You can use these dough recipes to roll out and cut shapes with cookie cutters or create your own sculptures.

Kool-Aid Dough

1 cup flour

1 Cup warm water

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon oil

1/4 cup salt

1 Package un-sweetened Kool-Aid for each color you desire

Play Dough

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon oil

1/4 cup salt

food coloring

Mix all ingredients, adding Kool-Aid or food coloring last. Stir over medium heat until smooth about 3 to 5 minutes. When mixture forms a ball in pot, remove from pot and knead until blended smooth. Let cool. Can be kept in airtight container until ready to use.

Cinnamon Play Dough

1 cup cinnamon

1 tablespoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon cloves

2 tablespoons white glue (Elmer’s type school glue)

3/4 cup applesauce (Let drain in a strainer for several hours)

1 Straw for making hole to hang ornament

 Mix cinnamon, cloves & nutmeg. Add applesauce & glue. Work mixture with hands until smooth and well mixed. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters. Don’t forget to create a hole for hanging, using the straw.

Put on wire rack to dry at room temp for several days. Turn twice daily so they don’t curl up around the edges!

Use ribbon to hang when completely dry.

 Edible PlayDough

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup honey

2 cups powdered milk

 Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Add more powdered milk to make dough more workable, if needed.

This dough is great for little ones who put everything into their mouths. Form the dough into holiday shapes or roll out and cut with cookie cutters. Kids can eat immediately or keep to hang on a tree. These are great if older kids have smaller brothers and sisters too!

Place rocks in a bowl or dish to scent a room. A nice, neat, and attractive alternative to potpourri! Color or paint them as realistically or outrageously as you wish. A great handmade gift for friends and family as well as a crafty activity to share with your kids.

 1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup salt

1/4 teaspoon essential oil(s)

2/3 cups boiling water

Food coloring, if desired 

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Add essential oil (any single oil or blend of oils as long as the total amount does not exceed the 1/4 teaspoon called for in the recipe), and boiling water to dry ingredients. (Scent will be strong, but will fade slightly when dry.)

 Separate the mixture into sections if you want to make different colored rocks. To color stones, blend in food coloring, one drop at a time until desired shade is reached. Form balls into different shape and sizes to look like stones. Allow the scented rocks to dry for a minimum of three days, making sure to turn them several times a day. Enjoy

Tips:

Substitute a small quantity of your favorite perfume for the essential oil.

Adult supervision is recommended. Gloves are also recommended, as essential oils and fragrances may be irritating to the skin. Some essential oils can be toxic so do your research and take precautions.

For faster drying keep the scented rocks under a fan.

You can also shape the dough mixture into logs, or any other shape you like. We like to make animal shapes, or use cookie cutters on rolled out dough to make scented ornaments.

…for the two week absence and lack of new posts.

I have been having major technical difficulties. Two weeks ago, my computer suffered a complete meltdown. I was hoping for a simple software fix, but that was not to be. After I installed a new OS (operating system) and updating drivers, I still could not access the internet.

Then I replaced the modem and cables, did the drivers thing again, and still no internet. After going over everything with my ISP’s (Internet Service Provider) tech support guy we had it narrowed down to an internal hardware problem.

I’m not all that knowledgeable about the internal working of a pc, so I called a friend to come check it out for me. Turns out that the ethernet and USB ports on my pc’s motherboard are fried, hence no connection to the modem and no internet.

I finally had the money to go pick up an ethernet card that plugs in to the motherboard. I have internet access again, yay!

The only downside? I lost about two years worth of saved emails, documents, bookmarks, and passwords.

Nothing like starting from scratch to make you appreciate backups. Wish I was disciplined enough to do it on a regular basis, maybe I wouldn’t be out two years worth of stuff.

