Muffin Tin Monday - Groundhog Day

Every year, the kiddos and I wake up extra early in order to watch some of the spectacle that is Groundhog Day. We watch it from the warmth of our house, on television, because I don't think I will ever be willing to stand amongst 25,000 people in the freezing cold for hours and hours in order to see the whole 15 seconds of Punxsutawny Phil being thrust up in the air before he "chooses" a scroll which spells out our meteorological fate for the coming 6 weeks. I do, however, thoroughly enjoy watching it on tv. From the fireworks at 6:30 AM to the crazy men singing popular tunes with the lyrics changed to pay homage to the ground dwelling critter to the Pennsylvania Polka being played as the festivities end - I'm down with all of it. For that short time, I will even make comments about how cute the most famous groundhog in the country looks. My opinion of groundhogs does, however, change quite a bit in the spring when the local beasties start to lay waste to my garden. 

Anyhow, in order to celebrate the fun that is Groundhog Day (even though he saw his shadow) I decided on a Groundhog Day themed Muffin Tin Monday! Here is what was in the tin this week:

Punxsy Phil PB sandwiches (tortilla rounds with peanut butter, candy eyes, blueberry nose and cheese whiskers and teeth), broccoli trees, pretzel sticks & cashews to represent things a groundhog might eat (they eat plants and bits of trees) and blueberry applesauce & pom plum juice to represent the darkness of the shadow Phil saw.

The kids really enjoyed the Groundhog Day theme and gobbled everything down. Well, Micah skipped the broccoli. No big surprise there. I'd share pics of the kids with their meals but the 4000+ photos on my phone are making it difficult for me. I think I need to spend some time uploading some pics!

Tiny Lunch

I decided to have a little fun with the kiddos for lunch today. After finishing morning school, I sent them on quiet reading time while I tried to decide what to make for lunch. Our usual plan of leftovers for dinner was not doable since we ended up having a last minute dinner elsewhere for our little nephew's 2nd birthday. What fun! He's too cute!

I scanned the fridge and the only thing that stood out to me was about half a pound of ground beef left over from burger night. Mini meatballs popped into my mind. We could have cheese cubes and boiled eggs with mini meatballs. Add some crackers and veggies and we'd have a rounded out meal. As I stood in the kitchen for 7 hours (or so it seemed) forming approximately 97,000 mini meatballs (ok, it was actually only 90), I thought it might be fun to surprise the kids with an entire mini meal.

As the mini meatballs cooked, I cut tiny cheese cubes and cut pieces off the egg putting a wee bit of yolk in the center to look like a half a boiled egg. Then I put it all together! Here is what lunch looked like when my two little redheads came out to eat.

They were quite amused! They said we should have tiny lunch every day.

And yes, my son is wearing one of his sister's old, pink & purple jammies. Hand-me-downs - it's how we roll.

Alphabet Sensory Tub

I finally got our Alphabet Sensory Tub put together today! I was held back by not being able to find the alphabet pasta I really wanted. So, we are already on the letter C in our letter of the Week, but since I have planned to do a tub every four weeks that features the letters we will be covering those four weeks, we are still good. 

I love how bright and colorful it is!

I started by coloring lots of alphabet macaroni in the same fashion I colored pasta last year. The only difference is that I didn't soak it as long since they aren't very big and I had to keep mixing them up as they dried to prevent them from being a big pasta pancake. I still had to spend a little time breaking them apart after they were dry.  Once dry, I put them in lines in the tub.

Next, I sprinkled letter beads & charms over the pasta. The circular beads glow in the dark! Fun!

Then came all the goodies! We are focusing on the letters A, B, C & D. We have various wood & plastic magnetic letters, large foam letters, tiny foam sticker letters, wooden letter blocks, letter cookie cutters, letter beads and charms on chenille stems, a Bb book and finally items beginning with the letters. A: apple, acorn, alligator, and ant; B: bowl, butterfly, button & bell; C: caterpillar, cross, car and coin; and D: dolphin, dragonfly, dice and dinosaur.

