If you give a boy a...

If you give a boy a needle and thread he will stitch up some clothes for his gnome. And then a pillow for his baby sister. And then a bag for his treasures. And time will pass with that quiet hum of a child being busy. And that boy will learn to create for himself.

If you give a boy a paintbrush and sit with him side by side he will spill color and love into the universe. He'll watch the hues run and bleed. The boy will get lost in a rainbow. He'll paint himself a story.

If you give a boy some costumes, some open ended dress up clothes that don't tell him what to be... he'll disappear into another world. His voice will change accents. His smile will fill with mischief. The one boy will become five different characters. He will walk in the shoes of royalty. He will be free to be.

If you teach a boy to bake, his world will be sweeter. He will know how to satisfy cravings. He will unlock the alchemy of eggs and flour and heat and chocolate. He will taste tradition and lick the spoon of memory. He will know the joy in feeding himself and those he loves.

If you teach a boy to sew on the machine he will unlock the mystery of production and figure out the magic of patterns. He will know self sufficiency. He will blend creativity and utility and yearn for more. He will feel power. He will ooze pride.

If you teach a boy music he'll build scenes out of notes. He'll belt out Gene Kelly tunes while tap dancing in puddles. He'll pick and strum out his thoughts. He'll beg to go to the ballet and announce he's putting on a salsa show. Rhythm will be his forever companion.

If you show a boy how to garden he'll become friends with the earth. He'll practice patience first hand and understand how to nurture. He'll taste dedication. The boy will feed his soul and pass it on.

If you teach a boy to love animals he will tread lightly on the earth. He will use his hands for helping. The boy will know trust. And the trust will open his heart. He will connect and consider. He will exude compassion.

Why give a boy a toy gun when every stick will become one anyhow? Must we arm our children for desctruction, can't we teach to use their arms and hands for creation? Why limit a boy to footballs and trucks and plastic toolsets and stories of talking cars? What's the point of plugging him in day after day and tuning out the richness beyond the wires and cords that bind us? Why have him choose between baseball and basketball and leave out ballet and ceramics? Why box him up in blue when you can paint his path in rainbows?

Give a boy the gift of an open mind and a creative spirit and the whole world will thank you.



GIVEAWAY - Noah & Lilah

Get ready to gasp as you feast your eyes on these crazy cute clothes for kids from Noah & Lilah.

Sherri only started sewing 2 years ago! Talk about inspiration not to give up on sewing! Here's how she got started:

"When pregnant with Lilah, I wanted to learn to sew and so I took a class at Joann's and we made a pillowcase. I was hooked. That same week I signed up for one more class (an apron), bought a machine, fabric and patterns and went to work. Other than those two classes, I'm self-taught. Another big motivator was quilting. I started finding all these amazing modern quilting blogs and started to become obsessed and finding tons of quilts that I *had* to make. Which l led to a fabric obsession as well. Ironically, I have so many quilts I've started and not finished because I get so busy with the shop. I have poor nieces and even a son and daughter that are still waiting on quilts from me. Soon!"

She has the best fabric combos with such sweet, classic designs. I asked her what inspires her work:

"Lots of things - mostly my kids. Noah and Lilah really is about simple, modern clothes that aren't overly frilly. Not that there isn't a place for that for some kids, but it's just not *me*. Which of course means that Lilah will probably be the girliest of girly-girls, but that's okay too. If there's one thing that these kids have taught me, it's that often what we think is best or what they really want is so far off from what really *is* best for them, and often taking a few steps back and remembering that they really are just little people perfectly capable of making their own choices (and all that goes with it - making mistakes and learning from them!). They remind me of that often, and I've learned more from them in the last five years than I ever have doing anything else in life. "

Sherri is generously offering a $25 gift certificate to her shop to one lucky winner. Just click on over to Noah & Lilah and leave a comment here telling what you love about the shop. Get an additional entry by becoming a fan on Facebook. But wait, there's more (I've always wanted to say that) if you buy something from the shop between now and the end of the week (Sunday) put in the code BOAT20 and get 20% off your purchase!
Comments are closed. Winner announced within the hour. closed Thursday night (I will keep comments open until the end of the day and announce a winner tonight.) and winner announced on Friday. Thank you Noah & Lilah!

~this moment~

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - via soulemama.

lost magic

So we planted these "magic beans" a few weeks back on the first sunny day. Zach had been given one of these a couple of years ago and it was so much fun to watch it grow and reveal the magic word that I was suckered into getting more.

