Budget Helper - Springtime!

Spring finally made it to our part of the world!  After a sunny few days of above freezing temperatures, Mother Nature decided to end the teasing and bring back winter.  We've had a few weeks of below seasonal temperatures, and precipitation ranging from sleet to freezing rain to snow.  Everyone I know is totally over winter - even Mini Muffin was less enthusiastic to play in the snow.  Finally, this weekend the tides have turned and we're able to enjoy a sunny and unseasonably warm couple of days!  Yahoo!  I was marvelling on my run this morning that only a week ago I was having trouble navigating the ice and snow, and now the roads and bare and dry.  Fantastic!

Today also marks the seasonal return of one of my favourite budget savers - line drying!  The inaugural load is just sheets, so the photo isn't super exciting... unless you consider that those are winter sheets that are about to be packed away.  In that case, it makes it slightly more exciting I think!

A true sign of spring - sheets flapping in the breeze!

Now, let me tell you about my clothesline.  I've had it for three years now, and I love it.  It gets heavy use from late April through October, and is holding up very well.  With two young children, the laundry pile seems endless, so there are real savings there.  And, it saves heating up my house during hot weather by running the dryer. 

As you can see, it's a bit different than what most people think of when they think about clotheslines.  When I was researching them, I knew that I wanted one, but didn't want a permanent installation.  So, no strung across the yard jobbies, nor the umbrella style that my grandma used to have.  Collapsible racks to use on the deck just didn't have enough space.  And then I found this one - it's umbrella style, but also collapsible.  So, when I'm not using it, it's stored unobtrusively on the side of my deck.  And, when I am using it, it's a full sized umbrella clothesline.  Talk about perfect.  I'm glad I did some research as I certainly didn't know that this style existed, yet there it was as our local Canadian Tire! 

Here's to spring, and the return of clothes flapping in the breeze under sunny skies!   

Kid's Books We Love - The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes

Today was an exciting mail day - a book order I placed a few weeks ago arrived.  I'm pretty excited, so even though it's seasonally late, I had to share!

Growing up, our go to Easter book was The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward.  It was originally published in 1939, and our copy was probably from the 1950's; worn and full of character.  Sadly, it disappeared when my sister and I became adults, and we didn't think much more of it.  That is until this Easter.  I remembered it as I was reading a bunny board book to Mini Muffin, and decided to see if it was still available.  It turns out that it was recently reprinted for its 75th anniversary!  I was able to order a copy for my family, as well as one for my sister.  And, while late for this Easter, it'll be ready to go next year.

Available for purchase from Chapters (and other great retailers)

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is a great, warm and fuzzy Easter children's book.  It tells the story of a country bunny who dreams of being an Easter Bunny, but feels her chances are lost when she has a family.  She puts her whole heart and soul into raising her family, and lets her dream go.  When the time comes to find a new Easter Bunny, the hunt is on and all the well-to-do and speedy bunnies gather to strut their stuff.  However, it takes more than being clever and swift to be an Easter Bunny!  Grandfather Bunny, who is responsible for Easter Bunny selection, values those characteristics but also believes that an Easter Bunny must be kind, wise and hard working.  You can imagine what happens next! 

The edition I purchased (pictured above), is beautifully illustrated with the same illustrations as the version from my childhood.  It's an older style of illustration than many books today feature, and is vivid and warm, adding to the story's magic.  It's definitely on the longer side, so is appropriate for preschoolers, or young school aged children. 

Now that this is written, The Country Bunny is being tucked away for next year - I'm already excited to share it with my family!

Simply Delicious - Healthy Shamrock Mock-Shake

It's been quite the week!  Little Smiling Man turned one over the weekend!!!  I'm still not even sure how that's possible, time is going so quickly.  We had a nice time celebrating as a family, and tomorrow are having some extended family for a visit to celebrate.  He's taking some early, tentative steps, is babbling up a storm and is into everything.  He really is awesome.

At the same time, my maternity leave is rapidly drawing to a close, so our days at the moment are chocked full of appointments.  Mini Muffin had a very successful dental check up, Little Smiling Man will be going to his 12 month well baby check up, and I'm also due for the dentist and a trip to the bank to talk mortgages.  Busy times!

