Glittery Fun

Whew. Before I rush to catch the plane, the glittery bug bit me. I got the idea for these faux 3-D "eggs" from an image in eBay. I ran with it using German scrap I've collected. Then I saw a little box in the Victoria Trading Catalog that got me started thinking about those slide boxes I bought over a year ago. I was on a roll 'til realized the box could no longer "slide" after I attached a bottom base to it. Hmmmm. Give me those scissors! These charming bugs are from a book of images I bought from Dover. I particularly want to thank Ulla and Castles in the Air. Ulla posted instructions for the "Easter Egg Theatre" and I just had to have a go at it. https://www.castleintheair.biz/shoppe/ What luck, I happened to have a large and a couple small paper mache eggs on hand. I decided to start small and the idea of the Hookah Smoking Caterpillar came into my head. Don't ask. I found this and many additional images from Flickr, with special "huzzahs" to Finsbry. What a treasure trove. Do yourself a huge favor and take a few minutes to fall in love with Castle in the Air's web site. I've never seen anything like their home page. Move your cursor left and right to pan the scenery. Make sure your speakers are on. http://www.castleintheair.biz/

Love & Logic

What Has Love and Logic Done For Me? The Back Story: A year ago I offered to shepherd my 4th grade great-nephew through the final 3 months of the school year. In the first 6 months of that year he had been suspended from two schools and uprooted from a third due to parent relocation. I just wanted to get him through the school year and provide some stability. My great-nephew immediately caught the attention of the Evergreen Elementary School staff by cussing, hitting other kids and disrupting class. I was relieved and impressed that the school staff was patient and understanding of the child and our situation. Because of this acceptance and willingness to help us work through issues, as a family we chose to keep the child in Evergreen for his 5th grade year. The school principal and counselor needed to come to our rescue a couple more times early in the 5th grade. They assisted me to find professional counseling for the child and they encouraged me to find out about Love & Logic parenting. The Love & Logic Workshop: I signed up for the 5 week Love & Logic workshop sponsored by CISP as soon as I heard about it. It was held in a very convenient location, and even provided child care. Plus there was a free dinner each week! From that first 1.5 hour session I learned that my traditional approach to discipline was never going to work…but there was something that would work. It is easy, it makes me feel better about myself and the child immediately responded. I had found myself constantly arguing with the child and nagging him over the same things like tying shoe laces, brushing teeth, eating dinner, wearing a jacket, doing homework, bedtime, getting up in the morning, etc, etc, etc. I couldn’t get through to this child. After that first session I realized what a really great kid I had if arguing over little things was my only problem! In place of trying to intimidate or “guilt” the kid into doing what I want him to do, when I want him to do it, I let go of my need for control and offered him choices. It sounds simple and easy. In one way it is because I no longer need to get angry to achieve the end result I want, but I do need to be more thoughtful and creative in how I approach discipline. More logical. Five weeks later I have let go of things that don’t matter, as long as the child is safe. The child no longer flinches with a frozen in headlights stare when I raise my voice…because I don’t have to raise my voice. I don’t threaten if he misbehaves, but if I say I will do something, I mean it. Each time his dirty dishes or dirty clothes don’t get put in the proper place, 25 cents is subtracted from his weekly allowance. If he doesn’t want to go to the recycle center, he doesn’t have to, but he won’t earn allowance for the week. If he ignores a house rule, like washing hands before dinner, he loses 15 minutes of computer time. If he doesn’t put on his seat-belt, the car doesn’t go. If he doesn’t tie his shoelace…so what? (but the shoes only come with 1 pair of laces). In each of these little interactions, he was offered a choice. For example: You are welcome to stay at the dinner table if you can speak calmly. You may take a shower tonight or get up 15 minutes early to take it in the morning. If you don't like what is for dinner, perhaps you will like what's served at breakfast. And I am OK with whatever he chooses. Choices is the key word. A child must learn to choose, to make decisions, early in life. The decisions a 10 year old makes aren't life altering. But he may find he doesn't always enjoy the result of his decisions (he may get really cold on the occasion he declines that jacket). Much better to learn how to make smart decisions for himself now than when he is 16...or never!

