Recycling

I was in the middle of throwing some dishes in the dishwasher after breakfast when D called me over to the piano to help him with a song. I ran in to help him, thinking I would only be there a couple of minutes, and left Nono playing in the kitchen with a bag of rice. A bag of rice that was only contained by a measly twisty tie. I have no defense, no excuses, and no justification for leaving him alone with a poorly secured bag of rice. I may have been gone slightly longer than a few minutes, but not much. Really. Well, when the piano playing ceased and I made my way back to the kitchen (less than 10 feet away) to finish up the dishes I found this...


And if that wasn't a big enough mess, Nono decided to grab handfuls and throw the rice all over the kitchen. After I sat and stared at the rice for five or so minutes, I collected the children and we headed to the family room. I let the rice sit on the floor for another twenty or so minutes while I tried to figure out what to do with it. Obviously we couldn't just put it back in the bag and eat it because even though I run a tight ship, I wouldn't want to eat what I see when I sweep the floor. And I felt bad just throwing it all away. So guess what I did. Google. Are you surprised? Then we had a plan and the boys and I headed back into the kitchen and scooped the rice into a big mixing bowl where it sat until after lunch...


Then after lunch we busted out the baggies (double bagged) and started dying rice. No rubbing alcohol, just a little vinegar and food dye and it turned out satisfactory for our needs. And D was super excited that we were recycling the rice. He gets really excited about recycling/reusing things. He's a little green.


Here's one of two batches drying in the sun (even though it wasn't sunny and the rice was practically dry already).


And then we threw all the colors together in a cake pan and the boys played in it forEVER with their little trucks and animals. They played with it for days until I finally got so sick of sweeping up rice 16 times a day that I poured it into a jar and put it on the top shelf while nobody was looking. Maybe we'll get it out again some day. Maybe. If I'm desperate.