These boots were made for sharin'....

Scene: Rainy Friday morning, getting ready to head to the library for our weekly storytime. Everyone is dressed and headed toward the door for shoes and jackets.

Abby: *saddest voice ever* "Momma...I set my galoshes beside you at Gran and Grandpa's so that you would remember to bring them home and you didn't!" *cue tears*
Me: "Abby, I'm so sorry that I didn't grab your boots. I know you are upset and wish they were here. Let's think of something else that you could put on your feet this morning."
Abby: "I don't want to wear anything else! I don't want to wear my snow boots!"
Me: "You certainly don't have to wear your snow boots. Why don't you look through the shoe basket while I go get the library books and let me know if you need help."

Less than one minute passes; I return down the stairs to find:

Abby: *grinning from ear to ear* "Elise is letting me wear her galoshes and she's going to wear her snow boots instead!"
Elise: "Momma, I didn't want Abby to be sad."

And away we went - a happy little trio without a worry in the world. :) Happy rainy Friday - may you have people in your world who would give you the boots off their feet, or vice versa. 

Oh, and since it's Friday... how about a little food??? Muffins... again. I love baking and muffins are so easy to health the heck out of. They are also great for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Did I mention that I like making muffins? The girls also requested them for breakfast this morning... which leads me to another brain-invading thought today. Early childhood "people" are well-versed in the theory of "child directed" and "child led". I buy into that approach - children know what they enjoy, they seek out what interests them and those choices serve for ideal teaching platforms. I feel insanely fortunate that I can provide our girls with child-directed days. John and I were just talking about how powerful (and wonderful) it is that I can wake up on most mornings and say "Girls, what do you want to do today?". Their choices, their preferences, their interests create the foundation for how we spend the majority of our time. The other part of our time is obviously spent baking muffins. :)

Raisin-Apricot Whole Wheat Muffins:

• 1 1/2 C organic whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 C organic whole wheat stone ground flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 C maple syrup
• 1/4 - 1/2 C organic coconut sugar (I used less than 1/2 C but maybe not quite as little as 1/4 C)
• 1 organic banana; mashed
• Organic unsweetened applesauce added to the mashed banana until amount equals 1 C
• 1/4 C organic plain yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 large organic local egg
• 3/4 C milk (I used a combination of homemade almond milk and organic 2% milk)
• 1/2 C organic raisins
• 1/2 C organic apricots; chopped
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees; grease muffin tin with coconut oil
• Mix dry ingredients; in a separate bowl mix wet ingredients except for milk
• Add wet to dry; stir in milk; add raisins and apricots
• Bake for 20 minutes - makes 1 dozen muffins

Wordless Wednesday: I Wanna Hold Your Hand...

Happy Earth Day!

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. That pretty much sums up our "teaching" for today. It made me feel good that, upon reading a "top ten" list of ways to be "green", we met 9 of them. It's also nice that so many of them are everyday life to the girls - using our own shopping bags every time we buy groceries, waiting for the recycling man on Thursday mornings, planting our own gardens, watching Daddy bike to work most days, buying products from the bulk section and storing in glass mason jars... I've even heard each of the girls, on more than one occasion, comment on a toy that's made of plastic instead of wood. It seems silly to many, but to me it's wonderful. You know what else is wonderful? Homemade (biodegradable) playdoh:

And little homemade playdoh Earth sculptures:

The following places were specifically pointed out on the Earth creations:

• Kansas
• Hawaii
• Africa
• Washington, DC: "where Barack Obama lives"

Happy Earth Day. Now get out there and do something good for Mother Earth. Build a compost bin. Or get chickens. Or stop washing  your hair and save water.  Or turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Or plant something. GO!

Banana Blueberry Muffins (how appropriate!)

It's so nice to wake up on the weekend, usually on Sundays, with little-to-no agenda. We are a family that likes to get out and about, we love social gatherings with friends, community activities around town... but we also crave (and prioritize) an un-assigned day. I am a do-er. A list-maker. A list-checker-offer. And one of the qualities that I've come to truly appreciate about John is the ability to put away the to-do list and just relax. I want the girls to live in an organized and orderly household but I also want them to take deep breaths and kick back on Sunday mornings with tea/coffee and muffins... and not just any muffin - but Banana and Blueberry muffins, ingredients for which this blog is so aptly named. 

Banana Blueberry Muffins
adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

• 1 1/2 C organic whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 C organic whole wheat stone ground flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 C local honey
• 1/2 C organic coconut sugar
• 1 large ripe organic banana - mashed
• Organic applesauce: You need 1 C mashed banana; I only had 1 banana so I added enough applesauce to the mashed banana to fill the cup completely
• 1/4 C organic plain Greek yogurt
• 1 large local organic egg; beaten
• 1/2 tsp organic vanilla
• 3/4 C homemade almond milk
• 1 1/4 C organic frozen blueberries
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees; grease muffin tin (I used coconut oil)
• Combine dry ingredients
• Combine honey and sugar; add banana/applesauce, yogurt, vanilla, egg
• Add wet to dry; stir in almond milk; fold in blueberries
• Bake for 20 minutes - makes 16 muffins

Eat muffins and then go outside and play with chickens: tasks that we definitely accomplished this weekend! Enjoy pics of Peep, Pip, Lavender, and Plum from their first outdoor excursion!

Wordless Wednesday: Snow was fun... now let's move on!

