Pre Pre Pre Preschool

Welcome to the first Toddler Tuesday! I hope to find fun (and often frugal) activities you can do with your Toddler, and share them here. If you have activities you can also share, please list your blog or web page in the "Mr. Linky" below. This could prove to be a great resource for all us grandparents, parents, babysitters, daycare providers, aunties, and anyone who is blessed to have a Toddler in their house, whether full or part time. Today I'm sharing a web site and activities that I plan on introducing to Brayden (my 2 1/2 yr old grandson) this week, as we're taking him with us on a 4-day vacation and I was searching for some quiet activities to do with him. (Physical activities will be well taken care of with trips to the lake, a scheduled pony ride on a farm, a county fair, hiking to see a waterfall, and more!) I also needed to make sure I have indoor activities for him in case of rain. (Please no please no please no...) The web page I found is called Letter of the Week, and it's a wonderful, well-thought out Lesson Plan for preparing Toddlers (ages 2-4) for future preschool. Each week has a theme, such as cows, cars/trucks, rain, sun, eyes, kittens, etc. For each week's theme, the web site lays out a plan of age appropriate books to read, poems to read, a related nursery rhyme, and a craft or activity. It also includes activities to familiarize your child with shapes and numbers each week. What a treasure trove of great ideas on this one web page! Week 1's theme is "cows" and we happen to be visiting a farm while we're on vacation, so I thought I could easily tie in the theme. The first thing I did was check my local library (online) and see if they had the books listed, and put them on hold to pick them up tomorrow. I have also printed out the cow pictures, and packed crayons and scissors and some extra construction paper for the squares used in a second project. I've printed out the poems and songs, and we can do some of these in the car. I also cut a "Letter A" out of a piece of sandpaper and glued it on a piece of construction paper. We can talk about the Letter A in the car, and (hopefully) find signs with the letter A! There are many more activities on this web site. Do check it out! She even makes theme-related print-outs available. It can't get much more frugal than this! Now it's time for you to share your toddler activities! Please link directly to the Blog post. In order to make browsing as easy as possible, please link to your individual blog post on Toddler Activities, instead of to your main home page. You can do this by: right click on the title of the post you want to link to, click “copy shortcut” and then paste it into the form below. If you wish to use my Toddler Tuesday banner above in your blog, simply right click on it, copy it to your computer, and upload to your blog.

Introducing - Toddler Tuesdays!

I'm so lucky to live near my 2 1/2 year old grandson, Brayden. I babysit for him at least two days a week and he adds a whole lot of joy and fun to my life. He is funny, loving, active and curious -- everything you want a toddler to be! Because I'm not just a visiting Grandma, but an active babysitter, I feel a sense of responsibility to make sure Brayden's days with me take advantage of his wanting to learn new things and his curiosity about the world around him. I try to make all activities fun and in line with what he is currently curious about. For example, for the past several weeks, he has been enamored with construction equipment. We visited a construction site, read a book about trucks, played in his sandbox with scoops and buckets, etc. We both learned a lot! In this vein, I'm initiating a series on my blog called TODDLER TUESDAYS. It's for anyone who deals with toddlers (age range 2-4), whether you're the grandparent, parent, babysitter, or neighbor. These will be fun activities done in a frugal manner (little or no cost). At this age, 2 to 4 year olds are little sponges. They are full of questions, they love to learn, they love to have fun while learning. They are eager to learn new songs, read new books, try new things. And it's our job, as their caretakers, to ensure their activities not only meet their physical needs (what bundles of energy they are!), but also their mental and sensory needs as well. It's also an excellent opportunity to lay the foundation for their upcoming preschool years. So I hope you'll join me on Toddler Tuesdays, post your own Toddler Activities on your blog, and come back here and add in a link to your post. This could be a great resource for all of us! Each Tuesday there will be a place to post a link to your blog with toddler activities. It is NOT a prerequisite that activities be "frugal". See you tomorrow!