I am also including a small pail & scoop on the side for the kids to play with in their tub.

 

I don't have any action shots yet since I got this done a little late in the day. They've seen it though and are anxiously awaiting their chance to have at it. I also laid down the law in regard to the tubs - they each get to play at one of the tubs and not together. After a certain amount of time (not sure how long yet) we will switch off. I'd like to say that my kiddos are perfect angels and play sweetly side by side, but I cannot tell a lie. When it comes to the "choice" items in the tubs - like plastic jewel acorns - it's just plain hard to share!

Autumn Sensory Tub

Happy Autumnal Equinox! Or in other words, Happy 1st Day of Fall! It came in with a blah here - cool, rainy & grey. At least a couple of the trees outside my back window have leaves that are starting to change to a lovely deep crimson hue which is quite nice to look at.

To brighten up our day, I put together our Autumn Sensory Tub and introduced the kids to it. It's jam packed full of fun fall finds for fledgling fingers.

I started with the rice that I colored yesterday (here) in four vertical lines. I love the autumn colors!

Then I added: silk fall leaves, leaf buttons, sparkly foam leaves, silk sunflowers, a pine cone, wood mushrooms, wood people, a wooden scoop, a grapevine ball, some sort of nuts, a wooden bowl, wooden bucket, plastic jewel acorns, foam and yarn apples, mini foam pumpkins and squash, yarn pom poms, an apple chalk board with chalk, and bits of green & brown pipe cleaner.

On the side I included an extra yarn apple, a mini basket and the Rubik's cube style fall puzzle cube for extra fun. Laural took to the puzzle cube right away and tried to figure it out. Micah went straight for the acorns as I suspected he would.

It was a winner for both kids, who are still seated behind me on the floor playing with it. I will be putting together a 2nd sensory tub - the alphabet theme I've been planning - this weekend in hopes of eliminating some of the arguments that seem to come along with two kids trying to share one tub.

Have a fabulous first day of fall!

First Field Trip Of The Year

After church today, we decided to go to Munnell Run Farm Day in Mercer, PA. A little about Munnel Run Farm from their webpage:

The Mission:

 

At Munnell Run Farm we strive to integrate agriculture and ecology education through hands-on programs for students and adults in watershed management, nonpoint source pollution control, stream ecology, wetlands, forestry and agriculture.

Our vision for Munnell Run Farm is to nurture a conservation ethic in our youth, agriculture producers, and community members in order to affect a positive cultural, economic and environmental impact in our rural community. It is further our vision that Munnell Run Farm shall become a destination for school children, educators, civic organizations, agriculture producers, and families to explore and discover the interrelationship between agriculture, the natural and cultural environments and our economy.

The Farm:

Munnell Run Farm contains163 acres of cropland, woodland, pasture and riparian forested wetland owned by the County of Mercer and managed by the Munnell Run Farm Foundation, Inc., which holds a long term lease and a conservation easement on the Farm. The Mercer County Conservation District provides valuable support for the Farm's mission.  It is located 1 mile north of Mercer, PA on State Route 58 West. Visitors to MRF have an opportunity to explore the interactions of agriculture and ecology in a real-world setting. Featuring outdoor, hands-on activities designed to meet PA Chapter 4 Academic Standards, Munnell Run Farm Foundation, Inc. received the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence in Education and Outreach in 2003. MRF depends on grants and donations for its educational programs, maintenance, and infrastructure improvements. 

 Some cheerful round bale piggies greeted us as we arrived.

We started by checking out some of the vendors. First up was a visit with an alpaca where you could purchase various items made from alpaca yarn. They were gorgeous and so soft but I can't justify spending $75 for a hat or $32 on a stuffed animal. It was fun to pet Thomas the alpaca though.

Micah wasn't sure what to do with the alpaca at first.

