don't do it!

make cloud dough

This is popping up all over Pinterest and Facebook. I first saw it here.  I thought we had made every kitchen concoction - but I was wrong! Cloud dough is easy and great to work with. It is soft, and holds its shape like moon sand, then crumbles. My 5year old really enjoyed playing with it. He buried dinosaurs and excavated them, built roads and then tore them up and explored the properties of this weird dough/sand. 
The recipe is just:
8 cups of flour1 cup of oil (baby, sunflower, olive.....anything)(apparently you can half this recipe too)
Mix and blend and squeeze for about five minutes and you are done. And it seems like it would last a long time so we made it in a big tub that we could also use for storage. 
Have you made cloud dough? What other things did you add?
 I am thinking about color, glitter, fragrances....

lake morton:: day 7

book review:: Made to Play: Handmade Toys & Crafts for Growing Imaginations

I recently received a review copy of Made to Play by Joel Henriques. It is a delightful craft book that brings a clean, modern aesthetic to making toys for kids. If you are a fan of Henriques' blog, Made by Joel  (which is packed with wonderful printables and even more toy making projects), you will love this book.

It is written and illustrated simply with very clear instructions. Many of the projects use paper, wood, or wire, which is a refreshing change from the pervasiveness of sewing and knitting craft books.

This book would be a PERFECT Christmas gift for a dad who wants to participate in a crafty household, but might not sew. In fact, you might want to pick up a copy now, so you can start making some homemade gifts for the holidays.

My favorite projects are those using the scroll saw or jigsaw. I have two and love them. I think they are as important to toy making as a sewing machine. And kids are really moved and interested in wood toys. Maybe it is the substance of them, or their weight - but wood is magic.

From adorable trucks that tuck into a mint tin, to little wooden dolls and doll houses, and musical instruments, the wood projects are treasures that kids would love to play with (and help make if they are able to).

Henriques is a fan of kid's hands-on learning advocate Ann Wiseman (as am I).  I would love to see his next book include more open ended projects that kids can help build themselves. Overall, this is a really nice book and an asset to any craft library.


*images are from Made by Joel blog

Cayo Costa

four days at our island.

no electric, no hot water, 

just the ocean and sun and creatures around us.

we fished, 

rode bikes, 

saw giant millipedes crossing dirt paths, 

ran free,

danced in the dusk with sparklers, 

kayaked to a magically still cove... the only sound was the chuffing of manatees, 

slept so much, 

and dreamed of living in a little cabin by the sea.

why we travel

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

 Miriam Beard

I sometimes have conversations with people who do not like to travel. They might not like to upset their routines, are afraid of the unknown or are just not interested in the world beyond their daily life. My husband and I love to travel and are constantly trying to figure out how to travel more. Between us, we have been to some great places, but still have so much more of the world we want to see. We live with a constant case of wanderlust. 

When we were in New York, I was laying on the bed thinking about all the things we had seen, learned and wondered about, and also about how our family functions at our best when we are on the road. And I asked myself, "why?" Why do we travel? What are our motivations? (it is certainly not glamorous or easy, the way we do it). Why is this so important to us? And this is what I came up with:

1. To use different parts of our brains. I literally think we activate new connections and synapses when we are out of our element. We walk paying attention to different traffic patterns, we eat differently, the process to enter homes might be done differently and we probably sleep differently.  We are encouraged to think differently and that plasticity is probably the best souvenir that comes home with us.

2. To learn to navigate different environments. I want my kids to be able to go anywhere and get around comfortably. From urban cities, to overgrown jungles or mountain tops, or places where no one speaks your language; they need to be able to experience and evaluate an environment and figure out how to function successfully within it. 

3. To witness different ways of living. We can only choose lives that we have witnessed (in real life, books or our imaginations). It is important to have as many "stories" as possible when (re)creating  and becoming yourself. I need my kids to know that there is a spectrum of possibilities beyond what they experience in their everyday lives. And they are all possible. 

