A View From Below

Little Yard, Big Crop

We have our first cucumber of the season! This year, inspired by my friend over at Chicken Counting, we made raised beds and put them in our front yard because it was the only place that had full sun. We used all organic soil and planted our favorite organic veggies.  Over the past few weeks our garden has gone from a healthy little garden to a vegetable wonderland that is spilling over with bounty. It is truly amazing what you can do when you only have a small space but big dreams. 

Here I am harvesting some of our chard early in the season and it is still growing strong.

Our first Zucchini..... Zucchini Pancakes anyone?

This Moment: Secret beach

{This is a special moment from the past week that I want to stop, savor and enjoy. If you want to see other moments being shared this morning, go over to SouleMama.}

Pop of the Week: Apricot Pop

It is Thursday and as promised here is our Favorite Pop of the Week.   Made with local, fresh and healthy ingredients.

Apricot Pops!

1. fresh picked apricots 

2. yogurt

3. raw honey or maple syrup

I just took the seeds out of the apricots and blended them up (skins and all) with some yogurt and honey.

Now, here is how it all started.........I was driving down the street last week and saw a mess of yellow fruit all squished over the street and sidewalk. We were on our way to a dance class, so we just had a minute to jump out and investigate. It was an apricot tree! We picked a few and continued on our way all the while planning on coming back to get more later. So yesterday, we went back with my father in laws truck and a tree trimmer and shook the fruit out onto a tarp. We made it a family affair with my mother-in-law and my husband and kids too. 

The kids sat on the back of the truck and covered their head while apricots fell down from the sky.

Everyone had a smile on their face as we tried to get even the very last one off the tree.

They aren't the pretties fruits but they are so sweet and yummy! We just had to watch our for the occasional white worm.

We took them home and washed them up.

Then decided to make Pops with our favorite Zuku Quick Pop Maker! Yuuuuuummmmmmm. So refreshing after all that real life hard work.

Happy Fathers Day

Our Special Man......

This Moment: sand + water + sun = joy

{This is a special moment from the past week that I want to stop, savor and enjoy. If you want to see other moments being shared this morning, go over to SouleMama.}

Organic Blueberry Picking, Pancakes and Pops

We had a perfectly cloudy day at Blueberry Gardens picking organic blueberries with friends and family yesterday. I love this farm because now only are the berries delicious and organic, they encourage eating as you go. You know if you have children it is close to impossible and feel like torture to keep them from tasting the perfect little berries.  At Blueberry Gardens they can run free and play in the long rows of berries, laughing, eating, and hopefully collecting blueberries for later.

It started to rain on us (which felt so good to me with all the heat we have been having) and the kids loved playing the natures sprinkler. Then our friend gathered the children in her van and read Blueberries for Sal to them. That was a lovely touch our morning.

We brought home tons of blueberries. This morning we made Gluten-free blueberry pancakes. Jetta loves cooking and is a very good at making pancakes. We decided to make them with extra blueberries!

They were Delicious!

Gluten Free Blueberry Pancakes

1. rice flour

2.millet flour

3.goat yogurt

4.eggs

5.Baking soda

6. blueberries

7. butter

8. Vanilla

8. Maple syrup (for dipping)

.........and then we made some Blueberry Pops with our trusty Zoku Quick Pop Maker

We are TV FREE !

"This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge"

I have always thought of myself as a mother who was careful about what shows I let my kids watch and how much TV they saw all together. We are a creative family, but there has just always seemed to be some kind of draw to the TV that was stronger than our combined efforts against it. So, after much inspiration from many books (see a few favorites below) we are now TV Free and loving it! We feel so much better and our connection as a family (which we have always had) is now even stronger. It is truly amazing that we don't even seem to notice that it is gone anymore. We just took all the TVs off the walls one day and out of the house, canceled cable and looked each other in the eyes and just thought of something else to do. And there was so much to do! We replaced all the plastic one-purpose toys with open ended toys like rocks, pine cones, shells, silk scarves, wax crayons and paper, a tree swing and so much more. We got outside more as a family and spent time talking to each other more.  My house felt so much more appealing to my own senses, and my children seemed to have the same response (sigh of relief). After a lifetime of watching TV, I thought it would be hardest for me to give up the tube. I really was addicted to my favorite shows. But after reading about the health affects on children and wanting to be a true example to my children, I just went for it. Well, I actually haven't missed it. I have noticed that I feel a sense of freedom from all the unimportant chatter that was running though my head on a daily basis from all the shows I watched in the week. I assume my children were feeling that same sense of freedom even though they never watched that much TV, there young brains are more sensitive to even small amounts of screen time. The funniest part of this whole change in our house was when my 3 year old came running into the rooms calling his sisters name and says "Come! Come!....Look! The TV is gone!" Well, the the TV had been gone for 5 days and this was the first he had noticed. I wan't sure what his reaction would be, as he loved his shows too. But to my utter joy and surprise, he just started laughing and laughing about the fact that he hadn't noticed until now. Then he turned around and got back to his hard work making a boat he from a cardboard box and some rope. I never heard another word about it from him. Every once in a while my 5 year old will ask about watching a movie and I just tell her that we don't have a TV and redirect her to another creative project or sit down and read a book to her and she is perfectly happy with these alternatives. Not only are we saving money not having a TV and cable, done are the days of the begging and whining and pleading for another show.  For that reason alone, I am so glad we are TV FREE. We can all breath a sigh of relief that we are free at last from this box we so easily allowed into our house so many years ago. We never even questioned it's presence in our lives until now. And now that we have, we have decided that it is definitely not a welcome guest.

My favorite Books:
Simplicity Parenting
Kindergarten with your three to six year old, Donna Simmons


Good article to read:
http://www.insteadoftv.com/
http://www.ivillage.com/101-tv-free-alternatives/6-a-145059
http://www.simplicityparenting.com/
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

***Please post a comment if you are TV Free, want to be or just have a thought to share. I would love to hear about your own experiences with TV in your house.

In a tree not in front of the TV.

This Moment: Morning Prayer

{This is a special moment from the past week that I want to stop, savor and enjoy. If you want to see other moments being shared this morning, go over to SouleMama.}

"I am grateful for........"

More Mulberry Pops

We are a Pop factory over here with our 2 Zoku Quick Pop Makers. And we are still enjoying the Mulberry season. Here is our favorite Pop of the week. Check back next Thursday for another Pop idea using seasonal, fresh and healthy ingredients.

Fresh Mulberrys
Raw Cream
Raw Honey
Vanilla
Raw Goats Milk