a piece of my week

much of my time lately is occupied with preparing food, creating a creative learning space for our kids, training for my marathon and piecing together a quilt for the (coming any day now) daughter of my best friend. it leaves not a drop of free time but i am thriving on this kind of doing. and on the horizon is a fast approaching getaway for two to napa. i am feeling so inspired by things happening in my little orbit and so nourished by all the good "doing" that i'm doing.

 several times this week i've caught him tucked into a little nook reading out loud to himself. its precious. and he really does have most of the words from several books mastered. "peacock, peacock, what do you see? i see a 'elefuff' lookin at me" ... makes my heart jump for joy!

 this little lady is growing and such a joy to watch. she dropped her morning nap this week so we all have more time to play together now and its wonderful! she has started standing up a little on her own. we're curious to see when she'll decide to try walking (and where ARE those teeth???)

 a montessori inspired activity (he loves activities so much these days and i love them because of it). so simple - two baskets, one filled with these little pom poms and some tongs. he transfers them between baskets, moving them oh so carefully and with so much concentration. the e-course i am taking discusses a perfect activity as something that maintains focus and interest for a long period of time - then its perfectly suited for his "right now" development. there is a similar activity involving small glass bowls and lima beans and the same transferring motion which he paid attention to for approximately 4 seconds: too hard.  for now he is quite pleased to pour his attention into mastering the skill of pom pom transfer.

 stealing another break in the reading nook - he was sitting here for about 20 minutes just taking in all the images on the pages and identifying them out loud.

 dabbling with imaginative play - we used some play silks to create "grass" and "sky" behind the barn. he set up all the animals on the grass and then moved them into and around the barn.

 a little color inspiration - the actual color in good lighting is a little darker than shown in the image.

a sneak peak at the quilt that i am spending all of my evenings with in preparation for my trip across the country to greet a very special new baby!

farm to table goodness

this morning i had the delight to attend a cooking class at cups la jolla, a dazzling little cupcake shop in la jolla over on the coast (same place we had jen's baby shower awhile back) with chef jesus gonzalez. the premise of the course was showing you simple and delectable ways to use all the farm fresh goodness we are blessed with in san diego with year round growing conditions.  we've recently joined a csa (community supported agriculture, you buy a share of a farm and they provide you weekly with a box of fresh, locally grown organic produce) and are attending our farmers' market weekly and i am taking full advantage of finding new ways to make our diet even more healthy. i was amazed at the simple yet absolutely gorgeous and delicious dishes we prepared today in a short period of time with just a handful of fresh produce each and some simple additions like agave, milk, flour, saffron, red quinoa and brown rice. thank you to the ladies in the course and the staff at cups la jolla, not to mention the great chef who was so sweet and patient, yet completely in command of a group of 12 women all trying to figure out what jesus wanted us to do (we didn't have recipes, he just flitted amongst us and kept us all going on our projects happening simultaneously, it was brilliant!).

my friend sarah and i with chef jesus

 dessert first, because i can:  5 phyllo dough sheets, laid out one at a time, and between each was sprayed with canola oil cooking spray and a fine sprinkle of brown sugar. once the sheets were laid out, placed a chunk of delicious goat cheese in one corner topped with pears and apples sauteed with some agave and a few walnuts, then rolled it up and baked it. delightful.

 red quinoa burgers: quinoa looks similar to couscous but a bit bigger and it is a complete protein (packed with all 9 essential amino acids) with a slightly nutty flavor. according to this website, "...Because quinoa is a very good source of manganese as well as a good source of magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorus, this "grain" may be especially valuable for persons with migraine headaches, diabetes and atherosclerosis." anway, in addition to red quinoa, there was finely diced carrot, bell pepper, white turnip....they were really wonderful and i'm looking forward to making them for pete.

 fresh ricotta with sweet sauteed fruit topped with granola: WE MADE RICOTTA CHEESE! this blew my mind. honestly, i really didn't know you could make your own ricotta and boy was it absolutely easy. we boiled 1/2 gallon of milk, once it came to a boil we removed the heat and added 1/2 c vinegar and 1 t salt and stirred.  almost immediately the curds formed. after a few minutes we poured the mixture through a cheesecloth draped strainer (and caught the whey which is the liquid that pours off of the cheese to keep for use in a smoothie later as its a wonderful pure source of protein) and served it topped with the fruit that had been sauteed earlier for the dessert, we just added banana to it. we also made granola which was so easy i am kicking myself for having been so afraid to try it before now - simple and delightful! this was an amazing thing to serve as a breakfast dish or even as a dessert.

