Homesteading Legos

We went to my in-laws' house this past weekend since we didn't get out there for their Memorial Day celebration. It rained, so we were stuck inside. The boys decided to dive into my brother-in-law's old Legos. Not to be outdone by their spaceships and boats filled to the brim with guns and lasers, I spotted a horse and inspiration struck!

There's a rain barrel, windmill, compost bin (actually a treasure chest) and garden (they had only one plant, so use your imaginations here, folks!). The work horse is there for manure, of course. ;)

I'm SO pitching this to the Legos people... :P

Frugal Babywearing: How to Carry a Baby in a Bed Sheet

(Video from Magic City Slingers Blog)

Babywearing may be all the rage now, but it's hardly new and really, truly does not have to be expensive. A simple bedsheet will do in a pinch, as the video above shows you. It'll take some practice, but nothing more than the Moby Wrap or the Ultimate Baby-Wrap Carrier requires.

The "carrier" featured in the video does not require any sewing, but if you'd like to get a little more tailored with your bedsheet:

Sling Article and How-To
Karma Baby's Sling Pattern

And if you've already got mini-mamas at home, like me:

A DIY Child's Pouch Sling @ Chasing Cheerios

Oh how I'm looking forward to the days of having a baby snuggled against my chest... *sigh*

Toy Review 3: Melissa and Doug Wooden Bear Family Dress-Up Puzzle

Ahhhh, the last toy review. A family member purchased this Melissa and Doug Wooden Bear Family Dress-Up Puzzle for Callie. Some of the Melissa and Doug stuff I really like, some not so much, but this one is pretty great. It doesn't have any of the plastic pegs in the pieces as some wooden puzzles do. All three of the kids like to play with it, claiming a bear for themselves and acting out imaginary scenarios. Each bear in the family has several facial pieces to choose from, each with its own expression. This adds a little something beyond the normal mix-and-match clothing puzzles that I see so often, and Callie really gets a kick out of it!

My favorite thing about this puzzle is that the pieces store in a sectioned box onto which slides the puzzle base as a lid. No more hard, wooden puzzle pieces to step on or lose! You can just pop this baby on a shelf and go about your day.

I'd recommend this for the toddler and pre-kindergarten set. The head pieces are choking size, so don't buy it for the toddler who is still prone to sticking things in their mouth.

Overall rating (out of 5 stars): *****
Affordability: *****
Educational value: ****
Durability: *****
Ease of use: *****
Versatility: ****
Environmental Friendliness: ****
Fun: *****

Toy Review 2: Disney Princess Super Playhouse Tent with Lights

Picture from toysrus.com

Next up comes the toy with the absolute worst rating from us. This is a toy that will be returned for sure. I'm not sure where this was purchased because it was bought by a family member for Annie. Let's first put aside the whole Disney princess character debate, okay? Okay. Thanks. The real problems with this toy have nothing to do with its nourishment for the young girl's soul.

All right, all right. In the interest of staying positive, I will say that Annie was thrilled when she got this. Though we already have a playhouse type thing, she is much more into castles than she is into cottages, so we acquiesced and opened it despite my distaste for duplicate gifts. The thing is humongous and can fit all three of my kids comfortably for a little tea party or refuge from attacking skeleton armies (I'll let you guess which scenario belongs to which child's imagination).

Now onto the cons. My first and biggest complaint is that the tent just doesn't work. The poles (plastic, of course) are meant to be inserted into channels in the fabric shell, but almost all of the poles are about an inch too long to fit into the channels! This means that they cannot be secured by the velcro flaps and slide out with just a bit of jostling by the children, forcing the roof to collapse. I looked online at various sites to see if others had this problem, and they had. In fact, this product got only 2 stars on the Toys 'R' Us website. There were also poles to expand the turret rooms, but the channels for these were actually sewn shut on our particular playhut.

The problems mentioned above are easily and cheaply solved (wood dowels cut to size, paring down the plastic poles, etc.), but when you pay $50 for an item, there shouldn't be any immediate need to fix things, right?

