Monthly Archives: April 2012

Our Earth Day Eco-Craft

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As I’m sure you all know, Earth Day was last week.  And, as I’m sure you all know, we like to do a lot of crafts in this house.  And, as I’m sure you all know, I am totally trying to pass this craft off as my brilliant Earth Day craft.

The truth of the matter, however, is that I rarely know what day it is, unless it is a day where I am supposed to give or receive gifts.  Every other day is just a counter to the next birthday or major holiday.  Honestly, this craft just happened to be earthy, and took place near Earth Day.  But despite all that, this would make a great Earth Day craft for you and yours next year.  Right?  Ugh.

Okay, I’ll just come clean.  Really, when I called this an eco-craft…the “eco” was just an abbreviation of “eco-uldn’t be easier!” so you may want to give it a go.  Here’s what we made.

Cute right?

Here’s the thing.  Sometimes Ruby gets an idea for a craft.  She’ll talk about it for days.  Like for example, with this one, a few days earlier she wanted to start collecting leaves so that we could make a tree.  Of course, when I’m outside, walking down the street with three kids under four, I rarely pay attention to anything other than traffic.  You see, I would liken taking a stroll with my kids to balancing marbles on an upside down dinner plate…it’s possible, but you better have all five senses honed on that one task or someone’s going over the edge (likely me).  So, the short story is, unless we’re alone or in an enclosed area, I always try to keep her on the beaten path and away from doing things like collecting leaves.

So the other day she starts on me first thing in the morning asking, “Can we make the trees today?  Can we make the trees today?”  So I said okay, forgetting that we never collected the leaves she wanted.

She was heartbroken.  But luckily, nothing mends a broken heart like some cutting and pasting!  So I just cut a bunch of leaves out of some craft paper, put a piece of tape on each one, and she stuck it to a recycled (see, very eco-ish) paper towel roll.  And for the trunk we just glued some brown-ish craft paper around the bottom half.

Then to get them to stand up, I just drew a circle the size of the roll on a square piece of foam, cut a bunch of slits from the centre to the edge of the circle, and taped them to the inside of the roll…like this.

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I am hoping to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography with that shot.

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Don’t forget to tip your waitress, we’ll be here all week.

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Ruby (4-years-old) and Emma (2-years-old) have always had a knack for joke telling.  I don’t know where they got it from…GRANDPA(S)…but they’re actually pretty funny.  Here are a couple that are doing the rounds right now.

This one happened this morning:

RUBY:  Knock knock.

CHRIS:  Who’s there?

RUBY:   A skunk.

CHRIS:   A skunk who?

RUBY:   (farts)

When you think of the time, dedication and sheer genius it took, to realize she had to fart, decide to hold it, then to think of the joke, then to go into the kitchen to tell Chris, then to let the fart out with perfect comedic timing?  Let’s just say, it would take a pretty stacked report card to top the pride I’m feeling right now.

Then we heard this one over the monitor this morning:

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Roasted vegetables go with everything…well almost everything.

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There are two thing that are served in this house almost every day.  Search warrants and subpoenas.  I’m kidding.  Strawberries (because it is the only thing that EVERYONE eats) and roasted vegetables.  Now, the latter rarely comes into contact with a plastic plate in this house, but it graces our “grown up” dishware quite frequently.  They go with EVERYTHING!  Except one thing, that we will come to later in this post.

Tonight, Chris had to go into work at 4:30PM, so I was on my own for dinner.  And when I say “on my own” I of course mean “surrounded by screaming, sloppy, little people.”  In these financially challenged times, I always pack Chris a lunch, or dinner, or whatever he’s going to be eating while he’s there so I wanted to hit two birds with one stone.  A roasted vegetable kind of stone.  Yeah, I know that doesn’t make any sense, but I didn’t want you to think I was actually out in the backyard, trying to hit two birds with one stone to cook for dinner.  You barbarian…I can’t believe you thought that.  Anyway…

On this evening in particular, I had a hankering for some brussel sprouts.  So I roasted a bunch with  some olive oil, rosemary, thyme, peppers, carrots, zucchini, onions and a lot of garlic.  Like, enough garlic to ensure that Edward Cullen will not be stopping by for dinner, here or anywhere within a 100 mile radius of this house.  I’m more of a Jacob girl anyway.

Sooo….this is what came out of my oven 20 minutes later.

“Why, Lora,” you’re saying.  “That does look like a healthy and delicious meal!”  And I’m saying, “I ain’t no frickin’ bird.  That is the beginning of my meal.”  So I mixed Chris’s half with some tortellini, parsley and parmesan, then sent him to work with this:

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Rubyisms

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While out for a walk yesterday, my 4-year-old Ruby dropped this little pearl on me:

“Mmmm.  Smell that fresh air, mom?  I think the air brushed his teeth today.”