a fresh take on potato salad: a salad base with another layer of diced tomatoes topped with purple potato salad. we diced the potatoes and then boiled them (purple potatoes have a higher starch content than your average potato so he suggested never to attempt making mashed potatoes with them) and combined the boiled potatoes with 5 diced hard cooked eggs, diced celery and mixed with a beautiful homemade avocado based creamy yet zippy dressing and garnished with sprouts.

dishes not pictured:

-saffron orange bread (so amazing)

-brown rice butternut squash and mushroom risotto - this may be the most delicious thing i've ever tasted

-roasted carrots and turnips

am so very inspired to take my meal plans to a new level after taking this course - and very much looking forward to receiving the recipes via e-mail this week from the chef himself. we're already planning our next course, perhaps a raw foods experience in may!

nevermind...

nevermind the disaster that is his shirt or the snack smeared across his face......
this boy is the sweetest.
-he grabbed this ribbon off my head and put it on his own yesterday while skyping with deedee, aunt ellyn and uncle matt (and duke) and was pretty proud of himself when it elicited laughter from his audience in the computer.

matching and sorting

this 2 year old man of ours is very much into sorting and pouring and matching. and he took to this spur-of-the-moment activity with very little instruction, i was so pleased he picked up what i wanted him to do immediately. we have color stacking toy but it seemed like it wasn't age appropriate yet - but then had the idea of making 6 mason jars into color sorting devices by taping a strip of paper around the body of the jar. the idea was for him to sort the colored wooden rings into the matching colored jar. he was a whiz at the project!  after he sorted them all correctly, he'd purposely put a ring in the incorrect jar and then say "nooo!" and then pour it out into the right jar. pretty fun and simple little color practicing game that he seemed to enjoy.

i am finding in my quest to learn what makes a 2 year old tick that it is activities and not "toy's" per se that get him excited. its not fair for me to say "go play" because he wants to be busy with tasks and the toys our culture gives our children just don't cut the mustard. continuing to learn from several books and my e-course and hands-on-experimenting and slowly implementing what works for us at this stage.

the e-learning course this week is talking about the impermanence of the play space - create a good base and then continually you'll be changing out the activities/toys/concepts based on what your child is into and excited about at the time. its fascinating, really. am in love with waldorf and montessori and anything that points me in the right direction of further understanding how to create an environment for our children to thrive from an early age.

mommy's little gardener

she really wanted to go outside.......

luckily there was nothing but potting soil and some weeds sprouting up in there after pete whacked the last poor plant living there. we'll try again this spring. :)

baking whole wheat chocolate cookies with the fastest hands in the west

this child is a cookie dough snatcher! he loved helping me roll and cut out the cookies. he loved helping brush water on top and sprinkle (or dump in his case) sugar on top before baking. but in every stage of the process, he was snatching dough and popping it in his mouth (if you've ever seen ELF, it was like Will Ferrell popping cotton balls in his mouth).  other than the stress of trying to keep enough dough around to have cookies to show for it all, the project went pretty well. i mean, sanitary conditions aside - when there is a toddler assisting, all bets are off!

a biggie, more changes

i must confess, i haven't written because i don't even know where to start! there is so much swirling in my head and there is so much swirling in my home that there really hasn't been time to sit and sort it all out into manageable thoughts and meaningful musings. its a long shot to think sitting down to type and see what comes out will produce something thoughtful and insightful, i suppose you can decide if you chose to continue reading!

topic one: pete the two year old
we've jumped headfirst into uncharted territory and its got me a little frazzled, left me with some ruffled feathers and has me busy reading and researching new creative approaches. as if overnight, the game changed completely. perhaps the control freak in me is more freaked out than the mom in me...because i've realized that the little control i still maintained is now lost. no snazzy childproofing mechanisms slow him down.  he goes in and out of his door as he pleases - which has mad the new issue of repeated night time waking an exhausting one. this boy used to sleep soundly, and hard all through the night. now there there are hour-long periods where he is rushing to his bedroom door over and over, i mean as soon as we've got him tucked back in he's at it again. how do we fix it? we've read maintain consistency, don't talk to him or make the process fun, just take him right back to bed and leave without a word. and yet even that seems to be enough interaction to make him continue it. or maybe there is another issue? we've read its just him exercising his right as a two year old to try and do whatever he pleases. and i'm all about him exercising independence and having an opinion, just not during the night when his parents need to be sleeping! and on the issue of sleep, because of his frequent night time waking - he is all out of whack during the day. he's napping two hours earlier than normal (because he needs to .... and is going right to sleep without a hint of protest which leaves me even more baffled about the bizarre night time activities) and sleeping nicely for 1.5-2 hours. but that means he is eating lunch at 10:30 and eating dinner at 4:30 and he is going to bed around 5:45 because he is absolutely falling apart by that time. i am just trying to wait it out and give him what i can to meet his needs. hoping this one fizzles out soon and he goes back to being a brilliant sleeper. he is a different child when he is well rested (when he wakes up) compared to when he is exhausted (totally hyper, can't focus, naughty, etc).

