Where to splurge (and save) on school essentials
It’s been almost two years since I became an “elementary-school parent,” and this fall I’ll have BOTH kids heading off to school each weekday!
I know, I know — I still have a few months to go. But I’ve already been thinking of what I’ll need to pick up for Miss C so she’s ready for her big year at Primary.
Based on what I’ve learned so far with D, here’s what I would recommend splurging on — and saving on — when it come to school essentials …
SAVE: A single set of lunch containers.
I like the Rubbermaid LunchBlox ones (not sponsored at all) and we’ve been using the same set* for almost two full school years now.
I stuck name labels on every piece (even the lids) and I keep everything in its own little bin of “lunch-making supplies.” These are the ONLY containers I use in D’s lunch, and — as a result — we don’t misplace these and need to buy tons of the cheap throwaway containers or a bunch of baggies.
SPLURGE: A thermos your child can open.
We bought this easy-open Aladdin thermos (again, not sponsored) before D started Primary and we LOVE it. I’ve recommended it to lots of parents who discovered their kids couldn’t open the one they bought originally.
It’s used practically every school day since the kid is obsessed with bringing “dinner food” like pasta with meat sauce. It’s been through the dishwasher a million times and is still going strong.
SPLURGE: Name labels that won’t come off.
We LOVE Mabel’s Labels and have ordered them several times (nope, not sponsored). I like buying a multi-pack that has a combination of sizes, and they really STICK to everything — jackets, shoes, water bottles, etc.
I’m sure that’s why we’ve been able to keep the same lunch containers, thermos, etc. for almost two school years now. Even if D were to have misplaced something, it comes straight back to him (or is easy to pinpoint at the Lost and Found table).
SAVE: A crappy backpack-and-lunch bag set.
Yes, you heard me: a cheap, junky one that will probably cost $10-$15. It will have a huge photo of a cartoon character covering the entire back, and the lunch bag will have little straps so it can hang down from the bottom of the backpack.
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| I’m willing to bet C picks this one. |
“But Heather,” you say. “Why buy a piece-of-crap backpack that will surely have holes in it by the end of the school year? Wouldn’t it be better to invest in a quality backpack my child can use year after year?”
No.
Here’s the thing: my kids love character crap and I refuse to buy them character-printed clothes or room decor. They don’t even get a lot of character-y toys. I’m mean that way.
I’m willing to compromise on the hideous character backpacks because (A) it makes them excited for school, and (B) they’re going to want a new one every year, so why would I buy an expensive one and force them to carry it when they’re sick of it?
Backpacks and lunch boxes (or bags) were always something I got to pick out at the end of every summer, so I’m content to buy cheapies that will last just a single school year.
SPLURGE and SAVE: Outdoor shoes that you like more than the indoor shoes.
Your child needs indoor sneakers, obvi. They need to be the non-marking-sole type and they’re only ever going to wear them indoors — at school — so go for something comfy with velcro so they don’t become a pain in their teacher’s butt. They don’t have to be expensive.
But chances are, they will also need a new pair of outdoor shoes. The sneakers they’ve been wearing all summer are likely grubby and very beat-up — possibly outgrown, too — but it’s going to be November before they’re wearing boots on a regular basis.
I bought D a fancier pair of outdoors this past fall (black leather American Eagle high-tops from Payless, almost exactly like these) and, let me tell you, they made me unreasonably happy. He’d be all dressed for school and throw those suckers on, and he looked like the cutest little hipster.
Much cooler than the dork (also him) wearing the grey and orange velcro numbers pictured above (his indoor shoes last year). But I don’t have to look at the indoor shoes, so … *shrugs*
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What other essentials should I be thinking about for next year? Hit me up in the comments!
Why too many days off school make me crazy
I’m almost positive my son and daughter attend Grade 1 and preschool, respectively. It’s just that for the last three or four weeks, they’ve barely gone.
At least it feels that way, between flu bugs, coughs, snow days, labour action, holidays and more snow days.
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I actually looked up the definition of “stir-crazy,” expecting it to have a photo of me looking frazzled and cranky. But, no, it means “psychologically disturbed, especially as a result of being confined or imprisoned.”