Next, we chatted with some folks representing the local 4H and spent a little time with the animals they brought with them.

A sweet bunny that Micah gave a kiss.

A less than thrilled duck.

A friendly goat.

Laural & Micah both tried the peddle tractor pull. Neither got very far. Laural's legs seemed too long for the tractor & Micah's were too short.

They played on a stack of hay bales

They both got their faces painted. Princess Laural & Pirate Micah. I'm really surprised that Micah went along with it. He has been freaked out by it in the past and has only allowed his hand to be painted.

The Civil War reenactors marched across the large yard area at the top of every hour to fire their guns to mark the time.

We took a ride on a horse drawn wagon which was pretty neat. Laural got to sit up with the drivers on the return trip.

There were loads of cows to be see throughout the farm, including two calves who were hanging out with their moms.

 We also took a ride on a tractor drawn wagon that took us to the back part of the farm where we saw lots more cows, fields & farm equipment in use.

The mom & her baby weren't sure what I was up to. They kept a watchful eye on me. 

We also went into a small trout nursery and looked at the brown trout & golden rainbow trout babies what were being raised there. Outside, both kids got to try their hand at casting a fishing rod & reeling it back in. The both did pretty well with it. I guess they'll be ready to catch their dinner when we go camping next year.

A band called Mandolin Whiskey - kind of bluegrass-ish mixed with some more modern country - played most of the time we were there. There were lots of different types of vendors selling homemade wares, a quilt show, a spinning wheel demo, an archery station where you try to shoot a bow, an ox roast, crafts for kids ( Laural made a farm necklace) and probably more stuff that I just didn't see. It was a wonderful day of fun & learning all for the price of a donated canned good for the Mercer County Community Food Warehouse. I look forward to going back next year!

Summer Fun Sensory Tub

In these final days of summer vacation, I decided to put together a summer fun sensory tub for the kiddos to play with as a last blast of summer. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler, but summer can live on inside our sensory tub.

I set the tub out on a brightly colored vinyl tablecloth for easy cleanup and as a bonus, it looks pretty. I also put out a cute mini metal bucket, plastic shovel and the flip flop boxes that I painted earlier this summer.

The tub contains: brown rice sand, decorative glass marbles as water, little wooden people, paper umbrellas, chenille stem seaweed, mini koosh balls & magic nuudles as water toys, a wood connector as a boogie board, seashells from our Florida trip last year, grape vine driftwood and a grapevine ball.

Laural and Micah were both instantly in love and wasted no time digging into it.

The only downside to these tubs is that I will need to schedule time for each of them to have a chance to play alone because otherwise, the newness of it makes them each want to have it all to themselves and that leads to unpleasant noises and a grumpy mommy.

Keeping Cool and Odds & Ends

We don't have air conditioning. It's been over 90°F for the past several days with wicked high humidity. That means there is just one sure way to cool off.

Yep, the hose! Laural & Micah have been having a ball playing in the sprinkler.

I think I might join them tomorrow since it's supposed to be another 90's kind of day.

We've had a lot going on here lately. We finally found a source for raw milk and got 3 gallons on Saturday. Besides drinking the yummy goodness, yesterday, I used some of the cream I skimmed off it to make home made butter. It's different but super yummy. I only used a pint of cream so I didn't get a whole lot of butter but it should be enough for about a week.

We've also begun in the process of eliminating certain things from our diet. The two biggies are gluten & soy. So far it isn't too bad but we are totally bread people so the gluten free bread is going to take some getting used to. So far, I've made a loaf of bread which turned out okay but not great and pancakes. The pancakes were really, really awesome! After the kids and I had eaten our fill, I cooked the rest of the batch to put in the fridge for later. They lost a lot in the texture and flavor after cooling & reheating but butter and syrup kind of covered that over. I think I'll cut the recipe in half next time or maybe I will just keep the batter uncooked in the fridge and see how that works when they are cooked up later.

