Blueberries, Peaches, and Water, Oh My!

Sometimes we go blueberry picking to get a great price on a huge haul and sometimes we just go because it's fun and family friendly.  Yesterday I knew we needed to get out of the house in the morning, so we did the later kind of blueberry picking.  It didn't matter how much we picked or how much it cost, we just wanted to enjoy early blueberry season!

And we did!

pretty blueberry patch weed

And let's face it... a summer day that starts with blueberry picking, has local farm fresh peaches involved, and ends with Slip n' Slide, is a pretty great summer day!

A Blogger's Dilemma (My Life Is Not Really Blog-Worthy)

If you're not one of my two regular readers, you may not realize it, but I haven't posted anything in 11 days.  And I haven't written about anything truly thoughtful or thought-provoking in... I don't know... either one month, or eight months (that's when I started the blog...) Take your pick.  

I figured it out.  It's a two-fold issue.  (1) My life isn't really that blog-worthy.  Which is not to say that I don't value and appreciate my life.  It's more that it's hard to find any justification for documenting it on-line and even harder to expect that anyone is interested in reading the drivel that I may come up with.  and 2) The current state of my mental processing unit does not lend itself to deep thoughts.  "Bog" is the word that comes mind, not "Blog."  My mind is mush lately.  No scintillating or controversial or intellectual or even remotely sarcastic thoughts are brewing in there.  I've got nothing.  

This is my blogger's dilemma.  In painful comparison to the other wonderful blogs I enjoy reading, I don't have much to offer.  I don't have much to document.  And yet.  I like my life.  And I enjoy keeping track of it here... the lovely moments that are fleeting and perhaps forget-able, but not if I keep it here.  The smiles of my children, the entertaining things they say,  the projects that we work on, the activities that we do, the chores that we tackle, the books that we finish, the thoughts that I think on days when I remember to reboot my brain - they're the stuff of my life.  And humble though they be, these little particles of ordinary-daily-dailiness are the things that, when combined, make up this life that I like so much.  To me, they're worth recording here.  It's not a record that will shake humanity to the core. It's not even a record that's likely to inspire a handful of folks in the Western Hemisphere. It's just a little piece of me that's worth working on, if only for myself.  And if I happen to retain my two faithful readers, how delightful! I'm happy for you to follow along!  Though I get it if you choose to spend you time with a more riveting blogger.  I totally get it.  

The title of it all, after all, does acknowledge the ORDINARINESS of my life.  It's right up there at the top of the page for me and anyone else to see and know and believe. So there's no need for me to pretend that my blog will rock the interwebs.  And anyone who's joining me need not feel cheated when they realize, there's really not much here.  I'm keeping it simple, because that's my life and my mental-capacity right now. 

With that in mind, I thought I'd share 11 of the ridiculously ordinary things that have been happening in my home and in my brain for the last 11 days.  This is not a blogger's dilemma. This is Ordinary Lovely...

 (1)

Papa teaching Clare how to roll down hills 

(2)

The big kids got to sweat a little this past weekend at a soccer clinic run by a family friend.  

(3)

I recently resorted to a new form of parental supervision.  It involved me laying in the couch in a state of total exhaustion, praying to my children's Guardian Angels to pick up my slack. The boys played outside without argument or incident for three hours that afternoon, one of which I'm pretty sure I was dead asleep. At first I felt a little guilty about it, but then I Googled it and it turns out it's totally legit.  Here's what I found at Catholic Online:

A Mother's Prayer to the Guardian Angels of her children

I humbly salute you, O you faithful, heavenly Friends of my children! I give you heartfelt thanks for all the love and goodness you show them. At some future day I shall, with thanks more worthy than I can now give, repay your care for them, and before the whole heavenly court acknowledge their indebtedness to your guidance and protection. Continue to watch over them. Provide for all their needs of body and soul. Pray, likewise, for me, for my husband, and my whole family, that we may all one day rejoice in your blessed company.  Amen 

My own prayer was not quite so eloquent.  It went something more like this... (to be read with a desperate tone)

Dear Guardian Angels of my two energetic and sometimes thoughtless boys,  I'm exhausted and no part of me can be out in the backyard with them right now.  I am begging you to keep them safe, to guard their words and manners towards one another, to guide their behavior and their actions, and PLEASE spare them from the (oftentimes dangerous) consequences of their own creative genius.  (Moms of boys, you know what I mean.)  Amen.  

(4)

Found this sticker waiting for me when I went to use the toilet the other day.  

(5)

The boys found their first cicada shell of the summer and documented the location on the playset.  
(What, you couldn't figure out that said 'cicada'???)  

 (6)

Just to give you an idea of how bad things really are around here, one of the blog post titles I've been toying with is "Clutter and Your Filth Threshold:  Never Say Never."  

(7)

Clare has a new face that she's making...

