Vickie Musni

Mrs. Miscellaneous

* Summertime Fun!!! *

Summer is upon us and for our family it means a break from school. It also means needing to find fun (non-TV!) things for Josh and Annie to do while Max is napping or needing my attention. Here are some of our favorites.

* Make homemade play dough !
We much prefer this to the store bought play dough, plus making it together is half the fun!

Mix dry ingredients in skillet. Add oil and mix. Combine food coloring and water and add to mixture. (Vanilla or peppermint flavroing... optional). Cook on low for 3 to 5 minutes or until the mix begins to pull away from the edge. Remove to floured board, let it cool a bit, and knead until smooth. Store in covered container or Ziploc bag.

* Paint with Karo Syrup Paints !
Easy to make, fun to paint with and nice and shiny! They do take quite a while to dry so be careful! Simply pour a small amount of Karo syrup into a small container. (We use baby food jars). Add 3-5 drops of food coloring and mix. Use paper thicker than copy paper like card stock, construction paper, or even paper plates.

* Keep a Summer Journal !
We did this last summer and I am so glad. I love to look at them with the kids. It's fun to have a record, not only of what we did, but of how they drew and wrote just a year ago!
Buy paper that has lines on the bottom and blank space at the top. Every time you take a family outing, have company or do a special activity, ask the kids to make a page about it for their journal. We bought colored folders at Wal-Mart and punched holes in our special paper (from the teacher supply store) to make our notebooks. The kids also decorated a special cover -- painted it with Karo syrup, then attached it with clear contact paper to the front of the folder. For each page thay had to write where we went or what we did and draw a picture. I also printed out wallet sized photos from our outings and attached them to the bottom of the page. (They never filled all the lines with writing!)

Earlier Entries:

• My favorite “mommy moment” so far in 2006 was on New Year’s when we were all sitting around the breakfast table and Joshua suggested – totally out of the blue – that we write down one of our blessings every day. So sweet! A great habit for the family to start, and we are creating a special treasure for the future.
• Another treasure in January, this time from Annie - I laughed so hard at Annie's suggestion for a new game, I thought I would share it with you all. We were sitting at dinner and she says, totally seriously, "When can we play Pass the Max? We'll just pass him around the circle and whoever is holding him when he spits up wins!"

• Anyone going to Utah? That is the only state still missing from our summer postcard project…

• Would you like the recipe for my favorite soup?

  
  TORTILLA SOUP
  Original Recipe (from Craig’s co-worker Michele):
  
  4 chicken breasts
  1 large can chicken broth
  2 cans tomatoes
  1 cup PACE Picante Sauce or salsa
  1 T. ground cumin
  2 T. butter
  1 clove garlic, minced
  grated Jack or cheddar (or combo of both)
  sour cream
  tortilla strips (or chips)
  
  Boil the chicken breasts 30-40 minutes (until they can be pulled apart easily – I usually throw in a couple of bouillon cubes). Put tomatoes, salsa, chicken broth, cumin, butter and garlic into a crock pot or soup pot. Shred chicken and add to crock pot. Cook at least 6 hours in crock pot, 3-4 hours on stove top.
  
  Musni version:
  Put chicken breasts (still frozen is fine) in crock pot. We fill the crock pot pretty full…probably around 8 breasts…Add a large can of tomatoes. (Diced, pureed, seasoned, whatever.) Fill the can with water and add to crock pot. Add 2 or 3 cubes of chicken bouillon. Then add the PACE, cumin, garlic and butter. Cook on high for about 6 hours. Shred chicken breasts. (I take them out and shred them with 2 forks in a large mixing bowl and then return to the pot.) Continue to cook on medium low for at least a half hour.
  
  Serve over tortilla strips (chips) and top with cheese and sour cream.