living our own lives

Color

2012-02-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Kyan decided that the toolbox that Lee built him a few years ago needed some color:)

mixing yellow and red to make orange, the color he wanted for the inside

Damek offered to help paint the inside

A job well done:)

Inventions From China

2012-02-08T08:29:00.001-07:00

Lots of great inventions have come out of China we've been finding out recently. First by reading Virginia Walton Pilegard 'Warlord's series of books,

and then by finding out more information on the internet.

The books we started out with were 'The Warlord's Messengers' and 'The Warlord's Beads', not realizing that they were part of a series. After finding out there were more books and that they were all part of one series, we checked out the remaining books from our library and read them in order.

Both boys liked the books and were intrigued to read each one to find out what happens to the main character Chuan in each.

There is a project at the end of each book that explains how to recreate a similar invention to the one that was described in the book itself.

'The Warlord's Puzzle' is about the tangram

'The Warlord's Beads' is about the abacus

'The Warlord's Fish' is about a floating fish compass

'The Warlord's Puppeteer's is about puppets and puppeteers

'The Warlord's Kite's is about kites using the finest Tang Dynasty paper

'The Warlord's Messengers' is about a wind sock

'The Warlord's Alarm' is about a water clock

After reading the books, I noticed a friend had posted on facebook about watching a show titled 'Where Did It Come From: Ancient China' on the history channel about farming inventions that had come from China (hoe, wheelbarrow, cast iron guan plow and a seed planting drill). Some other inventions we also found out came from China by doing a bit of research on the internet were: dominoes, ice cream, laquer paint, pottery wheel, seismograph, jump rope, wallpaper, sundial, fireworks, and waterwheel among other things.

The "4 great inventions" that came from ancient China are the compass, gunpowder, paper making and printing.

Computer Literacy

2012-02-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

"If students aren't taught the language of sound and images, shouldn't they be considered as illiterate as if they left college without being able to read or write?"
George Lucas
I think the above quote also applies to computers.

On that note, I'm feeling rather computer literate today after Kyan came to me needing help downloading and installing a Minecraft Mod, and I was actually able to help him:) We've spent a lot of time and been unsuccessful trying to get a Minecraft server setup. The boys were playing on a server someone on the Always Learning list set up, but it crashed and hasn't been accessible since. Thankfully our friends set one up also and the boys can play on theirs, but they still would like their own. Damek and I have spent lots of time, watched different youtube "how to" videos, and downloaded what was required all to no avail.

So today when Kyan approached me about installing a mod I thought "here we go again". I downloaded the mod and watched a youtube video explaining how to install it. We had to download a file manager software in order to open up the required minecraft folder to put the mod in, and that was what took the most time. I downloaded a free one called 7-Zip, but when trying to open the minecraft folder it wasn't recognizing it as being installed on our computer. I tried to download another suggested one called WinZip, and it ended up installing a toolbar as well as messing up the mod we had downloaded. I was able to uninstall it thankfully and went back to square one. I'm computer literate enough that I was able to find the 7-Zip by going into different folders on our hard drive to find it and open up the minecraft folder. The second stumbling block came when trying to drag and drop the mod files into the minecraft folder. It would not let us do it. I tried to drag and drop & copy and paste to no avail. Finally I just dragged each individual file onto the desktop and then was able to drag them into the minecraft folder. It worked!

End result Kyan was happy:)

Birds & a building

2012-02-02T09:46:00.001-07:00

Our local aviary, Tracy Aviary, has been going through some major upgrades in the past few years, we have been pleasantly surprised watching it all happen. We got to go yesterday to see the new building they have been working on and that is finally finished. It houses the gift shop, offices and educational center.

My mom came with us, and upon exiting the car and grabbing my camera to take a picture, I realized I hadn't put my camera battery back in my camera after charging it;( My mom graciously let me borrow her camera to take pictures:)

We got to hear a "Keeper Talk" about Toucans in the South American exhibit. They have a pair of Keel Billed Toucans as well as a family (mom, dad and 3 young) of Aracari that look like mini toucans and are a close relative. Was very interested to hear that Flickers, birds that we have around here and that live in North American are related to Toucans. They are in the Piciforme class.

Angry Birds:)

Cote d'Ivoire

2012-01-31T08:57:00.004-07:00

Did you know that Cote d'Ivoire is a country? Neither did I until Kyan pointed out it's flag on our world flag card the other day. It's also known as the Ivory Coast, and is located in West Africa.

the boxes below correspond to the map above to tell you which flag belongs to which country

He was watching a Minecraft walk through on YouTube and recognized that someone in the game had made what looked to be the flag of that country. He jumped down from his stool ran over to the map and said "look, someone made this flag on minecraft".

We also have a world map hanging on the wall, and from time to time the boys will study it, just like the world flag, and ask which country is which. Of course talk of different countries comes up in everyday conversations as well and then we usually refer to the map to find said country and sometimes we'll talk about it or if need be use the computer to find out more information about the country if that's what their wanting.

Learning happens every moment of every day.

cheap fun

2012-01-23T15:34:00.001-07:00

for more fun with shaving cream, see this post:)

2012-01-12T23:13:00.003-07:00

-the boys were extra excited this morning as they both logged onto Minecraft and found that it had been updated with new stuff. Happy sounds were heard throughout the house:)

-Kyan wrote (well I did the actual writing, while he narrated the story to me) a story complete with illustrations titled 'The Adventure of Pirate Peg Leg and his Super Parrot'.

-I let the chickens out to free range, even though the garden is mostly covered in snow.

-found some arugula in the garden

winter sunflowers

-after stopping at the post office to ship off one of our geoboards to Maryland today, they boys and I headed to a nearby natural trail for a bit of winter fun

-While watching Damek's Jiu Jitsu class this evening Kyan drew the following: an angry giant and an army of snails, a scene from Poptropica, the earth and a bunch of stars and an apple tree with someone standing beside it. Currently (as I type this) he and Damek are illustrating a story with the angry birds characters in it and then they will narrate the story to me so that I can write it down.

Friday, January 6, 2012

2012-01-08T18:15:00.002-07:00

No, it wasn't our snowflakes this time, that would come the day after. We escaped up into the mountains for the first sledding of the year, and most importantly to see good friends whom we haven't seen for awhile and to meet the newest member of their family (who by the way is as cute as cute can be).

the boys trying out their new sled that was a christmas gift from friends:)

a view of our friends, almost finished, home through the trees

the home our friends are currently living in while they finish building theirs

their "road" in the winter. how cool is that, you can walk out your front door and go sledding:)

Snowflakes

2012-01-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

This morning Kyan and I made paper snowflakes. I used some of the designs in this book while Kyan preferred to freehand his:) The author of the book lives in Utah and also has 2 other snowflake books as well 'Creative Paper Cutouts' and 'Snowflakes For All Seasons' which I will be checking out sometime soon.

We're hoping that by having the snowflakes on our windows it might inspire some snow to come our way sometime soon. Not to say that we're not enjoying the unseasonably warmer weather right now, but we are missing the snow that is usually on the ground right now as well and all the fun activities it brings.

Novels, reading and other musings

2011-12-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

"You can't make her read or write. But you can make her not want to."—Joyce Fetteroll

Damek, somewhere between 4 and 6 months old

Damek and I started a new novel yesterday, 'Leven Thumps' by Obert Skye. Damek and I have been reading novels together since Damek was 4 years old. I remember loving reading as a young child. I remember seeing both my parents read books for pleasure. My dad in particular had a real passion for reading tackling a few different books at a time on different topics. We had books all over our house (on bookshelves, in end tables, on tabletops, ect..) as well as many different magazines on many different topics.

One of my favorite places to read was in our living room behind a chair in the corner of the room. I remember getting my Scholastic order at school and not being able to listen to a thing the teacher said after that, because all I wanted to do was get home to get started on my books:) That being said, I can't remember reading any books for pleasure once I started middle school and on into the first part of college. Too much of my time was taken up reading about topics I had absolutely no interest in for tests or school assignments. Reading became a chore and more often then not for me, something to be avoided. I loathed reading for those years because I could not retain information for the life of me and constantly had to read and re-read assigned passages because my mind would wander to the place or thing I would rather be doing (or subject I would rather be reading about).

