Celebrating César Chávez 31 March 2009

Today is a legal holiday in California and an optional one in 8 other U.S. States. (Hmmm…wonder what happened to Obama’s call last year for it to become a National Holiday??)

I regret that my study of food, agriculture and human rights did not begin until many years after the death of a man whom I know far too little about, but admire deeply – César Chávez.

JumbleSon and I are making a trip to the library today to look at their Chávez exhibit and pick up a copy of this book.

And, while we lean towards unschooling, I’m not opposed to picking and choosing bits from established curricula every now and again. So, I think we’ll be taking a look at some of the ideas from California’s K-3 Cesar Chavez Day curriculum this week. Much of it will likely be a too old for the JumblyOne and too full of “good citizen” lingo for me, but I’ll hope to find some things we can use.

It’s never too early to talk about socio-economic justice for all.

Sweetness & Light Saturday 21 March 2009

We’re off! In route to New Mexico – just the JumbleBoy and me until Santa Fe. Then we’ll be with dear friends for an entire week! Not sure how much on-line time I’ll have, but will be back for sure by 1 April. I’ll miss you!! But I’m happy to leave you with some things that touched me this week…

Springy Etsy
Totoro x 3
Yes!
Female Force
Tandem Nursing (thanks for the link, HPP)
Dig it!
Sita Sings the Blues (thanks so much, 5OrangePotatoes)

Welcome Spring! 20 March 2009

Spring Azures

In spring the blue azures bow again
at the edges of shallow puddles
to drink the black rain water.
Then they rise and float away into the fields.

Sometimes the great bones of my life feel so heavy,
and all the tricks my body knows —
the opposable thumbs, the kneecaps,
and the mind clicking and clicking —

don’t seem enough to carry me through this world
and I think: how I would like

to have wings —
blue ones —
ribbons of flame.

How I would like to open them, and rise
from the black rain water.

And then I think of Blake, in the dirt and sweat of London — a boy staring through the window, when God came
fluttering up.

Of course, he screamed,
seeing the bobbin of God’s blue body
leaning on the sill,
and the thousand-faceted eyes.

Well, who knows.
who knows what hung, fluttering, at the window
between him and the darkness.

Anyway, Blake the hosier’s son stood up
and turned away from the sooty sill and the dark city —
turned away forever
from the factories, the personal strivings,

to a life of the imagination.

- Mary Oliver, New & Selected Poems

Spring 2008

Rockin’ Update 19 March 2009

Miri, thanks so much for the awesome tip on how to finish off the rocks! I was afraid to do all of them for fear it wouldn’t work, so I selected the 7 least “fit” ones, put one each in a toddler sock and machine washed them on the “Hot and Heavy Duty” cycle.

Here’s the result…

Perfect!

I especially love this little guy who’s hatching from his woolly shell…

Now I’m inspired. More to come…

Rock Talk 19 March 2009

Sweet Miri introduced me to felted rocks back in January. Then, when I saw instructions for how to felt rocks on Crafting a Green World a few weeks ago (and drooled), I knew I had to deal with my stance on wool.

I prefer to live without wool sweaters, socks, knitting yarn, and the like. But, I can’t seem to get over my obsession for the fuzz on folks like these (thanks for sharing your lovely Mother Earth, Root Children, Bee and Ladybug, Marina!)…

Like some vegans out there, I will wear 2nd hand leather shoes. I will also gratefully accept wool gifts (felted beings, hats, etc.). But, I am not willing to buy leather, nor am I going to purchase wool (or wool products made) from sheep I don’t know personally (presuming that if I know them, I’ll also know their owners and can monitor closely how they are livin’).

So, here’s my crafty compromise – 2nd hand wool roving. Freecycle, baby. Got 2 huge bags of it. One from local sheep, even.

I spent nap time today trying to work out how to felt rocks (which we’ll call “Earth Eggs” for Ostara). The instructions were simple enough.

We’d collected egg-shaped rocks earlier this week. I cleansed them with salt and blessed them before starting.

Then, I cut, separated and layered the wool. But, I think I wrapped the rocks in way too much wool because it was clearly not shrinking enough to form-fit them.

Had to trim about 1/2 of it off after the first round of washing. And even still, the wool just wasn’t “sticking” like I’d hoped.

