Clover Lane

Sometimes it’s so hard to find good toys for your kids…by “good” I mean ones that will last through siblings and aren’t junk.  Ones they don’t use once and toss aside.  Ones that make them use their brains and their hands and their imaginations.  I really detest the junk…the batteries, the breakage, the frustration felt by kids when toys break for no reason, or don’t work the way the commercial says they will.  We don’t have many toys…but they add up fast with 5 kids.  I try to add to collections and find the good stuff..

I thought I’d give you a few good ideas in case you were in the market for some soon. (wink wink)

Here’s some of our favorites.

 Duplos
…from oldest to youngest they’ve been an old stand-by.

Find and Say books…this one if for littler ones, but I know there are some great ones for older kids-.

Zingo-a great quick game for preschoolers.

Seriously, I have no idea what the appeal is…but this giant foam USA puzzle has been around for at least 10 or more years....something about the foam and large pieces?  Here's one like the one we own: Foam U.S.A. Map Puzzle

  Rush Hour
…this is so fun…and I am NOT a game person.  It’s addicting for adults and children….Andrew was totally into this even as a 5 year old!  This is a family favorite for sure.

Groovy Girls….Abbey has never been much of a baby doll girl, but these dolls are SO cute…she would dress them up, and even take fabric scraps and pin them together to design new outfits.  They have been a huge hit when friends and cousins come to play too!

My favorite…EVERY house needs a typewriter….NOT a fake one.  Go to Ebay!

Dress ups…real dress ups. These are my old formal dresses.  I can’t tell you how many girls have loved these!

Of course. A great magazine…without all the boy/girl crap…just the cutest ever!BeTween: A Preteen Girl's Guide to Life
There are a couple of these magazine-like books…great for any pre-teen girl.

  LEGO City and Bionicles.

 Guinness World Record books-An annual purchase...the boys love these.

 If you buy this series, you will laugh your heiney off.

My mother-in-law bought each of the kids this treasure box a couple years ago from a local toy store.  I think they might even have them in Michael’s now?  They are filled with all those little things I'd throw away if I could, but I can't.

 Vintage Fisher Price.

Magna-Tiles - Irresistible.


   Blocks…have had these for 15 years!

Zoobs-My kids all have loved these….I would say by 4 they are old enough to clip these together.  They come with lots of ideas for what you can build.  You need to buy a container though, because the one they give you…you can never get them all back in…(don’t you hate that?)

And of course, the wooden train set, that has been added to for 16 years.  Abbey loved it as much as the boys.

Elefun-Patrick loves this dumb old elephant...and honestly the older kids can't resist either.

I thought I’d share this awesome super easy no-cook appetizer that has always been a hit.  This is that ONE recipe that I always get asked for the most.  And it’s ridiculously, embarrassingly easy. 

Here’s what you need:
olive oil
1 block (1#) of feta cheese  (I don’t like the pre-crumbled kind because I think it is dry)
tomatoes (any kind)…I use about 3 Roma’s
1 bunch of green onions
1 baguette
Greek Seasoning (see pic below)
1 large platter
1. Wet the platter generously with olive oil. 2. Dice the green onions and tomatoes. 3. Throw them on the olive oil. 4. Crumble the feta cheese and throw that on the platter.  4. Sprinkle the Greek Seasoning on top.  (I use about 3 tsp.)  I have seen this brand everywhere…it shouldn’t be hard to find.  (If you can't find it, you can sub with oregano and a little pepper and some salt to taste.) 4. Mix it gently all together…  5.  Until it looks like this.  (Festive, huh?) 5.  Slice the baguette.  A special word about the bread…it MAKES the dip.  I have found that the best bread is FRESH, bakery kind….the kind that comes in the long skinny paper bag.   You want it bite-sized and you want to cut it thin… 6.  …because this is how people will “dip”. Or you can include a spoon if the people you hang around with are super polite and dainty.  I have never found that to be necessary.

Yesterday evening, I sat on the sofa surrounded by children and looked through my photo albums.  I started at #2 album.  That’s my childhood.  (#1 is Jeff’s childhood, because he is older than me, just in case you were wondering.)

I love photos.  I’m so glad I organized those darn albums, because even though they can make me feel sort of sad and weird everytime I think backwards through time, they also make me so grateful for my childhood.
I found this picture:



That’s my Dad reading to me.  Doesn’t he have a hip shirt on?  (And isn’t that green toile sofa awesome?)

My Dad worked so hard for us.  He would leave at 5 in the morning and come home around 6 every evening.  There is something to be said about those times when a man never expected, asked, or desired any help from his wife in terms of providing for his family.  Now don’t get all offended and weirded out by that comment, I know anyone can pick that sentence apart and crucify me, I just think he did what he had to do to provide and come hell or high water, he was going to accomplish that task, and he was proud of that, and there was no question in his mind that what my mom was doing was the most important thing on earth.

I remember sometimes laying in my bed, in those early morning hours, when the snow was a couple feet deep and the thermometer read below zero, and I’d pray for my Dad’s car to start.  Really, I would.

