Happy February and a Giveaway!

HAPPY FEBRUARY!
I am so excited that it's February, and we're that much closer to Spring and warm weather.
To celebrate I'm having my first give-away! 1 pair of felt cupid wings, just in time for Valentines day!
Each person to enter will have their name written on a piece of paper and thrown in a bowl. The drawing will be next Saturday, February 8th.
 I have a couple ways to enter:

1.Share Spruced Corner's facebook page on your wall.
2. Have a friend 'like' our page and comment on our wall about who sent them. (Both you and your friend will we entered this way.)
3. Follow us on Etsy at :https://www.etsy.com/shop/SprucedCorner?ref=shop_sugg
4. Follow one of our blogs: (or both for two entries) http://sprucedcorner.blogspot.com/ or
http://apolloswilliamshouse.blogspot.com/ If you already follow both blogs, comment on a post and let us know you want to be entered!

That's right, there is the potential to get entered 5 times to win a set of wings for your little one!

The wings you'll win!

Color sorting, Cursive letters, and Japanese

The other day Braeden had a bit of cabin fever, and Kelan had a cold.  I didn't like the idea of dragging Kelan out into the below zero wind chills so that Braeden could burn off energy.  Instead I thought up something to occupy his mind for a little while after nap.  I combined color sorting, cursive letter recognition, and Japanese.  I wrote both the color names in romaji, so that anyone can pronounce it, and katakana so he can see the symbols.  I feel equally rusty in writing both cursive and katakana. 

 

I started off with a pile of pompoms, an empty egg carton, colored pencils, scissors, glue, and construction paper.  I had 8 colors of pompoms, so I cut off two rows of the egg carton.   

 

To close up the egg carton, I cut off the top with an approximate extra inch and a half. 

Cut two slits into the top, folded them in and taped it.  

 

 Cut the center out of each of the bottom sections next.  This egg carton was set up perfectly to accommodate this.    

 

Each section was then covered with a color of construction paper that coordinated with the pom poms. I glued the papers on, then reopened the holes.  Doing it this way ensured that I wouldn't make the holes too big.  

 

To make boxes I cut rectangles from the construction paper, slit the corners about 1 inch in, 

 

glued each corner, 

 

and patiently held them until they were dry.  

 

On more construction paper I wrote the color in English cursive, romaji which is the romanized version of the Japanese language, and then in katakana at the bottom.  I glued each of these sheets onto the bottom of my boxes and filled them with their coordinating pom poms.  

I managed to get it set up just before he woke up. 

Here he is after he matched all the colors, sorting them back into their boxes to start over. 

Gardening in January, or I feel overwhelmed.

It was going great.  I had my Baker Creek catalog, http://www.rareseeds.com/, and had picked out this year's garden seeds.  Then I drug out the seeds left over from last year and the feeling of overwhelm struck.  Braeden had explored my seeds, without my knowledge.  Now I have quite a bit of mystery seeds to sort through, an order to adjust, and garden plots to write out.  However, spring is coming, so all is well.  

A substitute for oatmeal

This time of the year I crave warm carb laden comfort food all day long.  I attempted to make a paleo friendly substitute for baked oatmeal the other day.  The photos aren't that great, but it was late and I was in a hurry to get it in the oven before Kelan woke up.  I also didn't measure anything but one ingredient.  It's all 'to taste', or 'looks about right'.

 

I started with shredded low fat coconut flakes.  It's what I had in the pantry.  Ideally I would have had full fat coconut flakes.  You know, the big kind?

 

I added one can of full fat (bpa free) coconut milk.  And a lot more coconut.  I then added a little water until I got the consistency I liked.  

 I transferred it to a baking dish, and added ginger and allspice.  Tasted it, and it wasn't quite what I wanted.  So, I added 8 oz of no sugar added applesauce and cinnamon.  Then I stuck it in my convection oven, set to slow cook, and went to bed.

 It was pretty darn tasty! All the males in the house liked it.  It would even work as a crust for a pie.  Best of all, I didn't need to use a ton of eggs like I have to with coconut flour. 

2014

Here I sit with a brand new notebook, the first pages filled with lists and goals for the new year.  And here I sit for the second day doing nothing.  Yesterday was the beginning of my new detox.  It didn't sound too crazy on the 31st but it's proving to be very hard.  No sugar, no dairy, limited caffeine whole food, strict paleo for 30 days.  I'm not doing this to loose weight, but feel better.  My sugar cravings are out of control, and I'm curious to see if going dairy-free will help my eczema.  I went into it with the realization that I'm nursing a baby, and a toddler.  I may have to adjust to meet increased dietary needs for their sake.   Yesterday I was sluggish and wanted my cream and sugar in my coffee.  By the end of the day I had a migraine and felt nauseous.   Today I woke up shaking and with an upset stomach.  That candida bacteria fights back! I'll be honest, I did consume a little sugar with breakfast.  It just so happens it's really hard to find breakfast meats that don't have some form of sugar in them.  It's 4:30, and I finally felt up to making 'bullet proof coffee'.  It would be way better with sugar, but I'm sticking with it for the rest of the day at least. 

 Here's to hopefully taking the time to blog more. 

Wordless Wednesday: lists

fostering learning independence

While I still haven't made any decisions on introducing a second language to Braeden, we have started working on the phonetical sounds of letters.  Braeden knows all of his letters thanks to Dr. Seuss, and I have grown really bored with hearing what letter is what all day long.  Does it make me a bad parent, to say I got bored with my child? I'm digressing.  Anyway, I was bored so I started telling him the sounds of the letters.   He'd bring me a fridge magnet letter, tell me which one it was and if it was big or little.  I would then tell him the sound, which he would repeat.  Then he'd run off to get a new letter.  This left a pile of letters in my lap, and a pile of knowledge in his brain!
He also is very into coloring, and telling me what letter he has scribbled.  Some times they look just like a letter, and sometimes it takes a little imagination to see what he's seeing.  I started thinking about getting him some sort of letter tracing 'thing' so he could self-learn letter writing.  I'm very into kids doing things themselves.  Feeding, dressing, bathroom. You name it, I'm all for them doing it themselves. 
On an unrelated shopping trip I was waiting for a friend in the Target entrance, and wandered over to $1 bins.  I totally scored! I got several different letter tracing items, and phonics cards! He hasn't retained any of the sounds yet, or done more than scribble over the tracing letters but it will come.  I pull those out occasionally when he's having trouble self-occupying while I cook or clean.