A Bunch of Burts

This week Works For Me Wednesday is the “Mom I’m Bored” Edition.
School is out or will be shortly and the lazy summer days begin. But so do the bickering and fussy attitudes from boredom, right?

A hike to a lovely lake is a great summer activity! Don’t forget your water bottle.

I am eager to read some/many/all of everyone’s ideas. Our summer will be living in two different places for several weeks each while we are studying Thai immersion style or out in a village for our village orientation. The kids will be out of their normal routine and a bit more constricted on what is available for them to do since we will just be bringing essentials with us and living in unfamiliar surroundings.

But no matter where you are, I find one of the best boredom busters is simple.

Turn off the TV.
No TV, no videos, no computer games.
This encourages (forces) your kids to play together, with the neighbors, invent games, or play the ones languishing in your cupboard.

Along with turning the TV off, you need to be willing to let some mess creep into the house. If kids are doing art projects, inventing or making up games, it gets a bit messy. (Don’t get me wrong, expect clean up to happen and preferably before moving on to another project, but let the project have room to grow.)

Paint ball is certainly messy, but tons of fun too. Pull out those old holey clothes for this one and don those saftely goggles!

Some things we do when we have free time:
Bake cookies
Play games, all kinds
Puzzles (I know not everyone like this, but they are a big hit at our house and if you are not careful, a real time sucker!)
Write letters (email or snail Surely there are old friends and grandparents and such that would love a letter and certainly would write back, thus encouraging more letter writing on the part of your kids. )
—-and letters do not have to be just written; try pictures, collages, ‘ransom’ style from cutting magazines, ect…..

If you have enough of your own or other kids around, play outside games:
Kick the Can
Sardines
Soccer
Hide and Seek
Jumprope
Badminton (don’t even need to have a net)
Don’t forget old fashioned wood, nails and a hammer and imagination!

This next one may not sound like much fun for your summer vacationers, but definitely good for the family: Chores

Doesn’t Ema look like she is enjoying helping Mama with the laundry?

If the kids have free time, use it! Summer is a great time for Life Training. During the school year, if your family is like ours, time is gone each night after homework and activities. Learning housework (inside and out) is important, and helps free Mom up so trips to the park, zoo, beach ect.. are more feasible.
(When we still lived in WA, all three of the kids loved to chop firewood. It kept them busy for hours. And summer is when the wood needs to be chopped and stacked so it is ready for next winter. Not to mention good exercise )

Zach is very proud of his first piece of firewood. Chopped it all by himself.

That is way more than my 2 Baht worth.
See you at Shannons!

Happy Summer Break,
Tina

P.S. These were pictures from our time in Jungle Camp as part of our training with NTM. Even though life was ‘primitive’ and the kids had many chores each day and no ‘modern’ entertainment, all three of them will tell you it was one their favorite times!

If summer has not arrived yet for you, do not fret, it IS coming.

And in the balmy summer days, or hot and humid rainy season as it were, it is important to stay hydrated, is it not?

In the interest of drinking less sugar we enjoy homemade sodas.
Fill a glass 1/4 full with your favorite juice, and fill up the rest of the way with plain soda water. Of course ice cubes make it really chilly and wonderful, and don’t forget the straw!

Loads less sugar than soda or a full glass of juice, fun bubbles to make it more exciting than plain water and stretches the juice too, making this treat easy on your budget.

This works for me, as I am enjoying one right now. Cranberry/grape to be be specific. mmmmm.

I will see you at Shannons for more ideas from the wise women at WFMW,

Last week, Ema’s eye began hurting her.
She was developing a sty. I hate those nasty things, they hurt and ache and even blinking becomes a bother. And for the sty-ee, they seem to take forever to clear up.

My friend, MR, noticed Ema’s eye and gave a great tip.

She said her mom always rubbed a gold ring on a sty when it was beginning and it would clear right up. Ema’s sty was more than just beginning, but we gave it a try. In the morning after breakfast, and at night before bed, we gently rubbed Ema’s eye with Greg’s wedding band. (His is wider than mine and easier to use). After one day: a marked improvement, and after two: all the soreness was gone and the redness had pretty well disappeared. By the looks of her eye before the gold treatment, I would have given it another 4-5 days to clear up on its own.

MR said she asked a doctor why this works, and he replied that both gold and silver are natural antibiotics. (Caution: gold and silver are also heavy metals, DO NOT take internally. although if you have the wherewithall to be eating gold, may I send you our contact info? )

You know, now that I think about it, burn patients often have bandages impregnated with silver too, to help the healing process.

