Wisdom

Havesting Wisdom~oops I meant Potatoes(potato wedges)

/ Lee Reynolds

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
                                                                                                         ~Robert Louis Stevenson~

It’s harvest time on my homestead. A few weeks ago, we harvested the potato crop I almost didn’t plant for lack of room. Late in May, I was running out of garden space but when I saw the Yukon Gold seed potatoes at my garden centre, I couldn’t resist.

I dug deep holes at the edge of my garden and planted several prepared seed potatoes in each hole. I didn’t have much hope for them since my cucumber, squash and zucchini plants were also planted close by but you know, if you don’t plant it, nothing will grow.

After a few weeks, the first green shoots appeared and I quickly covered them with dirt and grass mulch from our newly mowed lawn. We had a hot, dry summer and I wanted to keep them nice and moist. By the end of August I had huge potato plants growing in mounded soil, all along the edge of my garden. The squash, cucumbers and zucchinis didn’t seem to mind sharing their space and everyone was doing their own thing.

Potatoes are the easiest thing to grow and amaze me every time I harvest them. You know they are ready to harvest, when the plant has withered and literally died back down to the earth. That’s when  you can get a shovel or fork and carefully dig down to see what has been growing underground.

From the looks of the garden, you wouldn’t think anything worthwhile is under the ground

I was not disappointed. Hole after hole was abundant with potatoes. The little girls helped me dig them up and were so excited each time they had a potato in hand, you would think they had found gold. Well, in a way they had found a treasure. Although we have a diverse agriculture industry in the Okanagan Valley, in the winter we rely a lot on crops from California. The continued drought there has meant higher prices at the market, making produce very expensive. Being sustainable at least part of the year, is such a gift…..but it takes time and energy.

I didn’t have to dig far before I found our first potatoes…..nice sizes too

As I watched the little girls dig in the garden, where moments before there had been old, decaying potato plants, I was thinking often in life the best treasures come to those who either have gone through darkness and come out the other side with their hearts full, or it occurs naturally as we age. Our wrinkles start appearing, our hair thins and goes grey, but inside, with a life time of living, our soul blossoms into a beautiful, compassionate and loving spirit.  We learn so much about life from nature.

Kate loves to dig in the ground…it feels so good and when you find food….WOW!
I love it too!
Treasures!

 

Victoria and Kathryn, didn’t want to stop for pictures…they were having so much fun digging up potatoes.

Since I’m an older mom to young children, I’d like to think that this is one of the spin offs for parenting later in life. Although I don’t believe that I personally have less energy than I did parenting our first children, I know that I’m aging, from my reaction to the precious moments in life, like witnessing little people digging for treasure and being thrilled by the smallest things in life….like potatoes. I don’t take these moments lightly anymore.

My sister C, said something really profound to me in one of her emails last week and it really spoke to me about harvesting wisdom. She wrote, “Mourning really turns a life around doesn’t it? The beauty is when, even though our hearts are broken open, they start to mend and everything feels renewed. You can reset and re-balance life in the new direction you’ve grown into.”

Yes, yes, YES! Kind of like how potato plants grow in the dark. When the plant finally dies and looks its bleakest, there is something beautiful left that can nourish and sustain us. And that is why, in my darkest moments, I know in the end everything is worthwhile. We just need to keep laying seeds and experiencing the deliciousness of life…..full of treasures. 

Last night, was one of those moments. We had a harvest moon party at our homestead. The kids were beyond thrilled, as while eating a yummy stir fry with lots of produce from our garden, we told them all about the harvest moon (also called a blood moon) that would be occurring later in the evening. After dinner, they were bubbling with excitement as they played in our hot tub. (a great way to save water….I can’t tell you how many times we have forgone a bath for a hot tub soak instead) Once they were little prunes, they dressed quickly into warm pajamas and gathered in the family room where I had popcorn ready and a Netflixs movie all ready to go. They watched a cute animated movie called, “The Croods,” about a prehistoric family, while we waited for darkness to drop her curtain. (I thought it was an appropriate movie since the family in the movie knew little about the world they lived in, yet they knew what was important)

The timing was perfect because once the movie was over, it was nearing 8 pm and was already dark in our part of the world. As we ushered our family outside, you could see the moon rising over the mountain, full and red. The children were in awe as they whispered, “this is better than Halloween!” 

