Home-made Clay

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This is something that I have been wanting to do for a while but just haven’t gotten around to. The clay takes about 5 minutes to make and it so easy to prepare. The best part, for me, was kneading it and feeling the soft warmth of the mix between my hands. The boys love using the clay to roll out, cut up into pieces, and squeeze through play dough heads (just when I was going to bag up all the play dough toys and drop them off at Value Village!).

I got the recipe from a great book called, “Slow and Steady, Get me Ready“. The book is meant to be used on a weekly basis from birth to age 5. Well, whatever, I say! I had the best intentions with that but perhaps used it three times since X was born. So, I decided to flip through it to find what may be of interest and there are still a great many fun ideas for kids. Who says clay is only for babies, right? I love it, too and so will you (I hope!)

Here’s the recipe:

1 cup Flour, 1Tbsp of oil, 1 cup of H2O, 1/2 cup of salt, 2 tsp of cream of tartar. Mix together in pot over medium heat until it forms a ball. Knead until smooth. Voila! Clay!

You could add food colouring if you like, but I just left ours au natural. I like it that way. 🙂

The ingredients mix together quite easily with no clumping. Then, after about three minutes of intermittent mixing…

Mmm…looks like mashed potatoes – but don’t eat it!

You can roll it out and use a pencil to make a funny face!

 Just when you thought the play dough toys were no longer of interest…

It can even do swirlies! Kewl!

The book says the mixture will keep indefinitely in a plastic bag or sealed container. It’s a great idea, if only I’d made this earlier. I could have used them in the boys’ grab bags for their party!

 

 

Zucchini Marmelade and a first for everything…

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Today is the day before X-man’s birthday and a Sunday. I had great plans for today including going to the park to pick pine cones to make bird seed feeders to hang from the trees and little Christmas trees for the mantle. (I know, it’s not even Halloween yet but I thought I could get a head start.) Then, to the Gardens to run around and enjoy the sun and fountains and maybe catch a snack at the Uncommon Grounds shack. I thought we could perhaps head to the Boring Playground after that (I’ll explain later) and the boys could drive their Hot Wheels around the half-pipes at the skate part.

Well…

X-man came down with some sort of flu made up mostly of fever and a lot of sneezing and snotting. So, we stayed inside for the day. Since I originally had grand plans of busy-ness as I always do (something I have to work on) I decided I would make some marmelade with the monstrous amounts zucchini that my friend, Juli, dropped of earlier in the week. It was Juli who also sent me the recipe for this marmelade.

First things first, I went to the library and checked out a couple of books on preserving and read the basics before beginning which was a good idea. I found out that you only use the flat tops of the lids once (what a waste and what do I do with these lids once I cannot use them again???) or they may not seal the second time around. No wonder you could buy extra lids separately.

Second, I did something I rarely do, and that is to get all the ingredients ready to go BEFORE I started. I was entering unchartered territory in the Shards kitchen so I wanted to be sure I was fully prepared.

I cleaned all of the jars and placed them into the oven to sterilize for 15 min…

I got the lids boiling at the ready…little did I know they’d be in there a while!

Once all the ingredients were added I stirred and stirred waiting for it all to thicken. I read it would take about half and hour…I think I cooked a little too long because some of the zucchini started to brown a bit from the sugar. Oops! So I turned off the plate and removed the pot. It was preetttyyy thiiick….

I let it sit for the 5 minutes the recipe stated. I started getting all excited about my first time making jam (yay!) and forgot to skim the top before ladeling it into the jars. :0 Ah well, it’s a learning process. L was eager to help with the labeling and did a great job. I think it was a great idea to put the labels on the tops since we wouldn’t be using them again for jams. Again, what do you do with all these unused lids??

According to the recipe I was expecting to get a full 10 jars. I got 5. Interesting…

We all tried a bit of the left-over marmelade once it cooled down and even though it was ridiculously thick it was good. So, I give myself a gold star for effort and completion. Now, spreading it on bread, well, let’s just say the bread suffered a bit. :0

Oh, and the whole Boring Playground thing: When X-man was about three he started asking to go to the Magic Playground. I had no idea. One day we drove by a playground and he said that was the one. Oh! Wow! Okay! Great! Magic playground!

Well, it was a pretty cool playground.

Until…

They removed two of the slides from the big playset and one slide that stood alone. Now that one is just a set of stairs that are blocked off at the top. Seriously? Yes. So, a serious demotion it got from the boys.

Thus, the Boring Playground.

-tam-

front deck: day 4

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Just a quick update


The workers got here at 7:30 am again this morning and started right into it. One of them had to leave in the morning to finish off another job commitment (started before our deck) so, progress was a bit slower than usual. Still, by the end of the day, all the deck railings were completed and the stairs were installed. All that’s left are the stair railings and the lattice-work underneath.

Day 4 - Almost done

So. Close. 🙂

[stephen]

 

birthday busy-ness

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Today was a wonderful day and I must say, looking back, that there wasn’t a sour moment.

L was a ball of energy and smiles galore from the moment he awoke. We had breakfast then hurried off to his MITE theatre class.

Afterwards, with none of us prepared for the chill that a mere 5 degrees can bring, we quickly retired from the community centre playground to our place with the boys’ friends in tow. It was a bit like an impromptu party for L with new toys and friends and yummy muffins. Oh, and coffee and tea for the adults, of course!

After lunch the four of us went glow in the dark mini-putting where X beat us all as far as getting the most hole-in-ones. 4! Craziness! It was weird because, being part of a bowling alley, the mini-put room reeked like greasy food which somehow reminded me of sushi pizza. Odd, I know!

Off to Chapters for a snack and some fun in the Kidzone. And as time flies when you are having fun suddenly it was time to come home for dinner. Xman helped me make the dough for the pizza perogies and even rolled some out all on his own. We may have a future chef on our hands!

After our yummy dinner we sang to L and had some cake. Now Sonic and Knuckles are upstairs in their own little makeshift beds next to the boys as they sleep.

A good day had by all. And a happy birthday, too!

Here are some pics of our evening dinner making and L’s cake.

Tam

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Adding Tofurkey slices and cheese or pizza sauce, cheese, fried tofu cubes and veg pepperoni. Either way it’s so yummy!

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Into the oven…

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Out of the oven


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Mmm
hot and so tasty! Pizza perogies!

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The Sonic cake with some Dino friends from cake toppings of previous years. Why not, right?

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front deck: day 3

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Okay
 so, I just realized that even though this is the post for “front deck: day 3”, it’s really only the second day given “day 1” had zero activity.

No big.

Today the workers showed up at 7:30 am, on the nose, to get started early. The workers had to wear gloves so their hands didn’t freeze. Eeesh! Goodbye warm days.

When they first started we had no deck and the roof was being held up by angled supports. By the time we headed out, a little after lunch, the workers had almost completed the framing


Movin’ right along


We were gone for a few hours for a bit of birthday fun (our Lucas turned 7 today 🙂 ) and came back just as the workers were driving away. They were nice enough to stop and get out to talk us through everything they had done (A LOT!) and what they had left to do.

Day 3-2 Deck Progress

The original stairs were treacherously steep (94 year old house) so, the new ones have to be set back an additional 14″ to meet code. That’s no big, but the gentlemen working our deck need to do a bit of figuring for where the stairs meet the ground.

All-in-all a solid day.

The workers will back again first thing tomorrow morning. Very much looking forward the day’s progress. 🙂

[stephen]