lot, so I thought it’s a good thing to sign him for a Karate class.

We started three weeks ago. The first session he went in the line participated for like ten minutes and came to me with tears in his eyes. I knew he would react like that and was ready for it. So very calmly, I told him that he doesn’t have to force himself, just have to sit and watch what they were doing and whenever he was ready he can go back in.
Well he didn’t go back. Let’s face it I was overwhelmed by the instructors big built and his deep and loud voice.

Last week, second session, was worst. I was sick and daddy had to take him. Son refused to participate and when he did, got in to trouble with another boy. Dad (being a dad and impatient) removed him from the class and brought home. Wonderful now he knows he can skip even watching the class 

Today, he was telling me since morning he doesn’t like to go. I reasoned with him, asked about his feelings towards it. Told him all the positives. Nothing worked. So I bribed him!! I told him if he goes there and participates, he would get to pick up a chocolate from store. I didn’t care how he does, I just wanted him to try.

Well, we got there very soon for him to get comfortable with the area. He resisted even going and playing with some kid he didn’t know. Then suddenly it was all about who runs faster and he believes he is the fastest. He just had to prove it.   Then, when the class started, he came along slowly, but it took him only 10 minutes to get the hold of the class. I have to say I had to remind him twice what was our deal. He did perfectly and he even didn’t complain when he didn’t get to pick up the blue color block 

He admitted he loved it then. What’s not to like, punching, kicking, running. I know I have to work on this next week again.

I hope that won’t get to another bribe. But bribing can be good some times.

Until later,