Total Splurge: The Pantry

So this post is WAAAAAAY over-due.

Although, in all honesty, it took me WAAAAAAAY too long to accomplish said task and thus write about it. So it's not that the post-writing took all that long (even though it kind of did too)...it was the finishing of the event which gave me the most trouble.

Because, well, frankly, I have been caring for a baby. And even though you think you remember how it all goes when you have a baby (newborn or not) you don’t remember everything.

Plus, you know…many couples have 9 months to prepare for such an event. We had about an hour.

I think I’ve already used that line but frankly I can’t recall. I am averaging about 6 hours of sleep per night and that is with getting up twice in there…But it’s all good. It’s only for a short time and we are joyful to be Jesus’ hands and feet to The Little Man.

But I have digressed and made excuses for my delay.

There’s really no excuse for it…I had planned for this post to be up about 2.5 weeks ago. Only the project wasn’t complete.

Again, we shall lay blame on The Little Man. Mr. AR had white-washing to do, which he could not b/c I was working (helping set up wedding flowers with my friend SV) on both Saturday and Sunday on the week-end when Little Man first arrived.

After that, it was almost another week before the white-washing took place. I don't remember why...it's been too long ago now. Get off my back, would you?

And then it took me about 1.5 weeks to get everything back in place. It takes a while to put things in their proper place when you can only hold one thing at a time…what with a sleeping (or non-sleeping) baby in the other arm.

So…since I have belabored this long enough (I know you have all been missing me, so I’m trying to make this post worth your time), I shall tell you what has happened: we had custom-built shelves installed in our pantry.

And even though this may not sound like a big deal...trust me. It is.

And let me tell you this as well: these shelves are ah-mazing. 

Amazing.

They were built by a friend from church who is extremely gifted at such tasks and I don’t even know how we will ever repay him…so if you have a thought on how we might best do that, please leave a comment, send a message, something to help a girl out.

Because frankly, I am completely tapped out on my creativity as of late. For approximately the past 2 weeks, actually. Go figure...it's a curious coincidence, right?

 

Which may or may not be why I haven’t blogged except twice in these past two weeks.

Or it might be because I have no time. Or that hunt and peck with one hand (because, yes, you guessed it..holding a sleeping baby) is irritating beyond belief…just to be clear: the holding the sleeping baby is not irritating; it’s the hunt and peck with one hand that is irritating.

So…because I know you will want to see how this project transpired, I will give you some photos. Because I can at least do THAT with one hand.

Now, I must explain, especially after coming off our first month of “7” why I would do this and spend my money in this way: because it is not wrong to spend money on things you want, so long as you are not ONLY spending your money that way.

This is my two-cents.

Plus, this is something I have wanted since we moved into this house almost 10 years ago. And I finally decided to do something about it.

And because Mr. AR is awesome like that, he totally agreed.

So here.we.go.

This is what my pantry has looked like for almost 10 years (ok, the food items themselves changed, because otherwise that would be disgusting).

And now here it is with everything emptied out. Except the fire extinguiser. Safety first!

And mind you...this took place while we were still in the midst of "7: Food" so here's all the food we were NOT eating at that time...so that was fun to avoid looking at. (And yes, I ended my sentence with a preposition...)

And here's what we (and the PBA...note that some of this was not on our list, but it's what the PBA often ate...really all we had on the counter was the dry quinoa, black beans, olive oil and dried cranberries) WERE eating...

And here it is sans the shelves.  And Mr. AR and the PBA removing all the hooks and screws which were holding up the shelves (there's a few...I didn't take into consideration just how many there were...oops!)

Note all the black dots. Those are all the holes which needed to be spackled. I am thankful that Mr. AR loves me.

Note that we are STILL hanging on to that fire extinguisher.

And because "one does like a hint of color" (quick....what movie is that from? Time's up..."The Birdcage") I forced insisted asked oh-so nicely for it to be painted the same color as the kitchen. And I love love love it! I'm so glad that "we" decided to do that.

And I thought I took a picture of it before the whitewash was on, but apparently not...I can't be expected to keep track of EVERYTHING! So here we have jumped ahead to the final product. Feel free to ooo and ahhhh along with me. I honestly smile every time I open the pantry door...and I'm certain it is not only because I am once again free to eat everything inside.

If you are interested in finding out the name of our the fabulous craftsman, please send me a message and I'll be glad to share his info with you. (His wife, upon reading that, may have just had a heart attack that I said that!  Love you, CK! Thanks again for sharing your husband's time!)

