All Aboard the Animal Train, My Father's World Unit 2: Obedience

Grace just finished Unit 2: Obedience in My Father's World, All Aboard the Animal Train. It was such a fun unit. The animal was the black bear and the character trait was obedience. We played, "Mommy says," hunted for bears, read lots of books about bears, and spent lots of time playing and singing. She memorized the "Black Bear" poem quickly and still remembers the bunny one from unit 1. Grace loves doing her school work and picks up on things very quickly. 

We acted out the story of "The Three Bears."

We made a black table and black beds for them.

The sandbox is always fun

Trampoline Park

Backyard trampoline

A fun match the ball in the right hole game I made

We played zoo where the kids could purchase animals from me

She loved playing "hide the bear"

Coloring

Playing with her younger brother

First time to visit the dentist

Her teeth looked great!

Egg sensory bin around Easter

 

The closest thing we saw to a black bear, she was unsure of it.

Nothing beats a box!

Happy 8 Months, Jackson!

Dear Jackson,

You are now 8 months old! What a sweet 8 months it has been! Your crawling has really taken off. You are not afraid to crawl on any surface. Tile, no problem. Grass, as long as you can grab a handful and try it, cement, you got it, carpet, you are super fast! When I leave the room you're in, you are quickly crawling right behind me. You are so adorably cute!

Fun Facts:

Weight: 22 lbs
Sleep: 11-12 hours, you are a 7pm bedtime baby and get up between 6:30-7am
Naps: Usually two a day, one morning for 30 minutes to an hour, one afternoon nap for 1-2 hours. Morning nap around 9:30am, afternoon nap around 2.
Diaper: size 4
Clothes: 12-18 months
Solid foods: 3 meals a day, we started feeding you baby food because you get very hungry and haven't mastered feeding yourself fast enough. You eat a variety of stage 2 foods, mushed up foods we prepare, and enjoy guacamole. You're not a super big fan of meat but have eaten a little fish.
Nursing: You nurse 5-6 times a day
You still have just two teeth, both bottom front. Other ones will probably come through soon.
You have an infectious laugh! Very precious!

Likes:

Being held and carried. You really would love for mommy to carry you all day as I get my work done.
Playing with your brother and sister.
Bathtime
Nursing
Eating solids and drinking water
Chewing on teething toys
Reading books
Crawling and exploring
Standing and pulling up
Jumping on our laps or in your door jumper
Sleeping on your tummy
Going places and seeing new people
Smiling at people
Bible class when you're not tired

Dislikes:

Laying down to get a diaper change
Laying on your back in general
Being put down and me leaving the room
Car rides

You have such a sweet personality and are a very calm, laid back, and truly happy baby. We all love you very much and love watching you learn and grow.

Love,
Mom

Freshly Review

Facebook ads occasionally actually work for me. Not all ads do. Thankfully, I own some Facebook stock so I'm okay clicking on the occasional advertisement if it interests me. That's how I found out about Freshly and actually Blue Apron and Green Chef as well, although that was through friends on FB.

What is Freshly? It's a meal delivery service that delivers cooked meals ready to be heated. They are not frozen and you keep them in your fridge until it's time to eat. 

Here's how Freshly comes packaged.

So convenient, right? I compare it somewhat to getting freshly prepared foods at places like Central Market or Whole Foods.  The first week I ordered 12 meals, 6 different ones, so we'd have six dinners ready for the week. Each comes with 1.5 serving. I only got pictures of 5 and I'll explain why below. Here's what I got.

Homestyle Meatloaf

 

Grilled Flat Iron Steak

 

Coconut Lime Salmon

Beef Provencal

 

Moroccan Chicken

I also ordered Chicken Rustica with Roasted Cauliflower. We just ended up not eating it and throwing it out. The reason being was, it would expire before we had time to eat it. Hopefully it was just because they try to use as few preservatives as possible. I just would have liked to have known that the food would not last a week before going bad.

I was hoping to get the meals delivered early enough last Friday to serve our first meal on Friday. However, they did not arrive until after 7pm, which is no fault of Freshly. Since we have little kids, we eat around 5-5:30. The meals were overall, okay tasting. Some better than others. We liked the steak probably the best. We didn't fully enjoy the others because my husband and I got sick, we think food poisoning. We're trying to decide where it came from and hope it wasn't from Freshly. We think it might have been the tea from a Mexican food restaurant since our kids eat everything we eat, except for a few meals from Freshly they just refused. Which honestly, that saves me no time if my kids won't eat it and they are actually really good eaters. Some have some interesting spices and some were a little unusual in taste.

Before we got sick and were unable to keep anything down for over a day, I had already ordered food for next week. Although my husband said he'd rather me just cook from now on. He does like food we make from Blue Apron and Green Chef. A few of the meals had a hospital-like taste to them. If you've ever eaten hospital food, you know what I'm talking about and I haven't eaten hospital food often. I'll come back and write another review after next week. I'm trying a few breakfast items as well. I LOVE this idea but the food has to taste good. I also am not saying Freshly made us sick, we really don't know, but when you try something new and end up sick, you always wonder if it was because of that.

Texas Blue Bonnets

Blue Bonnets are Caden's favorite flower. They are blue, pretty, smell nice, and of course our State's flower. I decided to try and find a patch somewhere and take a few random pictures last week. Here's what I got. Granted, I was alone, needed to make sure my two year old was safe, my baby was safe, and my older one didn't wonder off. The kids all did a great job listening and staying with me. The sun was bright, it was after lunch, so they have squinty eyes and sun grins. Normally I would have planned better, but we have such a short window to catch Blue Bonnets in bloom that this works for me on a whim!