topic two: playful learning spaces e-course
i am participating in an online e-course called playful learning spaces.  it has my mental gears churning - which sort of feels more like mashing working on the little sleep we are getting (see above).  i've been reading some books and now with the additional guidance of this e-course i think i am ready to dig deep and make some changes that i've been working on in my mind's eye for awhile now.  the first class was yesterday and discussed a lot about misconceptions society holds about children and the "stuff" they are made of.  i couldn't agree more with her thoughts - that children are much bigger beings than we generally give them credit for, not adults and should not be treated as such, but their souls and spirits and individuality is big big BIG! they are in tune with what is happening around them, they are learning through every social interaction and they just want to be a part of what is taking place around them.  i believe all of this in my heart as truth and am trying my best to part with other ways of thinking that sometimes want to take over, particularly when my frustration feels so heavy!  i am re-re-re-teaching myself to focus on patience and love and creativity.....trying a new approach until i find one (or several?) that feels right and seems to work.  lately i've been disappointed with my failure to control my frustration and out it comes, in a loud voice, directed at my tiny toddler (sometimes his behavior just feels like its coming from something bigger than a 2 year old)....and its not fair to him. and it teaches him ugly behaviors. i yell at the dog and think nothing of it. but then i see him yell at the dog and it looks really ugly - and he is doing the exact same thing i just did. ugh.  its healthy to have a little mirror to show you your flaws, but my goodness it sure does create a lump in your chest that you are very consciously aware of throughout the day. anyway.....the second part of the first course was discussing display and organization. grouping like items together in baskets that can be put away, with labels (or photo labels for kids who can't read) - there was a lot of talk of "independently accessing and successfully putting away" toys in order to create an environment where kids can discover and interact with the world around them on a whim in whatever way they fancy.  she additionally talked about finding activities that were a good fit for where they are developmentally; you know you've found it when they spend a lot of time on that one activity repeating it over and over again as their little mind twitters about mastering the task at hand. i saw a glimpse of that last week with the playing with beans.....and i know there are more. and i'm working on implementing them (there are some good ideas on the montessori services website).

 earlier this week on a warmer day (sorry dear friends who are still kneck-deep in snow, maybe you could try an activity like this in the bathtub-a play bath) - i cut the top off a milk jug, poked a hole int he bottom and tied it to a pole on our porch.  i place a tupperware bin under it and a container filled with water next to it and gave him an empty cream cheese container as a scoop.  he spent about an hour scooping water up, pouring it into the jug, watching it pour out the hole into the tupperware below. sometimes he'd catch the the wter coming out the hole in the bottom of the jug in his cup (sometimes he'd drink it - ew) and sometimes he'd just splash and stir the "pot"....he's really fascinated with water and this activity was a huge hit, and a little easier to control than having him stand at the sink to play.
he did require a wardrobe change afterwards but it was worth it, he enjoyed every second of it.

 this week i've been introducing him to water color paints. i think this activity is still a little advance for him, or maybe there is just too much mom-intervention/rules associated with it (peter, don't lick the paint, don't put the paintbrush in your mouth, dip it in the water first and then put it on the paper, no not on your shirt, etc......).  this morning was the second day we played with it and he was really excited about it - and i was forcing myself to stay in the kitchen, just a super-mom leap away from intervening if things got really ugly but far enough away to keep my hands out of the picture and let him explore what he had in front of him. he was most excited about dipping the brush full of paint into the water and watching it swirl off the brush and mix with the other colors. he did get some paint on the paper. a lot of other paper went directly onto his shirt (oh well). and then, out of the blue its like he realized he was getting into the project and then whipped the container filled with a very tiny bit of water across the entire house, his way of announcing he was through with the project i guess.  that's the type of thing that frustrates me - and maybe its just a boy thing or a 2 year old thing or who knows what irreversible damage i've cuased him - he can be playing so nicely and then just throws things. he is big on throwing his fork and drink at dinner. lots of toys get chucked across the house. not good, and really gets my hackles up, i'm trying to stay calm and respond in different ways to see what has a more productive effect on him. lately i've just been taking away the thrown item and putting it in a time out (that's what i tell him but i take it away for the rest of the day) and explain to him that we do not throw our toys or forks or whatever the case may be.  we're also working on him being gentle with baxter and betsy. he really rough houses with the dog, climbs up onto the couch to "snuggle" with him but in the process is bulldozing the poor dog with his wrecking-ball of a head and grabbing his legs or tail, the whole while saying "nice, good boy baxter, good boy" and acting as though he is being so sweet when in fact the dog is hating every second of it.  he's started pushing betsy too, not in a mean way, just trying to get her to head the direction he wants her to go. not good and she is unhappy about the extra "help". hmmm....i think i am venting here. i am just at a loss sometimes at an appropriate response to these behaviors. patience and trying to teach him and show him are what i am going with until i have some breakthrough.

