When Ninja and I talked about having kids we talked about our upbringings and our childhood. Even though we came from completely different places we are raised very very similar. They were things in my childhood that I definitely wanted to pass on to my children and there were things in his life growing up that he wanted to pass down.
We both thought our parents did really great jobs… With what they had to work with 😜.
There was one thing though that we felt both of our parents could have done a better job at. Teaching us study habits. Both Ninja and I did well in school so our parents, for the most part, left us alone and we continued to get good grades. When we both got to University though we found that we couldn’t get by just on our smarts… We needed to study! It was hard! Now that I’m older I see that the self-discipline or just the discipline in general it takes to create good study habits can serve you in so many different aspects of your life. We made a promise that we would teach our children how to study!
8 years later I have found myself in a similar position as my parents. HBear is a fabulous student! I am one of those lucky parents that have never had to be on her case to do her daily reading. Not only does she read one book for her book report every week but she usually finishes 4 – 6 books a week! In fact, my trouble has been finding her appropriate books and keeping up with her LOL.
This weekend was very very busy. The way we usually do it is she reads one good novel a week and then after that she can read graphic novels, magazines, or other chapter books… As long as she has one for her book report a week. On Sunday evening she had just crawled up into bed and I looked on my side table and saw her home reading book. Shit! I took it into her bedroom and I said, “I know it’s late Sweetie but we completely forgot about home reading! This week it is only one question about the ending… Do you think you can do that right now?”
She looked up from her magazine and said, “actually Mommy I didn’t read a book this week only graphic novels so I will just take the penalty.”
😳
OH HELL NO!!
I explained to her that it was a very very very busy weekend. I explained priorities to her. I told her that I understood if she didn’t get her homework done on the weekend, that we should have looked at the big picture and done it earlier. I then explained what I did not understand, the fact that she did not read a book throughout the week was a major issue! We talked about responsibility and the slippery slope. I told her, “if the normal is 11 out of 11 and then you say that it’s no big deal that you will take a 10 out of 11, next time it’ll be way easier to just get a 10 out of 11 again. Then the next thing you know you will hand it in late 2 days and you’re sitting at a 9 out of 11 and then you get comfortable with that! It is a very very slippery slope!”
She was bawling! Not because of our talk, not because she felt guilty for not doing her homework but because she was just a tired little girl on a Sunday evening after a very busy weekend.
I stopped.
I gave her a giant hug and wiped her tears and told her how proud I was of her dedication to her dance team and how proud I was of her confidence. I told her I loved her very much and that she made me very very happy with her fantastic attitude and positivity throughout the entire weekend.
She went directly to sleep with a smile on her face.
The next day I wrote a note to her teacher in her planner explaining that we have had a discussion about priorities and responsibilities and that I would like her to have marks taken off her assignment for her tardiness. I picked her up from school and told her to go directly to the van. There was no playing with her friends after school because she had her homework to do. I explained that I have always trusted her to do her reading every night. She had broken my trust and therefore had to do her reading every day after school. She sat in the backyard from 3 until 5 reading her book. We had dinner and we had bath and then she finished reading her book. She then had to do her book report and then she had to do her math homework. We finished it off with a review of her spelling words. Then it was bedtime. She was quite upset that she didn’t get any TV time but she understood what was the priority.
I was honestly shocked that she was so willing to take a penalty! She has received 100% on every assignment. The fact that she was so OK with doing less than her best makes me worry 😬. Just because she is a good student does not mean she is going to be OK… Study habits are so important and it is my job to make sure she is taught that.
So, last week we went to a Full Moon Party, if you want to hear all about it you can check out episode 19 of How Was Your Week, Honey?
This week I won our Work Week Hustle but did not even come close to Ninja in our competition 😞😡🙄😒.
