I am done with positive reinforcement!

Ok, so this is my first rant on here! I have read and been told (like everyone else) that positive reinforcement will work a lot better than getting upset when the kids do things I don't like. While I am sure that is true in the long run, it is not for me right now! This move has been very hard on Tyler and myself. Henry is the type of person that will adapt to any situation and be just fine! Tyler and I need time to adjust and feel comfortable. We have not met anyone here yet, so the kids and I are home most of the day, unless we are at the Y. So naturally, the boys are bickering and fighting with each other a lot. Yesterday they were playing very well together and I commented to both of them that I was very proud of them for playing nice, using kind words and speaking softly. Within 30 seconds of me saying that, they were back at each others throats about something! It was so frustrating! I felt like if I had not pointed out that they were nice, they would have never known and would have kept playing nicely!

Today Tyler had a fantastic day. He smiled all day, had fun and did not cry at all! Even when he had to get of off Skype with yaya, he said goodnight and went into his room. I read them a chapter out of our book, and then it was lights out. I gave his a kiss and told him I was proud of him for having such a great day and was happy that it was getting better here for him. He immediately started crying about missing VA and his friends! I wanted to kick myself again for pointing out something! AAHH!! Being a mom is so frustrating sometimes!!!

Loosing Weight and Getting Healthy

After I had E I was the heaviest I had ever been! It took a while, and a lot of pushing from my mom, but I finally decided that I needed to change and get back in shape. I tried weight watchers, and it was just not for me! I did not need to sit in a meeting with some very needy people and listed to they "yeah for you's"! What I needed was to watch what I ate, be aware of what I was eating, and use portion control. It has not been easy, I LOVE FOOD!!! I have not eliminated anything from my diet, contrary to what my dad says, I can still eat rice! :-) I set a goal for myself that in a year I wanted to loose 40 pounds! I am at the halfway point, and I have lost 25 pounds! I am so excited and happy that I can wear another smaller size! I think that now that I feel like I have the eating part down, I need to start the exercise part! We joined the YMCA last week and I have been going everyday, although on Monday and Tuesdays I just take E and H to swimming lessons, so I am not working out. I think on those days I may try to do something at home to exercise. Today at the Y I even ran for 2 minutes! For me, that is a huge accomplishment! I have never been a runner, and I am thrilled that I was able to do that! I am very happy to have a friend here that can help keep me on track while we are here!

Cardboard Castles

A friend of mine posted on her blog a list of things that she wanted to do with her kids this summer. After seeing this one, I decided that the boys would love it, so we gave it a try! They had a blast, and I am happy to have found The Imagination Tree. What a great website. I am planning on doing a few more of the crafts she has on there. Here are some pics of the first castle we made, this is the smaller one. We have a bigger one still to paint and the boys want to make one for E to play with that is purple! I love how they want to do things for E too! So sweet!

Painting the castle
Finished castle from the front

From the side

Playing with the finished castle!

Recipes for my monthly cooking

I am a few days late on this one, but here they are! Here is a pic of my freezer, it was a lot more organized before the frozen veggies went in, but you can get the idea!


-taco seasoning

-homemade pizza-we just buy the bough in a bag and add whatever toppings we want

-crockpot pork chops with potatoes I leave out the green beans and cook them seperatly

-italian chicken-dump a bottle of dressing in a bag with chicken!

-salsa chicken-dump salsa in a bag with chicken. I top this with cheese, olives, sour cream and avacad0

-chipotle chicken and sun dried tomato are marinades from the store, but I am looking to find a homemade one

-BBQ chicken-dump a bottle of BBQ with chicken

-honey terriyaki chicken

-garlic parmesan chicken-can't remember where this came from-1 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 packet italian dressing seasoning. Dip chicken in oil, then in cheese/seasoning mixture. Then bake or wrap in saran wrap and then freeze.

-spaghetti-I just make up the turkey and sp sauce, then freeze in serving size portions

-chicken for salads-I just skillet cook the chicken with some seasonings and freeze to have on top of salads

-breakfast burritos-can't remember where this one came from either! I made 16 of them, so I took 12 eggs and cooked them. Then I added one red, yellow and orange pepper sliced and one onion sliced. I put a little of the mixture in a tortilla, then added salsa and rolled in foil and froze. He heats them in the microwave and says they are great!

-PB&J-I just made the sandwiches and froze them-super easy and E loves them!

ENJOY!

What we are doing this summer!