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Cleaning Up: Homemade Baby Wipes

OK you guys…just because The Little Man is not my own doesn’t mean I am going to be treating him like a prince or anything. I am washing his clothes with home-made detergent (ok some of the formula-vomit stuff I used some Tide I had hanging around for a laundry emergency…I felt this qualified as a true “laundry emergency”).

I am using vinegar to soften his towels.

And now, I have made his baby wipes.

Did you honestly think I would spend money on things like baby wipes?

Well, to be fair, I did buy one box of wipes b/c I needed the box. But from here on out: homemade baby wipes city, Baby.

Now, I am sure you are all wondering how I did this.

I know you are not asking “why” b/c you’ve read this blog before.

And because I do not have time to spare (well, I do have a little bit…it’s not as though someone will wake up and demand a feeding or diaper change at the moment; Little Man is at visitation with his mama and daddy as I type…which is a whole weird dynamic I am still wrapping my brain around; it’s rolling around in there, for sure, and may or may not come out one day…we will see where it lands and if I can be diplomatic in my thoughts. Which means that no, it is probably in there to stay, and not fit for human consumption… but I digress), I shall make this as succinct as I possibly can. (See, that’s funny because that entire parenthetical comment was as long as the rest of the blog post…feel free to give a courtesy laugh if nothing else.)

Homemade Baby Wipes

Ingredients:

• ½-1 teaspoon baby shampoo (Dollar Tree)
• 1 teaspoon baby oil (Dollar Tree)
• 1 ½ cups water (my faucet…duh)
• Paper towels (I used Bounty…spared no expense, right? The cheaper ones will shred on you…well, on the baby actually…and ain’t nobody got time for that) 

Instructions:

• Place the shampoo, baby oil, and water in a sealable container (this is simply to make it easy on yourself; I would recommend that you use the one you’ll store the wipes in, but you don’t have to. I’ll let you choose whatever is easiest…I’m nice like that.) and swish it around. No need to shake it; a nice, easy swirling will do the trick.
• Then using a bread knife, cut the roll of paper towels in half, across the center.
• Place one half of the paper towel roll inside the container in the solution. Give it about 10-15 minutes to soak up the liquid; then pull out the cardboard middle from the paper towel.
• You’ll be able to pull the wipes from the middle of the roll.
• One container of these wipes costs approximately $0.60 (or less) to make, and mostly depends on how much you pay for your paper towels.

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So Much Random, So Little Time

I must begin with a couple explanations from yesterday.

At the beginning of my post, I used the word “dialogue”. I knew at the time it wasn’t the word I intended to use, but my feeble brain was having trouble pulling up the correct one.

So, of course, in typical fashion, it randomly popped into my head this morning while I was running errands: diatribe.

Which may or may not be the CORRECT word, but I am quite certain it is the one for which my brain was searching.

The other thing I need to address: if you read my post yesterday, you were unintentionally left twisting in the wind regarding the story about my 11yo’s doctor appointment.

If you have read that post at a later date, it included the outcome of the visit.

So for those of you who may have missed it: My 11yo is hanging in there at 10th percentile in both weight and height. Hard to imagine that there are boys his age which are smaller than him, but God made us all different...that's what I tell him too.

Now…I feel better to have gotten all that off my chest and I can move on.

Today I sent the PBA off to the Indiana State Fair with my parents. Because the best part of the Fair is the horrible-for-you food.

I will totally own that. Because it is true.

And in case you were unaware, the food vendors there are somewhat light on plain baked chicken, quinoa, yogurt, eggs, black beans, berries and spinach.

For obvious reasons...because they aren't good friend. Except for the chicken and the egg...they are delicious fried.

But are also outside the boundaries of my list when fried.

But I digress.

When they arrived at the fair, I received this text from my dad:

Waited until 10:10 - first food of the day...

(This display of restraint may or may not have been because they went out to breakfast before going to the Fair.)

With this photo attached:

Yes, that, my friends, is a Red Velvet funnel cake.

I told them that it didn’t even look good. (I may be a bit of a liar.)

But I am not here to solely talk about food. It’s going to be a big part of things for another 2.5 weeks (but who’s counting?), but it won’t be ALL I talk about.

I’m certain you were wondering what I did while the PBA were at the Fair. Well, because I love that you cared enough to ask, I shall tell you.

I ran errands.

And it was relatively fast.

And I didn’t have to stop what I was doing and tell someone to “knock it off!”…because I do that sometimes to other people’s children. Not mine…I hope you didn’t think I was talking about MINE!

