Today we took the two youngest to a not nearby farm to go peach picking. Tougas Farm is about 40 minutes from our house, but we love it so much that it is worth the ride. Besides picking delicious plump peaches, we also caved and bought a bag for apple picking as well.

As anyone who has gone to a “pick your own” orchard, it isn’t even close to beig cost effective. As I told my husband today, you are paying for more than just simple fruit. You are paying to keep a small business alive, paying for the “adventure” of picking your own fruit, paying for the choice of “safe to eat off the tree” fruit. Also, there is the tractor ride to the orchard, the petting area, and the wonderful playground. All at a price.

If you think that we paid $25 for the 1/2 bushel of peaches, and $15 for the bag of apples (peck? half peck? I’ll have to check which), $5 for a bag of sugared apple cider donuts, and $3 for 2 iced coffees. That is a total of $48. We were at the farm for about 2.5 hours, so it breaks down (very) roughly to $5 per person per hour of FUN! Not to mention all the yummy fruit we get to enjoy for months to come, as I’ll be prolonging the yum by canning a whole mess of peaches this week.

We only go once a year, as the 40 minute drive is a touch far for multiple trips, especially when there are other equally nice farms around, though few pick you own. It is definitely a family tradition now to go at the end of summer. Well worth the time, gas, and money.

For all you folks doing back to school shopping, you know how tough it can be to keep track of which kid needs which folder, color pens, highlighters ect. I used to separate everything in to bags, but then you have to pull everything out to make sure you didn’t forget something important.

I have a few little tricks to keep everything organized. First, I scrounge one box for each kid. It has to be wide enough to fit notebooks and folders, and I add a shoebox in each one. I use personalized labels to put their names on EVERYTHING, (except the teen, he’d kill me) All loose pens, pencils, and markers go in the shoebox, the notebooks and folders stand up, and I can take a quick look to see what is still needed. I also tape a copy of the school list to the outside and cross items off as I place them in the box.

I keep these boxes throughout the year. As the kids need supplies, they go to THEIR box. There is no tapping into someone else’s supplies. I refill the boxes from time to time from my main stash, mostly the pens and pencils. I try to way over buy when I hit a sale, because I know come January the notebooks need replacing and the folders can’t be taped anymore.

The labels are key though. I got them with my company order of business printing services so they were short money. I try to bulk order whenever possible, to reduce my out of pocket expenses, but also to reduce my time involved.

If anyone has any special tricks about organizing school supplies for the year, please post!

I have two blenders in my kitchen, one a full size and the other a Rocket from Bella Kitchen. The small personal blender stays out on the counter top, while we bring out the full size occasionally.
My favorite use for the personal blender is making smoothies, but I also enjoy using it while cooking. I’ve chopped veggies for salsa, pureed soup, chopped onions (who likes to do THAT by hand?) and making scrambled eggs.

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for recipes, but I am a “pinch of this, dash of that” kind of cook. I do however know of a few sites that have some great recipes, so why invent the wheel? See below for a few of the sites I have gone to for ideas in the past.

My best tips for smoothies are to add uber ripe bananas to my smoothie. It gives a delicious sweetness, and adds the rich creaminess that I crave. I also recommend using frozen berries, and you can omit the ice in most cases. Anything to reduce the steps, right?

For chopping veggies, be prepared to completely ruin your first batch or two. It really is a bit of a trick to learn to pulse the veggies so as not to pulverize them. Use medium size pieces, and pulse once. Swirl the blender around, and pulse again. Continue until you feel the pieces are small enough for your needs. Granted, you are not going to get the perfect same sized pieces that you obtain with hand chopping, but these should be just fine for soups and dips.

I hope you enjoy these tips and be sure to check out the following sites for their great recipes!

*Smoothies
*Multiple recipes Try the Potato soup!
*Soup Ideas! I love this site.

Yes, I know the show aired in 2008. Yes I realize that there is probably a positive message at the end of the show. I’m talking about a certain Hannah Montana episode.

This particular episode is all about how Miley sticks a FORK in her MOUTH and breaks a filling. Then her and her daddy discuss how AFRAID of the dentist she is! (Have I mentioned I’m a dental assistant before??)

In between the dentist parts, Oliver is going out with a vegetarian, and he and Lili talk about how bland and nasty vegetables are. (have I mentioned I’m a vegetarian??)

Flash back to the dentist, who is ANCIENT….and starts to give Miley an injection, which she sees as a 3 foot needle!!! Way to broadcast a positive image for dentist hating, veggie despising children.

Hey, after all, if Hannah is deathly afraid of the dentist, my seven year old should be too!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Since I work full time, I’ve had to pack 4 lunches. I’ve tried the route of making the hubs and the teenboy make their own lunches, but that ended up with a slice of cheese between two slices of bread, or tuna out of the can. Not the most well rounded meal for either of them. Meanwhile my daughter and I would have properly portioned proteins, carbs and sweets. Since I love my family equally, I had to figure out a way to make lunch for all of us.

