snapshots

How To:

...get your chores done while preventing drowning.

(Also, if this were my only form of being outdoors, I'd still have a fabulous tan. Do you have that much laundry?)

Miniature Sand Play Set

Today I came across a homeschool toy that was perfect for Keston. A little box filled with some sand and miniature seashore related figurines. So I turned over the box. $24.99. Hmm.... I think I can re-create this for free. So I did:

 

I think she liked it....

She played with it all afternoon. Imaginative play, crazy plots and dialogues.

Here's how to do it-

1. Find an airtight box with a lid. I used a plastic shoebox.

2. Fill it a couple inches with sand.(Less sand=less clean-up. A shallow layer is plenty). I used sand that I had smuggled home from Tahoe recently, but any play sand or beach sand will do. Stay away from the house-project, landscaping sand, as it has toxins which are bad for kids to inhale.

3. Pick your theme. If you aren't obsessive about the seashore like us, you could use construction trucks and little guys, farm things, dinosaurs, whatever your kids are into.

4. Look around the house for miniature toys. Finally a use for them! We have an abundance of Legos, so that was an easy start. Then I added Playmobils, some fancy rocks, shells from the beach, and a scantily-clad Ariel, with a dingle-hopper. Mady got creative and loaned some of her Wade animals to the project, and her 'coral' moss from a hike.

I just put a pillowcase under it to contain spilled sand, but there wasn't much. I think the shallow layer is key here.

I will keep this in rotaion, and put it away after a week or two when the novelty wears off. After a while, I'll fill it with a new theme and bring it back out. If you try this easy project, let me know, and I'll add a list of links. Hours of entertainment, I tell you! :)

rainbow art project for kids

One of my fondest memories from kindergarten, the joy of tissue papers stamped into glue to create colorful masterpieces! I can remember standing at a tiny table wrapping tissue squares around a pencil during choice time. Good memories! Now I can see the point of it - fine motor  and scissor skills! This project would be great from around age 3 - 8 or so.

Here's what you'll need:

• a variety of tissue papers (recycled are great!) crepe paper will work, too 
• pencil (unsharpened is best) with an eraser
• school glue
• white paper with a design drawn on (or printed from the computer)
• markers or crayons

1. Start with your white paper that has an image on it. Simpler is better, especially for younger kids. You can free-hand draw something, have them draw something bold, or print an image from your computer ahead of time.

2. Have them use the markers or crayons to color in the colors they want the end project to look like. Does not need to be perfect in any way, it will all get covered up!

3. Get the tissue paper squares ready (parent or older child can do this). Cut the tissue into squares roughly 1 1/2 inches or so. Again, can be very imperfect!  Pour some school glue onto a tray or plate. Get your pencil ready...

4. Have your child take one piece of tissue, and show them how to center (approximately!) the eraser onto it.

5. Wrap the tissue up around the pencil.

6. Dip!

7. Hold onto the edges of the tissue, and press the glue tipped end onto the paper, matching up the color from your picture. Slide the pencil out.

8. Keep going.

9. And going. :)

10. Soon enough, they'll have their own masterpeice! Have fun with this!

Cutting Grocery Bills

All was not lost.... after I left the bread in the oven for double the baking time, I made it into delicious croutons! (Hazards of playing gymnastics-flip-me-over-the chair-Ta-Da! game with Ruby while simultaneously making bread).  The delicious and easy recipe for whole wheat bread came from this sweet girl. For croutons, cut the loaf into cubes. Heat a 200F oven for about twelve minutes until bread feels almost dried out and crouton like. Pour a small amount of melted butter/margarine over bread cubes, and stir well. Sprinkle with garlic powder and dried herbs of your choice. Bake another few minutes until they are crouton-ly crunchy.

Other ideas I am trying, in order to save some grocery money:

• stock up on sale and loss-leader items. buy as much as you think you will need before the product's expiration date. example: big jar of applesauce was on sale for $1, but expires in one month, so I only stocked up on three. for toilet paper at a great price, I'll buy as much as my budget allows. I am storing the extras in bins, away from my kitchen and pantry.

• bake from scratch. homemade whole wheat bread is far healthier and much less expensive than store bought. try to incorporate other inexpensive, relatively wholesome, foods into meals. (homemade cornbread, muffins, pancakes, bread sticks, etc.) Skip convenience mixes and make it from scratch. You can make ahead and freeze most bread items.

• incorporate potatoes into your meals as often as you feel is healthy (depending on how you cook them). Potatoes are dirt cheap. Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, potato salad, home fries, potato cakes, potato soup. Look here for lots o' recipes. 1933 of them, to be exact.

