3 Days Naked- a three year old with the flu

My three year old go the flu-like bug that's been going around. Oy, it's just beyond awful. I had it last week but in kids instead of just aches and pains, it has been a full 6 days of fever *plus* a cough and cold.

After one day home with a fever, she took off all her clothes and declared, "I need to be naked. Clothes don't feel good on my body". And so passed 36 hours...

We finally wrangled her into clothes with the inducement of seeing her grandparents, so she wore clothes for about 4 hours on Sunday, then took them off and went back to all natural:)

Monday morning, she declared it, "a naked day". Totally fine, I just kept hoping that even though she's potty trained, that she wouldn't have an accident while napping on our leather living room couch in the middle of the day.

Yesterday, she went to Ikea wearing shoes, socks, underwear and a raincoat...

Then finally, finally, this morning, she got fully dressed and agreed to go to preschool. Also, she wanted to "go to the place with all the beautiful things and the toothbrushes" (the dentist).

I'm hoping that when I pick her up from preschool in half an hour that she has remained clothed! Pin It

What to Do With Leftover Baby Food

It's possible, that like baby Yoyo, your child made a very quick transition from the pureed baby food....

to what we call "people food".

So, before I knew it, I was left with tons and tons of purees that my baby won't touch, preferring instead, scrambled eggs, avocados, turkey bacon (he loves to suck on anything salty), beans and rice, chicken...

I've written before about what to do with the glass baby food jars. With our third child, I was having an eco-friendly moment and turned the glass jars into mason jar sippers, gilded vases, painted votives...

Alas, with the 4th baby came not only a return to plastic containers of baby food, but also any crafting desire I had before is now gone. Cooking and baking are still high up on my list of things that I don't delegate (see how I decide, refuse, and delegate here).

My favorite recipes to make with baby food:

Banana Bread

Carrot cake (yummy, smooth, no weird textural issues)

Spagetti sauce (there is possibly nothing else to do with leftover green beans, just throw a little in)


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Mothering Boys

The biggest difference between mothering girls and boys?

Boys need MUCH more active time. Run them, before school, after school, before bedtime... Like a dog except that they can talk:)

Boys eat MUCH more food. Possibly a generalization, however, when I pack lunches, my 5 year old boy will eat almost twice as much food as my 7 year old daughter, and then he will eat her leftovers in the car on the way home from school. I can't even begin to imagine what life will be like with 2 teenage boys under my roof.

Boys are so LOUD.

Boys are noise covered in dirt. A true statement, but also misses the sweetness, and usual lack of manipulation that I've noticed in the other gender (cough-girls-cough).

What have you noticed?

Jessica

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How to Recover from an "Off" Day

Tuesday was just an off day for me. I'm open to the idea that it was this because it started off with the horrific news from Israel, but usually I am able to compartmentalize sad/tragic news (lots of experience with this over the summer and the war) and it doesn't make me upset and fussy like a baby for an entire day. My brilliant friend Nicki wrote about the attacks and her response here.

So, faced with the reality that I was going to be basically useless on a day when I had tons of things to do, I decided to take action, and to do everything in my power to shake off the icky-ness.

• I snuggled with the two little kids.
• I ate breakfast, and fueled my body with yogurt, almond butter, and blueberries.
• I put on my workout clothes to set myself up for success.
• I did 30 Day Shred, level 3, a for-sure-to-sweat exercise video that got my heart pumping
• I allowed myself to surf the internet aimlessly, and put fantasy clothes (sequin ball gown) in my online shopping cart, without actually buying anything
• I turned up some happy music (Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams) and danced around my kitchen while making dinner *way* ahead of time, so that the evening wouldn't be rushed.
• I baked some oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies to put in kid lunches as treats
• I picked up my preschooler and we sang Frozen songs in the car on the way home
• I took a walk with a girlfriend (seeing friends and socializing is very healthy for you)
• I picked up my kindergartner, took him to speech class, and read a really funny book during the wait (Andy Cohen's new one)
• I held hands with above-mentioned kindergartner and we skipped, jumped and hopped our way to the car...

After all of that, I still had a kid dentist appointment for the 3 big ones, we ate dinner as a family, I put the baby to bed, snuggled and talked with the 2nd grader, then went to bed myself at 8:30.

Sometimes we just have those days. And this week, I felt good knowing that I was doing everything in my power to make the day better, and instead of curling up in a ball (maybe with unhealthy food), I stayed healthy, and strong, and set a good example for my kids about what to do when we don't feel our best.

