If Im not mistaken…

Here are some of our favorite household chores to do together.

Setting the Table While you work on preparing dinner, your child can work on putting the table together.  Help them by announcing what needs to go on the table next, or set out a tray prepared with everything, so they simply need to put it in its place.  Don’t forget about condiments and napkins.

Unloading the Dishwasher  I always take the cutlery out myself first.  Then my little guy hands me the rest–plates, cups and bowls–to be put away in the cabinets.

Washing the Dishes  Warm water and bubbles, what’s not to like?  Just make sure there aren’t any knives or breakable glass cups that can slip.  Oh, and be prepared to fight over the tap to rinse your dishes.

Laundry  Sitting on the dryer, my son can pour in the laundry soap, help drop in the clothes and play with the dryers timer.  Beeeeeeep!

Dusting  Magic wand or Feather duster?  They can dust the baseboards and coffee tables in no time.

Windows  Children love playing with spray bottles.  Fill the bottle with water and vinegar not harmful chemicals.  You can also get them to spray the mirrors or sinks.  Getting them to stop spraying is the hardest part.

Cooking/Baking  Whether it be stirring, adding ingredients, cutting out cookie shapes or simply lining muffin tins, food preparation is always a hit.

Retrieving the Recycle Bins  The bins are big but light enough to drag.  How fast can they race you to the door?

Caring for Pets  Dishing out cat or dog food, brushing the pets fur and helping wash the dog are all great baby steps to learning the responsibilities of pet ownership.

More snow came down yesterday and this morning.  It covered everything with a fresh blanket of blinding white.   The snow is soft and fluffy and like quicksand when you are up to your knees in it.

I taught my son how to make tractor wheel markings in the snow by walking with his feet in a staggered “V”.  He, however, rather just play Follow the Leader, creating a maze of snow paths, while crawling on his hands and knees.  He stopped occasionally to rest.  I watched contently as he lay dreamily on his snow bed with his eyes closed.  Then for a bit of energy he’d grab a few mouthfuls of snow and zoom, he’d be up and off again.  Thank goodness the snow is freshly fallen.

I spy with my little eye; I see something cold and white!  Ah ha!  It is Day Four of my focus on snow fun. 

Today, inspired by the crafty folks online putting together a material version of this preschool game, I tried to create an “I Spy” or “Eye Spy” bag.  I used a large Ziploc bag, various small items from around the house and a few handfuls of snow.  I also typed up a check off list of the items hiding in the baggy.

It was a blast watching father and son squishing away at the snow trying so hard to find all the small objects that had gotten lost in white.   It definitely was a two man game.  My son lost interest before all the items were found and even my Hubby had trouble with the smallest button and sequin.

My son says he does want to try playing again tomorrow.  Maybe I’ll hide a few bigger items, like his Hot Wheel cars, inside and fewer items all around (maybe 10).  At least it’s easy to open the bag up and try over and over and over again.

Brrr.  The blowing snow packs quite a wind chill.  Let’s stay inside sipping hot tea and playing with, hmmm….SNOW!  Yup, it’s day three of my little snow festival.

Here’s my activity of the day to entertain the little ones.  Bring some snow indoors and give them a treasure hunt at the same time.

First the set up.  Put down large garbage bags on the table and on the floor.  Take out sand toys, spoons, cars, whatever toys that won’t be damaged by getting wet.  Print out some winter vocabulary and slide it into a Ziploc bag.  Taping the bag down to a tray is a good idea, an idea that I did not do but wish I did.  Cover the tray with snow, get the kids some thin gloves on and let them play!

By the end of our play session most of the snow had melted but we were able to make some tiny snowmen and the treasure hunt was a success.  I heard lots of “What does this say?” and we played “Can you find the word that starts with….”

The clean up was nice and simple too.  I just dumped the remaining snow into the sink and laid the garbage bags in the little bathroom to dry. 

For fun, I put the frozen bowl out with some nuts inside.  These were cashews meant for human consumption but unfortunately ended up on the floor for longer than 10 seconds.  Who came by to check out my handy work?  (I mean the nuts) A few chickadees and a red squirrel.  There were also juncos, cardinals and black squirrels around but I didn’t see them stop and snack.

At dinner, I brought the ice bowl inside to the table for a festive centre piece.  I think it looked great.

Here’s a fun kid’s activity which will motivate you to get out in the cold weather—making snow and ice sculptures.  Get out your ice cube trays, plastic food containers, pails and even your big recycle bins!

Have fun mixing food dyes in water and then pouring the liquids into all your various containers.  Leave the containers outside over night to freeze solid.  I found the food coloring really sinks to the bottom when it freezes.  Next time I’ll experiment with making snow slush and adding the dye into that, instead of straight H2O. 

Getting the ice out of the molds can be tricky.  I broke a couple containers trying to bang the ice out.  My ice trays popped the pieces out fairly easy but the bigger containers needed to be soaked in warm water for a minute to remove the ice.