4. To encourage open-ended, organic learning. Well, this is pretty obvious. But, I have been turned on to so many new interests by just walking around with an open mind and the willingness to ask questions and engage with a place. Even seeing the typical tourist sites fuels our imaginations and enables us to make connections. We became interested in George Washington watching Liberties Kids, then went to Mount Vernon and learned more about his daily life, (I became interested in the hospitality of colonial times and my son's botanical interests we broadened). A trip to NYC's Trinity Church brought us to the place Washington walked to worship after he was sworn in as president, reminding us that Washington, DC and the White House were not fully realized yet. Even a trip  to the Hall of Presidents show at Disney adds more pieces to the puzzle. Life is so much richer when we are able to make these connections and synthesize all that we learn and experience into the epic story of man. OK - maybe I am getting a bit carried away - but traveling supports organic learning in huge ways we try to maintain when at home in our routine.

5. To get uncomfortable. I wrote about this a few months ago here. It is so important to get scared, to be more tired than you thought possible, to carry more than you can,  walk longer than you are able, and to ultimately feel stronger than you are or somehow pushed far beyond your limits. Being lost and on my own in a foreign country, getting mugged, scrounging for food, or holding tight to my unrestrained children in the back of speeding van on a foggy Central American mountain,  were all stressful but still  so much less that what others have endured. I do not put my self in dangerous situations for no good reason, but if one presents itself, I try to embrace it and learn from it. My husband recently read that the temporary flight or fight type of stress is really good for you, as opposed to the all day, nagging, corrosive stress of daily life. The short bursts of stress when traveling are yet another gift of a life on the road. By expanding coping kills, I become stronger and a much better problem solver.

6. To awaken the senses. The variety of smells, flavors, sounds and energies is actually enough to get me on a plane. I love to smell the earth in different places. To hear the rhythm of a different language or traffic, or church bells. And even things like exhaust and cigarette smoke attach themselves to different narratives when traveling.  

7. To be inspired. Some inspirations are immediate and others come later, even years later. The first time I traveled to Europe, we stayed with a Swiss couple and seeing the way they lived; picking their own tea from the forest, making dinner from a pumpkin grown in the front yard, having evening musical jams sessions with homemade instrument.... well, that trip changed my outlook on life forever, and continues to inspire me every so often. My kids frequently mention things from trips that I never thought they even noticed. 

8. To call into question our lives. This is the big one. I do not think I can go anywhere without questioning everything in my life. Luckily, I usually come out of this interrogation just fine - but what a useful exercise it is. To be reflective and contemplative is not an easy state to inhabit, but the more we do it, the better. And what a great mindset for children, to wonder about their own lives and in non-absolutism of it all.

A great thing I have realized in the past few years, is that you do not have to travel far to get many of the benefits. You can cultivate a traveling mindset, a beginner's mind to the environment you spend your days in. 

Why do you travel?

food for thought::ada's cucumber salad

My great-grandmother, Ada lived in a tiny, white, basement house in Ohio. Her home was built long before the neighborhood was planned, so she had a huge lot set in amongst the post WW2 grid of efficient, cookie cutter homes. I really don't remember her too much as we never seemed to have a conversation other than my annoying actions eliciting an "tsk" sound from her. 

I do, however, have a pastiche of sensual memories from summers spend visiting; the small, sweetly scented half-rotted apples I picked up from her yard so she could mow, each making a satisfying thud as it was thrown into the rusty wheelbarrow; 

sitting on her back porch while she soaked green leaf lettuce in a stainless steel bowl to get the grit that had settled deep between the leaves; 

the ice cold water that we drank from a communal metal cup that hung from a nail near the kitchen sink; 

her rug which was made from colorful rectangular carpet remnants, which amazed me not because of it's economy, but because of it's beauty;

and her cucumber salad. 

This salad is so simple, so easily adapted that it really does not even need exact quantities. I could and can still eat bowls of it - each sprinkled with crunchy salt and pepper. 

I ate this at her house in the warm summers. After she died, her daughter, my grandmother, lived with us and she fixed it often. When I was in high school, I would make it for myself as an afternoon snack. And now as the mother of three kids, I prepare it for my family. My children devour it until their faces are covered with dressing and the bowl is empty.   

what you need

2 cucumbers

1 crazy heaping T of mayo (try to make homemade)

a wee bit of vinegar

what you do

Whisk the mayo and vinegar until thinned down and lump-free. Stir in the thinly sliced cucumbers and chill in the fridge  (or eat right away of you can not wait). A bit of chopped scallions or shallots will make it irresistible.