Gypsy Child

Raina shows the way to Key West

There is going to be a reunion in Key West, Florida.

Cayo Hueso Lovers is the name in Facebook

Description:

For those interested in a reunion in Key West, Florida this Jan 22, 23, 24,2010… who lived,played,danced,sailed,performed and loved living in Cayo Hueso in the 80’s and 90’s…and who remember the magic of Mallory @ sunset…dancing to the Survivors…sailing and swimming the crystal waters all round…those who want to re-unite with old friends made in those days and who now live elsewhere or still on the island…

Go to facebook and sign up.

My 15 year old is driving!

My 15 year old has been driving for four months and I still can’t get use to it.

In eight more months I will release her to the open roads. Is this fair to all the other drivers on the road?

It is not her fault, she is a good driver, as good as any 15 year old. But that is just it, she will only be 16 and with that age comes that feeling of “I am indestructible”.

Will she remember to look for pedestrians and bicyclist when she is turning right on red?

Will she ignore her phone when it vibrates or rings?

She is already starting to adjust the mirrors and the seat after she is driving.

She is already finding a good radio station when she is driving.

I make her turn the phone off when she drives with me, will she do that when I am not there?

Will she be able to handle the aggressive driver that looses patience with her inexperience? Until I started helping my teens drive I forgot that some drivers are just learning and to be patient.

Will she get distracted when her friends are in the car?

The list goes on and on.

Another situation of letting go and trusting.

I am now 95% grey.

After four kids, and the last one now fifteen,  I have no hope for the remaining 5%.

Dean food company switched there ‘Silk’ soy milk to non-organic soybeans and thought no one would notice. They changed the label recently and said same product, new label. I believed them.

But they lied. They changed the label to Natural from Organic because they had to. They no longer buy organic soy beans. They still charge the same as if it was organic. They didn’t even change the bar code so many grocery store owners still believed it to be organic. 

Labeling deception

Dean Foods is one of the big food giants that serves processed, factory-made foods and beverages to the American people. It’s the parent company of Horizon Organic, the so-called “organic” milk maker that’s been caught up in a web of deception exposed by the Organic Consumers Association (http://www.naturalnews.com/021763_o…).

Health Freedom Alliance is my source for this article.

Do you try to buy organic?

If you don’t buy all organic are there a few products you try to make sure they are organic?

 If so then which ones and why?

My dad worked for Nabisco for 37 years.

We had free reign to all snacks from the warehouse.

I can remember going to see my dad and getting so excited because we got to walk in the warehouse and pick out what we wanted.

It never got old.  How can that large assortment of snacks and cookies ever get old. We picked Oreo’s, Chips-ahoys, Marshmallow Pinwheels, Lorna Doones.

When I saw this picture my son’s father took of him it reminded me of the Nabisco Raincoat Boy, that’s what my sisters and I called him.  

We had Nabisco envelope openers, paperweights, tins, towels, plates. The list goes on…

The Raincoat boy was on most of them along with the animal cracker train.

Uneeda Biscuit Boy

Nabisco, once called the National Biscuit Company, created the UNEEDA biscuit. It looked promising, but they had to find a way to make sure it got to customers all fresh and tasty. So while other companies were selling crackers in bulk out of barrels, the National Biscuit Company created the Inner-Seal Package, an ingenious system of inter-folded layers of wax paper and cardboard. To market the new cracker they created the illustration of a wholesome, little boy clutching a box of UNEEDA Biscuits. The lad was wearing a raincoat and rain boots to demonstrate the moisture-proof nature of the package.

‘Where The Wild Thing Are’. a movie review

Where the Wild Things Are

I happen to feel like Kenneth Turan, who did the review on NPR News, did not get the movie. He said neither parents nor children are going to like it.

Somehow it completely missed his frontal lobe, slithered past his heart and gut and landed in a pool of (no imagination); taking everything exactly how it is presented with no creative thought process of his own.

I cannot imagine watching a movie waiting for everything to slap me in the face crying “look at me, listen to me.” I watched the details alongside the clatter and the silent depth of emotion sprinkled with the folly allowing my mental juices to go along with the imaginative ride I was taken on. 

I loved this movie. I get this movie. I easily flowed along the lines of his mother’s toes hiding behind her stockings to the stacking up of limbs, heartbeats and knarly toes; resting in the comfort of loved ones in one big monster lump.

