Sculpting the Light

Yard Sale Season is Here

2009-10-31T00:27:00.001-07:00

With the advent of the cooler weather, garage sale season is starting. Just sharing some fun finds to start off the season.

An older woman was selling her mother's lace, some of it is antique and some handmade in the 1930's. She sold the whole lot for $0.25.

Here's Jasmine playing with her new microscope--a la rummage sale.

Freedom and Vision

2009-10-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

I did go back to Lola's website and somehow it helped me make a major shift. First, I read her biography in which she started doing art very recently in her life. Her vision of art is the same as mine has become. And because I am so ready to shift in this area, I find reason to everywhere. So...I'm ready to take my art and music seriously.

Lola Jones' painting White Cranes

Most importantly, I got it. I don't think it was specifically something I read but...it hit me. I am God. I've said this affirmation "I am a Divine manifestation of God" more than a thousand times in the last 5 years, but I didn't really get it. I am God. And I can relax and enjoy life. Finally.

My vision of my best life is coming more and more into focus and is more beautiful than I could ever imagine. And that's my job--to imagine it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And of course thank me.

Isn't Art Democratic? The Importance of Self Initiation

2009-10-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

Our homeschool group has decided to do a craft or project each month led by a different parent. This month Jaime led the group in making Thanksgiving banners. I dropped Jaz and the supplies off and ran back home to finish up something. By the time I returned, Jaz was well on her way to creating her own banner. The other mother's were quite impressed--I think particularly by her initiative. All the other families with younger children were working together with mom directing the action.

Jasmine's thanksgiving banner

One of the many gifts of natural learning--sometimes called unschooling--is the ability to initiate and complete a project of one's own choosing. This is complete opposition to way children "learn" in school. Virtually, every moment is directed by the teacher and even when the students have a choice, it is a very limited one.

Because of her experience with natural learning, Jasmine sometimes comments about art projects she's done at summer camp or Brownies, "They made us do it." She understands already that compulsion is the antithesis of true creativity.

Jasmine went to public school for 4 months last year on her own initiative. And so I found myself entering the school setting for first time in many years. Every day, as I entered campus to pick up Jasmine, the words "passive consumption" came to my mind. I was struck by the way the children just passively sit and consume whatever the teacher tells them. It's strikingly different from a life lived learning in freedom. Left to their own devices children are active initiators of their own learning.

Maybe because I knew the art teacher and watched her struggling with "behavior problems", I was really struck by the incongruity of art being taught in a dictatorial system. Is this really art? Being told when to turn on, when to turn off, and exactly how?

I picture art being taught in a democratic school. The art room is stocked and available to students whenever they want to do art. The teacher is available to help student with technique etc if they ask for it. Isn't this a much more beautiful vision'than what public schools offer our children?

To learn more about democratic schools, start by visiting The Sudbury Valley School on-line. They have numerous articles and book chapters to read. Their book A Legacy of Trust: Life After the Sudbury Valley School Experience by Daniel Greenberg and Mimsy Sadofsky was influencial on my path to natural learning. It is a compilation of research and surveys done on graduates of Sudbury Valley School. Reading it helps put to rest any nagging worries about college and adult success for those of us who choose to allow our children to determine their own educations.

Connie Talbot and other Favorites

2009-10-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some of Jasmine's favorite movies.

Yod-a-ley-hey-hey!!!

Opening to Love for Myself

2009-10-27T19:23:00.001-07:00

I've been focused almost completely inward for two or three days. I'm really seeing how vicious and cruel I am to myself. I've been practicing loving myself and doing a lot of Ho'oponono and suddenly I began loving myself fiercely. I am going to love myself no matter what. I will love myself--and fiercely--no matter what I eat. I will love myself if I grow as big as a barn. I will love myself if I never clean the back patio, if I never clean anything again. I will love myself if I play computer games, even if that's all I do for a year. There is nothing I can do that can stop me from loving myself. What a beautiful miracle!

Recently, I posted some about my relationship with music, and truth be told I've always wanted to be a musician. I've never told anyone this and only since I've been on the LOA path have I admitted it to myself because I don't believe I have any talent. And we all know about self-fulfilling beliefs.

During this inward time, a memory came to me. As a teenager, I loved classical music. My mother did not like music and I was not allowed to listen to music at any kind of volume. I did not have my own stereo, so I spent hours laying on the floor with my ear pressed against the household stereo listening to my dad's classical records. Even now I'm realizing that we--my sisters and I--played Disney albums (e.g. Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book) fairly loudly, so maybe it was just me who couldn't listen to music I liked except with ear pressed to speaker. Looking back at it as a mother, it's hard to believe trying to thwart your own daughter's passions--esp for something as benign as classical music.

At this same time, I started playing the piano again. I'd had lessons when I was younger until I wanted to quit them. (That's another story.) My mother hated for me to play. Fortunately, my father loved it. He even got her to tune the piano; I was the only one using it at that point. Yes, I came by it honestly, not supporting myself in what I love. And, again, it is time for me to love and support myself.

This evening Jasmine was off at a Halloween Carnival and I was inspired to check up on unschoolingmiracles, an e-mail list I love but have not visited for many months. And, lo and behold, I found what I needed to hear. Both of the following are quotes from Arnold Patent's book, The Journey; the second was posted as what a member started her day off saying.

There is no one as powerful as a person who feels loved and supported.

I absolutely adore who I am!
I am totally enchanted with every aspect of my life!
I fully appreciated the richness and support each event of my day brings!
And, I consistently allow myself to feel the Love the Universe showers upon me, and all else, in this beautiful, infinite day!

Some people I respect on the list are also into Lola, so I followed a link to her website. It looks about right for me now. If so, I'm sure I'll get back there soon.

Jaz has been busy with a Brownie service project, a dance performance, getting ready for Halloween, learning about Gypsies, learning to knit, watching Shakespeare plays and numerous other things. This morning I turned her onto a You Tube video of a child singer. She spent the morning curled up in a blanket watching You Tube videos of child stars; a perfect way to spend a blustery day. She's preparing her own post with videos that inspired her and this evening she stretched as I read to her. She then made a list of things she wants to do tomorrow; stretch and exercise, practice singing, work on a story she's writing, etc. Suddenly she is ambitious.

Allowing music and dance

2009-10-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

Exercise is easily entering into the rhythm of my life and I am so glad. It was past time. Today I jogged/walked around the park a few times after our homeschool group met and this evening danced Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms. I haven't done this in so long and it was wonderful. The 5 Rhythms are Flowing, Stacatto, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness. Dancing these 5 rhythms in that order is always an amazing experience. I feel so refreshed, alive, and lighter when I'm done. At times in the past, I danced them often. I also play the rhythms on the piano or guitar, which is extremely freeing. I haven't done that in a while either. Here's some clips so you can experience it a bit:

I just found out a friend of mine here is into dancing the 5 Rhythms and there's this lovely space to dance just a block away at the Curley School (a historic old school remodeled as artist live/work apartments) that hardly gets used. I'm going to see if I can get something going. And Jasmine loves dancing the rhythms, too. Yes, thank you. It's lovely when our interests intersect.

I've been hoping music would enter the rhythm of my life easily also. And I guess it is in a way. I've been drawn to read Hazrat Inayat Khan's Music. It is confirming for me what I want out of playing music. I've always been drawn to playing music, but I don't have the natural talent of hearing a piece of music and playing it. I've always improvised, allowing the music to just flow. I love doing it, it is so healing although shutting off my inner critic sometimes is not so easy. BUT--and it's a big but--I have never thought of myself as a musician or having any musical talent because I don't play songs. AND I've always yearned to be a musician or take my music more seriously. AND because I don't take my passion seriously, I think it's a "waste of time" to play.

Lately, I've been realizing that maybe the reason I don't have anatural talent for playing songs I hear is that is not the type of music I'm to play. And truth be told, even though I prefer playing the soundscapes I do, I could easily get caught up in the world of playing songs. It's probably--OK, most certainly--just the way it's supposed to be.

I've also been reading, realizing, and accepting that playing improvised music is the perfect thing for me to do. The Hazrat Inayat Khan book is so meaingful to me right now and isn't it amazing that it's been on my bookshelf for something like 4 years and I never read it until now. Here's another fabulous piece I read today from Hazrat Inayat Khan's Music:

The music of the universe is the background of the small picture which we call music. Our sense of music, our attracion to music, shows that there is music in the depth of our being. Music is behind the working of the whole universe. Music is not only life's greatest object, but it is life itself. Hafiz, the great and wonderful Sufi poet of Persia, says, "Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music". What made him say this? He referred to a legend which exists in the East and which tells how God made a statue of clay in His own image, and asked the soul to enter into it; but the soul refused to be imprisioned, for its nature is to fly about freely and not to be limited and bound to any sort of capacity. The soul did not wish in the least to enter this prison. Then God asked the angels to play their music, and as the angels played the soul was moved to ecstasy, and through that ecstasy in order to make the music more clear to itself, it entered this body. And it is told that Hafiz said, "People say that the soul, on hearing that song, entered the body; but in reality the soul itself was song!"

...this legend reveals to us...that the only reason why the soul has entered the body of clay or matter is to experience the music of life, and make this music clear to itself.

Really, I thought it was to worry about getting the house clean. LOL

A magical moment I want to share from our homeschool park day--the three teenage girls spontaneously organized games for the younger children. Here they are playing Red Rover, Red Rover.

....and sometimes a girl's just has to dress up as a medival princess.

The Best Day Ever 2

2009-10-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

We've been often getting watermelons in our CSA shares for months now. I cut up the whole watermelon into chunks putting it in one big container and then cut up the rind in another. Then I can just grab some melon for breakfast or some rind for a salad. This morning, as I cut up a watermelon, I remembered that today is the best day ever, and instead of being a task, I appreciated the abundance and wonder of the watermelon.

I watched the rest of Hamlet (a very long movie) with Jaz and finished up several half-finished blog posts while Jasmine organized her CDs. And then lunch and off to the park for Girl Scouts. We got there early and I sat in the sun to read while Jaz played. It's so nice to be out.

I remember it was the best day ever and felt the tenderly beautiful kiss of the sun, while I read this from Music by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Some Sufis who adopt a certain method of progress on the spiritual path...are known as dervishes. [They] have great powers of wonder-working and of insight. The are dreamers and lovers of God. The worship God in nature, especially in human nature. Among many ways of spiritual development they have one called Suma, which is listening to music. They listen to music in an assembly of the initiated...[and] address on another saying, "O king of kings, O sovereign of all sovereigns'' and are mostly clad in patched robes or in rags. They are the ones who are really entitled to enjoy the beauty of music; whose spirit and soul are responsive, with open centres, who make themselves into a medium of resonance for the music they hear: wherefore music touches them differently from any other people: music touches the deepest part of their being. Thus moved by music, they manifest various states. Anyone among them who is moved by the spirit may manifest ecstasy, Wajad, in the form of tears, sighs, or dance.

But one can learn from this the theory of the whole process of their spiritual development. By making God their Beloved, and by seeing God in the sublimity of nature, they created the presence of God....

At the community center where Jasmine's Brownie Troop meets, there is a small workout room with a weight machine and several treadmills, stationary bikes etc. As I ran on a treadmill, I remember it was the best day ever and instead of watching the readouts and thinking about how much farther to push myself, I enjoyed running into my best life surrounded by love. And when 3 other people showed up (the weight machine can only handle two) instead of grumbling to myself about not getting to use the machines I want when I want, I remembered these women are Queen of Queens and enjoyed their presence.

After girl scouts, I sat and read some more while Jaz played.

The musicians of India devote twelve hours or more of the day to the practice of different rhythms, improvising on them. And in the end they produce a psychological effect which is not music but magic; a magic that can thrill a person and that can penetrate the heart of man. It is a dream, a mediation; it is paradise. When hearing it, one feels one is in a different world....Instead of being played before thousands of people, only one or two or three persons of the same quality and nature come together to enjoy that music thoroughly. If a foreign element is present the musician does not feel inspired.

Once a musician was invited to play the vina. The musician came and was welcomed. He uncovered his vina. Then he looked here and there, and found some discord. He covered his vina, saluted and began to leave. Those present felt disappointed and begged him to play; but his answer was, "No matter what you give me, I do not feel like plying." This is a very different thing from making a programme months ahead....A singer in the East never knows what he is going to sing before he starts singing. He feels the atmosphere of the place and the time and then begins to sing or to play whatever comes to his mind.

It is the best day ever to sit under trees during a beautiful sunset watching the children play and reading exactly what I need to. Thank you.

This evening, I was in the bathroom. Usually I notice it's a mess, but as I remembered that this is the best day ever, I felt grateful and my soul opened up to the love and beauty always around me.

The most common thing I noticed with my thoughts is that I'm nearly always thinking, I "should" be doing something other than what I'm doing. If I'm cleaning the house, I "should" be getting some exercise, if I'm helping Jasmine with something, I "should" be cleaning, or if I'm blogging I "should" be playing music. On and on ad infinitum. But when I remember it is the best day of my life, I realize that it's all just perfect the way it is. To quote from Hamlet:

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"

The Best Day Ever

2009-10-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning eager and excited to take a bike ride out into the desert. Yeah! I am allowing more physical exercise to enter the rhythm of my life...and it felt wonderful!

I came home and started cleaning the front porch but got distracted by making breakfast for Jaz etc.....and a little brownie finished the job thoroughly all the while singing happily. Life is good.

......And more raw food prep--a dehydrator full of favorites, apple coconut granola, coconut green apple wraps, burgers, and chocolate mint cookies.....And more Shakespeare Hamlet.... And a bike ride to the park with conversation for mom and play for Jaz...And new books from the library including Felt It! Stitch It! Fabulous!--a fun book on how to take old wool sweaters and felt them and turn them into something else. So if you have old wool sweaters wanting a new life check it out. It looks fairly simple.

I'm getting ready to do a knitting project. Jasmine wants to learn to knit so we are finding projects for the both of us. I plan to knit a wool hat and then felt it. More felting books will arrive soon. Thank you for awesome library service.

...And last but not least I remembered today and told myself often.

God's will for me is perfect happiness
I accept God's will
I deserve the best
I am entitled to miracles
There is nothing but love

The miracle being that I remembered to remember.

...and somewhere today I read this--I think it is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson-- but for the life of me I can not remember where. "This is the best day of my life." And when I realize it is so, it is. This is the best day of my life because I remembered that God's will for me is perfect happiness and I accepted it. I remember that I deserve the best and am entitled to miracles. I went on an awesome bike ride and am ready to start adding exercise back into my days. The weather is lovely and I am ready to live a life of joy and give that to my daughter.

Tonight as I sat down to blog, I was called to read about the astrological transits currently affecting me from Robert Hand's Planets In Transit: Life Cycles for Living. Here are quotes from a few of these many transits.

"Make whatever changes are necessary so that your lifestyle more accurately reflects your intrinsic reality. Both your body and mind must be in shape for the impending emergence of your energies into the outer world, where everyone can see them more clearly."

"One thing is clear. At this time in your life you must make changes at the most fundamental levels."

"This is one of the most important transits of your life."

"Now is the time to make sweeping changes, not only is your consciousness, but also in the circumstances in which you live....If you are flexible, you will be able to start a whole new phase of life....You will have a new birth of awareness, and you will be able to deal with your life unhampered by old patterns of thought that have limited you. "

Yes, it's true, tectonic change is going on for me and I am so glad. I don't want to live the old way anymore. Thank you, stars and angels for helping me to know this with no uncertainty and make the changes in my thinking that take me to my best life.

Movies, movies, movies

2009-10-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

My mom has been sick and Jasmine now has caught it. What a perfect time to watch movies. Yesterday evening she got her grandma to watch The Taming of the Shrew with her. And this morning she wrapped up in a blanket and watched Much Ado About Nothing with her mom. I shelled fresh local pistacios from our CSA share while sharing my daughter's passion for Shakespeare with her.

Jasmine felt better this evening, and continued preparing her Halloween costume--a gypsy. She watched Latcho Drom, a documentary about gypsies, and made angle bracelets out of bells and beads.

Latcho Drom-"safe journey" in Rom-follows the path of gypsy migration from Northern India to Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Spain. A stunningly beautiful movie, it has no dialogue or explanation, but lets the action and music speak for itself. Since Latcho Drom is one of my all-time favorite movies, I am posting excerpts from it.

This evening, Jasmine picked Lives of the Presidents as a bed-time story. No, the learning never stops.

The Greatest Love

2009-10-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

I laugh when I hear the fish in the water is thirsty. ~Kabir

When you want only love you will see nothing else. ~A Course in
Miracles

Love Is

Love is not a treasure hidden away in a dark cave,
To be found by patient searching,
Or stumbled upon by accident.
Love floats in the air
Like the molecules of oxygen
Hungrily consumed by our bodies,
To be inhaled into our hearts
And manifest in the eyes and ears
Of those we see around us.
See not the body, this outer shell,
But know the one within.
For here is your soulmate.
The one you seek.
Found in every one you meet,
No matter who they are,
Or what they know,
Or how they understand it.