Did I mention that the playhouse actually requires batteries!? There are LED lights around the doorway of the castle, apparently "for safe nighttime play" (toysrus.com again). So... polyester shell, plastic skeleton, battery-powered LED lights, foreign made... not the most eco-conscious toy on the market.

I would absolutely not recommend this product to anyone.

Overall rating (out of 5 stars): *
Affordability: ***
Educational value: **
Durability: *
Ease of use: *
Versatility: ****
Environmental Friendliness: *
Fun: ***

Toy Review 1: Quadrilla Marble Railway Basic Set

So, the gift-giving holidays of 2008 are over. Phew! As usual, between us, their grandparents, aunts, and uncles, the kids got more than they asked for and more than they needed. Some of it was wonderful and some of it was... well, returnable. I thought that over the next week I'd give reviews of some of the best and worst gifts given to our children, not to brag about what they got, but as a guide to my fellow parents out there.

First up is one of the best toys: the Quadrilla Marble Railway Basic Set. This was actually purchased by me for Airius (on sale through Oompa Toys) after reading every review I could find online. Airius loves to work with his hands but still lacks the fine motor skills needed for writing, drawing, and many other creative endeavors, so I thought this might be a nice step up from the typical building blocks that he's been playing with for years.

My favorite thing about this product is the endless learning opportunities it provides. Each block has its own specific function, so it requires some problem solving skills and a basic grasp of gravity/physics to form an effective marble run. The manufacturer provides a guide with building instructions for several fun configurations, but my kids almost immediately wanted to go into uncharted territory and make their own setups. Awesome!

My biggest complaint about the Quadrilla is that it is touted as being a wooden toy, but there are actually plastic parts to it. Each of the wooden blocks has a small plastic ring at its junction point, and some of the blocks have other plastic bits to guide the marbles. The wooden pieces are beautiful, though, and the blocks are dyed in water-based stains. A lesser complaint is that the structures are a bit delicate once they're set up. It's relatively easy to knock things out of whack while sending down a deluge of marbles, which of course makes the marbles go everywhere, but as long as things don't get too rambunctious it usually stays intact. There are plastic sets that lock together more securely if you don't mind the tradeoff of plastic versus wood. The occassional diversions are great learning opportunities, if you ask me, requiring the kids to slow down and troubleshoot their structure to figure out just where things are going awry.

There are many add-ons for the basic set that can be purchased to keep your child's imagination growing. We haven't yet tried any of these or shown them to the kids because I'm trying to discourage "collector mentality," but we will be keeping them in mind for later gifts if the kids seem interested.

Overall, this is a product I would highly recommend to other parents. Even today, nearly a week after it was opened, all of the kids are enjoying this toy. The Quadrilla is much, much more expensive than its fully plastic counterparts, as is to be expected, but I think the extra price is worth it.

Overall rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Affordability: ***
Educational value: ****
Durability: ****
Ease of use: **** (recommended for the 5 and up crowd especially)
Versatility: *****
Environmental Friendliness: ** (they get docked extra for misleading advertising)
Fun: *****

Homemade Gift (Kinda Sorta)

Annie absolutely cannot stop drawing and crafting. She wants to do it all day long, every day, and she brings at least 5 drawings or projects home each day from school. For her birthday, then, I decided that she might appreciate her very own art box. This way she doesn't have to ask me to get the crayons for her (which are put up because a certain 2-year-old has covered every single downstairs wall with doodles), and I got to introduce some new craft items to her that have been stored in my cache.

In total, this gift cost about $20 because there were a few items that we don't generally keep on hand in the house that I wanted to add especially for her. The box itself is actually my old Caboodle that I kept my makeup and accessories in as a teen. In the box we have:

3 craft punches (dog, cat, and paw print for my little animal lover)-- From my scrapbooking stash

Mini stapler-- Bought new for use in making her own booklets

Large eraser-- Gathered from the kids' art supplies

Pencil sharpener-- Gathered from the kids' art supplies

Two pencils-- Gathered from the kids' art supplies

Glue stick-- Gathered from the kids' art supplies

Safety scissors-- Bought new since we only had one pair in the house

Heart shaped paperclips-- Bought new (and grudgingly)

8 Glitter glue pens-- Bought new; the most expensive new item, but I knew she'd love them!

Crayons-- Gathered from the kids' art supplies

White sketching paper-- I looked all over for a mini sketchbook that would fit, but couldn't find one. Instead, I cut up some larger sheets we already had at home.

