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Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--The Way Meat Loves Salt

In honor of Purim (a week late, but we were still celebrating Black History Month), we are looking at a Jewish version of Cinderella. This one takes place in Poland.
Map of Poland
Source
A short bit about Poland and then some on the Jewish history in Poland. Poland is in Europe and is officially the Republic of Poland. It is the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population around 38.5 million people making it the 34th most populous country in the world. The establishment of the Polish state is often identified with its ruler Mieszko I adopting Christianity in 966.  The kingdom of Poland was established in 1025. Over six million Polish citizens died in World War II. (Source)
Poland's Flag (Source)

Poland is a democracy with a president as its head of state. The president is elected by popular vote every five years. The government structure is centered on the Council of Ministers which is lead by the Prime Minister. In 2011, Prime Minister Donald Tusk became the first prime minister in Poland to ever be re-elected for a second term. (Source)

The history of Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries Poland had the largest and most significant Jewish population in the world. This was due to religious tolerance and social autonomy.  During World War II, Nazi Germany managed to nearly completely destroy the Jewish Community in Poland. During World War II nearly three million Polish Jews died. Although Nazi Germany occupied Poland during the war, there was very little Polish collaboration with the Nazis. So Poland went from being thought of as the most tolerant country and being called "Paradise to Jews" to housing six concentration camps during the Holocaust including Auschwitz. (Source)

Now onto our book.  This week we will be looking at The Way Meat Loves Salt by Nina Jaffe. This is one of two Jewish Cinderella stories I found and will be sharing with you. This story starts with describing a rabbi's family of three daughters. The oldest becomes very good at needlework and enjoys making challah covers. The middle daughter loves to sing and spends the day singing. The youngest daughter, Mireleh, is a dreamy girl and often daydreams looking out the window. When her father comes home she runs out to greet him every night.
Challah Bread (and dough)
One day the rabbi is wondering how much each of his daughters loves him. This thought is troubling him and when he goes home he asks each one. The oldest tells him she loves him like diamonds. The middle daughter says like silver and gold. Mireleh tells him she loves him the way meat loves salt. He is very insulted by this and kicks her out of the house. She wanders off out of their small town and meets a man with a long white beard and two pieces of wood on a road.

This man tells her not to worry and advises her to go to the home of Rabbi Yitskhok ben Levi of Lublin. Before she leaves he gives her the smaller of his sticks and tells her to tap it three times and state what she wishes and it will appear. He gives her his blessings and then disappears. She finds the house of the rabbi. He and his family (wife and son) try to find out what is wrong, but she is too upset to talk and just weeps. They decide to let her stay in the attic since she looks homeless and poor. The next day the family goes to the synagogue. When they return home Mireleh overhears them discussing the wedding they will be attending the next day and that they must leave her home. She watches them leave and then runs to the attic and taps her magic stick asking for a gown and appropriate accessories to attend the wedding and she heads off to it. When she arrives the ceremony is over and the reception is going on. The rabbi's son asks her to dance. She does, but will not talk to him or even tell her his name. They dance all night until the rabbi's son sneaks off to think about how to get her to talk. When she leaves he has left tar and pitch on the step and she loses a slipper. He then takes the slipper through all the villages and towns looking for the girl it fits. Of course he does not find her.

He returns home and tells his parents how he cannot find her, but he wants to marry her. Mireleh asks to try it on and he becomes a bit angry with her, but she grabs it and pulls out the matching slipper. Than she runs upstairs and puts on the gown. Now he is very confused and does not know what to do. That night the prophet, Elijah (the old man that advised Mireleh), visits the rabbi and his wife in their dreams and tells them that their son must keep his word of marriage to Mireleh. 

The next day, Mireleh takes the son to the attic and shows him the stick and its magic explaining that she was blessed when it was given to her. Realizing she has been blessed, he decided to marry her. They plan the wedding and while the cooks are preparing the wedding feast Mireleh goes and tells them not to add any salt to any of the dishes.