I know I wanted to do a post on a week of healthy recipes this week but… that takes a long time to get ready 😳!!! So, this week I’m sharing a super yummy and easy chicken dish. We love takeout but it is crazy expensive so I try out new recipes all the time to give us that feeling of Chinese takeout. This was super easy and ridiculously tasty! I doubled the sauce to make sure it was SUPER saucy and sticky! I forgot the sesame seeds of course LOL!
Adapted from Creme De La Crumb
4 chicken breasts, chopped into pieces
1 tablespoon oil
6 tablespoons flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/2 cup ketchup
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon cold water + 2 tablespoons corn starch
Whisk all sauce ingredients together, set aside.
Place beaten egg, 3 tablespoons corn starch, and flour in three separate bowls. Dip chicken pieces in egg mixture, then flour (toss to coat), and lastly in corn starch (toss to coat).
Add sauce to your skillet and bring to a boil. Whisk cold water and 2 tablespoons corn starch together in a small bowl until corn starch is dissolved. Add corn starch mixture to skillet. Stir until sauce thickens. Garnish with sesame seeds.
SBean has been begging for a play date with MusicBesty. So this week we went to the park for lunch.
Then the water park and then we tried to go for a walk on the beach but the wind was whipping the sand from the beach into our legs and it HURT! So, we took the fun to our house 😊.
On Friday it was the 3rd last Hot Lunch of the year!!! 3rd last Hot Lunch possibly… Forever! This past week we had our last PAC meeting of the year and a new Hot Lunch Coordinator was nominated!!!! Now they can deal with things like what happened to me on Friday 😜. It was a fiasco. Apparently the Wholesale Club’s delivery truck got held up in Revelstoke because of the flooding. Therefore, my Hot Lunch order was short 25 pre-cooked frozen hamburgers. After long debate and a discussion with my HotLunchBesty we decided to buy 40 uncooked hamburger patties for $24.00.
When I brought them back to the BBQ’er he refused to cook them. He “asked” me to go return them and go to the Superstore and buy precooked burgers 🙊. So I returned the $24 box and drove to another store and bought $50.00 worth of precooked burger patties 🙁.
Grrrrrr
After school we went to the beach for our weekly flood watch. The houses on Lakeshore are pumping their basements 😞. The beach is totally gone 😢. There will need to be so much cleanup. I heard the waters won’t fully recede until mid August. I wonder how this will affect our tourism? Yikes.
Along the boardwalk the city has put up different art exhibits. The Kiss statue is the Girl’s favourite.
On Saturday morning Ninja took SBean to soccer while HBear had her first dance recital of the weekend. They were AWESOME! So much poise and the biggest smiles 💕 I was bursting with pride at the confidence that she displayed out on the stage. She loves performing! She informed me that she wants to take Musical Theatre, Jazz AND Acro next year 😳!!!! She is defiantly trying her best to make a Dance Mom out of me yet 😂!
After the show we went to lunch at The Cannery. Yes I took my daughter to a Brewery for lunch 😂 They have the BEST cheese stuffed pretzel bombs and Mama needed a yummy beer after 2 hours and 24 minutes of dance 😜!
When we got home Ninja and SBean were working hard pressure washing the deck and doing Saturday afternoon chores.
After a little rest HBear and I went to her 2nd last swimming lesson. She is such a trooper 💛.
Sunday was the Wildstone Colours4Kids Run! Last year HBear and I did it but this year Ninja, SBean and Dad joined us! It was a BLAST! It was started by a young girl in her sister’s name and proceeds go to OSNS. However, it started waaaay late because Duncan Keith was there signing autographs so we only did the 2.5km run.
After the recital we went out for dinner with Grandma, Grandpa and Papa 💕. Yay for no cook nights!
I was blown away by the sweet gestures shown to My Girls this weekend. SBean has 2 Preschool teachers, one came to her dress rehearsal and the other brought each of the Girls a gorgeous rose! HBear’s teacher came to the 1st performance and sent a very thoughtful email that day commending them (there were 4 of her Besties in the show) on their confidence, beauty and talents. We really got lucky this year with such wonderful coaches, teachers and leaders 💕.
