The Path

About 2 blocks from our rented ticky tacky cookie cutter house is some "unimproved" land owned by the city.  It is a small hill.  It is about half a mile to walk to the top of it.  At the top, right before the "improved" land is where the city dumps all the yard waste.  The presence of this hill, where we can go and play without park toys and grass telling us what to do, has saved my life.  I can go out on it and look at the sky and breathe freely. 
I was walking down it the other day in the dark, and I lost the little trail that our feet have worn into the side of it.  I knew it was too cold for snakes or spider, yet I was looking for a trail.  What happened to the me that would joy in the freedom of not having to look before I leaped.  Why wasn't I running down the hill at top speed waving my arms unrestrained.  I had always thought that the way people on the Titanic were portrayed was sad.  If I was on a ship that I knew was sinking in freezing salt water, and we wouldn't all survive, I would have so much fun.  I could do any dare devil thing I wanted.  I could not only not put "safety first", but I could do away with it completely!  I could swing on the chandeliers or jump from the railing and feel the experience of freezing cold water engulf my body!  I would have so much fun!
So here on the hill, knowing that this time of year there really wasn't anything there that could hurt me, why was I looking for the path, like the old worn tame mommy that I am?
It reminds me of stories I hear about slaves who wouldn't be broken no matter how many times they felt their master's whip.  I don't read stories about slavery to my kids very much.  It just disturbs them too much, and I figure why focus on a bad thing.  There are some beautiful books out there, like

              

  Henry's Freedom Box      and       The People Could Fly

but I couldn't bring myself to read them to my kids - I didn't want to.

Then I was thinking the other day, especially with some of the older ones realizing what a not free world we live in, how what we really need is the wisdom and help of people who have dealt with the difficulties of a severe lack of freedom.  I realized that stories from these now angels who could help us, these ancestors who fought the inner turmoil of freedom and the outer fight for the world.  We need these stories and wisdom to get us through these times where the govt. tears families apart. 
So we have been reading stories of hope.



          Moses




        Minty




Who Owns The Sun?



I went with Happy to the hill one day at dusk when it was so foggy you couldn't see 3 feet ahead of you.  She trudged on ahead in her happy way, off in her own world of birds and leaves and fresh air.  I love watching the joy she gets out of life.  Not once did she wonder if she was going the "right" direction.  When she came across the path, after walking sideways for quite a while, she just stopped, after mostly crossing it without noticing, and her boots first pointed up it, then back towards home, as the rest of her was obviously preoccupied with happier thoughts.

Potato soup

dont eat potato soup with a straw if it has peas in it

what if it has corn in it ?

Raised by sprouts

Footprints

Walking in the snow this morning, I came across footprints that must have been made last night.  Little barefoot footprints running out across the front yard, and then back to the house.  I am quite sure Happy did a happy dance in the snow.  :)
Finding unexpected little bare footprints reminds me of one time when we broke a window in our old house.  It was leaning sideways, and so put pressure on the glass making the windows really easy to break even if they are just touched too hard.  Anyway, we replaces it with crooked plexiglass (to match the lean of the house).  It came with a clear sticker coating over it that we didn't take off until after we had put the window in.  It was the top half of a rather high window, but the next morning I noticed a little bare footprint, on the top of it. ;)

My mom's cooking

The problem with my mom's cooking is she does not want to use ingredients, or the right ones anyway

This is a peanute butter coookie recipe i found my mom and here is what she did

http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/928/classic-peanut-butter-cookies

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup Land O Lakes® Butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 Land O Lakes® All-Natural Egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

ok now lets put the  not so packed brown suger in it, noo maybe we should only have half a cup

and we should not put the butter in it becouse that has a lot of fat and so we should substitute

for fresh crab apple sauce and mabye  we should put in pumpkin insted of peanut butter beacouse it has VIT um...  ABSDEFG in it!  i dont know what that is but it must be healthy. and oh look we are out of eggs we just will use um um... ground up soaked flax seeds.

and then we should not put in very much vanilla because i read on the internet that it made your um, some part of you body, not as healthy. and we like heathy! and lets not put in flour;  we should put in ground up sprouty rice flour in instead  of all-purpose flour and we dont want to use baking soda or powder we will use will catch our own yeast from these rottn um um.... fermented broccoli
and then we dont want that much salt we should not put salt in becouse that would make ths yeast that we put in not work as well so we wont use it all done

-Raised by sprouts

"Just Memorizing Books"

Today the baby started to learn how to walk, so we removed everything like a couch or an end table from his path so he wouldn't just become dependent on them and never learn how to really walk on his own.
Unfortunately, I have actually attempted to do this to my kids when they were just starting to learn how to read.  I wouldn't want them to just memorize a book and turn the pages and "pretend" to read.  If I didn't make sure it was a book they didn't have memorized, they would never "really" learn how to read. 
Reading is the process of constructing an intended meaning from something, even if the person who intended the meaning is not there.  So when a child looks at a picture of the Grinch, and says "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess", they are technically reading that picture.


How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Now that I've seen it, I can't imagine anything so wonderful as seeing your child curl up with their favorite book that they've had memorized for years, and start to match up the words.  This is "Grinch" here, and that's "Grinch" there too!  That whole moment of discovery is my favorite thing in the world.  And they are reading, not because they can't get the information any other way, or to be as smart as someone else, but for the sheer joy of reading.  Just like dancing for the feel of dancing alone.

Merry Christmas!

Youtube: Hobbit "Good Morning"

When I say "Merry Christmas!"  I mean "I am excited about Christmas because I LOVE Christmas and I am so happy that I am about to burst!"
I do not mean "I think you should believe in my religion/like the same kind of art as I do/eat as much candy as I do!"

There is a manger scene display out on the grass of a small park by a road I drive on.  Their is a sign almost as big as the display saying "THIS IS NOT PUT UP BY THE CITY AND THE CITY DOESN"T INDORSE OR OPPOSE IT!"
So instead of this good happy "Somebody is celebrating something that is making them really happy" feeling inside when I see it, all I get is this "we better make laws to prevent people from being rude about their religion!" feeling.  I think people are people, whether they are babies or adults.  I know with babies that if you expect them to be evil selfish little things and treat them with that in mind, no matter how kindly you treat them or how much freedom you refuse to take from them, they will not let you down in your expectations.  I am pretty sure adults act that way too.
I just want to put one of those "THIS IS NOT PUT UP BY THE CITY AND THE CITY DOESN"T INDORSE OR OPPOSE IT!" signs up on the ridiculously garish piece of modern art in the park, that destroys my view of a peaceful wild river.



Modern Art Sculpture by Jon Allen

Picking your nose

Yesterday, as I was driving home from dropping my daughter off at band - I am so grateful for the opportunity she has to be in band in the public schools.  I love the idea of free public education, just when it's forced...
On the way home I drove by someone in his car who obviously had an annoying itch in his nose.  I smiled at him my biggest smile because it is Christmas time and I LOVE Christmas and so I smile at people.  And he looked scared that I had seen him with his finger anywhere near his nose.  I live with a lot of little kids.  A finger in a nose is the least of my scary "gross" things I worry about.  I am just sad that we have created such a false utopian society for ourselves that innocent people are scared that everybody who sees them will judge them for something.