Spring is also upon us, which is drawing me back to summery things... like smoothies.  Mini Muffin hasn't been doing very well with her veggies lately, so I've been trying to get more innovative.  And so, today I'm sharing our long standing favourite Shamrock Mock-Shake.  Kinda timely with St Patrick's Day around the corner as well!  Super easy, and definitely toddler and preschooler approved.  Due to the presence of honey, this recipe is not appropriate for babies under one year.

Healthy Shamrock Mock-Shake

Perfect Afternoon Snack!

1 large handful of baby spinach
1 1/2 cups milk of choice (we use almond milk)
1 small (or 1/2 medium) ripe avocado
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
honey (to taste)
ice

1.  In blender, add spinach then pour milk over top.  Blend until no spinach chunks remain.
2.  Add remaining ingredients, except ice, and blend. 
3.  Add ice and blend until smooth.  Serve immediately.

And just like that, both you and your littles can enjoy a seasonal, refreshing and creamy smoothie complete with a good dose of spinach and healthy fats from avocado.  And, I must say, it makes a great afternoon snack!

Valentines Completed!

We finally finished!  24 Valentine's Day cards from a two year old have been completed!

We started on Sunday, and finished this afternoon (Thursday).  Obviously we spent just a little bit of time working on them each day, and it worked out very well since it stayed fun for Mini Muffin the whole way through.  She's always loved craft time, and since every time we sat down there was a new component to work on, they made for a pretty interesting project.

Our process was as follows -

First, I prepped the cards and used my Cricut to cut out hearts.  I then put glue on the hearts and passed them to Mini Muffin to stick to the front of each card.  Some of them are very centred... others not so much.

Next, I addressed the cards, and Mini Muffin "wrote" in them with pink crayon. 

And, finally we pulled out my container of dollar store craft goodies (pom poms, flowers, jewels, etc), and Mini Muffin showed me where she wanted glue on the front of each card to finish up decorating them.  Luckily for the first two thirds she was happy just putting one thing in the middle of the heart.  Towards the end, the cards were becoming pretty heavily adorned (and time consuming as well!).

Tada!  Beautifully decorated cards for friends!

I love the end result!  I think she did a great job, and they're definitely from the heart.  Tonight, I'll attach a mini container of bubble solution to each of them, and they'll be ready to go!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas Cards from a Toddler

Mini Muffin and I decided that yesterday was the perfect day for Christmas crafts. There are also a couple of people in her life that we wanted to recognize with cards, so our craft was decided!

I started by prepping while she was at the park with my mom (who's staying with us for the holidays), and Little Smiling Man was napping. I made plain, cream coloured cards, and drew a handful of Christmas trees on green card stock.  Mini Muffin has been working very hard lately on learning to cut with scissors; she's getting quite proficient and is nearly ready to try cutting along lines. So, my vision was that she'd try to cut out the trees, then we'd glue them to the cards and decorate them. Rather ambitious for a little girl of only two and a half!

When she got home, she saw the card stock and her scissors on the table and was super excited to get started! I explained and demonstrated cutting along lines, and she gave it a pretty good try. But, the fun of reducing a piece of paper to many tiny pieces with her scissors soon took over. I decided to let her have her fun (and use easier cutting shapes next time we work on this skill!). By the time she was done, we had dozens of odd shaped pieces of green card stock, with fragments of Christmas trees drawn on them.

Since this project had decidedly not gone to plan, we just started winging it! We tried our hand at cubism with me piecing together tree-like images and Mini Muffin gluing them. Mini Muffin then cut up some of grandma's spare yarn and glued it to some of the cards as decorations for the tree. And, finally she told me what she wanted to say inside, with great quotes like "Merry Holidays for Christmas!" and "Friends!".

All in all, it was a pretty fun project. I think the cards turned out great; to me they look like a two and a half year old loving her craft time!

• 

Parcel for the Food Bank

This morning, for whatever reason I found myself thinking back to an interaction I had at the food bank years ago.  I was chair for a local professional organization, and in preparation for our annual conference I decided to set up charitable donations for our speakers instead of giving out the usual dust gathering trinkets.  The morning of the conference, I headed to the local food bank to drop off the cheque, arriving shortly before they opened.  I ended up in a waiting room with a few folks who were either registering for or waiting to pick up food parcels.  On a table near by was a bag of perishables someone had left that were... perished to say the least.

