#650 - a picture of Jesus

We visited my family last month and the room we stayed in had this picture of Jesus.  A picture of Jesus is important, but it brings on a whole new meaning when you have kids.

Every morning I woke up to my baby boy Parker snuggling with me (because he ended up crawling into my twin size bed (Pepe and Oster were in the other twin bed)) and saying, "there's Jesus" or "I see Jesus".  The first couple mornings I was taken off guard, but then I started looking forward to it.

 I hope he never forgets to see Jesus every morning of his life.

#649 - Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Have you read this book?  You should.  It's hard to read in places, but it leaves you with a sense of hope that we can change the world.  They've turned it into a tv show on PBS and I can't wait to watch it tonight.  I think it is airing tomorrow too...check your local listings.

Here's a preview:

You can read more about it here:  http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

#648 - Invisible Painting (with 2 simple ingredients)

2 posts in 2 days...what!!!

I've been doing preschool with the boys at home.  Sometimes it is formal, but most the time I'm just always looking for learning experiences and stuff to keep them busy (to keep us all sane.)

I checked out a bunch of preschool books (mostly art ones) from the library and Oster chose this invisible painting  (it's called "mystery paint" in the book) project from the book Preschool Art by Mary Ann Kohl.  Although the pictures aren't super flashy, I think it is my favorite art book of the bunch (I'll let you know if that changes.

So super duper easy!

 You just need equal parts baking soda and water for the invisible paint.  Then water colors to reveal the art.

Invisible Paintings
Mix 4 tablespoons baking soda and 4 tablespoons water.
Use a paint brush or cotton swab to paint onto white paper.
Let artwork dry (next time I'll try to have some dry ones on hand.)
When dry, paint with water colors to revel the picture.

This was super cool when it worked, but a few of our pictures didn't turn out.  So, I think the key is to have a good amount (but not too much) of baking soda when you do your first painting.  Then when you do the water colors make sure the water colors aren't too watery or too heavy with paint (see the black paint on the face below  (to the right) sort of obscured the painting, but the lighter black paint on the left turned out great.).

Let me know if you try this...we've already done it twice and we'll probably do it again.

#647 - Sarah's Key

I watched Sarah's Key awhile ago, but it was great.  Makes you think.  It's on-demand on Netflix, so check it out if you get a chance.

#646 - mini ice cream cones

 These are super tiny, but the perfect size for an ice cream cone for my kids.  In fact, I don't mind i they have a second.

 I had a hard time trying to find these a few years ago, when I first saw these mini cones at a restaurant, but luckily, our local grocery store now carries these mini ice cream cones.

I didn't think my other pictures showed a good size comparison, so I decided to take a pic next to a blueberry and grapefruit.  Aren't they tiny?

#645 - Homemade Spiderman Cake

 My boys are all about Spiderman lately, or more like for the past 6 months.  For example, when I put Parker down to bed he requests the Spiderman theme song, Iron Man (the Black Sabbath song), or the A-Team theme song, not Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

Then Oster requested a Spiderman birthday cake.  I googled, youtubed, pinterest"ed" ideas, but all of them involved lots of red food dye.  I'm not opposed to red food dye, but I also didn't want to spend hours mixing to get the red color and really, who wants to ingest all those chemicals.

 So, I decided to go a little more natural with strawberries.  It actually turned out pretty good.  In fact, I think it looked even better.  I made this graham cracker cake I saw on pinterest (not my favorite to be honest, but everyone else liked it.)  Then topped it with melted chocolate spiderwebs.

 

I made half of it with chocolate graham crackers (that was better than regular graham crackers).

As I was cutting the strawberries I noticed they looked like Spiderman masks/faces.  Oster loved it!

In fact he loved it so much, he wanted the whole mouth of the Spiderman mask.  And I just saw the new Spiderman movie...sort of loved it!  My favorite so far.

 

#644 - homegrown berries

 Blueberries from our bushes - we got so many more this year because Pepe tossed some pine needles on top of the bushes and around the soil of the bushes a few months ago (maybe last fall?)  Have you heard of this before?

Parker eating a strawberry from our garden.  We did a taste test with Costco strawberries, and while the Costco strawberries are ginormous, home grown strawberries are so much better!

 And I thought I'd share our carrots we dug up (we planted them last year).  I wasn't brave enough to eat them though.  I cut up some carrots from the store and feed them to the boys.

Our basil plant...yum!

#643 - Vintage Wool Kids' Coat and matching Hat

I saw this at a thrift store and almost didn't buy it, but with a price tag of $4 I thought..."why not?"

Well, I love it! (notice that's a theme of my blog).  Everyone that sees my little guy in this, loves it too.  The coat even has a snap on the inside to store the hat so it doesn't get lost. 

#642 - Avocado Bean Salsa - for a nutrarian

Ok, after my unhealthy post, I want to share one of my favorite foods. 

 It is a bean/avocado salsa, that I eat as a main meal. 

Inspired by my friend Shelia's yummy Avocado Salsa.

One day I didn't have all the ingredients for her yummy salsa, so I made up my own version.

Basically, it's cowboy caviar.  But I think it fits in perfect to the nutrarian lifestyle (I'm trying to adopt - more on this later).

Avocado/Bean Salsa

1 can unsalted beans (or better yet, make your own)

1 can or 1/2 bag frozen sweet (organic) corn

1 avocado diced

1 tomato diced

1/2 can olives chopped up

3 green onions chopped up (or 1/4 sweet onion chopped up)

juice of 1 lime

cilantro

Mix all together.  I can just eat this by the spoonful, no chips.  And you can add more or less of what you like, but I do think that the lime is a key ingredient and also the green onions.

Enjoy!

ps, my picture above doesn't have all the ingredients I like to use, but you get the idea.

#641 - Chocolate Therapy - part 2

Remember when I posted about the best ice cream ever!!!  Chocolate Therapy by Ben & Jerrys...well, almost 2 years later, you can now buy this at the grocery store.  

    Chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies & swirls of chocolate pudding ice cream...you'd think this would be too much chocolate, but it's not, it's the perfect combination. 

 Have any of you tried this?

This is so dangerous because I'm trying to eat healthy, but maybe I'll take a little break and start up again on March 1st :)

*picture is from Ben & Jerry's website