National Hunger Awareness Day

Today is National Hunger Awareness Day. There are many ways to help.

Happy Holidays!

We've decorated our beautiful tree; written and posted 'most' of our Christmas cards; made ornaments; bought some presents from the farmers' market; our gingerbread will be made this weekend; we did the Santa Shuffle; and are looking forward to mini parties and a kids spin a thon; but the most magical part will be sitting down to dine with our growing family. I hand washed a new tablecloth, and am truly excited to iron it on Christmas Eve morning.

Looking forward to reconnecting with many of you in the new year, and meeting new blogger friends.

Wishing you and yours a peaceful, love drenched, sweet and joyful season.
XO
Susana

Martha Stewart isms

Last week a mom casually called me Martha Stewart because I had packed lunch and snacks, and I had enough that her kid could feast too. I summed up my behaviour as frugal; but since then, there's so many things I wish I had said, and one question I wished I'd asked: 'what's so bad about being like Martha Stewart'?

So today I googled Martha Stewart, and the wikipedia definition includes 'homemaking advocate'. That term in itself warms by heart, so if that's what people think I'm like, cool - even if they don't think it's cool.

Funny thing is, most mamas I know pack lunches and snacks, and at least some of what they have is homebaked/homecooked. Plus, I know many of them have secret snacks, the kind they know can lure their park lovin' cobras home.

So fellow homemaking advocates, I ask you this: what is the must-have-food-item/surprise snack you will not leave home without, even if you are only walking to the library?

Mine: Sunny Bears (corn syrup and all...)

Tuesdays Child

Tuesdays child is full of grace - and so were the four that played together at the drop-in today!

Thank you so very much Mama M and your gorgeous little dudes for:

a great Tuesday morning, and our amazing friendship, and the laughter on good & very bad days, and for your delicious muffins, and so much more. Did you find the wooden bath mat ;-)

no gadgets required; cooking in Guatemala

This is a Polaroid that Village Papa took of me April, '99. We were in Guatemala, doing volunteer field work for UNICEF and Plan
International.

This photo captures one of the highlights of my life, teaching these sisters how to prepare a North American pasta dinner. Not a fancy kitchen gadget in sight, just creativity and enthusiasm from all involved.

At the time, I would dream of 'someday' cooking with my kids...and now, it's my joy in life.

I'm sharing this moment because it's one of the pieces that make up my manuscript-in-progress...more to home.



ps if you're still in the market for Easter gifts, take a peek here.


Happy Easter Weekend - hope you enjoy the sweetness of extra time with loved ones.

Harbourfront Centre: winter playground

birthday wishes

Happy 4th Birthday Miss M!

Have a great day today with your awesome mom and dad.

We had so much fun playing, eating and hot potatoing with you at your magical spring party yesterday. You've got such fabulous friends.

May all your wishes come true.

Know that we love you.
XO

Upper Beach adventure - on the rocks!

With the windchill it was about -15 today; add the garbage cans & compost bins; add hard lumpy ice; add lack of sun; add on-and-off flurries and you've got the perfect recipe for yet another cabin fevered wintry Tuesday in Toronto.

We bundled up and headed on an outdoor adventure (read: errands and the promise of chocolate treats).

Sometimes the choices I make leave me feeling lonely. Like today, as I was trudging up a steep incline pushing about 100 pounds of flesh and metal. I was thinking 'does it really matter to mother earth that I chose to be a car free parent? will any of this matter to my kids?' Sometimes I feel like the choices I make cause me so much work; so much exhaustion. Sometimes I honestly wish I didn't care. I wish everything wasn't so fu#%*N political. But of course, I have been blessed with angels crossing my paths, and always, always, they leave me feeling like I'm part of a community. Part of the world, the world that needs me to keep doing what I'm doing.

Today the angel was a woman, early 60's, walking down the path I was struggling up. She smiled at me and her body language told me she was going to stop to let me by. Somehow the sidewalk opened up and there was room for both our caravans. She was pulling a wooden wagon stacked with cardboard boxes from which peeked out signs of groceries. She said 'wow, this must be so hard for you', and I said 'and you too'. We both laughed and got into a great conversation about the merits of walking and fresh air being free therapy etc etc.

We said goodbye, wished each other a nice day and my angel was gone. Leaving me with a silly humongous smile. I thought 'there goes the woman I'd love to be in 20 years'.

After all our errands got done the kids and I collapsed indoors, so happy to be inside our beautiful warm home. jr cookie monster literally kissed the side of the fire place and said 'hi home, we missed you'. I said 'wow, that was a great,' and he interrupted me and said 'adventure', and I said 'yes, adventure'!

Rambling on to say that I'm grateful that the winter helped us meet an angel today.

