Scattered Sundays
I received this email from someone this week:
Hi Sarah,
I stumbled across your blog that was written back in 2015 regarding your son and school. I just wanted to reach out and say, thank you! That blog is exactly what I needed to read right now! I would love to know how your son is doing now and if you found anything that really helped him in school? My son is 4 1/2 and has a really hard time keeping his hands to himself when he wants to play or gets overstimulated. Again, thank you for being so transparent and encouraging to the rest of us!
Ah, dear frustrated momma. I get you! For anyone else going through something similar right now, here is part of what I responded back to her:
- He’s normal
- You’re doing a good job
- Curiosity and wanting to hug friends does not make him a bad kid
- Trust my gut. My husband and I are both the kids of teachers and never wanted to push back on his kinder teacher. That led to us (mainly me) putting so much pressure on him to just be good, all while ignoring why he was acting out.
- Push really hard to get your kiddo more “jobs” in the classroom setting. Wiggly kids need to move and so having a job where they have to pass out papers or do something physical will allow them to channel that energy AND make them feel important.
- Put a bungee cord around the legs of his chair when he has to do any desk work. This gives their legs something to bounce off of and can focus their energy in a way that isn’t touching others. We did this towards the end of kindergarten and all the other parents wanted it too!
- It gets better
- It gets better
- It gets better
I have some exciting news to share with you all! This month I am the featured blogger over at US Wellness Meats! And what does it mean for you? They’re offering you a chance to win $150 in organic grass-fed and grass-finished meat!
Hop on over and enter to win.
I’ve been a US Wellness Meats customer for a few years now and really love their products. In fact, their chicken is what you see in these Roasted Greek Chicken Thighs.
It was started by farmers and is still managed by farmers. US Wellness is one of the only vertically integrated sustainable farming operations around. They don’t just market their products; the owners of USWM are farmers who manage the resources and raise the livestock.
Jack, our little 10-year-old speed demon did a mini track meet this week and took first place amongst all the fifth-grade boys in the district. This was after he did the Pacer test in PE that day.
We’re always proud of the little freak. I’m even more proud when he works really hard and achieves things by being a good person. And not because he elbowed most of the other kids on his way to the finish line. Which is how he used to roll.
I had a great birthday this week (NOT birthday week…) and honestly, this last year has been full of joy. While I would take my arms and abs from my 20’s back in heartbeat, I’m really digging this period in my life.
Troy made me my favorite breakfast – smoked salmon eggs benedict (with my dad’s smoked salmon), grilled asparagus, and roasted potatoes. I was too full to eat the potatoes though!
Housekeeping
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What I’m Listening To This Week
How I Built This has always been a favorite podcast of mine, and I really liked a recent episode with the founders of Headspace. I don’t use this app, but I loved the story behind the founding of this company.
Also, I just found out The Closer is now free on Amazon Prime. So, I’ll see you in like four years.
Reader Spotlight of the Week
Alison left a five-star review on our Buffalo Hummus {Pin this recipe}:
This buffalo hummus takes hummus to a whole new level! Great with veggies as dippers, toasted bread or pita! It is simple to make, you can adjust seasonings to make it as spicy as you like. This is a keeper in our household!
On Sustainable Cooks This Week
Confessions – everyone’s favorite post of the month!
Turkey Bone Broth – Homemade Turkey Bone Broth is an amazing way to use up every last bit of your roasted turkey. Learning how to make turkey bone broth is a very simple, sustainable, and affordable process! This recipe includes tips for freezing your delicious stock. {Pin this recipe}
Vegetable Noodle Soup – This Vegetable Noodle Soup packs in tons of veggies and flavor into every bite. Who doesn’t want an easy and healthy dinner that is ready in under 30 minutes? This Instant Pot vegetable soup recipe is easily adaptable to be vegetarian or vegan. {Pin this recipe}
Fluffy Mashed Potatoes – This deliciously Fluffy Mashed Potatoes recipe makes the best make-ahead potato side dish! Creamy and lump-free, these heavenly mashed potatoes with cream cheese will be the star of any meal. {Pin this recipe}
The Five Most Popular Posts This Week
We have a new contender on the leaderboard this week! Welcome to the top five Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings.
- Canning Pears {Pin this tutorial}
- Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings {Pin this recipe}
- Virgin Mojito {Pin this recipe}
- Trader Joe’s Whole30 Shopping List {Pin this list}
- Canning Applesauce {Pin this tutorial}
Meal Plan
If you’re looking for some help with meal planning, we highly recommend Momables. Momables emails you a weekly meal plan, shopping list and prep list for $10 a month. It rules.