A gentleman came in, perused the bag, knocked a baguette against the table (hard as a rock), smiled, tucked it under his arm, sat down next to me and started chatting.  He was very open with me, telling me that he was a recovering alcoholic on the straight and narrow, had a job that barely paid the rent, and walked everywhere since the bus was too expensive.  He told me that he was very happy to find the baguette because he hoped to be able to make chili soon.  He had been saving what he could from his food bank parcels, and if his next one had some tomato sauce he'd finally have enough to make chili.  You could tell how much he was looking forward to it, and the baguette would just take it to the next level.  Shortly thereafter we said goodbye, and that was that.

Later that day, and periodically through the years, I've found myself thinking back to that man.  He gave me a glimpse into a world I am blessed to not have experienced first hand.  The concept of having to save up to be able to make something as basic as chili is so far away from my reality.  And, I am so grateful for that.  The concept of being thrilled to find a stale baguette worth $1.50 when it's fresh, is also thankfully not part of my reality.  I truly hope that he has found his since found his feet.

Today, I was thinking about people in his situation and how difficult this time of year must be.  With everyone else preparing for the holidays, buying special foods for their family meal and rushing around to finish their Christmas shopping.  For people that have to save up to make chili, I realised that there would most likely not be anything special on their table for Christmas dinner.  That Christmas Day would be a struggle like any other day. 

With that in mind, I decided that in addition to our usual financial donation to the food bank, I would also give a donation of items that will hopefully help make someone's Christmas table a little more special.  I set a budget of $50 and had some fun finding great deals!  My budget ended up filling four shopping bags and I happily left with five cake mixes, five cans of frosting, eight packages of cookies, two packages of chocolates, five boxes of stuffing, and two boxes of apple cider mix. 

When I got home, I did a well overdue clean out of our pantry.  Over time we've accumulated assorted tins of hot chocolate, preserves, relishes, teas and sweets that we just don't consume. A gift basket here, and a hostess gift there add up quickly! I am happy to say that these items filled two more shopping bags, and will hopefully be used and enjoyed instead of taking up space in my cupboards to no end.

And so, six bags full of Christmas goodies were dropped off at the food bank warehouse. My family feels good about it, and I feel that even though it won't keep anyone from going hungry, sometimes something special for the holidays is good for the spirit.  In years to come, I think this surely will be a family Christmas tradition.

DIY - Candy Cane Wreath

It's been a while since I posted, and has it ever been busy!  We had our extended family Christmas during which Little Smiling Man charmed one and all, and Mini Muffin ran amok and had a fantastic time.  We had our immediate family Christmas, during which we had a good catch up, exchanged a few gifts and enjoyed brunch together.  Then, we headed to Niagara and stayed at a water park!  I estimate that we spent nearly 12h in the water, despite staying for just under 48h!  We were all a bit waterlogged by the end.  When we got home Little Smiling Man wasn't himself.  He wasn't... well... smiley.  Then he broke out in a rash, so we went to the doctor where he was diagnosed with hand foot and mouth.  Poor, poor monkey.  All we could do is wait it out, and keep him comfortable with Advil.  Thankfully he's through it now!  We're all enjoying a little bit more sleep, and a lot less fussiness!

And, on the craft/DIY front, I thought I'd share a wreath I made just before heading south.  Let's just say, Pinterest is both my best friend and my worst enemy.  I was super busy with preparations for our trip and life in general, yet this gorgeous wreath just begged to be made!  Luckily, it turned out to be a quick and easy project, with a gorgeous end product!

The finished product!

Here's what you'll need:

1 box of candy canes, plus four additional candy canes*

Scotch tape

Hot glue gun (clear glue)

1.  Trim excess wrapper from the ends of each candy cane.
2.  Pair candy canes with long stems together.  Attach with tape.
3.  Lay out your wreath, joining the taped pairs so that the crooks form hearts.
4.  Along the stems, run a line of hot glue.  Add a dot of hot glue at each point the candy canes join.
5.  Allow to set, and it's ready to hang!  It won't be stiff, but will be held together well.  Hang on a hook, with ribbon, or however you choose!

* Exact quantity may vary depending on which brand of candy canes you buy.

Easy.  Peasy.

