Quick Pickles

Hubby's garden has really done well this year. We have proof of that ALL OVER our kitchen counters just waiting to be canned and/ or eaten.

Today Hubby was craving some quick pickles (we called them sour cucumbers when I was a kid) so that's what we made today.

2 cucumbers (fresh from our garden)

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup water

Chop up cucumbers and place them in a bowl

Add the vinegar and water

Get your seasonings ready

1 tsp salt

1tsp pepper

1 tsp ground coriander 

Add seasonings to the bowl and mix

You might want to add more water to completely cover the cucumbers. Cover with plastic wrap and let them soak in the fridge.

You can make them in the morning and let them soak all day, or make them at night and let them soak overnight.

It's a quick and healthy treat!

** If you have a variation, we'd love to hear about it! Share your recipe in the comments section!**

DIY- Car Play Mats

Pinterest Link {HERE}

I got the idea to make this today when I realized that my children were driving me crazy. I remembered seeing this activity on Pinterest, but didn't think to look at it before we started. I just wanted some peace and quiet. *sigh*
Looking at it now, I realize that mine aren't as cool, but they do help with noise level!

We started with coloring pages. The coloring pages we used was from a Common Core link I had stumbled upon, but of course I can't find it again to link here. So, I googled Community coloring pages and found {THIS} link.

Everyone has the same pages- no arguing.

While they colored, I got the rest of my supplies.

 cheap shower curtain (clear)

multicolored Sharpies (sorry, they wound up in both pictures)

scissors

clear packing tape

When everyone finished coloring, we cut the buildings and vehicles out. And by we, I mean me.

Then I laid the shower curtain on the floor and the kids spread the pictures of the buildings out on it. When everything was placed, we turned over the pictures and I taped them to the sc.

Now this looked a little daunting. Curvy roads through all of this? And then, to have all 3 of my kids crawling all over it, bumping into each other, arguing, crying... NO!

So, I cut it into quarters.

Much better. The Kid helped me create the roads for the mats. He showed me where he wanted the parking lots. We added a pond on one and his 'big school' in another.

Here are 2 of them. I taped them to the wall.

 The Kids has been asking for one of those Hot Wheels jumpy-thingies that attach to the wall, but they cost like $30. NO. WAY. We told him he can save his chore money and buy it himself. Maybe this will tide him over.

Ahhhh..... peace and quiet. :)

I apologize for the lack of pants. I don't waste outfits on days we are staying indoors. And when one goes pants-less, they all have to. (or so they think!)

**Teacher adaptation- I plan on doing this again- kind of- next year with my 3rd graders. When I unpacked the shower curtain, I realized it was separated into nice, neat rectangles. Perfect for grids! So, we will make a community and practice reading grids. One students will be able to take it home at the end of the year! **

Dye-ing to do it again...

I went out and bought more cloths pins today.

The dye and I are going to have another go at it.  Previously my evil plan was almost thwarted when I discovered that the directions on RIT's website had changed in the middle of the page from 2 cups to 2 quarts of hot water.  I ended up with some very, very dark blue cloths pins.  Today I thought I would try to follow the same directions using 2 quarts of hot water instead of 2 cups using my 2nd pack of dye called "pearl gray."  Here are all of my supplies laid out and ready to go:

I followed my new direction and dumped my cloths pins in.

So far, so good.  They didn't automatically turn a really dark shade like yesterday's did.  The directions on the website say to let it soak for 10-20 minutes.  After about 2 minutes my cloths pins looked like this:

I let them soak for a few more minutes, but I'm really starting to wonder if they even tried to do this before they posted about it.  I fished my cloths pins out with a plastic fork and put them on the cardboard to dry.  Yes, I know I used a plastic bag yesterday.  There is nothing wrong with using a plastic bag, this cardboard just happened to be on its way out the door anyway.

This is not what I would call "pearl gray."  So what I've learned from this is that when the website says 10-20 minutes they don't mean for you to go off and do something else.  What they mean is "hey don't even blink or else!"  So here's the pro's and con's of dyeing cloths pins.

Pros:
-Don't have to take the cloths pins apart
-Doesn't take long at all to actually do it (15 minutes from start to finished, plus drying time)
-Cloths pins are really pretty

Cons:
-Can't multitask while you wait for them to pick up the dye
-I wasted lots of dye that you can reuse again and again because I worry about it spilling and ruining other things
-Cost, for some people this is the biggie.  Each box of dye runs $2-3.  That's lots more than craft paint.

I will be dyeing cloths pins more but probably won't post about each color.  Check back later to see what I do with my pretty cloths pins!

Coloring Pasta- made easy!

