Adventures of a Wandering Homebody
DIY Advent Calendar
Tired of buyi
ng advent calendars with tiny chocolates in them every year? Me too. Not quite ambitious or crafty enough to create one of those elaborate 24 envelope or 24 boxes advent calendars that are all over Pinterest? Me either. Here’s my in-between.
Grab a piece of sturdy cardboard (ours is 15″x21″) and 12 toilet paper tubes. Yeah, we’re all about reusing around here so we had all this on hand. If you don’t have any saved up yet, that’s okay. Just tell the kids that you’re saving toilet paper tubes and they will never throw one out (or let you throw one out) again! They might even change the toilet paper when it is out just to get another tube!
Oh and glue, tissue paper, a marker, tiny elastic bands, spray paint and acrylic paint in whatever colors you fancy (we went with a white and green theme). Start by cutting the toilet paper tubes in half with some scissors. They might flatten a bit, but that’s okay. Then use your glue to coat the cut edge of the tube and place them in a tree pattern (or whatever you like!) as shown below.
Now……wait.
Grab a cup of coffee or fold some laundry. That glue has got to dry.
When it is dry, spray paint the whole thing. I didn’t coat ours incredibly well because I like the way it kind of looks like snow. Now wait again. Pick up where you left off with that book or unload the dishwasher. See all the things you can get done while crafting?!
Time to grab that tissue paper and start cutting. You’re going to need 24 circles, roughly 3 1/2 inches in diameter. It just needs to cover the hole enough that you can secure it with an elastic.
Label each with numerals 1 through 24. And you’re done with the crafting part.
Now the fun part! What to put inside each tube? 
The beauty of this is that it can be different for everyone. We chose to have one calendar for our two kids to share. You might want to make one for each. Because we share the calendar, on days when I put candy inside there are two pieces. Which means they need to be small, so I generally use Hershey Kisses or Rolos.
Other days I put in folded papers with an activity that we might do together or that they should open a gift from under the tree. By now the kids know that there are some gift and activities that they get or do every year, so they start to look forward to them. They always open a gift with new Christmas pajamas and another with a new Christmas book. For activities, we always make gingerbread houses one day and watch a Christmas movie (in the afternoon! What a treat!) with hot cocoa.
Some new activities for us this year will be baking cookies to deliver to the neighbors (shhh) and making old fashioned popcorn balls. Cover each tube with a circle of tissue paper and secure with an elastic. Let the kids pop away!
This has become a beloved tradition in our home and the kids so look forward to it. Have you created new holiday traditions in your home? Do you carry on some traditions from when you were a child?
Health and Happiness,
Cerissa
Games the Kids Play (and you should too!)
“Mom, will you play ____ with me?” “Mama, let’s play _____”. “Mama, how about we play _____”. No matter how they phrase it, the kids always want to play with you.
How many times do you say, “Sure, I’d love to!”…
Answer honestly.
In my life, I try so set apart about 20-30 minutes a day to actually play and be present with my kids. Let’s be clear that this is not nearly as much time as they would like, but I make an effort to put my phone down and stop the household chores and be with them. It’s not perfect, but in my opinion it shouldn’t be. Kids need to be bored and find ways to occupy themselves, but that is fodder for another post.
Today I want to tell you about two games that I always say YES to, and why.
My Stella loves to play “school” or “lessons”. Sometimes she is teaching her younger brother. Sometimes she asks to teach me, and I always say yes because this is where the learning can happen for HER. Maybe you’ve heard the quote:
“What I hear, I forget; What I see, I remember; What I do, I understand.” (Chinese proverb)
It is so important for children to take what they have been taught and spin it around in their brains and retell it in a way that makes sense to them. Having your kids “teach” you their lessons from school (or homeschool) is one way to help solidify the knowledge they have gained! Sometimes she teaches me her weekly spelling words, other times she makes me math pages that demonstrate the skills she is learning at school. Lately it has been retelling the non-fiction stories in which she has been so interested.
It is also a wonderful time to sit and just listen to your child. I’ve found that as Stella grows into her own person this is one time that I can really observe the individual she is becoming. Her mannerisms and language are so telling of the unique person she is and I really cherish having those moments to savor.
She loves to be the “expert”, which also gives her (and ALL children) a sense of control over her life. And that alone is super empowering! So I say whenever your kids want to teach you something, have a seat and learn.
Now my little guy is quite a different child from his sister and is much more physical. He recently “made up” a game with dice that we have been playing for weeks. I love it for it’s simplicity and how easy it is to modify for different levels of learning. We started with 3 dice. The object of the game is to be the first person to get all of your dice to show the same number (it is very similar to the game Tenzi). Are you ready for how much learning takes place with this simple game?