Frugal chicken recipe - Curried Chicken Salad

I've mentioned before that when the local grocery store (Kroger) has whole fryer chickens on sale for .88 a pound or less, I stock up. Although not as meaty as a roaster, I can usually get 3-4 meals out of the chicken, plus a good hearty chicken soup. In the summer, I put the carcas in the freezer for soup in the winter. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a new chicken recipe, when I found a recipe for Creamy Curried Chicken on the McCormick (spices) web page. I printed it off and filed it away for future use. I cooked the chicken as a roaster on Saturday, and we had a nice meal of roast chicken, Asparagus salad and Brown Rice. Sunday, obviously, meant leftovers, and I remembered the curry recipe I'd printed out. The Creamy Curried Chicken was a hot dish, and I was looking for something more along the lines of a summer salad and wanted it low-fat. This is what I came up with and it was wonderful! CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD (serves 2-3) 3 cups chopped cooked chicken 2 stalks celery, chopped 1/4 cup plain non-fat yogurt 2 tbsp canola oil mayonnaise 1 tsp Curry powder 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/8 tsp ground black pepper Sprinkling of toasted slivered almonds Except for almonds, mix all ingredients. Place serving on bed of lettuce and sprinkle with almonds. I served this with a fruit salad made of cantaloupe, watermelon, blueberries, raspberries and pineapple, which was the perfect accompaniment. I also served each of us a Wasa high fiber Crispbread, to use to scoop up the chicken salad. Wonderful!!! I wish I'd taken a picture of this one -- it was a pretty dish!

Reaping the bounty of my vegetable garden

I've been sorely neglecting my vegetable garden during the month of August. I have been out to pick tomatoes, green peppers and grean beans, but otherwise I find it difficult to get out and pull weeds or hoe when it's 95 degrees with 80% humidity. The New Englander in me has never adjusted to Ohio's summer weather! On Friday, Brayden and I were out and about (another excursion to watch back hoes, trip to the library, lunch at MaccaDonald's), came home and pulled into the driveway, and what do I see? Two beautiful deer -- standing in the middle of my fenced-in vegetable garden! It was a veritable Deer buffet. Although they raised their heads when Brayden and I walked a little closer to see them, they quickly returned to their munching - on MY vegetables! I shoo'ed them and waved my hands at them and they finally left the garden -- making me realize a 3 foot fence might as well be invisible, seeing how high deer can casually jump over it. I've known for awhile we have deer in our area. One morning a few weeks back I looked out towards the neighbor's back yard and saw two very very large buck, one doe, and two fawns. A gorgeous sight, to be sure, though having two large buck with antlers in the area makes me a bit nervous. You can just barely see one in the photo here. Yesterday I got out to see what the deer damage was in the garden. Tomatoes were OK and I picked three grocery bags full. Cucumbers and plants were gone. Eggplants were 90% OK. Green pepper plants were chewed on, but the green peppers were OK. Green beans are gone, but all I had left on there was what I was drying for planting next season, so I'm OK with that. They really did a number on my herb plants. One of my oregano plants was completely ripped out and another munched on severely. Rosemary plants were trampled, but I think they'll come back. Basil plants were pretty much gone. Yarrow was munched on. So if you happen to run into a very plump deer with pizza breath... Today I'll be using the bags of tomatoes, the green peppers and what was left of the oregano to make some tomato sauce for the freezer. I used to can sauce, but since I've cut back on the amount of tomatoes and other veggies I grow, I think freezer bags will do just as well, since everything will be eaten in a few short months. I'll pick eggplant and use the sauce to make ratatouille for dinner tonight. Yum!

