Life is so much easier...

When you can breed them for packaging.

Thanks, Tertia.  You're a trooper.  I love you.

Almond Curry Deliciousness - plus mom's the dinner HERO!

So, I'm gonna show you the end result first, then tell you how I accomplished this small miracle:

I know, it's amazing.  Tertia (who is not the least bit food-motivated) cleaned her plate.  This never happens.  And I managed this so simply and not on my own.  In my crock pot, I added some of these, frozen:

 To a still frozen package of this:

Then I drenched the chicken and broccoli in a whole bottle of the most wonderful marinade I've ever tasted.  I got the bottle from the wonderful woman I want to adopt as my Grammy.  

This is her boyfriend who makes this:  

I set the crock pot on low for about 4 hours and soon, the most delectable smell started to waft from my kitchen.  Cook this low and slow.  Oh. Mah. Gah.  I couldn't stop opening it and tasting!

For a side/starch/sauce absorber, I made brown rice with flax.  

Also a pot of delicious.  The flax gets nice and toothsome without being sharp.  Plus, the cooking liquid included some of the chicken sauce, hence the rich color.  It was obscenely good.  

I can go on and on about how healthy the dinner was, whole grain blar-de-blar, but really it was so freaking awesome to serve and eat that I just won't bore you.  Got it started by 10am, we could have served anytime from 1pm on.  I'll just remind you what Tertia thought:

Yep, it's a win. :-)

Letters and tape and paint, oh my!

So it seems all my best and messiest projects begin with a muffin tin full of paints.  We were generously given some amazing homeschool activities from a recent friend (whom I'd like to adopt as my honorary grammy for lots more reasons) and I decided to try the painting letters one.  It was our Science/Reading day, so this tied in nicely.

I got out my never-ending stack of paper plates and some masking tape.  I drew the letters on the plates and showed the fairies how to cover them with tape.   I cut up some old sponges for the smearing/stamping/free-for-all and let them have at it.

 All three had a fantastic time smooshing the sponges in the paint, but Secunda was TRANSFIXED.  She's very sensory without the (occasionally) concomitant behaviour issues.

So we spent the morning stamping away...  And had a great time.  Plus LEARNING.  Thanks, faeries!

Vintage Fabric Orgasm

Because I am a normal girl, I accept tokens of affection.  In. Giant. Boxes.

This is a giant box of VINTAGE FABRIC.  I'm geeking out because the previous owner of this fabric died in 1974.   1.9.7.4.  I just about laid it all out and rolled in it naked.  The linens, oh my god, the linens.  I found these two complimenting fabrics, a retro pattern I scored someplace, and GOT TO WORK.

 It took me all day, what with the momming and such.  But I'm absolutely thrilled with the results.  I love it, I love how it feels on, I love the fabric.

The skirt is a true circle and it's ALL ONE PIECE.  Goes over like an apron, ties in the back (underneath) and i added the bows in the front.  It calls for snaps, but I wanted bows.

 It's just bias tape.  The bodice section is a little long for me, hence the flaps at the shoulders.  I cut the upper back on the bias for fun.

I'm a big girl and I love this pattern for ease and the ability to customize everything...  I'm literally shaking with anticipation to make more stuff for me and my loves...

So more fabric inappropriateness very soon!!

Easy Kid's Sewing Project!

Come one, come all!!

This is an awesome sewing project for beginners or experts.  Not only do I love how it turned out (and I'm psyched about the possibilities), but Prima did 95% of it with her own little 5-yr-old hands.  Plus, what else can you do with 100 feet of clothesline?  Remember, this is a family show so keep it clean. ;)

I started it for her by winding a little bit and zig-zagging it.  It was 3/8" rope, easy to fit under the foot of my machine.  I used pink thread so she could see it (plus, PINK) and she sat there for hours turning... turning... turning...

Finally we got to the end and I whipped out the handles.  Sorry for the crappy photo.  I barely got it taken (with my phone, no less) before she was out the door waving it at her sisters. 

There are tuts all over the web and we are definitely doing this again.  Loved the craft, love the usefulness, love that Prima is so very proud of it.  It's a Win all the way around.

Seen here!

Crafteriffic Crap-a-Roonie 1

 HOME-MADE FINGER PAINTS!

This was so fun and an excellent lesson in what too many choices can do to playtime.  I used a fantastic and easy recipe found here from The Imagination Tree.  It cooked up just like she said and it was EASY.  For REAL.  

Prima helped the whole time and mixed all the colors too.

 Lots of bowls of really cool colors.  I was THRILLED with the results.

I sent everyone outside and plopped the paint on paper and let them have at it.  The weirdest thing happened: 

No one wanted to touch it.  They are used to two colors, maybe three and I went a little nuts with the variety.  Totally overwhelmed the poor things.  I ended up putting most of it back in zipper bags for later. 

Good lesson for me on how Minimalism as a philosophy has impacted the wee ones.  I'm proud of them for feeling slightly uncomfortable with all the excess. 

Because it seems like everyone else does it better...

I follow a ton of educational/early childhood/Better Moms Than I blogs around the intarwebs and I'm posting up my favorite of today here.  This blogger is fantastic and really makes me look like a super hero.
 
Fun-A-Day is an amazing early education blog that makes me brave enough to try the really messy stuff and just go with it.  She's inspired me to be a better mom and have more... Well... Fun. :)

Fair does not mean equal. Part 1.

Why I let Prima wear makeup and her sisters can't...
Our eldest child is going to be 6 this September.  She's all girl: princesses, pink, fluffy, Disney-fied to a fare-thee-well. This was none of my doing.  I declared a moratorium on any "girly" colors for anything when she was born.  She played with trucks and Matchbox cars as often as she played with dolls.  I DID MY PART, HERE.

She also deals with some mental health issues.  Part of being brilliant can be some instability and we love who she is as much as we hate that she has to deal with it.  She has two younger sisters (twins Secunda and Tertia) that are the bane of her existence as well as her closest allies.

As Prima is the eldest, she gets all the fun stuff first and has the dubious distinction of being our Stunt Child.  Also, we have to really pick our battles.  One battle I refused to have when she was a teenager was cosmetics.  Why, with all the sexualization of young girls, am I allowing a typically "mature" privilege?

Because she is still listening to me.  If I want some influence in this milestone, I need to set the groundwork for rules, limits, and expectations around it.  I chose the colors, the types, the styles of makeup I'd accept.  I choose when and where she wears it.  She can paint herself up like a $2 hooker if she wants while we're at home.  

Because she is not being sexualized.  She dresses very conservatively and makes respectful and respectable choices around this.  Until she doesn't, she has the makeup privilege. 

She gets it out of her system.  By the time she's 12 and her friends are just discovering it, she'll be over it.  And no doubt on to something more terrifying for me :).  

Will I allow her sisters to behave the same way?  Absolutely not.  Because they are radically different children.  Because fair does not mean equal.

Welcome!!

Aaaaaaaaand, we're BACK! I have lots of projects in the works and some epic fails to laugh about.  For some reason I can always think of the best way to do something AFTER I'm finished...  Anyway, more to come.  Posts will be varied and semi-sporadic due to the business of three girls and a boy (Prima, Secunda, Tertia and Jr, respectively) under 6 years old. 

Plus, the cussing...