Finally, my garden has been starting produce a few more yummy goodies for us. My cucumbers, zucchini & broccoli are still pretty questionable, probably thanks to the cat that keeps using it for it's litter box, but the other garden bed is coming along pretty nicely.

Today, I picked this nice handful of purple beans and sugar snap peas. We had more snap peas than that but a bunch got eaten already. Laural and I love them! 

We had an uninvited visitor come in with the beans though...

One of the bean leaf beetles that have been chewing on my plants since day one. They nearly killed my green beans but they managed to survive and are still giving me a a few beans. This little guy got to live just long enough to have his picture snapped. I think a little Neem oil is going to find it's way to the garden tomorrow.

This is a little bit of how our week has gone so far. I've got big plans for tomorrow too! Homemade yogurt from raw milk and another try at gluten free bread. Wish me luck!

So what do I do with...

...something that has been recalled by the company that made it AND has recently been deemed so bad that it the government actually made it illegal to sell one of these. I am, of course, talking about my children's crib. The very crib that I nestled both of my children into every night for years is now pretty much an expensive dust collector because it has a drop side on it. I had hoped to be able to sell the crib at some point so I paid a visit to the company's website, looking for information on the conversion kits that I heard were available. It was then that I found out that our particular crib has been recalled due to the chance of the slats on the side rails breaking too easily. So now, I have an expensive piece of garbage.

Since switching my son over to a "big boy bed," the dismantled crib has been residing in my upstairs hallway. I was thinking of putting it a yard sale until I learned of the recall. For the past couple months, I've been looking at it, with some sadness actually, trying to decide what I should do with it - put it out with the trash? Burn it? Save it and take my chances with a recalled crib if we should ever have another child? Well, I decided that I didn't want to take any chances. Both my kids were pretty mellow and not too rough on the crib, but even so, I did notice a crack along the length of one of the slats. If we did have a kid who happened to be a bruiser, it could be disastrous. I also haven't been able to simply discard it either. There is an emotional attachment but also, it seems like such a waste to just throw it away or burn it. So, I've left it in the hallway, taking up precious space, trying to bring myself to do something with it. 

Today, I finally did something with it - well part of it. 

I removed two slats on one end of each side rail and then stuck those ends in the ground, leaning them against each other. I tied them together at the top. And there you have it - recycling; reusing; repurposing part of our recalled and illegal crib as a trellis for my very vigorously growing snap peas. I am going to have to train them through some of the slats but I think it will work out quite nicely. I have a neat idea for using the ends of the crib too but that will have to wait for another post!

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My Organic Garden

I have been wanting to have a garden for ages now. For some reason or another, I just haven't been able to get a garden started over the past several years - until this year! I am quite pleased to have been able to build two 4'x8' raised beds and have repurposed the existing 4'x12' flower bed. I decided that I wanted to have an organic garden this year, so all the seeds are organic and I am using organic fertilizer and organic pest control measures as needed. While most of my plants are doing quite well, I am having a few issues with the plants in one of the garden beds.

Bed 1 - 4'x12'  Planted on June 29

I planted this one a little later than I had planned. June became quite a busy month for us, so the garden was put on the back burner for a bit. In this bed I have green head lettuce (something similar to bibb lettuce but I can't recall the variety and I'm too lazy to go downstairs to find the packet right now), purple potatoes, white potatoes, red head lettuce (see parentheses above for green lettuce) and some watermelon plants down n the very end.

These are the purple potatoes - looking good!

White potatoes.

Bed #2 - 4'x8' Planted the week of May 23rd

It has sugar snap peas, bell peppers in a variety of colors, purple beans and green beans. My poor green beans took some serious damage early on from bean leaf beetles. I haven't been sure if they were going to survive but they are really starting to get a lot of new leaf growth and some new flowers. I initially got a tiny harvest of about 20 beans from them so it looks like they aren't giving in to the beetles! The purple beans have tons of flowers on them so I can't wait to get some yummy beans from them. The snap peas have a few beans and a lot more flowers coming out now. I think I need to rethink my support for the pea plants though. I also noticed a few flower buds starting on one of my pepper plants! Laural is most excited about this because peppers are her favorite veggie. The neat thing about these peppers is that the seeds all came mixed together so the color of peppers on each of the plants will be a surprise.

