Enchanted Chameleon

~ serendipity smoothie ~

I love blending.  That's why you're here aren't you?  It's sure why I started here and ended up here.  That is for shizzle.  A blender would be my coat of armour.  That and some knitting needles and Persol glasses and if possible, without looking overaccessorized, flip flops.

I'm not sure that I've come flat out and said it here but I'll say it today:  I sold the Juice Caboose.  It's true.  It lives on in my soul and in memories and the blog that is still up to taunt and tease Vancouverites with the possibility of it coming to a venue (not intentionally, just sheer laziness and hope that it may come in use again).

It was a bittersweet decision.  Naturally I didn't want to give up my dream but in so doing I have freed up my life and finances in a way that I wouldn't have been able to do before in order to be with my family throughout my father's sickness this past year and a half, not to mention giving me a ton of space and time to heal.  Sometimes even marriages that aren't meant to be and past their expiration date require time for mourning.  Another dream, gone.  Grieving, a necessity. 

One hard thing about giving up the Caboose was giving up the Vitamix blender.  My Cuisinart was great and I know how to work a blender to make things like a Vitamix but still, it's a nice piece of kitchen bling that is hard to part with.  However, the decision to sell the business included that piece of equipment.  It was a package deal and regardless of what I wanted, the right decision was to keep the package together.  So I let it go.

Not long after, I was visiting Harvest Project, a place where I shop once a month for free groceries for low to no income people, a place that has helped me stay afloat and treading comfortably since I became a single parent.  They offer career counselling and professional clothing as well for those in need.  An amazing and award winning not-for-profit here on the North Shore that I'm eternally grateful for and hoping to repay someday with time, money or whathave you that I can offer when the opportunity arises.  I was there for my monthly shop and one of the volunteers approached me with a paper bag and asked me if I juice or blend.  Well, yes, if anyone does, I do.  Thinking she was handing me a bag of culled apples or juicing carrots I accepted the bag from her only to discover a practically new Vitamix Blender.  I but but butted, that this was a Vitamix.  The volunteer agreed it was in fact a really nice blender and it was mine to keep. 

After nearly falling over and scooping my jaw from the floor I thanked the Universe.  Sometimes when a dream comes to an end, it is easy to think one is not deserving.  I couldn't have questioned my deserving in any measure at that moment.  Again, thank you Universe, Higher Power, Good Rich Person of the North Shore that Didn't need a Vitamix?!?!  Thank you, you made my life.

It took me a little time to warm up to it.  It sat on my counter like a very expensive piece of art for the first few weeks till I finally mustered the acceptance that it wasn't going anywhere and it was mine to keep.  And naturally, just like my beat up used one that was from craigslist that went off into the sunset of someone elses dreams, so did this one magically start to make delicious smoothies from random who knows what I had in my fridge, was on sale, etc., just like I used to do in the truck.  Enter my Serendipity Smoothie.  The most delicious smoothie to touch my lips since October 2012 when the Caboose unknowingly sold its last batches.

Isn't she a beaut?

Serendipity Smoothie, fills a Wide Mouth Mason

Needed: 1 young thai coconut water and meat, 1/2 large bunch of fresh cilantro, 1/2 large bunch of fresh mint, 1 large mango or 2 small, 1 lemon, juiced, honey or agave to taste (I used about a tablespoon), 1 cup ice if you prefer it chilled (don 't bother with ice if you use frozen mango)

If you are blending with a regular blender or a bullet, first don't feel bad, I have used them for years.  Blend the greens with the liquid first until smooth and then add fruit and meat.  If you are fortunate enough to have a Vitamix or a Blendtec just throw it all in a blend up this delicious smoothie.  Enjoy.

XO.  Suzanne

 

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~ happy birthday juice caboose ~

local event :: the magic of media with jaimen mcmillan

Children need to interact with the tangible world in order to be in touch with reality.  Children need real people to connect with in order to develop truly. Programmed on a steady diet of virtual reality, they are becoming increasingly immobile, unable to create and channel their own energy. To boot, they have difficulty seeing clearly what actually needs to be done. They seem to perceive actuality with a “film” in front of their eyes. Their attempt to be escape artists from reality has led to the imprisonment of initiative.

