Author: Lee Reynolds

In a Blink of an Eye

/ Lee Reynolds

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.

           ~Neil Postman~   (The Disappearance of Childhood (introduction), 1982)

 

Mitchell and Emily, his grad date and guitar partner

In a blink of an eye our children grow up.

 

In a blink, the bike is still

Yesterday was my son Mitchell’s last full day at home. This morning he left for Vancouver Island where he will start his post secondary education at the University of Victoria.  As I watched him drive off, all I could think of was how fast his childhood flew by.

When he was 6 years old he used to sit in the back seat of our van and ask me what it felt like to drive. I always told him to enjoy his childhood because before he knows it, he would be all grown up. And now he is.

Last night he had a few of his oldest and dearest friends over for an evening around our backyard fire pit, roasting marshmallows and eating S’mores. I was in the living room reading my latest homesteading book called, “Chicken in the Road” by Suzanne McMinn.  Every now and then I could hear a chorus of young men laughing as wood smoke would drift in through the open door. I was trying not to think about this being his last night at home.

I buried myself in my book about a middle aged woman (like me) leaving city life and moving to the country to become a farmer. She even had  three kids in tow, which made it seem suddenly more doable for me. I loved reading about her chickens, goats,  sheep and her cows. As Mitchell was starting his new life, I was thinking how much I wanted to have a new lifestyle as well. I wanted a lot of land and a place to raise his younger siblings. A few chickens would be great too.

I was reading the last few chapters when I heard Mitchell walking to the front yard with his friends.  I could hear them laugh and express parting heart felt words, as they said their final good byes. Mitchell came into the house, joined me in the living room and I said, “what’s up?” He just shook his head and told me somberly, he didn’t think it would be so hard saying goodbye to his friends. They had shared so many wonderful memories. One friend had been with him since preschool and it seemed unreal that they were about to head off in different directions.

 

Issac on the left has been Mitchell’s longest friend

 

Mitchell with his best friend at their last soccer game…..kind of bittersweet
Mitchell in the middle with some of his friends on Graduation day…looking serious is a hipster thing

 

We talked for an hour and finally Mitchell decided to say goodnight even though it was actually 2 am in the morning. I stayed up for another 1/2 hour to finish my book (which was great btw) and when I did put my head to the pillow, I was thinking about children and chickens.
We all slept later than we planned in this morning, so when I got up, I hurriedly bathed.while D took the little kids to the kitchen to make them a quick breakfast. He was going to drive Mitchell to University so I knew he wanted to get the little ones fed so he could pack the car. We were all busy getting ready when I heard an outbreak of crying from the kitchen. Wailing from little ones, something about bowls and cereal and frustrated Dad words could be heard.
Then I heard soft footsteps on the stairs and a moment later, Victoria walked in the bathroom saying, “Mom,|” (lately she had stopped calling me mama…since she was a big girl now at age 3)…”Mom, Dad gave me Terrios instead of Harvest Trunch and it’s in the wrong bowl too!” She looked at me with a huge pout on her lips and a furrowed brow. Although I wanted to laugh and pull her to me, I just said, “Tori, be thankful for what you have, or what you have will be taken from you.”
I watched her think about that for a few seconds and then she gave me a little nod and turned and headed back to the kitchen. As I finished getting ready, my words came back to haunt me. From our children, we learn our biggest lessons and I thought about what was going on in my life. I was having to say goodbye to a son who had been really difficult to parent this last year. There were times that I wanted him to leave the house because his energy was so intense and he was often difficult to live with, but here I was finally getting my wish. Be thankful for what you have, for in a blink of an eye, our children grow up and they leave.
Then I was also thinking about how much I wanted a farm and again I was thinking be thankful. We have land, and in some parts of the world my 1/3 of an acre is a farm.
Later in the morning, as I waved goodbye to Mitch with the rest of the family, I was so sad as I felt his physical presence leave our home.  Life would be so boring. There would be no daily drama,  interesting stories, constantly revolving social life, cello and guitar music, deep laughter, or even heated arguments about chores and sleeping in late.
Mitchell on the left playing his guitar at his grad banquet…I will miss him playing his cello and guitar
 I felt a wave of  grief flow through my heart as I watched the car go out of sight.
With the little Honda Fit, crammed full, Mitchell heads off to University
This was yet another letting go experience. Breathe.in, out, in, out. It’s going to be okay.
Then I had what Oprah calls an “AHA” moment. Our children are like mirrors shining a reflection into our soul and what I was seeing was only an illusion. I wasn’t letting him go. How can we be apart when we are connected. There is an invisible cord that connects us all on this earth. We are one. We come from the same Source and we will return to the same Source. He is not going, he is right here, as am I.

 

Mitchell you are Always home

 

I love what Dr. Wayne Dyer says about shifting perspectives,“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”  
I’m choosing to see my children always with me. Hey, Mom, “wink” I think I’m getting this stuff.
All of our children at the afternoon photo session on Grad day for Mitchell, June 2014
As we turned to go back into the house, I reached for Victoria’s hand and asked, if she wanted some toast and jam on her favourite plate?

 

 Munch a piece of toast and listen to one of my fav songs, sung by Andrea Boucelli….”Time to say good bye”….although he is singing it in the language of  LOVE…..enjoy!
(if you aren’t able to see the video above, click on this link to Andrea Boucelli’s Time to say Goodbye.”)
Love ya, Mitchell!

 

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

 

Blessings from Hope

 

 

Basil Pesto Recipe

/ Lee Reynolds

Yum! I love basil pesto.

 

One basil plant growing in my garden…I have lots!

I discovered my love for pesto when my new friend Susan, whom I met while working at D.S. Gardens this past spring, brought it to our employee luncheon party. Although the picnic table was loaded with delicious and healthy food, all I wanted to eat was her pesto.

After that, I believe I was solely responsible for selling out all of the basil plants we had in stock. If I saw anyone walking around with a tomato plant, I would bring over one of our beautiful 6 pack basil plants and say, “Did you know that basil is a companion plant for tomatoes?”…and then I would offer them a free sniff. As soon as the basil was under their nose I knew I had sold another 6 pack. My motives weren’t to just make money for the garden center but to ensure no one left without having what I think is THE BEST herb for their garden. Well, I do like oregano, dill, sage, parsley, ha….okay I like herbs, but Basil is at the top of the list. There were a few occasions where customers wavered  even after a whiff of the herb but all I had to say was, “do you like pesto?” and that would be it. They would smile and take my 6 pack, sometimes two packs.

Suffice it to say, I planted a lot of basil myself this spring, right in front of my tomatoes. And it wasn’t long before I was making pesto several times a week. We even started putting it on our pizza instead of our classic tomato sauce. Yeah, we love pesto around here…and did you know it freezes well too?

So on the heels of my post about what to do with all the tomatoes, I have to share my basil pesto recipe. I hope you grow to love it as much as I have this spring/summer. Next year, I’m going to plant even more because I want to freeze it….it never makes it into the freezer with our family. I’ve been eating so much this year I won’t have any to dry either. Oh, and don’t you think all that green is good for our bodies! You bet…up there with Kale!  Here is my recipe and some pictures.

Here are the main ingredients,,,thanks for the garlic dear brother in law Barrie!

Hope’s Basil Pesto Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups of basil
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup of pine nuts or walnuts
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
(not in the picture but additional items, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, sprinkle of lemon juice)

Directions

Put basil, garlic cloves and nuts in a food processor and pulse it until they are ground really well.

Once well processed, add the oil, slowly to the consistency that you desire. I like my pesto a bit thicker but if you are making pesto to spread on a pizza or as a pasta sauce, you may want to add a bit more olive oil to make it thinner.Taste as you go.

Add the parmesan cheese and process really well.

Finally, add a pinch of salt, some freshly ground pepper and a
squeeze of fresh lemon, mix again then you are ready to dig in.

I like to eat my pesto with Triscuit crackers (Rosemary and Olive oil is my latest fav) but our oldest daughter Alyssa likes to eat it with a spoon, a big spoon, and if caught she has a guilty smile on her face. I wish you were here now Alyse to eat my latest pesto, ’cause it was delish, but interesting note, it did go farther than usual. It lasted all of an hour today.

I hope you like my recipe and plan to double your basil plants for next year too. Enjoy! In JOY!

This is a great afternoon snack for my family…but boy does it go fast!

Until, I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Tomato Abundance

/ Lee Reynolds

Welcome to Lakelin Reach Urban Homestead. It’s late August and everything is over flowing and some things, like our tomatoes are requiring daily harvesting and processing.

 

Now I’m questioning whether 16 plants was too many for our family of 10, well actually, soon to be a family of 8 living in our home now that Alyssa, our oldest is in the U.K. and Mitchell is off to University on this weekend. Did you know that 8 is a prosperity number in Chinese culture? Well I’m certainly feeling prosperous….in TOMATOES!

So this summer I’m asking myself how is the best way to process them for our family’s needs in the quickest and freshest way possible.

 

Thank heavens the little ones love to pick them daily.

 

Kathryn and Victoria love to run and get their bowls when they know we are going to the garden. The tomatoes have done really well in this location as they receive ALL day sun…and although I did stake them (so I could write down the name of the tomato on the stake) I also have the pool fence behind them which allows for great circulation and I easily pick and prune them from both sides of the fence. They get eaten too by our tomato loving, pool going kids.
But after the little ones are tucked away for the night, I have a kitchen counter covered in tomatoes.

 

What to do?
Well last year I got into canning them and each evening I made tomato sauce and filled my jars and was so happy at the end of summer as my laundry room shelves (yes that is where I put my preserves….hey it’s close to the kitchen and looks old fashioned with my bead boarded walls etc) were full.
But you know what?….in the middle of winter when I was making my soups, stews, casseroles, spaghetti and pizza sauces, I wasn’t using my canned sauce as much as digging in my deep freeze and pulling out the many bags I had stowed away when I finally got too sick of canning. Hmmm.
So this summer, with all the family stuff going on, I decided to freeze my tomatoes…but with a twist. Have you tried this with your tomato harvest? It’s so easy, why isn’t it done more often?
All you do is cut up your tomatoes in the size that your family likes in soups, etc and you put them in a large baking pan. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the tomatoes, add some garlic, basil, oregano. I was really smart this year and put a planter of my Greek type herbs, which I use the most on my front porch, it’s pretty and useful. It has saved me countless steps to our garden as well. I love to just go out and snip what I need and sprinkle them freshly on whatever I’m making in the kitchen.
Oh my, just thinking of that has firmed up what we are having for dinner. Greek Salad, Chicken and lemon with dill, baby size potatoes, fresh from the garden. My oldest daughter Alyssa put us onto Greek food after spending a month in Turkey and Greece 2 years ago and now I can’t get enough of that fare. I’m so glad that the weather in the Okanagan is perfect for growing peppers, cucumbers and of course lots of tomatoes!  Sorry, I got side tracked talking about herbs. Back to processing..
Okay, here is what the tomatoes looked like before I put them in the oven at 250 degrees for a hour.

 

 

 

And this is what they looked like after marinading in the oven…the smell in the house is divine!

 

Now normally I cool the tomatoes and then pop the whole baking tray into the freezer over night and in the morning I put the frozen tomatoes and herbs into freezer bags. For the sake of this blog, I just cooled them and put them directly into bags. I like freezing them first and then put them into bags as they separate easier when I open the bag in the middle of winter. I can just pull out what I want to use for my soups and stews. (note if you don’t like the skins on you will have to remove them before you stew them in the oven…but we don’t mind the skins)
The thing I love about this method is the tomatoes are already seasoned AND it’s quick. I’m going to can some as well but I was so happy with the results that I wanted to share another way of processing the tomato harvest. Peaches are on my door step and suddenly I’m realizing that I want it all but I want to put it away as quickly as possible. What is your favourite way to process your tomatoes?
 

