A month of thanks: 2

Today I am thankful for pizza. Because without it I would have had to cook dinner tonight, and nobody wanted that. No really.

A month of thanks

I have given myself the assignment to post something I am thankful for every day this month. I have been kind of down lately, and maybe if I do this I can refocus.

Today I am thankful for coming out unscathed from the horrid weather this year.

Reading love

I love books. As a child I read obsessively. I would have just about always rather be reading then playing with other kids. It took until I was a teenager to find other people who loved reading as much as I did. I fell in love with my husband as soon as I saw his bookshelf. I had read at least a quarter of the books he owned, and wanted to read most of the rest (which I am still working on all these years later).

It is a bit beyond comprehension for me to think that there are houses without books. Our shelves overflow. No really, I have two big boxes in the hallway that are incoming, and a box of stuff we are purging. Oh! That reminds me, I need to bring a load to the library.

I expect my children to love books as much as I do. When Little Bear was caught staying up all night reading on a school night, I was torn. Do I go give him a big hug and tell him how much I understand, or do I force him to put it down and sleep? Indy is just getting bitten by the reading bug. Things are finally starting to click for her. She does not have the all out self motivation yet, but I am sure that will come as the struggle goes away.

There are so many reading programs that reward kids for reading. The library has a summer reading program. Barnes and Noble has one, so does Borders, as does TD bank. It just feels so weird to me to need a reward for reading. Isn't reading the reward? But clearly it works. My kids dutifully record the books they read, the minutes, and whatever info each place wants.

Does it matter how much you read, what you read, if it is for enjoyment or education? Not to me. I love it all.

Bored to list revisited

Two years ago I got together a fallback list of things to do with the kids when they cry boredom. Since they have grown, and resources have changed I am updating the list. There are surprisingly little changes to be made, but always room to grow, so add your suggestions in the comments!

1. Lightsabers
2. Freeze tag
3. Board games
4. Soccer
5. Movie
6. Cook something
7. Pillow fort
8. Finger painting
9. Legos
10. Listen to music
11. Nerf wars
12. Wii
13. Scooters
14. Bikes
15. Learn about birds
16. Read books
17. Rocket blaster
18. Bowling
19. Garden
20. Puzzles
21. Dinosaur toys
22. Pool
23. Remote control cars/dino/etc.
24. Camping
25. Fireworks (seeing not playing with)
26. Zoo (go to Bronx Zoo on a Wed. when there is free admission or perhaps the Bergen Cty Zoological Society)
27. Baseball
28. Picnic
29. Hopscotch
30. Glider
31. Building blocks
32. Dress up
33. Library
34. Parks
35. Make ice cream
36. Action figures
37. Make t-shirts
38. Card games
39. Real tea party
40. Play music
41. Rock tumbler
42. Play with balls
43. Volcano
44. Watch a local Baseball game
45. Play Doh/clay
46. Make puppets
47. Painting
48. Crafts

Whole foods or something like them

Trying to focus on the garden is just leading me to frustration since I have to wait almost an extra month to get my hands dirty thanks to all the frozen wetness.

Instead I am going to focus on getting back on the whole foods bandwagon. Sadly, being when I am not feeling well we rapidly fall off the wagon out of convenience. So I need to take a serious look at my pantry, food budget, and menu planning.

100 Days of Real Food has provided me with a bunch of snack ideas which is always a rough issue around here.

Luckily the local health food store has reopened, so I will pop by there this week as a start.

Do you have any resources you like for whole/real foods?