Lunchtime boredom busters

Whew! School is back in session. Can I get a great big "Hallelujah!" ?? The only problem with this most wonderful time of the year is packing lunches. I don't know about YOUR school district, but in my son's school district, hot lunch is disgusting fare, full of preservatives, sodium and all sorts of other chemical additives I don't want in his little body. So that leaves cold lunch. Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with new and interesting things to do with peanut butter and jelly?

If you have a picky child like I do, it gets extra hard. Ham and cheese sandwiches? NO WAY!! Tuna on whole wheat? TOO SOGGY! My saving grace was the discovery (through clever question asking of the boy himself) that students have access to a microwave! Oh, glorious toxic rays!

This discovery has opened our lunch time world to things previously prohibited from the lunch box by the sheer grossness of eating them cold. Bean and cheese burritos- I make these about once a week anyhow- toss a couple of extras in the freezer and they make beautiful little bundles of protien just waiting to be heated up and eaten. Leftover spaghetti and meatballs- now, back in the old days this could've gone in a thermos and been warm for lunch, but thermoses now a'days simply do NOT keep food warm. Nothing like cold soup on a cold day!

In addition to leftovers, I thought I would try giving him veggie pizza bagels. I bought one one day from Wesco (the gas station with a deli!) and he seemed intrigued. So, this morning I bravely pulled a whole wheat bagel from the bag , slathered it with cream cheese mixed with just a touch of dry ranch dressing, chopped carrots on top and added cheddar cheese. We'll see if he ate it- he hasn't complained about lunch yet this year, so I'm hoping for the best.

Who knew my son was so open to eating all this stuff? Makes me feel really silly for all the peanut butter and jelly last year!

Something we all like

We here in the Bouc household are HUGE fans of Netflix. I just have to rave for a minute about how amazing it is. We have the 2 DVD unlimited membership. What that means is that for the low, low price of $13.99 a month (which was $14.99 a month, but the price went DOWN after we joined- when does THAT ever happen?!) we get 2 DVDs at a time, unlimited numbers of DVDs per month- as soon as we mail one back, they mail another out. Turn around is like 2 days, which is crazy fast.

The real benefit of this service, though, is the unlimited online viewing! OMG- this is such a life saver. We're TERRIBLE about mailing the DVDs back. Actually, our DVD player died about 3 months ago, so we watch the DVDs on the computer, so really there's not much benefit to a DVD over the online viewing. So, since we generally sit on the same DVDs for a month or more (sorry to anyone waiting for ones we have, though Netflix has THOUSANDS of copies of the popular movies), we can still watch something other than what we have at home, whenever we want! We just go to the instant viewing section of the web site, and enter in what genre of movie we'd like to watch. They even have fairly new releases available for instant viewing. Being parents, this is AWESOME for those rainy days or the days that mom needs to get stuff done- I can plop the kids in front of a laptop and bring up litterally THOUSANDS of movies for them to choose from.

Netflix is so awesome, we don't even need cable (not that I'd pay $60 a month for it, anyhow). We may have to wait a year or so to catch something we're hearing about (like The Tudors- the awesome Showtime series with the amazing sets and costumes? Season 1 and 2 are available for instant viewing. Or Weeds? Seasons 1-3 are on the site) that's playing on TV. Movies are on much faster- Stepbrothers (the hillarious Will Farrel movie) is already on there.

So, that's my recommendation for the day. Netflix. It rocks.

What Aiden is into

Besides the obvious things that 7 year old boys like, you know- bikes, skateboards, hunting for snakes... fart jokes... He is really into "Arabian Nights" right now. We checked it out from the library on Thursday, and he LOVES the stories so far. Of course, I am reading it TO him (not him reading it himself) and I do have to stop every paragraph or so and explain what things are, like a yoke (as in what you put on an ox to hook up the plow). But, he really likes it.

He's also very into the "Choose your own adventure" books. THESE at least he can read to himself. His current obsession with motocross (spurred by the acquisition on his birthday of his very first dirt bike- Thanks grandma!) lead him to discover that there actually exists a "choose your own adventure" book all about MOTOCROSS. OMG- you can not IMAGINE the joy that inspired. :)

I love encouraging his love of reading. The more often HE reads, the more time I have to read. It's a win/win.

Stuff Erica likes

If you know me (Erica- you can pretty much bet that it will be me, little 'ol me, who will be writing the majority of these blogs. Andy's just not into these things, and he's online all the time at work so stays off the interwebs as much as possible when at home), you know I love to read. I read all the time- I read while I blow dry my hair, I read while I'm cooking dinner- I even read while I'm playing games with my kids (I know, bad mommy, but how else am I supposed to sit there for 5 minutes while Aiden decides where he wants his checkers piece to go?!?!).

Right now, I seem to be hooked on the paranormal romance genre. Poor Andy- he will just never measure up, in the romance department, to Edward Cullen, Vishous, Eric the Vampire, or any of my other imaginary boyfriends. However, I am taking a decided break from the paranormal genre in my first reading of a Jane Austen book. I chose "Pride and Prejudice" for my very first gothic romance. I mostly chose it because Twilight has long been compared to "Pride and Prejudice" and Edward Cullen to Mr. Darcy. Well, I have to say so far, "Pride and Prejudice" is no "Twilight". Maybe it's the old english, maybe it's Elizabeth Bennet's whiney demeanor, or maybe I'm just not far enough into the book yet, but I just am not understanding the comparison.

Also, of the moment, I happen to be VERY into Cavit Pinot Grigio. If you are at all a fan of a pinot grigio, Cavit's 2008 vintage (which is the year of every bottle I've bought lately) is outstanding. Just the right blend of sweet and tart. Very good.

So, those are the things I'm most into right now.

Why the blog?

Why the blog you ask? Well, I've been trying for the last several years to start a blog and actually keep WITH it. I have a few floating around out there in the WWW that I never manage to keep up. So, I've been thinking the last several weeks of what kind of blog I might actually keep up with. Then I thought, well, MAYBE I'll keep up with a blog all about what things we (as a family) are interested in and enjoying right now. Not that you all care so much about what WE are into, but hey, if we can help one little person... Or whatever. LOL

So, the purpose of this blog. The purpose of this blog is to talk about things we like. Things we're doing, what we enjoy, what books we're reading, what wine we're (well, Andy and I anyhow- No wine for the kiddos ) enjoying, what movies we love at the moment... You get it.

Hope you all enjoy it!