holding her first dolly
At Little Friends Pre-school mothers day tea....making fathers day picture frames!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Radical Homemakers - Notes
This isn't really a blog post. It's more of a jumble of quotes from this amazing book I've been reading called Radical Homemakers. I have to return the book to the library tommorrow and had about a bajillion post it's stuck to it's pages that i wanted to record. I figured this is my outlet, and because i don't share my blog with many, i feel safe in sharing these thoughts. I havn't connected so strongly with a book for a long time, and her words are still jumping out at me and resonating me with each day that passes upon finishing it. To some these ideas may seem "too out there" but for me and my family all I want to do is start!
So take these as you will - I just wanted a place to jump from...
Radical Homemakers have chosen to stop investing their life energy in any employment that does not honour the four tenets of family, community, social justice and ecological balance. Instead they invest themselves in the support of family, community, and environmental stewardship so that those things, in return, will pay them lifelong dividends.
"A thatched Roof once covered free man; under marble and gold dwells slavery"
- Roman philosopher Seneca (3BC 65 AD)
"To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest" - Gandhi
We have confused more money with a better life...
We buy take out and fast food when we don't have the time to cook dinner. We buy luxury goods for our loved ones as a substitute for spending time together. We wind up cash poor and time destitute, while corporate America accumulates our wealth
We are too focused on working and earning money - and not focused enough on family and community
Temporal Abundance buys far more daily pleasures than a paycheck can provide
Americans now spend 6 hours a week shopping and only 45 minutes playing with their kids
The pursuit of affluence, the ennoblement of excessive work and hyper indicidualism are not manifestations of the American dream, but causes for a national nightmare
Eschewing "enrichment" centered around piano lessons, pre-k soccor, ballet, karate, and play groups, these families value the ability of kids to just "be" and to learn how to truly play. Plain and simple.
Education has nothing to do with what money can buy, it has everything to do with capitalizing on childrens innate inquisitiveness and desire to learn. Encourage children to be independant thinkers. To make their own decisions, not follow the crowd, to be able to resist the media. My idea of success has nothing to do with job placement...
Having time to play, and use their imaginations is going to prepare them more than pushing them into reading earlier, excelling at piano or whatever..
A - I don't believe in pushing kids into these really structured activities before they are ready. Let them determine the pace.
A - I want to produce my life , not buy it...
"my greatest skill is to want but little" - Thoreau
Enjoy what you have, feel as though you have enough of what you need - enough True wealth (family, friends, community, nourishing food, interests, security- make the products and overtime work a day world seem repugnant and utterly unnecessary
Nothing is cheap that we do not want - ben franklin
Never let your schooling get in the way of your education
Be involved in your life! People have gotten away from the creative parts of life, and have gone to the consumptino parts. So people listen to music, but don't create it. They go to restaurants but don't cook the meal themselves. There is something fundamentally satisfying about being involved in your life, whether it's making music or making food or whatever - Kelly Robideau
The Pleasure is in the doing! Our national confusion over what constitutes pleasurable activity contributes to our unhappiness. Without the joy of becoming fully involved in our daily lives, things are less meaningful. - Kelly Robideau
To lead a life of one's own design takes courage.... Radical Homekers
We need to come together, we need to build community and we need to stop with the video games. We need to shut off the tv, we need to start reading and thinking and talking to each other.... I want to change my culture - Diedre Ianelli
D.I - Set aside our fears and muster the courage to live a life we truly believe in will help create a a world we can all live in
How thankful I am to have the oppurtunity to choose this life. To build and nourish friendships, to share these fleeting days with the loves of my life, and to find jedi's in my succulents.....
So take these as you will - I just wanted a place to jump from...
Radical Homemakers have chosen to stop investing their life energy in any employment that does not honour the four tenets of family, community, social justice and ecological balance. Instead they invest themselves in the support of family, community, and environmental stewardship so that those things, in return, will pay them lifelong dividends.
"A thatched Roof once covered free man; under marble and gold dwells slavery"
- Roman philosopher Seneca (3BC 65 AD)
"To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest" - Gandhi
We have confused more money with a better life...