The Jewish wedding takes place under the huppah and the groom steps on the glass and the guests all yell Mazel Tov. Then at the reception Mireleh wonders among the guests to make sure they are all happy. She greets one in the darkness who looks unhappy. He is a rabbi from a small town. He mentions that the food does not taste good--it is missing salt. She reminds him how he threw her out of his house when she said she loved him like meat loves salt. At that they embrace and her family joins them. All is forgiven and they are happy they were happy to have the family reunited. Then Elijah makes another appearance blessing the happy couple. He disappears again before Mireleh can thank him.
So our crafts for this book besides our clothespin doll include some coloring pages which we used water color paints on and we decided to do some salt painting. We started by making a design with white glue and then sprinkling salt on it. We basically followed the instructions that were shared at a Sharing Saturday a few weeks ago by Making Boys Men. However, I do not think we let it dry enough because we had trouble painting the salt. Then I remembered someone doing it with food coloring, but wasn't really sure where or if I had really seen it. I pulled out our food coloring and we loved watching the drops spread through the salt.

The top one was mine which was the title of the book and that it was a Jewish Polish Cinderella. The bottom one is Hazel's which is just a design. We really enjoyed making them!

Here are our links to the coloring pages:
I have not been doing my form for the last few Cinderellas. Is anyone missing them? If so, let me know and I'll do them.





Sharing the Easter Story with Little Ones

I have been trying to find some good ways to explain Easter to Hazel. It is such a hard concept to really understand especially for a preschooler who is still trying to grasp death, heaven, etc. We have been reading the Holy Week stories in her Bible story book. We also got some more picture books about Easter. We hit the used book store after Hazel's appointment for allergy testing and bought quite a few new ones. I will admit we have not gotten through all of them yet, but am sharing them here so you can check them out. Please note: Two have the same illustrator and thus the same picture on the covers.
Besides reading these books we have also been using toilet paper roll characters to act out the crucifixion and resurrection. We colored in the characters and scenes that you can get at Catholic Icing (if you subscribe you can get her water color painted ones as a subscriber bonus). Hazel still has many questions like "Why did they kill Jesus? Why did they want him to die? Why was he put between two thieves? Why were they killed?" She is however enjoying acting it out.
You have the crucifixion with the Roman soldiers. The crucified Jesus can come off and be put in the tomb.
I glued the large stone to a piece of a toilet paper roll so it could be moved back and forth. The middle picture is the inside of the tomb. She suggested a small tissue box, but we didn't have one and we used a large one.
The other people you get are two angels, the two Marys, Peter and the Risen Christ.
I noticed after I glued it that the Risen Christ's arms are suppose to be cut so they can be open and they have the nail marks on them.

I truly think giving her these puppets to act out the story is helping her at least understand some of it.



Sharing Saturday 13-9

Thank you to all you shared last week! We had some amazingly creative ideas shared. If you have not had a chance to check out all of the wonderful posts, please do so. Also make sure you check out my co-host, Having Fun at Chelle's House for Michelle's Features. This week she is featuring some of the wonderful Dr. Seuss ideas shared last week since March 2 is Dr. Seuss' birthday! 


This week I get to feature the most clicked! By far the most clicked was from Toddling in the Fast Lane and it was her Say It Two Ways Thursday Link Party and the one she linked up had food as her features. For her most recent and still open link party, go here!



My next feature is a bit of favoritism/self promotion. My dear friend, Kelly, from Happy Whimsical Hearts shared her knitted farm!! If you have been following here for the past year, you may remember I am the one who organized the farm swap last March. Kelly finished hers and gave it to her children for Christmas. (My squares are still sitting in my craft room untouched.) When Hazel looked with me at the pictures she said, "Mommy, I want one of those. Can you put it on my wish list?" (Every time she wants something that I don't want to buy at the time I tell her I'll put it on her wish list. If it is something I want her to have, I do put it on her wish list and if not, I don't. There are so many things on her wish list, she will never get them all, so she won't know.) Seeing Kelly's has motivated me to get knitting again. I couldn't help sharing a few pictures of it. Of course Kelly is also very talented in many ways and has many beautiful animals and other additions to her farm.