(8)

(This is my favorite!)  Yesterday the boys tried to play a trick on me.  I was supposed to check on them at rest time, see these on their pillows and know that everything was as it should be, while they were off playing oh-so-clever-and-sneaky-like in another part of the house!   Hahahahahahaha!  Loved it!  

(9)

A couple months ago I read the book Children and Parents by Fulton Sheen, and since then I've been thinking about the different challenges/aspects of parenting boy vs. girls.  I've been thinking about what kind of girl Ruth is and what kind of mother I want to be for her.  She has so many different "facets" (I know every kid does!) but I'm just trying to figure out what kind of little girl I'm working with here.  I mean, look at her...! 

(10)

Also from the Fulton Sheen book... Just to make sure I don't get too comfortable and complacent in my parenting...

"Why impose habits of cleanliness, politeness, or honesty?  All parents who exempt themselves from exercising intelligent control and discipline over their children are social nuisances long before their children become delinquents."

"The peak of moral authority is reflected in the attitude of the parent who says, "I ask for obedience, because I am responsible before God for you."  The child in his turn, if morally educated, will have in his heart the sentiment: "I will obey my parents because they take their place of God in my home."

"Every child is given to the parents by God as so much wax or clay to be molded into the image and resemblance of Life and Truth and Love.  If the parents take their eyes off the Model, the image will be become imperfect.  Only those who have learned how to obey know how to command."

"Where there is true authority, there is never and necessity of the parent having to defend his dignity; rather the parent defends the child against himself.  True authority makes the child conscious of his own fault; false authority makes the parent defend himself."

"If one puts garbage into the stomachs of children, it will be easy to forecast their health; if moral garbage is put into the minds of children, it is easy to predict how these idea will become acts."

and finally, (11)

I'm thinking we may need to get some egg-laying chickens of our own. Just see how Clare enjoyed her first deviled egg...

So, I'm back.  But I'm definitely not promising anything spectacular.  Happy Tuesday!  

Color-Stained Clothespin Sorting Activity

When I was pregnant with Clare, waaaaay back in early 2012, I went through a new and unfamiliar sort of maternity nesting - the desire to paint wooden toys.  It didn't go very far; the craving was satisfied with one evening of painting clothespins for a sorting activity for Ruth.   

I had first seen the idea on Pinterest, from this website here.  Ruth used it for a while before I took it back to satisfy my nesting urge.  I needed something wooden to paint, stat.

So I painted the tops of each clothespin and we used it as a color sorting activity.  (The ice cube mold is the type for making those long ice cubes cylinders for bottled drinks.) 

"old version"

Fast forward to present-day - it's Clare's absolute favorite activity.  Some of the pieces have been lost and I had never been entirely happy with how it had turned out.  So I decided to do a little refurb project...

I grabbed the leftover pins from the pack I purchased last year, sanded them and then used some mineral oil on them.  I had read on several different websites that using mineral oil was an inexpensive and safe way to seal wooden toys.  I didn't know what mineral oil was or what it was for.  So I was kind of embarrassed when I told the girl at the grocery store register that I couldn't find it and they went to get it for me.  

oh brother...

I used very fine sand paper.  Thanks, Dad!

I used a old soft kitchen towel to rub in the oil

this just shows you the difference in appearance that the oil makes. Of the natural pins on the left, the top one is oiled.  Of the red pins, the one on the right was oiled before I stained it.  I like the more vibrant look, so I oiled all the pins before staining.  

I stained 24 of the pins rainbow-ish colors.  I used non-toxic acrylic paints, watering each down a little until I got the stain that I wanted.  I wanted the colors to be vibrant, but I also wanted to be able to see the grain of the wood.  (It's pretty!)  I left three of the pins natural.  I didn't want to dry the pins laying down and risk damaging the stain, so I dried them on a cookie rack that I propped up on either side.

After the stain dried, I oiled each pin again twice to seal them.  

I'm really happy with how they turned out.  I like having the entire pin colored, and I'm so happy that the grain of the wood was preserved!  

All done.  Lots of fun.  Pretty baby toys for a pretty sweet baby!

  

Celebrating Independence Day

I love Independence Day.  It's a holiday-combination of a love of our country, appreciation for the innumerable freedoms we have, and my love of Thomas Jefferson - it's something to do with his being a strict Constitutionalist who also played the violin... a very sexy combination.  

Ahem.  Back to independence.  Well, actually, I'm really tempted to launch into a soap box editorial on the attempt of some folks to separate God and country...  And I actually did, but just deleted it 'cause I thought I'd better just stick with celebratory for today.  

So we celebrated the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave and the inventor of the dumb waiter (that's Jefferson, of course!) with cake.  I use to make these flag cakes when I was a kid, so I thought it was time to turn the task over to my boys.  I tried to stay out of it and let them take creative control.  That was tricky.  But here's the delicious cake we ended up with... 

