Weekly Wrap-Up

Here is a glimpse into what my life looks like right now (besides Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad and Apple's New Schedule).

What I'm Reading:

I have not technically started it yet, but today I picked up Jennifer Weiner's new book, Best Friends Forever. I love her writing and have been waiting for something new. She is witty and endearing.

What I'm Buying:

Party Supplies for my little Monkey's Curious George birthday party. I can't wait to see Husband in the Big Yellow Hat.

What I'm Eating:

Anything containing blacks beans, corn, and rice makes me happy.

What I'm Listening to:

I love Love LOVE Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's collaborative album, Raising Sand. Their voices work so well together and their harmonies are perfect. Robert Plant's voice is as good as ever and, in my opinion, Alison Krauss has the most flawless voice of anyone I have ever heard.

What I'm Making:

I am quite proud of our new Cardboard Box Kitchen.

What I'm Perusing:

Girl's Gone Child is a refreshing look at motherhood with a creative, witty twist. I especially enjoy her haiku's.

Cardboard Box Kitchen

So, after several months of searching for a reasonably priced new or used wooden play kitchen, I decided to attempt making one myself out of old cardboard boxes. I read about this idea in Real Simple family magazine and then found pictures of examples at ohdeedoh.com

I decided to use a brownie pan for the sink and old bathroom cupboard knobs for the handles. I also used blank cd's and black tape for the burners on the stove. That is all I have for now but I would like to add more detail and cuteness to it. There are some amazing DIY play kitchens out there. I was very inspired looking at these links and might try a wooden one next... maybe.

Miss A's Super Schedule

Maybe it's the teacher in me, but I love charts and schedules and clip art and ALL THINGS LAMINATED! I am admittedly a big nerd and would take a gift certificate to Office Max or The Container Store over one to The Gap or Target any day.

So, along those nerdy lines, I decided to make Miss A a daily schedule to help her stay on track and see what we would be doing during our day. She LOVES order and will even line up her toast crusts in a neat row during breakfast and gets very frustrated with me if I mix up her toys and they are not in their correct bins/containers. So, I knew she would appreciate this.

As you can see below, the schedule has two columns: To Do and Done. Once she has completed a task or activity, she moves it to the Done column. Very easy and self explanatory. During breakfast, I explain the morning schedule and then put it on the refrigerator. During nap time, I switch it to our afternoon schedule and then go over it with her when she wakes up. Naturally, the schedule sometimes gets changed depending on moods and other factors, but I don't make a big deal of it (she has to learn to be flexible too).

For the pictures, I just used the clip art from Microsoft Office Word and printed them out in color. I laminated them and the chart with contact paper and attached the pictures with Velcro (have I mentioned that I also LOVE Velcro? Best invention EVER).

Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad

This salad is really refreshing on hot days. I added black beans to mine as well because everything is better with black beans. I couldn't get Miss A to eat it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

INGREDIENTS:

2 (15 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained
2 cucumbers, halved lengthwise and sliced
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15 ounce) can black olives, drained and chopped
1 ounce crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup Italian-style salad dressing
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Combine the beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, garlic, olives, cheese, salad dressing, lemon juice, garlic salt and pepper. Toss together and refrigerate 2 hours before serving. Serve chilled.