Category Archives: Summer Activities for Kids

Apr14

VBS Summer Fun for Kids

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VBS Summer Fun for Kids

I saw my first hummingbird this morning.  She was little and green and so delicate looking.  She glided ever so wistfully on the warm dewy breezes with the skill and elegance of a ballerina. She came right up to the rain spattered pane of glass where I was looking out. She’d caught me in my jammies and sitting at the table, still groggy from sleep, holding my first cup of freshly brewed coffee in front of my face. My hands wrapped around the handle on one side and the smooth side on the other. I’d held it to my face just to let the steam rise up and tickle my nostrils with its tantalizing aroma. I was just about to take a sip when this little buzzing beauty stopped by. 

Now she was fluttering outside my window, her wings barely visible, and her tiny eyes glaring in at me. I could almost read her thoughts as I watched her, and I think she was trying to tell me, “Hey lady, where’s the juice?”  Oh my goodness, the juice! Sure enough, the chains were dangling, but the feeders were not there. They were put away since Christmas.  I’ll get right on that, I thought to myself, and wanted to tell her, just as soon as I finish this magnificent cup of coffee.

I held my cup away from me, elbows perched on the table, and watched as my graceful guest took a quick flutter over the garden and then buzzed by my flower pots. I had two of them hanging on hooks on the porch and they were filled with some kind of succulent with red blossoms. Yes, I suppose that is what attracted her. In just a moment though she had lost interest in my vegetation, turned on her wings, kicked her engine into hyper-drive, and sped on a beeline off into the vast blue sky.  “Come back! Come back!  I wanted to say.  “I’ll get them!”  But it was too late.  She was gone. Perhaps someone down the road has their feeders out for her.  

As the last drop of coffee dangled from the brim of my big ceramic mug onto my waiting tongue I rousted myself into action.  First I went to the cupboard where last I had put my feeders after washing them out last fall, put the kettle on the counter by the sink, and then got to work making a brand new batch of sweet nectar.  As it was cooling I disassembled my pretty green glass feeders, then filled them up with the glistening liquid, and hung them on the empty hooks outside hoping the little darlings would give me a second chance tomorrow.

With that chore accomplished, I went to get dressed, made a list for the grocery shopping, and ran out the door before the heat of the day. As I drove down the street I happened to notice a banner hanging outside of a church. VBS it said, and the theme and the dates were listed. Wow, that’s right, summer break from school was right around the corner, wasn’t it! The town was soon to be inundated with restless little people with nothing to do. It got me thinking how much those VBS banners, tied to t-posts on the church lawns, were a lot like my hummingbird feeders. If they hang them, kids will come!!!

I thought back to my days of young motherhood and how VBS was a major staple of our summer activity list. It’s definitely how I entertained my kids when they were young. I felt with all the secular imbibing their little minds had taken in over the school year, they could really use some Spiritual flushing and rejuvinating over the summer. In fact, if I dealt my cards right, we could spend all summer doing the VBS circuit, and they could see how exciting the Bible can be. It was the perfect antidote to classroom withdrawal. The kids would get to hang with their friends, learn about Jesus, do crafts, play games, sing songs, have snacks, be active, and it all came with a minimal cost, a couple of canned goods, usually, and a small daily offering, .50 cents or a dollar maybe, tops.

I got to thinking how this old lady, with more time on my hands than good sense, could invest in her family, rather than be lazy, sitting on my couch all day, gazing out the window and watching life pass me by. At the same time, what a blessing it would be to get to relive some of my fondest memories of young motherhood.

As a young mom, I always looked so forward to summer. I thought of it as a time to unplug from secular mainstream and snuggle in with God. I thought of all the ways I could help try and tutor my kids in the subjects they struggled with so much during the school year, but we didn’t have the time to address. I thought of all the projects that needed done, that we could do together. Mother’s Day was usually about the time I put on my rose-colored sunglasses and started daydreaming of all the fun we were going to have over the summer. I envisioned the glorious bonding experiences – just the kids and me.

I always took advantage of the bargain priced summer passes for the roller-skating rink, Summer Movie Matinees, and swim lessons at the swimming pool, and could usually count on the cousins visiting for a few weeks in June or July, which would include camp-outs, sleep-overs, sunbathing on the roof, trampoline bouncing, playhouse lounging, bike riding, park picnics, hiking adventures, and various other backyard shenanigans. I made sure to have a freezer full of popsicles and all the stuff on hand to make Orange Julius’s and French toast.

I also remember how just when we were all starting to slip into lazy mode, sleep-in-til-8am, stay-up-til-midnight, TV-binge-watching, and oh so unproductive summer routines, every once in a great-great while I would selfishly crave a morning to myself, to spend outside in the fresh air, in my Bible with a hot cup of coffee, listing to a favorite worship CD, soaking up some blue skies and summer sun, the smell of blooming lilac bushes wafting in the air, green grass tickling between my toes, and the various birdie’s serenading. Ahhhhh!!!! the dew-covered serenity of it all!!! And what I would have given to be able to bask for just a few uninterrupted hours, without a kid whining for breakfast, or sniveling that they can’t find their shoes, or begging in their I’m-soooo-bored-voice if the neighbor kids can come over and play, pleeeeease? What I would have given for a grandparent to knock on my door and ask to kidnap the kids for a few solitary hours.

So, here I am, a decade and a half later, the grandparent. Slipping on the same rose-colored glasses and imagining how I can be a blessing to my grandkids like I tried to be for my kids. It’s easy to be lazy, but how much work is it really to get up, get dressed, pick up kids, take them to VBS’s, drop them off, and in a couple hours, repeat the process in reverse? How much trouble is it really to throw down a slab of clay, a box of crayons, a set of dominoes, a deck of cards, or a good book and spend an afternoon showing little people how to do it? How much trouble is it to drag out the sleeping bags, pop a bag of popcorn, and then camp out together and giggle in the guest bedroom on the king-sized bed watching movies until we can’t keep our eyes open any longer? How many memories can we pack into a day, a summer, a lifetime?

I shared my plan with my daughter one day before school got out. Bless her heart, she was more than happy not only to share her children with me and let me relive some of my best mom-moments with them, but to also go with me to all the churches in town and gather information. We made a notebook of all the information we could from the info stations of each church, and I started writing VBS dates on my calendar.

We found that pretty much every week of the summer some church or another in our town was having VBS, and the weeks that were empty, those weeks could be easily filled with other things that were available in our community, like gymnastics camp, movie matinees, library day, picnics at the park, Frisbee golf, hiking, floating the river, fishing, baseball games, rodeo, etc. Whatever was lacking in our town could be done at home: backyard movies, cookie baking, a lemonade stand, bike riding, learning a new board game, a homeschool science camp – using You Tube, a homeschool art camp – using You Tube, swimming, soaking our feet in tubs of sudsy water, crafts, Nerf gun wars, taking pictures, collecting items for craft projects, etc. There were also going to be birthday parties to host and attend, 4th of July fireworks, and bull riding would be in town the weekend before school started back again.

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men. Fast forward to September and can you guess how our summer flew by? It was hands-down one of the best summers EVER!!!!! One for the record books, for sure. We filled it with lots of sleepovers, VBS every week, visiting cousins, tons of crafting, “Hunter-Hunted” Nerf wars in the back yard with grandpa, yard-saling on Fridays, ice-cream, BBQ, hot dogs, watermelon, and everything else on the list. By mid-August we had been-there-done-that, seen it all, done it all, and had to start changing gears for back-to-school with clothes shopping and gathering supplies (and you know the whole love affair that goes with all of that NEW STUFF). By the time things started to slow down, which, honestly, they never did, it was right about perfect timing for the kids to start missing their routines, their desks, their friends, and could hardly wait for school to start again.

I want to encourage all you grandmas out there, that if this page full of rambling words has caught you in your jammies, sipping your morning coffee, and gazing out your window at the tiny hummingbirds scavenging for food, I hope you’ll think about the little people God has gathered to us, who are just as hungry for our time, our love, our attention, and a great big long sip of GRANDMA, as those returning hummers are for that red nectar.

I hope if your mind has sauntered off into a delicious daydream of motherhood-gone-by, that you’ll be spurned on to good works by GRANDMA-not-gone-yet. I hope if you have grandkids, and more time on your hands than good sense, that you’ll get busy and be useful before the little people in your life hyper drive off to another feeder (and be gone forever). I pray you feel equipped by what you’ve read here with an arsenal of great ideas to keep your family busy, Stuff it all into your ditty bag and unpack it with the ones you love while sipping a slushie lemonade in a hammack in the shade, all along the summer trails of life.

Oh that we would consider it all joy, to serve the precious darlings we’ve been so blessed to have in our lives. Oh that we would not waste another moment sitting around in our jammies staring out a window, but jump up and number our days, and sprint into action to redeem the time. May we treasure the memories that will be made, before a single tick-tock of life robs us of them! To the praise and glory of God!

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“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.'”

Matthew 19:14

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Mar22

Mr. Popper's Penguins, Classroom Book Party

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Mr. Popper's Penguins, Classroom Book Party

I just so happen to know a classroom of 2nd Graders, who are about to finish their book, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and a teacher who is generous to allow an ol’ gray-headed granny to workout her party animal muscle on an excited group of fun-seeking little readers.

Like most classroom book parties, this one features decorations, games, snacks, and a movie. I did some research here in order to gather ideas, since I have not read this book.

I thought the kids might like dressing up like little penguins (large white t-shirts with long black jackets, and puffy yellow penguin-feet slippers) and then putting on some of the same acts from the book, that Captain Cook, Greta, and their adroable waddling mini-mes did, for their teacher and classmates. I’ll divide the classroom into three groups. They won’t know why until I take the first group outside in the hallway where they’ll put on their costumes and then hear my instructions for putting on a silly show. The first group will come out on stage and do some marching – which may involve the passing off of a penguin egg or baby penguin (stuffed animal), and I’m hoping they will really get into character to make the show entertaining for their audience. That group will then exit the stage, take off their costumes, and take their places back at their desks. The next group will enter the hallway, don their penguin apparrel, take their turn on stage, and have a silly boxing match with oversize boxing gloves and some silly fancy footwork. Finally, the last group will take the stage, climb up on bean bags and slide back down, to the whoots and cheers of their adoring classmates.

I’ll put up a map of the United States on one of the classroom walls, and during the movie, pause to let the kids move penguin stickers across all the places where the penguins put on their shows.

The kids will get to watch the movie and at the same time nibble on some fun snacks, which I’ll serve on penguin paper plates, with penguin paper cups and napkins.

SNACKS:

undefined Penguin Rice Crispy Treats

— OR — a more healthy alternative…

undefined Penguin Banana Snacks

Goldfish crackers undefined

undefined Snowcones in a cup – our little school happens to have a snowcone machine – hurray!!!!

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Easy Sonic Ocean Water Recipe

5 min·Yield: 3

You have to try this Sonic Ocean Water Recipe. Make your favorite Sonic Ocean water at home.

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp Water
  • 3 tbsp Sugar
  • 1 tsp Coconut Extract
  • 4 drops Blue Food Coloring
  • 24 oz Sprite ((can be 3 cans or from a 2-liter that you can get for cheap))

Soooooo, now you know my plans. I’ll head back to this post in a few weeks and add pictures, just as soon as my little munchkin-hearts get to have their epic-antarctic party!!!! I’m so looking forward to it. ❤

Nov17

The Sign of the Beaver, Book Party

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The Sign of the Beaver, Book Party

I was recently blessed with the task of throwing a book party for my granddaughter’s classroom, to celebrate their finishing reading the book, The Sign of the Beaver. It was a “Dinner and a Movie” party, in which I was asked to provide the food and decorations. The party took place over their lunch hour. I set the food up as a buffet, and arranged a few minimal decorations while the kids were in PE, which mostly consisted of stuffed animals and a river. After a brief explanation of all the foods, the kids were allowed to help themselves and eat while they watched the movie. And when the movie was over the teacher did a little activity with them to compare the movie to the book. The kids were so excited, and not only did they eat everything, they asked to take all the leftovers home with them. All that was left was a little bit of stew in the bottom of the crock pot, so I would say it was a success! What a great group of kids, always so grateful and always a ton of fun to spoil.

This has become, honestly, one of my very favorite volunteer activities in the whole wide world to do, even though it is a ton of work. It is a labor of love! In order to prepare, I read the book and made a list of all the foods mentioned, as well as took notes of some decorating ideas that I hoped would kind of bring the book to life for the kids. I had never read this book before, and shame on me, because it is a terrific little book. I am a huge fan of historical fiction and children’s novels are just my speed. I’m not much of a reader, for a plethora of reasons, but when it only takes about three hours to knock a book out, that’s in my wheelhouse. So, after reading it I set out doing some research to find authentic northeastern tribal recipes for the foods mentioned in the book. It couldn’t have been more perfect for this party to come during Thanksgiving/hunting season, and during the last harvests of our gardens. And for a beverage I brought two jugs of “Penobscot River water” and let the kids sweeten it with a bit of maple sugar.

I decided to center the party around the idea of the Bear Feast that was celebrated in Attean’s village after Attean and Matt encountered and killed a bear in self-defense while they were out retrieving a rabbit from one of the snares they’d set up. I also wanted to incorporate some of the wild game, the maple sugar Attean gave to Matt, and some of the fruits and berries and native foods that would have been eaten back then.

DECORATIONS: The book’s setting is in the late summer into early wintertime of the year, early/mid 1700’s Maine, and in the vicinity of the Penobscot River, where Matt and his dad cleared a tract of land, built a cabin, and planted a garden. Attean and his Indian tribe lived nearby. It was a wooded area teaming with wildlife, maple trees, and wild berry bushes. So for decorations I decided to gather up all the stuffed animals we had that would represent the animals in the forest: a bear rug/blanket, bunny rabbit, fox, deer, squirrel, fish, turtle, beaver, and Attean’s useless dog. I also gathered up a blue bedsheet that I used to make a river with the first time I threw this party (I used bulletin board paper the second time), a pile of sticks on one end to make a beaver dam, some rocks to line the river (and the second party I used the rocks to hold the tree upright), and because we’re in Texas, I used a Buc-ees Beaver the first time I threw this party to sit on top of the beaver’s sticks. I used some gorgeous, colorful, fall paper maple leaves to scatter around beside the river. I drug my little tree to the school to set beside the river and I used a Drimmel Tool to carve a beaver design into a tree stump, which I used as a decoration. The Teepee shown in the photo below was an afterthought, I wish I would have remembered to bring it to the party, but considering the northeastern Indians actually lived in wigwams, rather than teepees, t’was no biggy I guess.

In case you’re thinking of throwing this party and would like a great big bear rug to spread on the floor for your party, don’t go spend a fortune at an Outdoor store before you check your local thrift stores. I frequently find a giant teddy bear at Goodwill for $6, which would work marvelously as a rug with all the stuffin’s pulled out. I already had a bear blanket at home that I thought would work just dandy. BTW: Goodwill is a great budget friendly place to bargain shop for theme parties!

FOOD: Some of the foods mentioned in the book consisted of Johnny Cakes, which Matt’s dad made the last morning for breakfast, before he left his 12/13 year old son in Maine to care for the cabin and garden alone, while he went back to Massachusetts to retrieve Matt’s pregnant mother and sister. He left Matt with his good rifle to hunt with, and for self defense. Some of the animals they hunted were deer, rabbits, and fish with one precious fish hook.

