Day 7: Trim Healthy Mama Experiment (Panic and Potato Chips!)

So the day was great, but lunch was a little light, so when I went to the grocery store at 4:00 p.m. with my kiddos, I was so hungry, had nothing on-hand and dove into the potato chips I was letting my kiddos snack on in order to stay civilized (no judging!). There, I admit it!

So after I did that, I ran to the Starbucks in Vons and got a coffee to CUT MYSELF OFF FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! That worked for awhile, but then I snatched one of the 6 year old’s Nature Valley Granola bars on my way home. I’m so ashamed 😉

 

Actually, I’m wondering if I could say this was an E-Snack: 15 carbs, 3.5 fat? Any thoughts mamas?….and let’s just forget about the potato chips shall we?

This is a good learning experience…don’t shop hungry (learned this when I was 15), and be prepared with healthy snacks (on every food/nutrition blog I’ve ever read)! So, a bit of a fail today but not too much harm done I hope.

The rest of the day was great (I accidentally deleted the E-Breakfast picture but it was Dark Euro Bread, Laughing Cow Cheese and sliced hard boiled egg, salt, pepper, Sriracha).

E-LUNCH

 

2 slices gluten free bread from Trader Joe’s, crispy egg whites, Perisan cucumber, lemon pepper, FP homemade ranch. I saw this, this morning from the famous sister Pearl on the THM Facebook page. It was great. I added a teaspoon of garlic sauce for a teeny bit of fat.

S-DINNER

S Taco Salad: Romaine, taco seasoned ground beef, salsa, pick de gallo, Tapatio, shredded cheddar, guacamole, sour cream.

This little lady speaks for herself. Amazing!

Oh…this experiment is as much about finding a healthy, sustainable nutrition plan for myself and my family, as it is for losing weight, but I do plan to lose weight already! So after 7 days, I’ll report I am exactly 3 lbs. down in one week. I’ll report again next week and see if that is a real 3 lbs. and not just water, cutting out wine etc. We shall see. Thanks for playing along and see you tomorrow!

Day 6: Trim Healthy Mama Experiment (Chocolate Chip Cookies and a New Hot Sauce!)

Today’s big “Try” was the 1st Cookbook’s, Believe-It-Or-Not Chocolate-Chip-Cookies, page 320.

So chocolate chip cookies are my #1, top-dog, first in line dessert of all time. I will be making many different recipes to find my favorite and share with you. This one was good, a little cakey for my taste (I like gooey/crisp which may not be totally possible without glutenous white flour but we shall see!).  However, the “traditional/original/classic only” husband LOVED these and so did the kids, so they’re a keeper!

I’m trying to keep at least one new THM treat on-hand for the family so that we learn to like things without traditional white sugar. So say tuned for more treat Trys!

The rest of the day was boring old leftovers but they got the job done and made this mama happy.

E-Breakfast: Dark Euro Bread, Laughing Cow Cheese, tomato slice, smoked salmon, dill.

S-Lunch: Romaine, hard-boiled egg, avocado, shredded cheddar, baked chicken, plum tomatoes, black pepper, ranch dressing.

S-Dinner: Leftover baked chicken, broccoli, mashed cauliflower, mozzarella cheese, garlic chili paste.

One more quick share…

Sambal Oelek Ground Fresh Chili Paste

If you like it hot like me, this is another great chili sauce to try. Unlike Sriracha, it has whole pieces of red pepper and lots of garlic. It’s awesome.

See you tomorrow!

Day 5: Trim Healthy Mama Experiment…Jack in the Box…Whaaat?!!!

Today was a busy Saturday getting Dillon, the 10-year old, ready for church camp at Hume Lake in Hume, CA. Soooooo…..lunch was Jack in the Box! Normally I would’ve ordered a Chicken Fajita Pita (if I was dieting), or a Spicy Jack Chicken Sandwich with cheese (if I wasn’t), but today….because of my Trim Healthy Mama experiment, I ordered the Buttery Jack wrapped in lettuce. It was nice to feel like I could order a burger and it got the job done, but to be honest, it wasn’t that inspiring. They forgot the butter sauce, which is probably why, so I added a little garlic sauce at home and that was better. I guess if there is no bun, they don’t know where to smear on the butter sauce! All in all, I was happy to be able to order fast food and stay on-plan without too much difficulty!!

S-LUNCH

 

Buttery Jack and yes, I did a Diet Coke. Shhh…it was good. 🙂

They forgot the butter sauce so I added garlic sauce. So there 🙂

The rest of the day was repeat leftovers and great:

 

E-Breakfast: Dark European Bread, Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese, smoked Atlantic salmon, dill.

S-Dinner: Leftover Chicken Parmy, mashed cauliflower with cheddar, buttered broccoli.

