Vacation in Southern Colorado

Spring Break is upon us. Before we know it, summer vacation will be here. If you are planning a vacation in Southern Colorado, here is a list of places for the entire family.

Mesa Verde is the ancestral home of the Pueblo people that lived there from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. It is located 1 hour from Cortez, Colorado and one and a half hours from Durango, Colorado. Fortunately, lodging is available within the park, allowing more time site seeing. You'll need a car to get around as the closest dwelling is 21 miles into the park. Some attractions include the visitor's center, an archaeological museum, hikes, and three cliff dwellings (Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Long House). Make sure to check park information before making this trip as information changes from year to year. The cost depends on your itinerary.

Cave of the Winds is an attraction available year round near Manitou Springs, which is at the base of Pikes Peak. Our family goes for the tours of the caves, which were discovered in 1881. There are two very educational tours: the Discovery Tour and the Lantern Tour. The discovery tour is 45 minutes and designed for families. The Lantern tour lasts 1.5 hours and is more adventurous. Children under the age of 6 are not permitted on the Lantern tour. If going on a tour isn't for you, your family may enjoy the new Wind Walker Challenge, the Williams Canyon Overlook, the visitor's center, panning for gem stones (designed for kids), or the subterranean play land.

Olympic Training Center- Colorado Springs hosts about 140,000 visitors each year. USOC Ambassadors lead the tours, which is about 70% outside. The tour includes the Sport Center Gymnasiums, weightlifting and wrestling facilities, the USA Shooting Center, Coaching & Sport Science, the Aquatics Center, and Sport Medicine. There are only 7 Olympic stores world wide and the USOC hosts one of them. Your purchase supports the athletes.

Pueblo's Buell Children's Museum is celebrating it's 40th birthday in 2012. It's 7,500 square campus is designed to tantalize children's imaginations through hands on activities for ages 1 to 101. This museum holds the distinguished title of #2 ranked Children's Art Museum bestowed by Child Magazine. The Children's museum isn't limited to art, it also features science and history. Their website features information about the latest exhibit and a coupon, so make sure to get it. An added bonus is that when you pay for admission to the Children's museum, you get free admission to the Sangre De Cristo Art Museum on the same campus.

Have a great spring break and summer. I have listed some other sites that are fun to visit.

While you're trekking between vacation activities, you will need some travel games to keep the kids occupied.

Fruit display idea

I recently wrote an article for Street Articles about the health benefits of wine. Since I'm not an alcohol drinker, I started perusing the internet for fun fruit ideas that had the health benefits I was "missing" out on by not drinking red wine. I found a really fun idea for a healthy "cake." It is made completely out of fruit!

The main cake is a watermelon cylinder. Then, use cookie cutters to cut the rest of the fruit and attach with toothpicks. It is pretty quick to decorate!

This recipe looks easy enough to duplicate as long as I have the right tools on hand. For instance, I would need some really cool cookie cutter shapes. My grocery list would include 2 watermelons in case it didn't cut as neatly as shown in the picture.

One of the reason I gravitate toward this recipe is that my kids' friends have some serious tree nut, milk, soy, and other allergies. I think fruit would be a great option for a party with my sons' friends as long as I run the list of fruit by them to make sure that there aren't any fruit allergies I am unaware of.

One problem I might run into for birthdays not in the summer is that the cost of fruit rises as they are no longer in season locally. The fruit would be imported, raising the prices.

While I was typing this brief article, my 4 year old walked into the room and said this is what he wants for his May birthday. I told him what it was made out of and he was thrilled. I have a baby who will turn one this summer. While the cake won't make the my baby hilariously messy with chocolate, it will be much healthier and still very appetizing! So, thank you to the lady who blogged about this cake!

More delicious fruit displays are found here.

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Dirt Cake Recipes

My son just finished a unit on soil and the different layers found beneath the surface. I think I'll make him some very soon. I was thinking about how wonderful these Oreo recipes will be with mousse instead of chocolate pudding!

