Holes in my Shiny Veneer

Just Moms = Encouragement from the Trenches of Parenthood

2011-07-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

I love Christian parenting books, but all too often I find myself discouraged by how perfect the authors' lives seem, as if they've set a bar I can only hope to reach. Just Moms is not that type, thankfully, but is full of fresh voices of encouragement from moms who freely admit that they don't have all the answers. Editors Melanie Springer Mock and Rebekah D. Schneiter have compiled a collection of stories written by everyday moms teaching their children the values of truth, simplicity, equality, love, and peace in the everyday moments. The sections are as follows:

1. "All One in Christ Jesus" -- I loved Jennifer Rouse's story "Precious in God's Sight" about discussing race with her daughters.

2. "Knowing the True Light" -- Paula J. Hampton's "To Tell the Truth" about her first grader's lie struck a chord with me as I too have struggled with holding my young children to a standard of honesty that others would rather laugh off.

3. "Blessed are the Peacemakers" -- this is the section where the Mennonite teaching of pacifism is illustrated. Regardless of your political views, there is still much food for thought here.

4. "Lilies of the Field" -- my favorite section as the battle against materialism is constant! "The Economics of Bouncy Balls" by Mock and "Buying the Whole Farm" by Marta Oti Sears both spoke to me in the daily struggle against the "I wants", but I also loved Jessica Kantola's "Choose to Be" on choosing happiness.

5. "In the World" -- "Starbucks-Colored Glasses" by Lisa Graham McMinn was an inspiring essay on treating the invisible people of our society with dignity and this whole section spoke to being in the world but not like the world, whatever the circumstance.

I called this review "Encouragement from the Trenches of Parenthood" rather than "...Motherhood" because as other reviewers have said, this is a book to be read by all parents, not just moms. Definitely a worthy addition to any parent's library in spite of the title!

cross-posted on Amazon and Goodreads

Custom Eye Chart = Perfect Valentine for my Other Half

2011-02-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

So I found this site that lets you customize an eye chart with your own letters, or in my case, sentence. Sticking with the eye chart theme, I decided the perfect valentine for Other Half would be, "I hope you can see that I love you so." Once I typed in my words, I right-clicked to save the image as a JPG file. A little cardstock and a binder clip and I had the perfect valentine hung in our entry when he came home.

Hard Lotion: You Gotta Try This!

2011-02-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

Sometime last summer in my bloggy reading, I came across an enthusiastic recommendation for MadeOn Hard Lotion Bars. I had never heard of hard lotion before, but I was intrigued by the all-natural ingredients and the enthusiastic testimonials. In checking out the site, I was amazed to see that the owner, Renee Harris, even posted a video to teach you how to make your own lotion bars. She believes so strongly in her product that she's willing to teach you how to make it yourself for free!

You would not believe how simple it is to make these lotion bars, as you only need 3 ingredients: beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter. I melted the 3 together and poured it into an Altoid tin to set up. The first time I had to put it in the freezer to pop the lotion bar out of the tin, but it's so convenient to carry with me in my recycled tin. And we use this stuff for everything: chapped lips, dry skin, my kiddos' itchy toes...

With the winter weather, I've been telling so many friends about hard lotion as this has been the one thing that works for our family for both winter chapped lips and dry itchy skin. My friend Brenda was frustrated with her baby's itchy, rashy skin, so I packed up my crafting crockpot and 3 ingredients and headed over to her house to make a batch. That weekend, she let me know that her baby's skin was 90% better already!

Brenda and I made enough lotion that day that we decided to make samples for our MOPS group. I found this Wilton silicone mold at JoAnn's last month and knew it would be perfect for trial-size lotion bars:At first I packaged them in little baggies, but then I found these little plastic Valentine treat boxes at the Dollar Store and was so thrilled that the lotion bars fit:This hard lotion has become the only lotion our family uses and I can't recommend it highly enough. Renee has even put up a DIY kit for sale this week in case you'd like to get all your ingredients in one easy package. And no, she's not paying me for this post either -- we just love our hard lotion that much!

Update 3/28/11: Today Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home reviewed the DIY hard lotion kit. She gives a handy tutorial on making the lotion bars and lip balms and even calculates your savings!

60 pounds of strawberries...

2010-06-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

So, yes, I know I just wrote about strawberries, but 'tis the season! Last year I ordered the 30-pound pail of sliced strawberries from the local Kiwanis group and they were so good (and convenient!) that this year I doubled my order. We use them for everything: freezer jam, smoothies, strawberry lemonade, stirring into plain yogurt, and topping waffles and ice cream. And in case you're curious, 60 pounds of strawberries fills 29 quart freezer bags. Yum! And I have no doubts that we'll finish them before this time next year...

If you have any favorite uses for frozen berries I left out, I'd love to hear them in the comments!

Other Half, the Artist

2010-06-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

My posts mentioning Other Half lately have been about him rescuing me in the kitchen or teaching me to use power tools, but he's actually a man of many talents. To celebrate him this Father's Day, I thought I'd introduce you to Other Half, the Artist.We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this month, and this year, I was truly surprised by his gift. He decided to make me a water feature for our room -- before its installation I was falling asleep to fake waterfall sounds every night. He designed and crafted every inch of this fountain and I was left speechless when he presented it to me. Here's a close-up of the base where he stamped our wedding verse, Song of Solomon 8:6. Pretty good for his first stamping project, don't you think? We also had a dear friend graduate from high school this month, so Other Half decided to make him a piece of artwork he could take with him to college. This was not a piece of slate that he cut a cross shape through down the middle, but rather, Other Half saw how he could make a Christ figure out of various slate pieces and put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. With the nails and the distressed wood, it makes a cross like no other. And here's a close-up of the silver dog tag where he stamped My Rock & My Salvation. Again, I think it's spectacular, and not just because I've been his wife for 15 years!

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes

2010-06-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

Strawberry season is finally in full swing in western Oregon, and so as the kiddos and I picked 10 pounds this morning, I thought it was time I share our new favorite recipe for fresh strawberry cupcakes. We just discovered these at Easter when Trader Joe's had some particularly good strawberries in, and they were so good that Mugger requested them for his birthday this week. So the recipe is found here at Just Jenn Recipes -- you'll have to click through for the link. We (and by "we" I mean Other Half as he is the Chief Cupcake Baker in this house) pretty much follow the recipe as it's written until the frosting part. We haven't tried her suggestion for chocolate frosting -- Other Half made strawberry frosting for Easter and white frosting with a strawberry garnish for Mugger's birthday.
The best thing about this recipe is that the unfrosted cupcakes freeze well, so you can double or triple the batch if you need to use up lots of berries. And if you leave the frosting off, you can call them muffins and serve them for breakfast, too!
Can't wait to get my sliced strawberries this week -- this year we're getting 2 30-pound pails instead of just one!

Making Pasta Beads with Food Coloring

2010-06-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

School is out for Bug tomorrow, but she's getting a jump on her summer art plans today. She was making a picture with glued macaroni when I picked her up from Pre-K yesterday, so I asked her if she'd like to make something with colored pasta. As soon as I showed her the colored pasta necklaces on Make and Takes, she was ready to go! This is such a simple craft as you only need tubed pasta, food coloring, and rubbing alcohol. Here's how she did it:
Since Bug wanted 6 different colors of pasta beads, we put our pasta into 6 different sealable sandwich baggies. Each baggie then got 4 drops of food coloring (orange = 1 drop of red + 3 drops of yellow and purple = 3 drops of red + 1 or 2 drops of blue) and 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol. We zipped the baggies shut and then tumbled them gently to coat all the pasta pieces.
Bug spread out her baggies and gave them a quality control check to make sure they were all saturated with color.
Then we spread them out on a pan to dry. Instead of letting the pasta dry on paper towels, I put tissue paper underneath, remembering a post on tie-dyed tissue paper from Parent Hacks. Bug's brother turns 7 tomorrow and she's hoping it will all be dry in time for wrapping his present.
Make and Takes puts it out in the sun to dry faster, but unfortunately our Oregon skies are a bit rainy again today. Bug is thinking hopeful thoughts at least. We don't have it spread out real thin, so it might not be dry by tomorrow, but we'll post a creation when she gets to craft with her new beads.

Coconut Oil Granola: The Best Ever!

2010-06-14T06:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I have the best of intentions, but then... well, you know how it goes. Such was the case with my purchase of Salad People by Mollie Katzen nearly 3 years ago -- I wanted to be that mom who cooked with her preschoolers so that they'd develop an enthusiasm for cooking and healthy eating at a young age. Well, the kiddos finish 1st grade and Pre-K this week, and here I am opening up Salad People with her for the first time. This awesome book would probably still be sitting on the shelf if not for the urging of my friend, Anna, who told me we had to try the granola recipe. A month later, we did, and wow!

We didn't stray too far from the recipe, being that I'm a Kitchen Catastrophe and all. I did skip the nonstick spray for the baking tray since I have one of those nifty silicone baking mats (which I highly recommend as it cuts way down on greasing pans!) For the 2 cups combined seeds and nuts I used about a cup of almonds, 3/4 cup of sunflower seeds, and 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds -- I'm all about cramming that healthy stuff in there when I can. I did have one ingredient switch that I think made a huge difference in the flavor: instead of canola oil, I used coconut oil. The smell and flavor was phenomenal! I know coconut oil doesn't work everywhere, but it sure works in this recipe. I think next time I might even try to cut down on the oil a bit, too.
Bug was my helper on this one -- she did great pouring in and stirring ingredients...
...as well as smashing it flat into the pan for baking.
And after 30 minutes: crunchy golden goodness!
Broken up, this filled 2 quart jars which I've been keeping in the freezer for maximum freshness. One jar is already gone as Other Half has pronounced this to be 10 times better than anything store-bought. I had dried currants to add to it after baking, but we've loved it plain.

If anyone else has used coconut oil in granola or has a link to a favorite recipe, I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Easy Chocolate Cake

2010-06-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

The kiddos had a cake walk at the school carnival last week, so last minute we decided to make this chocolate cake from AllRecipes.com. I changed a couple things based on some comments and what we had, so here's my version:

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (we used Hershey's Raspberry Chocolate Chips)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan. Stir together the cake mix, instant pudding and sugar. Add the water, oil, eggs, and yogurt, mix until well blended. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared Bundt pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

So we actually ended up making this cake twice. Why? Apparently because I, being the Kitchen Catastrophe that I am, cannot grease and flour a pan properly. Other Half cautioned me about over-flouring the pan and I think I totally under-floured it in my fear. Happily for them, my kiddos had to consume Cake #1 as it came out of the pan as a crumbled mess.

So, while I was teaching my adult Spanish class, the rest of the family mixed up Cake #2, shown in the pictures above-- if you look closely, you can see all the excess flour on the cake as Other Half didn't want to risk repeating my error in the 11th hour. Since the cake came out of the oven after the kiddos were in bed, they got to decorate it in their jammies before school the next morning. This cake certainly doesn't need anything as it is moist and yummy and very chocolaty all by itself, but Bug had her heart set on sprinkles. So, first Other Half whipped up a basic chocolate glaze, and Bug drizzled on Layer #1. Then it got a good dusting of powdered sugar to cover up the flour, chocolate glaze Layer #2 (with help from Mugger who wanted in on the decorating action), and finally some pink sprinkles. Bug decided that the pink sprinkles would be a little clue that the chocolate chips were raspberry chocolate chips, making her cake extra special.

And special it was -- she won the award for Most Unique in the Pre-K class. As for the cake itself, it was yummy and yes, I'd make it again. I'm usually a from-scratch baker as I'm getting more conscious about what's in my food, but for a quick dessert to be made out of things I can keep in the pantry, this yellow cake mix and chocolate pudding mix combo can't be beat. Actually, a reviewer on AllRecipes gave several other variations she had tried and I think it won't be too long before I'm swapping in lemon pudding and blueberries.

Anybody got any no-fail desserts for me to try? Bug is certainly game for another round, especially if sprinkles are involved...

Summer Plans in the Making

2010-06-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Last summer I collected all sorts of ideas to keep summer boredom at bay -- you can read all about my plans here -- but the kiddos weren't too interested! Bug was only 3, though, and hadn't discovered the world of school. This year, the kiddos are 4 and 7, and they both have interests they just can't get enough of in school. Bug never gets to do enough art (unless you count coloring, which I don't) and Mugger could do science experiments every day of the year (which is why he's getting a science kit for his birthday next week.)

For collecting our plans, I found a great summer calendar template to print off here at Thirty Handmade Days as part of her Funner in the Summer series-- isn't it cute?
The kiddos and I then came up with a theme for each of the weekdays and I've been on the hunt for projects. Our themes will be...

Masterpiece Mondays: This is our art day for Bug. I've got lots of art projects lined up thanks to The Artful Parent and all sorts of craftiness via The Crafty Crow. These 2 sites have to be my favorites for kiddo arts and crafts. I also have 2 books I'm pulling lots of projects from, Preschool Art by Mary Ann Kohl (definitely not just for preschoolers -- this is a fabulous process-based art book) and The Kid Concoctions 10th Anniversary book (which is 4 Kid Concoctions books in one and has all sorts of paint and dough recipes, among tons of other things!)

Play in the Park Tuesdays: Our MOPS group meets at a different park every Tuesday morning in the summer, so I'm looking forward to checking out some new parks with the kiddos. After 2 years here, I still feel like the new kid on the block sometimes!

Wacky Wednesdays: This is our science experiment day for Mugger. He's receiving the Sciencewiz Chemistry Experiments and Book for his birthday and also has Gizmos & Gadgets and Things that Go Boom! to find projects in. Those, along with some good concoctions and contraptions in the Kid Concoctions book, as well as some projects I've bookmarked, mean we'll have plenty to keep us busy on Wednesdays.

In the Dirt Thursdays: This will be our nature exploration day. Some Thursdays we'll hike or explore a local waterfall, while other Thursdays we'll tackle nature craft projects like drying flowers or attempting woodworking with sticks and twigs! Thursdays are also the night we leave to go camping which leads to...

Family Fun Fridays: Other Half's day off is Friday, so this will be our family field trip day. Some Fridays we'll be at the pool or camping, but we do have a couple of bigger field trips planned like the Salem children's museum, Enchanted Forest theme park, and OMSI. Can't wait!

And not on the schedule but whenever we feel like it will be all our food activities: berry picking, making jam, gardening, making ice cream in baggies, cooking outside in the new fire pit, and baking new recipes. My mouth is watering already!

So what about you? Any big plans? We're always game for more ideas if you have winners you'd like to share.

Oh, and one last note, this is my 100th post. I haven't exactly been a faithful blogger, but I've made it this far...

The Vegetable Garden Update: June 5

2010-06-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

The beds aren't all filled yet, but we're making progress. The veggie starts I mentioned last time have been planted -- we have one whole box of canteloupe plants because we are fruit crazy! The other 6 x 2 box has the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and zucchini -- and also a piece of window screen to keep those pesky deer from nibbling through the fence! The corn and romaine went into the north end of one of the cinder block beds, though I don't think the corn will grow fast enough to shade the romaine if the weather ever warms up.

Next up: plant the lobelia still in its 6-pack, put up trellises for the melons and tomatoes to climb, get seeds in, and move the rest of that compost! I don't want to know how many wheelbarrow trips it takes to move 4.5 cubic yards...

The Vegetable Garden Update: June 1

2010-06-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

So here it is, our starting point for our vegetable garden. We've had the herbs in containers on the porch for almost a month, but we had to wait to start the rest of the garden. The first order of business (after Other Half rented a mini loader for my birthday to clear the area), was to build the fence to deer-proof the whole thing. The deer are so bad where we live that we've even had them follow us down the driveway and I have no intentions of putting in a deer buffet!

Now that the fence and (most of) the beds are in, I ordered 4.5 cubic yards of compost to fill them. I was going to go with the Square Foot Gardening mix of equal parts compost, peat moss, and vermiculite, but after a bit of reading, we decided to plant in straight compost -- we'll find out as the summer goes on if that was a wise move!

Bug and I walked down to the local garden center this morning to load up her wagon with starts, so we've got cantaloupe, tomatoes, peppers (jalapeno & bell), zucchini, corn, romaine, and onion waiting to go in, along with all sorts of seeds they picked out last week. They say "monsoon-like" rain is headed our way tomorrow, so I'd better get those starts in! Then it's time to weed the berry patch we put in last year...

Raised Garden Beds a la Knock Off Wood

2010-05-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

So have you seen Knock-Off Wood, the site by blogger extraordinaire Ana White? This woman is incredible! Since October, she's posted nearly 200 plans to help people build real furniture on a real budget. This woman is going places, I tell ya.

I first discovered her site a few months ago and while I drooled over lots of her plans, it was her plans for the the ultra-cheap raised cedar beds that had me begging Other Half for a lesson in how to use his chop saw. I had lots of help from him in putting our garden beds together (two at 6' x 2' and one at 6' x 1'), but I can say that I cut every board, drove every screw and hammered in every nail. Other Half was so proud, he even took a pic as I finished:
Close-up of my hammer work:
My first bed, the "baby":
And here they are installed along the veggie garden fence. The first bed is only 1 foot deep so that I can maneuver the wheelbarrow and such in through the gate (where I'm standing.)
And those first 3 were so fun that we built two more, a bit different from the first set. The first set was out of cedar fence pickets (only $1.59 each), but we built these 6' x 4' ones out of 5/4" cedar planking. And yes, they're upside down in this photo! I had stapled on the weed barrier, but they're waiting for their base layer to be prepped there to the left of the cinder block beds (which were much more expensive and time-consuming to build, by the way)
I'll take you on a tour of the veggie garden one of these days-- the compost is waiting to be put in all of those beds...

Goodreads: Marcelo in the Real World

2010-04-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Marcelo In The Real World by Francisco X. Stork

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I think this wins the best of YA Lit of 2009 for me -- so much more than a story of a 17-year old with Asperger's coerced into working in the mailroom at his father's law firm for the summer. It is also a story of justice, compassion, love, and faith. The characters in this novel are all so sharply drawn and compelling-- I would love to meet Jasmine or Rabbi Heschel. This one is a must-buy and makes me want to read his others.

View all my reviews >>

Goodreads... or Where to Find Most of My Book Reviews These Days

2010-04-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

So have you heard of Goodreads? It's a little site for posting and sharing book reviews. Actually, it's got a lot of capabilities that I haven't even explored since I joined in late February. Hmm, that was about the time my blogging dropped way off... Guess I've had fun posting my reads there!

This blog was in danger of being nothing more than book reviews, so feel free to head on over if you see something in my left sidebar that looks interesting. Please be forewarned though that sometimes my reviews are nothing more than my copious notes on a book. Since they're not all published here on the blog, I use the site to remember all the details I want to take notes on so I'm not compelled to buy the book. I'll have to link the cream of the crop to here from time to time...

2010 Newbery Winners: Today on Simple Kids

2010-04-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've had a kid lit review on Simple Kids -- so I made up for it today with 5! Head on over to Simple Kids today for my post on this year's Newbery winner and the 4 Newbery Honor books. One of the 5 has become the new favorite read-aloud for my family...

Red Sings from Treetops

2010-02-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

Green is new in spring. Shy.
Green peeks from buds, trembles in the breeze.
Green floats through rain-dark trees, and glows, mossy-soft, at my feet.
Green drips from tips of leaves onto Pup's nose.
In spring, even the rain tastes Green.

Yes, it is still technically winter, but all the sun from last week has summoned the daffodils into bloom, making this week's rain more bearable.

Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski was a Caldecott Honor book for this year and it is truly magical. Bug's mind has been totally opened in thinking of colors this way...

Observing Lent as a Family

2010-02-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

Since today is Ash Wednesday, I made a comment on Facebook about giving stuff up for Lent, not really having settled yet on what I wanted to give up this year. A MOPS friend, knowing that I come from a church background that loves its liturgical seasons and traditions, asked if we were participating as a family and if we could give any pointers for her to use with her own young children.

I had to stop and think about that because although my husband and I each give something up for Lent each year, we generally undertake the decision of what to give up as a private matter and don't really discuss it until after the decision is made when we ask for mutual support. The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense to make this a family affair. If we observe Advent as a family, why should we wait to include them in Lent?

Our children attend Lutheran school where they had participated in an Ash Wednesday service already this morning, so it was pretty easy to start the conversation. At 4 and 6, they weren't too clear on the details, but Mugger did pick up that the ashes were to remind us that we were sinful and to show God that we were sorry. We told them that during the 40 days of Lent some people give up something that can be a temptation for them (like too much coffee or too much Facebooking) to remind them of how Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days. Every time we are tempted towards whatever we gave up, we can remember how Jesus was tempted and ask Him for help in resisting the temptation. And every time we fail to resist the temptation, we can be thankful that Jesus was able to resist for our sakes and ask Him to restore us.

Once they understood that, we asked them if they had any ideas for what they could give up. Bug immediately said she wanted to give up being naughty -- oh, that it were that easy! We told them we wanted to come up with something more specific and if it could be the same thing for all of us, we would be able to help each other with loving correction.

So what did we come up with? Picking a specific example of naughtiness, we decided we wanted to give up screaming at each other for Lent. The kiddos tend to use screaming in disrespect at the start of a tantrum (usually when we tell them something the opposite of what they wanted) and we tend to use screaming when we're at our wits' end with frustration over their disobedience. To help each other, we agreed that if we're in a situation where it seems like screaming is about to happen, one of us may gently say, "No screaming for Lent."

So, Mindy, there's your answer, at least that's how we're doing it in our house. I also like to add something in when we're working on taking something out, so we're renewing our efforts at nightly family devotions and talking about beginning deliberate Bible verse memorization with our kiddos.

If you know me in real life, feel free to hold me accountable and ask me how it's going :) And if anyone has some resources for Scripture-memorization with kiddos, feel free to share them. Tonight we opened up a CD/DVD combo entitled "Hide 'Em in Your Heart" that we received awhile back, but the video is very dated -- it's a great lesson on '80s fashion, actually. I do love the concept, though, of putting Bible verses to music to aid memorization, so feel free to comment with any resources that have worked for you.

Word for 2010: Intentional

2010-01-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

In my blog-reading lately, I've noticed that several have discussed having a word for the year, a key word to serve as a focal point. I think for me having a word for the year will give me a good frame of reference in some of my daily decision-making.

So the word I chose for 2010 is "intentional." All too often, it's way too easy for me to live life by the seat of my pants, with no real intent or purpose to my day. I've decided that I need to do something about it to make sure that my daily living reflects intentional choices.

In a way, I could blame my bloggy absence on this newfound intentional living. I made a choice over the holiday season to put more focus on my family and less on the computer, so I've limited my computer time quite a bit. As a result, my blogging has shifted down the priority list and although I have a million post ideas in the hopper, I haven't found the place for blogging to fit in my daily schedule yet.

And there's another intentional reason that I've stepped back from blogging. I've asked some ladies to help hold me accountable in the area of exercise and daily prayer/devotion time. In making room for these 2 things in my schedule I've come to the conclusion that these might happen most intentionally if I start getting up early. Due to my chronic headaches (which are definitely worse when I'm sleep-deprived), I've decided that I can't start getting up early until I start going to bed early. So... the intentional item I'm working on this week is to start getting ready for bed at 9:30 pm (since I need 8 hours minimum.) This early bedtime wipes out what has been my typical blogging time, hence my month-long absence.

By the way, if your New Year's Resolution has anything to do with daily exercise or devotions, I highly recommend the free e-book, Maximize Your Mornings. I've downloaded it already and plan on referring to it often as I try to get my mornings on track.

And the picture? That would be my new Shinzi Katoh calendar/organizer. I decided that if I'm going to try and be more intentional about my daily schedule, then I might as well write it in an organizer that makes me smile!

So how about you? Any resolutions or a word for the year?

Review: Veggie Tales: St. Nicholas -- A Story of Joyful Giving

2009-12-08T20:16:00.001-08:00

What follows is the one star review I just wrote on Amazon.com for the latest Veggie Tale...

First, let me say we are big Veggie Tales fans, or perhaps I should say Classic Veggie Tales fans, as more and more of their more recent offerings have fallen flat for us.

We were hopeful for this latest Veggie Tale, especially since it started off with the premise that Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber would explain who Saint Nicholas really was. In the beginning, the story does just that, showing Nicholas' life as a young boy in ancient Greece, and is in fact fairly accurate through Nicholas becoming an orphan.

It is Nicholas' (young) adult life that the Veggie Tales team takes creative license with. Had this not been a story about an actual historical figure AND one that was claiming to set history straight, I would have had no problem with the ensuing silliness. But instead of sharing the story of how Nicholas helped 3 daughters with no dowry money by throwing sacks of coins through their window late at night, the V.T. team puts Nicholas in ridiculous disguises, the last looking basically like a modern day Santa Claus. Not only do they manage to get a red fur-trimmed suit into the ancient Greece setting, but they also add snow, trips down chimneys, and a "sleigh" and "reindeer" into the story. Granted, Larry the Cucumber is trying to make it more "Christmasy" but in doing so, he's gone right back to confusing children as to who St. Nicholas actually was.

So once again, I can only recommend a book instead of a video. If your children are ready to hear the true story of St. Nicholas (as my 6 and 4 year old were), then I can only suggest Santa, Are You For Real? by Harold Myra.

I certainly hope the V.T. team can return to their roots. This video (even its "silly" song) left us sorely disappointed. Here's hoping I can return it to my local Christian bookstore...

Review: Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

2009-11-18T14:24:00.000-08:00

It's that time again! My review of Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is up over at Simple Kids, along with 2 other picks for What We're Reading Wednesday. Enjoy!

Spool Doll Nativity, part 3

2009-11-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't know if I'm going to be able to hold onto my self-awarded "craft-challenged" title much longer. My little spool doll nativity (part 1 and part 2) was featured in today's Christmas Roundup on One Pretty Thing. This site is one of my favorite sources for crafty inspiration, so I'm truly flattered. I even get to post a cute little button on my sidebar...

If you're stopping in from One Pretty Thing, thanks and welcome!

Links I'm Loving...

2009-11-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

Usually I just post links I like to my Tumblr, but I've found that I don't have a great way to organize that yet. Here are some that I don't want to get buried there:

From Zen Family Habits, "5 Ingredients. 5 Minutes. 5 Meals" If ever there was a menu plan for me, this is it! Some day I'll get real brave and write a "My Life as a Housewife" post, but I am the world's most timid cook. A perfectionist/procrastinator who never really learned how to cook is not the most ideal person to let loose in the family kitchen, but sometimes the task falls to me. If you have any simple, can't-fail meals like these, I'd love to have them.
Don't remember how I found this one, but here's a simple recipe for homemade powdered laundry detergent. I don't know if Borax and Fels Naptha are the most eco-friendly detergent ingredients ever, but I'm all for them if this frugal combo works. And I don't have to melt soap on the stove, so even better. If you've made this, I'd love to hear how you liked it-- I'm considering springing this on my MOPS group for a "craft" in the spring...
From SugarDoodle, this Thanksgiving Thankful Countdown-- liked it so much I submitted it to our MOPS newsletter. I love the idea of counting down to Thanksgiving with daily deliberate gratitude rather than relegating it to the holiday we rush through between the excesses of Halloween and Christmas.
If you saw my posts on the spool doll nativity, you could probably guess that I have a lot of leftover wooden spools. So when I saw these spool Advent calendars on Just Something I Made, I knew I had found my next spool project. I happen to have a bunch of green ones, so I'm tempted to put mine on a wire and have a wreath-shaped Advent calendar. Hmm, maybe there will be a photo op in that one...
And finally, the gem of Christmas preparation posts (pass this one on to the grandparents!) would be "10 Clutter-Free Gift Ideas for Kids" by Megan (of Simple Kids) on Simple Mom. We've discussed this with my folks (and they're on board!) but haven't with the in-laws yet. Wish me luck!

