No Internet and No More Nose Pickers

sip sip sip

Today is the day after I challenged myself to be without a computer and the internet for a whole day… I failed miserably.  It went fairly well in the morning until my plans to go enjoy the outdoors was rained on by mother nature.  Now what to do with a 4yr old on a rainy and windy day with no computer, no internet, no tv?  We get back to basics: board games, books, and what rainy day would be complete without a cup of hot tea?

Ok that fun lasted for a couple of hours and keep my mind off the work I needed to do online until my phone rang for the first time.  This is what I see when I answered the call:

So tempting to check the mail

I  felt like I was being tempted by a dark chocolate bar.  Perhaps the next time I do this challenge, “no phone” would be added to the list.   I’m glad to say I didn’t give in (yet that is).   And it paid off cause after another hour or so passed, the rain passed and we saw this beautiful rainbow over our backyard:

This would have been missed if my nose was buried in a computer

Thanks Mr. Sunshine.. now off to the backyard to work on the garden:

So far so good… kept busy in the garden for 4 hours cleaning off the tan bark and prepping the soil.

After dinner, as the day settles, I am reminded by all the things I needed to do online and a map that I needed to get for the next morning.  I also remembered an email that I was suppose to respond to.  Now I wouldn’t have jumped on the computer to send that email but I have a pet peeve of doing something or being somewhere if I’ve already committed to it.  It’s rare that I will break my word if I’ve given a definitely “yes, I will do it or yes, I’ll be there.”   That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

The thing is once I was online, it was hard to not check on anything else.  I guess that’s how the internet “wastes” our time.  In hind sight though, being offline for a day really back logged me.  I had so much to catch up on today that it felt like it was not worth it to go without for an entire day.  It is possible to live without the internet, but I would prefer to live with it.  It saves me time to not have to go into the bank.  I can pull up a map within seconds and don’t have to carry around a paper map that I can hardly navigate.  It connects me with people I would have never met if I didn’t facebook.  I can send the grandparents a picture and video of their grandkids.  Oh and all the online learning programs and activities for the kids… I heart the internet.  It’s convenient therefore freeing up more time for me to be doing other things.  (now you know the tricky part is to pry yourself away when you’re done doing what you’re doing online so you can go do other things.)

On a side note…

Everyday this week while stopped at a red light, I’ve had nose picking sightings by the driver to my right.  It wasn’t your sniff sniff rub the nose cause it itched.  It was more like digging for gold.  Today was the golden day though.  While at a red light, I see in my periphery vision a digger.  As I turned to look, he flicked his booger out the window.   I am filled with gratitude that my car has AC and my window was not rolled down.  Eeewwwww!   What are you trying to tell me dear Universe?  I am keeping my eyes fixed on the red light the next time I stop for the rest of this week!

photo from week long symposium on the future of nose picking http://syntaxofthings.typepad.com/syntax_of_things/2007/08/sot-announces-w.html

Squirrel Wars

Little Bugger

Don’t let this cute little face fool you.  Once a friend now a foe.  We would awwww and ooooohhh as these furry little friends ran across our fence in the backyard every morning hunting for food.  It was cute to watch these little friends jump from our fence to the street, climb up the neighbor’s persimmon tree and snatch a big juicy fruit.  It was even more entertaining to watch them juggle this big fruit and run back to our fence, then sit and munch away.  My mouth would water as his paws got sticky with persimmon juice and crumbs fell from his mouth.  I would even think… hmmm I wonder if squirrels can be trained to fetch me a juicy ripe persimmon… LOL  I’m thinking ‘yes!’  They are smart and tricky little critters.

I’ve been waiting patiently for my garden to grow and now I believe miracles do occur because the seedlings I’ve planted on Earth Day are growing.  Lettuce sprouts, kale sprouts, tomatoes and cilantro all survived the wrath of my brown thumb.  Unlucky for the cucumber and kale sprouts, zucchini blossom, and strawberry that just peeked it’s head, got bitten off by my furry foe, mr. not so cute anymore squirrel.

Freshly bitten off baby zuchinni that just spouted

I bet this young strawberry was juicy!

Kale sprout that is fighting for it's life after being nibbled on

So what did I do?  I covered the baby sprouts with those plastic strawberry baskets thinking it will deter the critter, but he’s too smart.  He pushes it aside and flips it up.  I wish I had a spy cam to capture how he did this.  So I put a rock on top of the basket and he still manages to poke thru the tiny openings and nibble.  Poor cucumber sprouts!  There’s not even a single leaf left for me to even take a picture of it.

This means war!

Watch out Mr. Squirrel… you might get a spicy surprise the next time you visit.  Muahahahaha!

Connecting to the Earth

After a long week of spring break with the kiddos, I thought I would add another task to my long to do list today:  garden!  While everything I do is all about green this and green that, my thumb would otherwise argue.  A brown thumb sounds more like me… killing everything I attempt to grow.  Well this year, I am not so determined to make anything grow but more importantly is introduce my kids to some level of consciousness and responsibility around nutrition and the importance of connecting back to simple wholesome foods that nature provides us with.  We’ve planted grape tomatoes, romas, kale, green and red romaine, strawberries, and zucchini mix. Now we wait…

Preparing the soil was half the fun.  Who would have thought the kiddos would enjoy pulling weeds.  We found some earthlings inhabiting our soil:

Rolly Pollys are so much fun

We kept this little guy to follow him through his journey of transformation

We even rescued this poor little ant who almost drowned in a drop of water

And what garden would be complete without a bee

How fast hours fly by when basking in the presence of simplicity.  We’ve enjoyed connecting to the earth and playing with our new friends (except the bee).  We’ve also realized how grateful we are for farmers and farmer’s markets.  We can’t wait to taste what the earth may provide us.