Flour Fun

This is one of Little Loaf's first high chair activities. I had that bag of flour left over that Freckle Foot play with while I did my Christmas baking.

Both the kids were very content. In the end,  I just patted them down to get the flour off and swept the deck. We all enjoyed this activity.

Salty and Sweet

Freckle Foot

Little Loaf

Well I was just looking at pictures of the kids when they were born. I get this nostalgic feeling that never existed on the day of their birth because I was too anxious about their arrival but it’s there now. I know 30 years from now I will look back and think this was my favorite time in our lives. Everyday is hard, it’s hard to get everything done, in the moment , the hour, the day, the week. It’s hard being tired all the time, it’s hard feeling run down all the time, it’s hard to feel like you are constantly under a time crunch, get them down for a nap, diapers changed, food prepared. What I do like is Freckle Foot staying in her PJ’s all day and I don’t care, because it doesn’t matter. I get to play peek a boo with Little Loaf on the floor. I can hear them laughing together while I make dinner at 9 am in the morning.  Because that is when I had the energy to make it. Life is salty and sweet.

Rock and pocket charts

Freckle Foot is on the landing in our stairwell. She has wanted to play with her "rocks" so I put her on the landing because they are choking hazards for Little Loaf.  There is a gate that you can't see at the bottom of the stairs. Just to keep her interested in hanging out there I put up the red pocket chart that I got from Target. The pocket chart is really flimsy I would love to get one from Lakeshore Learning. The color cards she is playing with are from Homeschool Creations. This kept her entertained for a while. Then she decided she wanted to throw the "rocks" at the wall. We found a new activity after we cleaned up.

Spelt Flour Sourdough Waffles

My husband loves waffles so I adapted this recipe from a friend who I will call Little Sis.  She is the little sister my parents never gave me but I was lucky enough to find along the way. The original recipe is delicious

Original Sour Dough Waffles

1/2 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast (2 tsp)
1 cup butter milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda

 Rita's Spelt Flour Sour Dough Waffles

1/2 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast (2 tsp)
2 cups warmed butter milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 cups Spelt flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda

Use a large mixing bowl- the batter will rise and double it's original volume
1. Put the water in the mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand to dissolve for abut 5 minutes.
2. Heat the milk till luke warm in the microwave.
3. Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar, and flour to the yeast mixture and beat until smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand over night at room temperature.
4. Just before cooking the waffles add 2 eggs and the 1/2 tsp baking soda.

This makes a pretty big batch I am not sure how many. There are always left over waffles that I throw in the freezer. Just put them in the toaster to reheat. Enjoy~

Linen Closet- inspiration for spring cleaning

I am not sure what possessed me to clean out the linen closet but man does that feel good. I use everything in this closet now. I took out all the items I don't use. OK, minus a couple of wool blankets. Now I am not sure what to do with my table clothes? Where do I put them? I don't want to throw them away but I can't really use them with small children in the house. Where do you hide them?  Oh if only the whole house could be this clean and organized all the time. This closet inspired me to clean and organize a few other drawers in the kitchen. It feels great to open a drawer and know it's deep cleaned. Finally a satisfying moment as a Stay-at-home-mom.

stomach flu

son of a ....Little Loaf just threw up like a gallon of fluid. I promise this is the last post on this subject.

Stomach Flu

Well I won't provide pictures of what we have been up to for the last four days. We all have the stomach flu. It started with Little Loaf, then me, Freckle Foot, then L. It has not been a pretty picture. I can't even count the loads of laundry I have done in the last few days. I lost count of how many times I have to change all of our sheets, towels, blankets, clothes, PJ's. I cringe every time I give the kids milk. I hate baby vomit. There are lots of things I don't like doing but baby vomit is at the top of my list. It's 10am and I am hoping that it's over. Please let it be over. Please let them sleep through the night. Hope no one was trying to eat while reading this post.

Granny Squares Doll Blanket

This is my first crocheting project. My mother in law came down a couple of weeks ago to teach me how to crochet granny squares.  Freckle Foot was very excited to finally have me make her something. Every time I am working on something Freckle Foot asks "Mommy is that for me?" she was delighted when I finally said yes. As soon as I was finished and handed it to her she said "mommy make me another one". I love that she is not shy about asking for what she wants. As she gets older I hope she is able to continue to asking for what she wants and asking for more.

The beauty in weeds

The weather has been so nice this winter we have been going for walks.  This bouquet of flowers came home with us. Freckle Foot loves to collect flowers on our walks. I try to teach her not to pick flowers out of peoples gardens. When she saw the beautiful yellow flowers in the grass she was so excited. I told her she could pick all the yellow flowers she wanted. Really she is doing the neighborhood a service picking the dandelions before they go to seed.

My funny boy!

Baby Activity

We got this container with rings from our neighbor. There were only a couple of rings that came with the toy and Little Loaf wanted to do more. I rounded up all the baby food lids I could find. This is one of his favorite activities.

Tweet Tweet Needle Case

I made two of these wool felt needle cases for a couple of my friends. It was a really fun and quick project. I used a pattern out of the Felt Wee Folks book. Originally it was supose to be a mini purse but I saw someone make a case for their sewing needles. I can't find the site but if I do I will provide the link

 I have all the felt cut out to make two more cases.  There is an owl pattern in the book that looks really cute. I will post them when I am done.

Broccoli Salad and Baked Potatoes

I have heard one of the ways to save money on grocery is to meal plan around the weekly sales adds. I do my meal planning once a month because it is hard for me to get to make multiple trips to the store. This week I was able to take advantage of a sale Fred Meyers was having.  Broccoli was .69 a pound and baked potatoes for .10 a pound.


I converted another recipe from my friend Managing Chaos.

Broccoli Salad
2 heads raw broccoli, stems trimmed
10 slices crisp bacon, chopped ( I omit the bacon to make it vegetarian)
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
2 Tb white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup raisins

Rinse the broccoli, cut into bite size pieces.
Mix sugar, white vinegar and raisins together for dressing.
Mix all together and chill.
I find this salad will only last over night in the frig. The broccoli begins to get soggy but some of my friends really like it a couple of days later.

Then baked potatoes and dressed them up with shredded cheese, green onions, some salad crunchy mix, and sour cream. It made a filling meal and it was cheap.

Little Loaf turns 1 year old

Another late post. Little Loaf turned 1 year old in February. He really liked his cake. I had so much fun making this truck for him. The side panels are made out of graham crackers and the dirt is chocolate cake crumbled up.

We had a small party with family. Little loaf was very excited to receive a car from his Grandma Gail and Papop. He knew just what to do with it. I was almost blissful on his birthday. We made it to a year. I made it to a year. We are done with the super baby stage. He is done nursing and on whole milk. Soon he will be walking and my back will start feeling better. Although I am very excited to move to the next stage of development, it is also bittersweet. I love nursing.

Our first Picnic- In February?

Well this is another late post. We had a beautiful stretch of weather a few weeks ago that I decided we had to have a picnic on the deck. Freckle Foot has been refusing to wear shoes outside even in February.

The kids were able to play in the sandbox for a while. Little Loaf really enjoyed playing with the sandbox for the first time. There was lots of sand in the bottom of my tub that night.

More Valentine's Activities

I found this tracing activity at Confessions of a Homeschooler. Freckle Foot loves her Preprinting with Mazes book so I thought I would see if she was interested in this tracing page. She prefers her maze book.

One of my friends came up and brought a car load of craft supplies that her neighbor was giving away.  I found these silk stuffed hearts. Freckle Foot and Little Loaf both enjoyed this activity. I just gave them this empty diaper wipes container. The had fun putting the hearts in and out. In fact I am still not sure where all the hearts are because the hid them all over the house.

Valentine's Day

We had a very nice Valentine's Day. Freckle Foot made Valentine's for all her favorite people of course. I received some beautiful tulips and the kids got a balloon to play with. In fact it's still floating around our house almost 3 weeks later.

I made a mailbox for Freckle Foot to practice sending Valentine's. It looks more like a kitchen oven than a mailbox. I cut down a diaper box then covered it with blue contact paper. Last year while I was still gleaning I got princess valentine's. Who knew a year ago that Freckle Foot would be so obsessed with Princess. She was thrilled with the Valentine's and I was surprised to find out she know all the names of the Disney Princess.

I made these bean bag hearts out of scrap fabric I had on hand. The hearts with the white background is fabric from my childhood that I stole from my mother ages ago. I made two of each so that we could work on matching patterns.

This isn't the greatest picture. You can see I made a line using masking tape on the floor and a heart out of blue painters tape. I wanted Freckle Foot to work on her throwing skills. She wasn't all that interested in it until the neighbor girls came over and then it was a fun game. It will be nice because I can use the hearts next year.

Brown Bear Brown Bear

Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me. This is a matching game I printed from the Tot School webite. Freckle Foot had a great time matching the heads and tails with the pictures in the book. She is just learning how to do puzzles. This activity was pretty simple but she still had to manipulate which directions the heads and tails went in. I was able to laminate the cards so we can use the animals for activities later.

Homemade No Bake Granola Bars- Just like Quaker Chewy Bars

This year I am on a quest to eliminate high fructose corn syrup from our diet. Most of the granola bar have high fructose corn syrup. I found this No Bake granola bars but of course I had to mess with the recipe to eliminate the corn syrup.  I am also excited to play with the ingredients to make chocolate chip granola bars. Here is how I altered the recipe:

2 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal
2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup rasins
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

My alterations to the recipe

1/2 cup Agave Nectar
1/2 cup Sunflower nut butter
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Cardamom ( my favorite new spice)

1. In large bowl, combine cereal, rolled oats, cinnamon, cardamom and raisins; set aside
2. In small saucepan, combine brown sugar and Agave Nectar.
3. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly
4. Stir in Sunflower nut butter and vanilla, blend until smooth.
5. Pour over cereal mixture; mix well.
6. Press into ungreased 13"x9" pan.
7. Cool; cut into 24 bars.

Notes: This batch did turn out a little crumbly because the Agava Nectur does not crystalize like corn syrup or honey. I will try honey next time to see if it creates a firmer bar.

Making Valentine's

As you may have noticed my post for Little Loaf's birthday and Valentines are behind schedule. I have been busy and my computer needed to be updated. I will be posting them as soon as I can get the pictures loaded back on my computer.  I do have one picture of Freckle Foot making Valentine's for all her favorite people. We used some paper doilies from Walmart that I got for a dollar. We also have sparkly foam hearts that peel and stick. She really liked the peel and stick hearts I should have bought another couple bags. She worked on using a glue stick and putting the sticky side down. Now we just need to make some giant envelopes.