Arts and Crafts Project

To add to yesterday's arts and crafts project. You can also use empty egg cartons to make a butterfly or dragon fly. Flip empty egg carton upside down. Cut one egg partition out for butterfly or dragon fly. Have your child paint this. Get some colored paper tissue, cut to size for wings. Poke hole in side areas of egg partition and put in wings. Your child can use a colored pipe cleaner for the dragon fly's tail. Use dried peas or raisins for eyes.

Art and Craft Time

Since it's the week before Easter you might soon have a couple of empty egg cartons around if you decide to dye eggs. Don't throw them away just yet. Your child can use them for a simple arts and craft project. Make an ant or spider out of them. Flip the empty egg carton upside down. Cut an egg partition out for a worker ant or spider or two egg partitions for the head ant. Have your child paint this. At a craft store pick up a bag of colored pipe cleaners. They are flexible and come in many colors. You can pick up some rolly eyes at the craft store as well, or glue dried beans or rice for the eyes. With the pipe cleaners poke holes in the egg partition for antennas for the ant or legs for the spider.

Home Tip- Uses for Food Containers

Put used yogurt and other food containers (glass baby jar, plastic cottage cheese container...) to good use. After food in containers are gone, thoroughly clean them and put meal left-overs inside. If any container isn't see through, put masking tape on the lid and write what's in it. Plastic baby food containers make great snacks containers for lunches. Also, play it safe. If your child has food allergies (peanuts) make sure he does not eat any new food from the peanut butter jar.
Other uses for food containers: When your child paints put water in a couple of old food containers to clean brushes. Use big yogurt containers as tubs for organizing colored pencils and markers, even pens. You can also keep spare dog food in one (be sure to mark it) to have at Grandma's when/if your dog stays there overnight.

Movie Review

Movie Title: The little Princess. Children's movie. Rated G. Based on the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The movie takes place in 1800's England, during the Boer War. Main character, Sara Crewe (Shirley Temple in the 1930's version), is a spoiled rich girl. Her father is an army officer. While he fights in the war Sara is to live at a boarding school run by a callous money-minded headmistress. Sara is showered with gifts and is given biased treatment at the school. That is until the headmistress learns Sara's father could be dead. Since money won't be coming in to pay for her schooling and care, Sara must give up her fine bedroom and live in the attic. She is made to work for her food and keep. Though Sara might be an orphan now and poor, her shift in wealth has an up side. She finds the true meaning of friendship with a poor servant girl. A girl so unlike her other self. My favorite part in the movie is when Sara and her new friend wake up to find the attic bedroom transformed into splendor. It was done by a generous Indian neighbor. This is a great movie for little girls.

Home Tip

Do you get a Sunday newspaper? If so, save the comic section. It makes colorful, fun wrapping paper for presents, from birthdays to holiday. Plus, you'll be recycling paper and saving trees. But before wrapping clothes with newspaper, make sure you wrap them first in tissue so there's no chance that ink from the newspaper can get on the clothes.

Movie Review

Movie Title: Lemony Snicket's, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Children's movie. Rated PG. Not for young kids due to the repetition of strange deaths. Based on a children's book series. Sadly, two children and their baby sister suddenly are orphaned. Their parents died in a fire. They go live with mean Count Olaf (superbly played by Jim Carrey) who makes them do all sorts of chores while trying to get their inheritance from them. The children then go live with other people. Strangely, whenever the kids get settled with one person that individual has an untimely demise. Could the villainous Count Oalf be behind it?
The children are likable and you, the viewer, soon are caught up worrying about their future. Children at home think it's funny that Sunny, the baby, likes to chew on furniture. Adults shouldn't worry about finding this movie boring.

Science Day

Science Day: It's spring. Time for planting. If you plan to plant hydrangeas or already have them with pink blooms try this experiment to get blue blooms. Bury nails in the hydrangeas soil. The metal will rust, leaving an iron deposit, making the flowers change color. In general, giving nutrients and minerals to your plants can make them healthier. I, personally, have saved a dying baby orange tree by turning its soil (letting oxygen in) and putting compost in its soil. For those of you who do not have hydrangeas or do not plan to plant them this Spring here is another Green Thumb experiment you can try.
Have your child eat an apple or orange, saving the seeds. Find a sunny spot to plant the seeds. Place seeds about two to three inches down in the ground. Mix soil with compost or potting soil. Water. Give seedlings nutrients. Watch grow.

