“You know little Woo’s, this ‘I’m bored’ bit, is getting old.”  I say to a crowd of children who are blatantly ignoring me.

“How in the world can you be bored?  You have DS’s, Wii’s, computers, dolls, crafts, toys, books, and. . . . .IMAGINATION.  Ever heard of that one girls?  Ever use your little noggin to figure out something CREATIVE to do?”  “No”, they say.  I didn’t think so.

“Maybe you could build a fort out of cardboard boxes, play in the sprinkler, or hmmmm. . . .let’s see draw or write on some paper?”

Nope.  They don’t want to do any of that.  That’s boring. 

“Well then,” I stammer, “Did you know that I didn’t have any of these toys when I was kid, yet I was never bored?”    I lie through my teeth as if it’s second nature.  Maybe it is.

“I had an Atari” I boast, “a crazy pixelated video game, and we only had 3 games.  Frogger, Pitfall, and the one that came with it. And you know what?  I never even asked for new games.  Wanna know why? No. Well, I’ll tell you why anyway.  BECAUSE, I mastered those games.  I became the Sensei of the Atari world.  If anyone wanted to know how to get past any level, they came and asked me.  Because I had tenacity, wherewithal, the strength to keep my nose to the grind.  You youngins’ could use some of that.

And when I wasn’t playing Atari, I drew beautiful works of art, out of crayons that were only nubs. No markers you say. Spat! I laughed at markers.  Who needs markers when you have crayon nubs.

If my mom needed decorations for the house, there was no going to the store and buying it.  I MADE IT.  When my mom said it was time to decorate the house for Christmas, I didn’t say “When are we going shopping?”, I pulled out my nubby crayons and went to work.  It didn’t matter that baby Jesus looked like a puppy, or that Saint Nicholas was dressed in purple, because we had I-M-A-G-I-N-A-T-I-O-N. . . . . . ‘imagination’ for those of you who can’t spell.

And you know what else? There was none of this business of eating to pass the time.  We ate at meal time, and had very limited snacks, which did not consist of cremes or fluff.  In fact, we made them ourselves, and waited for them to freeze for 6 hours while we salivated on the precious gift that was to come.  We didn’t run outside everyday at noon, chasing the poor ice cream man down the street, completely prideless, clueless, and moneyless. No, we made our own frozen treats ourselves.  So listen up Little Woo’s, roll up your sleeves, I’m gonna show you how ‘we’ used to do it.”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –  – – – – – – – – – – – – –

I had no idea how much my children would love this activity.  Such a simple thing that I used to do all the time as a kid, and took for granted.  I let the 4 year old make her own out of Grape and Apple Juice, and the older girls took turns using the blender to make the yogurt version.

My kids have been eating these pops everyday since we made them, and already they are begging for more.

Here’s to you, me, and how we used to roll as kids.  We knew how to have a good time, didn’t we?

Old Fashioned Popsicle Pop Ups
Ingredients:

Your favorite Juice

Or

12 oz. frozen or fresh fruit (strawberries, peaches, or blueberries)
1 cup of vanilla yogurt
Honey to taste
5 oz. Dixie Wax Cups

Directions:

1.) If using frozen fruit, thaw or microwave until it is no longer frozen.
2.) Using a blender, puree fruit. Mix in yogurt. If the fruit is not sweet enough, add honey to taste.
3.) Pour into wax cups.
4.) Place in freezer for 6 hours or overnight.
5.) Once frozen you can enjoy by gently pushing the bottom of the cup to release, and the popsicle will raise for eating.*

*Once the popsicle is raised, you can take it out, flip it over, and eat it that way. That was my preferred method as a kid, because then the pop doesn’t slip back into the cup.