menu plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday on a Tuesday. What is this world coming to?

Rockford is gearing up for another Big Work Trip, so I am having kind of a tough week. The few days before he leaves are harder on me than when he’s actually gone, for some reason. I suspect it’s because that’s the way my anxiety likes to handle things. My dad will be visiting while Rockford’s away this time, and while Rockford is sad that he won’t get to hang out with his golf buddy, I will be glad to have some grown-up company.

Tuesday: Lasagna Primavera
A friend has a fresh new baby at home, and I wanted to make dinner for her family one night this week. Martha Stewart’s Lasagna Primavera is one of my favorite dishes for such occasions, because they can stick it in the freezer if they don’t want to eat it right away. (Also, it’s delicious.) And if you’re making one lasagna, you may as well go ahead and make another for yourself, right?

Wednesday: BBQ
I thought Dad would be here to go out for barbecue with us, so I put the new barbecue restaurant near our house on the menu. Turns out he won’t be here yet, but Rockford’s parents will be in town for the day so we’re still going for barbecue. (Don’t worry, Papa. We’ll go again when you’re here.)

Thursday: Chicken & dumplings
Hopefully Dad will be here in time for dinner Thursday, because he requested chicken and dumplings. Also, he might have to actually make them because soccer practice runs late on Thursdays.

Friday: Pizza
I will probably order pizza.

Need more inspiration? Check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday linkup!

menu plan Monday

I am still waiting for you, autumnal weather

I’ve been yearning for fall weather — just like I always do this time of year — so over the weekend I tried to conjure up some cooler weather by making Mrs. Happy Homemaker’s Beef Stew for dinner. It purports to be the Best Beef Stew Ever, and it is pretty terrific. It has a nice flavor and the beef was really tender, but I felt like the potatoes were working overtime to make up the bulk of the dish. Next time I’ll add a few more carrots and maybe also some red wine in place of some of the water.

I started the stew in the slow cooker around 10:30am and didn’t have to touch it again until dinnertime. I need to remember to put the slow cooker to use more frequently on the weekends. It helped us have a super-relaxed Sunday.

Monday: Chicken and dumplings
Yesterday’s beef stew was tasty, but it didn’t quite convince fall to make an appearance. Maybe Rachael Ray’s chicken and dumplings will do the trick.

Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner
Breakfast for dinner is generally a very basic affair. This week, though, I’m going to make a hashbrown casserole a la Cracker Barrel.

Wednesday: Spaghetti
I’m going to let you in on a secret: I already don’t want spaghetti for dinner on Wednesday. But I had pasta and sauce in the pantry, so we’re going to use it. By golly.

Thursday: Poppyseed chicken casserole
I used to make a lot of recipes that called for cream-of-something soups. I’ve mostly stopped making them, but there will never be a day when Poppyseed Chicken isn’t in my recipe box.

Friday: Pizza

What’s your favorite slow cooker recipe?

Want more menus? Check out Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com.

Homeschool

This week in homeschooling: Malaria, Marie Curie and math tests

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I’ve been battling both a headstrong 7.75-year-old as well as a vague but pervading sense of ennui or malaise or some-other-French-term-for-the-blahs this week. Maybe it’s because we’ve spent so much time talking about Napoleon.

Anyway, here’s a bit of what les enfants did this week in school.

Language Arts

Reading

We finally finished “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” this week, and we celebrated by watching the movie. The kids (especially Poppy) were not pleased that there were a lot of differences between the book and the movie. They petitioned me to start “Order of the Phoenix” immediately, but I’m sticking to the One Potter Every Year timeline. We’ll see you next year, Hogwarts!

(And when I say “we,” I obviously mean “I.” Because Poppy got all seven books for her birthday. I put the ones we haven’t read yet away, but she’s already re-read “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”)

Pete is reading a biography of Marie Curie for his assigned reading. I’m not sure what our next read-aloud will be, but I’m open to suggestions. As long as your suggestion isn’t “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

Writing

Pete started WriteShop B this year. He’s a very reluctant writer. It isn’t that he doesn’t want to create a story, it’s that he doesn’t want to physically take pencil to paper. That hasn’t been a huge problem with WriteShop, though, because the book he’s on has him dictating a lot of the work to me. Today he did his first writing assignment — a letter to his Papa — and we took turns writing the sentences.

After about a year of complaining about doing her writing, Poppy is finally just sitting down with her notebook and her writing book and getting the work done.

Math

Both kids had math tests today. Poppy got an 87 on hers. After a full hour of telling me why he DID NOT and COULD NOT do his test, Pete finally finished it and got an 86. The reluctance wasn’t because he doesn’t know how to do the work or even because it’s difficult for him. It was just because he’d rather be doing something else, so he’s spent a lot of time whining and a little time actually looking at the paper.

History

malariamustardWe finished talking about Napoleon and the Louisiana Purchase this week. Malaria in St. Domingue (now Haiti) played a role in making Napoleon decide he’d had enough of trying to extend his empire into North America, so our project today was supposed to be trying out some old-timey malaria remedies, like slathering mustard on our persons. Poppy and Pete weren’t keen to do that, though, so they subjected a PlayMobil guy to an ice bath, wrapped him in a blanket and covered him with “hot” bricks to make him sweat his fever away and applied a mustard poultice to his little plastic chest. I am pleased to report that he recovered.

Extracurricular

Poppy has been saying for the past several years that she wants to be a baker when she grows up. So I picked 10 recipes of varying difficulty from a baking cookbook for kids and told her to work her way through them. This morning she made Peanut Butter Kiss cookies all by herself, and they are delicious. Now I just need to teach her about the Cleaning Up After Yourself portion of the craft.

How was your week?

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!