I would love to “meet” more of you. You can now join me on Facebook for more personal interaction.
I’d love to see you there!
Binkies and Briefcases is on Facebook
Barefeet and Blueberries
Summertime in Pennsylvania means being barefoot on a tire swing at dusk and picking fresh blueberries in the morning.
We were bummed that the fields were closed on Tuesday when we tried to go with Tabatha & Kooper, so we decided to try our luck again this morning.
The entire half hour drive over there Nicholas threw a giant temper tantrum because he wanted to go to the Y instead, but I had promised Abby we would try picking berries again on Thursday, so I sucked it up, strapped the on baby, and hiked through the fields with them.
Nick got over it eventually and wound up having a good time. We were probably only there for 30 minutes or so, but we managed to fill our bowl and avoid any major melt downs.
We were able to pick a little over 5 pints for $9, or about $1.75 per pint. Way cheaper than the grocery store.I froze most of them to use throughout the year, but we kept some out for snacking.
They go so well with cold left over pizza. I guess I should go make muffins or something.
What REALLY Happened Yesterday
So…I could tell you that yesterday after homeschooling and piano lessons we went to meet a good friend of mine at a local farm to pick fresh blueberries and cherries. I could share lovely pictures that Tabatha took on her phone.
I could tell you that we came home and had a nice homemade dinner followed by good old fashioned lemon sticks and after the children were bathed and in bed, we were able to get more work done on the house plans.
Yes, I think that is what I will do. I will tell you those nice things instead. All of them are technically true. I won’t tell you that I stole those pictures from Tab’s Facebook page because I was too lazy to take any.
I won’t tell you that by “homeschool” I mean one worksheet I printed from the internet or that “piano lessons” is just me and two kids still in what’s left of their pajamas after they’ve discarded their pants, sitting in the living room in front of Eddie’s old keyboard making our way through an instruction book I bought off of Amazon. Nevermind that I don’t know how to play the piano myself.
I won’t tell you that I made my poor friend drive over an hour from out of state just to find out the berry picking fields were closed.
I won’t tell you about the poop explosion that she had to deal with or about how my son hit and bit me when we left the playground.
I won’t tell you that when we came home I let my kids watch tv for almost three hours until Eddie came home or that our family dinner was really just microwaved chicken nuggets, applesauce, and freezer pops.
I won’t tell you that I fell asleep on the sofa at 9:30 in the middle of watching Design Star while my poor husband stayed up for hours reading over stormwater ordinances.
I won’t admit to not showering yesterday.
I have an image to uphold, after all. ; )
linking up to finding the funny
I Blinked
…and half a year flew by. Now, this little lady is turning six months old this week.
I’m sad it is going by so fast. We are probably done having children, so I want to hang on to the baby stage as long as possible and it certainly doesn’t hurt that thus far Miss Penny is pretty much the easiest baby ever. (Her sister, on the other hand, was very demanding, so we know how lucky we are!)
Last night she slept for 9 straight hours in her crib, then she woke up to have breakfast, played in her exercauser for a little while, then fell back asleep for another two-hour nap.
She is very calm (so much so that we are actually a little concerned about her hearing) and unless she is hungry you probably won’t be hearing a peep out of her. Maybe some cooing, since she has recently started making the most adorable noises ever as she experiments with trying to talk.
She gives “kisses” by opening her mouth as wide as she can and gnawing on your cheek. Iloveit.
She is starting to wave a little. Sort of. Sometimes.
Other skills include rolling over, almost being able to sit on her own, eating solid foods, the most adorable giggle in the universe when you tickle her neck, finally sleeping in her crib (as opposed to co-sleeping on the sofa or chillin’ in her car seat all night) and not liking to poop in public places, which mommy appreciates.
Also, she will be graduating top of her class from Harvard in 2034 and on the Presidential ticket in 2048, although we might have to wait another 4 years for her sister to finish serving her second term. (Their brother will be too busy for political affairs, as he has aspirations to join the Navy and pilot the Blue Angels.)
Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler: A is for “Ah-ha” Moment
“Do you know the letter A? The letter A, the letter A. do you know the letter A? Here’s the letter A.”
All week long I’ve heard that song from the Hooked on Phonics CD Rom, and I’ve danced around the kitchen with an inflatable A to the Letter People song about Ms. A saying “Ahchoo.” I cut cardstock into curves and lines and we used the Handwriting Without Tears model to make “puzzles” of the letter A. We traced the puzzles with our fingers. We traced them with crayons. We played letter recognition games, we used flash cards. We learned the sight words a, at, and & all. We read about Adam and Eve and the apple. We cut out things that started with a from magazines and pasted them in our notebook.