Dirt Cake (source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Dirt-Cake-II/)

Ingredients

• 1 (20 ounce) package Oreos
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 (3.9 ounce) packages instant chocolate pudding mix
• 3 cups milk
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 15 gummy worms

Directions

1. Put the cookies in a food processor and process until they become fine crumbs. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the butter or margarine, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla flavoring. Beat on low speed to mix then beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the chocolate pudding mix and milk to the bowl. Beat on low speed to combine.
3. Fold the whipped topping into the pudding mixture with a rubber spatula.
4. Assemble in the ungreased 9x13 inch pan in layers as follows: first layer, 1/3 cookie crumbs; second layer, 1/2 pudding mixture; third layer, 1/3 cookie crumbs; fifth layer, 1/3 cookie crumbs.
5. Tuck the ends of gummy worms in the cookie "dirt". Be sure to have a worm on each piece. Store in the refrigerator. Chill for at least 3 hours before serving. Cut into 15 squares, or serve with a clean garden trowel or a toy sand shovel if serving in the flower pot.

More delicious recipes and information about cooking available here.

Dirt Cake (source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Dirt-Cake-I/)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 32 ounces Oreos

Directions

1. Chop cookies very fine in food processor. The white cream will disappear.
2. Mix butter, cream cheese, and sugar in bowl.
3. In a large bowl mix milk, pudding and whipped topping together.
4. Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.
5. Layer in flower pot, starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers.
6. Chill until ready to serve.
7. Add artificial flower and trowel. Enjoy!

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Mexican Lasagna

This recipe is a spin off from the regular Italian Lasagna most of us are used to eating. I enjoy making this recipe because I can adjust it to what I have on hand. For instance, once I had spicy salsa on hand and substituted it for the canned diced tomatoes. Peppers can be very pricy, especially when they are out of season, so I use celery. Sometimes, I choose to substitute chili peppers for a change of pace. My family prefers the taste and texture of the white tortillas over the yellow tortillas for this recipe.
Mexican Lasagna

• 1 T vegetable (or your favorite) oil
• 1 Large onion, chopped
• 1 med chopped green, red, or yellow pepper; or 2 stalks of celery
• 1 LG clove of garlic, minced
• 1 lb ground beef or ground sausage
• 1 t dried oregano leaves
• 1 can (16 oz) tomatoes, chopped, drained (you can buy them chopped)
• 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 t Tabasco sauce (you could use whatever hot pepper sauce you have on hand, or one packet from a restaurant)
• 10 yellow or white corn tortillas  5" in diameter ( if you have tortillas with a larger diameter, quarter      them and use enough to cover bottom of pan and next layer)
• 1 can (16 oz) pinto, black or black beans (I used dried and soaked and cooked them myself)
• 2 cups shredded pepper jack, Monterrey jack, or cheddar cheese

In a large skillet heat oil; cook onion, green pepper, and garlic 3 min or til tender. Add ground beef/sausage and oregano, breaking up meat with fork as it cooks; cook until browned. Drain off fat; remove from heat.
In medium bowl combine tomatoes, tomato sauce, sour cream and Tabasco Sauce; mix well. cut each tortilla in 1/2. Arrange 10 halves in shallow 11x7-inch baking dish (something of similar size will due). Spread 1/2 of meat mixture over tortillas. Top with 1/2 the pinto beans, half the tomato mixture, and 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Bake 30 min at 350 degrees or til heated through. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
I often double this recipe and use an 11x7 and an 8x8 pans. Then, I can freeze the 8x8 pan and have some left overs for lunch the next day. This is one of those recipes that tastes even better the next day. Have fun cooking!

P.S., I hope you'll give this one a try even though my photography skills do not do this dish any justice!

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Saint Patrick's Day becomes O'Green Day

I never considered Saint Patrick's day a religious holiday even though part of the name includes the word "saint." Perhaps it's because I do not go to church services on March 17th like Irish Catholics do. I do attend church, but my church does not recognize it in any way. While I was researching the history of Saint Patrick's day, I learned that everyone celebrates Saint Patrick's day a little differently. This year, a Massachusetts school took that to a new level.

The principal, Lisa Curtin, of Soule Road School wanted to be more inclusive. She recognized that not all of her students are Christian or celebrate the day in a religious manner. Since the holiday is rooted in religious tradition and bares the name "saint," the school celebrated O'Green day.  They did the same thing with Saint Valentine's day by renaming the day “Caring and Kind Day.”

While I was researching the how people celebrate, I found out that most of the countries that recognize Saint Patrick's Day see it as a secular holiday and as a day to celebrate all things Irish. During our country's history, the Irish were the butt of many jokes and were marginalized. While their plight was nothing compared to those of emancipated slaves or blacks during the integration years, being remotely Irish set back many people as they tried to get jobs, run for political office, and more. Was it really necessary to rename the day?  In a society that celebrates our heritage with Black history month and Columbus Day, does it really hurt to teach our kids about this holiday? I do not think so.