We watched the sky for quite awhile and it took me right back to another eclipse when our oldest daughter was about 7 years old, her brothers were 4 and 1. I remember piling all the kids into the van and driving up the mountain, which hadn’t been developed yet. We got out of the car and stood in a field where we could see the expansive sky. Our baby at the time, Mitchell, was happily bundled in a backpack and his older brother Clark, just a preschooler, was bursting with questions about eclipses, the moon, our sun, and our solar system. It was one of those moments in time that you just know you are planting something deep into your child and fueling a passion.

As I was going down memory lane, our oldest son Clark drove down the drive way after being out with friends for the evening. He’s all grown up but still loves looking into the sky and learning about astronomy. As I watched his tall figure stand with his younger siblings, looking at the moon, I was overcome with joy that we were all together experiencing the wonders of living on earth. 

What are you harvesting this fall? With wisdom we use our energy to plant the seeds we want to witness growing. It’s rather EXCITING isn’t it? What do you want to grow?

Well, of course with our size of family, our potatoes haven’t cured long in the garage, and we are already enjoying them in meals. As I move our family closer to being fully vegetarian, with a strong movement towards eating raw foods, I help our older children transition smoothly into this way of eating by including their favourite…..which is yes, potatoes, for many of our evening meals.

Our oldest son Clark hasn’t ever met a potato he hasn’t liked…helping me with our potato harvest….it seems like a blink of an eye ago when he was a little blonde boy looking with excitement at a lunar eclipse

Recently, I made some lentil burgers, a salad, and of course my famous potato wedges. 

My wedges and lentil burgers…all ready for a harvest dinner

Hope’s Potato Wedges

Ingredients

8-10 cut up, quartered potatoes…with skins left on
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
3 minced garlic cloves
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp of rosemary (I cut up some fresh from the garden)
Sea salt and fresh pepper to taste. 

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Mix all ingredients really well, into a baking pan and put in oven for 30 minutes. Turn every 10 minutes to ensure they get well browned…we like them crispy.

Serve with homemade ketchup.…or delicious plain too.

My lentil burger, with homemade buns, salad and treasured pototoe wedges



Next year I plan to make a dedicated area for growing potatoes and want to grow enough to keep us going for a good portion of winter. How about you, do you have a place to grow one of the many varieties for your family?


As I close this post, I just wanted to share a song I love by Neil Young…. (if you can’t see the video below click on the hyper link)   Neil Young, called, “Harvest Moon.” I hope you have the time to listen to it as it’s dreamy and fills me with so much love for this time of year…and for my family and friends. Thanks for coming and being a part of my life. Together we are “Helping Our Planet Earth….aka being hope”

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

Blessings from Hope

 

Swimming in Water

/ Lee Reynolds

 

On the heels of my blog post about homeschooling our children, I have been sent an inspiring message on what is the MOST important thing we can teach our children.

To teach them to be conscious in the moment and to make choices on how they want to think about ANYTHING.

If we can do that, well, we have done a BRILLIANT (a word recently picked up by my U.K. residing daughter) job.

As we head into week two of the teacher’s strike, I’m going to relax and maybe hang out more in the pool, enjoying the last of the summer’s sunshine.

 

Victoria and Kate, “Enjoying being together”

 

Being Brave and jumping in the deep end even if you don’t know how to swim

Victoria and Grace, 1, 2, 3, jump!

Exploring the tools that can help you in life

Kate, paddling around the pool with her noodle

Wanting to see everything as you travel your path

Will and his fav goggles

Knowing you are surrounded by lots of people who love you

 

Kate, Will and Tori
I hope you find the following  YouTube video, “This is Water” as inspiring as I have…..and  thanks Alyssa (our oldest) for the link. You are a beautiful swimmer.

(If you are not able to view the video below, I hope the following link will take you to the wonderful YouTube, video message, called, “This is Water.”)

Have a nice day!

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