Homemade Play Dough

Playdough Recipe

2 cups flour

1 cup cornstarch
1-1/2 cups salt
2 Tablespoons cream of tarter
3 Tbsp oil

Food Coloring
3 cups water 

(colored ahead of time with the food coloring)

1.  Mix all ingredients into a large pot.  Be sure to add the food coloring to the cold water before adding to the other ingredients.  This will give you a better color. (We used approximately 20 drops - the water should be quite dark.)

2.  Cook on medium/low heat stirring constantly until it begins to form into a dough.

 

3.  Turn out onto a cutting board or other surface and knead for 1-2 minutes until it is the right consistency.

4.  After it has cooled, store in an airtight container.  It should stay good for 3 months in an airtight container (does anyone believe this?)


5.  Have a lot of inexpensive fun!  Even though these are somewhat edible ingredients..... don't let anyone eat it.  There are edible playdough recipes available....... if you want to teach your children and grandchildren how to eat playdough... I wouldn't think it is a good idea, but that is your call!

Cindy

Meanwhile....back at the ranch....

we have been busy, happy, working, loving where the Lord has placed our footsteps.  Obadiah is next to our mongo amaranth plant.  They are usually about 4' tall.  Good compost makes all the difference.

Note to self:  If you plan to use Diestel's compost, make wider rows.  This is our melon patch.  We are a little unsure how we are going to harvest it..... Joey is trying to come up with some strategies.  It is as thick as it looks and there are hundreds of melons set.

The tomato and cucumber patches need tied almost every day.  The cucumbers are coming in strong and the tomatoes are just beginning to come in.  Again... next year wider rows.

The guys made us a mama hen house that can hold four chicken families in separate areas.  We have 18 healthy, strong chicks from the ever turning incubator - 9 copper morans and 9 leghorns.  They should begin laying around Christmas time - Chocolate brown eggs for the copper morans and white for the leghorns.  The two mama hens are doing really well.  We have room and mamas for the next batch getting ready to come out of the incubator.

Everyone eats squash..... EVERY DAY.  Enough said.

The corn and pumpkins are thriving......

The Lord has blessed the work of our hands.

Be healthy and well
Cindy

Life in the Summer

Hello my long lost blogging friends.  Since we last talked it has been insane busy around here with gardening, chickens and chickens and chickens and some ducks and

SWIMMING!!!!!  Yeah for swimming.  Otherwise, all I would be doing is weeding, watering and tying the endless rows of tomatoes :)

........ except that maybe it got a little too busy - I seem to have lost my voice.  This is an old, old, OLD injury from my babyhood through my whole life - but I have been free from this problem for quite a while.  I have actually had to take a week off - not for something fun, but just to sleep and NOT TALK!  Anyone that knows me understands my dilemma.  I am also trying every remedy I have ever tried, heard of, or persuaded anyone else to do.  I appear to have maxed out on a few remedies - today I am trying something else.

DETOX might be hitting next :)  but my voice is coming back.  It is not gone for months, but weeks.  This is good.

While I was doing nothing but sleep, our oldest son was teaching his son to wakesurf.  I totally missed it, but thanks to friend Melissa, I saw some pictures.  His folks said I could share them.

Enjoy
Cindy

First, you have to gear up.....
Wait a minute, just what are you geared up for???

Next you need to learn how to fall off the board.... 1-2-3-Jump

Dad is there waiting.

.....and he's UP!

Yep.... I'm totally cool  :)

Five ways to prepare your child for swim lessons

Swim lessons (in my opinion) are a critical part of growing up.  Genuine swim lessons cannot begin until a child moves past their fear of putting their face in the water.  "Gentle" toddler swim lessons that involve lots of splashing, bubbles and playing are a lot of fun... if you have a lot of time and energy to work with your toddler.

If you want your toddler to move into swimming, they must get over their fear first.  There just is no way past this point.  If you can begin this process at home, either in a tub or a small child's pool, it can lower the child's anxiety level and allow productive swim lessons to begin.

