Do you ever feel like life is just a giant roller coaster ride? Your adrenaline starts to build as you start uphill on the next project, goal or season in life. Then suddenly you drop, moving faster than you can control and there is that rush of excitement (or panic and fear)! And just when you are able to breathe again and think it over you start uphill again.
In our home this winter, the roller coaster ride we are on has been our whole family catching the “winter bug” that has been going around. One of us is sick… and just when you come downhill (from fear of someone else getting it) and can breathe again- the next family member is sick. Thankfully we are in the clear now and feeling much better!
Last weekend while during a cozy rainy Saturday we were all stuck inside getting rest, drinking tea and finishing healing up. But that is slightly challenging when you have active children who still want to play and all you want to do is lay on the sofa and watch Hallmark Channel Valentine's Day movies. Have you checked them out yet? Some of them are really cute and who doesn't love a little romance story?
How our Rainbow Rice Craft started…
But being “stuck” at home together is not such a bad thing. Yes, we are not our best selves but it forces us to have quality time together. We read, we played, we built Legos and listened to the wonderful sounds of rain splashing down from the rooftops. And the most fun I had (aside from my Hallmark movies) was making a craft that entertained Chase so my husband and I could have a break.
I always see Rainbow Rice all over Pinterest and finally tried it! We made it a while back and keep it on-hand in plastic bags to bring out every now and again. I have seen it poured in buckets for children to learn texture and mixing of colors, but we decided to use ours to make art. He was entertained for a good hour by himself doing his craft!
I used 3 bags of white rice, and divided each one in half for creating 6 colors. About 1- 1/2 cups for each color. Using brown paper lunch bags I had Chase decorate them with glue and then color the images with the colored rice. Then we set them aside to dry. Now there are adorable personalized bags for gifts or baked goodies!
A connection I recently made is with Louise Bibby of PowerPlaytime.net. She recently released a book on Amazon – 15 Minute Power Plays With Your Kids: How To Be a Better Parent in 15 Minutes A Day – which debuted at #1 in the Parenting section of the free bestseller’s list in its initial promotion. It is a fairly simple, recipe-book style list of 31 ideas of how to spend quality time with your kids in small windows of time. Her website is a great resource aimed at further exploring the idea of quality time with our children.
Real quality time together, is what our rainy weekend turned out to be. I think the most fondest of memories I have with my parents are our random playful moments such as this.We had a blast snuggled inside with the rain outside playing with our rainbow rice! And wouldn't the bags make cute holders for Valentine's Day cards or to send muffins to friends?
Ingredients
- FOR EACH COLOR:
- 1- 1/2 cups of rice
- 2 Tablespoons of rubbing alcohol
- 1 Tablespoon of liquid food coloring
Instructions
- In a quart size ziplock bag, combine all three ingredients. Press out the air and zip shut. Squish around until all the color is combined into the rice evenly.
- Pour each color into separate cookie sheets or pans. Lay out to dry.
- Once dry, store in ziploc bags to mix or decorate brown bags or construction paper using glue as the adhesive.
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