Today's To Do List

One of the best benefits of kicking junk food to the curb and eating healthy is the increase in energy! I was feeling SO sluggish and SO tired -- and this morning I woke up, jumped out of bed, and was ready to go go go. Ahhh - that's a much better feeling than just wishing I could roll over and stay in bed all day (not that I ever did, but I definitely wanted to!). I actually exercised yesterday! Only for about 5 minutes, but whenever I start exercising after being a glorified couch potato for awhile, I get back into it slowly. I don't want my muscles to hurt, and I want my body to have time to adjust. But hey - 5 minutes today, 10 tomorrow, and off we go! I was proud of myself for doing any exercise at all! Let me also add that I've now lost 6 lbs. I know most of that was water weight and a big result of cutting sodium back drastically, but hey - 6 lbs is 6 lbs and I don't care what kind of pounds it is! I'm happy! I will admit right here for the entire world to see (or at least those who read my blog) that I'd gained back 54 lbs.... ugh! So now it's 6 down, 48 to go to get back to my "feeling healthy" weight. So my To Do List today is a bit longer than usual, but that's because I have more energy today than I've had in a long time (feels like years) and I'm taking advantage of it. (Hey, I'm no dummy!) Today's To Do List Ironing Jeff's work clothes Transfer audio book to my mp3 player Clean up and sweep deck and patio Check hot tub chemicals - turn hot tub off for 24 hours Collect all trash, upstairs and down Clean out refrigerator Change kitty litter box Take trash out to curb Grocery shopping (need some fruits and berries) Walgreens (coffee on sale) *Mail DVDs for Swapadvd.com Call Cable Company Make bed Make Jeff's breakfast Pack Jeff's lunch Laundry - wash, hang out, dry, fold, put away *Upstairs cobweb patrol *Start vacation planning/packing list Run dishwasher - put dishes away *Getting rid of old DVD's at SwapaDVD.com is really working out well for me. This morning I had requests for three DVD's in my email. I simply go to the website and print off a label, stuff each DVD into a 5x7 envelope, tape the label on, and put it in my mail box. I purchase postage on the site by using my PayPal account, so the label I print off includes postage. It couldn't be easier! I have ordered several DVD's from them (in exchange for the credits I get when I send mine off) and all have been in excellent working condition. It probably would be a bit cheaper to drive the packaged DVD's to the post office (I get charged a PayPal fee and a .50 SwapaDVD fee when I buy postage through them), but it's worth it to me just for the convenience. I've been put on a waiting list for some of the more popular (recent) DVD's, but have gotten 3 out of 6 I've been wait-listed for, so that's not bad! Considering what most Ebay sellers want for postage for DVD's these days, not to mention what NEW DVD's sell for, I am saving big bucks AND decluttering our old DVD's. It's all good! *Cob web patrol - I have a long-handled feather-duster and schedule myself to go around the entire house once a month and take a swish at wall corners. It doesn't take 10 minutes to do the entire 2-story house, and it's well worth the time spent! I don't think there's anything that makes a house look messier than cob webs in the corners! *Vacation Planning/Packing List - On September 11, Jeff and I are taking Brayden to Hocking Hills (Logan, OH) for a mini-vacation (4 days). We have a house there that we've rented before (and will rent again, I'm sure!), right on the lake and in the woods with a spectacular deck, hot tub, full kitchen, two bedrooms and every comfort you can imagine (and, might I add, much less expensive than an "average" hotel!). This will be the first time we take Brayden with us, so I want to make sure and plan activities for each day we're there (a tired two year old is a GOOD thing!). We know the county fair will be going on, and I've found a ranch that does 10 minute pony rides (Brayden has ridden a pony before and loved it), but I also want us to do some short hikes and perhaps rent a boat for a few hours. In addition to activities, I've got to plan all the "extra's" a two year old requires, including gates for stairs, portable sides for beds (he is still in a crib and we won't have one), etc. to keep him safe. Although I know both Jeff and I will be exhausted at the end of our mini-vacation, I'm REALLY looking forward to taking Brayden new places! He's so well behaved and excited when we do new things, that it's just a joy to take him with us. My daughter is doing SUCH a good job with him!! Now it's off the computer and get some of this To Do List done!