It pretty much describes my state of mind for the entire month of February.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in sending kids to school when they’re sick. I don’t think it’s safe for people to be on the road in bad weather, and I have nothing but respect and love for teachers.
It’s just that all of these missed school days are slowly driving me batty …
Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene …
DIY Lego countertops
We built our son a Lego table a few years back. It was simple enough, with a single shelf to hold a plastic storage bin with all of his pieces. But do you know what happens when a child continues to want nothing but Lego sets for every birthday and Christmas?
A single, modest Lego table no longer cuts it.
We realized on Boxing Day that we needed something bigger — immediately. Our entire dining room table was covered with brand-new creations and the table in his room was already overloaded.
So, a new Lego solution jumped to the top of our project list, and we went upstairs to measure his bedroom.
The ideal wall was 15 feet long, so we decided to frame out the bases for two counters that would be six-and-a-half feet long. My husband put these together with 2x4s with sheets of meranti plywood to hold slim plastic storage drawers.
Our son was using a wheeled contraption with drawers to colour-code his pieces (formerly my scrapbook paper organizer) so we wanted to reuse these drawers instead of buying new ones.
We hefted both (really heavy) frames upstairs to our son’s room and I got to work on sanding them. It was my first time using my mouse sander (a Christmas present) and I loved that it had a pointy tip to get into hard-to-reach areas.
There was no way I wanted to paint these two beasts — especially since I knew, down the road, I’d have to paint custom bunk beds to match — so I decided staining would be much faster. I picked out a new shade — Minwax’s Weathered Oak — that was a natural barnboard-like tone and a single coat was all it took. Gotta love the speed of staining!
Once the stain was dry, the next step was finishing the playing surface. We picked white melamine plywood sheets because that’s what we used to build my custom L-shaped desk and I love how that looks. We used L brackets to keep them from moving around or slipping off the bases, but opted not to screw them in so they’re easy to remove if we move the tables around.
Because these melamine boards have scratchy unfinished edges, you need to get white plastic trim to finish them nicely. I finally have a knack for clicking this stuff into place, but it takes a little practice. You ease the trim around the start of an edge and then press your hand against it as you slowly work your way down — clicking it into place as you go. It seals in the rough edges, protecting it from getting chipped, and gives you a smooth finish.
The magic of these tables — counters, really — is that they’re finished on all sides, so we can move them into different configurations down the road. They can push together to make a huge rectangular play surface, or even make an L-shaped table.
For now, we have them side by side. They take up 13 feet of space — nearly the entire back wall of our son’s bedroom. The plastic storage drawers slide in and out easily and there was even an empty space leftover to store his binders of instruction manuals. He has a couple of chairs that tuck under the counters, but we plan to build long benches so he can have lots of friends over to build.
It didn’t take long for the counters to fill up with finished and in-progress creations, and our son has loved having so much space to work. Let’s just hope he doesn’t outgrow this space, because I don’t think we can dedicate an entire room in our house to Lego — as cool as that would be.
These hands
My fingertips are scarred and calloused from hand-quilting, so most of the time I can’t unlock my iPhone with my fingerprint.
I always have a few cuts here and there because I’m clumsy and in constant motion.
I don’t take very good care of my nails these days, and there is often paint in my cuticles.
But what worries me is my fingers. The way they feel.
***
My thumb, pointer finger, middle finger and ring finger are stiff a lot. (The pinky is fine and dandy, other than being naturally crooked,* and a fine-and-dandy pinky is a pretty sure indication that you’ve got carpal tunnel because it’s connected to a different nerve.)
*The kids both have crooked pinky fingers and it makes me so happy. It’s their little piece of me, in bodies that look so much like their dad.
They’re stiff and sometimes sore. I’ve been waking up in the night to numb fingers for the last few months, which is unnerving. (Bad pun.) My wrist feels FINE — it’s my fingers that are the problem.
These fingers — my right hand — can’t let me down.
I know I’m asking a lot of it/them, though. Typing for hours a day (and mousing). Sewing. Painting. Building. Knitting. Writing. Sketching. All of it — all of it needs my right hand. My mental health needs my right hand, because my mental health needs all of those things.