topic three: am becoming more and more interested in (obsessed?) with finding natural, homemade, toxin free products to replace my store-bought, expensive and chemically-laden products. for example, i make my own baby wipe solution, my own face wash and my own multi-purpose cleaning spray (in addition to trying to cook as much from scratch and as much from organic, local food sources as possible).  i'd like to branch out further and make more cleaning products and home remedies for things that ail us....there is a lot of wisdom to be learned about herbals and tinctures and things made simply of plants that grow in the earth with these great healing properties. and things like the neti pot (sinus cleansing, i swear by it!)....instead of always heading to the doctor for some medication that hasn't really truly been tested for safety or effectiveness and often times just masks or dulls your symptoms instead of curing you so you are prolonging the illness by erasing the cues your body is giving you to slow down while it heals itself.  i recently watched a documentary called "food matters" that has even more fueled my curiousity/drive/obsession with this subject - talking about what seems like a very obvious yet mostly-ignored proposition of eating an actually healthy, nutrient and vitamin rich diet (of at least 51% uncooked food so the nutritional value is not lost when heated) and treating illness with increased levels of those nutrients and vitamins.  they are talking about seeing results with cancer even! yet people are not learning about proper nutrition, doctors are not studying nutrition, and no one is taking it seriously.....because they can much easier go and get a pill to "fix" whatever the problem is.  i am also looking into finding myself a naturopath doctor here in san diego, i'd like to at least meet with one and see what their approach is because from what i've read, they are way more up my alley. i have basically hated every interaction with every doctor i've ever seen for anything that ailed me - except for when medical intervention was actually required (surgery on toes and wrist).  it just seems there are SO many other options to go to first before writing a prescription, yet that is the first thing every doctor will do is whip out their prescription pad or hand you a free sample of something to try and see if it helps. no thank you, i want to determine the cause of the problem and FIX it. i do not want to be dependent on this medication the rest of my life.

topic four: i really REALLY want to raise my own chickens.  my friend melanie lives in an apartment with a tiny back yard (patio) downtown chicago and has three hens. its called urban agriculture and i LOVE the concept. i want in. i told reid i wanted a book about raising backyard chickens for valentines day. he might think i'm crazy. :) yes, i want an book about chicken raising instead of roses. :)

and my sweet baby is waking up so its off i go.  am excited to share with you as i make changes and learn more about all these topics.  hopefully no one thinks i am going off the deep end!

good morning!

pete woke up in a bad mood. betsy was already awake and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as usual. and she gave him a good dose of his own medicine. how do YOU like it when i climb all over YOU? thanks daddy for snapping the pic!

for aunt briana

 pete got this shirt for his first birthday but now it finally fits him. and his aunt was so excited about giving it to him, i made sure to properly document the event for her.  (if you can't tell its pebbles and bam-bam from the flintstones and it says "chicks dig me")

 tough guy

poway farmers market

 saturday morning 8-1 at old poway park; a little slice of heaven

 this is george of george and cora - the farmers responsible for the amazing csa box i enjoy twice a month. this saturday was my first box. am thinking i may have to up it to a weekly box instead of twice weekly. their produce is so very beautiful!

 another vendor's display - bought these carrots to serve with a pot roast today. we got some in our csa box too but those were already set aside to puree for betsy.

 old poway park is so beautiful - so much history. i chatted with an artist in residence who was quilting in this building last saturday. can't wait to start on my next quilt!

 riding the "choo-choo train" with my favorite papoose

pete on the train showing me his funny lemon from farmer steve and taking much care to ensure he doesn't smile for the camera. love that child!