I have a short list of go-to lunches that I prepare ahead of time. Usually Saturday is shopping day, and Sunday is prep and cook day. I do tend to have a bit of a “bento” mindset when it comes to preparing for lunches all week. It makes it far easier to pack multiple lunches with healthy filling food. Since my kids aren’t the most adventurous eaters I stay away from the typical bento foods like quails eggs and fishy flavored rice. I focus more on making Americanized foods healthier, and sized for the containers.

I frequently make pinwheel sandwiches for my 7 year old, changing the fillings so it doesn’t bore her. Color is the key here, I am pretty confident she eats most of the lunch if it looks fun. I usually take extra time with her’s, using cookie cutters to cut shapes out of various breads and veggies. She rarely brings home leftovers. For my teen, I wouldn’t dare go cute. He’d rather starve. So he gets the small pita rounds, cut in half and filled to overflowing. Manly meats and veggies fill his sandwiches, with not a broccoli tree in sight.

My husband and I are usually just leftovers separated into our lunch portions the night before. Rarely do I not make enough dinner that we don’t have at least one lunch for the next day. Both of us also eat lunch out one day a week, on different days, so that helps. I also have a four day work week so that also cuts down on the prep.

Keep an eye out in the next few weeks and I’ll keep up my list of foods. Now that the kids are heading back to school I need to get back in the swing of four lunches a day. Just one more thing I have to add to the list!

I just can’t believe how fast this year is flying by. The kids are nearly back in school…heck.. I’M nearly back in school! It’s been an awfully long time for me, but the leap has been made, and I’m a-going back.

Here’s the plan. I’m going to start my B.S degree using Online Schools. There are a few really great ones in my area that will allow me to take most of the core classes in a strictly online setting. Once I have those out of the way I’ll leave my full time job and go to school full time, and get the rest of my science and math Lab courses finished. I’m hoping I’ll be able to bang out these in 3 years by taking courses year round.

Of course…I still haven’t worked a whole lot of sleep into the schedule…hmmmmm

I just bought my very first back-to-school supplies of the summer! I’m really shocked I held out this long to be honest with you.

Since the oldest boy is heading to highschool this year I really had to be careful what I bought. I made sure there weren’t any funky colors, stuck with plain notebooks and supplies as much as possible. I think this year we will invest in a new backback as well, since the one he has made it through three years and is looking pretty ratty.

For the girl, I had a little bit more fun. She is still at the age where the colorful notebooks and folders rule, and needs all the cool stuff like glue sticks and colored pencils. I always buy the bulk of the supplies on solo trips, but I like to give them a little wiggle room to buy what they like as well. This year the girl has been begging for personalized stuff, notepaper, shirts, you name it. If it has her name on it she wants it.
I found a really cool site that has personalized soccer balls which I am leaning towards getting as a surprise. Sheesh. A soccer ball with her name on it. I think she might fly with all the excitement.

The little guy isn’t in school just yet, but he always gets a little goody bag anyway. I picked up some colored pencils, glue sticks and a tablet pad for him to color as well. I’m hoping he’ll get a call into preschool, but as of now he is still on the waiting list. It is only a couple half days a week, but I really think he is ready for some more challenges.

Anyhoo. I haven’t even ventured towards the clothes shopping yet. I have to take a look to see what is in “style” at the moment. I’m not huge on my kids being with the gang anyway, but if the styles are acceptable, I see no reason to not let them wear it.

I hate to bring everyone else down with me, but I just saw the saddest thing! Misery loves company and all that…

The last female white rhino was killed last week in a south african reserve by poachers. These sick sick people cut off her horn and left her to bleed to death. It makes me tear up just thinking about it.

We are going to lose these beautiful creatures because of poachers. Poachers kill these animals for the horns, which have incredible prices on the black market. So there is some rich son of a bitch out there that buy these horns for what? Their supposed mystical properties? The fact that they are rare? Well, they are about to get a whole lot rarer… so sad.

My husband and I are very active people, and are both trying to get leaner bodies. As such, we have taken to drinking protein shakes before our workouts, and sometimes I use them as meal replacements. It has taken a lot of trial and error to find our favorite blend, but I think the Access shakes from Melaleuca is our winner.

I also take daily vitamins, and I have found the key to diet supplements that work is to mix and match the vitamins that you personally need. Just taking one multi has never worked for me, I find that taking my nutritional needs into consideration means that my supplements actually work, and I’m not missing anything, nor taking more of something than I need.

As I have stated in the past, I’m not a fan of diet “pills”. I think that a regimen of proper vitamins, healthy eating choices, and exercise is truly the only way to get the body you want.

If you have ever known anyone with diabetes, you have probably encountered some pretty funky breath issues.
It sucks because they really truly can’t help it! My poor husband brushes and flosses and rinses like a champ, and still has the worst breath. I can actually tell if he has a high blood sugar just by the way his breath smells. If it smells like nail polish remover? Then I am packing him into the car and heading to the ER.

He has probably tried every bad breath treatment on the market, and nothing works for long term. That’s because the problem isn’t with bacteria, as it is with people who have poor oral hygiene, but with his blood glucose levels. The only way to truly keep it in check is to maintain normal blood sugars, and hey, if he could do that, we wouldn’t have to worry about the diabetes, right?