FP-Snack: Multigrain Wasa cracker, Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese, leftover Chicken Parmy slices, Sriracha.

MARINARA SAUCE

Many of the traditional spaghetti sauces that you can buy pre-made, are filled with added sugar. Since THM tries to get away from consuming sugar (so you don’t spike your blood sugar and mess with your insulin and hormones), I’ve been trying to find products I normally use, but with no added sugar. I’m working on making some things from scratch and marinara sauce is one of them, but baby steps…so I wanted to share a couple brands I’ve found that are added sugar-free and easy to find.

Be aware, these still have natural sugars. The Kirkland (Costco) brand has 6 grams sugar and 10 carbs, and the Trader Joe’s brand has 4 grams of natural sugars from the tomatoes and onions and 7 grams carbs. Even plain tomato sauce usually has about 2 grams of sugars and 4 carbs, BUT…if you’re not ready to do the Italian Mama Mia purist thing and simmer your own sauce all day, these are the best choices I’ve found so far.

For the Chicken Parmy we did this week, we only used about 2 Tablespoons of sauce per dish, so the sugar and carbs was much less than the 1/2 cup servings the labels report on.

Marinara Sauce is not something myself or my Sicilian hubby will allow me to nix, so this is an example of making choices to fit in your life!

Hope you are enjoying and having a great week, see ya tomorrow!

P.S. For you experienced THM’ers, please feel welcome to correct or add to any information here. This is from a beginner, to beginners, so I’m sure we will get some stuff wrong or tilted. Thank you in advance!!

 

Day 4: Trim Healthy Mama Experiment

Hello friends! Today was good and I’m getting the hang of stuff a little. I have to fight the urge to just eat whatever, because I am extremely busy, as are all of you I’m sure. I’m finding that if I just take out a couple of extra minutes to think and make something on-plan, I feel much better about taking care to do something good for myself. It is helping me to have a lot of different sauces and other ingredients to choose from to make. I’m thinking about putting together a list of ingredients to have on-hand, that might help other people just starting out…more on that later.

I dove into the cookbook for dinner today, “Chicken Parmy” page 161, and it was great. Here is a quick run-down of everything up until then:

I’ve been reading many other blogs and sites and found a really good one to share: www.briana-thomas.com. I am not affiliated with her in any way. I don’t know her. I just ran across her stuff while checking out some THM recipes on Pinterest. She has a cookbook with 400 original recipes, all made and labeled for THM. I haven’t bought it yet, but I probably will. It’s about $24. In any case, one of her blog posts is titled Starting THM. Check it out, it has lots of good advice. One thing I took away from it was to repeat meals that you love, until you get tired of them. So that’s what I did for most of today until dinner.

S-BREAKFAST

Repeat: Homemade Yum’s Low-Carb bagels (homemade), egg soft-fried in butter, black forest ham, thick tomato, Sriracha sauce.

S-LUNCH

S Lunch ingredients

S Lunch Tuna Salad Salad

I have done homemade mayo before and it’s much healthier because it uses olive oil instead of soybean and other yucky oils, but this is what I had on hand today so there it is. The homemade one I use is from Mel Joulwan and her cookbook “Well Fed”, a paleo cookbook and it’s awesome, just follow the directions about room temperature lemon, egg and SLOW mixing. Here’s a link to the recipe: Homemade Olive Oil Mayo

Also, FYI, most pickle relish has sugar in it but Vlassic Dill Relish does NOT have sugar, Whoot!

FP-SNACK

I have to make this photo big so you can see the delicious shiny Sriracha chili sauce. Just sayin’. 🙂

Multigrain Wasa cracker, Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese, roasted turkey breast slice, Sriracha.

S-DINNER

THM Chicken Parmy p. 161 in the Cookbook. I put it over zucchini noodles for me, and made angel hair pasta for the kids and hubby. I added a tiny bit of Buitoni Alfredo Sauce to the Zoodles and a dollop of garlic sauce (Trader Joe’s), which makes everything amazing!

 

Chicken breast pieces dipped in butter, rolled in THM Baking Blend, grated parmesan and spices.

Makes Zoodles (zucchini noodles) with the Veggetti!

Added marinara sauce and mozzarella to half (for adults), leave half plain (for kiddos).

 

We all had little pieces of the Trimtastic Chocolate Zucchini cake for dessert and everyone was happy today. See you tomorrow!

Day 3: Trim Healthy Mama Experiment

Today seemed pretty easy and I learned a few new things. Yesterday’s night-time Wholesome Yum’s Low Carb Bagel experiment, formed the basis of breakfast today and it was amazing!

