Labor Day is the ideal time to gather a crowd for one last summer hurrah. Host a BBQ or a pool party and just enjoy these last few carefree days of summer.

It’s not a great party, though, without some great eats. And feeding a crowd can be a huge undertaking. One of my favorite meals to serve to large groups is the Taco Salad.

Yeah, yeah, I know, real men don’t eat salad. But they will if you load it up with all these macho taco fixings. Lay out a DIY bar with a variety of toppings like spicy pico de gallo and hearty proteins like seasoned taco meat, shredded beef or chicken, and cooked pinto beans. Yum!

And yes, it’s okay if some of the males in your midst don’t add lettuce. Then you call it, Not Soggy Nachos.

Easy Taco Salad

Lay out bowls of the following and let everyone assemble his own taco salad.

Lots of torn lettuce
Grated cheese
Seasoned Taco Meat
Shredded Beef
Shredded Chicken
Cooked Pintos
Pico de Gallo
Homemade Salsa (using canned tomatoes)
Sour cream
Avocado slices, avocado salsa, or guacamole
Tortilla chips
Sliced black olives

How about you? How do YOU feed a crowd?

1. Post your recipe on your blog. Please mention www.LifeasMOM.com in your post. Then, come back here to add your link to Mr. Linky below. (Instructions for Mr. Linky are available.)
OR

2. If you don’t have a blog, simply tell us about your recipe in the comments section.

Coming up next week: Baked Goods

Easy Taco Salad to Feed a Crowd – Ultimate Recipe Swap is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

I laughed when a reader commented about my OCD tendencies. She was speaking in reference to my planner pages. Yes, I have a lot of them.

Well, let me tell you a secret…..

It’s not because I have it together.

I don’t. Oh my, I woefully don’t. My default is to sit on the couch and read a good book. But, that, my friends does not get me very far.

I have had to set up systems to help me get my act even remotely together. Thus, my household notebook was born. And it is in a constant state of tweaking.

New tweaks to help my life as MOM

As I’ve mentioned before, this year I experimented in having my planner spiral bound. That was life changing. For five bucks I was able to make a highly customizable, highly portable planner to keep track of my goals, my household tasks, my calendar, as well as my writing business information.

When I first had my planner spiral bound, I made it “tester size,” large enough to last me about six months. I didn’t want to waste time and paper if it wasn’t going to work. But, it did. And it does. And so this month I put together a longer-term version which I hope will last me until this time next year.

One of the changes that I made was to laminate my daily to do list. For an extra $2 at FedEx Office, I now have a reusable page that will save me 182 pages of paper and space in my yearlong planner.

FishBoy9 pointed out how good it would feel at the end of the day to wipe the page clean, knowing I’d accomplished some things and that I get to start over fresh in the morning. He’s a genius, isn’t he? I was just being practical, but he thought of what an encouragement it would be.

New forms just for you!

Recently, I asked the girls on Facebook to tell me what forms would help “life as mom” at their houses. They were full of ideas.

Here are a few planner pages reflecting what they expressed would be helpful to them.

Team Sports Information – Where are the coaches’ phone numbers? Who’s the team mom? What equipment do we need to bring? Where are we supposed to go for practice? If your team doesn’t already hand you this information on a handy 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, you can gather it all yourself on this sheet.

School Contact List – Keep track of phone numbers and email addresses for principal, school nurse, counselor, and teachers.

Weekly Schedule by Hour – Know where your kids are every day of the week and every hour of the day so that you won’t forget to send PE clothes and so that you can meet up with them at lunchtime.

Do you have a planner?

How do you keep track of all you need to know?

Get Your Act Together with More Free Planner Pages is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

I’m stunned that these children are all mine. There once was a time when we only thought we’d have one child. And here we are with six, pretty darn cute little babes.

When I get frustrated with fussy toddlers, insistent preschoolers, angry little boys, and angry little big boys, I’m reminded.

I’m so blessed that they are mine.

