DIY Dehydrated Apples

Ingredients:  

• Apples
• Dehydrator

•  Lemon Juice
• Ziploc Bag 

•  Apple corer/slicer
• Knife

Steps:
1.  Core Apples with Apple Corer.  I didn't peel mine because I read on another blog it gives it more flavor and after this experiment I agree. I don't actually usually like dehydrated apples but I like these with the peel still on.  And I'm all for less work.
2.  Slice Apples.  My apple corer creates 6 big slices of apple so I sliced each big slice into 3 little slices.
3.  Put apples in ziploc bag, squirt some lemon juice in and shake.  You could also lay them out and spray them with lemon juice from a spray bottle, but I couldn't find mine.  And the ziploc bag worked just great.  I used probably about 1/4 cup or less.  It didn't take that much.
4.  Layer apples on dehydrator trays and set it to go!  This is the dehydrator I have and so far it has been great.

Steps 1-4 seriously took me about 20 minutes.  It was super easy and quick.  I sliced 4 apples up and it made 1 quart size baggie of dried apples.

The Redeeming Qualities of Bribery; In other words, how to clean with a 3 year old.

Today I cleaned for 3.5 hours straight.  I am pleased to say I have a spotless kitchen, laundry room, living room, dining room, guest bathroom, as well as mostly clean children rooms.  Not bad right?  Especially since my only helper is 3 and a half.  Now make sure you are sitting for this next part.  My three and a half year old helped me for THE WHOLE TIME.  True story.  Here's how it is done.

1.  Bribe child with small treat.  I used mini marshmallows.  Other possibilities could be skittles, mini chocolate chips, peanuts, raspberries (if only I had some of those!), etc.  He would get one marshmallow everytime he did a small job like take shoes into the correct room or throw a few pieces of trash in the garbage.  2 or 3 marshmallows would be rewarded for a bigger job like vacuuming under the table.

Disclaimer:  I don't bribe every time he does work.  Cleaning his room, cleaning up a certain mess, those are just chores.  But on a major cleaning day like today, bribery definitely has a place.  Also, treats are definitely just that - a treat in our house.  We don't have them very often.  So that makes them hold their power so much more.  Don't like the treat idea?  Try stickers!

And that's it!  

Cost:  20-30 mini marshmallows.
Benefit:  3 hours of helping. He ran all those little obnoxious errands like putting a random bobby pin in my bathroom, picking up socks or odd pairs of shoes.  My poor pregnant body resents picking up all those little things that accumulate on our floor.

Also, since he was helping me for 3 hours, this meant he was NOT bugging me for 3 hours, making a mess for 3 hours, teasing baby sister for 3 hours, getting into trouble for 3 hours...the list goes on.

Besides running errands, here are some examples of the jobs he did today:

Held the spray while I mopped.  Sprayed really stubborn spots for me.  He loved this job the most I think.  Each sticky spot got about 20 sprays, but hey, it was clean.

Vacuuming.  Especially those hard to reach places like corners and under the table.

Scrubbing crayon marks off the floor with Magic Eraser.  Even little sis got into this one!  

Happy mom, Happy Kids, Clean House, WIN WIN WIN!!!  And all it took was a handful of mini-marshmallows.  

DIY Science Experiment

I think I saw this idea in an email from Baby-Center on cool things to tell my 3 year old.  It's pretty much the simplest experiment ever. And my son LOVED it.  You put white flowers in a vase of colored water.  The flowers "drink" the water and start to turn the same color as the water.  Pretty exciting.

Materials Needed:

• White Flowers
• Clear Vase
• Water
• Food Dye

1.  Obtain Materials.  I found my flowers while I was on a run.  A mini field of white daisy's!  

2.  Combine Ingredients.  I put about 5 drops of blue food coloring in the water.

So my bouquet is a little pathetic but I did run home with them and A. didn't mind anyway.  

He wanted to sit and wait for the flowers to turn blue...but it takes a few hours.  

And the result.  So the whole flower doesn't turn blue but all the flowers have blue streaked tips.  Maybe if I would have put more food coloring in there would have been a more drastic result?  But A. still thought it was awesome.  Mission Accomplished. 

DIY Breakfast Mixes

The instant my children wake up they become food monsters.  "Need Breakfast!  Need Breakfast!"  We've been resorting to cereal a lot lately but that's been getting expensive.  And I'm not a big fan of cereal.  I love hot breakfasts but they take time.  And buying mixes just gets expensive again and they aren't that good.  So here is the perfect solution.  DIY Breakfast Mixes.

Step 1.  Pick your favorite simple recipes.

Step 2.  Label all baggies with Recipe Name, Bake temperature (if needed), and all wet ingredients. 

