Friday, September 26, 2008

Soul Food

So much to blog about, so little time. Above is a book I waited six weeks to check out from the library, and now I wish I'd just bought it. It's called The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. This is what everyone will be getting from me for Christmas, so don't buy it for yourself just yet. The book is absolutely amazing. It's all about how to live creatively as a family, how to encourage your children's creativity and how to make room for all this creating without making total chaos in your house. I can't say enough about this book, but other people have already said lots about it. I am apparently the very last mama in the blogging community to know about this book, but now I know and it's going to change my life. That's not something I say very often, but Amanda's attitudes and insights into children and family life are so soul-satisfying and so substantial that they speak to a very real need, with beautiful, practical solutions. I'm not even doing her justice, you'll just have to see for yourself. After Christmas. In the meantime, you can visit her blog here. For a while our cucumbers were doing very well, but then it seemed like everyone stopped; the weather hadn't turned cold yet, but the tiny cucumbers on the vine stayed tiny. Yesterday I did some investigating and discovered why; two mammoth cucumbers were hiding behind the tomato plant, hogging all the nutrients. I didn't grow the bananas, I just stuck them in there for size comparison. Our cucumbers don't usually survive past a couple of inches because they're so tasty then and the boys love them, but Jack was incredibly pleased about the ginormous pair I found. I picked the last of the blackberries from our back yard the other day and couldn't think of what to do with them, so I made a very small jar of blackberry jam. Some of Tuesday's produce bin. Jack has discovered a love of steamed artichoke. Jack needs to work on his picture face a little; I tell him to smile and he really give it his all. I took him clothes shopping last week because he is growing like a zucchini vine and we cannot keep clothes on him that fit. He picked out the shirt he's wearing; it's a 5T. Two Hot Mamas. I'm so lucky to have family close by. When Ambry and I were little we often talked about "playing babies" like our moms did when we were little, and now here we are, livin' the dream. I made a pot of French press coffee and put it in a thermos, then packed some freshly-baked Russian teacakes and some coffee cups in the back of the stroller and we took the kids to the park. Jack took our picture. For a three year-old, his photography skills are amazing. I keep a file of all the pictures from his camera and someday I'm going to make him a scrapbook out of them. I went out for a little bit today and picked up this super cute set of wooden blocks for $3. I washed them and dried them in the sun, but then had nowhere to put them. In the spirit of Amanda, I used what I had and made something with my own hands that would meet the need instead of buying something generic. This is the snoopy fabric Jack picked out. I made him a library tote out of it already, but now it's come in handy twice. I think perhaps I should have been a pioneer. But with electricity and cars and internet.

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