Here you go:
Cerissa
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Kale and Sweet Potato Salad
It’s Fall in New England and the eating is…not easy. My body brain keeps telling me to cook and eat fattening comfort foods. I’m desperately trying not to listen to it, because my body knows that it doesn’t need it.
There are some great comfort foods that aren’t all that bad for you (think turkey chili and kale soup), and some traditional recipes that can be “healthified”. And let’s be honest, we don’t need to avoid those comfort foods ALL the time. Indulging now and again is healthy and normal. What we don’t need to be doing is eating mac and cheese and shepherds pie and potato soup every day.
Enjoy!
Prep time: 30 minutes. Prepared salad should sit for at least an hour before serving! I’ve been known to make it and keep it in my fridge for a few days, eating it often for lunches.
One bunch kale (usually lacinato, but whatever I get in the CSA)
2 medium sweet potatoes (or half of a butternut squash), Roasted
half a medium onion, chopped finely
Dressing:
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup or honey
~1/4 cup olive oil
pinch salt and pepper
1. Prep the potatoes/squash. Peel and chop into 1/2 inch pieces. Toss in bowl with some olive oil to coat and spread evenly on baking dish. Roast at 400. Start checking for doneness at 20 minutes. Should be able to pierce with a fork.
2. Trim the kale to remove the stems. Wash and chop into bite size pieces. Massage briefly between your hands to tenderize the leaves.
3. Place kale, onion and potato in salad bowl. Mix up dressing (I place ingredients into a mason jar in the order listed and give it a lot of great shakes. The kids like to help with this part!). Pour dressing over salad, give it a good toss and let it sit for about an hour. The dressing will make the kale more tender the longer it sits and marinades.
Add ins:
Occasionally I add in some extras like sunflower seeds, craisins or chopped apples. Or even cooked (and cooled) black rice or quinoa. Mix it up and have fun!
Health and Happiness,
Cerissa
Eggplant Casserole
Ahh, the eggplant casserole.
This is my life: I’m not a measuring type of cook, I tend to think of recipes as a guideline, not a rule. And this time it got me.
This is last year’s eggplant casserole.
I sliced the eggplant and put in a single layer on a baking dish. Drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Roasted at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Then I layered them (like a lasagna) with spinach, tomato sauce, ricotta mixed with oregano and basil, and then topped with globs of fresh mozzerella. I baked it all in 350 degree oven about 20 minutes until cheese was melty and sauce bubbling. Served over pasta, if I remember correctly.
Flash forward to this year and apparently I should have looked at my old pictures! I went about it a different way this year and while the result was absolutely edible, it was a bit underwhelming. So here’s what I did (lest you make the same mistakes I did) and what I would do to improve it. Oh, and and actual recipe is linked below…
And here is this year’s eggplant casserole. This time I chopped the eggplant into half-inch cubes and put into a bowl with chopped tomatoes. I tossed eggplant and tomatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. In a separate bowl I mixed 15 oz. ricotta cheese with basil, parsley and oregano. Then I layered tomato mixture, ricotta mixture, tomato sauce, tomato mixture, ricotta mixture, tomato sauce. I topped it all off with some parmesan romano cheese blend (I ran out of mozzerella! Maybe that is where this all went wrong…). Popped into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, until cheese melted and veggies softened. Served over pasta again. HERE’S what I would do differently next time:
1) I would roast the eggplant and tomato mixture for a bit before layering it. Roasting just brings out the natural sweetness in these veggies and who doesn’t love that!?
2) I would layer mozzerella cheese with the ricotta (either fresh or shredded would do)
3) I would add spinach like I had in the first casserole. It definitely added something to the texture.
And here’s the recipe that inspired it all. I hope you get to make and enjoy your own eggplant casserole, whatever recipe you choose!
Eggplant is a challenging vegetable for me to cook with, it is hard to get beyond eggplant parmesan. I’d love to hear if you have any other favorite eggplant recipes.
Thanks for reading!
Health and Happiness,
Cerissa
Where Did All the Veggies Go?
Ahh, Community Supported Agriculture. It is a beautiful arrangement in which we pay ahead for a bounty of produce to be delivered to us at a later date by a farmer who has worked incredibly hard to grow it. The money we provide allows the farmer to make purchases in what is normally a very low income time of year for them.