Ours adorns our stairwell window, and is held up by suction hooks.  I love this simple, festive touch to our home!

DIY - Mini Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

It's funny to think that our friends south of the border are celebrating Thanksgiving, when we are in full flung Christmas mode.  But, with Canadian Thanksgiving over a month behind us, I guess it's not surprising.  In fact, tomorrow morning we're heading south to enjoy an early Christmas dinner with my extended family.  On Sunday, we're celebrating Christmas with our immediate family (since my sister won't be able to join us on the day).  After this weekend's celebrations, we'll be heading to Niagara for a short getaway with the kids.   

By the time we get back it will be December!  And, December means that the countdown to Christmas is well and truly on - especially for Miss Mini Muffin.  She is all about Santa these days.  As part of the anticipation, we wanted to introduce the traditional advent calendar.  But, I really struggle with the concept of buying a calendar that essentially gives my toddler chocolate every single day for 24 days.  Chocolate and candies are a treat around here, and don't happen often.  Who knows what havoc that calendar could wreak!  I jest.  I'm sure it would be fine.  But, it did get me wondering if I could put together an advent calendar for her that was more suited to our home environment and her personal tastes.  Pinterest to the rescue! I kid you not, Pinterest is both my best friend and worst enemy; so many amazing ideas, yet so little time!

This week, in and amongst our normal routines and getting organised for our upcoming getaway, I took some time to create an advent calendar for Mini Muffin.  It was a great break from the laundry, packing, baking, wrapping, errands and general Christmas prep. 

And here it is - Mini Muffin's Mini Muffin Advent Calendar!



The Final Product!

To make your own, you'll need:

• one mini muffin tin
• 24 small treats - mini muffin tins are shallow, so they need to be small
• 24x  2" cardstock squares (my squares are actually 2"x2.5" rectangles and work well)
• any decorations you'd like to use
• self adhesive magnets
• ribbon to hang

24 days worth of treats

I started out at the dollar store, looking for little treats.  I ended up with a collection of stickers, balloons, hair clips, and a few larger items (pencil, Christmas sticker activity book, antler headband).  Naturally, I did pick up a few candies too.  Every advent calendar needs a few sweets!

Over the next week or so I thought about how to cover the muffin cups.  I knew it would be a piece of cardstock with magnets on the back, but the exact size and design was up in the air.  After I finally had my concept in mind, I pulled out the muffin tin to discover... the holes were much closer than I remembered and my grand idea wouldn't work after all.  Boo. 

I figured I'd just dive in and figure it out as I went along, so I opened up a pad of Christmas scrapbooking paper I bought on clearance a few years ago.  The stars must have been aligned because the first page I flipped to had a calendar on it... and the numbers were the perfect size!  Seriously, what are the odds?  So, I cut them out, affixed the magnets, and filled the tin.  For the larger items, I wrote a little clue on where to find them (and put a reminder in my phone so that the treat gets into its hiding spot in time!).

The final challenge was hanging it.  My tin doesn't have a hole in it, and I intend to continue using it for baking once December is over, so I needed to get a bit creative.  In the end, I took the strongest magnets from my fridge, and used them to hold the ribbon onto the back of the tin.  It's been three days and it's still holding strong, so I think my solution is going to do just fine!

All in all, this was an easy and fun craft to do for my little one, and I am so happy with the final product!  I'm really looking forward to her discovering her treat each day as we move the numbers from the tin to a line down the kitchen door.  And once Christmas has past, all I have to do is pack away the cardstock until next year!

Autumn Pumpkin Muffins - Kidlet Approved!

Now that everyone is healthy again, and I'm moderately rested, we're working on getting back to normal.  Along with sleep and energy levels, appetites are also returning to normal, and I had a can of pumpkin purée staring at me from the pantry.  Obviously it was time to make some muffins with Mini Muffin!