We added mini pictures of the Declaration of Independence and the famous pic of the signing - taped on wooden skewers and stuck in there - but my camera ran out of batteries before I could get a shot :(  

Happy Independence Day, America!  

Heavenly Father, You are the real foundation of nations, raising them up
to serve and care for the people dwelling in their boundaries.
I thank You for making me a citizen of this land of freedom
and unlimited opportunity---which are the result of its Christian base.
Send forth your Spirit to this country and make it a source of wisdom
and strength, order and integrity throughout the world. Amen.

(from 2heartsnetwork.org)

Thoughtful Apps for Thoughtful Pre-Schoolers

Thoughtful Apps for Thoughtful Pre-Schoolers

(thoughtful, as in "absorbed in or involving thought" not "how thoughtful of you to share that iPad with me"...)

Our new iPads are school tools, so I've got to keep it that way even when little Miss Ruth is using one.  She's got her own little folder of Apps to choose from, same rules apply to her as the boys, and I feel pretty confident that the times she's spending on the iPad is worthwhile.  So, worthwhile educational  apps that are perfect for pre-schoolers???  I share them with you... 

Here's what she's using...

TeachMe (Toddler) - simple games to master colors, numbers, letters, letter sounds, etc...  A cute Mouse Teacher encourages and corrects!  You can set up different players and can track their progress, but there is no customization feature.

TeachMe: Toddler

The Math Tree - by Bellamon - cute scrapbook-y (?) graphics - Birds and fruit are the manipulatives of choice for practicing addition and subtraction.  Practice counting and learn the basic concepts of adding and subtracting.  

The Math Tree, from Bellamon

Shape - O!  ABC's - Bellamon again.  This app is like a dream come true for me because it's just like the types of toys we actually have in our home... You build pictures using shapes, and spell corresponding words using scrabble-style tiles.  (You can change the settings to hide the letter "hints" for the advancing speller in your family.) Oh, PS - one of the other nice things about the Bellamon apps is that the music is nice and not annoying!

Shape-O ABC's, from Bellamon

Beck and Bo - this app was a border-line purchase for me.  It's not educational.  It encourages building pictures and completing scenes so that the characters, Beck and Bo, can have fun... in the park, in the snow, in the grocery store, etc...  It's not objectionable, there's just not a ton to it.  However, it's those darn style of graphics that I like - artsy-craftsy.  So Ruth uses it and she likes it.    

Beck and Bo

Bugs and Numbers / Bugs and Bubbles / Bugs and Buttons - I LOVE these graphics - really creative combination of industrial-style photographs and graphics with realistic insect animations. The games are nearly all educational or involve thought processing and/or motor skills (ex: "pulling" back a slingshot to launch a bee towards a moving flower-target.)  A couple of the games were confusing to figure out at first, so I "played" all of them ahead of time so I'd be able to tell her how to enjoy each one.  Oh, and the music????  So sweet, not annoying, and on at least one of them, I've heard strains of the Pachelbel Cannon in D, a Bach Brandenberg Concerto and some Tchaikovsky.  Can't go wrong there.

Bugs and Buttons

Bugs and Numbers

Bugs and Bubbles

Sam Phibian - a funny counting practice game.  Sam the frog is hungry for lunch and it's your job to feed him the exact right amount (and type) of bugs.  If he eats too many bugs, or if you feed him the random items that float past, he may get a little too big to balance on his lily pad :)   

Sam Phibian

The last here are repeats from an earlier post I wrote on apps we've used for school... but they're worth repeating because they're appropriate for varying ages and Ruth has enjoyed them a lot!

Monkey Math School Sunshine - decent Math practice with a silly monkey guide.

Monkey Math School Sunshine

Monkey Word School Adventure - allows you to select varying levels of difficulty for up to four players.  So little kiddos can play the simpler phonics games and still feel like a bigger kid.

Monkey Word School Adventure

Word Grab - practice spelling, vocabulary, and phonics with this funny-looking monster.  (Unfortunately, he sounds funny too - a little more like a moan than a roar.  Weird, but not a deal breaker.)  

Word Grab

Rocket Speller - has a setting for younger kiddos, wherein the word that the player needs to spell is written in light gray and the player has to place the correct matching letter on top.  This game and it's various levels is a favorite of all three i-pad using kids.

Rocket Speller

Aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnd, finally...

