In the Kiln

The latest gluten-free concoctions

2010-08-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

We've been terrible about posting our recipes lately, although we still take photos of nearly everything we eat, lol! I was looking through a couple of months of pictures, looking for kids' pictures for a collage, and all I could find were pics of food!! Strange priorities, for certain. :)

This whole post was supposed to go on our food blog, but I messed up and uploaded the photos to the wrong place. . .Abe said he hoped I had fun with the project, because it blew up in the kiln, lol!

Here are some of our latests:

A big batch of banana bread, in mini loaves, muffins, and bundt cakes

pita bread!

I'm calling these nourishing nibbles, and I've been living on them lately.

Rosemary bread sticks (and a spiral, of course)

A maple cake for Gwynnie's first birthday

Brownies with salted caramel frosting

(OMG, yum)

huge batch of pastries, including unbelievable bear claws

quiche (something savory??!?)

more pastries!

Tower of banana bread and three types of cookies.

I really need to type out the peanut butter cookie recipe, at the very least.

It is to DIE for.

cinnamon rolls

sandwich rolls (we've missed sandwiches!)

Needless to say, we've been eating okay lately. ;)

Comment below if there's a recipe you'd really like to see.

Finding time to type everything out has been difficult lately (we're baking too much!)

jaw-dropping ignorance

2010-01-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

This was an actual conversation between two teachers on my facebook wall this morning.

Teacher#1: Big day today...state testing...but i'm hopeful!

Teacher#2: State testing already??? We do not do ours till March and April. Know wonder our test scores are so bad we have not taught everything. I wish the State would open there eyes.

I think we may have the answer to the educational system's problems right here. *eyeroll*

The Wonders of Creation (Goddess Doll Ministries)

2010-01-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

Back in 1991 I became a Universal Life minister, and I don't think I would have guessed that almost two decades later I would be administering guidance, advice, and comfort using cloth dolls as a medium. I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to be a part of the world this way. Most of the dolls I make are for celebratory occasions, but I've made dolls to comfort the sick and dying, and dolls to honor husbands, children, and pets who have passed on, and these always feel like something special. The doll I've been most humbled to make was for the mother of a girl who had died much too young (she was five), and we used the girl's favorite dress and necklace to make the doll, along with a lock of her hair. Could I ever have imagined that my hands would be capable of bringing such consolation and compassion into the world or that complete strangers would entrust me with their grieving hearts? Hardly.

An interesting request came across my inbox about a week ago. It was from someone I assume to be Catholic (most, but certainly not all, of my customers are earth-based-spiritualists of one sort or another, so these Christian requests sometimes tickle me), who was embroidering a pillow for a group of cloistered Dominican nuns, and she was asking ME for advice as to what sort of saying she should put on it. I have no idea how she found me, or why she thought I was the person to ask about this, but we had some back-and-forths and I felt happy with the final results of this encounter. (It turns out that I enjoyed coming up with little sayings for a group of cloistered sisters who had been kind to a newly-widowed woman preparing to inter her husband in the vaults of the monastery. I tell you, I never know what to expect in my email inbox!)

This week has been pretty fantastic. In December, I took about a dozen custom orders, to ease back into sewing and see how I could handle it (plus, we thought we'd be moving, so I thought I'd better take it easy). The month went really well, ending up with a basket of very beautiful custom dolls with which I (and hopefully all the customers!) was very happy. Two days ago I opened myself up for orders again and I have been inundated. I feel so loved! It's an affirmation that what I am putting out into the world is valued and good. Plus, it just feels wonderful to be a PART of the world, of people's lives, their joys and sorrows, their celebrations and everyday routines.

Ironically, while finishing an order last night, I injured my finger pretty badly (sewing injuries - who knew??) and this morning I was feeling annoyed that my momentum of the last couple of days would be lost. But then, as I thought about it, I realized that it was important for me to STOP, to reflect, to appreciate without getting too caught up in the frenzy of trying to fit too much in. So even a crazy-random injury (it was the weirdest thing to have happen!) carries with it an important message, and I am grateful.

In memory of sweet Lily.