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Raising backyard chickens

 Last fall, we decided to raisebackyard chickens that were two days old and raise them for their eggs. We selected 7 chickens. As a family, we decided to raise them like pets. Our children held the chickens and played with them from the day they came to live with us.

The chicken's first home, once we got them, was in the garage inside a wading pool we bought from a local store. Our neighbors, who also have chickens, told us that this home wouldn't last for long. They were spot on. The chicken's second home was in a box with tree branch perches by night and by day an old play pen that was no longer suitable for babies to use due to a hole that was created in the netting. We sewed it up so the chickens couldn't escape.

The box with perches

The playpen

Eventually, it was time to finish our plans for the chicken coop. My husband's work place manufactures products that have parts that arrive in large crates. He was able to bring home some of the wood from one or more of the crates and made a chicken coop. One side was for storing the food so that it would be nearby. The other side was where the chickens lived.

We decided it would be good to have a chicken run attached to it so that when the chickens were little, they would have a safe place to live. We looked on Craig's List for used dog and chicken runs. My husband found one made of chain link fencing that was being sold by a family who was downsizing their flock of chickens. He had to disassemble it at the seller's house. He attached it to the chicken coop he made and applied chicken wire under the dirt and at the bottom of the chain link fence.

You can find more chicken coop plans online.

The chicken coop and chicken run

A view of the storage side of the chicken coop

We started off letting them wander the yard most of the day once they were old enough to go outside. However, we had to limit their free-range time to when we were outside because our Golden Retriever, Tigger, killed one of the chickens. My kids were devastated that a chicken had died. I thought about finding a way to use the dead chicken for food because the dog didn't mangle the chicken. Its feathers were ruffled, but that was about it. I figured that Tigger broke its neck and was bringing us his kill the way retrievers were bread to hundreds of years ago.

When our chickens were old enough to eat adult chicken food, we decided to feed them Layena Plus Omega-3. Our chickens have been laying eggs for more than a month. I decided to test Purena's claim that their eggs had richer, more golden yolks compared to eggs without the marigold extract and found that the eggs were more golden.

We are having fun with our chickens. My kids ask to go outside to play with the chickens several times a week.

The first egg

Our remaining 6 chickens are doing well. Just yesterday, 3/15/12, our 6 chickens laid 8 eggs. Today, we paid our neighbor in eggs for aerating our yard. Soon, we hope to sell the eggs we don't need because the chickens produce the eggs faster than we can eat them. I think that raising chickens at home was a wonderful choice for our family.

Would I recommend raising chickens in your backyard? Yes, but first check your neighborhood's covenants, city and county laws about raising chickens and erecting a chicken coop.

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How to help the people of Sudan

Have you heard about George Clooney and many others who were arrested outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington DC because they wanted EVERYONE to take notice of the Sudanese Government's campaign to block aid to more than 200,000 people. These people are starving and the UN says that there is a looming famine.

What can we do to help the people who supported South Sudan and went up against the tyrannical Sudanese Government?

I don't know the best answer, but there are people out there who can help directly. For the rest of us, I suggest we write our congress and encourage them to take action. I don't normally think that we should get involved in other country's business. However, when I consider the hundreds of thousands of people who cannot protect, let alone provide food, for themselves, action must be taken.

On the CommonDreams.org site, I found this quote:

“We should not allow the tragedy of Darfur to be repeated. Hundreds of thousands of people died before the international community and United States took action. The question for the people in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile is will the U.S. government act now, or will the response be too little, too late,” states United to End Genocide Director of Global Partnerships Niemat Ahmadi who is originally from Darfur, Sudan.

It would be terrible to let so many die when we have the power to protect them. 

Inline Skates and skateboards

When I was a child, I was only aware of a few different skate types: quad skates that were over-the-shoe or that looked like boots with wheels. Now, there are many different types of skates. Each design has a different purpose. Some are best used on paved surfaces, others for indoors, some for speed skating or hockey, and I was amazed to find off-road skates.There are also different skateboard types. I will show you what my sons and I researched while trying to find out which kind we like best.

Quad skates: The designs shown are for outdoor skating. The skates have a wider 5 inch“truck” that offers stability. If they have a 3 inch truck, they would be great for speed. Some skates like this have a front and a back break.