I think in this picture to the right…even my little one Kate is wondering what we are going to do with all these tomatoes…and she and her twin sister, love to eat them whole. I have never had any of our children who cared for tomatoes as little people…unless they were on a cheese pizza. These are my veggie babies.

The picture below is a heritage tomato, called the Ox heart...I’m growing it for the first time this year. The tomato is heart shaped when you cut it and has few seeds making it a great BIG sauce tomato.

 

 

 

If you are new to living sustainably, growing tomatoes is the first thing I would recommend planting since you can do it in a small space, perfect for the urban farmer. And it’s so rewarding at the end of summer to slice into a juicy tomato and make a sandwich, or a delicious Greek salad, …or as my little veggie loving babies, eat it right off the vine. Nothing says summer better than a tomato. What kind do you like?

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Say Grace

/ Lee Reynolds

“Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.”

 

This evening my day 16 meditation was titled, Radiating Grace. As Deepak spoke on the definition of Grace, I was thinking how I have experienced it deeply in my life. Our daughter, aptly named Grace was one of my greatest blessings.

Our sweet girl finally came after a long time trying to have our 5th child, and after experiencing a sad miscarriage of what I thought at the time would be our last baby. She came on the wings of surrender and gratitude. 

Before she was conceived though there was another. That baby I called my Soulbaby. We had finally gotten pregnant the month of the horrific 911 tragedy. Why, after trying to conceive for so long we should finally get pregnant that month. I don’t know but despite how a shadow of darkness had descended upon the earth, our Soulbaby arrived bringing light to my life. 

She wasn’t with us long. Only a breath of time. When I was 10 weeks pregnant I went in for an ultrasound only to hear words that will never leave my memory, “I’m sorry, there is no heart beat.” What happened in the last few days before that ultrasound? They measured her and found that she had just passed based on her size. I chose to wait for my body to miscarry on it’s own because as sad as I was, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her. Even though she had left her body, I wasn’t ready to let her little shell go. 

 

And so I waited day after day for my body to realize that it didn’t have to keep sending energy to my womb but it didn’t want to say goodbye either. During that time of grief I was given a deep sense of comfort, which enveloped me like a warm blanket.  As tears flowed from my heart, I was flooded with love and I knew I was experiencing grace. It was deep and powerful but light and peaceful as well. 

 

I knew I was loved and I had been given a gift. Something I had been praying months for and it had been given but with conditions. The fact that I had even been pregnant felt enough. Sometimes we have a lifetime with our children and sometimes we are not given that but even a brief time is a lifetime. It was my Soulbaby’s lifetime. I knew she had given me a glimpse of eternity.

After two weeks, my Dr. wasn’t prepared for the pregnancy to continue even though my body wasn’t showing any signs of letting our baby leave. There was fear of infection, so I was admitted to the hospital where they induced the miscarriage with drugs.

As the first snow of the season gently drifted outside my hospital window, like angel wings falling to remind me all was well, I miscarried on November 30, 2001. It was a tough Christmas that year.

We had given our children two Siamese kittens for Christmas, and one was not thriving. I carried Samurai (our little warrior)around in my arms and fed him with a tiny baby bottle of special kitten formula. I prayed with each breath that he would start to grow but he too wasn’t meant to survive. When he was 10 weeks old, our vet who we had been working with closely, told us that he had severe digestion abnormalities and we agreed to let him go peacefully. I mourned that kitten along with our Soulbaby. Still, I had a deep sense of everything happening for a reason and beneath all the grief there was this brilliant light.

 

 

 As winter was ebbing away, my sister C, who is a yoga teacher, asked if I would like to join her and her yoga class to attend a weekend retreat of meditation and yoga at a nearby forest Buddhist Monastery. Although, I had 4 other children to care for and I hardly ever left them, I asked my husband if I could attend. He had a sense this was what I needed to do so he agreed to hold down the fort.

 

The month of the retreat, I started meditating as I knew we would be doing seated meditation for at least 30 minutes at a stretch and I had to be in condition to sit that long. I would practice my yoga and then sit and focus on my breathing. Before settling down I would breathe slowly in and out repeating the words, ” trust and let go, trust and let go, trust and let go.”

 

I was planning while at the monastery, to surrender my desire for another baby. Ever since the miscarriage 4 months earlier I held onto the belief that maybe we would get pregnant again but I had to face reality. I was moving closer to 43 and our Soulbaby would be our last. I was letting go and trusting. With each meditation session I felt a greater sense of peace and  pieces of joy were finding their way into my life. I saw beauty in the smallest things and I was immensely grateful for everything in my life. The time was deeply profound.

 

The day before I was to leave though I thought it odd that I hadn’t had my monthly menses. Since I still had a drawer full of home pregnancy tests from trying to conceive for so long, I casually took a test. I never in my wildest dreams thought it would show a positive. I just needed to know so I could prepare the appropriate products. As I was packing hygiene items, I picked up the home pregnancy stick and couldn’t believe what was showing. Two perfect pink lines.

 

 

Is there a more beautiful sign?

 

I went out into the garden as the March sunshine was starting to bring out the first blooms and I just sank down into deep appreciation and awe. Could I be so blessed to have conceived another baby? 

All through the retreat weekend I carried a sacred secret and was over flowing with love for everything. Nothing bad could ever touch me again because I knew that even if I lost the baby I was carrying I would be okay. I just enjoyed each day I was pregnant and my mantra was a whispered, “thank you.”

Our daughter was born December 5, 2002, 1 year and 1 week after I had said goodbye to our Soulbaby. A month after I turned 43. It had been a difficult birth since she was born posterior. There was a tension and hush in the labour room and I knew from given birth 4 times before that the nurses were concerned. After the birth, our nurse told me she thought for sure I would need a C section. Most babies in posterior position aren’t born vaginally.

 

But she finally arrived after a long struggle, sunny side up but very blue and still..  She was whisked over to the isolette and the silence was heavy as the seconds ticked by without any sound. I prayed that I wasn’t going to loose her now after going through so much but I was just so thankful for the time we had had together. It had been the most joy filled pregnancy. After what seemed like forever, the best sound broke through the quiet of the morning. A small cry was heard.

 

And so, tonight’s meditation reminded me of that time and I felt like I needed to share it. Our Grace is a lovely, sweet 11 year old now and when she smiles it lights up the room. I  will never forget the one that came before and I have wondered if it was her soul coming to teach me to be grateful…and then she came back again. That belief feels right and resonates with my soul. She is my Soulbaby. My Grace.

 

Below is the written excerpt from my evenings meditation. I hope you are following along with Deepak, Oprah and I as well. This meditation series has helped to expand my happiness this month despite the fact that I could wallow in sadness over several of my children leaving the nest. But I’m not. The really cool thing about experiencing Grace once is, it never leaves you.

 

Our beautiful Grace Elizabeth

 Day 16 – Radiating Grace

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d . . . it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
― William Shakespeare

Grace is an important aspect of expanding our happiness, because it is through grace that we express love and blessings completely and unconditionally. We are each a source and conduit of grace.
Grace is a loving power and presence that elevates and brightens whatever the challenge or situation might be. As we mature into our authentic selves, we are more open, receptive, and expansive, and so we naturally feel the influence of more grace in our lives. It is this same expansiveness and openness that makes it easy for us to radiate that grace along to others.
Radiating grace is not about adopting an attitude of sainthood, and offering benedictions to family and friends. It happens naturally, in moments as simple as passing along, or sharing, the fullness of heart that you feel when you offer a helpful gesture or kind word. When we share grace, our happiness increases many fold. <span 1.6em;”=””>Today’s meditation facilitates this free flow of nature’s grace from your life to others.

Have you experienced a moment of Grace?

In deep gratitude it comes.

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy, grace filled and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Play Dough~Preparing Children for School

/ Lee Reynolds

One of my fav songs….Teach Your Children by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

(If you can’t view this video above, check out this link to the song, “Teach Your Children, by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young”)

One of my web board friends just wrote a post on our parenting support board regarding how scared she was as her twins were about to enter kindergarten, especially her son. Now I understand her concern as her children were born very prematurely and had they been born when they were full term, heading off to kindergarten wouldn’t even be an option right now. But, I think even if your child was born full term,  moms still worry about how their children will do in school.

We spent most of the summer trying to avoid thinking about school….or at least I did.

Will and Kate having fun in our homestead’s swimming hole

I absolutely cannot believe our oldest is now in the U.K. about to start her teaching career and our second child, Clark is on the homestretch of completing his Science degree.  Then there is  our third child, Mitchell about to embark on his University experience. (me holding back the tears!) Buying him school supplies yesterday was bittersweet. Well those all seems unreal enough to me, but to think that my sweet William begins kindergarten next week. When did he grow up?

Surreal!

It feels like just yesterday I was carrying him around in a sling for his first summer on earth. Kissing his soft, sweet head and drinking in his baby smell. Next week this time we will be setting out his clothes for his first day of school. (if the teacher’s strike is settled that is)

So I thought this would be a good time to write about the things we have been doing to prepare him for kindergarten. I have an unusual situation in that I have raised a whole generation of children and have a pretty good idea of what has worked and what didn’t. Of course, times have really changed with all the present tools we parents have access to and how electronically plugged in our society is….good or bad….but if you have young child and haven’t a clue how to prepare them for school, or even go about teaching your child to read, these tips may help you. Or they will reaffirm what you are already doing with your young one. Or it may heighten your thinking and you choose an alternative path that feels right for you and your child.

Now there were differing opinions on our parenting board as to how prepared a child has to be and what is really expected in the kindergarten setting because expectations are different in each school district and country. As well as what parent’s expectations are for each individual child. My nephew for instance taught English in Japan to children who are constantly, I mean 24/7 on a structured educational path and he came away from that experience feeling like they were lacking some balance. (each family and community has to find what works for them) No matter where we live though and what the school system looks like, I think we parents would all agree, we want the best for our children. The “BEST” being defined differently for each of us.

We have enrolled all of our older children in preschool and I think this was an excellent way for them to learn social skills, like taking turns, sharing toys and asking for help. They needed to learn to sit and listen and follow instructions and be considerate of others and their space. I have written a post about “how full is your bucket” which deals with socially acceptable behavior but also teaching how to balance your needs so you can bring your best self to all situations.

I found that my boys only ever wanted to play at preschool though. None of them were really into painting, playing with play dough, colouring, cutting and gluing. They just wanted to play with their friends and the blocks, trucks, and the constantly rotating toys our preschool would provide. One of our sons lamented one day that they “forced” him to do a craft which I later learned was needed because they had to each have a finger puppets to participate in the story time. I think that was the only thing I ever brought home for his childhood keepsake box when he was in preschool. Suffice it to say that he has the messiest writing to this day and would have benefited from a little craft and play dough time.

I try to teach a lot of the fine motor skills at home. I make homemade play dough to build up their finger and hand muscles. Recipe is below. I also try to bring out the paints several times a week and  do something different all the time. Finger paint, cut imprints out of potatoes, or use different things to paint with…of course the old fashion brush is great too. In my kitchen, where keep my recipe books, I have a few shelves that I keep paper, colouring books, felt pens, crayons, glue sticks and scissors, so the little ones can help themselves and quietly draw or colour whenever they desire. I have turned a nearby closet in our kitchen into a craft cupboard as well which makes it handy to pull out anything for our daily activity, I keep puzzles and games in there as well.