Having children to read to, and one that has a real passion for novels has brought back my love of reading full force and I'm loving it. Reading, or not reading, will always be a choice for my children, and by having the choice they will remember and retain what they read because it will have been something that interested them enough to want to read about it in the first place. The saying is true "what you learn with pleasure, you never forget".

I'm going to put together a list of all the novels Damek and I have read together, more for reference than anything else, but when I do I will link it to this post.

Thankful

2011-11-11T10:33:00.003-07:00

Photo of some of our harvest from last year, which I was also thankful for

I've been ejoying the "thankful" posts this past week from people on facebook. One reason I really like facebook, is that it seems to compel people to look for the highlights of their day and point them out. I also like those that post the non-highlights of their day as well, as it makes me feel more human and I can certainly relate to those posts too.

Anyway, reading the "thankful" posts has had me thinking of things I am thankful for as well.

One thing that I am thankful for this week is food. After reading a friends facebook post awhile back about how she goes shopping once every two weeks for groceries, and picturing our scenario of going at least once and sometimes 2 or 3 times a week, I wanted to try it out. We haven't been able to purchase 2 weeks worth of groceries at a time mostly because we're pretty much living paychecks to paychecks at this point in time, but I got a $125 bonus on my check last week from work, and decided that I was going to use it towards groceries. And I did:)

We're on day 10 of not having to go to the grocery store (except for one quick trip where I had to run to our local grocery to ship out a pair of stilts from our etsy shop and decided to grab butter and shampoo while there too, and a walk to our corner Dutch store for some Gouda cheese). It has been soooo nice. The time (and money) saved has been immeasurable. Not having to run to the store for a handful of items to get us through the next few days on our already time constrained schedules has been wonderful. If money allows, I am going to try and keep to the bi-weekly shopping trips, and am thankful that we were able to last week, which has made the last 10 days easy sailing:)

Dia de los Muertos

2011-11-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Last wednesday (November 2nd) the boys and I attended an annual Day Of The Dead celebration that is held every year in our community at the West Valley Cultural Center.

-We got to see an exhibit of different alters people had created in honor of lost loved ones,

papel picado (tissue paper cut-outs), a traditional decoration

-got to sample a sugary sweet bread (Pan de Muerto) that is traditionally eaten by the loved ones of the deceased during day of the dead or placed on the altar as an offering),

-decorated a sugar skull and brought some home to decorate with Lee as well,

and listened and watched the traditional music and dances that went on throughout the celebration.

The boys also opted to stand in a looong line to get their faces painted;)

Damek is already saying he wants to go back again next year:)

Gems, Minerals, Rocks & Mining

2011-10-25T17:21:00.000-06:00

So Damek's interest in the indie game Minecraft has led him (and us in turn) into learning more about gems, minerals, rocks and the whole mining process in general. We ordered some sample gem and mineral kits from Live Studies (we were ordering harvester ants for Damek's space age ant farm and came across the gems and minerals which Damek really wanted as well). Now, in addition to his rock collection, which he started a few years ago, he now has a gem and mineral collection as well.

The day the samples came, we opened them up and as we read what each one was, Damek proceeded to tell us all about the majority of them.

My brother (Uncle Joe) works at Newmont Gold Mine in Nevada, where he helps to run the mine on computers, which Damek has been asking about lately. Lo and behold, last week in the Clickschooling email we get, there was a link to a virtual tour of a gold mine in South Africa, which Damek has started watching and reading about. Also, much to Damek's surprise, since we've never talked about it or had reason to go there, we informed him that there is a huge copper mine on the west side of our valley, about a 45 minute drive from our house. Of course he wanted to go, so yesterday afternoon after Lee got home from work, we went. He was a little bummed because we couldn't actually go in the mine, but was pretty fascinated getting to see the pit from the overlook and seeing the enormous trucks hauling loads of rock up and down the roads, as well as getting to go through the visitor's center where we got to see and learn more about copper and the products that contain copper and a short video about the mine itself. We learned that this mine, in addition to the copper, also mines smaller amounts of gold, silver, molybdenum and sulfuric acid.

Grandma helping Damek with the binoculars

The trucks, which are as a big as a house, can carry 255-360 tons of rock.

Checking out an antique bucket that was used in the early days of mining

Damek measuring himself against the huge truck tire. Each truck has 6 of these tires that cost $25,000 each and last for only 9 months.

looking at a drill bit that is used in the mining process

mining paraphanelia

Kyan looking at mineral samples through the microscope

Damek and grandma looking at different minerals

Some interesting facts we learned at the visitor's center were:

- The first known use of copper dates back 10,000 years.

- To make all the pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters in 1999, the U.S. Mint used about 36,000 tons of coppper. That's about as much refined copper as Kennecott produces every 41 days.

- Each american uses more than 40,000 pounds of new minerals every year.

- It takes about 15 different minerals to make a car, 35 different minerals to make a t.v., 30 different minerals to make a computer and as many as 42 different minerals to make a telephone.

Day out with Oma & Opa

2011-10-21T08:41:00.000-06:00

On monday we spent the day with Oma and Opa (Lee's parents). First they took us to the toy store so Kyan could pick out a birthday present since he couldn't come up with anything to tell them that he wanted.

Next we headed to Tracy Aviary. It has been some time since they had been, and with Opa's love of birds, we thought they would enjoy it. We were right:)

Feeding the Sun Conures

After the aviary, we headed to 'The Old Dutch Store' (Lee's dad is from Holland) for some dutch treats:)

A Birthday and a Harvest Party

2011-10-16T07:51:00.003-06:00

Last saturday the boys and I attended a very good friends birthday party up in the mountains (where our friends live), and the boys got to take part in a "bicycle rodeo". Lots of fun was had by all.

Playing with a small pile of snow leftover from last week's storm:)

After the birthday party, we headed home, cooked up our 'Grilled Veggie Succotash' and went to a harvest party at a friends home. Lots of yummy homegrown food was sampled as well as some homebrew and a bit of play for the boys with the other kids who attended.

'Great States', a Smartphone & Lincoln

2011-10-10T08:03:00.003-06:00

'Great States Junior' has been a favorite game of Kyan's for a couple of years now. He pretty much knows the game by heart and when we play he answers/finds our questions before we can;) Last week, he and I were playing it, and it asked a question about the Space Needle. Having my phone sitting beside me and not wanting to interrupt our game too much by going and getting on the computer to look it up, I looked it up on my smartphone. We read about where it was located, how tall it was and how much it weighed among other things. After that whenever we had a question that involved a states landmark we would look it up on my phone.

Towards the end of the game, Damek happened upon us playing and wanted to play his game of 'Great States' when we were finished. While playing 'Great States', we listened to the song 'Graceland' by Simon and Garfunkel (one of the questions was "where is Graceland located?", and immediately that song popped into my head), and looked up information on Mount Rushmore. When I finished reading the description for Mount Rushmore, Kyan ran into the bedroom, got a $5 bill out of his wallet (which he had received that night from the tooth fairy) pointed to the picture and said "it's Lincoln!".

2011-09-28T09:06:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Kindess & Compassion

2011-09-22T08:24:00.001-06:00

Just a compilation of quotes I've been collecting over the past week to help me over a couple of humps. I truly am learning and making progress, but not without work and mindfulness and understanding to be sure:)

To not be angry when somebody does something that I perceive as less than kind has been a struggle for me in the past. Understanding that everyone struggles to some extent in this life and that everyone is making choices and realizing that those choices don't have anything to do with me or my family, and if they do, knowing it's still not about us, it's about the person making the choices, is something I have learned. I am the one that is choosing to let those choices affect me. Realizing I have a choice on whether I let it affect me or not is very freeing.

