The Creative Salad – Page 44 – Crafty fun and homeschool adventures in Sonoma County, California.

The New Game Obsession

Our daughter tends to approach her activities with gusto.

When she was two years old she discovered a love of puzzles, assembling 100 piece puzzles on her own, with me there for company (and to serve as the occasional gatherer of “all the black and white striped zebra pieces,” for example, as directed by the little miss.).

Almost four years old now, she has applied that same sense of zeal to mastering a variety of games: Solitaire, King’s Corner, Uno, Triominos, Scrabble, Qwirkle Cubes, and Checkers.

We play the card games everywhere: at the doctor’s office, in restaurants, in the back seat of the car, while we’re out and about (on our android phones when there isn’t a flat surface on which to play!).

She’s not just fooling around either, she’s actually really good! She strategizes, holding cards until playing them benefits her. Creating variations to make the game more challenging. I’m certainly not that focused despite my love of winning.

And each time she kicks my ass, she kindly reassures me, “Mom, it’s okay. We can play until you win too.” Gee, thanks, honey. “Okay, let’s play!” After all, she’ll be heading off to college before I know it. And games are fun!

I have to eat WHAT to stay pregnant?!

I’ve written before about our struggle to stay pregnant and I thought I would share with you the latest chapter in our fertility journey.

Above photo: Dinner: beef, salad, farro, potatoes by Sarah Gilbert

I’m seeing an acupuncturist who specializes in fertility. I think she’s rather brilliant and knowledgeable and — I mean this in the best possible way — very, very Sonoma County (for example, the clinic bathroom has a composting toilet — our daughter was enthralled!).

On our first meeting we discussed my health history and she threw me a curve ball: she really wants me to eat red meat. Not chicken or turkey, but RED MEAT! I haven’t eaten red meat in at least twenty five years. In fact I have no memory of ever having eaten red meat, although perhaps my parents will remember better and post about it in the comments. (Mom, I remember you cooking meatballs; did I ever eat one?!)

Even though I may not remember what red meat tastes like, I know that I really don’t want to eat it.

For the majority of my life I’ve been a pescatarian (a vegetarian who also eats fish) who only started eating seafood to get more protein into my diet. If I could live without dairy, I would be a vegan. With the exception of a bowl of chicken soup at sleep-away camp and a bite of roast beef in college, I haven’t eaten meat since elementary school.

That being said, I’ll do just about anything to stay pregnant. After all, transitioning from a vegetarian to omnivore diet and seeing an acupuncturist helped one of my closest friends become pregnant. It might really help!

Plus, doesn’t Sarah Gilbert’s photo, above, make meat-eating look delicious and healthy?!

And so I’m trying to acclimate myself to the idea of cooking with beef broth…

Never mind that the rest of the family are pescatarians and are, therefore, going to be eating something different.

Stay tuned!

Melted Crayon Hearts Tutorial

This may look like a Valentine’s Day project–and, yes, it certainly could be!–but in our house these adorable crayon hearts are for a certain little girl’s birthday party at the end of the month!

These melted crayon hearts are super simple to make and a great reuse project for any old, broken crayons you have lying around.

First gather your crayons and peel the paper off each of them, a favorite kid activity in our house:

Using your hands, break each crayon into several small pieces so that they will fit inside your mold. We used silicone molds that are meant for candy-making and are available in a wide variety of shapes including dinosaurs, shoes and purses, or the hearts shown above. Amazon or your local baking supply store has you covered.

Unfortunately, the downside to using these cute molds for this project is that once you’ve melted crayons in them you can no longer bake with them. Sigh.

Place the molds in a preheated 250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until the crayons have completely melted:

Let them cool for twenty minutes and then pop them out of the mold:

Your new, adorable chunky crayons are ready to use!

Or, in our case, ready to place into favor bags for our guests. Such fun!

Thanks to From An Igloo for the inspiration and how-to! Found via Pinterest.

January is the New June

Instead of typical rainy winter weather, we’re enjoying summertime here in California’s wine country. 70 degrees, sunny… I keep reminding our family to wear sunscreen. It’s hot out there!

And so we’ve been doing all sorts of fun summer activities like scootering on the trail every day and biking into town with our friends’ awesome Burley Bee Bike Trailer:

Each day I walk through the house, opening each window wide, and sighing deeply as I breathe in the loveliness that is western Sonoma county:

Oh, and the birds loved their popcorn garland treat:

Our daughter is already talking about next year’s garland for the tree and doing it all over again. I love making family traditions!

Happy winter!

The Perfect Gift for this Mama

I never thought this day would come.

My husband and I, as avid readers, love being surrounded by books.

But in our very small house,
and with our limited book budget,
it doesn’t make sense to accumulate any new books.

And so when I learned about ebook lending from our library, I jumped on the Kindle bandwagon.

And here we are.

Reading has never felt so light or comfortable. (Yes, I am one of those readers who typically reads really long–i.e. heavy–books.)

Heart!

Shown above: Kindle Touch 3G, BUILT Kindle and Kindle Touch Slim Neoprene Sleeve, Verso Clip-On Reading Light for Kindle, and Pegasus by Robin McKinley.