What I have been doing the last 2 years to assist Will with kindergarten readiness is have him work on his ABC’s and numbers on almost a daily basis. With our older children I would buy age related work books and have them do a few pages every day but Will prefers the ones that I have made for him.

Will’s Kindergarten Readiness books and sight words that he has learned while reading

It started by just teaching him to spell his name and repetition was the key. Then we progressed to have him work on writing his upper case A’s and lower case a’s and each day we would do a new letter. I also write a Big A, and a small a, on a piece of white paper and have him colour it in and then cut it out. Then he pastes it on a piece of coloured construction paper. I then Google a bunch of pictures that start with the letter A and print them off and have him cut them out, paste them on the sheet and then we sound out the words and he writes the names under the picture.

At first he had to piggy back with me as he learned to write the letters. Once you learn one letter though it helps with others. For instance, he learned to write a C relatively easy but doing an e was harder….I taught him to write the middle line and then write a C and he got it quickly. He now has a full book of letters and pictures that he made himself and he likes to sit with his sisters and look at his homemade book.

He knows how to write all his letters now and he can say the sounds phonetically. Almost daily, while his little sisters nap, he practises writing out all his letters and his numbers too. We have used a wide range of tools to teach him his ABC;s and his numbers since he was very small and he is now what our school would call an emerging reader. He can read books with simple sentences on each page. What is really great is his little sisters, who are only 3, are also starting to read and often say the word before he has phonetically sounded it out by just looking at the clues, listening to the story, looking at the pictures and seeing the first letter in the word we are trying to say. IT’S AMAZING.

I found the children responded really well to two Leapfrog videos, in particular, Phonics Farms and Numberland. The little girls like another one called, The Letter Factory which is on You tube…..here is a clip to a few other videos that are also great…….

 

When Will was 31/2 we bought him a Leap pad Explorer and he loves it and takes it wherever he goes when he knows he will have to wait awhile, like his brother’s ortho appt for instance. This has been a wonderful tool and between the games, the videos, reading every day to him and working on his letters and numbers, he is taking off and I hope ready for kindergarten. I do worry about the social aspect but isn’t that what kindergarten is all about.

Reminds me of when my oldest was in ballet when she was just 4 and she was so frustrated because she couldn’t skip, She wanted to quit. I told her that if she could skip etc, she wouldn’t need to take ballet. It’s a process and teaching them to “be” gentle on themselves as they are learning anything, is part of a greater life skill. Anyway, check out You tube’s many leapfrog videos for your preschoolers and I’m sure they will love it like my kids  do.

There are lots of great web sites out there to teach school readiness skills. I have our older children practise math on a web site called, IXL.com but it is amazing how vast the choices are to teach children ANYTHING nowadays. When our oldest was in early elementary we enrolled her in Kumon to hone her basic math skills. We paid something like $70.00 a month for the little worksheets and a weekly review but I was the one doing all the marking. There are so many tools to teach whatever your children need help with now and in most cases they are free. Last summer, I had my then 14 year old Harrison, work consistently on his french on a great web site ( french is our countries second language) all summer and he did extremely well in grade 9 french. A big improvement from grade 8! It’s all about where you put your attention. This summer he has been working on playing his drums, shooting hoops and I have asked him to read a novel a week. I’m sure he is going to be the number 1 drummer in band, excel on the basketball team and continue to do well in English.

For Will though, I just want him to feel comfortable in kindergarten which is a big step up from three part days at preschool to 5 full days a week at the big kid school. We will keep working on his reading and writing and his math skills. Today I brought out coloured Popsicle sticks and had him make various patterns. He even got creative and started making squares of Popsicle sticks using patterns. All that time playing Lego with his older brother this summer has inspired him.

Mitchell and Will building with Lego

Children and how they learn fascinates me. I do believe  allowing our children to just play is the most effective way to learn. Just give your children something….a box of scarves, or a bowl of noodles, some paint and glue and watch them play.  It inspires me to remember to incorporate that into my life each day. There has to be a balance. While we want our children to be “successful,” (whatever that means to you) I personally want them to have a happy childhood. Then they won’t spend their whole adult life wondering who they are and whether they are good enough.

Here’s the recipe for homemade play dough that my family makes regularly. Even the big kids like to play with it. Having little people in the house allows us to still be kids. I think Mitchell enjoyed helping Will build his Lego city this summer.  Our oldest son Clark, who works at the Science Centre while going to University, likes to bring home “flubber,” dry ice, and helium balloons and watch his younger siblings marvel over the simplest things.

Maybe that is the key in helping our children get ready for the world of school..

Here’s the play dough recipe.

We double it for our gang,

Hope’s Homestead Play Dough

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 tsp. oil….we use a vegetable oil
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp. essential oil…we like lavender

Mix all dry ingredients. Add oil and water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it looks like mashed potatoes. Remove from heat and add the essential oil and colouring. Divide into balls and work in the colour by kneading.

Enjoy….In joy the process of your little one……

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Count Your Blessings

/ Lee Reynolds

 

 

This plaque in my bathroom reminds me daily to “Count My Blessings”

For a few weeks now a blog post has been composting inside my head. It started when our 18 year old son Mitchell came home after being out really late, to tell us that there had been a little mishap with our new car. I kind of was waiting for this “first” incident. My husband D had been hovering over the car like it was a new baby and whenever one of  our driving kids asked to use it, he would grill them with questions as to where they were going, how long would they be out, was there adequate parking…etc.

It was the inquisition questions I usually pose, to make sure our children are going to be safe.  But in this case, it was to ensure the “car” would be safe. Oh, and the last thing D would say to our kids as they headed out, was, “drive safely.” They would nod and say, “of course,” and be off.

Now normally I’m the one to give this line, “be safe.” After all it was my dad who was killed in an automobile accident when I was a child and you know it’s like a well worn rut in my life, things happen in a blink of an eye and there is no going back to life as you once knew it. It’s fear. Blatant fear.

This time though it was D who was fearful and of course it was for his children, but you know this time it was really about the new little car sitting in our garage. He has been more protective of this car than any of the others. True, the others were getting older when our kids started to drive them. but it’s kind of funny because it’s not like this was an expensive car. It’s a car that we’ve needed to purchase for awhile now but we were hoping to buy a hybrid or an electric car. We were really wanted to make a green choice this next time.

We held on to his Dodge Durango (a gas guzzler to be sure) and my old Ford Windstar van for WELL over 10 years; longer than we have ever held onto any cars before, because,

1. The Durango was a 4 wheel drive, it was our ski car to get us up to the hill safely and it seated 7…plus you know we get a lot of snow where we live right?.

2.  Cars are expensive and we wanted to buy the greenest car we could afford for our next purchase

3. We wanted to make sure the kids that were driving, had more experience on our old cars before     we bought new ones.

So finally, last year we bought a new Honda Odessey Van (yes, not the greenest car but sadly there aren’t any large family green vehicles out there…makes sense I guess) to replace my Ford but since it isn’t insured for the kids to drive, there hasn’t been any panic over its use.

This summer we finally bought a little economical Honda Fit. It’s the sport edition so it has fancy little wheels and spoiler. D loves how peppy it is and although he is over 6 feet tall he says  it’s very spacious. He also loves the gas savings.

Well that is the back story on our car situation for you but what I wanted to talk about was this little accident Mitchell experienced. He apparently was leaving his friend’s place very late, well actually early in the morning, and ended up backing into his friend’s car. It thankfully, wasn’t damaged at all since it was like 20 years old and made of stronger stuff than our Honda but our little car was really hurt.

Mitchell said he couldn’t sleep when he came home and instead dozed off and on until he heard his Dad getting up for work. He said he had to tell him what had happened before he went out and saw it for himself. Now I must give him credit for coming clean. That must have been really hard because he knew how much his Dad loved this new little car.

I wasn’t happy with how angry D was over this situation. For a day he was outraged and told Mitchell that he was paying for it. Which I agree is the right thing to teach children to be more careful but I think he walked around with his jaw set tightly a bit longer than was necessary.

Okay, so  this is our pretty little car….not even 6 weeks old.

 

Our new little economical Fit sporty car.

and here is the damage

I’m not going to blow it up….it isn’t a pretty sight.
Now I have to give you a bit more back story on how things have been going around here. Our son Mitchell graduated this past June. Out of our three kids driving he probably is the best.
Mitchell trying on his gown a day before Grad
All summer it’s been me who has been having ‘”issues” with Mitchell. He took Psych 12 and says that to make it easier for me to let him go off to University in September, I have been angry with him for one thing or another and it will be less traumatic say good bye if I’m mad at him. Well, it may be that, but I think it has more to do with the fact that I felt if he had time to go out with friends, into the wee hours of the morning, then  he had time to help out “more” around the house.Typical power struggle as kids grow up…they want total autonomy and we still want them to be part of the family.
Now I have to tell you that Mitchell is an AWESOME young man. This kid has been hard wired to get along socially with everyone since he was tiny. He just gets it and is really well balanced. He is an excellent student, has received scholarships to attend University, is multi-talented,  plays cello, guitar, loves all sorts of sports, is a soccer ref and is well liked at the neighbourhood grocery store where he has worked for over a year now.
I think because he is so amazing, may be part of the reason I push him so hard. I want him to rise to be his best self. So when I heard about the accident on our little car, you would think that I too would be angry, but I wasn’t. My first reaction was relief that it was just the car that was damaged. Then I was really proud how he handled things with his father.  I also saw remorse for the accident and I know he was feeling so badly over the whole situation. It just broke my heart. Also, I knew how hard he was working to help with University expenses and now he would have to pay hundreds to repair the car.
To give you a glimpse into the whole picture, at the beginning of summer, one of my husband’s co-worker’s son was killed in an accident. He was only 15. The family had a summer cabin and their son went out early one evening to go tubing with neighbours. When he fell off his tube, the boat went back to pick him up but tragically drove over him instead. He was air lifted to a nearby hospital with life threatening injuries but he lived for less than a week, until finally his parents made the difficult decision to end life support.
We were all reeling over the accident. Partly, because we knew his parents but mainly because it had been such a senseless accident. Also, when you live in a small town there are always so many connections. Mitchell knew the person who drove the boat. It was his boss’s wife. Our whole community was affected by this young person’s death and sadly it wasn’t a singular affair. Several children have been killed in our community this past year due to accidents and then Alyssa, our oldest, also lost a dear friend who had CF and passed away several months after under going a lung transplant.
So after two days of D being angry over the car incident and watching Mitchell move around the house with a glum face, I finally called D at the office and said things had to change. I asked him to come home and drive Mitchell to his afternoon shift at work. D said that it was so strange that I had just called as he had just been talking to his co worker on the phone. They had been discussing how he was processing grief and he was saying he had to try to get back to a normal routine even though things would never be normal again. D suddenly had a new perspective into our little accident.
We hadn’t lost a child. He was still there to hug and for us to tell him how proud we were of him and how much we loved him. He was even there for us to be mad at and later in the summer we would have the opportunity to send him off to University. Wow!
The car is just a ‘thing” which can be repaired. It will be replaced several times over Mitchell’s lifetime, God willing. It was a good lesson for our son to realize how quickly an accident happens. Maybe this lesson will have prevented a bigger one, more serious from occurring. It was a good lesson for us as well to count our blessings.
So D came home that afternoon and drove Mitchell to work. He told him how he really felt. That our son was the most important person in the world to us and accidents are learning opportunities…for everyone.
Years ago, I read a bible quote that has always stuck with me and I have incorporated it into my daily life mantras. Maybe you don’t have issues with “stuff” but I think this is one of life’s lessons for us to be heightened to as we go about our lives acquiring things. We work so hard on earth and for what? For me this bible quote puts this all into perspective.