Thursday night he still couldn’t write a letter A, but I had finally figured out why.
All week long I’ve been trying to teach him by chanting and modeling, “Down, up, down, pick up your crayon and go across the middle.”
Over and over (and over)
Nothing.
Then Thursday, through tears he yelled and screamed as I reminded him for the millionth time to start at the top. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE TOP IS!”
Duh. The paper is flat. To him it has no top.
“Start away from you.”
All it took was that one simple sentence.
Silence. The crayon goes to the right spot.
“Now pull. Good! Push. Now pull down the other side. Pick up your crayon and slide across the middle. You did it!”
He did it. Then he did it again and again and again. It was not a fluke. He threw his fists in the air and shouted “I’m so happy with myself!”
Today when I told him it was time for school he didn’t fight me at all. He sat down and practiced and he did an entire practice sheet all by himself for the first time ever. And he did the whole paper in under five minutes. (Normally it would take a solid half hour and he wouldn’t even get finished one line.)
I even think he is starting to understand the whole top and bottom of the paper concept.
It’s pretty stinkin’ adorable, see for yourself.
(As long as you promise not to comment on my very messy dining room table. Creating literacy is a messy job, people.)
Back to Non-Extreme Couponing
I took a break from coupons for a while after we had Penny. It is A LOT of work to take three kids under five to a store in the middle of winter and deal with the big ol’ coupon binder, deal matching, etc. I have just been paying the fee and ordering my groceries online and picking them up. For those first few months with a new baby, it was totally worth it.
But since we are on a money diet preparing to build the new house, I knew I should get back into it, so today I put my game face on and we navigated the store. It was a gigantic pain in the tush because they got rid of the shopping carts with the car in front for older kids to ride, so Nick and Abby both had to walk and I spent the entire time correcting them. “No. Don’t touch that. Stay here next to Mommy. That’s not ours. Hands to yourself…” but I did manage to save enough to hire a babysitter for a much-needed night out one of these days.
Here are a few of the best deals I got today at Weis. All of my coupons were manufacturer’s coupons printed online from sites like coupons.com or clipped from the Sunday paper inserts that my mom and grandma gave me.
General Mills Cereal: Regularly $3.79-4.19, depending on the kind. On sale for $1.99 each when you buy 4 + 1.00 off three coupon + .75 off 1 box of Kix coupon that doubled to 1.50= ($7.96-1.00-1.50)= $5.46 for 4 or $1.37 each
Nature’s Own Butterbread: Regularly $2.19, on sale for $1.79 + .75 off coupon that doubled to 1.50=$0.29
Betty Crocker Fruit snacks (not pictured) regularly $2.59, on sale for $1.00 each + .75/2 coupon that doubled= .50 for 2 or $0.25 each
Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce (not pictured): Regularly $2.29, on sale buy one get one free + $1.00 off 2 coupon= $1.29 for 2 or $0.65 each
Barilla Pasta: Regularly $1.59 on sale for $1 + (2) $1 off any blue box coupons= 2 boxes for free
I also had coupons for a few more things I would have bought anyway, like applesauce, baby food, and diapers
This time I saved $37.65, which was about 30% of the total. I took the total from $126.79 down to $89.14.
Not anywhere near the 99% savings those ladies get on tv, but better than a stick in the eye. 😉
Plus I only invested about 30 minutes into it, as opposed to treating it like my full-time job. If you think about it, $37 for half an hour of work is almost like having a job that pays $75 per hour.
I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t love coupons.
Check out my past couponing adventures below!
$ What I’m Worth $ (And why I won’t be going back to work any time soon)
Obviously, I know that I have a great worth to my family that goes beyond anything material and I am doing pretty well with my self worth these days too. I’ve heard of several studies that looked into what the actual monetary value of a stay at home mom could be, but the ones I look at included ridiculous things like so much an hour for time spent as a personal shopper. I was curious about what a realistic look at my monetary value to our family is. Every now and then we fluctuate on whether or not I should go back to work to bring in more money, but we always come to the conclusion that it would probably just be a wash for us financially, so why bother. However, we have never actually done the math, so I wanted to see for myself, and for the several other moms I know who struggle with this dilemma.
I’m not even going to bother adding in my part-time income from teaching parenting classes because it fluctuates. Some months I bring in a few hundred dollars, some I don’t bring in anything.
Childcare: When we had Nicholas in childcare as a toddler we paid $165/week for one kid. Now we have three. That’s $500 per week or $2,000 a month that we would have to pay in childcare costs if I was working. Let’s assume Nick would be in school and would only need before and after school care. Take out $500. That still leaves $1,500/month in childcare costs.
