I’m pretty excited to say I’ll be offering two kids’ Yoga classes at the Sebastopol Community Center begining in January 2012. This should be fun. The classes will be on Mondays 2:30-3:15 for 4-6 year olds and 3:30 – 4:30 for 7-9 year olds. It’s a ways off so things could change but I’m excited……more details to come!
I’m starting a new round of kids’ yoga. Right now I’m at The Healdsburg School. Next week I’ll start my privates and the preschool class at Beth Ami. Hopefully I’ll be adding another kids’ class at Solstice Studio soon. Here are some photos from my last class at Solstice.
This was such a fun group. I hope that once the dust settles all my little yogis will be back for more yoga.
I had fun at the Handcar Regatta last Sunday. This is the third year I’ve helped out at the Sono-ma family support tent. Holly (Sono-ma) does a great job providing support to families with young children. At her tent moms and dads can take a break from the festival to change their baby’s diaper, have a drink of water, a piece of fresh fruit. She also has toys for the older childen to play with. Moms appreciate a place to nurse their babies in a private place away from the crowds. My “job” has been to let passing families know we’re there for them and invite them to take advantage of everything Holly has brought for them.
In keeping with my yoga classes I invited people who passed to strike a pose……tree pose. Most everyone who humored me by taking the pose made it a “smiling tree”. Here are some of the fun people I saw at the festival.
What a sweet class we had today. I’m loving the studio. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been teaching yoga to kids all over town , in class rooms and conference rooms and libraries and while fun, the venues are not quite right. The studio is subdued with few distractions, easy access to the bathroom (important with kids) even a sound system and may I mention, easy parking! One of the mom’s kindly sent me these photos, aren’t they sweet.
This week the weather’s been perfect. A little overcast in the morning just cool enough for me to serve tea to the moms then clearing by 10:30am so we can have beautiful sunshine through our colorful parachute. We did some marble painting, worked on a two day mosaic project played in the water, played in the gravel, picked some strawberries and at least a couple kids had fun “painting” the cement with the bucket of water and paint brushes….ahhh simple pleasures
When the campers and their grown ups are gone I’ve got plenty to do. There’s all the clean up; clean towels, bathrooms, art supplies to organize and replenish, new projects to dream up and prep, blankets to fold and put away, sand box to sift, gravel to rake, lawn to mow…..you get the idea! What I did last week was take out a bag of raw wool I’ve had in my garage for a couple of years. I was a little afraid that maybe moths might fly out when I opened the bag or perhaps some little four legged creature. No, the only frightening thing was the huge mass of smelly, dirty wool. Several years ago I bought the wool from the Legacy Store in Sebastopol (if you’re a crafter you must go there…we’ll talk). Anyway I wanted to experiment with the wool. I went online figured out what to do and had a camp with the kids and parents making felted wool balls. It worked and was fun but I remember it being a lot of prep work. This time without going online I decided to just start by cleaning the wool. I picked out the big twigs and really stinky stuff, filled our wash tub with water and lots of dish detergent then gently added big gobs of the dirty wool. I was sure to leave enough room for the soapy water to work its way through the wool and was very careful to not agitate or move the wool around….just let it soak for an hour or so. I then pulled the wool out of the tub, let it drain and put it back into a clean tub of soapy water, let it soak and pulled it out to drain and dry. That was that, I then had gobs of kind of ugly matted wool. I took a piece, started pulling it apart (no special tools) just pulling it (I’ve since learned that’s called teasing). I teased the wool removing any other debris,( leaves and seeds) then I had a fluffy light ball of wool. From memory I recalled that I needed soap and hot water so I went into the kitchen added a little soap to the palm of my hand and got the fluff wet with warm water. Then handling the wool carefully I transfered it back and forth in the palm of my hand slowly compressing and rolling until I had a felted wool ball! It was much easier than I remebered (I left some of the original steps out) …… We’ll try it at camp.
By the way, all those towels we use at camp get washed and hung on the “kids’” clothes line….ready for next week!
We’ve got a new baby next door. I don’t know it’s name yet but it’s really small compared to it’s mom and really BIG compared to my Smiling Tree campers. The horse who lives next door and has been in the corral next to our parking has a foal! The baby is a filly (girl). I hope you’ll be able to see it next time you come to camp.
King Snake update: Well, we definitely have a resident king snake. As I mentioned in my previous post, king snakes are not poisonous but please if you see it keep a respectful distance.