Photo Tutorial: Spool Doll Nativity, part 2

2009-11-09T15:29:00.001-08:00

In our previous episode of Crafts for the Craft-Challenged, we tackled a small spool doll nativity consisting of Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. This time, I'd like to show you what I did for the shepherds, the wise men, and an angel, in case you're inspired to create the whole cast.

Shepherds: I did them identical to Joseph-- the only difference is a lighter shade of corduroy!

Wise Men: They each got robes of purple corduroy, though I gave them each a belt from a different trim so they wouldn't be identical (like the shepherds.) I used some gold lame ribbon for their crowns, but if you look at the top of their heads, you can see the hole that goes through the bead!

Angel: She had her gown and wings made from some Christmas ribbon-- I tied a bow with a piece of string and glued it on the back. She also got a pipe cleaner halo glued into the hole at the top of her head.

And here they all are! If you make your own spool doll nativity, I'd love for you to leave a link here. I'm sure there are several out there who are much less craft-challenged than I and will come up with all sorts of cute ideas to add to this.

Photo Tutorial: Spool Doll Nativity, part 1

2009-11-09T14:18:00.001-08:00

Welcome to another episode of Crafts for the Craft-Challenged! Last time, altered Altoid tins; this time, it's a simple spool doll nativity. I chose this craft for our MOPS group so that the moms would have a somewhat childproof nativity for their kiddos to experience the Christmas story. This post will get you started with Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Once you conquer those, feel free to move on to the rest of the cast of Christmas with Spool Doll Nativity, part 2, which covers the shepherds, the wise men, and an angel. Click on any of the pix to make them bigger if you need the details...

Supplies: you'll need a hot glue gun, 3 spools (2 around 2 inches and 1 around 1 inch), 3 doll bead heads (I got these prepainted 1-inch ones off of Craigslist), some hemp cord or other string (about a 12" piece), and some fabric scraps. I used 3 linen pieces that were cut a little over 3" x 4" for Baby Jesus' wrap and Mary and Joseph's headpieces and 2 scraps of corduroy that were about 1 3/4" x 4 1/2" for their bodies.

Step 1: If the labels on your wood spools are old and loose, I'd suggest peeling them off so that they don't cause a head to fall off later! Then hot glue the 3 heads onto the 3 spools. By the way, I found tons of spools by searching "wood* spools" on eBay.

Step 2: Glue the fabric pieces around Mary and Joseph for their bodies. I liked the frayed look, so I trimmed them at the exact size of the spool. Feel free to leave your fabric a bit longer and fold it under if you don't want the fraying.

Step 3: To do the headpieces, fold back a bit of the 4" edge on a linen scrap. I anchored that fold with a dot of glue in the center, mostly to help me find the center. Then put some hot glue on the head to adhere the headpiece to Mary or Joseph's scalp. I then glued at the edge of the spool covered by the headpiece so that the linen would lie down. Finally, I made 2 folds in the back and anchored each of those with a dot of glue for more aesthetically-pleasing folds.

Step 4: To differentiate Joseph from Mary, wrap a 12-inch piece of hemp string around his waist and knot it in the front. Feel free to secure the knot with a dot of hot glue-- I'm a firm believer in using plenty of hot glue!

Step 5: Baby Jesus was the tough one to figure out, so check the pix above. My linen scrap had a selvage edge that I loved, so notice how I lined up the piece to make sure it would show on the final fold. I started by putting a dot of glue at the back of the base of the Baby Jesus spool to secure the back of his swaddling clothes. Then I flipped him over and folded down the edges triangularly (is that a word?) and glued them along the front. If your scrap is just a bit big, like mine was, you can fold under the edge that wraps around his face so that he peeks out just right. Next (3rd pic), you fold over one of those triangle flaps and glue it down and finally, fold over the flap with the selvage edge and secure it with hot glue.

You did it! Hope your kiddos enjoy their very own spool doll nativity!

Book Review: Zorgamazoo

2009-10-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

Whoops, almost forgot to link it up! My October kid lit review is up at Simple Kids this week. If you're a fan of anyone from Dr. Seuss to Lemony Snicket, you'll want to click on over for my review of Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston.

"Any Which Wall" Review Up at Simple Kids

2009-09-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, just like last month, it's time for me to review another favorite book for the What We're Reading Wednesday feature at Simple Kids. Click here for my review and 3 others...

Photo Tutorial: Altered Altoid Tin

2009-09-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

I happen to be the Creative Activities mom for our MOPS group this year, which is a fancy title for saying that I'm in charge of the crafts. I consider myself "craft-challenged" (in spite of my Etsy shop), but since the MOPS philosophy is that any craft should be well within the capabilities of your typical frazzled mom who never has time to finish even the smallest project, this works for me. My personal philosophy for MOPS crafts is that they should be fun and functional: something painless that you wouldn't mind doing again and might possibly have a future use for. So, for our first craft, I chose to explore the joys of Mod Podge by decorating some cute little Altoid tins (which I actually ordered fairly cheaply from here since I needed 2 dozen faster than I can eat Altoids!) I think these little tins would be perfect for holding gift cards or stocking stuffers or other tiny treasures, so I'm posting my first photo tutorial here in case anyone from the group wants to make more. So, here goes:

Supplies: You'll need an Altoid tin, some origami or scrapbook paper (I like origami as it's a bit thinner and you get several patterns for your buck), and some Mod Podge. (I used the Gloss for a lacquer finish.) You’ll also need a pen or pencil, scissors, & a paintbrush or foam brush for the Mod Podge.

1. Use the lid of the tin for tracing your piece of paper.

2. Cut inside your guide line so the paper doesn’t hang over the edge of your tin lid.

3. Brush a moderate layer of Mod Podge onto the tin lid and place the paper on.

4. Use the brush handle to smooth out any bumps.

5. Place a thin layer of Mod Podge on top of the origami paper to seal. Voila!

For our group, we added a business card with all the MOPS meeting dates for the year, so we repeated the process inside the lid. At the meeting, we also realized we had enough paper to do the inside bottom, so we added a bit more pattern there. Didn't get the picture of that step, though.

Hope you enjoyed my first tutorial for the craft-challenged!

Etsy Love: Livvy Sue

2009-09-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

If you've poked around the shop at all, then you probably know that I've had a long-time collaboration with ZozoBugBaby. Julie makes darling kids' clothes, sends me her scraps, and I make fabric button hair goodies out of them.

Well, little did I know that when I purchased this skirt for my Bug last spring, that it would be the start of a new collaboration. Livvy Sue makes adorable/affordable little girl skirts, as well as bibs and cute kimono sets. Over the summer, she sent me some scraps, and I'm now finally ready to lauch the Livvy Sue collection in the shop. Too cute! I'll have to see if I can resist going back for another skirt or not...

Book Links

2009-09-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

No Book Bag post yet-- yes, it's been awhile. Vacation kept the kiddos occupied with things other than books, but soon I'll have to post on When You Reach Me, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, and Emmaline and the Bunny-- all were great reads I'd recommend in a second.

First link today would have to be a tool that I wish I had had back in June when I was trying to figure out which order to read Edward Eager's Magic books. Checking here would have told me that there are actually 2 different series within his books-- and no, they're not chronological. Mid-Continent Public Library's Juvenile Series and Sequels search lets you search by , , , or So cool!

And yes, it's already been out awhile, but if you missed "14 Books to Help Ease Children Through Transitions" over on Simple Mom, then you may have missed some great suggestions (including a few by yours truly) for kiddos starting school and other milestones. I'll have to read The Kissing Hand to my Bug before she's off to school on Wednesday.

Another Book Review-- But Not Here...

2009-08-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well, a first for me this week: one of my book reviews is published someplace other than this blog. To see my review of Ida B, along with 3 other books, head over to this post at Simple Kids.

I am so excited to be part of the What We're Reading Wednesdays team at Simple Kids-- I'll have a post up about once a month.

Book Bag: August 8

2009-08-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

I am in the midst of packing for our 3000-mile road trip that begins less than 24 hours from now, so this week's Book Bag is a super-quick post of 1 pick from each of us:Mugger's pick would have to be Sergio Makes a Splash! by Edel Rodriguez, the tale of a penguin who loves water, as long as it's not too-deep. A class swimming trip forces Sergio to face his fears. We all loved reading this one aloud together, and I loved the restricted color scheme of aqua and orange.Bug's pick of the week would be The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child. This smart little tale defines a "real" princess, and she's not the air-headed beauty of traditional tales. The retelling was delightful, though a bit wordy for a 3.5 year old-- I loved it at least. What Bug really liked were all the dollhouse-scale photos. The 12 mattresses are not to be missed and will surely serve as an inspiration!My pick for this week is Laurel Snyder's delightful new novel, Any Which Wall. I've mentioned before my love for Laurel Snyder's work, and this one certainly did not disappoint. Written in the style of Edward Eager's Magic books that I discovered earlier this summer, Snyder has created a fitting tribute that may be, dare I say, superior to Eager's work, at least for modern readers who like smart and snappy prose. Any Which Wall deals with 4 children and their discovery of "common magic" after they happen on a wall in the middle of a field. Any reader who has ever wished that they could find a door to Narnia or travel in a time machine will love this gem by Snyder. Perhaps if we are so lucky, she will write several more as Eager did!

That's it for this week. I don't know if we'll have any Book Bag posts from the road or not. I'm still hoping to get up my post for making homemade yogurt (easy!) and my report card for my freshman year as a stay-at-home mom, but we'll just see what our travels bring. Oh, and sorry about the hole in the left sidebar-- my Etsy shop is in vacation mode during our travels, too.

Book Bag: July 31

2009-07-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

Found a new meme this week, so not only will this be linked up over at The Well-Read Child, but also for the Library Loot meme at Reading Adventures. Such booky fun!

This week's Book Bag is brought to you courtesy of my son, "Mugger." Being a newly independent reader, he's been devouring books this summer, so I asked him to share some of his favorites of the last week.

Fans of the I Spy books or Where's Waldo are sure to love Pip in the Grand Hotel, the tale of a pet mouse who escapes to various locations inside and outside the Grand Hotel. From Mugger: "I thought how it was funny that he hid in so many places and the kids kept finding him."

I don't know what it is about this little white dog, but Mugger has read so many of the Noodles the Puppy books this summer. He was rather impressed that this title was 2 books in one: I Won't Share and I Am Brave. I Love Snow was a big hit with him this week, too.

We picked this one up on recommendation from our library's kid lit blog. The 19 short poems in Days Like This are about the joys of summer days from authors like Ogden Nash and Eve Merriam were a big hit with our boy who proclaimed them "silly" and "funny" and said his favorite was the one about the beach.

So that's it for this week. Mugger did have other favorites, like Zack's Alligator ("he's awesome"), Father Bear Comes Home, and his first Calvin and Hobbes, but there's only so much that can fit in the Book Bag each week!

Ten-Times-Better-Than-Store-Bought Chocolate Syrup

2009-07-28T22:40:00.001-07:00

I'm not usually one to post photos of my stovetop (since I touch it so rarely), but that bubbling pot contains the best thing I've tasted in the last week: homemade chocolate syrup.

I found the recipe on Small Notebook -- you have to click through and see the adorable bottle Rachel put her syrup in! Rachel got the recipe from Amy Dacyczyn’s The Complete Tightwad Gazette (a book that I'm putting on my library hold list right now):

½ c. cocoa powder
1 c. water
2 c. sugar
⅛ tsp salt
¼ tsp vanilla

Mix the cocoa powder and the water in a saucepan. Heat on stovetop, stirring to dissolve the cocoa. Add the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. (Don't let it get too hot and boil over!) Add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool. Pour into a clean glass jar, and store in the refrigerator. Yields two cups.

10 times better than store-bought (and no corn syrup), this recipe only called for 5 simple ingredients (counting the water), all of which I had on hand. Try it once, and you'll never buy that brown plastic bottle again. Try it over vanilla ice cream with smushed raspberries and you will have the most perfect summer dessert EVER!

Moms and Friendships...

2009-07-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

So I took a survey for MOPS International this week that got me wondering. There were several questions about close friends: How many close friends do you have? How many close friends would you say you trust? Do you have a "safe" friend to go to?

I don't think they wanted you to count your husband, but honestly, thinking of him, I answered that first question with a "1." Sure, I have friends and acquaintances, but close friends? I don't know. Yeah, I've got friends from Orange County that I keep in touch with, but mainly via Facebook. Weekly phone calls or birthday gifts? No, nothing like that.

As for local friends, I've got the moms I know from MOPS and friends at church, but I don't often meet anyone for one-on-one time. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps it's my introverted tendencies and the fact I never pick up the phone-- haven't done much of that since we lived in Panama 13 years ago and I got out of the habit of phone calls, due to the fact that we didn't have one!

Or is it just the nature of motherhood? Are we so busy with the lives of our families that we don't make time for deeper friendships? There are the park dates and the book clubs, sure, but I feel like I'm probably a big mystery to any of my friends here in Corvallis.

Maybe it's not the nature of motherhood, though. Maybe it just takes time. I remember that after the move to Orange County, it took about two years before I felt like I had any friends that I could call more than acquaintances. And two years later, just before we moved up to Oregon, was when I finally felt like I was getting closer to some of my mom friends.

Well, I certainly hope it isn't 3 years before I feel like I have any "close" friends and maybe it's just me that feels this way. In the interest of being a "mom without a mask" I felt like I should at least share my thoughts and ask if any other moms feel the same...

Book Bag Catch-Up: July 21

2009-07-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

I had started a weekly Book Bag post this summer to review all the kid lit the Kiddos and I are reading, but alas, things have fallen a bit by the wayside! We haven't participated in the What My Children Are Reading meme over at The Well-Read Child for a couple weeks, so hopefully we'll be back on track for this week.

In order to catch-up, more of less, today I'd like to briefly share the books we've been reading that make our Top 5 Picks of the month (so far.) Each of our #1 Picks are pictured...