We may struggle, we may become impatient with one another, we may not do it all right, but we are rich — in one another. I’m counting my blessings today and smiling.

How can you count your blessings today?

Counting My Blessings Once Again is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

First I tell you how great this cookbook is and then I tease you with a discount code that doesn’t work. Goodness!

We’ve been fighting some type of coding issues with ejunkie, but I think we’ve got it to work.

From now until Friday night, you can buy Healthy Snacks to Go Ebook for 25% off.

Simply use the code: FISHCODE and that should deduct 25% off your purchase.

Let me know if you encounter problems. Thanks for your patience and happy Snacking!

You Really Can Buy Healthy Snacks to Go – 25% Off is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

Over a year ago, I heard about this new thing called a vlog. (It’s video+blog, in case you weren’t sure.) And, though, I had no clue what I was doing, I decided to give vlogging a try.

This is one of the first vlogs I made: How to Make Mexican Rice. Despite my ignorance in film making, it’s been quite popular with over 15,500 views. Who knew?

Since that first amateur video, I’ve gone on to make several other amateur videos, on a range of scintillating topics.

If you’re in the market for a singing Christmas FishMouse, the contents of my linen closet, or all kinds of freezer cooking tutorials, then pop over to the LifeasMOM YouTube channel.

Subscribers get a little heads up on vlogs that may — or may not — get posted on this blog. So, if you’re into getting the inside scoop, well hit subscribe while you’re there.

So, do you VLOG? What are your thoughts on this other form of social media?

Catch LifeasMOM on YouTube is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

FishBaby turned two last week. Can you believe it?! She was born just a few months after LifeasMOM: The Blog and so many of you have known her even before she was born.

This little girl is a hoot, that is for sure. She looks a lot like her grandmother who passed away when she was a newborn. She bears her grandmother’s name, too. More than just a coincidence, I’m sure God had it planned all along as a sweet reminder.

And I’m sure that if Gramma Ruthie had been here last week she would have chuckled at FishBaby’s antics about the Very Dora Birthday Cake we enjoyed.

FishBaby has been fascinated with Dora the Explorer for quite some time. And “Dora” was one of her very first words. She also has this thing for donuts with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles. So, it was a natural choice to pair those preferences onto her birthday cake.

A Very Dora Birthday Cake

1. Choose the shape cake that you want to build your Dora scene on and bake a simple cake. Don’t be afraid to use a mix. Sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do.

I used a devil’s food cake mix, prepared with 1 cup yogurt, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup oil, and 1/3 cup milk. I baked one round layer and one mini layer. There was batter left over — it landed on my oven floor. So, if you choose to make a mini layer, make a few extras to use up the batter.

The cake was great! Very moist and flavorful.

2. Whip and tint your frosting. I whipped up a batch of homemade buttercream and tinted it pink with paste food coloring. You could also use canned frosting, but homemade is way better.

3. Frost and sprinkle. Once the cake has cooled, frost the layers with a crumb coat. This is a thin layer of frosting that glues the crumbs to the cake. Pop the cake into the freezer for 10-15 minutes and that crumb coat will trap the crumbs. Layer on a thicker layer of frosting. Sprinkle away. We used Wilton Rainbow Jimmies.

Be sure to let the kids help!

4. Arrange your Dora the Explorer figures. I bought these Fisher-Price Dora toys from Amazon (with Swagbucks). My kids have always loved toys on their cakes. It’s a great way to combine a new toy into the party decor, too. Playmobil rock any boys’ cake theme.

5. Don’t forget the number candle. These are a family tradition at our house.

I’m not sure that FishBaby will always remember her Very Dora Birthday Cake, but it was a sweet memory in the making.

What’s your favorite birthday cake memory?

A Very Dora Birthday Cake is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

This year marks my 9th in homeschooling. I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by. I remember this big guy on that first day of kindergarten. It seems like it was yesterday that I had a five year old, a two year old, and a 3 month old. I’m amazed that I lived to tell about it.

This year, I’m teaching 8th, 5th, 3rd, 1st, and preschool. Oh my! Needless to say, things are a little wild and crazy around here still.

