Boden dress hack

I made this dress for Talia. It's similar to a dress I made way back when but without the twirly component. This is a total Boden hack-- see picture below. That dress is $44, mine is about $12 plus two hours time. I used a t-shirt top from Target and some light cord fabric from Joann's. The only problem is that Talia is so picky about what she wears that I have to buy everything super big so it doesn't "bother" her. The T-shirt is a medium from Target so the arms are going to be waaaaaaaaay long but she doesn't seem to care about that. I really did think I would have so much more time to blog and sew since the kids started school but that doesn't seem to be the case just yet. Life should slow down a little soon (I hope). More to come...

My first laptop lunch

I've made a few laptop lunches for the kids this week but their lunches are rather boring and certainly not worth sharing! This one is for Ron. All he wants is for me to make him lunch every day and I refuse. It's that last thing that makes me feel like housewife (you're standing right next to me-- make your own lunch!). Now that I'm making Talia lunch everyday and Alex lunch three times a week I'm trying to be a little more prepared. Plus I often made lunches in the morning but obviously I have to do it at night now. With all of this going on, I decided to make Ron a lunch last night.

I bought these laptop lunchboxes online and they are super cute. Besides helping reduce waste by providing easy-to-clean reusable containers and real silverware, they also force you to rethink portion control and focus on healthy eating. I stumbled upon a laptop lunch flickr group and was stunned at the effort people put into their lunches. I could look at those pictures for hours!

So, as I said, I finally gave in and decided to make Ron's lunch for today. The conditions were right-- we had the right amount of leftovers, the house was all cleaned up and the kids were at the park. I have to say it took me way longer than it should have but it was kind of fun. There isn't, in my opinion, room enough in the laptop lunch for a real adult size main course so I added an extra tupperware. I filled that with leftover spinach mozzarella ravioli with herbs, parmesan and slightly cooked cherry tomatoes from my garden. Israeli salad with feta and zataar filled one big container and pita crisps and purple carrots filled the other. Hummus went into a small container and homemade zucchini bread went into the last one. Only one of the larger containers has a lid, which is kind of weird. I had to cover the hummus with tin foil. The outer plastic container of the laptop lunchbox fits snugly to the tops of the containers but I wouldn't trust it with wet ingredients. I threw a cloth napkin in with the silverware. A balanced, healthy meal with portion control and almost nothing to throw away.

When I have made Ron lunch in the past he complained that I gave him too much food. I used to work 12 hour nursing shifts where I really looked forward to my 20 minute lunch. I used to bring lots of little snacks to sneak in during the day for energy. I think that's why I would give Ron lots of different things. In this case, I gave him lots of things but the portions are soooo small (that's three small carrots!) that I think he'll eat it all. Now he'll complain that I don't make him lunch every day. He'll say, "You did it once so now I know you can do it again!"

First Day of Kindergarten!

I was definitely stressed about getting the kids up, clean, fed and all of us out the door. I guess I'm going to get a lot of practice. Talia has a "staggered start" meaning she only goes Tues and Thurs this week and then starts full time after Labor Day. I think that's good for us! Today I'm still going to wake her up but at 7:30 instead of 7. Mostly just so she will go to bed early. Interestingly enough it was Alex who was melting down yesterday morning. A fly was in the kitchen and he was in tears! He was so offended-- it landed on his placemat! He really doesn't like bugs-- I wonder who he gets that from?! (me!)

I couldn't predict if Talia was going to come home from Kindergarten happy or crying. The first thing she said was "I love Kindergarten!" so we'll see how it goes tomorrow!