In our family we participate in a year-round meat CSA as well as a Fall produce CSA. This year we also venture into a “deep-winter share” (yikes!). Our Fall CSA is an every other week pick up so we make do for two weeks with what is in the share. We make it a priority to eat only what we are given and not supplement too much from the market, which is fairly easy to do, given some planning. The produce is always bountiful and I am always struck with a dilemma: to find the balance between preserving and using fresh produce.
Here is how I tackled it this time.
Onions: Caramelized 3 of them and stored in the fridge for pizza and a new hummus recipe (balsamic caramelized onion)
Sweet peppers: sliced up and stored in fridge for pizza and dipping into aforementioned hummus.
Lettuce greens: washed and stored in fridge to be used for salads, with the fennel and organic apples.
Acorn squash: put into cold storage for later use as these will keep for a while. Apparently putting squash, carrots and apples into a box in your bulkhead will work pretty well as cold storage. Go figure!
Golden beets: stored in the fridge to be roasted and put into this Farro, roasted beet and feta salad. The beet greens were sauteed with garlic and added to this quiche that is stored in the freezer for a night when we need an easy dinner.
Cabbage: chopped and made into sauerkraut for the hubby. It’s one of his favorites. Here’s a great small batch recipe, as I don’t like having a ton in the house!
3 Steps to Clear Your Fridge (and Simplify the Kitchen)
We just came back from a long weekend road trip and as I opened my weary eyes yesterday morning and trudged downstairs I realized that my kitchen management has been lacking. Oh, and paired with the sun shining and birds singing I brutally realized that it is indeed Spring Cleaning Time.
I hadn’t really meal planned (beyond a day or two) in about a month. I couldn’t remember when I had last efficiently done food shopping and was clearly not staying within our food budget. Add to that some busy and chaotic weeks and our kitchen environment falls apart. So it was time to take the first step and yup, clean the refrigerator. Now, this is ALWAYS my first move when the kitchen has become chaotic. When the refrigerator is jammed and untidy I find that the family and I are making less healthy eating choices and I tend to meal plan haphazardly, which blows the food budget and leads to more not-so-healthy eating (its hard to eat the veggies and fruit when you can’t find them!)
Here are my 3 steps to clearing out my refrigerator and hitting the reset button in the kitchen:
Take it all out and wipe it down. I mean ALL of it. Every can, jar, fruit, vegetable, drink, you name it. Then take out the shelves and drawers if you can and wash them (warm soapy water will do). Even take out the shelves on the door if you are able. Then with just some soapy water and a cloth wipe the inside. It is amazing how many little spills I find that I never knew had happened. While the fridge and its parts are drying move on to—
Look at the food you have. Go through and check for items past expiration (obviously throw them out and recycle containers!). Pair like items together: jellies and jams, condiments, dairy, sauces, etc. Lastly, figure out what you REALLY need and get rid of what you don’t. Sometimes I make poor food choices at the store and I’m left with a jar of something that I really don’t use and/or I really don’t want to put into my body or that of my family. So I throw it out. It may seem wasteful but sometimes you just have to get rid of the bad so that you can make choices for the good.
Now before you put it all back together–
Think about how your family uses your refrigerator. And let this guide you towards where you put the shelves and drawers. Do you have little children who like to visit the fridge? Maybe you want to put only healthy items in their reach. I found that as my own children have become more independent I’d like to help them and move items lower for them to reach, so they are not dragging a chair across the kitchen floor!
Do you tend to reach for the same foods more often than others? We eat a pretty limited repertoire of breakfast foods and so I’ve organized them all on the door for easy access and now even my little guy can reach his yogurt every morning. This alone has helped mornings go a bit more smoothly and we can use all the help we can get.
Try to get those veggies and fruits into a drawer. If needed, cut or chop them first and put them in a clear container in the drawer. Once again, it’s hard to eat the veggies if you don’t see them.
I find that once the fridge is put back together, clean and organized, I can begin to make those healthy snack choices because I see what is good right in front of me. I can also begin to plan meals efficiently and in a healthy way because I know what I have to work with. I hope you make the time to clear out and hit the reset button on your own eating and cooking, I’d love to hear how it goes or if you have any other tips!
Health and Happiness,
Cerissa
Library Log #2
Ahh, as sunlight streams through the window over the snow piled up outside I feel as though spring might truly be on its way. Just like the birds happily chirping to greet the newly warm day, a fresh start may be in order for me as well. Last week, we had such a successful trip to the library that I have renewed ambition to post those lovely books here to share with you.
The Family that _______s Together
It’s Family Meeting Time, It’s Family Meeting Time…Family Meeting? Why should we have a Family Meeting, you say? We thought the same thing not so long ago. But now that we’ve started, we’re never stopping and here are our reasons.
