La Leche League's new mascot

A popular attraction at the Fryeburg Fair this year.

"This is my helmet"

Hey there lady

Mum's alter ego "Phyllis Cartwright"

Soccer Season

Here are some pictures of S during soccer season.
He is the dude with the red bandana.

The Kombucha Mushroom People

Yesterday our friend Jill brought with her a beautiful little scoby for us to care for! we are very excited, it has been 4 years since we've made kombucha tea and looking forward to doing this again. She also brought some of her yummy homemade kimchi to share with us.
It is so fun to have friends to share food with, this is something that i miss doing and am feeling inspired to begin again. Thank you Jill!

cold air cold feet

The weather is getting colder! This is the most exciting time of year for me as we prepare for winter and celebrate the changing seasons. I love the cold air and the bare trees and walks under the full moon with my children. We've had a fire going in our backyard fireplace for two weeks now, there's nothing like a fire to draw children outside to play in the cold. They LOVE playing with fire, who doesn't? I changed the business' website to reflect the changing season as well, and I am really excited about how it turned out. Stinkerbells.com is now WINTERIZED!
Can you believe it has already flurried? It started in October this year, that seems pretty early, but I LOVE IT!

Updates from the Earth Log

-Sun was in love with "Mona the Vampire" and decided that HE was a vampire. He wore a wig and bought fang caps for his teeth which he wore everywhere. Before I got around to making his cape he has decided he now loves "Sonic the Hedgehog" and would like to dress like Sonic. He pretends he has pet hedgehogs and made them a home and he takes care of them. He usually is wearing a scarf around his forehead these days.
-Mars currently loves "Scooby-Doo" there are 3 episodes to watch instantly on Netflix and he has watched them all many times now. His favorite is "Pirates Ahoy" I think it's called. Last night as I was tucking him in he remembered that there is a Scooby-Doo stuffed animal in the playroom and asked if I could get it for him in the sweetest manner. He wears red rain boots everywhere, no matter the weather. When he cries he says "I want to be happy".
-Star is playing soccer, he plays well and is getting the hang of it. He loves using the computer for ANYTHING. He's seems to be really into things from the 80's. He is sporting long hair and lots of necklaces.

walkie walkie

Moon is figuring out how to walk today. She is pushing a little step ladder type stool around on the wood floor while stepping and pushing and walking. She also sat in the lawn all by herself while examining fallen leaves.

Reny's a Maine adventure

the boys each collected a couple of dollars from their banks to walk down to Reny's and buy a new toy. They each took turns making their own purchases, I am really proud of them.

2 is a magic number

Special Mars moments:

-sand shoes at the lake "i'm wearing my shoes in the water"
-Mars climbed up and stood on the hood of the car all by himself while I got Moon out of the car, he was very happy with himself.
-at the shop he had a little sand pail and he put it on his head while walking around saying to noone in particular "i'm the king" over and over in a sing songy way.

seeing, believing, receiving

We watched the movie "Nim's Island" the other night and everybody loved it, the animals, the ocean, marine biology, folklore, and of course the fantasy of living on a secluded island and building a home. The kids watched all the special features repeatedly and discussed the details among themselves and told me all about it. Sun was really moved by the lizards in the film, bearded dragons to be exact. He fell in love with them and the idea of having one as a companion so much that he spoke about it for days non stop had a name picked out and everything. So we decided to take a 40 minute drive to a pet store that had a baby bearded dragon to see if he felt that way after seeing a real one. Well, he did, after walking around the pet store and looking at and talking about all the animals, J and I were going back and forth on whether or not bringing home a bearded dragon was something we were prepared to do. We decided that while we may not think it was the best thing to do, we were not there because of us, we were there for Sun and it is important for him to realize that his desires are attainable, and so Sun has a new little bearded dragon friend named Staple Thrower.
We talk about the subject of receiving every so often and how we've been trained throughout life to feel guilty for wanting... and receiving. It is important to us that our children do not feel guilty or bad for wanting, that they know that they can have anything they want in life, it doesn't make you spoiled or selfish or greedy. Everyone deserves to feel happiness and joy, what that is to each person may be different, but should never be limited. Everything is possible if you just put your mind to it.