Love is within your grasp.
Reach out and take it.
For as you give it, it is returned.
Say the magic words I love you
And it will appear.
To stay? It doesn't matter.
Enjoy the gift and treasure it.
For if it goes away,
Another will appear to fill the void.
Just say the magic words.
--Ivey Brown www.angelfire.com/al/harmonyinlife/index.html

Celebrating Our Strengths

2009-10-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today, as we left for a potluck celebrating our homeschool group resuming meeting for the year, we heard a harsh rasping cry right out the back door. Jasmine took pictures of our visitor--a ring-tailed cat. These members of the raccoon family are native to the southwest, but not to the low desert. They are found in the mountains. Since the nearest mountain high enough to get into the pinon-juniper eco-system is 70 miles away, we have no idea how this one got to our yard. My mom's hypothesis is that it came in a construction worker's truck (they are tearing up the street in front of our house-AGAIN)

Jasmine hid my camera so she could be the photographer of our homeschool group's celebration. And she specifically asked if I would give her photos credit on the blog. So here goes--Jasmine's perspective of the homeschool group's initial meeting of the school year.

Although I have a vastly different homeschooling philosophy than the other moms in the group, I enjoy them immensely. Today the conversation turned to a Christian conference that several women had attended. One of the talks that really impressed them was about women learning to look at their own and others strengths rather than their flaws. This is a key component to unschooling and I believe it is extremely important, but I forget it daily. Thank you for reminding me to look at my and others strengths instead of our flaws.

In celebration, I am going to write about our strengths. I see deeply into the nature of things and when I find a truth I want to follow it (ex education, sustainable living). I am willing to make changes in my life. I am sensitive to energy and know alot about a person when I first meet them. I feel music deeply in my soul. I am intelligent and love researching my passions (ex astrology, permaculture, living foods). I am a visionary; I can imagine the world differently than it is. I am conscientious and aspire to parent the best I know at the moment. I am drawn to mystical spirituality. And I do want the best for all humanity.

Jasmine is passionate, a consummate dancer, creative, strong-willed, caring, intelligent, thinks deeply about the process of life, love, and how and why people behave as they do. She is confident, alive, adventurous, and enjoys meeting and learning about all different kinds of people.

Jasmine is still deeply into Shakespeare--she watched Taming of the Shrew twice today-- and the book I am reading to her, Suzanne Fisher Stapes's Haveli. This YA novel follows the life of Shabanu, a daughter of a nomadic tribe living in the Cholistan Desert of Pakistan, who is given in marriage to a rich landowner as his fourth wife. She is deeply loved by her husband but persecuted by the rest of the household. Shabanu holds to her own center even through the harrowing experience's she faces. Jasmine declares this is her new favorite book. Shiva's Fire by the same author had been her favorite since I read it to her a year ago.

Finding Rhythm

2009-10-15T23:36:00.000-07:00

I've really been finding a rhythm to preparing raw foods--sprouting, soaking, dehydrating etc. I'm enjoying seeing this emerge and realized I am craving rhythm in other areas of my life. In thinking about this post I realized that when I let rhythm come into my life and don't try to force it, it happens beautifully. When I try to force it--which is the norm for me--it never really takes hold and flourishes.

With Jasmine's learning, I have allowed the natural rhythm of her learning unfold and love watching the process. OK, I admit. Sometimes, I worry, "Is she reading at grade level?" "Am I doing enough?" But the universe always leads me to books, blog posts etc that soothe my worries and I am reassured and watch the process unfold. Tonight Jasmine asked to play with Math flashcards, wanting me to drill her on them. She is awesome. She loves math and asks to do it.

And of course through it all, the rhythm of her dance...

Now can I do the same for the rest of life? Allow the rhythms to emerge rather then trying to force them, rather than "I will do this--exercise, clean house, blog, play music, do art etc--every day". This has never really worked for me and instead of realizing that I tend to beat myself up, "should" on myself, and generally make myself miserable. Maybe there is another way. Intend and allow new things coming in my life--like giving birth instead of pushing and killing all the joy, beauty and wonder.

I intend to allow the rhythms that nurture Jasmine and me to come into our lives.

It's fun thinking in rhythms. The rhythms of the seasons. Here in the Sonoran Desert, we have just had a major shift and the weather is gorgeous. Time to play outside and enjoy the sun. And even the larger rhythms like astrological cycles. I'm doing a chart reading tomorrow and I haven't done one in a long time, and so am aware again of these larger patterns in our lives.

Because I belong to a CSA, I'm eating much more seasonally. I've been craving our winter vegetables, esp greens and this week we got baby swiss chard and baby braising greens. Isn't it wonderful.

I'm so thankful this post came out as it did, inspiring rhythm in my life instead of "shoulds".

And now in celebration of the rhythms of life, let's go....

.....into the garden......

This crazy wonderful pomegranate is loaded with soon-to-be-ripe fruit and grew 1/3 it's own size this summer and is flowering and setting another batch of fruit. I have heard pomegranates bear two crops in our ecosystem. What a trooper!!! I guess it didn't mind all the wildflowers I planted around it.

loaded with almost ripe fruit

....and producing beautiful flowers

.....and setting them into new fruit

The fall corn is starting to tassle...

...and the winter lettuce is up and going.

A time of Transistion

2009-10-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

I'm changing the way I think. I have lived with so much negativity. No wonder I had so many addictions-- and still do. I believe our true addictions are to thought patterns and feeling states. Other addictions are just us trying to get away from us for a little while and have some peace.

I want--I mean I intend--to remember the stars are always singing to me, that everything is perfect, that I have complete control over my own happiness, and that I deserve that happiness. God's will for me is perfect happiness.

This has taken consistent effort and still I forget everyday, often for most of the day. But more and more I am remembering and every day, at least for a moment, I remember life is wonderful beyond understanding.

Some inspiration for this journey that has been particularly helpful lately comes in the form Ho'oponono from Joe Vitale's Zero Limits. One repeats to the Divine whenever seeing something less the perfection in each person, place, or situation, "I am sorry, Please forgive me, I love you, Thank you." I say "Please release me" instead of "Please forgive me". ACIM teaches that God-or the divine-does not forgive because God does not see anything but our perfection, the rest is created by us. I say this when I judge myself or others, or situations or places whenever I remember. ACIM has a workbook with a daily saying. It is extremely profound but I usually cannot remember the saying--I guess due to some resistance in me. Because even with Michael Brown's Presence Process which includes a saying per week, I could not remember this line without much thought for days--"I choose to experience this moment." But the Ho'oponono saying is easy for me. And very powerful.

Arnold Patent's book, You Can Have It All has also been very instrumental in the changes I'm making. I'm especially inspired by his theory that when anything in our lives is not as we like it, it is due to a lack of self-love. The solution to everything is to give ourselves love. This is similar to ACIM's "There is nothing lacking in any situation but Love". For some reason, hearing it from Arnold Patent, it sank home.

I am so thankful for the e-mail group that suggested all three of these books. I haven't been on for months, but their advice is priceless in my life.

Some lessons from A Course in Miracles have been helpful lately:

God's will for me is perfect happiness

I accept God's will

There is nothing to fear

Only Love exists.

A New Vision

2009-10-12T00:04:00.000-07:00

My friends, Nina and Peter, are excitedly planning a Thanksgiving feast and get-together. My mom spends Thanksgiving with her siblings in Washington and last year Jazz and I had a great time at Nina and Peter's Thanksgiving to-do. Well, this year I practically had to invite myself. The issue--it seems to be my switch to eating living foods. Yesterday Nina publicly expressed more than once how high and mighty I am because of it--and not in a nice tone of voice at all. The truth is I talk about it much less than is ideal--except here. I tend to not talk about amazing things I experience but keep it to myself, just to avoid situations such as this.

It's been bothering me and I've been doing all the usual things--seeing the situation as a mirror that has something important to show me etc. And because the conversation about Thanksgiving included talk about alcohol and getting plastered, I'm thinking of alternative Thanksgiving plans. Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center has a Thanksgiving potluck and spiritual ceremony every year. I've wanted to go ever since I learned about Living Foods three years ago, but haven't gone yet. This could be the year. So I was on-line checking out Tree of Life and also checking out what Raw For Life from Phoenix is doing (a very affordable 4-day ThanksLiving Retreat at Eden Hot Springs) AND I found Laura Fox's Vision Garden.

Several things on her site inspired me so deeply that my petty concern over someone's unkindness seem just that--petty. There's so much beautiful living and loving to do.

Here's a piece from What is Visionary Stewardship?

You can become a Visionary Steward by:

a. Selecting a part of Earth Life to take care of. What do you love most? The rivers, oceans, lakes? The animals? Certain types of plants? The air we breath? Human organizations? Children?

b. Get into a meditative state and ask your Source for a Vision that is aligned with the Highest Good of this part of Earth Life you are choosing to care for. Be sure to have pen and paper handy before starting.

c. Write out the Vision you receive. Make a picture of it, or tape the words somewhere you can see them every day. Spend five minutes each day imagining and feeling ‘as if’ this vision is a reality now!

....and from Waking up Humanity

Brothers and Sisters of the Light, Beings Divine, Friends,

We have a mission and a purpose.

We have the powers of Creation embedded into the fabric of our very being, with and by and through the power of Universal Divine Love.

It is time for us to take it to the next level, to take ourselves to the next level of our abilities and our willingness to leverage them on behalf of a sleeping humanity and our beautiful mother planet, Earth.

Not with fear, not with resistance, not with judgment or blame: With the pure power of our Creative Essence and… Pure Joy.

I have been having many conversations with God/Source/Creator of All Creators/Pure Love/Well-Spring of Our Collective Being lately....I tell God, “I have compassion for Humanity, God. I want them to be well. I want them to be safe. Please wake them up.”....

The response from our Divine Creator, our Source called by many names, is that I am — and we who know are — to SPEAK and share WHAT TO DO. Creator has said many are feeling a need to do something, but they don’t know WHAT to do......Please DO NOT HOLD BACK AT ALL! Remind everyone of our powers of creation, daily!

Become inspired to find new ways to do this! I anybody can shift it, we can....The entire Universe is watching as humanity decides. Yes, as Humanity decides it’s own fate. Will we stay in slumber, attached to outmoded paradigms and ideals based on scarcity, hate, separation and unknowing?.....

Or will we FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER, ACTIVATE OURSELVES, and WAKE UP to the higher priority structure.....calling us to LIVE fully, to be true to what feels REALLY GOOD to each of us, from a soul or spirit perspective– from a HEART perspective — to share our gifts without hesitation and without allowing old paradigm structures getting in the way of our giving of our gifts. And, yes, to do all this with JOY! Silly joy. Giddy joy. Off-the-hook, outrageous, uncontrollable joy-bliss-mirth-fun.....

Love, Laura

...and from We are the ones we have been waiting :::::: for

Music is the core of the awakening consciousness movement. If it’s true we have the power of creation in us as the seed of who we are then we ought to use it.....We can sing our way home, om, together. .....and MOVE our bodies to the rhythms of the very life which sustains us, which we are. This is what I propose..... Let’s dance.

Let’s dance this planet back into harmonic synergies of light, just because we CAN. And together, it’s more fun.

Love, Laura

I'm starting to play music again--a bit. But now I'm ready to a lot.

....And to add some life this post--living, growing life. Here's pictures of my sprouting project.

Broccoli microgreens

.....and lovely vital wheatgrass.

Learning, learning all the time

2009-10-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to add more nature study to our days, but the fact that I am not absolutely crazy about the ecosystem I'm living in...and it's been so darn hot, it just hasn't happened. But now with the cool weather, I've been riding my bike more and appreciating the desert more. So.....

But Jasmine took it into her own hands. She is taking pictures of birds. Today she got good ones of two of our common desert residents, the cactus wren and the curved-bill thrasher.

Cactus wren

....and Curve-billed Thrasher

She's also decided to enter a writing contest and is working on her story "How the Banana got it's Shape".

....and is engaging in one of her latest passions--Shakespeare. We just watched Twelfth Night and ordered several more Shakespeare movies from the library. Just can't stop that girl from learning.

....and on the soundtrack of our life Bela Fleck's Africa Sessions, the soundtrack from August Rush, Kimba Arem's Self-Healing with Sound and Music by, lots of Stargirl on CD, and the birds, those lovely glorious birds singing their joy to the world.

Learning Math the Natural Way

2009-10-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

I've posted about learning writing and science the natural way and some about Jasmine's process toward being a proficient reader. Today, I was inspired to post about learning math naturally. Yesterday as Jasmine was cutting up fruit for the fruit salad she made for her royal banquet, she was playing with multiplication. "Mom, what's 4x4?" "What?" "16. Mom, see I'm getting 16 pieces out of each apple and 12 out of each pear!" I love watching her play with math with such joy.

The multiplying fruit

Jasmine has always loved math and enjoys playing with it. I was good at math as a child and so have not passed any math anxiety on to her. Math is never "hard" at our house--maybe a "challenge", but challenges are always presented as something fun here. Jasmine sometimes begs me for math problems and fairly often spontaneously comes out with math gems like above. I play games that include math with her sometimes and very occasionally ask her a real life math problem such as "I paid $15.00 for this gas but I only put in $14.15. How much will I get back?" (After some thought, she answered that one correctly.)

I recently read A Mathmatician's Lament by Paul Lockhart and it's been on my mind, probably inspiring this post as much as anything. If you have math anxiety or have children learning math, please read this. It will open your eyes to what math education could be.

A musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds himself in a society where music education has been made mandatory. “We are helping our students become more competitive in an increasingly sound-filled world.” Educators, school systems, and the state are put in charge of this vital project. Studies are commissioned, committees are formed, and decisions are made— all without the advice or participation of a single working musician or composer.

Since musicians are known to set down their ideas in the form of sheet music, these curious black dots and lines must constitute the “language of music.” It is imperative that students become fluent in this language if they are to attain any degree of musical competence; indeed, it would be ludicrous to expect a child to sing a song or play an instrument without having a thorough grounding in music notation and theory. Playing and listening to music, let alone composing an original piece, are considered very advanced topics and are generally put off until college, and more often graduate school.

As for the primary and secondary schools, their mission is to train students to use this language— to jiggle symbols around according to a fixed set of rules: “Music class is where we take out our staff paper, our teacher puts some notes on the board, and we copy them or transpose them into a different key. We have to make sure to get the clefs and key signatures right, and our teacher is very picky about making sure we fill in our quarter-notes completely. One time we had a chromatic scale problem and I did it right, but the teacher gave me no credit because I had the stems pointing the wrong way.”

In their wisdom, educators soon realize that even very young children can be given this kind of musical instruction. In fact it is considered quite shameful if one’s third-grader hasn’t completely memorized his circle of fifths. “I’ll have to get my son a music tutor. He simply won’t apply himself to his music homework. He says it’s boring. He just sits there staring out the window, humming tunes to himself and making up silly songs.”

In the higher grades the pressure is really on. After all, the students must be prepared for the standardized tests and college admissions exams. Students must take courses in Scales and Modes, Meter, Harmony, and Counterpoint. “It’s a lot for them to learn, but later in college when they finally get to hear all this stuff, they’ll really appreciate all the work they did in high school.”

Of course, not many students actually go on to concentrate in music, so only a few will ever get to hear the sounds that the black dots represent. Nevertheless, it is important that every member of society be able to recognize a modulation or a fugal passage, regardless of the fact that they will never hear one. “To tell you the truth, most students just aren’t very good at music. They are bored in class, their skills are terrible, and their homework is barely legible. Most of them couldn’t care less about how important music is in today’s world; they just want to take the minimum number of music courses and be done with it. I guess there are just music people and non-music people. I had this one kid, though, man was she sensational! Her sheets were impeccable— every note in the right place, perfect calligraphy, sharps, flats, just beautiful. She’s going to make one hell of a musician someday.”.....

Sadly, our present system of mathematics education is precisely this kind of nightmare. In fact, if I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soul-crushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education.....(more)

I'm definately thinking about math education differently after reading this.

Living our Truth

2009-10-09T23:42:00.000-07:00

Today we finished the sequel to Stargirl-- Love, Stargirl. We both liked this one even better. Stargirl is homeschooled. In Stargirl, she goes to public school and experiences the idiocy of the social scene with grace and aplomb, but in Love, Stargirl she's back to homeschooling.

Jasmine likes to study deeply human nature and the whys and whats and hows of people's behavior. The themes of fitting in and being true to oneself, conformity and individuality have been big for Jasmine this year. Stargirl and Love, Stargirl definitely dive deeply into these topics and she adored them.

She also requested that I read her Max Lucado's You are Special and If Only I had a Green Nose. Both these books deal with how to be true to oneself in a culture that encourages conformity.

I'm rereading Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Homescale Permaculture and learning things I didn't on my last reading. This is a simply amazing book; if you garden or think you might want to garden someday, read it. I'm preparing for a series of three 1 hr talks I'm going to do on sustainability.... and researching Shakespeare movies to order for Jazz from the library and of course playing with living food. And through it all, I'm still "shoulding" on myself, thinking I "should" be cleaning the back patio instead. Is this true? Or could I possibly be true to what is calling me in the moment? YES, that's a resounding Y-E-S.

And on the same theme....We attended an incredible library program with musician Mark Holdaway this afternoon. This guy is absolutely passionate about the Kalimba and inspired the whole audience with his passion and love of what he does. He plays and sells kalimbas and teaches others who want to learn at Kalimba Magic. It was wonderful to see the effect of someone being true to themselves and their passion on others. Jazz is ready to buy a kalimba.