We actually tried to start holding family meetings in the fall. But they were met with so much kickback from the children that I decided to wait (and do some research on family meetings which led to more research). We talked about the idea of family meetings over the last few months, so they were still on our radars and everyone in the family knew they would come back at some point. So, I resolved to make them happen in the New Year (anyone who has read my previous post might see a pattern here, but I am not usually a “New Years resolver”).
My mistake in starting our last meetings was that I foolishly thought that they would just come together nicely and neatly and we would have wonderful family problem solving and feeling sharing opportunities (sugar plum and gumdrop fantasy, I know). I was more focused on the product than the process.
Now I realize that these meetings with my husband and (almost) 6 and 4 year old are merely laying the groundwork to create a family atmosphere in which we all feel secure enough to talk things out and share problems and feelings in the future. Because I think if I don’t create that now, then my future 14 year old sure won’t feel comfortable to come to me on her own.
So our first meeting was really brief, about 10 minutes, to get together to sing a fun song and set out some guidelines with the family. We needed to decide when and where to have the meetings, how we should start them and who would be in charge of what tasks.
I knew that to make these meetings work I would have to get the kids invested in the idea by having fun and giving them some responsibilities:
1. After modeling what a typical agenda might look like, my daughter took the job of creating one for each week and posting it on the refrigerator. Throughout the week we jot down any agenda items that might come to mind, like sharing an idea with the whole family or how to solve a problem that the siblings are having. At the beginning of each meeting, Bean grabs the agenda and brings it over.
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| Bean’s Agenda |
2. Doodle’s job is to grab the Family Meeting Notebook and a pen. In the notebook we write any important notes from the meeting or things we need to remember for the next meeting.
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| Family Meeting Notebook |
3. We decided that a song to open every meeting would be a good idea (we picked the hokey pokey and everyone gets to pick a body part to “shake all about”, you probably can guess what my 4 year old son chooses!). It’s like an ice breaker and gets everyone on the same page.
4. Sharing Time or Announcements is when we share ideas, things that happened over the week, or items that the children created. Everyone gets a turn and there are no rules except to be respectful to the speaker.
This is also when we might play Roses and Thorns; each family member gets to share a “rose” (good thing that has happened) and/or a “thorn” (not so good thing). We’ve found that everyone enjoys knowing that they will be heard and their feelings validated at this time. Not that it doesn’t happen at other times during the week, but having a dedicated time has been so valuable.
5. Business is the down and dirty problem solving time. Honestly, we haven’t had much of this so far and it is okay. I know that we are setting the framework now for when we need to have the big “business” discussions. For now I have been using this time for games and activities that are team building and fun.
6. Treats!! The closing of the Family Meeting is always a treat, whether it is a cookie or fruit with whipped cream or a bit of ice cream, it is something the children look forward to. And I’d be hard pressed to find a better way to continue great family bonding than over a glass of milk and a cookie!
Our Family Meetings are a work in progress, as they should be. They help give us time to bond and really enjoy one another in the middle of our busy schedules. I’m so glad we started them and I hope you might think about it too.
Health and Happiness,
Cerissa
My Early Childhood Education background helped me make these meetings work for my young children. It can be challenging finding ways to involve children this young (and younger!) but I encourage you to try.
Just setting the precedent for these meetings to happen in your life will help your child understand that you are making family a priority in your life. While I’m not an expert, I do feel strongly about how strong families make for strong children.
If you have any questions, I’d love to help if I can.
Library Log #1- The Adult Shelf
My all time favorite simple pleasure is reading. Fiction, non-fiction, young adult, mystery, I’m pretty much open to it all. I see nothing wrong with sitting for hours and getting lost in a book (not that I get to do it very often with two little ones running around), in fact if I could take a week off from everything and just live in a library or book store I would be one happy woman. But since that isn’t going to happen, I do the best that I can and quickly scan and grab a book or two from the library shelf while my kids are playing in the children’s section.
Sometimes I can get through two books in two weeks, more often I end up renewing and renewing again until I can finish.
I have found the GoodReads app (for iPhone) to be most helpful lately as I can quickly scan books at the bookstore or library to add to my “to-read” list and then access it when I need to remember what that book was that I wanted to read.
My library system has a digital media catalog that I can use to download available titles to my Kindle or iPad. I sometimes find that books I cannot find physically at the library are available digitally. One benefit is that you can request a title and when it is available you receive an email and link to download. Unfortunately the titles are non-renewable and only able to be “taken out” for 14 days. Although more often than not I have found this to be a huge motivator to finish the book!