• if you don't already have a vegetable garden, consider planning a small one for next summer. one packet of lettuce seeds will probably be enough to harvest salads all summer. I find that because I can harvest as I need, I have very little produce waste. zucchini harvests could feed a small army. zucchini recipes here.

• make more meatless dishes. protein is in so many foods, a full vegetarian diet is both healthy and earth-friendly. you might already know several vegetarian dishes without realizing: homemade macaroni and cheese, vegetable pasta salads, bean and cheese enchiladas or tacos, big dinner salads, spaghetti with marinara, veggie or cheese homemade pizza, and many ethnic dishes are often vegetarian, especially indian, greek, and mediterranean.

• keep track of your fridge. don't let foods spoil.

• eat "out of the pantry" by utilizing what you already have on hand. use this site to help you figure out how to turn those random foods into yummy meals. spend the saved money to stock up on those loss-leader foods for later.

• batch cook. buy foods in bulk quantities, cook many servings, and freeze the rest for later. try any of these sites for help.

• make your own household cleaners and laundry soap. very easy and super cheap.

• we have made the decision to fore go most organic items (with the exception of the dirty dozen) for right now, even though we'd prefer mostly organics. you have to do what you have to do what you have to do sometimes.

• stretch your meals by adding eggs, rice, or beans. each are quite inexpensive and healthy. buy large quantities at a restaurant supply store. (often much cheaper than warehouse stores).

• have "breakfast for dinner" every once in a while. my kids love it, and it is really inexpensive to make pancakes and omelets. (or waffles, scrambled eggs, quiche, french toast, etc.)

• plan, plan, plan your menus, and take a list with you to shop and keep on track.

What do you do to save grocery money? Please share!

How-To: Make A Fairy House

Guest blogger, Mady Ellars, 13

This is my first time ever blogging, so please excuse any errors. I have only been a teenager for two days anyway!

Fairy houses are miniature houses built in the forest, perfect for fairies! It is a great activity for young kids, especially little girls, and it is wonderful for older, more patient kids as well. They should be made of only natural materials, but a little bit of glue won't hurt.

Finding a location is the hardest part. If you are camping, there are often many trees close to the campsite that will be close enough for safety, but still private enough for imagination. Try to have your kids work alone, or perhaps an older kid with a younger kid. This allows them to be creative and have their own special project.

What you will need:

• An oldish sort of tree, with two roots creating a semicircle
• A forest, with a clearing near the tree
• Natural objects (shells, leaves, ferns, twigs, rocks, pebbles, grasses, berries, bark)
• Glue (optional)
• A creative and imaginative mind!

First, look for a tree. Red cedars are just right, as well as abundant, but really any tree will do. It should have a little hollow at the base, shaped as a little semicircle. It will take some time to find the right one, but it is very rewarding when you find the perfect one. Look for a location that isn't too close to a path or where people come frequently. A great place to find is one with a bit of sunshine that can poke through, making a very magical atmosphere!

Next, collect a couple of natural objects that seem to already have a purpose. For example, a curved piece of bark for a slide, bright berries for hanging lanterns (make sure your kids know which are and aren't poisonous), or a lumpy rock that looks just like a couch. You can go and collect more as you need it, but it is good to have a few things to begin with so you don't have to keep running to the hill where the blueberries grow just to find you forgot which tree you were working at.

Then begin to build! Your house should be small enough that only your hand can fit through the doorway. Start by making walls, which you can do by poking sticks into the ground next to each other and weaving a little bit of grass in between them, or by piling up rocks. You can then make the roof. Fairies like green rooftops to blend in, but really any material will do. The house Keston and I built had large ferns curved with their stems tucked under some twigs, and a few twigs poking across to hold them up. You can then decorate the inside. Here are some ideas:

• A leaf covered "carpeted" floor
• A daisy rug
• A stone couch
• Grass and leaves in a pile to make a beanbag
• A round piece of wood for a table, with smaller round pieces for chairs
• A piece of bark wrapped in a leaf for a bed, complete with pebble pillows

You can then choose to make a doorway. You do not have to, because you may want the interior showing, but you can use bark, twigs, or rocks to make a front wall. A door is, again, optional.

After the house is built you can make a yard. You can build a fence, a garden, ladders, swings, or whatever else you can come up with.

Swings are quite lovely, and very simple to make. You use a curved branch, then tie two pieces of grass to it. Then tie a small, rectangular piece of bark onto the bottom of the grass. The swing makes it look like a house, instead of (in little kids' cases) a pile of sticks and leaves.

You should also make a dancing circle. It is something faries are quite famous for, and they will appreciate a permanent one that doesn't have to be remade for each of their parties (which are very wild and last all through the night). Just place pebbles into a circle, making sure they are slightly pressed into the dirt. A lantern is also nice, and it can be made by poking a berry onto a curving stick.

