Review: Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places

Sometime being an aunt is hard. I don't have the patience of a mom and I'm just not used to kids since I'm not around them that often. That's one reason I enjoy reading the blog Many Little Blessings. Angie writes about everything from crafts to going green to family/kids and sometimes all these at once! I'm always interested in posts about her kids and their activities since her kids are a bit older than my youngest nieces/nephew. While I don't get to babysit as often as I would like, I'm always on the lookout for activities we can do together.

That's why when Angie announced her book, Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places, I was so excited for her and for me. Angie has a Master's degree in Special Education and does in-home therapy for young children. According to Angie, this book

was written as a reaction to comments that many of the families that I see doing in-home therapy have said. I often bring toys for the children to play with while we’re working, and many families have said things like, “I need to get something like (that toy)” or “You have all the cool toys.” I wanted to show those families that there are so many activities that can be done with just objects in and around their own houses. So, I wrote this book with them in mind. (I am giving the books, one section at a time, to those families at no charge.)

This 58-page e-book has over 200 activities to keep any child busy using common (and inexpensive) household items. The book is organized by props including such items as lids, poker chips, and blankets. While I don't have any poker chips, I do have other things I can use for the activities. See, she's already got me thinking! Given Angie's background, I'm confident the activities she's given will be fun and educational.


What I liked:
* In addition to the fun ideas, Angie noted the benefits such as hand-eye coordination or if the activity might not be appropriate for a child (for example, child with sensory defensiveness).
* Well organized.
* A list of her favorite books for toddlers and preschoolers. While I am familiar with most of them, there are a few that are new to me.
* The PDF format, which is low cost and easy to browse, but allows me to print out pages if I want hard copy.

What I would have liked:
* More details on which activities would be appropriate for what ages or age range (as a non-mom, I'm not sure what activities would be best/appropriate for a two year old or a four year old or a six year old).
* An index (but I'm old school that way).

You can purchase a copy of Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places at Many Little Blessings for $7.50 US. Through the end of this month (May 2010), you can get a 20% discount by using this code: Scrapbook20.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my review. I was not paid for this review nor received any other compensation.

Almost empty

Somehow, our fridge got emptied. Must have something to do with not having any time to grocery shop. Or being on vacation for a couple of days. I'm in charge of grocery shopping/cooking and made sure Mr. Fix-it had lots of leftovers to consume before I left. Although he did manage to buy some gelato for dessert. Other than than what you see, we've been eating from the freezer. I even resorted to going out to lunch TWICE this week. The good news is I was inspired to clean all the shelves and drawers since they were almost empty. It's something I do periodically...like once every other year.

Those young whipper snappers don't know everything

At a recent garage sale, we overheard some teenagers trying to figure out some technology. The technology wasn't that old, after all, I used one growing up and mom still has one in her house. What was it that had those kids befuddled? A telephone. A rotary phone to be exact. One kid was pressing the numbers and the other kid had to show him how the turn the dial. How quaint! (my words, not theirs)

The good fat

I made chicken stock a couple weeks ago and now the freezer is full. I'm well stocked (ha! ha!) for soup this summer. Since FIL's freezer was almost empty, I took some over there to store. Since a full freezer works more efficiently than an empty freezer, it is a win-win, right? (Although I didn't make that much stock.) I also added a bunch of ice blocks so now the freezer is about half full.

Before I froze the stock, I skimmed the fat off and instead of throwing it away, I stored it in a little bowl in the fridge (just like mom, although I remember mom leaving it on the stove). The next few times I sauted vegetables, I added a bit of the fat for flavor. Yummo! I think Mr. Fix-it appreciated the extra flavor, but I wonder what's worse for you, chicken fat or butter?

Happy Mother's Day!

Unfortunately, I'm not spending it w/my mom, but I did send her a card (I think I'm required to send handmade cards, no more Hallmark for Mom, lol) and called her this morning. I think she knows how much I miss being w/her, even if we get on each other's nerves if we spend too much time together.

We also took flowers to MIL at the cemetery (and also wanted to make sure the year was added to FIL's tombstone since it turns out that wasn't paid for even though we thought it was). Even at 9:30 in the morning, the cemetery was crowded and they had three security guys directing traffic. I would have taken a picture of the flowers and posted it, but I didn't want to weird Mr. Fix-it out, nor any of my readers. Suffice to say they are pretty and MIL/FIL would be happy we got them from Trader Joe's since they seem to have the best price on cut flowers bouquets.

