Mud in the Kitchen

Inspired by Valerie, at the Frugal Family Fun Blog, and the gooey, glooky, good time they had making mud pies, I picked up Mary Lyn Rays' Mud from the library.

"One night it happens. Maybe it begins in the warm of day, but it's always at night that it happens. Earth comes unfrozen. And then there is...mud...mucky, magnificent mud."

The brightly colored, simply worded picture book, about the joys of playing in the mud, at the beginning of spring, made us want to play in the mud, too.

The only problem is, our mud is still frozen, not completely, middle of winter, frozen, but not barefoot, squishing between the toes, thawed out, and ready to play in, either. And, the north wind did end up blowing in a snow squall, today. So, I had to come up with something we could do inside the house.

A quick search through the blogosphere, provided our solution - clean mud!

• Unwind one roll of toilet paper.



• Rip it into tiny shreds (a pretty good boredom buster on it's own).



• Shred one bar of soap.



• Mix the soap, with the toilet paper, some food coloring - for a brownish color, and enough hot water to dissolve the soap, but not so much as to make it soupy.



• Enjoy!

The kids weren't too sure about our "mud" to begin with, but it didn't take long for them to discover its charm.

I won't kid you - it made a mess. But, the cleanup was surprisingly easy, and I was planning on mopping the kitchen floor today, anyway. Which I did, while the kids went outside to enjoy one more burst of winter.

It's great to be a homeschooler.