Leathers from Fresh Fruit

Select ripe or slightly overripe fruit. Wash fresh fruit or berries in cool water. Remove peel, seeds, and stem. Cut fruit into chunks. Use 2 cups of fruit for each 13-inch by 15-inch fruit leather. Puree fruit until smooth. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or 1/8 teaspoon ascorbic acid (375 mg.) for each 2 cups of light-colored fruit to prevent darkening.

If you choose to sweeten the leather, add corn syrup, honey, or sugar. Corn syrup or honey is best for longer storage because they do not crystallize. Sugar is fine for immediate use or short storage. Use 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups sugar, corn syrup, or honey for each 2 cups of fruit. Saccharin-based sweeteners could also be used to reduce tartness without adding calories. Aspartame sweeteners may lose sweetness during drying.

Leathers from Canned or Frozen Fruit

Home-preserved or store-bought canned or frozen fruit may also be used to make leathers. Drain fruit and save liquid. Use 1 pint of fruit for each 13-inch by 15-inch leather. Purse fruit until smooth–if too thick, add liquid. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or 1/8 teaspoon ascorbic acid (375 mg.) for each 2 cups of light-colored fruit to prevent darkening. Applesauce can be dried alone or added to any fresh fruit purse as an extender. It decreases tartness and makes the leather smoother and more pliable.

Preparing the Trays

For drying in the oven, a 13-inch by 15-inch cookie pan with edges works well. Line pan with plastic wrap, being careful to smooth out wrinkles. Do not use waxed paper or aluminum foil.

To dry in a dehydrator, purchase specially designed plastic sheets or line plastic trays with plastic wrap.

Pouring the Leather

Fruit leathers can be poured into a single large sheet (13-inch by 15-inch) or into several smaller sizes pieces. Spread puree evenly. About 1/8-inch thick, onto drying tray. Avoid pouring purse too close to the edge of the cookie sheet. The larger fruit leathers take longer to dry. Approximate drying times are 6 to 8 hours in a dehydrator, up to 18 hours in an oven, and 1 to 2 days in the sun.

Drying the Leather

Dry fruit leathers at l40 degrees F. Leather dries from the outside edge toward the center. Test for dryness by touching center of leather, no indention should be evident. While warm, peel leather from plastic and roll. Then, allow the leather to cool and rewrap the roll in plastic.

Chances are the fruit leather won’t last long enough for storage. If it does, it will keep up to 1 month at room temperature. For storage up to 1 year, place tightly wrapped rolls in the freezer.

Preparing Food for Drying

Select ripe fruit for drying. Bruised fruit can be used if you trim away any bruised spots. Do not use molding food for drying.

Slicing foods allows the dry air to circulate and dry the surface area of the food first. Cut foods into 1/8-inch to 1/2-inch slices. The higher the water content, the larger you should make the slice size. Small slices of high-moisture foods, such as watermelon, would disappear when all the moisture has evaporated.

Be sure to peel fruits and vegetables, including bananas, melons, winter squash, and other tough-skinned foods.

Pretreatment

Pretreatments are techniques used to make quality products. Pretreatments include dipping, blanching, cooking, or candying.

Dipping prevents any oxidation or unattractive color changes in fruits and vegetables. Dip fruits in pineapple or orange juice. Dip vegetables in diluted bottled lemon juice (dilute a quarter of a cup of lemon juice with two cups water, then dip vegetables and some fruits for 2 to 3 minutes).

Commercial fresh fruit stabilizers can also be used (dilute one half of a Tablespoon of stabilizer with 2 cups water). Sodium sulfite is another commercial product for pre-treating foods. You may want to avoid this if you suffer sulfa allergies. If you want to make a homemade stabilizer, mix 1 Tablespoon of salt or vinegar with 8 cups of water or dissolve one 500 mg tablet of vitamin C per 1 cup of water.

Blanching is highly recommended for asparagus, green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and peas. Blanch for a very short period to cause checking of skins.

Drying is the oldest method of preserving food. Through- out history, the sun, the wind, and a smoky fire were used to remove water from fruits, meats, grains, and herbs.