I'm not sure if we will be taking flowers to FIL/MIL on a regular basis. We stopped taking flowers to MIL because FIL took flowers every week and it a little frustrating to bring flowers and then not have any place for them. Mr. Fix-it really isn't a flower kind of guy (since I don't get flowers even once a year), but I was brought up to regularly bring flowers to the cemetery. I suspect we won't be taking flowers very often, though I will feel guilty about that. (As I always say, guilt, the gift that keeps on giving.)

Give your mom a hug or call or thought today. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Tales from the trash heap

I can't believe it has been a month since FIL left us. Some days, it feels like it just happened and sometimes it feels like it has been months. (Lest you think I'm being disrespectful with the title of this post, please keep reading.) This past Sunday, a neighbor left a note at FIL's house. It turns out, FIL would stop by his house regularly to pick up recyclables, even after the city changed to the giant automated pickup cans, and they missed him. I made the slightly uncomfortable call and spoke with the wife. She was very sweet and talked about how FIL regularly stopped by their house for years; they would leave recyclables by the side of the house just for him. She asked when FIL passed away. That was when it hit me that it had been about three weeks since the funeral and exactly four weeks since his passing. So I wanted to jot down some memories before they faded away.

I mentioned in FIL's eulogy how much he enjoyed getting something for nothing, picking though the garbage for recyclables or "valuables" he could sell at garage sales. At one garage sale, some teens found some stuff their dad threw out and bought it to take home as a joke.

On garbage day, he'd troll the neighborhood looking for fans or lamps he could repair. Unfortunately, he collected more than he had time to fix and the backyard was full of rusted, broken fans, lamps, and exercise equipment. We rented a giant bin to get rid of this stuff and should have rented two. It only took an hour to fill it to the top and there was still the side yards and garage to go. We went out for a few hours and when we got back, we had a pleasant surprise. My nephew discovered that someone had cleared out half the bin. Half! This sounds like something FIL would have done (though he wouldn't have been able to haul off quite that much himself). Too bad we weren't home because we would have invited them to take more, lol. We took advantage of the empty space and emptied out the side yard, whew! I suspect some of that stuff was gone before garbage pickup the next day. And FIL would have been right there making sure he didn't miss any of the good stuff.

We have a winner!

Actually three winners! Holly, send me your snail mail address. Susan and Miwa, I have your addresses.

National Scrapbook Day

Coming soon! This weekend in fact. Unfortunately, I don't have any plans. We've got a full day of errands planned, which doesn't leave much time for scrapbooking. Not good since I'm going to a crop in a few weeks and at minimum, I should be prepping for that.

What are your NSD plans (or what were your plans)? Let me know in the comments by Monday and I'll use my crystal ball (or random.org) to pick a lucky commenter to receive some scrappy goodness. I'm not sure what yet, but maybe some stamps, ribbon...I'm sure I can find some yummy stuff.

Happy birthday car!

I was pretty excited when my car hit this milestone.

Italian Rice Balls

Arancini = Italian rice balls = deep fried rice/cheese/butter/beef yumminess! When I first joined the family, Mr. Fix-it's mom fixed these for a holiday and they quickly became a favorite of mine. They also led to a slightly uncomfortable discussion about rice, lol. She wanted to know where to buy "cheap broken rice" to make rice balls because it was stickier than regular rice. Hmmmm, I don't buy cheap broken rice and had no idea there was such a thing, which she didn't quite understand because she figured that I'm Chinese and should know about these things. She was not interested in my suggestion to use short grain rice, which is stickier than long grain rice. No matter, her rice balls were still delicious, no matter what rice she used.

We went to visit the Aunties this weekend so we thought we'd surprise them by making rice balls. We hadn't made them in two? three? years so were a bit out of practice, but they turned out well and the Aunties were so surprised. Uncle J wasn't there so they planned to freeze some of the leftovers for him. Isn't that sweet? Not that we couldn't make them again for the next visit.