Learn about Composting

Composting is great. It's terrific for your roses and fruit trees. And if you do it you'll be teaching your children (or grandchildren) the benefit of recycling certain waste. Some cities offer free compost bins. Call your local waste management agency for more information. If they aren't helpful call your councilperson.

What should you put in your compost bin? Different people put in different things. I know of one person who puts in almost everything left over from their family's dinner plates. But that same person has problems with rodents trying to get into their compost bin. I don't recommend putting meat or fatty foods in your compost. Or butter, or foods with oil on them. I know a green thumbed gardener who has amazing compost. This is what he puts in his compost bin: Old vegetables, used coffee grinds and tea leaves, flower petals, tree leaves, grass clippings (But go easy on grass. A variety of things is best.), hay, and fruit (Though not banana peels. I was told they can take up to five years to disintegrate. This makes sense. Both my sister-in-law and I have seen banana peels rotting in our composts after six months). Whenever my greened thumbed friend adds anything new to his compost he gets a shovel and mixes everything together, digging down deep. He lets the very lowest layer of his compost decompose for six months before he uses it. Here's a tip to get things to decompose faster in your compost pile- wet it down every week (Unless it rains or snows. The compost bin tops I've seen have holes to let rain in).

More information: Other people have told me they put stale bread and cereals in their compost. I personally don't. And I wouldn't recommend putting in any sugary items (surgery cereals, granola bars with chocolate, or desserts) or any food that has honey on it. The bin might attract bees or ants. Also, don't put in sticks. They don't rot fast enough and it can clog up the compost at the bottom where the bin door is. (This happened to my sister.) And from my own personal experience I find that egg shells don't seem to break down very fast, so I don't put them in the compost either.

Movie Review

Title: Little Lord Fauntleroy. Children's movie/Miniseries drama. Rated- Family movie. Inspired by the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is a moving tale about a fatherless, yet sweet American boy, Cedric Errol. He learns that due to the recent death of his uncle he is now to be the new lord, and future Earl of Dorincourt, in far away England. He has to leave his dear friends, a shoe shine boy and a grocer. But he keeps in touch in them with letters. Cedric is unaware of the animosity his grandfather holds for his kind mother. To his grandfather his mother is nothing more than an American gold-digger. But she is not. And she is too well breed to talk ill of his grandfather to him. Cecil journeys to England where he lives with his grandfather in his castle. He is allowed to visit his mother once a day. Because his grandfather dislikes his mother she has to live down the road. But she takes this in good grace. Due to the wonderful influence of his mother and his own considerate nature, Cedric changes lives. Including that of his cantankerous grandfather. But a new boy arrives with his haughty mother. She says she was married to Cedric's uncle, the one who died. Is her son the real Lord Fauntleroy? And what will happen to Cedric? You'll have to watch the movie, or the miniseries, and see. Note the last name of Cedric. It is Errol. I believe this was purposely done. I liked this movie as a child and I still like it today.

A Craft for your Child

Save toilet rolls. Make a telephone with them. Have your child color two toilet rolls with crayons. Tie old shoe laces together or use a long string. Poke a hole in each end of the toilet roll with a paper puncher. Pull string through and tie. (Keep away from babies due to accidentally strangling. You can also staple string to toilet rolls, but staples can fall off and get lost in your carpet. And if someone steps on a staple in bare feet it can hurt. Plus, if you have a baby around you don't want the baby to find it and eat it.) If you have an empty tissue box you can make that into a phone box. Cover tissue box with the inside of a paper bag like a present. Then have your child draw push numbers for calling on it. Poke hole into it and tie string with toilet roll to it as a receiver. Alternative: Instead of toilet rolls you can use paper/Styrofoam cups.

Help to Organize Your Home

Has clutter added up in a random room in your house? Do you have a junk room because you don't have the time or the energy to decide where items should go? If so, let's fix that.