Any other tips I might have missed? Since winter and sick-days are approaching, I'm sure that I'll have other days where I need new pick-me-up ideas.

Jessica

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How to Make School Lunch without Losing Your Mind

Now that school has been in session a few months, the newness of packing lunches has worn off, and the (potential) drudgery has set in.

I would love to be a school lunch wizard like local blogger Wendolonia, who photographs he two sons' lunches each day. She does crazy-amazing things with bento boxes, alphabet punches, and edible markers.

Instead, I'm just trying to make my mornings run more smoothly, and try to remember who needs to ear a PE shirt, and who has art today (which means clothes that can get really messy). So, in my juggling act with 4 kids, I aim to make lunches for the week ahead of time on Sunday, and put them in the fridge all ready to go for the week.

I use these super simple containers for the lunches, with occasional silicon cupcake molds for dividing the main compartment, and plastic ball jars (see my post here) for snacks.

My go-to lunches?

• PB&J sandwiches
• Apples with peanut butter
• Smoked Salmon roll-ups in a whole wheat tortilla (for one kid)
• Leftover pancakes with pb&j
• waffles with cream cheese and strawberries
• apple "sandwiches" with peanut butter and raisins
• carrots and hummus
• mini-pita pizzas
• overnight oatmeal
• homemade granola
• trail mix (we make our own)

I also adore baking, so we usually make one or two batches of muffins (or really anything that is cooked in a muffin pan) for weekly snacks. Some recipes are totally made up, some are from 100 Days of Real Food (either the blog or the book), or from my favorite cookbooks.

• Chocolate avocado banana muffins (made up with help from the 3 year old)
• Gluten Free Apple Spice Muffins
• Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
• Pumpkin Spice Muffins
• Banana Raisin Muffins
• Oatmeal chocolate chip muffins (or cookies)

Tips:

• Adding some cocoa powder or chocolate chips to *anything* makes it more appealing
• vary the size, mini muffins or regular size
• try to keep fruit and veggies small and cut up so kids can eat them easier
• let your kids help you decide which items will be for lunch this week
• almost any baked good can be frozen, then defrosted overnight in the fridge
• mini-pizzas can be frozen (after baking), and defrost in the fridge. My kids will eat them cold!
• vary the fruits each week (or every day)

I've written about a week of kindergarten lunches, what I learned after 1 year of lunch packing, how to pack a zero waste lunch, and you can also check out what I packed the first week of school in first grade. So clearly, this is something I've spent  lot of time thinking about!

Jessica

Products that make lunch-packing easier. As always, these affiliate links are only for products that I've already purchased and loved!

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Happy 6 months!

Baby #4 (Yoyo by nickname) is 6 months old! I'm so, so happy that we added him to our family. He is a pleasure to have as a baby, mellow, easygoing, and very happy. Plus his ears stick out just a bit, which alternately make shim look like an elf, and reminds me of my grandfather for whom he was named.

He has blonde hair and blue eyes. He loves to eat baby food, and happy pulls my fingers into his mouth to chew on. He also enjoys chewing on any food that might be on my fingers: bread, green beans, orange segments, hummus... He will even chew on the Baby Bjorn, teething much?

                

While he won't take a bottle or a sippy cup yet (which means that I'm always within 2-3 hours of nursing him), he has slowly started taking a little water from a sippy, so I'm hopeful that I can wean him around 10 months, so that my husband and I can go away alone!

Yoyo can't yet sit up, but that might be our fault, with 4 kids, we sometimes forget to let him practice that skill:) But he loves the swing!

Jessica

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How to Know When There is Too Much TV?

Quick ways to know when the TV watching has gone overboard:

• My almost 3- year old wants a "purple horse that flies, just like Sophia" for her birthday

• When, "What does Elsa eat in her ice castle"? is a legitimate conversation topic with your spouse

• When you justify your tummy pooch by thinking that if Caillou's mommy has one, then it must be normal.

• When you mumble channel numbers in your sleep, "289 for Disney Junior..."

• When you are getting dressed to go out and find yourself humming the Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme song

• When playing with miniature horses and the two year old names them: Elsa, Anna, Sofia, Dora, Cinderella...

And yet, with four kids, heck even when I had three kids, I'm much more willing to let them watch TV than I was before.

