Showing posts with label mother's day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mother's day. Show all posts

Friday, May 14, 2010

Mother's Day gift gone astray

*I had to delay this post until our mom's got their gift. 

Gelatin sun catchers.
Recently I put up an inspiration line in our dining room. It is a simple piece of twine connected to push pins. I find all these great craft ideas online or in magazines and I save them, but then I never look at them again. Now, when I find a fun craft idea or saying, I hang it on the line. It has helped so much with our crafting. Everest has looked through all the pages I have and picked a few of his favorites. 

We found a sun catcher craft idea in Family Fun magazine. (If you want to craft with your kids, but don't know where to start, I highly recommend this magazine. I do not love the commercialism in it, but I do love the crafts.) Everest and I decided to make them for Mother's Day. We went to the grocery store to collect all the supplies and started making them. 

Mixing the gelatin and adding food coloring.

They were turning out thinner than I thought they should be, so I added a little more water to them. (They are made from unflavored gelatin). We added food coloring, then dumped them onto a plastic plate. We then added drops of food coloring and swirled them into cool designs. 

For Everest, this was the most fun, making the designs.
We also added glitter, that was lots of fun too, but quite messy.

It said they should dry over night, but 2 days later, they were still...jello-y. 

Everest has a good time playing with the pieces that were still pretty rubbery.

Not thinking I put them in the sun to dry. Big mistake, they melted into a mess. All our nice designs ran together. I set them on the counter meaning to throw them away and start over, but forgot about them. Later that evening, I found they were drying. They were not nearly as nice as they were in the beginning, but they still turned out ok. Everest liked them and wanted to finish making them for Nonnie and Grami, so we cut out some shapes and added string. We started these sun catchers in plenty of time to send them for Mother's Day, but since we had so much trouble, they were sent late. Sorry, Nonnie and Grami, we hope you enjoyed them when you did get them.

In the end they turned out ok. They catch the sun nicely, even if they are wrinkled and bubbly. Everest named each one of them, we had moon and ball, watermelon, foot print, square and heart. Some of the names he came up with were very clever
We love and miss you both! Hope you had a great Mother's Day.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

A Mother's Day Treat

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers in my life. You all inspire me in some way to be a better mama. Thank you.

Today I had a few minutes of quiet time to read my favorite magazine, Mothering. They had a great article on cloth diapering and Elimination Control. Near then end I found another great article on raw foods. I have made some raw food in the past, but I was never really sure what "raw" meant. I learned that it is typically foods that are not cooked, or cooked below 120 degrees. There were some recipes that I can't wait to try, but one I had to try RIGHT away. It is raw choconana pudding. 

(Mine might not be as pretty as they were in the article, but WOW, they were good!)
 I have been craving pudding lately, but can't bring myself to buy the pudding from the store, it all has high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils.....2 things we completely avoid. I bought some organic pudding and made it a few times, it is ok, but not nearly as creaming as I would like. So when I saw this recipe I had to try it. You will never believe what it is made of and how YUMMMY it is. I can't wait to make it again.....maybe tomorrow night.

Nathan and Everest enjoying the pudding.

The secret ingredient.....avocado. We love avocado and eat it often, but if you don't like it, you can't even taste it. Give it a try and let me know what you think. I promise you will not be disappointed.
Raw Choconana pudding (I doubled the recipe, next time I may triple or quadruple it so we have extra)

1 avocado
1/2 ripe banana
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/4 c honey (I used agave, maple syrup would work too)
1 T coconut oil
1 t vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Process until consistency is smooth like pudding . (Add water if needed)

I added plain yogurt to our glasses and then garnished with bananas and chopped almonds.
SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOD!  Hope you enjoy too.