Bug's (age 3.5) Top 5:

All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant -- fantastic artwork for another great Cynthia Rylant title
The Gardener by Sarah Stewart & David Small -- loved this story told via the letters of a garden-loving girl who brings beauty to her uncle's big-city bakery during the Depression
A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker -- this has to be one of the best read-alouds ever!
Little Oink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace -- makes a perfect trilogy with Little Pea and Little Hoot
My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis -- fun repetition makes this a good read-aloud

Mugger's (age 6) Top 5:

Henry and Mudge and the Wild Wind by Cynthia Rylant -- this was one of his favorites-- he's loved every Henry and Mudge book he's read, all great easy readers.
Fred and Ted Go Camping by Peter Eastman -- by the son of P.D. Eastman, a book full of opposites and a fun read before our own camping trip.
Happy Birthday, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty Bard MacDonald -- we listened to this one on CD, just like all the other Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. The end was sappy for me, but for the most part, it stayed true to the original Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories.
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. & Eric Carle -- another offering from the team that brought you Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, this time with endangered animals instead of animals in every color.
Backyards for Kids by Sunset Books -- ok, so this isn't a kids' book, but he loved poring over the pages while dreaming about the possibilities for our yard!

My Top 5:

Knight's Castle by Edward Eager -- this was my second Edward Eager title as I thought his books were to be read chronologically-- oh, how I wish Laurel Snyder had left her comment on this post before I started. Still a fun fantasy read and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. Incidentally, Laurel Snyder is the author of my next pick, which was actually my favorite of the month...
Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, or, The Search for a Suitable Princess by Laurel Snyder -- loved this one! Lucy the milkmaid has spent her days at play with her best friend Prince Wynston, but when his father decides he needs to begin his pursuit of a suitable queen, Lucy (not eligible by law) feels put-out and sets off in search of her mother who's only ever been described as "gone." The runaway theme may seem crazy to adult readers, but it will make perfect sense to anyone who remembers the angst of those middle grade years. Snyder also has a great blog here and her post "The Very Worst Books for Kids" has to be mentioned.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. -- I don't read a lot of teen science fiction, but this one came highly recommended on one of the many kid lit blogs I read. Set in the not-so-distant future where all sorts of bioengineering is possible and raises all sorts of ethical questions boiling down to "What exactly does it mean to be human?"
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl -- this one was from my own collection, the one I had to re-read after this post. You would never think a book about peasant-poaching would make a Top 5, but it is by the beloved Roald Dahl, so that's probably all the explanation required.
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. -- this is my one pick that's not a kids' book as it's our book club's selection this month. This has probably been my favorite selection of 2009. Vreeland tells several short stories, all centered around a fictional painting by Vermeer, tracing the ownership of the painting in reverse chronological order from present day back to Vermeer's family in the 1600s. This book speaks so well to the place of art in our lives as the subject of the painting provides very different insights for the various owners.

Well, so much for "briefly" sharing. What can I say? I like books! I'll try not to let it go so long next time...

Jam Wars

2009-07-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading along, bloggy friends, then you know that I've been all about the freezer jam this summer. It's all part of my transformation into a housewife since moving to Corvallis, but that's another post to come...

Anyway, when we moved into this house a year ago, we found that we were blessed with 2 Royal Ann cherry trees. (And no, I'm not being sarcastic in saying blessed, as cherries are Other Half's absolute favorite fruit.) However, this blessing (like any other?) brings responsibility as well and that would be consuming said cherries. Since we knew nothing about pruning the trees and never got around to it this winter, we have a rather abundant crop for just 2 trees.

A week ago we got rather industrious with picking the cherries and ended up with 5 gallons to process-- yes, I filled that same bucket that the 30 pounds of strawberries came in the week before. These cherries, however, were certainly not pitted and ready to go, so processing them took way more than two and a half hours. Over the course of the next couple days, some were dried, some were juiced and made into popsicles, some were cooked into killer pies and scones (Other Half is quite the baker), and of course, I made more freezer jam.
Batch Number 1 was made with my new favorite pectin, the Ball Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin (which I've since found is cheaper at Winco than at Bi-Mart for you local bloggy friends.) I love this pectin because it uses much less sugar than traditional pectin. For both my strawberry and cherry freezer jams, I used 4 cups of smushed fruit with 1 packet of pectin and only 1.5 cups of sugar for 6 jars of jam. (The packet say 5 jars, so we must have juicier fruit in Oregon.) With less sugar, I think the bright fresh fruit flavor really comes through and I feel like I'm eating smushed fruit, not loads of sugar.For Batch Number 2, Other Half wondered if cooked cherry jam might taste even better, reasoning that cooking the cherries would bring out their flavor even more. So the Jam Wars were on! I got out the pectin from the cupboard and turned to my trusty Ball Blue Book for a recipe for a cooked cherry freezer jam. This batch also made 6 half-pints, but only required 2 cups of crushed fruit (not 4) and used 4 cups of sugar (not 1.5). Besides the pectin, I also needed 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 3/4 cup of water. Not only did this have more ingredients and more sugar, it required turning on the stove, something I do as little as possible when the temps are in the 90s. (OK, I do this as little as possible period, but it's not my fault that Other Half is a great cook as well as a great baker...) But, for the sake of the perfect jam, I tried to withhold judgment.

So which batch won the Jam Wars? Thankfully, we both preferred Batch Number 1. Although cooking the cherries does change the flavor, the traditional recipe just has too little fruit and too much sugar to get that same burst of fresh cherry flavor. So lucky me, the easy way is the better way and I'll now be stuffing my garage freezer with no-cook cherry jam, along with the strawberry.

Blueberries are now in season, so maybe they'll be next...

Sparky

2009-07-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, think I had a first this week, being mentioned on a "big" blog for this post, which I shared over at Camp Creek Blog. The passage I quoted ended up being the spark for a new open thread, one in which even the author of the quote, Laurel Snyder, stopped in to comment.

In my pursuit to live in the now, this gem of kid lit caught my eye this week, so I had to share this for the open thread's comments...

At the end of "Danny, Champion of the World" Roald Dahl writes:

A MESSAGE
to Children Who Have Read This Book

When you grow up
and have children of your own
do please remember something important

a stodgy parent is no fun at all

What a child wants
and deserves
is a parent who is
SPARKY

I'm thinking about writing the word SPARKY on my mirror to serve as a reminder to me each morning...

Guess it's time to go read another kids' book!

(Found this gem via Land of Meg via Kids Craft Weekly on Facebook.)

Book Bags: June 25

2009-06-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

Here's what's headed back to the library today:

Bug has polished off a giant stack that includes the following:

Grandpa Loves by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
The Quiltmaker's Journey by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken
The Friend by Sarah Stewart
Just Enough by Teri Daniels
All the Places to Love by Sarah MacLachlan
Night in the Country by Cynthia Rylant
Tools by Taro Miura
Out of the Ocean by Debra Frasier

Can you tell we were in serious reading mode this week? We were having a bit of withdrawal after the relatives left-- should have picked up The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant! Besides these titles (most of which hung around for just one week's readings), Bug is finally letting go of Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane and Fairy Houses... Everywhere! by Barry and Tracy Kane. She and her brother have just become interested with the idea of building little structures out of little found bits outside. Fairy Houses has plenty of inspiration in the narrative of one child discovering the possibilities of imagination while ...Everywhere! is full of photos to inspire your young architect.
As for Mugger, besides reading all of his sister's books, he found 3 new favorites this week. He's big into the early reader shelves of the library, so after polishing off another Clifford the Big Red Dog and a Henry and Mudge, he made friends with Morris the Moose by B. Wiseman. I don't know if you remember Morris from your own childhood reading, but he always reminded me of Bullwinkle-- there has to be a connection there somewhere! Since Mugger had an end of the year kindergarten field trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium he also had a great time exploring Captain Barnacle's Aquarium by Edward Miller, full of "fun, fishy facts" in a great retro illustration style. The hit of the week for Mugger, though, would have to be Jack and the Box byArt Spiegelman, a Toon Book, meaning it's a comic book/graphic novel for early readers. Mugger always wants to read the funnies in the Sunday paper, so this strange little story was a good way to teach him some of the conventions used in comic strips not found elsewhere in print. Head over to Amazon for the reviews and you'll see that they're all over the place-- I think the novelty of this book is either highly appealing (like it was for Mugger) or will just seem odd.

Then there's my bag. I polished off 3 juvenile novels this week:

The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull: So the moral of the story is "Never take candy from a stranger," but this is no simple bedtime tale. In fact, this one had me up late to read "just one more page!" The adventures of 4 kids armed with magical candy become quite dangerous as they figure out who to trust. As gripping as this one was, I felt a little let down by the ending-- the kids were so resourceful in how to use their magic powers all the way through, but in the end the hero had to be rescued from his own ingenuity. Minor quibble though -- still a great read.
Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach: if you love mysteries and a good conspiracy theory, then this tale of sixth-grader Hero Netherfeld is for you. The daughter of a Shakespeare scholar, Hero is the lonely new kid at school. She soon finds out from the elderly neighbor that her house might have a million-dollar diamond hidden inside. The most popular eighth-grade boy in town is interested in the mystery, too, and all 3 learn that people, including Shakespeare himself, might not be who they seem to be.
Masterpiece by Elise Broach: another great mystery and tale of friendship by Broach, this time the unlikely story of the friendship between a lonely boy and a beetle whose ink drawings are uncannily similar to those of Albrecht Durer. The beetle's artistic skill leads to quite a climax even though the boy and the beetle cannot actually speak to each other. This, too, was a page-turner and left me wanting more by Broach-- I think I now have a favorite juvie fiction mystery author!

To see what other families are reading this week, head on over to The Well-Read Child.

Etsy Love: Love for Earth

2009-06-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

In my quest for better stewardship of God's gifts and resources, I went in search of reusable produce bags on Etsy and found these little gems-- a set of 4 jumbo nylon produce bags from Etsy seller LoveForEarth. And while I purchased just 4 bags, Kara included 2 more for free-- sometimes it pays to take a chance on a new Etsy seller!

May I just say that I love these? They are super strong and rinse out and dry in no time flat. I also love that Winco gives me a nickel for each one I bring in, so I guess eventually they'll even pay for themselves. Works for me!

30 Pounds of Strawberries & 2.5 hours

2009-06-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

Before:After:In case you ever have use for this piece of trivia, a 30-pound pail of sliced strawberries will yield 13 jars of freezer jam, 15 quarts of sliced strawberries, and 1 bowl left for fresh eating on top of pancakes for dinner. As for the 2.5 hours, I promise it goes fast when you don't cook any of the berries or process the jars as I am certainly no kitchen wizard.

(Oh, and this bounty was after the 9 pounds the kiddos picked last week at Twedt's which yielded 12 jars of freezer jam and 2 bowls for fresh eating...)

If you're curious about the specifics, I used this pectin from Bi-Mart, which only required a cup and a half of sugar for every 4 cups of crushed berries for no-cook freezer jam. For the sliced berries, I mixed in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/3 cup of sugar for each quart before freezing-- there's no other liquid added because the berries were just that juicy! Ask me in a couple of months if I would change the amounts of lemon juice and sugar-- I couldn't find any sites that took into account the juiciness and softness of Oregon berries!

Book Bags: June 18

2009-06-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Not exactly off to a great start, missing last week's Book Bag #2 post, but the fam has been shipped back to California and Nebraska, so I'm back to report on which of the 46 library books we'll be trucking back to the library today:

Mugger, in all the excitement of being booted out of his room (due to the houseful of family), has hardly touched a book from his library bag. Besides the Elephant and Piggie books I mentioned last time, he's only read (and re-read as he likes to do) Shawn Sheep the Soccer Star by Erin Mirabella (a former Team USA cyclist.) If your little soccer nut needs a lesson on sportsmanship, this would be the book for you. However, even though he's not dipping much into the library bag, he has been reading to his sister daily: How Do I Love You? by P. K. Hallinan was a Valentine's Day present 2 years ago from Grandma and Grandpa. Mugger has been proud not only to figure out words like "enough" and "impossible" but to also tell his sister he loves her by reading a book to her.
Bug turns all houseguests into her own personal storytellers, so she's been through plenty of books in the last week. She's still well into Tedd Arnold and Amy Krouse Rosenthal, as I mentioned last time, but we learned that we're not big Rosemary Wells fans, which was somewhat of a surprise, seeing as how the library has Max as a special guest at next Thursday's shindig. Oh well, there are certainly plenty of other characters for Bug to fall in love with! Once such character I found a rather odd choice, but last week, she insisted on checking out Jake Stays Awake by Michael Wright for the second time. The illustrations don't appeal to me at all, but Bug loves the rhythm and the silliness as Jake tries out different locations around the house for a family bed. Bug was also on a train kick this week, so there were plenty of readings of Down by the Station and Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo, but we've had better train books. There were several more books in Bug's rotation this week, but I'll save them for next week if they make the repeated readings cut.
Having other family to entertain the kiddos this week meant I got to do a bit more reading as well. I finally got around to reading J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and while it certainly doesn't have the excitement of Harry Potter, the tales are good. Glad I checked it out rather than rushed to buy it though. Sara Pennypacker's Clementine was an extremely quick read (less then 45 minutes), but this snapshot of Clementine's week and her efforts at paying attention were cute. I could see this easy chapter book being a great read aloud in a squirmy primary classroom.

My reading this week did uncover 2 gems, the first being Half Magic by Edward Eager. I don't know how I missed this one as apparently it's a classic from 1954 and is the first in a series of 7. I would have been all over this one in my Narnia days! I only found it now because of a review of Laurel Snyder's Any Which Wall (which looks fantastic!), so I wanted to find out who Snyder was paying tribute to. At any rate, Half Magic was good enough that I'm placing my hold on the next book in the series now.
The other gem of the week was Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry. Rarely have I come across such strong characters in kid lit and such honest spiritual development. This book so clearly portrays both life on an eastern Oregon ranch and life with a parent deployed. This book was so good, that I'd love to see it up for Newbery consideration. An outstanding first novel and an outstanding coming-of-age story.
Finally, if you're looking for a read outside of kid lit this week, I have to recommend A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. Part autobiography, part cookbook, this one is going on my wish list and I don't even like to cook. Yep, this book was so good, it made me want to cook.