Now I have never pretended to be a gardner, or know anything about plants, or even like gardening. But how hard could it be?! The boy scooped soil into little pots, dug little holes, plopped the beans in, and they are inside in a sunny place pampered and watered and such.

Was it something I said? Do the beans know that gardening is not my thing and they are mocking me. Not one little sprig of green has popped through our pots of dirt. Not one. Maybe I need a wand?

half way round the sun

Just a one day shy of her 6 month birthday Miss Naia is in full tilt exploration mode. While she is unable to crawl yet (and thoroughly miffed about that fact) she wants to goo-gaa at everyone who will meet her gaze, she's an unapologetic flirt (practically got engaged to a man on the metro last week), and loves nothing more than to be sung to. The camera mystifies her and dogs make her kick her feet with glee.

To celebrate her big half year milestone, she tasted her first food... beach sand. Ah, yes. After a good long while just squishing and squeezing and sifting the stuff... (I wanna do everything HE does!)

She decided she couldn't resist a taste.

Who me? No of course I wasn't eating sand. Why would you ask?

My sweet, smiley, silly girl.

(this post was especially for grandpa who said, "I wanna see more of my grand daughter's face!")

big little helper

When chatting with strangers about the baby and the age spread between the two kids I always joke that all new babies should come with 6 year old helpers. Every single day Zach amazes me with his ability and willingness to help around the boat and help with Naia. I try so hard not to take it for granted or let it go unappreciated.

It's the little things like bringing me a clean diaper, keeping her happy (as only he can) when I need to finish making dinner, reading to her if I need to make an important phone call, and just generally loving all over her. But then there are the bigger things, like sensing when I am losing my battle with getting out the door on time and keeping my sanity and saying in his little voice, "Mommy, how can I help?" The way he brings me water when I'm nursing. The way he picks up his room the first time I ask, or sometimes even before I ask. The way he runs up to the marina office to pick up our packages and bring them back to the boat or out to get the mail. He begs me to let him do the dishes, but I worry about running out of water in one afternoon :)

But the most recent helping act truly floored me. I heard him down in the galley as I was getting Naia ready for a day out at the museums. My mama instinct said, "He's smeaking brownies for breakfast, grrrrrrr!" But when I went down there I found him making sandwhiches and cutting cucumbers. "I'm packing our lunch for the museum mama. That way we can get going on time and you don't have to worry."

It was the best lunch I ever had.

~this moment~ I See You!

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - via soulemama.

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Don't forget to enter the Seed Bomb/ Poo Pop giveaway until tonight. Have a great weekend!

Poo Pops (tutorial and a giveaway!)

Hey kids, wanna play with poo? Who could resist an offer like that? My pal SuperJen certainly couldn't as she loves to get her hands dirty and jumped in to help us make seed bombs/ seed pops/ poo balls/ poo pops -- whatever you want to call them.

There are a few different recipes for these floating in cyberspace, we followed one and then improvised. Roughly here's what you will need:

Red Clay (powdered or just clay)
Worm castings (worm poo) or compost
seeds (flower or herb)
water
lollipop sticks if you do the pops

We mixed 2 parts clay to 2 parts poo to 1 part seeds and 1 part water. In the end we found we needed more poo and way more seeds to get it right. You massage it all together until it feels soft and plyable like play dough.

Then roll them into little balls. We made the flower seed mixture into the seed bombs and the herb seeds (we did chives) into the poo pops. Put the lollipop sticks in while they are moist. Once you are done rolling let them dry in the sun for at least a day.

Once they dry and harden you are ready for action. Jen stamped these little baggies to put the seed bombs in for gifting. The idea is to just toss the bombs into any are that you feel needs a little flower power. The clay will break on impact or break down in the rain, the poo or compost will fertilize you seeds which will sink into the earth and grow. Keep some in your bag and throw them everywhere! Guerilla gardening!

With the herb poo pops, we wrapped them in tissue paper like real lollies for gifting. Just unwrap and pop into a small pot of soil. Then in no time your herb garden will be growing around you lolli stick.

The fine folks over at Soul Flower sent me a load of seeds this week as a happy spring gift, and I want to share the love. Post a comment here telling me your favorite item over at Soul Flower and I'll pick a comment at random to win the pile-o-seeds, a baggie of seeds bombs, and some poo pops. I'll close comments on Friday night and post the winner Saturday morning. 