Lists lists lists

2010-01-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

Everywhere you look there are lists right now! It's funny how people like to categorize and rank things. All of these lists everywhere have had me mentally ranking my own past year, and this is as good a place as any to write it all down. :)
So here are some of the things I have especially liked (and disliked) about 2009.
Favorite books (new to me, not necessarily new to 2009, and in no particular order):

Traveling with Pomegranates by Ann Kidd Taylor
Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling by Sandra Dodd
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (yes, I was an English major, and no, I had never read it!)
Nerfertiti and The Heretic Queen, both by Michelle Moran
My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes
The Welsh Princes Trilogy by Sharon Kay Penman
The Sharing Knife Trilogy by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Farseer Trilogy, The LiveShip Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy, all by Robin Hobb

Least Favorite Books (please please do not waste your time or money!!)

Tutankhamun and the Daughter of Ra by Moyra Caldecott
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (I may try to revisit this one, but I will have to be very bored.)
Changelings by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Favorite Internet Finds:

my leather Kindle cover from Oberon Designs

Gwynnie's awesome fleece-lined bonnet from etsy seller UrbanBabyBonnets:

Favorite memories (only some, obviously):

Rhanna sledding on Christmas Day, her face full of such joy and abandon.
Thane waking up to join us on Gwynnie's Birthingday.
Listening to Into the Wild during my birth.
Watching the Tour de France all during July while we waited for Gwynnie to be born.
Watching Emrys experience the Winnie the Pooh ride at Disneyland.
Feeling so proud of Abe on his one-year-sober anniversary.

Favorite New Song: Exactly by Amy Steinberg

Favorite New TV Show: The Tudors (Maria Doyle Kennedy is an amazingly perfect Katherine!)

Favorite New Doll: Califia, Goddess of California

Most Grateful For: My healthy pregnancy, homebirth, baby girl, and milk supply. :)

Biggest Bummers: Missing Harry Potter in the theater in July, not getting to The Passion of Mary Magdalene (which isn't available on Kindle, so was hard for me to read), and missing Big Sur this year. I think it's the first whole year since I was born that I didn't get to visit.

Biggest Regrets: Most of my real regrets still revolve around Emrys, but I do regret not eating more croissants and bear claws when my gluten intolerance was in remission during my pregnancy. I also should have had more faith that I would lose the baby weight (45 pounds!!), because now all my new pants keep falling down, lol.

Biggest Attitude Adjustments: My feelings towards household chores changed a lot after reading Sandra Dodd's ideas about chores as a gift freely given. I'm not sure this change is noticable on the outside, since the same chores get done in the same way by the same people, but there's a change in my mind, which is nice. Life also re-prioritized itself enough to make my interest in other people's choices a lot less (in other words, I am less interested in influencing other people to make better decisions).

Nicest Surprise: I think one of the nicest surprises last year was the positive interaction I experienced on Facebook with friends old and new. Sharing our pregnancy and BabyWatch with everyone was really fun. And I was honestly touched by the outpouring of love I felt on my birthday from so many different people.

A New Year, New Dreams

2009-12-31T19:57:00.000-08:00

I started actually writing down some of the things on my 'bucket list' today (they're in the left-hand column, with links). Beginning a new year is a good time to make big dreams and think about the future, don't you think?

I'm so curious about what will happen this year! So many people hated 2009, but despite our unemployment issues, 2009 was very good to us, and I will remember it fondly. Next year is a huge mystery, with big questions about employment and where we'll end up living. I'm enjoying Gwynnie so much, and it will be a delight to watch her grow this year.

I worked on dolls today, which always feels good. I hardly made any mistakes, which was surprising, since four of the dolls needed embroideries on the backs as well as the fronts, and that's a tricky business. :)

Currently reading: Anne of Cleves, which I am really enjoying. She's my favorite of the six wives, and there's not a ton to read about her!

New Beginnings on the Solstice

2009-12-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

I changed the name of this blog to reflect a more positive attitude. I will probably always be fairly sarcastic and acerbic, but I am consciously putting forth a new positivity. Plus, since I hardly ever use this venue to rant about conformity (like I thought I would), it makes more sense to have a name that points to more "day in the life" sort of things. (I do reserve the right to rant now and then though, heehee.)

Most people who might find themselves here (you three know who you are, lol) know that the baby *did* finally arrive. Here's Gwyneth at almost five months.