Mark Holdaway after program with instruments (picture by Jazz)

Audience members can't wait to touch these beautiful instruments

(picture by Jazz)

A Royal Banquet

2009-10-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

Jasmine has been planning a tea party ever since she checked out Come to Tea: Fun Tea Party Themes, Recipes, Crafts, Games, Etiquette and More from the public library several weeks. She's been copying down recipes and planning menus. She finally decided on a Royal Banquet of Beef Chow Mein, Fruit Salad and Refrigerator Cookies and picked a date, and invited the guests. Planning, preparation, cooking and cleaning have joyously been done. Decorations made.

...and a schedule planned. First is crafts, then dinner, and then PLAYING.

Everything went beautifully. The girls enjoyed themselves immensely.

Doing crafts in the garden

Some eagerly shared results

Artwork by Jasmine

....and then dinner with entertainment....

....and then mom was so busy with washing up no more pictures were taken, but much fun was had with chickens and wall-walking and playing hide-and-go-seek. You never know what those royal princesses will be up to.

Looking at Responsiblity

2009-10-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

I guess Scott Noelle keeps nailing it on the head for me. Here's another Daily Groove that I affirms where I am.

Two Kinds of Responsibility

The word "responsibility" can be confusing because its meaning changes depending on the"active worldview" of the person using it.

The old worldview is one of scarcity and competition, where one seeks empowerment through controlling people and conditions, and by being "right." In that worldview, responsibility means obligation, duty, and/or blame.

The new worldview is one of abundance and creativity, where empowerment comes from within and is expressed through partnership. In that worldview, responsibility is the *ability to respond* creatively, and it's an acknowledgment that each individual creates his or her own experience of life.

Today, pay close attention to how you feel when you're trying to be a "responsible" parent. If taking responsibility makes you feel heavy, burdened, guilty, ashamed, or resentful, then it's time to upgrade your worldview!

All my adult life I've struggle with "being responsible". I think I need to "be responsible" and when I don't do what I think is responsible, I feel guilty. It creates a downward cycle--sometimes to depression--for me. It's caused me untold amounts of pain. I'm realizing more and more deeply every day that the only thing I need be responsible to is my own inner self and Creative Source. Every reminder is a cause for celebration and gratitude. So here's to Scott Noelle and all the guidance I receive. Amen

Aiming for Bigness

2009-10-05T17:36:00.001-07:00

Again, today, Scott Noelle's Daily Groove e-mail was particularly inspiring--enough that I'm posting it.

Small Body, Big Spirit

Mother Nature doesn't aim for mediocre. She imbues every child with HUGE creative potential.

Children are born *knowing* they're supposed to be BIG -- innately powerful, free, and continuously expanding to new horizons.

Today, no matter how physically small your child may be, notice and appreciate his or her BIGness in spirit. That spirit is easy to see when your child is expressing pure Love and Joy. But it's no less present when s/he's "misbehaving." In those trying times, remember...

Our children are always doing the best they can to stay connected to their BIGness -- in a world that expects them to be small.

In getting the links for the above, I ran into Scott's article Transforming Anger. I get it. Today I get it. I've read it before but today it sank in deeper and I did it. I remembered that my anger is here to uplift me--and everything else for that matter--and used the energy to say "I'm not going to let that little condition get in the way of my joy".

I've been working on an Astrology Chart for a friend. Something I haven't done for quite a while and I checked how the transits are influencing my chart. Wow! Two pretty major planetary events have been occurring this year. One is the Saturn-Uranus opposition and the other Jupiter-Neptune conjunction. These both happen often enough that you've experienced one in your lifetime--unless you're a lot younger than I. But having two at a time is quite rare.

Everyone is influenced by these transits but where in your life and to what degree depends on where and what they trigger in your chart. Both have triggered major planetary configurations in my chart--and two of the three midlife crisis transits. That's right--I'm 41! I've haven't been thinking in terms of astrology for quite some time and--well--I didn't remember. And these wonderful life-changing transits have been happening and delightfully I was able to appreciate the immensity and importance of the changes occurring in my life without consulting astrology.

While I'm busy playing with an astrology chart or two and blogging, Jasmine is preparing for a Royal Banquet. She wrote invitations and picked out an outfit and took pictures of them for me to post.

This weekend was fabulous--I went to Phoenix with friends and Jasmine and Grandma planted a new garden full of alfalfa and clover for the chickens. And Grandma helped her sew a doll dress. Of course I got to spend the next day putting away and dealing with all my veggies.

Chicken Garden

New doll dress

She also discovered ironing with a passion, begging to iron anything in sight.

And learning happens........One of Jasmine's favorite things to do is to take out a stack of field guides (e.g. butterflies, insects, flowers, birds) and peruse them.

Blessed Silence

2009-10-02T23:51:00.001-07:00

The cooler weather is finally here. While most of the rest of the country is gearing up for a winter of more inside activity, we are breaking out of hibernation and into the sun. Today, I turned the air-conditioner off and heard the birds chirping and chirping. Have they been chorusing so loud everyday but we never heard them over the air conditioning fan? Well, I didn't listen to music even though I started a cleaning frenzy in the kitchen I wanted to hear the birds.

Maybe it's something to do with throwing open the doors to the fresh air after months of having them closed that's doing it. I think I'm definitely spring cleaning. It was hot last week. Over 100 every day, I think, and now blessed coolness and freedom from the sound of the air conditioning.

Yesterday was the first fabulous day. We spent it outside enjoying the sun (instead of hiding from it). I wanted to celebrate the weather; get out and do something special, but I wasn't inspired. This is not my ecosystem; I'm homesick for water and trees. Jazz suggested the packing a picnic and a blanket and heading to the plaza. It was perfect!

We spent most of the day there. I laid in the sun. I read Hazrat Inyat Khan's Music. Jasmine climbed her favorite tree. We ate lunch. We went to the library and somehow the book Stargirl fell off the shelf and into my waiting arms. Jasmine played. I sat in the shade and read Music. The Universe is so good to me. I always read the right thing at the right time.

Then we found a shady bench and watched a minor accident through it's whole incarnation (trading insurance, police showing up etc.) and started Stargirl. Jasmine went and got an ice cream cone and ate it and then made mudcakes. It was perfectly perfect. When our water was gone and my throat was dry, we trekked home to eat mango passionfruit coconut Popsicles. Decadent and perfectly perfect. Amen.

Admiring flowers in the Plaza

Jazz watched Romeo and Juliet all day the day before and begged me to watch it with her last night. My passionate actress has been speaking in something like Shakespearean English and acting extra dramatic. Is this why Ashland Oregon is calling so loudly to us? The Shakespeare Festival?

But back to today and spring cleaning, the bees started invading the house, so doors got closed and I turned on a great album we've been listening to a lot lately, Miles From India. It's a collaboration between members of the Miles Davis Band and some great musicians from India. Jazz and I both love it.

Later, we listened to the whole book of CD, C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew while Jazz began tackling the back bedroom and I finished up in the kitchen and...

....and prepared for a day with the girls. I'm going to Phoenix tomorrow with three wonderful women to shop the farmer's market and whatever else hits our fancies. When have I done this last? Spent a day with friends without Jasmine. I think it was the orientation for Prescott College over 4 years ago. I'm excited. And Jazz gets to spend the whole day with grandma.

Tonight I finished reading Star Girl to Jazz......Wow! That's all I can say for now but I'm guessing I'll write about it in a post soon. I've been thinking about her--Stargirl---all day.

....and in between it all, ART happens.

Posting Frenzy

2009-09-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

I started the day by gathering an abundance of limes off a neighbor's tree and tidying and working on my new sprouting project.

Jasmine started her day eating yellow watermelon while putting together puzzles with her mom. Recently Jasmine has been into jigsaw puzzles. This puzzle phase reminds me of other "educational" phases of reading, writing, and 'rithmetic. A giant leap in ability without "practice makes perfect" phase. Could it be we are confusing children's development with that of adults and even then not allowing for cyclical nature of adult development?

And speaking of the three R's, I prefer the Waldorf three R's: rhythm, reverence, and ritual.

I spent a good chunk of time today finishing a number of half-finished posts I started in September and posting them (Any redundancy in this sentence?). Jasmine watched Ballet Favorites and Mary Poppins and went on adventures around the yard. I gave her my old camera a few weeks ago and she was out and about taking pictures. She's back to playing with the chickens now that the weather is so nice.

And in the inbox today, something so great I just had to share it (from Scott Noelle's THE DAILY GROOVE)

Is Joy Knocking On Your Door?

She knocked on the huge palace door. The peephole cover slid open, revealing the grim face of the palace guard. "Who goes there?"

"I am Joy," she answered with a smile, "I'm here to visit the Queen."

The guard shut the peephole abruptly. A few minutes later, it slid open again and the guard said, "The Queen is upset because her children are misbehaving.You may not enter until conditions improve."

"But I bring good tidings, and if she would let me in, the children would surely abandon their mischief."

"Sorry," the guard grumbled, "I must do Her Majesty's bidding." Then he locked the door and left.

But Joy did not leave . . . She just kept knocking.

Today, if you feel upset for any reason, ask yourself this: "Am I using these conditions as an excuse to disallow my natural state of well-being?" Decide that when JOY knocks on *your* door, you'll let it in... no matter what the conditions!

If you like this, visit Scott Noelle at his website. There's some great articles and you can sign up for free daily e-mails like the one above.

This evening we rode our bikes to the library to return and pick up books. We both had cookbooks in; Jazz got Cookbook for Girls and I, Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods by Renee Loux Underkoffler.

And then an impromptu bike ride to the park to watch a baseball game. Jazzie's been wanting to watch one ever since T-ball season. Jasmine enjoyed the game and playing with friends and I got to read my new book.

Came home and perused recipes together and read from Nina Jaffe's The Uninvited Guest and Other Jewish Holiday Tales.

Just Gotta Share

2009-09-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well....I haven't posted in a while, BUT I do have several half finished posts I intend to finish and publish sometime soon.

I found this and just had to share it.

Aren’t humans amazing Animals? They kill wildlife - birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.

Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them. This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - - health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer.

So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions of more animals to look for cures for these diseases.

Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.

Meanwhile, few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once a year send out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."

~ Revised from Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coates

I got it off Raw Living Foods Lifestyle . This is an awesome blog if you are interested in learning more about living foods. I've been working toward a raw food diet for about 3 years now and have recently transistioned to nearly 100% living food. It is so amazing. It's hard to describe but do it. Try eating more foods uncooked and start learning more about living foods. There's a huge amount of information and lots of recipes on the WEB. It's so worth it. A good place to start is to read Dr. Ann Wigmore's Why Suffer? How I Overcame Illness & Pain Naturally. It's out of print but the entire book is here.

I've been reading a few quotes from it and I am ready to start up my wheatgrass and sunflower sprout growing project again. I'm off to soak some wheat and sunflower seeds. You may be seeing pictures soon.

Creating beauty inspires cleaning house

2009-09-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, I got an overwhelming urge to make window stars. These are popular in the Waldorf school movement. They are made from kite paper from Europe. My mother--my crafty but oh so busy mother--had the paper and a book on how to make them and I asked her if I could use them. So for the last three days gorgeous window stars have been blooming. Today we started putting them up on the windows.

The window stars have inspired Jasmine to clean. Yesterday she rescued her dollhouse from the back room and cleaned it and today helped me with deep cleaning the dining room to honor the beauty of our window stars.

Several nights ago, I checked up on all the homeschooling blogs I have links to. A post about cleaning and chores on The Sparkling Martins has been at the edge of my mind ever since. Dana writes that her children help with housecleaning without any coersion because she's always cleaned with joy. I have aspired to this but it has not happened. Actually Jasmine does joyfully help with chores fairly often BUT...this girl knows how to create a mess and definately has a different standard of cleanliness than I. We live in a fairly small house with my cluttery mother and I am sensitive the clutter so....I want Jasmine to keep her things neat.

We've tried to come to solutions that are mutually acceptable mostly to no avail. Eventually, a few weeks ago, I moved all of her stuff out of living area into the back bedroom and have allowed her to keep it how she wants as long as there is a pathway to my clothes.

Back bedroom-photo 1

Back bedroom-photo 2

The cool weather is finally here. Yeah. Time to get out and play. I'm feeling so vibrant and alive like the electrons in my cells are spinning faster. I am so so grateful for this living food lifestyle. I don't even want to eat cooked food.

The soundtrack for last couple days--Jasmine choose The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and I listened to a couple Bill Frisell albums Blues Dream and Ghost Town, Putumayo's South Pacific Islands, Putumayo's Brazileiro, and a Mercedes Sosa album.

This evening, Jazz handed me A Course in Miracles and said "Read this" I opened to...

"I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.

Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself."

and....

"You see the flesh or recognize the spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. There is no choice in vision but this one. What you decide in this determines all you see and think is real and hold as true. On this one choice does all your world depend, for here have you established what you are, as flesh or spirit in your own belief. If you choose flesh, you never will escape the body as your own reality, for you have chosen that you want it so. But choose the spirit, and all Heaven bends to touch your eyes and bless your holy sight, that you may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and to bless."

I am filled with waves of gratitude that I have been led on this path and my little angel who helps remind me.

International Day of Peace

2009-09-21T22:02:00.001-07:00

International Day of Peace is a big event in Ajo due to one woman's efforts, Mimi Phillips. This year I contributed little to the effort as my focus has been creating peace in my own mind. But Jasmine and I helped paint the Peace Day mural last month and I helped with the solar oven demo yesterday and today I spent an hour and half painting children's faces at an after-school festival. I was reluctant to go and wished I hadn't committed to it but once I got started I loved it and wouldn't have missed it for the world. Painting faces is an intimate experience and I enjoyed getting to know some of Ajo's children a bit better.

The Peace Parade started from the after-school festival at the school and wound its way to the Plaza. The parade included several large peace doves and many desert creatures. Groups from Sonoita, Mexico and the Tohono O'odham nation participated.

Kenya Masala, who later led a drum circle with 200 drums, leading a group

in front of a giant peace dove from the O'odham Nation.

Women from Sonoita, Mexico carrying a headress later used in by a

high school Aztec Dance group from Sonoita.

A desert tortoise

Crows in the shadow of a giant peace dove.

Upon arriving at the plaza a festival commenced. Jasmine's Folklorico group danced.

Other acts included Native American Basket Dancers, an amazing Aztec dancing by a group from the high school in Sonoita (the little town across the border in Mexico), a community drumming circle, the high school band from Sonoita, and a Hispanic musical group. And through it all wandered stiltwalkers from Flam Chen, out of Tuscon.

Flam Chen stiltwalkers

The evening ended on a perfectly peaceful note. Our local utility company is replacing and moving waterlines in our part of town and last week the construction crew came through our yard. One of the workers enjoyed our garden telling me it reminded him of his grandfather's garden in Mexico. He wanted to give me some heirloom seeds from that garden. Tonight as we left the festival he ran up to let me know he had left some seeds for me in my mailbox.

Heirloom seeds from Mexico--Fava beans and some sort of pea

Solar Oven Madness

2009-09-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a solar oven demonstrations at a few different events around town over the past year or two--baking something in the oven and giving away free samples and then answering questions about solar ovens. But today I participated in the biggest demonstration yet.

Ajo celebrates International Day of Peace in a big way. It's one of the biggest celebrations of the year here. This morning was the kick-off celebration with a free community breakfast in the Plaza put on by the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) in conjunction with our local grocery store. Nina, our CSA coordinator, organized this grand solar oven demonstration for the event with her usual flair.

Yesterday, I made a couple of batches of Mesquite Sweet Potato Bread so we would have samples available before the first batches came out of our ovens this morning. We also handed out information about mesquite flour and our CSA. (The whole wheat flour and the sweet potatoes came from Crooked Sky Farms, who supply our CSA.) During the course of the morning we gave away over 20 batches of Mesquite Sweet Potato cookies and 4 batches of Mesquite sweet potato sweetbread. Nina wrote an excellent article about the event here.

Besides the commercially made SunOven I brought, we used a home-made solar oven constructed for ISDA by Sue Reiman and later in the day Aaron Cooper brought four solar ovens, created by his high school students at San Simon School. These were simply a wide squarish funnel created out of cardboard covered with tin foil and then propped up to catch the sun. The cookies were baked in oven bags in aluminum foil pans. This worked surprisingly well and opens up the possiblity of designing a simple oven using a wide reflector and using--and reusing hopefully--oven bags to cook in.

The oven on the farthest left is our solar oven, a comercially made Sun Oven, available at http://www.sunoven.com/ and many other places. After having cooked in this oven for over three years, I can recommend it. It cooks well and is very portable and easy to use. The biggest drawback is its size. It barely fits a 9"x13" pan, if it has any handles forget it, and definately cannot fit a cookie sheet.

Anne Ashton Goldfeld of a Phoenix area Roots & Shoots program (they've created a community garden with the children) and AZ Homegrown Solutions is also the area's solar oven queen. She prefers the Sport from Solar Oven Society. I haven't used this oven yet but I think if I were to buy an oven now I would choose this one.

It comes with or without the optional reflector and you can save $25 by buying two. Also included are 2 pots, thermometer, WAPI (water pasteurization indicator) and instruction manual (.pdf)

Here's some information from their website.