Scorpion skates are great for going over cracks and bumps in the road. The skates pictures are for multi-terrain skating: pavement, cobble, grass and dirt tracks.

Inline Hockey Skates are designed to be used indoors, outdoors, or both. There are skates made multiple skill levels. The beginner skates are more forgiving and allow skaters to develop their skills while the advanced skates offer increased speed and maneuverability. One pair I researched even had memory foam for added comfort.

Inline Speed Skates come with 3 or 4 wheels. The shoes are close-fitting and have little padding. Most call this sport Inline Racing. Many people who are inline racing switch back and forth between this and ice speed skating. My guess is that the shoes and frames for ice speed skating and inline racing are built similarly, making it an easy transition

 Skate Boards come in lots of shapes and sizes, too. This skate board allows the user to similate regular skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing.

Sole Skates

Are like riding a mini skateboard. I had to watch a video to figure out how this works because it looks so small. There are more videos on skateboards. 

 

My 7 year old son really loves to skate. He is hopes that I will get him some inline speed skates. My 11 year old said that he would like to learn how to play roller hockey. My 9 year old just wants to skate and will be happy to have a good pair of inline skates. I would like to try out the multi terrain skates. They look like a lot of fun!

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Granola Bars

My family enjoys granola bars. I really want my family to have healthy granola bars. I know it sounds kind of crazy that homemade granola bars could be healthy since the recipes are often found in the cookie section of a cookbook. However, when a granola bar recipe is made from scratch at home, I have more control over the quality of the ingredients as well as gaining the ability to change the recipe to my family's tastes.

Homemade Granola Bars

3 cups granola

3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats

3 cups chopped nuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, or shredded coconut

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ cups raisins, craisins, other dried fruit, or semi-sweet chocolate chips*

3 beaten eggs

1 cup honey, maple syrup, or other syrup/liquid sweetener

1 cup cooking oil

¾ cups packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place greased aluminum foil on a bar pan that measures about 15 1/2" x 10”. Mix the first 5 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, honey or syrup, oil, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Press onto aluminum foil lined pan.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or edges are browned. Cool, then use foil to lift granola bars from pan. Cut into bars and enjoy. Store left overs in an air tight container. Makes about 75 bars.

* Since I love chocolate, we usually use a combination of chocolate chips, raisins, and/or craisins to equal 1 ½ cups.

More of my recipes:

Chunky Monkey Brownies
Oatmeal recipes (2 granola and 1 Amish Oatmeal recipe)

More kid friendly recipes here. 

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The Quartering Act of 1774

I enjoy teaching my children about various topics. My kids have covered the Revolutionary War and the events that preceded it. One of my kids asked me about the quartering acts and wondered if they were about quarters- as in the coin worth 25 cents. So, this is one quartering act definition that might make sense to a student grade 4 or above.

Have you ever had military personnel stay on your property? How would you feel if you were told you were required to do so? Most people would find it intrusive. I know I would. In 1774, the second quartering act was passed, requiring colonists to house British troops. Loyalists, people who were loyal to the king, would have had fewer problems with the idea. The rest of the colonists seethed at the thought. "Why should I provide room and board for someone who is here to make sure I do not have my freedom?" may have been what many thought when this act was forced upon them. This would have rung true especially in places with limited resources.

I used to think that these soldiers were staying within private homes. Upon further research, I learned that the soldiers actually stayed in barns, warehouses, empty homes and buildings. However, if act passed today forcing our military men and women, I don't have a barn or any other type of habitable outbuilding. Even if I had such a building, or soldiers stayed in my neighbors' detached garages, I would be anything but happy. I would expect the headlines of newspapers to say something about big brother is watching.

Fortunately, we don't have to provide room and board for our military, unless we are in the middle of a war. It's outlined in the Bill of Rights that only during war can soldiers be quartered in "any house," and only "in a manner to be prescribed by law."


More early American history resources are available here.

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How to Make Root Beer with Dry Ice

When I was little, my parents used to have parties where they made root beer using the dry ice method. I found this fascinating. Now, I have kids of my own. I'm sure they would love to do this. I decided it was high time that I researched how to use the dry ice method because the other method, using yeast creates a small amount of alcohol and the bottom of the bottle tastes terrible. Also, the dry ice method makes a lot in a short amount of time. I have a large crew, so making multiple gallons in one batch meets my needs. The recipe I'll show you is found on many sites on the internet. The problem is finding some of the supplies and ingredients. I have no idea where to get them. So, I'm going to research them and share what I find so you don't have to do all the work, too.