Step 3.  Mix 1 recipe worth of dry ingredients in a bowl, then dump mix into corresponding plastic baggie. 

Step 4.  Repeat Steps 1-3. 

Note: These baggies could definitely be reused the next time you make a big batch! 

This didn't take as much time as I thought it would initially because you start memorizing the ingredients and leaving each measuring spoon in the right container so it was just "scoop, scoop, scoop."  The only really important part is Make sure you write on your bags BEFORE you fill them.  Otherwise it gets a little tricky.  I chose 5 recipes and made 5 batches of each.  So now I have 25 nearly ready to go breakfast mixes.  Way more than I could use in a month.  I used my first mix yesterday and it was marvelous.  It's amazing how much time you save not having to get out the cookbook or the dry ingredients.  Okay so it's probably only 6-7 minutes of saved time, but 6-7 minutes can be the difference in children who are hungry but patiently waiting to children who are starving and throwing a tantrum.  Totally worth it. 

DIY Water Table

I was searching and searching for ideas for things for my little kids to do with water, and I had almost settled on going out to Home Depot, buying some plywood and building a water table like this article suggests.  However, it seemed just a little more complicated than I needed right now.  After all, my kids are only 3 and 1. And my husband is out of town.  And I wanted something I could do today.  I finally stumbled upon a blog called No Time For Flashcards which had the perfect solution.  Easy.  Simple.  Fast.  Cheap.  And I actually had all the stuff I needed to put it together.  

Materials Needed: 

-Medium - Large sized Container
-Water
-Assorted Water Toys (I used some bath toys, measuring cups, a couple of cheap watering cans I got from Wal-Mart for $1 each, and some little plastic sand toys. I wanted a cool funnel thing like the other blog had, but that can be added once I find one.)
-Kids

Step 1.  Combine All Ingredients. 

This lasted for almost 45 minutes of solid (no-fighting!) playing.  And for a 3 year old and a 1 year old, that is saying quite a bit.  Definite Win. 

If you have a little more time on your hands, here are some pretty cool DIY water-tables I discovered during my search.  I'd love to make one of these eventually!

DIY Farmhouse Sand and Water Table

DIY Water Table or Sandbox Tutorial

DIY Box Violin

My 3.5 year old is starting Suzuki Violin lessons tomorrow.  I am extremely excited.  Since he is young he will start on a "box" while he learns how to handle a violin without dropping it.  You have two main options for starting a young child.  1) Buy a "Foam-a-lin" a violin shaped piece of foam.  Kind of cool I guess but for almost $20 I will go with option two.  2)  A Box violin.  These are extremely cheap and easy to make.  I'd estimate mine cost about $1.  And took 10 minutes.  Could take less time if you weren't taking pictures between every step. 

Materials Needed: 
VHS (you know the thing that came before DVD)
Tape
Scissors
Paper (I used a brown paper bag)
Ruler (like the kind you use in elementary school)

Step 1:  Cut paper to the appropriate size.

Step 2:  "Gift-wrap" VHS.

Step 3:  Tape Ruler onto Front of VHS.  Leave about 6 inches hanging over.  (Secure this pretty well, remember it will be dropped.)

And that's it!  You can add some Foam and an elastic to simulate a shoulder pad. 

Now.  If you give a child a box violin, he will also want a bow to go with it. 

Materials needed: 
Dowel
Eraser
Tape

Step 1:  Tape Eraser onto Dowel.  Leave about 1 inch of the dowel on one side. 

 Nothing left to do but try it out. 

Update:  So my daughter loves playing on the box violin too.  Can't help but post a picture of her too.

Here's To Next Year

My workout today on paper:  "15 min run."  My workout today in real life:  Get the kids dressed.  Decided I would try letting A. ride his bike so I only had to push C. in the jogger.  He was happy about that for about 30 seconds.  "Mom!  My legs are cold!  Mom!  My legs are tired!  Mom!  Can I ride in the stroller?"  With gentle encouragement I finally convinced him to ride once around the block. 
As we are nearing home he starts falling behind and riding reeeeaaaalllly slow.  I keep running and pretty soon from really far behind me I hear "Nee Nee Nee Nee Neeee Nee (not quite sure how that is spelled) I'm going to beat you!"  I turn around and see A. still peddling slow and looking like this: 

I decided this was way too ironic of a moment to pass up.  This is definitely me.  Right now.  I'm way at the back of the pack chugging along slowly and shouting "Nee Nee Nee Nee Neeee Nee!  I'm going to beat you!"  And then when the other racers give me weird looks and pass me, I think, well, not right now I guess...but next year!   So here's to having ridiculous courage in seemingly overwhelming odds.  And to next year.