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Random stuff for a rainy Saturday.
- Potty training is not going well with AJ. She’ll go on the potty if we put her on it (we usually have to sing “it’s Tinkle Time” in a funny voice or else she won’t even go in the bathroom). Otherwise, she is still more than happy to just go whenever the mood strikes. And it doesn’t matter whether she’s wearing cool panties, or pull-ups. Either way, she goes. No form of reward seems to be especially motivating, either. Believe me, we’ve tried several. But, she does seem to be staying dry for longer stretches, so I guess that’s progress. Any tips? Seems like it was easier with DJ.
- We bought a few of these tiny grow kits for $1 each at Target earlier in the week, and on Thursday we planted seeds for basil, oregano, mini sunflowers and Liliput zinnias. The zinnias have already sprouted! Yesterday, we planted the rest of the seeds (they put enough in the grow kits for multiple plantings) in bigger terra cotta pots outside.
- I just learned that Denise is coming out with (or may have already come out with) a new fabric carrying/storage case for their interchangeable needle sets. Yay! The only drawback is the price ($55), but that is apparently because it’s made in the USA. How crazy is that?
- The birds are going nuts here. We put our hanging ferns back on the porch the other day (they overwinter in the garage) and already, the house finches are building a nest in one of them. That nest in my header is one from last year or the year before. Also, there is some new nesting material in our bluebird house…I hope it was put there by bluebirds! Last year we had chickadees in there.
- Speaking of the bluebird house, I planted a clematis at the base of it about 3 years ago. It hasn’t done much since…it hasn’t ever bloomed. I don’t even remember now what variety it is. But after I opened the bluebird house to see if anyone was building in there, I looked down, and…buds! Three of them! It will be fun to rediscover what I planted.
- Also, the redbuds are blooming! My husband pulled up several young redbud trees on a logging job about 5 years ago and planted them around the woodsy perimeter of our yard. It took a few years for any blooms to show, but this year they’re taking off.
Now we’re off to the library to pick up some reference materials for what could be a big new life endeavor. Details on that to come!
Boy, does anyone else have spring fever? I’ve been outside this afternoon sprucing up some baby equipment that I’m giving to a friend at church (double stroller, pack-n-play, two baby gates…yes, mom, we’ve stopped locking the children up in the living room). It’s so gorgeous outside, and all I want to do is stay out there and do something, anything, to enjoy it. But I had to come in to get some things done.
Really, I’m so weird about the seasons and the weather. At the first sign of winter, I am so ready for cold days and hot tea and snuggling under a blanket. I love cold weather. I used to go skiing with my family every year when I was growing up, and I doubt I ever complained about the cold. I loved getting good and cold, and then going into the lodge for some hot chocolate! So every year when the weather starts to warm up, I resist it. Not that there is anything I can do to stop it, but I just dread the start of spring. But then, give me one warm day outside, and suddenly, I can’t wait for it to be spring. I start wanting to plant things and walk outside and do all of that fun spring stuff. I guess it just takes me a little extra nudge…most people I know hate the winter and long for the warmer days to come. Of course, maybe I resist spring because I know it will only last for 23 days and then turn into the tropics. South Carolina gets gross in the summer. It’s just like one bad hair day after another.
We had a few cold days at the beginning of this week, though, so we had to think of fun things to do inside. I have really been trying to come up with fun activities to do with the kids. I remembered a craft that I think my brother did when he was in preschool, where they poured some plaster in a cup, then stuck a tree branch in it, then decorated the tree branch with tissue paper flowers. I thought we would do the same thing, but we didn’t have any plaster…so we improvised with some homemade playdough that we had in the fridge.
They were a lot of fun to make! And I think the playdough in the cups added some extra color to the project. D & A liked every step, from tearing up the tissue paper to peeling the glue off their fingers. And later they also decorated the cups with stickers. They love their stickers.
We had a lot of torn tissue paper left after we made our trees, so then we made some collage art. AJ and DJ drew pictures and accented them with tissue paper, but I made mine mostly from the tissue paper. That was a lot of fun, too…but maybe not as much fun as making the trees.
Can you tell which one is mine? (And, does anyone else’s fridge look this messy? Whew. And you haven’t even seen the top…I need to spring clean the photo gallery. )
We were in need of something fun to do yesterday afternoon. I have been planning to bake big bunny cookies for DJ’s class Easter party on Thursday, and I knew I could just pop them in the freezer, so I told D & A they could help me make cookies. I cut out all of the school bunnies and set them aside, then helped the kiddos cut out dinosaurs, hearts, bunnies, and ducks. We used our favorite butter-not-sugar cookie recipe (thanks, Robin!). And then, because plain cookies need some embellishment, we painted the cookies. I had seen some cookie paints in the latest King Arthur Flour catalog, but since we didn’t have them, I asked my friend google for help. I found a super-simple formula for cookie paints–mix some cornstarch with a little water until it’s stirrable (too little water leaves the cornstarch oddly gloopy and lumpy), then add food coloring. Or cake decorating gel colors, which is what we used. Then you paint onto the unbaked cookies, using a clean paintbrush, and bake. The colors stay nice and bright, and it actually doesn’t affect the taste of the cookies at all. We had a lot of fun painting our cookies!
…feet.
By the way, “Horton Hears a Who” was GREAT. And it was a super way to spend a stormy afternoon while Daddy was gone turkey hunting.