S-Breakfast

Wholesome Yum’s Low-Carb homemade bagel, thick tomato slice, soft fried egg in butter, 1 slice black forest ham, black pepper and Sriracha chili sauce.

Now, I’ve discovered that Sriracha chili sauce is on-plan and it is delicious if you like hot and tangy. I added it to this breakfast sandwich at the last minute and it was the star! The bagel was great too of course. This was super good, not hungry for many hours!

Here’s the breakdown to remember on this plan…you need:

• Protein: Ham, egg
• Fats or Carbs: Bagel, butter (fats here=S)
• Fuel Pull fillers: Tomato

FP-Lunch

3 ingredient homemade ranch dressing (Fuel Pull)

FP Lunch Salad-Artisan romaine, roasted turkey slices, grape tomatoes, FP homemade ranch dressing, salt & pepper.

I was very excited about this lunch. I felt like I wasn’t even hungry but it was 2:30 p.m. so I thought it was a good time to do a Full Pull (FP) lunch. This is like a traditional diet lunch, so go for low everything…fat, carbs, calories. The theory is that your metabolism is revving high from your soothing S-breakfast and then you eat a high-volume, low everything lunch and the body “pulls” the fuel it needs from your body fat. Isn’t that a great visual!! Note to body….please pull some fat from my butt today. 🙂

I love ranch dressing so searched the Internet to see if there was a ranch dressing out there that was FP. Low and behold, thanks to www.fitmomjourney.com, I found a 3-ingredient recipe, all of which I had on-hand. Made it, it was awesome. Definitely a staple. Kids can dip veggies in it, it’s great and is made from greek yogurt, milk and ranch seasoning, that’s it, nothing nasty like in most store bought ones. I only had whole milk instead of skim and it was a little thick, skim would probably be better. Here is the link to the recipe 3-ingredient ranch dressing (FP).

Nutritional Yeast (sounds gross but is actually really good!)

One more thing I learned from the book…I added some Bragg’s Nutritional Yeast to my salad and it was great. I never even knew what this was before I read the book. It has a kind of smokey-cheesey taste and is great sprinkled over a FP salad, gives it some good flavor. I’m not sure of the nutritional reasons for this…more to come on that as I learn.

S-Dinner

So I’m learning that S-meals are the best. I’m going to have to work on finding good E-meals. I believe the book says that you should try for at least 5-7 E-meals per week because apparently, everyone loves their S-meals! Who wouldn’t right?!  And as for FP-meals, I understand that you shouldn’t have more than 3-4 of these per week because your body will not be getting enough nourishment….Now my body has “abundant nourishment” right now so I’m a tiny bit skeptical about not more than 3-4 FP meals per week. But in the name of science…I’ll do my S and E meals with happiness for this month’s experiments!

Today’s dinner was leftovers of last night.

Chicken Tikka Masala (Costco), Mashed Fotatoes (cauliflower from the cookbook), buttered broccoli.

So, learning new stuff every day. Hope this is interesting for others. Doing this blog is really helping me learn, be accountable to stick to this and see if it is something that works for me. I hope it is helping others too! See you tomorrow!

Day 2: Trim Healthy Mama Experiment

So today was great fun and I think I did better than yesterday! I am at that stage of wondering how you lose weight on this program because it DOES NOT seem like dieting at all. You can eat just lovely food! So that’s weird, but in-line with the philosophy of this program, so I’m going along with it for this month! I feel like I might gain weight, even though my portions were reasonable. The food is great….we shall see!

I think it is important for beginners to take the sisters’ advice and take some time to read the book and marinate in the ideas for awhile before digging in. Otherwise, you might quit, feeling like you can never lose or maintain on this plan, it is so unlike any other “diet” you have done! But the book explains everything so you can fall back on the logic of the plan and keep truckin’ along in faith that it works.

I think it is also important to read, think, plan a little before digging in because it is very helpful to have several S, E and FP ideas and ingredients on hand. I think today was successful because I had interesting food on hand to experiment with and try. So…here’s what we did today (lots of fun pics today!):

E-BREAKFAST

Smoked Salmon with dill on dark European-Style bread with Laughing Cow Swiss Lite.

The bread was heavy and dark, like you get in European cafes, 19 carbs. Reminded me of living in Germany as an exchange student! Didn’t have to measure the salmon, just use reasonable judgment, cheese is awesome, so loved that and the dill made me feel fancy. Got everything at Trader Joe’s. Mama like it!

S-LUNCH

Artisan romaine, avocado, ham, shredded cheddar, bacon bits, full-fat ranch, grape tomatoes, red onions: Helped to have lots of stuff on hand

Final product-that’s only 2 tablespoons dressing but looks like more!

Great salad, speaks for itself I think. Much better than just grilled chicken and fat free dressing!