Construction paper-- Again, small sheets cut from larger sheets we already had

Pipe cleaners-- Gathered from the kids' art supplies

Beads-- Bought new

Elastic thread for beading-- Bought new

Cinderella stamp and pad of stamping paper-- Received in a party gift bag earlier in the year

Phew! I think that's it. As her skills improve, we'll add things gradually. For now, this keeps her plenty occupied. She makes magic wands from the pipe cleaners, bracelets and necklaces from the beads and elastic thread, and has covered every sheet of paper in glittery doodles. Fun stuff!

The Children Are Nestled All Snug in Their Beds... Part 2

Just goes to show that daddies are good co-sleepers too.

Word to the wise: don't type your blog posts in too much of a hurry. It's inevitable that you will forget something. I rushed a bit through my previous post on how to keep infants and children warm at night in the chill of a 55 degree home, thus I neglected to add the last tip.

Sticking with our Victorian Night Before Christmas theme, imagine how the beds of the poem's subjects would have looked. A stand alone metal bed frame with a mattress perched on top? Guess again. Canopy and four poster beds were very common back then and with good reason. The drapery surrounding the bed is just one more layer of insulation, keeping out the cold and keeping in the body heat. So, if after layers of pajamas, socks, and blankets your child is still cold, or if they absolutely must sleep by themselves, consider adding some drapery around the bed. We've all seen the cutesy mosquito netting kits for sale in department stores that promise to make your daughter feel like a princess, but you don't even have to buy anything to make this idea work. Grab some extra sheets, blankets, curtains, or yards of fabric that you have laying around the house and nail/staple it right to your child's ceiling if you must. It may not be pretty or ultra-convenient, but it will work.

The method I prefer, if your child doesn't have a canopy bed, is to attach curtain rods to the ceiling and hang the drapery fabric from that, very similar to this. If the bed is against a wall or in a corner, you can simply install the rods at the open sides of the bed. The wall won't provide as much insulation as the canopy will, but it'll save you money and/or time this way and still give much the same effect of keeping warmth in. Make simple tiebacks from your ribbon stash (what?? you don't have one!?), fabric cords, or strips of fabric. You can get as fancy or as simple as you'd like with this. Let your imagination and the supplies you already have guide you.

A canopy is probably not the best idea for an infant who is old enough to pull to a standing position by themselves or for toddlers who still live in close connection to our genetic relatives, the apes. Those curtain rods will not hold up to a lot of pulling or swinging, and you don't want to add anything that might become a choking hazard. For your newborn or very small infant who is not yet doing much moving in their bed, install the curtain rods far enough out from the edges of the crib that they won't be able to grab them, even accidentally, through the bars of their crib.

One very last thing. Do your best not to put your child's bed/crib near a window. It's inevitable, regardless of how new or good your windows are, that there will be a draft. I know that sometimes it's just impossible not to use a window wall because of a room's configuration, but do your best. If the bed must be by a window, get some thermal insulating drapes to keep out the drafts.

If anyone has any pictures or other do-it-yourself canopy ideas, please share!

Annie Asks...

"Mom, why is toilet paper made of paper?" (Picture is a self-portrait of Annie.)

I love these moments when the children start to catch on to the changes we're making, and it prompts them to ask questions and probe into why things are the way they are and why we're making a change. We haven't completely phased out toilet paper at BobbleHead yet, mainly because my husband is adamantly refusing to give it up, but I have the kids using old baby washcloths to wipe themselves when they urinate. I was extremely tense that they might forget and flush the cloth down the toilet causing who knows what amount of plumbing havoc, but they've not forgotten yet, and it's been many months.

Annie and I had quite the discussion (with Airius and The Bean listening on, of course) about how toilet paper disintegrates in water, which she immediately had to try in the sink. Then she wanted to know why we would want to use cloth when the toilet paper just disappears. I have to wash the cloth. Why would I want to do that? This led to a conversation of where paper comes from, how long it takes trees to grow, why trees are so important to our planet, how much toilet paper costs, etc. My girl is amazing, I tell ya. She knew more than I thought she would, and I'm sure she absorbed the new stuff.