Once your house and yard have been built, a fairy is ready to move in! Check back at your fairy tree about once a month, and make any repairs nessecary. You might just find tiny footprints, or even additions to your house. This isn't very common, but occasionally a person might stumble upon your house and find a need to make a fire pit, or a tree house. Always remember to be courteous when you find other fairy houses, and do not break them.

Here are more ideas, and here are some fun books to read to your kids about fairy houses.

This is a pretty long post, so I will now be finishing it. Feel free to comment about any fairy sightings...Check back for more possible guest bloggings!

How To Build Your Own Scrapbooking Kit!

Every month, I scrapbook with a bunch of girls. Every month, I was late getting there. Reason? I took sooo long to pack my stuff. But now, I have the best system ever!

Here's what to do:

1. Make sure you have some sort of tool caddy, that keeps all the essentials together. (Mine has paper cutter and extra blades, stapler and staples, Crop-A-Dile, pencil, Pioneer glue sticks, mini Glue Dots, Zip-Dry, American Crafts journaling pen, Slick Writer, Basic Grey file set, baby wipes, paints and foam brushes, gum, and comfy socks. True story).

2. Find a piece of patterned paper that you love! It is best if it has a few different colors in it. Here's my example, but use any that you like. {This is the inspiration of your whole kit. Things don't need to match each other really, but they should sort of go with this one paper.}

3. Now, from your stash or from your local scrapbook store, pick nine more papers that have similar colors and somewhat coordinate. Doesn't need to be perfect or matchy matchy, and can be all different manufacturers.

4. Select 8 coordinating cardstocks to go with the papers. If you scrap double page layouts, maybe you'll want more, or want sets of twos.

5. Add one or two sets of lettering. Stickers, chipboard, or rub-ons.

6. Choose some ribbons that coordinate.

7. Add some journaling spots/tags.

8. Add some embellishments. This could be flowers, die cuts, rub-ons, stickers, buttons, brads, yo-yo's, gems, or whatever you want!

And that's it! So easy! Add a pack of photos. (If you have used enough colors in your kit, you'll be surprised at how many will work). Now, to get to the crop, just take this little kit and your tool caddy, and you are guaranteed at least 8 layouts, but probably more. I'll challenge myself to see how many I can do from this exact kit, and show you next week.

I have been doing this for months now, and it is so easy! My pages are spread around among different books, so you'd never notice they are all similar. Try it!

Make Your Own Small, Free, Compost Box

Per my 2008 Goals, the kids and I are almost finished with the construction of our Square Foot Gardens. If you are Square Foot Gardening, (or growing anything, anywhere!) having your own source of compost is going to be very helpful. So I came up with this little free version this weekend. Here's what to do:

1. Find a plastic tote with a lid, from around the house (large one, like a Rubbermaid type bin).

2. Fill it with a layer of soil or peat moss, from around the garden. Maybe about three or four inches deep or so. I used peat moss, since I have plenty around from making the Square Foot Gardens.

3. Add a layer of shredded strips of newspaper. We used about half of a Sunday paper for this.

4. Add a good layer of "brown matter". Brown matter is dead twigs, leaves, hay, prunings, and plant stuff, like last summer's dried up blooms.  You actually need more brown matter than food scraps, so just look around your garden at anything dried up.

5. Now the fun part... food scraps from your kitchen. Orange rinds, coffee grounds and coffee filters, tea bags, spoiling produce, avocado peels, banana peels, carrot peels, apple cores, egg shells ( crushed), watermelon rinds... you get the idea. If the bits are small, it is best, and will break down quicker. (So chop your junk!) For this compost, don't add any dairy or meat type stuff, and stay away from bread too. Keep adding this stuff until you have only a little space left in the box. Add more brown matter as you go, too. A good balance of brown matter is very important for the process. Not enough brown matter could result in a yucky, slimey situation.

6. Cover it tightly with the lid. To make sure that little creatures don't get involved,  put heavy stones on the top.

7. Tuck away, somewhere close. Mine is right out the glass doors, tucked under a chair. When summer gets nearer, maybe I'll find a more out of the way spot.

8. The next step is to turn the compost every few days. This will make the process happen more quickly. To turn, just use a rake or some other thing you can fit in, then rinse off when you're done. Stir it up, move it around, get some air into it. The one other factor is moisture. You definitely don't want it soaking wet, but slightly damp will help the process along. Just add some fresh water as you notice it is dry.

9. That's it! Keep stirring, wait about six weeks or so, until it is crumbly like dirt, and you can't recognize what you put into it to start with. You'll know when it is ready! That's that! You can add it to your flower gardens, or vegetable gardens and it will add lots of nutrients.

