My sewing machine is in the shop. I am feeling a bit low (combination of missing my husband, grieving my grandma and I have a touch of the stomach bug that Hudson had earlier this week). My parents took my kids for the day. I took a nap. Had some chicken soup and now I'm bored.... so I am going to write about something that has been on my mind recently... packing my kids' lunches. (I can hear the collective, "Huh?")
I estimated that I have packed about 1600 lunches over the course of my kids' schooling. And I still have many, many years of lunches to go. (My kids are 11, 9 and 6. My daughter brings her lunch every single day. The boys 3 or 4 times a week.) I have tried to use all reusable packaging for the kids' lunches. The hardest thing for me was finding a nice leak proof drink bottle. We tried
Litterless Juice Boxes made by Rubbermaid, but we had trouble with them leaking in the lunch pails. I still have a few on hand at home for the kids I babysit for or for a car trip. I'm not worried about my kids tipping them over- they are pretty much over that stage- but the boys' lunch pails get tossed into a basket at school- and sometimes end up upside down. So these just didn't live up to our needs. Then I found
Foogoo straw bottles. I bought mine off of Amazon almost exactly a year ago, but then found them in Target and my grocery store Wegmans. The funny thing is that they are in the baby section. These are great. They don't leak and are pretty easy to clean. I recently saw them again at Target and they have a new design that is even easier to clean! I might get another. On their website and in stores they come in all sorts of designs, but I got all three the same plain blue so that they could be interchangeable between the kids (and I'm not a huge fan of licenced characters all over my kids stuff). They keep the kids drinks cold, are BPA free and have kept approximately 480 juice boxes or milk containers out of the landfill! (I guessed that there are about 40 weeks of school in a year. My daughter would take a juice box every day= 200 boxes per school year. My boys took one about 3.5 times per week= 140 per boy per school year.)
For their sandwiches (or wraps, or peanut-butter roll-ups, or leftover meatloaf, or whatever) we use
Lock 'n Lock containers in the 15oz size (I can't find the exact one on that site, except in the 17 piece set. I bought mine individually at Wegmans.) The 15oz size is perfect for a half sandwich or a wrap made from a large burrito shell and then cut in half. (My daughter's favorite is a spinach wrap with humus, baby spinach and match-stick carrots.) I have also bought the Lock 'n Lock
lunch kit and use the small containers for salad dressing and croutons (if my daughter is taking a salad) and my husband uses the large one for his sandwiches. I'm psyched to discover the
divided containers on that site. I'll have to get some of those!
We also try to avoid buying individual packs of yogurt, so we buy a large container of vanilla yogurt and put it in
Rubbermaid x-small containers (4oz size). Same with pudding... I'll make a box of instant pudding and put it in the Rubbermaid containers or in
Gladware 4oz, stick them in the fridge and they are all ready for packing in the lunches. These are two places where we really reduce garbage!! I like the Gladware because they are so cheap and they don't leak, but the lids are harder to clean. There area lots of little crevices that trap pudding.
For fruit (sliced apples, canned peaches that are mostly drained, applesauce, grapes) and pretzels or crackers, we use Rubbermaid twist and seal
cups in the 1.2 cup size. It's funny because many of the reviews on that site say that they leak, but we've never had any trouble with them leaking. They are my favorite container.
So here is a typical lunch all packed. I made my daughter's lunch bag because we couldn't find one "cool enough". It has a sleeve on the side to hold the thermos (you can see the top of it sticking out a bit) and a pockets on the inside and outside. I wish I had made it a tad bigger... on days when she brings a salad we use a lot of containers and it is just barely big enough. My boys are not handmade- theirs are from Old Navy and
Arctic Zone. The Arctic Zone is a little small... it is a tight squeeze to get all the containers in there, but it has a solid easy to wipe interior that I like.
So there you have it. Are your kids school age? Do they bring their lunches? Any advice for me?
....goodie bags
...collage hearts
...treats from yesterday's parties at school (and leftovers that Alex's didn't give away)
...hanging hearts
...cookies and yummies left over from the school parties yesterday, but I'm sure will be eaten up tonight.
Sunday I was exhausted. After church I crashed on the couch and snuggled with Ethan. I asked him to go get my camera so I could get a picture of his precariously dangling front tooth. Silliness ensued.
I love this picture even though it looks as though I am dying. It could easily be the image that goes with that creepy Christmas song about a boy buying shoes for his dying mother. Like I said, I was exhausted... I am exhausted. There has been so much emotional stuff going on in our family... as soon as you think one thing is resolved or dealt with something else happens.
