Archive for the ‘kids do’ Category

No frozen, canned, or even fresh pea from a grocery store ever tasted as good as one picked right from your garden.

This morning I was able to get out into my garden and plant peas.  The traditional day for planting peas is St. Patrick’s day.  But I figure I’m still in the right neighborhood.

This year I planted green peas (shelling peas), snow peas and my favorite ornamental sweet peas.  There are too many seeds in a packet for my garden to hold, so I am sharing peas with my friend.

Sharing seeds is always a great idea.  Most seed packets have more than one person can use, unless you’re lucky enough to have a really large garden.

I always soak my peas for 24 hours in a bowl of water before planting.  I think it helps them germinate faster.  Be sure to add enough water.  They really plump up after a good soak.

I amended my soil with a good compost in the Fall.  So it was ready for me to just dig my little trench.  I planted them about 1″ deep and about 2″ apart.  Now all there is to it is to keep them moist… but not soggy until they germinate.  Be careful when watering to use a gentle method, you don’t want to wash away the soil.  Once my peas are about 4″ tall, I’ll fertilize them.

Notice the wire for them to climb.  It’s inexpensive concrete mesh from the hardware store.  I’ve used tree stakes to secure it upright.  I’ve wanted to build a nice cedar frame to hold the mesh, but for now the tree stakes work well.  After a few seasons the mesh has rusted to a lovely brown color.  And It’s just perfect for the peas to climb.

Here’s a picture of Emma, last June in the garden, eating peas.  I’ve told the kids if they pick a pod with 9 peas inside, they could make a wish on it.  Mostly they’re just happy to sit on the edge of the garden boxes and eat peas to their heart’s delight.

June isn’t all that far away and I’m content to wait.  For now I was happy with the little bit of sun we had this morning.  Just enough to enjoy being in the garden planting peas.

My kids love Honey Nut Cheerios.

I don’t.

Have you ever read the label?  Honey Nut Cheerios is chuck full of of sugar.  It only has slightly less sugar than Honeycombs, Lucky Charms or Golden Grahams- all cereals I would put in the dessert rather than healthy breakfast category.  Cheerios only has 1 gram of sugar for a cup vs. 9 grams from Honey Nut for a 3/4 cup.

The only problem is… I can hardly get my kids to eat regular Cheerios when I buy it.

Several weeks ago, I had the box of regular Cheerios languishing in my cupboard, when my husband brought home a new box of Honey Cheerios from Costco.  Next to the Honey Nut that poor old box of regular didn’t stand a chance.

Then I had a brainwave.  I mixed the two cereals half and half in my plastic cereal container and didn’t say a word.

Much to my delight and surprise, no one, not even my husband detected the deception.  They are the same size and color after all.  And the half Honey Nut provided plenty of that sweet taste they love.

Now I’m the first to admit… this still isn’t the ideal breakfast, but with half the sugar than it used to have… I’m pretty darn happy about the compromise.