Kids

A Little of This a Little of That

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This week we have spent a great deal of our time in the kitchen, hence my cooking-themed posts this week.  This led me to think about how much I adore this space, my kitchen.  It is a place where we as a family gather to make, share and consume the bounty that God has blessed us with. A place where we talk about our day, our struggles and our dreams.   A place of learning letters, numbers, words and shapes.  A place of play.  I love this space, my kitchen.

This is the activity my girls most love to do while I am preparing our evening meal.  Playing with play dough allows them to be in the kitchen with Mama while also giving them the freedom they so desperately need.

This particular play dough recipe is one of my favorites because it smells oh so yummy.  You can find the recipe below.  Hopefully your little ones will enjoy it as much as mine.

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup water

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon orange colorant (this could be left out if you so desire)

Combine flour, salt, cream of tartar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large saucepan.  Mix together the water, oil and colorant in a small bowl.  Gradually stir the liquid mixture into the flour mixture.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until a ball forms.  Remove from heat and knead until smooth. Cool.  Store in an air tight container.

Yoga Practice

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It had been almost five years since I had a consistent yoga practice routine in my day.  I’m not sure how or why I fell away from it because it truly adds something to my day that no other form of exercise or meditation has ever been able to do.

For the past few months now, I have reintroduced yoga practice to my days and it has made all the difference.  I find that it enlivens each of my days and allows me to be so much more receptive and invigorated!

My girls have also taken to yoga practice.  Their favorite yoga practice is to pull out their ABCs of Yoga for Kids book by Teresa Power, position themselves on my yoga mate, and complete each pose in the book and hold it for about 20 seconds.  They are really getting great too!

I hope all of you have a restful and fun weekend!  Namaste.

“I want to make my own thing!”

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These are the words that ring throughout our home at least three times a week.  My girls just love to cook and/or bake “their own thing” and yesterday was quite the large step for my oldest daughter.

In the past, she had been content to mix random ingredients together, put it in our counter top convection oven (with Mommy’s help of course), and eat her creations.  Now with that said, she has done quite a bit of experimenting with various flavors and has come up with some delicious combinations, but the creations were random none the less.  But yesterday she said to me, “Mommy, I want to make my own thing, and I want it to be an actual recipe.”

So I decided, why not throw caution to the wind and let her completely take over the kitchen.  With a little bit of my help reading the measurements, she made cut out sugar cookies completely on her own!

Now the crowning moment of this adventure was when it came to the topping for these cookies.  My little five-year old gazed up at me and said, “Mommy I think I am going to sprinkle a little sugar, cinnamon and rosemary  from our garden on top of the cookies.  That way we don’t have to use food coloring or sprinkles with the yucky chemicals.”  (Oh she had just made her mama’s day with that one!) And an fyi…the cinnamon and rosemary combination is one of those flavor combos she came up with during her previous food experiments.  And let me tell you, it is really delicious!

Once she was done with her sprinkles, she sat back, looked approving at her creations and said, “Perfect.  It’s just like Jamie Oliver’s pumpkin muffins when he sprinkles lavender flowers on top for sprinkles!”  (My how this little one impressed me yesterday!)