To My Farmer On Valentines Day

To my dear farmer on Valentines Day,

Thank you for understanding I am not like normal women. I enjoy working with my hands in the hot and cold. I like working along side you in the barn not cooped up in the house. Some days the date of a cow sale and McDonald’s is just enough.

I appreciate the fact that you normally humor my hair brained ideas. Entertain my whims and generally put up with my craziness. I’m sure there are days this isn’t easy.

You’ve handled anything the kids and I have brought home with ease. We have a well established menagerie at our house that I’m sure others wouldn’t care for. Horses here, chickens there, a sprinkling of ducks and goats every where.

I don’t feel as though I have to make sure I’m always put together when you’re around. There’s no shame in asking you if my hair smells like cows or if all the “spots” are off before we run out the door some where.

We get to share the fruits of our labor. Healthy new babies! Sad days where old girls leave. Some days where we flat out wonder if we’re even still sane anymore, but there we still are.

You’ve taught our kids that some days are long, full of dirt, hard work and little thanks. You’ve also taught them some days you simply need to relax, take a break and recharge. I’m glad you value fun and fun with them.

Like any other couple we’ve had our high, lows and daily in betweens. 3 kids and a whole lot of cows can make for long days. But I’m glad on those long days we have each other to fall back on while we collapse in exhaustion after bed time!

Edible Marshmallow Slime

It’s been a long, cold winter. My kids are starting to go stir crazy. You can only occupy them so long when confined to the house from cold. To say they’re happier outside is a huge understatement.

My daughter is a budding scientist. She likes to mix and create. This past week she had a bur to make slime. She looked up several videos on YouTube (she’s a YouTube fanatic). Some looked like flops, others just looked like out right messes.

We wanted something all of them could have fun with (ages 4-8). In the summer time we frequently do the tried and true cornstarch and water slime on the picnic table. But it’s way to messy for the house, in our case anyways. We were on the hunt for something different and boy did we find it!

Behold edible marshmallow slime!

This is a super simple recipe. I measured and ran the microwave while the kids mixed in the colors. I would highly recommend disposable gloves for this part.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of marshmallows
• Vegetable or canola oil
• Cornstarch
• Food coloring (optional)

Step 1:

Measure 1 cup of marshmallows and 1 teaspoon of oil in to a microwaveable safe bowl.

Step 2:

Microwave for 30 seconds.

Step 3:

Stir in 1-2 Tablespoons of cornstarch. It varies from bowl to bowl. Basically enough to make it smooth. It will be hot! It does cool pretty quickly.

Step 4:

Knead until smooth.It’s ready to play with as is OR you can now work in your colors. The gel food colorings worked better we found. We had fun mixing and matching different colors. The kids put sprinkles in a few colors to jazz it up! It was decided Henry won for the most creative colors. I’m not sure how exactly he ended up with a tie dyed one, but it looked pretty neat! Now the big question… just because it tastes good, do you really want to eat it? The verdict is in.. it tastes good. Pretty much just like melted marshmallows! We made a mess, had some fun and worked on beating the winter boredness!