For a peek in other people's book bags, head on over to today's post at The Well-Read Child.

Living in the Now

2009-06-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I mentioned this open thread over at Camp Creek Blog about letting kids pursue their dreams. After reading the linked article, "Unconventional Wisdom: Why Passion Matters," I left this comment:

"The wisest parents I know are honest. They watch their children grow and steer them toward their strengths with encouragement rather than force. And sometimes these parents feel pride and fear."

I love this. This idea is actually helpful as we seek balance for our children's lives. We choose to spend more time and energy in the areas where they are passionate, rather than trying out every sport and activity under the sun just because the neighbor kids or kids in school are.

One of the most satisfying parts of parenting to me is seeing where God has gifted my children and how they develop those gifts as their own personal calling. To me, that's what the idea of vocation is all about-- I don't want my kids training for jobs in those college years that will be here before I know it, rather, I want them pursuing their vocation with a sense of purpose.

Lori responded with this:

diana, i feel that way — i don’t want my sons’ childhood to be spent preparing for their adult life, their adult job … i want them to be living as fully as they can *now*, today, exploring their interests, delighting in what delights them now.

rather than a mini-adulthood, childhood should be, in my opinion, building a foundation for adulthood … learning about life, about love, about work, about the world, about their talents and passions …

It was funny she mentioned the "now"...

So true, Lori! In fact, here's a quote I read just this morning from the new kids' book Any Which Wall, reviewed here:

"That's just how parents are," Henry explained wisely as he ate the cheese off the top of his slice and wiped his greasy hand on his jeans. "They like to talk about how they used to do things or about how they plan to do things someday, but parents aren't very good at right now."

I so want my kids to live in the now, too!

Thoughts? Opinions? Feel free to post them here or over at the Camp Creek Blog post.

Saturday Morning Reads

2009-06-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

Just two from the feed reader today...

"Just Let It Go" from Life from the Roof (found via Small Notebook): a great piece on the reasons we hang onto all the clutter in our homes.
Camp Creek Blog has an Open Thread up for discussing the article "Unconventional Wisdom: Why Passion Matters" by Jacquelyn Mitchard in this month's Reader's Digest. As parents, we often want our kids to have a Plan B to handle life's realities, but this article argues for letting kids dream and pursue those dreams.

Filling the Days of Summer

2009-06-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

My Mugger (who'll be 6 next week) is a planner and a doer. He likes to fill his days with activity and often enslaves me if he doesn't have something in mind to do by himself. That in mind, I've been bookmarking the following to help him fill his days on his own:

After seeing this on Etsy, entitled "216 Summer Ideas for Bored Children Printed Individually in a Mercantile Mason Jar Ages K thru 12," I've started my own list in a Word document so that I've got plenty of age-appropriate ideas.
Although, after seeing this on the Artful Parent, our list might take a more visual approach and be scattered around a doorway instead of hidden in a jar:
If I'm in need of some art ideas (that probably will require my assistance), I'll draw some from Artful Parent's list here. She entitled this "An Activity a Day for March," but there are lots of spring projects that will work well for summertime, too. At the end of her list of 31 projects, she also has a great list of ideas to put in her daughter's Fun Box.
Another great resource would be Blue Yonder Ranch's Book of Days. We purchased the May edition and didn't get past the first page (since Mugger got hooked on Rube Goldberg contraptions), but I'm guessing that with school ending next week, we'll be revisiting it and might want to purchase Summer, Book 1 as it looks like a good one.
For more ideas, I'll be checking out the links on the Summer Lovin' post on 30 Days and the "Mom, I'm Bored" summer edition of Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family. I should have no problem filling an idea jar with all the links at those two posts.
I don't know how much "academic" learning we'll undertake, given the kiddos' ages, but I do know that whatever we choose to study will be their choosing. I plan on checking in at the Summer Unschool on Vintage Chica from time to time to see how other families are taking their summers.

So that's it, a big list of links. Once Mugger and I put our heads together and decide what format this will all take, I'll have to post again. For now, I'm still in the collecting ideas stage, so if you have any favorite activities that 3 to 6 year olds can do without much direction, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll add them to our master list.

Book Bags

2009-06-05T09:30:00.001-07:00

Here's what's in the book bags this week:

After polishing off Last Child in the Woods, I've been on a nature kick! I've spent my evenings rereading A Child's Garden and Roots, Shoots, Buckets, & Boots as we make plans for the yard this summer. I also checked out Sunset's Backyards for Kids and Garden Fun for looking through with Mugger to help him focus his dreaming and planning.
My nature kick has continued in my reading of kids' fiction: both Twig (a classic from 1942) and Ida B: . . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World are great reads for connecting kiddos to the magic of the world outdoors. Ida B ranks right up there for me as one of the best kids' books I've read and I'll have to do it justice with a full review one of these days... Come to think of it, I just polished off the classic Understood Betsy (from 1917) a couple of weeks ago, and it too is full of adventures out-of-doors and a heroine every bit as memorable as Twig and Ida.
Mugger, having just become an independent reader, is polishing off easy reader books. He has just become a huge fan of Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books and reads them over and over again.
Speaking of Mo Willems', Bug has recently discovered the joys of Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny, Too, as well as the Pigeon books. She thinks it's hysterical that Pigeon can be found in the end papers of the Elephant and Piggie books and always makes her brother show her the inside of the back cover to find that silly Pigeon.
When Bug likes a book, she tends to become a fan of that author and usually becomes devoted-with-a-capital-D to several of that author's books. She'd already been through Ian Falconer, John Lithgow, and Kevin Henkes before she added Mo Willems to her fan list. This last week, she has added Tedd Arnold and Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who both have similar themes of misbehaving (or not.) She's loving Arnold's No More Water in the Tub! and No Jumping on the Bed! with their tales of overflowing tubs and crashing beds making their way through an apartment building. As for Rosenthal, so far we've only read Little Pea and Little Hoot, but the idea of characters that have to eat candy and stay up late just cracks her up. The just-released Little Oink is on order at the library and will surely be added to her fan club soon.

So I'm a day late, but I'll be linking this post to the What My Children Are Reading meme over at The Well-Read Child. Hopefully I'll be back on a weekly basis with what the kiddos and I are reading. And yes, I know I'm not a child, but I sure enjoy kids' books. As C. S. Lewis said, “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty.”

Just one link...

2009-06-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

If you click through for just one link, make it this one, a Mother's Day post (yeah, should've had it up awhile ago) from Half Full: Science for Raising Happy Kids. Titled "Put Your Own Oxygen Mask on First", it's a great reminder about how much our own emotional state affects our children. Read it here.

Recipe for Preserving Children

2009-05-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

Found this vintage "recipe" via this week's issue of Kids Craft Weekly:

Recipe for Preserving Children

Ingredients
• 1 grassy field
• 1 half-dozen children (or more)
• Several dogs (and puppies, if available)
• 1 brook
• Pebbles

Method
1. Into field pour children and dogs, allowing to mix well.
2. Pour brook over pebbles till slightly frothy.
3. When children are nicely brown cool in warm bath.
4. When dry, serve with milk and fresh baked gingerbread.

I've just finished reading Last Child in the Woods (review soon!), so you can see why this caught my eye!

Some Children's Book Week Finds

2009-05-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to last week's post, here are some more links for Children's Book Week:

The "Unsung" Favorites of Children's Literature on Simple Kids: This post is bookmark-worthy for the comments! I haven't added any recommendations because we just have way too many favorites, but feel free to weigh in with yours.
Summer Reading from The Horn Book: If I still had the budget for it, a subscription to The Horn Book would be the one children's literature review journal to keep. Their summer reading list is full of new favorites all published within this last year.
Top 100 Picture Book Poll Results from A Fuse #8 Production on School Library Journal: Did you ever wish you could have a room full of children's librarians recommend their favorites? Here's that list. Edited to add: Not enough? Here's the other contenders. And here's the shoulda-beens.
Twaddle-Free Books for Preschoolers on Simple Mom: This is actually a post from last fall, but I only found it recently and know I'll be using it as I put books on hold for Bug at the library. It includes some great early reader books for Mugger like the Frog and Toad books.
The Reading Child from Mt. Hope Chronicles: If you're raising boys to be readers, Heidi's lists are for you. Heidi is homeschooling her boys and took the time to compile an excellent elementary book list.
The Scholastic Summer Challenge: Mugger is technically too young for this (being that he won't be 7 until June of 2010), but now that he's reading independently, this really appealed to him. Not only is it a way for him to track his minutes over the summer, but he's also counting them as part of a team and the winning team gets to vote which Save the Children program gets a donation from Scholastic. In his words, "I get to help kids by reading? I want to do that!"

Any other great book lists or reading sites?

Hurrah for Children's Book Week!

2009-05-12T20:15:00.001-07:00

In case you've never been into my house to see the evidence, I read a lot of children's books. I own more kids' books than "grown up" books by far. At one time I owned over 1000 volumes, but I pared down a bit when we made the move up from California. I haven't counted lately...

Since moving to Corvallis, I've made good use of our library and its online hold request system--much easier than browsing the stacks with a 3 year old! As for finding what books to request, I have plenty of resources to draw from. My newest resource is a book called Honey for a Child's Heart. After checking this out from the library, I just had to have it! The type-A in me loves all the lists to choose from and loves checking off the titles as we make our way through them...

For finding the latest in children's books or other people's favorites, I turn to the blogging world. Book blogs currently in my reader are:

One of these days, I'll have to come up with some favorites lists of my own-- top ten picture books, chapter books, etc. -- but for now, we seem to go with author loyalties at our house. For a while Bug was into John Lithgow (Marsupial Sue is a favorite), then all of Ian Falconer's Olivia books, and lately Kevin Henkes' mouse books (ok, then all of his books.) We read so much that I never remember to post all of the favorites here, but we delight in them all.

And finally, we're now reading chapter books together at bedtime. We listened to all of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books on tape back on our fall car trip to California and have just finished Charlotte's Web. Next I think we'll tackle the Winnie the Pooh stories.

Any favorites in your family?

Etsy Love: Craft Pudding

2009-04-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

If you've been around the shop lately, you may have noticed that I've gone a bit ladybug crazy. It all started when I got my long-lusted-after Shinzi Katoh fabric and made these buttons:First, I made that little ladybug my shop and Blogger avatar and then I worked her into my shop blog and shop banner. Well, that wasn't enough. I stopped by Craft Pudding, the coolest little stamp shop on Etsy, and asked her to make me a ladybug stamp of my very own. And here's what she came up with:Isn't she just the cutest ladybug ever?!?!?! I can hardly stand it and can't wait to stamp her on shop tags, business cards, and fabric for buttons. And while I was there, I also picked up a fat quarter of Craft Pudding's fabric from her stamp designs. Won't it make great fabric buttons?So, if you haven't checked out Craft Pudding yet, you are really missing out! Go now, but you can't have my ladybug-- she's mine, all mine!

ISO: Economical Green Laundry Soap & Dishwasher Detergent

2009-04-01T13:20:00.001-07:00

Since this week is a backwards edition of Works For Me Wednesday, I thought I'd ask your thoughts on green laundry soap and dishwasher detergent. We use green options for both our (top-loading) washer and dishwasher now, but I don't have any particular brand loyalty yet. Or maybe you've got a homemade option that works and you don't mind sharing the recipe.

So if it's cheap and works great, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Etsy for Easter

2009-03-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

The kiddos had a mostly handmade Christmas, thanks to Etsy and the local holiday bazaars. There aren't many bazaars this time of year, so to fill their Easter baskets, I turned to Etsy.

Bug loves all things soft and cuddly -- and I know I won't be able to indulge my love of vintage chenille with her as an excuse forever-- so she's getting this sweet bunny from Chenille Treasures in her basket:Mugger would never appreciate such sweetness-- he is "five and three-quarters" now-- so he's getting a marble archboard game from Palumba, being that he is still 100% game-crazy:And, in recognition that he's getting to the point where he might appreciate colored pencils over crayons for church on Sunday (or perhaps for future nature hikes), he's also getting this colored pencil sketch roll from Beacon Hill Goods:What about your kiddos? Any Easter basket goodies to share?

Books for the Craft-Obsessed

2009-03-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

You may have seen this post, in which I explained my recent craft obsession. Here are some of the titles I'm using to feed my addiction, mostly via my library card so far:

blanket statement: one thrifted wool blanket repurposed into 40+ projects -- Easier than Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects though I do love the idea of using all those cute sweaters to make cute little cupcake pincushions and such. Blanket Statement has the advantage of needing just one wool blanket for the bulk of your supply list and has some simpler projects, while Warm Fuzzies has more projects that would be beyond me, I think, though the boy's robot vest is awesome-- how often do you see projects for boys? Incidentally, both Betz White and Vicki Haninger have great blogs-- and Vicki's a local (who was so sweet to autograph our copy!)
Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals -- Just finished reading this one from the library, but with my limited sewing skills, I don't know that there are many projects in it I'm ready to tackle, seeing as how several of the projects are rated as "moderate" or "challenging." I think I'm probably going to need Softies Kit: Instructions and Tools for Creating 15 Plush Pals as it's a kit that comes with everything you need to sew the cute little cake project from the first book. And the animals on the cover are way cuter on the kit! The first Softies book is a goldmine of info, though-- I love how Laskey has given the websites of the 25 project creators, so that I can go digging on the web.
Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners -- OK, I can't draw at all, but I love the idea of "drawing" with thread! Her designs are all so great-- they make me want to decorate all of Bug's jeans or something! Of course, if I ever got into clothes decoration, I'd have to get this title, but since it's in Japanese, I'm going to have to wait until I develop some skills!
Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens -- I first put this one on hold at the library when I wasn't sure how I wanted to make my hand-printed fabric buttons. Seeing as how I've been selling them since January, but only checked out the book in February when my turn came up in the hold list, I obviously didn't wait for any professional advice! However, if I decide to print on anything besides muslin or try techniques besides rubber stamping, I'll have to pick this one up. I love the organization of the four chapters, especially how she has 2 projects for each technique. The four chapters include Getting Ready to Print (with tips for choosing a surface, a design, a printing method, and inks or paints), Stamping (custom rubber, foam, and carved rubber), Stenciling (freezer paper, contact paper, and mylar), and Screen Printing (paper stencils, screen filler stencils, and photographic emulsion stencils.) I liked this one better than Lotta Prints: How to Print with Anything, from Potatoes to Linoleum though Lotta does have some beautiful designs.