School: Since we are planning to home school for kindergarten, it’s more equivalent to a private education than a public one. The private schools in our area average around $5,000/year, which is about $500 a month for a ten month school year. (Now we’re right back up to that $2,000 mark)
Food Savings: I also save an average of $35 a week with coupons, which doesn’t seem like much, but it does add up to about $140 per month, plus I do the vegetable garden and canning in the summer, so I think it’s fair to bring that total up to around $175/month. And I cook a lot more than I did when I was working because I have time at home and the kids aren’t eating school lunches, so that saves us at least another $50 (That’s actually a very low estimate because it would cost that much for our family of five us to eat at McDonald’s just twice over the course of a month) So now the total for that is around $225
I also don’t spend nearly the amount of money that I would need to if I were still working on things like gasoline and a professional wardrobe. I used to have to fill my car up twice a week when I was working because even though I was teaching at our local school, I had to drive to trainings and science contact meetings, and to and from the childcare facility every day. Now I only need to fill up once, and sometimes not even that much. It costs $45 to fill up our van, so if we are saving a full tank every week, that’s $180/month
We also used to pay a local college student $75 every two weeks to clean our house because I didn’t have time to do it myself and I wanted to spend my limited free time with my kid. That’s $150/month.
So, realistically, if we just look at these few things I am “making” $2,555 each month in tax-free income by not working outside the home. (There is plenty of other stuff I could include, like the crazy amount of health care co-pays we used to have because Nicholas was at the doctor all the time. Daycare is a walking germ pool. But just looking at those few areas is enough to see it makes more financial sense for me to be home.)
For comparison, when I was teaching my salary was $42,000 per year. After taxes and insurance were taken out of my check, I brought home about $2,400 each month.
We are actually saving almost $2,000 year by me not working.
So, I guess my stay at home “salary” is realistically equivalent to about $44,000 per year.
I looked up the salaries for teachers in our area with 4 years of experience and a Master’s Degree (the level I would be if I went back to work) On the latest list I found, it was $45,740, pretty close to the median household income in our state.
Even if we assume we wouldn’t have to pay taxes on the extra $1,700 per year that would come into our house, it would only maybe increase our disposable income by $35 a week if I went back to work. (And that’s assuming I could even find a full-time teaching job, which is a huge assumption with the way our local schools are treating their teachers right now.)
I’m not giving up these years with my children for a measly $35. I can make up that difference by just using more coupons. 🙂
It does make me curious if other people have examined this when they say things to me like, “It must be so nice to be able to afford not to work.”
I don’t know how single parents do it, but personally, I can’t afford to work.
Obviously, everyone’s situation is unique, but I know that it makes me feel good to know that not only am I a valuable asset as a mom to my kids, but we honestly wouldn’t be any better off if I was working full time anyway.
Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler
Back in 2008 when this little guy came into our lives we stood in a courtroom and swore to do everything within our ability to be the best parents we possibly could to him. It was so easy when all he needed was a bottle or a diaper change and there were no other kids to worry about.
But then he went and grew up. Sigh. it was bound to happen eventually, I suppose.
Now we’re ready for kindergarten. Except we’re not. Well, I am, I really really am, but he’s not.
It’s been on my heart for a while, but I’ve tried to ignore it. I know what he needs and I’ve heard professional after professional say the same thing at preschool conferences, IEP meetings, occupational therapy, on the phone with my mom…”The best thing for Nicholas really is a lot of one on one attention.”
But I’ve been looking so forward to being able to send him to school and not have to worry about the steady stream of therapy appointments, which could just happen in the classroom. To have time to concentrate on my girls, who have never had my undivided attention. Space for both of us to breathe. One less thing on my plate. I do have a new baby at home and we are in the middle of building a new house, after all.
We have no beef with public schools. My husband went to public elementary and middle schools and my entire teaching career was spent in the public school system.
I would rather send him to a Christian school for faith-based education, but we couldn’t find an affordable option in our area that met my standards and we’d still have the same “he needs more attention than that” issues.
Right now he is testing in the 0.04% range. That means if you put 200 kids in a room, he would be the lowest academic performer. Even if he has the most amazing teacher in the universe, there is no way she/he is going to be able to bring him up to grade level with 17 other kids in the class to worry about.
We thought about another year of preschool, but we were told (and we agree) that it is really just a waste of money when the public school system is free and they have so many more resources that would be available to him.
Then there was the conversation that almost broke my heart…
What would you think about mommy being your teacher and doing kindergarten here at home?
That would be fun!
You know, if we do that you would stay here and have school at home, not in a big classroom.
I like my classroom. I like my friends, but they don’t like me. When I try to talk to them they run away like this (runs around the kitchen island)
After that, I knew I didn’t really have a choice. I sent in the application for our state’s online charter school, k12.