There have been some bumps in the road this past month as we jump back into formal schooling. While I consider a lot of what we did over the summer “educational,” I didn’t make anyone do math.

This year as with the last few back to school seasons, I’ve used the slow immersion method to get us back into the swing of things. That means that I introduce a few subjects every week until we’re moving at full steam. It’s a nice, easy way to get everyone acclimated to a new routine.

Some of our first subjects to tackle this year were Math, Science, and Foreign Language. These are pretty straight-forward subjects with a  wealth of curriculum options to choose from.

Here’s a rundown of what’s working for us.

Math

We were a Saxon family for years and years. And I’m still doing Saxon with my grammar school kids. It’s a great program, very thorough and particularly hands-on in the younger years.

However for third grade and above, we’ve switched to Teaching Textbooks. I love this program. It takes the frustration out of the mother-student relationship because the CD-Rom teaches the lesson and offers immediate feedback.

For grades three through 7, Teaching Textbooks are self-grading. For Pre-Algebra and above, the student performs the solutions on paper, the parent corrects, and then there is a solutions CD-Rom to go over for understanding, if needed.

Science

I have really struggled to find a science program that worked over several grade levels. In the early years when all my students were third grade and under, I followed the science ideas recommended in The Well-Trained Mind and that was a fabulous learning time as we explored life and earth sciences as well as chemistry.

This year I discovered Apologia. I thought it was just for high school levels, but I have been pleasantly surprised. My 5th, 3rd, and 1st graders are going through Exploring Creation with Astronomy with the Notebooking Journal while my eighth grader is tackling Exploring Creation with Physical Science via the CD-Rom version.

So far so good. We’re all learning and we’re making science happen this year. It helps that I invested in an Astronomy Lab kit as well as a lab kit for Physical Science. How nice not to chase all over the house for supplies!

Latin

This year I’m teaching my kids very basic Latin. It was my plan to start this five years ago, but life happened. And I’m trying to be okay with the fact that not all my plans come to fruition.

Last year I received a review copy of Minimus which my younger boys love. They enjoy the cartoon format and following the story of the mouse named Minimus. So, they are following along with the book and CD in order to get some early exposure and having fun with a different language.

With my 5th and 8th graders, we’re using Prima Latina and finding it very user friendly. A couple days a week, we play the pronunciation CD and go over the lesson together.

This is a very elementary program, but I actually prefer it to the Minimus curriculum. It’s much easier to understand and seems to offer basic vocabulary is a very straightforward way.

An interesting difference is that the pronunciation rules differ between the two curricula. I found this fascinating, in a language-geek kind of way. A take-away from that is to choose one curriculum company and stick with it throughout the levels to avoid confusion.

I’m happy to let my younger boys are enjoying Minimus for early exposure, but they will probably do Prima Latina in a year or two.

Spanish

While I was a French major in college, we’ve come to the conclusion that Spanish is the more practical second language for our children to learn, especially since we live in California where Spanish is widely spoken.

We bought Rosetta Stone Level 1 in Latin American Spanish and all four boys are enjoying it. They get a little tripped up in their pronunciation, but I figure that will come in time.

Several of the boys would still like to learn French. (And yes, I should have been teaching them all along!) We’ll see how we can work in more language study over the years. It’s my hope that basic exposure to different languages will spark in them an interest in at least one and that they will have a working knowledge of at least one secondary language by the time they reach college.

But, you know about the best laid plans….

What are YOUR favorite ways to teach Math, Science, and Foreign Language?

Math, Science, & Foreign Language – Homeschool Curriculum Ideas for Grammar & Middle School is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

Photo Source: pedrosimoes7

Can you join me for a cup of coffee? How ’bout a spot of tea? Let’s talk!

A blog without readers really isn’t much — except a way for my mom to see cute pictures of my kids.

Not that that’s a bad thing….

