Snow, Snow, Snow...Snow...

Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Snow
I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

Ah, yes, soon, we will be living Mr. Bing Crosby's words. Just not quite yet. 

Last weekend I had 40lbs of organic pears that needed to be canned. The usual helpers were not available so it was up to me. T Rex Dad took charge of toddler wrangling while I worked for 5 hours straight. 

My mother-in-law recently shared with me a few ideas that she used to keep young T Rex Dad occupied while she was working in the kitchen. We tried one of these out during canning time. 

We put a couple of cups of flour into my left over canning boxes. Then the kids brought over their cars and drove them in the "snow". 

 

It was sort of like having a mini sandbox of flour in the kitchen. It sounds kind of messy. Not too bad. Flour does clean up pretty easy. And we have a lot of it. Best of all, though, the kids were occupied for over 2 hours. When we were done, we dumped the left over flour into a plastic container and labeled it "play flour" and have since used it again and again. It's a big hit with the kids - especially easy clean up when used outside.

A big thank you to my mother-in-law for this idea. We owe you some pears!

P.S. 40lbs of pears yielded a full 3 loads of 1 qt jars - that's 21 jars. Thank goodness my good neighbor loaned me her super awesome peeler. I've added a couple of those to my wish list.