Small Town Pet Parade

Our small town has a wonderful old fashioned pet parade every May and this year our girls were so excited to get to take two of our chickens in the parade. They loved pulling the chickens in the wagon and seeing all the funny pets. There were goldfish in fish bowls, rats in cages, goats in strollers, ferrets on leashes, dogs in dresses and every other kind of pet you can imagine. The girls were darling and even got their picture taken by a photographer from Sunset magazine.

Mozzarella Cheese in 30 Minutes

The girls and I made a bunch of mozzarella balls and a few mozzarella braids today in less than 30 minutes. We've been making this about once a week since it is so easy and fun. Here's the very simple recipe for making fresh homemade mozzarella cheese using a gallon of milk and a few other basic ingredients. Fresh mozzarella is so good by itself as a healthy snack or sliced with basil, tomatoes and a little olive oil.

We made all the cheese on the plate above for about $2.50 using a $2 gallon of 2% pasteurized milk from a local dairy. You should use whole or 2% milk for the best results. Also, for this recipe it is important to use pasteurized milk. Using raw milk will not work for this recipe.

Annah stirring the cheese as it curdles.

Rolling the balls or braiding the cheese is the funnest part!

30 Minute Mozzarella Recipe

For this recipe you'll need:

1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid dissolved in 1/2 cup cool water
(you can buy this in bulk at the health food store of if you can't find it you can use lemon juice from the bottle).

1 gallon pasteurized milk (whole or 2% is best). Do NOT use ulta-pasturized milk. It will not work.

1/4 teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in 1/4 cup cool, unchlorinated water.
(I buy this at my local Lifesource health food store or you can buy it online from this website)

1 tsp salt

Rubber gloves

A candy thermometer

Step 1
Pour the milk into a big pot (I prefer stainless steel) and add the citric acid solution at 55 degrees F and mix thouroughly.

Step 2
Heat the milk to 90 degrees F over medium/low heat. The milk will start to curdle at this point.

Step 3.
Gently stir in the diluted rennet with an up-and-down motion, while heating the milk to around 105 degrees F. Turn off the heath. The curd should be pulling away from the sides of the pot and are ready to scoop out. The curds will look like thick yogurt and have a but of a shine to them and the whey will be clear. If the whey is still milky, wait a few more minutes.

Step 4:
Scoop out the curs with a slotted spoon and put into a microwavable bowl. Press the curds gently with your hands (using rubber gloves), pouring off as much whey as possible.

Step 5.
Heat the curds in your microwave for 15-20 seconds. While they are hot, stretch and knead the cheese. It should be like taffy, stretching really far. If the stings break or it feels tough, heat it again in the microwave. You'll be doing this several times as you prepare your mozzarella. While it is hot and stringy, knead in the salt and form the mozzarella into little balls, braids, ropes or whatever shape you'd like. The mozzarella will cool quickly so you'll need to keep heating it back up every couple of minutes to keep it hot and stretchy.

Store your mozzarella in the fridge. It should be good for a couple weeks.

Mira's Play: The House at Pooh Corner Part II

The last three weekends have been busy with Friday, Saturday and Sunday productions of Mira's play. She loved it so much that she announced after the first show that she wants to be a theater director when she grows up!

I did Mira's makeup before each show and it took about 45 minutes to get her ready each time. It was crazy backstage before the show and to make it even crazier, the stage manager gave all the kids Coca-Cola to give them "energy" for the show!

Here's a short clip from one of Mira's funniest scenes. She is throwing a fit because she is a hungry Tigger and wants to go home with Kanga and Roo.

Tulip Festival Fun

Last week we went on a wonderful field trip with our homeschool friends to the local tulip festival. We had a large group with about 20 kids and a half dozen moms and we invited the grandma's to join us so my mom came along too. The girls loved running through the fields, riding the cow train and playing on the hay bale slide with their friends. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and a chance to spend the afternoon delighting in the beauty of God's world.

Imaginative Play

I love watching children play alone. Their imaginations are amazing and it's fun to watch them imitate their parents in how they parent their dolls or do make believe chores like Annah washing dishes in the video above. Since we try to avoid TV except for one or two good videos a month, I like to set up lots of rotating "imagination stations" like the one in the video above. I try to set up play things that imitate what adults do since I think kids really enjoy feeling like they are doing adult work and doing something meaningful. Playing dress up, gardening, washing clothes by hand, playing house, etc. give children a chance to practice what they are learning from you and the world around them.

This week I created a simple play kitchen from an old cardboard box with a hole cut out for a plastic tub (sink). I added a few wooden and ceramic kitchen accessories bought inexpensively at Ikea and some play foods and empty food cans and boxes I had in my recycling bin. The girls spent hours playing with this kitchen this week. Next week I think I'll set up our dolly day care which the girls love (see below).

