DIY Kid's Avengers Black Widow Costume

She's been Hulk, she's been Thor, now Babs has chosen Black Widow for this year's costume. Maybe next year we'll branch out of the Avengers. Maybe not.

Widow Bites Bracelets

2 sheets Black construction paper

Elastic thread & hand sewing needle

Glue

Cut strips 2.5" x 4". (Sizes may vary depending on your child's wrist size.) 2.5" will be the length of the "bullets" and 4" ensures enough layers to be sturdy. Find a marker or glue stick that's the diameter you want the bullets to be. Wrap the strip around the marker and glue liberally.

Babs is 4.5 years old and I used 10 bullets for each bracelet. I should probably have done more, because when the elastic stretched, there were gaps.

Thread the elastic thread onto the needle and take a short stitch through the seam side of the bullet, about 1/2" from the short end. Stitch through each bullet. Cut the elastic with plenty extra. Repeat for the opposite short ends. Tie around your child's wrist, making sure it's tight enough to stay on, but not too tight! Keep in mind if they're going to be wearing multiple layers of clothing under the bracelet.

Black Widow Belt

Buckle

Elastic

Grey sheet of craft foam

Markers

Cut a length of 1"-wide elastic 2" longer than your child's waist. Thread one end through the female buckle end and stitch. Thread the opposite end through the male end.

I practiced my Black Widow hourglass on some paper, then used that as my template to trace onto the sheet of grey foam paper. I drew in the inner shapes and let Babs color them in red and black.

Glue the foam piece onto the front of the buckle.

A long-sleeved black shirt and black pants and she was doing parkour in the living room.

Happy Halloween!

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DIY Greek Yogurt Recipe

I LOVE greek yogurt. It's high in protein, great for your digestive and immune systems, plus it tastes delicious.

But a tub of that stuff runs $6 a pop at our hometown store. An expensive habit like Chobani really adds up. So the DIY-er in me wondered, Can I make that myself? Turns out you can!

Save 2-3 TBSP from your store-bought tub of Greek yogurt to use as your starter culture and incubate your own batch in the dehydrator.

Supplies:

• Starter culture from store-bought Greek yogurt (straight-up, not the "blended" kind with sugar flavorings)
• Candy thermometer or a meat thermometer
• Sieve
• Cheesecloth
• Jars
• Dehydrator (you can use other things for incubators, like an oven on low temp)

1: Heat 4 cups (1 quart) whole milk to 160 F. We're killing off any bad bacteria.

2: Cool it off to 120-115.

3: Scoop out 1 cup and add your 2-3 TBSP of starter culture. Stir it up real good, get those cultures allllll incorporated. Then add it back into the main pot and stir that up real good.

4: Transfer them all to heat-proof containers, cover (not airtight--simply to keep dust/bacteria out of the jars) and set in dehydrator at 110 F for 8-10 hours. Mine typically go more toward the 10-hour end to make sure it's completely set. (Try not to check on it, but to test if it's set, tilt the jar. If the yogurt comes off the side of the jar in one mass, it's done.)

5: Let cool for 2ish hours. This step is actually important. Impatient Me has skipped this before and been disappointed. Cooling allows the yogurt to firm up even more, otherwise if you pour fresh warm yogurt into your cheesecloth, you'll get a lot of white unformed yogurt in the whey.

6: Pour into cheesecloth-lined sieve, set over a pot to catch the whey. Let strain for 1-2 hours, depending on how thick you like your yogurt. (Check out this post on what to do with that liquid gold whey you strained out.)

The yogurt will come off the cheesecloth in one creamy lump of glorious nutrition.

Store in the fridge for a week or so, I guess; ours never lasts that long. Don't forget to save 2-3 TB for your next batch!

BONUS MUESLI "RECIPE"

Muesli is traditionally an oat-based granola/cereal, but use coconut flakes and nuts instead for a lower-carb option. A couple scoops add the perfect crunch to a big bowl of homemade yogurt.

1 cup roasted salted sunflower seeds
1 cup roasted salted pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds)
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Add in some sliced strawberries or bananas (and mayyyyybe a dollop of honey on special occasions) and enjoy.

Resources for At Home Learning

I almost entitled this post "The Failure of Standardized Education to Adequately Educate Children," having just finished this book by Ben Sasse, but I toned it down a little. Preschool might be a little early for me to get up in arms about the ways in which our beureaucratized school system is an embarrassment, but oh well. I might as well just get a Mom Haircut and roll with it.