She is, quite literally, Perfection. :)

I came across this blog "challenge" while reading my friend Claire's new blog, and it looks pretty fun. I haven't officially signed up, but I might. Creative Every Day

Again, to the handful of friends who have followed me here it will be obvious that "every day" is probably a stretch (understatement can be amusing, eh?), but we'll see what happens! :)

clearly I am a terrible blogger

2009-07-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Has it really been 14 weeks since I promised a photo and update? LOL.

Okay, well forget the 26-week photo, since I am now 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Baby seems comfy and uninclined to make an appearance any time soon. Well, I'm sure it will be relatively soon, but probably not today. Rhanna is hoping for tomorrow (the 19th) since her birthday is September 19th. :)

The picture here is from two weeks ago when I was 38 weeks. We had such a nice family hike that day.

Life seems pretty much on hold while we wait for baby to decide to be born. Abe has been home for the last couple of months after being laid off in May; it's been great having him here for the end of the pregnancy and will be even more great having him here while baby is new. Today Rhanna is making a triple batch of pancakes, Thane is dreaming of snowcones and has learned to tie his new golf shoes, and Emrys is inexplicably calling everyone in the house "old potato!" while wearing sunglasses and a superhero cape.

I did get a few days of good nesting in (finally!) and was happy with the progress I made on my selected projects. If my hands weren't so numb all the time I'd have been able to do so much more! As it is lately, I find myself doing. . .well not much of anything. I'm sure that will be changing very soon!!

unmotivated!

2009-04-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Just saying hello today. :)

Thane is teaching himself to play the recorder, Rhanna is reading about Elizabeth I, Emrys is having a low-blood-sugar day and isn't doing much at all (but at least he isn't whining, either), and I am sitting here mentally doing all the things that need doing. Not *actually* doing anything, but thinking really hard. In my MIND, the closets are reorganized, the garage is cleaned out, all my doll orders are finished, and I have a freezer full of meals all ready-made. Wow, in my mind I am SOOO efficient!

Here was my belly about 2 weeks ago at 24 weeks - I'll post a 26-week photo in a few days.

Ares and Cerberus

2009-03-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, twice in one day! That must be a record for me, lol.

I've been looking at a lot of homeschooling blogs lately and it's really fun to see what goes on in different homes. As unschoolers though, we don't have too much to report, usually. I mean, I guess there's a lot going on here all the time, but it's not structured, so I don't think of it in terms of lists I can really report. One thing we see a lot of is crafts and crafty expressions of what the kids are interested in in any given moment. Thane has been fascinated by Greek and Roman stuff lately (he asks me to call them Centurion Rhanna and Legionaire Thane most of the time) and he just made this great Cerberus helmet for Emrys I had to share:

All those dog heads get thirsty! :) Thane's is an Ares/Mars helmet. I love seeing what these kids imagine and create all on their own!

Wonders of Nature

2009-03-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

We were out enjoying the latest snowfall a few days ago when I startled this great blue heron. I was so lucky to have the camera ready! It seems that I get a good wildlife photo once a year (last year it was a bobcat in a tree). I feel so lucky to live in this environment!

Fun learning!

2009-02-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine on Facebook posted a link to this and I just love it!!! You can play (and learn) vocabulary, grammar, art history, geography, foreign languages, math and more, which is totally up my alley. I found it hard to stop today, lol! (Plus, you are apparently donating rice to hungry people. . .I never know whether or not to believe stuff like that, but this was fun and educational enough that I felt happy to pass it along - if they are really donating food, then that's a bonus.)

I've been pretty out of the loop lately; we have had about 6 weeks of illness being passed around here. First the kids all had colds (I escaped!), then a new one hit and they were all sick again, and that one didn't miss me. In fact, mine escalated into a sinus infection and pneumonia, which has been about 3 weeks of misery for me. I broke down and accepted some antibiotics for the first time in about 17 years which sort of makes me angry, but I was at the end of my rope. The plus side is that since my body doesn't "know" these drugs, they worked pretty quickly and I am finally on the mend. Baby seems to be doing well - my belly grew 3 inches in less than 3 weeks and my lower back is feeling it, lol! Imagine how huge I'd be in 20 weeks if I kept growing at that rate! LOL! Abe was able to feel some tiny flutters last night with his hand on my belly, so that's exciting. It's always so nice to be able to share that magic with the family.

More reasons I am anti-school

2009-01-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

Is this supposed to be inspiring?? Based on commentary I have seen in various places, it appears that most people think so. Which just goes to show you how brainwashed our society is.

