Money Talks

October 24th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (1 Comments)

Zombie weekend fun is officially over, now we’re back to business as usual gang!

And this morning, we were all business. If there’s anything out there that works like a charm when it comes to teaching your homeschooled kid some valuable math lessons, money is it.

Me: Is 46 greater than or less than 56?

Ava: Ummmm…

Me: Would you rather have 46 dollars or 56 dollars?

Ava: 56!

Now we’re getting some where.

After chatting a bit about the < and > signs and how I could never tell them apart, I shared the uber impressive trick I learned to acing those greater than/less than math quizzes in elementary school.  Read more...

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The Lunchtime Puzzle

October 20th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Motivation - (4 Comments)

Two days a week, the girls go off to class for three hours in the afternoon.

That means two days a week, I have three hours to myself.

Sometimes I stay and help out in class, sometimes I run errands, sometimes I do housework, sometimes I work on a blog post.

Lentil Taco Salad

Sometimes I eat leftover lentil tacos on a bed of lettuce with salsa, Greek yogurt and 1/2 an avocado for lunch in front of my computer so I can watch Modern Family on Hulu.  Read more...

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White Bean Blondies

October 15th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (7 Comments)

It’s Saturday. And at the moment, I am home alone.

The kids are out, the husband is out, I am in.

With the house cleared out, I opted for a few of my favorite things.

I tested out my knee with a short run (3 pain free miles + 1 naggy mile) on a cool, breezy, temporarily sunny, autumn afternoon.

I listened to The Biggest Loser on Hulu while I stretched out my IT Band and did some unplanned push ups too.  Bob Harper screaming “LAST! CHANCE! WORKOUT!” is curiously motivating.  Read more...

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What Did You Learn Today?

October 13th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (5 Comments)

I don’t know about you, but we learned how to ride the bus.

The Bus Stop

Crazy, no? We’ve only lived here for nearly two years now.

Did you know that Google Maps makes it EXTREMELY easy to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B on the bus?

Google Maps Bus

Yet another thing I learned today!

With an afternoon class on the schedule for the girls, we decided to try the bus and let Zak take the car to work.

The Plan:  Read more...

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One Mindless Trick to Eating Fewer Calories

October 12th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (6 Comments)

I can’t seem to eat salad without hummus these days.

Hummus on Salad

Normally I try to spare you the daily salad shenanigans unless it’s something new or remarkable – and at first glance this salad is neither new or remarkable.

But Wait!

Today’s Hummus on Salad story has a moral to it.

It starts with the sad fact that our car died last week.  We found out today that the cost of repairs are going to be more than we’d prefer to sink into this car, so we’re done with it. Eight years and 150,000 miles later, the Honda Civic is off to car heaven.  Read more...

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Dinner Fail, Cookie Win

October 6th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (3 Comments)

Dinner tonight was a total flop. I don’t want to talk about it.

Okay, fine – I’ll talk about it. Let’s just say it involved the crock pot and a bag of frozen spinach, among other ingredients. Frozen spinach is the only ingredient worth noting as I’m fairly confident that’s what made tonight’s meal… an experience.

Anyway, the whole reason I was using the crock pot was because I was once again assisting this afternoon in a homeschool class the girls are in. I thought it would make the day a lot easier to have dinner hot and ready when we got home – so the crock pot was dragged out, and yeah. I already told you how that story ended.  Read more...

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Divide and Conquer

October 5th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Parenting - (Comments Off on Divide and Conquer)

An evening ride was in store for us after dinner tonight. The big one went with dad so they could go further and faster. The little one stayed with me for an easier and shorter ride around our neighborhood.

Sometimes it’s nice to not have your bossy big sister around. Sometimes it’s nice to not have to wait up for your pokey little sister. Sometimes it’s nice to give each child some undivided attention.

Evening Ride

And sometimes it’s nice to give two kids a blast of cool, autumn air at the end of the day – practically guaranteeing a swift and gloriously easy bed time.  Read more...

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Homemade Cereal Re-Runs

October 4th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (Comments Off on Homemade Cereal Re-Runs)

Homeschooling comes with plenty of challenges, but it’s also got a handful of perks.

One of my favorite perks? We quite often get to enjoy leisurely mornings at home – by design, really.  I’m a morning person, but that doesn’t mean I’m uber-excited to run out the door first thing in the morning on any given day of the week.

More accurately, I’m not uber-excited to get kids out the door first thing.  I’ll happily head out in the wee morning hours in my running sneaks, but a) I’ve only got to get myself ready and b) I don’t need to be reminded to brush my hair before I leave and c) I don’t have say CAN YOU PLEASE GET YOUR SHOES ON ALREADY three times before I finally do it.  Read more...

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I See Blue Circles

September 28th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (2 Comments)

My kids love frozen blueberries.

Frozen Blueberries

Both of them. Even the little one.

They snack on them straight from the freezer and then force me to look at their blue stained lips for about three hours until the color wears off, or until I can’t take it anymore and pin them to the ground for a spit bath with my saliva wetted thumb.

I haven’t bought frozen blueberries for a few months now because of the overabundance of summer fruit we were getting from the CSA share. They asked me to buy frozen blueberries, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy FROZEN fruit with three pounds of fresh peaches in the fridge.  Read more...

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The Easiest Way to Teach Your Kid to Ride a Bike

September 12th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Parenting - (8 Comments)

Last summer I wrote about Ava learning to ride a bike with the “balance bike” approach.  I’m here now to sing the praises of this method once again.  It’s worked just as well for Thing 2 – but this time two years sooner!

The balance bike approach is exactly that; no training wheels.  It’s about learning to balance first, pedaling comes later.  A “real” balance bike has no pedals – but we just used a regular, very small bike for Ava.  You don’t need a special bike, what matters is that they can easily catch themselves when they lose their balance.  Ava was 6 when she learned, so her legs were long enough that the pedals didn’t get in her way while she was learning to balance.  Read more...

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