Pros:
- One-on-one with me every day.
- I can add religious education.
- It’s a version of public school, so it’s free and they send you all of the curriculum materials for language arts, math, science, social studies, and art, plus a computer and a printer, and they reimburse your internet expenses. In a few years, they also add music and there are several foreign languages.
- I know how to do this, I am still a certified teacher and I have experience in grades 1-5.
- He will still have a lot of social interaction at the YMCA, our church’s Olympian Club program, sports, and our Mom n Me group is starting a home school room this year. Plus we personally know 5 homeschooling families and there are many more in our community. It’s very common around this area.
- The k12 program has a special ed program and he will be assigned a certified teacher, so even though I will still be the primary “learning coach,” I don’t have to be the bad guy all of the time, which will help with our attachment concerns, I hope.
- We can take frequent physical activity or snack breaks, which he really needs to improve his focus.
- Nobody will be pushing me to medicate him (Which, incidentally, the doctor refused to do. Yet another reason we love our doctor)
- Abby, who we truly believe is gifted, will be exposed to the kindergarten curriculum early.
- I can modify the curriculum to fit our schedule and to include his interests.
- More time to pursue his intense interests in music and golf
- He won’t be picked on for being a slow learner or socially awkward. Adults almost always fall in love with him. Kids? notsomuch.
Cons
- But I don’t wanna
Clearly, I am just being a big baby and I need to grow a pair and step up and do what’s best for my kid.
So, home school it is. (Probably. We’ve got the paperwork and done the first phone conference but they need to review the IEP and have one more meeting before we get his final acceptance).
Gulp.
UPDATE: Here are a few other posts I wrote about our homeschooling experience:
How to Set up a Homeschool Nook
Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, A is for A-ha moment!
Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Weird and Overwhelming
Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, The Supplies Are Here!
Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Our First Day!
Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Week 1
Building The Dream: We’re Under Contract!
Last night we met with our builder for three and a half hours going over details and negotiating our final price.
There have been a few issues that came up with utilities. Mainly the gas company wanted to charge us $25,000 to extend their gas main so we said umm..no thanks and decided to go with propane. That changed the initial estimate, so we had to do some finagling to get back down to a price range we could afford.
We reduced the size of the basement, cut out a few unnecessary windows (I don’t need two full-size windows above the tub or in the toilet closet), and decided to go with vinyl flooring instead of tile.
We kept as many things as possible that we knew would be too hard to change later, like a rough-in for a basement bathroom, the fireplace, etc.
We’re very nervous about stretching ourselves too far (That’s how the economy got in this mess in the first place, remember?) but even though the mortgage will be significantly more than our current mortgage, it is still within our means, so we are going for it as long as the bank makes the final approval. Hopefully, we will have that news very soon.
In the meantime, we are working with the electric company to get new poles and service and Eddie is applying for 18 gazillion different permits. We actually needed a separate permit from the state because they own the back of the sidewalk that touches our driveway. True story.
Also, I got the final dimensions for our master closet. It’s 10 x 14, which is bigger than the girls’ current bedroom. I’m sooooo excited to finally have all of our clothes in one place and not have half of them in storage under beds or in the basement. I’m not budging on the kitchen, master bathroom, or closet. Everywhere else we will be cutting the budget wherever we can, trying to shop smart or recycle or reuse materials to try to stay under our allowances.
Hopefully, these posts will include construction pictures very soon!
Rebecca’s Baked Oatmeal
I had never even heard of baked oatmeal until we moved to Central Pennsylvania. Apparently it is an old Amish tradition. Who knew?
It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it’s really good. Basically like having cake for breakfast, except slightly better for you. (only slightly) My friend Rebecca made it for one of our Mom N Me meetings a few years ago and I immediately asked her for the recipe. Rebecca is not a blogger, so she said I could share it with you.
I made this recipe as part of our breakfast for dinner meal this week.
Traditional Baked Oatmeal
3 c. rolled oats (just regular Quaker Oats)
1 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
2 eggs
1/2 c. melted butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. dried cranberries or raisins
You can also add chopped nuts, like walnuts or pecans, if your little heart desires.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In large bowl, mix together first five ingredients (the dry ones). Beat in milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract. Stir in dried cranberries. Spread into well-greased 9×13 baking dish.
3. Bake for 40 minutes.
I have also made this with quick cooking oats and it turned out fine.
I like to serve it with fresh blueberries and whipped cream. Sometimes you get lucky and it will set into bars, but usually I find it’s more like the consistency of coffee cake. The photo at the top of this post is a stock image. In real life, it looks like, well, oatmeal when I make it in my own kitchen and dish it out to serve to the kids. But it does tastes delish, I promise.
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