Televisions, videos, computers, hand-held devices, and smartphones have created a virtual reality that threatens to usurp the roles that parents, siblings, and friends should play. True play itself is virtually disappearing; in fact, the virtual media is playing with us. The message of this workshop is not to eliminate technology, but rather to show how to use technology, so that it does not use us.  It will show that virtual reality is really a spatial consideration. The virtual world does not really exist out there; it takes place within the confines of the brain. The message is to learn to act on the three-dimensional stage of the physical world on which the drama of human life was meant to take place. Our taking the initiative now will help our children escape being victim to the ultimate, riveting, vanishing act:  the disappearance of being able to act out of one’s own free will.

Jaimen McMillan has been training movement therapists and educators for over three decades. Along with maintaining a private therapeutic practice,  he provides professional movement consulting, is an international lecturer, and served as the co-director of the School for Bothmer Gymnastics in Stuttgart, Germany for over 20 years.

WHEN:         October 28, 2013 @ 7 - 9 pm

WHERE:        Vancouver Waldorf School
                    2725 St. Christophers Road
                    North Vancouver

COST:           $20 Suggested donation at the door

CONTACT:    Ronaye @ 604-985-7435 

with hope, the odds don't matter

Today is Mesothelioma Awareness Day.  This is Heather Von St. James' story.  Be a voice for the victims and please spread the word.  

applesauce season

"When the first apples of the season--Ida Red and Paula Red, Twenty Ounce, McIntosh, and Ginger Gold--show up in the city markets, it's time to take out the big pot and make applesauce. Eden Lispon's lovingly recounted description of a family's applesauce-making ritual describes the buying, peeling, cooking and stirring; the wait for the sauce to cool and the first taste. Mordicai Gerstein's paintings are full of the colors and flavors of the season: red apples, orange leaves, blue skies. Here's a lovely picture book celebrating an American family tradition."

C and I discovered this sweet book a few weeks ago on a trip to the local library.  I spotted it on the autumn display thinking that it would most likely be one of those books that I love more than C does.  But in the end it was quite the opposite.  Since we read it, C has been thoroughly excited to celebrate an Applesauce Season of our own.

In this book we discovered a fun little tradition that we shared along with the author, names of apples that we had never heard before and the deliciousness that is applesauce and cottage cheese in a bowl together.  It is my new favourite treat.

We cooked up a batch of our own, making it the way I remember my father making it when I was young and also, my preferred consistency when it comes to applesauce: chunky.  We peeled and cored the apples, as opposed to using a food mill like the author and were equally, if not more pleased with the delicious results.

Our sauce included: Macintosh, Sunrise, Silken, Honeycrisp, Pink Cripps.  According to Grandma (in the story) you need at least 3 different types of apples in a batch for 'real flavour'.

This really is a great little story.  I loved especially the amount of detail told in a small enough story for little ones to keep their interest.  The fact that as some apples come into season and others go out until they stop making applesauce and just eat apples was a simple part of the story (unlike how I just described it) shows just how wonderfully beautiful, modern and traditional this story is all in one.

Stay tuned for Hot Chocolate Season, coming up in the winter and again something in the Spring (unfortunately I can't remember what Spring was except that it definitely was NOT edible.)

Jump-Starting Boys Review & Giveaway!

I am thrilled to present a review and giveaway for the book Jump-Starting Boys: Help Your Reluctant Learner Find Success in School and Life by Pam Withers and Cynthia Gill.

This book was presented to me just under a month ago and I thought that it was definitely I book I would like to read.  After reading it though, it is definitely a book that I would like to recommend to any and all parents of boys and teachers and educators as well.  

For several years now I have been very passionate about my sons education.  It came to my attention before we put C into the Waldorf School that the education system has been failing boys for quite some time now.  Years ago the education system began to adapt methods in order to bring girls up the learning scale and honour their rights to education.  However in doing so, boys have lost out.  Did you know that "this is the first generation of young men likely to achieve less education than their fathers and to find themselves on a lower rung of the socioeconomic ladder"?  Well, it's true.  Much like our children's health issues will be worse than ours and they'll start having shorter life spans than us, our boys are on a slippery slope.  The good news is "when boys test scores go up, so do girls scores.  When adolescent boys find education to be purposeful and relevant, they are less defiant and more willing to learn, which frees girls up from having to deal with hours and days of behavioural problems around them".