I made deer jerky out of a couple packages of deer cutlets gifted to me by one of the parents. My sister has the absolute best jerky recipe on the planet and so I used it, and only modified it slightly, so it wouldn’t be too spicy for the kids. This is my adaptation:

Sister Geraldeen’s Beef (or venison) Jerky

1  3-lb roast, fresh, raw (it is easiest to slice if placed in the freezer for about an hour)

16 oz. Soy Sauce

2.5 oz. liquid smoke

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp Salt Lick dry rub, with garlic (equal parts cayenne powder, black pepper, and garlic powder)

Stir together in a large oblong glass baking dish until sugar is dissolved.

Using a sharp knife, slice lean meat into thin strips (1/4 to 1/8” thick and 1/2  to 1” wide).  Slice across the grain for a tenderer product.  Lay the slices down into the marinade until the meat takes up most of it.  Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it down on top of the meat so the marinade covers the meat completely.  Place in refrigerator overnight. 

In the morning, drain off and discard all of the marinade.  Then mix together these dry ingredients in a separate small bowl:

1 Tablespoon cracked Pepper

1 Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper flakes

1 teaspoons of Chili powder

Sprinkle over drained meat strips and toss with hands to coat evenly (I use latex gloves).  Preheat food dehydrator.  Lay strips of meat on each rack leaving small spaces in between the pieces for good air circulation.  Stack the racks in the dehydrator, cover, and allow to dehydrate undisturbed for about 8 hours.  Check the meat for doneness, and let it dehydrate more if still wet or bendy when cooled.  Depending upon your dehydrator, it could take up to 24 hours or more for the meat to fully dry.  Meat is done when a piece removed and cooled will break in half easily and not bend or fold at all without breaking.

If you don’t have a dehydrator you can buy a package of disposable Aluminum Grill Liners (I use KT’s Clean BBQ brand available from Home Depot) or online, and completely cover the racks in your oven with them, then lay the strips of meat on those. Also lay a sheet of aluminum foil in the bottom of your oven to catch the drips. Adjust the racks to that they are placed in the center of your oven, and then set the oven temp to its lowest setting. Mine will only go as low as 170 degrees F. Prop the oven door open a little bit with a wooden spoon so the moisture can vent out as the meat dries. It won’t take as long to jerk your meat in the oven at that temp as it will in the dehydrator, so check it after about 4 hours, and then every half hour or so after that until the meat is dried as described above.

Place finished jerky in clean, sterilized mason jars, and use a Food Saver to remove all the air from the jars.  Place jars in a cool, dry place for up to two weeks.  For longer storage, place in refrigerator and eat within a month.

Johnny Cakes

I ran out of time to make these for the the first party (poor time management the morning of the party), but I did make them for the second party, and the kids loved them, especially with real butter and pure maple syrup on top. YUM!

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

2 eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup melted butter

1 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Butter or oil for frying

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in milk, water, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Thoroughly mix until pancake mixture is smooth.

2. Heat a lightly oiled cast iron or frying pan over medium high heat. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the batter onto the pan.

3. Fry each Johnny cake until brown and crisp; turn with a spatula, and then brown the other side.

4. Remove and serve immediately with syrup and/or butter. These can be eaten hot for breakfast, or cold as a snack later in the day.

Three Sisters Harvest Stew  (a.k.a. Bear Stew)

INGREDIENTS

1 pound beef stew meat

1 teaspoon ground cumin

 Kosher salt, as needed

 Black pepper, as needed

2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola

1 large yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 cups turkey, chicken, or beef stock, or combo (low sodium bone broth),

1 rib of celery

1 large carrot

8 small red or yellow potatoes, cut in half

1 medium yellow squash, diced

1/4 cabbage, chopped

1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained

2 cups fresh or frozen cut green beans

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chopped tomatoes

2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels

1 (4-ounce) can roasted green chilies (1/2 cup)

Add 1 jalapeno, unless using spicy green chilies

½ bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

PREPARATION  (YIELD: 8 servings – TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes)

Season beef with cumin, salt and pepper. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add beef, in batches if necessary, and cook, turning as needed, until lightly browned on all sides, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer beef to a bowl and set aside.

Add onion to pan and sauté, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally, until lightly colored, 2 to 3 minutes. Return beef to pan, along with stock and bring to a boil.  Lower heat to medium simmer and cook meat until almost tender.  Add carrots, celery, potatoes, and bring to a boil.  Cook 20 minutes, then lower heat to medium.

Add beans, tomatoes, corn, chilies and squash, and cook, uncovered, over medium heat until stew has thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes. Add cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper.

COOKING NOTES

Three sisters is so-called because Native Americans inter-planted corn, beans and squash in the same mound. The 3 thrive together because corn provides a natural pole for the beans to climb, the beans fix nitrogen in the soil, and the squash leaves shade the ground to prevent the growth of weeds, and also helps to hold soil moisture.

Recipe adapted from: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016956-three-sisters-stew

Grandmother’s Indian Cornbread (Broadswords)

The Iroquois Indians made a wonderful boiled corn bread. They made flour by pounding corn into corn flour. To make bread, they mixed water with the corn flour. Sometimes cooked beans were added, or berries or nuts. The bread was kneaded and formed into small loaves. The loaves were dropped into boiling water and cooked until the bread floated. Boiled corn bread was served both hot and cold. They also used the same bread mix to bake bread by putting it on clay tablets in the fire. They used sunflower oil to fry bread. Below is a recipe for steamed corn bread with beans, wrapped in corn husks. It is remarkably similar to tamales. This was the kids’ FAVORITE food of the party. I would have bet against that. Good thing I made a big batch!

Ingredients

  • 3 cups masa harina (corn flour used for tamales)
  • ½ cup rendered bacon fat (many traditional Native American recipes use fat as a flavor element and source of vital nutrients)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup cooked beans (really any type of bean will work but small brown beans are traditional. I used great northern beans)
  • 2 cups hot cooking liquid from beans
  • Dried corn husks

Directions

  1. Set up a steamer on your stove top using a steamer basket fitted over a pot with plenty of gently simmering water.
  2. Thoroughly rinse about 25 corn husks. Place corn husks in a large pan of boiling water. Place another smaller plate or bowl on top of the corn husks to keep them submerged. Set husks on low heat to soften while you prepare the dough.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine masa harina and bacon fat. Using your fingertips (I used latex gloves), work the lard into the flour until it is evenly distributed. Add salt, baking powder, beans, and the hot cooking liquid from the beans. Use a spoon to stir mixture until a thick, sticky dough comes together, it will be about the consistency of chocolate chip cookie dough.
  4. Use your hands to scoop ¼ cup-sized portions of dough, working quickly as dough will still be hot from the bean cooking liquid. Shape the dough into a ball and flatten slightly into a 1-inch thick oval, which is your “broadsword.” Wrap the broadsword in a corn husk, folding the husk around the dough on all sides to completely enclose it. Tear off small strips of corn husks to use as ties around the broadswords to hold them closed. Place the wrapped broadswords vertically in the steamer basket as you go. When all broadswords have been added to basket, lower it over boiling water, cover the steamer basket with a tight fitting lid, and allow broadswords to steam covered for 1 hour or more.
  5. After 1 hour, check the bean bread- if the corn husk pulls away easily, the broadswords are done cooking.
  6. Broadswords may be eaten hot, or stored in refrigerator to be eaten cold or rewarmed in oven or microwave.

Roasted Pumpkin

Members of the Chippewa tribe near Lake Superior have been enjoying this sweet and savory side dish for generations.

Ingredients:

1 small sugar pumpkin

1/4 cup maple syrup or maple sugar

1/4 cup melted butter

Instructions:

Cut the cap off of pumpkin and stab it about 4 times with a sharp knife.  Scoop out membranes and seeds.  (Wash seeds in a colander and discard all membranes. Place seeds in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon sea salt, toss and allow them to soak a bit while you prepare the pumpkin, then spread seeds on a very lightly oiled, or parchment lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with some extra salt. Place seeds in oven with pumpkin, but check and remove seeds once they have roasted – about 15 minutes or until you hear one or two pop. Check by removing a seed, let it cool, and then eat it. If it is crispy it is done). Add butter and syrup/sugar to the pumpkin.  Replace cap on pumpkin and place whole in a large ovenproof bowl .  Place pumpkin in a 350 °F oven for about 1 hr. and check for tenderness. Depending upon size, and variances with ovens, it may take up to 90 minutes for pumpkin to cook fully. You know it is getting close when the pumpkin looks like it has a tan and the sides are soft to the touch. Check tenderness by piercing side of pumpkin with a fork.  If the fork punctures through the skin and into the flesh easily, it is done.

Dried Fruit & Nut Cake

I’m not much of a fruitcake person, but I think it is because I don’t care for the usual candied fruits that come in fruitcake, such as pineapple and green cherries, etc. Using dried fruits is so much better.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup Molasses

1 ½ sticks of Butter (3/4 cup), softened

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup each rough chopped dried: apricots, plums, figs, pears, dates, golden raisins, blueberries

1 cup each: walnut halves, pecans, almonds, pistachios

Instructions

1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 320°F (150°C). Spray the loaf pans (either two 9-by-5-inch 8-cup loaf pans or 8 mini loaf pans) with vegetable oil spray and then line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix the first eight ingredients together using a mixer on low speed.  Increase speed to medium and beat until batter is smooth, scraping the bowl often with a rubber spatula.  Stir in the dried fruit and the nuts and mix thoroughly, with your fingers if necessary. Set aside.

3. Use an ice cream scoop or scrape batter into the prepared pans.

4. Bake until the top is deep golden brown and the batter clinging to the fruit seems set, about 30 minutes for smaller loaves, 10 to 15 minutes longer for a large loaf. Insert toothpick to check for doneness. Toothpick should come out clean. Don’t let cake overbake or it will be dry. Tent loosely with foil if the cake appears to be browning too much. Cool completely in the pans on a rack.

5. When completely cool, remove the cake from the pans. The cake keeps, wrapped airtight in foil or plastic wrap, for several weeks at room temperature or at least 3 months in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen for at least 6 months.

6. To serve, cut into thin slices with a sharp heavy knife.

Dried Fruit and Nut Cake Recipe adapted from © 2007 Alice Medrich. All rights reserved. All materials used with permission. Alice used dates, dried Angelino plums, and dried pears.

Fire Roasted Fish

I didn’t make the fish for the first party, although I was given some trout for the party and had a wild daydream about having the kids following me outside to the park just a block from the school, where my husband could be tending a fire next the creek that runs through it, and on the way having them mark their trail just like Attean showed Matt to do in the book, so they could find their way back to class, but reality check – there really wasn’t enough time for that kind of shenanigans, and besides that, the only way to eat trout is freshly caught and properly cleaned, otherwise I think it would have been a waste of time to try and fix it for the kids. I’m sure they would all have turned up their noses and shied away from having even one tiny bite of the stinky fish, plus the teacher was surely not going to appreciate her room smelling of stinky fish for days either. For the second party I cracked open a can of Herring fillets, and to my surprise the kids ate the whole can.

This however, is an outstanding recipe for any fish. Give it a try with walleye, snapper, perch, bass, cod, redfish, tilapia, etc. If using fillets, lay all the ingredients on the fish and wrap with bacon rather than placing the bacon inside.

Ingredients

Salt and Pepper

1 Big Fish (Salmon, Trout, Perch)

Butter

Lemon Slices

Onion slices

Green Bell Pepper slices (or Jalapeno strips)

Several strips of thin sliced precooked (but not crispy) bacon

Directions

  1. Set up an outdoor kitchen: a hot fire with glowing coals surrounded by large flat rocks; a big jug of fresh clean water for rinsing the fish, plus the knife, and your hands.
  2. Carefully kill, gut and scale each fish immediately upon catching it, and rinse well in clean water.
  3. Sprinkle inside of fish with salt and pepper.  Place pats of butter, lemon, onion, and bell pepper slices inside the fish and lay a strip of precooked bacon down on top of them in the cavity of the fish. Tie wet string around the fish to hold the stuffings in and to hold it together while it grills.
  4. Or, rub fish with butter on both sides and wrap tightly in a big piece of tinfoil and crimp the edges closed.  Wrap again in a second piece of tinfoil.
  5. Bake on a smooth flat rock really close to the fire (but not in it!), or if you have a grate, lay the fish on the grate above the fire. Or, fry in butter in a heavy cast iron pan over the fire.
  6. Use a long handled spatula to carefully turn the fish about half way through cooking and also to remove it from the fire.
  7. Note: The amount of time it takes to cook varies depending on the size of fish and how close it is to the fire. Just keep checking it, it will be done when the flesh flakes easily with a fork.  May take from 15 to 20 minutes if on a grate over the fire, or to up to an hour if laying on a hot rock next to the fire.

Recipe adapted from one found by Lauren McArdle …who learned this from her Mohawk Grandmother in Saskatchewan.

“Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, the tribe of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed…” Psalm 74:2

Mar18

Leprechaun Traps

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Leprechaun Traps

Ms Treva, since this was totally your idea and I had never heard of such a thing, I wanted to share with you how it all turned out. Please bask in all your craftsmanship my dear friend…

I am a big fan of Saint Patrick’s Day. I suppose it could be the corned beef and cabbage simmering in the crock pot and the family gathered around the table to share in its deliciousness, or the multitude of Irish blessings being passed around and spoken in a make-believe Irish accent all day, of course. Maybe it’s the promise of spring just starting to round that corner from the long cold winter, or the warm, lavish rains that promise to bring forth life in the plants and trees. It might be the colorful rainbows and puffy white clouds that decorate the blue skies above. Perhaps its the hope that I’ll finally find a 4-leaf clover in spite of my life-long futile search (I’m convinced they don’t exist), but I love that our lawns are begining to turn green again and I don’t care if it’s mostly clover and weeds so long as it’s green! And what can be more visually appealing than the beautiful wildflowers that clothe the meadows as chirping birds and mischievous squirrels hail that it’s time to reset our clocks (gosh what a stupid practice – I’m so bloody tired).

So, my Bestie and I were chatting by phone a few days ago and she suggested a fun something to do with the grandkids this Saint Patrick’s Day —– Leprechan Traps. Have you heard of them? I never had. She told me all about them and I decided it would be a fun, not a lot of hassle, way to bring some fun to the holiday and pass the hours bonding with my two favorite people out in the beautiful sunshine.

First we goobled some dinner…

…And then the girls and I sat down to make our Leprechaun traps.  We used some old shoe boxes I found out in my garage, plus some construction paper, glitter paint, and wooden kabob skewers.  We sure could have made them a whole LOT cuter, but we were in a bit of a hurry, anxious to hopefully catch one of these little creatures. So once the girls had hastily constructed two traps each, we were ready to go find some good places in the yard to set them up, hopefully some places with clusters of lush, green clover. 

We hoped to make up for our lack of decorating panache by dusting the grass and shamrocks with lots of glitter, as Leprechauns are attracted to things that sparkle (so I am told).  The girls decided they would fill their empty glitter tubes with water and leave them under the traps to draw the Leprechaun’s attention.  We tried to be very quiet and sneaky in case the Leprechauns were watching us and listening. 

Since a watched trap never catches anything we went back in the house and granny Googled to see if anyone had ever gotten a picture of a Leprechaun, so we could see what they looked like.  Alas, we were pleasantly surprised to find someone had.  They sure must have been sneaky, and had a really really nice camera with a big telephoto lens to catch this little guy taking a siesta on a tree branch.  Isn’t he cute?  How lucky for us to get to see what one looks like!