Our first watched no TV at all until she was 2, and since she had a 4 month old brother at the time, it was only on airplanes or long car rides. The second one started watching on airplanes and in the car (rides longer than 2 hours count for me) when he was 18 months. He adored shows, which was helpful on 6 hour cross-country flights when our first wouldn't sleep or watch shows, and would only cry or vomit. Fun times:)

When we had our third, I was willing to let the older two watch TV as a special treat during the week or on weekends. So maybe 22 minutes in the morning if the baby was fussy and I was on my own. Or an hour on the weekend during nap time so I could have a minute to myself.

Continue on to pregnancy with number 4, and all rules were out the window. Six weeks of bed rest and I was happy to let any of them watch as much TV as they could outside of meals, school, and sleeping. Total this was maybe 30 minutes to 2 hours a day, depending on how much help I had.

We've scaled back since the baby was born and I'm back on my feet as a fully functional parent:) TV is a treat during the week, maybe 2-3 days a week they get half an hour, probably in the morning if we are done with breakfast early, all bags and lunches packed, clothes and shoes on, sunscreen on...
Weekends offer maybe an hour a day for them, although that first child just isn't that into it. Maybe we restricted it too much when she was younger and now she won't watch?

What's your TV/screen time policy?

Jessica

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4 Kids- the neverending balancing act

Life is always a balancing act. Today it struck me that it's also about juggling, and each member of our family needs their own time and attention. Specifically, they each need time and attention from ME!

Here's the rundown of what they each needed from me in the last 24 hours:

Husband: to have lunch together, the address for a friend to whom he needs to send a thank you note, the location of our stationary to write said thank you note, help finding his wallet, input about the iphone 6 versus the iphone 6 plus, validation that what he does professionally really does help the world, breakfast and dinner.

7 year old: for me to listen to her read for 15 minutes, sign off on reading work, help her pack a lunch, taste test of seaweed snacks and brainstorming other snacks that she might enjoy more than the chocolate zucchini muffins that have been in her lunch the last two weeks, time to talk about her friends, who has a crush on whom...

5 year old: for me to listen to him explain how bees carry pollen from flower to flower, the blessings for apples and honey that he learned in kindergarten, to sunscreen him, help putting on his "tricky" shoes, me to choose his clothes, read to him, discuss how tunnels are built...

2 year old: countless replays of Frozen, putting on Netflix for the Barbie Dreamhouse shows, taking the green things out of her hamburger at dinner, extra books at bedtime, changing her diaper, doing her hair in ponytails, sunscreen, socks and shoes, snuggling in the afternoon so she can recount her soccer practice watching at preschool, check for head lice since there was an outbreak at school...

5 month old: nursing 6-8 times a day, baby food 4 times a day, 10 diaper changes, playing with him, music class, dangling fun toys over his head, practice sitting up, clapping as he rolls over, take two different supplements to keep my milk supply up...

Me (can't forget me): exercise, get nails done before holidays, shower, apply moisturizer and eye serum, reply to all emails, take a minute to read blogs/magazines and rest.

Plus none of this takes into account the basics: breakfast, lunch, dinner, 2-3 snacks, making sure we have toilet paper, diapers, wipes, sunscreen, actually bathing the kids...

In short, 4 kids feels like a bazillion, and it's constantly assessing priorities and reshuffling so that everyone's needs are met, and a few of the wants get met too.

Any great advice for the juggling act of parenthood?

Jessica

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My Seven Year Old

She is 7!

Which means we have been parents for 7 years. Also, that we have been changing diapers every day for 7 years... (4 kids, the 7 year old has been potty trained since age 2.75)

We threw her what I think was the easiest and cheapest birthday party ever. I thought of titling this post "cheap and easy" but realize that it could be misread;)





She made pottery pieces to be made into a mobile and we had milkshakes. These are her "summer friends". Another "school friends" birthday party (with pottery painting and cake) will take place after school starts.

Amazingly, our range was fixed that day (5.5 weeks with only a microwave and a BBQ for cooking), so her birthday waffles were made on the BBQ.