Supplies:

• Large insulated drink cooler
• 6 cups white sugar
• 3 1/3 gallons cold water
• 2 oz root beer extract
• 4 lbs dry ice
• Heavy plastic gloves for handling the dry ice
• Large metal spoon, or other stirring utensil

Procedure:

• Mix together the sugar and water, pouring both into the insulated cooler. Stir until the mixture dissolves completely.
• Blend in the root beer extract, stirring well.
• Cover loosely, but do not seal. Air pressure can build up inside the cooler, causing it to explode.
• Allow mixture to stand at room temperature for about an hour, before serving.
• Store leftover root beer in gallon jugs, in a cool, dry place.

Read more: How to Make Root Beer Using Dry Ice | eHow.com

Now we need to focus on where to find the ingredients we don't normally keep in our pantry.

Insulated coolers and Root beer flavoring.

Amazon.com has 2,3, 5 and 10 gallon insulated beverage coolers. They also have root beer flavoring, concentrate, and extract. It may be safe to guess that the coolers may be at a sporting goods store in the summer. However, that item did not show up at those stores during my internet search. I earn $25 in Amazon Gift cards at SwagBucks, so that I was motivated to look there when it showed up in my internet search.

Gloves for handling Dry Ice:

One website said that oven mitts will work for handling dry ice. Yea! One less thing to buy!

Dry Ice:

Lastly, we want to buy dry ice from somewhere close enough that it is the same size as we originally asked for by the time it reaches our home. I found DryIceIdeas.com. You simply enter in your zip code, select a mile radius you're willing to travel to get the dry ice and it supplies you a list of local stores that carry dry ice. I found 12 within 25 miles. The closest is only 11 miles away- I live in a rural area, so that is pretty close.

The rest of the ingredients are probably in your pantry. Let's gather the materials and have a good time making home made root beer!

Smoothie recipes available here

More recipes are available here

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How to become a published author

So you want to become a published author? Guess what? So do I! What is the process? How do we get started? I decided to do some research about the process and came up with a few ways to get started.

 eHow says that the first step is to choose a genre. Have you chosen one? I haven't. There are too many choices and my head reels as I think about all the genres and subgenres. Perhaps, they think I'm ready to write a book.

Then, I found an online magazine that features an author who is a writing coach. She suggests that aspiring authors just start writing. Have you started writing yet? I have. I just started this blog all about writing and I have 2 other blogs that I write in regularly. The key to writing is to find something that you know about. When we start writing, we learn how to jump over our first major hurdle: Fear... Yep, Fear. Fear that our writing won't be good enough. Fear that no one will like what we wrote. Fear that we'll get started on a piece, but suddenly... nothing. Fear that after all those hours of labor, no publisher will be interested.

 eHow's suggested 3rd step is to make a plan. I like the bubble diagram method. It looks like my graphic, which is set up to have 1 topic written with 3 paragraphs that contain 2 details each. However, the subtopic bubbles could transformed to list character's name and the detail bubbles the character's personality traits. At this stage, I'm going to stick to writing short stories and articles. I'm doing that right now, so I must be on the right track!

I really like eHow's suggested 4th step: set aside some scheduled time each day to write. Make a goal. They suggest setting a goal for writing a certain number of pages. I'm at the stage where it might be better to write for a certain amount of minutes because I have 6 kids and the only time I can focus on writing is when they're sleeping. What kind of schedule will you set up?

Next run it by some friends and edit. What do they think? Since I'm writing in a blog, all my successes and failures will be public. Feel free to add your comments.

After editing is done, find an editor. If you don't know one, ask friends. I have 2 friends who are published authors, Maureen Mullis and JoAnn Chaney, who could lead me in the right direction. There is also "The Writer's Market."

Then, more writing! Write letters to explain why they should represent your work. Highlight the main points of what you wrote and what sets it apart from the rest.

Once you have an agent, let them do their work. Do keep in touch so you understand the process of getting your book published and where your book is in the process. eHow said that first works by emerging authors can take many months or a year to get published.

The last few steps to become a published author seem far into the future for me. When I am ready to publish, I may choose to write for an audience who only uses an ereader, such as the Nook or Kindle. I've heard that publishing books designed for the ereader is another process altoghether. In the mean time, I'm going to keep blogging.

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