I thought the small colored ice pieces looked like jewels.  My son thought our finished snow castle looked like a gingerbread house.

The biggest snow block we made from using a recycling bin.  A couple years ago, I noticed someone had made a whole fort from these large snow blocks.  Of course, it’s nice having at least two bins to create something so big.

Before decorating the sculpture with our ice pieces, I dumped some water over it.  This made our snow jewels sink in nicely and stick well too.  (They also stuck well to my fleece gloves.  Yikes)  I also poured more water after we were finished, hoping that the castle will freeze and last the rest of the winter.  Not sure yet if I’ll be out with a feather duster next time the snow falls on the ice kingdom.

It’s chilly soup weather here.  One of my family’s favorite soups is a vegetarian version of French Onion Soup. 

To make it you’ll need:

2 Large yellow onions.  About 1 large yellow onion per person/serving  (it may seem like a lot but the onion shrinks when you fry it)

1 Vegetable bouillon cube.

Approximately 3 cups of water.

5 stale pieces of bread.  You can place your bread on a tray in a preheated 300’ oven and then turn the oven off so the bread dries up without burning.

Approximately 2 cups of shredded marble cheese.

Olive oil.

Salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne and any other spices you like can be added to taste.

Cooking Instructions:

First step is to soften the chopped onions.  Heat and stir the onions over medium heat with 1 tbsp of olive oil.  You’ll know when the onions are done because they’ll be starting to brown on the edges.

Add the water and stir in the bouillon to the pot. You can also add spices at this time.

Let the onion soup base simmer while you chop up your stale toast into croutons and shred your cheese.

You’ll want to place the soup into oven safe bowls.  The bowl will be about ¾ full of your soup base, place half of your dried bread chunks into each bowl (this will soak up some of the liquid) and then half of your shredded cheese on top. 

Bake at 350’ for about 15minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted, like a pizza.

Let it cool for a few minutes before eating.  It will be HOT!

Enjoy!

Here’s a couple more of my favorite soup recipes found online:

http://theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=2061

Chickpea  noodle soup

http://ginews.blogspot.com/2008/11/low-gi-recipes-of-month.html

White bean, carrot & ginger soup

Helping out a friend by being their wedding photographer is a stressful position.  You need to get all the shots done and quickly so that the couple can move on to their reception and enjoy the remainder of the evening with family and friends.

Here are some tips from my experience:

Research some unique shots by looking online at what the professionals are doing. 

Brainstorm with the couple to see what ideas they come up with.  This helps you get a better sense of their style.

Go to the location ahead of time to scope out the best spots to set up.  Also, check for things you don’t want showing up in the background.

Get a list of family members that the couple wants included in some of the photographs.  You’ll be in trouble if you miss Great Grandma Ann.

Ask for a family member, or close friend, to help round up the people that are needed in the shots.

If you are using 35mm film, which is great because the couple will probably want a paper copy of every picture anyway, make sure you have more film than you ever dreamed of using.  Seriously, you’ll be surprised how quickly it goes.

Remember that time is a tickin’.  You may just be starting to enjoy your role as wedding photographer when the happy couple is whisked away in their stretch limo.  But don’t forget click a few shot of the lovemobile too!

Here’s a little craft project you can try at home.  All you need is some old magazines you don’t mind cutting up, scissors, glue and either a coloring book or some paper to draw your own picture. 

Flip though the magazine cutting out chunks of color.  You’ll cut these pieces in to tiny parts and keep the colors organized—different shades of red can go together but blue will be in its own pile.   An egg carton would be useful because of its twelve handy compartments.

Next find a picture in a coloring book that you like.  Spread some glue and place your tiny paper pieces of color down.  It reminds me of the fancy picture quilts.  Looking closely at the pieces you may see textures and different shades or hues but when you stand back the picture comes to life.

Today was my first time trying this with a coloring book.  In the past, I simply drew a rough outline of what I wanted my picture to become.  I think that freeform art is the most satisfying.  I have used this technique to make greeting cards and it might be something to try for Valentine’s Day.

Dealing with the teeny tiny pieces takes patience and might be too much for some little people.  But they can help with the gathering of colors and the spreading of the glue.

I have on occasion suffered from post stress migraines.  When I realized they were of the ‘post-stress’ variety, it struck me as quite odd.  You’d think a person would be headachy because of stress not because of it finally disappearing.  My migraines have appeared after tough days on the job, during the process of buying a house and before having my first born—but I think that was from hormone changes, not from the stress of being pregnant.

Some of the symptoms of my migraines are:  a dot of light in my vision (this is my warning signal) which later turns into a strip of sparkles like a silver reflective tape,  numbness in my fingers or pins and needles, trouble speaking and after this all passes the horrid headache begins and can last for days.  I’ve seen commercials showing the symptoms of a stroke and can identify the majority of them.

I haven’t had one of these migraines in a while (knock wood) and hope that I don’t stress myself out thinking about them.  Ha.