Happy New Year! Steve and I are back from New York where we had a wonderful time and are now back to the daily grind. Well almost, I am off until Monday which I am thoroughly enjoying.
Steph, Sarah and I on New Year's Eve
On our 3 hour train ride back from New York, I made it my mission to find some options for classes we could enroll Rex in that occur during "after school hours". At the start of my search, I thought with the criteria I set, it would return several options to choose from:
Classes must start after 5:00pm
Sports, Language, or Art classes would work
Affordable prices(looking for under $150 but there is some wiggle room)
Preferably located in Sterling but anywhere between Reston, Chantilly, and Ashburn would work
Well after 2 hours of frustrated searching, I had successfully enrolled Rex into one floor hockey clinic that is 3 weeks long. That was my only real option that fit my criteria after looking at 2 community rec centers and multiple private companies. There were several options of classes for Rex's age in the categories I was looking at but they all took place between 10am and 3pm (not really conducive for the working mom).
I started to think I am just not looking in the right places so for the last hour of the train ride I redirected my search to find/join mom groups in the community. Other working moms must know where to go for these classes. I thought I hit the jackpot when I found a network consisting of 76 mom groups in Northern Virginia. They even had two groups for Sterling, separated by East/West. Unfortunately, working moms need not apply was the messaging once I read the descriptions.
I did find a couple networks that accept working moms, one who meets regularly but in Fairfax which in Northern Virginia traffic could be an hour long drive. I am still hoping to give it a try as I really do want to get our family more involved in the community. I would also really like to network with working moms. Who knows, maybe I will have to create a group to make this happen.
In the meantime, we will try the floor hockey class and we also had previously enrolled Rex in a swim class that starts this Saturday. Even though I am disappointed with my initial search, I am really looking forward to getting him involved in these classes and am sure we will find something else. Ideally, I would like him enrolled in one sports class and one educational/creative class that lasts for at least 6-10 weeks. If any Northern Virginian residents have suggestions, please let me know.
For Dinner tonight:
Leftover Chicken and Rice Casserole(recipe below) from last night with a Kale Chopped Salad Kit and bread (only two plates because Steve is working late)
My normally non-picky eater decided to be tonight so his dinner turned from the above into dinosaur chicken nuggets and apple chips
Chicken & Rice Casserole:
4 Chicken breast halves ( I used 8 grilled frozen chicken tenders)
1 can cream of chicken Soup
1 7/8 cups of water
1 packet(1 oz) of onion soup mix
1 cup of Rice
Frozen vegetables(optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Spread rice at bottom of 9x13 casserole dish
3. Lay chicken over rice
4. Mix cream of chicken soup and water together and pour over chicken
5. add onion soup mix and frozen vegetables on top
6. Bake for 1hour to 1.5 hours.
Mine was done right at an hour.
Lucky you that Rex isn't a picky eater! Rebecca wasn't either until the last few months. All of a sudden she's on a "no eating anything" diet. I make ONE meal for dinner (including Jake) and if she doesn't eat it, she goes hungry. I'm mean and cruel, but she's gotta learn to not be picky. Why did no one tells us how incredibly hard it is to be a parent?!?! Good luck with the after-school classes for Rex!
ReplyDeleteUpward Sports can be a good option if you're looking for sports. They're a bit more expensive in NoVa than they are here, but they also do a brief devotional during practices and games and it's not as competitive. They do soccer in the Spring. My boys started at 4 with soccer and 5 with basketball. Good luck!
ReplyDelete