Winter Eco-Art with Kids

I love being eco-thrifty by recycling things into art supplies. In this case we used cardboard rectangles from packing materials received at my shop, snipped branches from our Christmas tree (a volunteer doug fir that chose a bad spot and grew faster than we could dig it up for transplant), and stuffing from an old futon.

We painted the cardboard one day, cut the branches and glued them on the next and finally glued on the "snow". Not bad!

Kids 18mo - 4 years enjoyed this one. For the gluing I squeezed clear elmer's into small jars and kids scooped it out with wide popsicle sticks and smeared it onto the cardboard. Making the branches stick required pressing and holding down with both hands - and sometimes some big person help.

My Kid Loves Veggies for Breakfast

Unless I was in a neighbor's garden eating off the plant I have no memory of voluntarily eat vegetables as a child. I have quite a few memories of being the last person at the dinner table staring at my pile of mixed peas, corn and carrots. Thank goodness for the countless glasses of lemonade that helped me choke them down.

I've long since converted over and eat fresh veggies everyday in salads and smoothies. I offer them to my kids in all sorts of varieties and colors but just like me as a kid they prefer them straight out of the garden. That makes it tough this time of year. However, my youngest has recently taken up the fine art of juicing. Being 3, everything about the process is fun - from putting the juicer together (we have an Omega - not top of the line but pretty darn good), picking out the ingredients, juicing chosen ingredients, pouring the results from pitcher to pitcher to ooh and ahh over the color evolution and finally the drinking!

There's something very warming to a mother's heart to hear her son yell out, "Don't forget the greens mom!" while making his own breakfast.

Here's our current favorite recipe -
2 apples
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
3 kale leaves