Believing the best of people and their intentions and stepping back and seeing the whole situation without judgement or blame has been key for me. Being able to wish those people (whom I've perceived as being less than kind in the past) peace and happiness, and to keep right on interacting how I've always interacted and to not rein in my kindness to them or of reaching out for connection due to some pre-conceived idea of who they are feels good.

That being said, some food for though:)

"Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are." - Unknown Author

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama

"I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble." - Rudyard Kipling

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." - Albert Schweitzer

"Don't wait for other people to be friendly, show them how" - Unknown Author

"If we should deal out justice only, in this world, who would escape? No, it is better to be generous and in the end more profitable, for it gains gratitude for us and love." - Mark Twain

The best way to knock the chip of your neighbor's shoulder is to pat him on the back." - Author Unknown

"The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you." - John E. Southard

"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival." - Dalai Lama

"Be kind to unkind people, they need it most." - Ashleigh Brilliant

"The kindest word in all the world is the unkind word unsaid." - Author Unknown

"Compassionate action involves working with ourselves as much as working with others." - Pema Chodron

"Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not." - Samuel Johnson

"Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns." - Author Unknown

"Love thy neighbor, and if it requires that you bend your understanding of the truth, the Truth will understand." - Robert Brault

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a kind word, a smile, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." - Leo Buscaglia

"To err on the side of kindness is seldom an error." - Liz Armbuster

"The value of compassion cannot be over emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know no one cares or understands." - Arthur H. Stainback

Making Connections

2011-09-16T06:56:00.009-06:00

The boys and I had fun with making a "non-newtonian" fluid (a fluid whose viscosity is variable based on applied stress) last week. Kept them, and me, entertained for about an hour. You just mix equal parts cornstarch and water (although we had to add a bit more cornstarch to get a good mixture that would hold together when pressure was applied). Once mixed, you grab a handful and start applying pressure by rolling it into a ball and miraculously it actually does roll into a ball, once you stop it turns back into a liquid. Very cool!

Last night Damek and I were reading on the book 'The Beyonders; A World Without Heros' by Brandon Mull and we came to this part in the story:

Jason crouched, selected a flat rock, and winged it sidearm out into the lake. It took a huge skip, then another, and several smaller bounces, until it had traveled a very impressive distance. When it lost it's momentum, the rock finally sank. "Did you see that?" he asked. "The rock skipped like ten times!" "Yes", Ferrin answered in an intrigued tone. Jason threw another with a similar result. Rachel grabbed a stone, this one less flat, and threw it almost straight down at the water. It rebounded quite high, as if the surface was solid, then took a smaller hop and sank. "Weird", Rachel murmured, taking a stone in her hand and kneeling beside the lake. Holding the stone firmly, she struck the white fluid sharply. The surface felt solid. She pounded it several more times. Nothing splashed. The surface barely rippled. She examined the stone, observing no fluid on it anywhere. Dropping the stone softly into the lake it sank." "The surface hardens against pressure," Jason observed. "Let's try a big rock." Together he and Rachel heaved a heavy stone against the surface of the lake. Sure enough, it rebounded once before losing momentum and sinking.

While reading the above, Damek's eyes started getting wide and before we were through he shouted out "it's a non-newtonian liquid!".

Learning is all about making connections. The more connections you can make, the more you know and the more you are learning. When life flows, like it does naturally, then ideas come from many places and connections are formed and we take off in terms of learning and growing.

Damek will always remember what a "non-newtonian fluid" is due to being interested in making and playing with one and then later making a connection in a book we were reading. If the interest isn't there the information goes in one ear and out the other. I can't count the number of times I memorized answers for a test, only to have totally forgotten them by the end of the day.

I love the quote "Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If their not interested, it's like throwing marshmallows at their head and calling it eating" - Barbara Lamping

Foreman Hollow Trail

2011-09-15T08:22:00.000-06:00

On labor day we decided to go for a hike up in the Uintah Mountains. The trail we hiked is called 'Foreman Hollow', and the trailhead is in the 'Lodgepole Campground'. It was a loop trail that is 4 miles long, but with walking from the parking area to the trailhead and back again makes it about a 6 miler. Our longest hike yet as a family.

It was a perfect day for a hike. A little on the cooler side with being up in the mountains and having mostly cloud cover. We brought rain jackets as the forecast did call for thunderstorms, but we lucked out and only got hit with a couple raindrops the entire hike:)

Thanks goodness we didn't see any bears, only cows and lots of cow pies;)

Damek taking a picture of me taking a picture of him:)

me taking a picture of Damek taking a picture of me:)

Towards the end of our hike we happened upon a wild patch of perfectly ripe raspberries. We didn't eat all of them, we did save some for the bears:)

Goblin Valley & Little Wild Horse Canyon

2011-09-15T07:39:00.000-06:00

Last month the boys and I, along with our friends who live at Mystic Hot Springs in Monroe, Utah went on a short camping trip to Goblin Valley State Park.

When we went to pick up our friends, on our way to Goblin Valley, they were just starting a circus workshop with Mango & Dango, and invited the boys to join in. They all loved it! They practiced their cartwheels and also learned some very tricky acrobatic balancing on each other. When the workshop was over we packed their stuff into our truck and headed out.

Not the perfect time to be in the desert (upper 90's) but we made due and the fact that we almost had the place to ourselves was plus.

Our campsite. The kids had fun climbing on the rocks and playing various imaginative games while doing so.

Around the campground:

Kyan and I

Kyan

Waxing Gibbous Moon

In the Valley Of Goblins

Little Wild Horse Canyon, a beautiful kid-friendly slot canyon.

On our way home we backtracked a little to stop at a local burger joint for lunch, in Hanksville, Utah.

This is a place I remember coming to as a child on our way to/from Lake Powell, our annual summer vacation. Right next to it is the "Hollow Mountain" convenience store and gas station, which is built right inside the rock.

View from a rest stop that we spent a little time at

Even the rest stops in southern Utah have beautiful scenery:)

Writing

2011-09-02T09:24:00.000-06:00

I've been fascinated watching Damek and Kyan's writing progress in very different ways. Damek has never been into writing much, never liked to color as a younger child and only writes when he has a need to, which is becoming more and more these days. Kyan on the other hand loved to color and draw since about the age of 2, and either colors something, draws or writes everyday.

Damek and I have been having fun with the book 'Games For Writing' by Peggy Kaye. I've checked out the book before, but Damek wasn't interested at that time. He is this time. My motivation is to help him get better at writing, but only if it's something he wants to do. Even though Damek doesn't do a lot of writing and never has, his handwriting visibly has been improving over time.

When Damek does write, he wants to know exactly how something is spelled, he has never attempted to spell words on his own until playing the games in this book.

The first game we played was writing a list of all the things we could name in the kitchen. He got a 5 minute head start and then we both wrote for 5 minutes together. I told him not to worry about how the words are spelled, just list as many items as he could. We both got 1 point for every item we listed plus he got 3 points for every item he had on his list that I didn't have on mine (there were 15!), so needless to say he won. He was really excited about this game and at the end said "I'm really getting better at writing":)

Playing the games has definitely been boosting his confidence in his writing.

We played a game yesterday where we both couldn't talk for 15 minutes, but we could write. I wrote questions on a piece of paper and handed them to Damek to answer. Again he really had fun with this.

Some of the questions and their answers:

What is one thing you like about winter? SLADENG

How many cousins do you have? 8

What is your favorite video game right now? LAGO UNAVRS

What is your favorite color? ORENG

What is one thing you like about summer? SWEMING

What is your favorite season? SUMMER

What place, besides Hawaii, would you want to fly to? iNDEA (he told me it's because of the food)

Kyan and I have been playing a different game, the idea I got from the book 'The Write Start' by Jennifer Hallissy, where I hide a small box with an object in it, he finds it and then proceeds to write the name of the object on a piece of paper (I keep the objects to a 3 or 4 letter maximum). It started out just writing the first letter of the name of the object, but Kyan didn't like that and wanted to write the whole word.