Plus, I learned a bit of family trivia on the drive home. It turns out Mr. Fix-it's mom introduced rice balls to his dad's side of the family. For some reason, I thought it was the other way around. Now everybody love 'em! So enough babbling; here's the recipe (with lots of notes).

Rice "shell" ingredients
1 pound (3 cups) short grain rice
1 quart water
Pinch of saffron for color (optional)
2 egg yolks (save the whites for later)
1/4 pound of butter (1 stick), cut into pieces
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Filling ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small can tomato paste
1/4 cup pine nuts
Salt, pepper
Olive oil

Bread crumb coating ingredients
3 cups fine bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (the stuff in the green can, not the good stuff, lol)
salt, pepper, parsley, garlic powder, optional

Oil for frying

Instructions
1. Cook rice with the saffron in the water. I've cooked the rice over the stove and in a rice cooker and it turns out well either way. Just be sure the rice is quite dry when it is cooked.
2. Prepare filling: Saute onion in a bit of olive oil until softened. Add ground beef and brown. Remove any excess grease (I didn't have any since I used ground sirloin). Add tomato paste, pine nuts, and seasonings. Cook for 10 minutes.
3. Mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and seasonings.

4. Lightly beat the egg whites (you'll need them in step 7). Note that I needed three additional egg whites. I suppose you could use whole eggs too.

5. Add the egg yolks, butter, and Parmesan cheese to the rice. Let cool just enough so that you can handle the rice mixture.

6. Form the balls: Coat your hands (just the palms and fingers) with a little oil. Spread a heaping tablespoon or so in the palm of your hand. Make a depression in the middle and place about a teaspoon of the filling in the center. Add another teaspoon of rice on top to form a ball.
7. Roll the ball in the bread crumbs, then into the egg white, then back in the bread crumbs. Place on waxed paper until you're ready to deep fry them. We ended up with 24 rice balls.
8. Deep fry in vegetable oil until light golden brown. I fried them at 335°F for about 3-4 minutes. Place on paper towels to absorb any excess oil.

Enjoy!
Cook's notes:
We ended up with over a cup of bread crumbs leftover so if you wanted to start with less, you could. But bread crumbs aren't expensive and I think having the extra made it easier to coat the rice balls.

We also ended up with almost two cups of filling leftover. Next time, we'll either use less meat, try to add more filling, or double the rice shell mixture and make more rice balls.

Blog update

I did it. Changed my blog title (for the third time since I started this blog). I'm hoping it will inspire me to include more photos, write more in depth thoughts, and blog more regularly. Wish me luck!

Thinking, thinking...

and not blogging. I've got stories to post and photos to post, yet they are still in my head or on my memory card. I could come up with lots of excuses...work, FIL's illness, work, FIL's passing, work, family, work, hmmm, I'm noticing a theme here.

To add to all the fun, the bad news is my FIL's siblings have been in the hospital sometime in the past month, some more than once. Aunt M went in just before FIL's passing; Uncle J went in the day after the funeral (or was it two days?). And we just found out that Aunt G was in for a few days earlier this week. The good news is everyone is home now, almost everyone has recovered. Hopefully everyone, including us, will get/stay healthy.

With all that's going on, blogging falls to the bottom of the to-do list. I'm thinking about changing the title of my blog to something more meaningful/inspiring/motivating to me. Thinking...still thinking.

$3.05

I'm waaay behind in posting these, but since I still want to keep track, here's a gas price for April.

Visitors

I saw this pair hanging out in the neighborhood. They didn't seem to mind me taking a photo.

Passed on the blueberries again

They were only 99 cents for 4 oz. That's a great price, but again, these were from Chili. I can't wait until "local" blueberries are available. I put local in quotes because I'm willing to buy them if they're trucked in from another state. Obviously, I'm not on jumping on the locavorian wagon yet. And I bought veggies that weren't local, but I justified that with the thought they looked fresher than the local stuff and I'm making food to take to my BIL's for the last family dinner before my other BIL leaves. Baby steps, or maybe it is one step forward and then another step back.