"i'm up here Fidoula"

today Moon woke us up talking to the cat, we had some coffee and some food and Star and Sun walked to the shop with J

mmm elbows

you know that feeling when you walk into the kitchen and haven't been to the store in a while and you think to yourself "there is nothing to eat", but there isn't time to go to the store and everyone is waiting to be fed?
well this is what we put together from what little was left...
1 box of elbow macaroni
1/8 of a container kraft parmesan
1 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of corn starch
salt & pepper
a bag of fake ground meat

we cooked the milk, cheese, corn starch, salt and pepper ...put it on the pasta and added the fake meat... it was good and filling and we didn't have to go to the store!

water ways after rainy days

It has been raining for a week and a half. the transition to the next season begins, the days are darker and colder and you can faintly smell fall sneaking in. The brook behind the shop has turned into rapids and overflowed it's bank. There is a small loop off the brook which has also overflowed. With the help of the 12 year old boy at the neighboring shop my sons discovered the loop makes a great water slide sort of thing. The water is moving so fast and deep that it carries you around and you can get out at the bridge, or flow under it. Our friends stopped by the shop to visit with us and we all enjoyed playing in the immense amounts of warm warm brook water. It was a very sweet day.

hi mork i'm in york

C's family flew in from california and rented a house in york beach maine. so we all packed up, couped the chickens and went to be with them for 10 days. we kicked it off with a trip to short sands, everyone was so excited and the boys were finally going to get boogie boards. Yaya, Auntie E & Star went to the beach shop to get boogie boards, C & Sun went to the playground, Mars and J stayed at the beach. While at the playground Sun was very excited because he always wanted a boogie board with a shark on it, to C's surprise they found one, just one shark boogie board, Star picked a pirate board which he loves, we can't get enough of skulls and crossbones in our family. after the beach that day we walked over to beach street to get started on going to the first of 3 candy stores. the boys each chose candy filled water guns, for C it was an assortment of sugary novelties, Yaya chose fudge of course and E chose salt water taffy, alas J left empty handed, good thing C planned on that while filling the bag. We took the trolley back to the nubble lighthouse and then walked to the house. we collected Bapa and walked to fox's for a classic maine beach dinner, then back to the house to chill and watch a movie all together. we spent most of our time in york walking, to the beach, to the lighthouse, to the shops, we ate taffy and fudge and candy, we went to the arcade and bowling and wild kingdom, we had two family reunions and the kids LOVED playing with cousins! everyone was so happy to be with Yaya, Bapa & E, and Moon warmed up to everyone pretty fast.
Moon's highlights: she learned to side sit and let someone other than mommy hold her.
Mars' highlights: a little plastic purse full of candy, dedicated Lucius time at the arcade, finding a purple shovel on the beach after losing the new shovel he was so happy to receive!, going in the ocean, living with Yaya & Bapa and E, bowling and boogie boarding.
Sun's highlights: the purple york beach sweatshirt, playing with cousins and the candy necklace.
Star's highlights
: getting a boogie board, staying with Yaya & Bapa, going bowling & the arcade.
J's Highlights: boogie boarding, the hot dogs at the cook out, fruit salad, lobster, ice cream, corn chowder, finding a sand dollar for C, walking, getting a gas grill from the side of the road, the painting guy, thunder and lightening, the Nubble lighthouse, being a joyful family all together somewhere other than home.
C's highlights: the candy shops, brownie sundaes, pizza, walking everywhere, smelling the ocean in the air, awesome crazy thunder and lightening storms, BOOGIE BOARDING, finding a sand dollar for J, eating, seeing my children being free and joyful and being free and joyful myself, having my parents and sister around.
we had an amazing and joyful time and are looking forward to seeing them again soon!

Adventure is our core

Adventure is a staple in our life. It's time to step the game up!

Conditioner

Like many people weh ave been trained to wake up feeling anxious to get started on the days work, to feel like we must "accomplish" x amount of duties before enjoying precious moments with our children. it has taken us years to deprogram ourselves and still we have days when that feeling stops us from being joyful people and sharing happiness with m\our children. we must wake up every day and remind ourselves that the only "work" that matters is making sure our children are happy and joyful.
to be continued...

