Chicken Pasta Salad

I love pasta.

All pasta. Any pasta. Pasta all the time.
And, so ... when I made dinner one hot summer evening a couple of weeks ago, I made a pasta salad. I happened to have rotini pasta in my pantry, but any short pasta wold do the trick. I've also gotten in the habit of roasting a chicken once a week- and this salad is an excellent way to use up some of that chicken.

But the really awesome part is that, since you're making ahead... the kitchen will be nice and cool! And, that's a bonus in the middle of a Texas summer!




Chicken Pasta Salad

1 box of pasta (cooked and drained)
chicken (roasted and shredded)
1 cucumber (I like the cucumbers that come in the wrapping. Chopped up)
2 bell peppers (I like orange & red. Love the color. Chop it up!)
1 pint of cherry tomatoes (cut them in half)
shredded carrots

Mix all that yumminess together in a big bowl. Then make the dressing. It's easy, I promise.

dressing
extra virgin olive oil
white vinegar
salt
pepper
garlic powder
dash of sugar

Whisk it up.

Dress the salad! And toss it all in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavors get happy, happy, happy! Serve it to a grateful family!

Because its Monday

Last night the short one decided he wanted to play a quick game of hide and seek before bed. E and I agreed.

The child's hiding spot would have been genius if he hadn't let us watch him hide.

I present to you a short picture essay I like to call, "How did you get there? And how are you getting out?"
















(... If you are curious, he was crammed in the space between the desk and the living room wall.)

The First

Well, we did it. Our first day of official homeschooling.

Cue the choir of angels!

I'm not gonna lie- I was nervous. Very. Nervous. I had gone back and forth for weeks on curriculum, scheduling, and oh my goodness how do I teach this child to read! I finally settled on a program I cobbled together myself. I really, really wanted to make sure that this school year be laid-back and not cause Jacob and I to misplace our collective sanity. We're focusing on learning to read & write, math, art (drawing, crafts, music), some geography & history courtesy of Little Passports, Bible and some basic, basic science.

I decided that, because of the custody visitation stuff, we won't be doing every subject every single day. The only subject we are really working on every day, is learning to read.

The rudimentary daily schedule looks something like this:

Monday:

reading

science

Bible

Tuesday:

reading

geography

art

Wednesday:

These are no school days for us

Thursday:

reading

math

Bible

Friday:

reading

art

field trip

Some subjects may get swapped around and we may incorporate a little from a subject that's not on the schedule, but I like having a plan. And, for me (for Jacob) I think just having 3 main subjects a day to concentrate on is the best plan of action. The boy is 5 and has the attention span of a flea.

And speaking of the boy, our first day gave me a very good glance into the main area of ... shall we say "issue" that he and I are going to be tackling. His attention span & how fast he gives up and says, "I can't do it!" I learned fast that "Can you please help me?" is actually code for, "Please tell me the answer and do this for me!"

Ah, well.

He wouldn't be a 5 year old if he wasn't trying to wiggle out of work and into something more fun!