MOTHER EARTH GODDESS CARDLast night was the monthly Goddess party, where gals get together under a full moon to share food and drinks and draw a monthly "goddess card". For several months I've had the "Butterfly Maiden, Transformation" card. Last night the card I drew is Mawu, the Mother Earth card. The meaning of the card has to do with taking care of the environment--gardening, recycling. I wasn't too excited over this card, as its not nearly as exciting as some of the other cards in the stack (such as Aphrhodite), and I believe Patrick and i already do quite a bit for the environment with recycling and gardening.
Well, I was very wrong and my thinking was short sighted.
This morning I I took the kids to the refuge center for kids film festival and we watched 45 minutes of films about nature and the environment. The last film centered around chemicals in the water table and how frogs are highly impacted by this --causing birth defects and decreased reproductive rates. At the end of the movie, they said, 'Heres what you can do to help reduce chemicals in rivers, etc...' Then they showed a scene of someone reaching for shampoos at the grocery store, and the narrater talked about being a wise consumer of products with chemicals. In the scene was bottle of Nora's hair detangler--Nora said VERY loudly, "Hey mom-We have that at home!!". That got a good laugh, but made me realize that maybe I do need to step up to the plate more with cleaning our house of toxic chemicals and making cleaning products out of vinegar and borax.
ICE SKATING LESSONS
Two weeks ago we started the kids with a 1/2 hour, 1x a week ice skating lesson. Its a LOVELY service offered by the city. Patrick and I have tried many times to get the kids going on ice skateing on ponds, and it was hard. Part of our difficulty was that there wasn't other kids around to motivate or be a "model" for Nora and Stuey.
At the ice skating lessons, the kids inch along (literally) the ice...going in a line, around cones. And they learn how to get up correctly when they fall. In the two sessions the kids have had, there have already been improvements. I believe that it will make ice skating trips to local ponds more fun in the future!
VISITORS
The past 2 weeks we've had several visitors, including Thomas and Rose visiting from Seattle and Dicky visiting from Maine. Thomas and Rose came to Kodiak for the weekend for a friend's 40th birthday party (Happy Birthday, Rob!). Dicky (Patrick's brother) also paid a visit from Maine.
Zoya
photos: Dicky and I at the Powerhouse restaurant
Patrick and the kids at the Powerhouse.
Stuey at the ice skating lesson. nora in the background.
Thomas and Rose over for dinner.
Nora and I walking at Spruce Cape Trail.
1 comment:
We are slowing making the "change" as well. My favorite all purpose cleaner is a 1/2 isophoric alcohol 1/2 water mixture. It sits on the counter in a squirt bottle and is used for everything from disinfecting the kitchen sink to washing the dinner table to a quick had sanitizer. It's safe for your children to use as well, and they can easily help with daily clean-up. I also LOVE Borax and use it in a Parmesan cheese shaker to sprinkle on hard to clean surfaces. I can't use vinegar, the smell just turns my stomach. I do need to take a trip into the bathroom and change out our shampoos still. We use all handmade goats milk soap bars (that I made at a local dairy) for hands and bodies. It does have a lye base and I wonder if that would still effect the water table and amphibians?
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