I get the moods of each character. Tell me you couldn’t relate to the selfish, out of line, dysfunction every character relayed and I will say you are not looking very close at yourself. People do things and say thing that are not always who they truly want to be, then out of nowhere people will say the perfect thing, do the most noble thing. This is human nature.

This boy’s eyes show anger, confusion, compassion, hope and love. Max Records couldn’t be more perfect.

In the end he returned to what was familiar. He decides he could rest easily in a house full of chaos and love. He could accept all these traits and still find comfort in the mist of his mothers love. She falls asleep at the end not out of neglect, but out of release; release of anger that turned into fear that thankfully lead to relief.   The boy understands his mother is as human as he is.

She is simply exhausted from a night of no sleep.

The simplicity of the moment is enough.

The movie captured Maurice Sendak’s sense of adventure and content for what this journey called life is all about.

…he sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are…

…and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found supper waiting for him.

Two boys having fun in 1986 and 1987.

 Sept 20th. I buy 2 baby pumpkins.

So excited to carve them and set them out for Halloween.

Opps, not Halloween month yet. My bad.

Thats what happens when you live in Florida and the seasons are defined by hot and hotter, Green and Brown depending on how much rain you get. Watching the weather channel everyday (hurrican season) to hardly ever.

My mother signed me up for a year of Family Circle magazine.  They have the cutest carved pumpkins on the cover. The cover is often all I ever see. Not my favorite magazine but I must admit to some good tips I found inside.

So I’m at the grocery store and I see these cute little pumpkins and am instantly drawn to them, then I remembered the magazine cover and thought, “This will be something fun to do with the kids.”

The kids got a good laugh at my mistake. Glad to make someone laugh.

The green one is still around but the orange one colapsed after a few days.

  This is not a leaf dying but actually a leaf being born. It reminded me of fall so I took its first newborn picture.

BOO!

 My son’s lame attempt at a mouth. We decided it was a scary ghost pumpkin. The powers-to-be can not stop the knife.

                                                         Mother Love!

St John, Virgin Islands. This was an ongoing site there; A cow nursing a baby pig. It has been going on for as long as I can remember. Not sure which cow started it or why. It is not all the cows, usually you will just see one cow nursing a pig. These are Moses’ cows who lives in the valley, Cows run free so it is common to have to wait for them to cross the road.

St John Law: No Pig Left Behind

Mothering Instinct

Fall has arrived, it’s time to make a pumpkin blossom sandwich.
The pumpkin blossoms can be picked early in the morning, before 9am.

Take out stamen, soak in Tupperware of water, just enough to cover.

When ready to fry them up just dip them in flour and fry in small amount of oil.

Once crisp, put on piece of soft bread (soft oatmeal by Pepperidge Farm is my favorite), add mustard and you have a delicious sandwich.

I grew up eating these and have passed it down to my kids, they also love them..

While looking for a blossom picture I found this fun blog, http://www.mybitofearth.net

She happens to also have an article about fried blossoms. I love it! We fry ours flat verses hers look like they were picked closed. They also look yummy.

I found a very good article at Mothering Magazine called Lactation and the Law by Jake Aryeh Marcus.

He starts out writing, “Most women who breastfeed their children will, at some time or other, find it necessary to nurse their children outside of their homes. For most women who nurse in public places, feeding their children will be no more stressful than nursing at home. Other people often do not notice when someone is breastfeeding near them, and those who do notice are generally indifferent or even supportive. All too often, however, we read stories of women who have been told to use a bathroom to nurse their children, asked to cover themselves and their child with a blanket, or told they must leave a place because they want or need to nurse.”

Then he goes on to inform his reader about how the laws work. He does not give state by state but recommends finding out what your state laws are. (map above show details)

He describes a few cases where women were told to stop nursing or leave; one women and her family were even kicked off a flight by Delta.

He mentions what actions have been taken, from nurse-ins to servers crashing due to amount of e-mails sent.

He urges breastfeeding advocates to write letters, make phone calls, call legislators, seek help from other breastfeeding supporters, hire lawyers, contact the press, or organize nurse-ins.

He ends with “There may be stress and hardship, but there is also community and power, and often, much-needed change”.

To see the entire article, click here.