The SOS Sport oven cooks food of all types, and also pasteurizes water. The casing is rugged recycled plastic (post consumer soft drink bottles) and the insulation; closed cell foam insulation that does not absorb moisture. The lid is a double layer with dead air space to enhances insulating qualities. It holds two 10-inch pots (3 quarts each) and the floor dimensions of the oven (for cookie sheets, etc,) are 9 1/4 inches x 17 1/2 inches. It reaches temperatures of 300 Degrees Fahrenheit in equatorial regions and includes an optional detachable reflector to lengthen the cooking seasons in areas further north. Here in Minnesota, the cooker works great without reflectors April-September and with reflectors it works well all winter long (when there is sun!).
It is light weight – 10 pounds and stable (normal winds cause no problems)

If you want to order a Sun Oven or a SOS Sport online please use the Resources for Health vender ID to help Anne's groups. For Sun Oven enter the code RES HEALTH 09 for $25 off your purchase and they also send $25 to Resources of Health. For the Sport, the number is #2371.

Art First! was The Soundtrack of Our Life

2009-09-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

This morning I did art first and then cleaned the kitchen and it was wonderful. Why don't I do this more often?

The Quotes are from The Presence Process by Michael Brown the two in orange are:

Although we may not know where we are going right now or how to get there, there is and aspect of our Being that does know. There is an aspect of our Being that knows everything.

A joyful, abundant, and healthy life is pouring itself upon us in each moment. When we "live in time", the vessel that we are is turned upside down. We, therefore, spend our life experience getting instead of receiving.

Jazz joined me and made here own artwork with poems and quotes she likes.

I'm inspired today to post about the Soundtrack of our life--what we listen to. Today it was Putumayo's Acoustic Brazil and Lila Down's Tree of Life. Often, as today, if we're absorbed in something, I'll listen to one album several times. Yesterday, the mood for me was Meditative Gregorian Chants.

I like Gospel music, spiritual music of many traditions, Jazz esp non-traditional, world and ethnic music and more. Jasmine likes most of the previous but sometimes gets bored with the spiritual music. She also really likes classical music especially ballets, musicals, and anything with a great rhythm. Lately she has been into The Nutcracker and Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle, and Shake.

We also listen to spoken word albums. I have taped myself reading several books including Byron Katie's A Thousand Names for Joy, Michael Road's Talking with Nature and Journey into Nature, Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery and parts of Abraham-Hicks books, A Course in Miracles etc. I listen to these when I am cleaning or cooking. For the most part, Jasmine enjoys these tapes and sometimes even asks for them.

We sometimes listen to books on CD, especially when we clean together. The last one was The Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula le Guin and upcoming The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Today I met the muse for the first time while playing the piano. I don't know how to explain it except that I felt an actual presence of an energy I would describe as the Muse. It was exciting for me because it is exactly the kind of thing I would love to have happen, but I wasn't expecting or even hoping for it. It just came out of the blue. Ain't life great!

Jasmine has built a house with chairs and sheets in the dining room and today I found her in it teaching one of her girls to read.

And in the Living Foods department--More Fun Things to Eat.

This week I've been playing with some new things. We are getting lots of green peppers and onions in our CSA share so I slice them thin and mix with lime, date paste, chili powder, and salt and dehydrate until soft and then store in fridge to add to salads or other things.

Local greens are still hard to come by, but Nina brings me back arugula and collard greens from the farmer's market in Phoenix. Believe it or not, collard leaves make an excellent wraps. I've been filling them with Guacamole, living salsa, and the pepper-onion mix OR with the following filling: diced apples and green tomatoes, fresh basil, lime, garam masala, date paste, and salt.

This filling is also excellent in green apple coconut wraps--if I don't eat them all first. They are made by throwing apples, mature coconut, lime, a bit of chia seeds, and a pinch of salt in blender and then dehydrating.

I also made my first batch of living spaghetti, with partial dehydrated tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano, onion, garlic, date paste, apple cider vinegar, and salt and served it over pasta made from zucchini. It was so good that I called up Nina, our CSA coordinator, and volunteered to do a raw food demonstration for them as soon as we are getting tomatoes and summer squash. I am definately hooked.

Corn chips have been a big staple of mine whenever we are getting corn in our CSA share. I usually do a batch with about 3 cups of fresh corn off the cob and add lime, chili powder, salt and a tomato if I have one. This week I made the best batch of corn chips yet, by adding an apple and an avocado. They were so delicious that I polished them off before I could share with anyone, and now corn is out of season for another month or so.

And with my non-local cauliflower I made raw popcorn to die for. Just cut up cauliflower into small pieces and add olive oil, nutritional yeast, spirulina, and salt. Then sit down and enjoy.

Shopping in the City

2009-09-09T23:10:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the city--Tucson--to go shopping. I've always had a love affair with mountains and usually where ever I live there is a mountain I am totally in love with. Here in Arizona it is Baboquivari Peak. This is the sacred mountain for the Tohono O'odham people and I can totally understand why. In order to get to Tucson, we cross the O'odham reservation and pass Baboquivari Peak. Today the summer poppies were in full bloom from our recent rains. I have a thing for these poppies also and was in total heaven.

Baboquivari Peak--ain't she a beauty....

...and summer poppies. What more could a girl ask for.

And while I was admiring mountains and flowers, Jasmine was enjoying her most favorite book on CD, Suzanne Fisher Staple's Shiva's Fire.

We had a lovely time shopping and playing in the city. And, oh my word, am I going to have to binge on veggies for a while. I bought organic but not local or in season kale, cauliflower, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, celery, and peaches and stocked up on frozen fruit. Local Gala apples were on sale and so I bought 15 pounds.

On the way home we listened to my favorite program on the local community radio station, Onda Suave, which just happens to air on Wednesday evenings. It's a Latin Jazz program and this evening, the host did a short interview with a home boy who made it big in the Latin Jazz scene. Unfortunately, I do not remember his name but I had an interesting experience while listening to the interview. The host asked the musician about the support for his music he had received as a child. I imagined myself supported as a child and got a vision of how different my life would be today. It was magical. And then, of course, realized that I now need to give myself that kind of support.

Later on the drive I realized my purpose-- "to open to the depths and watch joyfully as the beauty unfolds". This is something Arnold Patent talks about in his book--defining your purpose in a short phrase or sentence and then repeating it often. I absolutely adore this purpose and if I remember to say it often, I can imagine how much fuller and more beautiful my life will be. Long drives often bring new realizations to me. Thank you for these.

Friends and rainwater

2009-09-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

My mom's house is in the historic district of town and for some reason no families with children live here. Several monthes ago, Elizabeth (age 7 just like Jasmine) and her family moved in a block away. Lately Jazz and Elizabeth have been spending a lot of time together on weekends.

Elizabeth's family is quite different than our--a lot of media and not much else--and she used to get bored really quickly at our house and want to go home. Lately however she is enjoying all kinds of new experiences with us including playing with chickens, going to the library and getting her very own library card, going to paint murals, going to the public swimming pool, and climbing trees. A whole new world is opening up for Elizabeth and Jasmine has a playmate that lives close by.

I finished taping Arnold Patent's You can Have It All. I can't say enough about this book. I am so grateful that it entered my life, that I had the idea to tape it, and that I can listen to it often.

And again I can't say enough about Arnold Patent's book, You Can Have It All. Beg, borrow, steal if need be, but get this book. Or do as I did and order it through Interlibrary Loan at your Local Library and read it into a tape recorder and then listen to it often.

This evening Jasmine went off to a sleepover at Elizabeth's house and I decided to work on one of my latest projects--actually a somewhat on-going project. Last winter, I wanted to give a set of talks at the local library on sustainable design. To this end, I started creating some Power Point presentations. Thanks to Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Vols 1 & 2, and his website http://www.rainwaterharvesting.com/, I have developed a fairly complete slide show on passive rainwater harvesting. A few days ago, a friend showed me around the Ajo Community Garden and I realized they could really use this particular presentation. So now I'm completing that slideshow. In this process I found a couple of videos that give a great overview of using earthworks to collect rainwater.

May you enjoy an A-bun-dance of water--free, beautiful, healthy rainwater.

An Art Journal

2009-09-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

This morning before Jazz got up, I created this page in my newly started Art Journal. Last night I had popped over to La Paz Home Learning to see what she was up to lately--it's always interesting. A post she had on journaling inspired me to start an art journal.

The poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson is:

Finish each day and be done with it.

You have done what you could,

some blunders and absurdities have crept in;

forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day,

you shall begin it serenely

and with too high a spirit

to be encumbered by your old nonsense.

When she woke up, Jazz joined me and created words to put on her SoulCollage cards.

I even figured out how to use the backs of pages that have watercolor or Art Marker bleeding through--A Gratitude List and An Ideal Life Exercise. It does me good to do them and to read them.

Jazz has continued to write her story and also a cookbook she is creating, She eagerly helped me to hose off the front porch and the hardscape in front yard and sweep up the mesquite pods. We trimmed back the exuberant growth of mesquite and palo verde threatening to take over the pedestrians walking in front of the house. Yes, the weather is definately getting cooler.

I'm finishing taping Arnold Patent's You Can Have It All. It is such an amazing book and I'll be very glad to have it on tape. I could listen to this everyday for a while. It helps me get through my least favorite household task--washing the dishes.

Writing the Natural Way

2009-09-02T23:56:00.000-07:00

Today Jasmine wanted to play school. I was busy with something or other and told her to write a story. She's been working on it with a lot of intensity on and off all day. Jasmine went to school for four months starting almost a year ago (at her own request). This is the first time since that she has written anything without worrying about spelling. This story is written completely phonetically--so the spelling is "atrocious"--but she is using complex words and ideas and rewriting sentences to prevent redundency (on her own initiative).

In school, writing began with learning to spell simple words. She was expected to write a sentence everyday using a new spelling word (ex The cat sat in a box.) This induced both a concern about spelling correctly but also a crimp in creativity. And I believe it is the root of many people's writing block.

In her own natural process she writes what she is passionate about and plays with how sentences sound and how they go together to create a mood. As she reads more and more the spelling will become more natural and she can write creatively and spell correctly. David Albert wrote in one of his books about his daughters' writing process. He told them at an older age (maybe 11 or 12) that people judge someone who spells incorrectly as stupid irregardless of whether it is true. At this age his girl were ready and motivated to learn to spell correctly. This makes perfect sense; spelling is introduced after much writing has been done not before.

Absorbed in writing

Jasmine took breaks to build a little house out of twigs, to play cribbage with her mom, and of course to dance.

And mom...well I've been helping grandma prepare for her first ever back-packing trip by dehydrating food for the trip including green smoothie fruit leather. I have not yet published my post on green smoothies, but hold tight. Between my living foods and my mom's back-packing food, the dehydrator has been going for days.

Local Food Mania

2009-08-30T00:25:00.000-07:00

Today was the end of the summer season potluck for Ajo CSA. I was inspired to prepare food and joyfully made a Saquaro Chiffon Pie (made with saquaro fruit juice, eggs from our chickens and the crust made with wheat from "the farm"), Pumpkin bread (made with pumpkin from our garden, an Asian Pear from "the farm", and again the wheat we sometimes get in our CSA share), Sun Tea (while not local, I had bought one that contained only herbs that easily grow here, including hibiscus which helps cool the body on hot days), and watermelon rind with vinegarette dressing.

Farmer Frank (from Crooked Sky Farms where our CSA gets its produce) drove a couple of hours to come to our little potluck. He answered questions and asked what we enjoyed in our shares and what we would like more of. Frank began organic farming because his father died of pesticide poisoning. You can see from the picture he looks like a stereotypical farmer. I really enjoyed learning of his integrity as a farmer. He recently purchased new tractors with Tier 3 engines, which are in complience with the new California Emission Standards. He believes that if you are calling yourself an organic farmer you should do all you can to be a good steward of the land (here's a post about the new green tractors). When one of members asked him about getting money from the government, he replied that he would not do it because our government needs all the help it can get. Isn't it great to know the farmer where most of your veggies come from? Farmer Frank also brought bags of compost for the CSA members, the Ajo Community Garden, and a garden at the local school.

Compost from the farm packaged in commercial compost bags.

Hanging out at Ajo CSA's end of the summer season potluck

And more on the local food front--dates and apples are in season. Nina brought me back from the Phoenix downtown market the most delicious dates I have ever eaten--they just melt in the mouth. They come in a zip-lock bag marked Mike. The apple harvest in eastern Arizona has begun. Nina is bringing me back wonderful little fresh Gala apples. I love eating locally and seasonally. The biggest drawback is that once you've tasted the flavor and experienced the vitality of fresh, organic, local produce you won't ever want anything else. If you need convincing here is 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food.

Jazzie took the pictures today, so I get to see a different perspective. I am surprised at how bad my posture still is. Is this the posture of someone happy, joyous, and free? I'm still carrying a heavy burden and it's all in my mind.

New life in the garden

2009-08-28T23:53:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken pictures of the garden in a long time but this morning I was inspired by some new life appearing.

The I'toi onions are sprouting after having died back for the summer.

The orange tree I planted this spring is showing it's first new growth of leaves.

This butternut is starting it's third crop of delicious squash

What a trooper!

The monsoon garden my mom planted is up and growing.

Notice the O'odham Ha:al squash growing like mad in the background

It's finally producing squash after months of vegetative growth.

O'odham Ha:al Squash--this drought tolerant local squash is surviving under an established fruit tree that is only watered once a week.

Some other troopers that have been unsung as they grew through the intense summer heat.

Sweet Potatoes

Pomegranates

And I caught this girl being creative again.

Playing my accordian

Playing with home-made clay (she made it herself)

I was back in the kitchen filling up the dehydrator after a couple day hiatus, more granola, and corn tortillas. Both are becoming staples while I learn new living food recipes that I adore.

I have been thinking about energy bars and today I made some awesome energy bars with sprouted sunflower seeds, carob powder, date paste, coconut, diced dried saguaro fruit, spirulina, and a sprinkle of sea salt. They are simply delicious and I feel great after eating them. Actually they are too wet--more of a paste-- and the dehydrator is already full so I'm eating it by the spoonful. Delicious!!

Cooler weather

2009-08-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

The heat is less in intensity today. When I went out to water the garden I noticed it. We have just adapted to spending most of the day inside. I just checked today's weather; high 102/low 82. Who would have ever thought I would consider that cooler (I am a Northern girl after all--raised in Idaho and Montana)

Today was the first day we collected three eggs from our three chickens. Bess, our Auracana, quit laying during the worst of the heat and Grace (a Wyendott) hadn't begun laying yet. Grace and Gweneviere (a Buff Orpington) laid like troopers through the heat.

We went on bike ride this evening and quite a number of people were out walking enjoying the cooler weather. It was our first ride to the park in several weeks. Yeah.

I taught Jasmine how to play cribbage today. Cribbage involves a fair bit of adding and I've been waiting to teach her until I thought she was ready. And today was the day. My little math wiz did just fine.

I took pictures of Jazzie dancing her way through cleaning her part of the living room. And believe or not, she did a fine job, the living room really did get as clean as she ever gets it.

A reading first. Jasmine went to get the lyric sheet in order to sing along with a song. OK someday soon I won't take pictures of her reading but it's so exciting to watch the process of natural learning unfolding.

I'm still cleansing my mind of old beliefs. Today I realized that so many of these beliefs center in "not enough". I'm not good enough, I don't do enough, I'm not successful enough, I don't have enough etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. When I look inside myself with curiousity--Who am I?--I find only beauty, joy, and love. I am happy to give up my little nightmare of "not enough".

I'm playing a new game with myself--an abundance game. I got the idea from Carol Look's book, Attracting Abundance with EFT. Whenever I catch myself complaining or judging something negatively in my own head, I pretend I am writing a blog post about that condition changed to what I want. (An example blog post. I'm so excited. I've noticed how easily the house stays clean. It used to be quite a struggle but now it is just a joy....)

Loving what is

2009-08-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

This morning Jasmine had another dentist's appointment. I spent my time in the waiting room practicing loving everybody and everything. I caught myself in non-loving thoughts often but did catch them and did move into love. It was a beautiful experience.

We did errands on way home, one of which was to drop off stuff at second hand store. Aren't second hand stores lovely? I found 4 wide mouth quart mason jars for a dollar and Jazzie found two new elegant dresses. One of which she wore for her ballet performance later in the day.

We picked up and dropped off books at library and came home with Billy Elliot. Just in time for an after the dentist movie party.

...followed by a ballet performance--inspired of course by Billy Elliot.

I read to Jazz as she cleaned her things in the living room from the third book in the Wizard of Earthsea series, The Farthest Shore by Ursula LeGuin, a series my mother read to me when I was a child. Until it rained--yeah for more rain--and Jazz went out to float little plastic lids down the torrent at the edge of the street. I felt too heavy with sadness and dispair. I couldn't feel any love for anything but I tapped (EFT) while she played and now I can feel love again.

Just now waiting for the computer to load, I understand fully that it is all perfect, that the world around me is a mirror showing me just what I need to love and heal. And I do have infinite support of the Universe. I want to hold on to this knowing. I have known it to be true previously, but to know it so deeply in my body. What a gift!

Feel the Music and Dance like No one is Watching

2009-08-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

This morning as I played the piano, I experimented with experiencing the music in my body inspired by Touch the Sound (an absolutely amazing documentary about Evelyn Glennie), which might be my favorite movie. When I really pay attention, I feel the notes vibrate along my spine and into the center of my body going up as the notes went up and down as notes went done. The lowest note on the piano was at the lowest point on my spine. This is simply amazing. The top few notes on the piano I'm playing are not sounding real notes, but the top note that had a pure tone resonated above my third eye. Could it be that the piano has the range of our chakra system?