And so, similar to my original Library Log post I will share here with you my good library finds (and maybe some not so good ones), but for adults.
My reads this week:
VB6 by Mark Bittman: My husband and I just finished a 4 day cleanse. We felt great afterwards. We know that we can’t eat like that all the time but we also know that our regular eating habits could be changed for the better. This book couldn’t have come to me at a better time. It was an eye opening read because it led me to understand how my eating doesn’t have to be “eat this-not that (ever)” and that I don’t have to feel guilty when I do indulge a bit. Essentially, author Mark Bittman visits his doctor and is told that he is overweight and pre-diabetic and is given a mandate to begin a vegan diet. Being a food writer, his life literally revolved around eating, yet he didn’t want to be resigned to a lifelong pill regimen. So he created a flexible”flexitarian” vegan diet plan to fit his own needs. Six years later he has lost 40 or so pounds (and kept them off) and he is no longer pre-diabetic. The plan essentially prescribes that you eat Vegan Before 6:00 (at night, or dinner time) and for dinner and later you are welcome to eat anything. No rules, calorie counting or restrictions.
Bittman spends the first few chapters of the book describing in very simple to understand language how the body processes what we put into it and how that translates into health (or lack thereof). The last chapter is full of recipes that are fairly simple and broken into categories of breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner. While I don’t intend to follow the plan exactly, it has helped inform how I make my own dietary choices.
There is also a great interview of Mark Bittman and his book on WBUR’s On Point.
Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson: Interesting story set in Nazi occupied Poland and current day Chicago. A young German boy, Otto, is generously taken in by a Jewish family prior to the Nazi occupation. Through the years the boy becomes part of his new family, bonded with his new siblings, Ben and Rebecca. When the Nazi’s come to invade their town, Otto is visited by his biological parents and faces the decision to stay with his Jewish family and face many challenges or to listen to his parents and go to work for the Germans. In current day Chicago, Ben has enlisted a lawyer to persecute a well-loved philanthropist who he accuses of actually being Otto, who as a Nazi had committed terrible crimes against Ben’s family.
The author uses Ben’s voice to retell a beautiful and tragic story that I didn’t want to put down.
I hope you might pick up one of these great books and enjoy for yourself!
Health and Happiness,
Cerissa
Library Log #1
As we settle back into routine after the holidays (and recent snow days), I find that the children and I have also settled back into a favorite activity: enjoying books together. I’m a reader and always have been and so I have the expectation that my children will be, too. After all, they are great imitators of our best and worst habits.
I was discouraged recently when we went through a few months of not reading much at all. Perhaps it was holiday and pre-holiday craziness or just a bad, bad phase but our regular story reading at bedtime wasn’t happening so regularly. The kids and I were having challenges with bedtime and in the interest of getting them to sleep before 8:30 each night, story time was cut short. Sad, I know. Unfortunately this was also paired with us not reading during the day either (crazy schedules again). Battling guilt (I was that mom who never read to her children!) and sadness (why can’t we just enjoy reading together?), I knew that in the New Year we would need to remedy the situation. My solution? Planned weekly trips to the library and the creation of a family reading spot.
Our family reading spot now centers around a cozy chair in our living room (complete with fuzzy pillow and blanket) and two book holders. One holds books from our personal library that I try to rotate according to season and/or theme. The other holds books borrowed from the library so I know where to find them. I have also found that this makes it easier for the kids to find the books they are looking for.
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| Doodle enjoying a new book. |
Apparently it has worked, because lo and behold, just the other day I caught my 4 year old just “lookin’ at books” in the chair. I have high hopes for daily independent book looking.
And now to the real purpose of this post, to share some of our great library finds with you. I hope to make this a bit of a series, posting occasionally as we find great library books (honestly, some weeks we don’t find that many “winners”).
Here are my kids favorite (and Mom approved) books this week:
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers: a very silly story by one of our favorite authors/illustrators about a boy who gets a lot of things stuck in a tree while trying to retrieve his kite.
Actual Size by Steve Jenkins: a picture book including a variety of animals represented in their actual size, which is great because what 4 year old can grasp that a Goliath frog is 3 feet long without seeing it?
Families of the Deep Blue Sea by Kenneth Mallory: a non-fiction book which details the life of a variety of animals that live in and around the water. It shares some interesting facts that I haven’t seen in other books of its type.
The Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc: the story behind the movie starring Ben Stiller. My kids haven’t seen the movie, but continue to enjoy the tale of the night shift guard who loses the dinosaur bones and finds lots of adventure on his first night of work.
I would love to hear some of your favorite books!
Health and Happiness,
Cerissa
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