FP SNACK

Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus 2 Tbsp.(any store), Persian cucumbers (Trader Joe’s), and 2 slices black forest ham (Costco). 

This was a great snack. I had to ask on the Facebook page whether it was an E, S or FP since the hummus had 5 grams of fat and 5 grams of carbs. Apparently it is a FP since it has less than 10 grams carbs and 5 or less fat grams. This is where the learning curve kicks in and beginners could get frustrated trying to figure the numbers. But it seems worth it, because this snack rocked!

S-DINNER with DESSERT (Whaaaat??!!!)

My friend Serena came over to take our 1o year old boys to do a service event, but the event got moved to a different day last minute so….. we turned the evening into a THM extravaganza…..

Chicken Tikka Masala (Costco), Mashed FOtatoes from the cookbook (cauliflower) with shredded cheddar and green onions (from yesterday), steamed buttered broccoli.

The lovely Serena. She’s trying this out with me. This dinner was great and made us feel like we were “cheating”….Oops…not allowed! Sweet!

Next, we had the TRIMTASTIC CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE that I had baked earlier in the day. Earlier in the day I had a massive sweets craving, which is weird because I don’t eat sweets too much. I’m thinking I was more addicted to the sugars in processed foods than I realized, and having cut them out, even for a day, made me want them. Scary!! They say sugar is like heroin and I think I believe it!

Again, this cake was super easy to make (throw all ingredients in the blender), and I was able to do it quickly because I already had the ingredients on hand.

had ingredients on-hand

Cake turned out great!

Here’s where the special sweeteners came in handy. This uses Gentle Sweet in both the cake and frosting. This could be challenging to a beginner if you don’t have these special sweeteners. I guess you could use regular stevia but I wouldn’t have known how much to use. Oh…disclaimer….my choco chips were regular, not stevia sweetened. Next time!

GOING BIG!   WHOLESOME YUM’S LOW CARB BAGELS

We were having so much fun looking around the Facebook site that we found and decided to make these bagels that everyone raves about…and I can see why! We COULD NOT believe these came out so good, even my husband ate one and liked it! Husband shall remain nameless, but believe me…he is NOT into any food other than classic and traditional. This should be fun, I didn’t tell him the chocolate cake was anything but regular and half of it was gone next time I looked…Score!!

So I will make breakfast with these bagels tomorrow and report!!

Today was good fun (half my kids were gone today so I had extra time…this will not be so most days :)!!

Day 1: Trim Healthy Mama Experiment

So I’ve tried lots of other nutrition/health programs to make eating healthy easier, and shedding baby weight actually happen! Some have been good like Whole30, which I loved. But it is hard, you can fail easily, and isn’t meant for long-term. Others, like Weight Watchers, work for many but petered out for me because I just couldn’t keep up with all the counting. I liked Jenny Craig well enough but wanted to cook more, use less processed foods, and it was pretty expensive. So, I’ve been introduced to this new program/lifestyle and it seems very sustainable, common-sensical and really gentle and lovely actually.

There’s a lot to learn at first so for the next 30 days, I’m going to learn, write what I learn in small bits, and hopefully you’ll enjoy. We will see if it really is as great as it and thousands of others say!!

To begin with, the simple plan is that you base every meal in protein, add one type of fuel for your body, fats (S=satisfying) OR carbs (E=energizing), NOT BOTH, then have as much “Fuel Pull” foods as you want (non-starchy veggies/greens etc.). Eat every 3-4 hours including snacks, and enjoy!

So here’s what I tried for Day 1:

BREAKFAST: This is an example of an S Breakfast (less than 5 grams carbs, as much fat as you want, all anchored by protein). It was delicious and I wasn’t hungry til lunch much later! I didn’t even think about food all morning which, maybe I’m the only one, but that is exciting!

Egg scrambled in butter, ham, shredded cheddar, red onion, diced tomatoes, salt & pepper.

LUNCH: Lunch was also an S lunch. It was a salad but I forgot to take a picture. Sorry 🙂 It had artisan romaine lettuce, ham and shredded cheddar, bacon bits, red onion and ranch dressing. Very awesome. Probably should’ve added more veggies.

SNACK: Around 4:00 I got hungry and had a “Fuel Pull” (FP) snack of a large sourdough Wasa cracker with garlic and herb Laughing Cow cheese. It was a FP I think, because it had less than 5 grams fat and 10 grams carbs. I’m still learning about snacks but it seems that most “FP” meals and snacks are like traditional diet food, low in both fat, carbs, calories.

“Fuel Pull” appears to mean that your body pulls the fuel it needs from your body fat instead of from the fat or carbs in your meal. Mama like it!!