Then there's the whole crafty side of me that's more about being resourceful and living a more sustainable life than making things. Two recent reads have been Made from scratch : discovering the pleasures of a handmade life by Jenna Woginrich as well as The prairie girl's guide to life : how to sew a sampler quilt & 49 other pioneer projects for the modern girl by Jennifer Worick. They're both excellent reading, but I don't think we'll be raising chickens anytime soon. For now, I'll just hope to get the vegetable garden in and that my little foray into bread baking sustains itself!

Bookmarks 3.29.09...

2009-03-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep track of the thousands of bookmarks I seem to have (on 2 different computers!), I'll start posting the best of my finds here. So, new to me this week would be:

a great tutorial on making (and painting!) a salt dough bead necklace with a toddler. Bug isn't exactly a toddler anymore, but anything to cut down on the mess at art time makes this Type-A Mama happy! Probably found via kiddio, along with the next one...
a tutorial on making mini clipboards. This would be perfect both for Bug who does mass amounts of coloring in church and for Mugger if we get him into letterboxing one of these days. Seems like a fun intro to hiking-- of course, then I might have to get Hubby to fire up the sewing machine to make him a field bag!
Kiddie Records Weekly, found via this post at Sarah Jane Studios -- incidentally one of my favorite children's artists on Etsy. (I so would love to have this print in Bug's room!) Anyways, Kiddie Records Weekly looks like an amazing resource as our kiddos love to listen to stories.
another find at Sarah Jane Studios, the Rosetta Project, where hundreds of vintage children's books have been scanned in for your viewing pleasure. I love-love-love vintage illustrations!
this post called "Children and the Pressure to Buy" at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op. If you worry about protecting your children from developing an appetite for materialism in the face of an onslaught of messages from the media and their peers, don't miss this one.

Ultimate Blog Party 2009 Update!

2009-03-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

First of all, I've already heard from the winner of my $20 certificate to my shop from the UBP prize page-- Rachel of Grasping for Objectivity has already picked these and these and these and these! Congrats, Rachel.

Second, I hosted a giveaway for a second $20 certificate to my shop in my UBP post and here are the results from random.org:
So congrats to #101, free indeed, who said...

Since I have only one granddaughter, this site is an easy place to spoil her just a wee bit! Several of the ponyclips I would buys are: Retro Pup, Vintage Duckies, Pink Mums, green/brown and chicks.
Thanks everyone for your sweet comments-- if you didn't win, you can always find my shop blog here to watch for the latest giveaways. If you happen to be local, you can find me Friday in Eugene for a freebie-- details here.

And third (yes, there was a "third"), I won this year! Woo Hoo! Amazon, here I come! Yep, I won the $25 gc hosted by Just Say These Words. What will I cross off my wishlist???

Overcoming my Domestic Challenges: Baking Bread

2009-03-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Being that I don't consider myself a cook and can only bake cookies, I've never dreamed of baking a loaf of bread to accompany the evening meal. All that kneading and rising, I was pretty sure that bread was something I'd wreck pretty easily.
However, that has all changed, thanks to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Now not only am I baking bread (and "artisan" bread, no less), but I consider it the easiest chore of my day. Before this book and its Master Recipe, I never would have believed you if you had told me that I could mix up a batch of bread or get the day's bread into the oven in less time than it takes to do the dishes.

I first found the Master Recipe online here, but the basic premise is this: you mix 4 ingredients together (in your stand mixer to make it truly easy-peasy) and you let the giant batch of dough rise in a giant container for at least 2 hours before you stash it in the fridge overnight. The next day, you take out a chunk a couple hours before dinner, shape it, let it rise like this:
and then after 30 minutes in the oven, you have this:
The genius of this recipe is that you have enough dough for at least 4 loaves and it will keep in the fridge just fine. In fact, the older it is, the more of a sourdough flavor it develops. Yum!

I also learned that Hertzberg and Francois have a website for the book with a great Q & A section. When I messed up Batch #1 with dead yeast (told you I was no baker!), Zoe responded to my query in less than a day with a way to salvage my batch.

Being the non-baker that I am, I have come up with ways to make this even easier. When baking the basic loaf, I still bake it on a pizza stone, but I bake it right on my silicone mat so that I don't have to mess with sliding the sticky dough onto a hot stone. Or, I just dump the whole thing into a loaf pan and bake it without the stone. Simpler, and just as tasty, according to my family.

We also created a variation, due to a shortage of all-purpose flour in the pantry, that I later discovered was the exact recipe for the Light Whole Wheat Bread in the book. Instead of using a full 6 and 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour, we substitute in 1 - 2 cups of whole-wheat AP flour. Since we eat mostly whole wheat bread, this was even tastier to us than the master recipe.

It works for me. For more tips, head over to this week's post at We Are THAT Family.

Etsy Love: LassieGirl

2009-03-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

Way back in January already, I ordered Bug this cute little pinafore from a new Etsy fave, LassieGirl. Ashley of Lassie Girl was kind enough to include some scraps for me so that I could make her some matching ponies-- and generous enough that I'll have to list some extras in the shop one of these days.
Love this fabric! Bug does, too, which is why we forgot to photograph the other side of the pinafore-- yes, it's reversible, so it's 2 for the price of one. To see for yourself, check out her listing for the Blueberry Fields pinafore. Oh, and if you're already a Lassie Girl fan, be sure to check out her new blog where she previews upcoming designs.

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Party 2009!

2009-03-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my second UBP! Last year I was a little late to the party, but this year here I am writing my post 1 whole hour before the Mr. Linky goes live. Woo Hoo! Progress!

So, what's changed in a year? A lot! One year ago, I was living in Orange County, teaching Spanish part-time, and leading a MOPS group, all the while figuring out how to sell hair clips on the side. Now I'm a stay-at-home mom in Corvallis, filling my days with pseudo-homeschooling our preschooler and running my Etsy shop, Ladybug Limited. My blog has had its moments of neglect over the past year, but if you stick around, it seems to be turning into a book review blog -- who knows what I'll be doing with it next year!

With the launch of my shop in December, I've branched out from no-slip hair clips to fabric button clips and ponies, which I love! This January I added my original hand-printed fabric button items, too. My little shop has had some review attention these last couple months, so I decided this would be the perfect time to host a prize on the UBP 2009 Prize Page-- I'm number 16 on the list.
However, I'm guessing that if this year's Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes for Mom is anything like last year's, the competition for all of those great prizes will be fierce! So shall I double your chances for you? Yes, I'm already giving away a $20 gift certificate on the Prize Page, but I'm going to give away one here, too.

So how do you win? Just click on through to my shop (over there in the sidebar) and browse a bit. Tell me how you'd spend your certificate in your comment and that's it!

And now for the details: just one entry please. I'll leave the contest open until the UBP is over and then draw a name and post the winner here. The winner will have 72 hours to claim their prize, so please be sure to leave a way for me to e-mail you. By the way, if you don't want to miss a single shop promotion, you can find my shop blog here.

And if I win anything at this year's Ultimate Blog Party, these would be my top 3 choices:

The $25 gift certificate to Amazon from Just Say These Words
The $20 gift certificate to Amazon from Want to Know What I Think?
The $15 gift certificate to Amazon from tree, root, and twig

Can you tell I love Amazon? My book wishlist from there is pages long-- I'd love to be able to put a dent in it. If my top 3 are chosen, I'd love any of the following: International 1, 3, 21, 22, 28, 33, 35, 36, US/Canada 1, or US only 19, 21, 22, 43, 56, 83, 97, or 99.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

2009-03-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Well, it's not often I dog-ear a library book, but I must confess that I did this one-- and no less than 14 times! Barbara Kingsolver's journey to eat locally for one year was that intriguing to me. I have to confess that before I read this book, I thought, "OK, eating local/slow food is a good idea, but who has the money for all that local, organic food?" After reading this though, I've come to the conclusion that every time I don't buy local/organic, I'm voting with my wallet for that healthier option to disappear.

Besides, as Kingsolver points out, fresher tastes better. Granted I don't have her acreage for growing food, but we do have the berry bushes in and would love to get going on the vegetable garden. True, gardening is a lot of work, but her family ate organically and well for about 50 cents per meal per person. Now if I could just find the trifoliate orange, a small frost-hardy citrus she mentioned, I could have a little piece of home growing in my yard...

Besides all the reasons to shop local or garden, the recipes are a big plus to this book. A big part of the reason why I don't shop more at the farmer's market is the issue of how would I use all that produce. My cooking, limited as it is, isn't exactly creative and I don't have the faintest idea how to prepare most vegetables. All the recipes are on the book's website, which had I gone and bookmarked the first time I dog-eared a page, I could have avoided most of the injury I inflicted on this library copy.

Finally, one of my favorite quotes in the book has to be the following: "A lot of human hobbies, from knitting sweaters to building model airplanes, are probably rooted in the same human desire to control an entire process of manufacture." This explains so much about the metamorphosis I've been through since moving to Corvallis and why I can't stop bookmarking everything from recipes to "easy" sewing patterns even though I have absolutely no talents in the "domestic arts."

In Which It Is Explained Why Dandelions Are My Favorite Flower...

2009-03-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

OK, so no, I don't plant dandelions or anything. However, I am crazy enough that I don't pull them out of the lawn either-- I consider them flowers, not weeds. Why? Because ever since Mugger was 2 and started giving them to me on weekly Wednesday walks with my parents, those little bits of sunshine have held a special place in my heart. Mugger is 5 now (or 5 and three-quarters as he will tell you), and he still gives me a dandelion when we're out walking and he spots the little trophy.

Dandelions have cemented their place in my heart for another reason, too. Reprinted below is the first portion of one of my all-time favorite songs, "Dandelions" by Five Iron Frenzy (a great Christian punk-ska band):

In a field of yellow flowers,
underneath the sun,
bluest eyes that spark with lightning,
boy with shoes undone.

He is young,
so full of hope,
reveling in tiny dreams,
filling up his arms with flowers,
right for giving any queen.

Running to her beaming bright,
while cradling his prize.
A flickering of yellow light,
within his mother's eyes.

She holds them to her heart,
keeping them where they'll be safe,
clasped within her very marrow,
dandelions in a vase.

She sees love, where
anyone else would see weeds.
All hope is found.
Here is everything he needs.

The song then goes on to compare our relationship with God in much the same terms:

Fathomless your endless mercy,
weight I could not lift.
Where do I fit in this puzzle,
what good are these gifts?
Not a martyr or a saint,
scarcely can I struggle through.
All that I have ever wanted
was to give my best to you.

Lord, search my heart,
create in me something clean.
Dandelions
you see flowers in these weeds.

Gently lifting hands to heaven,
softened by the sweetest hush,
a Father sings over his children,
loving them so very much.

More than words could warrant,
deeper than the darkest blue,
more than sacrifice could merit,
Lord, I give my heart to you.

Our gifts to Him may not be much more than weeds, but may we give them with hearts full of love and adoration, much like Mugger presents his dandelions. If you've got 3 more minutes to spare, here's the YouTube version:

And why did I post this today? You'll have to go read this poem by Robin of Pensieve...

Another review & giveaway!

2009-03-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

Today I'm partnering with ZozoBugBaby for a giveaway at Give Away Today. The winner will get a $30 gift certificate to ZozoBugBaby and a $5 certificate to my Etsy shop to pick out matching accessories. Wow!

So what's the catch? Well, the site is Give Away Today, so that means you can only enter today. Head on over to this post now to enter -- and don't forget to check back tomorrow to see if you won as you only have 24 hours to claim your prize...

My Reawakened Crafting Gene

2009-03-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

If any of the moms I went to my first MOPS group read this, I'm sure they would get a good laugh as I was always the mom at the table who said, "Creative Activities? Why do we have crafts at MOPS? I'll just throw it away when I get home." But this blog ain't called "Holes in my Shiny Veneer" for nothing, so here goes:

I'm going to guess it's because I'm an at-home mom now and I'm one of those people who has to have lots going on or I don't what to do with myself, but I have become overly crafty, no, make that craft-obsessed, since the move to Corvallis last summer. Yes, I had been doing my ribbon clips for awhile, but in California, that was all the crafty outlet I needed. Soon after moving here, though, I decided to expand my hair accessories endeavor, and I added in the cover button clips and ponys that now make up the bulk of my Etsy shop. And now that I talked my mom into getting me a Cuttlebug die-cut machine for my birthday, I hope to add wool felt clips to the inventory sometime in the near future...

Yet that doesn't seem to be enough for me! I toyed with the idea of making glass pendants or coasters for Christmas presents and ended up making hand-stamped necklaces and keychains for all the sibs. Some turned out better than others:
Maybe someday I'll add those into the Etsy shop, but they've taken the back burner to other things. I was really hoping to make Bug a set of peg dolls and a dollhouse for Christmas, but we had plenty of Christmas presents already, so the unpainted pegs are hanging out in a craft drawer. Aunt Jen taught Mugger and me how to knit at Christmas, but whenever it's not raining, he'd rather play outside and if he has to be inside, he'd rather play chess or some other game.

Guess this little obsession is one way to deal with my domestic deficiencies!

Back to the library...