Matthew 6:19-21   King James Version

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

King James Version (KJV)

So tomorrow before I get out of bed,  I’m going to Count My Blessings. Being grateful is truly  the core of being happy and living our best life.

What are the blessings you are counting?

 Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Hope Lights the Way

/ Lee Reynolds

Last night I finally got back to my “Expanding Happiness” meditation challenge with Oprah and Deepak and guess what the theme was for where I left off? “Hope” of course. In case you are not following along with the meditation program, I thought I would share this one with you. If you are, then you will have to write to me and tell me how it resonated with you.

Hope has always been a strong element in my life. Of course if you’ve read my mini novella, “about me,” you would know that I was actually born in the little town of Hope, B.C. which I think is kind of fitting in many ways as this belief has been the running theme throughout my life.

Ever since my Dad was killed in a truck accident,when I was 5 years old and left my mom alone to care for me and my 3 older sisters, I have had something to hang onto. The belief that everything happens for a reason and things will be okay was an undergoing current in my life. Even though our family was falling apart after his death and we were financially in tough shape, my spirit kept me strong.

I believe, one of the most important lesson for us on this earth is to trust and let go. I thought for a while that this was just my journey but I see time  and time again that the story may be different for my neighbour, but the lessons are the same for everyone.

Having “Hope” to hang onto was my lifeline. And that is why this meditation focus touched me deeply last night. Being hopeful, keeps us optimistic and looking on the brighter side of things keeps us happy. Being happy, attracts good things to occur in our lives and having goodness in our life brings more joy. It’s such an important element on our earthly journey.

Anyway, I wanted to share the excerpt from today’s meditation with you and “hopefully” it will touch you as it did me. If you missed the meditation, you can still allow the daily message, “hope lights my path” to flow through you today and remember that you are, “all possibilities.”  If you want to take it deeper you can repeat the Sanskrit mantra as you go about your day. It is, “Shreem.”  Breathe in, breathe out, with the word Shreem moving through you. You are all possibilities.

Here’s the excerpt”

This is my Hope wind chime over looking my garden

 

Day 6 – Feeling Hope

“The greatest joys in life are found not only in what we do and feel,
but also in our quiet hopes and labors for others.” ― Bryant McGill

 

Today’s meditation activates the power of hope in our hearts. Hope is a key spiritual component of our joyful self. Spiritual hope is not a feeble, anxious wish for things to be better . . . it is the active engagement of our aspiration to the almighty force of evolution. True hope ties our individuality to the cosmos, giving us the guidance and support to move toward our hopes and dreams. This expansion and fulfillment of our aspirations is an essential joy of life.

We feel happy when our love grows and our territory of influence expands, and hope is the leading edge of this expansion.
Our meditation today takes us to the source of hope, the source of our evolutionary expansion of consciousness. From this still center of being, we illuminate the light of hope in our life.

 

May Hope light your way.

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

How Full is Your Bucket?

/ Lee Reynolds

 

When our now 5 year old son, Will started preschool 2 years ago, I thought there may be some serious adjustment issues because on day one, when he was introduced to his new teacher he immediately gave her a huge hug. I thought it was loving and kind and watched with joy but I soon learned such physical demonstration were not appropriate.

You see, I had never experienced any of  our children being so openly friendly before. When they met people for the first time I was concerned whether they would even make eye contact, let alone extend their hand in greeting. So Will’s physical exuberance and outgoing personality delighted his father and I. We felt we had finally hit on the right way to raise our children and Will was exuding the trust and love he had received in our care.

Not that we hadn’t nurtured his older siblings but before I was even pregnant with him I felt a connection to this joy filled soul and once I finally got pregnant, I was in a state of bliss. I would breathe deeply into my womb and send light filled energy to our baby. The moment he was born we felt like he illuminated this light. The feeling of extreme gratitude and appreciation for Will continued for the first three years of his life. The sun kind of rose and set on him if you will.

When you live in a family where everyone is delighted with you, the boundaries may not be very clear regarding behavior issues.  After all, there was nothing he did for the first 3 years that needed correcting to any degree. His twin sisters were still babies when he started preschool so there was no competition for toys at home, there was no jealousy whatsoever, in fact he treasured his baby sisters and was very protective of them.

Also, I was trying to raise our new son with his innate spirit intact for as long as I could without introducing any fear or negativity. I don’t think this is the normal rearing techniques for the average child in this day and age, so of course I should not have been surprised to find the preschool situation  creating a host of learning experiences for our son.

As the preschool year progressed, Will’s teachers were constantly telling me of situations where Will’s behavior had to be corrected. I felt they were being overly concerned over minor issues because while yes, he needed some guidance with regards to asking nicely to share an item etc., he was extremely caring, demonstrating this towards a little boy who had serious learning challenges. Even though my gut said he was exceptional, I knew we needed to prepare him for kindergarten by setting firm boundaries in an atmosphere where our son could retain his wonderful spirit.

Now I must add, that many of his peers were probably more on the introverted side. They were quiet, cautious and wary of strangers, typical behavior for a 3 year old.  Some were still working on their verbal skills, so Will’s physical presence  and outgoing nature seemed to be magnified next to them. Other than reminding him of people’s space and for him to use his words instead of using his body to communicate, we were at a loss as to how to best teach the required social skills.

It also occurred to both his teachers and I that the more he was reprimanded on his behavior, both at school and at home, the worse it became. As he was preparing for his second year of preschool I was seriously thinking of homeschooling him since there weren’t a lot of other preschool options in our small town and our current one was having issues with his behavior state.  This was one of the best preschools in town and our other children had attended with great success so with reluctance Will started his 2nd year. I hoped that now that he was four, we would find some improvement. Although he was making progress, there were still days when I would pick him up and his teacher would relate several incidents. I could feel him shrinking in front of me when a situation was discussed.

To avoid him feeling like something was wrong with him, before settling him down for his quiet time in the afternoons and at bedtime, I would hold him close and whisper, what a beautiful soul he was and how brightly his light shined. He had come to earth exactly at the right time as he was teaching us all to be kind, loving and happy. He would nod and say, “yes mommy, I really shine with love.”

 

 

This is a sculpture that my mother gave me that sits outside our master bedroom on our lower deck.

Finally one day his teacher lent me a book called, “How Full is Your Bucket,” by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer. I knew as soon as I read it that the concept might work for Will. Will too liked the idea of carrying an invisible bucket on his head. I found an ice cream bucket and took it to school the next day and asked  the teacher to read the story to the class and whenever Will did something that filled a friend’s bucket by saying something kind or sharing nicely, or “asking” if they wanted a hug, he would get a little tear shaped piece of paper with the good deed written on it and it would be placed in “his” bucket.

The more Will’s bucket filled, the fewer and fewer incidence of inappropriate social behavior occurred. In fact as the year ended, Will became a leader in proper social skills and his teacher gave him a little silver bucket to remind him how wonderfully successful he had been and how far he had come.

 

Will’s little silver bucket ‘

Whenever I see the little bucket it reminds me that when I’m irritated or impatient with my children (and that is daily with 8 kids I can tell you!) it usually is because my bucket is empty. Caring for my children lovingly, saying a nice thing to a friend  or giving my husband a hug at the end of the day, all are ways that I can refill my bucket and my well “being.”

 

Our beautiful Will at preschool grad

Since summer is ending soon and school will start, (we hope, since in B.C. our teachers went on strike at the end of the year so time will tell if school starts back in 2 weeks) I thought this was a good time to share the bucket story if you haven’t already heard about it.

And this is a good time as well to say “thank you” for reading my blog posts. Today my blog hit over a thousand views which is amazing. I thought maybe only a few would ever check it out. When my kids heard me shout with happiness after checking my blog stats today they said, “let’s make a cake to celebrate.” Ha, guess who made the cake? I wish you could all join me by having a piece tonight…. but at the very least, I just wanted to make sure you know how grateful I am for you, my readers. Thank you!

I hope you enjoy the following video…..and your bucket is over flowing.

video here

Until I see you again,

May your bucket be full, and you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Homemade dishwasher detergent

/ Lee Reynolds

 

As I grieve over the fact that our oldest daughter has moved to the other side of the world and I miss her terribly, I realize that I can’t just lay in bed and be sad. The thing about having other children is that you have no choice. You have to get up and do what needs doing each day. Oh that reminds me of a wonderful poem I read years ago and I’d love to share it with you now.  The poem is an excerpt from the book called, “The Invitation,” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Have you read it?

If you are needing the recipe for the dishwasher detergent, because that is eventually the destination of this post, please scroll down to the bottom of the page. Otherwise if you are able and willing to take a diverted path with me, I think there will be a point to this post and it will be about  more than clean dishes.

But who knows, have you ever started on a path and “thought” it was taking you in a certain direction and you ended up being somewhere totally unexpected. Sometimes my posts are like that. We will see where this path takes us.

.

 

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.


Isn’t is amazing? If you haven’t read anything by Oriah check out her writing.I love that part in the poem that talks about wanting to connect with someone who can get up after a night of grief and despair, bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

 

There have many times in my life where I have had to do just that. The day after having an ultrasound, and learning that our much wanted “Soulbaby’s” heart beat had stopped, I had no choice but to go on. I awoke the next morning to light, even though I was surrounded by a grey fog of grief. All around me were happy, chirping voices of our children, waking up for the day and I had to get up. I had to feed them, and care for them. I had to love them. I had to keep going.

The really wonderful lesson I learned during that time of waiting for my body to say good bye to our baby, (my body didn’t want to miscarry) was that grief is full of grace .It takes us into a deeper dimension of human experience, floods us with pain and as waves of grief wash over us, we have glimpses into another realm.  A place of peace. I recall waking each morning to a living night mare, waiting for my body to let go, only to find a hungry little one asking, “what’s for breakfast.” I was humbly grateful for the children already in my care. They anchored me to this life and allowed me to see the beauty in the world. Loving those ones and loosing others, are all part of the experience we call life.

And while letting go of our oldest can’t even compare to that time of grief, or others I have felt, for she is very much alive and well. We are excited for her to continue her life’s journey, I’m still so sad that she will not share my day to day life events. I will miss making carrot cake for her and seeing her smile as she savours it. I will miss the smell of her fresh, sweet scent and oh the music that filled the house as she played on her piano will leave an echo of longing in me.

But today, I realize that the dishes still need to be washed, the children need to be fed, the house needs cleaning. I must nurture the children remaining and allow their childhood memories to flourish so they can carry them out into the world just as their big sister is doing now.

What is the big drama going on in your life? What do you think is really going on and what are you learning from your experience and situation?

Is there a “mundane” task that can be taken on with sacred appreciation so you can find joy in the moment?

And so FINALLY, after much ado…the dishes. Those dirty dishes ground us!
 

 

We renovated our kitchen a number of years ago and bought a highly regarded Bosch dishwasher with a stainless steel drum and enough cycles to confuse a person but it has never cleaned our dishes really well. 

 

Sorry it’s a fuzzy pic…but here is my kitchen…our dishwasher is next to our sink

I have tried all the various cycles on our dishwasher. I’ve experimented with all the various top selling dishwasher detergents, as well as tried a few final rinse products but our dishes never get really clean. I don’t think I’m the only one either. I was really getting tired of watching my children pull the glasses and dishes from the cupboards and scrutinize them with a discerning eye which made me feel like I was a horrible housekeeper. Occasionally I would tell them that they need to go and live in a third world country for awhile to appreciate a clean dish here, well almost clean anyway. Then several times this year we had their friends visit and as my children inspected cups to serve their guests, their friends would say, oh yeah we have to do that at our house too. Hmmmm.

