Old Fashioned Lifestyle

I was tagged by Renae – 5 Wants (but not needs) and 5 Wishes of a Spiritual Nature.

I believe that our thoughts and words become our reality and so I always love a chance to articulate what is on my mind for the future.  Here is what has been on my mind of late:

1. A huge building with a pottery wheel, a wood workshop corner, a loom, a glass art center and… room to grow! (does this count as more than one?)
2. A gymnastics place in my town. 
3. A swimming pool in my town.
4. A great co-op in my town.
5. A greenhouse.

And Five Spiritual Wishes

1. Serenity
2. Mindfulness
3. Time for Devotion
4. Reverence
5. Peace between different religions

And now…..  TAG!  your it!

•  Po Moyemu 
•  Crunchy Christian Mom
•  Reese’s View of the World
•  Bookworms and Tea Lovers
• The New Unschooler

Finally, after going on the bureaucratic paper chase, we made it onto the ferry that goes from La Paz in Baja to Topolobampo on the main land via the Sea of Cortes.  I am excited to be leaving the peninsula.  We arrived in the dark, found a hotel, woke up in the dark, and made our way to the train station – a tired bunch.  We are headed to Copper Canyon – a vacation within a vacation. 

As we rocked along the track (and I do mean rock…. if I didn’t know better, I would have thought I was on a sail boat) the sun started to peak out and we could finally see the landscape.   To my surprise, it was FARM LAND!!  I don’t know why, but I expected mountains.  There were mountains – but they were only visible in the far distance.   As we got closer to them, the landscape began to change.  First rolling hills with cacti, then mountains and valleys with a mix of cacti and brush, and finally, amazing canyons and waterfalls.  As we rose in elevation, the cacti were replaced with pine trees!   I almost felt like I was back in Montana!

After a full day on the train we arrived at our destination, Creel, Mexico.  The conductor set us up with Mario – tour guide and accommodation provider.  Mario met us at the station and took us to his family compound/haciendas.  He built us a fire and left us to rest.  For the next two days, his cousin acted as our tour guide in and around Creel.

Creel is near Copper Canyon which is 4 times longer and 1 1/2 times as deep as the Grand Canyon.  There are unusually shaped rocks and beautiful waterfalls in the area.  Copper Canyon was absolutely breathtaking.  I’m not sure if it is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  If it is not, it should be.  I will defer to my husbands description (coming soon) as his words capture the canyon in a way that mine have not.

This area is – and has been for centuries – home to the Tarahumara Indians.  I will write about this tribe soon.

Well, my life as a travel writer has been short lived. In the last week, we have continued our treck down the Baja Peninsula. We changed up our plans a bit and ended up going all the way down to the southern tip – Cabo San Lucas. And I’ve run out of things to say about Baja! So, I will record the southern Baja trip in pictures.

We are taking the ferry today over to the main land. In the mean time – - some pics.

Kayaking in Bahia de Concepcion

kayaking in Baja Concepcion

Snorkeling

snorkle

Bird and Boat Watching

pelican and sail boat

In the last few days of our drive through southern Baja, we noticed that the cacti are beginning to bloom.

cactus in bloom

I found this at Leaping From the Box…

The first three people to leave a comment here will receive a home made gift from me sometime in the next 365 days.  In return, leave a post on your blog and give 3 homemade gifts, as a pay if forward!  The homemade gift I will give will likely be something knitted.

Fun, Fun, Fun!! 

Technorati Tags: Blog, Crafts

Have you ever heard of such a thing?

I just read about them in Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies.

Then, I found a few companies that are producing these countertops. They look great! I’ve ordered some samples… and I can’t wait to get them.

paper countertops

Technorati Tags: Green Building

I was listening to Creative Mom Podcast today as we were bumping our way down a dusty dirt road between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, Mexico.  Amy mentions a tradition she has borrowed from someone.  The tradition of finding a word for the year. 

I started to reflect upon a potential word for me for this 2008.  But what actually bounced it’s way into my thoughts was an old dusty friend.  The elusive vision of Myself -  Living My Highest Life.  A picture that lives in my soul and dances in my subconscious.  Sometimes I can see it’s existence as a fuzzy haze in the periphery. 

Mostly, though, this vision remains hidden.  It resides under the bills on the desk, the voice messages on the phone, the running of a business, and the dishes in the sink.  During the particularly challenging time, the vision has been buried for so long that I have forgotten it’s existence.  Fortunately for me, the soul of this life remains strong even when I do not.  I thus endured all the worldly trials of my life.  Eventually the dust settles and a colorful haze returns to the corner. 