I'm very much looking forward to 7. Six was a *wee* bit sassy for my liking. So much so that at 6.5 I was downloading the book, "Your 6 year old" to make sure this was all normal:)





She loves her siblings, and really shines when she is with each one-on-one. She learned how to ride a two-wheeler this summer and is already wanting to go mountain biking on trails! She also mastered swimming freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke this summer. We are reading Little House on the Prairie together at night, and she is reading Rainbow Fairy books on her own. She loves chess, and likes to play with my husband at night before bed (bedtime of 7:15), or on her bedazzled computer. Here she is sitting in her closet playing chess on the computer:)

Jessica

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10 Things That Have Gone Wrong This Summer

1. Our range broke in our shiny new vacation home and I've had to improvise with cooking everything in the microwave, Vitamix, or on the BBQ

2. It is H-O-T in our "glass box in the woods". More like "greenhouse in the woods", and we didn't install air conditioning

3. When I open the doors to attempt to get a breeze going, the occasional squirrel or chipmunk runs inside. I solved this by purchasing 30" screens to put in the bottom half of the doors.

4. Our previously sleeping through the night baby started waking up 6 (!!!) times each night.

5. Our 2.5 year old broke my husband's phone and now he's using my old, old one with a JCrew case (anchor themed)

6. I broke my phone and had to pay to buy a new one (we were all out of old phones)

Hmm, I know there were more...

It must be a good thing that I can't think of them at this moment. In the end, we rediscovered something about ourselves, we are not complainers.

I've been without a range for 3 weeks and it's actually pretty fun making things on the grill. For example this morning I made: frozen waffles, grilled peaches, and turkey bacon. We've put our pans on the grill for eggs, used it as an oven with a baking sheet, grilled every vegetable and fruit there is, and discovered a *love* for grilled homemade pizza.

There is no good side of being super hot, except that I've discovered that like shorts, and find fun patterns at JCrew Factory online (styles here).

I'm trying to sleep-train the baby (3 months old) by sleeping on the couch or in our 6 year old's room, which teaches me that her room (our sometimes guest room) is pretty uncomfortable for adults, so I've ordered a second nightstand and I'm thinking of upgrading her pillows.

Also- jersey sheets are the worst in hot weather.

My husband is clearly very secure in his masculinity (I probably knew this since he wears pink dress shirts), but he's pretty adorable with my nautical phone cover;)

And one again I've learned that 48 hours without a phone will not hurt me. I don't need to check Facebook while nursing (my preferred activity other than staring at baby eyes).

Ooh- also, my super-chattiness and perkiness paid off and I got to upgrade my phone 7 months early since I was "so sweet" on the phone.

Any big lessons for you this summer?

Jessica

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168 Hours- one week as a Stay at Home Mom

Since it feels like I spend 80 hour a week nursing, I've had lots of time for reading these last 10 weeks since the birth of #4. I purchased a real paperbound book (shocker, since I'm addicted to my Kindle for one-handed reading), and I'm totally loving it. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam is about time management, how we use our hours each week, and how to find time to "have it all".

The best part for the type-A, spreadsheet loving me was the time log. It's in the book (or on her website) and you record what you are doing each hour (or half hour), every day for one week. At the end you can look back at your 168 hours and see where you actually spent your time.


My time log turned up the following:

Sleep: 59 hours

Kids: 29

Husband: 6.5

Shower/Getting ready: 3

Exercise: 4.5

Reading: 14

TV: 4.5

Internet: 2.5

Friends: 8

Family: 6

Religious: 3

Volunteer: 2.5

Food: 13 (includes meal planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning)

Nursing: 23

Total: 178.5

There are more than 168 hours here since some time was double counted (like nursing and reading). I tried to choose my primary activity, so if it was a walk with a friend I decided if it was more exercise or friend time. And the "kid" category was just when I was interacting with kids, not when I was cooking and they were watching TV...

My biggest take-away was that I really am not spending too much time on the internet. I read a few blogs, clearly I'm not blogging myself much anymore! The majority of my email-reading and Facebooking is on my phone while nursing, pretty good alignment of tasks.

I'm also reading a lot, 14 hours is about 1400 pages at the speed I read, which seems right, about 3 books per week. When on bed rest I read 33 books in 6 weeks, but I was just laying down all day!

The other best part? I am getting in plenty of friends and family time. Plus I even snuck in a lunchtime sushi date with my husband in addition to talking each night and an hour with a glass of wine on our deck watching the sunset.

This summer I am going to aim for even less Tv and internet, more exercise, and keeping everything else about in line.

How do you spend your 168 hours?

