Uncategorized

April….the sun is shining, the birds are chirping…..oh, I’m sorry, that’s what I wish was happening right now.  Instead, Mother Nature has decided to play a cruel joke on us with thirty degree temps and snow……in April.   <Insert sigh of exasperation here!>  Today I am joining Anne and Jenna’s monthly Currently linkup to share what I am currently:

making:  a summer list of fun for the kids and I.  They both decided that they don’t want to go to camp this year.  Since I’m home, it’s not a necessity, like it has been in the past.  But, I may go crazy with the two of them home all day.  So I have already started creating a list of outings and things to do with them so we all survive unscathed!  I see a lot of beach days in our future.

wishlisting:  Oh man, since we recently joined Amazon Prime, I haven’t really been “wishlisting” very much.  It’s just so easy to purchase whatever I need and have it delivered in two days!  Some big purchase items that we are saving for  include a new kitchen table/chairs and some spring landscaping.

cleaning: besides my regular weekly cleaning schedule, not anything major yet.  I need to clean out the kids drawers and closets to see what they need as far as spring and summer clothing goes.  The house is also in need of a deep spring cleaning.  Since the temperature doesn’t feel very spring-like, I’m holding off until I can have my windows open and hear those birds chirping!

posting: about our Philadelphia trip that we took over spring break.  Last week I posted about Reading Terminal Market and yesterday I posted our 2 day itinerary.   I have two more posts related to the trip coming up as well.

tasting: my not-so secret chocolate stash.  I bought a bag of mini Reese’s peanut butter cups on an after-Easter clearance sale.  The family knows about them but I’ve tucked them into a cabinet so when I get an occasional chocolate craving I know they’re there.  I know where they are but for everyone else, out of sight, out of mind!

What are you currently up to?

I’ve been writing this blog for a little over a year now.  If you’re new here or even a regular reader, you’ve probably noticed that I don’t post pictures of my kids on the blog or on my social media accounts.  Sometimes this can be difficult, as I consider NY Foodie Family to be a family lifestyle blog.  I write about all the fun stuff we do as a family, including our travels, weekend fun and what we’re eating and reading.  I try to include pictures in my posts and social media that capture the essence of our fun, without showing the kids’ faces.  Prior to me starting this blog, it was a mutual decision made by my husband and I to protect the privacy of our children.

This little blog here is MY hobby.  It’s something I do for fun.  While I write about the events going on in their lives (because they also relate to me – the one paying for their activities, driving them, and cheering them on!) they don’t need their faces plastered on the internet.  I scrapbook photos of these events for the kids to have and cherish as an adult.  This blog was never meant to be an online scrapbook.  It’s a fun outlet for me to write and practice my very amateur photography skills!  It’s a public site and I have no control over who visits it.   My kids are old enough (ages 7 1/2 and almost 10) to have opinions about what is posted.  They know I have the blog, but they don’t read it.  I don’t want them to ever feel embarrassed about what I post, but I also don’t want to request their permission every time I want to post a picture of them.

Every blogger’s decision regarding pictures of their children and family is a personal one. I hope you know have a better understanding of why you don’t see pictures of my kids.

Happy Monday!  I don’t have our weekly meal plan to share since we were vacationing for part of the week.  Instead, here are a few blog posts that I read in the blogosphere this past week that I enjoyed and thought might interest you!

I am fascinated by minimalism.  Our family did a minimalist decluttering challenge in February, but I really enjoyed reading about confidence + minimalism.

I like to read about what people eat.  Not only the delicious, not-good for you foods that fill my Instagram feed, but also the every day, clean eating food.  Especially, because this is something I struggle with.  I’m always getting ideas from reading food diary posts which will hopefully get me on track for some spring clean eating.

As many of you know, I am podcast addicted.  I don’t listen to a lot of parenting podcasts, but I did find the Mom and Dad are Fighting podcast from this post.   Plus, I have another of my own podcast posts coming soon!

I am the first to admit that I am fashionably challenged.  I joke with my husband that my style is the what’s on the “clearance rack style.”  My fashion and home decorating skills definitely need some improvement.  Since I’m trying to put more effort into my fashion but I’m also budget conscious I really enjoyed 20 under $20.