Monday:: Breakfast dinner
Tuesday:: Spicy butternut squash soup (vegan), salad, and grilled garlic bread.
Wednesday:: Homemade chicken taquitos (Jack likes making these), salad, and rice.
Thursday:: Chef’s salads and garlic bread.
Friday:: Popcorn, leftovers, and movie night.
Saturday:: TBD
Sunday:: Family dinner
What We Bought This Week
Fred Meyer:: $32.25
This post contains affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you if you click through and make a purchase. This allows me to continue to provide free content, and I only share products that I use and love myself.
I just want to say a quick thank you for calling out your vegan recipes! My family has moved to eating way more plants and less animals and it’s SO GREAT to see vegan and vegetarian recipes mixed in with other recipes like it’s no big deal. Also, I save your Sunday posts to read when I’m annoyed at my job on Mondays, just to have something soothing/amusing/relatable to read, so thanks for that too!
Well, to me it is no big deal to do it that way! I think it is a reflection of how most of us eat – without labels.
Hope I don’t let you down on a Monday!
Laughed out loud reading about your post-game scream. You are such a good writer and a great parent. I’m always amazed and inspired by your capacity. Wow!
My head is still hurting from it, Christopher! Lol
American chocolate chips bags come in lovely large bags, British ones are sold in 3.5 oz bags and much as I love my country, it’s one of our annoying food things, that and the lack of root beer!
Happy Birthday for last week, and congrats to Jack for working hard and holding his temper! When my brother was younger, he got sent off during a match and Mum was so furious with him for his lack of sportsmanship, she took him home before the match was finished and sent him to his room to have a think about his behaviour! I think parents should be less concerned about winning and more concerned about the children enjoying their football it sounds like your team does and it paid off! Cheaters never prosper…
Whaaaaaa, no root beer? How can this be a thing? I have maybe one root beer a year but the idea of not being able to have one makes me sad for you.
I remember you saying your brother was a bit like Jack during sports! It seems like your mom and I have similar methods for discouraging our kiddos from being aholes.
You are developing a powerful tool for communicating with Moms. As a grandmother, something is weighing heavy on my heart. I see an epidemic of impatient, stressed-out, even hysterical Moms everytime I am in the public marketplace. Rude behaviors like speeding thru a grocery aisle, reaching around someone who has the temerity to stop to read a label that slows Super-Mom down, not obeying stop signs/red lights because she just doesn’t have the time. But the worst behavior, and the reason for my rant, is how some Moms seem to hate their children. They either talk on the phone instead of interacting with them, keep them up way past their bedtimes while they shop for shoes, or yell….alot. Why have these behaviors become acceptable? Is chasing the money worth the sacrifice the next generation is paying for?
Eileen, this will come as a shock to nobody, but I’m not an expert on raising children or even a sociologist (I know, shocking. HA!), but here are my observations about raising kiddos.
Each generation tends to swing dramatically from how they were raised. My generation was raised by parents who gave them a ton of free-range for years and then all the sudden cable news came along and our parents freaked out about kidnapping and satanic panic. So, half of our childhood was “don’t come back until dark” and the other half was “let’s put these Mr. Yuck stickers on everything in the house because the world is out to kill you”.
So, a lot parents these days tend toward the “helicopter” end of the spectrum. Lots of hovering, lots of managing of schedules, and lots of being involved. And why are our kids so busy? Because we’re told they need to be in Spanish immersion preschool from the second they’re born or they will never go to a good college.
A lot of this has to do with where you live. I know in LA, my friend had to get her kiddo on a preschool list a week after he was born so that he could get in by the time he was three. Here, it’s much more chill.
With social media we’re constantly bombarded that our kids need this, you need to do this to keep them safe/healthy/smart/competitive, etc. And all of that costs money and time. And we assume that once our kids are engaged in all of this they will be fulfilled and we hope to God that it will fulfill us. But it doesn’t, and we look for external factors to find that fulfillment. For someone people that manifests into shopping, stuff, whatever.
I can guarantee you the first generation of moms who had access to TV dinners were judged by the previous generation of moms who never had that as an option. Moms my age are on their phones a lot more for texting and social media. But moms my generation chatting on their rotary phones with those long ass cords so they could talk while cooking dinner.
I guess my point is there is always going to be something that the next generation does that doesn’t make sense to the previous generation. And each subsequent generation is going to rebel by doing their own thing. You see this in the kids of Baby Boomer (all consumerism and consumption) started the back to the land movement. And the kids we’re raising now will very likely revert to letting their kids be free-range.