Reading Rainbow - Oh, my love of Reading Rainbow runs deep.  I grew up on this stuff and have scoured the public library system to borrow all the available DVD's of the old show.  Bravo, and "thank you," Lavar, for resurrecting one of the best kids show concepts out there!  Even though we don't do books on ipad, we do Reading Rainbow.  The books are not animated - that's one of my big things-to-avoid, - and in fact, they are so by design.  At RR, the books speak for themselves, without animation or enhancements.  (with the unobjectionable exception of things such as, when you click on George Washington's horse in the book on George Washington, you hear the animal neigh and gallop off.)  The book selection is mostly fabulous, and the videos are so fun.  Recently, Ruth has been alternating between listening to the National Geographic book on Sharks and watching a video on how Crayola crayons are made.  I'm a happy mom, indeed!

While the subscription to Reading Rainbow is a little pricey, ($9.99 a month or $6 a month if you buys 6 months at a time - go for that option!)  the subscription covers your multiple devices.  I made the mistake of letting more than a month go by with only having it on one ipad because I thought I'd have to pay again to put it on the others.  Not so.

It took Ruth a little one-on-one time with me to figure out how to navigate through the app - how to check out books and return them when her backpack was full and she wanted another.  But now she is able to choose the books that interest her and she can "take a look" to her heart's content.

And if you loved Reading Rainbow too when you were a kid... click here and have some warm fuzzy retro feelings.  My gift to you.  

Scrumptious Specialty Jams (...of the freezer variety...)

So, I love freezer jam.  But lately I've been wondering, does freezer jam have to be plain ole?  Can I make designer-flavored jams without turning on the stove top and simmering things all day?  I did some experimenting with our recent us-picked local organic strawberries and I'm so happy to have found that freezer jam can be glammed up!  I share my experiments with you, because  busy moms deserve a designer-flavored freezer jam stash just as much as the next busy person...

The three new jams I experimented with were Strawberry Basil Lime, Strawberry Mint, and Strawberry Orange Almond.  I was especially excited to make the first two since I got to use basil and mint from our recently planted mini herb garden.

 the poor wilty lemon mint is doing better now!  doesn't look so great in this shot :(  

So, here are my experiments...  

Scrumptious Specialty Jam No. 1

Strawberry Basil Lime

This was everyone's favorite.  The kiddos helped me make a triple batch after we tried it and decided it was superdelicious.  (I've included some pix of my helpers on this one, but don't worry, I won't bore you with a photo play-by-play on the other two flavors...)

Using Ball Instant Pectin for freezer jams, follow the instructions to prepare your sugar and pectin for one batch of jam.  (about two half pint jars worth)

Chop a handful of fresh basil and finely as possible. (for one batch I did it by hand, and for the larger batch I used a manual food processor)  I used the amount pictured above, plus a little more, for one batch.  I didn't want my experimental jam to just taste like plain ole strawberry jam with green dots in it, so I went heavy on the herbs and additional flavors.  As far I as I can tell, you can add as much or little as you like.

Prepare strawberries according to the instructions on the pectin jar.  I used almost 2 cups chopped berries. 

Mix in the basil, as well as the zest and juice from one small lime.  If possible, let it sit for a little while to allow the flavors some time to blend.

Add sugar and pectin according to the instructions... stirring for three minutes.

Ladle into pre-cleansed jars.  Add lids.  I had enough jam left over after two half pint jars to fill a small 4 oz jelly jar.  Let it sit for 30 minutes.  Freeze. Or enjoy immediately!  

My family has already polished off two jars of this amazing jam, spreading it on anything they can get their hands on.  I took a more refined approach and had it with some creamy brie on french bread...

Scrumptious Specialty Jam No. 2

Strawberry Mint

I've seen this flavor of jam done elsewhere, so I was pretty sure it would taste great.  And it did! 

Simply follow all the directions on the instant pectin jar, but add a medium size handful of finely chopped fresh mint leaves to the chopped berries.  Allow to sit for a while before stirring in the sugar and pectin.  For our jam I used both orange mint and lemon mint.

Scrumptious Specialty Jam No. 3

Strawberry Orange Almond

Again, prepare berries and sugar/pectin mixture according to the instructions on the instant pectin jar.  

Before combining, add the following to the berries (for a single batch): the zest and juice from one medium orange and 1 tsp. of almond extract.  (I actually added 1 1/2 tsps, but the flavor was a little too much, so when I make this again I'll just be using 1.)    

* * * * * * 

There you have it!  I am soooooo excited about discovering that even though I like the ease of no-cook freezer jam I'm not restricted to basic single-flavor fruit jam.  (Well, I've always combined blueberry and raspberry, but you know what I mean.  Speaking of which... I'm already starting to plot my specialty makeovers for next month's fruit crops!!  You know if I come up with anything tasty, you'll hear about it here!)

I hope you get to try one of these new (simple) specialty jams this year, or that you'll even create one of your own.  Either way, I'd love for you to comment on it here!!

* * * * * *

ps - we tested all three flavors out on our first guests this morning - the after-Mass crowd.  Ok, it's just my parents, but they said the jams were uh-mazing, and I don't think they were just being nice ;)