Let me let you in on how MY brain works when I see things like this.

What jumps out at me is that these school children are suffering from three main things:

1. Boredom. Their teacher (and the subject matter) is dull, tedious, monotonous, and a complete waste of their precious time on this earth.

2. Condescension. Due either to the ineptness or disinterest of their teacher, the subject matter being presented to them is far below their capacity, as evidenced by the obvious intelligence shown by the boy in his note. Thus, being forced to sit in rows and listen to this stupefying information is completely condescending.

3. Humiliation. The teacher's use of public humiliation as punishment is wrong and uncalled for. No one should be treated this way. She seems gleeful to have caught someone she can disgrace in front of the class (perhaps she was just glad for the interruption from her own boredom), which is just sickening. Why adults feel they have the right to prey on children this way is beyond me, and it's a TERRIBLE example being set for the rest of the children in class as well. Their reaction of anticipation shows that they already enjoy watching peers being publicly humiliated, and explains why peer activity in schools is so cruel and insensitive.

A potential #4 is that children this age should be enjoying their childhood as children, not playacting at adult romantic relationships, but this falls under the Things-Wrong-With-Mother-Culture category more than the category "Reason-#1094-I'm-Relieved-My-Kids-Aren't-Wasting-Their-Childhoods-In-School," so we'll leave that for another day. ;)

2009-01-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

So I finally saw The Business of Being Born last night - I know, old news, but it takes me a while to get to movies, and we just finally joined Netflix. This was the first movie we got through them, actually! I suppose it was a good film for the masses; there was a lot of good information there that people not already involved in this homebirth subculture would benefit from knowing. And it's always a pleasure to see Marsden, Michel, and Ina May impart their wisdom. :)

BUT. REALLY. Did Abby and Ricki not see the irony of ending their women-don't-need-to-be-saved-by-doctors movie with a woman being saved by a doctor? Or did they just not care? Or do they really not get it, or what? Maybe someone (Linda?) better involved with the forum circuit when this actually came out can let me know if they had a comment about that. Sigh.

Personally, this film made me once-again-relieved that I've never had to experience a hospital birth, and also really solidified my belief in unassisted birth. The homebirths were good to watch, but I was frustrated watching Ricki, during her homebirth, ask for PERMISSION to push. Clearly her body was pushing on its own, and still she looked to an authority figure for permission. Argh. There will not be true empowerment until women can understand that this is something they have the power to do themselves! How on earth can someone standing next to you know what's best in your own body? People have lost the ability to hear what their own bodies are telling them (in many more ways than just birthing!)

And I was very uncomfortable seeing the poor dad in one of the homebirths (it might have been a birth center?) totally pushed to the side by the womenfolk, intimidated by these in-charge midwives to even be near his birthing wife, so hesitant to claim his place at her side, or to even touch her or their baby. This is a travesty. Fathers need to be empowered by this experience too! I think this happens a lot, where the women in authority come in and assume this is a women-only event. This should be a COUPLES-only event. . .that father planted this baby-gift and it's his place to receive it along with his partner; I really believe that this practice of negating the importance of fathers at birth is compromising the ability of fathers to attach and bond easily with their families, and it's just a huge sadness for me. I believe this negatively effects our whole society - how can it not? The family unit is the basic building block of everything, and it is diseased. We must bring health, empowerment, confidence, and love back to our homes, and it will radiate from there out into the world.

2008-12-30T14:38:00.001-08:00

I just had to share this delicious photo of the homemade cinnamon rolls I made for Christmas morning. They are very labor intensive, so I only make them once a year, but they are SO worth it! (Yes, there's a bite missing from that bottom one, lol.)

I wish you all a happy new year!

2008-12-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

This was one of the gifts I got last week for my birthday. . .hubby knows I never know what day it is! I was thinking that maybe this would help me remember to post here on Mondays and Wednesdays, or that maybe I'd add a new ABC Pregnancy Thursday post, which of course I already forgot. LOL! What a goof I am. I did add a pregnancy ticker over on the right, so that's something. :)

Emrys is 3!

2008-11-30T16:10:00.000-08:00

What a Thanksgiving-Birthday weekend it was for him, too. He had a blast.

A big surprise!

2008-11-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

That pretty much says it all. . .holy cow, #4 is on its way!!!