This summer during one of the weeks that I was trying to stretch our budget and during another of my rants on how we were  drowning in product packaging, I found this really great recipe for dishwasher detergent. You know what it works. REALLY WORKS! at cleaning our dishes.

The first time I used my new homemade dishwasher bombs, they left my dishes squeaky clean. So if you are interested in having clean dishes too, THEN check out this recipe and make a batch for your family. It’s this kind of stuff that keeps me grounded on this earth and thankful to have another day to experience life. Even when it is tinged with sadness and grief. Oh and the best part, it costs next to nothing, the ingredients are in any well stocked kitchen as they are used in many cleaning and baking recipes and it’s all environmentally friendly with no toxins. You gotta love that.

Hope’s homemade dishwasher detergent  

Ingredients

1 cup of washing soda ~if you have difficulty finding this…you can make it…see below~
1 cup baking soda
3 tbsp of citric acid
1 cup of coarse salt
1 cup of water
Opt: Essential Oil of your choice…Lavender or Tea Tree Oil are a disinfectant

I didn’t have any citric acid in my house so I used the lemonade mix my best friend gave me during her last visit…first ingredient…citric acid…voila. Thanks Tamara!

If you are unable to find washing soda, all you have to do is place 1 cup of baking soda in a baking sheet for 1 hour at 425 degrees F, spread it thinly and it will magically transform into washing soda. My sciency son Clark was impressed the first time I made this and he reminded me how important chemistry is in our lives.

Directions

In a medium size bowl mix all the ingredients together. If you are wanting a powdered detergent you are done after adding all the dry ingredients. Just put it in a container with a scoop and enjoy.

I added water to the mix though. Once you add water the mixture will fizz for a few minutes. Once the fizzing has stopped you can mix it further. This hardens rather fast so you need to work quickly. Take a teaspoon size scoop and mash the mixture into individual ice cube trays or you can make little balls like I did and lay them on a cookie sheet to dry for 24 hours.

Letting my “bomb” dry in our laundry room

When they are firm you can put them in a container and start using them. If you want to add any essential oil just add it with the water. I added lavender to our first batch which had a lovely lemon and lavender scent.

I found the perfect container to put under my sink

When I have a pot or pan that is unusually dirty, I just mash a bomb into the soaking pan and let it sit overnight and in the morning I easily clean it. Sometimes you have to take the gritty mixture and scrub the pot with it so it’s really clean. I love this so I have also eliminated scrubbing pads.

 

I want to also share that I have stopped adding any type of rinsing solution to my dishwasher and now only add a few tbsps of vinegar to my machine. Results: clean, green dishes.

You know I was thinking about my great grandmothers and all the work they had to perform before the invention of  appliances and convenient kitchen products, theyhey also lived in a time when there was a lot of grief. I mean my own grandmother had 8 children, of whom only 6 made it through childhood, also there were childhood diseases and accidents, all more mainstream than they are now so having a lot more housework and just keeping their families fed took enormous amounts of energy. Maybe this was how they were able to cope with living in those times.

Being more sustainable is trendy now. It is certainly a greener choice and one of frugality but there is another side benefit; it allows us to be mindfully connected by doing simple chores and remembering that although feeling whatever drama is occurring in our lives is an important aspect of this earthly experience, being grateful for the small things in life gives us the greatest joy. Who knew, clean dishes was so huge!

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy, and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Letting Our Children Fly

/ Lee Reynolds

Life around the homestead has been busier than usual this past week as we have been helping our oldest daughter prepare to leave home. Although she has been in and out of the proverbial nest for the last 6 years while she has been attending the University of Victoria, this trip is the big take off.

Tomorrow she leaves for the U. K. where she will begin her teaching career and hopefully be inspired to write (or complete) one of the many novels she has in the works. We are really sad to see her leave but are also very excited that she is going to one of her “bucket list” places to live in the world. Actually, the U.K. is at the TOP of the list.

Red luggage. This is Alyssa’s Graduation present (B. Ed program) from us

It’s quite fitting as well since she is an English Major. She has been enamored with English history ever since she first started to read. I’ve told her many times that she must have lived there in a past lifetime as she has been so passionate about anything to do with the British Isles however there is that genetic connection as well.

Almost a hundred years ago, my fraternal grandfather, Robert Clark, left Workington, England (Lake District) with two of his brothers. They left their mother, father and many brothers and sisters (there were 13 kids in that family and I often think of what Great Grandmother Jane’s life was like compared to mine) I can’t imagine how their parents must have felt as they watched their three sons pack and then say good bye.

The three sons never returned to England. In fact, one of the brothers drowned in a river in Alberta,  Canada and my grandfather had to write home and break the news to the family. I can’t imagine how painful that must have been for his parents. Regardless, that was the way it was back then before plane travel took off and the age of internet or even Skype. So in a way, I feel like Alyssa is going home. I’m sure Great Grandma Jane is smiling and will watching over her.

Well that is the back story but more recently within our immediate family, we have been preparing for this send off for a number of years and in fact in our laundry room is a plaque that says,

To Our Children 
We Give Two Things,
One is roots…
The Other is Wings.

Why it’s in the laundry room I can’t say….maybe it’s because the red in the plaque matches my LG washer and dryer? OR it’s to remind me as I wash and dry endless amounts of children’s clothing that the everyday act of caring and nurturing for them is the true gift.

 

Will sleeping peacefully in the laundry room….it has great white noise when the dryer is on..which is ALWAYS!

I feel like we have really lived that motto to the best of our ability as parents. We have given our children a stable home, a place where their needs come first and their voices are heard.  We have also done a good job at allowing them to experience a diverse childhood with exposure to many activities and have provided them with a good education. 

I have noticed that Alyssa has been irritated easily in the last few months by our large family and all the various personalities within. I see her flapping her wings, getting stronger daily but not being able to leave the nest quite yet. The winds haven’t been quite right. Once she takes off tomorrow, she won’t be looking back. Instead she will be enjoying the scenery and the experiences along the way. 

Another cool insight I have had as I process this letting go moment is that I have never felt more connected with the world as when I think of my oldest baby out in it. She is out with her bigger family and she is going to be okay. 

She’s made mention recently that it’s probably easier for us to say good bye to her since our nest will still be jam packed. Yes it’s true, no empty nest syndrome around here but just because we still have lots of children in the house, it certainly doesn’t mean it will be any easier to watch her go. Her leaving is HUGE. She was our first baby. The one we experimented on.  The one we hovered over for the first three years until her brother Clark came on the scene. We thought she was the most beautiful, engaging baby in all the world. And she was. She has grown into this strong young woman and even though her voice is quiet, her presence in our lives has been immense. Her leaving will not just create an empty place in our home but in our hearts as well. It’s all kind of bittersweet as we don’t know when we will be together again. 

Like my great grandmother Jane, who still had a house full when my grandfather and his brothers left home, I don’t know when I will be able to see Alyssa again. Yes, I will be saving traveling overseas money as soon as she leaves but there is always something that comes up. Oh yeah, we still have to renovate over the garage to accommodate our teenage, drum playing son, the roof of the homestead will have to be replaced and I have huge garden plans that will take not just money but time. You know what I mean, there is always something that comes up. Not to mention her brother Mitchell is off to University in 2 weeks (stay tuned for a post about that good bye moment) and we still haven’t bought everything he will need for his University/cluster housing experience.

I’m not worrying about the money aspect though because somehow it always comes.  I do believe that when we have total focus and intention towards any goal it comes to be. I’ve taught Alyssa this well, because I’ve shown her how I reached for the things that I wanted most in the world (the lifestyle to remain at home raising my children and my children themselves, some of whom didn’t come with ease) and eventually all my dreams came true. Even more abundantly than I ever dreamed. I know her dreams will come as well……they are already starting to manifest.

One other belief I hold close to my heart that makes this process easier, is best said in the following poem by Kahlil Gibran,


On Children
 
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Hmmm…isn’t that great! Every part of that poem just resonates with my soul and I hope that my bow has been stable for the surest arrows to fly


Tomorrow when Alyssa flies away, I hope she knows all my love and happiness go with her. And Alyssa, if you are reading this, don’t forget the words on the pillow I embroidered for you years ago. They were the words that a piano adjudicator said to you during one of your music festivals. And they were;

“Relax, Breathe, Trust and Enjoy,“

Don’t be afraid to let the melody soar….great music is within you.

My daughter Alyssa getting ready to take off….2014

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful. (and for my blog readers that have children…….let them fly)

Blessings from Hope.
 

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

/ Lee Reynolds

What makes you happy? For me, chocolate is right up there. Up there with eating chocolate, is making something chocolatey for someone I love. So on the heels of expanding my happiness quotient, I decided to share my recipe for Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies, CHOCOLATE, ice cream sandwich cookies. Just for you. Expanding happiness everywhere. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did.

Will with the last bite of his ice cream sandwich

When I was at the grocery store recently I “almost” picked up a box of 4 ice cream sandwich cookies for my kids, a few of my kids. The cost was around $5.00 for this box, so  to feed my family it would have cost me at least $10.00 for 8 cookies. A few of us however would be looking on longingly. I made double that amount for half  the cost. It was healthier, PLUS, no packaging required.

First you need to make a batch of our
Country Fair Cookies

Ingredients

11/2 cups of butter
2 cups of sugar (your choice on how you sweeten it)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla…or other extract flavouring of your choice
2 cups of flour
11/2 cups of cocoa mix
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of adders of your choice…we use more chocolate..a cup of chocolate chips.

Directions:

In a large bowl beat 11/2 cups of butter until whipped. Gradually add 2 cups of sugar. Mix well.

Add two eggs, one at a time and beat until well mixed.

Add 2 tsp of vanilla or flavouring of your choice
Now add the dry ingredients together as well as 1 cup of chocolate chips, nuts or whatever you want in your cookies at this time.
This mixture takes awhile to come together so mix well, until you can make balls of dough.
Place one inch balls on a greased cookie sheet and press down….I also make a few larger balls for the bigger kids.

Before I bake the cookies I shake some coloured sprinkles on a few of the cookies.

(This cookie sheet has made thousands upon thousands of cookies…it doesn’t look great but it’s sacred in my kitchen)

Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. When you bring them out of the oven, let them sit for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before lifting them off so they set up. Then let them cool fully on racks. I put them into the freezer before I start spreading ice cream  between them.

 

Now the best part of making these ice cream sandwich cookies is next. Decide what kind of ice cream you want to put between the cookies…the choice is ENDLESS.  Personally, I like old fashion vanilla ice cream between this chocolate cookie.
 Our oldest son likes to make ice cream from scratch for the kids at the Science center where he works in the summer….they think he is awesome.
Here’s  how to make homemade ice cream
Now take the ice cream and with a spoon and butter knife spread the ice cream on one half, then put the other cookie on the other side. Press gently. If you push too hard, you will break the cookies, (and oh gee, you will have to eat that one) but it helps if you have frozen the cookies slightly before you work with them.
You can eat them right away but they taste even better when you have allowed them to set up in the freezer and you can pull them out the next time you want to spread some happiness.
 TA- DA!

 

Ta da, chocolate cookies with ice cream. Summer happiness.