And the whole experience was lovely.

I won’t tell you all the places, because some of them aren’t that exciting; I’ll stick mostly to the deals.

First off: Marsh Supermarket. Not my first pick but last week when I bought frozen yogurt there (only because it was on the way home from my son’s soccer practice), at the register I received 2 coupons: one for a head of iceburg lettuce, and one for $1.50 off a box of cereal.

So I went and got my free head of lettuce (not on my list, but the PBA will probably be thankful for a break from spinach). And a large box of Chex (also for the PBA)…which only ended up costing me $1.

Woot, woot!

AND at the register, I got a couple more coupons: one for a free dozen eggs (which, ironically the fridge is stocked with eggs at the moment, but that won’t last long) and one for $1.50 off a ground beef purchase (also something which I cannot currently eat but can always freeze for later.)

Look at Marsh, sucking me in.

Not really…their strawberries were $2.99/pound. Really? No way would I shop there regularly.

But I digress.

My next bargain seeking place was Earth Fare. I had a coupon (shocker) for a free pound of ground chuck with a $5 purchase.

If you’ve ever been to a grocery with all-organic stuff, you know prices are super-high…I figured that it would be no big whoop to spend $5.

The problem was: I had trouble spending the $5…because of how little I would get for my money.

So I left there without spending a dime. And also had nothing to show for it.

And my last bargain shopping locale of the day: Kohl’s. But ONLY because I had received another one of their glorious $10 coupons in the mail.

You may recall that I love to play this game with these Kohl's coupons: how much can I get for as little out of pocket as possible?

Well, the first thing I found was this pair of shoes.

Now before you say anything…I replace my workout shoes every 6 months. They never look bad on the outside but the inside it always worn down…which doesn’t give the support I should have, especially for my back, blah, blah, blah.

And no, I don’t need new ones yet, but I will…especially when you see the price:

Oh yeah, Baby! You read that right…$5.99!

So yeah…it was probably best that I go ahead and buy them b/c they probably wouldn’t be there in a couple months.

And because you can’t spend LESS than the $10, I really had to search to find something close to $4.01 but without going over.

I wandered aimlessly around that whole store. Twice, actually…scouring every clearance rack I could find.

Nothing was speaking to me…until I found a pair of men’s black Goldtoe socks which had somehow been lost from their packaging. They were marked $4.10.

These were obviously for Mr. AR...not me. Or the PBA. Although one PBA member COULD wear them if he so desired...but that is highly unlikely.

For those of you who are math-impaired, that’s a total of $0.09 cents before tax, ladies and gentlemen! A personal best!

Boo-yah!

Yes, I like to cheer like a spectator at a football game when I score good deals.

Don’t judge.

So…I ambled on up to the register.

Actually, I high-tailed it b/c I was sick of being in Kohl’s, especially since I was by myself.

Sometimes shopping alone isn’t all that fun.

I said SOMETIMES.

And because I am “that woman”, I was very attentive to ensure my items rang up at the correct price.

Shoes? $5.99…check!

Socks? $3.82.

I’m sorry what?

Me: How much were the socks?

Cashier: $3.82.

Me: But the tag said they were $4.10!

I’m certain this is the first time that someone paid less than the tag read and the person argued about it.

Me: But can I still use this? (holding up my $10 coupon)

Cashier: Sure...(seeming slightly confused that I would ask...I opted not to push it)

For the record, they have NEVER EVER let me spend less than the certificate.

Never.

Ever.

But today she did.

AND I still have 19 cents left on the coupon to use at a later date.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some old running shoes to wear out.

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Foodie Non-Friday: Finally…A Green Bean Recipe I Can Get Behind

Hello! I am so sorry for kind of falling off the planet for a few days. It was unintentional I assure you. It’s just that I have been a touch busy, and my writing is the one thing I could table.

I’m certain this has caused great consternation among you.

School started today yesterday a couple days ago, much to everyone’s chagrin (ok not really everyone’s…the 13yo was surprisingly glass-half-full about it; the 11yo and I were not quite so ready for summer to be “over”), and I have been diligently preparing for their studies.

OK, that’s not true. I have been ready for weeks…although I did take a few minutes on Sunday afternoon to peruse the lesson plans.

It’s nice if the teacher knows the game plan before the game begins.

And then last night Monday night, we had some euchre to play. In case you missed it on Facebook, Mr. AR and I partnered up and took on the PBA.

We won.

