Saturday, I spent most of the day working out in the yard. My legs feel as if I have done squats and deep knee bends constantly for 6 hours! Even though I had lunch (at 3:00 p.m.) and even though my stomach was full, my mouth had the munchies by 4:00 p.m.!

Since my body was weary, I didn’t have the energy nor the desire to make something elaborate.

I instantly thought of a recipe that our youngest son got from a class he took in the seventh grade. Our family has enjoyed the recipe over the years so I thought that I would share it here. Not only does it taste yummy, it uses only 4 ingredients that I normally have on hand and it is super easy to make.

Peanut Butter Treats

1 cup corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
4 cups Rice Krispies cereal

Bring the corn syrup and sugar to a boil. Remove from the heat. Add the peanut butter and stir until it is well mixed. Pour mixture over the Rice Krispies. Drop by teaspoon on waxed paper. Let cool. Eat.

See? Isn’t that easy? This is a recipe that you can make with your grandchildren. Since it is quick, they can eat the fruits of their labors in a short time.

Now, pardon me while I head off to the kitchen to make a treat.

Bon appetit!
Digi-Gram

Children are naturally creative. Creating something speaks to the souls of children. Whether it’s beads and bangles, paint and paper, or glue and glitter, kids love to design and create myriads of things. So what better type of grandma than one that provides them with materials that encourages their creativity — especially home made play dough.

Here’s the recipe for the play dough:

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
food coloring

Mix ingredients and cook for 3-4 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan. Place dough on the counter top. Knead until smooth. This can be stored indefinitely in a Ziplock bag.

You might want to have several bags of different colored dough. When your grandchildren come to visit, pull out the dough and several cookie cutters, straws, toothpicks, plastic knives, jar lids, and anything else that you can think of that can aid your grandchildren in their creative endeavors.

When you bring out the dough, make sure that you dive in and create something too! Unleash the creativity within you as you share this activity with your grandchildren.

Enjoy!
Digi-Gram

(Speaking of cookie cutters, in December our youngest son had an activity with three children where they made Christmas cookies. He asked to borrow some of my cookie cutters. I gave him only 32 of my Christmas themed ones. One can never have too many cookie cutters . . . )

The other day I brought some carnations home from the store. I added some daffodils from my yard. The flowers have been so bright and cheery on my red tablecloth with yellow place mat that I thought I would take a picture of them and share it here.

For today’s posting, I want to explain how to play a card game called Panic. Our family has enjoyed playing the game — so much that the cards are crinkled, bent, and worn. Several years ago, I wanted to purchase a new set of cards. Well! I had originally ordered them through the mail. I sent off a letter to the address that I had (from years earlier) inquiring about the game. The letter was returned unopened. I’ve done a search online for the company that made the game only to get results for food, an art gallery, an investment company and a Christian rock group. No card game.

Since this game can be played with Rook cards or face cards, you won’t have to worry about not finding any cards to buy.

Here are the directions on how to play. You need one deck of cards for each player. (It is a good idea if the sets have different designs on the back so it is easy to sort the cards at the end of the game.) Each player shuffles his cards. When one person says “begin” each player quickly deals five cards face up in a row in front of him. Then, he counts out 12 additional cards and places them face down next to the row of five cards. This is his reserve pile. He does not look at the reserve cards. The remainder of the deck are the extra cards and they stay face down in the player’s hand.

The object of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all of the cards.

Everyone plays at once. If there is a card with the number one on it (if you are using Rook cards) in the row of 5 cards in front of a player, the player places that card in the middle of the table. If you are using face cards, start with the number 2 card. Any player can now add a card on top of the number one card by playing cards in numerical order. Continue placing cards on top of the stack in numerical order until the 14th card (or the ace card in the face cards) is played. The person who laid that card on top of the pile places the stack to the side and out of the way. No more cards can be placed on top of it.

If a player takes a card from the row of five in front of him and places it on top of a stack of cards in the middle of the play, he takes a card from his reserve pile, tuns it over, and places it face up in the row of five cards. A player must have five cards in front of him at all times that are face up.

If a play cannot be made from the five cards that are facing up in front of the player, the player takes the extra cards in his hand, counts three cards, and turns them over placing them in a pile face up with only the top card exposed. The exposed card may now be played onto the center stacks of cards if it can be played in numerical order. If the card that is turned over is a number 1 card, it can be placed in the middle of the players to start a new pile of cards. If the exposed card in the hand is played, it will expose another card that may also be played. If that card is also played, another card is exposed and can be played.