One of our activities this month at camp will be an ongoing sewing circle. I have a selection of cotton fabric rectangles for the children to choose from. Our first project is a garden flag. To get the kids started I’ve threaded needles (real needles with sharp points) . We folded over a casing and safety pinned it in place. The kids used the poke and pull “method” of stitching to complete their first project. I love having the kids use contrasting thread so we can see every “perfect” stitch. The kids can make endless flags and string them together or…..when they’re ready they can make a pillow or maybe a little pouch. All these projects only require a straight stitch and a square of fabric. I’ll work with the older kids to thread their own needle but that can be frustrating for little kids and keep them from starting so I’ll thread the needle for anyone who wants me to.
The last day of each session of camp we cook. I have a great cook book with recipes designed for kids to make a small portion snack. We made cheese pretzels last week. The kids scooped and leveled, measured and stirred then kneaded their dough. These recipes are so forgiving; a little too much flour, not enough yeast didn’t knead very long, extra cheese……doesn’t matter all the pretzels were delicious and different. This particular recipe for pretzels is one of the better ones to prepare at home. The recipes for cookies or breads don’t make a lot of sense…might as well make a full batch but this recipe makes 4 pretzels and only has a few ingredients . YUMMMY!
We’ve had a couple really hot days at camp. So hot that I brought out popsicles for everyone and hooked up the mister to cool things down…..still too hot! It was so hot I could hardly get the kids to help me plant marigolds in the garden. They wisely preferred to explore in the shade of the pine trees and do crafts under the oak tree.
Zinnie told me she saw a snake….hmmmmm Yes, really, I asked was it this big? (gesturing a few inches) , no, was it this big? (one foot), no, this big? (arms stretched 2-3feet) YES!!! what did it look like? “A zebra”…… the king snake has come to visit!! We ran down to see the snake and a group of kids had gathered to see it slither through the tall grass. I have no pictures; the king snake’s black and white stripes make perfect camouflage in grass. We are happy to have a king snake in our yard. They keep out the more dangerous snakes and they like gophers. I only wish the king would move up closer to our vegetable garden because there’s a hungry gopher making tunnels and mounds near the tomatoes.
One of the kids asked if it was ok to touch the snake. I said king snakes are not poisonous but they will bite. I encourage the kids to leave a good distance from snakes and not bother the critters in nature. No one can resist picking up the little frogs that try to hide in the cool grass and I’ve seen some of the kids try to catch the blue bellied lizards that are always darting around. No one has caught a lizard yet this summer but plenty of frogs have been caught and released.
I didn’t get a picture of the snake but I did get a picture of a HUGE beetle Emma found hiding in the bark of a pine tree. I’m not sure how she saw it…..kids have better eyes, maybe more inquisitive then mine.
I’ve been teaching yoga everywhere it seems. I taught a pre-teen group recently at the RinconValley Library as part of their summer program emphasising healthy life style. I was at the Harmony Festival, and at Whole Foods. During the school year I taught at College Oaks Montessori, Proctor Terrace and Austin Creek Schools. I’ve used music rooms, classrooms, libraries, community rooms and we had a fun end of school yoga “party” outside. I’m looking forward to offering yoga in a real yoga studio. It’s great taking yoga to the kids but I think having them in a studio will enrich the yoga experience. There will be fewer distraction and it will be easier to focus. A yoga studio has a calm of its own.
The kids love picking strawberries at camp. A lot of the kids make a bee line straight to the strawberry patch as soon as they arrive. As you can see by the sign the kids are free to help themselves to the organic strawberries.
Here’s a little poem I read that speaks to the yes you can attitude:
I took some sweet portraits of the kids at camp with the idea that they would be part of a gift for Fathers’ Day. Because of the strange late rain I wasn’t able to get the pictures to the kids for a dad’s gift. They’re still fun pictures.
The kids had fun picking and shelling the last of the fava beans. The giant pods have a velvety lining. I blanched the beans then sauteed them in olive oil and garlic. Fava beans are extremely easy to grow; put the seeds in the ground in the fall and they’re ready in the spring. The prep is a little or can be a little labor intensive even with all the helpers picking and shelling. The skin on the beans can be a little tough so some people peel each bean. I cooked them up and suggested parents take the skin off for the kids. I don’t mind the tough skin so I eat the bean skin and all.
The kids had so much fun finding frogs and caterpillars at camp. There seemed to be an abundance of frogs so I had to remind the kids to use gentle hands and be sure to put the critters back in a cool shaded place.
