letter practice/sensory practice bags

This was definitely not my idea - I saw it on another blog. But I thought it was so cool - and it is! - that I decided to do a tutorial so you could make your own.

I don't know what you'd call them, except sensory bags - but they're not really, except that they ARE squishy. Kids can practice 'drawing' shapes or writing letters with a light touch (preschoolers) or with a Q-Tip (kindergarten +). I wouldn't recommend these for older kids - especially pre-teen boys...sorry SM!....because they may be too tempted to pound on 'em good and then, SPLAT! with disastrous results. But you can always live on the edge, you know...both my girls love these.


1. Gather up your supplies. You always do that first, right? You'll need quart-size freezer bags, some paint - all I had was acrylic, but you could use tempera, too. Also needed is some good, wide, sturdy tape like masking tape or packing tape (not shown). I guess you could use gallon-size bags, but when I tried it myself, it seemed like an unwieldy size. So, just use what you have on hand. I had the giant bottle of paint because of my pumpkin painting project, but the smaller bottles are only about 50 cents at th'WM.
You'll want to go with a lighter paint. I like the look of the pink better than the red, and the orange better than the red, too. But just try it out. If your background (desk/kitchen table) is really light, then maybe a darker paint would work.



2. Open a Ziploc bag and squish some paint in. Now, I tried to eyeball it, and it looked to be about 3-4 tablespoons. I think that less is more, because I ended up having to squish some back out of the orange bag...not pretty. Of course, if you're using a larger bag, more paint goes in.

3. Mash the paint around a bit to see if it looks like it will cover the inside of the bag. You don't want it so deep that gentle pressure won't leave an impression, but also not so sparse that you can't tell what the impression is. This is the step where you get the amount right, because in the next step you will be....

4. Putting the tape on. I probably should have used masking tape for the tutorial, but I couldn't find it. The goal is to completely seal the top of the bag. I laid the bag on its side, put the tape just below the 'zip' and then turned the bag over, sealing the top down to the other 'zip.' There was overlap, and I cut off all but about 1/4 inch. Just for insurance.

5. OK, now you're done! Use a Q-Tip (ahem, a cotton swab) to make designs or practice letters. The bags withstood 3 days of homeschool use with my 5 y.o., who is by no means gentle. She practiced writing M, S, L and who-knows-what and she seemed to like them.

I even practiced my initials some.

Thinking about how this could be improved, I wonder if some other medium could be used like a thinned out version of the paper mache goop with food coloring, dish soap with food coloring or even old beef gravy or yogurt that you are so sick of eating but you can't bear to throw away....

Fall Fotos

Not on the same level as my sister's decorating...in fact, I used my spring/summer wreath and hastily picked the pink dollar store fake flowers off one afternoon before someone was bringing me a meal....

More fun with paper mache! In all fairness, you really should see them in person before you judge.

Our not-so-scary scarecrow and our 21st century 2 year old who insists on wearing a prarie sunbonnet. The yellow gourds were 'volunteers' from our garden this summer - grand-gourds of a gift a friend brought over a couple years ago.

The only thing I could come up with for a head was a small gourd from last year's crop:

more to come later....

Hannah's 5th Birthday Party

While it was supposed to be a family-friendly event, it appears that Abbo might be flashing a gang sign....

He's hard to see in camo, but he did most of the work....

Lisa, Kellen & Brandon warming by the fire -

The only picture with all the kiddos in it! Look at that cool fire pit setup - Thanks, Daddy!

Amber was in charge of making sure all the kids - mine included - got suppah....

Lisa at the front of the pinata line. With a giant pokey to keep those kids in place....

The infamous pinata, with Riely taking a go.....

and Ian, with Christian looking on....

Sabrena - thank you again for doing pinata duty - not only could I not have done it, but your timing was perfect!

my favorite pinata picture - go Olivia!

Colin, with his best Ninja/Jedi moves....

Kellen bargaining for another go....

Ahhh, the butterfly gives up the treasure~ Abbo, Hanno, Brandon & Kellen planted for the take~

Plastic spiders, cowboys & Indians, candy bracelets, gummy fruits, Tootsie Rolls....(reminder: brush your teeth!)

Bye, bye, butterfly!

