featuring unique and handmade items to make the world a brighter place
River is completely toilet trained, therefore she wears underwear during the day..but at night she needs something a little more….so I’m trying to perfect my overnight underwear…so far, I’ve made two pairs. One is a bit too small and this pair is a bit too big…I need to find the in-between. The important thing is that she loves them and is excited to wear them!
It bothers me sometimes how animals are depicted in children’s books. They are rarely depicted in their natural habitat. Normally, they wear clothing, talk, and live in human style houses. I don’t mind the talking part…it wouldn’t work too well for a book if they never spoke, but I don’t understand why animals can’t be written about in a setting that is natural to them.
River has a book called A Birthday Cake for Little Bear. It is a cute book….except for the fact that the pig has meat all over his kitchen…including pork! I mean, how odd is that? They couldn’t have just plants and herbs all over his kitchen..it would make more sense!
For about a year now I have been saving all our #5 recyclables…waiting for our local Whole Foods to start their preserve gimme 5 program. If you don’t have a participating Whole Foods near you, you can mail your #5 plastics directly to Preserve, but I thought I’d wait until the program came to the Whole Foods near me. So, I waited and waited and waited, and my #5 plastics started to really pile up. But, in the last few months, they have expanded the program and now my Whole Foods is a particpant! Yay!
So, it was time to get all the recyclables together and bring them to the store. We had to sort through them because somehow some #6s got in there! I don’t think many places recycle #6s!
So, River, Quinn and I got them all out and put them into a bag and headed to Whole Foods.
By this time River was getting a bit cranky and I had forgotten to pack a snack..good thing we were at Whole Foods….
We had so many recyclables, that they wouldn’t fit into the drop off bin, so we just left them in their bag. I’m glad to see that so many other people are recycling the #5s. They also have a cork recycling program. Of course, while we were at Whole Foods I bought lots of yummy stuff. I also got River a brand new Preserve toothbrush and told her how it is made from all the recyclables we just dropped off!
Also, at Whole Foods, they have a Nickels for Non-Profits, which is a community program which features a local non-profit for three months. Instead of getting a five cent credit for each reusable bag…they give you a wooden nickel and you place the wooden nickels into the Nickels for Non-Profit box. I think it is a great idea and the kids loved putting the wooden nickels into the box!
I was so happy when I got home..happy that I had finally gotten rid of all those #5 plastics…that the cabinets and the garage were cleared of them…then, I opened up a cabinet that I had forgotten about….
River loves going to art class, but during art class she is supposed to eat lunch. Sometimes she is so excited about the class, that she forgets that it is important to eat the lunch. And then she gets hungry…..and grumpy..which isn’t good. So, I try to do whatever I can to make her excited about her lunch. She loves the concept of eating her lunch at the class, but actually eating it, is another thing!
So, to make her sandwich extra exciting..we make it into a watercolor sandwich! We make her sandwich and then River picks out a cookie cutter design. This time she chose a butterfly! Then, I take a glass bowl and add a few drops of food coloring and add a few drops of water. I have a special paint brush that is used only for food coloring. Sometimes I paint the design for her and sometimes she wants to do it herself!
If she is doing it herself, I have to make sure she doesn’t use too much “paint” or the sandwich may become a bit soggy! If it does get a little soggy, I just leave it out for a bit and it dries quickly. It is a simple thing that just takes a little bit of extra time. And it involves River in making and getting her lunch together and packed, which I always think is important….and a good motivator!
So the other day I went to Whole Foods Market (gotta love that place!) and in the bulk section, I found organic 7 grain cereal. It was only thirty-nine cents a pound! It looked perfect for making multigrain bread.
Of course, I wanted to use my bread machine, so I used the recipe from the bread machine recipe book..I figured I would start with that and see how it turned out….well, I think it turned out really well.
As soon as it came out of the oven, we all wanted a piece, which I think is always a mistake..it seems like those types of bread always have to sit for a bit…at least twenty minutes.
Multigrain Bread (large loaf bread machine recipe)
1 ¼ cups water
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/3 cups white flour
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup 7 grain cereal
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons regular active dry yeast
I thought maybe every now and then I would post a game that I particularly liked or didn’t like. Though there are tons and tons of games out there, for every age, I think it is difficult to find a good child’s game.