 

These are girls after my own heart. They love chocolate.
Until I see you again, may you be well, happy with chocolate and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope

 

Meditation~Expanding Happiness

/ Lee Reynolds

Are you ready for a big boost of joy?

Today is the beginning of another meditation challenge with the Chopra Center. Have you participated in group meditation before?

I did my first meditation with Oprah and Deepak a few years ago and it was life changing. I have meditated “solo-fully” many times before however receiving a daily inspirational message and uniting with like-minded people all over the world gives me soul shivers. If you are up to expanding your happiness and joy, please join me. My favourite part is when Deepak  says, “I’ll mind the time” and I have the grace to connect with my spirit.

All you have to do is register. The address is below. Oh, and the best part is it’s FREE

https://chopracentermeditation.com   

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Homemade Pizza night

/ Lee Reynolds

It’s Friday fun night and I’m planning to make a pizza or two for my crowd. We have chicken left over from last night so I’m thinking my weight lifting teenagers will opt for that instead of “peasant food” which is what our oldest son calls pizza. Then he regales us with the history of pizza. He’s a science major at our local University and a bit of a know it all about everything.

My oldest son brought home some dry ice from the Science Centre where he works in the summer time. This is him drinking something with that ice. He is always regaling us with his vast knowledge about sciency stuff and of course peasant food.

Suffice it to say, he will eat our chicken so I’m thinking I will make one big pizza.

Classic Cheese on one side and a veggie on the other for those of us who like eating stuff from the garden, us peasants. Which is most of our family, thank heavens!

So help me by grating the cheese and cutting up the veggies and I will make the crust.

Here’s how I make one large pizza crust that is thick and holds lots of veggies. If you like your crust thinner and crispy just add a bit more flour and split the dough in half and spread it on two pans. We like ours thick….which our oldest also says, ‘”is not a true pizza crust, it’s suppose to be thin”

Hope’s Homemade Pizza Crust recipe

Ingredients

3 cups of flour
1 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
11/2 cups of warm water
1 tbsp yeast (I buy the quick rising kind from Costco’s…it’s in a large box for around $5.00 dollars.)
1 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Non stick spray for the pizza pan

Kate and Tori help to mix the dough

Directions

Add 11/2 cups of warm water to a large bowl
Sprinkle the yeast on the top of the water and let it sit for at least 5 minutes

Mix the flour (and I like to use unbleached white with some whole wheat…the combination can be your choice…We like 1/2 and 1/2 but if you aren’t use to whole wheat flour use less at first)
the sugar and the salt together until well combined.

Then take a fork and make sure the yeast is mixed really well into the warm water…it should be frothy. Then add your tbsp of olive oil and mix well again.

Finally, add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix really well. When a ball has formed I start to turn it over and over kneading it like bread with my hands. I continue to mix until all the flour is worked in. This usually takes about 2 minutes. Sometimes it’s still sticky and if that is the case, then add a tiny bit of flour to the mixture so your hands don’t stick but not too much or your crust will be heavy.

Then I let the dough sit in the bowl with a damp cloth on top for at least 15 minutes. The longer you let it sit the more it will rise but I’m usually making mine right before dinner so I don’t have time to let it rise higher.

While you are waiting for it to rise you can grate the cheese and cut up all the veggies.

Grace Elizabeth grates the cheese

The combinations are endless and like my chocolate chip cookies, my pizza’s always turn out a bit different each time. It’s endlessly interesting and delicious. I can’t believe the days that we used to order pizza out.

After the 15 minutes are up you can spread your dough on your lightly sprayed pizza pan. If you want you can let the crust sit on the pan to rise once again…another 15 minutes makes it light and soft and you will have an even chewier crust.

 

 

You can make pizza sauce from scratch or use your fav spaghetti sauce

Spreading the pizza sauce of your choice is the next step…..I just use whatever we have in the house. Usually it’s the organic tomato sauce from Costco’s but this year it’s going to be from my own tomatoes as I have planted enough to keep us going all year. Stay tuned later this summer for all my “what to do with the tomatoes posts.”

So that’s it for the crust.  Now let the creativity begin by letting your palate be your guide. Whatever we have growing n the garden or in the fridge is what I throw on our pizza.

Right now we have red onion, spinach, mince garlic (from my garden…I’m thrilled with my garlic this year.) basil, tomatoes (sadly, from the store, hey I’m in Canada and we are just starting to see them turn colour now, although I did have a few red cherry ones that were yummy) and of course zucchini and feta cheese. For the cheese side of the pizza just pile on the mozzerella cheese and some cheddar…our kids like that and a bit of parmesan cheese too.

And  voila!

A few weeks ago my sisters C and J were in town and I made them my new pesto sauce pizza….it was delish….I will for sure do a post on making pesto so you can try it out. It is amazing if you like basil and garlic. But try anything you like and you can’t go wrong with a Friday night fun food like pizza. I think I will pull out an apron and an old hat when my older son comes home and welcome him to peasant land. It’s a good place to be.

I also made a Kale Salad to go with our pizza and some cut up cucumbers and carrots from our garden as well. Did you know that Kale was also peasant food in the ‘ole days. Nobler folks wouldn’t touch it. Last summer I was reading how marvelous Kale was…a top 10 healthy food choice for sure. Oh that makes me think of doing another blog post on my green Kale drink….stay tuned for that.

Well, if you have gotten to know me at all bu reading my first few blog posts, I often write a novella so I will stop here and get on with cleaning up the kitchen….that is a picture I won’t show you but I’m sure you can imagine what it looks like when you have kids helping you and you are trying to write your blog. We also made homemade ice cream sandwiches this afternoon as well. (for another blog post day) If you could smell the chocolate wafting from my kitchen you would be in heaven (that is if you like chocolate….we love it around here)

So bon appetite!

 

My taste tester, who has been painting the living room

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients. – Julia Child

Until then, may you be well, happy, tummy full and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

Soulful Balance

/ Lee Reynolds

I often get asked by friends and acquaintances, “how do you do it?” I know what they are talking about when they see me out with our twin daughters and our youngest son, knowing we have a household full of kids at home as well. They make an additional comment that usually goes like this, “I mean you always look pulled together, so young.”

I usually just laugh it off and say something like, “oh, you know, kids keep you young.” Which is partly true. There is nothing like surrounding yourself with the energy of children who are endlessly curious, immensely enthusiastic and always in motion. You can’t help but absorb that good stuff too.

Plus, there is the fact that you are always running after them, feeding them, cleaning them, keeping the house in order and food growing in the garden; if one wants to get into really good shape and lose weight, my advice, have 8 kids. They are your personal fitness trainers, AND they eat all your food. Just joking…well sorta.

I do know several parents though that look really tired most of the time and rather worn out. Maybe they give parenting a bad name but I think it’s more about not being in balance. I don’t know but I do know what keeps me feeling and thinking young. Partly yes, it is mothering our brood but mostly it’s finding that balance between living in my earth suit and being connected to my soul.

Me, finding that balance in tree pose

Although it’s easiest keeping that connection when I’m practicing yoga, in quiet meditation or working in my garden, the way I gain the best balance of all is when I’m just living my life. Being a mom, being a wife, being a sister, being a friend, being a homesteader and trying to be the best that I can “be.” In each breath I take I remember, “This is the only moment that exists.”

When we live our moments with that thought always as our mantra, it brings us right back to here and now, breathe in, breathe out, this is it. Be grateful for that mindset. And you know what is really amazing about this way of being, living mindfully if you will. You can actually get more accomplished in your day as your energy is boundless. When you are in balance, you are in flow with everything. Grace and ease comes to you.Anything you desire comes to you.

It’s that simple. Try it today. Each time someone asks you a question, turn to them and look them fully in the eyes and say to yourself, ‘this is the ONLY MOMENT that exists” You will find that THAT connection will be meaningful and intense. The next time you are driving anywhere, repeat that mantra and notice how things all of a sudden seem clearer and more vivid. Did you ever notice that children naturally give you their full attention when they are talking to you and they play with that same sort of focus.

It’s that simple, living mindfully each moment takes practice but is easy once you get the hang of it…and the cool thing is the more you do it, the more you move easily into that groove because it feels so good.

I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred.  I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Until next time, may you be well, happy, balanced and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Green Living Tips~Conscious Consumption

/ Lee Reynolds

 

What to do with all the stuff that families accumulate?

I was a little kid in the 60’s and a teenager in the 70’s. What I remember of those times were that peace and love were big (a couple of my older sisters were “hippies…one even had a Volkswagon bus) and in the 70’s all the garbage cans were painted to resemble hungry green monsters with  gaping mouths just waiting to consume some garbage. Signs were everywhere saying:

Needless to say, my formative years were spent believing in creating harmony and a healthy, clean earth. Somewhere along the way though I got caught up in my education, building my career, living my life. In the 80’s I was a young woman. The message I  heard was that you can do anything and have it all…..the excess that everyone was accumulating and the entitlement was making me sick by the end of that decade. Looking back, I realize that it was just a matter of time that I would find my way back to my first impressionable beliefs, we needed to live consciously and harmoniously with Mother Earth.

And that brings me to my green tip when you have a family. Be a careful consumer.

When you have kids, stuff just accumulates…I don’t even know how it happens. Well, it starts the moment people hear you are having a baby. Things just start appearing on your doorstep. Beware. The stuff comes.

Also, the moment you start reading books on being a good parent it seems as if you need stuff as a tool to be the perfect parent. When I think about that fancy baby nursery we filled and then decorated for our first daughter, who was only happy while in my arms, it makes me cringe. At the time though we bought into all that crap. My advise from day one is be very selective. If you have to have something then look for it second hand. Babies grow so fast that nothing ever gets really used.

If you have well meaning parents, family and friends who want to help with the ‘stuff’ then ask them to be conscious as well for the next generations sake and select gently used items for your baby/children. It’s just makes sense for the environment and for the pocket book. Better to put your money in the bank and start an education savings account for your baby/children.

We have learned these lessons well though and somewhere along our parenting path we realized that we were inundated with kid stuff….I think our first sale was when our oldest daughter was 9. We had just had our 4th baby the December before and he was our third beautiful son in a row. It was time to let go of baby girl’s clothes. Well actually it was more like 9 years of girls stuff….not that we differentiate….if our boys wanted to wear pink and play with dolls that was cool in our books.

 

It felt so good to let go of those items and it was time for me to also surrender my dream for any other daughters. It made me so happy to see so many other families thrilled to receive beautiful items we had had stored in our crawl space for years. Special energy (check out the Art of Feng Shui ) comes when you release stuff. Whether it is actual stuff, an idea or even a dream, it’s freeing. We realized how abundantly blessed we were as we let go.

I should write a post about planning a successful garage sale because I’m the queen of an organized, almost staged looking garage sale. Everything in it’s own category, prices clearly marked and I’m great at condensing as things move. My husband D discovered a hidden talent. He can move our crap. Although, we were told that our stuff was “good stuff” by our garage sale customers. It helps if things are gently used, clean and it pays to keep the boxes things come in when you are trying to sell them. If you have the space keep them as you get more money when they are in their original box. Well there are a few garage sale tips even though this isn’t really what this blog post is about.

What I wanted to write about was sharing a few green tips….I’m getting there….stay with me.

Each Spring break we de-clutter. I have my kids go through their drawers, closets and toys. If they are too young to decide if something needs to be “dumped, donated, re-purposed or sold,” I would quickly review things for them, but as early as I can I get them involved. At even age two, my kids know if they love a piece of clothing or a toy but my advice,  go through the stuffies when they are napping. If they haven’t ask for that toy in a week, you are good to go with donating it to another child.