Happy Samhain

2008-10-31T17:09:00.000-07:00

Samhain and Halloween blessings to everyone!

My husband Abe went to work dressed as a BlueMan today, and he won first prize for best costume - how fun! (and a little weird, lol!)

Monochrome Monday

2008-10-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

Saw this idea on Nydia's blog and I'm going to try it out, along with ABC Wednesdays. I like having an assignment for looking at the world in a certain way. Today on the way home from Emrys' therapy, there were so many ooohs and ahhhs by the kids and myself at the stunning foliage. Some of the trees we saw were impossibly golden yellow, as if Nature had been cheating with some storebought synthetic colors. When we stopped to get the mail at the post office I snapped these pictures, thinking they'd be great for my first (seasonal!) monochrome monday.

Here's Emrys, a few minutes later. We rolled down all the windows so it was very windy as we drove the few miles to home, and all the kids were laughing like crazy and singing Aretha's "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." at the tops of their voices. A nice memory to have. :)

Another Birthday!

2008-10-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

Thane turned 7 yesterday, and it didn't take me two weeks to share a photo! LOL! We happened to meet up with some acquaintences yesterday who were looking for a home for some abandoned kitties, so Thane got a much bigger birthday gift than we had anticipated!

We've named this brother and sister Atlas and Artemis, and now we have entirely too much fur in this house, but lots of softness and cuddles, too, which makes it worth it. :)

My baby is 12!

2008-10-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, it was two weeks ago, and I don't know where those two weeks have gone! Seriously, who hid them?

Here's Rhanna on her birthday, my almost-grownup girl, the most generous, compassionate, kind, aware, empathic, open individual I have ever known.

And, to make things even better, in her advancing age, she seems to be graduating out of PINK! LOL!!!

a nation of 5th-graders

2008-09-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

On the last night of our vacation, we were supposed to fit in several more activities in Salt Lake City, but I had been struck down (yes, it was that dramatic) with food poisoning the previous night and was still recovering, so we stayed in the hotel instead, channel-surfing. Weren't we lucky to catch our first glimpse of "Are You Smarter Than A 5th-Grader?" a game show where adults are paid to answer unbelievably simple questions.

Apparently this show has been on for more than one season, but the night we watched was the first time a person had answered all the questions successfully (and won a million dollars). She was the superintendent of schools in Georgia, so wasn't that a relief. More than once the audience was encouraged to "stay in school!" and this woman's general message was just how important public education is (despite twice delivering long-winded answers with assurance "because I was a teacher" and "this is what I always taught my students" which included quite a bit of incorrect information; how comforting to know that such an education exists for our children, and that such great teachers can become superintendents if they stick with it long enough).

So after the show was over, Rhanna looks at us and says, "So what's the point of that show, anyway?" which made me crack up. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she was sensing the irony in the whole thing. The POINT of the show is that, despite wasting the first 18 years of your life sitting behind a desk with "experts" filling your head with all sorts of useless trivia, you will most likely grow up into an adult with little-to-no recollection of ANY of it, even with the very desirable carrot of a million dollars as motivation. HAHAHAHAHAHA! What a great joke! That redneck guy is smarter than we give him credit for, I think.

remembering yellowstone!

2008-09-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to put together our scrapbook yet, but here's the title page. We were lucky to see moose, coyotes, bison, pronghorn, elk, white-tailed deer, and a golden eagle (we also saw lizards, rabbits, ravens, many other birds, including Gray Jays that we don't have at home, and a prairiedog). We didn't see bears, wolves, otters, or beavers, all of which were on my list of hopeful sightings, darn it, but there were so many things to learn and discover that this vacation will be well-remembered. In the family photos above, we are at the Tetons and bundled up in front of Old Faithful (it snowed about an hour later!)

A beautiful sight

2008-09-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Ohmygosh, this is the most beautiful thing. It brings back such wonderful memories of nursing my older kids (Rhanna till she was 7, Thane till he was 4), and makes me sad to be missing out on that with Emrys (who only made it to 6 months due to his illness and hospital stay). This world would be a much nicer place if seeing this natural relationship was more common. (Thanks, Linda, for passing this on!)

We're in Utah!

2008-08-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

It's only day four, and we've seen so much! From dinos to Leonardo/Renaissance to black holes in space, we've basically covered everything, lol.