River found a little frog and with Hannah’s help the two of them collected all the goodies they thought would make a perfect froggie habitat. Don’t they look proud?
Here are the photos of my “beautiful” napkins…..yes, I am a freak!
Ironing Napkins
I grew up ironing; everybody ironed or had someone iron for you (15cents a piece if I remember correctly). I did not like ironing! Somewhere back in 19 and 80something I stopped ironing except for special occasions and tea parties. Ah yes, that’s another story, I use to host tea parties with a neighbor. The venue was the Finely Center in Santa Rosa and we served everything from cucumber sandwiches to petit fours with real China cups and saucers and of course starched cloth napkins!!! We both had 3 children and we put together these grand tea parties for as many as 75 people (maybe more?). …what were we thinking?!! It was great fun but so much work! Least of which was ironing napkins.
Last weekend I decided to organize and clear out my linen closet. I let go of some pillow cases and sheets and a few polyester napkins. What I discovered was a stack of laundered but not ironed napkins including some 22inch square white damask beauties! (anyone else out there have a weakness for beautiful old linens?….I know you’re out there) Anyhow, I went through all my napkins; bleached and spotted them and then ironed them. Who knew pressing a hot iron over a flat square of fabric could be so relaxing and satisfying? I now have a stack of 14 beautifully ironed 22” white, fresh napkins and an assortment of equally beautiful smaller napkins. ….silly!
I use cloth napkins almost exclusively. Besides the white beauties I have a stack of brown and red cotton napkins that I’ve had for over 20years. I keep a stack next to the dining table ready to grab. These napkins have been laundered so often that they are soft and wrinkle free. FYI this is how I manage daily cloth napkins: Once a week I do a load of laundry that is exclusively kitchen towels and napkins. I don’t worry about spots, just throw them in the washer……….easy……no ironing!!!
PS I know that if someone told me they spent their Sunday afternoon ironing napkins I would say they have too much time on their hands. Now I remember the simple pleasure of a simple job done well.
This recipe was sent to me via foodnetwork.com. I’ve made it several times now and it gets the kid and husband stamp of approval. These little muffins are called cupcakes, MagicFruit & Veggie Cupcakes but I think they’re more muffins than cake. At any rate I usually don’t like the idea of hiding vegetables. I think kids should just “eat their vegetables” but I know that’s not always the case. You can choose your combination of fruit and veggies. I made a batch with dried apricots, apple, pear, spinach, zucchini and carrot. I made another batch with fresh pineapple instead of the dried apricots and my last batch had small cubes of cooked beets plus all the other stuff and chopped nuts. I like these muffins but think they could be a little sweeter (for me). That being said I would not sweeten them for kids…..why add more sugar when they like them the way they are. I did make a batch with a crumb topping and another with a sprinkling of brown sugar before baking. There are a lot of ingredients but good ones. I suggest buying some of the ingredients in bulk so you only have to buy the amount you’ll need. When I bake something like this that I know I’m going to bake again I measure a second batch of dry ingredients. I’ve got everything out already and it’s almost like having a mix when I’m ready to bake the next time.
Magic Fruit and Veggie Cupcakes
1/2 cup all- purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 TB soy flour
2 TB wheat germ
1/2 cup bran flakes cereal or old-fashioned oats or combo (I used oats)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt (I added a little more)
1 large egg
1/4 cup packed brown sugar, plus more for topping – optional
2 TB extra-virgin olive oil
1tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup plus 1TB milk
3/4 cup grated or finely chopped veggies (carrots, zucchini and/or spinach)
3/4 cup grated or finely chopped fresh or dried fruit (apples, pears, pineapple and or raisins)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees . Line 24 cup mini muffin pan with paper liners or mist with cooking spray
Whisk the flours, wheat germ, bran flakes, flax seeds, baking soda, baking poqder, cinnamon and salt in large bowl, set aside. Beat the egg and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the olive oil, vanilla, milk, veggies and fruit and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir just until blended.
Spoon batter into prepared pan, filling each cup about 3/4 full. Sprinkle tops with brown sugar, if desired. Bake for 20-24 minutes. Remove from pan cool on a rack
We live in “wine country” so visiting guests often leave wine box carriers at our home. When I saw the doll house that Joel from madebyjoel.blog created I just had to try it and how cute is this!!!…(not a question!)
of course I had to make some furniture too…..love it!
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I think it would be fun to have a parent workshop to make “Joel toys” for our kids. I’m definetly buying his book when it comes out….I love everything he does.
