Bean Blanket

We have this heating pad that was given to us by my mother-in-law JR sometime in the past year or so, and man has that thing come in handy. It is filled with rice or beans or some sort of grain, so we refer to it as the "bean blanket." The way it works is you heat it in the microwave oven and it retains heat for a couple of hours. Since it’s been so cold, it’s come in might handy, though I tend not to use it since I don’t like being too warm. Neither does N, so it’s mainly used by the women of the household.

R loves using it while we watch movies, but A has been monopolizing it because she sleeps in the guest room and it is the coldest room in the house. She likes having it in her bed to fall asleep with. After a couple of hours, it gets cold, but we can’t exactly fish it out of her bed while she’s sleeping, so R doen’t get to use it at night.

We considered buying a new one, and found the place to get it, but then we realized that we could make our own. After all, it’s just rice inside a blanket, right? Then again, maybe not. First off, it takes a fair amount of rice, and when you start getting into big bags of the stuff, you’re getting into the price range where it’s just not worth it.

Also, I put some rice into a pillowcase and nuked it, and it smelled kind of funny. Not so much like rice, but more like hamster’s cage. It wasn’t that pleasant. We could tweak our recipe and try different variations, but at some point the time and effort, not to mention the cost, are simply not worth it. Before you know it, Spring will be here and we won’t need it, so we’ll see where this one goes.

Until then, thanks for reading.