"My cake should be pink and white, with sprinkles. And butterflies. And yellow on the inside."

The redneck way to light candles: with a blowtorch. Git 'er dun!
Happy Birthday to yoooo-oooouuu!

Thar's a happy five year old girl!

A friendly game of cowboys & Indians :)

Woo-hoo! Even with all the candy, we managed to wear them out by playing a couple games, and mine, at least, were in bed before 9PM. Thank you for a great time!

Preserving the Harvest

Some sweet friends of ours gave us a WM bag full of Keifer pears and a big Ziploc bag of pared apples - both from their backyard trees. Today I finally got around to putting them up. We made applesauce, pear sauce and some pear juice (nectar). Hannah and Abigail helped - some - mostly Abbo ate bits of fruit and draped herself with the peelings, so I spent a lot of time chasing her out of the kitchen.

First we peeled and cored the apples with the apple machine. Its fun to use and saves much time. It probably wastes a little bit more of the flesh than a good paring knife would, but the fun is worth it, and it got them to help. We dunked the sliced apples in a water/lemon juice bath.

Then we cooked the apples down with about 3" of water in the pot. I actually used a mixture of about half backyard apples and half Gala apples, on sale at Kroger this week. But it was so sweet that I didn't need any sugar - again, trying to cut out sugar where I can in our diets.

Our yield for the apples was only 4 pints....so I did pears, too. I used a scant 2/3 cup of sugar for the whole pot:

I drug out my immersion mixer, only to find out that it was broken. It is so handy for stuff, yet it wouldn't spin no matter how much I coaxed it. (HINT, HINT: CHRISTMAS IDEA!!) So the applesauce is chunky - I used the blender to mix up the pears since they tend to be grainy. That's also why I used sugar - to overcome any objections that might arise at suppertime :)

Process for 20 minutes:

And the end product:

I'd say that I put the peels and the cores out in the back yard under the pear tree for the deer, but since its after September 30, the peels and cores are for the rabbits, skunks and squirrels. And crows. And opossums. Some type of animal will be feasting down there tonight!

Leftover Broccoli Soup

Whenever we have mashed potatoes for supper, the girls are glad. Not because I spent 30 minutes trying to get the lumps out, but because for lunch the next day they get broccoli and cheese soup, with the mashers being the main ingredient. Its super easy to make, uses items you have on hand, uses up leftovers (so its tres frugal), and as a bonus, you can slip in other vegetables for extra vitamins. One caveat: my girls love, love, love broccoli, so if you or your kids don't like it, it might not go over as well as it does at our house.

Broccoli and Cheese Soup

leftover mashed potatoes....anywhere from 1/2 cup to 2 cups (this will be the base, so it will determine how much of the other ingredients you use)

broccoli (I got a couple bags on clearance...organic, no less...from Kroger. It was fresh, so I quickly parboiled it a minute or so to soften it up) florets, chopped into bite sized pieces.

1 cup water + 1 chicken bullion cube OR
1 cup chicken stock OR
an equivalent liquid...like broth, granulated bullion, etc.

cheddar cheese - shredded, 1/2 to 1 cup (I only buy cheese when its less than $3 a pound and keep it in the freezer. If I get it in blocks, it crumbles easily when it thaws, but I also try to keep the pre-shredded in there, too.)

Here's How:
Boil water or stock, dissolve bullion in it. Stir in mashed potatoes...if you need it thicker, add instant mashed potatoes until its close to desired thickness. Add broccoli florets (and shredded carrots, peas, or anything else)(you could also puree those veggies to hide 'em if necessary). Stir in the cheese - you want it pretty cheesy, and I like to save a couple sprinkles for on top.

That's it. The cheese will thicken it a little more than the mashed potatoes will....for some reason I always want to add some cooking sherry to it, but I never have it. I think that would just round out the flavor a bit. But when cooking for preschoolers, its probably best to leave the alcohol in the pantry. At least that's my take on it.