To pass the time we decided to watch a movie and give the leprechauns some time to be lured to our traps.  About halfway through the movie we checked outside the window and found one of our traps had been sprung (thanks to grandpa who was secretly in on the charade ;)).  Oh how exciting!!!  The girls and I could barely get outside fast enough, and when we did we found all four of our traps were sprung.  We were a little bit nervous at first to lift the boxes, sure that one of the little guys would dash out and maybe kick us or try to bite us as they ran away.  But we mustered some bravado and carefully lifted each box (in retrospect a person standing back with a fishing net would have been good for effect) hoping to have caught a leprechaun, but darnit, not a one. Shucky darns!!!

But, to our utter delight, our sweet little guy must have appreciated the clover in our yard, or the glitter we sprinkled all over, or perhaps felt sorry for us for our shabby looking traps, because there were little presents under each box.  The leprechauns must have left them. Each had a small black kettle filled with either gold nuggets gum, or gold foil covered chocolate coins.  We gathered up all the little gifts and as we were walking back to the house, we spotted a big black kettle by the well house with even more little surprises inside. The girls squealed!  How awesome was this?  Our sweet little leprechaun had left the girls some fun little craft projects to do, along with some hair ties, and candy necklaces.  He must have liked their giggles as he spied us setting those traps.

We spent the rest of the day doing our little crafts, eating second helpings of dinner, making an Irish whiskey cake with whipped cream and sliced strawberries on top, using the freshly picked strawberries we picked the day before from a farm outside of Poteet.  It was all very delicious. 

Gosh, what a fun Saint Patrick’s Day!  Who knew you could catch leprechauns in south Texas? 

Of course, everybody knows there’s no such thing as leprechauns, right?

* * *

“But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself toward godliness.” 1 Timothy 4:7

Feb16

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe — Narnia Party

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The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe — Narnia Party

I thought I’d share a recent school party that I did for my granddaughter’s class. She and her classmates have been reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and as the kids were nearing the end of the book their amazing (and I do mean A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!!!) teacher asked if I would like to put together a party to help them celebrate finishing the book. “Well heck ya,” I told her! “I love that stuff” (which I’m fairly certain she already knew 😉 )! Anyway, I’m sharing with y’all, just in case someone else out there has the opportunity and would like some ideas.

The Wardrobe Doors

I made a fairly crude set of wardrobe doors to decorate the classroom door entrance, out of a large cardboard box (I think it came from a furniture store). I measured the classroom door and then cut the cardboard to fit using a square and a utility knife. Then I painted the cardboard with some mahogany colored varnish I had leftover from a furniture refinishing project I did a while back. I let the cardboard dry for about a week and then I cut the doors in half lengthwise. I didn’t have a lot of time to make these doors, otherwise I would have put a lot more thoughtful detail into them, but at least I gave them handles.

Since the door frame on the classroom was metal, the only way I knew of to be able to attach these doors was to use clear packaging/shipping tape all along the henge edges to tape the doors to the door frame. This worked fairly well. Perhaps Duct tape would have been better??? Of course, the doors wouldn’t stay closed once they were hung, so we had to use a small cardboard dowel rod and insert it in the door handles to hold them closed until all the kids arrived and could walk in together to discover the transformation of their classroom. Their teacher kept this all a total surprise!

I used an inexpensive shower curtain rod (purchased from Walmart for about $5) to hang some long robes and long dresses on. Beings this is south Texas nobody had long coats we could use, and I wasn’t sure how much weight that rod would hold either. Anyway, as soon as the kids opened the wardrobe doors, all they saw was a closet full of clothing which they had to walk through.

It’s Always Winter in Narnia

Once inside it was a winter wonderland. I had cut out about 25 paper snowflakes and hung them to the ceiling with string and push pins, all over the classroom.

It’s not a party without food…

Soooo, I thought it would be fun to celebrate all the foods featured in the book/movie:

For the White Witch’s table I made a White Hot Chocolate in a large thermos and had glass mugs for the kids to drink it out of. I glued little snowflakes on each mug. Next to that was a round box filled with Turkish Delight, tied with a green silk ribbon!

I used quilt batting to cover the table in “snow.” I placed a framed quote from the book, and a large sample box of a big variety of flavored Turkish Delight, which I ordered from amazon.com about a week ahead of the party. Oh my gosh! It’s delicious. I had never had it before, have you? I want to order another box just for myself. Then again, I’ll just eat the whole thing and it does nothing for my girlish figure, so I probably better not!!!

The Beaver’s table needed to feature fish and potatoes, and marmelade roll-ups. But, as much as I love “fish n’ chips” I didn’t figure the kids would be as big of fans – so I went with Swedish fish and Goldfish crackers, and potato chips. I thought the ones with skins on would be the coolest so I went with TGIFriday’s potato chips. I served the little morsels in these perfect little wooden bowls that my husband made for me several months ago. And I covered the table in a brown fur table cloth.

Now if you are familiar with the story, the Beaver’s had beer with their supper. But they also had tea, which is a bit more kid-friendly. I went with iced tea. And after trying, and failing, to make the little sandwiches into roll-ups, I decided to just cut them into triangles. I was surprised that the kids liked marmelade, but they ate the whole platter!

Finally was Mr. Tumnus and Lucy’s Tea Party table. I set this table with real teacups, and a spread of “sugar topped cupcakes” and TOAST with honey butter. I brewed a big pot of tea and set out sugar cubes and lemon slices so the kids could doll up their cups as they wished.

I made the honey butter using a stick of real butter and added about 1/4 cup of honey and a tsp of cinnamon to it. And the cupcakes I made with a yellow cupcake batter and a brown sugar buttercream frosting that is out of this world. I found it when I went looking for a frosting I could make without powdered sugar. OMG! They were beyond delicious!!!!! In fact, this might be my favorite frosting of all time!!!!! You must try it! Once I frosted the cupcakes, I sprinkled them with sugar sprinkles. They turned out pretty!

So there you have it…our party in a nutshell! The kids were so excited!!!! It was all the reward I would ever need to get to watch their faces as they entered the classroom with wide-eyed wonder and awe. They saw the snowflakes and started jumping. They wanted to keep them for souvenirs, which of course I obliged. And I even promised to come teach them how to make them some afternoon. They ate everything there was to eat and some of every beverage. And when it was all said and done, they each wrote notes thanking me for all my efforts, and telling me how much they loved the party and will never forget it as long as they live! Well, if that doesn’t make your heart go pitter pat, I don’t know what would. I must be the luckiest ol’ gal on the block to have such a wonderful opportunity to lavish love on this precious group of kiddos. I feel so very honored that their teacher trusted me for this task.

The kids drank and ate their fill while they watched the movie version of the book. And when the party was over, the kids found their way back to the real world by the soft glowing light of the street lamp!

What a blast! And there you have it!!!!! You could make this a classroom party for your kids, as I have done, or you could use it for a theme birthday party, or even celebrate summer book reading with a theme party. The kids will remember it forever!!!!

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the LORD and not to men.” Colossians 3:23

Dec16

Grandpa’s Treasure Hunt Conspiracy

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Grandpa’s Treasure Hunt Conspiracy

My husband has let me in on a little covert operation he has been planning for his granddaughters, and it tickles me so much I’ve decided to blog about it.  He’s been scheming this thing in his head for months.  The first thing he did to get the ball rolling was hunt for an appropriate treasure box, which he found at Hobby Lobby, except that it needed a sturdier bottom.  It didn’t take much to just attach a piece of wood.  He then began filling it with treasures: handfuls of pennies that he spray-painted gold and silver, and a few other miscellaneous discarded junk jewelry pieces that once belonged to his mother – probably things she found at garage sales and never did anything with.  

And then this is where I became involved in the delicious conspiracy.  He wanted some help coming up with some sort of little story, not a treasure map, but a story that would pique their little interests and ignite some spontaneous junior sleuthing.  He thought it would be neat if the story was written on parchment paper and then rolled up and tucked in a bottle with a cork in the top.  He planned to place this bottle in a sort of inconspicuous place somewhere along the path by the river where the girls could stumble upon it while outside adventuring with their grandpa.

Now mind you, grandpa has already been out and surveyed where he plans to bury this treasure, and deposit the bottle with the message inside, and he’s also done a fair amount of trail grooming through the tundra of bamboo we have growing along the banks of our river.  In fact, as he took me on a tour, he pointed out the clever touches he’s added — like putting googlie eyes on some random stalks of the bamboo, so he can say to the girls, “Do you get the feeling you’re being watched?” And then wait for them to get it!  Ha! Ha!

It was this curious little detail that sparked my imagination for a story.  I sat down with my trused computer and after a few minutes, this was what I came up with:  

THE TRAP HAS BEEN SET!!!!!!!

We are both so excited about this and hoping we can pull it off.  Our imaginations are spilling over with delirious day-dreams of how the girls will react.  Will they truly believe they’ve found an old old letter in a bottle, and that it leads them to a real buried treasure?  I think both our hearts might just burst with excitement.  But we’ve got to play it cool.  We’ve got to both stay in character, as if nothing whatsoever is up.  In fact, I’m just going to stay indoors the day they come over (if I can possibly contain myself) and let grandpa do all the clever charades.  I’ll just try to act surprised when they come screaming into the house with stuff in their hands, and talking so fast I can’t even understand them.  Hee hee!!!!  And we’ll sit down on the floor and I’ll let them tell me all about the letter they found and I’ll let them read it to me, and I’ll let them explain how they looked for the treasure box and where they ended up finding it, and we’ll sort through all the stuff in their box, and I’ll take a group selfie with my cell phone and probably post it on Facebook (and here later, of course), and it will all be grand!  Just grand!!!!!    (I hope!) 

“Children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward.”   Psalm 127:3

“As arrows are in the hand of a mighty warrior; so are the children of one’s youth.  Happy are the [GRANDPARENTS] whose quiver is full!”     Psalm 127:4-5



UPDATE: The plan turned out better than we could have ever anticipated. The girls were delirious with excitement. Oh the sweet faith of a little child to so easily believe … almost makes a person ashamed to exploit it. But how fun to see them with so much enchanted enthusiasm, and to listen to the little wheels turning in their minds trying to solve a puzzle, trying to uncover a mystery, embarking on an epic adventure, and to hear them share their little theories with each other for where to look and why. It was as delightful an experience as any storybook or children’s film that’s ever captured your imagination. Sooooo much fun!!!!!

After a year or so I came clean with the grandchildren, telling them that it was all just a made up story. I didn’t ever want them to think Jesus was also just a made up story. I could see the disappointment in the youngest one’s eyes, and the oldest, well, she seemed okay with knowing. We talked about how it is sometimes very easy to believe a fantastical story, especially if the person telling it is persuasive. As Christians we need to be on guard against such things, and weigh everything against the word of God. So, this was a good lesson in being gullible. But also, make believe it’s not all bad. Think of all the books and movies out there. They are not all true. Some are soooo good that we want to read them or watch them over and over. Maybe this little treasure adventure will spark their imaginations to want to write non-fictional stories as they get older, like Harry Potter, or Alice in Wonderland, or the bamboo people who live in the river?

Jul10

MrsH’s “Girl Scouts” Hobo Supper in Foil

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MrsH’s “Girl Scouts” Hobo Supper in Foil

 

I grew up in a small town where there wasn’t a lot for kids to do but just be kids and play in the great outdoors.  That was plenty enough though, believe me.  My sisters and I made dirt houses lined with pebbles, floors swept down to the hard dirt, rocks and logs for furniture, and we served each other our fancy mud pie concoctions.  We played secret maze games between the sheets hanging on the line until we got hollered at to get away with our unclean hands.   We climbed Tank Hill just for something to do, and then tried to RUN down it without stumbling.  Sometimes we took a picnic lunch up there and ate it overlooking the town where we could watch all the goings on.  One time I climbed the tank – which was a mistake.  I guess I’m a little afraid of heights I found out.  My grandpa had to come and rescue me, and right after he called a welder to cut off the ladder so it couldn’t ever be climbed up by a kid again.  Oh dear!

We had bikes and rode them all over a whole vast network of oilfield roads, to secret places – under bridges, the old electric plant, and to the pond to catch frogs and salamanders and horny toads by the dozens, but hopefully not see any snakes – ’cause ewwww, girls don’t like snakes!  We all played ball or watched the games, and we all sat on the fences at the ranch rodeos and watched the cowboys do their stuff.  Sometimes they even let us run the hot-shot on the steers in the shoots, and open the shoot gates for the ropers.

Our little oilfield community had the first lighted baseball field, and the first lighted football field in the whole state.  We had a bowling alley, and a swimming pool, and in the winter we had a frozen pond to ice skate on. They say we even had a golf course, but it wasn’t like any golf course you’ve ever seen – just dirt and rocks and prairie, with flags stuck in holes here and there.  The clubhouse was just a corregated tin outbuilding, but it was something to do for those that are into that stuff!

If there was nothing else to do it was always fun to watch dad tinker with something in his shop, or tag along with him to his work.  I got to tag along once to the Blue Creek Ranch out by Kaycee, and they let me ride an old nag of horse all day long while dad fixed whatever it was they needed him to fix.  And my grandpa could be found in his massive garden most all summer.  It was fun to pick and eat peas while he watered and weeded.  I sometimes took my matchbook cars and made trails along the rows of corn.  I accidentally sat in an ant pile once though, and that wasn’t so much fun!  My grandma was always in the kitchen sowing or cooking.  And when me and my sisters stayed at her house, it was fun to play secretary with pens and notebooks in the garage.  Sometimes we’d nap with grandpa in the afternoons on the bed they kept out there, where the cool breezes blew through.

There was always a lady in town that taught piano lessons, and occasionally someone would travel through with gymnastics or dance classes, and our families all went camping and to the lake as often as we could.  My folks had a motorcycle and a scooter and we went for rides as a family, sometimes be gone all day!  And everyone in town met at the sand rocks to shoot off fireworks on the 4th of July – all of the families, and we shared our snacks and our fireworks with each other.  Sounds magical, doesn’t it?  It was!

We had a Girl Scouts troop and a Boy Scouts troop, and even a Boy Scouts camp on the Pine Ridge.  What in the world else does a kid need?  It was a wonderful life!

Girl Scouts was one of my fondest childhood memories.  I remember getting to go to summer camp (Camp Sacajawea) on Casper Mountain one year.  I got to ride on a bus up the mountain with a whole bunch of really nice bigger girls, singing old hippy songs all the way, and coolest of all, it was an over-nighter.  We made ditty bags out of bandanas and tied them to a stick (I’ve still got one of the nicer ditty bags we were given – shown in the photo below).  We filled them with snacks and water, and one of the days we used the ditty bag sticks as walking sticks and hiked to a really cool waterfall that flowed over a rock that we could walk behind (just like in the movie The Last of the Mohicans).  That’s the way I remember it anyway! 🙂  I remember doing crafts and selling cookies.  I remember one year being really ambitious to sell those cookies!  I ❤ed Girl Scouts!

Girl Scouts memorabilia

This is a throw back meal from when I was a Girl Scout at Camp Sacajawea.  Very easy to make and I think it is delicious!  Of course we made S’mores for dessert – I’m pretty sure that was another Girl Scouts invention too!  😉

Hobo Foil Packs

This recipe feeds 4 to 6 people.

