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June 19, 2009

Summer Vacation Rules

 
summer vacation
Hello first week of summer vacation. Let’s see, so far we have made our own bubble mix and bubble wands, made our father’s day gifts and cards, been to a concert, had very long (but fun) playdates, grilled out, played games, been to Portland, we’ve been to the water, limitless kid crafting, had some really fun music in heavy rotation, made cookies, painted wooden articulated lizards, filled up our Ipods and listened to them, and watched a couple movies.
Keep in mind we are wrapping up our first week. I am completely exhausted.READ MORE

June 10, 2009

Teacher Gifts

teacher gifts

Thanks so much for all the kind words on the checker set. If you’re thinking of making one, go for it  and include the kids on the felted rock making, they will love it, super easy. Be sure and check back in the comment section of that post, I answered some general questions that came up and linked to a tutorial on making the rocks.READ MORE

June 8, 2009

Homespun Checkers

 
checkers
The kids are getting older around here, which means the game playing is getting a little easier (fewer tears). I’ve had so much fun playing the classics with them lately. The other day, when felting my millionth rock, and wondering what to do with all all these felted rocks I’m accumulating (never mind that some would wonder what to do with even one felted rock)?? I had the idea come to me to make a checker set for the kids and I and, of course, the treehouse.READ MORE

June 7, 2009

Pantry Pizza

 
pantry pizza
I’ve been loving Molly’s blog these days, I love her style of writing, the way she talks about days with her kids, and life in general. Her grocery challenge post really made me think last week. Our dining habits need overhauling. We are one of those totally city families when it comes to food. We take full advantage of the quick, easy, and good food around us whenever we feel busy or too lazy to cook for ourselves. Which is often these days. Too often. And too expensive. Don’t get me wrong, I really do like to cook, but I don’t like to cook for picky eaters, and its hard to stay motivated to be creative with our meals. So, we head out to eat, or we grab on the go, yet always feel guilty about the expense and lack of thought put into it.
 
So, when I read Molly’s post about skipping the grocery store for a week, I decided to give it a try…of sorts. My mindset was to let us run out of some things. The idea was to work through our seemingly abundant supply in the pantry and really stop and think about meal prep. Today, when Peter was heading home from the track, he called to asked if he should pick up lunch. “There’s stuff here to eat”, I suggested. “But I don’t think there’s anything I want, and I’m starving.” The lack of a response on my end of the line was apparently all it took for him to quickly rethink lunch. We figured out within a minute that everything was here for tuna melts. Turns out we had everything on hand for homemade pizza for dinner too, plus watermelon. Pizza is one of those meals that pleases everybody in my house. If I make the dough, I know what’s in it (and I can usually get little hands to help me). I gather, chop, grate, and carmelize what’s in the fridge, then put it all out for everyone to make their own versions. (My most successful pizza dough recipes are always the ones from The Best Recipe, from the editors of Cook’s Illustrated. Tonight I made the fast rise one in my standing mixer. It rises in about 40 minutes with the help of a preheated oven.)
pantry pizza
Molly, thank you so much for inspiring me. I am happy we are getting back on track here.
OK, back tomorrow. I made some stuff over the weekend.
B

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