Contemporary Earth Mama

let's paddle, shall we?

the blueberries are here!

They arrive like this...

Then get rinsed and poured in a single layer on a baking sheet like this....

Then they get baked into something yummy like this....

 ...and in waffles, on yogurt, with cream, in a handful, in a smoothie, over ice cream and any other way you can think to serve them!  I'm beginning to think 20 pounds wasn't enough.

summer To-Do list

After a weekend of camping in tornadoes (didn't we just do that last summer?), we were able to cross a couple more things off the below list:

Summer To-Do List:

go to nana and papa's cabin

make strawberry ice cream

make strawberry jam-DONE

build a bunk bed (NOT my idea..hmm-hm)

go rollerblading

ride bikes to Ben & Jerry's

go to a waterpark

go camping-DONE

pick up and plant red twigged dogwood in front of house

play on the lake at Oma's-DONE

go to Huddle's Resort pool-DONE

sew new napkins

make pesto

pick strawberries-DONE

pick raspberries

take out front steps and build new outdoor entry

have friends over to play-DONE

make blueberry ice cream-DONE

go fishing-DONE

go hiking

start gymnastics-DONE

paint kitchen

This list seems to grow every day with new ideas from everyone...but it is the fun of summer, long hours of sun to get fit all the projects in!

I wonder what is on your Summer To-Do List?

family camping

The girls and I are off for camping this weekend with nana & papa.  Swimming, hiking, catching night moths, reading by flashlight, and making s'mores are on the schedule of activities.

We are headed to a campground I visited as a child.  I can still remember a photo of my second cousin and I walking hand in hand down the path toward the rickety metal swing set where we big kids spent most of our weekend ( when we weren't being pulled behind the boats), telling stories about So-and-So-Mr-Hot-Stuff  at each others schools.

It's so fun to take a walk back in time to share with our children memories that seem like just yesterday.

What are some summer childhood memories you've shared with your little ones this month?

rope swing fun

 
   Who doesn't want to me pushed so high on a little rope swing?  I can't get enough of it.

dinner for mama

The other day I was downstairs working while Sunny was taking her quiet time.  About thirty minutes later, she came down and said, "Mom, do NOT go upstairs and into the kitchen."

This usually means that she's sort of told on herself, like perhaps she climbed onto the counter top to reach a glass instead of the tin mugs hung specifically within her reach from the floor, or maybe she accidentally tried to see what would happen when you push a scissor tip into moms exercise ball, you know, stuff like that.

When I told her I wouldn't be up for a few more minutes, she said to me, "No, you can't come up now and you can't come up in a few minutes.  You can come up only when I tell you for I am making dinner tonight."  Note this was said confidently and firmly.  Hmm. 

"Um, Sunny, can I just say one thing?"

"No, mom, I am using only my cutting board and my knife and I'm standing on the chair the proper way."

Hmm. K, so she calls me up a bit later and asks me to close my eyes so she can lead me to the cafe where she has placed my "order".  I found the above spread beautifull presented next to a candle left to be lit by yours truly.

On the menu were cookies, celery and spread, and a salad.  The delight and joy this child held in her entire body as she told me about all the ingredients made me want to eat her right up and keep the food for later.  The cookies consisted of coconut butter, peanut butter, oats and honey...a little on the oily side but Fannie ate nearly all of them for dinner.  The spread is a crowd fave around here:  cream cheese, diced garlic and fresh dill.  She cut the celery into chunks and served it with the spread.  The salad consisted of red cabbage, apple chunks, peas, carrots, flax seeds and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Too bad dad was working late that night...he missed out!

Do you remember the days of making breakfast in bed for your parents or pretending at every meal that your home was a restaurant?  There is lots of this going on around these parts lately...makes for great memories!

summer fun

A day of fun on the lake...we convinced Fannie that we wouldn't go fast and she agreed to join Sunny and I on the Ski-Bob.  Considering we were behind the pontoon, we weren't really cruising...just enough for the girls to have a great time.