I regularly panic about the idea that I might fall down the stairs and break my right hand/wrist because I know what it would mean. It would be a disaster.
And so I keep training myself to do more and more things left-handed. I keep running my right hand under freezing cold water and then warm water to refresh it, like my massage therapist suggested. (It really does help.) And I’m going to buy a brace — like, today.
This hand is too important to fall apart on me.
Five reasons you’ll love HelloFresh
You guys know I hate grocery shopping AND cooking meals (I’m a delight), so when HelloFresh Canada asked if I wanted to try a week of their Family Plan, I was like YES, PLEASE!
For those of you who haven’t heard, HelloFresh is a healthy meal delivery service. Instead of shipping ready-made meals, they send you all of the fresh ingredients you need to make meals from scratch. They have two-person plans and four-person plans, and even a veggie plan. Each box contains meals for three nights’ worth of dinners.
We got to test out the Family Plan a couple of weeks ago and I’m so excited to share what we thought — as well as a coupon code to save $50 off your first box.
Ready?
Here are my five reasons why I think you’ll LOVE HelloFresh …
1. It includes everything you need.
The HelloFresh boxes promise to include every single ingredient you’ll need, with the exceptions of a couple of basics like olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar.
Have you ever seen two more excited children holding YOGURT and a red pepper?! (Two things we buy weekly, by the way.) D and C were thrilled when our big HelloFresh box arrived on a Tuesday and couldn’t wait to tear into it.
(It must be all those “unboxing” videos they watch on YouTube?)
When we opened the box, there were three smaller boxes neatly tucked inside …
One box for each meal, and you know the colour-coding spoke to my heart.
Once you took out the meal boxes, there was another section underneath: the freezer section!
The meat, chicken and fish were tucked in this colder area with plenty of ice packs.
Since the boxes are delivered with Purolator (pssst, they ship ANYWHERE in Canada that Purolator delivers, other than Quebec), they’re fine to sit on your porch for a bit while you’re at work. Everything stays super cold.
Two packages of beef, two packages of chicken, two packages of fish!
We lined up the boxes on the counter and were deciding which one to have for our first night, but then we noticed this …
The Gremolta-Crusted Cod shouted “Make me first!” so we obeyed. You always obey a box, especially if it’s nicely colour-coded.
We tucked the other two boxes into the fridge and I was surprised how smoothly they fit on the bottom shelf.
We’d actually just gotten a full load of groceries that morning since we weren’t sure when our trial box was arriving, and they still fit!
We stacked the corresponding meat on top of each box, and they were good to wait until the following nights.
2. There’s no wasted food.
It was fun to spread out all of the ingredients and see exactly what was going in each recipe. When the counter was empty, it meant everything was used up and I hadn’t forgotten to add anything!
It was also nice to know that everything was being used up — unlike buying a whole head of cabbage and only using 1/3 of it for a recipe, leaving the rest to rot in your crisper. HelloFresh includes exactly the right amount of everything.
3. Everyone tries something new.
We tried LOTS of new foods during our three days cooking with HelloFresh, but that’s possibly because we are a family of very boring eaters.
Our household had NEVER cooked fish that wasn’t a Captain Highliner fish stick (I know, we’re an embarassment to Maritimers) and we cooked COD our very first night. Actual cod!
Other foods we tried for the first time: baby bok choy. coconut basmati rice and cilantro.
(Side note: See that little clump in the bottom-right corner? I honestly thought it was a piece of potato that got accidentally thrown into our box. Turns out it was GINGER! Who knew?)
We also learned new SKILLS, which surprised me. We had to zest lemons and limes (using our cheese grater because we’re not fancy and do not own a zester) as well as the ginger, and it was fun! The kids even tried and didn’t grate their fingers, so it was a win all-around.
4. They meals are fast to put together.
Like, really fast. All three of our meals listed either 30 minutes or 35 minutes for “prep” and I thought that didn’t include cooking time, but it did.
The instructions were organized in a way that you started cooking one item and then were prepping the second while the first was cooking, and it was certainly well-planned.
Some of the ingredients were even pre-chopped — like the red onion — to make things even faster. Not having to chop onions and get all teary = excellent.