  1.  Peel and chop several cloves of garlic.  I did a whole bulb’s worth.
  2.  Wash a small bag of yellow potatoes, and a small bag of carrots, peel the carrots and then slice both into bite-size pieces  (figure on about 2 small potatoes and 1 whole large carrot per person)
  3.  Peel a yellow onion, cut in half, and slice it into quarter inch slices
  4.  Place all veggies in a bowl.  Salt and pepper to taste, and then drizzle generously with olive oil, toss to coat evenly, set aside
  5.  Mix 2 lbs of hamburger with 2 packages of dry onion soup mix, and a small minced jalapeno, a little salt and pepper, and mix well, then form into patties
  6.  Place a heaping ladle full of veggies into the center of a generous sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil
  7.  Lay a hamburger patty on top of veggies
  8.  Top with a spoonful of mushroom soup
  9.  Bring both ends of foil up and fold together to seal well on top, and then do the same on both sides.  Repeat making foil packets until all veggies and burger patties are used up.
  10.  Preheat BBQ grill, or campfire (or 350 *F oven), and when coals are hot and gray lay the packets on a grate about 6 to 8 inches above them
  11.  Let packets cook for 15 to 20 minutes and then carefully and gently flip and rearrange the packets so they can cook evenly on the other side for another 15 to 20  minutes.
  12.  Open one packet and test the veggies for doneness
  13. When done, remove the packets and serve one packet per person.

Step 5 - Grill 1 hour

Enjoy!!!!!!

Dinner Served1

“Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the way of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgement.  Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity.” 

Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

Jun23

Kid’s Summer Reading Program, A Parent’s Primer

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Kid’s Summer Reading Program, A Parent’s Primer

 

Bevery Cleary

Soooooooo… Each summer I try to think of creative ways to seize the moments with my grandchildren.  The first year I focused on skill building/tutoring type stuff and learning styles (see my School’s Out for Summer blog post).  The next year I went with daily themes/ boredom busters (see Summer Survival Guide).  This year my focus has been on Summer Reading.

I wanted to get them some fun books they would want to read, but realized fairly quickly that picking books is a little more complicated than you would think, if you want to be successful. For instance, did y’all know that the reading level of books is usually printed near the bar code? Yeah, I had no clue. But, in all fairness it isn’t obvious.  It’s like a secret code that only a few privileged people get to know about – such as an alphabet letter inside a triangle, or something like RL:2.1.  A child’s reading level, I’ve discovered through much research, is super important when picking books, because it will directly affect their enthusiasm for reading.  When developing a love for reading in a child the books cannot be too easy or too difficult, and therefore it is super important to get that part right.  I’ll explain more of what I’ve discovered about the reading level codes and such in just a minute.

In the meantime, I began my book search at Amazon.com, first gathering several highly rated, award/medal winning, quality books that were at my granddaughter’s reading level into my shopping cart.  I probably ended up with about 30 or 40 books.  After that, the next time she was over for a visit, I grabbed her up in my lap and we went through each and every one of those books, read the back covers together and flipped through the pages, weeding out the ones she was less interested in until she had picked her top ten. Some of the books were thicker and would take longer for her to read, some were thinner books that could maybe be read in an evening; some were dog stories, a couple were Roald Dahl, and so on.  After giving her the opportunity to do the picking, you can imagine how excited she was for those books to come in.  And now that they have, the child has been a reading fiend ever since, and her sister also.  Her first pick: James and the Giant Peach.

Great choice, because Roald Dahl books have a ton of other trappings and odds and ends to go with them.  So many have been turned into movies – which makes for a perfect celebration activity when the kid finishes a book, plus there are activity sticker books, a crazy Revolting Recipes cookbook (two actually) with recipes for all the wierd foods featured in his books, a dictionary which includes the crazy made up words he uses in his books, and there’s even a cute video game app (free) featuring the Twits that is super fun, if a little bit nerve-racking for kids!!!!!  There’s even a Roald Dahl website with even more to offer, like a Party Pack for his 100th birthday celebration, and the subsequent Party Packs for his next two birthdays (2017 & 2018), which includes crossword puzzles, word searches, coloring pages, drawing activities, games, classroom decorations, party hats, invitations, and so much more.  All of which are great for public school classrooms, home-school classrooms, and generally support a child’s enthusiasm for his books.

This is one of the activities we did together recently as a family after my granddaughter read James and the Giant Peach:

J&GP Dinner & a Movie

I surprised her with this “family supper” one night.  The Revolting Recipes cookbook is loaded with recipes that are intended to be made together with the child.  (I did a little ad-libbing with my renditions of the foods.  I made a gravy for my Mud Burgers, rather than serving them on buns.  I used my own deviled egg recipe for the Stink Bug’s Eggs, and rather than an apple for the Hot Frogs I used peach halves – in keeping with the peach theme, and they would have been even more delicious with grilled fresh peaches rather than the canned peaches, plus I let them swim in warmed tapioca – “frog eye soup” – rather than pudding).

And did you know James Patterson writes kid’s books now?  Many are highly rated on Amazon.  My granddaughter thought Dog Diaries would be fun to read, and she was right; she can’t wait to read it every night before bed, and tells her mom and me all about what she read because it is so funny and entertaining!!!

So, this is what has inspired my blogging today.  I just wanted to pass along the knowledge I’ve discovered, and some terrific ideas that have worked really well for us.

Book Collage Two

ASSESSING READING LEVEL

Most modern chapter books show a reading level somewhere on the bar code label (or the inside pages at the front of the book). Poof *mind blown* I did not know this, did you? Look for either a number such as RL: 2.1, OR a letter inside of a triangle. The example RL: 2.1 translates to Reading Level: 2nd grade, 1st month. If the bar code shows a letter inside of a triangle, this is the Fountas & Pinnel reading level system. In this system A-C is Kindergarten levels, D-J is First Grade, K-P is Second Grade, Q-T is 3rd Grade, U-W is 4th Grade, X-Y is 5th Grade, and Z is 6th Grade and into middle school. There is also a Lexile measurement, but it is a little more complicated. (Note: if you really want to be an expert on your child’s reading level and ability, visit Reading Rockets).

Book BarCode

So now, when we are out shopping with our kids and they run to us with a book they want to read, we can quickly decide if it is anywhere near their right age level or not.

If you can’t find the reading level on the book anywhere and you happen to have your smart phone with you, you can check it at the Accelerated Reading website (arbookfind.com). If the book title comes up, it will give you the reading level.

It is also helpful to check the reading levels of the last few books our kids have read and talk to them about them. Who were the characters? What was the story about? Was it easy to understand? Was there anything in the story you didn’t understand? Were there any words that you didn’t know how to pronounce, or that you didn’t know what they meant? Was the story hard to follow? If the last few books that they read were pretty easy for them (matched their grade level), the child was motivated to read them all the way to the end, and is able to tell you lots of details about them, chances are they were a pretty good reading level fit. Armed with this information, we might want to challenge them to go a little bit harder with their next book.  It will add words to their vocabulary among other things.  BUT NOTE that if a book is too easy children will lose interest out of boredom, and if a book is too hard for them to understand the child will lose interest out of frustration.  Finding books that match their reading level is crucial to fostering a love of reading in them.

If you are looking for a way to more officially test your child’s reading level, I found websites that offer free reading level assessments, like: macmillanreaders.com/level-test/

Beginner Readers

If a book is on your child’s correct reading level and aimed at her interests, and is also well written and entertaining to her, she will at least be tempted to read it without a lot of coaxing on your part!!!!!  My youngest grandchild was struggling with confidence issues.  She didn’t think she could read so she didn’t even want to try, but I knew she recognized letters and that she had the skills to sound out words.  So I picked up these beginning readers and they were just the ticket. The very first page offered words she recognized and words that were easy to sound out.  When she realized she could read her confidence skyrocketed. These little readers were not only filled with beginning sight words she was familiar with and easy words she could sound out (at her reading level), but they are “irresistible” as advertised.  Not only can she read them, she comprehends what she is reading, which is very exciting!!!!!

There are also ways to sweeten the deal, incentives to help motivate and encourage kids when their attention span is waning, which I’ll delve into in detail a little further down!!!!  Biggest thing to remember is that this is NOT SCHOOL!  There are no time constraints.  There is no test at the end.  There is no right or wrong way to read – our kids have the luxury of getting to read books they got to pick, which they can read by themselves, or if they would rather we can read them together.  Reading should be FUN not a chore.  It should be exciting, not drudgery.  I sooooo want my enthusiasm to spark their enthusiasm.  I want to be a cheerleader and a good role model.

Book Collage Three

ASSESSING LITERARY VALUE OF BOOKS

Caldecott and Newberry give “medals” to books with high literary value. You can also Google: Notable Children’s Books or Literature and see what comes up.

After you’ve nailed down their correct reading level, next make a pile of medal winning books (online shopping cart -or- brick & mortar bookstore), and finally go through the pile of books together. Flip through the pages and see how long it is and how small the print is. Read the back covers. Read a few pages.  Narrow down the giant pile to about ten books that most interest them. And then…

Book Collage One

ASSESSING SUBJECT MATTER

Once you have the giant world of children’s books pared down to a child sized pile of quality literature that matches her interests and reading level, you can weed out the ones that might have objectionable content. Obviously there is really only about one or two ways to go about this. One, is to read the books ourselves before we let our kids read them. The bonus for this way is that it comes in handy later when we want to ask them questions about the book to access their comprehension, or come up with follow-up activities.

The second, is to read reviews at websites we trust the opinions of. Perhaps, like me, you are concerned with certain subject matter being appropriate and would like a good Christian review? In that case, you might find the following websites helpful:

RedeemedReader.com (Children’s Book Reviews for Christian Parents)

www.cbn.com/entertainment/books/new-christian-book-reviews.aspx

ccbreview.blogspot.com/

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews

https://www.christianforums.com/threads/childrens-book-review-warriors.7328543/

https://www.pluggedin.com/book-reviews/

These websites will usually alert parents to subject matter which might be offensive, controversial, or a maturity level that we would prefer to preview and prepare our kids for ahead of time.

* * *

DON’T FORGET – FIND A GOOD BEDTIME STORY BOOK

Depending upon our kids’ ages, we might want to consider also picking up a great story book that we can read to them. Everything I’ve read says it is good for kids to hear books read to them by someone who reads really well. It is bonding as well as skill building. I remember as a kid what a great reader my mom was, how soothing her voice was, and how much I looked forward to the nights when she had time to read bedtime stories to my sisters and me. She had a big book of bedtime stories that included Tall Tales, Fairy Tales, Aesop’s Fables, and Classics, like Black Beauty, Swiss Family Robinson, and Peter Rabbit. The fluid way she read, her voice inflection, her own enthusiasm for the stories, made them come right off the pages and into my imagination. I wanted to grow up to read just like her.

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These are a few such books:

A Treasury of Children’s Literature (Hardcover) by Armand Eisen

The Book of Virtues, A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

The McElderry Book of Aesop’s Fables (Hardcover) by Michael Morpurgo (Author), Emma Chichester Clark (Illustrator)

American Tall Tales (Hardcover) by Mary Pope Osborne (Author), Michael McCurdy (Illustrator)

* * *

ACTIVITIES AND REWARDS

Some kids are naturally attracted to reading and will take to it like a duck in water.  Oh glorious days!  Others are more math minded, or science minded, or just lazy.  It’s not a lost cause to get them to want to read, it’s just a matter of getting creative to find the subject matter that will hook them.  Finding books about kids with their similar likes and dislikes is one way to do it.  Maybe comic books would be more their thing.  Maybe reading to them instead of beating our head against a wall trying to get them to read on their own?

Motivating our kids to read by letting them picking great books of interest to them is one way, but also following up their efforts with fun activities is, well, jam on the peanut butter…is chocolate syrup on the ice cream… is icing on the cake!

In trying to make reading fun for my grandkids I had to ask myself, “What makes reading fun for me?”  I’m one who hated (all caps, bold letters, double underlined, and triple exclamation mark – HATED!!!) reading in school, and I am still not a huge book reader as an adult.  I do however enjoy Bible study.  Family history research, old photographs, and pedigree charts.  I like audio books when I’m going to be stuck in the car for a long drive.  It is more motivating to me to read if I am part of a book club or something that involves fellowship and food once a week.  I like historical fiction.  I enjoy mysteries.  I like stories like the Little House books – I’m not sure what that genre is, biographies or dramas maybe?  I honestly prefer children’s books because they are a quick read and I have a short attention span.  I don’t like horror, romance, science fiction, or fantasy.  I love writing and illustrating so much more than reading.  Our kids are not so different in their likes and dislikes and tastes from us.  Sometimes all it takes to motivate a kid is to give them opportunities that are so appealing they can’t resist.

Kids who like to read might find it enjoyable to have a favorite little nook to read in.  Maybe a secluded space by a window, with a shag area rug, a bean bag chair or giant stuffed animal to lounge on, and a groovy free-standing lamp sitting next to it, tucked away in a secret corner of the attic, or in a tree house, or a lovely little bench in the garden?  Maybe our child would enjoy reading with soft noise in the background or music – classical music, piano or guitar music, or white noise like thunder, lightening, and rain, or ocean waves, or gentle wind?

Kids who don’t ever sit still long enough to read might enjoy taking a drive through pretty country, looking out the window with binoculars and listening to an audio book that captures their imagination?  Or, rather than listening to the audio book in the car, they would prefer to listen while we all as a family do some project together, like draw, or color, or paint, or clean a room?

When my kids were little I created opportunities for us to get out and read.  We would pack up some drinks and snacks, and a big blanket, and we’d head to a shady, secluded spot in one of our city’s huge sprawling parks, or we’d drive up to a lookout or back country road on the mountain with our snacks and big blanket.  Sometimes we’d invite grandma to join us, and spend an afternoon browsing magazines, perusing cookbooks, or thumbing through whatever print material that suited our fancy that day – even puzzle books, quiz books, illustrated dictionary, and catalogues counted.

Sometimes what kids hate about reading (me) is having books chosen for them, with subject matter that isn’t the least bit interesting to them, not to mention all the painful formalities of the classroom – oral book reports, testing, reading out loud, etc.  UGH!  Maybe they just have ants in their pants and can’t sit still long enough to get into a book.  Perhaps just creating an environment that is geared toward their unique dispositions might just help them blossom into the burgeoning reader we are hoping for them to be???  We just need to find that gateway drug that gets them hooked.  🙂

Maybe all my kid needs is to get to go to the library or book store once a week and hang out looking at all the books available to them there?  Or, maybe it is getting to do an activity that is featured in a book they are reading – especially if it’s one they never heard of before (playing a game of marbles, catching butterflies in a net, making a cane pole and trying to catch fish with it, floating on a raft, flying a kite, building a tree house or fort, etc.)? Perhaps the introductions to such new discoveries will trigger something in them?

In my research, I came across this comment in a thread of a post on Facebook and it is just too apropos not to pass along:

“Jon David Groff writes: As a junior/senior high school English Language Arts teacher, I have stopped doing the traditional novel study. After reading The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller, one summer, I went out and gathered together a decent classroom library. Come September, I told students that we would no longer do a formal novel study. They loved it. Then I told them they’d instead have a goal to read 40 book — one a week. They were not happy.

However, they could read what they wanted, didn’t have to write reports or assignments on what they read, would have some class time dedicated to reading, had no marks whatsoever tied to how many books they read or didn’t read, could abandon books they didn’t like, books over 350 pages counted as two books, and they could get books from wherever they wanted.