Sounds good to me.

This book is aboslutely filled with great advice and counsel in which I would continue to reference throughout my sons educational career.  This book can help with:

::  determining your son's learning style and how best to help him learn

::  strengthening your child's memory

::  encouraging him to appreciate math and science

::  engaging your reluctant reader via book clubs, graphic novels and kinesthetic activities

::  limiting his screen time without coming off as a tyrant

::  using his interests in technology to foster excitement about learning and forming good homework habits

Did you know that: "This generation's college degree is the equivalent of last generation's high school degree".

I know for some of us, most of my friends at least, it may seem a little early to be concerned with this high school and college.  After reading Jump-Starting Boys, I feel it best to be on the proactive approach to our sons AND daughters educations.  The authors wrote about 3 'slumps' that can occur over the years, something that we should be in the know about, especially if we are struggling with a reluctant learner:

The Kindergarten Slump - In this first slump, relatively few boys get caught in it but, facts show that 20% of 4-5 year olds do not have the language background for kindergarten success.  Too much TV, undiagnosed hearing problems, chaotic or abusive homes and families where there is little meaningful conversations between children and adults are all reason for this particular slump to occur.

The Grade 4 Slump - This is the big one, the one I feel we should all be prepared for.  One quarter to one third of ALL children, but especially boys start to struggle in Grade 4.  Some of the contributing factors is: parents stop reading to them (reading to children accelerates their reading); less adult supervision means less reading as an activity; vocabulary and thinking skills that are not supported by conversations with such vocabulary and ideas at home and undiagnosed reading disabilities.  It's interesting to note that "typically, fourth graders who duck out on reading end up entering high school with a sixth-grade reading capacity".

High School Slump - The main culprit is that around 9th grade most teens abandon reading for pleasure, dropping all reading except required reading assigned by teachers.  Why?  "Most books seem irrelevent to these kids because they don't deal with a teen's world... and many highly educated parents and some teachers snub or forbid {the type of books that do deal with a teen's world}".  As well, male testosterone causes males to seek their self-esteem through competition and aggression which is more than likely misinterpreted and then squelched, punished and diverted away to non-reading activities.  It doesn't help that we discourage aggressive content and there are not many male authors or male characters for them to relate to.

Overall, the biggest impression left on me from reading Jump-Starting Boys are two things, one of which really has come to my attention in the past year that I have been trying to address and another that I think I really needed a reminder about.  

The first is of these is male role models.  Not something I thought much about until my son started asking for a male teacher and a male babysitter.  It occurred to me that my son was going without daily male role models completely, even before my husband and I split, due to the long hours that my ex was working.  My son was only spending weekends around a man.  I had also noticed that he really connects (and sometimes clings to) close male friends and family members, almost like he is starving for male attention.  Our solution was partly that we were rewarded with a male teacher this year, but I have also, on the recommendation of a family member, been looking into a Big Brothers for C.  Local Big Brother (and Sister) programs are everywhere in Canada and the US.  The program is available for boys 7-14 with little to no males in their weekly lives and it is conditional that the boys must be willing to participate.

Another great suggestion in the book for exposing boys to male role models is through a book club.  Look at this incredible resource called Christianne's Lyceum of Literature and Art that offers book clubs for parent and child, from Preschool to Grade 12 right here in Vancouver!  This book club was specifically referenced in Jump-Starting Boys!  How lucky are we to have this right at our fingertips. 

The second big impression from Jump-Starting Boys is this and I quote:  "A shift from focusing on building his self-esteem, independence and individualism to one of modeling and promoting perseverence, humility and community service."  This one is especially important to me and not just because the only thing he ever seems to think about is me buying him more toys.  I grew up in a situation where there were constant reality checks, no dreaming and no love of work. However, I know that in raising my son, in compensation for what I lacked, I've already been swinging a little to much to the other side of that pendulum.  For one, I have been wanting to incorporate community service into his life but he still is a bit young and I just haven't found the right opportunity for us to do it together but the intention remains and the search continues.  Also, I see and hear too many "good jobs" and such to children that have done things like sharing or throwing a piece of garbage away in the trash.  I stopped the "good job" talk a long time ago, thanks to Waldorf but I still have so much to learn.  Let us not be the generation that birthed the laziest generation from having self-esteem with no basis.  "The ability to persevere and keep going is a much better predictor of life outcomes than self-esteem".  Noted!