We buy take out and fast food when we don't have the time to cook dinner. We buy luxury goods for our loved ones as a substitute for spending time together. We wind up cash poor and time destitute, while corporate America accumulates our wealth
We are too focused on working and earning money - and not focused enough on family and community
Temporal Abundance buys far more daily pleasures than a paycheck can provide
Americans now spend 6 hours a week shopping and only 45 minutes playing with their kids
The pursuit of affluence, the ennoblement of excessive work and hyper indicidualism are not manifestations of the American dream, but causes for a national nightmare
Eschewing "enrichment" centered around piano lessons, pre-k soccor, ballet, karate, and play groups, these families value the ability of kids to just "be" and to learn how to truly play. Plain and simple.
Education has nothing to do with what money can buy, it has everything to do with capitalizing on childrens innate inquisitiveness and desire to learn. Encourage children to be independant thinkers. To make their own decisions, not follow the crowd, to be able to resist the media. My idea of success has nothing to do with job placement...
Having time to play, and use their imaginations is going to prepare them more than pushing them into reading earlier, excelling at piano or whatever..
A - I don't believe in pushing kids into these really structured activities before they are ready. Let them determine the pace.
A - I want to produce my life , not buy it...
"my greatest skill is to want but little" - Thoreau
Enjoy what you have, feel as though you have enough of what you need - enough True wealth (family, friends, community, nourishing food, interests, security- make the products and overtime work a day world seem repugnant and utterly unnecessary
Nothing is cheap that we do not want - ben franklin
Never let your schooling get in the way of your education
Be involved in your life! People have gotten away from the creative parts of life, and have gone to the consumptino parts. So people listen to music, but don't create it. They go to restaurants but don't cook the meal themselves. There is something fundamentally satisfying about being involved in your life, whether it's making music or making food or whatever - Kelly Robideau
The Pleasure is in the doing! Our national confusion over what constitutes pleasurable activity contributes to our unhappiness. Without the joy of becoming fully involved in our daily lives, things are less meaningful. - Kelly Robideau
To lead a life of one's own design takes courage.... Radical Homekers
We need to come together, we need to build community and we need to stop with the video games. We need to shut off the tv, we need to start reading and thinking and talking to each other.... I want to change my culture - Diedre Ianelli
D.I - Set aside our fears and muster the courage to live a life we truly believe in will help create a a world we can all live in
How thankful I am to have the oppurtunity to choose this life. To build and nourish friendships, to share these fleeting days with the loves of my life, and to find jedi's in my succulents.....
Friday, May 20, 2011
To make - Food Edition!
I am so inspired by this amazing book I have been reading - Radical Homemakers and I have some high hopes for this summer of my "things to make" food edition!
Am hoping I can complete all or almost all of them by September!
Granola - at least every three weeks
Yogurt - am going to try my hand at making it from scratch!
Strawberry Jam - Let me know if anyone knows of somewhere to get cheap strawberries!
Bluberry Jam - From the Koop family Bluedelphia farm
Applesauce - From auntie Henriettas apple trees
Can Pears - Found this quite easy and so delicous last year! Again if you know of anyone who has surplus pears let me know!
Tomatoes - Trying my hand at patio tomatoe plants!
Challah Bread - mmmmmmmm!
Frozen Peppers
Canned Tomatoe sauce
Canned Pesto
We'll see how much we get done
Am hoping I can complete all or almost all of them by September!
Granola - at least every three weeks
Yogurt - am going to try my hand at making it from scratch!
Strawberry Jam - Let me know if anyone knows of somewhere to get cheap strawberries!
Bluberry Jam - From the Koop family Bluedelphia farm
Applesauce - From auntie Henriettas apple trees
Can Pears - Found this quite easy and so delicous last year! Again if you know of anyone who has surplus pears let me know!
Tomatoes - Trying my hand at patio tomatoe plants!
Challah Bread - mmmmmmmm!