We glanced around the internet for some recipes - many we didn't have all the ingredients for, most had too much sugar for our taste, and very few had any whole wheat goodness.  So, working from typical ingredient ratios, we created our own!  I thought I'd capture the recipe here while it's still fresh in my mind -

Autumn Pumpkin Muffins

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon*
1 1/2 tsp ginger*
1/8 tsp cloves
Pinch of pepper
1 1/2 c pumpkin purée
1/2 c plain yogurt
1/2 c melted butter
2 eggs
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c raisins or chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 c chopped walnuts or pumpkin seeds (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 350F, and line muffin pan with liners.
2.  Blend together first 8 ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.  * A note on spices - these muffins are lightly spiced.  I enjoy rich cinnamon and ginger flavours so if I was making these just for me (or adults), I would double the spice.  However, the spice level listed seems to be perfect for the little taste buds in my house!
3.  Mix all wet ingredients, and add in dry.  Mix until just combined.
4.  If desired, add raisins, chocolate chips and/or walnuts.  We made ours without any extras since I wanted Little Smiling Man to be able to enjoy them, and when presented with raisins or chocolate chips Mini Muffin seems to like to pick them out and neglect the rest of the muffin!
5.  Fill muffin cups. The batter will be quite stiff, so won't change shape when baking, and also won't run over from the muffin papers.
6.  Bake for 35 minutes, or until a tested comes out clean.

Makes ~12 regular sized muffins; adding optional ingredients would yield a few extra muffins.

And, there you have it!  Mini Muffin stirred all the dry ingredients for me as I added things to the bowl.  She also had a go at combining the wet and dry ingredients, but the batter was a bit stiff for her, so Mama finished it off!  She was also thrilled when I ran out of plain muffin papers and broke into my Christmas stash.  Santa is going to be a VERY big deal this year!

After watching them bake, Mini Muffin was the first to taste test them; she ate an entire muffin and asked for another.  They have been her go to snack request since then.  Little Smiling Man has been loving them as well!  They're soft and light, so perfect for a baby learning how to manage finger foods.  They're also moist enough to reasonably withstand being held in a baby fist.  He saw me eating one without him this morning and started squawking until I shared it with him.  The best part in my opinion, is that everyone is thoroughly enjoying eating an extra little bit of pumpkin (about 2 tbsp. of purée per muffin)... and all those great vitamins that come along with it!

Since I have a partial can of pumpkin purée left, you'll likely be seeing more yummy pumpkin recipes here.  Stay tuned!

Craft Idea - Hallowe'en Handprints

We are in full autumn mode!  We've been doing for lots of fall walks, enjoying the last warm-ish days, and sadly packing away all things summer.  Fall has also crept into our diet with more apples and squash.  So, as Little Smiling Man naps and Mini Muffin plays with orange playdough while we wait for our pumpkin oatmeal muffins to cool, it seems like a great time to share a little handprint craft we did the other day.  It makes a great seasonal decoration, is small to store, and will be super cute to pull out again next year and see how much Mini Muffin has grown.

Before the toddler phase, arts and crafts were certainly a long way behind me.  As in, I'm pretty sure I left arts and crafts behind in elementary school.  So, I've been doing a lot of learning... and a lot of idea gathering on Pintrest!  This idea was just too cute to miss!



Eek!

As you can see, it was mostly a mommy craft with a bit of toddler input.  Mini Muffin thinks "her spider" is pretty cool, and loves the webs created around it in purple (her favourite colour).  And, mommy had some fun doing something crafty during naptime. 
A little bit more about the process -

I chose to work on canvas for longevity and display purposes, but you could very easily work on paper.  I also used tempera paints to keep everything non-toxic and easy to clean. 

Since we didn't have any orange paint on hand, I mixed some up and prepped the canvas while Mini Muffin was napping.  I applied a couple of layers with a sponge brush, and then dabbed with a sponge to even out the texture.  Once it was dry, we painted Mini Muffin's hands and pressed them down one at a time to make our spider.  The next day (also during her nap), I broke out the purple and a fine paint brush to finished it off.  She was so surprised to see the end result when she woke up, and I had so much fun painting.  As I said, it's been years!

I had a few learnings through the process, which the very crafty would find basic.  When I mixed the orange, I was completely off with the red/yellow proportion.  For the record, Hallowe'en orange is mostly yellow.  I ended up with so much orange as I added more and more yellow to find the right shade!  I also found the by using a foam brush (which is all I had on hand), I ended up with a really streaky canvas.  It looked kind of cool, but wasn't the look I was going for.  Hence, improvising with the sponge.  I love the mottled texture of the final product!

So, there's a fun handprint Hallowe'en idea.  Now, on to create one for Little Smiling Man!