But really, you cannot leave the education of your children primarily to their school. At least, not if you want a well-rounded, conscientious and engaged adult. Taking a hands-on (and indeed primary) role in Babs' education is something we look forward to. Watching her learn is so fun! To see her grasp concepts and then apply them: magical! (And not just readin' writin' and 'rithmetic, but problem-solving, empathy and confidence.) We are crafting a bourgeoning human being!

I haven't dipped into the 'homeschooling' realm (yet) but I've dipped my toes in the Google water of at-home worksheets, and one resource rises above for actual education: the aptly named Education.com.

Googling coloring sheets for whatever Babs is into at the moment is well and good, but Education.com has THIRTEEN pages of coloring activities, all with subtle number- and letter-recognition reinforcement.

You can find worksheets on an array of subjects, such as math, science, and a breakdown of social studies, for kids from preschool to 5th grade.



"Scare up some fun word recognition with this Halloween themed matching activity. For more engaging educational activities, go to Education.com!"

Games like word searches, crosswords, connect the dots and match games make learning fun, and with the vast array of themes and worksheets, it'll always seem new and different. They even have online computer games too.

But don't take my word for it, check it out at education.com. Just make sure your printer has paper.

Taking Kids to See Phish

Our first stop on our recent Colorado road trip was to see Phish play at Dick's, an event we haven't missed in 7 years. This marked Babs' first Phish show, a momentous occasion to be celebrated with sequins, glow sticks, staying up too late and puking in the van (I'll let you guess who that culprit was). Hooray Go Family!

Many phans take their wee ones to shows, and though I am personally not a proponent of 2-week old infants in headphones, Babs was probably ready for it at 3 years. I do recommend noise cancelling headphones, such as these, to protect those developing eardrums.

I can't speak to other venues, though friends took their tots to a show in Raleigh, but Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado is a very kid-friendly venue.

At the back of the floor at Dick's is the unofficial "Kid's Section," where parents set up blankets or strollers as a base camp and the children run rampant. There's enough space that they can move and not be lost, and parents (mostly) stay vigilant to keep any wobbly wooks from knocking the kiddos down.

I thought the Phish crowd was welcoming and accepting before, but bringing Babs to a show has deepened my oceanic love for them. Everyone, even those without kiddos, love to see kids at shows. A new generation of Phish fans! Phamilies having fun together! Awesome!

Vendors gave her pretty rocks, stickers, jewelry and high fives. It was magical. Babs watched the freak show in the lot before the actual show with wide-eyed wonder: girls with butterfly wings, humans of all genders wearing brightly colored dresses and headgear and even a man with a lizard on his shoulder.

She was so enamored I told her she could go talk to the people who struck her fancy, and for the rest of the evening she scampered up to girls, tapped them on the hip and shyly complimented them for their fabulosity. She was loved by all and watching her experience it may have been the most fun I've ever had at a Phish show, and that's saying something.

Since Babs had so much fun, we decided to shuffle some tickets around (Mr. Go faithfully uses CashorTrade.com) and take her again the second night with even greater success.

If we worried toting her around Shakedown would cramp our style, we needn't have. She improved the experience (as she usually does) and I am struck anew with love and gratitude in the knowledge that we are a cohesive family unit and she an active, vital member of it.

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Summer Adventures: Phish, Colorado, Overnight Parking at Rest Areas, etc

Summer rushed by at an unrelentingly rapid pace. Since my last post, we camped for 4 nights at Swan Lake, the lake of my childhood, where all my family reunions have been held for my entire life. It's a beautiful lake and excellent for swimming. (Babs, once afraid of the water, now wants to do nothing else than swim.)

I was particularly proud to have beaten Mr. Go's smallmouth bass record with not only a 19" bass, but a 20" bass the very next day.

George, WA

We followed that up with a 9-day trip to George, WA. Babs and Flotsam were left with Grandparents while Mr. Go and I took the Subaru across the country.

I've told you about this before in this post, and while the core crew was smaller this year, we enfolded two of our camping neighbors into our group to round out the craziness and now our network has grown.

On the way out, Mr. Go and I spent some quality time in the car listening to Into the Wild by John Krakauer and camped in State Parks and campgrounds along the way. Since the Subaru was so packed full, sleeping in it was not an option, and we had to pitch a tent every night, which quickly became tiresome. But I did get this sweet shot of Mr. Go being zen by a waterfall in Minnesota:

RV Parks and campgrounds are seldom as nice as they sound, and State Parks (many of which require a vehicle day pass to enter) are more expensive than they're worth. The app RV Parky helped in finding campgrounds along the way.