But they actually won a couple hands so all was not lost. They are not, however, ready to be released into playing with other people. There’s still a little bit of prompting/coaching on our part: “Are you SURE you don’t have a Spade?” kind of thing.

And “Remember, if you have the Jack of Hearts, that’s the left bower and it’s really a diamond…”

So yeah…we’re not ready to be unleashed on other people just yet.

Which brings me to today yesterday. The day wasbeen ok, with the exception of some of the books I bought for our Kindles are refusing to download onto the devices. And don’t message me with a solution unless you know what you’re talking about. I did all the trouble-shooting things that Amazon recommends and it’s still not downloading onto one of the Kindles.

I have been battling this since yesterday. And yes, I chose the word "battling" very carefully b/c it is a battle. Homeschool is sometimes a battle too, but I digress.

And yes, I rebooted the Kindle. Several times…so don’t even ask me that. I am not that extreme in my techno-ignorance.

OK, maybe I am, but I did manage to remember to try the reboot.

Other than that, things are going swimmingly. To quote my 13yo from prayer time this morning:  "Thank you, God, that we've made it to our third day of school and we haven't killed each other yet." (If that's not a resounding endorsement of homeschooling, I'm not sure what is!)

But I have gotten slightly off track. I find that I have done that quite a bit lately…as evidenced above. I began this post on Monday, added to it on Tuesday and am now, finally on Wednesday getting down to business (as an aside, don’t judge me if this doesn’t post until Thursday…I don’t want to hear it from my peanut gallery).

And now to the point of this post: a recipe utilizing green beans. And one that I actually like.

Which brings me to a time for true confessions…green beans are not my favorite veggie. 

Yes, I will eat them when they’ve been in a crockpot with ham or bacon and onions for 12 hours and all semblance of nutrition has long since been cooked away.

But fresh? Straight from a garden? Nope...the idea has always made me slightly gaggy.

And I apologize to Christine for not being completely forthright with her. To be fair, I do not recall her ASKING if I like green beans, but she was SO generous in giving me a lovely haul of them that I could not refuse.

If you know me at all by now, you know that I will use just about anything given to me, you have to know that I would search to find a green bean recipe that I could get behind.

And did I find one.

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I had not sought one out before, but since I thought green beans were just shy of vile, it never occurred to me to buy some and try out a recipe.

I’m all about NOT wasting food I’ve paid good money for, right?

And in this instance, I knew we would eat them whether or not they were our favorite.

OK…really for real now. Days and days ago I promised you that I would deliver a post with a green bean recipe.

And now I shall make good on my word. I am certain you were all poised to begin sending Hate Mail to me about it.

Now there is no need.

I apologize for the delay.

Grilled Sausage with Potatoes and Green Beans

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and halved
• 1 pound potatoes, diced in large chunks (that’s the technical term)
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2-3 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.
• On a large sheet of foil, place the green beans, red potatoes, onion, and sausage. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with oil. Tightly seal foil around the ingredients, leaving only a small opening. Pour water into the opening, and seal.
• Place foil packet on the prepared grill and turn down to medium heat. Cook approximately 30 minutes, turning once, until sausage is browned and vegetables are tender.

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Foodie Non-Friday: Of Course I Can!

So…perhaps I have been bitten by the canning bug.

Or maybe I am simply a nerd who enjoys learning new things.

Or possibly I am preparing us to live totally off-grid and will most-assuredly need to know all sorts of skills in order to do this (I'm just kidding, Big Brother, because I am certain I am totally on your radar).

I am going to go with option B. Or 2. Or however it is you are choosing to refer to these, because you probably noticed that I did not number them.

The middle one. That choice. I am just a nerd.

And as you may or may not have read last week, my friend CM was so kind and gracious to teaching me about canning. The water-bath method.

You can read it here if you missed it on the first go-round.

As I said at the end of that post, Christine asked for my help in canning some green beans. But she uses a pressure cooker.

Which scares the tar out of me and that makes her laugh…I’m so glad I amuse her. I’m not really sure that anything frightens her, which is admirable and also scary to me: yes, someone who doesn't scare easily is scary to someone who scares easily.

Don’t judge.

Anyway…I went over to her house on Wednesday and canning efforts were already in full-swing. Her children had picked lots of beans and they were all in the process of washing ans anpping them. As she sat perched on a barstool, she was directing each one of us on what to do. And of course was snapping beans herself.

She's not a slacker.

And I was, of course, thankful that she was directing the operation, b/c I was clueless.

I was not at all surprised at how fabulously her children jumped in to help and didn’t utter a single complaint. They’re awesome like that. Which also means the parents are awesome.