Importance of Recipes

I come from a long line of cooks. My dad's family owned restaurants for many years while I was young. I have fond memories of sitting at the counter of their diner, Garrett's Cafe in Sacramento, CA, ordering any little thing I wanted: mostly waffles and milkshakes. In later years my dad and I used to share recipes from the Wednesday newspaper food section during our at least once-a-week phone calls. Dad was a big recipe clipper, and I frequently clipped recipes from the San Jose Mercury News. Even now they comprise some of my favorites. My mom and I often compare "what's cooking for dinner". "Big Charlotte" graduated from a rather unimaginative, if thrifty, repertoire during the years when I was growing up and she was working hard to make ends meet...to a straight-up gourmet cook when she had no budget constraints...and a demanding husband. Mom is a good cook. Yet what prompted me to journal about recipes were 2 rather startling offerings from "The Amish Cook", who writes a weekly food column featuring life and food from her Old Order Amish community in Michigan. Coffee Soup (editor note: can you believe it! what a way to take advantage of the newest offering of instant coffee from my beloved Starbucks) 1 Cup of water 2 heaping teaspoons of instant coffee 4 teaspoons of white sugar 3 Cups of milk Crackers or toasted bread In a saucepan heat water until boiling; remove from heat. Add instant coffee and sugar to water; stir until mixed. Put on stove again and add milk. Take off heat when hot. Crumble toasted bread or crackers into it. Add *Pon Hoss if desired. *Pon Hoss is a dish made from the juice that is left over from the pork bones. The bones are cooked in the big iron kettle and the juice is thickened with flour or cornmeal and some liver pudding and then seasoned with salt and pepper. The juice is then poured into loaf pans to chill. The hardened, chilled result is what the Amish call Pon Hoss. They say Pon Hoss is "always good sliced and fried for breakfas"t. In other cultures this farm butchering-day staple is known as scrapple. Perhaps I should have saved this post for April Fools day? Bon Appetit.

A Bit 'O The Green...and White

Sunday I awoke to a startlingly white world. I immediately demanded of my husband "Why didn't you tell me it was going to snow?". You see, he spends his day gleaning all that is newsworthy from the World Wide Web. Isn't it newsworthy to have 4" of snow in mid-March in the Pacific Northwest. No? Well, that's what he said. It was actually typical Spring weather: you got your snow, rain, sleet, and sunshine all within 6 hours. Throw in a lengthy power outage and who could ask for more. Here are my St. Patty's Day corsages, compliments of Vanessa Valencia at http://afancifultwist.typepad.com/ How very generous of her to supply this fun project.

It's Beginning To Look A Little Like Easter

I do enjoy prolonging holidays by displaying my seasonal collections for weeks at a time. My preferences tilt towards the 50's, when I was just a babe. Fortunately, there are like minded artisans out there; Wendy Addison, to name one. Here is one of her original panorama eggs that I was lucky enought to find several years back. Next to it is the real deal...a sugar panorama egg from the early 50's. I bought a couple of these on eBay a few years ago. All are in excellent condition, though one subsequently cracked, but is holding together for now. I intend to get out the glue pot and glitter in my crafts room...soon.

Day of the Fox

Today, our boy set out on an adventure. First he scouted in the forest for possible animal tracks. Suddenly, there she was...the fox. What luck, Garrett had his bow and arrow at the ready should she decide to give chase. His good fortune held, however, as the fox could not stop on her patrol. Off she went...

Back At The Ranch

Today is a sick day for Garrett. He awakened with body aches and a headache. When he asked to stay home from school, I knew it was the real thing...because he never misses school. An 102 degree fever calls for chewable Tylenol, juice and waffles. Plus lots of Lord of the Rings time on the PC. For me, it's a day on the sofa with my cat, a cup of tea, Kleenex, and Sharon Kay Penman. Ahhhh.