5 servings a day

I don't like watermelon. But one is always looking for ways to meet the 5 a day requirement of fruits and vegetables. I'm liking the food photography thing.

Words of Wisdom

Oh bother ... ! --- Winnie the Pooh

Sustainability

The oh so subtle sense that one is no longer just responsible for oneself is evident during pregnancy. It's an unexpected - knocks you off your feet - realization. After birth, to paraphrase someone I know, children are like essential organs running around leaving you feeling vulnerable. Yet, like essential organs, they enrich ones soul and make all worth living for. But wait..., just when you think you got the "I'm here for you" groove down, they no longer get the sad twinkle in their eyes when you drop them off somewhere for some activity or other. One isn't needed as much, and that same sense of vulnerability is there again.

To love a child is heaven.

Paella a la Duda

I love to apply basic cooking concepts while using ingredients at hand and a little risk taking to create a treat for me and anyone else who wants to savor my creation. I made paella minus the shrimp or chicken (didn't have them). I did have clams and mussels (canned). I love it.

Wired

by French Toast Girl

I had a Walkman when they were the IPods of the day. I spent that summer doing a lot of biking around the city on my burgundy bike. I had named her Nikita... Apparently naming one's bike is common practice.

Anyhow, I prefer natural sounds. Sound is part of any existing system, it contains vital information that enables me to"get" a full picture of that place/people/event. This is a very subtle thing for me...

Now ask me about how attached I am to my laptop... Go ahead... Well, I don't take it outside the house in daylight because of the brightness and lack of Internet connection. Otherwise, this puppy is always by my side. I'm even wondering how dangerous to my health it is to have it on my lap so frequently. Gotta research laptop radiation emissions.

Love

Made specially for her Dad.

Walk of Inspiration in a day trip

The Stations of the Resurrection garden at Church of the Resurrection in Tempe is a wonderful place to visit, albeit a bit hot in June. One of my favorite things to do is to look through magazines and newspapers for information on places that make for excellent day trips. Day trips last 2 to 4 hours, although this one was only 30 minutes long. They are preferably educational in nature for the two young ones, and they are a great way to get to know where you live. I wasn't exposed to Beira the way I wanted to be because I was young and not in charge. The team is coming up with a list of local places to see during summer vacation.

I have been bitten again

I recently taught a friend a few tricks about crochet. Then, my two young ones wanted to learn too. So here I am, off on my new marathon. I will be making purses, bags, and that sort of thing. I will learn how to felt too. I have classes lined up, so I can improve my skills, and hopefully, I will handing them out as Christmas gifts. One winter, I made about 22 ponchos, most of them for children at school. This is one is Piggy's carrier.

My bounty

My grape tomatoes

I can get a hand full of these once a week.

The so familiar walkway to the back house

I see a lot of cementing was going on. Today, I heard the story of how these pictures came to be. Many thanks to the brave guy who wandered in there and produced a gift that will provide closure to many who left that all behind. The grape vines are still there.

It was lost, and now it's found...

Matacuane, Beira, Mozambique

May 2007

My childhood home. The windows on the right were the dinning room where my friend Alfredo and I looked over our stamp collections. I can see that the planting space in front of that same window was removed and the space cemented. The bars in the windows weren't there in 1975.
The clothing lines weren't in that spot. I could swear that the door is the same, but could it have lasted 30 years? The step by the door was where my mother informed that that cutting the hairs on my legs would only make them grow back thicker, and where she often stood to comb my younger sister's hair. On the left of the door sat her Singer sewing machine out of which came much of our clothing. The floor tile inside that room was light green and it was so cool on hot summer days. She was my home for 8 years.

Do you know what I mean...?

On the playground

click pic to enlarge

Mind games

Growing into thyself...

Emmy Taylor

I'm thinking "space", "room to move", "self discovery", "to be thyself" - in peace, in love.

I am a continuum

A continuous extent, succession, or whole, no part of which can be distinguished from neighboring parts except by arbitrary division.

In my backyard...

Grape tomatoes

Vine

Lantana

White Ruelia

Jacaranda Tree

I spend many warm Saturday mornings tending to my beauties. Every year I manage to grow one tomato plant. We eat the small things as soon as they are picked. Today, they made it into the guacamole.

Time's a tickin'...

Do you ever feel like as time moves you stand still? Like you can be in moments in time as if they are here and now...

Connecting the dots ...

Kelli is visiting Beira, and took some time to find my childhood home. Here's her account of that experience.

"But today’s most incredible accomplishment was finding a friend’s childhood home. She grew up in Mozambique and asked me to try to photograph her old house. With the decaying roads and neighborhoods in mind I wasn’t hopeful, but I told her I would try. She printed off aerial maps of the area and gave me her old address – certainly I’d be able to locate this tiny spot 10,000 miles away between two small landmarks. Right?After showing the maps to our driver and patiently driving and then walking in circles for about 30 minutes, not only did we find the house, we found the family who has been living in it for the last 31 years. The neighbors remembered her. They were surprised and very interested in hearing about the first people to ever come back and photograph the neighborhood. It was surreal. They looked at the Google maps and stared at their homes as seen from space. They couldn’t get over the technology, or that a woman now living in America was looking at them from so far away, wondering about the small cement house she once called home. I can’t wait to share the photos with her when I return." - Kelli

I want to share this with my sisters.

Ways to help Africa, a must see story...

It's about using the money already going to Africa in more efficient ways. I saw this amazing program here.

Flow, water, flow...

What does water do for you?

Africa

Kelli is in Beira. The significance of this is so meaningful to me, that I want to keep it to my self. Ask, and you shall receive, said the Spiritual one.

Balloots

She liked being surrounded by "balloots".

Mi Mojito

Cheers

Food is welcoming

Sisley

I love images of Mediterranean kitchens, where food and cooking are abundant. Where mothers cherish their daughters and heritage is passed down as necessary treasures.

Responsibility comes with power

Emmy Taylor

Harnessed power. Responsible power is sacred. It respects life, and sustains it with tenderness. Lives are shattered when power exists without care. It surfaces in families, groups, and countries, depriving people of the possibility of flourishing lives. I AM MAD.

The Earth that sustains us...

by Duda

Kid friendly art in a new Xeriscape garden in the valley. The Chandler Arts Commission engaged Juanita to produce this symbol of water conservation: the water drop.

Endorphin heaven...

Running around from activity to activity, is high inducing. Most of my days are very busy. :-)

That's gentleness.

My brain jives

French Toast Girl

My LOVE I give to you...

Emmy Taylor


Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

How to teach Thee?

Science: Bean sprouts and green hair.

Freedom to smile

:-)

Living on the edge

We be jammin'

Wow.... It was thrilling having been a part of the group that made this happen. My cup is full. The music and dance groups were amazing. The kid jam section was popular. The T-shirts rocked. It was a family affair in so many ways. More later.

The psyche

by GRS

American Heritage Dictionary - psy·che

The spirit or soul.

Psychiatry -The mind functioning as the center of thought, emotion, and behavior and consciously or unconsciously adjusting or mediating the body's responses to the social and physical environment.