Caterpillar
A hairy cat?
• Do you have one? It’s probably just an old caterpillar. Now don’t get insulted. The word caterpillar comes from an old French word, chatepelose, meaning “hairy cat.†(Word Works Kaye 61)
I got a kick out of these in Word Works and wanted to include a few of them here from time to time. 🙂
Maybe you have this tradition too: over winter break, we like to assemble a puzzle as a family. This year we tackled one with 1000 pieces! As we worked on it on the card table temporarily installed in the family room, conversations “happened.” Various groupings would find themselves chatting as they looked for the corners or edges, or the weird shape that would fill in the sky: college aged brother with ten year old daughter, dad with a son, two sisters and a brother, and even family friends who came for an overnight visit (pictured here).
If you didn’t assemble a puzzle over break, why not try one now? It’s a nice activity for kids who are listening to a read aloud while a fire roars in the background. Puzzles have a way of facilitating conversations with some of the more quiet kids in your brood. Plus, there’s nothing like the triumph of having completed the puzzle together! So while winter lingers, how about putting a puzzle on the table this week and engaging in a soothing, family activity sure to bring smiles?
Over Christmas break, a friend sent me a photo from when my oldest three were five, three and one year of age. In it were a bunch of bread bears we’d made with neighbors for a tea time. I had forgotten all about the thrill of bread bears! So I pulled out the big Kitchen Aid and with my now 10, 12 and 15 year olds, we had a teddy bear teatime last week.
The how-to’s follow in the next post with photographs of my kids enjoying the process.
Here’s how you do it.
Find a good whole wheat bread recipe (we use Fannie Farmer’s cookbook).
Measure and mix ingredients in a Kitchen Aid or use the old fashioned version known as wooden spoons and upper arm strength. 🙂
Hand knead the dough (even if you own a dough hook) because it’s just too much fun to plunge your fingers into that spongy stuff and to get flour all over your dark t-shirts.
Let that dough rise in a warm place.
After it’s risen, divide a two loaf recipe into two big balls. From those balls, you will need to create eight smaller balls. One ball for the head, four mid-sized balls for the paws, one slightly smaller ball for the snout and finally two little balls for the ears. Take remaining ball of dough and flatten into a large circle. Attach the smaller balls using a bit of water on your finger tips and massage the dough together where the balls meet the body. Let it rise again.
We added raisins for the eyes, etc., however that was a mistake. When baking raisins, they puff up and burn. You might want to add them afterwards with a dab of honey (which is what I remembered doing last time once we made this mistake on this round of bread bears).
Cover the bears with a glaze of beaten egg. We cracked an egg into a bowl (yolk and white) and whipped it with a fork. Then we used a paintbrush and wiped the surface with egg. Then bake!
Serve with honey, jam, butter and of course, tea.
It felt so good to get out in the drizzle and to discover color in spite of a grey sky. Liam (12) and I took his new binoculars out for a walk on Saturday morning. Early. We love birding together.
Here’s our list of birds we spotted:
Red Tailed Hawk (in flight!)
2 nuthatches
dozens of sparrows
1 titmouse
7 cardinals
5 chickadees
10 male mallards
1 morning dove
4 robins
a flock of Canada geese overhead in a V
1 goose who took off into flight right in front of us!
3 downy woodpeckers
AND 1 unidentified bird that hitched its way up a tree trunk and disappeared into a little hole in the tree right before my very eyes! I am going to try to find that one in my birding book.
We had a glorious time! I’ve got wet jeans up to my ankles but a warm heart. Liam and I must have exchanged a dozen hugs; he was quick to ask if we could do this every Sat. I’m inclined to say yes!
Nature walking: good for the soul.
