Bird friends

This evening will be our last bird watch in FL. We take a drive in the golf cart around looking at all the birds who live in the community every evening. I think this is one of our favorite parts about FL, it's amazing big and beautiful birds. It is We really take the time to stop and watch and connect with each one..... becoming friends. This summer we have had the opportunity to watch the baby sand hill cranes grow up.  So, sadly, we will have to say "Goodbye birds, we will see you next time."

fishing fun

While we are in FL, we always take the kids out fishing. We don't really know what we are doing but we sure have a good time. We use John's grandfathers fishing poles and some shrimp. It is so fun to see how excited the kids get when they catch a fish. Actually John and I get pretty excited ourselves. We only caught tiny little fish so we through them all back, but everyone caught at least one fish and had a great time, so I think it was a success. 

Making Mung Dosas

After hearing about all the wonderful qualities of Mung beans, I have started to add them into our family dinners. Last week I made Dosas with Mung beans and rice. We sprouted and fermented the mung beans first. They are actually delicious just like that. The kids loved them. We ate them for breakfast with a little drizzle of honey and then for dinner I added a little Indian spice and served them with pot roast, salad and eggplants. Delicious. Even my 4 year old loved them. You can add all sorts of veggies to your dosas if you like. You can even make them without the rice, which is what I am going to try next time.  Jetta's job was to set the table. I love how she always includes an artistic touch to her jobs.

Garden babysitters

Since we have been on our FL vacation my mother along with mother in law, aunt and friends  have been so kind to take care of our newly planted garden and our 2 kitty cats. We tried to harvest and take as much produce with us on our trip which we ate up pretty quick. We are working toward become more self sufficient in our home. Making more, buying less. Spending less time in stores and more time working with our hand and with each other doing things that bring us joy and fulfillment. Look for a post to follow with some of our plans.

I took these pictures of the garden before we left. It will be fun to see the changes in the garden when we return. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family.

French beans:

Speckled Lettuce (yummy):

 Pumpkins and peas and zucchini in the background: 

 Tomatoes and cucumbers happily climbing up the new trellises John made:

Black beauty squash/ zucchini:

Apples:

3 types of chard and kale:

John bringing is arugula from the garden and ribs from the bar-b-q:

This Moment: A Great Grandmother's Love

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.

Father's Day

Yes, I know Father's day has past, but I still wanted to say something about this  man in our lives. Everyday I feel so lucky to have a partner like John. It is such a beautiful thing to see all of his kindness, love, compassion, interest, exuberance and gentleness come through the eyes of our children. Because of the type of Father he is, my heart is so full of gratitude that our children will grow up knowing what a Father really can be. I can't imagine a greater gift.  Just the other day Jetta said to John "When I grow up, I want to marry someone just like you Daddy". I hope she does.......

Visiting Florida

This Moment: Connecting with new life

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.

Strawberry Picking and Pie Eating

We took a drive to Gorman's Farm   to pick strawberries the other morning. It was a hot hot day, but the strawberries were delicious. I have never seen such ripe red strawberries in my life. The kids had fun running through eh fields and were great pickers, filling up their baskets with the red fruit. I am sure that helped themselves to a few too many samples. I froze a bunch of them and made a strawberry rhubarb gluten and grain free pie. The rest were eaten in their natural state. 

Funny little one I found. Looks like a clown.

Gluten and Grain-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Pie made with an almond crust using soaked almonds.

Not learning to "read" yet

I am really enjoying how the Waldorf curriculum ( I really like the Christopherous Curriculum) not only brings art and emotion into all learning, but makes it the foundation of everything that is learned.  Although Jetta is technically doing kindergarten this year, we have started the 1st grade curriculum a little so that in the fall when the baby is born, we can all take some time off to get to know him and not feel like we have to play catch up. Because we didn't start with the Waldorf curriculum right away, Jetta already learned her letters and numbers before kindergarten, but I have been so happy with the unique way this curriculum teaches them that we are learning them all over again with a new perspective. I feel like I am developing my own little love affair with the letters that I never had. Each one is taught with such character and meaning using stories and personalities to bring to life the letters that make you care about them and love them.  And isn't that what really matters? Isn't it true that when you care, you want to learn? I also love how not being able to read yet has not  held Jetta back from "reading" all the time. She sits for hours "reading" to her brother story after story. I really do believe that it is because she can't read yet, that she explores books like a real storyteller. She looks at the pictures and tells the most interested stories full of expression and excitement while her brother listens mesmerized and delighted by her every word. This zest for books  and understanding of story is what true reading is about.  But for the time being, most of her time is spent playing outside or in some type of pretend world, which I think  is just where a 6 or 7 year old should be.

Learning Letters starts in first grade: each letter represents a character from a story that is told.

Swans are made to go with S and the story the of the Six Swans is told and enacted together using the swan puppets.

Please take a minute to read this article called More To Reading . I found it very interesting and informative.