Because sometimes it wouldn’t, and I’d hear him come in, the door would bang, and then he’d go back out and try again.  I’d pray and pray and pray, because I know he must have been freezing and frustrated and he needed to get to work.  Sometimes he’d even have to plow the whole driveway and fix his car, and if he did plow, of course he’d do the whole street too, and the neighbors driveways, because that’s the way he does things.

In the summer, when I was really little, I’d run out and greet him with notes I wrote.  My Mom kept a stationary drawer in her bedroom, and I’d have lots of pretty stationary to pick from (yes, she’d let us pick from everything because that’s the way my mom does things) and we’d run as soon as we’d hear the car (back then a VW Bug) on the driveway and hand him lots of little notes.  He always looked really tired, but he would smile and say thank you. 

On Sunday, my Dad would brush out my tangly (Johnson’s No More Tangles was my best friend) hair while he watched 6o minutes.  6o minutes was (and still is?) torture to any child.  Boring beyond belief.  But I’d sit there because I loved when my Dad did this.  In my mind, I was getting all the attention, and probably making my sisters jealous, but in reality they were probably happy as heck they didn’t “have” to sit there and watch Utter Boringness.  I have that memory come back to me everytime I hear the tick-tick-tick-tick stopwatch in the beginning, when I watch it now.

Parenting is a long trek, isn't it?  There are no project deadlines, no annual awards, no bonus checks.  I think one of the things that is hardest for a new mother to accept, at least it was for me, is that my life is changed forever.  FOREVER is a mighty long time.   (Did I just quote Prince?  Because God knows I didn't mean to.)  Forever we will love these children with our hearts hanging on our sleeves.  Forever we will wonder, "Did I do right by them?"  Forever we will worry, we will care, we will love.

When it comes to small children, I think the care they receive from their parents makes or breaks them.  In those tender years, when the world as they will know it is being siphoned into their intricate beautiful little brains, what they see, what they feel, what they experience, forms their little spirits.

Today I wonder if we sometimes take this all for granted.

It seems we are easily led to believe that others can do just as good a job as we can caring for our little ones during those important years.
It seems that we trust experts more than we trust ourselves.
It seems like we are too eager to break that overwhelming bond that is felt that first time you see that baby that will call you "mom" forever.
It seems like we are too easily swayed by what we are "supposed" to call good parenting, when we really think about it, many of those things are just fluff, and not the good stuff...the hard stuff.

Babies don't need much.  Toddlers can play with dirt and stones.  Children can learn from a few books and nature.  But one thing they all need is us. 

And all those little moments, all those little chores we do every day, they add up.  And I strongly believe that all these little jobs, done with mother love in our hearts, come back to reward us one day.  In happy babies, sweet toddlers, smart children, healthy teenagers, and complete adults.   If we give the time NOW, I think, we will avoid many of the pitfalls of parenting.  Does that mean we will always have an easy time of it?  No.  But we will have a deep connection, a sense of what that infant, toddler, child, teenager is experiencing in our inner spirits.

I posted this last year and it was such a hit I thought I'd remind you all again...

We did this every year when we were young and it was so much fun. It’s a simple tradition but one kids love. First you need to gather leaves…go on a nature walk, find the most beautiful, colorful, perfect leaves. OR just zip your mouth, let the kids pick up the ones they want, no matter what they look like...there is no better way to ruin a creative endeavor with your kids than by being bossy and controlling!

Pick some of this up at your grocery store in the canning section. It’s a couple dollars and one box should be enough.
Don’t forget to buy a disposal pan like this one…if you don’t you will have to use a good pan, and you will ruin it.
Melt the wax over low heat.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be careful…hot wax is HOT. Place it on a back burner and guard it with your life if your children are little.  I don't want to feel awful if you tell me one of your little ones got burned because of me and my cute little autumn activity.

I know I have done this with kids as young as 2, but you have to be vigilant!
Have them hold the stem, dip the leave in melted wax and then set the leave on wax paper. Cover your counter with newspaper, then the wax paper, to make clean up easy, because it’s NO fun scraping wax drippings off counters.
Let each leaf cool completely…once they are totally cool they will lift off easily. If the wax starts to harden in the pan, just warm it up on the burner again.
You can put them in a big glass bowl, or tie them up with string to form a garland. They are beautiful and a perfectly simple (and almost free) autumn decoration.


Some tips:
Make sure the leaves are completely dry when you start. 
Lots of people asked me how long they last.  It really depends.  The way I hang these in the window in direct sunlight and over 2 heat ducts makes them last till I am ready to get up the Christmas decorations...around December 1. (They start to get curly and shrinky looking.)
If you keep them in a darker, cooler place I'd bet they'd last longer.

I hung my leaves from thread that I tied around each stem to create a garland.

If you drip wax on your floor or counters, a reader sent in this tip:
Just lay down a paper towel or newspaper on the wax spill and iron it (cotton setting). It even works on CARPET, yes really.  I have cleaned up some doozies with this method. I would not use this method on fine wood furniture, there are ice methods for that.