Boredom Jar

School's been out for exactly one week and already your kids are probably bored.
I can definitely tell you, mine is.  Or was.
Until she got served with the
BOREDOM JAR!


The boredom jar is a simple idea.  I've seen them all over the internet.
Here is how I made mine: I took one large empty container, glued the picture above on the front and back of it, and VIOLA!, a boredom jar.  

Well, almost... The challenge is to fill the container up with small slips of paper with interesting activities written on them that will keep your child busy during long, boring summer days.  In our boredom jar I put some activities that are more fun than others.  I like to call them "sweet and sour".  My one rule is that my daughter can not choose another slip from the container until she has done what was written on the slip that she already chose.  

Some boredom jar activities from our jar are:
See me for a new video game
Movie night
Clean off your bookshelf and donate old books to the library
Go geocaching
Let's bake cookies
Paint or draw a picture
Dress all the barbies up and fix their hair to go out dancing
Make a sidewalk chalk obstacle course for your scooter
Clean out your crafts and organize them
Arrange your stuffed animals, donate at least five to the Children's Home
Weed the garden, plant new seeds
You win a Target gift card- let's go spend it!
Make a craft with seashells
Make a powerpoint about a country you want to visit
Update your pinterest board
Clean out your sock drawer then let's pick out some new socks
Make up a dance to a CD 
Fashion show
Write a story on the computer including clip art illustrations
Park of your choice
Clean out junk drawer

Feel free to leave a comment if you use a boredom jar or come up with any other ideas for activities that I should add to mine!

The brown diet

I feel like everything I cook looks disgusting. I made soup this week and it's a nasty brown color. Tastes great though if that counts for anything. I'm sure after you look at the picture, you won't want the recipe... I diced about 10 purple and yellow fingerling potatoes and boiled them in Thai coconut curry broth until they were tender. Then I added a can of corn, a can of chicken, and a can of sweet potato casserole. I let it simmer for about 15 minutes, added a quarter cup of cream and some old bay seasoning. It tasted sweet and spicy. Close your eyes and enjoy!

Oriental salad

This week I made Oriental Salad!
They have a salad mix called "oriental" that you can pick up at the grocery store. It has a shreddy lettucy stuff, dressing, Chinese noodles and slivered nuts. I mixed this all together along with fennel (still using it!) and a green apple. I used this for my salad of the week by putting it on a flour tortilla along with some chicken salad I made. For the chicken salad, I used 1 can of chicken a teaspoon of mayo and a package of craisons I found in my pantry. This was a yummy, healthy lunch that I really enjoyed!

Easy onion soup

For my second soup of the new year, I wanted some yummy, salty, cheesy onion soup for my sore, sore throat! I made it using the camping onion recipe with a few small twists. I began by taking 2 sweet onions, peeling the outer layer and hollowing a small hole in the middle with a melon baller. I then filled the hole with a teaspoon of "better than bullion" and a pat of butter. Last, I carefully set the onion in foil and poured chicken broth, and a little white wine over it (about half a cup- not enough to leak out!) Close the foil up tight so it won't leak, and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees. When the onions were done, (very soft), I poured them into a bowl, cut them into bite size pieces and placed a few slices of Swiss cheese on top. This soup is seriously delicious!

Salad, yuck

The salad-a-week portion of my new years resolution is going to be the real challenge, since, get this- I hate salad! For my first salad, I found something called broccoli slaw at the grocery store. I mixed it with some fennel (leftover from my first soup) sliced very thin and an apple- also sliced very thin. I added a tiny pack of cranberries and a teaspoon of mayo and teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. I also added a dash of soy sauce. It turned quite the color of ugly, but tasted pretty good! I would definitely make this salad again.