Sushi Social

It's really too bad my five year old daughter is becoming one of those dreaded 'sheltered' homeschool kids...

...out at her favorite sushi place while her big sister is busy socializing and excercising with her friends at homeschool gymnastics class...

...enjoying her miso soup, edamame, seaweed salad, avocado roll, cucumber roll, masago (fishie eggs), and fresh chopped asian pears and mandarin oranges...

...spending one on one time with her mommy, drawing pictures on her napkins, and visiting with her favorite waitress who always chats with us about her home country of Korea...

...and to think... she could have had a corn dog and french fries instead with hormone laden factory farmed milk...

...what a shame for her to be missing out on that 'flipped and zipped', 20minute rushed, government issued, public school lunch experience...

...oh the tragedy of it all!

How will she ever learn to function in the 'real' world??? ...sigh...

Lucky Layla Farm Tour

Yesterday we toured a local farm with a group of friends. The kids all had a good time, and were happy to buy some fresh yogurt from the farm store afterward. Then we all gathered at the home of one of our tour group friends to play with their new baby chicks!
Great day!

Leap Christmas

Laying in bed with my little one, reflecting on our day, I realized I hadn't told her it was leap day. So I tell her how it's a special day because it doesn't happen every year, only once every four years, and we get an extra day...

She thinks on that for half a second, then her whole body stiffens and her face twists with excitement, and she exclaims with such hopeful exuberance, "Please tell me it's The Christmas!"

...if only sweet girl. God, I love these kids!

Playing with Reflections

No trick photography, no Photoshop, just playing by the fish aquarium silliness...

How Do They Know?

Do your children know that you love them? How do they know? How do you know that they know?
Do you tell them that you love them? Do you hold them in your lap, or give them hugs? How often? Every day? Do you spend time talking to them, with them? Do you answer their questions when they ask them? Do you take the time to stop what you're doing when they need your attention or focus? Do you tell them nice things to build them up? Do you encourage them in their growth, in their struggles? Do you share stories of your own childhood to let them know that they are completely normal? Do you act as a mirror of all the many strengths and gifts that they possess and hold it up for them to see the good in themselves? Do your children know that you love them? Do you know that they know it? How do they know?
Do you listen to them when they have complaints? Do you validate their frustrations or anger or sadness? Do you sit with them and console them in their disappointments? Do you allow them their own thoughts and opinions? Do you give them the space to make their own decisions? Do you give them the space to make their own mistakes? Do you let them know that you are not always right? Do you show them that it is okay to be human? to make your own mistakes? to apologize when you are wrong? or when you hurt someone? Do you teach them that it is more important to follow their own hearts, than what anyone else thinks, including you? Do you see them for who they are, who they are meant to be? Do you accept and love them in their space, in their way, according to their needs?
What do you do, to let your children know that you love them?

The Princess and The Duck

Here's what happened in my house tonight:

 

Older daughter says~ 'we are fighting about whether i am a princess or not.'

 

Younger daughter~ "but you HAVE to be a princess"

Older daughter~ "but I'm not a princess, I don't want to be a princess. Mom?"

Mom~ "In HER mind, and in HER heart, she can make you be a princess. But in YOUR mind, and YOUR heart, you can be, or not be, whatever you choose."

Older Daughter~ *squints eyes, tilts head...

Mom~ "If she calls you a duck, would that make you a duck?"
 

Older Daughter~ *smiles "no" *walks away happily

*this was exactly the lesson I needed to learn tonight...

Kids make great teachers! ♥♥♥

living in the now?

my 11 yr old daughter spent the morning crying for the planet, for the injustice of the rich and powerful making decisions based on greed and personal gain that will negatively affect the rest of us, and for the direction that our society has taken. what is a mother to do with that?

i feel so blessed, and so proud of her, and yet so completely inadequate to help...
for starters, we are doing an experiment on what it would be like to live in another time, (which is something she has repeatedly said she wishes for), so as of now, we are laying out the ground rules of what that is going to look like...

for starters, no tv, i'm assuming no facebook or phone will get tossed into the mix, (withing reason of course), and working out the deets on driving restrictions, electricity usage, acceptable food resources, etc.

wish me luck! this feels like a lot of pressure and responsibility will be resting on me, which i'm already guessing means it's going to have to be spread around. heads up kids, daily chores incoming!

The Hogwarts Express

Its not very day that your young lady turns eleven, now is it?

Actually it only happens once, and we are planning to make a proper big deal of it.

So we have spent the better part of the last two weeks putting much of our energies into creating a fabulously magical birthday party for my sweet girl's eleventh.

Any proper Harry Potter fan will already know that the eleventh birthday is a big deal; the age at which a young witch or wizard will receive their letter of acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This could so easily get way out of hand- between my obsessive compulsive tendencies, my genetic predisposition to over-doing things (especially decorating), my secret desire to be a party planner, my tendency to get lost in fantasy worlds, my own love of (and desire to believe in) Harry Potter and Hogwarts, family and friends coming in from out of state just to celebrate with us, and a strong desire to make this a truly magical day for my daughter as she gets her (surprise) letter from Hogwarts, (along with a ticket to The Magical World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios at start of term this fall)- needless to say, I am having a hard time finding a boundary here between having a birthday party and recreating every detail ever mentioned in seven Harry Potter books!

I mean, is there really a difference?
Somebody please say no!?!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Precious Gift

Friends are mirrors of who we are, our struggles, our strengths...

They are lamp posts along our path in life, showing us who we are, where we've been, and where we're going...

They are our sisters, our brothers, our fathers and mothers, they are ourselves, and we are theirs...

I am you and you are me...

I am the student and you are my teacher, what can I help you to see?




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Occupational Hazards of a Seeker

It's slowly starting to dawn on me that my tendency to think that everything in our past has brought us here- to this place and time- and now we're done and can stop and rest, perhaps permanently...

may be an idea that it's high time I let go of...

This was not the end, the final destination; it was just another step on our journey, and soon it will be time again for change.

I'm beginning to see the spiral pattern in this movement, and feeling the time has come to let go of linear thinking.

Such is the life of the gypsy hearted former conformist...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone