A Little Bounce-House Lesson

bounce-house envelope

Josiah: Momma, raisins please.
Me: Sorry Juju. We don't have any more raisins.
Josiah: Momma, go store buy raisins.

I guess it isn't too early to teach about being wise with money. So I had a simple conversation with my toddler when he asked to play on a bounce-house and I didn't have any money with us. I told him that we need money to eat, to live in our apartment and to have fun. If I used all our money for fun, then we wouldn't have any money for food. "Ooohhhh, yes!" responded Josiah as if he was grasping the concept.

So, my little toddler has been allotted 2 ten lei bills a week to go to the bounce-house and play. That is just less than two dollars. He was elated! He keeps them in a special envelope. He knows that when he uses up the money, he has to wait until Sunday when he gets two more.

Of course, the bounce-house days are usually the first days he get his lei. Ten lei gets him ten minutes of bounce-house fun, so that is twice a week he gets to go.

Here is how our conversation went after the first week:

Josiah: No more money. Finished!
Me: You will need to wait until Sunday when you get two more.
Josiah: (After a pause) Momma, go store buy money.

Okay, so maybe it is baby steps...

So sad. Too wet to play on!

Chaotic Crafting With Two

It's been a busy three months, but we are settling into being a family of four. Today we even broke out a craft to go with our story, The Three Little Pigs.

It was the fastest craft we have done. It kind of went like this...."draw a big circle, draw a little circle, quick-color, cut, glue, clip"...and done! It was accomplished while Evan serenaded us in the background with his protest to be picked up.

Evan enjoyed the story much better than the craft. Josiah is always ecstatic to have a glue stick in his hands. And I got to feel like a creative mom, even if it was a little chaotic!

Lazy Golubtsy

I've been longing to make this dish. It is a simple recipe that always gets me excited to pick up my spoon and be glad to be at a Moldovan dining table. Any Moldovan will probably chuckle at this, as it is a simple and common dish. Plus, the cost of this meal puts my American recipes to shame. 

True to its name, it is the lazy version of the cabbage rolls. I guess this is my way of working up to actually making cabbage rolls.

I used ground beef with this recipe, but you could also use chopped chicken or go without meat.

Ingredients:

meat

diced onions

chopped cabbage

grated carrots

water

rice

tomato paste

dill

bay leaf

salt

pepper

• Sauté meat along with onion until meat in almost cooked through.
• Add cabbage and cook until leaves are tender.
• Add carrots and cook for a few minutes.
• Add amount of water according to how much rice is used and bring to a boil.
• Add rice, tomato paste, dill, bay leaf, pepper and salt. Use a good amount of salt.
• Stir together, bring the water back to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and cook until rice is soft.
• To complete this Moldovan dish, you need to slice of bread to go with!

*The next time I make this dish I'll use less rice and include more cabbage.