I think it’s good for children to see things for what they are, just belongings that can be used as needed but when they are no longer used they can let it go. They will also see how abundant they will feel with less as well.

I grew up with parents who were children during the depression. I don’t really know what my Dad’s experience was but my mom didn’t have much. My mom talks about how she loved the Eaton catalogue. She would cut whole families, all their outfits, household belongings and treasure them. When she grew up she became the ultimate at re-purposing an item. Even tiny scraps of material became something and I loved when she gave me little boxes and old bottles for my Barbie house. Even an old kleenex box became a great bed for my dolls.

But she had a hard time letting things go. She wasn’t a hoarder by any stretch, as we never had that much stuff but she knew how to reuse anything. I have a little bit of that and as I get older and greener, I’m growing to be more that way. Although, when our older kids were small, we had to do the yearly BIG de-clutter or we would be overwhelmed with a jam packed house. One thing I really love about doing a thorough sweep, is you find things you have been looking for, and often during our de-clutter sessions we hear our kids say,  “Wow, I wonder where “that” went!” Suddenly, it was like they had new toys and clothes.

The nice thing for me is that we learned the value in letting go and allowing some space to wash over us. We feel abundant after a good clean and de-clutter, oh yeah, did I mention that we also clean the house while we are purging. This is a big step too as we are clearing out dirt that accumulates as well. Oh the feeling of peace/ It makes me want to sort through a drawer right now. Well almost

And did I tell you all the benefits of the garage sale as well? Our kids have become mini entrepreneurs as they plan the garage sale with me. Some have developed astute business sense. Some diversified what we had for sale by suggesting I bake some of my delicious chocolate chip cookies, the ones with the mint chips. Also, we are famous in our neighbourhood for our popcorn so of course we make lots the morning of the sale and put it into brown bags to purchase. Then if you are eating our popcorn you get thirsty so one of the kids suggested making lemonade. Of course the kind from scratch.

The kids often raked in more from the treats than from selling their belongings and most of our customers said our garage sale was their favourite. Nice to know we can do it up right and make it a pleasant experience for those looking to get good deals and help the environment at the same time.

The saying that has stuck with me is,

~Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without!~

When we are conscious consumers, we make careful choices on what we bring into our homes and how they impact the energy in our family and the environment. Every single thing we choose has an impact, so make wise decisions. 

 

 

 

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy, de-cluttered and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

 

 

 

 

Sun Ice tea

/ Lee Reynolds

Hello, how nice to see you, please come in as I was just making some refreshing Sun Ice Tea.

Here is everything I need to make my tea:

I have this large old pickle jar that I fill with boiling water. I then add whatever tea that I’m craving. I’m showing David’s tea summer sampler pack but today I decided to go with 3 big scoops of dried Earl Grey tea. I normally let it steep in the sun out on the deck for a few hours but you can let it steep until it’s as strong as you want it….more for a stronger taste….today I just let it steep as I was cutting up zucchini bread and puttering in the kitchen. I also love to throw a bunch of peppermint from my garden to give it a refreshing taste. Just before you serve, add honey to the jar and stir, really well. Then pour it into glasses that are filled to the top with ice because they will melt really quickly…then add more ice before you serve….a slice of lemon, a leaf of peppermint and you have a refreshing and healthy ice tea for your guests……or for your favourite daughter….at least one of them.

Let’s take our tea and zucchini bread (check out my Summer’s bounty post for the zucchini bread recipe)….out to our front yard and have a nice visit. What have you been up to?

This my favourite place to sit in the morning….please join me?

 

                      There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart. ~Celia Thaxter

Thanks for coming to visit, let’s do it again soon.

Until then may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Zucchini Bread~Zucchini Chocolate Cake~Summer’s Bounty

/ Lee Reynolds

 

Okay, maybe it was crazy to start a blog and start writing about my homestead right in the middle of summer. I mean, gesh, as though I’m not busy enough with my 8 kids, summer camps, having family come to visit,  agreeing to take care of the neighbour’s flowers (and I’m not talking about a few pots, they are everywhere, but don’t get me side-tracked) as well as hosting a long weekend family re-union (which was amazing and so worth every moment…I have to write about that in another post)….all while I’m trying to stay on top of my garden and the harvest.

Recently, I went out to check on what was growing and was absolutely shocked to find, not a few zucchinis ready but a basket of them and more ready only a day or two behind. (What do you do when you have a dozen zucchini in a  few days time? This past spring I worked at a wonderful garden center as a garden consultant, where I kind of got known as the veggie lady because I was imparting my gardening knowledge with gusto (often would get hungry just talking about growing veggies) to those who wanted to grow things they could eat.

Early in the season we had single zucchini’s for sale and those got snapped up….smart people, or not. Later, our growers provided zucchini’s in a 6 pack. Each time a customer came in and asked where our zucchinis were, they would moan and groan when they saw our lovely, healthy 6 pack of zucchinis. They didn’t know a good thing when they saw it.

I told them I would give them a few great recipes to go along with the 6 pack and they just smiled. Most people left with the beautiful zucchini 6 pack but said they were going to find me and drop the extras on MY doorstep. Ooohhhh that made me want to sell them all the more…..or so I thought at the time. The way I look at food though is you can always do something with the extra bounty and if not, there are always people looking for food. Even zucchini.

As I write this post though, I wonder what was I thinking to plant  6 zucchini plants in “my” garden and don’t get me started on the butternut squash or the pumpkins growing right next to them.

“One” of the pumpkin growing on our homestead

But again, I transgress. What I intented this blog post to be about was sharing a couple of great recipes if you too are blessed with a summer’s bounty of zucchini.

After I brought a few of the green giants into my kitchen, I started by grating them with my food processor. Then I pulled out my recipes. Yes, I still have them in old fashioned recipe cards.

I thought I’d make some loaves for eating right now, freeze some, and make a delicious chocolate zucchini cake that I could also throw in the freezer for our upcoming family re-union. I was also able to fill several large freezer bags with grated zucchini so in the middle of winter I could remember the blessings of summer. I just love the smell of zucchini leaves, don’t you?

Here’s a few picks./pics from my garden…..I hope you In JOY!

Zucchini Bread

Preheat Oven to 325 degrees
Spray 2 loaf pans with a non stick vegetable oil spray

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 cups of sugar (1 white/1 brown or you can use honey)
1 cup of vegetable oil….lately we use a lot of coconut oil but I used a sunflower oil this time)
2 cups of grated, glorious, under appreciated zucchini
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups  of flour (I like to use 2 white unbleached white to 1 cup of whole wheat)
2-3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
opt….we love nuts…so we add 1/2 cup walnuts to our bread

Beat eggs until frothy, stir in sugars, oil, zucchini, and vanilla
Mix dry ingredients really well….then add to the wet ingredients. Mix until all combined.
Pour into prepared loaf pans

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean.

Let sit for 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge of the pan and then turn out on cooling rack.
We like to eat it warm from the oven and I put the second one in the freezer or share with a friend.

And here is the finished product….yummy.

Now I also wanted to share another recipe we made but sadly I didn’t take any pictures of the results as my kids ate it so fast that I didn’t even have a crumb to show you but oh my gosh, this was a delicious, moist cake so here is the recipe for our chocolate zucchini cake.

Hope’s Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredient

2 cups of flour (again….I prefer 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of unbleached white)
2 cups of sugar (1 cup brown, 1 cup white)
3/4 of cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
4 eggs
11/2 cup of vegetable oil….(and again you can use coconut oil if you prefer)
3 cups of grated, glorious zucchini
3/4 cup chopped nuts…we use walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
Grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
Add eggs, one at a time and oil. Mix well, then fold in the zucchini and nuts until they are well distributed.

Pour into pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes and done when the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool and eat…or spread with a chocolate glaze.

We made a chocolate glaze for icing. Some icing sugar, cocoa, and coconut oil…oh yummy. In Joy!

If you are blessed to have a bounty of zucchini, like us, I hope you try these recipes. If not visit your local Farmer’s market and I’m sure you will find them plentiful at this time of year.

You can also grill your zucchini or do what we do, just cut thinly sliced pieces, drizzle some olive oil on top, add some garlic, fresh basil and oregano…(I have to blog about my herbs another time) and garlic, and of course some parmesan cheese, All my kids love this and it goes with so many other foods, make some quinoa, wild rice, a green salad and you have a complete meal……and gosh anything that is easy, healthy and stretches our budget is what I love so I can spend more time with family or my garden.

Stay tuned as I want to share my sun ice tea recipe next. It goes great with my zucchini bread and is a perfect choice when family or friends pop over for a summer visit.

Until I see you again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

 

The Soilful Life

/ Lee Reynolds

What do you think is the most important part of a homestead?

In my opinion it’s soil. In order to grow the most productive garden for our needs we need to produce it in fertile soil. So I thought one of my first posts would be on that topic.

Our home was built on land that was once an old orchard but it is also on the side of a small mountain so it contains a lot of rock. Shale type rock to be precise which makes great drainage but doesn’t hold a lot of nutrients. So after building our home we had some good top soil delivered and we landscaped our yard using that soil. When I decided to grow a veggie garden my husband built two raised beds for us and hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of top soil to fill the boxes. At the time we didn’t know any other way to build the soil.

Every spring, I would add compost, peat moss and some sand to our garden. I never tested the soil. I would smell it and hold it in my hands and when it looked and smelled rich and earthy, I felt that it would be the perfect medium. One year our small town was offering “Earth Machine” compost bins for a reasonable price and we brought one home and put in at the end of our garden area.

I never learned the true art of composting at the time. We would just throw in yard debris (notice, when you live in an urban/suburban type setting you call it yard debris and not farm debris as you would out in the country) and of course our kitchen scraps as well. It was amazing how it just kept taking everything we would throw in and it never seemed to fill up. This particular compost bin is a bit awkward in that there is only a small door and opening at the bottom to retrieve the finished compost.

Still, I started pulling out the small bit of compost it produced each Spring and add it to our small garden. The production of food was great. I figured out that when you have optimum soil you can intensive garden, which meant that we didn’t need as much space to produce more food.

I   L-O-N-G-E-D  to be able to grow more veggies so I convinced my husband and older sons to chainsaw some large mugho pine bushes and junipers in a bed that was approximately 5’x 50′. Not large but would allow my garden to be more diverse.

Once all the plants and their roots were finally removed (a long process…SO THINK carefully before you plant an area with plants you can’t eat) I started improving the soil. The first fall I brought purchased bags of compost in and spread them around. The following spring we  added bags of steer and mushoom manure, along with peat moss. We then double dug it in the garden.As I worked the earth, I removed rocks and broke up the soil to be a fine till. The first harvest was really great and we had so much garden debris (corn and squash produce tons of debris for the compost)…..so much debris that we needed to build another compost bin.

One day, I saw a pallet outside of the business where my oldest son works part time and it said, “Free!” I went home and made a case for re-purposing throwaway items. This was a tough sell because of another recently pleaded case that didn’t go well. Last fall I drove by a house with a gorgeous entertainment unit with the lovely sign saying, “Free” on it. I pleaded for my husband to bring it home. He said he was busy at work and suggested I ask our older sons to haul it home. After much discussion they agreed. They couldn’t fit it in our larger vehicle at the time so they decided to haul it home. Thankfully it was in our neighbourhood and thankfully they had been working out at our local gym because it was really heavy.