Jessica

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Moms- We Are Doing Enough

Yep, whatever it is. Whether watching TV or reading a book to your kid, it's enough. Since it's Mother's Day I've been thinking about all that ridiculous mommy guilt and the comparing and competing we (the mommies) engage in. So I'm deciding to end it all and declare that whatever I am doing, it is enough.

So on Friday when I took the 4 week old in the car, then left him in said car with the nanny so I could attend my 2 year old's tea party at preschool, that was enough. Because I wanted baby #3 to have my undivided attention for the entire 22 minutes that I was in her classroom, sitting at a table with a name card she made (a handprint flower, awww), and we sipped lukewarm chamomile tea and ate cheddar cheese finger sandwiches. At a table for two, "we are all alone at our table". That's what my little princess told me, something that rarely happens in a family with 4 kids. We sipped tea and ate and talked and placed our napkins on our laps. Then she refolded her napkin multiple times, pointed ot her favorite things in the classroom, and we talked our "her baby" and how he was all hers and what she would teach him when he was big enough for preschool.

Miraculously the newborn slept the entire time so when I came out he was just waking up and I nursed him in the car before heading home.

And sometimes (or a lot of times), I let my almost-5 year old watch TV shows or play educational computer games because that will entertain him and keep him quiet. My 2 year old knows how to turn on her own Kindle Fire and watch Frozen or Umi Zoomi or "the funny one". My 6 year old gets read to each day and her homework is done each week, but somedays she goes to school in the same clothes as the day before because I don't want to fight with her over clothes one more day.

But this year, 2014, is the year that it is all enough. I am enough. They are getting enough. Because the most important "thing" is love, and with parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles each one of them is getting more than enough love.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers, grandmothers, and mothers-in-waiting.

Jessica

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Baby #4 is here!

He arrived just a bit before his due date 2 weeks ago and caused WAY more drama than I would have liked for my fourth labor and delivery. Of course I'll stick to the traditional "mom and baby are both doing well", if you don't want any details:)

This is my only shot of all six of us so far...

We must be doing something right (or there are so many of them that the kids don't notice the new addition!?!), since all three kids are adjusting easily. Our 2.5 year old keeps calling him "my baby" and wanting to hold him. Our almost-5 year old is happy, has nicknamed the baby "Nicky-Mickey", and is in alt over the gifts (Legos and a new Rokenbok construction machine) that the new baby brought him. Our 6.5 year old is playing it cool in front of others, but in private is super excited, wanting to hold the baby, get him up from a nap (not until he stops being so floppy!), and is being extra loving and helpful with the other kids. Checkout my tips on adding a new baby to the family the last time we did it.

Thankfully we live near both sets of my parents (mom and stepdad, dad and stepmom), so we've had a TON of help. Like you-can't-believe-it level help. My mom and stepdad took the 3 older kids for 2 weeks! They are only 2 miles away so we still saw some combination of kids almost every day, but the alone time to bond with the new baby was amazing. Seriously, I had forgotten how incredibly hard recovery is. I'm contemplating writing a post about the labor and delivery and recovery, but it might just be too much information, still trying to weigh the benefit of me writing it down and my strong desire to forget it as soon as possible!

Jessica

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Best Kid Books ages 4-6

Here are our current favorites for the 4 year old boy and 6 year old girl in our family:

 Because how can you go wrong with American Girl dolls? OK, don't answer that, it all starts with a *doll* that is $110, but beyond that, I love the books, historical characters, and age appropriate writing. When I was little I had Molly, so we read about the rationing and victory gardens of World War II, and my sister had Samantha, so we read about the Victorian era, embroidery, gloves, and good manners.

 

Easy readers that aren't so annoying you'll want to shoot yourself after the first time through.

The book, Everyday Machines is great, although out of print. Anything that explains how things work is awesome, and the illustrations in this one are both mind-bendingly awesome, and detailed.

Far and away, our son's favorite book. Who wouldn't love a detailed and illustrated account of how to build a medieval cathedral? We know discuss flying buttresses, gargoyles, and double vaulted ceilings with regularity. Other books by this author are equally fabulous,  comes to mind as a current, bridge, dam, and tunnel building fave.

What are your kids reading?

Jessica

This page contains affiliate links to products I own and love.

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My Baby Started Preschool Today!

I'm a little bit in shock, since over he last 24 hours my baby has gone from a 1 and 364 days year old, to a solid 2 year old, who went to her first day of preschool this morning.

To further prove that she is her own child, and the third, she waltzed right into the classroom like she belonged there and never looked back!