I looked up Touch the Sound on You Tube to post the revelant part and the whole movie is there. I also found this--a TED show on Evelyn Glennie--that I've decided to post instead. She is simply amazing, one of my heros.

This afternoon, we played around with a bellydance DVD and the put on music and danced free-style bellydance. My little dancer is simply amazing.

Some wonderful things occured in my life today. I have much to be grateful for, yet my mind is heavy with old belief and the habit of negativity. I think it is the same as usual but now feels unbearably heavy. At times this inspires me to use the tools I've been guided to to change my thinking. I belive this is a time of clearing on fundamental level. In eating living foods my body is clearing toxicity and the rest of my life is ready to clear also. So my own negative beliefs are in my face ready to be dealt with. Thank you. All is so Perfect.

I finished one tape's worth of Arnold Patent and got to listen to it while I played in the kitchen this evening. I filled another load in the dehydrator with sprouted buckwheat apple cinnamon granola and butternut squash cookies.

....and more about watermelon rind...it is absolutely delicious cut up with just a bit of dressing (mine Olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a bit of agave syrup and a bit of salt) and sea salt. Absolutely divine and it feels so vital. I've been eating it all afternoon and I can't wait to cut into the next watermelon so I can eat the rind. Ha ha.

Another Lazy Saturday

2009-08-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

I woke Jasmine up to the last chapter of Anacoana: The Golden Flower this morning. What a way to start the day. Anacoana is a chief of the Taino tribe at the time Columbus landed. The epilogue is tragic. Then I made pancakes which is a super special treat for Jazzie because I make them so rarely.

This afternoon we took a Jazzie's friend that lives down the street to the library. I have a new EFT book I got through interlibrary loan. Jazzie stayed at her friend's house and I played with my new book.

The social event of the week for me, is produce pick-up for the CSA I belong to. Tonight, Nina fired up the grill and allowed members to roast the Anaheim peppers we got in our shares. Jazz had loads of fun roasting her peppers.

Nina, the produce goddess speaking with CSA members next to farm stand

Jazzie gets distracted while showing off her roasted peppers.

While cutting up a watermelon with especially thick ring tonight, I decided to search for raw recipes for watermelon rind. Look what I found http://www.watermelonrind.com/, a website devoted to watermelon rind recipes including watermelon rind daquaris, watermelon rind gazpacho, many pickled watermelon rind recipes and much more.

Yesterday, Jasmine got out the Tarot cards and set up a reading for both her and me for the first time in over a year. We both had readings that indicated that now is a time of great inner change. That's the main focus of my life--changing my beliefs and thoughts. I'm putting it before anything else, but I find myself feeling guilty for not being "productive". It's all perfect because I get to see the beliefs I want to change. Thank you.

Gratitude

2009-08-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

Today I'm grateful for....

this girl dancing through my life....

...and that the cleaning bug finally caught me after a long vacation. The pile of laundry is almost gone. The hallway and bathroom received much needed attention and Jazzie joined me enthusiastically for parts of it.

... and rain--I am grateful for rain. This evening it rained for the third time during our monsoon season (which is almost over). I'm sure the desert appreciates the rain too. We always get out in the summer rains and enjoy and celebrate them. Jazz wanted to go for a walk, so we grabbed rain jackets and an extra umbrella and headed to the clinic to rescue Grandma.

...and having someone else make dinner. Jazzie loves both Nori rolls and salmon. I bought her salmon to make Nori rolls with (we cook the salmon first) and she was just thrilled. She came in from the rain and cleaned up and got to work...

...and participating in this unschooling journey with Jasmine. It's so heart-opening to watch her bloom at her own pace in her own way. Tonight she is dictating her play into a tape recorder (same one I've been using to record Arnold Patent's book).

Back in the Posting Saddle Again

2009-08-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting all week but life is good.

The first day of school for local kids has come and gone. I almost didn't notice it except that it was a particularly schooly day at our house complete with reading and arithmetic. Jasmine has been enjoying practicing her reading skills at Starfall and spent a couple hours at it and then asked me to help her with some of her Mathmania magazines (subscription from her Grandpa, thanks Dad).

I've continued making living food snacks, more corn chips and sweet potato chips, sesame carob balls, and pumpkin butter to eat with the Asian Pears we are now getting in our CSA shares.

Jasmine caught her mom rockin' out at the piano and composed a picture.

I've had books coming in left and right. Well, two more books I had ordered from library came in and I've been spending time with them--You Can Have It All by Arnold Patent and The Promise of Energy Psychology: Revolutionary Tools for Dramatic Personal Change by David Feinstein, Donna Eden, and Gary Craig. The Arnold Patent book is so awesome I have started taping it so I can listen to it as I play domestic goddess. It's totally ACIM, but somehow the way he writes things is helping pieces click for me. In any situation I don't like, the only thing that is lacking is love. A Course in Miracles says this same thing plenty of times, but all of a sudden I really get it. Thank you, thank you, thank you Arnold Patent.

I've also been learning and playing with EFT and other energy techniques in The Promise of Energy Psychology. In fact, that's what I had intended to do tonight but my sister just contacted my mom because she couldn't find the address to this blog and could she get it? So I decided I better update a bit. And I took pictures today (yeah!) which is the single most determining factor on whether I post or not.

This stylish young lady came into the kitchen today and announced she was on her way to dance school. (And who couldn't run and get the camera when such an important guest shows up.)

This afternoon, we brought little goodies to Nina and Peter, including corn bread made from flour corn we grew in our garden. They were just finishing getting the new Ajo CSA website they created on-line. Nina is the goddess of fresh produce in Ajo and picks up things for me from the city when she goes, so I try to bring her offerings and worship so she knows how loved she is. Nina lent me a fabulous book Local Wild Life: Turtle Lake Refuge's Recipes for Living Deep by Katrina Blair. Oh thank you Nina, goddess of fresh produce, you are so wonderful. Local Wild Life is a cookbook and more, using both local and living foods. I love it!

Grandma brought home dry ice from the clinic and she and Jasmine had a great time playing with it. Jasmine spent the next hour in and out of the kitchen retrieving various items for her "investigating" and I enjoyed her enthusiasm as I played Domestic Goddess in the kitchen.

SoulCollage® and creativity reign at our house

2009-08-12T00:17:00.000-07:00

This morning, I wrote up the answers to the "I Am the One Who..."
exercise for some of mySoulCollage® cards. It was wonderful. (More about SoulCollage® here)

Jazz woke up and joined me, sewing a pair of shoes for her play.

Grace came over to play and yeah it finally rained! Not a lot but enough to play in.

Running in the Rain

Never know what a couple of palm branches could become

The girls came in to dry off and try out the costumes Jazz has chosen for the play she is writing. Jazz has decided to give Grace the part of the highest and most beautiful princess because "Grace is really into that" and herself as a tomboy who doesn't quite fit the princess role.

Jazzie and Grace decked out in their costumes.

More raw snacks and more creativity

2009-08-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

After posting last night, I went over to Green and Crunchy and stayed a while. I love her posts. Very inspiring! She posts mostly about creating beautiful living food snacks for her family. Her posts are complete and the pictures fabulous. Well maybe someday I'll be there....

I spent lots of time in kitchen again today. I am determined to eat only living food so I am stocking up on raw snack food. Yesterday the dehydrator was full of sweet potato chips and corn and buckwheat crackers and banana fruit leather (to be used for awesome strawberry crepes (recipe here). Today it got filled with sprouted buckwheat, pineapple, blueberry granola bars, sun bread (sunflower, sundried tomatoes, basil, and spices), and coconut green apple wraps. The coconut green apple wraps cracked and are not going to work as wraps but they are so delicious I'm eating them like crazy.

This evening I played with SoulCollage cards. I started the "I am the one that" exercise. It was powerful and wonderful but I think for it to sustain I need to keep working with the cards.

Jasmine found a picture of three capes in a Waldorf toy catalog we found as cleaning and organizing continued at our house this morning. She was so inspired by the capes she decided to write a play and then perform it with two of her friends (they don't know about this yet). She's finding costumes and creating costumes and figuring out the storyline and dialogue. She expressed to me today she would like to type it up on the computer and print it out. She off and running and it was all inspired by a picture of capes in a catalog.

Costumes

Accessories

and shoes.

Since we watched the movie "David", Jazz has developed a strong interest in the biblical David. At her request, I ordered every David book the library had that went beyond the "David and Goliath" story (2). We are almost through the first one and Jasmine has decided that Bathsheeba is the perfect name for her character in the play she is creating.

Getting Serious About Living Foods

2009-08-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

“Living foods create living bodies, dead foods create dead bodies.”

---Dr. Ann Wigmore

Last night I googled "Ashland Oregon, raw foods". I'm enjoying doing research on our new home. In the process I found this website; Allisa Cohen The Raw Food Diet. After reading for a while, I've decided to go as close to 100% raw as possible. Eating raw foods is such an amazing journey; once you start you don't want to stop. I love the vitality and energy I feel. There's nothing like it; I need much less sleep, my outlook on life is better, my mind is clearer. I just feel much more alive.

I've been aiming for 80% living foods but now I'm ready to crank it up. Allisa mentioned in her blog that not having enough raw food around is a problem when moving into a living food diet. This is totally true for me. I had a period of time two or three weeks ago where I was tired of food prep and wasn't making enough. I would get really hungry late at night and eat things that blogged me down and dimmed my light. So today, I spent much of the day in the kitchen making living foods. I'm over complaining about the amount of time it takes--I also cook for my mom who has no interest in going raw--so I am preparing two different meals. I don't care. I want this raw thing bad enough I'm just going to do it with all the joy I can muster--I mean allow.

I haven't posted much about the garden lately, mostly because my energy is now moving forward toward the next thing. I created fabulous gardens for my mom and she is loving them esp the girls (her three chicken). I made her a chicken tractor for Christmas as she really wanted chickens, but didn't have a place for them. We are still getting some things from the garden. Our 105+ degree weather day after day is hard on many plants. Melons and Armenian Cucumbers are some of the survivors.

A French Melon, an Armenian Cuke, and a cup of dried flour corn.

Jazz is planning a dinner she is going to cook for our Locavore friends. She'll grind the corn in the Vitamix and make it into cornbread, using wheat (also ground into flour) that we get in our CSA shares and eggs from our chickens. The corn is long gone from our garden, but a new batch is coming up--in the monsoon garden. Monsoon. What monsoon???? (We've had only one rain and monsoon season is 2/3s over.)

I cut open the seed pumpkins today. Pumpkin season is over here, too, although we have another season for them also in the fall. These are the pumpkins that produce the green tasty seeds you buy at the store. Our vines died before our pumpkins were completely mature so our seeds are a lighter shade of green, but they are delicious.

Pumpkin seeds

Eating melon as we play 10 Days in Europe--a favorite at our house.

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.

2009-08-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went to Phoenix to pick up produce from Crooked Sky Farm (the CSA we belong to). I always do some shopping of food items not available in our little town and I get an extra share for making the run. Now I am blessed with an abundance of food--sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes, baby coconuts, bananas, green beans, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. I haven't done "the run" in a while and am remembering that the day after is taken up mostly putting away food and processing food and cleaning up. I listened to the rest of Joe Vitale's Zero Limits while in the kitchen. This is profound for me and I think for Jasmine as well because she is beginning to remind me "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you" when I express any kind of victim consciousnes. Thank you. She has also listened to some Abraham recordings and enjoyed them but none have had the same impact on her.

In Ho'oponopono, the individual "cleanses" any negative reaction to anything that happens by saying to the Divine "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you." It seems so simple yet it is amazingly profound. Most of the time my mind is reacting negatively to something. Before I listened to Zero Limits, I was trapped in my own negativity. It was all the more painful because I know things can be different but was unable to get there. In fact yesterday morning I was breaking down in tears over the clutter and mess in my life. I haven't been able to get a handle on it and have been coming to the realization that it's not going to change until I change my thoughts. Unfortunately I was not being terribly successful with this on a moment to moment basis. I can clear my mind great sitting in a meditative state but when I open my eyes and "deal with" life.....that's another matter. This tool--I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you--seems to be the perfect tool I need for where I am right now. The Universe always provides.

We did the bellydance workout again this evening. Jasmine is totally fascinated with all of Dolphina's outfits. She brought out her basket of cloths and ta-da.

I actually played the piano tonight (I've been wanting to play more but not doing it) and realized that playing is a meditation for me--realizations come and healing happens. I could spend some meditation time playing. Hey I like how that sounds on all levels!!!

Crazy about Cob and Ho'oponopono

2009-08-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More by Joe Vitale and Ihaleakala Hew Len PhD. The title would never have attracted me but it was recommended on an awesome e-mail list I belong to unschoolingmiracles. It is fabulous. The message is basically the same as A Course in Miracles but simpler to put into practice. I've been using the technique and it is tremendous. One of the main principals of the Ho'oponopono system that the book describes is that we are 100% responsible for everything that enters our life and we can change situations by changing our thoughts about them.

Jazz must have listened because last night after rescuing a baby bunny from the cat, she was very upset and confused about how it could be her fault that Chi--my mom's cat-- caught this bunny. I got an opportunity to explain it to her. We tried to save the bunny--it was still alive--by giving it a safe home for the night and the plan was to lock the cats in the house and release it in the morning. Unfortunately it died in the night.

Young desert hare we tried to rescue

Tonight as she went to bed Jazz asked if I would do more research on Ashland OR and so I started out searching for green building in the area and found this group:

House Alive! Cob building, natural building, natural design & appropriate technology about 30 min from Ashland. They had a couple of beautiful pictures on their site and I am inspired to share them. If you have never heard of Cob or been in a Cob house find a way to do it. These house are amazing. Pictures can never do them justice because you don't get the feeling you get when you are inside.

Cob is basically sculpted adobe--instead of building blocks and then building a house you sculpt the house into any shape you desire. The difference between being in a house created of squares and rectangles and one with natural undulations and curves is extremely profound. An architect, Christopher Day, describes it in his book--Places of the Soul--like this: In art and design we use perpendicular straight lines to create tension in a piece, curved lines create calm and peace. And our living spaces, working spaces and nearly all indoor spaces are created from perpendicular straight lines. Is it any wonder that we are a tense and violent people? Many people describe living in a cob house like living in a hug. My dream house is part Cob.

A garden wall--House Alive!

A house in Mexico--House Alive!

I felt inspired to add more pictures of Cob and somehow ended up at First Earth: Uncompromising Ecological Architecture, a site about about a documentary of the same name that included some pictures. They asked that I also link to http://www.davidsheen.com/. I hope these pictures inspire you as much as they do me.

Dusk Till Dawn Cabin Coquille, Oregon

Cob Cottage by Ian Marcuse Vancouver, British Columbia

Home by Pat Hennebury Mayne Island, British Columbia

Goddess GazeboMurphy, Oregon

Hostel by CobWorksMayne Island, British Columbia

Myrtle House - Cob Cottage Company Coquille, Oregon

Dragonfly Cob Cottage by Meka Bunch - Sitting BenchWolf's Creek, Oregon

I also found the I love cob! site. It's a beautiful site I hope to get around to exploring someday. Here some pictures from their picture gallery:

Dragon at Hug Ecological Living Campus, Pine River, Minnesota

Another advantage of Cob--you can press tile pieces into it. Unfortunately this one did not say where exactly it is in Portland, but it sure is gorgeous.

Natural Building Convergence 2002, Portland OR

Grandma's Birthday

2009-08-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

The celebration for grandma's birthday started last night. We stayed up late playing 10 Days in Europe. Grandma hadn't had a chance to play yet and was eager to so we all played together into the night.

Jasmine decided to make Challah for her grandma for her birthday. While waiting for the preparations to begin, she made Matzo based on something she had watched on a Holidays for Children movie (Passover and Hanukkah) the other day. She's fascinated with Old Testament History esp David since we watched a few of the Bible Collection movies. I am reading the Rebecca books to her. Rebecca is the newest American Girl to come out. She is a child of Russian Jewish immigrant parents living on the Lower East Side in New York City in 1914. So of course Jazz is exploring all things Jewish.

Making Matzo

Then Jazz and I got busy making a special dinner for Grandma. I had had a friend pick up Organic chicken, strawberries, cream cheese, and graham crackers in Phoenix. We cooked oven-baked chicken, local green beans, salad, local butternut squash, and strawberry cheesecake. And of course Challah. I haven't been willing to buy and cook commercial meat so my mom is eating a lot less meat than she likes. It was a really special treat for her to have chicken--her favorite.

Grandma with her Challah Bread (made by Jazzie)

Eating strawberry cheesecake

Jasmine has spent last couple of days making a tape to give Grandma for her birthday. On it she read from a reader she likes, recited poems, told stories and kept reminding her Grandmother how much she loves her. It was a beautiful present. Her grandma was so touched by it. I was privileged to witness their special moments together listening to the tape.

Grandma opening Jazz's present

Manifesting a Move--Here we come, Ashland OR

2009-07-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm manifesting a move to Ashland OR and both Jazzie and I are super excited. This has prompted bringing out atlases and Jazz has been enjoying looking up the maps of different states and cities she knows. The learning never stops.

Ashland has all I dream about: a bike friendly smaller community (21,630 residents) with lots of people into the same things as I am. There's a food co-op that is promoting and providing local foods, farmer's markets twice a week, a Unity church and Course in Miracles groups, a raw foods community, three community gardens, a Waldorf school and a public school that caters exclusively to homeschoolers (you can take individual classes or as many as you want). Willow Wind Community Learning Center has a market garden run by it's students. I've dreamed of Jazz being involved in a market garden like this with other homeschooled children.