2009-03-03T11:50:00.001-08:00

Bug is loving storytime at the library every Thursday morning, and she and Mugger are both loving the bounty she brings home. Some books are so loved by them, that we've just learned that our library has a maximum number of renewals it will allow! So headed back this week are:
1. Polo: The Runaway Book by Regis Faller -- The kiddos have the first Polo book and have loved it for awhile now. I love both books for the creativity they inspire as these books have no words! Mugger and Bug love to "read" the book to each other, telling us about Polo's adventures through the pages.
2. Marsupial Sue (w/ cd!) by John Lithgow -- You haven't lived until you've discovered John Lithgow's (yes, the actor, of 3rd Rock from the Sun fame) kids' books-- they are truly hysterical. We about had I'm a Manatee memorized for awhile during a phase in which Mugger was addicted to it. This one is great because the text of the book is actually a song, and a very catchy little waltz at that. We have great fun singing this one at the top of our lungs. Definitely going on the wishlist! Speaking of Lithgow's songs, Singin' in the Bathtub has long been one of our favorite kids' cd's.
3. Marsupial Sue Presents The Runaway Pancake (w/ cd!) by John Lithgow -- This story within a story is also fantastic, and yet another catchy tune by Lithgow that the kiddos love to belt out.

So, any favorites you'd like to recommend? We'd love to hear about them in the comments.

Cute as a Button...

2009-02-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

...is the title of my review and giveaway over at Northwest Mom Finds! My little Etsy shop got some press!

Head on over to this post to check out their kind words (*blush*) and enter for your chance to win.

February is No-Spend Month...

2009-01-31T22:40:00.000-08:00

...was the title of a post in my feed reader tonight. Being that we just met with a financial planner yesterday (and reaffirmed that our finances are as bad as we thought), I was intrigued. The idea is not to literally spend nothing, but to cut out all the extras for just one month and to budget the non-negotiables down to the bare minimum. So, seeing as how we just realized this week that we're actually spending over $500 per month for groceries for our family of 4, Other Half and I have settled on the magic number of $400 to spend this month for groceries, gas, and all the extras. We plan to track every penny we spend and see if, for one month, we really can do without all those little things that creep in and keep our spending to $100 a week.

So how did we get to the $400 figure? I followed house+made's link over to this post at Small Notebook and read over her advice and the dialogue in the comments. Our hope is that we'll not only save a lot of money this month, but that we'll be more thoughtful and purposeful in our spending. I don't plan on having a $400 month every month, but if we did it a couple times a year, that would be a start on a savings plan.

Guess this means we'll have to start menu planning to use up all that bounty in the pantry and the freezer. Hmm, maybe this is going to become one of *those* blogs. Don't know if I'm ready to share every last morsel we eat, but I will do my best to record our spending here...

Want to Win Some Ladybug Limited Hair Accessories?

2009-01-27T21:06:00.000-08:00

Then head on over to my shop blog at this post by Friday for your chance to win any 3 items from my shop!

WFMW: A little grass roots campaigning...PART 2

2008-12-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

In this post, I talked about how the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act is going to shut down my shop and many others on Etsy (and elsewhere) who sell children's products because of some misguided lead testing requirements. Many of us have long said that those who make the paint, fabric, snaps, clips, or whatever other raw material should be responsible for the lead-testing, not those of us who take those materials and craft them into a finished product. Well, here's what's happened according to Fashion Incubator:

"If you are on the CPSC listserve, you likely already know this too. If not, it would appear all of your emails have had an effect. I’d been waiting for this rumor to bear fruition since last week. Apparently the the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s web page on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 has been updated with a request for comments (pdf). Please contribute your information in an attempt to modify the regulations as they exist for mandatory third-party testing. The deadline to contribute is January 30, 2009."

So, what works for me? E-mailing the CPSC, that's what!

Want to help raise awareness? Grab the "Save Handmade" button from Cool Mom Picks' Save Handmade page.

For more Works for Me Wednesday, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer.

P.S. Due to our icy roads, my Christmas Tour of Homes giveaway for a pair of my Ladybug Limited hair clips is still going on here. I'll draw a name as soon as I can get to the Post Office so enter today!

Merry Christmas (with a giveaway!)

2008-12-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

If you are stopping in from BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes 2008, thank you, and welcome!

We moved up to Oregon from Southern California this summer, so we took advantage of living in the Pacific Northwest by stopping at a tree farm last week to select our own Christmas tree. So here's the "before" shot next to Mugger and Bug's "perfect" tree. (Thank goodness I talked Bug out of the Charlie Brown tree!)
And here's the "after" shot:
They decorated it themselves (with help from Other Half) as I had been battling some sort of flu bug that left me with pounding headaches. I think they did a fantastic job, don't you?

There isn't much to our interior decorating for Christmas, but we always have these 2 up.
The wooden Christmas tree was cut out by Other Half and painted and decorated by Mugger. They were his Christmas gifts to the family 2 years ago. The nativity is hand-carved out of soapstone, a souvenir from our (before kids) days as missionaries in Panama.

And even though I've just welcomed you in, I have to send you out for a moment to see the view outside, our first snow! Bug doesn't ever remember seeing it before, so to her it's magical!
And finally, I can't let you leave empty-handed. Well, I guess most of you will leave empty handed, but if you'd like to leave a comment (just one, please), I'll pull a name (at 8 am PST on Tuesday) for these, a pair of Ladybug Limited clips (made by me!)
I'll pop them in the mail tomorrow so that you'll have them in time for Christmas. If you'd like to get some Ladybug Limited love for yourself, my Etsy shop is over there in the sidebar or you can head on over to my Ladybug Limited blog for even more options.

Merry Christmas and thanks for stopping by!

Edited to add: I'm going to keep the giveaway open one more day-- BooMama's site wouldn't load for me most of yesterday, so I'm guessing lots of others didn't get to do their rounds either...

GIVEAWAY UPDATE: I wrote all the names out on slips and Bug herself has drawn a name-- Kiy is the winner. I'll contact you now and hopefully have your clips on their way by tomorrow!

Endangered Whimsy

2008-12-13T17:04:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the CPSIA, Ladybug Limited is now featured here on Endangered Whimsy, a gallery of products endangered by this legislation.

Don't know what the CPSIA is? Click on the "Save Handmade" button in the sidebar to educate yourself.

Hooray for Grass Roots against the CPSIA!

2008-12-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

In this post, I mentioned that I had spent my Tuesday evening contacting some of the blogs I read about the CPSIA and its unintended consequences for all of us who make items for children.

Well, this morning Z Recommends had this great post up:

Five steps you can take to save natural/handmade companies from the CPSC and CPSIA

Please click through and find a step you can do today! Help save the little guys!

Combatting the Princess/Diva Syndrome, Part 4...

2008-12-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

For previous insights as to why I will never call my Bug "Princess", check out my posts with the "mirror, mirror..." label.

Every now and then, someone will try to call our Bug a princess, justifying it with, "Well, she's God's little princess since she's a child of the King." Technically, yes, that's true, I suppose. But it's that whole connotation of a princess being spoiled and coddled that I have a problem with.

For some truly insightful words on this topic, check out this post from Toddled Dredge.

WFMW: A little grass roots campaigning...

2008-12-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

I hesitate to file this under "Works for Me Wednesday" because I don't know how all this will turn out yet. But a little background first...

In case you didn't know, in my spare time, I sell hair accessories and just recently opened my Etsy shop. However, my fledgling business and all the other shops selling handmade children's products are in danger! The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act has been passed and as of February 10, 2009, all of us selling handmade children's products will have to shut down because of the prohibitive costs associated with lead testing and third-party certification.

I'm all for no lead in children's products, but seeing as how this has been a made-in-China problem and this legislation does nothing to address products from China, I would urge you to take action! If you'd like some more info written for consumers, please start with this post over at The Smart Mama. Cool Mom Picks also had a very good post up about this yesterday with a checklist of how we can all be involved.

And, yes, I'm the Diana mentioned in the "Edited to add..." on CMP's post. I think it's important for everyone to realize that this affects ALL children's products: toys, clothing, ANYTHING intended for kids 12 and under, so I spent my evening e-mailing a lot of my favorite blogs and websites about this. So far I've contacted Z Recommends, Rocks in My Dryer, Thingamababy, Northwest Mom Finds, Goody Blog, and 5 Minutes for Mom.

Taking action with a little grass roots campaigning Works For Me. What will you do?

For more WFMW posts, head on over to today's post at Rocks in My Dryer...

$500 to Home Depot? Wow!

2008-12-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

OK, it's not often I'll write a post to get an extra entry for a contest, but 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a $500 gift card to Home Depot in this post!

Do you know what I could do with $500 at Home Depot? We've been in the house for 4 months now and the project list (aka wishlist) still includes building a pantry, building a kitchen island, and building toy storage and various shelving for the playroom. Then there's the bathroom countertops we'd like to replace and the ceiling fixtures and, and, and...

So, yeah, we'd go through $500 pretty quick! Want a chance to win? Head on over!

Managing Materialism at Christmas...

2008-12-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

As Other Half and I try to keep the focus of Christmas where it belongs, one thing we've done is limit the number of Christmas gifts. Why? Well, up until this Christmas, Mugger and Bug were the only grandkids on both sides of the family and we were a little concerned about the effects of excess...

So, the rule we've come up with (and tried to share with the grandparents) is that they'll receive only 3 Christmas presents from us-- they think the stocking is from Santa and being that they're only 5 and 3, we're willing to play along.

So why 3? Well, as we've explained to the Kiddos, if 3 is good enough for Baby Jesus (gold, frankincense, and myrrh), then it's certainly good enough for them!

Now I know we're not the first ones to think of this, but it's been a novel idea to enough of my friends that I thought I'd share it with the rest of you. It works for us! I'd love to hear any thoughts (via the comments) of other ways that have worked for your family.

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks in my Dryer...

My 6-month hiatus...

2008-12-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so, it's been almost 6 months since I'm posted in my blog. A lot has happened in 6 months, the 2 biggest things being the move to Corvallis and my transition to becoming a stay at home mom...

Once I get the Etsy shop stocked and all the pics up on Ladybug Limited, I hope to resume regular posting here. There have been lots of changes since the move and I'm not sure my old self would recognize the current me!

Etsy Love

2008-12-01T16:38:00.001-08:00

In case you haven't discovered Etsy yet, check out this post from Rocks in My Dryer...

And one of these days, I'll stock my own Etsy store with Ladybug Limited hair accessories!

Thankful Thursday: 13 years of wedded bliss...

2008-06-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

This Thursday, I'm most thankful for my Other Half, my husband and best friend of 13 years now. We didn't have a date night to mark the occasion-- that'll come after the move to Corvallis, I guess-- but we did make each other a personal gift, something we aspire to but don't quite get to do every year. Our road isn't always an easy one, but we've been blessed enough to share the journey with each other.

What are you thankful for?

Need a Cookbook?

2008-06-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

Don't know if you're a Rachael Ray groupie or not, although chances are, if you are, you already have her family-friendly cookbook, Yum-o! The Family Cookbook. If you don't already own it but you'd be interested in checking it out (like me!), head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom for your chance to win it...

Thankful Thursday: Milestones

2008-06-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

I was reading The Artful Parent this week, and found this blog, Simple Things. Andrea has started a theme day called Thankful Thursday because, as she says, "To me, it makes no sense that there is only one day a year that is set aside for the express purpose of remembering what you’re thankful for. Why save the thankfulness for Thanksgiving? Why not remind yourself every day what you’re thankful for? It makes life a lot sweeter, you can be sure." Amen to that!

So today I am thankful for milestones. My oldest, Mugger, had his preschool graduation tonight. Yes, I'll admit a preschool graduation is a rather silly thing, but it was an excuse to celebrate with family (and extended family, at that), and to mark his transition to the "big school" as a kindergartener. I tried to get a picture of him sitting on his preschool teacher's lap, but no luck. I did, however, manage to get a good pic of him hugging his best bud from class, which I hope to post on the Kiddos' blog soon. It was a bittersweet milestone, too, since we'll be moving soon, making it all the harder to leave preschool behind.

So what are you thankful for today?

The Kid in You...

2008-05-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

So does having kids bring out the kid in you? It certainly does for Other Half! Even though Mugger and Bug are past the let's-put-this-sand-in-our-mouth-and-see-what-it-tastes-like stage, OH still does the majority of the sandcastle building whenever we head to the beach! This shot is from last October...And here they are all hard at work the last time we went-- notice Other Half has his own masterpiece going!At least they can all enjoy the finished product together-- at least for a brief moment before OH lets Bug kick it all down...So do you have any photos that highlight the spirit of childhood? Check out 5 Minutes for Mom's contest here and maybe you'll win a Nintendo Wii. I'd love to give OH one, hence all the pix of him!

I'll Be Away for a Bit...

2008-05-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

We're currently packing for a move to Corvallis, Oregon, so blogging time is at the bottom of the to-do list...

Motherhood Is...

2008-04-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

... never getting the beds made (and being happy about it) because The Kiddos are too busy playing in them!

It's the moments like this I want to remember if I'm ever tempted to regret all the housework that has gone undone. I'll take Mugger and Bug's happy faces over chores any day, which would be evident to you if you were to ever see our home...

So do you have any Motherhood Moments captured? Enter them in the Mother's Day Photo Contest at 5 Minutes for Mom and your picture could be worth $1000.

Wisdom from a 4-Year Old...

2008-04-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

So Mugger's reading tonight in his children's Bible was the story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Afterwards I said to him, "So is Mama a little bit too much like Martha sometimes with all my chores and work?" Yeah. "Should I try to be more like Mary and make more time for my family and the other things Jesus would want?" Yeah.

And then, after a Thoughtful Pause, "Mama, I think we should read this story every night to help you remember."

Lord, help me to be a Mary in this Martha world I've built for myself out of to-do lists! It's not about the to-do's, it's about the to-love's! Mugger and Bug will be grown and gone before I know it...

Freepeats is here (LA Metro at least...)

2008-04-11T15:07:00.000-07:00

So have you heard about Freepeats? "Here you can get gently-used baby, kid, and maternity items like clothing, high chairs, bouncers, swings, bikes, and toys for free from other parents who have finished with them. It's also a way to get rid of baby cast offs without having to load up the car (and the kids) and take them to the thrift store." If you are a local reader, you may have seen this article in the Orange County Register...

