Kelle, Author at Enjoying the Small Things

Adventuring with Kids: Bring Help…and Snacks

July 14, 2015 By Kelle

This post is sponsored by NatureBox.

You know what’s fun about spending weeks with family and friends? Not only do they help you with everyday routines and kid chores, but they validate you for all the hard work of motherhood. “I can’t believe you do this every day,” they say. “Oh my God, how do you not crash at noon?” another asks. “I’m NEVER having kids,” a niece laughs.

Oh, you thought a towel was all you need for that boat ride? Try coming with us. Can someone grab the kids’ life jackets? Where’s the sunscreen? Who has Dash? Did someone pack a sippy cup? Grab those Barbies. Who lost Nella’s sandals? Forgot the swim diaper! Wait–can’t leave yet. There’s pee all over the floor.

This past weekend, we just skipped the boat ride altogether, and the kids and I stayed home to take a nap.

We’ve whittled our list and simplified our hit-the-road backpack and continue to find ways to make adventuring with kids easy, and this summer our best advice is this: ask for help.

And then bring good snacks.

Our NatureBox snack delivery came right to the cabin steps when we got here, and they have been saviors for many of our adventures.

…from something to eat first thing in the morning (Lainey loves the cherry vanilla granola over yogurt)…

…to grab-and-go snacks for evening pontoon rides (apple pie oat clusters–big hit. Add a glass of milk.).

NatureBox is an online snack company where you pick what snacks you get each month–from over 100 choices–and your snacks are conveniently delivered to your door…or cabin or campground or wherever it is you like to eat. I love discovering new snacks that my family enjoys, and with the selection NatureBox offers, I can get creative with what we choose. All NatureBox snacks abide by high nutritional standards: No High Fructose Corn Syrup, No Partially Hydrogenated Oils, No Trans Fats, No Artificial Sweeteners, No Artificial Flavors, No Artificial Colors. And every bag is full-size, filled with 3-5 servings of each snack.

If you join NatureBox today, you get a FREE sample box of some of their most loved snacks! Just click here. (Free trial is available for new and US and Canadian subscribers only. Not valid on gift subscriptions and may not be combined with any other offers.)

My kids love the the fruit snacks.

And my all time favorite is still the dried pineapple rings–nothing like the overly sweet chunks you find in trail mixes but super delicious chewy rings. They are always the first to go in our snack boxes.

And our new favorite this month are the Sourdough Cheddar Pretzels.

Giveaway!

NatureBox is giving away a free 6-month subscription to NatureBox to two readers. You can enter the giveaway by clicking here, browse what snacks NatureBox has to offer, and then leave a comment with what snack you’d like to try. Please leave your correct e-mail address with your comment, so we can notify you once you win. (Contest is open to US and Canada readers only. Must have a US or Canadian shipping address. Contest open for one week.)

Rainy Day Fix: Wildflower Soap Making

July 13, 2015 By Kelle

Northern Michigan cabin: check.
Rainy day: check.
Lots of coffee: check.
Wildflowers we saved and dried from last week: check.

“You want to make soap?” I asked my cousin this morning as the sky turned gray.
“Sure,” she answered, putting her coffee cup down, as if “let’s make soap” is an everyday occurrence.

Truth is, knowing we were coming to hide away in the woods for a few weeks, I researched a little soap making and brought a soap tray and a big block of shea butter even though I’ve never actually made soap before. It seemed fitting. And after the extremely satisfying sensory ritual this morning, I’m thinking there will be more of this in the future. The textures, the smells, the pouring, the waiting and the finished canvases, their milky white surface speckled with nature–I’m sold.

We bought our dried lavender from a lavender shop in Glen Arbor. They let us walk through their gardens last week.

The rest of the wildflowers, we collected from walks around the cabin.

We made Lavender Eucalyptus soaps and used the following (links provided):

Shea Butter Suspension Soap Base (we used half of this block for 4 bars of soap)
Soap Mold Tray (used an inexpensive plastic tray from Hobby Lobby, but similar to this one)
Eucalyptus oil
Lavender oil
Dried Lavender
Assorted colorful wildflowers

Place a few dried flowers in the bottom of soap mold tray.