Confession from an Exhausted Parental Unit

Village Papa and I 'bookmark' our days:
in the morning we injest delicious, fresh, home-ground coffee;
at night we injest vino, many different favourites;
throughout the day mama and the tribe dances, bangs drums, bangs walls with markers;
frugal mama wants to go out and buy a coffee,
instead she makes another pot of coffee;
mama talks to her mama friends, many are doin' similar things;
mama skims her favourite blogs, and looks for inspiring new-to-her blogs while the tribe fights over a straw;
mama can't take the whining and the 'mine!!!' debates any longer, so she showers and lathers cream, then lotion all over herself;
mama fantacizes about ordering a pizza, instead the tribe eats fridge scraps: week old cucumber coins, wilting carrot sticks, odds & ends from the pita bag, and expired yogurt;
sometimes mama and papa take the tribe to the Whole Foods Market, lunch is an eye-popping-delicious splurge, worth every penny: sweet potato horseradish, sushi and mango smoothies ready in a flash;
other days mama dives into the cd stacks,
week-after-week she looks for 5 great collections for the 5-disc player, this week's selection:

Marvin Gaye, The Best of Marvin Gaye Volume 2, The '70s, The Millenium Collection
Marissa Monte, A Great Noise
The Rolling Stones, Artist's Choice
Orchestra Baobab
The Fire This Time, Still Dancing on John Wayne's Head


What do you and your tribe do to make challenging-life-periods sweet?

Steamy Survivor Meal

Deliciously-fast-all organic-recipe available upon comment love. xo

Nursing

When our son was less than a day old, maybe hour 23 of his life, the midwife suggested we take him to the hospital because she suspected something was wrong. It ended up being water in his lungs, not serious at all, but we were first time parents. Terrified of our tiny baby's unknown. My milk had barely come in. I had to learn to nurse, and pump and give every ounce of myself to another. Village Papa gave every ounce of himself to us.

Our son was slow on the charts. Our first paediatrician got sick and tired of me saying 'absolutely NO' to formula, so on our last visit she said 'I'm not suggesting you put him on formula, I'm telling you you HAVE to'. We never saw her again.

Family members told me that I couldn't 'just' nurse my baby. He needed formula.

Village Papa and I read the ingredients on a can of formula. Nope, definitely not for our son.

If you persist enough, never stop asking, looking, exploring, fighting you meet people like the lactation consultant who helped us supplement the nursing with pumped milk. Exhausting yes. Fast forward to now, he was nursed just short of 18 months. He is tall and strong and heavy, almost impossible to carry him in one arm and his sister in the other arm down the stairs each morning.

Our daughter has thrived from the minute she pushed herself into the world. In fact, even inside the womb she kicked the sh*# out of me. With her my milk came in early in my pregnancy. She's always had abundance.

Now, just over 17 months old I'm starting to wean her. She seems accepting. Not me. I feel I needt to do this because I feel bone tired, on demand nursing through the night is wonderful, but now I'm starting to be desperate for long stretches of sleep. Yet, as soon as I've stopped it will be the end. No more babies. No more squeaky voices pleading for 'leche'. No more...

Last night while nursing her before bedtime I said to Village Papa, 'if she has children I hope she nurses them' and he replied 'if you share your stories with her the likelihood is high'.

I am typing this and I just want to bawl my eyes out. Nursing my children has been my world for more than 3 years. Nursing has given me worth; a feeling of providing our children with so much nurturing and love.

Perhaps it'll be a long drawn out weaning. Perhaps you'll share your stories and we can all rejoice in this life giving experience together.

I am a mother of two

I say very little on this site about my ups and downs (deep oceanic floor-like) in my journey of learning to be a mom of two. Parenthood is a lifestyle that is a challenge. Some parents act like no big deal. Good for them. I find it a real big, beautiful, difficult, frustrating, joyful and confusing deal. Despite a-l-l of the abundance in my life, despite the fact that I KNOW that my life is so good, very good, and others have it not so good, despite the birds that are chirping in our backyard trees I still find it mentally difficult to keep my cool. I am grateful to those who listen. Very grateful, especially to the other moms who are in the same boat. Luckily, I have been blessed with mama friends who have similar difficulties, yet, the stars have aligned in our favour, so that the hellish days for me, are the pretty good days for them and vice versa.

Anyhow, despite the anger I've met inside myself and that I'm learning to live with (which stems from the harried sleep depriving juggle of freelance work, slow renovations, the laundry, what seems like 24 hour whining, my solitary nature which requires quiet and daydream time, which hasn't happened in a few years etc), I mostly just want to remember the good times, like yesterday at the farmer's market with my two little ones, Mama M and her two, Mama T and her two, and Mama L and her two. Glorious morning, lunch and tons of snack time out in the fresh air, bright sun and bustle of the market with all its fresh lettuce, tomatoes, yellow, orange and red peppers, plants, apples and baby cucumbers. We came home with produce and a new member of our garden family, a lavender plant that I can't stop gushing over. Must go google 'lavender' so that I can learn to care for this most devinley scented beauty.