Most kids loved it. One grade 12 boy that year came to me after two weeks and said he’d finished the first book of his life and wanted the second in the series. I had a parent come to me at After a Christmas and day on vacation her daughter insisted on taking books into restaurants even though she’d never liked reading before. I now play ball on a team with a student who graduated who has thanked me for getting her into reading by using this approach.

I’ve since reduced the book count to 20 books a year — one every two weeks. I read when students read. They keep a book journal online that tracks their genres, book totals, and a any comments they want to make. I do also. I report their book count on each report card (but there’s still no grades) and use their own reflections about reading to help parents understand if they are happy having read 50 books or 5 for the year. For some, those 5 books are more than they’ve read over the previous 5 years. For others, their 50 books is a bit of a disappointment.

Last year, I began a monthly book challenge, completely optional, and most having nothing to do with reading speed. Challenges like, “carry a book EVERYWHERE for the month” or read in the craziest place and get a pic or vid (staff voted on the winner), or read to another person under age 10 or over age 60 — bonus entries for length of time, groups of three or more, and if they were strangers (haha). Every month I’d take those who chose to participate and entered them in a draw for a $15 Chapters-Indigo gift card.

Next year, my grade 8 students will participate in a Gamification class that attempts to do a lot of crosscurricular between LA and Social. They will have mutant powers and travel through history to stop a villain. And they will need to read a book about time travel in order to adopt that method of time travel for their own. They’ll create a visual text of the time travel method. But again, the choice of book will be there’s. (If you have any suggestions or want to donate books on Time Travel to my classroom library, please please please let me know. My summer reading is all time travel books and I’m trying to scrounge up enough books for 55 students, which means roughly 75 books if I’m going to be able to offer choices. That’s a lot of books and money.)

I’m trying to make reading fun and done in a way that adults read rather than the way school typically make kids read. Because even I don’t like reading books I’m told I have to in order to write a test based on someone else’s opinion of the book. We learn our curriculum using short stories, short films, movies, poetry, non-fiction, and other types of texts. We save books for enjoying, sharing, discussing . . . and actually reading!

*I’m sorry for the long response, but I wanted to share what I’m doing and to let others know that not all teachers are happy doing things the traditional way.”

MORE IDEAS

»Encourage your kids to spy out new words and perhaps make a word-journal.  We could even pay them for every 10 words they find that they didn’t know how to pronounce or what it meant before, and let them choose what to do with the money.  We could make those new words into a game where we are all challenged to use those words, like a secret word a day game, in sentences with other family members.  Remember on Pee Wee’s Playhouse where they would have a secret word and any time someone said that word, bells and whistles would go off.  Yeah, maybe kind of like that!

» If our child chooses a book that has been made into a movie, we can reward the completion of the book by going to the movie, or renting the DVD and making a family movie  night out of watching it. Maybe set it up as a backyard movie with a popcorn bar and root beer floats, and even let them invite their friends, or extended family, if they want.

» Choose an activity from the book to do together as a family (ie. Maybe the people in the book went out for Chinese food and ate something unfamiliar – like dim sum, or there was a horse race, or a dog parade, or the family went camping by a lake or on the beach, or there were racecars, or star-gazing, or gymnastics/dance/skating, or fishing, or picking berries and baking a pie, or watching/playing a ball game, or making Indian crafts, or growing a garden, or visiting a museum, etc.). If the story was about an artist, maybe the family would like to take an art class together? If it was about a nurse or fireman, perhaps the family would like to take a CPR class together or visit a hospital/firestation/police station? If it had a part in it about sailing on a boat (I’m thinking of Stewart Little) – maybe find a nearby sailing regatta to attend?

» If the book was a spy book, we could send the child on a spy adventure. Give them a pen and notebook and camera and let them do some detective work to see and report back on what the family cat does all day, or who mows the lawns in the neighborhood and on what days, or what time the mailman delivers the mail each day and how much of that mail is advertisements (junk). We could reward them with a puzzle book and some fancy mechanical pencils.

small-boy-readingbook

» Does your town have a few Little Free Libraries tucked away here and there in various neighborhoods or public parks near you?  The kids might enjoy making a habit of taking their unwanted books and trading them or donating them to a Little Free Library.  Sometimes if there is a bench nearby one of these Little Free Libraries, its fun to just sit and look through some of the books rather than take them.

» Pin a world map on the wall and locate where the stories take place. Then rent a travel video of the places and watch it together. Or pin-up a history timeline and locate the time period when the stories each took place. And then find what other things were happening in the world during that time, or how things are done differently now than they were then. We could visit an antique store, or spend a morning going to yard sales and trying to find knick-knacks or dress-up clothing from that time period that they kids could use to create their own backyard play with.

» Allow our kids to change their mind about a book, and move on to something else if it is boring or too difficult to get into.

» Maybe comic books are your kid’s thing!

» Perhaps a children’s Bible Study is right up their alley.  The Quest by Beth Moore is one suggestion, and Kay Arthur has written some as well.

» Maybe our whole family would love listening to an audio book to pass the long miles of a road trip vacation?  Take along a sketch book so they can doodle while we all listen, or take along a craft (needlepoint, crochet, knitting, weaving, whittling, yarn and finger games like Cats-eye, bead necklaces, friendship bracelets, tying flies, kenetic sand, playing solitaire on an i-pad, or watching out the window to spot eye-spies on a checklist/scavenger hunt) that can be done on one’s lap while listening.  Or encourage the kids to make up a story to tell to all of us using story cards (like Tell Tale, Story War –included here only for a suggestion on how to play such a game, or Create-a-Story Board).

» We could give the kids an opportunity to write their own stories, and make their own books, with homemade book covers (cloth/scrapbooking paper/wall paper samples and cardboard), let them take and add pictures, or draw illustrations. Help them to make a rough draft, use some of the new vocabulary words they’ve learned, do some editing, and then re-write it in their very best handwriting. The books, if they are very well done, would make great gifts for grandparents at Christmastime, or a great gift for their teachers at Back-to-School night in the fall, or just to keep as a keepsake in their baby books forever.

Okay, well, I guess that’s all I’ve got for us for now.  I hope I’m not coming across as a know-it-all.  Far be it for me to tell anyone else what to do when I don’t even have it figured out for myself yet.  Just gathering my research into one place, and sharing it with the hopes that you feel as encouraged and empowered as I do now to foster a love of reading in our precious kiddos over the summer, and hopefully for the rest of their lives!  God richely bless you!!!!!

Book Collage Four

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

May3

Mrs H’s Tissue Paper Flowers

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Mrs H’s Tissue Paper Flowers

1420711999072I was given the opportunity recently to make a bunch of tissue paper flowers for a school project.  I had so much fun with it honestly, and thought, these sure would make a beautiful decoration, or they could be used for head garlands (as pictured here) which are pretty popular in Texas, or Homecoming Mums (another Texas thing), or to decorate Derby hats, or for a garden tea party, or luau, or FiEsTa (which happens to be going on in San Antonio at this very moment), which got me to thinking that somebody else out there might appreciate knowing how to make these.  I also sure don’t want to ever forget how I made them, so…  that’s as good a reason as any to blog about something, me thinks.

Materials needed:  1 package of multi-colored tissue paper, a good pair of sissors, a stapler, and string (optional).

A large package of multi-colored tissue paper is fairly inexpensive to buy at the big box stores ($10 for 100 sheets).  And one of those packages will give you more than enough paper to make 100 flowers that are roughly the size of one of those mesh shower pouf thingies.  (If you want to make giant flowers, you could probably squeeze 10 or so out of a package???)

So here is how you make them.  First open the package of tissue paper and separate the colors.  Straighten up the sheets so that they lay exactly on top of each other.  Peel off two sheets of one color of the tissue paper.

Tissue Paper Flower instruction1

Now, I’ve included visual instructions below that will hopefully be easy to follow, but I will also explain…

Flower Making collage1

  1.  Gather your materials.  It will help to have a large table where you can spread out the tissue paper into individual color piles.  (My poor sissors, you’ll notice, have issues, actually just one issue.  I don’t know what happened, but they are Fiskers, and the handles have decomposed over the years since I first bought them.  They are sticky now, and almost clay-like.  The stuff was coming off on my hands and making my hands sticky, so I wrapped the handles in strips of paper towel.  Has this happened to anyone else? Or is it just the humidity in the south that has made mine do this?)
  2. Peel off 5 sheets of tissue paper and stack them together neatly.  Then starting at the bottom fold up about an inch width and press it flat.
  3. Flip the stack over and fold the other direction, and press flat.
  4. Continue folding in an accordion pattern until you reach the other end.
  5. Press the stack flat.
  6. Fold the stack in half to mark the center place.
  7. Press it flat to make a good crease.
  8. Open and place under the stapler, and place a staple on exactly that center crease line. Option: you can also tie a string around this center part so you will have something to tie the flower, to attach it to whatever you are decorating.
  9. (Photo just shows the staple being present)
  10. Now cut one end with whatever pattern you wish for the type of flower you wish to make (see diagram below)
  11. Cut the first end and discard the scraps
  12. Then cut the second end to match
  13. Fan out the ends to make it easy to separate the individual sheets

Tissue Paper Flower cuts

  • Orange shows a gardenia type flower
  • Purple shows a hydrangea type flower
  • Pink shows a peony type flower
  • Green shows a magnolia type flower
  • Blue shows a Zinnia type flower
  • Red shows a Carnation type flower
  • Gray shows a Dahlia type flower
  • Yellow shows a Chrysanthemum, or Mum type flower

Flower Making collage2

14. Fan out both ends

15. Carefully peel off the top sheet and pull it away from the others, up towards the center

16 – 18. Continue separating sheets and pulling them up towards the center on both ends, going around in a circle

19. Smooth out the last sheet to flatten out the bottom

20 – 23. Bring the flower around and fluff each peddle to make them all uniform and fill in any gaps.

24 – 26. Set your flower down and admire how pretty it is.  Then pick another color and continue making flowers.

Tissue Paper Flower instruction4 The center pom kind of makes a flower that looks like a cactus flower.  You can do the same sort of thing with green tissue going out the bottom to look like the bud part of the bloom (just cut it with deep zig zags instead of the fringe).  You can also experiment with various cuts, and you can also layer two colors of tissue together to make more interesting options.  Here are some samples of the flowers I made.  They turned out soooooo pretty?

Tissue Paper Flowers collage

“Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
They are a garland to grace your head
    and a chain to adorn your neck.” 

Proverbs 1:8-9 NIV

floral-head-wreath01

 

 

 

 

 

May27

End-of-the-school-year OLYMPIC GAMES

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End-of-the-school-year OLYMPIC GAMES

Are you looking for a clever way to close out the school year for your little group of elementary students?  Are you on a tight budget, or have very few amusement options available in your town.  NO WORRIES.  Us too!!!  Hopefully your town at least has a city park that’s kept nice, mowed and watered, or a nice, large, grassy area with lots of shade trees?  That’s all that’s needed for this shindig.

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There goes the school year!!!!

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I was thinking it would be fun to do some olympic type games that gave a nod to things the kids could toss out of their lives for the next few months… like pitching their alarm clocks, tossing their lunchboxes (aren’t gonna need those for a while), and flinging their crayons at a new target –  grass, lazy days, and sunshine, because they’ve leaped over their studies, and run their water bottle relays with rewarded success!

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I sketched out my party plan in a notebook…

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…and then went to work making the signs for the games:

 

….and TORCHES for each of the kids to wear (as medals)…

torches-front

I printed out sheets of the torches, wrote the kids’ names on them, had them laminated, and then punched a hole at the top to string a ribbon through.  On the back I printed the list of events so I could mark winners with a red sharpie, or completed with a blue sharpie.

The kids began their afternoon of fun by first having lunch delivered to them at the school (from Wendy’s, courtesy of one of the awesome parents), and after each of them had used the bathroom, they “began carrying their torches” on their little journey from the school to the park (about a 3 block walk with their teacher).  When they arrived at the entrance to the park, this is the first thing they saw:

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They presented their TORCHES, and then positioned behind the sign to pose for pictures.  We were blessed that a very talented member of the school staff, also teacher, also photographer, and also composer of the school’s yearbook, was there to take some wonderful pictures, which she made into a full two pages of the yearbook.  And one day I will scan and post them here, if she gives me permission.

 

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BANG!   Let the games begin!

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The first game in our line up was the…

Lunchbox “Hammer” Throw

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(The kids aren’t gonna need a lunchbox for a few months.  Hip hip hooray, let’s toss it away!)

First I demonstrated to the kids what they would be doing in this game.  I grabbed the lunchbox by the handles, put my left arm straight out, twirled in a counter-clockwise circle a couple of times, and then when I was facing the field, let go of the lunchbox and let it fly as far away as it would go.  After the demo I handed the first kid the lunchbox and let them try.  The kids lined up behind the starting line and took turns twirling and tossing the soft-sided lunchbox out into the field.  (P.S. I had placed a small bag of pinto beans inside to give it some weight).  The child with the farthest distance after three tosses was declared the winner!

Supplies needed: Sign, lunchbox, a couple of orange cones, a jump rope, and something to mark the farthest distance.

 

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The next game was…

Crayola Archery

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After I attempted to demonstrate this game, we decided to turn it into a Crayola Javelin Throw, since our cheapo “dollar store” bow kept breaking.  The darn string kept popping out of its slot (Update: wind a rubber band tightly around the tip ends of the bow to keep the string in place. This works like a charm).  Anyway, after a bit of frustration from the darn bow popping apart every time we used it, we just decided to throw the crayon like a javelin.  The kids each got a turn to stand behind the line (I used a downed limb from one of the trees as the marker for this) and then take a turn hurling their javelins at the three hula hoop targets laid out in the distance.  (You can barely see them in the photo below, but look close.)

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This is what the arrows/javelins looked like up close.  I used fat crayons and inserted them into big straws (the ones used for smoothies).  They were a perfect fit, and stayed snuggly attached to each other for the whole event.  At least something stayed to together!

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(This is the dumb bow we used.  Um, scratch that.  Didn’t use!!!!)

The student with the most targets bullseyed after three tries was declared the winner!

Supplies needed: One dollar-store bow and arrow set, 1 pkg big crayons, the sign to identify the event, and three hula hoops.  Oh, and something to mark the starting line.

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The next game was…

Homework Fencing

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You are looking at the fencing arena.  Ours was marked by 4 trees as boundaries.  After demonstrating to the students what they would be doing, the students lined up behind the sign and two pairs at a time faced off using the pool noodles as their fencing swords.  (I got the fatest noodles I could find, to make it harder for little hands to hold onto).  With one arm behind their backs they each swung their noodles at their opponent’s noodle, trying to knock it out of their hands, because homework is now out of their hands.  Any body contact or face contact, or stepping outside the boundaries was considered a scratch and the offender was disqualified.  Winners of each duo were collected to the side to compete in round two.  Eventually a final winner was declared.

Supplies needed:  The sign, four pool noodles

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The next game was…

Alarm Clock Shot Put Throw

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(Hey kids, say goodbye to the alarm clock for a few months!!!!  In fact, let’s pitch that obnoxious contraption as far as we can throw it!)

First I demonstrated to the students how this game was played, similar to the hammer throw, and then the students were lined up behind the starting line, and took turns holding the alarm clock under their chins, twirling, and then heaving it as far as they could out into the field.  (Note: I used a cheapy plastic clock from the dollar store.  It broke on the first throw and left kind of a sharp edge that I cautioned the kids to be careful with.  Then the glass also broke.  Fail!  The better choice would have been something made 100% out of non shatterable plastic and no glass).