By definition, food dehydration is the process of removing water from food by circulating hot air through it, which prohibits the growth of enzymes and bacteria.

Benefits of Dried Food

Dried foods are tasty, nutritious, lightweight, easy-to-prepare, and easy-to-store and use. The energy input is less than what is needed to freeze or can, and the storage space is minimal compared with that needed for canning jars and freezer containers.

The nutritional value of food is only minimally affected by drying. Vitamin A is retained during drying, however, because vitamin A is light sensitive, food containing it should be stored in dark places. Yellow and dark green vegetables, such as peppers, carrots, winter squash, and sweet potatoes, have high vitamin A content. Vitamin C is destroyed by exposure to heat, although pre-treating foods with lemon, orange, or pineapple juice increases vitamin C content.

Dried foods are high in fiber and carbohydrates and low in fat, making them healthy food choices. Dried foods that are not completely dried are susceptible to mold.

Microorganisms are effectively killed when the internal temperature of food reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit (F).

Equipment Needed for Drying

To be certain of the final quality and consistent drying of foods, a dehydrator is recommended, especially with unpredictable Ohio weather. Sharp knives and a food processor or blender will also make the drying task easier.

Many guidelines call for blanching, steaming, or pre-treating foods. Equipment for these processes include a deep kettle with a lid and a wire basket, a colander, or an open mesh cloth bag to hold produce. A non-metal bowl is best for pre-treating fruits and vegetables to prevent discoloring.

more tomorrow…

Eye-drops may be a simple way of medicating the eye, but many patients have difficulty using them and don’t always get the right dose at the right time. Now a team from Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Eyenovations has developed contact lenses that can deliver drugs to the eye in measured doses for a month or longer. Their initial focus is on developing a lens to help glaucoma patients. They believe the technology can also be used to help other eye conditions and deliver antibiotics following surgery.

The team has developed the drug-dispensing technology using a hydro-gel lens with a polymer film inside, which contains the medication.

The lens gradually releases medication at a rate determined by the properties of both the lens and polymer film. This ensures patients with eye conditions requiring drops, especially those who struggle to follow a medication schedule, receive the right amount of medication at the right time.

Glaucoma affects about 2.5 million Americans each year and the numbers are growing. Treatment involves administering eye-drops up to eight times a day but, because patients often have few symptoms, especially in the early stages, many give up on their medication regime. A self-medicating lens could greatly help these people as well as the elderly, disabled, inhabitants of remote areas and others who find it difficult to stick with a regimented schedule.

The Eyenovations lens delivers high doses of medication for up to 100 days. The team – led by Daniel Kohane, director of the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at the Children’s Hospital in Boston and Joseph Ciolino, a clinical fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary – is working on commercial lenses using materials approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that deliver drugs for up to 30 days, which is the FDA’s limit for single-use contact lenses.

The Eyenovations group has begun animal testing and plans clinical testing soon. To be clinically effective, the lenses will have to fit well, allow proper flow of oxygen to the eye, and not interfere with vision. For those who already wear contact lenses, it may be possible to create a medicated lens with vision correction.

On a personal note, my mother has glaucoma and is terrible at using her drops correctly. These lenses would be a huge help for her. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Eyenovations’ testing goes well.

“Vote No on S 324: Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act.

This sweeping government policy for all new births in the United States has just passed the House of Representatives and is now headed to the Senate. The Mother’s Act, if passed, will mandate that all new mothers be screened by means of a list of subjective questions that will determine if each mother is mentally fit to take their newborn home from the hospital. Just imagine that after your child is born, you are told that you can’t take them home since a multiple-choice questionnaire wasn’t answered correctly. Just imagine being told that the only way you can take your child home is if you or your spouse goes into treatment or on anti-depressants, which we know causes psychosis, delusions, and even homicidal thoughts. It just doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately, this bill is on a fast track - No public disclosure of the broad impact on our society and that is why we need you to act now!

