Country Road ~ Carolina Soul

Monday, June 9, 2014

Baby Montessorian

She LOVES all things having to do with our Montessori classroom or work.

After watching her big boy cousin do some work, she insisted on doing her own!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Girl Camp

I loosely based my plans on this pin.

Since there were no directions or measurements, I had to come up with my own.

That worked fine because I had limited resources since I just salvaged pieces from our scrap pile.

Good luck trying to decipher this little lovely.

Despite Mama's attempts to teach me proper handwriting, I always revert to chicken scratch.

It is the only way for my hand to keep up with my brain when I am plotting.

I cut, hemmed, and added elastic to Bunny's flat sheet that we never use. Montessori calls for a simple bed with just a pillow and blanket so the child can learn to make it themselves. Until Bunny masters folding a blanket, it also makes clean up easier for mama.

Ever since she could sit herself up, every time I have ever had fabric on the floor, she thinks she should go and sit in the middle of it... Maybe she is hoping for a picnic?

Papa cut the wood and drilled holes for me. I can actually use power tools myself, but quite often I have little ones following me everywhere, so it was safer for Papa to do it while I kept the girls.

Bunny helped with the sanding...

She did not even know what we were making at this point. She just wanted to help.

Assembly was pretty easy.

Tada!

Pretty happy Bunny!

She insisted it was a girl camp.

She has suddenly become much more girly lately.

I might need to add ties to the side to keep the tent from sagging.

I saw other tents that had them, so I guess it might be a good idea.

We took morning smoothies outside with our tent.

The sisters had a great time hiding out.

Later, Squirrely enjoyed some snuggly time with her baby.

I was actually thinking of making this tent last Christmas, but thought it would be too much work on top of the other gifts we had to make. Not so. It was very easy and quick work. After recently buying a child's tent from target and having it fail miserably, we finally decided to give it a try. Glad we did.

Another great thing about this tent it that if one piece breaks, you only have to replace it, not trash the whole thing. It is also easy to take apart to store.

Each week I join several linky parties! What a fun way to share and learn!

Craft & Activity Share, Monday Sharing Day on Facebook, Thoughtful Spot, Natural Living Monday, Montessori Monday, Homemade Mondays, Mama Moments Monday {Link Up}, The Gathering Spot, Little Wonders' Days, Mom's Monday Mingle, Mommy Moments, Frugal, Crafty Home, Hip Homeschool Hop, Mom's Library, Tuesday Tots, Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}, Tuned in Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Tuned in Tuesday, Tuesday Tutorials, Life Created Tuesdays, Kids in the Kitchen, It's Playtime, We Made That Linky, What I Learned Wednesday, Kids Co-Op, Artsy Play Wednesday, Healthy 2Day Wednesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Adorned From Above , Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Kids Crafts, Link and Learn, needle and thREAD, Made U Look, Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers, Natural Living Link-Up, Small Footprint Friday, Our Days Homeschool Link-Up, For the Kids Friday, FarmGirl Friday Blog Hop, Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday, Read. Explore. Learn., Creative Learning on Friday, Preschool and Kindergarten Corner,The Friday Baby Shower, TGIF Linky Party, Family Fun Friday, Creative Friday, Friday Flair Link Party, Shine on Fridays, Friday Favs, Outdoor Play Party, Do Something Crafty, Weekend Whatever, Saturday Show and Tell, Tot School Gathering Place, Sharing Saturday, Share It Saturday, Country Kids, Link and Learn, Show and Share Saturday, Stress Free Sunday, Sunday Parenting Pointers, The Sunday Showcase, The Sunday Parenting Party, The Homesteaders' Blog Hop, Making Boys Men, Made with Love, Raising Memories

Friday, June 6, 2014

It's What's for Dinner ~ Quinoa Bake

We LOVE quinoa. Yummy, healthy, organic quinoa! Each week I soak three cups of quinoa (pronounced keen wah) for a few hours, rinse well, and cook it in a quart of home-canned broth (I use store bought, organic broth if I am out of home-canned bone broth). I bring it to a boil over a medium fire, lowering the flame a bit once it boils. Approx 15 minutes later, the broth is gone and I am left with delicious, high protein quinoa!

I am happy to eat this as is with a little sea salt, or as a mac and cheese substitute, or with chopped broccoli and cheese... oh how we LOVE quinoa! This evening I made my Quinoa Bake.. a recipe I
"threw together" a few months ago when trying to come up with a grain-free, lasagna-type dish!

