Monday
Pizza aka fend for yourselves while I’m at my teachers meeting eating tasty snacks

Tuesday
Penne with broccoli & ricotta

Wednesday
Salmon tacos (because I didn’t make it to the store that carries the good salmon last week.)

Thursday
Beef Stroganoff – crock pot!

Weekend
Rigatoni with Italian Sausage (turkey) and broccoli rabe (if I can find it!)
Potato Basil Fritatta
Potato soup with sausage and kale

Snacks
Hummus with carrots and whole grain crackers
Frozen banana shakes (banana, milk and berries)
chips with cheese dip (jim)
Go-gurt frozen (thanks Jo for the idea!)

I talked awhile back about some changes we are making in our lives. One of the things I started really thinking about was the kid’s toys. Compared to some, they may not have a ton of toys, but in my mind they have way. too. many. When I started to realize that they weren’t playing with the toys they had, I determined that I was, in fact, right. They have so many that their play room doesn’t stay clean and then they can’t find the pieces of what they want to play with. And they have so many that they don’t know what to play with.

Generally, I go through their play room about once a month and re-organize all the toys, putting all the blocks together, all the polly pockets together, all the little plastic bugs together, etc. So, after a big re-organization, I decided to transfer about 3/4 of the toys to the basement, all sealed up and properly divided. Now the playroom stays basically clean and they actually go in there and PLAY with what they have. In a month or so, I’ll swap some of they toys in the basement for what they have now. It will be like getting new toys!

But I think the biggest reason I’m thinking about all this has to do with their attitude. I’ve noticed that they are just as happy with one My Little Pony as they are 10. Honor is perfectly happy to have four matchbox cars as he is to have 50. I was thinking about an attitude of thankfulness. Do my kids need to expect to have one in every color, or should they be happy with one or two?

I think of the toys that I had when I was little. I remember being SO happy to get ONE barbie for my birthday or ONE cabbage patch doll for Christmas. And, maybe because I only had one cabbage patch when my friends had five, I want to buy things for my kids. I can afford to buy Eden a new polly pocket and Honor a new set of legos, so I do. But I’m starting to first think about if I should, not if I CAN. My end goal for my children is to have kids who are grateful for what they have and who don’t expect to get a toy every time we take a trip to the store. And I hope that attitude will transfer into adulthood and they will learn to save for what they want rather than whip out a credit card and get it RIGHT NOW. It’s a lesson that so many of us have learned the hard way and I hope that I can spare my children that one lesson by teaching them to be thankful for what they have now.