It looks like today is going to be a colorful day! Melissa posted about dying clothes pins and I'm coloring pasta!

I'm doing summer school activities with my kids, so thing have to be colorful and fun. Where can I find such activities? Pinterest! I have a whole list of activities that are going to be fun and educational this summer.

Pinterest link- {HERE} 
Science connection- making solutions/ creating colors
Skills- patterns/ sorting/ hand-eye coordination

What we used:

Pasta- Ditalini works best (1 cup per bag)

Rubbing alcohol (2tbs per bag)

Food coloring (3-4 drops per bag)

Sandwich bags (1 bag per color)

measuring cup/ spoon

cookie sheet to dry pasta 

(I covered mine with aluminum foil first)

When I was shopping for supplies, I stopped at the Dollar Store and picked these up.

 Aprons for the kiddos and a cheap tablecloth. I will have to go back to Walmart to get a $3.88 tablecloth since the cheap one was just that- cheap.

Ready for action!

Step 1- Mix 2 tbs of rubbing alcohol and 3-4 drops of food coloring in a baggie.

Step 2- Add 1 cup pasta into the baggie. Shake baggie until the pasta is fully coated.

The Kid noticed that the pasta didn't turn blue the way he wanted. We talked about how yellow pasta + blue food coloring = green pasta! Next time we will put in more blue coloring to see if that helps. Don't worry, The Kid was fine with the outcome!

Step 3- Spread pasta on a cookie sheet to dry.

I used some small disposable cookie sheets that we had around the house. My hubby uses them when he gardens, so I covered them in aluminum foil so he could use them again.

Step 4- Allow pasta to dry.
The blog recommended at least an hour, she let hers dry overnight. I let it dry during lunch and nap time.

Not bad for a first try! I have plenty of uses for this pasta!

You can use this for:

1. art projects- my kids love to glue!

2. making jewelry

3. sorting activities- talk about attributes (color, shape, size), link into using adjectives

4. making patterns

5. hand-eye- coordination- using string, yarn, or pipe cleaners

Let us know if you think of more awesome ideas!

Dye, Cloths pins! Dye!

I found this neat project on Pinterest on how to make cloths pins colorful.  Now I know what you're thinking, painting them takes way too long!  I know, I know!  I also have been guilty of spending sacred free time painting cloths pins.  My classroom has lots and lots of blond wood in it already though and I like lots of color.  So when I saw this easy way to make cloths pins more colorful I jumped at the chance to try it.  I found it at kojo Designs.

You will need:
1. RIT dye- any color
2. containers
3. measuring cup
4. clothes pins
5. gloves (or if you're really cheap put plastic bags over your hands)
6. something to lay your cloths pins out to dry on
7. a better set of instructions than RIT's website (more on that in a minute)

Now for my favorite part:  do NOT follow the directions on the package!  RIT's website says for dying wood and wicker to use 2 cups of hot water for a whole package of dye.  Yay! No leftover parts!  This means you don't have to remember where you put the leftovers.  I hate it when that happens.  There are eight pieces of tissue paper and I only need four, then I'm expected to not lose it and to let it clutter up my home on the off chance that I might need four pieces of hot pink polka dot tissue paper.  That's why I like this project.  No extra pieces left!

So I laid out all of my supplies.

I measured out 2 cups of water in a large glass measuring cup and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Then I poured it into an empty whipped cream container and mixed in my dye.  Wait a second!  This looks way darker than what I wanted...uh-oh!

This was supposed to be a nice light denim blue.  Better go back and read the instructions again.  So after I did that I discovered that they conveniently change the unit of measure from 2 cups to 2 quarts in the middle of the instructions.  That's interesting.  So since I didn't really have a bigger bowl I was willing to throw away in case the dye didn't wash out I decided to just go for it.  I stuck my cloths pins in the bowl and watched.  The instructions say soak for 10-20 minutes.  After about one minute things were already looking a little too dark.

 So I took them out after about one minute and they looked beautiful!!!  A nice deep blue, which still wasn't what I wanted but I think I'll find something to do with them.

Then I had a lot of leftover dye and since I had not used all of my cloths pins I decided to experiment and see if I could get them lighter.  I just dipped them in and pulled them right back out.  Here's what they looked like.

Now they started looking a little more how I wanted.  I like that they are now pretty colors and I didn't have to take them apart and put them back together to make them that way.  I let them dry and then put them in a bag for evil purposes later.  In case you can't see too much of a difference in color here is a comparison shot.

Next time I DIY with DYE (haha) I will use 2 quarts of hot water instead of 2 cups and let you know if that goes any better.