Ashland also has a children's theater for Jazz and a strong homeschooling community. The climate is nice; not as cold and wet as most of the Western coast. And outdoors opportunities abound with bike paths, beautiful parks, rivers, creeks, lakes, mountains and big trees. It's close to the coast, the redwoods, and Crater Lake. I can hardly imagine anything nicer. Oh and I forgot U-pick organic berry farms in the area (can't tell I'm missing fresh picked berries). The only downside so far is Oregon has stricter homeschool requirements (Arizona doesn't have any). In Oregon, homeschool students are required to take the AIMS tests but I'm definately not going to do anything differently or worry about the tests.

I've been collecting pictures to create a picture collage of things we love in Ashland as a vision board. When I complete it I will post it here. Until then, here's some...

Ashland has an absolutely gorgeous park with lots of natural areas and a swimming hole and trails leading up into the mountains.

Lithia Park, Ashland

Ashand is most famous for it's huge Shakespearean Festival every summer and fall and also for it's art scene (esp theater and the visual arts).

Elizabethian stage at the Shakespeare Festival, Ashland OR

Lakes abound around Ashland. The closest one is 5 miles away and has a huge water slide and a campground and picnic area.

Agate Lake

Jazzie is cooking

2009-07-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

Jasmine has decided to start cooking whole dinners. This is her second this week. Earlier this week she bought some potatoes and onions from the little farmer's market at our CSA pick-up. She's been selling basil from our garden and so had cash in hand. That evening, she made mashed potatoes, sauted onions, green beans, and a salad with tuna, feta cheese. and olives. It was delicious.

Today she is expanding her cooking skills dramatically. A couple of days ago I let her know we could watch You Tube cooking videos about anything she wanted to cook. She choose home-made macaroni and cheese and Challah. She had me write down the recipes and called Mari and Jewel and invited them to dinner, Wednesday (today) evening. Today she did it. She made Challah, homemade macaroni and cheese, green beans, a fruit salad, a Caesar salad, and a bowl of cherries. Isn't she just amazing! And just as I am so tired of cooking and was manifesting some help in this area.

Braiding the Challah

Brushing the Challah with egg white

The spread (including a black-eyed pea dish Mari brought)

Our company came and enjoyed the delicious dinner and then we all played 7 Days in Europe and had a wonderful time.

I'm back

2009-07-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

Jazz's swim meet went well--she came within a second of winning the IM-- and we came back from Tucson with a case of young Thai coconuts (I've really been craving them) and lots of collaging stuff.

The electricity went out last Sunday afternoon and didn't come on again until Tuesday morning. As the lows were about 90 and the highs close to 110 it was an experience. We hosed off the porch on Monday morning as it needed cleaning after chickens and some construction work on the street in front of house. We then turned on the mister and sat and enjoyed playing UNO until the mail lady came by and told us it could be up to 7 days before the power came back on. Apparently there was a huge storm north of Gila Bend and somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 power poles were snapped in two. Wow! Well we moved into emergency preparedness zone and picked up some of the free dry ice they were handing out for the refridgerator and freezer, ate up our ice cream, and went to check on a house-bound neighbor. What a hot adventure! The power came on the next morning thanks to the hard work of the APS crew and I have been appreciating air conditioning like never before.

An Egyptian princess surviving the heat with misters

(I've been reading The Royal Diaries: Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile-57 B.C. to her)

Since then my computer time has been spent binging on a couple of e-mail lists. I'm a member of the radicalunschoolingwithLOA and have been for a while but I haven't checked in on them for many months. I love this group and through my perusing this week I found another group that is a breakoff group from the RU/LOA called Unschoolingmiracles. How simply beautiful. I am so greatful for finding this group. More than once I have done a search for "unschooling, A Course in Miracles" and never really found anything and now a whole group of wonderful people I completely admire. Thank you universe.

It is especially very timely because this week I have been really putting time into letting go of limiting thoughts and beliefs. This has been a topic on the list and I feel less alone in this adventure and learned of a new process that really spoke to me--The Presence Process by Michael Brown. I just ordered his book from the library and also 2 others inspired by the list Arnold Patent's You can have it all and Joe Vitale's Zero Limits, which I was able to get on CD. Here's to listening while I create a Space of Love within my home.

Here's a few neat things that came my way this week:

A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart A mathematician laments the way Math is taught in schools. Really good read. Well at least the first page that I read and I do want to finish it sometime soon.

This is a very well done short documentary on the history of schooling in our country.

And another fun movie, this is some absolutely beautiful sand art.

Yesterday was Learn Nothing Day, a holiday to show how hard it is to actually not learn anything. For an amazing post on Learn Nothing Day, go here.

Info on SoulCollage®

2009-07-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

I just received an e-mail from the folks at SoulCollage® asking me to include the registered trademark symbol, to honor Seena B. Frost by acknowledging her as the developer of the SoulCollage® process, which includes the concept of collaging a deck, the structure of the deck, and the use of the "I Am One Who..." exercise with the cards, and to include the following things.

SoulCollage® cards are not to be sold, traded, or bartered; they are to
be reproduced only for the personal use of the maker of the card.
SoulCollage® cards may be shared as examples to illustrate the SoulCollage®
process, but it is a principle of SoulCollage® that SoulCollage® cards are
not for sale, trade, or barter. [from “The Principles of SoulCollage®]

SoulCollage® is a registered trademark of SoulCollage®, LLC. The SoulCollage® process is described in Seena B. Frost’s book, SoulCollage®
www.soulcollage.com/book/soulcollage-book.php

More information about SoulCollage® can be found at http://www.soulcollage.com/

And a link to the Principles of SoulCollage®.
http://www.SoulCollage®.com/home/principlesofSoulCollage®.php

I also have links to other stuff on a previous post.

The neatest part of this process is the "I am the One Who..." exercise which I have not yet done with my cards but am excited about doing when the time comes. Here's a link to this exercise.

getting ready for big day in city

2009-07-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

Today we are cleaning and preparing food to get ready to go to Tucson (130 miles away) to go to Jazz's swim meet and do some shopping. We took breaks to play Go Fish and play with chickens and harvest more squash.

Jazz's reading skills are increasing and today she read to me and to grandma from Little Pear (a cute book about a boy in rural China at turn of century). When she figures out a more difficult word on her own she gets so excited she squeals and kisses me over and over. It is so fun to participate in this sheer joy of learning that could never happen within the school system.

I am crazy about SoulCollage®

2009-07-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when a person stays up all night collaging. I've been eating mostly-over 90% living food-and the detox symptoms are calming down and I have lots of energy. I feel vital and alive a lot of the time and I wonder why everyone isn't doing this.

These first five cards are my first SoulCollage cards. I just jumped in and made them. I didn't know the "official" size so mine are 4"X6" which is considerably bigger than the ATCs (2 1/2"x3 1/2") that I've been making. Only the first one has a title so far.

Abundance

Some images wanted to go on a smaller size card so two ATC-size cards got made too. Aren't they beauties.

These SoulCollage cards kept coming--late at night, while Jazz was at camp--I kept making SoulCollage cards. I didn't blog although the house is slowly getting cleaner. Actually doing art is helping me to keep on cleaning house, preparing food, and generally running a household.

And these little ATC size cards keep popping up here and there too.

I realized these would make nice gifts--little wallet sized cards with inspirational quotes.

And life did keep happening at our house. Eggs got laid. Food got prepared. Parties attended.

Our girls have laid their first dozen eggs now.

The food dehydrator has been busy. Besides finishing up the saguaro fruit, I did another tray of tomatoes and lots of sweet potatoes. The sweet potato chips go fast at our house. They are so delicious. This time I added lemon pepper and they are even better than ever.

We attended a birthday party and what kind of birthday party do you have when temps are in the triple digits?--one at night with lots of water play.

Playing fill the bucket

Other updates:

I am still training for my first 5K run and getting better every day.

I am still doing A Course in Miracles although much slower than intended. The lesson I'm on now I've been doing for four days (they are daily lessons). Lesson 20 involved remembering the lesson twice an hour and after four days I am remembering it several times a day. It takes what it takes.

I have not started The Artist's Way but I've been doing Art.

I'm eating mostly--at least 75%--local food. In fact, it's what I want; food with vital energy. Things I used to eat don't appeal to me. An example is the packaged Earthbound Farms organic spinach. It does not have the vitality that I now want in my body. I am so thankful to be on this path.

I have not been using shampoo or conditioner in my hair for a couple months (see my post No-poo and more) and mostly it is pretty fabulous. I am washing it with baking soda and then rinsing with apple cider vinegar every week to 10 days.

Jul 12-Play, play, play, art, art, art!!!

2009-07-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Jasmine's friend, Devin, came over for the afternoon and so much wonderful play occurred; playing the piano, making ATCs, sword fighting, playing with the chickens, imaginative play with Jazzie's doll house, blowing bubbles. It was over too soon.

Playing the keyboard

Sword-fighting

Blowing bubbles

Another ATC by Jazzie

Jazz lost a tooth at the swim meet and since we have a very forgetful tooth fairy who did not come to get the tooth last night, Jazz decided to make a gift for the tooth fairy--a miniature ATC.

Jazz's miniature ATC on the tooth fairy pillow

I spent some time while the chillens were playing cutting out more collage pictures for my new project. And then this evening I went crazy, I stayed up all night collaging. Pictures tomorrow.

Swimming and SoulCollage

2009-07-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

This morning, Jazz had another swim meet, her second of the season. In the last meet, she entered two events. This meet, she entered six events, every one she was eligible for, including the IM (Individual Medley) which consists of swimming 200 yd--50 yard of each different stroke; back, butterfly, breast, and freestyle. She swam strong in every race although she didn't win many. This evening she complained of sore muscles. She is such an athlete, pushing herself because she loves it.

Jazz swimming the butterfly

Swimming the backstroke

This afternoon I had another experience of turning on the computer to do one thing and within a couple minutes I'm somewhere else--exactly where I need to be. I discovered SoulCollage--making collaged cards that reflect different parts of one's self. I've been engaged in making ATCs this week but I'm finding the small size-while it has some pluses-is beginning to be limiting and I keep doing all these spiritual cards. SoulCollage sounds exciting and fun to me and I'm definately going to try it tomorrow. I've already ordered the book from the public library, (SoulCollage : an intuitive collage process for individuals and groups by Seena B. Frost) and also another interesting sounding book; Collage for the Soul : Expressing Hopes and Dreams through Art by Holly Harrison and Paula Grasdal.

Here's some links to info on Soulcollage:

Soulcollage The website of the woman who started it all and wrote the Soulcollage book.

kaleidosoul Another fun website on SoulCollage

Inner Surprises- A gorgeous blog on SoulCollage cards.

Today I spent time preparing food. I've noticed a certain rhythm developing in my life. One day of mostly cleaning etc and the next of mostly creativity. I'm glad to have beautiful food ready to eat tomorrow as I begin a new project.

Another Glorious Creative Day

2009-07-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

We started the day whipping the house into some kind of shape to the music Brazillance! The Music of Rhythm. And then to our shaving cream marbled paper project. Here's a link to directions. Jazz did it all by herself and loved every moment of it it......

Adding food coloring to the shaving cream

Pressing the paper into shaving cream

Paper taken off with shaving cream still on.

Some of the final paper

...but this shaving cream stuff is absolutely fabulous!

I made collaged watercolor ATCs.

Jazzie's ATC--she wanted a poem on hers, too, so she made one up.

Jazz worked on ATCs for awhile and then played with some of her beads. Jasmine has always been able to create whole worlds from any material available. She can play for hours, creating characters and dramas. Here is a church, modeled after the one Grandma attends that she created from the beads.

I still haven't been up to carrying the load of the household alone so I solicited Jazz's help with the laundry

Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery

2009-07-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;

None but ourselves can free our minds.

---Bob Marley in Redemption Song

A day of cleaning and finishing The Wizard of Earthsea, making tepary bean soup and salad for a local food potluck. And buying art supplies. And finishing watching Moses. And another fabulous workout. I've decided to train for a 5K. YES! But tomorrow......yes.....it's marbled paper making (with shaving cream)......and more ATCs.......maybe a chocolate zucchini cake and lots of melon, tomatoes, cucumbers. It's all good. And look, my mental slavery the need to be "productive". Was all this done in perfect joy? No.

Some new art paper for our ATCs

Yesterday as we watched the first part of Moses, I was thinking that the Hebrews needed all the plagues etc at least as much as the Pharaoh in order to let themselves go free. And that Moses could lead them because he was not raised as slave. It's part of bigger thought process I've been playing with for a couple of months. How the whole school thing is geared for going to college and getting a good job. I believe this in the mentality of a slave. And maybe our children who are not raised as slaves will lead the rest to freedom.

This unschooling journey is unwrapping layers of that slave mentality from my mind. It reminds me of a ACIM lesson I love and use alot.

The Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

I have been slacking on doing A Course in Miracles. I'm too busy being "productive" that I skip the most important stuff but.....I went on strike last week and I'm still catching up. Look at that mind go--need to be "productive". And Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

Oh my word, I just decided to link to this lesson (the whole course in miracles in on the WEB in many places) and I found this site Pathways of Light: Training for a new kind of Spiritual Ministry. I instantly knew this is me. I've wanted to be a spiritual counselor for a while but I'm not involved with any organized religions. I almost took a two year interfaith spiritual direction course in Tucson, but for some reason did not. But this-- it's my dream--spiritual counseling a la ACIM....well a piece of it. I'll spend time checking out the site more and.......

Unfolding (+finding lost pictures and more ATCs)

2009-07-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~~~ Anais Nin

I came across this quote today; it perfectly describes last week. I am so sick and tired of my own negatvity that....I'm willing to change. I hit some kind of bottom with the way I push myself to be "productive" and I couldn't make myself do anything. But it did bring me to the point of realizing I am not willing to keep living my life this way.

It's time to listen to A rampage of well-being from Abraham, again.

I spent the whole morning finding pictures I thought I had lost off the computer. It's fun to see these old pictures and I wish I had been blogging then. It's such a nice way to keep the memories. So I decided to do two or three tribute posts to the past.

Then no laundry got done, no dishes done, but I made more ATCs. Yes, I think I've caught the bug. Last night, I had asked our guest to bring magazines and after tissue paper collaging and pesto, I collected images from their stash. Today I made more collaged ATCs and loved it.

They all ended up being Valentine's to myself. Jazzie made a few more too.

Down Memory Lane--Friends

2009-07-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

Jazzie's best friend ever, Mara lived in Ajo and moved away a couple of years ago. Here's some picture of the girls. I wish I had more.

Their very own street side sale. They had so much fun creating it and hawking to passerbys that they were completely amazed when someone stopped and bought something from them.

Climbing trees

Dancing folklorico

Her other Ajo buddies, Eddie and Willie, became even more important to her after Mara moved away. These boys were unschooled for the year I was here but have since moved away to go to a "good" public school. They were our only unschooling friends locally. Jazzie was friends with both boys, but Willie was very special to her--she planned to marry him.

Jazzie with Willie and Eddie at their house. She always adored going to their house.

Jazzie and Eddie at our house creating with clay. Of course they adored coming to our house.

Jazz and Eddie carving an ice block to find the animals inside. Fun for our triple digit weather.

Jazzie and Willie

Playing dress up.

Jazz adoring Willie

At the beach

Again

Sword fighting

They found a dead bird and decided to bury it.

......and decorate the grave in tribute to the bird

Angie bought the house across the street from us and fixed it up to sell. She's fun and high energy and adores kids and dogs and they adore her back. Jazzie spent hours over at Angie's helping her and chatting at her while Angie fixed up the house or playing with the dogs. What a great role model to watch a woman jump in and remodel a house. Angie is very handy and also taught yoga. So Jazz learned some yoga moves too. Jazzie missed her terribly when she moved.

Angie and Jazz and the dogs

Artist Trading Card Party!!!

2009-07-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

I've been a little immersed in Sufi poetry as part of my new project and today this one was with me.

Act as if there were no one on earth but you and no one in Heaven but
God.----al-Antaki
I had the most beautiful meditative workout this morning while Jazz was at swim team practice. I could feel that really all there is is me and God and I'm God, too, and everything is gloriously beautiful beyond description. I'm so thankful to have moment like these.

Our friend Jewel comes over on Tuesdays for dinner etc. Today I called and asked if she would like to join us in making ATC's, one of our current passions. (I found another fabulous link on making them and examples of differnt styles) We also invited another friend, Mari. Both Mari and Jewel are artists living at the Curley School, a historic school renovated into live/work lofts for artists just one block from our home.

We spent a good part of the day cleaning and organizing and getting ready for the party while listening to The Wizard of EarthSea. Jazz is still busy writing in her special notebook and made cute little cards for the table.

Our guests arrived and oohed and aahed over our chicken eggs. Bess has laid a cute little green egg three days in a row, and Guieniverre has laid one cute little pink egg yesterday.

We had a lovely dinner and then pulled back the pretty table cloth to the plastic paint-stained one underneath and got to work.

Mari and Jazz busy creating

Just as I was finishing the card I was making, Grandma came home and took my spot at the table and got to work too while I put another batch of pesto (the 4th in 3 days) into ice cube trays to freeze.

Here are some results of this evening's fun.

My ATC. I painted the background yesterday and today I tissue paper collaged the rest.