Frozen Peppers
Canned Tomatoe sauce
Canned Pesto
We'll see how much we get done
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Cultivating Community & Making Time For your Most Fullfilling and nurturing friendships
Jer and I were in the car the other night....driving somewhere, can't remember. And I was thinking out loud (which means I'm talking - which is pretty much what i do best) And out came something that has been festering for a few weeks. It came about with all the books I've been reading....and blogs I've been following that seem to have the same ideas as me on life, and child raising etc etc...so anyways I came to the conclusion that I am happy. So happy. Like really happy. And I finally know who i am.....again. By again I mean I havn't felt this fulfilled since ten years ago at theatre school, when i knew who i was and where i was going. And I'm there again. It seems so trivial when you speak it out to the internets. But it was an awsesome revelation for me. I finally have found my niche. And I am so very happy. My picture of a life may differ from so many but it's mine and i am loving it, embracing it, proud of it and most importanly I am enjoying it. So anyways...to fit in the title of this post, I have discovered my second commandment so to speak from following the book the happiness projet. I came up with it a month or so ago and it's been quite a factor in becoming aware of my happiness. I have had to say a few goodbyes to aquaintances that were not true nurturing friendships and I have made time (wether I felt too tired or not) for the friendships that are two sided, that nurture me that are important to me and that i couldn't imagine loosing. It's been busier but not really. Because I have given up the time I dedicated to my so so relashionships and have spent that time with the goodies. Setting up specific friend nights has been amazing for me and for my family. Jer gets awesome quality time with the kids and the kids get a mommy that comes home to them rejuvenated and happy and refreshed and ready for the next adventure. Tuesday nights after choir have turned into wine tasting at lisa's, every three weeks or so have become dinner with the "core" where it's just me and some of my besties, and every month or so has turned into brunchies with another bestie and her beautiful expanding family. Play dates have gotten to be quite selective with the people my family and I absolutley adore and feel uber comforatle and happy with. If my last's years slogan was "Pick your Battles" I think my this years slogan has got to be "Quality not Quantity" what a difference a month makes!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Cell Phone Etiquette...
okay so mabye I am a little out of it because I REFUSE to text. However I do have a blackberry - (that sadly i do not use to it's full potential but i digress) But I am getting more and more infuriated by bad cell phone etiquette.
You know the ones, you are visiting a friend and she's like flipping beep beeping away and click clacking along and your like HELLO i am right here, IN THE FLESH visitng you because you invited me...so um could you mabye put that thing down - and while were at it could you mabye put it in the next room, because every time it buzzes or does whatever it does you like jump five feet in the air and it's kinda making me want to scratch my invisible itch..
or the ones who are constantly checking it to see the latest whatever while you are in a full blown rehearsal? Sitting next to you is annoying. I want to be moved, not because of your singing but because of your constant clacking...sweet jebus.
Then there's the movie goer iphone addict...i pay big bucks to go to the movies. Actually i rarley go anymore because i would rather see movies in the comfort of my own home and without the sticky soda resin left on my converse. However - when sitting in a dark movie theatre your screen (that you are checking at LEAST every 6 minutes and 5 seconds LIGHTS UP and blinds my delicate eye tissue. So STOP.
Oh i could go on...the iphone addict driver (plentiful in the beautiful city i call home) - the I'm in a public toilet texter, the smart phone stroller pusher (watch your ankles with these folk) but seriously am I just being a big fat cow or are these people hella annoying. I mean really what is so important when you have me, amy koop in the flesh....
You know the ones, you are visiting a friend and she's like flipping beep beeping away and click clacking along and your like HELLO i am right here, IN THE FLESH visitng you because you invited me...so um could you mabye put that thing down - and while were at it could you mabye put it in the next room, because every time it buzzes or does whatever it does you like jump five feet in the air and it's kinda making me want to scratch my invisible itch..
or the ones who are constantly checking it to see the latest whatever while you are in a full blown rehearsal? Sitting next to you is annoying. I want to be moved, not because of your singing but because of your constant clacking...sweet jebus.
Then there's the movie goer iphone addict...i pay big bucks to go to the movies. Actually i rarley go anymore because i would rather see movies in the comfort of my own home and without the sticky soda resin left on my converse. However - when sitting in a dark movie theatre your screen (that you are checking at LEAST every 6 minutes and 5 seconds LIGHTS UP and blinds my delicate eye tissue. So STOP.
Oh i could go on...the iphone addict driver (plentiful in the beautiful city i call home) - the I'm in a public toilet texter, the smart phone stroller pusher (watch your ankles with these folk) but seriously am I just being a big fat cow or are these people hella annoying. I mean really what is so important when you have me, amy koop in the flesh....
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