Playsilks and Pretending

Dill Pickles has trouble with pretending. I am always looking for ways to help promote creativity and open ended play with him. I've been wanting playsilks for almost a year now, but I just could not justify spending $10-$15 on a square of colored silk. I stumbled upon a blog a while ago (I can't remember which one) where the mom made playsilks. I thought that was a great idea and I tucked it away in my brain for someday.

A few weeks ago playsilks popped back into my head and I knew there had to be a tutorial out there somewhere. I Googled and came up with this one from Confessions of a Stash Junkie. I ordered three 35"x35" and three 15"x60" Habotai 8mm silk scarves from Dharma Trading Company. They arrived quickly and I stashed them on the every growing pile on my dresser. Yesterday when I was at Food for Less I picked up a bunch of generic Kool Aid packets on sale. This morning while Daddy Pickles entertained the boys, I tried my hand at dying two scarves- one 35"x35" and one 15"x60".

I followed mama k's tutorial to a t. I even used 5 packets for good measure. After an hour, my water still wasn't clear or a milky color and it was getting close to lunch. I had to stop and rinse them out and let them dry. Here's some pics.

I love the bright colors! I did wash them in the washing machine and the colors faded a little but not too much. The boys had so much fun with them. Actually, they were fighting over who was going to get which one. I knew I had to do more after they went to bed, so I quickly ran to Jewel after dinner. I picked up some grape, lemon-lime and lemonade Kool Aid brand because they did not have any generic brands. The large orange scarf did have a few white spots in it from being wrinkled in the jar, so I thought I would try putting the mixture right into the pot and then put the scarf in the pot. I also thought maybe using 5 packets was too much, so I only used 3 this time.

I was in for a surprise, let me tell you! First, my camera battery died and I didn't have any replacements. Then, wow. Maybe it was because I used the Kool Aid brand and not the generics, but the scarves sucked the colors up the instant I put them into the pots. The parts of the scarves that went into the pot first are a deep color and the part that went in last is a lighter shade. It looks tie-dyed. Maybe if I used all 5 packets there would have been more dye left for the rest of the scarf. Who knows. The next time I try it (and I assure you I will be making many more of these for us and as gifts for others) I will use 5 packets and a smidge more water.

Where has the time gone??

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Pickles!! We love you!!

Procrastination

Instead of cleaning my kitchen or making applesauce oatmeal muffins for Sweet Pickles to bring as a birthday treat to Moms, Pops and Tots tomorrow, I am updating my Shelfari. Procrastination reigns supreme tonight!

Books and Muffins: A lovely Combination!

We have our new library books! I am working on getting them into Shelfari, but I have to find them all first. Dill Pickles is CONVINCED that he is packing a suitcase with his swim trunks and his swim shirt, getting on a purple plane and flying to a vacation house so he can go to an indoor water park. Him parading around the house in full swim regalia is the norm these days talking about how he and Daddy Pickles are going to go in the tube. Today he decided that he was bringing all of his library books with. I think most of them are still in his suitcase. I guess I'd better tell him that if his luggage is over 50 pounds, Southwest Airlines will charge him.

I'm not a morning person. I never really was and now that I go to be later and frequently get up at night with little boys who can't sleep or to roll over a snoring husband, I am really not a morning person. In an effort to make the morning routine a little easier I have been making batches of waffles and pancakes and freezing them. I've also decided to try making some muffins. I made 12 of these muffins last night and as of now there aren't any left. While I was waiting for dinner to cook I whipped up another batch, this time I added the flax seed and some cranberries. I'm allergic to flax seed so I omitted them the first time so I could see what the muffins tasted like. The cranberries were also waaaaaaaaaay in the back of the cabinet and last night at 10pm I was too lazy to get a chair and get them out. I unfortunately can't find the blog I got the recipe from, but it wasn't hers anyways. She gives credit to Tosca Reno.