DINNER: So I got a little tired, confused and off track here. I had planned chicken tikka masala with mashed cauliflower and buttered broccoli (Another S meal). But I got lazy and snacked on my kids spaghetti noodles. So I thought….I will make it an E-meal and just add the mashed cauliflower which is awesome (not knowing it was actually an S dish). But then, I had no protein, so I added some Integral Collagen, which is a product the THM ladies sell. It is a dairy free protein. This is my first time using it, and it was great. I was so full and it had no taste or texture! 1 scoop = 11 grams protein. Mixed it right in to the mashed cauliflower (THM calls them Mashed FOtatoes!..so cute, they have really cute names for everything!). Delicious, better than traditional mashed potatoes and that is my favorite food….oh, and pizza…and Mexican….:)

Mashed FOtatoes (cauliflower), with 1 scoop Integral Collagen (protein), cheese, green onion.

So I tried to make an E-meal that started with my lazy kid-food-noodle-snacking, added an S-dish of these creamy, cheesy cauliflower Fotatoes, and I think I accidentally made a Crossover meal. The noodles were and E, the creamy cauliflower was an S. The collagen protein was good, but all in all, eating my kids food as I cooked it, kinda ruined my pre-planned satisfying dinner! I was still really full and happy though!

Crossover meals are when you have both fats and carbs as your fuels in one meal. They are fine as long as you know they will stall weight loss a bit because you’ve just eaten too much fuel, more than the body needs, and it will burn all that before it gets to your own body fat….which will probably be never!  On this plan, you never “cheat” or “fail”. You just do another good S or E meal in 3 hours! So this was learning experience. And I like it so far!

See you on Day 2!!

Sizzle Kidz: A Skills (not recipe) Based Cooking Curriculum for Kids!

 

Sizzle Kidz is a skills (not recipe) based cooking curriculum for kids that I am writing (slowly). It’s more alf a concept at this point (time is kinda tight right now), but I will keep you posted on developments!

As you can see, my boys are super excited about it! Not really. But that’s OK because that is the inspiration behind Sizzle Kidz!! It is my mission to send my boys out in the world knowing how to do more than boil water and cook Ramen. I think they should be able to make a nice healthy dinner for friends, a someday girlfriend/wife, and for themselves. They could care less about healthy food right now and would eat cereal and pop chips all day if I let them. Which by-the-way…sometimes I do out of sheer exhaustion about this topic.

Anyway, that’s the idea behind SIZZLE KIDZ…to help kids learn the very basics about food, health and cooking. The dream is that they can go out there and make good decisions in the area of health and food, and care for themselves and for others in the most basic way.

Best of the Best for 2017 HOMESCHOOL WEBSITES AND CURRICULUM (Great for traditional schoolers too!)

First, I want to stress that everything I post up here about homeschool resources, are also great for parents and kids who aren’t technically homeschooling. Parents are all always teaching their kids regardless of school situation.

Homeschool parents and traditional school parents all have one thing in common….we love and want the best for our kids. These here are several great resources and tips for any parent in any type of school situation. I’ve personally used several of them and will possibly review them here individually later. Basically, if you have ANY kids between the ages of born and 18, you’ll find one of these that is great for you and your Wolf Pack.

This list contains everything from serious math and grammar curriculum, to other very cool things like http://www.kidsemail.com which is a safe, ad free, spam free, link free email for kids to keep in touch with friends and family without being bombarded by the scary Internet. It has great history resources like http://www.historyunboxed.com. This idea is awesome. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m going to and will let you know how it goes! Links below to each of these. There’s even an online Driver’s Ed resource!

I know I personally get super overwhelmed by all the choices for kids education and enrichment out there. I’m happy to have all these resources in one place and I hope you like it too! So, here is a great list of all the Best of the Best Resources from 2017. Leave a comment if you have any experience with any of these!

This list is reprinted from http://www.homeschool.com who reviewed all the resources out there and came up with the as the BEST of the BEST for 2017.

HOMESCHOOL RESOURCES & CURRICULUM

4Knowledge4Fun www.4knowledge-4fun.com

Learn, laugh and have fun along the way! 4Knowledge-4Fun offers a variety of educational materials and toys selected for newborns through age 14, including workbooks, flashcards, DVDs and games. You can check out their award winners, back to (home) school items, made in the USA toys, sale items, wooden toys, and MORE!

7 Generation Games www.7generationgames.com

7 Generation Games makes immersive video game and interactive apps that teach standards-aligned math, while incorporating social studies and language arts – with supplemental teacher resources. New for 2017-18: Bilingual math games in English/Spanish!

ABCmouse.com www.abcmouse.com

The ABCmouse learning program, for ages 2-8, helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more. With more than 8,500 individual learning activities and 850+ complete lessons which follow their Step-by-Step Learning Path, ABCmouse encompasses reading and language arts, math, science, health, social studies, art, and music. ABCmouse is available to families on a low-cost subscription basis for use on computers, tablets, or smartphones. You can get 2 months for only $5!

