Half Way There

I've been babysitting for a friend's 8-year-old son (and his kitten, Toby) since pre-dawn Monday morning. It's been fun so far!

My friend and her husband needed to take a quick trip out of state this week, and were relieved when I volunteered to stay in their home to watch their son, so he could remain in his routine, go to school, and so forth. They were generous enough to leave me the keys to one of their cars so I can run him around as needed--so it's a blessing both ways.

Monday was a holiday here in the U.S., so we took the opportunity to get out and about. We drove to our area Barnes & Noble to look at fun books in the children's section. I discovered that he loves books about dinosaurs, especially pop-up books, and any kind of photo book about nature. He particularly enjoyed a photo book about spiders. I pretended I wasn't disgusted at every one, since he was so enthusiastically telling me all about these different spiders.

After a quick Wendy's lunch, we went to the new Veggie Tales movie. It was entertaining enough for a children's flick, with some clever humor to appease the adults in the audience.

Learning the school-morning routine is definitely a learning curve for me. With no children of my own, I've rarely had to motivate young ones to get ready in time--then drive to the school and get "in position" with the other drop-off cars. My goodness, they're all so... regimented! I wasn't in quite the right place and got many an angry glare from parents. Good grief.

Yesterday after school we made spiced nuts as a fun activity. The boy liked the creativity of it, it took a relatively short time, is so easy and tasty to boot!

Spiced Nuts - Procedure

We just got a can of mixed nuts from the dollar store, dumped them into a rimmed cookie sheet that we sprayed with canola spray. Then we sprayed the nuts with more canola spray, sprinkled them with chili powder and cinnamon, gave them a good drizzle of sugar-free maple syrup, then tossed with two spatulas to coat. Into a preheated 350*F oven for 3 minutes, tossed, back in for another 3, then out to cool. When thoroughly cooled, these are a great sugar-free snack (you could always use the real stuff if you don't have to watch your sugar intake). Any spices can be used to suit your tastebuds.

The boy is at school now, so I have some time to come back to my place and survey the disaster. Mr.W left home alone with the doggies and Thundercat might not be such a good idea for the future.