Gas prices too high you say?

In our effort to save resources, money, and our planet, we have been walking everywhere. We only use our car once or twice a week and as soon as we get another bicycle it wont even be that often. As a result our insurance policy has downgraded us to the status of "Pleasure" drivers.

Strawberry Fields Forever

I suspected the "weeds" in our yard were wild strawberry plants based on my childhood memories, but since they never fruited I became unsure. Today as we waved good-bye to our friends I noticed a little red spot on the side of the driveway and voila we began our strawberry hunt all over the yard. We found 8 ripe tiny juicy strawberries and bunch that are unripe to keep us hunting for the rest of the week. A perfect celebration of Summer.

The Washroom

So our washing machine stopped working and I haven't figured out how to fix it quite yet... in the meantime there's nothing quite like hand washing laundry for 6 people. I suppose this IS what I asked for. I've always wanted to become more independent and sustainable! We started out in the bathroom this morning and moved it outside as it warmed up.

Animation Creation

Friday we spent the day animating still pictures with free animation software. Everyone loved it. We downloaded the software "animator 9", took a bunch of pictures of something in the same place but different positions such as a ladybug toy or the kids, then we uploaded the images to the computer and then opened them with animator. It plays them in a loop so it keeps going. We put a song on itunes while it played for added dramatic effect. as soon as they finished one animation they ran off to do another. It's awesome to see them so excited.

Mars Loves Chickens

Chicken Coup De Ville

We Finally built the chicken coup! They are VERY happy to be out of the bedroom, as you can see they are a little big to still be indoors.

Bliss

Extreme mini-vanning

Star played catcher in his baseball game today, he was stoked. we noticed while at the game that there are trails that lead to the brewery and some other places, we shall put that on the list of things to do soon. we LOVE Maine, especially because there are trails everywhere. after the game we headed to pick up someone's old rotted picnic table they didn't want anymore. we went with tools and no real idea how we were going to get it home. we spent an hour and a half disassembling the table and tucking the extra long pieces of rotted wood into our minivan. as we drove home we passed this place that has all kinds of stuff and furniture everywhere, it's the kind of place you drive by a million times but never stop cause the deals are so good and they have lots of stuff you didn't know you needed and end up buying cause you just can't imagine life without it. so today they had this highchair on the side of the road with their other roadside furniture and it was the exact highchair that C has been dreaming of for Baby Moon who is ready for her own seat at the table, it's pink too, that yucky creepy soft pink, it was perfect. 10 minutes after driving past it we turned around and bought it.
Sun has been playing and creating with big legos all day, he even brought them the the game, he really enjoys his imagination.
at this moment Captain Mars is smearing lip balm all over his chin and neck for some unknown reason, he has a big ploppy greasy beard, he's really concentrating on what he's doing, oh and he's skateboarding in place while he does it.
it is lovely day that shall continue with a walk to the lake and continuous joy

Sunday Funday Runday

So we started the day by baking some raspberry cinnamon coffee cake and polishing the wooden floors. We took the cake still hot in the pan on the road and picked up a couple coffees and hot chocolates on our way to the narrow gauge trail. Once we were there we drowned ourselves in lemon eucalyptus spray to become invisible to the massive amounts of black flies that hatched this week, and then we hit the trail. We were passed by 2 dirt bikes and 10 four wheelers. There were plenty more egg masses in the vernal pools than 2 weeks ago. Star collected enough sticks for a small fire and 28 bullet casings. We didn't make it to the end this time, but next time maybe. We don't actually know where the end is, which makes it exciting to walk for hours not giving in to the worry of not knowing where you're going or for how long. When we came home we finished the floors and rearranged the living room, it's more cozy now. For dinner we'll have a rerun of last night's; pizza with veggie ham, sliced tomatoes, vidalia onions and parmesan served with chardonay.