Happy Spring!
COMMENTS CLOSED - and the winner generated by Random.org is!  CHRIS (MamaRoots!)
I'll put your pops and bombs and seeds in the mail on Monday. Thanks everyone for playing along!

a good mystery

This is Bo.

(Bo being attacked by lemurs in Madagascar.)

He's what I like to call an International Man of Mystery. He travels around the world  "programming computers" (winkwink - sure Bo). He and I go wayyyy back so he's kind of like funny Uncle Bo to Zach. Bo is an extremely cool guy and all around good human, not just because he brings me rum from exotic locations. But because he remembers that Zach LOVES coins and has brought back currency from every corner of the globe for Z.

I made Zach a little bag over the holidays to keep his collection safe.

So we decided it was time to sort the collection and see where Bo's been these past few years. With some glue dots and some research we were able to match nearly all of the coins to a country.

(He stays happy sorting his coins. She is happy playing with a random piece of rope found on the grass.)

(coins matched to places!)

Almost all of them. There are a few we're still struggling with. But there is one that is just plain stumping me. I even tried texting a photo to Bo to see if he remembered. No luck because my camera on my cell phone stinks and Bo is off somewhere being mysterious. So I am putting out to you all. Can you tell us where this coin is from?

(front and back view of myster coins...)

Rainbow Room

He said he didn't want white paint. He said he HAD to have color, no... not just color but rainbows. So with a little imagiantion and a lot of work we pulled it off.

Zach picked out the tie dye swirl bedspread after hours of searching and viewing every "rainbow" bedding set we could find online (this one came from amazon).  The white paint not only went over the previously white yet faded parts of the room, but we painted the wood veneer around the closet and vanity area white too. The wood veneer looked terrible and rather than rip it out and replace it, this seemed like a way to make an aesthetic fix while giving the little room more light. But... the color quest doesn't end at the bedspread. We also took the doors of each of his two storage cubbies and his closet and painted them each in a different colored chalkboard paint.

The boy is SO happy with this chalkboards. Now his endless need to draw can be satisfied even while getting dressed, going to sleep, or listening to audio books. Speaking of which... we dicthed his clunky old freecycled boom box and installed a proper little stereo system into the wall. Now he has more bed space to stretch out and still gets his music and stories when he wants them.

And finally the centerpiece of the room. Remember those ceiling panels you saw him unscrewing in my "moment" last week? We took those over to the fine folks at Maritime Plastics here in town and told them our vision. A week later they recreated the ceiling panels in a frosted acrylic and Doug installed these behind them.

Oh yes, a strip of multi-colored LED lights that are (ready for this?) remote controlled!

(the little remote lives in this paper bowl he made, but we're thinking of a "leash" for it in the room somehow so it doesn't accidentally disappear like so many other little things.)

I REALLY wanted to post a little video clip of Zach demonstrating all of the crazy settings these lights can do including a settting that is audio sensitive and will pulse to the music, but I can not for the life of me figure out how to get the darn video out of his little camera and into my computer. So still photos will have to do for now.

And here's the real headline for the new room... he loves it. In fact he loves it so much he is happily sleeping in there all night every night so far with no complaints or problems. Of course, now that his room is so cool, I kind of want to sleep there too.  :)




p.s. I am fiddling with the "intense debate" comment widgit. forgive me if you are having trouble commenting or if you can not see your past comments. The idea is to be able to answer more directly to comments and questions, but since I am tech challenged it's slow going getting this all working right.

~this moment~ super royal helper

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - via soulemama.

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Oh my is it Friday already? The coughs and sneezes are subsiding and we're inching back up to speed here.
Thank you everyone for the well wishes!

Up above is one of the early shots of working on Zach's room remodel as he was helping last week. The after shots are almost ready to reveal... almost.

I wanted to point you all over to The Magnifying Glass where the wonderful Lucia interviewed Zach for a young naturalist profile. Thank you Lucia!

And my first review for the buds at Soul Fower is up on thier blog -- some super cozy kids lounge pants, check it out and leave a comment.

Have a great weekend!

yellow flag

Zach and I are laying low with spring colds. Naia with her SuperMommyMilk protection is happy and healthy. I'll crawl back over this way soon...

p.s. Anyone get the yellow flag reference?