Sweet Stuff

2011-08-31T20:43:00.000-06:00

Last night at 10:30 after finishing up a training course for work, I came upstairs to find Kyan and Damek snuggled in on the couch with Damek reading aloud Dr. Suess's 'The Sneetches' to Kyan. Kyan said that Damek got him a blanket and collected all of his stuffed animals for him and then offered to read him a book:)

Grilled Veggie Succotash

2011-08-29T16:10:00.001-06:00

One of our favorite seasonal summer dishes and what we ate for dinner last night:)

Grilled Veggie Succotash

4-zucchini diced
4 ears of corn
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
3 medium tomatoes
1 red onion
2 poblano chilis (grilled, peeled, seeded & diced)
4 cups beans (either black or small red)
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Toss the zucchini with a little olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic and grill in a grill basket until golden. Grill the ears of corn however you like (in husks or without) until tender.

Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in skillet on stove and saute red onion and 2 cloves garlic until onion is translucent. Add zucchini, grilled corn (cut off the cob), chopped tomatoes, diced peppers, & cream. Cook until cream is reduced somewhat. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle cheese and cilantro on top. Serve with tortilla chips.

Minecraft Crafts

2011-08-11T14:44:00.000-06:00

One of Damek's favorite games at the present is the indie building game 'Minecraft'. Inspired by the game he has been drawing 'hipo's' (pronounced "eepo"), which are one of the characters in the game. He also came across this tutorial

for making your own Hipo plushies, which we did:)

If your interested in the plushies, but don't want to make them yourself, the girl that made the tutorial sells them on her etsy shop Crafty Gamer Girl.

Damek decided that he wanted to make hipo shirts out of one of his drawings and put them up for sale on our etsy shop. So we did:)

Cecret Lake

2011-08-08T23:49:00.003-06:00

Our hike to Cecret Lake in Albion Basin near Alta & Snowbird Ski Resorts 8/4/2011

Columbine

The wildflowers were in full bloom:)

Indian Paintbrush

Splitleaf Indian Paintbrush

Yes, that white stuff is snow;)

the trail takes you underneath the ski lifts

the boys had a game going on the hike up. Kyan would find a seat on a rock, sit down, get up and find another one and Damek would take his place, and on and on and on:)

Kyan posing

the lake was crystal clear and beautiful

Since this canyon is a watershed, there is no swimming, not that we really wanted to swim on this day as the water was ice cold and the temps outside were in the 60's, but on a warmer day it would have definitely looked almost irresistible. That being said I did have to get in up to my knees to retrieve Kyan's camera that tumbled down a rock and into the lake. Damek used my small point and shoot camera for the first time on this hike and has since decided he wants a camera of his own.

the thunder and rain sent us back down the mountain sooner than we would have liked. we also got caught in a quick hailstorm as well:( Other than that it was a beautiful day for a hike:)

Silvery Lupin

Hiking

2011-08-08T08:20:00.001-06:00

The boys and I have been going on weekly hiking adventures for the past month and plan to continue until the weather holds out, hopefully far into fall:) It was originally Damek's idea to go hiking every week, and initially Kyan wasn't so thrilled, but has been liking it more and more each week and even picked our last hike to Cecret Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

With me working part-time now, I have tuesday, wednesday and thursday's off, so we've sort of designated thursday as our hike day. It's given the boys and I a chance to do something special just the three of us (with friends included on a couple) and since I work on sunday (Lee's only day off), the three of them get to have their special time on sundays (as I type this they are at the 'Living Planet Aquarium').

I already posted about our first hike to Ensign Peak here.

The next week we hiked to Timpanogos Cave in Provo Canyon. We invited neighbor friends to join us on this hike hoping that with friends we would have more motivation to hike the strenuous 1.5 mile hike to the cave. It worked!

The next week we had friends visiting from out of town and invited other friends as well to join us on our hike to Donut Falls. Damek had the idea to surprise our friends with doughnuts since we were hiking to "donut" falls, so we did:) Unfortunately on this hike our friend Ari took a bad fall when we went off trail to try to find our way to the top of the waterfall. There used to be a trail to the top of the falls, but the private landowners did away with it some time ago from what I've learned since. Highlight for the kids (besides the waterfall), was seeing a moose just off the trail:)

Coneflower

Wild Rose

Bluebells

Jacob's Ladder

Last week was Kyan's pick, which was Cecret Lake, which I'm going to devote a whole post to:)

Flowers & Vases

2011-08-07T22:56:00.000-06:00

The boys painted these bottles during a craft day last winter. After cutting some flowers out of the yard we decided to finally put them to use.

Kyan's vase with lavender in it.

Damek's vase with Yarrow in it.

After I put the flowers into the vases and put them on our table out on the deck, Damek said he was glad that I had put the yarrow in his because he really likes yarrow and Kyan said he was glad that I put the lavender in his because he likes lavender:)

Yarrow Harvest

2011-08-07T14:51:00.000-06:00

For flower arrangements and herbal preparations:)

2 quotes

2011-07-18T08:31:00.000-06:00

Damek (referring to his candy bag that we couldn't find before heading home after his friend Ari's birthday party) "I don't really care about the candy, I just had fun helping to destroy the pinata"

Kyan (last night while eating dinner) "Can we all be in the same graveyard, right next to each other, when we die?"

Claymation & A Hike

2011-07-13T10:54:00.010-06:00

Damek is taking a Claymation/Stop Motion animation class this week at Spy Hop Productions. He was beaming after his first class on monday, having thoroughly enjoyed it:)

After Damek's class yesterday we went for a hike to Ensign Peak, which is located right behind our state capitol building. As you climb to the peak, the entire Salt Lake valley can be seen as well as the Great Salt Lake in the distance.

After our hike we came home and took a refreshing dip in the pool:)

In The Garden

2011-07-11T22:22:00.000-06:00

6/10/2011

cabbage

dragon carrots

onions

highbush blueberry

In Bloom

2011-06-29T13:16:00.000-06:00

I plan on utilizing our flower/plant presses this year by keeping them full of whatever is currently in bloom. We started today:

First Day Of Summer

2011-06-21T23:09:00.000-06:00

At the Aviary

2011-06-21T22:52:00.000-06:00

6/8/11

Feeding the Sun Conures

Scouts & Tie Dye's

2011-06-06T10:39:00.000-06:00

Saturday the boys and I went to the first meeting of a new scout group that has formed in our community. For now we're calling ourselves the "Adventure Scouts" and it's moving toward being a co-op sort of group where each family can plan and host a meeting as they choose.

On saturday we made tie dye shirts to use as our official "uniform" when attending meetings.

Damek made his shirt from start to finish, choosing a spiral pattern.

Kyan wasn't so much interested in dyeing his shirt as he was in playing with the other kids, so I ended up dyeing his shirt along with 2 others that we happened to have.

I also brought a white play silk that had some stains on it to dye using dark colors in hopes of covering up the stains. It worked:)

Kyan decided he wanted to do a shirt when we were all done and getting ready to clean up;) So we are going to buy our own kit and do some more tie dyeing here at home soon.

chicks and chickens

2011-05-28T07:08:00.000-06:00

Per Damek's urging, we have semi-separated the chicks from the chickens. We integrated the two flocks last weekend and the chicks just can't seem to catch a break. There are 3 bullies in the flock, and that coupled with the fact that the chicks are petrified of coming anywhere near any of the big girls and thus don't seem to be eating or drinking much, we have been giving them time away for a good part of the day to be by themselves. Sooner or later they'll all get used to each other, but it was more than Damek could bear the other day when he went to feed all of them and witnessed the chaos. No blood mind you, just lots of chasing and occasional pecking.

Hopefully they can get better acquainted by being on opposite sides of the chicken wire that separates the coop from the run (where we are putting the chicks for the better part of the day).

some of the chicks hanging out on the compost bin:)

Damek hanging out with his favorite, Wario (our Buff Orpington)

Of course the other chicks couldn't resist Damek either and had to come check out why Wario was getting so much attention:)

Wheee!

