Getting the Most Out of Your Back-To-School Supply Shopping

So, its getting to be that time of year again! I don't know about your area but school actually starts THIS WEEK out here! EEEEEEEEEEEK!

I think we are pretty much ready. Junior is totally excited. He's going to be a big 1st grader this year and feels like he has it all handled. I still get a little nervous though-- he's still my baby after all! The best I can hope to do is get us as ready as possible.

Here's a run down of our program-- granted we aren't super experienced as grade-school parents -- but it also includes some suggestions based on my experiences from when I was a teacher.

Basic Equipment:

You've gotta have a bag! We've gotten a new backpack this year-- not something we actually do every year but his old one died a sad and tragic death about a month before the end of school after 3 YEARS of faithful service. I think I got my $15 worth out of that! His old one had a character design (Handy Manny if that helps you date it....) that he originally picked out for our first Mommy & Me class at the park (kind of a pre-preschool type of thing). We opted to replace it this year with a nice solid color Jansport. I'm hoping that going for a quality manufacturer will let this one last a good 2 (or 3 or more!) years.

While there were many character themed packs at the assorted 'Marts in our area, I deliberately limited the selection to a "generic" type of pack. Assuming your kids are like mine -- who knows what shows/toys/games they will be into next year and what will be "too baby-ish". I actually found a decent price online (Amazon) in a basic blue that cost me just over $20.  We found similar ones at our local Ross for a similar price. You can often find higher quality packs at discount stores like Ross, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, etc. that have surplus styles, colors or discontinued patterns of good packs that just didn't sell originally. Spending a little bit more now, to have something that lasts longer, will save you over the long term!

Now for the lunchbox-- this is something that he does get every year. Besides letting him have something fun and personal to take to school, the day to day wear on these things tends to end their lives after about a year anyways. This year-- its Scooby-Doo. Its soooo cute too! He picked one that actually looks like the Mystery Machine that the gang all rides around in. Fun! The $12 is totally worth it when you consider that he'll be taking his lunch to school EVERY day. We do not buy school lunches. I have strong feelings about what they serve, as well as the cost. Unless you are getting the completely free or extremely reduced rates, it is almost guaranteed to be cheaper to buy your own supplies to pack lunches. And honestly, it really is less hassle than trying to make sure they have enough money, are making good choices, etc.

Pens, Pencils, Etc.

For our kiddo, all I'm getting is a new box of crayons, a set of colored pencils and one pack of markers. We have left over construction paper from last year as well as lined paper.  And, after a year's worth of birthday goody-bags, stocking stuffers, prizes, etc. he will probably NOT need a pencil for another 2 years! He is also set on erasers :P 

At this age, unless specifically requested, I'm not going to bother with a 3 ring notebook. Even up to high school, you are probably better off waiting until the first week. You might have teachers who would prefer that your student has a separate (smaller) binder for their class rather than one of those ginormous oversized deals that everything is supposed to fit into. We do have a simple paper folder (for homework) ready to go, though! Since those tend to wear out pretty fast (I think we went through 3 of them last year?) I'll get them now while I can get them for under $1.

That brings me to the "class list". At our school, the teacher puts out a class list of supplies. But they aren't required supplies for each student to bring, they are instead general class supplies for all the students to share (that are typically donated by the parents). This is a great time to stock up on these items. Pencils, pens, erasers, crayons, markers (esp. dry erase), lined paper, copy paper, construction paper are all items commonly found on this list. If your school is the same, and you like to help out, keep this in mind when you spy boxes of crayons for .25! When I'm buying to donate to the class, I like getting TWICE as much as I plan to give -- because in the spring term many of the classes will be low on supplies again but there won't be any sales. Being willing to set this aside for a few months will make you a hero to your kid's teacher in the spring and will really save the dollars, too!

Pencil Cases:

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE pencil cases. The zippered pouch style in particular. Not for pencils, necessarily. But I actually have a number of uses that they fulfill around the house. And right now, basic models can generally be found for $1-2!!

1) Games/small electronics: Junior's hand held game system fits easily into a larger 3 ring binder sized zipper pouch-- it also has 2 side pockets, one fits the games and one fits the travel cord perfectly. It cost us about $4 where the custom fitted name brand case cost $30. After a year + of use, its still doing the job wonderfully!

2) Purse organization: In my purse are several of these large zippered pouches. Instead of loose things flying all over my purse, I use each as a mini compartment. One is holding coupons, flyers, & gift cards. Another holds kid stuff (a small box of crayons, a mini coloring book, etc) to keep the littles occupied during long waits (spectacularly useful at restaurants!). This could also be great if you use the "envelope system" of finances to keep your envelopes neat and tidy. Smaller pouches are good for storing make-up and feminine products.

3) Tiny diaper bag: The 3rd pouch in my purse is actually serving as a tiny diaper bag. It fits 2-3 diapers, a travel pack of wipes and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Perfect for changes on the go. No need to carry a separate diaper bag everywhere! Now I can just leave it in the car for absolute emergencies.

Sorry for the ramble! I'm hoping something here might be useful to other people. If you have your own tip you'd like to share, please feel free to post in the comments below. I'd love to hear additional ideas!

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Some Thoughts on Real Food -- a year later...

Last year when I started in on the real food path, we made a lot of changes in the food we bought. We have really tried to stick to the organic, whole grain, unprocessed version of foods whenever I can get them. We do eat out occasionally and don't worry too much about it (a good rule of thumb I read somewhere was the 80/20-- where you try to keep on track at least 80% of the time and you can be more relaxed on the rules 20% of the time).

When we were thinking about doing this big change, I had some questions. I wondered how eating real food would affect my health. Would I lose weight? (I have a good bit I could stand to lose!) Would it be difficult to stick to-- like a diet?

