How can you not love Play Dough?

Granted, you have to be in the right frame of mind for play dough. There are times that I just don't want to deal with the mess.  But most of the time it's a win-win. Kids are occupied and happy and parents have some "free" time to do something else if they wish. My favorite is listening in to their creative play. Today Kenzie was making "little sweet apples" and later she made plates & plates of delicious cookies!

Here is my favorite Play Dough recipe.  It comes from an old Family Fun Magazine and makes quite a bit. What you see in the above picture is only half of the following recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups of white flour

1 1/2 cups of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

3 1/4 cups water

6 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Food Coloring

**Optional: A few drops of your favorite essential oil to make it smell yummy. 

Mix the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan. In a separate bowl, mix the liquids, adding drops of food coloring (and essential oil if using), until you reach your desired shade. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and stir (don't worry about lumps--they'll work themselves out). Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture holds together and gets too stiff to stir (it will stiffen even more as it cools), about 5 to 10 minutes. **Let it Cool.  It will be pretty warm. If necessary, knead the dough to work out any remaining lumps.

Then let the creativity roll!

Workout Anyone?

Check out what Justin built!

He broke his other exercise set so instead of buying a new one he researched online, found these plans and built it on a Saturday--start to finish.  It has a pull-up bar and pegs for his Olympic Free Bar (Not Pictured).  The punching bag can be removed so you can do squats or bench press.  It's pretty awesome!  Great Job Justin!

New Year, New Title

cir' cus (ser'kes) n. 1, a traveling show, including acrobats, clowns, wild animal displays, etc.; the company of performers in such show. 2, any entertaining display likened to a circus; a good time.

I'd say that's just about right!

Saving $$ in the Summertime

Why didn't we do this sooner?

Dream Tree

You will have to excuse my attempt at being artistic.  I was laying in bed early the Monday morning of Martin Luther King, Jr. day and I wanted to do some kind of activity as a family before Justin left for his business trip that afternoon.  I was trying to think of something that tied in the holiday that we were honoring that day and I remembered something that the "Friends of Rachel" club at our school are planning to do--make a dream tree.  I thought that was such a great idea, and a way to teach our kids about MLK's "I have a Dream..." speech.  The "Friends of Rachel" club was put together after we had the Rachel's Challenge assembly at our school.  If you haven't heard about Rachel's Challenge you need to check out the link.  Rachel's story will make you cry and it will inspire you to be a better version of yourself.  It's amazing.  Her challenge has 5 parts to it:  1). Eliminate Prejudice in your life; 2) Keep a journal--have dreams for yourself, set goals; 3) Be Aware of the influences in your life--look for positive influences in your life; 4) The little things can do so much--do the little things; 5) Go find 5 people in your lives and tell them how much you appreciate them.

Of course, it was the second part of Rachel's Challenge that inspired the tree.  We talked about goals, and dreams for ourselves.  We all know that a dream or goal not written down is just a wish.  So here are some of our dreams.

I wanted to use green paper for the leaves, but the paper I had was too big.  At first I wanted everyone to just color their leaves green, but then I thougt that just as individual as their dreams are, so their leaves will be.  You can see that some used whatever colors they wanted and Kevin had no desire to color his at all.  Oh well.  I think it still looks great.  When we did this activity it took a few minutes for our kids to grasp the concept, but once they did we quickly ran out of leaves.  I've printed off some more and hope that we will keep adding to our tree as the year goes on.

These are a few of my favorites.  Being nice to people was important to Kate--she did that one twice. :)

Look What We Made!

I have often felt that I do not have one creative and crafty bone in my body, but I am so proud at what I made for teacher gifts this year!  (It helped that I didn't come up with the idea on my own and all I had to do was a little tracing, cutting out, and ironing on).  I should say that I don't think I have ever made anything for teacher gifts before except maybe some cookies or something like that, if we give a teacher gift at all!  I know what you're thinking, "doesn't she only have 3 kids in school?  Why are there so many?"  Kevin actually has four different teachers (thank goodness one was a man and we just put his gift in a regular gift bag).We also made one for our neighbor who helps with carpooling and one for Kelly's drama teacher.  These are so easy to make, especially if you're a crafty person and own a Cricut or something like that, (having one of those would have been especially handy).  I found the tote bags at Hobby Lobby in packs of 3, (o.k. I admit it, the pink one I found at Goodwill-and was pretty excited about it).  The only other things you need are scraps of material and I used "wonder under" to iron it all together.  I could not be happier, and as far as I know the teachers liked them.

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Since it'd be weird to just hand them an empty bag, we made some bread and put that inside.  I did that on the premise that teachers get a lot of cookies and candy this time of year.  And no, the bread did not turn out perfectly beautiful each time either, but I know that no matter what it looked like, it tasted fantastic so I hope they enjoyed that too.

While I was busy making the bags, Justin made some english toffee--a traditional Christmas candy that his mom made often when he was little.  He needed a treat for a work luncheon.  He too was proud of how it turned out and it tasted wonderful!  The ladies at work kept telling him to give compliments to his wife.  Imagine their suprise when he told them that he made it!  Yes, he's definitely a keeper!

Quick Tip

I was recounting the dishwasher incident with some friends the other night and was told that if you add 3/4 cup of vegetable oil to the dishwasher the bubbles are dissolved almost instantly.  (They too have also experienced liquid dish soap in the dishwasher).

This would have been helpful the other day!  Hopefully we won't have to go through this again, but in case we do I am now better prepared to take care of the situation.

Object Lesson

We had a very quiet, laid back weekend.  We didn't plan very much and just enjoyed not being busy for a while.  We talked about things we could do here, or places we could go there.  However, we really needed to make time to clean things up and do a little housework.  This kind of task is never fun.  No one ever wants to do it, especially when you have a 3 day weekend to enjoy.

Unfortunately, things had been left un-done for too long.  I expressed my frustration about it to Justin.  Our kids have daily tasks that aren't difficult and when we stick to the schedule our house is maintained and we enjoy being at home.  The tough part is getting the kids to get their jobs done.  I get so tired of constantly nagging and micromanaging them that I admit, days go by and I just give up and let everyone slide under the radar.

Well clever and supportive Justin came up with a great object lesson for our kids.  He had each one of us take turns trying to pick up one end of our couch all by ourselves.  The kids happily stepped up to the challenge and relished an opportunity to show just how strong they were--only to be quickly humbled at the realization that the couch is heavy.  When it was my turn I was able to lift one end and then Justin asked me to carry it into the other room.  He asked me if I'd be able to carry the couch around all day.  Which of course would be extremely difficult.  Then he had each of us lift a section of the couch.  We could all see how much easier it was to lift when we all carried a different part.

Justin likened that to the daily tasks it takes to keep our house going.  If we all do our little part the job is not to big or too heavy.  He admonished our children to no let mom carry the whole burden herself, but to help by willingly doing their individual parts.

The whole thing went well.  I think the kids understood at that moment and now I have a little ammunition when they whine and complain.  I can remind them how difficult it is to carry "the couch" all by myself.  I'm anxious to see how it goes.  We're still at the beginning of the week, and it's a new month.  I will have to report back and let you know what happens. 

Check This Out!

My cousin passed this little gem on to me and I'm now passing it on to you. It's this fabulous website with all kinds of useful and entertaining information. If you're feeling crafty there are some great gift ideas under the "for you" heading. I know I'm going to make a couple this year. (I'll post pictures of the finished product later :) ). My SIL also has a creative blog where you might find something that tickles your fancy. Check them out and let me know what you think! Have a great day!