Let me know if you make it and if it turns out! It really is great comfort food, and you just about always have the ingredients on hand. Plus, it uses up leftovers, so its great all around!

homemade yogurt

Hannah loves yogurt. Loves it, loves it, loves it. Aside from expense, though, every one on the shelves has a handfull of chemicals in each serving and at least that much sugar. As I'm trying to limit her sugar intake, she doesn't get to have this treat very often. But I want her to eat healthy, so I did some research and came up with a recipe for homemade yogurt. The cool thing is, no special equipment is needed, just a crock pot. A couple weeks ago I passed up a yogurt maker in Goodwill because I didn't know if it worked or not and I didn't want to risk the $2 to find out. So I was elated when I found out I had made a wise decision.

On the Day of My Fall, I had 2 quarts of whole milk percolating in the crock pot for the first stage of the recipe. Andy dumped it down the drain after he had me safely tucked in ARH for the night. Yesterday was my first chance at a second attempt, so I stayed out of trees for the day and made another batch.

Here's the ingredients:
2 quarts of whole milk (later I'll experiement with 2% and 1%....right now I'm working on avoiding sugar and corn syrup) (organic milk - Kroger has a good price on it - would be a good choice if you're concerned about it...just make sure the milk is not "ultra-homogenized")
1/2 cup plain yogurt (for starter...I used Dannon Activa which has a little sugar, but in a whole batch I figured that much sugar wouldn't have a strong impact. You just need to have a yogurt with "live and active cultures" and I wonder if they all do)
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
mix-ins: fruit, Splenda, True Lemon, Stevia, etc. (not all at once, but experiment with individual servings. We used Splenda and blueberries, Splenda and True Lemon). Again, my goal was to avoid sugar, so fresh crushed fruit went a long way.

Here's how:
Cook 2 quarts of milk on low in the crock pot for 2 1/2 hours.
Unplug crock pot and let it sit for 3 hours.
After 3 hours, scoop out 2 cups, wisk in 1/2 cup starter yogurt and the gelatin to the 2 cups, mix well and add back to the pot. Stir to incorporate.
Put the lid back on the crock pot and cover with a heavy towel or blanket. Keep unplugged.
Let sit for 8 hours.
After 8 hours, stir again and its done! Divide large batch into smaller ones that you can flavor as desired and refrigerate. The consistency is not as thick as regular store bought yogurt, and I wonder if adding an extra pack of gelatin would help. But regardless, after being refrigerated overnight and allowing the fruit to blend in, it was delicious. I think that fresh, juicy peaches would be a wonderful addition - or even canned, diced peaches with a little bit of canning syrup.

I don't know if yogurt can be frozen - I mean to preserve the 8 little pints (?) of yogurt we have in the fridge - but that said, I think I'll turn some of this into pushup pops for my wee ones.

Let me know if you make it. Hannah found it to be delicious. Even Abbo, who is not a big a fan of yogurt as Hanno is, enjoyed it!

home again!

What a long day yesterday was!!
We left Norfolk around 8:30 and drove to Nottoway. The wild grapes this year were most abundant and I wanted to get a harvest so I can make more jelly. I got 3 WM bags full; I should be able to do some interesting things with them.
From Nottoway, it was on to Roanoke. We pulled in to the parking garage at about quarter after 3. My appointment was at 3:30. I finally got seen sometime after 5:30. 5:30!!! Then, the nurse got a little freaked out that my arm was still so swollen and there was a little fluid when she started taking out the staples. The doctor came to look at it and said it was fine, that there had been so much deep tissue injury that it would take longer for the swelling to go away. So I got the staples out and got some sort of butterfly bandages put on that will stay for a few days, and then I'm done. I go back in a month for just one more x-ray to be sure all is well. There's not a whole lotta chance it won't be though; you should see the hardware he put in there. Its two plates, each almost the length of mt humerus. One is on the inside of the bone set down a couple inches from my shoulder and extending to my elbow. The other is screwed or drilled into the ball of my shoulder joint. I could use that arm for a bat and it still wouldn't break!!
After a Chic-Fil-A treat, we finally made it home around 8. Everyone (except Andy, who had school) went directly to bed. Unfortunately, early to bed means early to rise and they were all up at 6:30 this morning. Maybe tomorrow we'll get back on schedule. Meanwhile, today, I have to get some little attitudes adjusted and some habits trained back in and out. I'm running on extra strength Tylenol and prayer, biding my time till Andy gets home and we can do our Friday night WalMart run.
Here we go again, me with a bit of a gimp arm, but I think I'll manage somehow!