Can you tell I love this family?

I have digressed.

So…I won’t go into all the ins and out of this process because there were many things about it which were similar to the water-bath method. Only we didn’t have to make a brine (b/c we weren’t pickling anything) so that made things easier.

Christine showed me how to do the first jar and I took it over from there. My only issue was that I kept taking the funnel out of the jar too soon. Other than that, I think I got the hang of it.

And, because I am clearly a licensed professional, all the jars sealed on the first try.

All of them.

And with a pressure cooker, there's only one try.

I assumed it was beginner’s luck…because we had 3 (I think…it’s been a week so my details are a bit hazy) which didn’t seal when we made our pickles. But since they were not in a pressure cooker, we could try them again. Which we did. And they sealed.

Here are a few photos of the process. I kept my phone in my back pocket where she couldn’t reach it, lest she take a picture of me. I assured her that I did not take one of her either, except her hand.

The fruits of out labor (or veggies, as it were)

As payment (which she didn’t need to pay me…she’d given me an insight into her veritable fount of canning knowledge! It's what a nerd loves most!), she sent me away with 2 large zucchini (and when I say “large zucchini” I am not playing around…one of them was enough for 6 loaves of zucchini bread, as well as diced cubes from the middle of the squash…you know, with the seeds…to use in soup this winter), 2 dozen eggs, a loaf of zucchini bread (yum-o!) and a bag of freshly-picked green beans.

This is only SOME of the zucchini haul from her garden

She told her son to pick some green beans for me to take. He asked how many and she replied with “go pick green beans for 15 minutes and however many you pick is however many.”

And being the good and dutiful son, he picked for 15 minutes and I took home a haul of green beans.

So then, I started to get cocky about the whole “canning business”.

And instead of trying my hand at green beans or pickles (you know...things I had made under the supervision of others), I opted to try blueberry jam.

Jam.

Have you noticed me mention anywhere thus far in my canning experience about making a jam…you know, with someone who knows how to make jam?

No, no you didn’t notice it because it had not happened.

But because you can find the answer to anything on the Internet, I forged ahead. And actually, I believe it was Kristi, who had previously shared a website with me which has all sorts of canning advice, tips, and recipes.

It was the top one to come up in my search, in fact.

Here it is in case you are interested. Or even if you’re not interested, it is still right there.

I will spare you the details, but I will say this: it only took me 2 hours to do my canning. CM asked how long it took my pot to boil and this time is was a much shorter time…but I was using a smaller pot. Smaller jars means smaller pots = less time waiting for water to boil.

I even bought all the equipment. (As you may recall, I bought my jars from Goodwill for a Quarter apiece.)

Except the magnet on a stick…it is this fabulous little tool which allows you to remove the lids and rings from boiling hot water without having to finagle them out using tongs. You can kind of see the tip of it in the above photo from Christine's. It's not large but is well-worth the 2 bucks.

It wasn’t even that I was being cheap (insert your shocked face here)…I actually forgot about it. Until I went to get my rings out of the water and realized my error.

Anyway…here are some photos of my process.

According to the recipe, this should have been enough jars...still not sure how I got so much more.
Certainly not "operator error"...

Mashing blueberries...sorry it's not an action shot. I couldn't mash and photograph simultaneously.

Boiling my jars...I just don't trust the sanitize cycle on my dishwasher.

Boiling jam

I don’t know for sure how this will be, or if we will all die from botulism. But CM assures me the possibility of botulism being in the jam is slim to none due to all the sugar.  CM knows a lot so I’m willing to trust her.

Finished product...it's hard to see but I even remembered to write the date on the lids

As a total aside, I wanted to share with you my (once again) delve into my 1940’s Alter Ego, with some WWII Propaganda posters…encouraging people to can.

Oh yes.

Now, I’m not fully there yet, because these posters make the assumption that people were also planting and harvesting their own gardens. They were called “Victory gardens”. Just in case you were unaware. I am here to educate my people.

I don’t garden…yet…I am waiting for Mr. AR to give me the green light to move where I can have chickens and he can have his rusty manure spreader in the front yard. And I will then have a garden.

Maybe. It seems like a lot of work. And time which I don’t seem to have.

But I digress.

I wanted to share these with you. And if anyone happens to have one lying around they’d like to send to me, let me know. I’ll gladly send you my address.

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Recipes for Fun: Cornstarch Feelies and Clean Mud

Ok, so a few days ago, I gave you an ah-mazing recipe for make-your-own-amazing-bubbles.