Please note that I am not a professional swim teacher, but I am a hobby one...... and I love it a lot, lot, lot.  It is really rewarding to see the little guy who screamed at you for three days move within a week or so into "one more time Teacher Cindy"  off of the diving board. (It usually takes about 3 days for a child to move past their fear if they are not conditioned to putting their face in the water).  NOTE:  I don't mind the screaming at all - just a part of swim lessons  :)  :)  :) 

So..... my list (to be used with adult supervision ONLY):

A child can be considered "ready" for actual instruction when they can get into the pool independently and put their own face into the water upon request by the teacher.

1)  A great first step is in the bathtub over the winter or in the days or weeks leading up to swimming.  The water is warm, which is a huge plus.  Use a watering can, a bucket, a pot - something and dump water over their head in a sitting up position.  I give my usual "underwater trigger" of "ready...go - 1-2-3...stop" to help them learn the breathing pattern.

2)  Blow bubbles, starting with eyes and nose out of the water and progressing into making all kinds of rude noises by blowing against the bottom of the tub, face fully submerged (we have boys around here and that brings much laughter :)

3)  Use the rings as a distraction/reward to teach the feeling of being on your tummy in the water, going under, retrieving and coming up.  This would be especially important if you have had your child in a life jacket in the pool a lot.  Going horizontal in the pool when you are used to being supported in an upright position freaks kids out.  It is probably the most difficult thing to overcome, and the tub is a great place to start the process.

4) Lay the child on their back in a couple of inches of water.  Make sure the water is only to the child's ear.  Let them get the feeling of being on their back in the water while fully supported.  You can add more water as they get comfortable with this and then support the child with your hands to float on top of the water.

5) Tigger Hops:  This is a great safety technique for kids of all ages and it can begin at home.  From a standing position have the child squat down then JUMP up as high as they can go with their hands over their heads.  This movement is a great motor skill to develop for any sport.

So, that is my list...... be sure to reward their good behavior with something special.  We use a "Treasure Box" which is filled this year with Raw Revolution, LaraBars, non-sugar suckers and other treats.

Cindy

A Project in Process

We have all been working hard around here to make the pool area safer, cleaner and function better.  One of the big projects involved turning an old, unworking, hot tub into a kids pool.  The next generation is coming up and I am tired of fishing kids out of the middle of the silly thing.  Also, cleaning it was a nightmare because of the different levels and little corners.

It started out looking like this (well, once we drained the swamp):

This mess got pressure washed and scraped with a wire brush, then rocks added to the middle:

Next came the big concrete job  :)  :)
                               (normally their concrete jobs look more like this)

First you gotta fire up the old mixer.  I think it is older than I am.  It is a good thing George keeps anything and everything.... and keeps it working :)

Add a little concrete and water, mix and dump.

Devise a high tech concrete delivery system.... 

Lots of advice on how to properly spread it around.

Looking for a nice, straight.... or kind of straight... board.

Yep, it works  :)

Floating it out with a little advice from the peanut gallery....

I'll help Papa!

You are never too young to figure out how to finish concrete around here.

.....or a little instruction from Dad...

It is all ready to be cured and painted.... The process will take a couple of weeks.

The baby obligingly slept through the process.

Then, time to move on to the next project..... the never ending fence fixing.

 

A semi-finished kids pool.  Somehow water got in there.  I have no idea how that happened.  Dad planned to put the final coat on with the sand mixed in so it is not slick.... all possible kids are frantically scooping water out.

Cindy

Today we were farmers

....and loved every minute of it.  The kids started at the raspberry patch...

Then we planted seeds - corn, sunflower, winter squash and my favorite squash which got forgotten in the regular rows, so I tucked them into a space in the cucumbers that did not germinate well.

Watering, weeding and mulching are ongoing.

Checking out the new Mama Hen and her chicks...

