a happy mother's day

 I woke up this morning, after a rare restful night's sleep, to the sound of happy chatter between Temima and Joseph.  Getting up, I learned that Joseph had gotten up with her and they were talking in her bed.  What a lovely experience, to wake up naturally, without a child crying for me.  And that was the start of a lovely mother's day.  Next came the thoughtful gift; Joseph's first completely self directed gift-making decision (usually my sister gives him ideas).  The mug was only part, but the most meaningful.  It says "Shira Rocklin, Kid Tested, Father Approved."  For the morning we went to a drop-in play event being held along with an awesome clothing swap.

After that, I went out for lunch with my siblings, sans children, to celebrate our own mother, who passed away last year.  And then later on I went to the backyard with the kids for a little plain pasta picnic.  The blanket made it a picnic!

I noticed while we were out there that the leaves are really starting to grow now.   And I collected lots more dandelions for the pesto I hope to make and freeze for over the winter.

The hose and water proved to be great entertainment.  Temima watered the grass.

And the 'flowers.'

dandelion and almond pesto

The children and I went out to the backyard today, and that's no easy task, because if we get out of the building we usually want to make good use of the effort).  I gave them each desperately needed haircuts.  Well, I gave Temima a haircut, while Shua tried to escape every which way around the building to the road.  I caught him, just barely.  He had fun with the backyard play-things as well.  Temima really loved the idea of leaving her hair for birds to make nests with.

While we were out there, I saw a whole lot of dandelions, and having heard mention of pesto recently, a light bulb went off over my head.  I love the idea of gathering wild edibles, especially invasive species, but dandelion greens fried up are a bit chewy for my taste.  When I saw them today, and nibble a bit, I realized that they could make a good pesto.  So off we went gathering as much dandelion greens as we could.  Temima pointed out some garlic mustard as well, and so we added some of that to our pile as well.

So, here is the recipe, for your pleasure.  It was, as Temima says, scrumptious.  Sorry, I don't pay much attention to measurements - use your best judgement.

Gather greens.  Wash greens.

Put them in a blender.  Also put some raw almonds, coconut oil and olive oil in there.  Almonds are not strong tasting, so they work well.  Pine nuts would be lovely.  Walnuts could be good, but are somewhat bitter.

 Blend.  Add a light sprinkling of salt, a heavy dusting of powdered garlic, some dried basil, and whatever else you'd like.

Mix with pasta.  Next time I will add sun-dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.










I'm already planning to go a-dandelion-huntin' and gather up much more.  It was that good.  Basil is expensive!  I'm going to be making lots of this to freeze for the winter.  I love that its free greens, organic and healthy.

a special offer

I'm stocking my little shop with a few new crowns.  Birthday season is coming, so many children are born in the spring and summer.  I hope many will enjoy the fun of being the special birthday crown.  What better way to make your child feel extra special than with a personalized birthday crown?


For the month of May, any birthday crown purchased will be accompanied to your home by a beautiful little bunting to play with.  Just enter "dewandrain" in the comments when you purchase a crown from my little shop.

a little bit of sunshine

It's been raining.  Raining, A LOT.  Its spring, right?  I've hear mention of spring not having arrived yet... but isn't rain what spring is about?  A really nice, authentic, spring (like I remember when I was a child), involved a slow warming, rain and mud.  In recent years we've gone from cold winter to hot spring so quickly that I'd nearly forgotten what a true spring looks like... this slow awakening of everything (and everyone) around us. 
Today, we found some sunshine and growing things poking every which way to reach the warmth.

We found a swing,















bouncy fun,

and more.

Election Day Canada!

Today we went to a school nearby so that I could vote in the Canadian elections.  I had talked with the children about what elections are, and why I was going to vote.  I explained it again while we were there, as they were curious again when they saw me put the ballot into the box. 

After that we went to Michael's to pick up some framed items, and look for some interesting things to play with.  The kids found these cute plastic stretchy pink pig things, and they also chose some balloons with a balloon pump, and I picked up a little cardboard clock for them.  I remember seeing Joseph try to explain clocks and time to Temima, so I thought he'd appreciate the clock.  While we were there I also remembered that I wanted to get folios to keep each kid's artwork, so I finally picked those up.  That's were the 40% off coupons came in handy! 

Then we went to Home Depot, where I asked about anchoring bookcases to a concrete wall, and bought some masonite to make a flannel board with.  Then on to Best Buy to ask about laptop recycling and watch big TV's.  Tangled was playing! 

When we got home, we played a lot, I sewed a bit, and made some dinner.  Cleaned, moved (and then put back) some furniture to try something out, etc.  The kids love to 'ride' on the sofas when I move them.  Pumping up balloons and letting them fly away was so much fun for them.  I attempted to make one balloon animal, a dog.  I think we missed lunch, but we had been snacking on chocolate cookie bars earlier on. 

Temima begged me to take a picture of her 'wings' (an upside down Ikea kids tent).  Shua couldn't resist jumping in front of the lens.



A nice day overall.  I feel good.  I especially liked the long walk to get to those stores.  I don't the kids realize that half my reason for going is for the nice walk. 

sweet faces, blocks, and sunshine

Sweet faces can be tricky...

See this one?  So sweet looking on the outside.  (Just as sweet on the inside as well).  But, oh, the allure of a beautifully built tower of blocks is just impossible for this little boy to walk away from.

Happily, I intervened on this sweet girl's behalf.  I sat down between them (after he'd knocked down 3 towers) with a box of blocks for him also in between them, and built with both of them.  I could have taken him away, or forced her to play his way, but this option was much more fun for everyone.  And this girl got to concentrate on building her castle...

 

and pose for my camera.

My, what a lot of sunshine in these photos. I do believe spring must be coming soon.

One year ago I wrote...

"So, anyhow, I am looking forward to this mishmash sort of blogging.  And the best part?  Its NOT a journal on lined paper and I can't stash it in the bookcase and forget to write for years and years. "

Umm... I guess blogs can go onto virtual bookcases and be forgotten about as well.  

Not that I have any readers, yet (except you, dear husband), but for posterity, and to solidify my conviction to follow through (at least I hope), I've got some plans for this blog coming up.  So stay tuned.