Mommy Power

Today has been a very windy, beautiful, sunny day. We've had our windows and back door flung open wide! While eating a simple lunch of banana/berry/kefir shakes, toasted long-ferment bread with butter and raw honey, and kale chips, a big gust of wind blew in ruffling papers and blowing the calendar off the wall. Zeke (age 3) very calmly and sincerely turned to me and said,

"Mommy, can you turn the wind down?"

How does my garden grow?

My bed of kale is really paying off, finally! I planted it last fall and it survived the winter just fine, but it didn't do much growing until just recently. All winter it stayed around 3 inches tall. But now that our days are beginning to warm up it is growing like crazy. We've harvested a couple pounds and we've hardly made a dent in the bed of greens! And 2 pounds of kale is LOTS of kale!

We've enjoyed the kale sauteed in olive oil with onion and garlic. I like wilting it quickly in bacon grease, too, with a sprinkling of garlic salt, but real garlic is always best. As soon as I find the time I want to prepare some "kale chips" that I've read about on a raw food website. As soon as I find a decent avocado again, I'll make the raw kale salad that we enjoyed earlier this year.

We're also enjoyed our first asparagus, green onions, garlic tops, cilantro and parsley. The cabbage, a few lettuces, sugar snap peas, and arugula are looking promising! Oh, and my mint is growing quite happily, too! In about 3 weeks I'll be able to plant to my heart's content. I can hardly wait, but until then, we'll putter around the gardens getting the soil prepared, feeding the chickens the few stray weeds (which I actually found to be edible~hen bit and chickweed) and harvesting every bit of produce that we can!

Post 200

This is my 200th post. This is what's on my heart today.....

It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it. -G.Washington

A few thoughts on dyslexia

"When we look at highly successful dyslexic individuals, we see that they succeeded by following their substantial gifts, not by focusing on their difficulties." - Thomas G. West, In the Mind's Eye, Thinking Like Einstein

I am a faithful reader of the blog Eide Neurolearning Blog. They consistently post scientific information about the brain that interests me. The above quote resonates with me, in that I need to take heed to it! I tend to want to "fix" things in those that I teach. Actually, I need to make more time for their "gifts" to flourish! This isn't the first time I've come across this advice. I also like the following quote from their post today:

If a child has trouble in core school subject such as reading, an equally intensive search should be made for a child's strengths and interests, remembering to specifically set aside time for gift/talent development.

And I really think this would apply to all people, not just those that are struggling in a core subject. Of course, we can all work hard at mastering different skills (not just the ones that come easily to us) but should we not strive to use to the utmost the gifts that God has given to us as individuals?

A few Quotes

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. ~ Ronald Reagan

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. ~ Benjamin Franklin