That unit sat in our living room for about 6 months. When people came to our house I shared the whole story and how inventive we were…or would be with the item. Some people thought this was ingenious and some looked at me like I had lost my mind but I was on my green path at this time so I ignored it. It grew a bit thin though over the time it was here as every time my daughter had to play the piano (almost every day) she moved it away from the bench so she had room to sit.

ANYWAY, the end of the story is that we tried to re-purpose it in several ways but it was always too big or inappropriate for what we were planning. We then tried to sell it on Craigslist thinking surely someone would want it and we did get some calls but no one ever showed up. We even tried to give it away in the end. Finally, FINALLY, my husband took it apart and sadly, oh me saddest of all, took it to the landfill where we had to pay to have them deal with it. I didn’t even get to save the hardware from the unit. So that is my story of re-purposing gone WAY wrong.

Back to my free pallet story, after much debate and going down memory lane regarding the pre- mentioned said unit, my husband and son retrieved it.  This time it worked out beautifully. Along with some wood scraps in our garage my husband made me another compost bin. You would think he had given me a diamond! I was dancing around and oh so thrilled when he finally set it in the corner of our garden. It has been tremendously useful. I like compost bins all over the place for ease when you are out on your homestead..

Now our own compost bins were really cooking and after doing some reading on creating the best compost I realized that there was an art. Yes, you can just add anything to your compost bin and it will turn into great soil but knowing how to layer the browns (carbon matter) along with the greens (nitrogen matter) was really effective on creating rich compost really fast. And this got me to thinking how we create good soil from all sorts of matter and how we grow as people. We can throw all sorts of life lessons on the path and we will surely grow but when we start living consciously, well that is when things seem to really speed up our soul’s growth. The art of living soulfully and the art of building our soilful homestead is closely connected.

Okay, enough spirit talk…my oldest daughter would say sappy talk.
my pallet inspired compost bin
Isn’t our pallet/compost bin lovely?

I know only people who loves to grow stuff can truly appreciate a compost bin. It’s how we contain beautiful rich potential soil….just as our body is the container for our spirit. I have grown so much……not just with my philosophy on becoming sustainable and appreciate mother earth, but in my faith. My garden has taught me much about looking inside my heart, trusting my gut and knowing how to grow as a soul and grow the food for my family. Don’t you think they are closely related.

Last fall, since both of our compost bins were full to the brim I decided to dig large holes all over my garden. As we cleaned up our yard and gathered leaves and debris as well as our kitchen scraps, we used those holes as our compost. I later learned that this is a type of trench compost. As I filled the holes, I would add a bit of dirt so it didn’t attract pests….although we don’t have many….last summer we did have a raccoon family in our area but I haven’t seen anything “wild” in a while. By the end of fall, I had filled holes all over our garden area and this spring the dirt was loose and rich, full of wonderful matter. It’s only July but our garden is producing wonderfully.

So whether you are using purchased compost, or growing your own in fancy purchased compost bins, homemade pallet bins like we now have or whether you do trench composting which is my favourite yet….(no turning, no moving, no digging in)….they will all improve your earth and give you the soil that you need for your homestead.

And that gets me back to the soul side of things….it doesn’t matter in life how you learn, how you layer the lessons, we all have our own stories and trials and tribulations. What matters is that we keep planting and watering our dreams. We keep putting down roots and pulling the weeds. No matter how we live our life, we grow as souls.

I’m blooming where I’m planted. How is the soil/soul in your part of the world?

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”
– Rachel Carson

Thanks for reading. Until I see you again, may you be well, peaceful and happy.

Blessings from Hope

This is “It”

/ Lee Reynolds

 

 

 

I’m here. At last. I’ve been thinking of starting a blog for the longest time but one thing or another always came up and I just never started it. I was actually hoping that a recent dream, now lost, would come true and I would be able to begin my blog with all sorts of amazing topics. You see, last fall I found this gorgeous Cape Cod home set on almost 18 acres. And it was for sale…at a price that we would almost be able to afford, which was even more incredible.

The BEST part was that it was a Christmas tree farm. If you know me, you know how much I love that holiday and how I sing Christmas carols even in July. I fell in love the first time I saw this acreage and every night for the last 8 months I have gone to sleep walking through the house and decorating each room. I would drift off thinking of where I would put the garden, the children’s play area, the nut grove, how we would market the trees and I even was thinking of adding lavender fields to diversity the farm….oh and another cool thing about the farm was they already had chickens….my dream chickens, Rhode Island Red chickens too.

Although we had intentions to get our house ready for sale in early spring so we could finally purchase it, we had three children graduating from various levels of schooling; our oldest from University, our third oldest from high school and our 3rd youngest from preschool. Once soccer season hit in April, I knew that it may be summer before we got around to listing our house.

But hey, that was okay because this house was already on the market for a year and even though it’s only 30 minutes out of our little city/small town, the price was such that there wasn’t tons of interest….and my husband thought that the longer it was on the market the better it would be for us once we made an offer.

Well long story short, the week that we finally had realtors in to list our house was the same week that this beautiful farm finally received a cash offer and it was SOLD! It’s gone. My dream is gone and all my blog ideas gone with it. I’ve been depressed I have to admit.

This is not usual for me…after all I was born in Hope…..not just literally (yes, I was born in the little town of Hope, B.C. Canada) but I was figuritively born IN Hope as well. I’m a glass 1/2 full kind of gal. Always looking at the bright side. A bit like Anne of Green Gables who was eternally optimistic and ALWAYS expecting the best from life. So being bummed isn’t my nature…at least not for long.

As I was sitting on the couch in the family room last night and sighing for the up-teenth time about how sad I was that my farm was gone and all my dreams gone with it, my oldest daughter said, well why don’t you start where you are at and create the life that you have dreamed of here….in our urban set home and property.

Sure we don’t live right in the city……if you can call our little nearby city a city. Yes, we do have a few Starbucks, (don’t most small towns have at least one?) but in my opinion unless you have a Chapters book store and a Costco you have not arrived in big city status. We have neither. We also live outside of this little city….in an area that has a welcome sign that says, “Rural living at it’s BEST”….although even the nearby little city residents are allowed to have 3 or 4 chickens in their backyards and my rural subdivision still hasn’t officially clarified the chicken status by-law…it’s in the works they say. I think they are stalling because of the controversy. Heaven forbid is what some neighbours are probably thinking regarding the inclusion of chickens. I think I could make a strong case for poultry based on the “rural living at it’s best” signage. What is the best of rural living anyway? No smells? No noise? No traffic?  Don’t get me started about my dream for chickens….somehow they are going to be in my future and future posts..

Anyway, where was I, oh yes, my oldest daughter said that I should bloom where I’m planted (although those are not her exact words, more my own take on her thoughts as she would never be that sappy) she just felt that I can start living  my dream here and now. And start writing about it too as there are probably a lot of people out there living a urban/somewhat rural life and interested in what we are doing. We do have an unusual family for these times as well. At least in our part of the country that is. We have 8 children ranging in age from 24 (my smart oldest daughter…who suggested all this to me) down to our twin daughters who recently turned 3. Which by the way, had they been two years old would have meant that I would not have had any time to write, let alone dig out in the garden this summer. One year is huge when you have twins!

Some people would think that having a large family is not environmentally responsible and if you asked me a few years ago I may have agreed but it’s been a soul’s journey bringing each of these children to earth. The last four arrived after a long struggle (of which future posts will surely include as that was a pivotal point of change for me on my path) full of life lessons that taught me that there are times that all we can do is listen to our hearts and follow the path it tells us to take. My husband calls it the road-less travelled as few choose that lifestyle. Me though, years ago I made a pact with myself that I would listen to my heart as much as I could and try not to listen to what others thought or felt. Even though the journey to our last four children was full of trials, tribulations and loss, the lessons learned were the stuff that life is truly about. I’m more patient, grateful, kind, compassionate, non-judgemental (mostly directed towards myself and I’m courageous and strong. A warrior for sure. I have learned to let go and trust. In the end what is meant to be will come to pass. All shall be well…it ALWAYS is. Big lessons.

I look at my garden and realize all the lessons are taught there as we watch the changing seasons and how things grow and then die. So here we are with 8 children but living with the conscious intent on teaching them to walk as lightly as they can while on this earth. To live fully and move in the direction of their dreams. I want to write about that…being an environmentally responsible person while raising the next generation. To live as sustainable as possible while being mindful of our beautiful earth. Also, while this is a constant battle, to be careful consumers and remember that less is more. Living simply is true abundance. Also to endorse the idea to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle as part of our family’s mantra. Although my fourth child said to me as we were at the grocery store today…buying everything we don’t grow ourselves and much more, that I was having a mid life crisis and moving to the farm was my salvation….and why mom did I have to take him on that road! He thinks, like my oldest daughter that I can have that mid life crisis while living in our urban/rural, close to his high-school, all his friends and where internet is available…even though it’s never fast enough in his opinion.

Well, that brings me to why I started writing today. I thought carefully last night about what my daughter said as I cried myself to sleep again thinking of how someone else is moving into my Christmas tree farm, and I woke up realizing that I’m okay. And as my son (yes the one that I took to the grocery store today) also said…”Hey mom, you just never know, maybe the farm will come up for sale again. Maybe the new people will have to transfer out of town, maybe they will realize how much work a farm is, maybe they will win the million and move to Hawaii” Maybe miracles will occur. And yes he’s right. Maybe that will happen.

Or better yet, maybe I will just be grateful for where I am right now and not put off living the life of my dreams. We do have a nice home, we do have 1/3 of an acre. We do have great southern exposure, some people would Kill for that who want to grow food. I do have a mini orchard started, strawberries, raspberries, a nice garden that most people would be thrilled to have…..and the chickens….well they will come. The bees too. Yeah, I may not be able to have goats, or a cow, but hey maybe my sweet 11 year old can finally have that bunny she has been talking about….they produce great garden fertilizer I hear. Also, while I’m busy being grateful and happy maybe another farm will come our way. If I have learned anything by now it is that dreams come true. Often not in the time frame that we want or desire but if we trust and let go and are grateful they come….and they are even better than we could ever dream them too. That is the Universe for you….law of attraction really at work.

So here I am. This is IT! as my sister C would say. I’m going to do my Urban homestead thing here. I’m going to harvest, process, cook our own food, talk about it, maybe teach those who are just starting to grow food and wanting to learn to live on less with the feeling of abundance. The less is more kind of mindset. I’d like to share the journey of parenting 8 beautiful children of all different ages and maybe inspire those who feel they are overwhelmed with just 2. It’s all relative!

Also, I’m a soulful mama. I have learned so much in the last 10 years about being connected to everyone in the world. Strangely my son who is now 5, our sweet Will taught me that BEFORE he was even on the earth.

I’m not talking about how connected we are now through the social media. I’m talking about connecting via soul net…not internet…although right now that’s helpful. I believe  I am a spirit living this earthly experience and the contrast of our choices while on this earth is amazing. I just have to look at all I have been given to know that already my dreams have come true. I read a lot of soulful books with my Sacred sister’s book club and I am at a place where I want to connect with others around the world. Do you want to be my sacred sister? We are all sisters no matter our background, or our beliefs. I believe we are vibrating really fast right now at a soul level. We parents are raising the next generation of children and hopefully they will create a peaceful, healthier planet. That makes me joy filled. That brings the Hope back into heart.

So that’s about it for tonight…the start of my blog, This is IT! The beginning of a new dream. Stay tuned and thanks for reading. I will leave you with one of my favourite poems.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all

And sweetet in the Gale is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm

I’ve heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet never in Extremity
It asked a crumb-of me

Until we meet again, may you be well, peaceful and happy.

Blessings from Hope