Though it did bring up a memory of B.C. (before child):  at a family reunion camp weekend the summer before I was pregnant with Sunny, my siblings and then boyfriend ( now husband) were out on the lake tubing and kneeboarding.  I say kneeboarding because none of us were cool enough to know what a wakeboard was.  Nevertheless, after a slow little pull with my 10 week old puppy on the tube next to me, my dad thought it was time for my younger brother...the second born, to join me on the tube just like old times. 

***Warning, the content ahead may be TMI.***

Just to give you an idea of what exactly "old times" meant...when we were kids, my dad would tear around the lake trying to lose any or all child-like cargo on board any flotation device attached to the boat he happened to be driving.  There were times when we'd roll on top of the water and only get wet because the rolling met a huge wave and, BAM, under we went ( while the others in the boat laughed hysterically until it was their turn.)  SO, my brother Jason and I get on the tube and dad starts pulling us around the lake.  We get a little cocky and hold on with one hand, start goofing off a bit, then realize dad's speeding up a bit and pulling corners pretty tightly.  We were getting knocked around something fierce, when, between sprays of water into our faces, we began reminiscing ( yes, we were on a tube in the middle of the lake being pulled swiftly by a boat) about these exact times from when we were young.  Before we knew it we were cracking up, I mean we were L-A-U-G-H-I-N-G so hard...you know when you can't catch your breath, that kind of laughing.  

***Here's the part where I tell the truth.***

I am laughing so hard ( and realizing I ought to do this more often) that I begin to pee myself, and it wouldn't be so bad if I were solo, but my kid brother was just inches away from me.  I am trying so hard to tell him that I am peeing but my  must have looked like a lunatic.  To top if off he managed (between cracks) to comment on how warm the water suddenly felt.

That was it.  I couldn't hold on one second longer and I rolled both of us off the tube where I swallowed a gallon of water ( because I was still laughing as I hit the surface).  Needless to say we were dying when we tried getting into the boat because of the whole thing.

My stomach muscles were so sore the next day ,but it is one warm ( no pun intended) memory of my brother I will never forget.  Good thing he's still around, so I can poke him about that time his big sister peed on him on the intertube...didn't matter that we were in our twenties, we were having a great time.

Hope you're enjoying the summer sun! 

a freebie for new parents/parents to be

I have just released the brand new www.myhealthybeginning.com site and couldn't be more excited.  What I am most excited about is this great piece I wrote for all of you....it's called the New Parent Tool Kit.  It's got a hospital packing list, a homebirth supply list, tips on healthy pregnancies and healthy newborns, along with ways to support yourself nutritionally postbaby for maximum health and milk production.  You're going to love it.

The New Parent Toolkit has a retail value of $29.95, but it's yours for FREE.  Log on to www.myhealthybeginning.com and enter your first name and primary email address in the upper right hand corner and your Free New Parent Toolkit will be delivered to your inbox shortly thereafter.

Can't wait to hear your feedback!

does anyone else just love words?

As I was cleaning out my office tonight, I came across a box of words.  These words are phrases, reminders, paraphrases, dreams, notes, letters, and cards.  Some are written on paper, some on napkins, some on cardboard, some on Orbitz gum packaging, and some on church bulletins.

What these words are, really, is equal to that of a life line.  I have this thing for words...I've collected pages and pages of quotes just to feel my heart go pitter-patter when I read them.  I have kept ideas, dreams, visions and heartache.  I love words and how they make me feel, so I was particulary moved when I came across a card from a dear friend who I call my fvery irst post-child friend.  She had given me this card when my great grandmother passed, which was a few years ago.  I am now convinced I sat down with this box tonight for a reason.  These words held me so.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am i to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous.  Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.  Your playing small doesn't serve the world.  There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It's not just in some of us...it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.~Marianne Williamson

So I share these words with you this evening in hopes that they meet you the way they met me. (Thanks, Nikki!).