So they weren’t really called that but they totally could be.

Here’s the link in case you missed it.

And now I have a couple other recipes (recipes for FUN, as it were) that your kiddos might also enjoy at home.

Or you might. I totally won’t judge you if you choose to make these for yourself.

Perhaps you are in the middle of a class on “Play Therapy” and this might be just the thing you’re looking for (and yes, I’m thinking of you, KG).

So I think the name on this first thing is HORRIBLE…it sounds like something crawled out of the swamp and killed a whole town.

And now that I have completely shaded your opinion, I shall tell you what they are called: cornstarch feelies. I think it has to do with the “feelies” part of the name that makes it sound “monster-like”.

But maybe that’s just me.

The other name by which is goes is oobleck…which is only marginally better (in my opinion), but still not an awesome name…for different reasons.

But it is my preferred name so from henceforth it shall be referred to as “oobleck”.

Regardless of what you call it, this stuff is cool.

Cool beans, man.

Yeah…I went there…it popped into my head and I said it. All the cool kids say it, right?

Don’t judge.

Anyway… oobleck is great for hours of entertainment with your child.

Unless, of course, he or she has major sensory issues. He or she may freak out if presented with this.

You know your child best and you be the judge. At this moment, I absolve myself of any guilt, lest your child has a freak-out about the texture of this stuff.

I’m really selling it, right?

But if your child DOES happen to like it, in addition to being hours of entertainment, this stuff is cheap to make.

And easy. Even I can do it.

As an interesting aside, there’s this other common preschool classroom sensory staple called “goop”. I could NEVER get it to come out right. It’s not difficult at all, but I always had to have my friend Jessica make it for my classroom.

I had to endure tireless mocking from my other preschool teachers (ok not really…just Jessica) because I failed at making goop. Repeatedly failed…not just once, people.

All that to say, this stuff is WAY easier.

It requires two ingredients: water and corn starch.

Take a box of corn starch and empty it into a bowl. Slowly add water, a little bit at a time and mix (preferably with your hand…because quite frankly it is the easiest way).

NOTE: If you add too much water, you will end up with cornstarch soup…which I don’t personally think would be very tasty. Or very fun to play with.

When you begin, it will look like you’re making paste. But eventually it will pull away from the walls of the bowl.

And you’ll know when you’ve arrived. You can trust me on that...have I ever steered you wrong? I mean when it really mattered?

(What movie is that from?)

A couple other things to note…it will keep if you leave it UNCOVERED for about a week. It may need a little bit of water if it sits out for a little bit (look at that, you can teach evaporation to your child in this science lesson too…I’m just here to help). And if you cover it, it will mold.

And while it would be an opportunity for a different science lesson entirely, you might not really want that. I don’t know why it molds…I just know what I am told. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

We had a 50% enjoyment rate: 6 of the kids dove right in and played for a good long while, and the other 6 children refused to touch it.

One other thing to note…the more cornstarch you use, the more oobleck it makes. By just using one box, it will be enough for 2-3 kiddos at most.

Now, the OTHER thing I must share is called “clean mud”…and the recipe for it is almost as nebulous as the oobleck.

Well, I totally take that back; actually, it is MORE nebulous than the oobleck, if you can imagine that.

This recipe is basically: mix the three ingredients together until it “looks right” and tah-dah! Clean mud!

So…this requires some water, grated Ivory soap and (clean…this should be obvious, but just in case it is not…I mean, I’m thrifty but even I am not THAT thrifty) toilet paper.

You might recognize this photo is you follow me on Instagram...this is (clearly) the grated Ivory soap

I volunteered to grate the soap ahead of time because I already have a grater designated for soap grating.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Don’t judge.

It’s the same one I use when I make my own laundry detergent…although the Ivory soap is much easier to grate than the Fels-Naptha in the detergent.

But I digress.

So for this recipe, pour some water in a large bowl. Put in some grated Ivory soap (3-4 bars-worth maybe) and add in some toilet paper. Mix well and keep adding soap and TP until it just “seems right”.

I don’t know how else to explain it. Maybe like this: Mix until your child seems entertained by its consistency and then stop.

You can save it for a few days, but (like with the oobleck) you will need to reconstitute it with some water.

Again, it shall be noted, that we had a 50% interest rate with this: only 6 of our 12 kiddos would touch it.

At least they’re consistent in their sensory issues, right?

OK…I’m really just rambling now so I’m going to wrap it up. But please please please please let me know if you actually make this stuff and what was the reaction in your house?

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