Now onto some of my other favorites.
1) From Raise a Boy: Make Your Own Graphic T-Shirt (Now I may have picked this since we are planning Hazel's first visit to Disney, but I loved the personal t-shirt!)

2) From We Made That: Milk & Soap Experiment (This looks like so much fun. I think we may have to give it a try!)

3) From My Nearest and Dearest: Small World Construction Site (Oh, I love the mud play dough and the green paper to fill and play with the trucks. I know a little girl who would LOVE this!!)


4) From Learning and Growing the Piwi Way: Not Your Usual Princess Stories (With a princess loving daughter, I found a few new books to check out and I added some in my comment that we love as well.)


5) From Wesens-Art: Spring Wreath (Ok, what I LOVE about this wreath is that the wreath itself is made of tongue depressors!! And yes, she gives a tutorial on how to do it!)
Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.
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My Week in Review:
This week I shared Easter decorations including some new printable garlands as well as books, an African American Cinderella type story, Spring flower fairies, cinnamon whoopie pie recipe, and two Dr. Seuss book activities to go with One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham.
 
 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.
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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest

Cinnamon Whoopie Pies


During school vacation week, Hazel and I took a cooking class with her best friend from school and his mother at a place called Play Makers. It is a local place that is run by mothers and offers play times, cooking classes as well as art classes. Her friend's birthday party was at this location in January which was our first exposure to it.

When we got there, we found out we were making whoopie pies. Now Hazel has similar chocolate tastes to me. We love chocolate but do not like chocolate cakes including brownies or even Oreos. While each child was mixing their whoopie pie, the other mother and I were talking about this and she suggested we put in extra vanilla and no cocoa powder. I asked the instructor if this was all right with her and she suggested we add some cinnamon. A new treat was born. I have to admit Hazel was the only child to eat both of her completed whoopie pies during the class (most took at least one of them home). Needless to say it was very tasty. Hazel also informed me that we would have to make them at home. So this week we did. At the class each child got to decorate a copy of the recipe to bring home.
We made two batches, one chocolate and one cinnamon since Steve loves chocolate and chocolate whoopie pies happen to be my father's favorite as well and he was here since he was taking my mother into the hospital for her surgery (all prayers are welcome for her). 
Cinnamon Whoopie Pies

Our recipe:
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 
2 teaspoons cinnamon (we used 1/4 cup this time and it was too much--the original recipe called for 1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder)

Cream Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 pint whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

1) Preaheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3) In large bowl mix oil and brown sugar until smooth.
4) Whisk in eggs, milk, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5) Fold in flour and cinnamon. Then drop by the tablespoon into twelve mounds evenly spaced onto each baking sheet. (Ok, with Hazel helping scoop ours were not evenly spaced.) Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

6) Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the filling ingredients until fluffy.
7) Spread the flat side of 12 cakes with the cream cheese filling. Top each with another cake.
8) Optional: Dust with confectioner's sugar. Enjoy!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
My father tried both kinds and liked them both! Enjoy!!


Green Eggs and Ham Activities

Since Saturday is Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Saturday is Sharing Saturday here at Crafty Moms Share, I thought I would share our activities and crafts to go with Green Eggs and Ham. Now this is Steve's favorite Dr. Seuss book. We actually have it on DVD and watched it with Hazel as we were kicking off this month for the Virtual Book Club for Kids. (We normally try not to let her watch television unless one of us is sick or a special occasion.) I was going to wait until tomorrow to share this, but if you want to do our activity you need a good two days for it to work, so I'll share it today.

