Sunshine Lavender Farm (very belated: 6/11/2011)

Every summer Sunshine Lavender Farm owner Ann opens up her farm (to those subscribed to her email listings) to celebrate the lavender harvest. Visitors can tour the farm, make lavender crafts, drink lavender lemonade (yummy!), and buy fun lavender gifts for home and body. We knew the children would see their grandmothers this summer and purchased them both some lovely lavender soap.

As Lil'S wasn't walking yet and wasn't very interested in hearing about lavender, he entertained himself during the tour of the lavender field by eating rocks . . . lots of them.

One of many varieties of lavender Ann grows on her farm.

We were honored by a visit from the Butterfly Lady who introduced us to the monarch butterfly. . .

and taught us about its various senses--

all of them!

Time to release the butterflies!

S had one land on his finger.

(I think S took this one.)

Hoping the butterfly would climb on a finger.

(Where's my rotation option? ;) )

Ann explained what it's like to raise honeybees, which pollinate her lavender and kitchen garden. She is joined by a good friend from Argentina (?), another honeybee expert.

buzz!

We enjoyed our family outing.

Days like this happen much too rarely for us!

Conference Request

Sigh....I finally did it. I didn't want to do it, but it had to be done and probably should have been done long ago.

Hi Mr. R[...] and Ms. M[...],

When would be a good time for us to meet to discuss H[...] further? Without her mid-day naps she has continued to act overtired at home, has had constant colds since the onset of school (excepting 3 weeks in Sept) that have often worsened her asthma, and is not handling well the additional stress of her vision treatments (has been complaining of stomachaches 2-3 times a week since we started them back up). She really needs more sleep. I do hope we can work something out to let her get it.

Thank you,

R[...]

Lil'S Language at 19mo

New "Words"

bbbbb with his lips for "car"/"truck"
ba-ba-bbbbbb for "balloon" (Thanks awesome Kroger Balloon Lady for the free Halloween balloons! My kid is now saying another word!)
mmm/ma for "more"
heh for "hi" (Around last week he started waving at nearly everyone he'd see, and at least a few days ago he started trying to say "hi" too. Cute!)

Lil'S - new signs


down (point downward; only rarely asks to get down by pointing down lately, did more when 18mo--forgot to include in earlier post, but he understands you. If you're lucky he'll do it--much more likely to do it if you say something like, "Yes Sam sit down, yes Sam eat"--if you sit, you can eat; but if you don't sit, you don't get to eat! We know he's done eating when he makes a game out of this by continually standing in his chair.)


thank you (yeah! he's just started signing this! open hand moves to and away from chin)


rain (both hands raised and lowered, often wiggling fingers; this is a request for the Primary song "Rain is Falling"; we often sing this during mealtimes when we're bored but not done eating yet)
where (typical gesture with hands palm up at shoulder level, although it's not ASL. He'll do it too sometimes, shaking his hands back and forth. He was probably signing this last month too.)


come! (this is his own sign; sweeps a hand in front of him and then over his opposite waist/shoulder; also may hold out a hand and open and close the fist)


bird (thumb and forefinger make a bird's opening & closing beak in front of the mouth; he'll do it usually reaching in the direction of the bird)


still teaching (when I think of it!):
water
apple
pain
butter


should teach him:
shoes
sock
draw/color
trade
bread
cracker
dance
baby
doll
open
close
bike
book
fork
boat
put away


Here's the source we've used for ASL signs. There may be some down the road that we'll need to simplify, but we'll do that as we come to it.

S, this one's for you!

Fudge Babies Low-starch, sugar-free treat--one that's easy enough (and cheap enough!) for even me to make!
;)

You know I love you!
:}{:

More Paleo Recipes

So, I know I'm supposed to be saving recipes in a folder on my computer, but I never actually use it, but I do use my blog. Maybe if I actually saved them there I'd use the folder. What a concept.

Anyway, thought I'd post these to share. They are some more meat & veggie dinner ideas--not that I'll likely use these ones, but they all sound very good. OH, and there's a muffin recipe too. :) Starch-free. Not that we'll ever likely buy almond and coconut flours (okay, actually, if this diet does work out well for S, I'm sure we probably will give in at some point for special occasions), but it looked SO GOOD and makes me want to try it. (Note that I'm not telling you about my attempt at baking goodies--as in, not a cake mix, which I do actually have to take on tomorrow night or Friday morning for H's school's Fall Festival--for the first time in over 2 years (probably longer than that....I was dealing with heavy fatigue from a med I was on when I got preg with Lil'S) that happened Monday, but I guess it's wasn't all bad as the kids loved the cookies and .....Guess I'll have to write about that after all.....)

Crispy Red Potatoes (Okay, so NOT for S, but VERY MUCH FOR ME! Stumbled on this the other night through a friend's blog. With my lactose-intolerance, the title of the blog just kinda seemed to be shouting at me. I very happily bought potatoes today. I've been craving them.)

Veggie-Beef Balls (Have I mentioned Paleo blogs are pretty handy in finding low-starch meals. Gluten free can be sometimes too, for dinners at least. At least I always enjoy reading them, even if I don't actually use them. ;) )

Maple Pecan Muffins Mmmm.....

Pumpkin Pie Pudding Not that Lil'S can currently have the eggs in both of these. . . . You'd think I'd have searched out a lactose-free, egg-free, starch-free food blog by now. Ha! I didn't find a blog, but did just find. . . .

Gluten-free, Grain-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free Snickerdoodles LOL!!! I LOVE the internet!!!!

I had a funny image of writing a grain-free, egg-free, dairy-free, food-free blog. ;) I'd kind of not have anything to post, but it's amusing to me how everyone has a totally different view of what's "healthy". If you've grown up with the government's recommendations, just start looking around and you'll find all sorts of interesting info. I personally think Harvard is a good place to start. . . . I'm a bit of a Harvard fan. Considering some of my 3 fav non-fiction books have come from Harvard grads--and H's eye dr is actually a Harvard grad too--it's pretty easy to become one. But, I digress, and could continue doing so, but I'm supposed to be going to bed soon. (Yes, EARLY. H's still waking at night, and Lil'S has come down with croup again. I'm really hoping tonight will be uneventful anyway.)

And, of course, the recipe S emailed me that has started this whole thing tonight:

The Bacon Chicken I joked to S that this HAD to have been envisioned by a man! (It actually was posted under the husband's name, but that's not necessarily a guarantee he was actually the one who wrote it.)