2011-05-28T06:23:00.004-06:00

Our newest addition:

an old slide that Lee picked up from a job a couple of years ago and that Lee and the boys were going to attach to the treehouse their going to build this summer.

in the meantime Lee found a way to attach it to our deck, and needless to say the boys and their friends have been loving it. It's even big enough for me to go down:)

the climbing rope was Kyan's idea, because as we all know, the next best thing to going down a slide is climbing back up it:)

Lemon Balm Lemonade

2011-05-26T14:52:00.001-06:00

According to Lesley Tierra, author of 'A Kid's Herb Book', Lemon balm is useful for fevers, colds, flu, coughs, nervousness, whining, crying, wounds & sores. We have 2 huge lemon balm plants that are in full bloom right now, and last week as we were all starting to get over a nasty cold/virus, the boys requested homemade lemonade. I decided to make a tea out of the lemon balm and add it to the lemonade. It came out wonderful. A huge benefit was that it also helped lessen our coughs:)

Lemon Balm Lemonade

4 cups fresh lemon balm leaves, torn into pieces
6 cups water
3/4 cups raw honey
3/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

Bring 5 cups water to a boil and pour into a glass or ceramic dish or pitcher. Add lemon balm and steep for 30 minutes and up to 2 hours (the longer the more flavor). Meanwhile, melt down honey with the remaining cup of water on low heat until combined.

When the lemon balm tea is done steeping, filter the leaves out and pour into a pitcher along with the honey/water mixture & the lemon juice. Add a handful of ice, stir and enjoy:)

05/04/2011

2011-05-05T01:25:00.002-06:00

At the aviary

2011-05-04T13:49:00.001-06:00

Even though Damek has been feeling a bit under the weather these past few days, we ventured out to our beloved aviary yesterday. It's been over a year since we last went, can't believe it's been that long, and we were pleasantly surprised at all the changes that have taken place and that are currently taking place. I worked at this aviary 18 years ago for one summer and it's hardly even recognizable as the same place. This summer they are opening up a new exhibit called 'Owl Forest', which we will be patiently waiting for. Although Kyan says that we will have to be quiet when we visit the exhibit so as not to wake the owls since they are nocturnal:)

this reminded me of a ballet dancer:)

Kyan as a fierce owl:)

Damek as a cute toucan:)

my cute and goofy birds:)

standing by their favorites:)

Busy Busy

2011-05-03T11:25:00.000-06:00

Been meaning to pop in and post, but just haven't been able to find the time lately. I'm training for my new job monday through friday from 4 to midnight (not guaranteed the job quite yet until I'm finished with the training). Two more weeks to go! When I'm done training my schedule will be part-time and pretty flexible, and I'll be working from home:)

Some of the things we've been doing:

-Lee & Damek have been transplanting our tomato plants

-Lee and I mixed up our own fertilizer for our garden using this recipe from Mother Earth News (I'll let you know how it worked next year). It cost us under $100 for all the ingredients (bought everything from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply) and it should last us at least 3 years if not longer.

-Damek got his cast off last week

-lots of skating for Kyan. inside & outside:) He can even skate backward and do circles & turns!

-Damek & Kyan took some workshops at Sego Lily school last week.

-Damek's been progressing pretty far on his new DS game Okamiden

-been letting the chickens and chicks free range in the backyard

Damek feeding the chickens the spent beer making grain that my brother-in-law Mike gave us last week

the chicks taking a rest

-helped throw a baby shower for my brother Joe and his wife Elizabeth on saturday (they are expecting a girl this coming July!)

-Damek and I finished the book series 'Deltora Quest' last week, and now need to catch up on the english dubbed japanese anime series that is based on the books that we found here

-had a fire in our fire pit on sunday, both for warmth and for burning some of our plethora of sticks and canes and old garden plants from last year

Bee Success

2011-05-02T11:53:00.000-06:00

We checked in on our surviving colony of bees last sunday and were very happy to see that they are thriving:)

We have been reading up on the Backwards Beekeeper and also on the Bush Farms website for how we want to move forward with beekeeping. We hope to get a swarm this spring/summer to put in our other, now empty hive.

Brood Cells. Can you see the larvae in the uncapped cells:)

Capped honey. The darker part is from last year and the lighter parts are from this year:)

At The Tulip Festival

2011-04-25T11:13:00.001-06:00

Oma & Opa (Lee's parents) invited us to go to 'Dutch Days' at the Tulip Festival on saturday. Lee's dad is from Holland, and was excited to see & taste the dutch treats that he grew up eating. They treated us to fresh handmade Stroopewaffles, that were absolutely divine. Lee's brother and his family went as well, but we got there a bit late since Lee had to look at a job, so we missed them:( Got to hang with Oma and Opa for a little bit before they had to leave to go get ready for the grandkids egg hunt which we also attended later that evening.

lots of big open grassy areas for the boys to run & play their imaginary games:)

Kyan with the tulip he made. Got to plant real flower seeds in the pot along with his handmade tulip:)

the boys had fun feeding the Koi at the pond. unfortunately we didn't have any change to buy fish food and there wasn't anywhere near to get change, but a little girl nearby overheard us and shared her food with the boys:)

having fun playing in the fountain:)

doing the 'Planet Walk'

mini daffodils

Decisions

2011-04-11T09:48:00.002-06:00

Convergence of the Colorado & Green Rivers (Lee and I hiked to this point approx. 12 years ago)

I've mentioned before on here that I was looking to find a part time job. I found 2. Two that will work out fairly well for me, for our family and for our lifestyle. The only problem might be deciding between the 2. I've been offered one job, I have an orientation wednesday and thursday and start training on friday. The other job, I've passed their assessment and typing tests and am waiting to hear back on the orientation and interview. Both jobs I would be working some evenings and some weekends when Lee is home. Both are part time. One pays $5.25 an hour more than the other one & time & a half on sunday's! That's a big one. The other gives you flight benefits and the benefit of working from home. Also a big one. One you have to work 24 hours a week, the other one you can pick a shift depending on the hours that you want to work (I could work almost 10 hours less at the one and make the same amount of money as working 24 at the other, but I wouldn't be working from home and I wouldn't get free airfare). Tough decision. I've been going over and over in my mind which one would be best and every day change my mind. I might not have to choose, as I said I still need to hear back from one, but it's looking promising as well.

It would be nice to have the freedom to choose between the two, but at the same time it might be nice to have the decision made for me:)

I'll let you know what happens either way.

Of Casts & Chicks

2011-04-10T22:01:00.002-06:00

Damek got his full cast off on wednesday and a half cast put on. He counted down the days and is currently counting down the three weeks until he gets to be totally free of a cast. It's been hard. There's been a lot of stuff he hasn't been able to do because of it. He's been more frustrated than usual, and has told us "the reason I'm so grumpy is because I'm just so annoyed with this damn cast!". Last week when all the neighbor kids were out playing, him included, everyone (except Damek) decided they wanted to put on their skates and skate around the neighborhood. Of course he couldn't, and he came inside, broke down in front of Lee & I, and cried.

There are lots of things he still can do, and one of those things is hanging out with the chicks. If there is one thing that has been able to take his mind off of what he can't do with his cast on, it would be the chicks. He loves holding them, loving them, observing them, hanging out with them and laughing at their funny antics. He also loves that they use his cast as a perch sometimes when he holds them.

Today we let the chicks hang out in the garden for a bit since the sun was actually shining for the first time in a few days. Damek once again had a blast hanging out with them and loving on one in particular.

At the last minute, after his appointment on wednesday, Damek said he wanted to celebrate getting the big cast off and then celebrate again when the half cast comes off. To celebrate the first one being taken off we went and saw the movie 'Hop' after his doctors appointment. To celebrate his second one being taken off, he says he wants to go out to lunch. Will do.

Kyan's Drawings

2011-04-09T10:10:00.004-06:00

These drawings are ones Kyan did over a couple of days this week, they are in his words "our whole family". And a ladybug:)

Echo

Damek

Chicks

Lee

Chickens

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches

Kyan

Ladybug

We are participating in 'Saturday's Artist' over on Ordinary Life Magic.

If your interested in submitting your own favorite creative endeavor of the week, head on over.