The "chicken salad" garden is working out well.

A long day of gardening and swimming leaves you pooped!

And a picture of the new baby from yesterday.... just for a treat!

Cindy

From Spring to Summer

Our seasons shift again as the garden is in, the pool is up and running and we move into maintenance on the farm.  Still a lot of work, but not as much.  That means I move into my other love.... swim lessons and my sister moves into her other love.... setting up classes for her school.  I am pretty sure the BT kids can look forward to their history classes this year.  She has been watching Glen Beck's Founder's Fridays and is reading like crazy and fully involved in teaching original document history in context to every kid she can get her hands on.  I am pretty sure our kids are getting a dose over the summer.

Sign up early this year.  I understand they are limiting enrollment.  :)  :)  :)

Thank you to my daughter and daughter in law who helped me shift back into "Teacher Cindy" mode.  I dipped my toe into swim lessons yesterday with just a couple of 2-3 year old sweethearts and a few older kids that know me well.  This session is not really for the kids, it is for me.  Every year it is important to reassess what and how to teach swimming - can the lessons be more effective - think outside the box - is there a different technique, make it more interesting, move them along better, introduce some new concept?  The next 2 weeks will help me develop that.  I probably should have been thinking about this for the past 6 weeks, but it just didn't work out that way this year.  I was busy developing a new appreciation for farmers and how hard they work.

Over at The Bee Hive, Mama Mock has documented the past few years of swim lessons.  I re-read them and smiled.  To be honest, I headed to her blog to lift a picture, but instead, was reminded all over again why I teach (well, OK, I did lift the picture from her blog :)  Baby Bee was with me yesterday and we just did a LITTLE work.   I start out every year full of compassion, then watch the news, hear of a bunch of unnecessary drownings and get a lot tougher.  :)  Anyway, enjoy the stories.

I Heart Sonora

Swimming Success

Round two minus one

I have always thought that doing a two week session, teaching M-W-F would be the best way to run lessons.  It almost never works out that way and I have never given it a fair shake.  I am taking notes on this mini-session to see if it works out better.  Usually the logistics of that don't work out for many parents, but I want to start out and see how effective it is.  It might be counterproductive - you never know until you try.

Thank you to the parents for hauling your kids there and letting me practice with them.

Why do I teach swim lessons?  When my daughter was two, her best friend fell into the pool reaching for a toy.  No one knew she was out there - she had opened the door at her Grammie's house on a Sunday afternoon and slipped out.  Our good friend, her father, was napping on the couch, woke up suddenly, saw the door cracked open and knew she was out there.   He yelled, ran out there and she was floating and blue.  He amazingly remembered enough CPR from high school to revive her.  A helicopter landed on the street and hauled her to ICU for a couple of days.  She recovered, but it made a vivid impression on me as a very young Mom.

Since then, it was always a priority in our life to get our kids swim lessons (and for me to keep updated on CPR).  If we couldn't afford lessons, I traded whatever I could.  Eventually I ended up trading swim lessons for lesson instruction.  My friend taught me how to teach swimming.  I used to go up where she runs swim lessons and work for two weeks.  She would teach my kids and train me - we would talk over how to do it this year..... and I taught little guys under her supervision.

I am always willing to share my progression list, ideas and techniques if you are interested in helping your own kids become "water proofed"  - Can a 2 year old actually swim?  I am expecting my grandson to be able to get from one short side of the pool to the other by the end of the season.  Baby Bee should be right there with him.  However, both have the advantage of being around pools and lakes all the time and parents that know how to teach them.  He did great yesterday and probably wondered why Grammie was being so easy on him.  (It was cold!)

The "Treasure Box" is making a reappearance this year - loaded up with Raw Revolution Bars, agave sweetened suckers, molasses sweetened candy - organic and non-GMO.  I just can't do the candy bars this year after studying health issues all winter.

I'm looking forward to seeing so many of you at the pool. 

Best of Health to you
Cindy