Bulk Cooking Event!

It's happening! We are in the stretch leading up to Christmas, and there was a sale at the grocery store on meat! Today, I'm making a full turkey with all the trimmings, a bunch of tamales, and I'm not sure what else. Let me collect up some recipes below so I can keep track.

• Savory Tamale Masa:  https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/basic-masa-dough-18885
• Sub broth for water
• Add baking powder
• Sweet Tamales:  http://butterlustblog.com/2014/02/11/dessert-tamales-3-ways/
• Sweet Tamale Masa: http://muybuenocookbook.com/2013/01/simple-kid-friendly-sweet-tamales/
• Sage Cracker Stuffing:  http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/cracker-stuffing-159937.aspx
• Fruitcake:  https://www.rockrecipes.com/pineapple-fruitcake/

And I'm off!!

FlipChick Designs: Popsicle Stick Puzzles Tutorial

FlipChick Designs: Popsicle Stick Puzzles Tutorial: Oh, I totally love this! What a great way to create puzzles that are easy to store as well. :-)

Outdoor Field Journal

Tyler with his Vinca flower.

Right now, the kids are playing outside at their water table. And my son, Tyler, age 3, just came over to show me his Vinca flower.

One of our Spring activities is learning the common names of flowers, trees, bushes, etc., and if anyone knows of a Diego Field Journal app for the iPad, or something similar, please let me know. That would be the coolest thing ever! 

In the meantime, with every situation, there is an opportunity. So I'll start a digital journal for him and maybe even move up to digital videos in a scrapbooking journal. The Grandmas are sure to love that!

March Planning

I like to get my lists together first for future reference, so here is the run down for March! This is a busy month for holidays, observances and other important events. The ones I’m planning to work with are:

Sun	3/10	Daylight Savings Time
Sun	3/17	St Patrick's Day
Wed	3/20	Spring Equinox / Ostara
Fri	3/29	Good Friday
Sun	3/31	Easter

March is also:

• Women’s History Month! (http://womenshistorymonth.gov/)

Now, with the above themes to work with, we need materials to work with:

• A selection of library books for the next 2-4 weeks
• March calendar up on the wall
• Coloring/crayon activities
• Painting activities
• Sculpting with Play-doh
• Recycle/upcycle art
• Cooking/baking

And a special space to work:

• Fort Fridays (of course!)
• Play table outdoors

And some larger seasonal projects to-do's:

• Repair and prepare the raised bed garden
• Run a soaker hose along our new fruit trees and berry bushes
• Build kitty condo

Hello World!

Introduction

Today is a new day! Each day begins like that. All sorts of opportunities to either waste it away or make something remarkable of it. And today, I'm beginning this blog to help keep myself on track and inspired.

I'm not a teacher of any sort, nor particularly artistically gifted. I'm an older stay-at-home mom with two sons: Tyler, who is 3 1/2 years old, and Connor who is 20 months old. They are a handful!

So this is a journey beginning now into the world of Montessori. Preschool and daycare is too expensive for us with it being a few hundred dollars per month here in California. But just as important, many Montessori items are very expensive too, so I'm improvising with the help of some wonderful Montessori guides that resonate with me.

So put on your play clothes and feel free to join in!