The child who launched it the farthest distance after all of them had been given three tries was declared the winner.

Supplies needed: Sign, cones and jump rope to mark the starting line, an alarm clock, and something to mark distance.

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The next game was…

Three R’s Shooting Competition

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The three R’s stood for Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic, which were featured on the three targets placed at a distance from the starting line.  (Way to target your subjects this year kids)!  The students lined up behind the starting line. They were instructed that one kid at a time would approach the starting line, grab a squirty bottle, aim at the first target, and begin squirting at it, moving in closer until the stream of water touched the first target, then they could move to the next target, and then the last target and do the same. Their time started when the teacher said, “GO” and they began squirting and stopped when they hit the last target.   Each child took their turn.  The kid with the fastest time (after three rounds) was declared the winner.

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Supplies needed:  A sign, three targets, and a squirty bottle filled with water.

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The next game was…

Water Bottle Relay with Hurdles

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(Hey kids, you’re not gonna need those water bottles for a while, AND we can celebrate that you all got over your hurdles of – Language, Art/Music/P.E., and Science this year.  Way to go kids!  You are all champions!!!!)

The kids lined up in two groups behind the starting line.  After demonstrating to the kids how to run the course, I handed each first person in line a water bottle. At the sound of my whistle the two kids with water bottles ran down the course, leaping over the hurdles and down around the cone at the far end of the course, and returning to hand off their water bottle to their next teammate.  The first team to complete the course was declared the winner.

Supplies needed: A sign, three hurdles with words attached that represent school subjects, two water bottles, a start line, an orange cone, and a whistle.

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This concluded the structured games.  At this point the kids were given a break to get a drink and snack and rest for a bit. Several of the parents brought coolers full of drinks (bottled water, juice, Gatorade, etc.) and snacks (Cuties oranges, goGurts, popsicles, cookies, carrots, etc.) for the kids to  munch on and stay hydrated with, and they served their treats “Tailgate style” out of the back of their vehicles, parked alongside the park.

For the remainder of the afternoon  the kids participated in free play.  I had set up a Badminton net and blew up a giant beach ball for them to either toss over the net to each other volleyball style, or just kick around the park in a giant game of “keep away.”

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In addition I brought a giant soft-sided Frisbee, bottles of bubbles for everyone, a soccer ball, the hula hoops, and gave each child a squirty bottle full of water to also play with.  In addition, one of our awesome parents brought a huge cooler full of water balloons for a hot potato game.

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The parents and I chilled out on blankets spread-out under the shade of a grand old oak tree, and visited with each other while the kids tear-butted around having the time of their lives.  I think the kids all had as much fun, if not more, with free play as they did with the games, hey, but a theme is a theme, right?  What a great afternoon and terrific group of kiddos!!!!  I hardly noticed that it was 95 degrees and 50% humidity.  HA!

After a couple of hours of playtime, the parents went around and gathered up the signs and parts of each game and helped pack everything up.  The kids picked up all the trash and bits of broken balloons and then gathered with their teacher to walk back to school.  Before they dismissed to go home each was presented a gift bag, which contained a movie theater pass (that they could use to go see Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2, which just released in theaters the week before), a pass to the local indoor inflatables park, and a gift certificate to Dairy Queen, plus a Nerf ball (which gave me the inspiration for the theme of the bags), so they could all… “Have a BALL this Summer!”  🙂

gift bags

 

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Yay kids…you finished your race well!  Happy summer to you all!!!!!

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“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”   Hebrews 12:1-2  NKJV

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May6

SUMMER SURVIVAL GUIDE for parents & kids

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SUMMER SURVIVAL GUIDE for parents & kids

DSCN9607Summer’s comin’! Are you ready?  This was another bulletin board I dreamed up for my grandkid’s school.

So many of the parents shared that they loved it and took photos of the board to help them out this summer.  Many shared that they also came up with other ideas to add to each theme.  I recieved so many comments that I thought maybe I was on to something by sharing it here. Maybe it would inspire you as well!

Honestly, I don’t know about you, but when I was a young mom, the month of May was a complete whirlwind, a blur, sooooo crazy busy with end of the school year activities, and after-school clubs and lessons and sports events winding down and gearing up, recitals, and graduations, and a yard that was totally out of control, that I didn’t know if I was coming or going, let alone think about summer.  And then, BAM, here it would be, like a brick wall on the 1604!  Instead of getting to sleep-in though, and be lazy that first wonderful morning, my eyeballs were dredged open and I was jarred out of delicious unconsciousness by a bedroom full of bouncing, wide awake kiddos huddled around my tossled bed, begging for breakfast, and quizzing me on what we were going to do that day.  Whoa!  Time-out kids!  You gotta let mama sit with a cup of coffee for about thirty minutes before you start in on me with the needy kid stuff, c’mon!  Eventually we’d get into a new routine of sleeping in, being lazy, being bored, bickering and squabbling, and spending entirely too much time vegging on the couch in front of a television – a rut that’s hard to break out of.

Soooo… for all our sanity, I’ve come up with a plan, and we’ll see how long it lasts.  I’ve divided the summer into the individual weekdays.  Figuring on about twelve Mondays, and twelve Tuesdays, and twelve Wednesdays…. etc.  I came up with themes for each day (for variety), and then at least twelve activities for each day that we can check off the list.

Monday’s theme is CHORES, with age-appropriate jobs for the kids to do, which I hope will kind of earn the kids the fun being offered the rest of the week.  In fact, you could pay your kids for their chores with play money and then charge them for the activities later on.  Even fine them for whining, if necessary, but I’ll bet they’ll like having chores to do.  I know my grandkids love helping with things.  It makes them feel grown up.

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Click here for the Chores Monday FREE PRINTABLE!

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Tuesday is a physical and outdoorsy theme, to keep the kids active.

Check out this fun backyard Ninja Warrior Course a dad created for his daughter. There are lots of other plans on the Internet and on Pinterest.

Neighborhood KIDS (Bicycle/Tricycle/HotWheels) “Poker” Run:

1. Get your kids’ friends, and their moms, together for a neighborhood kid’s poker run. Need seven moms, and at least seven kids on bikes, tricycles, or Hot Wheels. Could even do roller blades, scooters, or skateboards.  Each of the seven moms will be in charge of a card station (preferably right outside of their house – provided all the moms live in fairly close proximity to one another), and have beverages and snacks on hand for the kids.  Each of the kids will need to bring a good, nice toy or item that they don’t want any more as their payment to play.  All the toys/items will be collected into a prize basket.

2. Plot a course. Draw a map of your neighborhood, and show the boundary lines for the Poker Run and where the stations are. Pre-arrange for seven stations where the kids will collect cards from.  A mom will be at each station.  You’ll need a deck of cards (Crazy 8s work great), divided into seven portions, and a portion given to each mom for each station, and a scoring sheet for each kid showing what the order of winning hands are.  (Using Crazy 8s cards, the kids can make sets: several cards of the same number, or runs: several cards of the same color.  Of course a run of 4 cards would be worth more than a run of 3 cards, or, in the case of two kids having a run of 4 cards you can add the totals of the cards to see who’s is highest, and a set of 7s would be worth more than a set of 5s, and if you wanted to get even more technical, or break a tie, you could make purple the most valuable, then blue, then green, then red).

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The kids will ride their bikes from point A to point B along the route, and draw a card at each station.  The mom at that station will mark what the kid’s card is on their scoring sheet, offer them something to eat or drink, and send them on their way.

Basic Rules for a real Poker Run: Participants meet at a pre-arranged point, and pick up details of their route and the stops they’ll need to make. Each participant is given a score card which will be filled in as they progress along the route. At each designated stop, the participants draw a card at random (or are dealt a card). The card drawn or dealt is recorded on each participant’s score card, and the winner of the event is the participant who makes the best five card poker hand (out of the seven cards they collected) at the end of the run. Normal Poker Run Events usually end with some entertainment at the designated “last stop” of the route, along with the awarding of the prizes.

There are no prizes for speed – it does not matter who is first to complete the course. It is not a race.

The winning hand is determined by standard poker hand rankings. Decide ahead of time if you will use “wild cards” and if players will be allowed to buy extra cards at any point. Some runs, for example, allow a player to replace one card in their hand by “buying” one more card at the final stop for a fixed fee.

The “last stop” can be your house, where you have a movie set up outside for the kids to watch, or it can be a nearby ice cream truck or store, or it can be a swimming pool, or a skateboard park, or bowling alley, or gaming arcade.  Honestly, any place that kids would find fun.  The kid with the winning poker hand will get first choice from all the toys/items paid to the prize basket.  The next highest winning hand will get second choice, and so on until each kid has chosen a toy/item.   You can sweeten the pot by adding some prizes of your own (i.e. a horn for their bike, a new ball cap, or beach towel, or music CD, etc.).

There are lots of ideas for a Nature Scavenger Hunt (do a Google search, and then pick one).  If you want, its kind of fun to make plaster castings of the hoof impressions and animal tracks that you find.  You might also catch a horny toad, frog, turtle, or lizard that you could bring home and place in a terrarium for a few days.

This is how you play Frisbee Golf.

Progressive Lunch Bike Ride (or Hike)  If you know several moms in the neighborhood, or within close proximity to you and each other, ask them if they would like to get the kids together for a progressive lunch bike ride.  Each mom will host a portion of the meal (drink, sandwich, chips, carrot sticks, apple slices, dessert, etc.).  All the kids will meet at the first house for the first item of their lunch.  Then they will ride their bikes (with that mom) to the next house, for the next part of their lunch.  Both moms and the kids will then ride to the next house for the next portion of their lunch.  This continues until all the moms and all the kids have made it to the last house and eaten all their lunch.  The last house can then host an activity for the kids, like a driveway basketball game, or set up a hot wheels track, or play a backyard game of hide-and-go-seek, or play on a slip-and-slide, Croquet, volleyball or badmitten, or just do some trampoline jumping, etc. When everyone is ready to call it a day, the moms and kids can follow the course backwards to each of their houses.

A Sidewalk Chaulk Art Rally is basically just getting all the neighborhood kids together, asking them to bring their own sidewalk chaulk, giving each kid a section of the sidewalk, and putting them to the task of creating a work of art within a time limit, to be judged (or not) by the neighbors, or parents, or whomever you wish.  Provide drinks and snacks for the kids.  Be sure to take a nice photograph of each finished creation, even video the works in progress, and interview each artist.  Your local newspaper may even be interested in doing a story on your event.  You can host the rally in your neighborhood, cul-de-sac, or neighborhood park.

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Click here for the Outdoor Tuesday FREE PRINTABLE!

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Wednesday features activities to challenge their little noggins, and hopefully keep them learning. Find Summer Bridge Activities workbooks and Brain Quest workbooks at Amazon.  You can find language courses, and teach-yourself musical instrument courses online or at most libraries, or bookstores. And Walmart carries a selection of Smithsonian (science) kits in their crafts isle.

I also wrote a blog about fostering a love or reading in our kids over the summer, with lots and lot of ideas and helpful tips.  Click on this link to check out that post:  Kid’s Summer Reading Program, A Parent’s Primer

And this is just one of many great places to find: Summer Reading Lists For Kids (Grades K-8)

http://www.thejennyevolution.com/ultimate-summer-reading-lists-kids-grades-k-8/

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Click here for the BrainQuest Wednesday FREE PRINTABLE!

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Thursday is all about the crafts…‘bout the crafts, and being creative and busy with their little hands.

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Click here for the Creative Thursday FREE PRINTABLE!

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Friday ends the week with lots of ways to give and serve others, because it makes us feel good to do that, and turns our focus on others instead of ourselves.

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Click here for the GiftsOservice Friday FREE PRINTABLE!

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Click here for the Saturday&Sunday FREE PRINTABLE!

 

 

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NOTE: I didn’t put anything on the posters about swimming lessons, or VBS or summer church camps, or summer movies at the local theater, or roller skating at the local rink, or bowling, which the schools usually send fliers home about at the end of the year that offer special prices and promotions.  I also stayed away from costly activities like bouncy house places, trampoline parks, amusement places, laser tag, go carts, mini golf, climbing walls, and all that sort of stuff, but you are certainly welcome to add those on to each day as you wish and can afford.   Have a fun and blessed summer y’all!

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Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might as unto the Lord and not men.

Ecclesiastes 9:10  &  Colossians 3:23

Sep24

Ways to Celebrate Grandparents Day

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Ways to Celebrate Grandparents Day

I’m a little late posting this for THIS year, or maybe I’m just waaaay early for next year?  Ha.  But, here are some ways I thought would be nice to celebrate Grandparent’s Day.  But, in all honesty, please don’t save them up for that one special day a year. If you have grandparents living close, do some of these with them as soon and as often as you can.  Time passes so quickly.  Memories fade.  The breath of life evaporates before we know it.  Don’t let it get away from you.  Our elders are a special treasure!

“Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.”  – Psalms 71:9

 

Family Tree

If your family doesn’t already have one, let the kids start a family pedigree chart with their grandparent.  Let them do as much of the investigative work as they can to fill it in.  First let them fill in their name in the center bottom space, and then just above it let them fill in the names of their dad and mom.  Above those spaces are spaces for grandparents on the paternal and maternal sides.  Spend a day or at least an afternoon with grandparents collecting information: names, birthplaces, careers, military, where family died and are buried.  Ask for obituaries, photographs, family Bible notes, newspaper clippings and stories.  It’s actually a lot of fun seeing where your family came from, not just ethnicity, but travels, both foreign and domestic.  It’s also a great way to learn history.  It means so much more and is so much more interesting when you find out you had actual family living in those times and places and events.

Blank fan tree

If you would like the electronic file for this chart so that you can print one for your personal use, please send your request to mrshlovesjesus@gmail.com, and write “Pedigree Poster” in the subject line.

This is a Pedigree chart I created as a Christmas gift to my family last year.  I took the digital file of the pedigree chart above to my local print shop (also Staples, Copy Max, Walgreens, and even Walmart can print them) and had it printed on poster-size paper.  I printed mine in color on plain paper, but they can also be printed on photo paper, and then framed in poster size frames.

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“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.”  – Proverbs 17:6

 

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Beside the pedigree poster hanging on my wall I have a decorative tree with photos of hubby & me, our parents, and our grandparents, three generations.

 

Video Interview

On one of our visits to my husband’s folks’ house, we were blessed to have his uncle stop by for a visit.  He was in town to speak at a local high school about his experiences as a soldier in WWII (Europe).  He was often asked to speak at schools about his personal experiences, because he was such a gifted story-teller.  He wrote a book as well, which we treasure having a copy of.  We of course were very interested to hear his stories and so asked if he would share some with us, which he happily did.  We all sat around in the living room listening intently as he told of being on the boat and being soooo sea sick and all the other men being soooo very sea sick also, and then being dropped on the battlefield, and of his experiences as a Forward Observer, which was very dangerous.  I could kick myself a thousand times that we didn’t get video of that visit (which is why I make the suggestion to you now).  It is just so moving to hear a personal relative tell of historical events from their own personal experience, and see their facial expressions, and watch their body language.  It is just so much more captivating than a book in history class.  So I encourage you, if you have a grandparent, ask them to tell you a story about some important time in their life and video tape it.

“Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.”  – Leviticus 19:32

 

video1Something our family DOES have, and I can tell you is an enormous treasure, is a compilation of my husband’s folks old home movies that they took on an old 8mm recorder.  They had the movies transferred to VHS when that was the most  modern thing, and gave us a copy.  But as hubby and I were watching these silent movies, we realized that much of those people and places were unknown to us.  So the next time his parents visited us we asked them to sit down and watch it with us and tell us where all those places were and who the people are.  I set up a cassette recorder to record their narration.  Many years later I took the old silent VHS and the narration on the cassettes and put them together on DVD.   Then I made several copies and gave them as Christmas gifts for our family.  It was the very next Christmas after grandpa had died and you can’t image what a treasure it was to the whole video3family to get to hear grandpa’s voice again, and laugh at his sense of humor, especially since the family had no idea we’d ever gotten that sound tract.

Also, if  you have been to a funeral recently, most funeral homes ask the family to bring them old photos for a video slide show, set to music, to play during the service.  Why wait until a person dies for this?  Ask your grandparents now if you can borrow their old photographs, and then scan them into digital form and make a slide show of their lives from birth to old age.  You can add captions to the photos that say where the photos were taken and who the people are, and you can also add a favorite song or songs of theirs to go along with it.  Most computers have the software for making photo slide show DVD’s on them.  I used Movie Maker to make DVD’s of our family vacations, weddings, and a memorial of our dad.  It would be a nice trip down memory lane for them to get to see their lives laid out in such a way, and a special thing to share with them while they are living.

“And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.”  – Ruth 4:15

 

Old Letters and Great Books

booksMy husband’s dad served in Korea, and wrote letters home to his parents a couple times a week.  We found the letters a while back, along with a bunch of pictures he took while in boot camp and on the front lines. We also were fortunate to get to inherit his army coat, a hat, and medals, maps, and various other personal objects from the war, along with the flag that was presented to the family at his funeral, and the bullet casings from the 21 gun salute.  Altogether the letters and photos, and photos of the objects made a wonderful book that is and shall forever be a cherished keepsake for generations.

I also collected all our family history, stories, pedigrees, photos, birth, marriage, and death certificates, newspaper clippings, obituaries, maps, military histories and pension papers, pioneer stories, censuses, etc. and made it all into a book (first a ring binder, and then a printed, spiral bound book with a hard cover) to share with my sisters.  I made scrapbook pages of the old photos and scanned those pages, and made separate chapters for each person, telling each person’s individual stories.  I visited courthouses, libraries, and museums in the towns where they lived (the ones that were closeby) and collected as much information as I could about them and the history of those areas (marriage, divorce, land records, court records, if they played on baseball teams, delivered mail, or worked in local factories, or acted, sang, or danced in theatre, etc.).  I visited cemetaries and churches and found headstones and church records.  I visited newspaper offices and got old newspaper stories and obituaries.  I will confess, it is a lot of work, but truly it is fun and rewarding work, and I sooooo encourage you to gather as much of this kind of information as you can from living relatives, while you can.   Honor your parents and your grandparents by preserving their legacy in words and pictures.  They will be delighted and honored to see all your efforts as well.

 “The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.” – Proverbs 20:29

 

Grandma’s Recipes

What is your favorite thing that grandma makes?  Why  not make a date to make it with her, and for heaven sakes cookbooksget her recipe!  Get ALL her recipes, and make them into a cookbook.  My husband’s family actually collected recipes from everyone in the family one year and made a family cookbook for all of us.  We all contributed, and we all paid for our own copies of the book, and it is very much a prized possession of mine to this day.  Each person that contributed recipes also told a story to go with it, like if it was the first meal they made for their husband, or if it was their mother’s favorite thing that they made, etc.

I have myself very fond memories of having picnics with my grandmother.  She always made her standard cucumber sandwiches, hard boiled eggs with salt and pepper, and a thermos of iced tea.  When’s the last time you went on a picnic with your grandma?  Or soaked your feet in a tub of hose water in the back yard?  …And listened to her tell stories about a time she got in trouble as a kid.  …Or what it was like as a teenager going to school. …Or her first boyfriend, or first date.  …Or what she and her brothers/sisters did for fun.

 “Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.” – Psalms 71:18

 

Play a Game

My husband has fond memories of playing Yatzee with his grandmother.  It was her gamesfavorite game to play, and if he could beat her he felt like it was a real accomplishment.  Grandma was apparently very good at Yatzee.  My grandma liked to play cards, and her game of choice to play with us kids was Rummy.  She also showed us how to play Solitaire and let us play at the table while she cooked and baked.  I also remember making card houses in the living room, using the carpet to help hold the cards in place.  My sisters and I made elaborate card houses, some more fragile than others.  Does your grandma or grandpa have a favorite game they like to play.  Ask if you can come play it with them one afternoon.  Or, take them to play Bingo, or Pinochle or Bridge at the Senior Center, dominoes, Cribbage, or take them bowling, or to play miniature golf, or darts.  You might find out they’re pretty darn good at it.

“With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.”

– Job 12:12

Other Ideas

Go for a walk

Go fishing

Do some gardening (plant an herb garden in pots)

Go to church with them

Visit them and read them letters that they’ve gotten in the mail

Take grandma to get her hair and nails done

Take them to their doctor visits

Take them to the store to do their shopping, or run a few errands

Take them to a veterans memorial (if there is one with a spouse or loved one memorialized there)

Take them to a cemetery to put flowers on someone’s grave (for a loved one’s birthday rememberance, or veterans/memorial day)

Take them to a class reunion, or a small town annual get-together

Take them for a drive in the country

Play old records

Watch an old movie

Take them out for lunch

Invite them to your house for coffee (and devotions)

Take them to visit an old friend they haven’t seen in a while

Take them out for ice cream

Sit on a park bench and feed the birds, or the ducks (pond)

Take them for a boat ride (a little row boat across a pond or lake) and bring an umbrella for shade

Take them to a grandchild’s school event, or track meet, or soccer game

Take them to a rodeo, a fair, a car or horse race, or baseball game

Take them to lookout point after dark to look at the city lights

Ask them to teach you how to knit, crochet, sew, quilt, or tie a fly (fishing), etc.

Take them to the shooting range for some target practice

Rent a golf cart and take a drive through a scenic golf course

Take them for a drive to new parts of the city

Take them something you’ve baked or made and visit for an afternoon

Take a pizza and cokes and sit on the porch and eat it with them

Do something for them that is too hard for them to do themselves, but needs done, like vacuum, trim a tree, re-attach a rain gutter, paint, mow, move a hose, shovel a sidewalk, take mail out to the mailbox, light a pilot light, replace a lightbulb, put a heavy dish back up in the cupboard, put laundry away, etc.

Call and check on them at least once a week

Always tell them you love them, as often as you can

Send them cards and letters, with pictures

Pray with them and for them, for their health needs, and other needs

 

“The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” 

-Proverbs 16:31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jun18

Schoooooooool’s OUT… FOR… SUMMER!!!!! A Parents Survival Guide

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Schoooooooool’s OUT… FOR… SUMMER!!!!! A Parents Survival Guide

Okay…alright… the fighting has to stop.  Go outside, both of you!  Eye-yiee-yiee!

Colleen on Carosel, CFD

Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo and Carnival

I don’t know about you, but I always looked forward to the sipping-slushy-lemonade-on-a-hammock-in-the-shade summers when my kids were young.  Really.  I’m not being facetious.  It was my time of year when I finally got to have my kids back…BACK from the dizzying morning rushes… BACK from the frantic wardrobe malfunctions… BACK from the homework overload… BACK from all the rigors and influences juxtaposed against our family’s personal favorite pastimes and faith.  Summertime was always our time…to regroup, to cuddle in the chase lounger or romp in the great outdoors, and be a comfortable, connected family unit again.  I spent my kids’ youth working for the school district so I could be on their schedule.  (It was hell, but somebody had to do it.  Ha.  I’m kidding).  It was a twelve year investment worth every moment.

Now I share this article with you because maybe, like me, you also get to hang with your kiddos in the summers, but maybe unlike me YOU are about to pull your ever living hair out.  Maybe it’s the rough-housing, or constant need for food?  Maybe you are just tired of the noise and them being underfoot when you are trying to clean house?  Someday, I know you won’t believe me, but you’re gonna miss this.  These days go way too fast.  I encourage you to “redeem the time” and the purpose for this particular post is to show you how.

There were always three parts to our summers when my kids were young: 1. Learning….2. Play….and 3. Vacation.  In this post I will start with the “L” word (learning), and you just stop that moaning right now.  This is going to be a total blast and besides that, extremely rewarding.  Who’s gonna be a “home team” player?

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Summer School at home

books The first thing for me was to keep them reading (rather than watching TV or video gaming all day).

  • Enroll the kids in the summer reading program offered at your local library, and then make it a fun part of all your lives by….

Spending at least a couple hours every day reading in a beautiful outdoor setting (on a blanket under shade trees next to a babbling brook at a city park, in a hammock at a mountain campsite, while sunbathing at a pool or pond, or on a boat or a raft floating a river or lake, or in a tent by flashlight under the stars at night, etc.).  My kids loved doing this.  It didn’t have to always be books either.  It could be comics or magazines or poetry or jokes or whatever tripped their trigger.  Even books on CD were allowed.  We’d listen to them on road trips, or while we did crafts, painted, or doodled.

Reward each finished book with a prize (like finding all the lending library boxes in the neighborhood and browsing them for fun, new books to exchange, renting and watching the film version of the book, doing some activity featured in the book – like gardening, cooking a certain dish, being a detective and solving a crime, starting a journal, treasure hunting, getting a puppy/kitty, taking a day or weekend trip to somewhere new, making something, baking something, finding dress-up clothes at second hand shops, going to see animals, etc.  In our town there was an emu ranch that we visited, and also a lady who had a wild bird rescue with a large variety of owls.)

I spent so many winters watching my kids struggle with this subject or that one, and always wanted very much to help them understand, but our lives were so compressed and pressure-cooked during the school year (with school and homework, after school sports and activities, eating and sleeping and keeping up with laundry) that it was impossible to devote much time to truly helping them.  So when summer finally arrived that was my goal.

I enrolled one of my kids in an online eSylvan program for a while, which proved to be marginally helpful.  And otherwise, I created my own home tutoring programs, Math Camps, Science Camps, or Writing Camps.  I remember using hop-scotch and water balloon piñatas to teach various concepts.  I used a ton of indoor and outdoor games and activities to help my kids catch on to whatever it was that had them road blocked during the school year.  Being fresh out of school, truly the last thing I expected they wanted to do was MORE schooling, so I never told them.  Because, really, it’s not like any schooling they’d ever done before, and what they didn’t know wouldn’t bore them. So, whatever you do, DON’T label any of the rest of this “tutoring,” “learning,” “school,” or “educational.”  Just pretend it is fun and games – and one giant summer-long field trip.  Kids love field trips.  But don’t be surprised if your kids ask to do “school” because they find out they LOVE it!

And before we get started I hope you’ll pick up the reading materials that I discovered in my quest.  I’ve listed them below.  They will help you and your kids soooooo much.  It’s going to be a little bit of work for you up front to read through it all, but I promise by about the middle of whatever first book you choose you’ll start getting excited.  There is just something exhilarating about being empowered, seeing a challenge from a new angle, and having the tools to tackle it.

The first thing you will want to do with your kids once you’ve read the books is to have them take the assessments ( oh dear, but whatever you do, don’t call them assessments, or tests, or anything that even sounds like that.  Pretend you are doing quizzes, yeah, like the ones that are in the teen magazines and all over the internet.  For some crazy reason we all like to take those silly quizzes, thinking we will find something new about ourselves.  I think it is uniqueness we are hoping for.  Well, that’s exactly what these assessments are looking for too.  So make it fun, maybe as an activity while you are on a family road trip, or make a picnic lunch and while everyone is lounging on the big blanket out in a park somewhere, whip out the quiz and lay it on them.  It’s best to do the quizzes one-on-one, so that one kid is not influenced by another kid’s answers.  Stay positive and enjoy the conversations that are triggered.  When you are done you’ll have all the info you need (praying also for God’s wisdom) to get started fashioning games and activities that match their learning styles; ones that will help them with whatever subjects they are having troubles with in school.

And the reading materials are:

Discover Your Child’s Learning Style by Mariaemma Willis, M.S. and Victoria Kindle Hodson, M.A.,

The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias,

The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell, M.D.,

Awakening Your Child’s Natural Genius by Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D.,

Eight Ways of Knowing, by David Lazear,

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Dr. Howard Gardner

In 1983 Dr. Howard Gardner, Director of Harvard University’s cognitive research project, published his book, Frames of Mind.  The prize winning book introduced a new model of intelligence – Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.  His cognitive research has provided educators a solid foundation upon which to identify and develop a broad spectrum of abilities within every child.  Some of the best schools in America use the eight intelligences (which are a part of every human being).  They are:

Multiple Intelligence

These intelligences are the magnets that draw our kid’s interest and attention.

Once we’ve found a way to draw their interest, it then helps to know their learning style: 

Learning Styles 001

Anthony D. Gregorc has written the definitive volume for identifying and understanding his model of learning styles.  Sometimes it is more easily predicted by seeing how our kids handle stress?  The Way They Learn is an awesome book for explaining learning styles, and modality. 

Modality Checklist 001

 Learning styles researchers Walter Barbe and Ramond Swassing present three modes of sensory perception (ways of remembering) that we all use in varying degrees.  These are referred to as modalities.  The most easily recognized are: auditory (hearing it), visual (seeing it), and kinesthetic (touching it).

In Discover Your Child’s Learning Style these authors provide assessments for all ages, along with a plethora of explanations, encouragement, and practical teaching techniques and ideas for every type of learner.  Their biggest thing is to make everything fully multi-sensory.  And they warn that not everything billed as “multi-sensory” truly is, by their standards.  They believe that every single kid on the planet benefits when the materials are presented to them in a truly multi-sensory way (hearing it, seeing it, and touching it).   They also make the good point that teaching and learning are two entirely different things.  You can teach or present materials ad nauseam, but it’s the kid asking questions who is learning.

Now before you get too overwhelmed with all of this, please don’t give up on my article yet.  Let me give you some examples that demonstrate why this is good information.

IF for instance you happen to have a “Nature Smart” kid (one who is always capturing insects and small critters, and who notices the colors and textures of leaves, and quickly identifies one bird call from another, or animal track from another, and who is always staring out a window when inside a building); and if this kid is also very “Concrete Random” (innovative, curious, creative, instinctive, adventurous); and this same child seems to need to “touch” things, even when they constantly get in trouble for it, if this child is struggling in math, these are some ways and means that might be beneficial to their learning success…

Let your child gather various leaves into a pile, bugs into a pile, feathers into a pile, seeds into a pile, etc.  Let them choose what they want to collect.  Then use their collection to help them understand counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, colors, arrays, patterns, sequences, etc.  Let them be the leader and patiently answer their questions by demonstrating with the objects all around them.  Do everything outside in the fresh air where they will be distracted and connected and curious.  You can make ordinary hikes into learning experiences.  Ask him or her lots of questions about what they see and hear, and how things smell and feel.  Let them make collages and collections with the objects that they’ve gathered.  Give them a backpack filled with a camera, sketch book and colored pencils, plaster kits for capturing animal tracks, and let them journal what they see, make scrapbooks, hang their works on the wall.  God made this world to be seen and touched and heard.  He is just as much a nature lover as our child is.  Your kid might grow up to be a park ranger, a farmer, or work for the Audubon Society or National Geographic one day, and all because you saw their potential, that they are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of their Creator, and you used their natural interests to help them learn and grow.

