Parental Frustration

So last week, Harlee casually tells me that she needs me to sign her progress reports.  She had 3 in a row that she had not given us and I was under the assumption that maybe they just got interims every quarter like she did last year.  That is not the case.  The progress reports revealed to us that Harlee had not been paying attention in class and was rushing through her tests.  I know that she knew the material, because she always got them right with her homework and if it wasn't right, I showed her the right way to do it.  There were a few 100's and 90 somethings, but there were also some 20s!! 50s!! and 60s!! Not Harlee!! Yes, Harlee.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  The worst part was, that she even forged my initials (CK) on one of the reports and gave it to her teacher. It was in pencil and looked like something I would have written blindfolded and with my left hand.  Chris wrote a note on the progress report that he signed and the teacher called him back.  He wanted to know why she got "Terrific Kid" just a few weeks ago if this was happening.  Apparently, they do those a few weeks in advance.  Also, she said that Harlee was lacking focus, not paying attention, and even putting her head on the desk a lot. 

Our solution - We immediately told Harlee she was on restriction for 1 week. No TV, no electronics, nothing.  I think the worst thing for her is that we changed her bedtime.  She used to get to go to bed at 9. Only because we never had any issues waking her up in the morning and she always did well in school.  Now, her new bedtime is 8. That means at 7:30 she takes her shower, brushes her teeth and goes straight to bed.  We also told her that TV on school nights (after restriction) would be limited to 30 minutes, max.  The rest of her time after school would be spent doing homework, her chores, studying and reading (and playing in her room with her dolls or whatever else after all the rest of the things were done).  So we got her progress report yesterday, all As and Bs and 1 C. We told her that the C was not acceptable, even though it was an improvement, but that we expected all As and Bs in the future.  

Now on to Jaxon... He has been sleeping in his own bed for a while now, but he comes in to our room every night around 3am. I don't want to keep him locked in his room so that he cries when he wakes up in the middle of the night and might be too scared to sleep in his room the next night, but it really affects our sleep even if it is only 3 hours of it.  This is an issue that needs to be fixed quickly before baby #3 arrives in June! :) 

Grandmothers & Make Ahead Meals

I was blessed with 2 excellent grandmothers as a child.  My Nana passed away when I was only 5, but I remember so much about her for only knowing her such a short time.  She was the definition of what a grandmother should be, both of my grandmothers were.  My other grandmother (my Dad's Mom) is still with us and I feel so incredibly blessed.  I grew up with a grandmother who spoiled, knew the meaning of fun, and most importantly, loved.  She always knew how to make us feel better and if Belk was open, we were there.  As a teenager, my grandmother was my best friend.  She was there when I thought I was being mistreated by my parents (hehe) and I even lived with her for a few years during and after high school. We did a lot together and I will always cherish those days.  As with everyone, life happened.  I grew older, got married and now have children of my own and I don't get to see my grandmother nearly as much as I want to and for a time, I didn't see her nearly as much as I should but lately we have been spending a few days together here and there and I can't explain how much I have enjoyed it (and hope that she has, as well). 

She called me last week and asked when I would be doing my "Cooking thing for the month" again.  I told her that I would be working on it this week, and yesterday she came over to help me.  Seriously, it made things so much easier! She did all the stuff that I hate doing (washing the chicken, washing & cutting vegetables, LOTS AND LOTS of prepping).  Side Note: My grandmother is legally blind.  She can see a little, but not very well.  It is amazing how she measures, cuts and does so many other things purely from habit. She is AN AMAZING cook and I am so blessed to have had her in my kitchen helping me. 

 

She also helped me with Jaxon.. who was very hyper during our time in the kitchen.

 



 

Oh and my favorite dish from this months was Copy Cat Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden.  It was DELISH!!

 

(I used spinach instead of kale, though.)

 

Crazy Hormones & Being a "Soccer Mom"

So, since having Jaxon (3 years ago), sometimes I feel like a hormonal basket case! I mean the smallest things set me off and I find myself just tearing up for odd reasons. My husband says it best when he says, "You are a MESS."  Haha, lovingly of course.  One of my biggest fears in life is that something will happen to my kids or to me and I won't be able to watch them grow and meet my grandchildren, and so on.  (Something happening to Chris is also a fear, obviously).  I think it is "survivor's guilt.  Since I have lost both my brother and sister, I have this nagging feeling sometimes that there must be something wrong with me.  I go to the doctor for dizziness and prepare myself for a cancer diagnosis.  I mean.. I seriously do this.

Either way, every time I go to a dance recital of Harlee's, I tear up for no reason.  Even when I am watching performances that she is not in, I tear up just watching the little girls dance.  When Jaxon went for his first day of 3K, I teared up (which is more normal I think).  But then, last night I was at Harlee's soccer practice.  This is something that I do twice a week and then a game on Fridays.  Nothing new. But last night was different.  I was watching as she helped her team win a "soccer relay race" and when she was 2 people away from her "running & dribbling the ball" bit, my heart started racing and I became instantly nervous for her.  I wanted her to nail it, I didn't want her team to be upset with her, I wanted her to be proud of herself as much as I was already proud of her.  It was her turn. The ball was passed to her and she dribbled it right down the field, around the cone, back to the front of the line, picked the ball up and handed it over her head to the next in line.  Just.Like.She.Was.Supposed.To.  Then the waterworks.  I was so happy, so proud... so excited that I couldn't hold them back. It wasn't a loud cry. In fact, I didn't make a sound, but I couldn't stop the tears from falling. I might add, that earlier that day, she won an award at school for being "Terrific Kid" which is an honor she gets quite often.  

