| Project Life |

I have made a resolution to not make a resolution this year -- weird, I know.  But my theory behind it is that I always fail at my resolutions..I can't remember anytime that they have ever taken root and actually happened.

Example: Last year I made a resolution to document our years {with kids} into multiple albums I have owned for 7 years {I bought them with this plan in mind}, I have moved these albums through three houses and two renovations and they are still empty.

So in my quest to not resolute my resolutions, I'm going to complete {and admit my failure from last year & 5 other years! LOL} I'm going to take a good kick at the can and document our lives.

This isn't going to be costly, I already have the page protectors, plenty of papers, the albums & anything that I may need to produce these 6 albums.

I have seen "project life" albums {that's the brand name for this specific way of documenting aka: scrapbooking} I LOVE the way they look...but..I don't want to invest in papers, pockets, washi tape if I'm not 100% committed to it.

I have also seen friends who just print off a few photos every month and keep them in an envelope and on New Years day they do up a two page spread of their whole year.  I LOVE this idea too...and initially I thought I could do this...

Yeah RIGHT!!!  What was I thinking!?!  I take blinking photos of everything! I enjoy documenting our lives through photos, my boys {all three} LOVE to look through albums and re-live our adventures. I adore digital life, but truly my heart belongs to paper...list writing, journal keeping, photo albums, worn pages of my favorite books...there is just something about holding it in your hands.

So this is what I've done thus far; I've organized the year in photos..hokey stink that's A LOT of work!  I had over 10,000 photos from 2013 alone.  Ridiculous!

But I did it and now I'm compiling them onto 12x12 sheets to be printed. I will add some journal details on scrap paper once I get them back from the printers.  

 So here, since I've sucked at keeping up on my blog for the past year I will just post my project life pages here...Here is our trip to Hawaii in three pages:

| Home Making // Lunch Kits |

I was out for a friends birthday last night and as most ladies events go we talk about parenting, disciplining, kids being home vs. being at school, the crazy things our kids say, packing lunches....the list goes on.

 

One of the common denominators between my friends is that none of us really like to pack our kids lunches {we hear angels sing when we see the reminder that today is "fun lunch day" at school!}.  It's not that it's hard to do, but it does take time and well I don't know about you but I'd rather spend my extra time not packing lunches!  

I choose to pre-pack my kids lunches, this usually happens from 5-6pm the night before school...usually when I'm in the kitchen already preparing dinner.  This helps it so I'm not grumpy with one more thing to do before we leave the house in the am. 

In our discussion last night we spoke about kids not eating their food and about the discipline that follows.  This brought me to the boys lunches, if they don't eat what is given to them then they have to eat it before they eat their afternoon snack once home from school.  Fair right!?!

They get choices in their lunch, they can choose to eat their veggies first or last, doesn't matter to me but the rules are: you don't eat all the "good stuff" and not the veggies and you NEVER throw out food.  

My friends thought I was a little crazy when I told them my kids never throw anything out; now let me say now that our school has a strict recycling program so if perfectly-not-eaten food is thrown out it's obvious and the teacher will hold the class responsible until the person that threw it out admits to this.  

In two years of school only one of my kids tried to throw something away and it was a homemade date square.  He was full. 

Someone commented to me and said that she gives her child only what she knows he will eat at school.  I do too but I also expect that if they will have cucumbers at my table on Saturday for lunch that they will do the same at school.  I'm my kids parent, not grandparent.  My job is to prepare them so that when I'm not looking {like at school or with said grandparent} that they will still make a balanced choice. 

So I thought I would share how I take the "blech" out of making lunches and actually having the kids eat their lunch!

1. Pack their fave's // My boys don't love sandwiches so a wrap or pepperoni & crackers will do

2. They get 1 treat in their lunch // today it's fruit snacks {this changes seasonally}

3. There is always veggies and a fruit...I even raisins count as a fruit to save time and not cut up fresh fruit

4. In Kinder at our school the kids are only aloud to bring water, but JJ is able to bring juice boxes in Gr. 1 but I still just send a water bottle and just put a touch {2 Tablespoons} of ice tea in with the rest water so he'll drink the whole bottle // Each day I do this his water bottle comes home empty!
5. They get to choose at least 2 items for their lunch kit 

 And most days I send a little note personalized to each of them // I just use a recipe card that I get from the dollar store along with a sharpie that I keep in my junk drawer in the kitchen, again it is easy and adds a little sunshine to their day!

 Well That's all for today!  Let me know if any of you lovelies have any tricks up your sleeves for packing great school lunches...I'd love to know some of your tricks too!  

I'm off to go for my walk on this beautiful day then I'll be up to my eyeballs in alligators trying to make a cake for my nephew and prepare for Mother's Day. 

Hope you lovelies have a beautiful weekend and feel celebrated for the amazing job you do raising and loving on your littles! 

{XoXo}