In The Mountains

2011-04-05T10:17:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we spent the day at our friends home up in the mountains. They have been building their house over the last few years and are now living in it while finishing the inside. Their road isn't plowed in the winter, so you park on the canyon road and walk about a 1/4 mile over the snow to get to their house. It was a a lovely day for a walk through the snow and it was nice to see and spend time with our friends:)

On the way in and on the way out

other side of the mountain

our friends house through the trees

by the time we were heading out, the snow had fallen off the solar panels

I was amazed at the amount of snow on and around these houses!

fresh mountain snow, the best kind of snow to eat:)

Food & Cooking

2011-04-03T15:21:00.006-06:00

I participated in the Real Food Challenge over on 'Not Dabbling In Normal' last month. Mostly because towards the end of winter I had just not been very creative or motivated in the cooking department and figured that this would be my motivation to get back into the groove of cooking whole healthy foods on a more regular basis.

Here's just a sampling of things I've made over the last few weeks:

Homemade Granola (my favorite granola recipe).

Soaked Oatmeal. I double this recipe when I make it as Damek will usually eat this for breakfast & either lunch or a snack on days I make it.

Frozen berry, banana, coconut milk & yogurt smoothies

Raw milk, peanut butter, banana & coconut oil smoothies

Homemade Mayo, I've been regularly making homemade mayo for a few months now, preferring it over store bought. Here's the recipe I use:

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup sunflower oil

blended all up in a food processor or blender. It will keep a couple of weeks in the refrigerator or if you substitute whey for the lemon juice (which I haven't yet), it will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator. The consistency gets thicker and creamier after it's been refrigerated.

Teriyaki Chicken (using the last of our pastured chickens that we harvested and put up fall of 2009) using the recipe from Mark Bittman's 'How To Cook Everything'.

Chicken stock with leftover meat, bones and organs of chicken

Avacado Enchiladas

Beef Stew using local pastured beef from Christiansen Farm located in Vernon, Utah. We received a CSA share last fall that included 15 lbs. of beef and 15 lbs. of pork. We're not big meat eaters, so this has lasted us all winter and most likely will last us through spring.

Beef Stock with leftover meat and bones from stew

Beef & Bulgur Burgers using pastured beef from Canyon Meadows Ranch located in Altamont, Utah. Purchased from Rico Locals here in Salt Lake City.

Garbanzo bean, avacado and gouda sandwiches

2 batches of homemade yogurt - it's been quite awhile since I made homemade yogurt, mostly because it always seems to be hit or miss as to the consistency of the finished product. The second batch was a winner. I innoculated it by pouring the heated milk/cultured yogurt into a mason jar and putting it into my slow cooker. I then filled the slow cooker up with 110 degree water up to the rim of the mason jar, put the lid on the cooker and wrapped it in a towel. 12 hours later I had creamy (not runny) yogurt. The chickens were more than content to consume the runny batch, so it was not wasted:)

White Bean patties with tomato sauce (the boys love these). I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the white flour.

Bean and cheese burritos with homemade refried beans

Simple Cauliflower, Damek loved this and actually ended up eating most of it himself, gotta remember to cook up 2 heads next time:)

Homemade pizza with fresh mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, sauteed mushrooms & garlic & roasted bell peppers from our garden last summer (the boys had the same only with pineapple and olives & no peppers or mushrooms).

Lots of fresh salads using homegrown lettuce, arugula & baby spinach along with homemade dressing.

I also found time to organize, type up and print off some of our favorite and well used recipes and have compiled them all in a big recipe binder my friend Melissia gave me for my birthday last October (thanks Melissia).

I'm back in the cooking groove once again, and it will continue to get better and easier as we are able to harvest more and more things from the garden in the coming months. Looking forward to it.

Happy Eating:)

Spring In Utah

2011-04-03T11:15:00.000-06:00

What we woke up to this morning

Snow on our Apricot blossoms:(

The last few days we've had temps in the upper 60's, skating outside and jumping on the trampoline with friends, outside time for the chicks and free ranging for the chickens, a walk in the park, radish & carrot seed planting, apricot tree blossoms and daffodils blooming, digging post holes and pouring cement for a fellow urban homesteader, & tilling up a plot in the garden to plant our onion sets.

Looks like we won't be planting our onion sets today, but we will be transplanting tomato plants, playing and cleaning inside and having dinner at grandma's later with my side of the family:)

minuscule

2011-04-01T10:01:00.002-06:00

We found minuscule recently by way of a friend. It is a collection of short animations that follow the day-to-day existence of anthropomorphic insects. Modelled on computer in 3D they are then set against real scenery. Each animation often has a humorous storyline. Audio is genuine insect and ambient recordings or sound effects. The boys (and I) are loving them:)

One of their favorites so far: 'How Bees Make Honey'

Yesterday

2011-03-25T16:28:00.001-06:00

Kyan skated up and down the sidewalk with neighbor friends

I had an interview, Damek spent a partial day with grandma and Lee finished planting all of our spring plants (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, arugula, spinach, collards, kale, celery, beets, micro greens & leaf lettuce).

We made falafels for dinner (always a big hit with everyone). Damek likes yogurt cucumber sauce on his and Lee, Kyan & I like tahini lemon sauce on ours.

In bed we read Kyan's latest issue of Click magazine and some on Damek's current chapter book 'Deltora Quest; The Lake Of Tears'.

shadows

2011-03-25T16:14:00.000-06:00

or the dark and the light, as it seems to be a common theme for me these days

twig shadows against house

railing & plant stand shadows

rose bush shadows

planter box shadow

And the planting begins

2011-03-18T14:25:00.000-06:00

We've been hardening off our spring plants this week, and they are ready to go in the ground.

Artichokes, collards, leaf lettuce

Beets

Broccoli & Cauliflower

Celery

Mustard Greens

Red Russian Kale

Butter Speckled Lettuce

We also have spinach, arugula, mustard greens & lovage. As well as our order from Dixondale Farms arrived yesterday which consists of red, white & yellow onion starts.

An outing for the chicks

2011-03-17T11:36:00.000-06:00

On tuesday the temps were in the 60's so we decided to take the chicks out into the big wide world.

they stuck to us like magnets for the first few minutes, then got comfortable, but still stayed close.

fun to see them scratching and pecking like big chickens:)

Kyan being "momma hen"

our Australorp and our Coco Maran, who are 1 week older then the rest are starting to enter the awkward looking stage:)

After their big outing, they slept like babies, or chickies rather, the rest of the night:)

More Birthday Celebration

2011-03-16T00:11:00.000-06:00

Still celebrating our Damek:)

This year for Damek's birthday there was 3 small celebrations. 1 with Lee's side of the family, 1 with my side of the family and one with friends. It was wonderful I must say. It's too stressful and too chaotic to have everyone at 1 celebration. Usually Damek gets overwhelmed, Lee and I run around like chickens with our heads cut off, and when the last people leave we are wondering if we evens said "hi" to some of them due to all the chaos.

This time Damek really seemed to enjoy the small intimate celebrations and being able to spent quality time with everyone.

On saturday he had a friends party. He planned everything. Earth balloons, Earth pinata (semi-homemade),

a moon cake,

and snacks.

The friends Damek invited to his party are friends that he has known more than half his life, and some for most of his life. Great friends:)

A good part of the time, the trampoline was the main source of play as usual.

Chatting with friends out on the deck

He got some fun gifts along with some money which he immediately went and put into our Wii game fund.

A Goomba hat from his friend Ari:)

Thanks so much family and friends for helping make Damek's birthday special this year:)

Damek's New Addition

2011-03-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening found us in the emergency room of the local children's hospital.

3 weeks ago Damek fell on his forearm and we thought it was just a sprain or a torn muscle. We were wrong. Thursday night he fell on the same arm while riding his scooter and even though he said it didn't hurt, the bump that was there from the last fall had tripled in size.

Long story short, we ended up in the emergency room where they had to sedate him in order to pull his broken bone apart to straighten it out (the bump was his bone). His other bone had also broke the first time he fell and had partially healed, but had broke again during the second fall.