Aceable http://aceable.com

Aceable is the new standard for state-approved and certified drivers ed courses via mobile app and web courses, transforming boring lectures into fast-paced, interactive content. Their courses include parent tools that allow parents to be involved and even lead the learning process.

Adventures of Rush Revere www.RushRevere.com

The mission of the Adventures of Rush Revere Series is to tell American history in a way that will engage young readers. Instead of just memorizing facts, the readers are part of the action by time-traveling to key events, such as the Mayflower Voyage, Paul Revere’s Ride, or the Boston Tea Party. They can truly ‘experience’ history in a fun, exciting, and patriotic way.

Arcademics http://www.arcademics.com

Use Arcademics.com’s FREE multiplayer educational games to engage your kids in math and language practice. Students can race each other in real time, and parents can view live performance data through Arcademics Plus – http://www.arcademics.com/plus.

BECHTEL BOOKS/SPEEDY SPANISH http://bechtelbooks.com

Serving homeschoolers for 29 years. Bechtel Books provides Speedy Spanish – conversational Spanish for pre-school, elementary, and high school students, as well as a high-school Christian Ethics curriculum – a devotional Bible study from the book of Proverbs. They also offer supplementary materials from trusted Christian curriculum publishers. Check out their coloring books, posters, teacher’s aids for bulletin boards and devotionals and MORE!

Bible Study Guide http://biblestudyguide.com

The Bible Study Guide is a Bible curriculum that takes all ages through the Bible at the same time, studying some Old Testament and some New Testament each year. Students learn the “big picture” as well as detailed knowledge of the Bible. Best of all, they learn how to apply the Bible to their everyday lives. To see an intro to the Bible Study Guide For All Ages click here. Developed by a Mom – for her kids and for yours.

Breaking the Barrier, Inc. www.tobreak.com

Breaking the Barrier is a global leader in print and digital language learning. Featuring Spanish, French and English, the series provides learners with a solid understanding of language fundamentals along with cultural insights from around the world. The program works great in homeschool situations. Both print curriculum and iBooks are available.

Buncee http://buncee.com

Buncee is a creation tool designed to help students easily visualize and communicate what they are learning. Their technology uses a simple drag-and-drop interface that allows users to easily integrate media to create engaging communications. Your kids will love Buncee.

CHSH -Teach, LLC http://chsh-teach.com

CHSH-Teach.com (Christian Home School Hub) is an affordable option designed to make your homeschooling journey easier and affordable. It is brimming with resources (PreK-12) and will save you time and sanity! The site offers FREEBIES, a Download Club, a Membership option and more. This site was created by a homeschool Mom.

COPRIX media http://coprix.school/us/homeschooling

ABC Book Homeschool interactive mobile Apps are expertly built, teacher-tested, interactive applications that have a proven track record for helping kids learn how to write and read in a creative and engaging way. You will get from us: application, standards correlations, pacing guides, personal training webinar, on-demand support & all the updates during your subscription. Try our 30 days FREE demo.

Crayola Silly Scents Marker Maker http://www.crayola.com

Kids can experiment with Crayola colors and three delicious scents – cherry, blueberry, and pineapple – to make 16 custom, scented markers. Using the included blank stickers, kids can also create custom scratch and sniff sticker labels to decorate the marker barrels, folders, school projects and more. So much fun for the coming year!

Doctor Aviation www.doctoraviation.com

Looking for a great science elective? Learn physics while enjoying aviation! Course also serves as a history elective as the important people and events of aviation are chronicled. Course can be an aid to those seeking aviation badges in Scouts or American Heritage girls. Watch the 3 minute video on the homepage – it tells all you need to know about this fast paced course that teenagers love.

Easy Grammar Systems www.easygrammar.com

Easy Grammar Systems publishes an award-winning grammar series specializing in the prepositional approach. Concepts are taught in a building-block manner and incorporate a cyclical approach that promotes mastery learning. Check out 1) the Easy Grammar series, 2) the Daily GRAMS series, and 3) the Easy Grammar Ultimate Series all are perfect for homeschooling.

Educents www.educents.com

Engaging worksheets, hands-on learning lesson plans, interactive online programs and more, all at up to 90% off! Shop their back to school/back to homeschool sale – shop by grade, or by subject. Also, Educents offers lots of FREEBIES!

Enlightium Academy www.enlightiumacademy.com

Enlightium Academy is one of the largest, top-rated, K-12 online Christian schools. Enlightium focuses on delivering high-quality education and quick responses via technology-powered solutions and unlimited phone, messaging, and screen-share support. Various tuition options are available.