Tomorrow, we are going to her first concert to see one of her favorite bands - The Band Perry.  I cannot wait and cannot think of a more deserving 7 year old.  Sure, she is not perfect.  She talks back sometimes, whines sometimes and complains when she has to do her chores.. But I think that comes with being a 7 year old girl.  I know God has big plans for Harlee and I can't wait to see what they are!

"Rigatoni Stuff" - A Childhood Favorite

When my sister and I were little, my Mom made this dish (often) that we lovingly referred to as "Rigatoni Stuff."  We loved it and to this day I still love it and consider it to be one of my favorite "comfort foods."  When Mom would ask us what we wanted to have for our birthday dinners, and even birthday parties, "Rigatoni Stuff" was most often the answer. 

I love to cook and usually can create pretty good, complex dishes that "Make you wanna slap your Momma!"  However, sometimes simple is the best route, especially with small kids.  When I make this dish, I get a very similar reaction from my kids and I find it to be so... special.  I mean, traditions are great, even if it's a simple food dish.  I wanted to share this dish because it is so simple and a family favorite. 

Here's what you will need:

1 box of rigatoni noodes (cooked as directed on box)
1 pack of Johnsonville SWEET ITALIAN brats. 
1 large jar of Ragu SUPER CHUNKY MUSHROOM
1-2 cups of shredded Mozzarella (we use 2 because we LOVE cheese!)

Steps (SO FAST & EASY)

1.  Cook the noodles as directed on the box. 
2.  Slice brats and cook in a pan over med/high heat until browned.
3.  Mix sauce and sausage with cooked noodles in a 9x13 baking dish.
4.  Cover with mozzarella cheese.
5.  Bake at 425° about 15-20 minutes (until cheese is nice and melted.

This is also a good "Make Ahead Meal."  Simply follow steps 2-3, only instead of putting it in a baking dish, you put it in a freezer bag.  Freeze. When ready to cook it, Make the noodles, mix sauce and sausage from freezer bag with the cooked noodles in a baking dish, top with cheese, bake, and VOILA!

Look at the Cheesy  Deliciousness!!

 



Anxiously Preparing for Disney

In 34 more days, my family will be heading to Orlando, FL.  Chris and I have been to Disney World before, but our children have not and this will be our first time going together AND our first time as parents.  Harlee is 7 and Jaxon is 3 and since we are hoping for another child, it was important for us to take Harlee before she got "too old" for princesses, to take Jaxon while he is still so completely Toy Story obsessed and to go before we one day (hopefully) welcome another life into our family.  I am excited, to say the least. My husband told Harlee & Jaxon, "Ya'll better watch out when we get there, Mom might run you over!" :) I admit, I am still a kid at heart... probably always will be. Well yesterday, our luggage tags and a package of vouchers arrived and I think I am in double overtime excitement!

Either way, as I mentioned earlier, this is my first time going as an adult... and a parent. That means that this is the first time I have had to prepare, pack, FOOT THE BILL (that hurt!) and make the experience as fun and memorable as I can from start to finish for my kids.  In the Knezevich Family, we try to do a fun family craft or activity once a week. Sometimes it's baking and sometimes it is actually getting crafty but for Disney, our craft took us a grand total of 4 evenings.  Harlee kept asking "How many more days until Disney?" and Jaxon kept asking, "Are we going to Pizza Planet today?"  So I decided it might be fun to make a paper chain to count down the days to Disney.  Well, of course, we couldn't do any ordinary chain, so at the 54 day countdown mark we started working on the "50 Days Until Disney Countdown Chain."  I cut 50 strips and we drew on each strip a theme from our favorite Disney movies.  I have to take a minute to brag on how artistically talented my little family is! (Jaxon being 3 didn't do anything much more than a scribble here and there, but we used a few of his anyway!) :)  Anyway, these are a few shots of our chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This last one I had to add in here because it was done by my cousin, Julia. I was showing her during a family gathering what we were doing and she snuck in and added the "Tale As Old As Time" Beauty and the Beast themed one to our pile.  She will also be joining us on our first Dinsey trip so it was PERFECT!  The crazy thing was, I was working on my Beauty and The Beast themed one when Harlee said, "Hey, where did this one come from??"  CRAZY! Thanks Julia!  After our trip is over and we have a TON of pictures (I'm sure), we will be creating a family scrapbook of our first Disney trip and we are saving the strips to use as scrapbook decoration.  We will have a lot of fun memories of our Disney trip,  but I also want to remember the fun (and laughs) that we shared making this chain. Speaking of laughs, one of them was due to my lumpy Mrs. Potts as pictured above! :)

 

 The kids and I are also creating a rubbermaid bin (slightly bigger than the shoe box sized ones) that we are dubbing our "Travel Box."  We will pack coloring books, crayons, DSi & games, kindle etc. We have a rule that if it doesn't fit in the box, it doesn't go!  I am going to paint the top with chalkboard paint and pack a little bit of chalk so the kids can play tic tac toe on top or something like that! Victor (my 7 year old brother in law) will also be going with us, so that will be good for him and Harlee.   Anyone out there have anymore advice or tips for us?  We are going November 7-11.  We have already made all hotel and dining reservations. We will be spending 2 days at Magic Kingdom & 1 day at Hollywood Studios.