Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Woo hoo! Rainbow rice, purging, and strong willed

I think I am finally starting to get it together.  A little.  Un poco.

Yesterday B and I did a fun craft.  Rainbow rice.  It seriously was a lot of fun.  I might have to make more.  I got the "recipe" off Pinterest but made some changes and notes for the future.  (see here for original blog post: http://shareandremember.blogspot.com/2011/06/rainbow-rice-garden-sensory-play.html)

The "recipe" is as follows:  "I measured out the rice (4 cups) and put it in a Ziploc bag with about 2T of food coloring or liquid water colors (works great!) and 3 T of rubbing alcohol. The kids helped me mix the rice in the bags to spread the color. We put them on pans to dry in the sun."

I grabbed my little helper and we started making Rainbow rice.  Could he be any sweeter?


B and I actually put 5 cups of rice in the bag and used 2 of the little teardrop looking bottles of food dye.  They are not quite 1 T each.  Even though it was less dye and more rice, they sure turned out vibrant anyway.  If you want lighter colors, you could even go with just one of those little tiny bottles.














We did learn the yellow is so vibrant that if you put both of the dyes in, it will actually come out orange.  So the second time we tried (really third after B turned my yellow into green the first time) I only put half of the yellow dye in and a lovely shade of yellow was born.



Because it felt like 40 degrees below zero yesterday, we decided to "bake" the rice, rather than put outside to dry it out.  We put the rice in a pan, turned the oven to 170 degrees, and dried/baked for 30-40 minutes.  Warning.  Your house WILL smell like rubbing alcohol.  At no point (once I took my head out of the oven) did I feel overwhelmed by the fumes.  When the rice is dry, it will no longer smell like alcohol. 



I just love the colors.


NOTE:  You will make a HUGE mess. On the counter tops.  On your hands.  On your clothes.  On your buddy's clothes.  Be prepared!















With the crafting out of my system yesterday, and a great time at girls night out last night, I had a renewed sense of purpose this morning.  Purge.  Purge some of the things I have agreed to do.  Purge some stuff.  I started on my bedroom and was able to identify clothes to get rid of and I have almost an entire bag of trash.  Phew.  It is about time.  I even got the two Christmas trees put IN boxes and one is even in the back of the van to put in storage.  I was on a roll today, but had to stop as the three boys woke up, I had to fix dinner, and had a meeting at church.  But I'm hoping that I was on a roll enough that it will carry over to tomorrow.

The good thought for the day?  I am strong willed, when I want to be, and am typically not afraid to speak my piece.  I know at times this is not a good thing, but for now, it is sufficiently good for me.  God blessed me with that trait, I just must learn to use it for good. 

No comments:

Post a Comment