Quick recap: the short flight from Reno to SLC absolutely sucked for me - I was so sick! It actually took me two days to start feeling like myself again, which is so weird. Aging? Just general weirdness, probably. Whatever. In any case, after our flight we met my friend Jen at her awesome democratic unschooling school (http://www.segolilyschool.org/pages/). It was so fun to see the school I watched her dream up, fully functional, a place where children are obviously enjoying their days. Then she invited us over for dinner, so we happily drove to her house where the kids played (legos and a trampoline, among other fun stuff!) and we all talked and talked. She even had gluten-free pasta for us, so that was a treat! Meeting Jen and her family was a way to start our vacation with a high point!! She also saved us by having a cooler, a backpack, and a sleeping bag for us to borrow - thanks, Jen!!

Xmoms Unite!

The next day we drove to Lehi to go to the dinosaur museum there. We wasted a lot of time looking for food and ended up eating at a pretty gross place, but finally getting to the museum made it all worth it. Thane was SOOOOO excited to be there. Here he is jumping around as we walked in the door:

We saw a 3-D IMAX movie called Where Africa Meets the Sea which was very cool, and then spent a couple of hours looking at dinosaurs. It's really a great museum. We learned a lot and were very impressed by it all.

After the museum we discovered a local place called Iceburg where, clearly out-of-towners, we bought about 20 pounds of milkshakes, LOL.

Day 3 we drove to Provo where we went to the small BYU dino museum. We should have saved the best museum for last, because so far everything has paled in comparison to the big one we went to in Lehi. I did fall in love with the giant sloth there though.

Driving into Provo we had seen a billboard for a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at another local museum, so we drove around looking for that, but instead ended up just touring the entire BYU campus, which to be honest was a little creepy (everyone looks the same there). We did find it eventually (not on campus) and it was awesome!! So far I think it was my favorite experience. They had about 60 of daVinci's inventions there (replicas of his drawings, obviously) as well as some replicas of his artwork. Even though it was all replicas, it was still really educational, and the kids were able to play with and experiment with some of his inventions, which they loved.

Next we went to a great little shop called Against the Grain, where EVERYTHING is gluten-free. Awesome! Then we had a nap for Emrys at the hotel and a swim for the big kids, followed by another leap through time to the Planetarium where we explored space and watched a movie about black holes in the dome theater. I still remember my first trip to a planetarium to see the domed "sky" above, and I was thrilled to see Rhanna's and Thane's excitement during the movie (Thane ended up getting a little nauseated, but Rhanna loved it). After the movie, we went to a Brazilian restaurant where they had a meat carnival - carnivore-Rhanna was in her element and slipped into a meat coma after the huge dinner, lol.

Today we drove south to Price, passing some excellent windmills and picnicking at a sweet little rest stop next to a creek. Emrys was able to get out and walk with his walker a bit, and he had a little crowd of fans at one point who just couldn't get enough of him. That was funny. The highway to Price goes through a very impressive canyon - all of the terrain was much different than I had anticipated. We found the tiny dino museum and let Emrys go wild, since no one else was there, and he had a fun time, I think. They had a tank there with a live turtle and he just couldn't get enough of that! We did find a small place to eat here, but there's only three food places in the whole county, I think, and there was a bowling alley Thane wanted to go to, but it was league night, and clearly nothing else to do in the Price area, so they were completely full. What people do here to make a living I have no idea!!

We are going to cut our stay here short - we were supposed to stay for two nights, but we are going to take off tomorrow instead. We're playing it by ear and trying to be spontaneous!

This was anything but a quick recap, rotfl! Time to get the kids settled down to sleep - tomorrow we will see the Cleaveland-Lloyd Quarry and then head up to Wyoming. Yay! It's an interesting desert scene, but we are missing our trees and mountains, and want to see some (living) animals!

Will check in again soon!!

make love not war!

2008-08-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

I went to my book club last night, an outing which will inevitable lead to a lot of posts here, since something always gets me riled up at these things. Aside from the fact that most of the people there thought that "Pillars of the Earth" was a good book (someone even called it "literary" which made me want to poke my eyes out), the main thing that upset me was being reminded of how most families interact.