My 9 year old son picked out What’s in Ned’s Head? for my 3 year old. I wasn’t thrilled…it didn’t seem like a great game. But after playing it with her a bunch of times, I really like it. And she likes it. It is one of the first games she picks when it is game time.
The description says “What’s in Ned’s Head’ In this silly game, take turns choosing a card and reaching into Ned’s ears, nostrils or face to find the object pictured. What you find might gross you out! His lost lunch (fake vomit)’ Moldy cheese’ A rat’ This wacky-fun game is guaranteed to keep kids giggling for hours!”
I wouldn’t say that River laughs for hours while playing this game…in fact, usually after one game she’s had enough! And I do agree that it is filled with many gross (fake and plastic) things….vomit, a dirty diaper, ear wax….but besides all that….I do think the game promotes sensory development in children. I am fascinated how hard it is for my 3 year old to figure out an object, simply by feeling it.
I like how the cards have a photo of the object. Before River sticks her hand in Ned’s Head, I have her talk about the different parts of the object..what they might feel like and what might make them different as compared to another object (soft vs. hard, big vs. large, etc.) Many times, she just wants to cheat and peek into the head, while she is digging around in there…..
Being able to only use your sense of touch to discern an object is not an easy skill for a three year old . River’s grandmother is blind, so we are constantly talking about how things feel and not only what an object looks like, but how we can describe it to someone else.
The other thing I like about Ned’s Head is that you can play the game with any type of objects. You can take out all the items it came with and put in letters or shapes or anything else you could think of……so, it is a very good learning tool in a fun package!
Though it does seem a bit gross, I do think What’s in Ned’s Head is a fun and imaginative game that my daughter loves and wants to play again and again.
For awhile now, River has been going to Art School. Every Friday, we pick out a “special” outfit, make a “special” lunch and wait and wait and wait. School doesn’t start until 12:15! You can imagine how long the wait is…..
River never really cares what her hair looks like, unless it is a “school” day. Then she has to have her hair done just right and her nails painted…because everyone, of course, will notice.
She loves the art school. I think her favorite part is getting to eat lunch with all the other children. I know she will miss it once summer comes.
Lately, River has been into playing with the bin of little plastic beads. These used to be in a special activity table, but the table was just too big and we had no room for it. So, I transfered all the little plastic pebble thing to a large Tupperware bin.
That way it doesn’t take up so much room. The only problem is that the little beads get all over the floor whenever she plays with it…..but I guess that is just part of the fun.
After all the fun is over…River is as excited to clean up the mess as she was to play. In fact, I think she likes the vacuuming part MORE than the playing part. She will spend hours vacuuming up every single little fallen bead.
She gets upset when I tell her we have to turn it off. Who knew……
On Sunday, May 2nd, The New York Times hosted a Moment in Time event. At about 11 am that day, everyone in the world was invited to snap a moment in time. “The idea is to create an international mosaic, an astonishingly varied gallery of images that are cemented together by the common element of time.”
The above photo was my “moment in time.” They are going to be publishing all the photos.
Of all the photos they have published so far…I love this photo. It is by Silvia Izzi, Italy and is entitled”Lazy Sunday.” It makes me want to spend a lazy Sunday at that home!
For a wedding gift, almost 15 years ago, we received a past maker. Honestly, I used it ONCE in all these years….but recently I’ve been giving it another try. The one time I tried it, I didn’t have much luck..but hey, it’s been 15 years..why not give it another try!
So, the other night we had some left over sweet potatoes..and they were delicious and I thought..what can I do with one sweet potato? Well, why not make some sweet potato gnocchi? My daughter loves gnocchi…..so I got out the pasta maker and within an hour we had fresh pasta!
It wasn’t hard at all….a bit noisy, but not hard at all! And hey, who doesn’t love fresh pasta?
I’m sure you could make it even without a pasta maker…but I took the easy route. The recipe was five ingredients: 1 egg, 1 tbsp. olive oil, 4 cups of flour, 6 ounces of water, and the sweet potato….that’s it…I put all the ingredients into the pasta maker and it mixed them all up and out came gnocchi! And of course, I had to make a loaf of homemade french bread!
I think I’m a believer in fresh pasta. This might become dangerous!