Luckily, she didn't ask why we don't use the cloth wipes for fecal cleanup, but I wouldn't put it past her to do it once just to see how I react. ;)

How do your kids handle all the changes you've been making during your journey to simplicity?

The Children Are Nestled All Snug in Their Beds...

The twins at 5 months old, all cuddled up together.

Crunchy Chicken's Freeze Yer Buns Challenge is getting close, so despite outdoor temperatures of nearly 80 degrees (!), I've been thinking warm thoughts. One of the questions that seems to be asked every year for the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge is how to keep infants and children warm when you've decided to turn the thermostat down to 55 degrees at night. The twins, my first children, were born in November when we lived in a drafty apartment. I quickly began to look backwards, into history, to see how babies were kept warm in the days before we could set our digital thermostats at whatever temperature made us most comfortable. Here are just a few of the strategies I used (and still use) to keep our little ones nice and snug:

The best source of heat in cold weather is body heat, in my opinion. It works quickly, doesn't require artifical and possibly dangerous energy sources, and creates family unity. That said, my first recommendation for keeping any infant or child warm is to welcome them into your bed. This is called co-sleeping nowadays, and there is plenty of information available about how to do so safely. This can be very scary for someone who has been conditioned to think that co-sleeping is dangerous, and I understand. But remember: "According to the National SIDS Alliance, approximately 2,700 babies die each year from SIDS; the vast majority of those sleeping alone in a crib. In the CPSC study, 515 died between 1990 to 1997 directly as a result of poor safety in co-sleeping." Both mom and dad, but especially a breast-feeding mother, are specially designed to help their infants regulate their body temperatures. That's something a blanket just can't do.

Co-sleeping is also often the most frugal sleeping option for baby. The purchase of a crib, bassinet, or cradle can be delayed or put off altogether. I purchased cribs and was given bassinets for the twins, but I rarely used them at night. (There are those times when you just need some time in bed with your partner to... bond ;-) If your child(ren) has a separate room, you can shut off the register to their room at night and funnel all the heat to the room you're sleeping in together.

As an offshoot of parental co-sleeping, there's also sibling co-sleeping. All those renditions of The Night Before Christmas with a bedful of sleeping children are more than quaint, they're practical. Again, body heat is best for keeping everyone snug. It is not wise to keep an infant or very young child in bed with older siblings. The Bean has only started sleeping with Annie this winter, and The Bean is now more than two years old. Annie and Airius did sometimes sleep together as infants, but as toddlers they preferred separation from each other, even when they were in Mommy's and Daddy's bed. There may be squabbling between children who share a bed, but there's a lot of bonding and closeness too. When the girls are just getting under each other's skin, the threat of having to go to their own beds is usually enough to quiet them. Airius's main reason for wanting a baby brother was because he wants someone to share a room with. Since the twins are only 4 (soon to be 5... boo hoo!), we do not discourage him from sleeping with his sisters if he wants. It just seems to be that they segregate themselves from sleeping together.

Get out your knitting needles because suggestion #3 is to wear a hat to bed. Are we seeing a theme emerge here? "And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap..." Okay, you don't have to knit your own. Just grab a stocking hat from your winter stash and keep it on all day and night. Be sure both your infants and children have them too. Though the exact percentage is debated, most scientists agree that a high percentage of your body heat is lost through your head. The head of an infant is large in proportion to the rest of its body, so this is especially true for them. Keep those baby beanies on your little one! Most children I know absolutely love hats of all types, so I've never had one balk at wearing a nightcap. Make sure they fit snugly on those little heads so that they don't pose a choking hazard. There are so many cute hat patterns for kids and babies that you may have a whole slew of them by the end of winter! Try to stay away from hats with strings around the neck. These could be a choking hazard for children while they sleep.

