Toddler Crayon Addendum...

A brief addendum to my Toddler Crayons post...

Have you ever noticed how most cheap (dollar store, restaurant, promotional, etc) crayons never seem to color real well. You go to fill in the fun little color/game sheet... or doodle out the awesome [albeit primary colored] design, which had been so carefully procreating in that ingenious little mind of yours.... Only to be left with nothing but a [clear] waxy residue and a little bit of awry color... ? Mmmhmm... annoying.

Well, let's just say, those little buggers are not any better in Toddler crayons!

I figured, what harm could a few "low-class" ones do? After all, there aren't that many of them... and, I was mixing them with a majority of good crayons. (heh, right... famous last words). Honestly, I figured they would melt into the other ones... maybe leaving one or two lame spots... but otherwise, be no big deal at all. Sadly, I now see the fallacy in that logic. Upon baking and cooling our beautiful crayons.... I noticed the top of each one was lighter in color than the rest of the crayon. Come to find out... all that extra cheap wax, had risen to the top during baking.. resulting in nothing more than a clear layer of pure annoyance.

If you look closely at the bottom of the crayons in this picture,
you'll see the lighter layer of clear wax...

Here's what I did to fix to the situation....

Since I already had my toaster oven heated up (I was cooking a sweet potato for KB), and the top gets really hot... I lined small cookie sheet with aluminum foil, and rubbed the tops of the crayons to soften them.


Then I took the large holed side of an old grater and grated down the clear layer of each crayon...


Finished it with the fine side of the grater...


And then lightly rubbed it back on the heat, to smooth them out...

The result... a slightly less tall, but much more operable crayon!

Moral of this story...
Higher end (ie Crayola) crayons work best for this project!!

Date night: 05/28/09....

Tonight was date night, so we went to Chili's for dinner....

And once again, God provides...
& we were able to enjoy an inexpensive, yet wonderful night out...
just the two of us!!

Thanx to a generous gift-card from LBC's LEARN....
and this "$5 off two entrees" coupon (courtesy of 8coupons.com & fatwallet.com )

We were able to get away with a delicious dinner (+ 2 drinks - a splurge for us), for only $1.29!!!

B (of course) had steak... the Flame-Grilled Ribeye, to be exact...

While I had the oh.so.tasty Quesadilla Explosion Salad...

Fajita-marinated chicken, mixed cheeses, corn relish, cilantro, diced tomato, crispy tortilla strips and ancho-chile ranch drizzle. Served with cheese quesadilla wedges and our citrus-balsamic dressing.

Which I now *highly* recommend! OMW... it was excellent!! - SO good!!

Thank you Lord.

Thank you, Mallie for sharing this awesome, inspiring quote!!

"Women of God can never be like women of the world.

The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender.
There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind.
There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined.
We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith.
We have enough greed; we need more goodness.
We have enough vanity; we need more virtue.
We have enough popularity; we need more purity"

"The Joy of Womanhood," Ensign, Nov. 2000, 15

Sidewalk Chalk

We had a beautiful afternoon in the beautiful outdoors, playing with one of my childhood favorties... sidewalk chalk!!

As tradition... I traced around KB, and made her a chalk girl....

We started to make a second one - a ballerina girl....

But got interrupted by this...

After the rain passed, we went to the front yard, where B had just finished trimming...

and collected these pretty flowers for the kitchen table....

Wordless Wednesday: sorting March pix

Walk For Life...

Despite the *early* morning.... we had a Beautiful day... for a 1.5 mile walk... to represent the $1500 YCS raised.... to give us a 2nd place total & 1st place for contacts reached... To make the Walk for Life was a success!

Chosen? Me too! Choose Life!

Marco Rubio

Today we (the Young Conservatives of Sarasota) went to hear candidate, Marco Rubio speak in Venice today. It was awesome!!

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Rubio is running for State Senate against Charlie Crist. Here you can hear his awesome Farewell address to the Florida House of Representatives, where he served as Speaker.

Sharpie...

Just in case I happened to turn my back for a second, you know, hypothetically speaking... I recently learned that by making a mixture of baking soda/a squirt of [natural] soap/and a little water.... enough to make a thin paste.... apparently works really well at taking green Sharpie off even the most creative, mischievous or artistic toddler's face/tummy/arms..... as well as a treasured piano....

Never a dull moment!!! :)

Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today... May 12, 2009

Outside my Window... HOT, sunny, humid. - summer is already practically here.

I am remembering... All the many birthdays so far this month!! Amber on the 1st.... Kim on the 2nd... Andy (FIL), Ms. Kathy Jackson & the Reckner twins on the 5th... Ashlee-friend & Garske on the 7th... JAmes on the 11th... "Aunt Kathy" on the 12th... Baby Mac on the 13th.... Grandmother on the 14th... and so many more to come!! Harmony, Emily W, Ms Kathy P, Erika, and the list goes on!!

I am thankful for... the delivery work B has had this week for the florist shop - though we miss him!

I am thinking... What IS that song??? (Found it! ~ "Tara's theme," Gone with the Wind ~ Coolness!)

