Unschooling and gardening

Recently, I was finally released from working a part time job that was wearing me down. I had prayed about it and then just waited to see what was going to happen. Whew! One of the reasons I wanted to stop was because I want to move on to greener pastures. Literally. I want to start a community garden mostly for young children in my area. Since we live in So. Cal. we have a very long gardening season. Plus, the amazing amount of learning kids can achieve in a good garden motivates me to no end. I am not completely sure where to start but I can't seem to get it out of my head. This is usually an indication that I should pay attention and at least check to see if I can find some open doors.
One of my inspirations right now is a little urban homestead in Pasadena, CA called Path to Freedom. Check out their website and then tell me what you think!
Additionally, I am working on a name for my nonprofit corp. (This is what I need to be able to really do the garden right!) Any ideas are welcome. I wanted it to be something like Growing Green Kids, but that is already taken. Ideas? Ideas?
Somehow, I will include organic sustainable eating, composting, measuring, colors and sorting, weather, plant identification and sustainable water and solar practices. I am so excited about this!

Santa Barbara Weekend

We went on this great weekend with some of our Bible Study family to the beautiful Santa Barbara. We rented a huge house together and hit the beach, State Street, the Farmer's market...just generally a great time. It was raining that weekend and the morning we were going to leave we woke up with fog all around us. It slowly burned off, heading toward the mountains. I told the kids, who were all sleeping on our bedroom floor, to "Quick, look out the window! The clouds fell out of the sky! They are on the ground!" They all rush to the window...
Adriel, ever the vigilant says with some disdain, "Uh, mom, that's called fog."
Love it...

Toddlers to Tikes

Next week my twins turn 3. There is a bitterweetness to this reality. If I were still having children, I would either be pregnant or have a very young child right now. That I don't isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a bit thought provoking. When hubby got his surgery, adoption went on the table. Well, at least my table. For him, it is still a bit of a fantasy of mine. What can I say? Four kids just seems like I am doing things the easy way...

Yesterday, we had peas with our dinner. One of the twins made the brilliant discovery that those little green things fit perfectly inside his nose. With giggles abounding, the other twin quickly tried to see if it worked with hers too. Her laughter became tears almost immediately, while his grew in intensity. You might think I am a terrible mother at this point but I was still putting hot food on the table and missed most of the discovery interaction. They are FAST, these little ones! "Mom!" I heard, "I have a peas in my nose!"
Fortunately, no trip to the urgent care was required, nor was minor surgery. They have learned well how to "blow" and with some prompting we got everything out so that we could finish dinner in peas...er...peace. They were scolded, warned, then we tried to scare them with how their brain could rot away if the food decomposed inside their noses. The older two were convinced. No pea, or hopefully anything else, was going to find its way into anything but their mouths! However...about an hour later, while getting jammies on the boy I noticed that his nose was bleeding just a tad. Nothing unusual for him, he has nosebleeds with every change in the weather. I got a kleenex, had him blow...and threw away the two peas he had stuffed in...ew. What do you do with that?!