Some of Jazz's beautiful ATC's....

....and more....

...and another. Aren't the wonderful!! This is a medium in which she shines. Yeah!

My mom really got into doing this card. Isn't it lovely?

This is one of Mari's cards. It's superb!! We found out she has been keeping a collaged journal for many years and I shamelessly invited myself over to see it.

Goodbyes were said and our guests left only to find this guest on the front walk.

Later this evening I got on the computer to post, but somehow found myself at The Sparkling Martins which is just perfect for me right now. All is perfect. Dayna is so upbeat and optimist and is manifesting the life of her dreams and helping her children do the same. I've been on the Law of Attraction path for a least as long as her but I'm still stuck in "They are so lucky to have wonderful lives, I wish I could but...." Well I can have the life of my dreams and help Jazz have hers too. Amen.

I'm starting a new project!!!!

2009-07-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

My next project in Freedom 101 is to do an art series with dragonflies and Persian poetry (e.g. Rumi, Hafiz). Actually I may do other things beside dragonflies, I'll see how it goes. I've been wanting for a long time to do a series of watercolors with Rumi and Hafiz poems, but I never have started. Today I did it. They are ATCs (Artist Trading Cards)and this small size is fun to start with although I can only fit short poems onto them. I plan to start The Artist's Way again and do at least one small art piece every day this month. Yeah!!!

Here's my dragonfly

I did a couple of other ATC's with watercolor and I didn't really like them. They are starting to grow on me a bit so I'll post them, too.

I don't think I've posted about Freedom 101 yet. In March 2009, I went to the HENA conference, my first and only homeschool conference and I heard Grace Llewellyn speak on Freedom 101, a curriculum for parents to prepare them to give their children more freedom. The basis of the curriculum is to do 4-6 projects in the year and to watch yourself in the process, being a good observer of your own style, quirks, hang-ups etc. While I'm not really doing the Freedom 101 curriculum, I'm thinking in terms of doing projects. The first was putting in gardens and fruit trees at my mom's which was already in process at the time of the conference. The next was to start this blog and now the Art series and I haven't decided on the next one.

This afternoon Jasmine came home from summer camp and immediately started working on copying poems and song lyrics into her notebook. She asked me to read Mind of a Raven to her while she worked. Then we had a lovely cuddly, tickly time together. Eventually we got up to do our housework while listening to The Wizard of Earthsea on CD.

In honor of starting my dragonfly series, I'm posting a wonderful story.

----------The Waterbug Story-----------------

Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of waterbugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud onthe bottom of the pond. They did notice that every once in a while one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about with its friends. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily, it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more.

"Look!" said one of the water bugs to another, "One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she's going?" Up, up, up it slowly went... Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited but it didn't return...

"That's funny!" said one water bug to another..." Wasn't she happy here?" asked a second..."Where do you suppose she went?" wondered a third...No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one of the water bugs gathered its friends together. "I have an idea. The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why." "We promise" they said solemnly.

One spring day not long after the very water bug who had suggested the plan found herself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up she went. Before she knew what was happening, she had broken through the surface of the water and fallen into the broad and free lily pad above. When she awoke, she looked about with surprise. She couldn't believe what she saw. A startling change had come over her old body. Her movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as she struggled, she felt an impulse to move her wings... The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from her new body. She moved her wings again and suddenly found herself above the water. She had become a dragonfly.

Swooping and dipping in great curves, she flew through the air. She felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by the new dragonfly landed happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that she chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, she was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were scurrying around, just as she had been doing some time before. Then the dragonfly remembered the promise. Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly she hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that she was a dragonfly, she could no longer go into the water..."I can't return!" she said in dismay. "At least I tried. But I can't keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I'll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they'll understand what has happened to me, and where I went." And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air...

Saguaro fruit, miracles, and the history of art

2009-07-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

The rain has dried up and it was time to harvest saguaro fruit again. We headed out to Alamo Canyon in Organ Pipe National Monument where there are huge stands of fairly short saguaros--all the better for picking.

Alamo Canyon, Organ Pipe National Monument

A beautiful red head

Loaded with fruit

We got home and found this; our first egg (on the right) from our girls. You go, girls!!

One of the local eggs we've been buying (left) and Bess, our Araucana's, first beauty (right)

I found Jazz playing my guitar a la August Rush

After we got the saguaro fruit into the dehydrator and everything cleaned up, Grandma decided she wanted to watch a movie, How Art Made the World: How Humans Made Art and Art Made Us Human. Jazz absolutely did not want to watch it, but before long she was deeply into it. In fact when Grandma went to take a nap, Jazz kept watching and didn't stop until I insisted that there would be another opportunity to finish this 290 min. movie. Learning just keeps happening.

Last week, one of the mom's from my homeschool group asked me if I stopped [homeschooling] for the summer. I replied that Jazz is learning all the time. Well lately she has been doing more schooly stuff. She went to public school, her choice, for about 4 months during the first grade school year. During this time she learned to read (she was well on her way anyway) but she has not been interested in doing much of it. This week she has been asking to read to me out of a 1950's Alice and Jerry reader given to her by a little old lady down the street. And even though she hasn't read much more than a few signs here and there, her reading has improved tremendously in last 5-6 months. The Alice and Jerry reader is easy for her now, which she loves because it allows her to read it dramatically instead of stiltingly.

She's also writing again--this time copying down song lyrics into a special notebook. A few months ago she was writing a novel and taking notes about chickens and horses from some books she got from the library. Since then, she hasn't written much, but like the reading her writing has improved. This is something I've noticed several times as she has been writing things for a long time but tends to go through phases. Each time a new phase starts her writing has improved. Practice makes perfect does not apply to developmental tasks like reading and writing. And in answer to the homeschooling mom's question, "Not only is she learning all the time, I couldn't stop it if I wanted." Well I suppose I could suppress her passion and joy in learning by imposing a curriculum on her. Thank goodness I'm on this path and thank you to all the books, blogs, and websites that have helped on the way. I have some posts linking to stuff that did help inspired that journey here and here and here.

This evening, I just barely got on the computer and before I knew it I was watching this. Oh my word how did I find this when I need to hear the message so badly right now. Oh thank Universe for your goodness. Amen.

Thinking about Science Education

2009-07-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of science education as I've been reading Mind of a Raven to Jazz, which also could have been called "mind of a scientist." I've realized I never did a lick of real science in school. (Well, OK, in high school my physics and chemistry teacher decided my friend Kris and I were far enough ahead of the class that we could be set free in the lab by ourselves and... we made a bong.) It was all memorization and canned experiments.

Just from having heard Mind of a Raven and not having done the canned science and having the time and space to explore her world, I think Jasmine at 7, is miles ahead (in science)of what I was at anytime during my school career.

I just ran into a paragraph from post an ephinany of the educational kind from Quotidian that brings to my random musings solidity and now I can post this.

Science increasingly found its way into the curriculum to replace the languages, but as many excellent thinkers had prophesied, science as a school subject can't fill a formative goal. No child knows enough math to do "real" science and so he ends up memorizing a bunch of second-hand information that he can never test for himself, and performing contrived demonstrations which are called experiments. Real science can only be evoked in the lower years through nature study and development of the habit of observation.

That's what was at the tip of my thoughts "real science can only be evoked in the lower years through nature study and the development of the habit of observation." Thanks Willa.

Happy Birthday, USA

2009-07-04T14:32:00.001-07:00

In honor of the 4th of July, we have been reading Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull. We are both enjoying it and both learning a lot about some of our previous presidents.

Jazz decided to make figures for the building she created yesterday.

Our friend, Vivian, who moved to California is in town for the holiday. Vivian and my mom shared vacation pictures and Vivian recieved a tour of the new gardens. Jazzie performed the things she's been working on on the piano and a flamenco dance and Grandma, Vivian and Jazz were off to a 4th of July party leaving me to do my thing--working on the blog, reading ACIM, and playing the piano. Fun was had by all. .

Looking at vacation pictures

Jazz performing the flamenco for Vivian

Jazz and Grandma headed off for evening festivities together. It's rare but good for both of them to spend time together. I really don't enjoy the fireworks celebration and I got time to play music and play on the computer and even make pesto.

I'm still on strike from much food prep, but I did make a couple of batches of basil as we are taking out 3 large basil plants from the garden the chicken tractor is being moved to. The garden bed that the chicken move off of will be planted with a traditional monsoon garden. I was scooping pesto into ice cube tray as fireworks went off.

Oh my and these keep multiplying

Another Creative Day in the Life of Jazz

2009-07-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

I'm still only wanting to meditate, read Course in Miracles, and finally let go of my negative thinking and I'm thankful that it's happening--almost in spite of me. I'm thankful for fresh whole foods to eat....and that I get to choose the thoughts I think....and for living with a piano....and getting the privilege of watching my daughter follow her own heart on a daily basis.

We had picked up this movie from the library and Jazz really wanted to watch it. We both enjoyed it and I ordered a couple more in the series, Moses and David. My Old Testament knowledge is pretty weak and what better way to spend the sizzling hot summer. So here's to learning the stories that have shaped nations. Jazz decided to make a little building while watching the movie perhaps inspired by architecture she was watching. She then added some furniture.

I just love how she comes up with her own ideas and goes with them. I feel priviledged to watch the process.

All is Perfect

2009-07-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

All is Perfect (sung to the tune of Frere Jacques)

All is perfect, All is perfect,

When I see, When I see

With the eyes of God, With the eyes of God

Peace, Love, Joy; Peace, Love, Joy

From The Joyful Child: A Sourcebook of Activities and Ideas for Releasing Children's Natural Joy
by Peggy Davidson Jenkins

I am thankful for this little dittie (I've been singing it to myself a lot lately) and the book it came from. A complete gem of a book thought fairly unknown as I see it is now out of print.

...and rain, and air conditioning, and learning that I can change my life by changing my thoughts.

.....and I am thankful for our local library. The librarians are wonderful and support our local homeschooling community. I lost a book recently and these ladies told me I need not pay for it because I am such a heavy user. And I am a heavy user... usually with 40-50 items checked out at a time. I live in a small town but have access to the entire Tucson-Pima library system and use it. I almost always have books I've put holds on and I use the interlibrary loan system if I want to read a book the Pima County system does not own.

Well maybe thinking I'll participate in Thankful Anyway Thursdays created it's own fulfillment. Today I am hitting the wall of my own garbage. I don't want to cook, clean, do laundry or any other "productive" thing, actually this has been going on for 2-3 days. I just want to meditate but the "tyranny of the shoulds" is plaguing me. And I am so thankful because I can bring it all to God. I've been fighting this battle for my whole life--thinking I "should" be doing something other than what I am doing but now with enough Byron Katie, Course in Miracles etc I am ready to just let it go. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The temperatures have soared to their normal levels in the triple digits and the humidity has gone up early. In celebration, I ordered Artic and Ananartic movies from the library: The March of the Penguins and Never Cry Wolf. The March of the Penguins already came in so here we are holed up in the air conditioning watching; Jazz making 4th of July decorations, me blogging.

And then....

Monsoon season is here!!!

Jazzie decides to go an a walk-about in the rain.

dancing...

...right into the water.

Ain't she cute!

The electricity went out and was out the rest of the night and of course it was just perfect.

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

2009-07-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is a great movie and as of right now the whole thing is posted on You Tube.

Jun 30-Joy, Chocolate, and Saguaro Fruit

2009-07-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

On Tuesdays, my mom's official hours at the clinic are from 10am-7pm so we were out saguaro fruit picking this morning until 9am. I came home and emptied and filled the dehydrator. Here's the haul so far not bad for a weekend.

Sun-dried saguaro fruit(left), a pile of saguaro fruit leather(right),

and dried tomatoes(behind).

Joyfully, Jazz and I organized and cleaned and played more 10 days in Europe. She is becoming somewhat competent on European geography already. Me I'm so tired of cooking and processing food (I've been putting up tomatoes, corn, and saguaro fruit) and cooking, or uncooking as it may be, two different meals all I wanted was a day of junk food. We went the store and bought chocolate, coffee ice cream, and Kettle chips and I didn't cook a thing. But I got some organizing done and stayed out of the hot kitchen. After more Mind of a Raven and cuddling and chatting with Jazz, I came to computer to blog but instead I went to Path to Freedom and explored. I've been meaning to check it out as I keep seeing it referenced. It' s the site of a family in Pasadena, Californina who are growing a huge amount of food on their small urban lot. They've been doing it quite a while and have inspired a lot of people. Here's a short documentary, Homegrown Revolution, about them.

While I was in this frame of mind, I checked to see if they had The Power of Community:How Cuba Survived Peak Oil on You Tube. They do, at least for now and I'm posting it here in it's own post. It's a very inspiring movie.

Thankfulness and 10 days in Europe

2009-06-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

I've decided not only to do Thankful Anyway Thursdays, but also to start out every blog post with five things I am thankful for. Today I am so incredibly thankful that I was led to A Course in Miracles, I am thankful for the internet and that I have been led and inspired in so many ways, I am so thankful for this parenting and unschooling journey--I am learning and growing in ways I could not have even imagined, I am thankful for music and You Tube videos--today I played around with this one;

....and sunflowers--today the first of the Mammoth sunflowers opened .

The garden is becoming a jungle of melon, squash, and cucumber vines. Here a Lakota squash is growing up the chicken tractor.

We got a new game--10 Days in Europe-- in the mail this afternoon and of course had to play it right away. It was fun and although it took a couple of games for Jazz to get the hang of it, she was definately holding her own by the time we quit. It's a great strategic game and the added bonus is learning Geography without even trying. The object is to create a 10 day trip through Europe using cards you have been dealt and those you draw. The journey must be feasible, either through countries that border each other or on a plane or boat.

Deep in concentration...

....still

I listened to Zap Mama while I preparing dinner and Jazz danced. Yes, I am taking pictures of her dancing, it just takes time to get the good ones. Well ....someday I'll get it, just not in the middle of making dinner.

Saguaro Fruit Harvest is Here!

2009-06-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

It's here!!! the Saguaro fruit harvest in the Sonoran Desert. Saguaro fruit are delicious but as they grow at the top of a tall cactus, harvesting them is an art. I posted more about the traditional saguaro harvest here. We did a reconnoitering trip Thursday and went out picking Saturday and Sunday at "O'dark thirty", as my mom calls our pre-dawn departure. We got enough to fill a 9-tray dehydrator each morning. This evening we found two trays worth of sun-dried saguaro fruit. The fruit actually dries on the cactus and it is much easier to knock down and nature has done all the processing work for us--sun-dried saguaro fruits are to die for.

A typical saguaro top this weekend. Many are still green but some are ripe and burst open.

Dehydrator full of saguaro fruit leather drying.

A tray of sundried saguaro fruit.

My mom and I working as a practiced team. I knock them down. She catches. The pole is made from saguaro ribs in the traditional manner.

Jasmine takes a turn at knocking down.

An unopened fruit held in the saguaro rib pole.

Jazz and Grandma opening fruit

The saguaro fruit comes with it's own knife. The dried flower bud at the end of the fruit easily slices through the shell.

And reveals the beautiful red flesh inside.

Jasmine loves nurse trees and was impressed that this old Ironwood has nursed four saguaros. Saguaros grow very slowly and often are most successful in the shade of a desert tree--called a nurse tree. Here these saguaros have outgrown their old nurse.

We stayed out until nearly dark hunting the bonanza of sun-dried saguaro fruit and got treated to an incredible Sonoran Desert sunset.

Last night instead of blogging I enjoyed browsing through a couple of really awesome blogs I found and will add to my blog roll: Green and Crunchy and Flow of Love. And I loved this post from Ordinary Life Magic inspiring me to a different kind of blog post. Ain't it beautiful! I'm also inspired by Thankful Anyway Thursday post I found at My So Called Homeschool. I may have to add my own Thankful Anyway post. I'm still finding my rhythm in this blogging thing but I am enjoying it immensely. I started a blog for two big reasons--to chronicle our Unschooling journey and even bigger for me is to put myself out there--all the different pieces including my spiritual path, my journey to vibrant health, my joys and sorrows, my artistic journey and more. And although this is probably too much for one blog I like having it all here. Well someday it will be. I hope.

Artist Trading Cards

2009-06-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

We've had Bess in the house convalescing. She was quite sick and we thought she was egg-bound (she's almost ready to lay her first egg). She hasn't laid an egg but she is doing much, much better.

Bess up and eating cucumber seeds (a favorite treat).

Today Jasmine and I made Artist Trading Cards. ATCs are 2 1/2"x 3 1/2" pieces of art work to be traded with other artists. Find out more here. I'm going to bring material to our homeschooling group this week and introduce them to Artist Trading Cards and then the kids can trade as they will. We're playing around with different media to be able to show some examples and of course enjoy ourselves. Today was collage.

Here are some of my cards....

...and more.

Here are some of Jasmine's ATCs....

.....and more.

Celebrating the Summer Soltice

2009-06-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

This morning I started cleaning the back patio--a job a long time in coming. In fact I finished the Christmas tree--taking the needles off to mulch strawberries and blueberries. The timing was perfect as you will see.

Every Tuesday, our friend Jewel comes over for dinner and a performance by Jazz. Jewel is a lovely audience for my little performer and a delightful dinner guest. As the Soltice was yesterday and I did want to celebrate it, we decided to do it tonight. I had a lovely little raw recipe in process and knew it would be ready tonight. My friends Nina and Peter would appreciate the Strawberry Crepes and celebrating the soltice, so they were called and invited.