I am wearing... Jean skirt just below the knee, green cami, barefeet, hair a mess - I need to get in the shower....

From the bookshelf...
ReChecked: "Eating through the Alphabet" (Love that book!)

"Growing Vegetable soup" by Lois Ehlert - the same author as the afore mentioned "Eating through the Alphabet" -- This book has a cute concept, but I wasn't nearly as impressed by it as the other one. The colors are flat, it has poor contrast between object & background, and while the main wording is large... the print labeling the items is small, and hard to read. Would probably be better in a lap book size, and enjoyed by a beginner reader, rather than a toddler.

"Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" by Nancy White Carlstrom and Bruce Degen - This Classic rhyming book, has a fun familiarity to our every day life. A little more lengthy than your average board book... but not as long as some story books (which KB does have the attention span for yet.).


From the kitchen...
Today we had Tuna on rice cakes topped with a cold slice of pickle, a mozzarella cheese stick, and [homemade] peach/mango/carrot juice smoothie for lunch.... and [organic] carrot sticks with natural peanut butter, for snack~ Last night we had Hamburgers, homemade mashed potatoes & green beans. ~ Yesterday, for lunch, we had nachos!

I am hoping/praying... For Anna & her baby boys... that everyone will get healthy & strong, so they can all be at home, together!

I am creating... just made KB crayons... as well as the new siggy/scrappy picture you'll see below... :)

I am hearing... Various Disney/Pixar soundtracks playing randomly from my player (Bugs Life, Monsters Inc, Aristocats, Incredibles, Ratatouille, Toy Story)

One of my favorite things...

Around the house... Working

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... Other than a LLL meeting on Thursday morning.... hopefully a date night on Thursday night (we didn't get to go last week, and I *missed* it!!).... A Walk for Life on Saturday morning.... a 1st birthday party f0r baby Mac on Saturday afternoon... and a babyshower for my life-long friend, Kim (baby Isabella) on Sunday afternoon... I really have no idea. Oh I also have offertory Sunday morning, and special music both Sunday morning & night.

Quote...

photo courtesy of

Verse...
Oh! What was that verse I wanted to use here?? arg! I guess I will have to come back with it....

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

Toddler crayons...

What does one do with a whole bag of old, unwanted, crayons... some that are perfectly good - just extremely illogical for small hands... and others that are broken and of no use to anyone??


Why, recycle them into toddler crayons, of course!!!

Like most families with toddlers... no matter what the child's temperament. you always end up with a bunch broken crayons.... Fact of life. Those thin, elongated little buggers, are just not designed for a toddlers chunky hands, or their beautiful, spontaneous spurts of swirling energy & creativity! So what's the solution? These beauties...

Here's how it works....

You’ll need:

• Crayons - (you can purchase them cheaply at the back to school sales.... or just use ones you already have! - I would highly recommend using higher quality [Crayola] crayons though!!)
• Muffin pan or candy molds (preferably one that you don’t mind getting a little crayon on! Also, some prefer mini muffin tins... I used a regular sized one.)
• An oven

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.

Peel off all the paper from the crayons...

(for the new ones, I found it much quicker to remove the paper in one smooth motion if I carefully ran the exacto knife down the center of the paper and peeled the paper back -- for the old ones with stubborn wrappers, a minute or two soak under running hot water worked well.)

Break them into small pieces... & arrange them in each cup of the tin.
(I did like colors together, but multi-colored ones would be fun, as well!)

Bake just long enough to be melted, so you can’t distinguish the crayon shape anymore
(^These^ are not quite there yet!)

Turn off the stove...
but leave them to sit & congeal a little, before moving the pan.
(**this is especially important if you are doing multi-colored crayons!! -- Failure to do so, will cause the colors to amalgamate... and you will end up with brown crayons!!!**)

Let them cool and solidify....

Pop them out of the tins....

(If you have trouble with this, you can put them in the freezer for a bit)

And Enjoy!

Apparently they make good stacking toys too! ;)

Did you have trouble with a clear layer of wax forming on the top of your crayons?
See my Addendum post, here.

Free TCBY Cup or Cone for Mother's Day...

The Country's Best Yogurt (TCBY) is giving away free cups and cones to all Mom's on Mother's day - May 10, 2009! (This offer is at participating locations - so you'll probably will want to check before you go)

PLUS! They are currently running a special... $1.99 for their Frappe Chillers!
(limited time only!)

See more, on their site, here

Fluffy mail!!

They're here! They're here! That's right! We got fluffy mail on Tuesday! The long awaited new diapers, are finally here!


The new, unwashed prefolds look so rough &... weird!

New "Thirsties" covers: periwinkle blue, lavender & cotton candy pink

And the item I'm probly most thrilled about... The (purple!) wet bag!!!

Starbucks: Grande Iced Coffee with Milk for $1.95

Now, through June 29, 2009, you can get a Grande (16 oz.)
Iced Coffee with Milk from Starbucks for only $1.95. More details here.

Thanks for the tip, Money Saving Mom!