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| Potatoes and red peppers, ready to roast! |
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| Zucchini with cod fillets topped with gremolta (panko, garlic, lemon zest and parsley) |
Everything came together smoothly in almost exactly the 30 or 35 minutes — from taking the box out of the fridge to putting dinner on the table — and that’s with the “help” of two kids.
5. The recipes turn out just like the pictures.
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| Night #1: Gremolata-Crusted Cod with Roasted Mediterranean Veggies |
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| Night #2: Smoky Sloppy Joes with Shredded Carrot Salad and Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette |
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| Night #3: Glazed Teriyaki Chicken with Baby Bok Choy and Coconut Rice |
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And now for the FAQ portion, I’ll run through the various questions people have asked (on social media and in person) when they heard we were giving this a whirl …
“But did your kids eat it?”
The kids were excited to try each meal because they’d helped prepare it. In terms of how much everyone loved the taste of the new foods … well, they’re still a picky four-year-old and six-year-old. I think they’re a little young (and not-adventurous) to fully appreciate these fancier-than-normal meals.
D actually liked the cod (which surprised me) but not the gremolata topping, and he adored the Sloppy Joes (no surprise there). The salad on Night #2 wasn’t a hit with either of them, but they did pick at the veggies on Night #1.
The kids were actually at my mom’s for Night #3, which was too bad because I know they would have loved the Glazed Teriyaki Chicken. It was my FAVOURITE meal of the week, hands down, and I’m totally making it again using the recipe card.
“Isn’t it wasteful to have all of those boxes/containers/ice packs?”
I’ve heard this a lot online from people who think services like this are bad for the environment, BUT I really didn’t find there was a lot of garbage at the end of each night. A couple of pieces of plastic from the meat/fish/chicken packaging and a few empty honey packets, etc. all easily could be wadded up into a single handful.
HelloFresh also runs an ice pack return program. They ask you to save up 3-4 weeks worth of ice packs in one of your boxes and then drop them an email (recycling@hellofresh.ca) and they’ll arrange to have them picked up and shipped back (for free).
“Were the portions large enough?”
Definitely. The salad on Night #2 was massive and I had to send a huge bowl to the neighbours so it wasn’t wasted (since I’d already put the homemade dressing on it.)
The Sloppy Joes were curious because there was a TON of ground beef and just four brioche buns — one per person. I ended up having a second helping of the beef by itself on my salad, and had plenty left for another couple of meals. My only suggestion would be including extra buns in the box or scaling back on the meat for this one.
The chicken and rice on Night #3 was actually enough for five adult-sized portions. Since the kids were away, I sent one plate next door to our neighbour and spent the next two days eating the leftovers for lunch. Mmmmm.
“Is it expensive?”
It depends on how much you spend on groceries and how much you value your time. The Family Plan is $129.99 for a week, which includes three dinners for four people.
Yes, you could probably buy the same ingredients yourself for less money. But you wouldn’t necessarily be able to buy exactly what you need for a specific recipe with zero waste, and you have to actually go out and source everything.
It was SO CONVENIENT to have this lovely big box just SHOW UP at our door with everything we needed for three dinners (and leftovers for lunch the next day). The luxury of not having to go out and do the shopping (or the planning) is worth a few extra bucks.
“What’s the quality like?”
Like BETTER than the stuff I’d normally buy in the grocery store!
The chicken and the beef were especially impressive with packaging that boasted “raised without hormones, antibiotics or animal by-products,” since we normally buy regular ol’ grocery store value-packs.
The produce was all excellent and very fresh. Even the canned and packaged items — like the tomatoes for Night #2 — were fancy-looking. Certainly no generic items in here!
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We certainly plan on ordering from HelloFresh again. It was the kick in the pants we all needed to get out of our dinner slump and try some new foods, and it was so convenient to put together all three of the meals.
You can save $50 off your first order by using the code “HEACLA.” Let me know what you think if you try it!
Have questions I didn’t answer? Drop them in the comments on reach out on Facebook or Twitter and I’ll be sure to get back to you.
Thanks to HelloFresh Canada for providing us with a Family Plan for one week so we could try it out. As always, all opinions and leftover teriyaki chicken are my own.
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Heather's Handmade Life 