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins
1 cup Dry old-fashioned oatmeal flakes
1 cup Unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup Skim milk, soy milk, rice or almond milk (your choice)
2 Egg whites, beaten
2 tbsp Ground flax seed
2 tbsp + 1 tsp canola oil
1 tbsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg
3/4 cup Whole wheat flour
1/4 cup Dried cranberries
1/4 cup Dried cherries
1/4 Raisins

Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare muffin tin by lining with paper or silicon liners, or cooking spray. Combine oatmeal, applesauce, milk, eggs, flax and oil in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, combine dry ingredients, including dried fruit. Make a well in the center of the dried ingredients and pour wet ingredients into it. Stir until all ingredients are just combined. Using small ladle, fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 15 - 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

And last but surely not least, we found out today that Dill Pickle's pre-school class has been saved for the 2010-2011 school year!!!!! But I am told next year at this time it will be up on the chopping block again. They just mysteriously "found" a large sum of money, but that money won't be there next year. Oh well. One year at a time I guess.

Goodbye Gardening!

Our library books are finally due tomorrow. We have reached the renewal limit; it's time for a new theme. Dill Pickles usually picks the next theme, but he couldn't come up with one for the next round. Our current theme has been gardening based upon Dill's latest obsession with growing plants. He has been learning about plants and gardening in school. His class planted a Peace Garden today and Sweet Pickles and I were on hand to help. Auntie Sheesh helped as well. I haven't gotten a chance to look at the pics she took on my camera. Maybe if there aren't too many other classmates in the pictures I will post some. I think I will take this lack of a theme opportunity to check out some math themed books. Dill has been bringing math themed books home from the classroom library. I found a bunch in the Lakeshore Learning catalog last night. Now I'm off to see if they are at my local library. If not, I guess we'll try request them. :)

Still waiting.....

.... sort of. Insurance finally came through and said oh yeah, we're supposed to cover that. So now we wait for our therapy clinic to bill us for all of the co-pays we owe for the past four months.

Still waiting on the decision to be made if Dill Pickle's classroom will be slashed with the budget. At parent teacher conferences tonight Dill's teacher said she still knew nothing, but she has a city-wide pre-school meeting on Friday. She said as soon as she finds out anything, she will let us know. Daddy Pickles and I signed quite a few petitions and will be writing out own letters to our wonderful politicians. Maybe we should have Dill make an appointment with these folks and deliver them in person.

Wait wait wait. That's all I seem to be doing lately. Waiting to hear from our insurance company if they are going to cover Dill Pickles occupational therapy. Monday they were supposed to announce which pre-school programs would be closing and which would be staying open. Nope, they changed their minds. Now they are waiting until Friday. Nice. They had better not push it back again because I don't know how much more waiting I can take.

I don't have to wait any longer for a letter from the school to explain what is going on with Dill Pickle's classroom next year. It was on the news last night and in the newspapers today. Next year our great and wonderful city will only be offering the Pre-School for All program in schools that have 93% poverty or more. This means Dill Pickle's current classroom will not be open next year. He will either be in a special education classroom or bussed to a school with 93% or more poverty so that he can be in a pre-school class with typical developing peers. We are beyond upset and angry. He has come so far in the 3 months he's been at his current school. What the (*#@(*&$(* are we going to do?

17,000 teachers were pink slipped in our state yesterday. Now schools must struggle to find classrooms for some 425,000 or more students who lost a teacher. I know at least one of Dill Pickle's teacher got a slip. I've even heard that next year his classroom won't exist due to budget cuts. He's in a state Pre-School for All classroom. His school district and many, many others have not received their money from the state to help with education. I am hopeful that he will still have some classroom to go to in the fall, afterall he has an IEP that mandates he is in a classroom. But our school district is the largest in the state and they try to get away with "bending" the rules. Dill Pickles and I will not be bent or broken. He will not fall between the cracks. I will not let him.

Can someone please explain to me how some of these moms who have 8 kids and homeschool them all find the time to post daily? I have 2 kids and aparently I can't even post once a month. *sigh* At least I updated our bookshelf to show what books we are enjoying this month. Later this week we plan on attending a HUGE flower and garden show. Dill Pickles is obsessed with flowers and plants lately. We hope to put this obsession to good use by starting our garden from seed this year. We'll see how that goes. :)