the garden begins

New plants. New art supplies. A new book. New photos to look at. There's nothing better.

I have planted several new plants. Strawberries in both a pot and the ground. Watermelon. Nasturtiums. Two types of peppers. Swiss chard. Several herbs. More's a comin!

Oh,and by the way, they are growing in the new compost.

a simple gift

...from my son, freshly picked from our hibiscus bushes in the yard. What a sweet boy. Here he is in his favorite shirt we got him this summer. He wore it every day for a straight month. Guess what his favorite color is?

thrifting

OK, I'll admit it. I love thrift shops. It's in my blood. Just yesterday I got some inspiration to do some crafting with my kids. I was thinking, "I need to get a bunch of buttons, especially vintage ones, and fabric scraps..." But where? I thought I'd look on Craigslist, maybe post an ad for a mom looking for crafting items.

Today I went into our local Salvation Army, intending to be there just for a few minutes. Well, that turned into an hour. I found a great wooden box to store items for Shawn's new art table, two white linen shirts, various handmade ceramic pieces, including one with a crackle glaze, beautiful colored glass pieces, a hand thrown butter bowl, a box of worry dolls, and these adorable fabric buttons.

I'm still going to place that ad on Craigslist. It has been fun, decorating for fall, and hunting for Christmas decorations. This is the first year we have what I am calling a seasonal "nature table." We don't really have seasons here, but I am bringing the seasons to us, because I miss them.

garfield and bruce

I promised Sky that on the last day of vacation she could choose what to do. She had been recording much of the time and missed our trip to the forest. She wanted to return to our old neighborhood upcountry to hunt for wild guavas and and feed the herd of goats and few horses. So we packed some snacks and apples for the horses, and headed to the country. When we arrived, there were only two goats. But that was fine with the kids. Sky named them -- Garfield was the white one, because he was a tad greedy.

Afterwards we had a nice lunch, got rained on, and then ate in the car, singing Elton John songs and listening to Sky's rough mixes all the way down the mountain. We finished with some quick clothing shopping at our favorite local thrift store, in our big city, where we found Halloween costumes and some clothes for our upcoming trip to chilly fall California!

tulsi harvest

I helped a friend who lives nearby and has an established tulsi (holy basil) garden. We harvested the plants, washed them and then plucked the leaves for teas and tinctures we are helping to create. The kids helped us. We all munched on some leaves and seeds. I love the tender young seeds best. They are a bit bitter but they feel so good for you when you eat them fresh.

walkin' in the forest

Some friends, some baskets for gathering pinecones and mosses, a few walking sticks, and the magic of the forest...Yes, there are a couple of forests on our island. And for this we are grateful.

into the studio she goes

Sky and Gary have found a new engineer to record her newest album with. He is in our town. His name is Zen. So far, it is working really well. Zen is good with Skylar. Gary oversees everything. Today was day two and she recorded three songs - vocals and piano. She works quite quickly. It's a good thing. She has ten songs to record!

ten things i'm loving right now...

1. All of my children's creative ideas and where they go with them. Here Annabel is painting a seed pod that the kids like to make into boats. She's still in jammies at 11 am, on school break. Shawn is really into building with legos, and Sky is gone all days this week full on recording CD #3.

2. The inspiration to make yummy things to eat...and the fact that my 12 year-old is behind it, and does it almost all herself. Reminds me of how I was at that age.

3. My husband's last album, A Whisper Can Change the World...specifically his songwriting and the arrangements. http://www.garymarksmusic.com/

4. That just yesterday I purchased our airplane tickets to northern California for our November trip!! I am loving that we are going on a rejuvenating retreat. And that we are bringing Annie! (our sitter from a neighbor island)

5. The flexibility and love between these girls. They switched rooms. Sky now has the larger one. Here they are trying to move a mattress.

6. A blog I have discovered called Soule Mama. In fact I am stealing the "ten things" idea from her. http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/. I so appreciate her photography, her heart and the charm.

7. My budding actress, age 9, who wants to win an Oscar, and sings to me at night before bed, asking for feedback.

8. That our son is learning to read and write. Here is his very first letter to me, which I glued into a book I have made of written reflections about his life. Now he is writing real words with the characteristic sprawling script -- so cute. Also I love the hilarious things he says... (totally seriously)"Mommy, this is vantastic. You won't believe it!" and "It tastes good with maple syrup. That's what oatmeal is all about."

9. Facebook. I admit it. I love finding old friends and seeing all of the unique categories my friends fit into, posted videos of old high school friends in rock bands, photos of people's kids, etc. Annabel loves doing the applications (playing games) where we actually raise money for preservation of the oceans, the rainforest and also to help the poor in developing countries.

10. All of the 3 books I am working on at once. I love that I need lists to keep all of the editing straight. I love that the ideas keep flowing with little effort. Now if I just had more time. But I know that will come.

strawberry lemon lime sorbet

This is what happened after a friend gave us a bunch of homegrown lemons & limes, and I left the kids with a simple idea to make lemonade. They sweetened it with agave nectar. Yum!

october break

simple good eats

Yogurt (we use goat milk), sliced bananas, dribble of maple syrup, sprinkle of cinnamon and cardamom

upcountry sights

gardening day

I joined my friend Udeya, pictured below, to prepare a future garden bed for the tulsi (holy basil) plants that I am growing. She lives in a rainier, more jungle-y area than we do. I had so much fun being a farmer. I was really in my element.

Udeya holding a cutting from a lush tulsi plant she discovered that grows in a remote area of our island. She has heard that this variety propagates easily from cuttings and we are hoping we can grow this variety on her property. This will avoid the need for starting from seed, which is tricky.

Susie, her friend helping us clear the land for the future tulsi garden.

Udeya's veggie garden

gamekids

The girls are joining a production group called Gamekids that meets right in our town. Gamekids is an educational television and internet show which encourages young people to play with creativity and imagination. The program features games, activities, recipes, fashions, folk-lore, digital storytelling, and much more! The kids rehearse a couple of times a week. They do singing, theater shows, spontaneous acting, a little bit of modeling and some dancing, although I am not sure the girls will want to do the dancing numbers. The group is run by a sweet pastor. His background is in film and television.

The group consists of kids ages 8 - 13. I am so impressed with how sweet and humble this talented group of kids is, how the older kids teach the younger ones the dance routines, and help one another out. Pictured above is the group being filmed in a park for an episode on playing running games in a park, and telling riddles. It was Sky and Annabel's first experience, and they had a lot of fun. http://www.gamekids.com/index.html

swiss family robinson froghouse

The kids found a tiny frog in the backyard and since we don't have any pets and they REALLY want a pet, anytime they capture an animal from the wild they instantly make a home for it and beg to keep it as a pet. They made this habitat for the frog with rocks and leaves and moss and bark and wood and ferns and food - lilikoi. The little froggie himself is not pictured. This was right before he moved in.

I thought it was a beautiful work of art.

Like the famous artist Christo, who wrapped the perimeter of entire small islands in pink cloth and did a gorgeous piece called "Running Fence," a cloth fence that undulated over hills in northern California for miles, the froggie home too had a short life. But honestly it was as beautiful and balanced artistically as the works of art fellow students made when I was in art school.

It remained in the backyard for a few days. Ah, the creative children I live with. They are a constant source of inspiration.

sky is 12!

This is hard for me to believe. I can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. She is such a sweet girl. I feel honored and proud to be her mom.

Sky enjoyed helping me make her cake --vanilla cake with lilikoi frosting made from fruit from our garden.

She had a sleepover party and invited her friends from school.

Young lady Skylar