Fortunately, we've isolated ourselves from most of this crazy culture, but every once in a while we venture out and are astounded at how most people live their daily lives! What is it with the warring between parents and children? Rarely do I hear such unpleasant talk as I do when a parent is talking about their child, and most of the listeners seem content to play along. "Oh, she just turned 13, so the next 5 years are sure to terrible!" with lots of eye rolling and snickers and good-luck-you'll-need-it wishes. More eye-rolling when describing how said 13-year-old has posted rules for how her parents should behave in public, so as not to embarrass her, but cheering when mom fights back with a list of chores that she'd better finish or else! - that'll get 'er! God, what a way to live.

This is not normal behavior. It's not natural behavior. It's common in our culture, certainly, but it's not normal or natural. Family units are designed to work harmoniously together toward common goals, and the dynamic most prevalent today is enemies grudgingly sharing space while working towards completely separate goals. This dynamic has grown up due to the institutionalization of children (schooling) which broke up the family unit. Among other things, the inherent age segregation in the school setting sets up this Us vs. Them mentality which I find absolutely abhorrent. I especially resent being in a group who assumes I am complicit in this war, including me in the snickering, eye-rolling, and back-stabbing just because I happen to be a parent.

Here are some basic revelations (i.e. what I would love to say to people who diss their kids in public). If your child doesn't treat you respectfully and lovingly, it's simply because you did not treat him or her with respect or with love during the years when they were learning how to be their best self. Children are hard-wired to love and respect their parents, so if you have modeled for them a different dynamic (by parenting with fear, manipulation, coersion, or neglect, and/or by abdicating your responsibilities as a parent to parent-substitutes) and are now reaping what you have sown, then it's your own damn fault and you should shut up and quit complaining about it.

Ahh, okay, now I feel better.

Swooning Over Scientists

2008-08-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have favorite musicians or actors. . .does anyone else have a favorite scientist? I get about as excited about some of my favorite scientists and naturalists as some people do about other celebrities. So here's my very favorite, geologist Iain Stewart:

He explains a lot of human cultural history in terms of geology, such as how geology has shaped fine art through the ages. Some of his perspectives were so eye-opening and exciting the first time I heard them, and he explains basic geological (and other scientific) concepts in such easy-to-understand terms (much of the time using food to illustrate, lol) that even children have no problem assimilating the information. If I had to make one science recommendation for other homeschoolers, this would be it. He's just all-around awesome, and plus he has an excellent Scottish accent. ;) So if you have Tivo (or whatever), search for "Hot Rocks" (there are 9 different episodes) and "Earth: The Biography" (5 episodes, also available on DVD). Those are the US titles, BTW - in the UK they are named differently.

And my favorite astrophysicist (come on, everyone has one of those, right??) is Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of Nova Science NOW as well as frequent guest on the Colbert Report (so you know he's a cool guy!)

Click here to can catch up on Nova Science NOW if you've missed it this summer. You can watch various segments from the show there, and again, not only is there some great information and sometimes a new perspective to be had, everything is explained so easily that the whole family can learn together.

That's all from Geek-ville today! :)

Names are Important

2008-08-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've added all my sordid details over to the right, which makes this thing official. When I told Abe about it last night, his first question was, "What did you name it?" When I said 'Walking Away', he laughed and said. "That's perfect! But hey, why not 'Running Away'?" and I immediately said, "Because I'm not scared [of Mother Culture]!" and he agreed that walking away was much more defiant and perfect for us. :D

I assure you this is not meant to be a food blog, but actually, I do believe that nourishing our families from scratch is a subversive act in today's western society, so it does fit in here. Last night I made apricot jam, and this morning I made some gluten-free 'graham' crackers, so I must share a photo.

I guess I'll go now and tell somebody this mic is on, lol.

First Post!

2008-08-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

What should a first post be about? I think I'll share a nourishing and creative photo of some gluten-free baking I did last week to prepare for a road trip.

I am so pleased with the new recipes we've found lately. GF baking has come a LONG way in the last 10 years! It was back then that I first eliminated gluten from my diet (pregnancy can be hell on auto-immune responses), and although I did master a few recipes, I must say that the selection of comfort foods was pretty slim. All these new flours now! Teff, Sorghum, Garfava! Woo! Some actual nutrition! I used to love sprouting my own grains for flour, but most of these GF grains seem too small to grind in my home grinder. I'm not sure yet. When I get some time, I'm going to experiment.