We arrived home around 1:00 a.m. on friday morning after spending 6 hours at the Instacare and then then the hospital (mostly waiting) and in Damek's words "being bored out of our minds").

We've come to the conclusion that Damek has a very high pain tolerance and that is why we didn't know it was broken the first time around. All the doctors and nurses couldn't believe he wasn't in any pain and also couldn't believe he was able to move his wrist and arm around like he was doing.

He's doing well now, no pain (not surprising) and we have a follow up appointment in 2 weeks and then hopefully he will get the cast off in 4 weeks time.

Damek hangin' with the chicks. He says that his cast makes a good perch for them:)

My Humanness

2011-03-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

To be human means to make mistakes, to have a range of emotions, to possess both weakness and strength. I've learned, through having children, that it's o.k. to be human and to have doubts, to be sad about life sometimes, to question the status quo and to strive to do better and then to do better. I don't write a lot on my blog about aspects of my life other than the activities that are currently occupying our family's time for the most part. That doesn't mean that I don't have doubts or questions or that I don't feel down or angry or sad or depressed on occasion. I'm a very reserved person and I only feel comfortable sharing my deepest darkest and most intimate details of my life with those closest to me and those whom I fully trust. I can get along with a wide range of people and personalities and have a rather large circle of acquaintances, but there's only a select few whom I've gotten to know over the years so much so that I've been able to open up to without fear of judgement.

Life is beautiful! I truly believe that. But it can also be lots of other things as well. For me, to admit that, it means that I can embrace the beauty and acknowledge the darkness (or sadness & fear) that comes along with being human and being alive. Acknowledging the doubts, the sadness, and the darkness of life means that I can grow personally and I have grown personally because of it. We learn from our mistakes and our conflicts. That's life. There will never not be mistakes, conflicts, sadness and problems to solve throughout life. The way we acknowledge it and work through it can sometimes be compared to a child's imaginative play. Sometimes child's play looks dark (guns, killing, warfare), but it's just how children work through the conflicts and problems of life (see 'Killing Monsters; Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes, and Make-Believe Violence' by Gerard Jones). By playing or acting out violent scenes, children (and adults in a different way) are able to become more familiar with and able to control the frightening emotions of anger, fear & violence.

When I'm able to acknowledge the dark (or sad & fearful) moments in my life, I'm able to make progress internally. I don't welcome the dark moments, but I know enough now that these are the moments where I grow as a person because those are the times I question things and search for answers and apply what I've learned to my life. I'm thankful for friends at these times, not for wallowing in the mire with me so to speak or agreeing with me in a "yea life sucks" type of way, but rather for acknowledging their own misgivings and humanness and offering a different perspective, one that I might not be able to see for myself. Pushing something aside and pretending it doesn't exist is a recipe for disaster I've found. I used to just go along and try to be happy even when I wasn't and then I would explode (yell & rant) which hurt myself as well as those around me. It's usually the sadness, fear & doubt that end up coming out as anger if not delt with.

A couple years ago I finally decided that I didn't like the way I was dealing with (or not dealing with rather) my intense emotions and resolved to take care of it in a positive way (apologies only go so far when what you apologized for keeps happening). I started being able to acknowledge my anger or sadness and verbally express it in a calm manner to myself first and then if necessary to those around me (Lee and the boys) instead just pretending that it didn't exist. How I did this was that I would stop what I was doing when the feelings started becoming intense and I would think in my mind "how do I want to proceed? What would be the best course of action for all involved? How would I want my children to respond in a similar situation (their learning from me)? Is what I'm about to do going to harm the relationship with my children/husband or is it going to bring us closer?"

Acknowledging it and acting on it in a way that doesn't harm myself or those around me has been something I've been able to achieve, for the most part, over the course of the last couple of years by being ever more mindful. I'm not perfect mind you and still have my moments, and I'm constantly working on trying to express my feelings to others, but I don't explode on my family like I once did. It takes constant tending to and achieving it with my immediate family I'm slowly applying it to other relationships in my life. There's a lot to be said for "counting to ten before reacting" or just stopping to take deep breaths. In the case of a friend or other distant loved one I find that it sometimes takes a few days to mull over events & words and have a clear head before responding (or not if appropriate) and moving forward.

A book that really helped me in the beginning was 'A Pebble For Your Pocket' by Thich Nhat Hanh. I even put a pebble in my pocket for a long time and it served as a reminder when I felt my emotions starting to rise. Growth needs constant attention and the books I've also found useful in this department are 'Buddhism For Mothers' by Sarah Napthali and, especially in regards to having children and unschooling 'The Big Book Of Unschooling' by Sandra Dodd.

I also have my close friends to thank as well, you know who you are, the ones I'm able to talk endlessly on the phone about all sorts of stuff, with children and parenting being first and foremost. I've grown in leaps and bounds because of my friends and their ability to listen, empathize and to sometimes offer a much needed different perspective that is inline with who I am and my individual journey. Having like minds in regards to life and parenting is something I am forever grateful for. I also have my mom, whom I call on many occasions as well. Even though we differ on some things, we are alike in a lot of ways as well, and as we've both gotten older we seem to be able to listen to each other and offer each other a different perspective, and we've both, I think, become more open to the others ideas while still being true to who we are as individual people.

So the past couple of weeks has found me in a fearful state. Financially we're starting to go under (Lee's work being extremely slow the past year is finally catching up with us). A sore spot in my arm that has had me worried and doubt creeping in as far as my children's education is concerned. Also the sadness of my working a part -time job and thus not being here full-time doing what I love doing best. Focusing on the negative obviously is not the way to go, but acknowledging it and "looking at the bright side" if you will and then brainstorming on ways of moving forward is.

We finally filed our taxes, and even though Lee made $20,000+ less money this past year, we are going to get enough of a return back to catch us up somewhat on our finances. Lee has spent the most time he ever has with the boys this past year since they were born and there isn't anything that isn't positive about that. I would go into debt a thousand times (and I know he would too) to be able to spend more time with the boys. I had a chat with my Naturopath about my arm and am no longer worried, but planning a course of action for healing. Knowing that if I indeed get the job I'm applying for that we will all be worrying less about making ends meet and possibly be getting to do more things because of it.

Dealing with the fear and uncertainty has brought me back to focusing on the beautiful aspects of my life & my children and the wonderful people in which they are and the amazing things they are doing everyday and how they are growing so fast. I am once again assured that we are on the right path for our family. Life is indeed a journey full of ups and downs and coasting time as well and I embrace (or at at least acknowledge) all of it as an integral part of my growth as a human being.

Games

2011-03-10T08:47:00.001-07:00

The past couple of weeks we've been having fun playing a few new games. And old ones as well:)

The first one is 'Constellation Connect'. You need to be able to read to play this game, although I was just thinking that for little ones you could also play by colors instead of of names as the constellation families are color coded. It's a take on the game 'Go Fish' only with constellation cards. Instead of collecting pairs of cards, you collect constellation families which consists of 6 cards. The constellations are grouped by astronomers into families – like the Hercules Family, Heavenly Waters Family, and Ursa Major Family – whose members reside in the same part of the night sky. Once you have all the members of a family, you can lay them face up in front of you on the table. At the end of the game (when there are no more cards to be drawn), you add up all your points on your cards (each constellation has a point value) and if you have any leftover cards in your hand that weren't laid down then you minus those points from your total. The person with the most points wins.

The other 2 are Lego games that Kyan and Damek both received as presents from my sister and her family. Kyan received 'Wild Wool' for his birthday and Damek received 'Pirate Code' for his. The cool thing about these games is that although they have a set of rules to play by, in the instructions they encourage you to make up your own rules to make it your own game & make it easier by including a dice that can be changed to your liking.

The boys really enjoyed the building aspect of the Lego games. For the 'Wild Wool' you build 4 sheep and a wolf and the extra white pieces leftover are the wool that you build onto your sheep during the game.

Depending on what roll you get on the dice, you either add wool to your sheep, trade your sheep with someone else, remove all your wool from your sheep via the wolf or shear your sheep (the wool you get from shearing is safe wool). The person with the most wool at the end of the game is the winner.