Epic! http://getepic.com

Epic! is an essential homeschool learning resource for kids – with access to 25,000 high-quality books, videos, quizzes and more! Includes fiction, nonfiction, audiobook, and Spanish titles from National Geographic, Smithsonian and more.

Eyeball It! ™ – Ellen Priest www.eyeballitart4kids.org

Eyeball It! ™ provides a series of FREE studio art projects (painting, drawing, sculpture, collage) for elementary school-age children to do at home with a parent or other interested adult (the projects give parents/adults the opportunity to generate art experiences themselves without having to be artists). Each project requires several work sessions, providing roughly a month’s worth of activity.

Fitivities www.fitivities.com

Fitivities is the award-winning game that is a burst of fun and fitness and every parent’s hidden exercise secret in a game’s disguise! It’s the perfect activity for brain breaks, rainy days, or whenever your children need a quick “energizer” during the day to get them back on the learning track. You can Order Your Game Today!

FreeThinkU & Thinker Education www.freethinku.com

Thinker Education is committed to offering free, world-class learning experiences to any student, anywhere — in an environment where free inquiry is encouraged and celebrated. Their content is curated with a special focus on presenting candid dialogue between all points of view. You can check out their courses – in Culture, Economics and Enterprise, Natural Sciences, Philosophy and Logic, Education, and more.

Gregory Howard Gebhart, Inc. www.geppy.org

Gregory is an author of children’s books, including Bob on the Job, CAT is Where it’s At, and Deere is Right Here! He has also written Chemistry game books, Favorite King James Bible Verses and Passages, and an autobiography (dealing with illnesses and setbacks; surmounting them and showing the power of God in our lives).

History Unboxed www.historyunboxed.com

The company offers monthly History Boxes your children will love. Each box contains hands-on crafts, lessons, reading materials, and more! Choose your time period and dive into Ancient History, the Middle Ages, or American History. History Unboxed can be used as a stand-alone history curriculum or in harmony with your existing curriculum of choice. Their FAQ page answers any questions you might have.

Homeschool.com www.Homeschool.com

Homeschool.com, the #1 homeschooling community on the internet, is your go-to resource for everything homeschooling, for beginning-advanced homeschoolers. These resources include newsletters, blog posts, podcasts, product reviews, Top 10 lists, homeschooling events and so much more.

HUE HD www.huehd.com

HUE HD provides colorful, affordable technology to inspire creative learning and teaching. The HUE HD Pro document camera; the HUE Animation Studio – a stop motion movie making starter kit; and the HUE Tablet stand are ideal for any homeschooling curriculum or classroom.

InRoad Toys, LLC / PlayTape www.PlayTape.com

With PlayTape, kids create instant roads for toy cars anytime, anywhere. Sticks to any flat surface, easy to tear, repositionable, leaves no residue, easily stored & transported, and it’s disposable and recyclable. Just unroll, stick, and drive!

K12 Tuition-Free Online School http://start.k12.com

K12 is a leading provider of individual online courses from PreK – 12, designed to strengthen core skills, recover credits, or accelerate studies. Providing both independent courses as well as courses supported by world-class K12 teachers, K12 offers hundreds of flexible, award-winning courses to support your child’s education. Easy sign up for Fall 2017!

Keystone School www.keystoneschoolonline.com

The Keystone School is a flexible, accredited online private school for Grades 6-12, that helps students achieve their unique dreams and goals. Whether your student wants to study full-time or just needs individual classes, Keystone offers more than 170 courses from credit recovery to world languages and AP. Students can enroll at any time – and it’s easy to sign up for Fall 2017!

Kids Email www.kidsemail.org

The Best E-mail for kids! Spam free, ad free and Kids Email will give you peace of mind while your kids stay connected to family and friends! Try it FREE today!

Knowre http://knowre.com/homeschool

Math practice made smarter. Knowre is an award-winning online program for Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. They support your child’s math practice with thousands of questions, interactive step-by-step support, and instructional videos. Perfect for your 2017-2018 homeschooling endeavors.

Leadership Education (TJEd) www.tjed.org

TJEd offers resources for children, youth and young adults, and even provides parent training. Developmentally-correlated, classics-based and purpose-driven, TJEd helps your family get “An Education to Match Your Mission.”

Love to Learn & Happy Homeschooling www.LovetoLearn.net & www.happyhomeschooling.com

Diane, the founder of LovetoLearn.net and HappyHomeschooling.com has been helping homeschoolers choose great curriculum for over 30 years. Diane has won a national award for her game-based phonics program, Happy Phonics; she has written countless help-for-homeschooling articles on http://www.happyhomeschooling.com; and her homeschool offerings include a slew of hands-on kits, games, and project-oriented educational products. Diane’s philosophy is that children learn when they are having fun – enjoying what they are doing – “Make it fun, and they will learn!”