White envelopes and flowers

We (actually Mr. Fix-it) received two white envelopes with checks this week. They were inside the sympathy cards from my mom and cousin. Somehow, seeing that from my mom broke me up more than any of the other sympathy cards we received. Maybe because I knew she was following tradition. Or maybe because I knew she really didn't have the money to send (heck, I sent her a check earlier this year). Or maybe because it was a symbol of how much she cares. Mr. Fix-it thought it was a little weird, but considering how much a funeral costs and considering that it is a symbol of caring and considering that is a tradition I grew up with, we will accept the money graciously and gratefully.

On the other hand, I'm not such a traditionalist that I left all the flowers at the cemetery. I forgot that it was bad luck to take home the flowers. I couldn't resist because I hated the thought of hundreds of dollars of flowers rotting in the sun. Besides, my FIL would also have been appalled at the waste. So somehow, in bringing some of the flowers home, I think I'm honoring him a little bit.

It was a beautiful day

My FIL's funeral was today. It has been a crazy week. The family opted to forgo a mass since the first available opening was the middle of next week. I would have preferred the mass because 1) my FIL was a devoted Catholic and 2) I could have used the break in the preparations and the weekend to recover (just being honest here).

Monday was spent trying to recover from the shock of FIL's passing, planning the funeral, writing the obituary (we wanted to get it in the newspaper as soon as possible), and writing the bio and selecting the photos for the memorial website. Tuesday was more planning and an attempt to get some sleep. We hadn't gotten much sleep in the past few weeks. I also started a draft of the eulogy. Wednesday, made the memorial boards (woo hoo, used my Cricut to cut out the letters). It took way longer than I thought it would and I wish I had used more photos. Oh well. Finished the eulogy, but wasn't happy with it. Thursday was the viewing and vigil. Mr. Fix-it and I took a break mid-afternoon and the poor guy fell asleep as soon as he sat on the couch. I printed out more photos for the photo binder. After the vigil, we went back to FIL's house where the brothers reminisced about FIL. BILs and Mr. Fix-it were finally able to talk a bit about their dad and share some good memories. Just a few thoughts here and there helped fill out their image of their father and I was able to rewrite the eulogy that night (yes, more lack of sleep).

Then there was today. The sun shone brightly; there was a breeze. This morning, we brought a few more photos to the funeral home that we forgot yesterday. Met Deacon Bill who was from FIL's church and officiating. Saw family whom I hadn't seen since the last funeral (Uncle N, last year) and the funeral before that (Uncle T, two years ago). It was difficult, really, really difficult to get started with the eulogy. I'm not sure why. Deacon Bill and Mr. Fix-it both came up to give me moral support. It wasn't this difficult when I gave the eulogy for Mr. Fix-it's mother. But I got through it...barely. And hopefully I won't need to do this again for a long, long time.

It was a beautiful service, it was wonderful seeing family, it was a really, really sad day.

Saying goodbye

My father-in-law passed away early Sunday morning. Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. We spent it with family, but it was rather surreal as we were all in shock, and then we were really shook up with an earthquake that afternoon (that one based in Mexico).

I haven't had time to mourn with all that has been going on. So far, the service has been planned, mass cards selected, flowers ordered, obituary submitted, and the biography written/photos selected for the memorial tribute. I still need to print photos and make the memory boards and write the eulogy. I'm exhausted.

$3.05

I wish prices were under $3/gallon. I'd feel a little better about buying gas.

12 minutes

After leaving the hospital after 7:00 last night, then stopping at FIL's to do a little more cleaning, we got home quite late. Luckily, I was prepared to do a quick stir fry with the ingredients I had on hand.

First, I diced some Chinese sausage and onion and added that to my wok. No oil needed since the Chinese sausage is pretty fatty. As that was browning, I rinsed the bean sprouts and pea shoots. After the onion was cooked, I added the bean sprouts and gave them a few quick tosses until they just started to turn color. Then I added the pea shoots. I should have added them a little at a time, but I was too lazy and threw the whole batch in at once so it was difficult for the water to cook off. In between stirring, I microwaved some leftover rice. I finished the stir fry with some garlic powder (gasp! what, no fresh garlic??), white pepper, and a splash of black vinegar.

There you have it, dinner in 12 minutes. I was hoping to get it done in 10 since I didn't have that much chopping to do; also, I think the stir fry would have been better with noodles, but I didn't want to wait for water to boil. None the less, I'm pretty proud of myself for feeding us a relatively healthy meal so quickly.