Jasmine decided she would like dinner on the back patio so she finished the cleaning. The back patio table has been a planting and gardening station for many months and needed a lot of attention. Jazz hosed of the tables and chairs and set the table. We all enjoyed celebrating the soltice with good friends and summer produce. The Strawberry Crepes were to die for. The recipe follows.

I washed my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar rinse today and it did the trick. My hair feels great. Notice below I'm wearing it down which I haven't been doing much lately.

Our Soltice Celebration

Jewel and Jazzie

Jazzie performing

Strawberry Crepes with Coconut and Cashew filling

makes 8 crepes

Ingredients:
6 ripe bananas
1 cup raw cashew nuts, soaked a few hours
1 cup raw mature coconut , chopped up
1 large lemon, juiced
4 teaspoon Agave Nectar.
0.125 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1½ cup strawberries
2 teaspoon Agave Nectar
Preparation:
Crepe Shells
Place bananas in a food processor and blend until smooth. Remove from processor and spread about 1/8 inch thick on to a Teflex sheet on top of a dehydrator screen. Dehydrate for 12 hours or less. (Begin checking the bananas a few hours before to make sure they are formed, pliable, and solid in texture, but not getting crispy). Remove from dehydrator and slice into squares (about 10cm x 10cm)

Filling
Place cashew nuts, coconut, lemon juice, the 4 teaspoons agave and vanilla in food processor and blend until smooth. Then drizzle almond milk in until the consistency is a thick puree. Add more almond milk if need be.

Strawberry Sauce
Combine strawberries and the 1.5 tablespoons agave in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Assemble
Place scoops of filling on to banana fruit leather squares and roll up. Pour strawberry sauce over the rolled-up crepes. When ready to eat, top with a little Maple Syrup and garnish with mint Note: It’s important to let the crepes sit for at least a couple of hours with the strawberry sauce on top. The sauce will soften the fruit leather and make it “crepe-like” instead of hard and chewy. Left longer they will retain their perfect shape but the banana will melt in your mouth. These are also great the next day!
Adapted from an Alyssa Cohen recipe.

This is the recipe as I found it on GoneRaw.com. I didn't use cashews but just used coconut cream (baby coconut meat with enough coconut water to make a creamy texture mixed with a little vanilla and agave syrup) as the filling.

No-poo and more

2009-06-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

After dropping Jazz off at daycamp on our bikes, I came home excited to search for blogs with combinations of my interests e.g. blog, A Course in Miracles, unschooling; and blog, raw foods, unschooling. I did find a blog of a woman who unschools her children and is going raw. She hasn't posted in a long time but one of her most recent post was about going "no-poo" I recently, a little over a month ago, read about this movement and that day joined it. "No-poo" means not using shampoo. It just made total sense to me. Shampoo is a fairly recent invention and no wild animals use any kind of chemicals or soaps and their fur is often much softer than our hair. The premise is that our scalps produce natural oils that protect our hair and keep it healthy. Once a person uses shampoo often enough the balance is destroyed; the chemical soaps strip the hair of it's natural oils and the body works hard to replace these and goes into overdrive and we, noticing our hair is oily, decide to wash it more. It is an endless merry-go-round, not unlike commercial agriculture's use of chemicals--because of the chemical use there is more need to use those chemicals.

I've now been "no-poo" for over a month. Thanks to Sara at Sweet Surrender, I'm feeling courageous enough to post about this. I haven't told anybody yet that I'm doing this and my hair has been less than perfect during the detox phase although it is much much better. I spent some time following "no-poo" links. Actually a couple of days ago, I came close to giving it all up but I'm totally inspired now to stick with it. I've been using EMs (effective microorganisms see EMAmerica) to clean my hair and also in the bath with epsom salts to help in the detox phase of going mostly raw. It worked great but now I am out and my next batch is not ready. I haven't yet used baking soda as is recommended for cleaning hair in the transition period because it seems so harsh. After reading some no-poo stuff I'm going to give it a try. The EMs got me through the worst of the greasies but my hair is not where I want it to be yet. It was particularly inspiring to read No Shampoo Experiment as she has been doing this for quite a while and really documents her journey with pictures and all.

Jazzie spent most of her evening in free play. She has really been craving this it seems. She often tells me how important this is and that she is creating stories for movies and plays she is going to write when she gets older.

We took a break from Mind of a Raven and I read her about half of Barefoot Dancer: the story of Isadora Duncan. What an amazing woman and she reminds me so much of Jasmine. Jasmine's talent and passion is dance. She utterly amazes me with her ability. I just searched my pictures to find one to post and this is the only recent picture I can find of her dancing. Have I stopped taking pictures of her dancing or have I lost them somewhere? I guess I'll remedy it.

Jazz also participates in the only dance available in Ajo--folklorico. She is in two different groups. Here she is performing at the plaza for Cinco de Mayo.

This evening for dinner I made my favorite soup. I love this soup so much it was my last meal before I did a 19 day fast (Master Cleanse) last summer. I've been eating almost 100% raw this week but I had three bowls of this for dinner tonight. It's a sweet onion with basil and tomato soup with seasonal veggies thrown in. I used a can of organic tomatoes from the store but everything else is from our CSA share or the garden.

I finished processing the tomatoes and corn I bought from the farm. I froze all the corn and dried about half the tomatoes. I cut the corn off the cob uncooked and put it in thin layers on plates in the freezer and then transfer it to a plastic bag.

A Glorious Quiet Sunday

2009-06-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed a quiet day with Jazz today. This morning I planted a couple of 6 packs of Ganzia and Salvia that I picked up in Tucson and some more melons, black-eyed peas, and Clover (as a cover crop). Nina came over to see my garden and I went to see hers at the newly started Ajo Community Garden.

This evening I'm enjoying this process of natural learning so much. Jasmine did a lot of imaginative play today. She's been so busy with summer camp and swim team she treasures the quiet times at home. At one point this evening she was singing an entire story she made up. It opened my heart. I love homeschooling/unschooling/natural learning!!! We've been having many of these moments lately where my heart opens at the extent of her learning and growing and the passion she brings to it.

After she went to bed, I watched You Tube videos on A Course in Miracles while I cut up another batch of sweet potatoes with the Mandoline. Here's one that just caught me:

Amen

The Season's First Swim Meet, Juneteenth

2009-06-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

We left for Tucson early this morning to shop and go to Jazzie's swim meet. We hit some of our favorite Tucson haunts, 17th Street Market, Agua Vita, and Speedway Outlet.

Jean Craighead George was our travelling companion. We listened to her book The Talking Earth on tape and enjoyed it immensely.

The Swim Meet was fun and Jazz did better than she expected, getting 2nd place in the breast stroke. Yeah Jasmine!!!

Ready

Get Set

and Go!

On the way home we stopped at the Juneteenth Celebration at Kennedy Park. It was late and we had missed all the gospel groups. I absolutely love gospel music so in celebration of Juneteenth I've posted a few of my favorite gospel songs.

Lift Every Voice and Sing is the black national anthem and I cry every time I sing it or hear it. This is an awesome version with Dianna Reeves. It takes a few minutes before she gets into the song and it is absolutely gorgeous.

Precious Lord, Take My Hand is my favorite gospel songs. I've always loved it and after I learned Thomas Dorsey wrote this song after his wife and child died, I wondered if I have such an affinity for this song because I, too, have had a child die. Here Aretha Franklin sings it. It's not the best sound quality but it's Aretha.

His Eye is on the Sparrow is another favorite of mine. It's sung here by an absolutely amazing 7 year old girl, Imani Bradford.

An Abundance of Living Food

2009-06-19T08:20:00.001-07:00

Look what I took out of the dehydrator this morning

Sweet Potato chips

and Granola Bars (sprouted buckwheat, dates, pineapple, coconut, and blueberries)

And out to the garden....

Amaranth in full bloom

We've haven't done well with tomatoes this spring but look....

A cluster of goodness

Jazz's sunflower's are growing...

...and being pollinated

The summer soltice is coming fast and I was looking online for inspiration in celebrating it. I would like to create meaningful celebrations for the soltices, and equinoxes. But most of the traditions don't make sense for the desert Southwest. Looking a little deeper, I realized this is the perfect time to celebrate the beginning of the Saguaro harvest. Here's links on the O'odham ways of celebrating : Saguaro Fruit, Saguaro Traditions of the Tohono O'odham

Summer soltice would be a good time to honor the saguaro. I like the idea of making a sundial with Jazzie. And we get our first melon from Crooked Sky Farms this week. And I get to watch it all unfold.

Being a locavore has led to me raiding a neighborhood tree for lemons. Citrus season is coming to an end. I juiced the last of the oranges today for tomorrow's trip to the swim meet in Tucson. And I had only one lemon left. For months I've been given lemons, and raided the lemon tree in the yard of my mom's rental house (she doesn't have renters in it now). For the last couple of weeks I've been eyeing a lemon tree down the block (it's owned by snowbirds who did not even come this winter). This afternoon it stormed and Jazzie wanted to take a walk so of course I suggested going to pick lemons. I picked all three of the lemons I could reach. Another snowbird neighbor has another kind of lemon tree which is now dropping a few of these smaller lemons. I haven't tasted them yet to see if they are good.

Friday evenings we pick up our produce share from Ajo CSA. Today Nina brought back extra produce I had ordered from the farm (sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn, watermelon, and grapefruit). What an abundance of glorious fresh local produce.

Zendalas and Saguaros

2009-06-19T01:53:00.000-07:00

We did some early morning harvesting in the garden before heading off to Jazz's swim team practice (She's on the swim team and practices four mornings a week) and then to play games with the homeschool group.

And this afternoon we actually did an art project! (I intend to do quite a bit more than we actually do) I've been wanting to do this project ever since I saw it on LaPaz Home Learning but today I actually did it. Well we've played around with it a bit but didn't have the right pens but now we do. Yeah! Jasmine decided to make a paper doll and a barn.

This evening we had a picnic dinner with Grandma out at the wash to see how the saguaro fruit are doing. It's a nice place for a picnic and an old giant saguaro that's always nice to visit. Very few fruit are ready yet but we now have our saguaro harvesting equipment ready to go.

Many Movies

2009-06-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

Going out in the garden is fun. I keep finding melons I didn't know were there.

And new flowers are blooming.

Jasmine is attending a summer camp through parks and rec here. I'm still recovering and spent the day on the computer doing some grunt work for some posts I hope to do someday and catching up on the Phoenix Permaculture Guild site--which I love. I watched three movies about food--I am glad I am committed to this local movement because I want to support the food industry as little as possible. If you want a reason to eat local sustainable food watch these and find out what the chemical industry has in store for us.

I can't seem to figure out how to post google videos, but I will link to them.

Vandana Shiva on The Future of Food and Seed

Paul Roberts on The End of Food

Jazz and I stopped by the library on the way home from camp. We had 5 new Families of the World movies to pick up (Mexico, Egypt, Israel, Japan, and Australia). Although we live in a small town, we are part of the Tucson-Pima County library system, so can reserve any book from that system and they bring it out here. It's great having a big city library system in a small town. We spent some time browsing and reading in the children's non-fiction area. Jazz found a book on the presidents that was absolutely fascinating. I'll check it out sometime when we have a few less books out. Of course we just had to watch some Families of the World. I cut up sweet potatoes to make the most awesome sweet potato chips (sweet potatoes cut on a Mandoline with a little olive oil and sea salt dried in the dehydrator) and Jazz painted a box she bought at Michael's while we watched. We ended up watching all five (each one is 30 min) and crashing to bed with more Mind of the Raven.

An Inner Tidal Wave Happening

2009-06-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up with the same cold Jazz had earlier this week. I just went out to the garden to water and pollinate. Here's a few photos of some more unusual crops.

Tohono O'odham black eyed peas from Native Seed/SEARCH described as being a good green bean for the low desert. I wanted to wait and see how they tasted before planting more. They are delicious and you can see from the picture that they conveniently hold their beans up high so they are easy to see and pick.

Lemongrass--It's a little frost tender but last fall I planted next to the house and it easily made it through our winter.

Ginger--I'm getting ready to plant this near the house also as it is frost tender also.

Bay tree--this does well in our area if planted in a pot where it can be sheltered from the sun and frost.

Jazzie spent more time in her chicken blind, playing the piano, watching Families of the World, and of course imaginative play. She hasn't been playing the piano regularly, so I'm enjoying her passion to learn a new song. Here she is playing the harmonica as she cleans up her things.

I wasn't feeling good and mostly read A Course in Miracles, meditated, blogged or napped.

If I were to claim a spiritual path, I would call myself a student A Course in Miracles. I've received a lot of comfort from others too; Byron Katie, the Abraham material, Louise Hay etc

I've been reading ACIM (A Course in Miracles) for about 3 1/2 years. I have read it sporadically, sometimes reading a lot, sometimes not at all and I just open to a page and read. This has worked for me but I am ready now to start at the beginning and read all the way through. ACIM also includes daily workbook lessons for an entire year. I started the workbook when I started reading the Course in 2005, but only finished to lesson 100 or thereabout. I've been using these lessons ever since but it is time to begin again. Today I finished Lesson 5. Interestingly, the call to start ACIM fell about the time I've been inspired to go at least 80% raw. Somehow around this same time a ran into a fabulous set of videos on You Tube that helps it all fall into place--IT is all perfect.

A breakfast for Champions

This is the first two parts out of five of the excellent The Social and Emotional Aspects of Eating by Rozalind Gruben. If you've enjoyed them, make sure you watch the other 3 on You Tube.

Budding Naturalist

2009-06-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Early this morning I went out in the garden to finish up some long neglected projects and use up the mulch (grass from the park) we had brought home. All 5 bags of mulch are used up and I'm looking for more. I fixed a leaking soaker hose and emptied a compost pit and filled it part way back up. I brought the girls--our three hens--out to eat the bugs in the compost. I've been making compost pits successfully--this is the fifth or sixth time I've dug one up and had beautiful compost. The only drawback is that it doesn't compost at a high enough temperature to kill seeds, so I tend to have volunteer tomatoes and squash grow where I use it. Here in the Sonoran Desert it is so dry a compost pile needs to be watered otherwise you have dried organic matter instead of compost. I dig a pit in a bed already on a soaker hose and fill it up. I use Effective Microorganisms to help it compost anaerobically (I'll post more about EMs later as I use them alot in the garden and the home or see EMAmerica)

The Girls--Bess, Grace, and Guinevere--eating bugs in compost pit

finished compost

A decorative millet blooming against a backdrop of basil

And corn...I planted this 2 weeks after the last planting date for our area (in the lower sonoran desert it is too hot and dry for corn to pollinate in June) but hopefully our unseasonably cool weather will allow this to mature. This is a variety from Native Seeds/Search that is a sweet corn in the milk stage and matures to red, white, and blue kernels. I'm hoping for at least enough to taste it and if we like it, save some seeds.

My mom helped with the mulching and dug out some potatoes, which aren't ready yet and transplanted the sweet potatoes.

mulched sweet potato plants

Jasmine has been captured by the chapter book I'm now reading to her. She did not want me to read this book but it captured her very quickly. I was browsing over at LaPaz Home learning(I get inspired by something every time I visit). She describes a book she's reading with her children The Trees in my Forest by Bernd Heinrich.

I realized that this is a genre--nature study-- that I have been sorely neglecting in my selection of chapter books. We have been enjoying a lot of historical fiction lately. I looked up the book at the library they didn't have it but had an interesting sounding one by the same author--Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds. In the book Heinrich sets up a blind in the Maine woods to observe Ravens. This afternoon we let the chickens into the front yard and Jasmine created her own blind and stocked it with tools of the trade and spent a couple hours observing the chickens and writing notes in her field journal. Isn't homeschooling great!

The blind

The tools of the a wildlife observer

I've been taking pictures of food for the blog so today Jazz made her lunch and took a picture of it. The carrot and the Thai basil she picked from her own garden.

This evening we rode our bikes over to the park to see if there's any more grass clippings to be had, grabbed a quick dinner, and headed out to An Evening in the Sonoran Desert program put on by our awesome local Non-profit group ISDA (International Sonoran Desert Alliance). A biologist from Cabaza Prieta Wildlife Reserve talked about insect and reptiles particularly those who come out at night. We then used black lights to search for scorpions which glow an eerie but absolutely gorgeous green under a black light. We had a great time tromping through the desert finding scorpions and a member of our group found a toad that usually doesn't come until out until monsoon season. Does this mean monsoons will be early this year? (Monsoon season in the Sonoran Desert usually starts the second week of July). I don't have pictures but maybe can get some e-mailed to me. Until then, here's a picture of a scorpion under a blacklight I found on the WEB.

Melons and Squash and Cucumbers--Oh My!

2009-06-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Jazz still a little under the weather. She's been playing games on the American Girl site and practicing a song she wants to learn on the piano.

Same day...different outfit

And into the Garden....

The summer crops are growing like crazy--well some of them--and I'm excited about the garden again. I had worked so hard on it this spring I was ready for a break and here in the desert southwest a lull happens after winter crops come out and summer ones go in. I still want to plant more melons, black-eyed peas, and flowers. Probably some tepary beans, too.

Patty pan summer squash

French Melon and an Armenian Cucumber

Pumpkin

O'odham Ha:al Squash

Zucchini

Delicata Squash

Watermelon