For those who do not know, the Virtual Book Club for Kids is a group of amazing bloggers who focus on an author each month and post about one of that's author's books with an activity, craft, snack, etc. to go with it and then host a blog hop. February's author is Dr. Seuss and this is our third book and activity this month. We did Bartholomew and the Oobleck and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

First I will share the Green Eggs and Ham sheets we found at Seussville.

Hazel and Steve enjoyed playing Tic-Tac-Toe with green eggs and ham pieces. Steve also got the colored page since it is his favorite book and hung it in his office.
Felt Green Eggs and Ham

Next I cut some white wool felt and needle felted some green for the yolks and needle felted a small egg shape. I also cut some green felt to be a piece of ham. I decided to be lazy and glued it instead of sewing it. Hazel decided she would be Sam and I would be the other character who Sam harasses to try the green eggs and ham.
Green Egg Outside and Inside
Then we did the Naked Egg Experiment shared by We Made That at Sharing Saturday and also shared by Science Sparks and others the past year. Since we had three eggs that were going bad, I figured we would try it and we took it one step further. Two of the eggs we put in a container with vinegar and green food coloring. Here are our results.

When we bounced them in the sink, the membranes broke. That is what the green is in the last one. The inside of the egg came out normally and washed down the drain. Hazel has not let me "crack" the last one yet, though so she could play with it a bit more.

Now it is time for the blog hop. Please share your Dr. Seuss ideas here. And a very Happy Birthday to the late Dr. Seuss!

Easter Flower Fairy Peg Dolls

So last week I shared with you a few of my animal peg dolls for Hazel's Easter basket. Today I'm going to share a few more. I made her a daffodil fairy and a tulip fairy.
I painted the two bodies green and then cut green leaf wings. For the tulip I cut two pieces of petal strips and glued them on as a crown after giving her a face and hair.
For the daffodil, I did her face and yellow hair and then cut out the petals and the inner strip. On the inner strip I added a little pink since I did not have orange paint marker. 



Now I want to do a sheep peg doll and a Jesus peg doll and I then I'll sew some felt animals for her as well.



One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish


Another favorite Dr. Seuss book at our house is One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. Since Dr. Seuss is the February author (and his birthday is this Saturday), it seems only fitting to do something with this book.



In church the church school has just finished studying the story of Jesus Feeds 5000. Part of the three to five-year-old classroom was passing bread at prayer time. The Christian Ed Director had bought a package of Goldfish bread which of course seemed perfect since it was both a loaf and a fish. Since they did not use them all and Hazel loved them, the Christian Ed Director had me bring them home for her. We used them for our activity with this.


We used food coloring and milk to make the red and blue. Then to make the black I added green to the red dyed milk. Hazel loved this activity. She did not try the painted bread, but loved painting them with eye droppers.

We also did a few of the sheets from Seussville. We did a matching opposites. I had to help Hazel of course since she could not read them, but she liked connecting them. And we did a color page.

Last week we shared our activity and sheets on Bartholomew and the Oobleck. And of course this is a blog hop, so please add your Dr. Seuss posts to our list!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Sukey and the Mermaid


This week we will be looking at an American version of Cinderella. Sukey and the Mermaid by Robert San Souci is a different version of Cinderella taking place in South Carolina. In the author's note he comments that it is a brief fragment of Elsie Clew Parson's Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina published in 1923. He also states that it is one of the authenticated African-American folktales involving mermaids. He also searched for more complete narratives. In Caribbean folklore "Pretty Jo" or "Mama Jo" is derived from "Mama Dio" or water mother, a term for mermaid. Since he did not find the root tale in the Caribbean, he looked at African tales and believes this is a West African tale. Now again, this is a very different version of Cinderella and is not your typical story involving a prince, etc.


Flag of South Carolina
Source
South Carolina is a southern state. It was the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788. It was the first state to secede from the Union for the start of the Civil War and rejoined the Union in 1868. It is the 40th most extensive and the 24th most populous of the 50 states. The state capital is Columbia.



