Reading Or Memorizing?

The Prairie Kid is starting to learn to read. He "read" me a book the other day. I only read the book to him once and he recited/read it back to me right away. I am amazed at how quickly they pick things up.

Fall Kitchen Events

It seems like this time of year I enjoy spending some time in the kitchen. Lately, I have had some good experiences, and bad. I'll share one of each today.

I like to start off with the bad and get it over with.

I was really excited about a new recipe idea. It was on a gals blog that has become quite famous for healthy, family-friendly food ideas. It was for carrot chips. Look at this bowl of carrot chips from her blog...I thought, "What a great idea! And I have a whole large bag of carrots!"

So, I watched the little video and followed the directions. Not to a "T" but close enough.

The recipe said to cook for 45 minutes on 250. Mine took 2 hours. And they weren't like her pretty bowl of carrot chips. They were, well, here, you look...

I used and ENTIRE large bag of baby carrots and ended up with this SANDWICH size bag of pathetic carrot chips. Well, Famous Blogging Lady, you've got some special talent for carrot chips. Kudos.

Now for the good part. : )

I have been a part of a co-op that I get a big basket of fruits and veggies from every 2 weeks. You never know what you're going to get. And sometimes you get things and think "uh, what am I going to do with that???"

For instance, the HUGE butternut squash that I got last time. I knew my family would not want to eat roasted butternut squash for 2 weeks, or even 1 for that matter. So, I got on trusty Google and looked for recipes. Yep, you can roast the stuff, that's for sure. It wasn't appealing to me so I added the word "soup" to my search.

I found a fairly simple recipe on the Food Network and I actually had all of the ingredients for it. So, I whipped up a batch and YUMMY! Even The Prairie Daddy and The Prairie Kid (who rather wishes squash didn't exist) liked it!

And what did I do with the 2 acorn squash that I got in my last basket? Yep, squash soup! Have it already for the freezer. : ) (I just didn't feel like serving it this week considering it is in the 80's. I think we'll save it for when it gets chilly again).

Here is the link to the recipe in case you're interested:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/butternut-squash-soup-recipe/index.html

Psychological Analysis

I have taken note of a certain little boy's consistent desire to sort lately.

We went to the local Labor Day parade on Labor Day (go figure, the Labor Day parade is ON Labor Day!) They had TONS of candy for the kids watching. The best float is local family turns a vehicle into a dinosaur with a long tail. Periodically the dinosaur stops. The tail lifts. And, well, the dinosaur "dumps" a pile of candy. I am assuming the husband thought this up. I would have liked to have seen the wife's face when he shared his idea with her.

Okay, back to evaluation.

We come home with our HOARD of candy. We're home for about 30 minutes. I am busy in the house and not checking out what my son is up to. I am aware that he is at the kitchen counter doing something, well, I assume constructive. He is making "playing" noises so I am not suspicious of him eating all of the candy.

Finally, I check. And he has carefully sorted all of the candy and was playing with it.

He was obviously proud of his accomplishments, both receiving and then sorting.

Today I turned around to find the following game pieces, again, sorted. They were also, obviously, lined up and he was "measuring" them. I asked him how long they were. He took his time and very matter-of-factly answered "90 and 5 pounds."

So, what do you think? Architect? Engineer? M&M factory assembly line? Let me know what you think this sorting might mean for The Prairie Kid's future. Maybe the badge he is wearing is another piece of this. Hmmmm.

"M" is for...

Muffins for Moms!

The Moms were invited to Kindergarten this morning for "m"uffins. "M" was the letter of the week. We also had "m"ilk. It was a fun time to go into school with The Prairie Kid. I think his class and teacher are both wonderful.

Here are the "m"uffins we took...they really were banana bread baked in a muffin tin. Then we used cream cheese frosting to make the "M"s on the top.

Homework

Who knew that Kindergartners have homework nowadays? We get a folder at the beginning of the week with several assignments. We can work on the assignments throughout the week and they can be turned in on Friday but The Prairie Kid likes doing ALL of them on Monday evening and turns them in on Tuesday. I wish he was that motivated to do chores and pick up after himself. : )

And there, of course, is reading...15 minutes every night. It is still surreal to me that there is an elementary student living in our home.

Innovative Visor

Sometimes I think it is almost wrong how easy it is to please The Prairie Kid.

Last weekend we went to a thrift store. He found a Nike beanie for winter. He wanted it. I wanted him to have it so that I could get mine back from him that he has claimed is his for the past 2 years. For $1 or $2 the problem was solved. He acted like he'd won the lottery. Even though it was warm and sunny out he wore his "new" hat.

On the ride home he had fallen asleep. I turned to look at him and this is what I found:

I guess we are getting more for our money than I expected. A dollar still can go a long way.

Legacy

I'm not sure what part of the house he was digging in, but The Prairie Kid came in the other day wearing my late grandpa's belt buckle. I was given it when I was in my "cowgirl years" looking for an identity at the end of high school and the beginning of college. My grandpa wasn't a cowboy, he was actually an attorney in southern California. I guess he was wearing a belt buckle because it was either a trend at the time or he had an internal cowboy wanting to come out. : )

Anyways, I thought it was neat that The Prairie Kid was interested in his great grandpa's buckle.