Hands on education

This week has been kind of fun for crafts/preschool time at our house.  One day, out of the blue, I decided to take a detour from our nutrition lessons and do something just for fun.  I looked up a "how to" on making a paper boat.  I had the kids color and decorate a sheet of paper, then I folded into the boat shape and added tin foil to the bottom to make it a little more waterproof.  I can't just do a craft without there being a little learning involved, so we all went to the sink and did a little experiment with different objects.  They guessed whether they would float or sink.  Then I really threw them for a loop when I put a glass cup in the water.  It floated when I put it in the sink rightside up.  It sank when I turned it sideways. It was a cool lesson on how air can make heavy objects float.  Then the grand finale was getting to see if our boats would float down our creek.

Once Kadyn got over her fear of water bugs, they had fun.  The boats did pretty well until water got on the inside of the boats.  It was a little downhill from there, but they still enjoyed themselves in the creek which, by the way, had very COLD water.

The following day we went forward with our nutrition lesson.  We were going to learn about the bread/grain food group.  I searched and searched for a craft that involved bread/grains, but it was difficult.  Then I ran into the idea of making a teddy bear out of dough.  I had seen the activity once in a the magazine Family Fun and forgotten all about it.  I'm pretty sure one of my readers also did this with her little one too.  Anyhoo....I controlled the really messy parts just to make sure I didn't regret the activity all together.  The kids got to dump in some of the ingredients, watch me kneed the dough and form the big parts, and then they got to make the limbs and put on some of the raisins.  Later we ate it for a snack with some apple butter as dipping sauce.  They thought it was quite tasty.  It was fun and different from our normal paper crafts (which we resumed today when we made the 5 food groups mobile).  Anyhow, just wanted to share.  Sometimes when my little creative wheel gets to going, life can be very amusing.

Embellishing the existing

Something I thought would be nice this Christmas is to embellish what the kids already have.  This will eliminate the toy overload that can so often happen.  I often find myself looking around at the new toys wondering where in the world I'm going to put them; I really do think a lot of kids have too many toys; I don't want my kids to be those children.  Already we have more than we probably should.  If it weren't for the daycare, I would be tempted to dump half of them.  I also think children need to use their imaginations more.  More often than not, it is the simple toys that the kids like the most, not the ones with all the bells and whistles. I also notice that when floor is littered with toys the kids sometimes have trouble focusing.  It's not uncommon to see the kids having more fun just running around the house without a toy in sight.  Sometimes they don't need a toy at all, just a little imagination and a lot of open space. 

Anyhow, I digress.  Of course, if I can find a way to sew these presents it will eliminate a lot of the extra cost of Christmas too.  So....I've happened on a tutorial for making dolly diapers (SO EASY).    Can't seem to find a tutorial on doll clothing.  Plenty out there for barbie clothes, but not dolls.  I may have to just put on my creative cap and try it all on my own.  I might have to make a few barbie clothes while I'm at it (it seems impossible to find barbie clothes anymore that aren't inappropriate).  I also thought I might try to make some baby carriers for their dolls.  Then to top it all off, a new baby diaper bag to put all those new clothes, diapers, and baby carrier in.  All of these creations require minimal fabric which means minimal cost.   Of course, there are other present ideas I'm entertaining, but at least I've got a good start.

Unfortunately, Kadyn has seen all of this.  I told her it was all for Brennan (and at the time it was).  She has put her two cents in that she wants some as well.  I told her I might be able to do that.  I'm just hoping after it gets stashed away for a couple months, she'll forget all about them and then there will be SOME element of surprise.  Sewing these things at night just isn't that feasible.  I'm usually tied up getting kids fed, bathed, and ready for bed.  After that I want time with Jeff.  I might have to get over that for awhile to get this stuff done however.  We'll see.

It really is a miracle

Maybe you remember my post at the beginning of spring about my new planters to try a little container gardening.  I was so excited about them.  In one I planted two hanging tomatoe plants and two bell pepper plants.  In the other I planted basil, parsley, and cilantro, and hanging strawberry plants. 