Below are a few of my favorite ways to spark imaginative play in children. For more great ideas I highly recommend the book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections

Wash Day: On warm days we like to get out all our doll clothes, set up a clothes line at child's height with wooden clothes pins and fill two big buckets with water (one with bubbles). If you have an old wash board even better. The girls LOVE washing all their doll's clothes and wash them over and over again.

Paper dolls from Paper Doll Review We probably have two dozen paper doll sets which we store in clear gallon size zip lock bags. Their favorite is the Little House paper dolls.

Dress up: big trunk with lots of random clothes, scarves, hats and jewelry some makeup and a full length mirror.

Dolly Day Care: For this we pull out all the dolls in our house and all the doll clothes, all our doll beds (or empty boxes to make into beds), high chairs, etc. We set up a corner of the family room as the day care and the girls spend hours playing day care with their dolls. They also think it's pretty neat that we get to turn our living room into a day care since I don't usually let them drag all this stuff downstairs.

Sticker Mania: We get out all the stickers in the house (we have boxes of them), spread them all over the entire family room floor and get a big stack of paper and crayons and the girls have fun stickering away and making up stories with their stickers.

Guys in the water: Often times to keep the girls busy while I'm trying to make dinner or get some work done, I'll give each of them a big bowl of water, place it on a towel and pull out their bin of plastic figurines (at our house we call them "guys"). They'll spend hours playing with them in the water and the mess in minimal - the towel soaks up the water mess.

Fairy Houses: Fairy houses are fun and easy to build outside. Nut shells, moss, leaves and rocks can easily be turned into entire fairy villages. We must have a lot of fairies living in our backyard based on the number of villages we've built!

Outdoor Doll House: On warm days we like spreading a big blanket outside on the grass and pulling out the dollhouse and all the furniture. Mixing it up by taking it outside adds a new element of fun.

These are just a few ideas of some of the things we do to keep children busy and nurture their creativity. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas so please feel free to add more ideas!

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Whole Wheat Sourdough English Muffins

Sourdough breads have amazing health benefits and taste so good they are worth the trouble to make from scratch. About once a month I make a big batch of whole wheat English Muffins and then I slice them and freeze them for a quick breakfast. My girls usually eat them once or twice a week for breakfast with a fried egg and cheddar cheese inside - our own version of an egg McMuffin. Sometimes we'll add some turkey sausage or bacon (which I also precook and freeze ready to use for a fast breakfast). It's a very quick, easy and healthy breakfast. Although the sourdough starter takes three days to ferment and be ready, once you have a starter you can keep it going and won't have to make it again.

The health benefits of eating breads made with sourdough are great. Sourdough is essentially two organisms, wild yeast and bacteria, in symbiosis. Together they transform the grain to make it more healthful, more digestible, and also resistant to getting moldy or stale. Oftentimes people with wheat allergies or "yeast" allergies have no problem eating real sourdough.

Sourdough English Muffins

This recipe makes about 25-30 English muffins.

** When you make these muffins, be sure to plan on the milk-flour-starter mixture setting overnight before continuing with the recipe. And if you're also making the sourdough starter you'll need to plan on making that about three days in advance.

3 cups milk, scalded
1 cup sourdough starter (see recipe for this below)
8 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup cornmeal

Pour milk into a large bowl. When it has cooled to lukewarm, add sourdough starter, and gradually stir in 4 cups flour until thoroughly mixed. Cover loosely and leave in a warm place overnight (a heated up to warm and turned off oven is where I keep mine).

The next morning , in a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Add honey, 1/4 cup oil and remaining flour. Set aside to poof.

Stir down sourdough mixture and add to yeast mixture.

Turn out dough onto floured surface and knead for 10-13 minutes. Sprinkle floured surface with cornmeal and roll out dough to thickness of English muffins - about 3/8 inch. Cut with a wide mouth glass or biscuit cutter and place on baking sheet. Let rise in warm place until double in bulk.

Heat a large iron skillet over medium-low heat, add remaining oil and cook muffins for about 5 minutes on each side. Be very careful not to burn them.

Sourdough Starter
*Count on at least three days for the starter to be ready.

2 cups low-fat milk
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon honey.

Put milk into a small container, cover with cheese cloth or dry towel and leave at room temperature for 24 hours. The next day add flour and honey and stir and blend mixture. Cover container with a dry towel and put in a warm place (ie. by a heater vent, in a warmed up over or by the fire). After 24 more hours the natural yeast should begin to activate. This may take 2-3 days. When the starter becomes bubble and begins to expand in size it is ready to use.

Tending the Chickens

This video is for my sister Lissa who has been living in Edinburgh, Scotland the last year. The girls miss her terribly and I know she misses them too. This video is just to give her (and anyone else interested) a glimpse into our afternoon and our little Annah. We had beautiful weather today with high temps in the 80s so we spent the day outside gardening, playing in the pool and walking a few blocks into our little town to get ice cream cones and eat them at the park overlooking the river.