It was started by Angie of Baby Cheapskate in Atlanta and has become popular enough for her to expand it to other cities. The LA Metro forum is now open and if you join by the end of April, your membership is free! Come on OC readers, let's get some local listings on there!

Green Links of the Week...

2008-04-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

This one is actually back from April 1st, but head on over to The Not Quite Crunchy Parent for this post on how to find toys that are truly green.
"Growing Green Kids" is the title of an article in this month's issue of Parenting OC written by MC Milker, the Not Quite Crunchy Parent herself! I was thrilled to find all the local resources.

Justin Roberts is coming!

2008-04-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

So The Kiddos are bonkers with excitement and they still have almost 2 weeks to wait. Who's Justin Roberts, you say? Only the biggest name in the indie family music scene, as far as our family is concerned. His last CD "Meltdown" is the most-requested CD in our car, played so often that Mugger and Bug have the order of the songs memorized!

His newest CD "Pop Fly" comes out on April 15, and I was all set to pre-order on Amazon until I read this review on Thingamababy. No, it's not a bad review-- quite the opposite-- but it was there I found out that if I pre-order from Justin Robert's website (by this Friday), I can score a Pop Fly baseball tee for my Mugger.

And, yes, Justin is coming to town! Not here to Orange County, but to LA for the LA Times Festival of Books (April 26 and 27) to give short concerts on the kiddie stage. Even though my beloved sister lives in LA, not much will drag me there, so it should give you some idea how great our Justin Roberts enthusiasm is that we are looking forward to the drive! Since it's also The Kiddos first concert, this should be quite the experience!

Turning Earth Day into Earth Week...

2008-04-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

Looking for an ideal way to celebrate Earth Day? For The Kiddos, it would have to be spending it outside spending some time in this beautiful Creation we inhabit. (Outdoor programs we're looking forward to this Spring are listed here and here.) With that kind of celebrating, I think they'd have no complaints about turning it into Earth Week.

I'm guessing that's why the folks at the Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness always plan their TV Turnoff Week to include Earth Day-- this year (their 14th!) TV Turnoff Week is April 21 to 27.

Besides dragging your kids outside, if you've got other great ways to help preschoolers break the TV habit, I'd love to hear them!

Moms for Modesty

2008-04-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

So if you've read this post (or this one or this one), then you probably already know that how I dress my daughter is a big issue for me. Being that she's only 2, I don't usually have to worry about her clothing being too revealing (yet), but I do take issue with all the "Princess" and other self-important slogans that seem to be everywhere on kids' t-shirts these days, especially on toddler girls' tees. Given this, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Moms for Modesty Mission Statement today. Here it is:

Moms for Modesty Mission Statement

As a Mom for Modesty I believe in common-sense modesty for girls and young women.
I believe in refraining from sexualizing our girls and young women.
I believe that it is unwise and unfair to taunt boys and young men by permitting my daughter(s) to dress in an immodest manner.
I believe that true beauty comes from within and I strive to teach my daughter(s) this truth.
I will loyally shop at retailers that provide girls' and young womens clothing that is modest, affordable and stylish.

I plan on heading over to sign it as soon as I post this. How about you? And if you have any great retailers who match Statement 5, I'd love to hear about them. So far my approach has been to frequent the usual retailers and just be very choosy about what I buy, but if there are retailers who have made this their specific mission, I'd love to support them with my dollars.

Earth Day Every Day

2008-04-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it's April 1st and turning the page on the calendar has my son asking what holiday we celebrate this month. All I can tell him is "Earth Day is April 22nd." So is it on your calendar? Has “going green” become a way of life for you? I must confess, I’m more successful in some areas than others. I’m certainly no “earth mama,” but I recycle and conserve energy where I can and I drink water from my refillable metal bottle instead of buying plastic ones. But I don’t usually buy organic food and I almost always forget to take my cloth bags with me into the grocery store, so I know there’s progress to be made.

To be honest, I have some difficulties with environmentalism, as it often seems to be just another political controversy with each side using shaky science to support its claims. Along with that, there’s the whole Mother Earth idea, which doesn’t exactly give the proper place to God the Father. And finally, sometimes not buying organic is just a matter of cost—yes, I want my family to be as healthy as possible, but organic produce is usually way more expensive.

So what is my motivation for going green? It can be hard for me to describe. For example, one reason I clean with lots of vinegar is because it’s cheaper than all those chemicals, so sometimes frugality is a motive besides the health of my family. Yet it’s not just my family’s health I’m concerned with. For me, there is also the issue of limited resources. I know that the resources that God has placed on this planet are not placed here in unlimited supply, so I want to make sure that the amount I’m using up on this planet is as small as possible.

The answer for me comes in Psalm 24:1, “The earth and everything on it belong to the LORD. The world and its people belong to him.” When it comes to going green, the motivation is now much simpler: I’m using resources on loan from God. It all boils down to stewardship. If I am a good steward of God’s gifts of health and this earth, then my green decisions have much more than politics or science behind them.

And when I stop and think about it, the resources that God has given to me are much more than health and our planet. If I really want to go green, then maybe conserving financial resources is a part of it as I resist the urge to be materialistic. On the other hand, I can spend my financial resources to help others and also be a good steward. I can go green with my time by taking time away from my family to be renewed at MOPS or in personal devotions or I can go green by spending time with my family on an outing.

It's all a balancing act, isn't it? But if I remember that every gift comes from God above, then maybe I can go green in all aspects of my life. This Earth Day, I hope to celebrate the fact that this planet is just one of many gifts entrusted to me, on loan from God.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

In planning to dye eggs with The Kiddos (ages 2 and 4.5), I knew I had to find a stress-free, mess-free method. I had visions of my dining room rug getting a bloodbath from an overturned red dye cup or The Kiddos showing up in their Easter best for church tomorrow with purple hands!

This year we found some inspiration that resulted in great (and easy!) eggs from Family Fun. We put the eggs in a colander in the sink and sprayed them with vinegar. Then we used food coloring and put 1 drop on each egg and then gently shook the colander to spread the dye around. We waited 30 seconds and repeated with a second color for a cool effect. Check out the pic below and decide for yourself!

Grand Opening Giveaway!

2008-03-19T19:19:00.001-07:00

Stop by this post at my Ladybug Limited site for a chance to win a pair of hairclips-- your design or mine. Giveaway ends on March 31st. Maybe you'll pick this pair or find something else for your Little Bug...

Works-For-Me-Wednesday: Good News Network

2008-03-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

My first WFMW is a bit of linky love...

After reading about Cool Moms Care on 5 Minutes for Mom, I decided that getting their 5 Minutes of Caring in my inbox might be a good thing. Anyways... today's e-mail from Cool Moms Care contained a link to Good News Network. I don't know about you, but we tend to never have the TV news on in our home because I don't want my kids to see those images. Now I have a source for just good news!

My 2yo daughter isn't really interested in what's going on in the world at this point (what toddler is?), but my almost-5yo has already found some good news to perk up about: since his Uncle served in Iraq and we just got our delivery of Girl Scout cookies, hearing the news about Girl Scout cookies being shipped to Iraq was pretty cool for him. (Though hearing that they were just getting cookies caused him to comment, "Maybe they should be sending vegetables, too.")

For more WFMW, head on over to today's post on Rocks in my Dryer.

Better Birthday Goody Bags...

2008-03-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Head on over to this post at the Not Quite Crunchy Parent if you'd like some ideas besides the usual candy or plastic trinket goody bag filler. The comments are full of great ideas, too. Here's my contribution:

Thanks for all the great ideas as I, too, hate typical goody bag (Chuck E. Cheese) plastic landfill filler!

For our daughter's 2nd birthday, we bought a bucket of those giant chalk sticks and gave one to every kiddo to take home-- after they colored all over the sidewalk at the park, of course. We also had bubbles for the kiddos to take home as they're a big hit with this age group.

For my son's 4th birthday, we were a little more adventurous! We got those little metal buckets and filled each one with 3 bean bags we made ourselves! The 4 year olds had fun tossing their bean bags into the buckets and maybe someone will teach them to juggle some day -- so many uses for bean bags!

Forgot to mention that the chalk and bubbles had little farm animal finger puppets (since Bug had an Old MacDonald birthday party) that were supposed to fit over them, but the 2 year olds didn't care! Other Half made the bean bags from Curious George fabric to go with the theme of Mugger's birthday party...

And the winner is...

2008-03-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hello New Internet Friends! If you stopped by during the Ultimate Blog Party, thanks for checking in!

And now, without further ado, the winner of a pair of Ladybug Limited hairclips is... (drumroll, please) #18, Jennifer P who wrote: "Adorable clips! I love the green clips with white stitching on the edges--I think they'd be even prettier in red! With 4 girls, we'd certainly use them!" Jennifer, I've got red, so I'll get started on those for you.

I'll contact Jennifer, but I'll draw a new winner Wednesday if I don't hear from her by then. If you'd like your own pair of Ladybug Limited hairclips, let me know. They're $5 a pair with free shipping. I'll be posting more photos this weekend as I made lots for a boutique yesterday, so head on over to Ladybug Limited and check them out.

And stay tuned as I figure out this blogging stuff so you can subscribe in a reader or by e-mail. It was so much fun reading all your comments that I'm going to come up with a way to offer a contest every month!

By the way, if anyone has any advice under the category of "I wish I'd known x when I first started blogging..." feel free to post it in the comments!

UPDATED: Jennifer P has claimed her prize! Here's her custom clips:

Welcome to the Party! (Better Late than Never...)

2008-03-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

OK, so the Ultimate Blog Party hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom started last Friday, but I'm just now sitting down to join in the fun. Can you indulge me for a moment to tell you why? Friday I was packing to head out for a weekend women's retreat at Forest Home, which was an awesome experience. Our speaker for the weekend, Jilane Hawkins, had some words of wisdom that I will desperately try to hold onto. As she talked about the difference between being hurried and being busy, I realized it's high time I read John Ortberg's The Life You've Always Wanted for a little help in committing to slowing down and loving my kids!

So that was last weekend-- what happened to Monday you say? A little side trip to Tijuana before coming back to MOPS meant not much time for blogging, much less family, on Monday.

And as for my family, they're wonderful! To put up with having Mama gone for essentially 4 days is just one more thing I love about them. To read a little bit about Other Half and our kids, Mugger and Bug, scroll on down to my "Let Me Introduce Myself" post or just click here. (By the way, I never use my family's real names in my posts to protect their privacy, so if you know them outside the blogging world, please don't either-- thanks!) And if you're curious about the blog title, keep scrolling on down to my very first post or take the shortcut here.

Take a look around if you'd like. I haven't been at this blogging thing very long, so I'm pretty sure you could read my entire blog in nothing flat! I stay busy as a part-time Spanish teacher, MOPS coordinator, wife and Mama, but for some reason I've decided to launch a little home business, too. (Like they say, if you want something done, just ask the busiest person you know...) Anyways, I've started making hairclips for my Bug and have decided to share-- if you'd like to win a pair, pop on over to Ladybug Limited and check out the scrolling photo album. To be eligible to win a pair of hairclips of your choosing, all you have to do is...

Comment on this post
Tell me which style you'd like to win
Leave me a way to get in contact with you (e-mail address or your blogging profile)

I'll accept entries until the end of the Ultimate Blog Party and will draw a winner on Saturday. If I don't hear back from the winner in 3 days, I'll draw another one.

Thanks for stopping by-- and good luck!

And if I'm lucky enough to win over at the Ultimate Blog Party, my top 3 picks (in order) would be:

The fused glass pendant from Lucky Girl Trading Co. (#90)
The gift certificate to Mikarose from Liza's Eyeview (#54)
The 2 Wrap-N-Mats and Chico bag from Nature Moms (#18)

If those 3 are already gone, I'd love any of the following (listed in order of preference): 7, 59, 60, 129, 140, 117, 67, 45, 123, or 24. Of course, anything I could use as a door prize at my MOPS group would be great!

How to Stop a Monkey Attack

2008-03-06T21:39:00.000-08:00

Let me save you the trouble of ever typing those words into a Google search and instead direct you here. (Warning: go to the bathroom before you read!)

March already?

2008-03-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

Leap Day, shmeap day! For having an extra day, I would have thought I would have been able to keep better track of February, but here it is gone already. Yeah, I'm not even ranting about it until March 6th, so hence my surprise when I realized my last post was February 19th. Oh well...

Want to Make Your Voice Heard?

2008-02-19T09:45:00.000-08:00

If, like me, your toy-buying habits have changed drastically over the past few months with all the news of recall after recall, then I've got just the link for you. PEM (Parents for Ethical Marketing) has a request for consumer feedback from Vision Conscious Brands. If you'd like to provide some feedback that will be heard, pop on over and answer the 3 questions.

And even more contest fun!

2008-02-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

OK, so I promise this isn't becoming a contest blog either but I found this one this morning and just had to share. Missy at It's Almost Naptime is giving away a copy of Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. Here's a review I wrote for our MOPS newsletter:

This book has been out for almost 5 years and was even on bestseller lists, but I only found it a year ago when Donald Miller spoke at the National MOPS Convention. Somehow, it took me a year to get around to reading it—funny how that happens with 2 kids in the house, isn’t it? Anyways, once I finally read it this fall, I was extremely impressed and ending up giving this book to several relatives for Christmas.

Miller’s subtitle is “Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality” and that subtitle captures exactly what I like so much about the book. He has chapters with titles such as Faith, Redemption, Grace, Belief, and Worship, but with subtitles like Penguin Sex (the Faith chapter) and The Sexy Carrots (the Redemption chapter), this certainly isn’t your typical Christian bookstore find with lots of church talk.

Miller has a way of writing that makes a faith relationship with God seem so down-to-earth and almost inevitable. As he traces his own faith walk and how he came to have a personal relationship with God, he’s both logical and entertaining. He really knows how to make God both relevant and appealing in a way that makes this book a non-threatening read for anyone who isn't sure about the whole God concept.

His 2004 follow-up, Searching for God Knows What, is every bit as good and just as highly recommended.

So get thee to the giveaway! And pass it along once you're done reading, if you are so brave.