At first they did outstanding.  The soil I got was organic, but was supposed to feed for the first two months.  I did nothing in terms of fertilizer, and my plan was to try to fertilize organically with eggshells and water from my fish tank.  About a month and a half in, they started to stop growing and every day it seemed as though it would be their last despite my natural efforts.  I formulated two theories, these planters just didn't have enough soil or enough room for the root systems, or they needed some serious fertilizer, forget the organic stuff.  The first theory was beyond my control, so I decided to go with my second theory and put a little regular fertilizer (aka miracle grow) to the test.  At first there was minimal difference, but the leaves started to turn from a shade of pukish green to dark rich green.  No new noticeable growth. Then little by little, the plants started to grow again.  Now they are getting a nice size and starting to produce a lot of fruit.

I did have to ignore the suggested feeding schedule on the box. I fertilized everytime I watered. I  figured since these planters really didn't hold the water very well and it drained out with every watering, that the soil was probably being stripped of what nutrients it had just about every time I watered.  Boy am I glad I decided to do that.  Last weekend I picked 6 peppers off my plants.  There are still plenty coming up in their place.  I have several tomatoes growing as we speak.  I have cut the basil down more than I care to do.  The other herbs didn't quite make it because my basil over shadowed them, but that's fine.  The hanging strawberries just seem stuck in growth so they will not be planted next year. No fruit that survived on those plants.

Because the bulk of what I wanted to grow was successful, I am motivated to expand my container gardening efforts next year and do zuccini, squash, and more herbs in other pots.  This is kind of fun and honestly, a lot easier than a regular garden.  Maybe I do have a green thumb and it's called miracle grow.  It really is a miracle.

Is it possible?

The other day while on facebook, I read a post from one of my friends (one of my blog readers, in fact) about trying to do without sugar.  When I started my radical diet change at the beginning of the year, I knew that sugar was one of the things I was going to have to cut back on.  I did without dessert for two weeks, but I never gave up my sweetners.  It did help.  I didn't crave sweets as much, and it helped me regain control of a part of my life that was wildly out of control.  I can't say that I never craved more sweets, but eventually I was able to add dessert back into my diet and was able to limit myself to one tiny piece of chocolate after lunch and supper.  I can't say that I didn't want to eat the whole bag after that one tiny bite of heaven, but I was able to exercise self control. 


This summer has been so good to us.  Part of it's enjoyment has come from the fact that I have allowed myself a little more than my one chocolate after each meal.  Andy's frozen custard, bake sale goods, birthday cakes and icecream.  Next thing I know, I am sitting down one evening (last night to be exact) and gorging myself on a huge brownie.  It was so good (at least for the whopping 2 minutes that it took to eat it).  Then I felt so yucky afterwards.  I was overly full and I felt guilty for having splurged so big.  I mean, why couldn't I just have eaten one bite and stopped?  After all, I wasn't exactly hungry when I ate it. I thought to myself, if I'm not careful those pounds that I lost so easily are going to creep back up on me.

I started thinking about those things people say that when you do a radical diet change you have to retrain your taste buds, in a sense.  I do believe this is true.  I used to HATE vegetables.  I idea of becoming a vegetarian would have seemed laughable to me.  Now look at me.  I love them.  I crave them.  They weren't all good at first, but the more I forced myself to partake and cook them, the more enjoyment I got out of them.

I did a little research on retraining your tastebuds last night to see if it is really possible to train yourself to not desire treats.  What I discovered was what I pretty much already knew, but it motiviated me to give it a try.  Afterall, my vegetarian idea started as an idea of just doing one vegetarian meal a week.  It was so easy, I wondered if I could do it an entire week.  It was still so easy and fun that I decided to do it mostly full time with the occasional fish meal.  So if I could do that, why not challenge myself to give up sugar, at least for a long enough period of time that it no longer felt like a necessity.  I desire to live life without craving sugar. 

