What? It's a porcupine...isn't it obvious?
Leaving at 5am tomorrow for Florida - weather looks to be 87 and sunny...rough. For those of you local, take good care of my boys would you?
And for all of us new to facebook and for myself still trying to figure out its place in my world...some reading while I'm gone. (By the way, the author was born in '61).
This is how I like to scrapbook. Very simple. The photograph and the words. Here are the words on the page:
You are four. You love tractors and playing in the dirt. You are really into coloring right now – playing very close attention to staying in the lines and using lots of different colors. You love broccoli but not tomatoes. You drink milk. You are about to move into a booster car seat. You weight 35 pounds. You still sleep in a crib – you say you feel “safer” and that the monsters can’t get you in there. You just learned to dress yourself and you are very proud of this accomplishment. You still suck your thumb but only at night with blue blanky. You don’t like to be called Dunc or Duncy, you tell me “my name is Duncan”. You shower me with kisses. You like vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. You light up my life each and every day – I love you.
I love that my kids will have words and photographs to document their lives. There will be proof of how they looked, how they felt, what they liked - and most of all they will know the impact they have made on my life. I want them to know that every day, every minute I cherish them.
This week I'd like to offer something more like "food for thought". It's not really a tip per se. I was reading an article in O magazine titled Green IQ. The article is actually an interview with the author and psychologist Daniel Goleman. In it he asks us in his new book Ecological Intelligence to think beyond things like organic, recycled and fair trade and "pursue a deeper, more critical understanding of how the products we use, buy and discard affect the environment". Without copying the article word for word I will give you my simple translation. Turning down the thermostat and replacing a few light bulbs is just the tiny tip of a really big iceberg. Every single thing we buy has an impact on the earth. The article used a glass jar for example and everything it goes through JUST to become glass. Just to make the glass you have to burn a gas furnace 24 hours at 2,000 degrees. He talks about a method called life-cycle assessment that looks at the entire range of a product's impact on the earth. You can go to GoodGuide.com to get more information. Long story short after reading the article I was both frustrated and energized. Frustrated because the hill just seems to big to climb. I turn down the thermostat, I use the eco friendly grocery bags...but I use way too many Ziplocs and my online shopping is anything but green. But energized because I was becoming more educated. Daniel Goleman seems to believe that knowledge is the key and I'd have to agree. I'm learning and that is a start. So on your next trip to the grocery store or the mall or eBay think...what did it take to get this product to me? And what will happen to this product when I am done with it? I think if we can do even just this one little thing - THINK - we will be helping.
PS. Richard...they weren't weeds (see above).
Yes indeed I did fall of the face of the earth last week. But I'm back now. Does that ever happen to you? Whole entire weeks just disappear. Poof...gone. I hate those weeks, days, months. I often think...what did I eat? Did I eat? Did I enjoy myself? Did I laugh in that week I missed? What did I miss? I suppose crazy weeks are inevitable and arguably okay. Hopefully crazy weeks means things got done, deadlines were met and items got crossed of the list. Crazy weeks remind me to slow down...relax...learn. Learn from my children. Play. Dig in the dirt. Play in the dirt.
"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water...Its substance reaches everywhere; it touches the past and prepares the future; it moves under the poles and wanders thinly in the heights of air. It can assume forms of exquisite perfection in the form of a snowflake, or strip the living to a single shining bone cast up by the sea."
-Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey
1.) Fresh tomatoes.
2.) Finally finding the website that re-taught me how to get my custom blog header to actually fit inside the border.
3.) Clothing in shades of pastels.
4.) Watching Everyone's Hero with my boys...such a cute movie.
5.) The amazing amount of art that my children have been producing in the last month.
Inspired by: Sunshine in February
Surprisingly he is a rather sweet (non-violent) child. Apparently he had some after tubby cooped up aggression that needed to be released...?
Start a garden: plant even one thing. One plant. And you will have made a difference. $1.88 for some organic seeds, some dirt and a pot - (or just come over to my house and steal some of mine).
It's hard to believe that these will be broccoli someday. But all the more reason to plant them. Once again this year we are tackling a garden and some things need to be started early inside. I think this year we are going to add an extra bed...we quickly ran out of space last year. Let me tell you, it is very easy to underestimate how big a broccoli plant can get! My mom and dad have huge beautiful gardens and we get lots of food from them, but I really love having a little one out back of our own. I love picking green beans with my boys. And I love every day watching the green peppers get just a little more red.