'Pirate Code' is a game that is similar to the old game 'Mastermind' where you guess the sequence of the colored pegs of your opponent. You build the 4 treasure chests and the skeleton pirate before playing. We've all had fun with both the Lego games and plan on getting more in the near future.

You can look on their website to see all the games they have.

A couple of old favorites have also been brought out and played with. 'Elementeo' for Damek and 'The Ladybug Game' for Kyan.

Snow Day

2011-03-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we woke up to about 8 inches of snow. Most likely one of our last big storms of the season.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up 2 kids snow shovels that were in the clearance bin. Kyan had fun testing his out while helping Lee shovel the walks in the morning.

Lee took the boys to the park yesterday afternoon while I went to a doctors appointment. After my appointment I met them at the park for some sledding and "igloo" building.

The boys having a snack break inside the "igloo":)

It was the perfect day for a cup of hot chocolate, which is just what we made when we arrived home:)

Chick Love

2011-03-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

We got 6 baby chicks on friday to eventually add to our flock of 8. 6 different breeds. Ameraucana, Welsummer, Coco Maran, Delaware, Buff Orpington, & Australorp.

Once again, the boys are smitten:)

Harmons

2011-03-04T09:40:00.002-07:00

On wednesday we got to tour our local grocery store, Harmons with our unschoolers group. Harmons is the only local grocery store chain in Utah. We shop at the location by our house, but the tour was at bigger/newer location out in Draper. We like shopping there because they sell as many local products as possible and in the last couple of years they have started selling more organic items as well.

We started off touring the floral department, then got to sample some italian gelato:)

From there we walked to the cheese department where the lady explained the process of making cheese and listed all the animal milk that cheeses are made from (cow, goat, sheep, yak, reindeer, ect..). We even got to sample some local cheddar cheese from the Beehive Cheese Co.

Then we headed over to the deli where they make authentic italian pizza in their oven that came all the way from Italy.

Then it was off to the bakery where we got to sample their artisan bread that is made from local organic flour from Lehi Roller Mills and then onto the sweets (can't believe I didn't take any pictures of their beautiful cakes and cupcakes, they even had Dr. Suess hat cupcakes!). Anyway the kids got a big cookie with m&m's inside it.

After the bakery we headed to the seafood department where they talked all about the fresh fish that they sell and how for the most part they adhere to the Seafood Watch standards.

After that we went through the grocery isles, where there were no more samples, so the kids got a little restless, as kids do:)

At the end all the kids got a balloon and a coloring book to end the tour. The boys each wanted a gelato, so they got one to take in the car with us.

Then we headed to Pleasant Grove to pick up the raw milk order for our co-op from Huckleberry Dairy.

Damek Turns 9

2011-03-03T22:23:00.003-07:00

Happy Birthday Damek! Can't believe Damek turned 9 today! Damek is such a fun person to be around and I'm amazed at all that encompasses him as a person. He has taught me so much about life, more than I think I could ever teach him. I'm so glad I get to be his mom:)

Today started out with Damek receiving a small gift that Lee and I got him off of etsy. Soap shaped like the pieces in a tetris game from Digital Soaps. He thought that was pretty cool. Lee came home on a break from work and Kyan wanted to give Damek his present which was a nerf gun, and Lee and I gave him another present, a game called 'Apples To Apples'.

Damek and I watched a couple of videos and had a conversation about a local hero (Tim DeChristopher) who upset an oil & gas lease auction (which was later ruled as unconstitutional by the government) a couple of years ago where millions of acres of our pristine southern utah lands were up for grabs thanks to a last ditch effort from the Bush administration and was on trial this week in downtown Salt Lake City. Unfortunately he was found guilty and will most likely face time in prison. He stood up for what he believed in and was willing to face the consequences for his actions. For more info visit the Peaceful Uprising website. Also if you would like to see his very eloquent speech following his guilty verdict, go here.

After breakfast, or brunch as we like to call it since we're late risers, we got ready and grandma picked us up to take us to the shoe store to buy Damek some much needed new shoes for his birthday.

When we got home from the shoe store, Lee was just getting home as well. We gave Damek his card & his other two presents (Ice Age DS game and the book 'Ook & Gluk').

Kyan telling Damek about the picture he drew for him in his card

Then we noticed that 'Narnia, Voyage Of The Dawn Treader' was still playing at our local dollar theater, and since Damek and I recently finished the Narnia book series he really wanted to go see it, so we went and were very satisfied.

After the movie, Damek got his choice of dinner, and he picked one of his (and our) favorite local restaurants, 'Mazza'. We ordered Baba Ganouj, Potatoes Harra, Stuffed Grape Leaves, Falafel, Eggplant Sandwich and Maghmoor (a garbanzo bean & eggplant dish) for us all to share. And believe it or not we finished off every last crumb just about. We ordered 4 pieces of Baklava to take home for dessert, but I think I'll have mine for breakfast tomorrow as I'm too stuffed.

We celebrated with Lee's side of the family on sunday at Oma & Opa's house and we're celebrating with my family on saturday and with friends next saturday. Looks like we get to draw Damek's birthday out for another week, which he doesn't mind at all:)

Kyan's Words

2011-03-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

Kyan typed the following into his DS last night

with spaces it says "LEE LOVE KYAN JULIE LOVE KYAN ECHO LOVE KYAN CHICKENS LOVE KYAN COCKROACHES LOVE KYAN"

I was sitting at the table as he was on the couch typing this. He asked me how to spell Julie and how to spell love and he did the rest. Only when it was done and I read it aloud to him he said "I forgot Damek":)

Blog Award

2011-02-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Alyson over at The Peaceful Mamma gave me a blog award! Thanks so much Alyson, I am truly honored:)

3 things in particular drew me into reading Alyson's blog originally. 1. "Peaceful Mama", the title says it all:) 2. The writing about her weekly food menus and gardening, & 3. The amazing photography! All things I'm very passionate about myself.

The Rules:

1.) Thank and link back to the blog that gave you your award
2.) Share seven things about yourself.
3.) Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.
4.) Contact the bloggers to let them know you've given them an award.

7 things about me

1. Having children changed my views of life and the world dramatically and I feel that I would be a very different person had I not had children.

3. I love hiking/backpacking & sleeping in a tent. I'm not a "take a cruise, stay in a hotel, relax at the beach" type of girl, I love pushing myself physically. One thing I really want to do is learn how to rock climb and I'm secretly hoping my kids do too:)

4. I consider my children my friends and I am rarely without them.

5. I dye my hair. I love totally gray hair, like my dad had, and one day will let it turn all gray, but at 39 years of age I'm just not ready yet to let it take it's course:)

6. I became a vegetarian at the age of 20, a vegan at the age of 23, back to being a vegetarian at age 29, and at 36 years of age started consuming a little bit of meat. All the reasons that I was a vegetarian/vegan still apply and I won't buy or cook meat unless I know where it came from and how the animal was raised.

7. I love frequenting thrift stores

The rules say to pass the award onto 15 recently discovered bloggers. I'm going to pass it along to the 2 recently discovered blogs that I have happened to stumble upon over the last couple of months that have definitely added inspiration and joy to my life.

Just Add Light and Stir is a beautiful blog started by Sandra Dodd. She writes inspiring and encouraging words for unschooling parents. When I discovered it last month I immediately went back and started from the beginning. I read daily and sometimes even go back and re-read previous posts that I had already read. Some of the posts come directly from her book 'The Big Book Of Unschooling' which I own and also re-read from time to time. Sandra's words inspire me to be a better person and a more peaceful mother.

I came across the blog 'Made By Katrina', after ordering this print from her Etsy shop for Lee for Valentine's Day. She blogs about the things she makes that include poetry, printmaking, sewing, photography & handmade objects. She also talks about her studio & her urban garden. Once again things I myself have a passion for:)

I love blogging and the way it connects people and ideas. I get a lot of my inspiration from looking at and reading other people's blogs and I'm grateful for those that take the time to share bits of their lives with the rest of us:) Thank You!