The cluttered room:
1)Pick a day when you have a lot of time free. Then roll up your sleeves and go through the clutter. It's great to do it with a friend because you'll have someone to talk to and, hopefully, egg you on to give up things you hate to give up. "Barbara, honestly that leg lamp might be funny, but well, to be honest it's tacky. Since you're not tacky you should get rid of it." Have two piles. One pile is for things to keep. The other pile, which should be bigger, is for items that are out of date, unnecessary, broken, or you really will never use. You can give this stuff away or throw it away. And/or have a garage sale. The proceeds of which can go into your bank account or towards a piece of furniture you always wanted and have space for. If you hate to part with an item, take a picture of it and let it go. It's better to have an album full of pictures of things you want to remember than a room full of stuff you will never use that get in the way.

2)Have a vision for the room for the way you want it to look. Draw a picture of it. Take measurements of furniture before you move them to make sure they fit where you would like them to go. Also, you might find you don't need five arm chairs and two sofas in the same room. Space things so that people can move around freely. The room will appear larger.

3)If you have a batch of magazines and hate to part with them because they have pretty pictures, or are expensive or useful you can A) have only two rows on a bookcase dedicated to your favorite, most resent issues, and/or B) give the rest or all of them away to your eye doctor, family doctor, or if applicable your child's school (for cut and paste projects). You will feel good knowing others are enjoying them. But call first and see if they would actually like your magazines.

4)For items that you would like to keep that don't fit in the room- put them in boxes or big plastic bins. Remember to label the boxes/bins so you'll know what's inside. You can store the bins on a shelf in your garage or put them in the attic. I personally like plastic bins. They are more likely to keep pesky rodents out. Plus, they keep the items inside from getting wet. Either from rain coming through the roof or from water on the ground.

5)If the room you are organizing is the kitchen. Organize the drawers and cabinets wisely. Put all cups and saucers on one shelf in a cupboard. Have corresponding salad and dinner plates on another shelf in that same cupboard. All dinner silverware should go in one drawer. If some don't fit, and they're expensive or heirlooms, put them in a dinning room drawer. The others get rid of. And I mean it. How often do you have thirty-three people over? Unless you have a large family or are quite the socialite you don't have a good reason to keep lots of cheap mismatching silverware around. And if you were a socialite you'd be using your good silverware from the dining room drawer anyhow. Keep utensils down to a minimum. Look at the utensil. Do you ever use it? Do you even know what it does? If no, release it to the trash or another person who will use it. Or give it to charity.

6)If you have receipts or other papers you need or want to keep, put them in piles with themes. Receipts for furniture. Work receipts. Letters from friends. Pictures kids painted. Use folders, shoe boxes (you can ask your local shoe store for them) or small plastic bins to put the corresponding paperwork in. Stack the bins/shoe boxes in a closet. The folders should go in a drawer or a filing cabinet. You can always buy a folder organizer to put in a bottom drawer of a desk. That way you can have several folders handy for other paperwork.

7)After you organize a room, vacuum it or wash the floor. Plus, dust. Even the mini-blinds. And wash the windows. Open them and let in fresh air. If the room is musty smelling, you can use Febreeze. I also spray it on curtains, but make sure you can use it on yours. If dust has been gathering on the drapes/curtains for years, have them cleaned or clean them yourself if you can. Or treat yourself to new ones. Wait and see how much money you make from any items you plan to sell at your garage sale. Then buy new drapes/curtains.

Movie Review

Movie Title: Kidnapped. Adventure. Based on the book by Robert Louis Stevenson. There are many versions. I've seen two and rating wise both were pretty mild.
Plot: Before a poor Scottish boy's father dies he reveals to his boy, Davy, that he is actually not poor. Once the father is buried (his wife is already deceased) the boy is to see his uncle and a certain lawyer. Davy visits his uncle first. However, the uncle is greedy and does not want Davy to have his inheritance. Before the boy can get to the lawyer his uncle sells him into slavery to a mean ship captain. However, a bonnie Scottish soldier happens to get on the ship giving Davy hope they might escape. This is sure to meet the standards of any child who loves high adventure. But this movie is not for girls or boys who are very young (6 to 8) they might get bored with the plot. And the movie has no comic relief. It is pure adventure.