When I try to focus on how it looks and feels, it fades quickly.  But if I relax – I’ll catch the colors and textures.  I am at times even able to extract a few important words.  Words that can give a flavor of my illusion but fall short of a description.  Words like: 

Pottery Wheels, A knitting basket by a comfy chair, Books of all sorts,  Stimulating conversation,  A home filled with and made of our crafts and creations,  A dinner with conversation in Spanish, A day of painting, An evening of listening to someone read a book, A season of travel, Walls of Photography, Music, Homemade bread and homemade chickens, The pursuit of projects.

And so, this year is a pursuit of this vision.  A sail for freedom.  I will intentionally draw out and nurture these elements of that life that comes into focus just long enough for me to pluck out an idea and dance with it.

And so – my word for the year is

CREATE. 

I will create this year.

• My Home
• A Novel (NANOWRIMO)
• The Life of My Soul.  Project by Project.  Day by Day

Life Nurturing Education wrote a great post about Using the Notebook as a Tool.

Technorati Tags: Blogs and Online Fun

Have you ever heard of geocaching or letterboxing?  I first read about them a few years ago, and thought it sounded like a really fun activity.  What a great way to enjoy the outdoors and start a fun family hobby. 

The basic idea is that people hide a box, then submit directions or clues to get to the box.  Either hidden treasures or stamps are found in the box.  I never did actually go out in search of a treasure though.   Life just got busy, though.

In preperation for our road trip in Mexico, I have been preparing for some activities for the kids.  The idea of geocaching and letterboxing came to me again.  I set out on the internet to find information about these activities again.

This time, I found some new ideas.  These are even better.  It is geocaching or letterboxing in an eco-friendly way.  Let’s face it – leaving a manmade box in a beautiful natural setting is not the best way to care for mother earth.

One alternative is Ecoscavenger.   This is the same basic idea…  someone designs a hunt.  This time though  – the destination itself is the reward.  Ecoscavenger looks as if it is just getting started, so there are not many hunts yet submitted – and none in Mexico.  So, we just may design a few hunts to submit on Ecoscavenger!

Another is Degree Confluence Project.  This is a fun one….  GPS based photography.  You take a picture of each degree latitude and longitude crossing.  Many of the points in Mexico have been covered by the project, but it is a great idea and one we may do for our own scrapbooks…. (uh, that is, uh, if we get a GPS!)

Technorati Tags: Blogs and Online Fun

I have seen so many birds here at the beach in the last few days – and I can only identify one of them. A pelican.

pelicans

I need a bird identification book!

These little guys go scurrying across the beach in front of the house each morning. At first, I didn’t think they flew, but this morning – they did take flight. They have the funniest little disks sticking out of their foreheads.

These little ones dive for long periods of time.

Then, there is the one that I have affectionately called, Little Red

lil red

Technorati Tags: Mexico

 In the post about Socialization, I mentioned an article I had read in the Scientific American Mind magazine about teen brains.  Here is another quote from that article.

“… a series of long-term studies set in motion in the 1980’s by anthropologiest Beatrice Whiting and John Whiting of Harvard University suggest that teen trouble begins to appear in other cultures soon after the introduction of certain Western influences, especially Western-style schooling, television programs and movies.  Delinquency was not an issue among the Inuit people of Victoria Island, Canada, for example, until TV arrived in 1980.  By 1988 the Inuit had created their first permanent police station to try to cope with the new problem.”  (bold mine)

 When the kids were very little (ages 2,4,5) we allowed PBS childrens shows…. one or two a day.  They were pretty benign, we thought, perhaps even helpful to the kids.  After all, they are “educational” shows.  But then we noticed the behavior in our kids deteriorating.  We were seeing very intense tantrums and an increase in the number of fights they were having with eachother.  We decided to cut out the TV and within 48 hours, we saw an obvious difference in the behavior of the kids.  The intensity – and later frequency – of the tantrums went way down – and so did the frequency of the fights. 

We traded our TV in for board games, good read aloud books, and knitting needles.    We still occasionally watch a TV show – when we go to a motel or a relatives house.  Wouldn’t you know it . . . we notices a change in behavior . . . and are always relieved to get back to the No TV lifestyle. 

(Though, I confess…… I do miss it sometimes!)

Technorati Tags: Family Life, Homeschool