Between Easter and our family’s love of eating them for breakfast, I have been hard boiling a lot of eggs.  I try to use the same timing and method every time, but sometimes I get awesome easy to peel eggs and sometimes I don’t.  I’m hoping to try this method soon!

What have you been reading in the blogosphere recently?

We’ve all heard that eating together as a family has a wealth of benefits.  With my husband’s work schedule, dinner Monday through Friday is usually just me and the kids.  At ages 11 and almost 9, their schedules are getting busier and busier.   However, it is important to me that we sit down and eat together as much as we can.

If eating dinner together doesn’t work together for your family, think about eating breakfast together.  My husband’s new job offers more flexibility in his schedule.  While we may not be able to eat dinner together, a couple mornings a week we are able to all sit at the table and enjoy breakfast together.  Why is eating together important?

Eating together as a family has many positive benefits including:

Nutritional Benefits – According to KidsHealth, family meals tend to be more nutritious.  I can vouch for this, knowing that I’m cooking healthy, home-made meals.   Even on busy nights, I’ll use the slow cooker and we’ll eat early rather than grabbing fast food.

Developmental Benefits –  KidsHealth also noted that teens who regularly eat family meals are less likely to smoke, drink alcohol or use drugs.  They are also learning and practicing communication and conversational skills.

Academic Benefits – According to Health.com a CASA report found that children who ate frequently with their families tended to get better report grades.  Children engaged in regular conversations with adults are exposed to more advanced vocabulary words.

Suggestions to help make the most of your family meal time:

*No Electronics at the table – We follow this rule both at home and when dining out.  No ipods, video games, or tablets at the table, including mom and dad’s cell phones.  Only when we are having a special family dinner/movie night will we eat dinner together while watching a movie.

*No Reading – If we let our daughter bring a book to the table, she’d read at every meal.  On weekend mornings we’ll sit at the table and read the paper while we eat breakfast.  However, there is no reading at the dinner table.

*The Peak and The Pit –  This activity has other names including “The Peak and The Valley,  The Rose and the Thorn”, etc.  Regardless of what you call it, each person gets a chance to tell about the best thing and the worst thing that happened that day.

*Family Dinner Book Club – Jodie at Growing Book By Book, hosts a Family Dinner Book Club.  Each month, a new book is chosen and discussion/conversation starters, table decorations, and even a sample dinner menu are provided!    This has been on my “to-do” list for awhile and is something that I hope to try soon with the kids.  If the current month’s chosen book doesn’t interest you, you can always check out some of the previous book club choices.

*Cook a Meal Together – This is most likely to be able to occur on the weekend, but pick a recipe that the whole family can help prepare together.  We’ve had fun making dumplings as a family.  It’s fun to eat a meal that you all helped make.  We’ve also had fun having Cupcake Wars.  We formed two teams and each created a cupcake.  This can also be done with cookies, muffins, doughnuts, etc.

Links to additional resources to help make the most of your family dinner time:

The Family Dinner Project – a whole movement and website devoted to enjoying meals together as a family.

Fun Themes for Family Dinnertime from She Knows

How do you make the most of your family dinner time?

Today I’m joining Stephanie and the other ladies for another edition of The Kids Behind the Blog.   I enjoy interviewing my kids and seeing their responses to the monthly questions.  I interview them separately so they don’t influence each other’s answers.  My (D)aughter turns ten next month and my (S)on is 7 1/2.  After asking her these five questions my daughter was disappointed, “that’s it?!  I want more questions!”  I told her she had to wait until next month!  Here are this month’s questions:

1. What do you enjoy doing with mom and dad?

D: I enjoy going on vacations and doing fun stuff like camping and doing outdoor things.

S: I like going to amusement parks.

2.  Name one thing you’re really good at.

D: I’m really good at writing stories like an author.

S: Drawing and doodling.

3. What’s one thing mom and dad tell you often?

D: To stop fighting with my brother and that you love me on my very best and very worst of days.

S: Worry about yourself.

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?

D:  I have no idea!  I’m stuck between a teacher, doctor, author and scientist.