Quinoa Bake

(one 9X13 pan's worth)

*use as many organic products as your budget allows

today I had no organic dairy, but all else was organic

one dry cup's worth of previously cooked quinoa

one pound cooked ground beef (I use grass fed)

one jar spaghetti sauce

one large carton cottage cheese

one cup + mozarella cheese

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

chopped fresh spinach

mix together well

scoop into 9X13 baking dish

bake 45 mins (or till you like the looks) at 350*

We added a romaine/spinach salad and ....

It's What's for Dinner!

Each week I join several linky parties! What a fun way to share and learn!

Craft & Activity Share, Monday Sharing Day on Facebook, Thoughtful Spot, Natural Living Monday, Montessori Monday, Homemade Mondays, Mama Moments Monday {Link Up}, The Gathering Spot, Little Wonders' Days, Mom's Monday Mingle, Mommy Moments, Frugal, Crafty Home, Hip Homeschool Hop, Tickle my Tastebuds Tuesday, Mom's Library, Tuesday Tots, Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}, Tuned in Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Tuned in Tuesday, Tuesday Tutorials, Life Created Tuesdays, Kids in the Kitchen, It's Playtime, We Made That Linky, What I Learned Wednesday, Kids Co-Op, Artsy Play Wednesday, Healthy 2Day Wednesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Adorned From Above , Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Kids Crafts, Link and Learn, needle and thREAD, Made U Look, Tender Moments with Toddlers and Preschoolers, Natural Living Link-Up, Small Footprint Friday, Our Days Homeschool Link-Up, For the Kids Friday, FarmGirl Friday Blog Hop, Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday, Read. Explore. Learn., Creative Learning on Friday, Preschool and Kindergarten Corner,The Friday Baby Shower, TGIF Linky Party, Family Fun Friday, Creative Friday, Friday Flair Link Party, Shine on Fridays, Friday Favs, Outdoor Play Party, Do Something Crafty, Weekend Whatever, Saturday Show and Tell, Tot School Gathering Place, Sharing Saturday, Share It Saturday, Country Kids, Link and Learn, Show and Share Saturday, Stress Free Sunday, Sunday Parenting Pointers, The Sunday Showcase, The Sunday Parenting Party, The Homesteaders' Blog Hop, Making Boys Men, Made with Love, Raising Memories

{this moment}

this moment} - A Friday ritual, inspired by SouleMama, capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Boxes Are The Best

There is something magic about a giant cardboard box.

Once we were done playing "You got a box in the mail. Open it up and act surprised when you find two little girls meowing like cats." (too long of a title, I know), we played Pet Shop and Goodnight Gorilla (based on the book). Bunny and Squirrel stayed cats the whole time, and The big boy cousin (also too long of a title) was a mail man, a shop keeper, a shopper, a monkey, and several other characters along the way.

Thank you Amazon for not going green at all and packing two small picture frames in a huge box.

Despite you failure to reduce, we will go green and reuse and recycle for you.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Amber Love and a Discount Code!

I have written many many times about Amber Teething Necklaces!

You can scroll through these posts and see for yourself how much we love

Inspired by Finn's Amber!

Inspired by Finn has once again given our readers a 25% off discount code!

Good on your entire order!

The Code is WhiteWV25

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The code is good through June 17th

Please note this IMPORTANT guideline:

Please be sure to let everyone in your group know that this code is not to be shared on public discount code sites (such as RetailMeNot.com). Inspired by Finn will remove the code and not allow Like Mama LIke Daughter to get a code in the future.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Bunny's New Bed

Since we moved into my parent's house, Bunny has been talking about wanting her own bed. Yes... My child... The one nursed until she was over 3 1/2... Turns out, attachment parenting does not necessarily create overly clingy kids.

This spring, when we moved the bedroom around (I hope to get pics of our bedroom up soon), we gave her a bed of her own. She loves it. She loves to snuggle up and read bedtime stories on it. She loves to brag about how big she is getting to have her own bed. And yes, she loves to come and get in bed with us when she wakes up in the middle of the night. To me, it is the perfect next step in her growing up.

Sweet sleeping Bunny

The view from my bed.

I would love to dress up her corner a bit. Make it more her own space.

Maybe a canopy or a banner or something.

We will see what I come up with.

Each week I join several linky parties! What a fun way to share and learn!