Childhood Home

Growing up in two different continents and several houses and apartments, my recollection of my childhood home is quite sparse. Often I can link memories by looking at pictures, which bring back various associations. While in high school and college, I completed several writing activities, like making a map and webbing, to bring back more solid memories, but those just elude me.

And while we're not guaranteed that the home we're currently in will be the one that my child remembers, I'm prompted to think about what kind of home I want her to connect with her childhood.

Praying Together
I want my daughter to remember how we prayed together, and even on our knees at bedtime -- that she would always have that special relationship with and love for Jesus. 

Playing Outside and the Garden
Even though our yard is small, I want her to remember the times we blew bubbles (or cheated with the bubble machine) or ran around the chimneyette.  I also want her to remember how we grew some of our food and how she picked tomatoes, peppers, and pumpkins!

Playing Together Inside
While my daughter is notorious to demand, "Play with me" several times a day, I want her to remember how we took Dora's mother or father from her little hand and brought Dora's family to life.

I want her memories of her childhood home to be filled with images of her family working and playing together. What do you want your child's memories of home to be?

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Fitness Vacation?!?

So I run into this topic of Fitness Vacations about every six months. At first, I thought, what a waste -- to go on vacation and exercise!

I wasn't so sure I could change my mind, looking at an article about fitness vacations on NaturallySavvy.com. There's no way I could teach children to surf in Africa -- I'm quite terrified of my lack of swimming abilities. And while I like down-time and quiet, a Yoga retreat would have me making a raucous! I'd also not be touring de France on a bicycle -- I'm lucky enough to be able to ride down the street. So, not just by default, but with the right mix of fun and discipline, a fitness cruise is where I belong! Though I might long to add more to the food "carefully prepared by the chef just for the fitness minded," I'm sure I'd have fun and enjoy focusing on healthy living!

 Would you take a fitness vacation?

Mislabeling of Foods?

I've been thinking more about buying more locally and not from big businesses, considering the types of things I need. When we were at a health food store, I found out how a big business bought up an organic competitor, and while reading today, I came across this article about a big business buying out another competitor and switching their originally organic product to become a "natural" product, where they can use Genetically Modified ingredients. You can read the article here.

"Local Trumps Organic"

Those words caught my eye as I was reading an informational pamphlet about a local dairy farm. They were introducing their products which were minimally processed (and at low temperatures). And even though they were promoting their products, I found their statements to be true:

We believe the local dairy farmer who practices exemplary dairying practices provides an alternative to Certified Organic milk which is expensive and generally older and more heat treated. . . Organics take the focus off of producing the very finest and freshest milk and make the goal producing milk to a rigid organic standard at the lowest possible cost.

Last month, we went strawberry picking, and I'd never before tasted such full-tasting strawberries! Those tasted 100% better than the organic berries previously bought from the grocery store -- and I thought those were flavorful! Even though the berries we picked were not certified organic, we knew the farm worked to minimize use of pesticides, and since were were picking, they were minimally handled! I was so amazed with the quality. That farm used exemplary practices.

And I think of our finds at the farmers' market. Though many of them are not certified organic, they do have excellent practices to bring quality products to consumers. Also, to my great surprise, the cost differentials are not that great -- in fact, those market prices are often the same or even lower than the organic competitor available at the store.

I'm so thankful for the farmers' market and the opportunities we have to purchase local. This has become more of a priority for me and my family! Have you been to your farmers' market yet?


Photo Credit: Free images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Memorial Day

I remember thinking about this previously that there is no such thing as a free lunch -- someone has to pay for it, either the business, another party, or yourself! When life truly is so good, it's easy to forget that what I enjoy, although imperfect, comes from the sacrifice of someone else. My husband works so I can stay home with our daughter. We pay our taxes so that roads can be maintained, trash picked up, and order maintained. And many soldiers through the years have sacrificed so we can have our American rights -- some of those followed a great example to lay down his own life for his friends.


Photo Credit: Seattle's Best Coffee's Facebok page

Whitney Farms

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Whitney Farms for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We've got our heirloom tomato spouts going, and as soon as our spring garden is finished, we're going to get the heat-loving plants in the ground!

My husband is the one to prep and care for the garden, and since we've been learning about GMOs, we've chosen to go as closely to the original source. We believe in using organic soil and  organic plant food to help the garden to flourish. Last year, we had great success -- as I count success by the amount of canned tomatoes and spaghetti sauce! (We had more than enough to make it through the winter and soup season!)
Whitney Farms® has a full line of 100% natural plant foods and soils with no additives, nothing artificial, just ingredients from the Earth. Their products have low to no dust, no manure odor, beneficial microbes, and specially designed protein-based blends to provide plants with both macro and micronutrients they need to grow and thrive -- all in an easy to apply manner!
We'd want to use Whitney Farms to help us produce quality food that we know has no harmful chemicals. As we've chosen to plant with organic seeds, we want to use organic products to enable the best growth. Conventional plant food would go against the standard we want to maintain. We look forward to be able to try the Tomato and vegetable plant food!

Visit Whitney Farms® for a $3 coupon and try it today!

Strawberry "Pickin"

Under Attack

I never imagined our home would be under attack by birds! For about a month, we've been battling these little black birds, who have innovatively opened our outside dryer vent to build a nest inside our house! While we do have a vent like this:

the birds were lifting the middle flap open with the twig they were carrying or with their beak and then squeezing themselves into the vent to build the nest. I could hear them from our laundry room and sometimes would start the Air Dry cycle, thinking that would clear the vent. But boy was I wrong and now thankful that we didn't have a fire caused! After sending my husband up to clear out that vent from the outside twice, we got a cover to go over the vent. Problem solved.

But not the end of our bird attacks, as we soon found out.

My husband is prepping his organic garden, and he starts his vegetables from seed. We like to set them outside as they get bigger to get them acclimated to the temperature outside, and the sun is just great for the plants anyways. As we left out his trays unattended, and after a few hours, we'd check and 4-5 sprouts would be gone! The leafy tops of the tomato starts disappeared leaving the stem! We thought perhaps our resident groundhog got to it. As I happened to look out the window one day, I noticed a bird eating the tomato starts! Who'd 'a known birds would attack us as badly as they have this year! And my poor husband might not have any tomato starts left.  =(

Do you have a pest free home?!?

Photo Credit: Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Oh, Craft Me Not...

If you've been reading on a fairly regular basis, you'll know that I'm not a crafter. I'm envious of the creative ladies who post beautiful pictures of their latest creations, often quite thrifty. The thought of cutting a hot gluing gives me the chills -- I've had some brilliant ideas turn out to be dark duds and a black hole of my time and enthusiasm.

With the end of the school year approaching, I wanted to have something for my daughter's teachers. I searched Etsy, and as I browsed, I had a few glimmering thoughts. Those got much brighter when I realized that it wouldn't involve patterns or glue. So I grabbed a 25% off coupon for Michaels, and my daughter and I went to choose materials together -- I figured the gift would be better if she chose. I have to admit that was the worse part of the project -- a toddler in Michaels.

And this is what we did last night...

My free-spirited daughter created her one-of-a-kind beaded bookmarks to give to her teachers, and all I had to do was to make knots! We might have to make more of these as gifts during the year too!

I know many of you are always into creative projects. What are you currently working on?!?