I’m back with my menu plan this week. Last week I didn’t get one posted because I was recovering from the stomach virus, and I really was not interested in thinking about food, much less planning my menu for the week.

Thank the Lord, we are all well now and ready to start a new week. We have an exciting one ahead of us. Our little man is graduating from kindergarten this Wednesday. My how time flies! It seems like the year just started.

Oh, and I can’t believe how much they learn in kindergarten these days…reading and addition. Well, even with all David’s been through this year, he has done a fabulous job, and we are super proud of him.

Okay, so enough about kindergarten, let’s get on to the food I’m fixing this week.

~Here’s what’s cooking this week~

• Monday:

Breakfast - Bagels with Cream Cheese, Fruit
Dinner - Sloppy Joes on Homemade Buns

• Tuesday:

Breakfast - Oatmeal
Dinner - Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread

• Wednesday:

Breakfast - Bacon, Egg, Cheese Biscuits
Dinner - Club Sandwiches, Chips

• Thursday:

Breakfast - Whole Wheat Waffles
Dinner - Chicken & Dumplings, Carrots (Didn’t get to make this the other week.)

• Friday:

Breakfast - Cereal/Granola Bars
Dinner - Homemade Pizza

• Saturday:

Breakfast - Muffins
Dinner - BBQ Ribs, Baked Beans, Corn on Cob

• Sunday:

Breakfast - Cereal
Dinner - Eat out

Hope you have a great week!

For more menu ideas, visit Menu Plan Monday at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

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My kids love to play on the computer. What kid doesn’t, right? I mean, with so much of the world relying on computers to function, it seems almost impractical to completely restrict them from at least some computer time.

Plus, I know from experience with my son, they can learn a lot from educational games and learning sites on the web.

At the same time, I want to limit their internet time and I definitely want to know what sites they’re visiting. You know as well as I do, there’s lots of really bad stuff out on the web.

Three challenges arise when you decide to give your children access to the computer.

• How to keep the kids out of your important documents.
• How to limit their computer time.
• How to make sure the kids aren’t accessing bad sites.

With these challenges in mind, I’ve got a few things you can do to help with these issues.

Set up an individual log-in for the kids.

Create a completely separate log-in on the computer for the kids. It doesn’t need a password.

Make sure your log-in is password protected and that you are logged out. This way the kids will not have access to anything you don’t give them access to, including any of your important information you don’t want deleted or messed up.

Also be sure to give them a standard and NOT administrative account when you set them up.

Create a log-in/log-out time.

Set the timer for the computer to automatically log the kids out at certain times each day and/or after a given amount of time. Most operating systems allow you to set time limits for days of the week and times of day.

However, since the procedure for setting these up varies with each system, do a search on parental controls for your particular operating system (ex: windows vista parental controls), if you’re not sure how to set this up.

Download a browser created for kids.

By downloading a browser for you kids to use under their log in account, they only have access to kid and parent friendly sites.

We signed our kids up with Kidzui. It’s completely free for the basic version, and there are tons of great games that they both enjoy. You can read more about it and download it here. My kids both absolutely love Kidzui.

Another option is KidRocket (not available for the Mac ). This browser is also free and works very much the same way as Kidzui, only allowing kids access to specific approved kids sites. You can check this one out and download it here.

Because of the limitations on the websites they can visit, these options are most likely only going to be appropriate for children under 12 and who are not having to browse the net for school research.

However for younger children who are just getting use to the computer, they’re great in my opinion.

Of course, there is no substitute for adult supervision and educating your kids on appropriate and inappropriate sites once they reach the age of understanding the difference.

Do you allow you kids computer time? How do you limit their computer time and which sites they’re accessing?

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

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Families are constantly on the go these days with church activities, ball games, school, work, and whatever else comes along. I’m sure you’re as aware of this fact as I am. We’re just plain busy most of the time.

Regardless of how busy we are though, it’s so important for us, as a family, to have at least one night of the week, that we spend time together doing something that everyone enjoys.

Family night for us generally takes place on Fridays. It’s special. It’s fun. It’s memorable.

So what exactly do we do on our family fun night?

We make homemade pizza.

Our pizza making usually begins with just me and the kids before Daddy gets home from work. This way we can have it ready for us to just sit down and eat when he walks in the door.

The kids are the best little helpers you’ve ever seen. Their job is to thoroughly cover the top with cheese and lots of pepperoni.

(Okay, I admit, sometimes we just pop a DiGiorno pizza in the oven. Really, you don’t have to tell anyone.)

A little while later, we pop corn.

We get out the popcorn popper and pop us up some fresh popcorn. The popper we use was actually one that my parents used when I was a little girl. Can you believe this thing still works? Never mind, don’t answer that.

Making the popcorn is entertainment all on it’s own. Half of it flies in the bowl and the other half flies in all directions. I prefer this method over bagged popcorn, because it’s not only more economical, but also healthier since you can control what you put on it.

Then we watch a movie.

Once we have the popcorn ready, we sit down to watch a movie. Sometimes we watch one of the classics I wrote about here, but lately, the kids have been interested in watching these:

Pippi Longstocking

The Incredible Mr. Limpet

The Princess Bride

Alice in Wonderland

We rent these through Netflix. Have you tried Netflix? It’s great because there are so many movies and tv shows to choose from, and you can’t beat the low monthly fee.

Finally, we camp out.

As you can imagine, at this point we’re all tuckered out. Several years ago as a treat, we started letting our son sleep on the couch in the living room on the weekends. He thought it was just grand. Well, once our daughter got old enough to know what was going on, she wanted in on it.

Then they wanted us to all camp out in the living room. Before we knew it, the kids were in the floor on the sleeping bag, and my hubby and I were stretched out on the sofa recliners.

Family night was born!

Do you have a fun family night? What kinds of things does your family like to do together?

This post is linked to Finer Things Friday.

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