After your littles have donned their night caps, make sure their feet are covered. Have you ever put your feet in warm or cold water and felt a temperature shift in your whole body? Exactly. I'd recommend a thinner, daily wear sock go on the feet first. Cover these with a thick woolen sock. It's best if both pairs of socks go to at least mid-calf. This will prevent kids from kicking their socks off in their sleep and add a little warmth to the legs where pajama pants or nightgowns can hike up and leave skin bare. For infants and small children, footed sleepers are a blessing. You can put socks either underneath or over top of the footies. I've had better luck putting the socks over top. Somehow, my kids always manage to kick the socks off if they're inside the footies. Then they just have big, lumpy socks rolling around in their jammies all night. Not comfortable. My kids have never seemed to need more than two pairs of socks, but use your best judgement.

Layering pajamas and blankets is an easy enough solution. This doesn't have to be layering pajama on top of pajama. Simply adding a t-shirt under a nightshirt or a pair of body hugging thermal underwear underneath can be enough. With infants, I recommend a long-sleeved onesie underneath their pajamas. If they're sleeping with you, this should be more than sufficient (it may even be too much). If your baby is on its own at night, I'd suggest adding a sleep sack over the pajamas. It is both more dangerous and more likely for your baby to be too hot than too cold. Don't feel extremities to test for warmth. Touch their bare chest instead or their bare head. For children over a year old, layering blankets is a no-brainer. Do not put loose blankets atop your infant. We used to tuck flannel receiving blankets into the sides of the crib when the babes were napping during the day, but at night they only used sleep sacks when they weren't sleeping with me. In bed with me, I'd layer tight-fitting clothing over my chest and simply keep the blankets tucked around my waist, legs, and feet. This way, the baby was in no danger of suffocation from our bulky blankets.

Flannel sheets don't create warmth, but they seem to retain it better than the cotton sheets of summer. If you compare climbing into a winter bed dressed with flannel sheets to one dressed with cotton sheets, well, there really is no comparison. It's just not as cold. In my area, flannel sheets are difficult to find in thrift stores, freecycle, or garage/yard sales, but you can often get them at the various discount stores in all kinds of cute prints. My goal (yet to be reached) is to have two sets of flannel sheets for each bed in the house.

If you've got a rice pouch for easing tummy aches and breast woes, heat your rice pouch to a safe temperature and stick it in your infant's or child's bed before they go to sleep. With older children, you can leave the pouch in bed for them to tuck their feet against. With small children and infants, remove the pouch before they climb under their covers. Those flannel sheets will stay warm for quite awhile after baby is laid down, making it easier for them to keep that body temperature. You can also add various herbs to your pouch to soothe baby. Warming herbs, like cinnamon, ginger, or cloves can be nice as well but may keep baby awake. Have fun experimenting.

This is how I manage to keep my children (and myself!) dreaming of sugar plums each winter. So snuggle up those babies in their cute little nightcaps and hibernate for awhile. You will not want to get out of bed, I swear. :) What are your suggestions for keeping infants and children warm in cold weather?

I Can Finally Breathe...

The first week of preschool is done. I have three days of lovin' with all of my children. Annie said that she'd cried a bit at school yesterday because she missed me. It's okay to miss me, kid. I missed you too. I was looking forward to spending the day outside with my babies, cleaning up the yard and garden (it desperately needs it!), but that is not to be. It began storming last night and is expected to continue throughout the weekend, and Annie is coughing, Airius has a runny nose, and my throat is sore. We're getting used to all those billions of new germs courtesy of classmates and teachers. Hopefully it'll blow over by Monday in time for school, but who knows. Chicken noodle soup and orange juice are on the menu today.

All in all, preschool hasn't been that bad. I've seen some good things. It's been wondrous to see just how confident my kids are and to see that, yes, they CAN behave. lol I got to witness the beginnings of a meal at Head Start, and there was a surprising amount of good. The plates and silverware were all reusable rather than styrofoam or paper disposables. The only disposable I saw for that meal was the milk cartons. They also have "family style" meals, which means that the teachers eat with the kids at one long table, pass around bowls or platters of food, let each child serve themselves providing help only if needed, and there's a fair amount of interaction and conversation. That day, they served cheeseburgers with lettuce and tomatoes, french fries, and white milk. Not great, not horrible.