If the exposed card cannot be played, an additional group of three cards is taken from the top of the extra cards held in the player’s hand and turned over placing them on the pile allowing only the top card to show.

Players continue turning cards over from their hand (in groups of three) while looking for cards that he can place on the piles in the center of play. When all the extra cards in the players hand have been turned over, the player quickly picks up the pile of extra cards, turns them over so they are face down in his hand, places the top card on the bottom of the deck, and begins again going through the deck, three cards at a time, playing only the top exposed card.

Speed is important! The more cards a player can turn over, the more cards the player can quickly place onto the center stacks. The faster the player goes, the sooner he will get rid of all of his cards.

When a player has played all of his cards, the player yells “PANIC’ and is the winner. This ends the game. Players can sort cards into individual decks and start over — if there is interest and desire to continue playing another game.

Are these directions confusing? I hope not. If by any chance they are, feel free to e-mail me your questions. Send them to nina@ninalewis.com

Now gather your grandchildren around you and let the playing begin!
Digi-Gram

Yikes!! I missed Earth Day this week. Shame on me. . . .

In his book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman discusses how much resources the United States uses and how much waste the US produces. He went on to explain that as people in Third World countries raise their standard of living, they, too, will be using natural resources and creating waste products. And that will have a HUGE impact on our environment and the world.

Sometimes it seems that the baby boomers are focusing more on their retirement portfolio or what they will be doing for health care insurance after they retire than on changing and improving the world. They might also have the feeling of ‘what effect can I have as just one person?’ Well, I’m here to tell you that I think that as individuals we can do lots. And, we can have a big impact on our grandchildren by our ‘green’ actions.

I have recently started riding the bus to work. My initial reason was because of the high cost of gas. But, I’m also glad that there is one less car on the highways.

Here are some suggestions of activities that you can do with your grandchildren to help the environment while teaching them that each of us has a responsibility to take care of Mother Earth.

• Use your car less. If at all possible, walk more. Ride a bike to run errands. Not only will this save on fossil fuels it is healthier for your body.
• Consolidate your errands. Instead of running to a store for a small purchase, wait until you have several errands that you can do in one trip. This will eliminate the number of times that you use your car. (Saves time, saves money.)
• Plant a tree. This could be a great activity with a grandchild. Sit down with your grandchild and research the types of trees that will grow in your area. Discuss the pros and cons of the different varieties. Select one kind and buy it from a local nursery. Then plant it in your yard — or your grandchild’s yard.
• Plant a garden (if possible) to grow your own fresh vegetables. If you don’t have garden space, you can use pots on your patio for things like tomatoes or bush beans.
• If you have garden space, compost your kitchen scraps such as banana peels, orange rinds, or potato peelings, left over food that has gone bad, or dried out crusts of bread. Do not compost food items with oils in them.
• Clean up part of your community. This could be as simple as picking up the litter along the roadside. Or you could paint park benches or clean trash off an empy city lot.
• Sew a bag out of canvas and use it when you get groceries.
• Select one evening to turn off lights for one hour. (Maybe read your grandchild a story by candle light . . . and talk about pioneers.)
• Help your grandchild get recycling bins at his school for aluminum cans or papers.
• Instead of throwing your newspapers away, collect them and turn them into a recycling center.
• Give up bottled water. Filter tap water and drink it instead. This will eliminate lots of plastic waste.

You might want to take the quiz How Green Are You. You could take this with your grandchild. Then, determine areas where both of you could improve — and then do it!

Happy belated Earth Day,
Digi-Gram

P.S. I just read an newspaper article how Thomas Friedman was making a speech on Earth Day at Brown University about environmentalism. Two people threw green whipped cream pies at him. (Friedman was able to miss most of the cream.) One of the throwers was a 22 year-old girl who is a senior (and faces possible expulsion). She refused to identify the young man with her. “I think it was successful in that those conversations are happening now in a pretty engaged way,” she said. I’ll say! But I bet those engaged conversations are more about her actions and her pending expulsion more than on having free speech on Brown’s campus which was her reason for throwing the cream pies in the first place