The Mother’s Act violates our Constitutional right to privacy and your right to liberty and it is just outright dangerous.”

This sounded scary, so I decided to do some research:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-324 (full text of Mother’s Act)

The only thing I could find was this in ‘SEC. 330G-1. SERVICES TO INDIVIDUALS WITH A POSTPARTUM CONDITION AND THEIR FAMILIES.

‘(b) Certain Activities- To the extent practicable and appropriate, the Secretary shall ensure that projects funded under subsection (a) provide education and services with respect to the diagnosis and management of postpartum conditions. The Secretary may allow such projects to include the following:

‘(2) Delivering or enhancing inpatient care management services that ensure the well-being of the mother and family and the future development of the infant.

You could interpret “services that ensure the well-being of the mother and family” to mean mothers must be tested/medicated before taking their baby home. Even I think that’s a bit of a paranoid interpretation, but it is a valid fear. Our government has been known to make unpleasant interpretations of too-vague laws. One can be forgiven for thinking they might make one with this Act.

That being said:

Don’t take my word for it, go and read the bill for yourself, then decide. Then call your Senator and let them know what you think.

S 324: Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act

This is pretty neat. I’ve seen it a few times in email chains, but it’s fun to do and doesn’t take too much time. I have seen some people claim to get incorrect results, but it worked for me.

DON’T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!

It takes less than a minute…

Work this out as you read.

Be sure you don’t read the bottom until you’ve worked it out!

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10).

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold).

3. Add 5.

4. Multiply it by 50 — I’ll wait while you get the calculator.

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759…
And, if you haven’t, then add 1758.

6. Now subtract the four-digit year that you were born.

You should now have a three-digit number.

The first digit of this was your original number
(i.e.: how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are:  YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

My mom worked for Child Support Enforcement for seven years. In that time she saw some really crazy things. The following are all replies that women have written on Child Support forms in the section for listing “father’s details;” or to put it another way… Who’s Your Daddy? These are genuine excerpts from the forms

• · Regarding the identity of the father of my twins, Makeeshia was fathered by Maclearndon McKinley. I am unsure as to the identity of the father of Marlinda, but I believe that she was conceived on the same night.

• I am unsure, as to the identity of the father of my child as I was being sick out of a window when taken unexpectedly from behind. I can provide you with a list of names of men that I think were at the party if this helps.

• I do not know the name of the father of my little girl. She was conceived at a party at 3600 East Grand Boulevard where I had sex with a man I met that night. I do remember that the sex was so good that I fainted. If you do manage to track down the father, can you please send me his phone number? Thanks.

• I don’t know the identity of the father of my daughter. He drives a BMW that now has a hole made by my stiletto in one of the door panels. Perhaps you can contact BMW service stations in this area and see if he’s had it replaced.

• I have never had sex with a man. I am still a Virginian. I am awaiting a letter from the Pope confirming that my son’s conception was ejaculate and that he is the Saver risen again.

• I cannot tell you the name of Alleshia dad as he informs me that to do so would blow his cover and that would have cataclysmic implications for the economy. I am torn between doing right by you and right by the country. Please advise.

• I do not know who the father of my child was as they all look the same to me.

• Tyrone Hairston is the father of child A. If you do catch up with him, can you ask him what he did with my AC/DC CDs? Child B who was also borned at the same time… well, I don’t have clue.

• From the dates it seems that my daughter was conceived at Disney World; maybe it really is the Magic Kingdom.

• So much about that night is a blur. The only thing that I remember for sure is Delia Smith did a program about eggs earlier in the evening. If I had stayed in and watched more TV rather than going to the party at 8956 Miller Ave, mine might have remained unfertilized.

• I am unsure as to the identity of the father of my baby, after all, like when you eat a can of beans you can’t be sure which one made you fart.

Our country has the most expensive health care system in the world, yet we were ranked 37th by the World Health Organization in 2000. The United States spends at least 40% more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country with universal health care.