Other tips:

• If you need more compost, you can start a second bin a couple weeks after the first one, and then another a couple weeks after that. This way, every couple weeks, you'll have fresh, finished, compost to add to the garden. I am just going to stick with one I think, though!
• The brown matter really is important. Do make sure to add equal-ish amounts of it, along with the food scraps. Sawdust will work too.
• Worms totally aren't required!
• If it gets too stinky or gooey, you probably have either a.) too much water, or b.) not enough brown matter. It will be a little unpleasant smelling, but shouldn't be gross-bad. :)
• If it really floats your boat after this trial, you can buy commercial bins made specifically for composting. But really, this free approach should work just fine!

For more info., you can look here or here.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out! Happy composting!

Earth Day Experiment

Yummy lunch! Just kidding. This is our little earth day project. The kids layered a bit of backyard soil, a plastic bag, a little more soil, then lots of junk! The junk is from our compost bucket... and this bit includes a crayon wrapper, oranges and rinds, candy wrappers, coffee cup, coffee filter and grounds, scrap of fabric, dead twigs and leaves, weeds, microwave popcorn bag, onion skins, little pieces of cardboard, a lemon piece, and rotting jalapeno. (You could use any assorted food scraps, paper towels, etc). Make sure to add "brown matter" such as twigs and dead leaves.

Put it all in a big jar with holes in the lid for aeration.  Shake it up a little, every few days or so. Have your kids make predictions, then watch what happens.  PS - which of this trash do you think I was very personally responsible for? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the fruit. :) 

Happy Earth Day!

Kids Craft

This is so simple.  All my kids enjoyed it, ages 3, 7, and 12. That is always a bonus!

You'll need three glass containers. (Recycled jars, small fishbowls from the thrift store, whatever. It is good if the neck of the jar closes up a bit, so that the watering cycle will kind of work. By closes up, I mean the neck is smaller than the base of the jar, so not a wide mouth mason jar.)

A plant. (I used one plant, and divided it into three. It was a 4 inch pot "tropical" plant, from Fred Meyer for $2.99. The only expense.)

Have the kids each choose a tiny thing that they love. In our case, a plastic deer, a Lego man, and a collectible Wade tea animal. Other good things to add: a special rock, pinecone, moss collected from a hike, twig....

It seemed like for us, there was enough soil with the plant that we didn't actually need more. Use your judgement on that!

Divide the plant into enough for each kid. (Or use a tinier plant to start with!) Have the kids add the plant to the jar, and help them squish it down a little so all the roots are covered in soil. We used a spoon to reach into the jar and do it.  Let them add their special things, add a small amount of water, and they're done! We talked about photosynthesis and such, and will probably discuss more as we watch the water system work. Have fun!

{We got the idea from Little Bird's flickr stream.  Isn't the internet great?}

Recipe for an Indian dinner

Yay for Trader Joe's!  In honor of the opening, here's one of my favorite recipes using their products.  And unless you like mosh pits, you might want to wait a couple days before your shopping.  It was nuts!

Indian Dinner:

1 jar of Trader Joe's punjabi sauce, 1/2 c. plain yogurt, 1/2 cup (or less, to your liking) brown sugar, cooked jasmine rice, 1 cup sliced mushrooms, touch of olive oil, tofu or panner (I love the Paneer from Appel Farms, but I can only find it at the farm, not in the supermarkets). Paneer is Indian cheese.

So, brown the mushrooms in the olive oil in a skillet. Add the Punjabi Sauce, and heat through.  Add the brown sugar to taste - it cuts down the spiciness quite a bit.  Add cubed tofu or cubed Paneer.  Turn the heat to low, and add the yogurt.  Serve over cooked jasmine rice. I make my own Naan and raita, but those are available at Trader Joe's too. If you aren't vegetarian. just substitute chicken for the tofu or paneer if you want.

Lemon Snickerdoodles

Baking adventures a few days ago, Lemon Snickerdoodles. Delicious!

1/2 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 t. baking soda, 1/4 t. cream of tartar, 1 egg, 1/2 t. lemon extract flavoring, 2 drops yellow food color (optional), 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 T. sugar (for rolling).

Beat butter for 30 seconds until soft, then add the 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar.  Beat again.  Now beat in egg and lemon flavoring, and if you'd like, a couple drops of yellow food color - makes them look lemony. Next, add in the flour.  Cover and chill, about an hour, or 15 minutes in the freezer.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Shape the dough into little balls (about a tablespoon size or so) and roll in white sugar.

Place TWO INCHES apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 9-10 minutes, being careful not to overbake.  (Just until edges are set). Let cool. ENJOY!