The articles I read said the first two or three days will be the worst.  It suggested that too fully conquer the cravings for some can even take as long as 5 months.  (Sigh, Lord I hope that's not how long it takes me).  BUT....it also said that eventually your tastebuds will readjust and suddenly things that tasted so bland will be bursting with natural flavors that you never noticed before.  What once seemed so boring will taste so wonderful and exciting.  Now that sounds good doesn't it? 

Then what will be it be like when you do allow yourself one splurge after this great reinvention of your tastebuds, one might wonder.  One woman said that it tasted so rich and overboard that she had one bite and that's all she could handle.  I suppose it stands to reason that if fruit was like heaven, something that had a lot of added artificial sweetners would feel a little overpowered.  One bite of custard, one bite of a brownie, one bite of a candybar....can you imagine that type of self control?  I can't.  Unbelieveable....That's why I want to find out if that really is true.  The thought of seeing a serving of fruit as a wonderful dessert and knowing I'm being healthy doing it,  sounds so good doesn't it?   So really my motivation for this is to be able to experience food the way God intended it, in it's natural form.  Doesn't that sound like a good reason to go about a good diet change?  Forget the weight loss benefits, I want to enjoy food the way it's meant to be enjoyed.  I want to control what goes in my mouth, not let what goes in my mouth control me.  So here's to my little experiment.  Wish me luck.

 

A little bit of August

From Exported Videos

Click to see the movie

As close as it gets....

....to seeing the real deal.  As promised we took Kadyn to "The Legends" show here in Branson.  A Michael Jackson (her obssession as you all know) inpersonator was here in town but only for this month, so we had to act fast.  Because we are locals, our tickets costed less than it costs for our whole family to go out and eat.  I love Branson!  Anyhoo....also on the list of acts were Little Richard, Britney Spears, The Blues Brothers, Alan Jackson, and Elvis.  If you want a low down on the show in case you ever come visit, I'll give you Darci's review.

My favorite was Michael Jackson.  His dancing was phenomenal.  His voice and facial look weren't spot on, but the dancing....oh my!  I can't blame the man for not wanting to disfigure his face to look like the real man.  He did impersonate the later version of Michael.  You could tell he had a hard time taking himself seriously when he tried to impersonate his speaking voice.  That was quite funny.  To my surprise, Kadyn said her favorite act was Little Richard, not Michael Jackson.  I really enjoyed Little Richard too.  He looked and sounded just like him.

As for the others, Britney Spears was a good dancer and she had the voice down pretty well, but up close her face didn't look much like the real Britney....to me. Alan Jackson was so similar to the real deal it was scary. For awhile I almost convinced it was the real man just in disguise as his own impersonator for a low profile gig.  LOL.  The Blues Brothers were very good and I thought pretty close to the real deal.   Elvis was AWESOME!  He was sooo suave and made the audience a little weak in the knees.  His look wasn't spot on, but pretty close.  His dancing was good and his voice was spot on. 

After the show Kadyn HAD to get her pic with Michael Jackson.  Then she got into the spirit of things and had her pic taken with Elvis and Alan Jackson too.  Unfortunately we didn't get the other performers because they were only out during intermission and we were using the restroom then.  Maybe another time.  I do want to add that Elvis gave me a little peck on the cheek as the true Elvis would have done.  Sigh! All impersonators stayed in character off stage.

Overall, I thought the show was really fun and definitely a repeat.  I'd still like to see the Whitney Houston, Garth Brooks, Marilyn Monroe, Tina Turner, Shania Twain, and Patsy Cline.  I'm sure there are more, but those a few that I have seen advertised over the last year.  Here are the pics we took. 

Penguin

Whenever Bren dances, it resembles a penguin.  We love watching her.  The girl loves music and loves to dance.  If I'm holding her and she starts to hear music, she'll star rocking her booty back and forth while in my arms.  She can't help but move.  This video shows her penguin moves.  Only short lived, mostly at the beginning, but you get the idea.  So funny.

From 2010-07-06