The Music Smart kid might benefit from math facts, geography, history facts, and language facts that are taught by using catchy tunes.  Or they may enjoy doing chores, reading, or doing a science experiment if there is music playing in the background.  Show them how King David in the Bible invented many instruments, and wrote psalms, and how he danced in the streets and worshipped God with his gifts.  David was a man after God’s own heart.  God put the music in him, and He put it in your child too.

Logic Smart Kids might do better appreciating poetry if you show them the mathematical side of it – limericks, for instance, have FIVE lines.  Lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with each other, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other.  Challenge them to make an equal number of syllables for lines one, two, and five, but half as many for lines three and four.  Show them how the limerick has its character because it is mathematically balanced.  Show them that if music isn’t mathematically precise (4/4 beat or 3/4 beat) it will just sound like noise.  If a painting doesn’t have the rules of balance, movement, and complimentary colors it isn’t as appealing.  A joke isn’t funny unless the timing of the punchline is perfect.  Show them how mathematics created a map of the stars in the universe, which can be rolled forward and backward like a huge clock.  Show them that God is logical, and that your little darling was created in His image and likeness.

People Smart kids need friends; they derive energy from being around people.  Put them in populated environments when you are trying to help them understand something.  Create fun group activities and games where your child can interact with other people, see their reactions and responses, and talk about things.  Take this child with you when you help serve at a soup kitchen, or visit children in the hospital.  Turn those visits into learning experiences (how many kids have blue pajamas? and how many kids are there all together? etc.).  God loves people too and He wants each one of us in His life.  He created us for the pleasure of knowing us.

I could go on, and on, and on…but you get the idea, right?  Isn’t it exciting?  Aren’t you buzzing already with enthusiasm?  Tell your friends.  And let’s help our kids realize their worth and intelligence and unique place in this world.  Who knows which one of them will find the cure for cancer, help to end world hunger, or finally invent that Jetson’s car we’ve been wanting for all these years.

Click here for my other Summer Survival Guide!

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  Proverbs 22:6

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Mar14

Mrs H’s Easter Dinner Cookbook

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Mrs H’s Easter Dinner Cookbook

Easter Egg

Easter Traditions

After a busy morning of egg hunts and hide-and-seek baskets, our little brood (hubbie, kids, and me) would nab a quick breakfast and get ready for church. The first few years of our young Christian lives we just went to our church like normal, but somewhere along the way we decided to visit different churches for Easter. I guess just because Easter service is a show anyway and we already knew what our own church was doing, so why not explore. It’s been a neat tradition with many interesting experiences.

Our family has always leaned more toward the contemporary type churches with a little tradition mingled in, maybe wading toward the charismatic side but not off the deep end. One year we decided to try the Methodist church downtown, the big brick building with the gorgeous stained glass windows. The congregation, when we arrived, seemed mostly older. I recognized a few of the faces as high society movers and shakers in the community. We chose to sit in the balcony, since there wasn’t such a thing in our church, and marveled at the three-story high pipe organ that the organist played masterfully. I’ll admit I was distracted from the words in the hymnal for watching how much effort it was for her to play that immense thing. Her legs were jumping, her hands were all over the cascading terraces of keys, and she kept pushing and pulling levers while still working away at the melody. She coaxed amazing sound out of that gargantuan brass piped spectacle.

The church itself was so formal and so fancy with tall ceilings and carved walls, the balcony, and a pastor who stood at a podium at one side of the stage and wore a robe and a colored sash. It wasn’t anything like our casual, modern, smaller-budget church.

As incredible as the ambiance was, it wasn’t the most memorable part of our experience that day. That part was coming up. There was a darling family sitting right behind us who had a little girl about our Gracee’s age who had sneaked in some candy. Gracee had too. It kept them both occupied for most of the service. But as soon as the music stopped and it got quiet, and the pastor began his rehearsed and monotone sermon, alas, that’s when Gobstoppers exploded without warning and spilled like a sack of marbles onto the polished wooden floor beneath, making us all jump.

The million little balls rolled for what seemed like an eternity down the floor between everyone’s feet, hollering and screaming as they went, echoing into the rafters with deafening clarity. I wondered what it sounded like to the people in the pews below as it was ringing literally in our ears. With a hundred or more eyes all glaring in our direction, we lowered our eyes down to our Gracee fearing it was her doing, not daring to move our heads or move the expression on our faces at all, and she, with huge wide eyes herself, moved backward in the pew, cupped her left hand over her pointer finger, and pointed with desperate innocence behind us. We smiled in relief but didn’t dare look back that way to add more shame to their humiliation. We all just sat like stones and waited for the commotion to end. It finally did thank goodness and our attention turned once again back to the drone of the pastor’s eulogy.

Note to self: If we should ever come back to this church, never let the kid bring jawbreakers and sit in the balcony. Then again, it might have been God’s sense of humor to liven things up a little. Whew, it was stuffy in there.

Another year we visited the Assembly of God church at the foot of the mountain. The pastor there had invited his Christian motorcycle group to come and give the sermon. As the congregation sat quietly waiting, a man in leathers turned the key on his Harley, parked outside the sanctuary in the lobby, and then drove his super shiny rumbling machine into our midst and up the center aisle, with exhaust fumes trailing in his wake. He parked it sideways at the base of the pastor’s podium, turned off the engine, and began his sermon from the mount of his studded leather seat. The other tatted and muscle-bound members of the group, also decked in their riveted and logoed black leather jackets, hats, and chaps, sat in chairs flanking the preacher on either side. It was AWESOME! His sermon was good too. And looking around, I also noticed that I knew quite a few of the members who went to that church too, and they all came over and greeted us after.

Another year we attended the huge Highland Park service held at the Event’s Center, with its thousands in attendance, which is a lot for this community. It had that mega-church feel, like maybe a church in a big city would have. It was an amazing worship service put on by very talented musicians and extremely gifted singers, and projected like a concert from the stage out to us in the stadium, showcasing the enormous talents of its members. Their pastor preached a beautiful sermon and it was all just a gorgeous display. It was neat to see that I knew quite a few of those people as well… many were coworkers.

And one year we attended a smaller, more intimate church, where the worship and sermon was lively and interactive. The pastor was very engaging and authoritative. At one point in his preaching he wanted us all to raise our hands and worship the Lord in our spirits. We did. It was fairly easy as he was very charismatic and the congregation was all eager. When our collective response didn’t quite seem aggressive enough for his liking, he told us to stand to our feet and worship our Savior with cheers and shouting. He begged us to let go our inhibitions and give Jesus the kind of accolades we would dispense at a sporting event. We did, and it was loud and joyful. When that just still wasn’t quite corresponding to his yearning, he shouted to us to get up on our chairs and reach our arms to the ceiling and give the Lord a shout of glory. We did, we did, we did. And some jumped and bounced. And hallelujah we did! And even though it was just a tad outside of our comfort zone, and we felt a little silly, when in Rome, we did! And it was kind of amazing. And none of us got hurt!

Some Easter’s we’ve come home to a homemade feast and other times we’ve gone out. One year we had Easter dinner at Denny’s. Our waitress asked for our drink orders and then gave each of the girls a plastic Easter egg. She said there were little prizes inside. The girls opened their eggs and each had a slip of paper in it. The waitress took the papers and disappeared returning moments later with Dani’s prize, a nice little Easter basket with a few goodies in it. She was thrilled and began to rummage through it, Gracee looked on in wonder. The waitress disappeared and returned a few seconds later with the news that Gracee had won the grand prize, and then presented her with a huge white stuffed bunny rabbit with long dangling ears and a big blue bow tied around its neck. Gracee was surprised and her dad and I were thrilled for her. As he and I returned to our mugs of hot coffee we caught the look on Dani’s face. She was frozen with one hand still in her tiny basket, jaw dropped, eyes fixated on this giant furry outrage…

Oh dear, I better stop there. Long story short, this was the Easter that went down in the annals of our family history as the Easter of the loathsome big blue bunny. And with that I wish you all a happy Easter filled with special moments that make you smile, beam with precious memories, and love and laughter, and years and years of great traditions. God bless.

1. Easter Egg Hunt

EASTER EGG HUNT FOR KIDS: When my kids were little and the few years of their age made a big difference in their abilities, I assigned one or two colors of eggs to each child and they were only allowed to “find” their own colors. This was the only way I figured would make the hunt fair for the younger one, and challenging for the older one. At the end of the egg hunt the kids then went on a scavenger hunt to find their Easter Baskets. This was one of the scripture scavenger hunts I put together for my kids when they were about 4 and 9. Their dad helped them with this because he was usually ready for church and I still needed to be. This gave me time to get dressed and my hair done. Then we got them dressed and our family headed off to worship our risen Lord.

Easter Egg Hunt for kids

Easter Egg Hunt for kids2

SPECIAL NOTE: Since this blog post was originally written I have come up with another pretty dang fun and awesome, kid-approved (actually, “whole family approved”) all-day Easter activity that I’m pretty excited to share with you. Follow this link to more Easter Fun & Games!

Easter Chatterbox

Your kids can use this little “cootie catcher” as a way to share their faith and the Easter story with their friends and classmates:

Easter Cootie Catcher

M&M Easter Story

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RECIPES

 

Our Easter Dinner is usually pretty simple. Who has time to fuss in the kitchen when we’re going to be dolling up for and going to church all morning?  I like to have it ready when we get home, so we can enjoy the after dinner egg hunts and games and crafts and whatever.

Easter Dinner collage2

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fruity ham

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For my Glazed Ham…

I start with a nice hickory smoked (if you know somebody that does them locally – mmmmm those are the best), spiral sliced ham that only basically needs to be heated because it is already cooked. Just wrap the ham in foil and heat as instructed on the package directions (mine, as you can see, got a little over heated waiting for us to return from church – I would recommend a little lower temperature on that oven if you are doing what I did and are trying to have dinner ready to serve as you walk in the door from church). I whipped up a batch of Jezebel Sauce a day or two before so I would have it to glaze the ham with, and then to plate it I covered mine with whatever fruits I had on hand, fresh or canned. On this day I covered mine with a large can of Fruit Cocktail and some sliced oranges. You could go with peaches, pineapple, pears, plums, cherries, mango, apples, appricots, or whatever!

Jezebel Sauce

1 (18 ounce) jar peach preserves

1 (18 ounce) jar orange marmalade

1 (18 ounce) jar apple preserves

1 (18 ounce) jar pineapple preserves

5/8 cup ground dry mustard

1 (4 ounce) jar prepared horseradish

In a bowl thoroughly mix all ingredients. May be stored in sterile containers in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Great as a glaze or served poured over cream cheese and served with wheat thins crackers.

Plate your hot ham, decorate it with the fruit, and pour the glaze over. Return it to the oven to warm the glaze and fruits, approximately 15 minutes. Serve.

scallop potatoes

Scalloped Potatoes

I’m rather fond of Martha Stewart’s recipe, although I left the skins on my taters, added some red onion, a sprinkle of pepper, and also some rosemary for garnish after it had baked. And because I had covered mine with foil it didn’t have her lovely golden top on it.

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pea salad

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And I’m completely nuts for this cold, crunchy Pea Salad!

This is the dressing. Mix it up in a large bowl.

1/3 cup sour cream

1 T. Mayo

1 T. vinegar

Salt and Pepper

This is the salad:

4 cups. frozen peas

1/2 small red onion, chopped

6 oz. cheddar cheese cut into small cubes

3 T. chopped fresh parsley

Add the salad ingredients to the dressing in the large bowl. Cover with plastic and keep in fridge for 2 to 4 hours before serving.

When ready to serve…

Crumble 8 slices of crispy cooked bacon. Transfer the pea salad to a serving dish and garnish with the bacon, or you can add the bacon to the salad before transferring to your serving dish, whichever you prefer.

And for dessert…

Strawberry Napoleons

EASY STRAWBERRY NAPOLEONS RECIPE

Ingredients

  • 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed according to package directions
  • 1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cold whole milk
  • 1 package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 2 cups whipped topping
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°. Unfold thawed puff pastry on cutting board.

With a sharp knife, cut pastry into nine squares. Place on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

In a large bowl, combine the strawberries, sugar and vanilla; set aside. In another bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for two minutes.

Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft set. Stir in whipped topping and until thoroughly blended. Cover and refrigerate.

To assemble, split puff pastry squares horizontally for a total of 18 squares. Set aside six tops. Place six of the remaining puff pastry pieces on individual serving plates. Spread about 1/4 cup pudding mixture over each pastry square. Top with a spoonful of strawberries and another piece of puff pastry. Spread remaining pudding mixture over pastry pieces. Top with remaining strawberries and reserved pastry tops.

In a microwave, melt chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Transfer chocolate to a small, heavy-duty plastic bag. Cut a tiny corner from bag; squeeze chocolate over napoleons. Yield: 6 servings.

© Taste of Home 2012

Visit my Pinterest Easter Feast page for more recipes!

P.S. Got leftover ham?

Here are my two favorite things to do with it…

DSCN8967

Ham & Potato Casserole

6 potatoes cut into slices or cubes as you prefer (or a bag of frozen hash browns)

2 cups diced ham leftovers

2 cups shedded cheese

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 stick of butter, melted

2/3 pint carton heavy cream

3 Tbls flour

1 jalapeno, diced

A sprinkle or two of spicy dry rub seasoning (basically just cayenne powder and ground black pepper)

Preheat oven to 350*F. Mix together all ingredients in a large bowl and pour out into a large greased casserole dish. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour. Remove foil, give the dish a good stir, return to oven and bake an additional 1/2 hour uncovered. If it appears to be getting too golden on top, it is probably done. My oven seems to take a little longer than other peoples. This dish is a great way to get rid of several things you might have left in your fridge. 🙂

Deviled Ham (for sandwiches)

These are my husband’s favorite!!!! He will flat out gorge on them for two solid days in a row. So I usually make all the deviled ham into sandwiches, lay them in a casserole dish, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap, and store it in his “mancave” fridge where he can just help himself until he is sick. LOL! P.S. I rarely measure my ingredients for this (although I did for you this time to make sure it would turn out), but I never have the exact same amount of leftover ham, so I’m going to say we start with 2 cups of ground ham and you can double or half the other ingredients in porportion to what you have, okay?

DSCN8968

I grind my leftover ham in a hand-crank grinder (old school), and then to approximately 2 cups of ground ham I add:

1/2 tsp. ground pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

1/3 cup minced onion (about a quarter of a large onion)

1/3 cup minced celery (about 1 rib of celery)

4 Tbsps sweet pickle relish

1 Tbsp Dijon or spicy brown mustard

Moisten with mayonaise until misture holds together and is slightly creamy. I start with a good heaping serving spoon of Mayo, and then maybe a little more than that.

Mix together by tossing and stirring until everything is mixed well. Cut the crusts off of your favorite white sandwich bread. Spread slices with the deviled ham and cover with another slice of bread. Cut sandwiches into quarters and poke a decorative toothpick through to hold them together. Serve with whatever was leftover on the relish tray (carrot sticks, cream cheese stuffed celery sticks, green and black olives, deviled eggs, spicy pickled okra, spicy pickled jardinière mix, pickled asparagus, dilled green beans, little dill and sweet pickles, etc.), chips, or whatever you have. These go great with cheddar cheese soup. Check out my recipe in my blog post “Soups On.” (<<< click link)

DSCN8979

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“And when [Herod] had apprehended [Peter], he put him in prison…intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.” Acts 12:4 (KJV)