What Can You Do With Stale Froot Loops?

So the kids and I tried an art activity we saw in one of our High Five magazines. (I really like these magazines. Definitely worth checking them out if you're at all interested.) First we sorted froot loops by color. I had a child on each side of me and I sent the orange, green and blue ones in Michael's direction and he sorted those while Ava sorted the purple, yellow, and red I sent her way. When we were done the table looked like this:

I then dumped each color of froot loop into its own baggie. The idea was to let the children crush the froot loops to dust inside the baggies. I learned that it is very difficult to crush froot loops into dust - possibly because ours were very stale. Also, I recommend freezer bags rather than the regular type. Ours began leaking dust before we were done. First we tried just crushing by hand without much success. Then I let them bang on them with the baby food jars. That worked to some extent. Then we tried a play dough rolling pin also without much success. Finally I got out a mortar and pestle and finished it up. So, after much effort and letting the kids play a little after they got bored, we finally ended up with this very pretty result:

After gathering everyone back at the table I let the children spoon the "colored cheerio dust", as they called it, into baby food jars to create a decorative end product. They liked the activity and the jars are actually quite pretty. I just need to figure out some way to top them off. I'm thinking a square of scrap cloth held on with a rubber band but I haven't gotten that far yet.

We all had fun with the process which is more important than the product anyway. I'm trying to decide what to do with the leftover supply. I am thinking I'll put some glue on paper and let them sprinkle the dust on. We'll let that dry and see how it comes out.

A Jealousy I Want to Let Go

This morning was beautiful. The weather was springlike. It was sunny, but cool with gentle breezes. We took the children to the zoo and had a wonderful time. Mid-morning we stopped at a set of benches for a snack. The children climbed on some rocks and we rested a while. As we were sitting there, a mother stopped to sit with her 7 month old baby in a stroller. They were adorable. They exchanged smiles and giggles. The baby babbled and blew raspberries. I just sat there insanely jealous of the experience I never had. I need to let it go. Yes, I didn't get to do the infant bonding, smile exchanging, babbling baby thing. Yes, that sucks. However, life isn't perfect, and I have two wonderful children. I shouldn't let seeing other wonderful babies and happy mothers cast a shadow on my day.

We have a children's book: Zen Shorts by John J Muth. It is a story about three children who meet their new neighbor who is a panda. Each child visits the panda individually and is told a short story based on a zen principle. One of the stories is about two monks. One monk is old and wise while the other is young and still learning. After observing a rather spoiled woman ungratefully waiting for help from her two servants, the older monk carries her on his back across some water in her path and she goes her way without thanking him. The two monks continue on their way. The older is content while the younger spends the next several hours fuming until finally he asks the older monk why he isn't angry. The older monk tells the younger monk that he left his burden behind hours ago (the lady) and asks the younger monk why he is still carrying his burden (his anger).

I think of this short story every time I have this experience of being jealous of a happy mother with her smiling, babbling infant. I want to be the older monk, not the younger. I visualize letting go of a dark balloon filled with cloudy smoke and watching it gently drift away into a sunny sky until it disappears from my sight. I try to imagine the jealousy floating away and myself feeling lightness and a sense of relief and just letting that negative emotion go.

I'm not having much success so far.

Miscellany

Thank you to all of you who come by regularly to check in or who are subscribed to this blog through your email or a feed reader. I enjoy knowing that there are people out there who enjoy reading about our family and and find the informational articles and card sets useful.

_____________________


Michael has had (relatively mild) eczema since he was a baby. It's better now, but occasionally in the winter he still gets flare ups. I've been noticing an area on his chest that's been rough the past couple of weeks, but suddenly it has spread all over his chest and over to his arms, he is actively complaining about being itchy, and we're having trouble keeping him from scratching. I am beginning to wonder what chicken pox looks like if it is caught by a child who has had the vaccine. Anyone have any thoughts? If he really does have chicken pox I probably shouldn't send him to school on Tuesday. Boy it would be a shame for him to miss his first day.

_____________________


I fine tuned my idea about slipping worksheets under glass to use as repeatable dry erase activities. Now I'm slipping them into sheet protectors which I've taped to the top of the glass. Taping them down prevents them from sliding around when the children draw on them and erase them. Having the worksheets on top of the glass in sheet protectors lets me switch them out much more easily.

_____________________

Our new kittens continue to be wonderful. They are actually pretty good about taking their medicine and it seems to be helping. They are each getting four syringes of oral liquid medications a day. One of the medications tastes so bad they foam at the mouth. And yet they still come when I call. I am amazed and grateful.

_____________________

We live in a house where our back yard is connected to five other back yards. Every other house has dogs. We frequently hear lots of barking at rather annoying hours which bothers my husband more than it bothers me. The children often don't seem to notice either. However, this weekend my parents are out of town celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and we're dog sitting their two chihuahuas. This evening when we were in the backyard (my husband working on the deck, the children in the sand table, and the dogs playing relatively appropriately and quietly) one of our neighbors let out their dogs. Much chaos and barking ensued. I managed to chase our two guests to the other side of the yard and keep them there quietly, but the neighbor's dogs continued to bark very loudly for at least the next 20 minutes. Finally, my husband walked over and politely asked them to bring their dogs inside because their barking was scaring the children (which it was). Ahh, neighbor relations are always so much fun.