S:  Three things:  an artist, a teacher and a scientist

5. What do you think mom and dad do when you go to bed at night?

D: Kiss – just kidding!  Watch TV shows, read books and play Candy Crush.

S:  I think dad plays Forza (Xbox One game) and you are cuddled up on the couch playing Candy Crush.

*So they might know that I like to play Candy Crush!

I will freely admit that my idea of a good night usually involves me in my pajamas, sitting on the couch and either a) reading a good book, b) eating popcorn while watching a movie or c) binge-watching a television show on Netflix.  I thought it would be nice to share what the family and I have been watching lately and offer some possible viewing recommendations.

If you’d like some Mother-Tween Daughter Bonding:

American Girl:  Grace Stirs Up Success – My daughter and I watched this movie earlier in the week on Netflix, when she was home sick.  If your daughter loves anything American Girl, like my almost 10 year old does, than she will probably enjoy this movie.  Grace Thomas was the 2015 Girl of the Year and Grace Stirs Up Success is the most recent American Girl movie.  Grace loves bike riding and baking, often helping her grandparents in their bakery.  She ends up unexpectedly spending most of her summer in France, assisting her uncle in his French pastry shop.  As is typical of these movies, conflicts occur and lessons are learned by various characters.

If you’re in the mood for a comedy:

The Intern – I end up putting a lot of new DVD releases on hold at the library, not always knowing a lot about the movie.   This was the case with this movie, which was released on DVD in September of 2015.  Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) ends up participating in an intern program at e-commerce fashion start up About the Fit, which is run by founder Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway).  Although he’s the “intern,” Ben ends up teaching everyone else a thing or two.  This was a funny, feel-good movie.

If you want to watch a documentary:

Twinsters – I recently watched this documentary of Netflix after hearing about it on the Spawned podcast.  This is the true-life story of identical twins born in South Korea, separated at birth, adopted by two different families.  A YouTube video ends up being the catalyst for these two girls to “meet” over the internet and realize that they might be sisters.  This was super interesting, maybe more so for me since I was adopted from South Korea as a baby.  This is one of those instances where if it wasn’t for technology, this reunion probably wouldn’t have happened.

If you want a family movie night:

Hotel Transylvania 2 –  This sequel to Hotel Transylvania was released on DVD in September 2015.  We just got it in from the library and watched it this week when my daughter was home sick and my son had an early dismissal from school due to inclement weather.  In this movie, Mavis and Johnny reveal to Drac that she is pregnant.  Soon their son Dennis is born, but no one is sure if Dennis will have vampire powers, which they will know by his fifth birthday.  The movie focuses mainly on the struggle of Mavis wanting to give Dennis a “normal” human life and her father preparing him to be a vampire.  The kids enjoyed this movie.

If you want to binge watch a show:

Homeland – This show airs on Showtime and has recently finished its fifth season.  Seeing that we don’t get cable (or Showtime) and its not available on Netflix, I have been borrowing the DVDs from the library.  My husband and I have been binge watching this show, and have just finished watching season 2.  This series is a political thriller, starring Clare Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA officer, and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a U.S. Marine Sergeant, who was held as a prisoner of war in Iraq for eight years.  This is a fast paced, suspenseful show!

What have you been watching lately?

Welcome to another week of tips and try-its.  Here are five things you might like to try this week:

1. Clean our your purse –  Collect all of the receipts and throw out all the expired coupons, dirty tissues and empty gum wrappers.  Go through and decide if you need each of the items in your bag.

2.  “5 Ways to Love Parenting More” – On episode 364 of the Mighty Mommy podcast, host Cheryl describes five ways that we can love being a parent more.  Her suggestions are a nice reminder to have more fun as a parent.

3.  Eat a bowl of chili – The last Thursday of every month, (February 25th this year) is National Chili Day.   I’m not a fan of beans in my chili and we all enjoyed this chili from Melanie Makes.

4.  Write a note and put it in your child’s lunch bag –  My kids love getting surprise notes or jokes in their lunch bags.  I don’t do it often and when I do, I don’t let them know so they are surprised when they go to eat!  Here is a great collection of printable jokes and notes.