More Camping

Three days after we got home, we were packing up the van for another week-long camping trip with one half of my family, during which we picked a prodigious amount of blueberries.

The next week we made an impromptu camping reservation at the most primitive site yet. Surprise, surprise: there wasn't even a toilet, a discovery which led to us digging cat-holes with Babs' plastic shovel. Good times were had by all.

Curveball? More like Blueball

The week after THAT, we dumped Babs and Flotsam again, for another trip in good ole Subey, this time bound for Watkins Glen, NY, for the famed Phish Festival weekend, a bi-yearly event, this time called Curveball. We met up with two sets of friends, and as soon as all our camping gear was set up, we got a nasty surprise.

The entire week before, the Finger Lakes area had received monsoon-level amounts of rain, which led to the rising of the water table, which led to concerns regarding water potability, which led to the CANCELLING of the festival, not 10 minutes after the last tent stake was pounded into the soggy ground.

After making it through all stages of grief, all 20,000 of us campers consoled each other by getting drunk and running around the campground until the wee hours.

Colorado

A week (and a friends-with-kid visit) later, we packed up and left for Colorado, this time with the whole fam damily in tow.

The first leg of the adventure was to take Babs to her first (and second) Phish show! More on this in a later post...

Wedding

We travelled from Thornton, CO down to Colorado Springs so Mr. Go and GuideBook (remember him from our adventures in Mexico?) could reclaim some branches from trees around his house and make an arbor for he and Ms. GuideBook to get married under.

After this we spent a night with friends in Golden, then headed on up to the mountains to stake out the claim at Boreas Pass, where the Guidebooks would be wed three nights hence.

Sleeping at 11,300 feet elevation is no joke. After one night, I was done and Babs seconded that emotion. Luckily, our other friends (also of the Mexico & Spain adventures) had a house in the town of Breckenridge, where we were gratified to shower, nap and wash our clothes.

Wedding festivities abounded, culminating in a morning ceremony atop a mountain with a breathtaking skyline background.

Yes, Babs acted as Co-Flower Girl, with her "sister" C

After the fake paella lunch that followed, the Go family split. Babs' school had been in session for a week without her and Breckenridge, though closer to sea level than Boreas Pass, still sits at a pretty 9,600 feet elevation, and none of us were acclimated.

Life in The Van

We made tracks on the way home, stopping off at rest areas for two nights of sleep. Note: The rest area at Adair, Iowa is stellar. Did you know Iowa's rest areas offer WiFi? And they allow overnight parking.

Also, in the town proper of Adair, Iowa, there is a great little park not far off the highway where we stopped off to let Babs let out some energy.

I typically consult this list to determine whether overnight parking will be allowed. Wisconsin says it's a No, but we've parked overnight at the rest area in Dubuque twice now with no issues. If there aren't signs posted that specifically say "No overnight parking," I'd do it.

Next Up...

Between pickling and canning our home-grown veg (more on that in a later post), house projects (including but not limited to replacing one nasty window and the asbestos tile in the attic), and keeping up with personal hygiene, Fall promises to click by at an unrelenting pace as well.

And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.


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Camping in a Van

The omnipresent permeating smell of wood smoke, bug spray and sunscreen....the smell of summer!

We just concluded our second camping trip of the summer, at a tiny lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In case you were wondering, the van makes an excellent camper.

On our first trip, we slept in our 3-man tent, but this time we slept in the van, which, with the foam topper on the bed, is infinitely more comfortable than being shoved off the Thermarest by a wiggly child and a blanket-hog of a terrier in the tent.

As I may have mentioned, totes are the savior of van-living. Keeping grocery items in bags on the floor is the pits. Items I reached for a lot (salt, oil, sunscreen, bugspray) I now keep in two little totes for easy access. The duffel bag stayed crammed under the bed as usual, keeping our living space open for changing clothes and other activities.

We camped at Mowe lake for three nights in late May and caught a break in the warm weather so we spent most of the time in sweaters. But it was great, the wind kept the bugs away and we spent a lot of time out fishing.

Speaking of which, Mr. Go bought a 14' john boat with an 8hp motor and a trolling motor and, after stocking up on all the accoutrements, spent literally more time in that boat than he did at the campsite. He brought me back an 18" largemouth bass and a mes of bluegill though.

Last week we camped at Steuben Lake for three nights and had gorgeous weather. Halfway through, the heavenly breeze quit, and the black flies tore us up. Poor Babs got the worst of it. She's covered in red itchy, swollen bumps.