I'm also encouraged by their security measures. The yellow buses actually have harness style belts, which the bus aides help the children into. When I went to school, there wasn't a seatbelt to be found on a bus. Each child has to be signed into the bus and/or school. I have to sign them onto the bus, and I have to sign them off. They even asked for my ID the first day and will ask for the ID of anyone else that tries to sign them off of the bus to make sure they're on the list of permitted people. If I take them to school or pick them up, it's the same thing. I have to sign 'em in and out.

Each class gets 30 min. of time outdoors on the playground every single day, which I'm thankful for. Annie and Airius are used to being outside all day, so I wasn't sure how they'd handle being cooped up for 3 hours a day.

The BEST thing, though, is that I get to spend time alone with Callie for the first time in her life. She's having a hard time adjusting to being without her Booboo and Sissy, but I am really enjoying our closeness. It's apparent that I haven't missed anything about her, I always knew who she was, but just being able to cuddle her and focus on her without any competition is a huge bonus. Yesterday, we spent our entire hour before lunch and naptime "painting" on the walkway out front with water. A couple old paintbrushes and sponges and a bowl of water kept her occupied with no trouble at all. Towards the end, she started adding leaves, rocks, flowers, and twigs to the water and stirring it with the paintbrush. Her own witch's brew. I'm so proud! ;)

Still, my mind keeps drifting to homeschooling. I suspected that one of the women who lives at the end of my road homeschools, so when I saw her yesterday evening, I asked if that was the case and told her that I was considering it as an option. She pointed down our road and said, "I homeschool. The house next door to me homeschools, and the house next door to that homeschools. You certainly wouldn't be alone and would have plenty of people to go to for advice or encouragement." Bless her. I think, ultimately, I'm going to let the kids decide. I know that it's my emotions, both maternal and pregnant, that are driving my thoughts toward this.

Take a deep breath, Mama. You're in this until May...

Change is Afoot

Dear Airius and Annie,

Today, for the first time in your lives, I left you in the care of complete strangers for 3 1/2 hours. You were both thrilled. Though Daddy and I managed to make it through without tears, it was a bittersweet moment for us. On one hand, I'm amazed that I've managed to raise two children who feel self-assured enough that they weren't the least bit concerned with their parents leaving them. I'm in awe of the fact that you've both been classified as "outgoing" and "talkative," despite being raised in a situation where your social expression has been minimized and your father is content to go weeks without seeing another living being. I feel proud, with a sense of parental accomplishment, that both of you approached this change with unfettered optimism and excitement.

On the other hand... I'm so sad to see you go. Sitting just beyond the reach of that maternal pride is a lump of guilt and a huge feeling of failure for having sent you off to be taught by others rather than having kept you home to learn as a family. I'm so very hesitant to let you go, my two first little hatchlings that really made this nest. It's so very strange to know that some other woman will be teaching you, guiding you, shaping you, and even feeding you! Maybe I'm even just a bit jealous that someone else will wheedle their way into your affections. Maybe.

But, oh! The confidence that you both have! Annie, you didn't hesitate for a moment. I asked you three times if you wanted me to stay until all the other kids came into the classroom. You were having none of it, waving cheerily and sending me on my way, pigtails bouncing as you skipped towards the dolls laid in a mini cradle. I was strong then and walked out with my head held high after giving you a hug and kiss and snapping a photo, but I'm fighting back tears now as I remember that moment.

Airius, you stomped your foot impatiently as you waited for the morning class to file out before you could enter. One glance around the room, and you were off exploring, as is your way. A door opened here, a toy fondled there, your tiny hands (so much bigger than the day you were born, I remind myself) running over the covers of books as you decided which one to pull out. You snarled at me as I tried to catch you in my camera's viewfinder. When the teacher asked everyone to gather on the rug, you were the first there and remained rapt as she read you a puppet-accompanied story. You shouted out the answers to each question your teacher asked. Daddy told me it was time to go. When I arrived to pick you up later in the afternoon, the aide told me you'd been asking for me for the last half hour. Be still my heart!