But, I wanted to thank each and every one of you who take time out of your day to read what I have to say, to share your opinions, and to interact with your fellow moms in such an uplifting way. There’s a great group of women who regularly share their thoughts here and I’m so thankful for you!

I, for one, have really enjoyed getting to know so many people through blogging. You’ve really blessed me.

Thank you!

Every once in awhile, I like to take a deep breath and ask for feedback. I know this isn’t a perfect place. I know there’s great room for improvement in helping moms and encouraging them “on the road to joyful motherhood.” And I know you can offer valuable feedback and insight into making this a better home away from home.

Would you mind filling out this reader survey? I don’t think it will take very long. But, it will help me gauge how I can better help you be a more joyful mom.

As an added little thank you, three readers who complete the survey will each receive a $10 giftcard to Starbucks.

Survey will be open until Sunday, September 5th, at 8 pm PST. Winners to be chosen at random and notified via email. Please respond within 48 hours of email sent or I may have to choose another winner.

– Disclosure: The gift cards are coming out of my pocket. I was not paid to publish positive comments. I think you guys rock!

You can leave a comment here if you want, but only those completing the survey will be entered in the giveaway.

A Thank You & A Giveaway from FishMama is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

What a fun week!

I loved reading your comments in last week’s Back to School Inspiration series. I learned so much about how you keep fit, what you love to pack in lunches, how you keep life organized, and how many of you love zebra stripes.

Thanks for sharing your expertise as MOMs and family managers!

Special thanks also to the great people and companies who provided the giveaways.

Here are the winners:

Lunchtime Solutions, Sara Lee Soft and Smooth, and a Giveaway
werazo@
luckshops@
theplumitallos@
teamlego1@
copterwife@

A Very Green Giveaway from Crayola
tlgoad@

SpellQuizzer Giveaway
KMSA1234@
springeve@
kramersandj@

Healthy Snacks to Go – Ebook Giveaway
kl_trock@
phoward336@
fiskfam5@
jcp.lex@
abcdefg88piano@

(If you didn’t win, but are craving a few healthy snacks on the run, you can purchase the book at a discount! Katie has provided the following coupon code: FISHCODE that will give you 25% off your purchase. Coupon code will be good until September 2 at midnight.)

Gluten Free Chex Cereal Giveaway
slrdowney@

momAgenda Desktop Planner Giveaway
jennklogan@
summervertrees@
g9cloud@
kacisierra@

You should have received an email from me if you are a winner. Please respond within 48 hours (by Tuesday at 10:15pm PST) in order to claim your prize. Thanks for playing, everybody!

:: Back to School Inspiration was brought to you, in part, by Deals.com, Henkel Helps Get Kids Fit,  and Sara Lee Soft and Smooth ::

Back to School Inspiration Giveaway Winners is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

Thai Chicken Pizza

It used to be that I spent about three hours preparing the evening meal. I looked at it as my hobby. I love to cook and I love to eat.

While those characteristics haven’t changed, I am no longer a young newlywed with few obligations. I know that our nest will be empty all too soon and I’ll have plenty of time for elaborate, gourmet meals.

But, that’s not the season I live in. Instead, I need quick, easy, cheap, healthy, and delicious. Well, now, ain’t that a tall order to fill?

I’m finding that it is within reach if I

• practice freezer cooking
• create theme nights for easy meal planning and preparation
• cook from scratch
• stick to the tried and true.

It may sound boring, but really, I can add a few tweaks here and there to ensure that we eat well and happily.

Putting all those tasks into practice, here’s our meal plan for the week:

• Grilled Chicken, Rice Pilaf, Salad, Fruit (grilling)
• Lasagna, Green Salad, Garlic Bread (pasta)
• Mexican Omelets, Fruit Salad (tacos, kinda)
• Sandwich Night (sandwiches)
• Black Bean Enchilada Casserole, Green Salad, Rice (mexican)
• Pizza Night (pizza)
• Grilled Fish Tacos (easy handheld)

What have you got cooking?

For more meal planning inspiration, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Meal Planning: Simple Meals Rule the Day is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.