Mathletics & Spellodrome & 3P Learning http://us.mathletics.com & www.3plearning.com/usa

Mathletics is an online math learning space for K-12 students. Their comprehensive curriculum is leveled to the student’s grade and can easily be amended to meet abilities. Printable workbooks included at no extra charge mean students can take a break from the screen and still learn. You can check out their FREE math printables, plus get a FREE Trial to both Mathletics and their sister site, Spellodrome here.

Mindplay http://mindplay.com

Improve one grade level in reading in 20 hours. Dramatic results, guaranteed!

Oak Meadow http://oakmeadow.com

Oak Meadow provides flexible, creative homeschooling curriculum for kids K-12. Their experiential, nature-based approach allows families to set their own rhythm of learning and encourages critical thinking and intellectual development. Use Oak Meadow independently or enroll in their teacher-supported, accredited distance school. You can start anytime. Sign up now for Fall 2017.

Reading Kingdom www.ReadingKingdom.com

Reading Kingdom teaches children 4-10 to read and write with comprehension at a 3rd grade level. It is the first program that uses the 6 Skill Integrated Method. Additional programs are available for older students and children with autism. You can see sample lessons here.

ShillerMath www.shillermath.com

Award-winning ShillerMath is an open-and-go, zero lesson prep, Montessori based math curriculum with a multi-sensory approach. No Montessori or math knowledge is required – just read the scripted lessons, and you’re good to go! Sample lessons are available on their site (under Mostly Free Stuff).

Teach My www.teachmy.com

Teach My provides award winning learning kits for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners. From ABCs to 123s, your mini scholar can master the basics in just 20 minutes a day. Plus, the company offers bathtime fun, educational yoga mats, flashcards, and MORE.

The MorningStar Academy & The Jubilee Academy www.learningbygrace.org

Christian, K-12 online, accredited, teacher and parent led, comprehensive programs or single courses, 300 multimedia rich course catalogue. LearningByGrace.org offers many options to fit your family’s needs, including easy payment plans. You can check out sample lessons here. For a homeschooling program tour click here; and this link will take you to a FREE Homeschool Consultation. Give Your Family a God-Filled Homeschooling Experience.

The Reading Corner www.thereadingcorner.org

Where reading essentials and a love for reading meet! The founder started writing her own curriculum because she couldn’t locate existing curriculum rigorous enough for her students’ needs. Soon, homeschoolers discovered the curriculum, asked to purchase it, and The Reading Corner was born. The site offers packages, year-long curriculum, and of course, sales items.

Time4Learning https://www.time4learning.com

Time4Learning is an award-winning, online curriculum for PreK-12th. Their learning system teaches and grades lessons, tracks progress, and works with a variety of learning styles. The comprehensive curriculum includes lessons in math, language arts, science, social studies and more. Students also have access to printable worksheets and the ability to advance at their own pace. Time4Learning combines the technology kids love with the education they need to make learning fun.

Time4Writing www.time4writing.com

Time4Writing offers 8-week online writing courses and a variety of free writing resources for 2nd-12th grade students. The student-paced courses include lessons and quizzes, and personalized feedback from certified teachers. From the basics of grammar to essay writing, Time4Writing is designed to help students master the art of writing at all levels. Courses are $99 each, and start daily.

Up-Words Reading ® www.upwordsreading.com

Up-Words® Reading is a comprehensive, research-based, 4-level reading program complete with everything necessary to teach every child to read – including literacy-rich activities to strengthen phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, sight words, and reading comprehension.

Trim Healthy Mama

A friend recently introduced me to a health & nutrition system called Trim Healthy Mama. It’s very interesting and makes a ton of sense. In a nutshell, it is two sisters who were tired of all the fad-type nutrition and dieting systems out there. Many didn’t really work or were unsustainable long-term. They thought that God could not have meant for it to be nearly impossible for so many people to maintain a healthy body or to have their food actually hurt them. So, they searched the Bible for what God designed for us in the area of nourishing the body, and here’s the result………

Trim Healthy Mama Plan (the book)

The main point is basically that no food groups are banned, but you only eat one type of fuel for your body at a time. So, all meals are anchored with a protein source and paired with either fats or quality carbohydrates. Meals paired with fats are labeled “S” for “satisfying”, and meals paired with carbs are labeled “E” for “energizing”. You don’t have carbs and fats in the same meal. More on this later.

I’ve been playing around with this system for the past month, slowly reading the book that explains it all, and its really fun and seems very sustainable. I’m starting today doing it strictly and will see in a week how I feel. Stay tuned!