As much as anything looks new, it’s all the same in different forms.
My Jack would have called those cheaters “dirty birdies”. Good for your Jack playing clean!
I have never been too full to eat potatoes. I’m not sure how that happened to you.
Awwww that put a smile on my face Karen. My grandpa used to say dirty bird all the time. 🙂
Haha, I LOVE potatoes but the biscuits he made were NO joke! He used a recipe I make all the time that makes 9-10 biscuits. He turned the recipe into 4. They were huge!
I enjoy your blog so much. You are so real. Also appreciate that you give away no details of your life that someone could invade your space. Or your kids’. Happy bd.! It’s still the same week so I’m not late . Please tell me you weren’t yelling at the ref. Been there. Yeah, the refs can be well let’s say uneducated in the finer rules of — don’t grab the arms of the players . One time when my kid was playing, the opposing coach was swearing because the kids weren’t really paying attn to his (um what do you call it? advice?) ?pointers? I felt like saying, seriously dude, they’re little kids. If you’re so worked up about it you are swearing, you’re in the wrong place.
Yeah, I gotta keep those little dudes safe!
The first time the boys yanked on Jack in happened about 3 feet from our sidelines. Imagine about 20 adults gasping and yelling “whoa” at the same time. It was that obvious as to what happened. After the next time we did tell the ref she had to call this roughness before someone got hurt. And she didn’t…and then three kids got carried off the field (including mine).
Apparently she was brand new and had only taken the class 3 weeks ago. But the roughness was so obvious anyone new without good eyesight could have seen it. It SUCKED.
Yeah the swearing coaches have never impressed me! They’re kids – let them have fun. Don’t train them to be dicks this early. Society does that soon enough. 🙁
As much as that year of school sucked for all of you, how amazing that you had the courage to blog about it and help so many other kids like Jack!
And, he is turning into an amazing young man. Congrats to Jack on the track win and playing the good game on the soccer field! And good job keeping your cool. That’s super tough to do sometimes.
Happy birthday! We celebrate most of the month of June, but only because my birthday is on the 9th, our anniversary is the 19th, Emma’s 1/2 birthday is the 21st (poor December kiddo), and the hubby’s birthday is the 29th. So yeah, kinda a birthday month.
And ice cream cake from DQ is the absolute best and it makes me super sad that I can’t eat it anymore.
So Wellness Meats and Butcher Box. Do you have a preference? Or do they fulfill two different needs?
Yep, busy June for you guys!
I don’t have a preference because yeah, they each fill a different need. US Wellness allows you to order exactly what you need/want. Butcher Box is more of a general subscription box where you get an assortment.
Way to go Jack! (As well as the whole soccer team!) He had quite a week. 🙂
That game sounds like a movie plot, where the ‘good guys’ win right at the end, by just being their good selves.
Did you add the googly eyes to the tree or discover it? Years ago (like, ten or more), my daughter and I were going to go around adding googly eyes to random objects in the neighbourhood but never got around to doing it. I love that tree!
Gotta go update my menu board for the upcoming week before heading out to the fair to pick up our crafting entries.
Happy Sunday!
Once we got in the car Troy said “that was like watching the last few minutes of The Karate Kid”. HA!
I discovered the googly eyes and it made me laugh. Do you still have yours? It’s never too late!
What did you enter?
Karate Kid was precisely the type of movie I was thinking of when I said that!!! The fact that the other team were acting like such jerks must have made that victory so much sweeter.
I absolutely have googly eyes. I craft, I have a wealth of stuff like that! But my daughter is 21 now and likely wouldn’t be interested. My 25-year-old, married daughter, however, is giving us a grandbaby around Christmas, so in a few more years, I should have a NEW partner for silliness like that!
As for the fair, Hubby and I both entered several items. He managed to get first in every category he entered. He is a woodworker and entered four wooden items. I entered a picture that I made using sea glass (and got first for that!), a dog I needle felted that was a ‘memorial’ of our dog (she took 3rd!) and I entered another needle felted item in the Christmas ornament category. Competition is FIERCE in the category and my sweet little mouse didn’t place. We have fun with the fair. I mentioned that we were not home for dinner three times in the past week, the fair is the reason. One day to drop our items off, one day to actually GO to the fair (and see if we won anything!!) and one day to go back and pick our items up.
It is always a crazy week.
And the fair is always the weekend before Thanksgiving, so next weekend will be nuts too.
Who-hoo, nice work on the awards!