Map of the United States with South Carolina highlighted
Source

King Charles II of England gave eight aristocrats a charter to settle Carolina, which means Charles Land in Latin. It was so named for King Charles' father. Carolina did not develop as planned and split into two colonies due to political reasons.

Some interesting more recent history of South Carolina is it was one of several states to reject the 19th Amendment (the right for women to vote). It later ratified it in 1969. South Carolina is one of three states that refuses to use competitive international math and language standards. South Carolina has the highest rate of strokes in the United States. South Carolina is the only state to own and operate its own fleet of school buses. (Source)

Now onto our book. This story is about a young girl named Sukey. She lives in a run down cabin with her mother and stepfather, Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones does not work and forces her to work. He yells at her to work more and not to take breaks. Sukey spends her days hoeing the vegetable garden. One day when Mr. Jones is not looking, Sukey sneaks off and runs to the coast where there is a white sand beach. It is her secret spot. She sings a song she heard somewhere which calls for Mama Jo. Mama Jo, a mermaid appears. Sukey has heard tales of mermaids being mean and trying to pull you into the water with them, so she is very weary of Mama Jo. Mama Jo is patient with her and they spend the day together. At the end of the day Mama Jo gives Sukey a gold coin to take home so her parents will not be angry with her. When her stepfather sees the gold coin he sends her back to the water every day to look for more. 

Sukey loves spending time with Mama Jo and every day Mama Jo gives her one gold coin. She invites Sukey to come live with her, but Sukey refuses. One day Sukey's mother follows Sukey and witnesses Mama Jo giving her the coin. That night Sukey's mother tells Mr. Jones. Early the next morning they go out and try to catch Mama Jo. After that Mama Jo will not appear for Sukey. Mr. Jones forces her to hoe the garden again until Sukey becomes very sick. While sick in bed, she dreams of Mama Jo and Mama Jo says she will appear to Sukey once more if she wants to come live with her. Sukey drags herself to the water and sings the new song Mama Jo told her in her dream. Then Mama Jo uses her magic hair to take Sukey to her underground cave. They live there happily together for a long time until Sukey begins to miss the sun and birds singing. She begs Mama Jo to take her back to the land. They finally agree to take her back and Mama Jo gives her a bag filled with gold coins and jewels for her dowry. She also tells her to only marry a man named Dembo. If she marries any other man the treasure will disappear. 

Sukey returns home. Her mother has been grieving her loss and Mr. Jones has grown even meaner until he sees the dowry bag. Young men come courting when they hear about the treasure. Sukey refuses them all until Dembo comes. They fall in love and her mother and neighbors plan a grand wedding for them. While Sukey and her mother are out the night before the wedding, Mr. Jones kills Dembo and steals the dowry, hiding it under his mattress. Sukey is devastated when she sees Dembo dead. She runs to the water's edge and calls for Mama Jo. Mama Jo tells her this is the last time she will come to her, but gives her something to bring Dembo back to life. When Dembo comes back to life he tells everyone that Mr. Jones is the one who hurt him. Mr. Jones grabs the treasure and hops into his canoe. The crowd watches as a storm cloud appears over him and the ocean swallows him--canoe and all. Dembo and Sukey are sad to have lost the treasure but are glad to still have each other. They get married and afterwards go to Sukey's favorite spot and she digs her feet deep into the white sand and feels something. They dig up the dowry treasure bag. She sees green and gold in the distance sparkling in the sun and Sukey blows a kiss to Mama Jo.

Easter Decorations and Easter Books

As we are having the third weekend in a row with snow predicted, I am really longing for spring. I pulled out our Easter decorations. I know we will make some new ones this year as well, but at least for now it feels like spring in our house. I also made two garlands which I will share with you at the bottom. This past week was school vacation week, so Hazel and I headed to Cape Cod to visit my parents. There I went to one of my favorite stores, The Priory, and bought some new books for Easter and Lent. I will share them here as well.