Actually, I take that back. Finley got the worst of it. Let me tell you about Finley. Many years ago, Finley was bit in the hindquarters by a horsefly and ever since he has been paranoid about bugs. He spent the entire trip whipping around to check that there wasn't anything getting after his butt. He was in a chair (yes, we brought a chair just for Finley), under the van, trying desperately to get in my lap until finally I just let him in the van where he spent the last two days getting our pillows filthy, but at least his butt was safe.

Mr. Go, as with any skill he sets his mind to, has become quite the angler. He hauled up 5 pounds of fish fillets from Steuben. Pike, walleye, sunfish and Babs snagged a 15" bass. She's come a long way from not wanting to get near a worm. She's touched worms and petted fish and absolutely loves fishing.

My camp cooking has been stellar, no surprise there. I used the round cast iron dutch oven for everything, I don't even know why I bothered to bring any other pans. It has a lid, which is key for softening veggies and fluffing rice. (Fresh off the Grid has some amazing campfire recipes--cornbread chili and campfire paella are now staples.) I love cooking over the fire; I'd love to do more of it and rely less on the propane campstove. Sizzling bacon with a little bit of ash and smoke, like the cowboys used to do, is satisfying in a deep, primal sort of way.

We purchased an RTIC 45qt cooler for camping purposes, hoping it will also solve our road trip food-cooling issues (See Last Post). It's pretty big, so it has its pros and cons for road tripping but for camping it's been stellar. It holds an ice block like a monster and is sturdy enough to double as a seat/table.

We go out camping again this week, then it's a 10-day trip for Mr. Go and I to Washington state. It's already mid July...where has this year gone??

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Traveling in a Van with a Child + 2 Dogs

Mr. Go finally did it. He bought a conversion van to fulfill his dream of living in a van down by the river. But, like, not in a creepy way.

The 2000 Ford monstrosity gets a whopping 16 mpg, 20 if you draft a semi on the highway.

We took 'Speed', as Babs dubbed the big blue boat, for a test trip in January, to try getting OUT of the cold. But alas, it was the coldest week on record in the South, the cold front dipping daytime temperatures to the mid 30s in FLORIDA. But at least the snow didn't tower outside our doors.

As many free campsites and even paid campgrounds were closed in the Midwest in the midst of winter, we spent a few nights in Walmart parking lots until we could get on a main highway and find some rest areas. A couple nights were spent at a friend's in Georgia, so Babs could play with their two kids. We brought the tent, thinking we'd camp further south, but we slept in the van the whole time.

We laid a 1/2" old eggshell foam piece over the electric lay-down bed, which proved wicked uncomfortable. Leading me to...

UPDATE 1: Foam mattress.
Sleep might be the most important component of having a good trip, so this was well worth it. Since we seldom use it as a seat on long-term trips anyway, we mostly leave the bed down. And if we need to, this short queen mattress topper lifts easily and we just haul it out.

The bed provided good storage underneath, but there were some things that needed to go in the "living room." Such as the potty. It was mostly for Babs but it came in real handy on cold nights in Walmart parking lots when you just don't want to have to walk across the lot to use the potty. Yeah I peed in a bucket, if you lived in a van you'd understand.

Keeping your living room tidy is also vitally important on long trips. You need room to move around. Thus:

UPDATE 2: Storage in Totes.
Since we didn't go all out and build in cabinets or anything, we needed somewhere to put our stuff. We brought our climbing gear, camp cooking equipment, cold weather AND warm weather clothing and other comfort accoutrements.

One tote in the back housed things we didn't need to get at very often, such as first aid kit, climbing gear, tools, etc. The other we stored cooking equipment and the like, which we were always getting at, and came inside with us when we stayed nights in friends houses.

As coffee-lovers, we had a small tote dedicated to coffee equipment, so first thing in the morning all we had to do was pull out this little tote instead of rifling around in the bigger one through pans and baby monitors to get our caffeine.

We also had a separate tote for "important things" which mostly housed our toiletry bags, passports and kindles. The idea being: the van is on fire, we can only take one thing, grab the 'toiletry tote'.

For things I needed to access while the van was in motion, such as snacks, we got a dishwashing bin from Dollar General. But I just do my dishes in the pan I cooked in anyway, so its use has morphed. It seems to accrue other things as well, such as sunscreen, extra mayonnaise packets swiped from Subway and Mr. Go's headband, but it's a great easy-access catch-all.

