Back to School & Pineapple Chicken Rice Casserole

This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.

Taylor Swift

The new school year has officially begun! SO many changes!! The first week was… different. Different for SO many reasons.

1. The Girls started last Wednesday, a half day. It’s hard to get going in the middle of the week.

2. Both Girls are in NEW schools!!

3. We are now walking to school and have all new bell times. We are still getting the hang of when we have to leave and how long it takes to get there.

4. It is still hot out but cool in the morning. Plus the Girls are still in summer mode and either want to wear new fall clothes or beachwear. Their is absolutely no happy middle.

5. Bedtime has been a disaster! They both have anxieties and fears about new schools and they all manifest as soon as they lay down in their beds.

6. The construction happening to the house is messing with our routine.

7. HBear started French Immersion and she is franglaising all over the place 😳.

8. SBean REALLY misses her friends at Columbia. She was placed beside a new girl and they hit it off but her transfer to a different school went through on Monday and SBean is back at square one.

9. I have been pretty slack on chore charts over the summer and the Girls are really bucking the new charts. Lesson learned for next summer!

10. HBear has been taken over by a tween alien that controls her eyes and makes them roll at everything I say 🙄.

It’s just crazy! By Friday evening it looked like both of my beloved children had been possessed by the Devil and could only scream sounds rather than words! Between sobs HBear would cry “I don’t know what’s wrong” and SBean… She literally had no words but just cuddled up and made weird sounds.

SBean has been very concerned about making new friends. Although she doesn’t appear to to be shy, at least to all of us that know her well, she is!

She has been struggling with approaching new friends and missing her old school friends very much. We have been listing off all of her amazing qualities so that she will feel more confident in approaching people and asking them to play with her. It breaks my heart to hear her say that she spends recess by herself. I just know that this was the right move for our family. I know that she will meet wonderful friends and have her bonus friends from Columbia and preschool there for her too! However, we are halfway through the first full week of school and every morning has been a fight to get her to go. Poor kiddo. I know that in a few months I will look back at this post and see how far she has come but until then, it is hard.

HBear.

HBear has been psyching herself out. Because she has so many new responsibilities on her plate she is very worried about time management. Yesterday she got home and she was bawling. She gets out of school at 3 PM and dance starts at 3:30 PM. By the time she gets home she is stressed out about time. She doesn’t even have enough time for a snack which is something we have always done after school. When I opened up her lunch bag I realized she didn’t touch one thing in it! Apparently she is having a hard time in the hallways. HBear comes from a small school. She had 40 kids in her grade. Now she has 250 in her grade! She has band class before lunch on the first floor and has to make it back to the fourth floor for lunchtime. They have 17 minutes to eat and then they are ushered outside. She is nervous walking up the stairs with all the older kids so she has been waiting for them all to get down and then getting up there leaving her no time for lunch. After she calmed down we talked more about the situation. I told her that I am the Queen a time management and after the first week we can look at all of the issues and find solutions for them! Until then, our #1 Dance Mom offered her eldest daughter’s services to HBear. She meets up with a group of dance Girls after school and they all walk over to the studio together, HBear can join them and get to class on time! She also has English right beside HBear’s band class and will help her navigate the hallways/stair for the first little bit! She remembers hoe she felt last year and is willing to look out for HBear! I am so grateful for wonderful friends ❤️.

I am also grateful that both of our kids open up to us! They also seem to want to accept help eagerly and that is one battle we don’t have to worry about! I know we will get through this and they will realize that these first few weeks of playing alone or learning to open your locker is virtually 5 minutes of their life.

We will figure it out, together 💕

Check out the episode of How Was Your Week, Honey? Ep. 133: Rough Time Down the Rabbit Hole HERE We chat about Aerosmith, Road Trip, visiting with RASBesty, New Friends, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle, Vomit, and the Gum Wall.

Check out the episode of How Was Your Week, Honey? Ep. 134: Bachelors, Beaches & Bike Rides HERE This week the we chat about an action packed long weekend with the kids! Topics include: Big Brother Pool, Shopping, Bachelorette, breaking ground, Mardi Gras, the beach, The Wibit, bikini bottoms, bike ride, back to school, punk & Can. Con.

Check out the latest @HWYWHoney Ep 135: Who Fights at Fabricland We’re chatting Finders Keepers, Back To School, Dance Life, tequila, rain, Canadian Sex Positions, Adulting, Karaoke, Appliance Shopping HERE!

Menu planning in September is very much like getting dressed in September. It’s chilly out in the morning but warm throughout the day, you know it’s fall but you’re still trying to squeeze every last ray of sunshine that the late summer will allow you. Menu planning is also hard with a new fall schedule! I think I found the perfect balance with this one pot dish! It’s a casserole so it feels warm, cosy and comforting yet it has pineapple in it which is sweet and full of sunshine! This Chicken Rice Casserole was delicious! I didn’t use instant rice and our rice turned out a little under done but the flavour was so good that we all ate it up anyways! Next time I would definitely use instant rice though!

Pineapple Chicken Rice Casserole
Adapted from Family Fresh Meals

½ cup brown sugar
½ cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 ½ cups uncooked instant white rice
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits in juice, NOT drained
4 chicken breasts, diced into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and chicken broth.

Add uncooked rice, onion, bell pepper, pineapple and it’s juices and chicken. Cover the baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Once cooking is done, uncover and stir ingredients.

Return the dish to the oven, uncovered, and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender.

Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Top with diced bacon and cilantro.

We ended Summer with a BANG! We checked off all the remaining items on our summer bucket list and Ninja and I snuck in a quick trip to Seattle to hang out with our RASBesty and Lady Friend as well as meeting up with 2 of our favourite Podcasters from the 2on3 Podcast, as well as watching the Blue Jays destroy the Seattle Mariners! Unfortunately I came down with a bit of a stomach bug but we still managed to have a ton of fun!

We started our mini vacay with pizza and beer at one of our favourite restaurants in town, Bad Tattoo.

The Girls had one last summer camp, tennis!

We finished summer off with an amazing September Long Weekend which started with a street party, Mardi Gras on Martin St! We had a blast and then caught a beautiful sunset right up the road from the Girl’s old school..

The next day we spent at the beach! SBean still had not gone on the Wibit and that was her major bucket list item. We ended the day with dinner, the Game of Life and family movie night, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone!

On Sunday we did something absolutely crazy! We caught a shuttle up to Chute Lake and the 4 of us rode our bikes down the 40 km KVR trail. It was absolutely invigorating, stunning, and completely frustrating! The Girls struggled, especially SBean but boy were they proud of themselves when they finished, and so were we! Despite a few meltdowns, it was an amazing day that I will always remember! It took us 8 hours and when we got back into town we went directly out for dinner and then fell into our beds happily exhausted!

We finished the weekend off by checking off the last box, a 4 man bike ride around Peachland, a dip at the beach, dinner and them dessert from The Peach.