fall meal plan:

sunday: rotisserie chicken, potato, vegetable (grocery shop and start tomorrow's soup)

monday: chicken soup and fresh bread

tuesday: tacos

wednesday: stir fry, rice

thursday: spaghetti

friday: homemade pizzas (bake crusts and tomorrow's buns)

saturday: pulled pork (or burgers, dogs), baked beans, cole slaw

so today I made shrimp "ceviche" on tostadas - SO GOOD.

Mix:

1# salad shrimp, rinsed to thaw

juice of 2 limes

1/2 tsp salt

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 or two avocados diced

2 tomatoes diced

about 3T red onion minced

about 1/2 cup cilantro chopped

let mingle in fridge up to 30 minutes, pile onto 3 tostadas. this was delicious w/o a side dish.

tonight I'll start the sauce and meatballs for Thursday's spaghetti and make enough for a month.

In other news, because our schedules are changing, because the kids want to, and because I think I may have over-villified the school system - at least at the elementary level, ... we are considering sending the kids back to school. I'm coming to see that both ways can be successful as long as the parents are active in the educational process. This confused my husband at first, but he could see there were lots of little reasons piling up to this. It isn't because I can't handle them - dumping kids at school for discipline is a disaster. I love my kids and I want to serve them the best way I can, even if that is different from my original opinion. I love homeschooling and I love being with them all day, but with all I have to get done, some of their time each day may be better spent at school. The truth is, over time, I have not been as consistent with my good intentions for homeschooling as I would call successful. They are fine academically and their self confidence is wonderful (which I'm still worried about as far as going back to school is concerned) but school would offer them structure and stimulation that I am inconsistent with. I have to work, I have to paint, and its really hard to juggle those two jobs, keeping house, raising children, and educating them all at once. Do I always have to do everything the hard way? Besides, if they don't like it, they can come back home. But they want to go. And if they become depressed later because school is so awful, they can come back home. We'll see how it goes.