Ticks Ahoy

Dear Ourselves,

Today we went to Star's baseball game. He played well got three hits and took a spin at 3rd base. We took everyone to the playground after and dreamed you could of gotten out onto the lake. You all took turns driving the pirate ship and there were sharks everywhere. Moon had her first ride on the swing and she loved every minute. Mars did alot of swinging, I think that is his favorite. After the playground ya'll went hiking; the trails were clear and the sun was bright! You saw moose prints, bear prints, deer prints, wolf prints and the poop that matches them all. We got bit by flies mosquitoes and ticks. We saw a wood frog and discovered where we will be picking blueberries this year. We went to one of the lookouts and witnessed a spectacular view of a pond and surrounding mountains. Today was yet another amazing Maine day.

Captain's Log

Highlights of the week
~We went on a vernal pool walk and saw some frog eggs, and mosquito babies
~Star had his first baseball game, he did awesome and they all had so much fun
~C was dreaming of bicycles, on Saturday she got an awesome 2nd hand bike for free! and then on Thursday Star got one just his size from a "free stuff" pile on the side of some random road as we wandered, and that meant that Sun got Star's old bike and Mars got Sun's old bike, bike powered joy!
~We went to New York to Surprise J's Cousin who Graduated from college Saturday. We met her boyfriend and chatted about her future adventures which are all very exciting. It was good to spend a few days with family. We got to talk to the elders of the family which is always very nice and helps us to appreciate the lifestyle we've chosen.
~While in NY we went to a park that had a slide, swingset and basketball court and was in a huge field. there were awesome trails through the magical woods with a dry creek bed full of rounded and smooth stones which C loaded her pockets with, there is a fast flowing winding creek that we all played in, peed in and threw rocks in.
~we met some friends at the lake/playground, of course everyone had to go in the water, Mars ended up wet head to toe. Star fell off the monkey bars and decided he didn't feel well enough to go to baseball. Then Daddy Man showed up and we walked to the Chinese restaurant.
~we went hiking Thursday,

my baby's got sauce

so I like posting recipes that we come up with
this one is called:
ain't got no sauce sauce

12 oz jar of roasted red peppers
1 lb of sundried tomatoes and their oil
oregano to taste
sage to taste
thyme to taste
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 cup of water
a couple shakes of adobo
1 tbsp minced olives

blend it all together in whatever you got and heat it on medium for a little while

week in review ew

so this week...
-tried to go hiking in the rain, but by the time we got there the kids were all sleeping.
-went for a long drive on some new roads, kids slept... the mom and dad talked and talked
-took the youngns skateboarding at the skate park, they did well and learned a few things about balance and bees
-made some bread ... and ate it
-made some new friends on similar paths
-Captain S went to baseball and played well
-walked a lot

health food or junk food?

here's a recipe we came up with today it's half junk food and half healthy eaither way it's a fun, easy, fast & messy.
crunchy fluff treats
melt 1/2 cup butter with 16 oz of fluff (the big container of fluff)
in a big bowl mix:
4 cups of oats
4 cups of crispy rice
1 cup of dried fruit
1 cup of chopped nuts & seeds

pour melted fluff and butter over dry stuff and mix

or

how we do it

in 4 small bowls

1 cup oats
1 cup crispy rice
1/4 cup dried fruit
1/4 cup chopped nuts & seeds

then pour 1/4 of melted stuff over dry stuff in each bowl

make sure it's not too hot then stick your hands in and mix it up

smoosh it flat into a cookie sheet and freeze for a while until it's hard enough to cut into bars
or smoosh it into mini muffin tins so you don't have to do any cutting and everyone gets their own tray to smoosh
it helps to put wax or parchment paper over it while smooshing

Counting on the move

Star wanted to count all the cars in Hannafords parking lot, so we did.
We all counted out loud going around the lot and there were 71 cars including ours.
(not the actual lot)

Thank you YouTube

Thank you YouTube for allowing us to stay up really late with Star watching Ghost Hunters until he was too freaked out by shadow people to go upstairs alone.

