Tetra Pak Milk!

I'm not sure how new it is, seems to have been out for a year or two now but it was new to me when I found Tetra Pak milk at our local Trader Joe's last week. I think I'd seen it before but it has always been chilled and I didn't realize it was stable outside of a refrigerator. The Tetra Pak company site suggests one issue in the North American market for them is that "American" consumers don't trust their packaging for sensitive products like milk.

I'm not sure about the market at large but I was more than pleased to both find and trust picnic basket and diaper bag friendly milk that doesn't require a cold pack. Granted, cold milk is still preferable but my little one doesn't really seem to mind the temperature either way.

Definitely one to add to the daddy arsenal if you haven't already.

Activity: Daisy Chains

The term daisy chain is common enough but it seems we don't see many being made in our parks, yards and woodlands these days. Even as recently as a few decades ago most children would have known how and made them at least once in a while. It would be a sad thing to lose, so here's a quick verbal "how to" guide to making daisy and other flower chains to pass along with the next generation.

1.Find some flowers.
This works well with daisies because they are relatively common and have slightly fibrous stems. While dandelions are even more common and would no doubt make a lovely chain, the stems are so fragile I doubt they'd survive the crafting.

2.Using your thumbnail, make a small slit in the stem of each flower. It only needs to be big enough to slip the stem of the next flower in the chain through the opening.

3.Chain the flowers together, inserting each stem in turn through the flower that precedes it until you have a garland the length you'd like.

Nothing to it.

So, take your troupe out into whatever constitutes the wilds in your area and hunt up some pretty flowers. The size, color and type don't matter so much as that they have a fibrous stem.

Dad Skills: What I've learned about knitting

Mobius Scarf!

I'm always interested in learning skills that will allow us to enjoy nicer things and save money at the same time. Anyone raising a child understands the constant need to watch your spending. So in another effort to live better and have nice things without going broke, I've been knitting for a few months now and while it isn't compelling to have a conversation about yet, it is somewhat compelling to do once you start. Likely it's simply lingering "guyness" that prevents me from striking up knitting chatter. Though, it did gain me entry into at least one play group for Bea. It's pretty hard to feel threatened by a guy who is knitting a hat.

Thus far I have learned that it's a pleasant activity that both takes practice and rewards it. The learning curve isn't steep but as noted before it can seem so at first. I've knitted a scarf and simple hat for my daughter and a sort of hood/scarf for myself. After being shown the ultra basics at the knit shop in something like five minutes, I've been able to sort out rib stitching, purling and binding off on my own. I've also seen that while there are a multitude of variations they all essentially stem from those same basic knit and purl stitches.

It's become evident that knitting is very useful and I'd say in terms of DIY, self sufficiency, prepping and even survival, there is no good reason to not know how to at least make a scarf, something simple that can easily be turned into almost any other item with simple blanket or whip stitching. If you are blessed or cursed with a job that has a lot of wait time, maybe security or rendering images, something that requires a person to sit and be present and awake but not actively engaged in much for even a half hour at a time, you might consider using that down time to hand make things you need, can trade for things you want or need, or to stretch those gifting dollars around the holidays. Though, knitting things like blankets and sweaters is not cost effective unless you happen to have a ready supply of wool or yarn, most of us don't and won't in the foreseeable future.

Bottom line, it's no worse a time suck than video games and the usefulness of the end product goes a long way to easing the guilt of what would otherwise be lost or idle time.