5. Go for a walk – Are you getting in the recommended minimum of 10,000 steps a day?  I don’t belong to a gym and my Fitbit has not been put to good use.  I am not tracking anywhere near 10,000 steps daily.   Besides tennis and yoga, I’m trying to increase my physical activity by taking walks.  The weather is getting nicer and I can listen to podcasts while I get in some steps.  Why don’t you get out and get some steps in too?!

So here we are, half-way through February, and I thought I’d give you a quick update on our family minimalist challenge.  As a family we agreed to declutter and get rid of things everyday throughout the month of February – on February 1st, one thing, the 2nd, two things and so on.  Today is February 18th and we are getting rid of eighteen things.

My husband and I have been cleaning out our closet and have ended up getting rid of a lot of clothing and shoes.  I have also been getting rid of my old teaching things – books, games, supplies, etc.  We are counting each article of clothing as one item and each book as a single item as well.   We have been having the kids get rid of only one item daily, and most of those items so far have been books.  My son reminded me that right before Christmas we had done a big room cleanout in preparation for their new presents and they both got rid of a lot of stuff then.  He’s right, but there’s always more things they can get rid of!

I’ve realized that we haven’t been too systematic about how we are gathering things to get rid of.  So, for the rest of the month, I really want to focus on going through area by area in the house to figure out what we want to keep and what we want to get rid of.  Overall though, so far, my husband and I have been finding it easy to get rid of things and honestly, I think we could probably find enough “stuff” for another month of this challenge……but we’ll see!

Have you been decluttering?

Welcome to the second edition of Tuesday Tips and Try-Its.  I thought this would be a fun little feature sharing some quick ideas and other fun stuff from around the web.

1.  Quick cleaning tip: The flu season is still among us.  We all know that you can help fight germs by washing your hands and using hand sanitizer.  Take a minute and use disinfecting wipes or your household cleaner of choice and wipe down all the light switches and door knobs in your house.  These are some of the most high-traffic germ areas which you can disinfect in a matter of minutes.

2.  Tax time – Yes, sorry to remind you that it’s tax season.  Here’s a reminder to make your tax appointment, or if filing your taxes yourself, set a date when you will sit down and actually do them!  As our tax documents have been coming in we have been storing them in a manila folder so that they are all together.  You can check out this article to see what’s new for your 2015 tax return.

3.  Visit Nantucket – The weather’s freezing but you can pretend it’s summer and you’re on the island of Nantucket by reading Island Girls by Nancy Thayer.  Join three estranged sisters (from three different moms)who must spend the summer together at their deceased father’s house, if they have any hopes of an inheritance.  This is a fun, summer-themed read that will make you wish the weather was warmer and you were on a beach in Nantucket!

4. Try Yoga – I posted about Yoga Camp in my most recent Friday Favorites.  From YouTube channel Yoga with Adriene comes a 30 day Yoga Camp.  If you’ve never tried yoga before or have been out of practice, like I have, this is a great way to get back into it.

5. Bake – Cold weather is a perfect excuse to bake something.  I’m partial to muffins, since I can freeze them.  Try these Chocolate Chip Coffee Muffins!

Today I am joining Stephanie, Crystal, Beth, Meghan and Jessica for their first The Kids Behind the Blog link-up.   I love the concept of this link-up.  We ask our kids the monthly questions and share their responses.  It’s a great way to get to know my family a little better and I’m looking forward to this monthly link-up.  My daughter (D) will be 10 in April and my son (S) is 7 1/2.  It was so much fun interviewing them to get their responses!

1. Where is your favorite place to go?

D:  The Melting Pot (a fondue chain restaurant) and Disney World.

S: Disney World.

2. Who is your best friend?

D:  Arlin and Lizzie.

S:  Julian and Anthony.

3. If you could be a superhero, what would your superpower be?

D: Flying because I could look over the world and I think it would be cool.

S:  To make my dreams come true.

4. What is your favorite candy?

D: Lollipops – I really like the Tootsie Pops.

S: Gum.

5. Who is your valentine?

D: My friends.

S: You (me!)