Health care should be a right for all, and we need to support a Single-Payer system as the most efficient and effective way to get there. A Single-Payer system would eliminate the for-profit insurance companies, lower the cost of health care in the United States by as much as one third, and would remove the financial burden on businesses suffering from the recent economic meltdown - replacing employee-based health care benefits.

Federal studies by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting office show that single payer universal health care would save 100 to 200 Billion dollars per year despite covering all the uninsured and increasing health care benefits.

According to the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus, a single-payer system is:

An approach to health care financing with only one source of money for paying health care providers. The scope may be national (the Canadian System), statewide, or community-based. The payer may be a governmental unit or other entity such as an insurance company. The proposed advantages include administrative simplicity for patients and providers, and resulting significant savings in overhead costs.

But Single-Payer has been barred from the public debate because of the influence of insurance, HMO’s, and pharmaceutical lobbies through campaign contributions, ‘astroturf’ (false grassroots) operations, and dishonest advertising. Democratic and Republican politicians are swimming in campaign donations from the insurance industry, receiving over $46 million in insurance money in 2008.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. 28 industrialized nations have single payer universal health care systems. The United States ranks poorly relative to other industrialized nations in health care despite having the best-trained health care providers and the best medical infrastructure of any industrialized nation.

Read more here and here.

The Lolaloo is a clever, German-designed, rocking device that, with bit of luck, helps put baby to sleep.

If you need just a few moments of peace or just have to deal with something other than your baby, this would be a nice gadget to have around. It’s actually an electronic item that rocks your child’s stroller back and forth. Putting them to sleep and giving you just a few moments of sweet silence. The Lolaloo is a battery-powered rocking aid that attaches to a pram or stroller. It is designed to gently and noiselessly rock baby from side-to-side. It simply attaches to a pram using two Velcro straps. The speed of movement can also be altered depending on what works for the baby – slow rock or hard rock?

The Lolaloo uses a rechargeable battery, which lasts between two and four hours. The integrated chargeable battery means that the lolaloo can be applied on a mobile basis, turning the pram into a cradle anywhere - at home, in the park or on the playground. If your baby is particularly restless, you can also convert a regular cot into a swinging cradle with the addition of four BRIO bed rockers and the Lolaloo.

The Lolaloo is only available to buy or rent in Germany, but if it takes off perhaps it will become more widely available. It retails for EUR129 (about USD$175). It might seem pricey but if it helps stressed-out, time-poor parents get some “me” time, the investment is bound to be worth it.

I just want to know where this was when my kids were babies?

Brain chemicals such as endorphins, and drugs, such as marijuana and heroin are known to have significant effects on sperm and eggs, altering the patterns of genes that are active in them. In an article published in the latest issue of the journal Bioscience Hypotheses, Dr Alberto Halabe Bucay of Research Center Halabe and Darwich, Mexico, suggested that the hormones and chemicals resulting from happiness, depression and other mental states can affect our eggs and sperm, resulting in lasting changes in our children at the time of their conception. Bucay suggests that a wide range of chemicals that our brain generates when we are in different moods could affect ‘germ cells’ (eggs and sperm), the cells that ultimately produce the next generation. Such natural chemicals could affect the way that specific genes are expressed in the germ cells, and hence how a child develops.

“It is well known, of course, that parental behavior affects children, and that the genes that a child gets from its parents help shape that child’s character,” said Dr. Halabe Bucay. “My paper suggests a way that the parent’s psychology before conception can actually affect the child’s genes.”

“This is an intriguing idea,” commented Dr. William Bains, editor of Bioscience Hypotheses. “We wanted to publish it to see what other scientists thought, and whether others had data that could support or disprove it. That is what our journal is for, to stimulate debate about new ideas, the more groundbreaking, the better.”

The article, entitled, Endorphins, personality, and inheritance: Establishing the biochemical basis of inheritance is available online.