Then this morning she gave me a little more food for thought when she asked me,

RUBY:  Mom, where do bananas come from?

ME:  They grow on trees.

RUBY:  Then the monkey’s pick them, and bring them to a monkey office, then talk on a banana phone and send their bananas to Loblaws?

Yeah.  She’s rad.

Lora

Bake your bread and eat it too…or three (or four) times a day!

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There is love…and then there’s the way I feel about bread.  If I could fashion a casket from some crusty bread, I may reconsider my fear of death.  OMG.  I just had an amazing idea for my next craft project.  A bread bed.  That’s all I’ll say for now.

Anyway…

I think I’ll begin this tale with a little (seemingly unrelated) detour.

So, I had a birthday in March.  I didn’t post about it, because, well I don’t know why.  (That’s just something lazy people say to explain something away, without explaining anything at all.)  My mom had a nice, little party at her house for me.  Here’s the short version of what went down:

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God? Bless the kindergarten teachers…

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Why don’t we hear of more kindergarten teachers gone mad?  Seriously.  Like at the very least I should have seen a headline by now of some crazed woman, taking all of her kids lunches and burning them in the middle of the classroom.  Or using the craft paint to paint her face like a warrior and running through the school hallways chanting, “Me hate kids.  Me hate kids.”

I should probably start at the beginning of this thought process before hitting you with the punchline.  Or was that just me showing off my journalistic chops?  You’ll never know, meager audience.  Muwahahaha!  I’m sorry, I just watched Megamind with the family.  I’m in a super villain sort of mood.  I love you guys…don’t hate me?

Anyway…

When we think of those lovely ladies who sent us off on our scholastic careers, we picture these sweet, patient saints, that never had any other ambition in their lives than to cater solely to me, or you, and our childhood fun and innocence.  At least, that’s what I think of when I picture Mrs. Senyshyn.  She was kind, beautiful and just plain amazing.

And why would we think any differently, really?  Their only job is to supervise some kids and do crafts all day, right?  As a job description, that all sounded fine and dandy as far as I was concerned.

Then these happened.

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A Perfect Gentleman

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We went to a birthday party on Sunday, and Ben crawled into a tube.  Not like a sewer pipe or anything, you were supposed to let your kids go in it.  Come to think of it, I hope you were supposed to let your kids go in it.

Either way.  The kids can strike a pose like no other.  He’s a regular Dapper Dan.

Now, if that ain’t a handsome man, I don’t know what is.

Lora

Sausage and Lentil Soup

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I almost named this post, Dinner Tonight, because no matter what day you read this on, it’s a pretty safe bet that this would make an excellent choice for just such an occasion.

This soup is hearty, delicious, easy and very inexpensive, thus making it probably my most favourite meal, ever.  I haven’t posted this recipe before now, because it is impossible to photograph nicely.  Does anyone even say “photograph” any more?  Photograph?  It sounds so, pre-telephone.  This post was actually typed on a typewriter and my notes were written with a feather dipped into an inkwell.  Hold on a sec, I have to go answer my telegraph.

I’m back.  It was the 1800′s calling.  They said, “Stop embarrassing yourself by broadcasting how little you know about us.”  Newfangled devices these days…they always have so much attitude.

ANYWAY…

The soup.  It’s amazing.  And I guarantee you’ll be making it at LEAST twice a week, for the foreseeable future.  Here is a picture, but you should know, that it really does this goldmine no favours.

Maybe I should rename it, Sausage and Lentil Stew.  It’s very hearty, like I said.

Anyway, it pulls it’s primary flavours from the sausage, lentils, and this little guy who, incidentally, I like to call “my other husband.”

Alleluia!

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Chewy Ginger Cookies

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These cookies are a staple in our kitchen.  It’s just one of those recipes, where you always seem to have everything on hand, and they’re always, ALWAYS good.

I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com and they are absolutely delish.  Like, maybe, you make them when no one is home, then open all the windows and air the house out so no one knows you made them thus you can keep them all to yourself kind of delish.

The best part though, is the texture.  They have a bit of a crunch on the outside, and they are soooo chewy in the middle.  And they stay chewy in the middle, for like, a long time.  As long as they can last without being devoured anyway.

So you make your batter, then make little cookie batter balls, roll them in sugar, pop them in the oven and they come out looking like this.

If you know me at all, you’ll know I chose that picture in particular, because it looks like a bum.  Anyway, then they flatten out a little and they look like this…

Then, your pickiest eater takes a bite of one and it looks like this…

SOLD! By the 4-foot hipster with a grin!

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