I want to keep the boys busy this summer. Henry has been wanting to do karate for a while now and I am so happy that the base has a class he can take. He had his first one on Tuesday and loved it! I cannot wait for him to get his uniform, he will look so cute! Tyler loved gymnastics in VA! I found him a class at the YMCA and he had his first on on Thursday. He was not too sure of it since the one in VA was more of a play based gymnastics and this is true gymnastics! But I know that he will gain good self esteem from it, so we are sticking with it. He did say he enjoyed that it was an all boys class! I have also signed them all up for swimming lessons at the Y. Evelyn's is a mommy and me class, and the boys are both in a beginner class. Thankfully they are in separate classes, so I get some quiet time everyday!! The boys are going to a summer camp on Wednesday mornings that started this past week. They loved the first day and cannot wait to go back. Tyler will be taking a class through the school system in July that is for Kindergartners that are going into first grade. He will ride the bus everyday! He is petrified of the bus, so we have watched it every morning as it has picked up the kids in the neighborhood. (they are still in school here till next week)! The bus driver is really nice and waves at him every morning. We have a park just down the street from our house that we have been walking to in the afternoons. Evelyn loves the slide, she can climb up the stairs by herself, but still has trouble getting her leg out from under her when she sits down to slide! I got a library card and the boys are both signed up for the summer reading program that they offer. We checked out our first 4 books a few days ago and have been reading them at night before bed. I am going to find some activities and places for us to go on the weekends as a family.

My months worth of meals..DONE!!

Before we moved to RI, I started freezer cooking and it made life so much easier. A week before we moved, I sat down with a calendar and made out our meals for 4 weeks. When I got here, I went to the store and started cooking and marinating! Here is what we are eating:
Tacos (6 meals worth)
homemade pizza (3 meals worth)
crockot porkchops with potatoes (3 meals worth)
crockpot chicken thighs (3 meals worth)
italian chicken (2 meals worth)
salsa chicken (2 meals worth)
chipotle chicken (2 meals worth)
sun dried tomato chicken (2 meals worth)
BBQ chicken (2 meals worth)
honey teriyaki chicken (2 meals worth)
garlic Parmesan chicken (2 meals worth)
spaghetti (5 meals worth)
cooked chicken for big salads (3 meals worth)
16 breakfast burritos for Keith
14 PB&J sandwiches

I know, this is way more than a months worth, but some we will eat for lunches, like the tacos and the sandwiches for E and I to have for lunches. My goal is to eat out once in a payday, so twice a month as a family. I will post the recipes on here later tonight. Now it is so easy, I just take a meal out at night and it is ready to cook at dinner time. Some of the chicken meals I will toss in the crock pot to cook and some I will cook in the oven. Of course I have to add the veggies that I will cook with the meals, but at least this way we have the main part of the meal already done!

So I had this great Idea...

I have been trying to come up with fun and free things for me to keep the kids busy this summer. Since I seem to get lost everywhere I go around here, going anywhere is not fun for me! So I decided that a few days a week we will do theme days! Today was the first one, Dinosaurs since the boys love them right now. I spent a hour last night finding a movie about dinosaurs that was not animated on Netflix. I finally found Walking With Dinosaurs. It was on BBC and rated G, so I thought it would be great! I found a really neat website, Creative Kids at Home, that has a huge section all about fun things to do to learn about dinosaurs. I also printed a few coloring pages for Henry and a few work pages for Tyler from Print Activities. I was all set! This morning I told the boys what we were going to do. They were super excited and I was excited they were into it! After breakfast I put on the movie for them to watch while I made the dough for the fossils. Within about 10 minutes, the boys were both scared and wanted to turn off the movie! So I put in an episode on Dinosaur Train from PBS! So back to the dough I went...well, apparently I did something wrong, because it never came together for me to knead it! Ok, strike #2! We did manage to do the printables, so I guess 1 out of 3 is not bad!!

I am also having this kids keep a summer journal. I bought them each a notepad that has the wide lines that they learn to write on. I plan on having them try to write what they want or have them draw a picture and then tell me what they want to say about their day. They are excited about this too!

Tomorrow we are going to try Egg Heads! I am really hoping this one turns out better than today's plan!

Rhode Island

so I have not blogged in forever (again) and need to update! I have a feeling I will be blogging a lot now that we have moved to RI, as I have no real contact with others at the moment, other than my kids! The kids and I got here on Saturday. The drive was not too bad, until we got to New York! The traffic was horrible, I was always in the wrong lane, we nearly got hit by a merging suv, took the wrong exit, ended up smack dab in the middle of New York city, then the Bronx, and finally Yonkers before we managed to find our way back to I95! After that it was smooth sailing! The kids were happy to be here and to have daddy back. They love the house and their rooms. They are very happy that there is a park about a half a block down from the house. I found a summer camp for the boys that is on Wednesdays for half a day. Their first day was yesterday and they loved it and cannot wait to go back next week. Tyler is signed up for a Kindergarten going into first grade summer program through the school district for the month of July. I am excited about it, he gets to ride the bus there and back and it is M-Th, so he will be busy that month! Henry is taking a Karate class at the base gym one night a week and loved his first class. Tyler has his first gymnastics class tonight at the Y and it extremely happy about that. I am hoping that once school starts in the fall that I will find something for E and I to do. That is about it for our first week here! I am sure I will get more into a routine as the weeks go on,