Friday, March 13, 2009

Metamorphosis of a Pipe Cleaner and Other Tidbits


Virginia has been on the verge of reading for quite some time now. She knows the letters and sounds, but just hasn't gotten the trick of putting them together. And she hasn't been too interested, so I haven't pushed. This week, however, I started a little game as an incentive. Each day I write an easy word in huge letters of something found in the house on the white board. She has to read it, then bring me the object. So far, she has been doing well with just a little help. Oh, I forgot to mention. There is a prize once she reads it. Yesterday, the "prize" was me getting down the forgotten box of pipe cleaners. As you can see, we had fun making butterflies. There are four easy steps, shown at the bottom of the picture.

A few days ago, Jamie asked how we got our kids to eat healthy food. Sometimes, all I have to say in response to an "I'm hungry, Mama!" is "Go eat a carrot like Bugs Bunny." and off they hop to the refrigerator to grab one. Of course, we get our share of half eaten carrots around here. Not to mention half eaten apples. And so today (does this count for frugal Friday?) I made scrap cake. It is really applesauce spice cake, because I had an old jar of forgotten applesauce that had frozen in the back of the refrigerator. The scraps are from the half eaten carrots and apples, which I grated into the batter after cutting off the nibbled bits for the chickens. I milled soft white wheat berries for the flour, so it's all whole grain, and I used half the sugar it called for. Reuben helped me shell some pecans (he really does help, even if he eats half the bits he pulls from the shell) and a few added raisins made it just perfect. Sweet, moist and delicious!

1 comment:

Jamie said...

My mouth is watering... Yummy looking cake!