Artichokes, earthworms and tv

Yesterday we drove to Conway to pick up our last minute gardening essentials, yee-haa. We put up some fencing and planted our seeds. There was a wee bit of rain, very refreshing.
We watched the "Talking Word Factory" and "Math Circus" and vegged out with tea, coffee and coffee cake. Later we went outside to get wicked dirty, search for worms, till the soil and plant seeds.
Then baths.
Dinner was stir fry veggies with teriyaki seitan and when J is done wrestling with the kids and having an asthma attack they're going upstairs to watch another movie while we have a date in front of the tv.
Our posts on this blog are a bit boraphyll , but we need to start keeping some kind of record of our days.
Things we forgot about our past days... we went bowling, Star had baseball practice, the cat went outside for the first time, Moon wants to move move move and has realized that her and mommy are separate people, Sun has been writing letters that he has learned on his own. Things we miss right now are year round local produce and de la veaga disc golf course.

Amazon Kindle

My birthday just passed but it is never too late to get me a present! I was just checking our Amazon account and noticed their new wireless reader called the Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device . Their description from their site states:

• Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
• Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
• Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
• Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
• More than 110,000 books available, including more than 90 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
• New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
• Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
• Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
• Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
• More than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN's Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post—all updated wirelessly throughout the day.
• Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.
• Holds over 200 titles.
• Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.
• Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
• No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.
• Includes free wireless access to the planet's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.
• Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.
• Included in the box: Kindle wireless reader, Book cover, Power adapter, USB 2.0 cable

Stinkerbells.com

We are very excited about Stinkerbells.com our goal with this business is to find a multitude of ways to help families find the products and resources that they want and need.
What I REALLY want to do with this business is to buy products that are made by families for families, that is what really excites me about this whole endeavor, completing a circle of sorts.
We like teaching our kids about business, and this business is different than our last one, so this is a whole new life learning adventure. Star is helping me right now to brainstorm about what kinds of things we could include in our packages to make them more exciting. He thinks nipple butter is weird.

Today is lovely lovely, it is warm and we are all wearing shorts and t's. We walked to the open gym and played in the park across the street until other people arrived, it was hard to convince ourselves to go play indoors. the youngsters played and ran, Mars actually felt comfortable leaving my side and Sun spoke up when he wanted to join in the games, yay Sun and Mars! Moon was wrapped to me and slept the whole time we were there. Star practiced his frisbee throwing skill which will come in handy when we get back out to play disc golf! We walked to the shop to visit with Daddy and we all went to lunch at the variety store. Now Star, Moon and I have walked home and are hanging out for a little bit before we go back and collect the rest of our posse.

can you smell the baseball?

This morning on our walk to "work" we collected all the garbage on the sides of the road. For a small town side road there was a lot of garbage, we collected a very full shopping bags worth and Lucius found two full jars of peanut butter. It seems people buy snacks and sodas at the gas station and then as they walk up the road throw their wrappers and cups along the way. Weird.
Sun and C had a sweet little walk together to the bank and then the bookstore and when we got back to the shop Sun made me a video games out of zoobs which he talked about and reconfigured for the rest of the day until he fell asleep. Star made an underwater vessel that had three motors that all rotated depending on the direction it needed to go. zoobs wonderful zoobs.
Today was also Star's first day of baseball practice. We were glad to see someone we knew from our local homeschool group there, Star practiced well, he threw really strong and hit the ball a few times with the bat.
At sunset we took a drive around so that J and I could verbally meditate on our life and creating the changes we need to accomplish our current vision.
I almost forgot to mention that we had our first order on Stinkerbells.com, thank you Mom!

today is sunday KABLAMO!

This morning is kablamo! We hung out eating homemade coffee cake and drinking tea while watching "The Water Horse". After, Star and Sun played super tux on our linux machine while we updated the business website on the pc monster. Mars peed on the floor a few times which is a great thing in our family because he is always learning. He's 25 months old and has been using the toilet for 5 months already, sometimes he forgets and that's ok. He also cleans up after himself, we're very proud of him. Moon was trying very hard to grab J's coffee mug while he was holding her, so we decided to put some water in another mug and switcheroo them, she reached for and grabbed the mug and then pulled it to her mouth and had her very first sip of water, it was very exciting and her eyes got really big. Now we are going to have some pizza and put purple streaks in all of our hair, Sun picked out the color, he's wanted to color his hair for a year and a half.