As much as Daddy and I missed you though, there was one person who missed you more. Your little sister wouldn't show us any affection or speak to us for quite some time when she realized that we were leaving without you. Even a jaunt to a ne'er before visited park with both of her parents all to herself did little to placate her. When we pulled into the garage without her Booboo and Sissy in their respective places, she broke down. The look on her face when she saw the two of you had returned while she was napping... Well, I hope you both remember that. Pure adoration and love.

Yes, you have a wonderful family. A loving family. A close family. An imperfect family. You are blessed.

With all my forever love,
Mommy

~About the photo: The kids were all too cooperative for those kinds of heart-tugging photo ops that I dreamed of for this day, holding hands on the way into the building, heads held high and not looking back towards me even once... But I just couldn't do it without choking up. So, in the interest of Mommy staying strong, I let those opportunities pass and opted instead for the obligatory pic in front of the school sign.~

Back to School Thrifting for Clothes

Two dresses, three shirts, and two Wiggles puzzles for good measure. Total: $13.76. Annie was in heaven trying on garment after garment, though it was frustrating for me because there was so very little available in her size. Of course, we only hit the Goodwill store. The Salvation Army store usually has a much wider variety of clothing, so we'll try that one next. Airius is set for this year, and probably the next, because The Husband's aunt passed down all the clothes of her TWO older boys to us. Love that!



The puzzles were only $0.50 a piece for 25-piece puzzles, one Captain Feathersword and one Wags the Dog. That's just enough pieces to keep a preschooler busy but not so many that they get frustrated and give up. And I love the Wiggles, probably more than the kids do. We haven't seen an episode in years, but the kids remember them. I love to see the twins helping each other to put them together, and it sure beats sitting in front of the tv on a rainy day. Anyone who has a boy knows that, at the age of 4, they are much more appreciative of more mechanical, tactile activities like puzzles.



After our trip to Goodwill, we headed home. I dug a bit around the potato plants but felt nothing. Annie was begging me to dig up a carrot for her, even though I knew they weren't ready. The one I pulled up was maybe the size of my thumb, but she chowed it down right there in the garden, dirt and all! Airius asked for one too but wasn't nearly as delighted with his. I ate half of his. Mmmmm...

The Big School Decision

Yesterday the kids and I met with two "family advocates" from the Head Start program. Both women were very kind and LOVED the children, but I can't say I'm convinced yet that we're doing the right thing. The decision to send my kids to public school or to homeschool has been weighing on my mind for years, and there just hasn't seemed to be one of those moments yet where I feel that yes-THIS-is-the-way-things-are-supposed-to-be feeling. There were a lot of factors that went into me finally signing the kids up for the Head Start program:

1. This isn't really school yet. It's preschool. It'll give me a chance to feel out how the kids develop with other kids around, other authority figures, and more structure than they'd get at home (well, maybe not. I'm a diehard fan of the schedule.). Are they really learning more than they do at home?

2. My kids (and I) are very socially isolated. Our closest family members are at least an hour away, and the only friends we have in the neighborhood are our next door neighbors whom we love, but... In fact, the only little boy Airius knows that is his own age is his cousin whom we see only at family functions. I've looked at the homeschool groups in our area, and all of them are, well, Christian. I have a deep respect for Christianity, but our religion doesn't fall into that category. I'd feel like a bit of a fraud.

3. Annie has shown a keen interest in going to school. I've told her that she could stay at home and learn as a family, but the idea kind of bums her out. That bums me out, but this isn't about me. I won't even hope for her to change her mind, promise. Yesterday after our meeting, Annie grabbed the hands of one of the women and said, "can I go to school with you now?" lol Airius was asking the same thing but wasn't quite bold enough to grab their hands. He serenaded them for awhile though. ;)

4. I'm not convinced that a child's success in school or life is dependent upon how or where they were schooled. Maybe I've read Freakonomics one too many times, but I think that if we encourage and support our children through their education, the returns will be great regardless of their schooling.

5. I'm really not at all confident that I could do homeschooling successfully. There I said it. Happy?

Anyway, the book isn't closed on this topic yet, and I plan to do a lot more research throughout this school year, but I wholeheartedly welcome respectful opinions on this subject. Do you homeschool your kids? Why or why not? Any book/website recommendations on the subject?