After a year of this new lifestyle, I finally have some answers.

First, as relates to my health, I have found that I consistently rock my blood pressure & blood sugar tests. I'm not at the doctor all the time but I had a pretty detailed work up recently. I know the doctor was really expecting some weight related issues to come up but BOY was she surprised! All my levels were well within a healthy range-- even though I am just over the border into the "obese" side of the weight range for my height. I hadn't had my cholesterol done before and I was EXTREMELY curious to see what it would show. When I got my results, I was ecstatic! Not only were all my "bad" cholesterol/lipid levels low but my "good" cholesterol/lipid levels were where they should have been as well.

Interestingly enough, my diet includes a decent amount of butter (pastured when I can get it and organic otherwise), eggs (mainly pastured) several times a week, full fat (organic) dairy-- cheeses, sour cream, etc. and beef (mainly pastured) and olive oil but absolutely NO processed oils (corn oil, canola, etc.). If a conventionally educated nutritionist looked at this menu they'd probably freak out. But I think this definitely goes to show that our grandparents had it right. A diet based on real foods, as straight from nature as possible will be a good choice-- even if you cover everything in cheese and butter. Yes, real food might have a lot more fat and calories but we are finding that natural fats are actually necessary for key body functions. In addition, they provide a source of long lasting energy.

While a group of one (me) is hardly a sound scientific study, I can at least say that this "high fat" type of diet has had no negative effects on my cholesterol, lipid levels or weight-- I've neither lost nor gained over a full year. So, this answers one of my questions about fat-- does eating fat make you fat? I think, for me, the answer is clearly "NO". So long as the fats in question are the right kind!

My last question was how hard this lifestyle would be to live/maintain. Honestly, for the most part its been pretty easy. The beginning was hard. I had to change grocery stores and spent double the time shopping just from reading labels alone! Now that I've gotten into a routine and have learned to recognize the brands that don't have processed ingredients, a grocery trip is back to the usual amount of time. In the beginning, I also did a good amount of making foods to replace boxed items (in particular I spent a lot of time developing my recipe for fruit and grain bars as my oldest was addicted to them) But as we've found other new foods and gotten away from the boxed things, we don't really miss them as much as we did in the beginning. And I'm not spending much more time in the kitchen than I did before. The only real challenge I still have is finding quality baked goods (bread, bagels, etc.) that are minimally processed with basic ingredients-- that I actually like the taste and texture of. But I have found a few and I've learned how to do some baking and between the two, I'm getting the job done.

All in all, I think I find the satisfaction of knowing I'm feeding my family quality food from quality ingredients is worth the (occasional) hassle that might come from buying or preparing real foods. I am definitely thinking this will be a true lifestyle change and something that we will be doing permanently!

So what's next for the future?

Since I haven't lost much weight (um... I could still use a little work on portions.....), I guess I should consider working on that. Of course the modern culture of dieting would have me replace all of my real foods with prepackaged/processed low-fat diet foods. Not really something that I'm interested in doing!

So then, what if I don't lose weight?  Can you be both fat AND healthy? Typical medical practitioners would automatically say "no" but more and more information is coming to light that may, in fact go against that.  I've read a few interesting articles this year about how they are discovering that being slightly overweight is actually beneficial to long term health. This one from the NY Times was particularly interesting. The basic sum up from the article (and others like it) is this-- being fit is more important than being fat.  This means an overweight individual who is fit is actually healthier (and have lower mortality) than a person who isn't overweight but is unfit!

I think that for me then, I have "internal" fitness. That is, all my health indicators-- blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc., are showing a pretty healthy person. However, my level of outward fitness -- how much energy, stamina and endurance I have, is sort of so-so. So instead of focusing on a specific weight or size, I should instead be looking at my overall fitness.

I don't think I am where I want to be yet. We definitely need to incorporate more activity in our daily lives. Unfortunately, we do not have the time, interest or money to invest in a gym membership. Plus, my hubby and I have different needs when it comes to exercising. I am hopeful that if we actually take into account our individual interests and actual time available for exercise, we'll find something that will work for each of us!

It will be interesting to see how the next year goes as we enter "phase two" of our healthy lifestyle makeover!

Flourless Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's Saturday -- you've been working hard all week-- don't you deserve a cookie (or two)? I know I do!! I found this recipe several weeks ago via Pinterest (Is there anything you can't find on that site?). I'd give credit to the original blogger/site but the link seems to have gone dead. I'm glad I took the time to write it down!

I have to say this is one of the easiest cookie recipes I've ever tried. Very little fussing and you don't even have to break out the mixer if you don't want to! What makes this even more amazing is that it uses NO flour at all. That's right-- NONE! So this is for you, my gluten/grain challenged friends (or if you just happen to be out of flour.....).

Overall, I loved the flavor of this cookie. You really will not miss the flour at all. I also didn't miss the fine dust I inevitably scatter all over the kitchen any time I do use flour! These cookies puff beautifully in the oven. The texture does tend toward the slightly crumbly-- especially when warm. Based on this, I strongly recommend letting these cool for a few minutes ON the pan to prevent unfortunate breakages.

Hungry yet??

Recipe: Flourless Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: approx. 2 dozen cookies



Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky-- I use a no sugar version w/peanuts, palm oil + salt)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (~ 6 ounces or 1/2 a bag)

Directions:
1) Mix all the ingredients together.

2) Scoop by tablespoon (or mini cookie scoop!). You can roll them, drop them or smush them with 2 forks.

3) Bake on a cookie sheet @ 350 F for  about 10-12 minutes for a drop or scoop, more like 7-9 for smushed.

If you get going, you can have cookies in hand in less than 20 minutes. I know that I had the batter together before my oven had even preheated! So get to it!!

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