(This one is for you Anna)

I pledged not to buy food at work, in January. Except for group lunches, I was going to eat breakfast at home, and bring in leftovers for lunch. No buying food.

I have really done well. we’re near the end of the 2nd week (of a 4.5 week month). I have also been trying to plan out our dinners for the week, so that makes it easier as well. When there’s leftovers in the fridge, it’s easy to grab them on the way to work.

Breakfast is tough for me, because I am always in a hurry. Even when there’s plenty of time, I just want to get out of the house already. My old habit was to stop at McDonald’s and get an egg mcmuffin and a diet coke. While looking at this habit from a weight loss point of view, it really wasn’t terrible. It’s not a bad nutritional start to the day, as long as you count it for what it is. However, looked at from a financial point of view, it is a HORRIFIC habit to have. It’s roughly $4 for that meal, and 5x a week for 4 weeks is $80. Times 12 months and it’s $960 for the year! Wouldn’t I much rather spend $960 on something much more substantial? YES I WOULD! And this is only breakfast, I was also spending $5-10 on lunch!

So because I’m always in RUSH RUSH RUSH mode in the morning, it’s tough to sit down and eat breakfast. Just in case I forget, I brought a box of instant oatmeal to work, so I would have no excuses to stop anywhere on my way in. If I hadn’t eaten breakfast, I could just eat at work! Look at that, I actually thought ahead!

But today we have my first mis-step. Last night we had rotisserie chicken (from costco) but I did nothing with it afterward, and was in too much of a rush this morning to throw something in a tupperware for lunch today… and here it is, lunch time.

Doh.

Other goals – the photo thing is going well, the trip to DC was definitely worth a few photos, but now I’m at the last of my pre-posted photos and need to get out and shoot some more! I don’t *want* to use blurry camera phone photos for project 366, but I will if it comes to that! And then you’ll be sorry!

The key is to prepare! Prepare prepare prepare!

later, i gots to go find some lunch.

– amy made a new category and everything

Why yes, I AM a cheeky little monkey.

What’s it to you?

As the new year begins, there’s some things James and I have to start looking into. Ethan is attending kindergarten at the preschool/daycare* he has been at since I went back to work when he was 3. We made the decision to keep him there in their private kindergarten this year, but next year he will be going to public school for the 1st grade.

*I don’t want to say the name of the school our kids go to, so for the duration of this post, we’ll just call it, OurSchool. Sound good?

This makes a big change for us. We’ve been going to OurSchool for a long time. Jocelyn was in a home daycare when ethan first started at OurSchool, but when she turned two (the youngest allowable age at OurSchool) we moved her there as well, for convenience. She will have been going there 2 years in March, when she turns 4, and this year marks Ethan’s 3rd year there.

As you may have guessed, we just love this school. The administrators are fantastic, the classrooms are small, the teachers are wonderful. We’ve had a few spots for both kids where the teachers seemed to come and go, but with other teachers having been around for 10+ years, we were not worried. Ethan’s kindergarten teacher has been teaching at OurSchool for over 20 years, and she is absolutely fantastic.

OurSchool has the hugest playground I have ever seen at a daycare/preschool. It is probably three times the size of some of the cookie cutter daycares in our area. They have a 10×10 covered sand box, a domey monkey bar thingee, a pavillion, swings, a big climby slide thingee, a row of tires, more swings and slides, plus more that I’m not remembering – and that is not including the toddler play area which is completely separate from the big playground. The entire playground is fenced in, and along one side is a wooded area which brings the kids closer to nature. In the fall, they both collected acorns to bring home, stack in bowls, hide in pockets until they turned up in my washing machine – I complain (not really), but I LOVED it. Ethan often comes home with twigs, special rocks and of course, sand in his pockets. I love that their playground is not some sterile rubber area surrounded by concrete just outside the fence. They really are in the outdoors, with tons of room to run and play and watch caterpillars and bugs and nature.

So it’s with a heavy heart that I’m looking around at other situations. You see, OurSchool isn’t in our immediate area, and doesn’t service our public schools for before and after care, so with Ethan moving to public school, we will also have to find a new daycare for him for before and after school. I know these facilities have their good points and once we’re used to it, and used to our new routine next fall, all will be well, but just thinking about it now makes me sad.

One thing we’re definitely doing – summer camp at OurSchool 🙂 At least he’ll have those.

Please click and see me all big.

I like to show off.

Please click on me.

I’m lonely.

Please click on me. I want to take up the entire browser. I look so much better that way.

Please?