Don't Play with Your Food!

Have you ever noticed how many crafts for children involve food? I'm not talking about making food. I'm talking about using food for something other than its intended purpose of being eaten. For example, if you went to public school, you probably made "moroccas" filled with rice or dried beans. Did you ever do sugar drawing, where a bunch of white sugar is poured onto a cookie sheet so that kids can drag their fingers or toys through it to make designs? I'm sure most of us have done the obligatory macaroni necklaces or glued macaroni to a piece of construction paper to make a design.

What does this have to do with anything?

Well, it drives me a little batty. On the one hand, I'm all for encouraging the creativity of children and looking at items from a different perspective. After all, the ability to see something for what it could be rather than what it was intended to be is at the heart of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" motto. However, it drives me crazy to think of all the food wasted in these activities. When you're trying to grow your own food and/or live a frugal life, wasting a pound of white sugar so that your kids will be quiet while you try to whip up a batch of soap or hang the clothes on the line just doesn't seem quite right. Many of the food items used are staples as well: dried beans, rice, pasta, sugar and salt. These are items that most of us cannot grow on our own because of space or climate limitations as well, which means we're wasting things which have used lots of dollars and gallons of oil to reach us. Frustrating! Some of the things might be reuseable after our kiddies are done with them, like the dried beans or rice in a toilet paper roll morocca, but many of them are not salvageable. Who wants to eat macaroni with bits of glue stuck to it? And you can bet that sugar from the sugar drawing is filled with snot, slobber, and plenty of unappetizing bacteria.

Therefore, today I offer up just a few alternatives to these ideas in the hopes that one of our most precious resources, our food, will stay on our plates and in our pantries rather than making its way uneaten to the garbage can.

First, we'll tackle the issue of the homemade shakers/moroccas. Rather than using rice or dried beans or another food item, consider loaning your children use of your stash of buttons. (Doesn't every homesteading mom have a jar filled with buttons, you know, just in case?) After the kids are done gettin' their groove on, you can simply reclaim your buttons by pouring them back into the jar. Some other alternatives are beads, washers or nuts of the home repair variety (though I suppose unshelled nuts would be okay because you could still eat them afterwards), bottle caps, shells, or any myriad of small toys. I'm particularly fond of using all those wonderful little plastic Barbie shoes that no child ever seems to keep on their doll's feet.

Up next is the macaroni necklace. Really these aren't all that bad. Because you're really just sticking them on a string, the pasta is reuseable. If, however, you're dying the pasta with food coloring or your kids are like most kids and stick everything in their mouths, all those macaroni elbows will most certainly go to waste. Again, you could replace the macaroni with buttons, beads, washers or nuts (which usually have nice, big holes to make it easy on young children). OR you could use your favorite rolled oats cereal and let your kids snack on it throughout the day. I've done this with my kids before, and they could barely get the cereal strung before they started eating because it was just so cool to them. If your child doesn't eat all of the cereal, you can hang the necklace up on a tree branch and let the birds and squirrels have a go at it as well.

As far as the macaroni paste pictures go, I recommend replacing the macaroni with something non-edible and non-recyclable, like styrofoam peanuts or those little tabs that come on bread products bought from the supermarket. If you're smart enough not to have any of that laying around your house, you can probably find some on your local Freecycle.

The sugar drawing is easy to remedy if you have access to play sand. Pick a bag of it up at your local hardware store and store it in a bucket with a lid. You can scoop out some sand for playing with on your cookie sheet whenever the mood strikes, and it's reuseable for that purpose. Just pour it back in your bucket, and you're good to go. In fact, if you don't do this activity very often (and if you have even a little bit of neat freak in you, you won't) you can use that bucket full of sand to store store carrots over winter. You can't wash sugar, but you can wash sand for this purpose just to be extra sure you're not getting any nasty kid germs in there with your veggies. Just put your sand in a pillowcase and rinse it.

While certainly not an exhaustive list of childrens crafts that include edible components, hopefully this will give my fellow homesteading and frugal parents a few alternatives to these wasteful projects.