Again, what a great book!  I wish I could lend it to all who are intersted but this one isn't leaving my shelf in case of emergency!

So, instead I have a GIVEAWAY!

Please check out all the ways you can enter to win your very own copy of Jump-Starting Boys below on the Rafflecopter and thanks for stopping by!

Financial compensation was not received for this post.  A sample product was gifted from Viva Editions.  Opinions expressed here are my own.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

grade 1 :: what's in the chest

Oh the pout.

It was much more defined earlier yesterday morning at the Vancouver Waldorf School Opening Assembly.  He doesn't like surprises.  I knew that.  The teachers told us to say it was just the first day and not spoil the magic of the Rose Ceremony but I knew better.  And yet, I still let him be surprised.  Oh the pout.  How do I explain it could have been worse?  A friend posted on FB that her 6 yo ended up on the wrong bus and the wrong stop at the end of the day.  WAY worse. Exponentially worse.  But, falling on deaf 6 year old ears, I say.  

Hey.  Tomorrow is another day.

It will be the first day he has been expecting.

In the meantime, allow me to swoon.  I loved the Rose Ceremony.  All the Grade 1's were welcomed to the school and presented with beautiful coral roses by the Grade 12's who will be presented with roses by the Grade 1's at the end of this year when the Grade 12's graduate.  I love this school.

I especially loved the way in which all the teachers took the stage and gave a small introduction to their class as to what they would be learning this year.  Some told it in a story, a summary, a skit.  It was very sweet.  

C's teacher told a story of a little boy that collects fire wood.  One day he went deep into the forest and it was especially cold.  He cleared out some snow to make his own fire and discovered a tiny gold key.  He dug further and discovered a little chest.  He found the tiny key hole and put in the key and he found....

To be discovered this year in school.

Can't wait!

XO.
Suzanne 

expired car seat recycling :: sunday may 5th

I'm super excited to have been contacted about this program.  I personally have C's baby seat still sitting in storage and although I made the best use of it, lent it to a couple of friends after I was done with it, it is time to move onto greener pastures!

Check out this great post by Suzanne Bertani of Mommy Footprint for UsedVancouver.com on the Expired Car Seat Recyling program.

Some points to remember:

::  Last September the program collected and kept 44 car seats out of landfills!

::  Gibsons Recylcing Depot, an Award Winning Green Business, is the place that carefully takes the seats apart and properly recycles them.  There are flame retardent chemicals inside the seats that need to be handled by an expert.  This is no task that the average person can handle.

::  Before passing a old car seat to a friend or selling it remember you are liable if that seat is in an accident.  Check the expiration date.  Typically they expire after 6 years.  Check with Health Canada and the new regulations that were set in January 2012.

::  To learn more about expired car seats, click here.

Event details: 

EXPIRED CAR SEAT RECYCLING PROGRAM

sponsored by UsedVancouver.com 

at Bellies to Babies Celebration

Sunday May 5th 2013

Croation Cultural Centre
3250 Commercial Drive 

11 am to 4 pm

Admission is by Donation
Proceeds going to The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Basics for Babies Program
(click the link to see what kind of items you can donate to the program)

~ march against monsanto :: may 25th ~

For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup.

Find a local march in your city: http://bit.ly/ZTDsk8

I'm going. Are you?

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~ gluten free lifestyle with dr. shyrose karim ~

Monday April 8, 2013

6:30 pm

Whole Foods Market Park Royal

FREE

Is it hype or is there truth to it?

Back by popular demand, Dr. Shyrose Karium, a local naturopath, will lead a round table discussion on this subjuct.

I personally attended a gluten free training session with Dr. Karim at Whole Foods and it was extremely informative.

Don't miss out!

~ PLAY AGAIN movie screening ~

What are the consequences of a childhood removed from nature?

"This moving and humorous documentary follows six teenagers who, like the “average American child,” spend five to fifteen hours a day behind screens. PLAY AGAIN unplugs these teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure – no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality."

Wednesday April 24th, 2013 

7 pm

Lynn Valley Library
Community Room, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver

Sponsored by:

Fresh Air Learning Program

and the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation

For questions, email [email protected] or message through Facebook.

ADMISSION BY DONATION