WATER

This is important, as most free campsites and even many pay sites (especially in off-season) do not have water pumps. Our 5 gallon, hard-shell water jug sits on the running board just inside the side door (at the far left of the above picture) so we can fill up our bottles at pit stops. And of course, I never pass up an opportunity to refill my Nalgene from a water fountain or at any restaurants we chance to stop at.

GOAL ZERO

To charge our devices (phones, Kindles, cooler, etc) we were using an AC adapter plugged into the van cigarette lighter but the ports were limited and it slid around on the dash. The Goal Zero has two USB and two AC ports so we can stay charged on the fly.

ICELESS COOLER

We have a love/hate relationship with this Igloo cooler. It's great to not have to buy ice, but unless it's plugged in, it's pretty poor at keeping things cold. While the van is on, our snacks stay chilled, but at night it drains the Goal Zero pretty quickly, leaving us without charge for other devices unless we turn the van on again.

Trip #2

In April, we took Speed to Colorado to test our improvements, with great success. On the way out, we slept at rest areas, which are actually very comfortable. Most of them allow 24-hour parking, but select ones will have signs posted otherwise. Do some research if you can beforehand, check Google Maps for reviews, photos of the place or even the state transportation website might have some info on overnight parking.

You can't throw down your chairs and cook breakfast in the morning, but it's infinitely more comfortable to go in and brush your teeth or use the potty late at night instead of having to go inside a WalMart (more on sleeping at Wally World here).

On the homeward journey we stayed at real campsites, and even paid for them, just to see what that was like. Usually we use FreeCampsites.Net to scope out free places to stay. We've found some great spots, many with vault toilets, picnic tables and fire rings. Some are just a grassy spot on the side of the road in BLM lands (Bureau of Land Management.) FreshOffTheGrid has some good info on free camping here.

During the trip we camped free at Red Canyon Park near Shelf Road one night, where Speed ran over a rattlesnake--and it lived. The Park was beautiful, though the dirt road was wicked bumpy and would not be friendly for a trailer, and there seemed to be some homeless camping there too.

But paid campsites have their advantages. Such as: running water (sometimes). We took a shower at the Dakota Campground in Mitchell, South Dakota and it was actually very comfortable. Another perk: Being around other people. Sometimes I'm just creeped out by being alone in the middle of nowhere. Some campgrounds will also have play equipment, a huge perk for a cooped up 4-year-old and her weary parents.

Sometimes, paying for camping is not worth it. The village of Wilton, WI has a campground that is probably very nice if the weather was better, but it was rainy, soggy and cold when we stayed and $7 per adult and $4 per child was way too much for what we got. C'est la vie.

The Elk Mountain Campground in the Wind Cave National Park was very pretty. We hit off season pricing at $9/night and they provided firewood (for a donation) and had water spigots, though their indoor bathrooms were closed and there was 1 vault toilet for the campground to share (and it was quite busy too).

Many pay sites charge like this: Posted on the board with the rules and such, there will be a box of envelopes. You fill out the info, tear off the slip, put money in the envelope and put the envelope in the drop box. The slip you clip to a post at your chosen site or put on the dash of your vehicle. The village of Wilton had a person who just drove in and knocked on your door to take your cash. Dakota Campground just had a box for you to put cash in and no slip to prove you had already paid.

Other Suggestions:

Carbon Monoxide Detector - You're sleeping in a small, enclosed space. You've cracked some windows, but just to be safe, get a battery CO2 detector so no one wakes up dead.
Hanging Light - Headlamps are the bare minimum but either a fancy battery lantern or some sort of light bungeed up somewhere improves the ambiance of your home on wheels.
Audiobooks for our 4-year-old were the savior of the trip. We had some long days driving and she got bored of coloring and scribbling pretty quickly. The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau was a winner.

Van updates aside, during our trip, two of our friends were moving, so I packed up a couple of kitchens and Mr. Go hauled a lot of boxes in exchange for a place to stay and a dinner. Babs visited all her Colorado friends, acquired and used a climbing harness and helmet.

We traversed the front range, bopping in and out to visit with all of our friends. Another Update: I need to consolidate my necessary overnight items for easier in/out. Things tend to get spread out over the course of van living and I was forever making trips back out to the van for something I forgot to bring in.

It was not a typical trip, in that we did a lot of in/out of the van for visiting friends. I'd have liked to have done more camping, more staying put in one spot for longer lengths. It would have cut down on the stress of constant motion but it was an excellent trip regardless.

Next time we take Speed out, we'll be camping at home in Michigan, then we've got several more road trips on the dockett. But we're enjoying the down time at home between trips, too. With gardening, garage sales and family all around us, it's always an adventure.

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