They’re drying now and while there are a few that I think will hold, many of them just haven’t had that “shrink-to-fit” experience they really need.

And, I didn’t really enjoy working with wool as much as I thought I would. It looks so soft when crafted by others, but so far, I’m not feeling the love, or the nice meditative buzz that my felted peeps and bunnies were giving me.

So, all that vegan angst may have been wasted. I may not craft with wool again anyway!

And, as an aside, I have no idea where the energy has come from to do all this crafting! I’m glad for it, though

Peep! 18 March 2009

I couldn’t help it.

Bunny Luv 17 March 2009

Of late, JumbleSon has taken to putting animals in his “pouch” and going for a little hop. His oversized sloppy joe (sweatshirt) has served as the best pouch so far, provided its inhabitant has arms long enough to hang out over the neck of the top (lest it fall out the bottom).

Given that there are a few design flaws in this animal-wearing mechanism, I thought he might enjoy a new pouch/animal combo. With Eostre just around the corner and his penchant for hopping, a rabbit seemed the logical choice. And what better chariot for a rabbit than a carrot?

Taking the bunny pattern from here, the pouch idea from here, leftover felting supplies from gnome making and other crafts (HalfPintPixie, what am I going to do now that I’m out of your gorgeous paper flowers??), borrowed orange thread from Angeliki, clues about what a whip-stitch was from here, and how to make a knot from here (yes, I’m embarrassed that I had to have a tutorial), I came up with this.

Even though the Equinox is on Friday, we’ll wait to celebrate with our friends in Santa Fe. I thought we’d surprise the kids with these (and a few other things I hope to put together and share with you here before then) when we wake up on Sunday morning.

How do you like to celebrate the rebirth of Spring?

Vegan Meal Plan Monday 15 March 2009

Stir-Fry Sunday: Maple Grilled Tempeh with Quinoa, Portobellas and Broccoli

Burger Monday:Eat Drink & Be Vegan Chickpea Sensation Patties, Baked Potatoes and Veg Pantry Roasted Broccoli

Souper St. Paddy’s Tuesday Vegan Dad Irish Stew with Fat Free Vegan Irish Sausages

Leftover Wednesday

Carry out Thursday: Thai so there will be leftovers!

Leftover Friday

Solo Saturday: JumbleSpouse will be on his own for the next week. There’s stuff in the freezer and I’ll stock up on bread, peanut butter and jam .

Baked Treat of the Week: Didn’t get those Full Meal Muffins made last week, so we’ll try again this week as we’ll need them for travelin’ food. JumbleSon and I leave for New Mexico on Saturday morning. Yippee!

Sweetness & Light Saturday 14 March 2009

Happy Saturday! What’s touched your heart, soul or tastebuds this week? Here’s just a few goodies from my week:

Ursa Freedom Project (thank you)
Hedgehogs in Love (sigh)
Tight Knits (if anyone wants to knit these for me, I’ll provide the yarn
Wildcraft (I’m not a “game” person, but this one is right up my alley)
Vegan Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies (be still, my artery-clogged heart)
Rockin’ Restaurant Review (I won’t make you jealous by telling you how close I’ll be living to this restaurant in just a few months)

De-Thinging Thursday 12 March 2009

Last week’s YTD Total # De-Thinged:  768

5 March 2009

Calendar says, “Declutter decorations before storing them.”

What decorations?  Winter ones?  Perhaps.  I’ll see if we’ve got anything…

Nada. How about…

1 turtleneck – Thrift store donation

Daily count: 1

6 March 2009
Calendar says, “Clean out your vehicle trunk.”

Couldn’t drag my sorry self to the car today…

1 book – post for sale

And, it’s Frig Friday so…

5 foodie bits and bobs – rubbish
Daily count: 6

AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS WHERE IT STOPS

I think I need to focus what little energy I have on other things right now. The house is ready to pack up save the Dread Closet of Doom, so I’m calling it quits for a bit while I work on some internal de-cluttering.

But, for all the faithful who have been waiting for a glimpse of the Dread Closet. I leave you with this…

So, this is what I have to look forward to when I resume my de-thinging process. Jealous, aren’t you?