Melt shea butter in microwave. It melts pretty quickly. We used half of the two-pound block and broke it in a few pieces in a microwave-safe bowl–added 30 seconds, checked it, added 30 more, etc. until it was melted thoroughly. Add essential oils. We added 30 drops of each lavender and eucalyptus for 4 bars of soap. Sprinkle in several dried flowers but save some to “garnish” the tops of soaps. Carefully pour melted soap mix into molds.

Arrange more dried flowers on the top of soap, pressing lightly to “set” them into the soap. Let dry. Soap will set in 20-40 minutes. To remove, press mold upside down and apply constant pressure on each bar of soap until it releases.

We tested the product, and it’s marvelous–smells wonderful, suds lightly, and it’s very moisturizing but not greasy or waxy.

Dear friends at home…so much soap coming your way.

And if you give a mouse a rainy day and new bar of soap…he might as well go get dirty in some mud puddles.

If Anne were here…

July 10, 2015 By Kelle

Dear old world’, she murmured, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you. ~L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I was looking for a particular Anne Shirley quote this morning to go with my Oh-Summer-I-want-to-bask-in-your-beauty feelings, and in doing so landed on 1500 other Anne quotes that are perfect for everything I ever felt.

Like this one:

It has always seemed to me. ever since early childhood, amid all the commonplaces of life, I was very near to a kingdom of ideal beauty. Between it and me hung only a thin veil. I could never draw it quite aside, but sometimes a wind fluttered it and I caught a glimpse of the enchanting realms beyond-only a glimpse-but those glimpses have always made life worthwhile.

Anne has all the knowledge on all the things, that girl.

How would she describe these morning walks or the thrill of finding the perfect smooth pebble hidden in a pile of sharp rocks? She’d get verbose but it would work for her because she’s Anne. She’d say lovely and radiant and dig deep into the way the ripples of cold water when she dipped her toes into the lake traveled all the way to her soul and transformed it. I will leave those things to Anne.

But I will say that L.M. Montgomery justifies a lot of my childishness–the way my mind gallops ahead and cannot be reigned in. This trip for instance–I looked forward to it for so long–planned out the details, thought about all the little things, imagined back in May the feeling of the first morning waking up in the woods, watching the kids push each other in the hammock, climb up the dunes, taste cherries right from the tree. I do the same with Christmas and little family trips and every fun and beautiful thing on the horizon. And I challenge myself–Are you planning too much? Are you looking forward to the next thing to the point of not enjoying the perfectly beautiful present moment you’re in?

I’ve concluded you can do both. Yes, keep yourself in check. But wild little holiday-loving, trip-planning, detail-celebrating minds need space to do their cartwheels, light their fireworks, sing their songs. And they can do it quietly in the background while you offer up your gratitude for the right now–the mundane routines, the morning coffee, the family dinner, the sixth diaper change of the day. You can do both.

You know how I know I’m right? Because Anne Shirley said so.

Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them,” exclaimed Anne. “You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.

“You know what grandpa said about this?” my cousin said this morning. “He’s said that every vacation is really two vacations. The first one is the anticipation of what it’s going to be. And the second one is the trip itself. You get two.”

Two for the price of one. That’s exactly what this week has felt like.

And let’s be honest. The anticipation of early morning toes-in-the-water pebble exploration has nothin’ on the real thing.

Note to self: more line drying at home.

The best part about travels?

“One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.” ~Henry Miller

I like the new views. And I’m taking them home.

(We are amazed at his tough feet. Keeps kicking off his shoes and insisting to walk the gravel barefoot. Tough cookie.)

The chipmunks are our family’s new ethereal creature. Importance prioritized as the following: unicorn, seahorse, manatee, dolphin, chipmunk.

Can you spare me one more Anne quote? Pretty please?

The world looks like something God had just imaged for his own pleasure, doesn’t it?

L.M. Montgomery, you kill me.

One last thing–the Ruby’s Rainbow Rockin’ Boutique auction closes tomorrow. We’d love it if you clicked on over and checked out the shop–lots of handmades, beautiful things–shop a little. Bid on something you love–every bit allows Ruby’s Rainbow to help more dreams come true for people with Down syndrome (college scholarships, money for classes and post high school courses).