Then he went about documenting what was happening around the house.. which was actually not much. Just a lazy Sunday afternoon.
More decorations for Alex's party.
I just cut a sponge into a heart shape and printed out 72 images onto white and cream construction paper.
When they were dry I cut out the hearts, glued two together wrong sides facing with a piece of white thread sandwiched in between. Then I taped them to the ceiling in the kitchen. There are 36 hearts fluttering from the ceiling.
Alex wasn't home when I hung them, so when she came in I got a great reaction... a huge smile and "Oh, COOL! Thanks Mom." 
My daughter is having a Valentine party next Saturday, so we are changing out the more colorful lanterns to pink ones. And I finally got around to hanging up my paper heart garland. I made it a couple years ago, but just recently saw some very similar ones at maya*made
(And keeping it real- here is what that picture started out as..... my messy kitchen.)
I had some girlfriends and their kiddos over this morning for coffee and made this delicious orange zest cake that I found over at Angry Chicken. It is sooooo good. Try it. Yum.
I added walnuts and craisins to the recipe. It is seriously yummy, and goes great with coffee.
I can't eat ice cream (especially when it is as rich as this was) but I did take a little lick and boy, it was good.
This is the original picture, pre-cropping. I thought it would fun to show you the "real me", well at least my real kitchen as it looks every day without being "dressed" for pictures. I even included labels... so enjoy!
A: Our old step back cupboard. When we acquired this house (it was my great grandma's, then my great aunt's, then my parent's but my sister rented it from them, then mine, then my cousin rented it, and now we own it....phew!) this piece of furniture was in two pieces in two different rooms. Both pieces were painted white. The bottom piece had contact paper stuck all over the top of it. My MIL stripped it for us. She was concerned that the woods were different colors...but we love it. We keep 90% of our kitchen "stuff" here. According to this picture, 75% of it must be in the dishwasher at this moment.
I traced each of my kids hands onto brown felt and then made a stuffed turkey out of it... sort of like what is happening over at Bella Dia, then sort of slid them onto the spring (the wire goes right through the body of the turkey). I love getting these out every year. My children seem to be growing up so quickly (don't you hate how that happens?) and this is a nice reminder of when they were smaller. The very first year I had these on display I had a bundle of wheat stalks inside each one. It looked pretty neat that way. Maybe I'll have to go get some more.
The next year I saw a great Thanksgiving banner at pottery barn kids (the link may not be the actual one as it was a few years ago and they don't make it any more- but it's close). Of course after looking at the gazillion dollar price tag, I thought, "Hey I can make that! And so I did. I think this is year three with the banner and year four with the boingy things.
I also made a funky-looking turkey table decoration. But since I don't have a nice table to put this on he gets hung on the door. (Don't you just love the little baby sock lying there? It belongs to the wee one who is sleeping in my lap right now.)
I love that the Thanksgiving decorations are somewhat sparse and simple- just like I think the holiday should be. OK, well, maybe not sparse... I do love a nice big Thanksgiving meal, but I like how Thanksgiving brings me back to what is really important... the small stuff, right? (I wrote the post in the link in 2006)
our hen's very first egg!!! Discovered last night by a very excited 11 year old! Oh- and don't forget to leave me a comment, any comment, just say "Hi" and you'll be entered into my making amends drawing. 
Ethan spent a good deal of the afternoon creating his "masterpiece" in chalk on the cement slab that we call our side porch.
He said he was finished, so I took a picture... then he changed his mind and went back to work. I love this version of it though. It looks like a Picasso face, doesn't it?
Cate and I feed the chickens a huge feast! Soy beans and corn from the farmer's fields, tomatoes, a huge zucchini, a rotten pepper, apple slices, carrot greens.... just about anything we could find that they might ingest.
She and Cate dressed up like "fall fairies" (I made Cate's crown from flowers) and played in the leaves. Alexandra seems so mature sometimes for her nearly 11 years, so it is so nice when she acts childish and lets go and does something like this!
Then to top it all off, when I went out to the compost heap I saw this on a tree. Alex's doing.... warmed my heart!
This is a dog. (My daughter took these pictures.)
A bunny. Alex, my daughter, had a hard time figuring this one out..but see his big ear and half of his other ear? And his 2 front legs and one hind leg? And take a look at how twisted my hands had to be to make that bunny. Definitely a hard one for the kids to do.
Here's a cow.
And a cow sticking his tongue out!
Hudson made a swan....
And Ethan made a turtle.