Any big happenings in your world?

Jessica

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Popping Corn off the Cob

Last year was my first year doing this and it was super exciting. Or not "super", but I was amazed that it actually worked! 

First you take popping corn, the yellow ears in the photo above, not the multi-colored Indian corn, which is apparently only for show. Sidenote- Then why is it corn? Why can't we eat it? Who invented this idea? 

Ok, I'm back.

Next you let your corn dry out, maybe a few weeks to a month.

Then you put it in a paper bag, fold over the end, and put it in the microwave.

Let it pop until the popping slows (about 2 minutes) or until you smell burning. In which case, toss the bag and corn and start again.

Think of this as a neat party trick, or something to entertain your kids on a cool/wet/drizzly/sick autumn afternoon:)

Jessica

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School Year Slump

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the blogosphere, I've just been busy making these:

This was week 1 of school. See how nice and bento-boxed the lunches were? And variety! Some pb&j, some cheese and crackers, lentils, a variety of fruit options, plus I added homemade trail mix on top for snack.

It was all for this one who started first grade!

But now, I'm so tired, and crazy-pants busy, that she's been packing her own lunches. Less pretty and nutritionally balanced, but still good. And I promise, next week, I'll make them again.

The 4 year old has been adorable, and lovely, and inventive.

Even this one, the 22 month old who is desperate to be in preschool, has been putting on a cute face. 

So I'll put on my big girl blogger pants and try to get back in the swing of things next week. We have a  a backlog of party and food ideas, and even a completed backyard play structure, that I haven't blogged about.

Happy end-of-September my friends.

Jessica

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Inspiring a Culture of Giving

Family Friday, is really growing on me. Here's a belated look at one of our heart-warming summer moments.

Our construction loving 4 year old somehow found out about the horrific tornadoes earlier this summer. He was sad, but also really interested in the idea of how a tornado could demolish a school.

All on his own, he decided to empty out his piggy bank to "give the money to the kids from the school that got demolished. They will need to rebuild it".

We are so proud of him, and his sweet heart that immediately wanted to help. Of course it took us a bit to figure out how to get a ten pound piggy bank of coins (mostly collected pennies) to Oklahoma. Finally, we realized we could take it to our local grocery store, drop everything into the Coinstar machine and he could chose which charity to give his money to.

There was $37.12 in his bank, over $27 in pennies alone! We chose to give the money to the Red Cross. I think all our talking about money and giving has really paid off, now we just have to keep it up!

Jessica

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Best Kid Books: Ages 2-4

Here are a few of my favorites that our 22 month old is just aging into and our 4 year old still enjoys. Any book that 2 of the 3 kids will sit quietly for is pretty amazing in my book:)

My 4 year old loves construction (remember the construction machine birthday party?), so for obvious reasons he adores Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site. 

He never went through the train phase, but the Duffy Driver and the Little Red Train compilation of books is really well written, and British, so you just feel smarter reading them.

Madeline is a classic, and easy to memorize, so he can "read" it to himself. Even the baby can complete the last word on each page. In an old house in Paris that was covered in.... "Vines!"

Princess and the Potty, worked wonders for our 6year old and is an engaging story.

And of course, the Panda Bear version of the classic Brown Bear books. We have them all, and this one focuses on endangered species, which gives a nice opportunity for talking about the environment and our responsibilities as stewards for our planet. Sorry, didn't mean to go all hippy-skippy on you there;)

my testers

The affiliate links above are just to make it easy if you need to get any gifts for small people anytime soon:)

Another fun Family Friday...

Jessica

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Healthy Homemade Trail Mix

Happy Labor Day! 

Don't let the holiday fool you. You still need to pack your kids lunch this week...

With the beginning of school here, I find myself stumbling around looking for good lunchbox solutions (see my favorite school lunches here). 

Healthy trail mix is one of my favorites since you can mix it up, it stores well, and my kids get in on the act.

My favorite ingredients include:

• Almonds
• Macadamia nuts
• Cashews (chose 1 or 2 nuts)
• Coconut Flakes
• Dried Cranberries
• Dried Blueberries (dried fruit of any kind)
• Chocolate chips

You can even make this, dare I say it, educational, by taking the time to count, weight, sort and measure the ingredients. Which totally makes it fall into the DIY category, by the way:)

Plus stacking them in my go-to lunch containers is always a fun:)

Jessica

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