Wow, what an awesome God we have, He really thought of everything didn’t He? I love finding little bits of info like this that make me appreciate the Creator and His creation more and more.

There is more valuable advice, yummy recipes and helpful hints waiting for you at Shannon’s Works for Me Wednesday Have fun searching!

This week, Works-For-Me-Wednesday’s edition is what does NOT work for you. (Doesn’t-Work-For-Me)
I was not sure if it meant to post about things you do not like and how to fix them, or ‘hints’, ‘helps’, recipes, ect…. that turn out to be not so helpful or do not live up to their claims.

I am going with the later.

I love recipes. I love to bake. One of my favorite things to check out of the Bookmobile (mobile library for those of us who live waaaay out in the sticks,) was cookbooks. I especially like the cookbooks that give small snippets of info regarding the history of the dish, ingredients or country of origin.

One of my favorite cookbooks is one I found in the Mission Barrel while we were in Bible School. It is called The Heritage of Southern Cooking by Camille Glenn.

Fun, fun, cookbook. Great old pictures and anecdotes all the way through. To be honest, I only make a couple of things out of the book, one of which is Chocolate Finale Cake, which we renamed Chocolate Sin on a Plate. It is soooo good. But the book is great fun for me just to look through every once in a while and think about making something else from it.
The drink section is a riot. With perhaps one exception, all the recipes call for alcohol of some kind, and the ones that don’t, list it as optional.
I knew several ladies from the South in our years of training, and when I teased one of them about the drink recipes, she quickly retored, “How do you think we are so hospitable all the time!?” Hahahaha, ummm, you were joking, right?

But I digress.

I try to make a hot breakfast each morning for the family, but tend to get stuck in the same dishes over and over.

Searching for new ideas, I saw a tasty sounding recipe for cheese blintzes and having had them before at a restaurant, really wanted to try them out.

Not the actual crepes I served, but tasty looking don’t you think?

The family lliked them, they are healthy, give a good mix of dairy, protien and bit of carbs, low sugar too, but… I am NOT making them again.

2 hours they took me to make. 2 hours!

Making the little crepes on my sort-of non-stick pan. Filling the little darlings with the cheese mixture and then baking them. I can only do one sheet at a time in my miniature oven, and so by the time I was done, it was nearly time to think about making lunch.

No ladies, cheese blintzes do NOT work for me. At home anyways. Maybe someone out there has a tip to make this easier, but for now, they shall remain restaurant food in our family.

Head over to Shannon’s at Rocks in My Dryer for other warnings and caveats today, they may save you a headache, money, time, or all three!

I know, I know, many of you are still trying to coax spring to arrive much less thinking summer. Well, maybe at least you are thinking summer, longing for it to arrive.

One of our favorite parts of hot season is the wonderful fruits we have available.
I had never been a huge fan of mango until we moved to Thailand, and now we love them. All kinds, and even unripe green mangos.
Oh yes, a bit of green mango is so yummy and refreshing! mmmm.

One of the problems I had with said mango though is how to get them off thier pit. When preparing ripe ones especially, the process can be messy and frustrating.

We just recently visited our friends in Mukdahan and I saw her cutting mango so efficiently and I wondered how I had never done it this way before.

Simplicity. Brilliant.

OK, here goes with the photo tutorial.

Step one.
Peel the mango. No picture necessary right?

Hold the mango broad side up.

With a knife make diagonal cuts down to the pit along the length of the mango.

Please ignore the dishes in the sink. Lazy children.

Now cut diagonally the other way.

Starting on the side nearest you, cut horizontally along the top of the pit over a bowl and the cut mango morsels will drop neatly into your bowl.

Of course take care of your finger tips, or it will be even harder the next time to hold the mango still. haha

See how close you can get the pit? Slick and easy.

Repeat on other side.
Sometimes there is a bit of mango left on the side of the pit. You can slice that off too, now that you know where the pit boundaries are.

There you have it!
Yummy.
Tasty.
Delirous.
( Do you know that movie reference? )

Here is a completely free bonus mango-eating idea.

Stir one container of plain or vanilla yogurt with a 1/4 tsp of ground ginger. (Add vanilla too if using plain yogurt) Coat mango pieces and enjoy.
As we travelled home from the NE this week, I found PEACHES! at a roadside stand. They were so tasty with the mangos in this cool and sweet ’salad.

For more tips and tricks, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer

Just have to say, I have NO idea how all you ladies are able to post so quickly! I am amazed. I have been watching Shannon’s site for the last 40 minutes or so, but I am still # 36. You all are amazing.