Our budding pepper plant and Laural's head excitedly checking out her future peppers.

Bed #3 - 4'x8'  Planted June 9th

This is my sad and pathetic looking garden bed. I'm honestly not sure what is going on with it. It has cucumbers, a couple leftover pepper plants, broccoli, and zucchini. The cucumbers are the worst looking of the bunch. They are barely growing and the stems look like something has stripped it. The plants have flowers on them but they seem to die and fall off before anything happens. I've been doing some reading but I can't figure out what to do to make them better. I guess it's watch and see for now. The pepper plants are healthy looking but staying small. The broccoli seem to be growing well for now. I need to thin them out a little now but I am so paranoid that I will manage to leave behind the worst plants and end up with no broccoli. The zucchini seem to change on a daily basis. One day they are looking great and I am feeling optimistic about them. The next day they look pathetic. For some reason, I thought the zucchini and cucumbers were going to be the no-brainer plants in my garden but they are giving me the hardest time.

My pathetic cucumbers.

 An up close pic of the cucumber stems. They are splitting open length-wise and the leaves are yellowing and dying. I can't seem to find any information on what could be causing this. Anyone have any idea? I welcome any thoughts, ideas & suggestions. I expect them to all be pretty much dead within a few days. I am expecting to have to pull them all out. I don't know if I have enough time to plant new seeds and still get a crop by the end of the season.

The zucchini which is looking half decent today. It has some flower buds but I so far, all my zucchini flowers seem to come up missing shortly after opening so I really don't have high hopes for them right now.

Bed #4 - 4'x8'  Never planted and currently a weedy, brambly mess.

A large blackberry bush is at the center of this garden bed. There is also a small quaking aspen (I think) that shot up quickly over the past couple years in this bed. This is the bed that the Kids' Enchanted Garden is against. I had planned to clear everything out of this bed except the tree and plant carrots and beets in it but when I saw how many potential berries we were going to have, I let it be. I plant to prune back the bush this fall and relocate it so we can use the bed for veggies. An interesting fact is that this bush magically found it's way to this garden bed. When we moved here, the bed had several different flowers & decorative plants in it. We pretty much neglected the flower bed, letting them become a haven for weeds and grasses. The tree and blackberry bush were not there when we moved in. We are guessing that a bird may have deposited the blackberry seed in the bed. Possibly the same scenario with the tree as well since we don't appear to have any other aspen trees nearby. Not sure if we are going to let the tree continue or not.

Yummy!

Laural holding our daily berry harvest. The kids tend to pick them just a hair early sometimes.

Bed #5 Not really a garden bed, it's a planter. Planted week of May 23.

This is an upside down, elevated tomato planter that we bought a couple years ago. We bought organic tomato plants but they didn't do very well. They grew nice and long but we only ever got one flower and it died without producing fruit. This year, I gave up on the upside down planting and used the top to plant some garlic chives and parsley. I already used some of the garlic chives, from thinning them, on a baked potato last week. Super yummy!

I also have a few plants in pots on my porch steps and a couple things that I am going to try to squeeze into the planting season and hope it's not too late. I'll be getting pics of them in the next few days.

Overall, I am quite happy and excited about my garden. I hope that the sad looking plants will perk up soon and produce for me but even if they don't, I am happy that I have been able to get so much accomplished with it this year. Even if we get just a handful of fruit & veggies, it will be a success to be partially self-reliant and we will save a little by not having to spend money for high priced organic produce from the grocery store. Not only that, but I will know exactly how the food was grown and what went into and onto it!