Just A Spoonful of Sugar

Yesterday was a day that the girls will remember - no doubt about it. We were whisked away to the magical world of Mary Poppins at The Music Hall in Kansas City. The singing, the sets, the tap dancing, and the flying have been talked about endlessly over the past 24 hours. Elise is sure that "Mary Poppins flew just like a bird - without any strings or cords". Abby cannot believe that Bert "walked up the theater wall, just like this (demonstrating with her hands), and across the ceiling without holding on". Abby loves that "Mary Poppins flew THREE times!" and she now wants to be "Jane, from the performance, not from the movie". Elise's favorite part was Step In Time and she, like Abby, loved when Bert tap-danced on the ceiling but "he's a real person and how could a real person do that?". It was three solid hours of amazement. Thank you, Grandma, for your never-ending generosity. We love you! And thank you Grammy and Gran for being part of the Mary Poppins adventure!

Wordless Wednesday: Sprout, little seeds, sprout!

A smoothie a day...

I'm obsessed with my blender. It gets used, on average, twice a day. I have no idea what combination of this or that makes for the healthiest combination, but I do know this: we have been damn healthy. The girls have had one runny nose in the past six months - it lasted less than 48 hours each. I can't remember the last time I had a cold. Maybe it has something to do with our smoothie-a-day obsession? Not sure, but not planning to stop. Keep that blender blending.  :)

Green Smoothie-of-the-day

• Organic baby spinach - at least 2 cups
• 1 frozen organic banana - I buy organic bananas when the Merc has the super-ripe ones on sale. Then I peel them, cut them into big chunks, and keep them in a freezer bag in the freezer
• 1/2 - 1 C organic frozen mango
• 1-2 T organic ground flaxseeds
• 1 C homemade almond milk
• 1 T organic coconut oil - melted, but not too warm, and drizzled in while blender is running

Zzzzzz....

I guess we had a busy weekend, huh? I used the flash for this pic, just FYI - I do not make my children sleep with lights on, except on days like this when they are passed out long before dark. Yes, they are both asleep. And yes, they started out with heads on pillows. Sleep tight, lovely ladies! It was a wonderful fresh-air-filled spring weekend, complete with swings, sandbox, hammock, bare feet, friends, family, and baby chicks.

Almond Milk

It's Saturday night. I am:

A) Making almond milk
B) Drying a set of homemade wool dryer balls
C) Religiously checking on my chickens
D) all of the above

Yes, yes, and yes. The answer is D, all of the above. And clearly I am neither ashamed nor embarrassed about my nightlife as I am also E) blogging about it to my dear 18 followers, which doesn't include my dedicated blog-reading grandmothers (Hi Grandma and Bubbe!).

The thing about my brain that I've learned is that, upon seeing something, the first thought shoots through and says "I like that/I'm intrigued" or "I don't like that/I'm not interested". The "I like that" response is immediately followed by a response that says "How can I make that?". Household items, food, accessories - it doesn't matter what category it falls into. I just like to make things. It's actually not only a "like to". It's a "have to". Being productive and creative gives me a sense of peace - it uses energy that I happen to have in abundance, it is fulfilling, it allows me focused "me time", and it gives my world a sense of balance. I recently read a book entitled The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule (you can also follow her blog here):

I highly recommend this book - it is an easy read with a lot of "oh, yeah!" kind of ideas or statements. She also talks about, after becoming a wife and a mother, how important it became for her to find creative outlets. Oh, yeah. Doing, making, crafting, creating, cooking, baking, planting, building - something every. single. day - bonds me to my family and my family  to me while simultaneously making me a better, more balanced wife and mother. Oh yeah.

Almond milk. "Mmmmm... I like that". "Hmmm.... How can I make that?". And now we have come full-circle back to my brain and the Saturday night almond milk making. I have switched over to using almond milk entirely as the liquid for our daily smoothies.  I've also baked with it and used it in tea and coffee drinks, instead of cow's milk. (And yes, I've wondered about fresh milk - a goat seems like a better option and I do like goat's milk... chickens first.). Making almond milk is insanely simple and the girls and I all agree that the homemade version is the way to go.

Homemade Almond Milk
courtesy of The Detoxinista

• 1 C organic raw almonds
• Water
• Organic real maple syrup
• Organic vanilla extract
• Soak almonds for 4-6 hours (I use a glass canning/mason jar which you can purchase at Hobby Lobby for next to nothing; I use these glass containers for everything)
• Drain almonds and discard water
• I have a regular Oster brand blender - many recipes use something high-powered like a Vitamix. Since mine isn't of the insane-blending capabilities, after soaking the almonds, I do pop them all out of their skins. It only takes a few minutes and they slip right out.
• Place skin-less almonds in blender; add:
• 4 C water
• 1 T vanilla extract (optional, and can do more/less depending on preference)
• 1-2 T maple syrup (optional...)
• Blend on high for 1-2 minutes
• I haven't purchased a nut milk bag yet, so I line a large strainer with a coffee filter and run the mixture through - it takes several filters; I only fill it about halfway, let it drain, then squeeze the remaining liquid out of the filter. Once I've squeezed it out, with only almond pulp remaining, I just put in a new filter, fill halfway, squeeze, repeat...

Wordless Wednesday: Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

PEEPS! (not the marshmallow kind)

Guess what we did today?????? Chicks. We bought chicks. Real-deal, egg-laying chickens (or, so we hope... there are a few that are questionable: hen or rooster? Fingers crossed.). Welcome to the family, Peep, Pip, Lavender, Lime, Plum, and no-name. I'm assuming those names might be changing daily at this point...

Picture Perfect

The girls' assignment from their music class this week was to make a photo book. As a preschool teacher by training, the concept of multi-step tasks/projects is something that I value with the girls. I love the process, the individual touches, and the result. They were completely engaged in this activity from the picture-taking to the picture-printing to the picture-displaying. Learning can (and should be) so. much. fun. Here are their accordion-folded photo books, followed by each of their selected photos:

Abby:

Elise: