100-mile diet night

The Sustainable Environment Network Society (which I didn't know existed) is hosting a 100-mile diet night on April 25 in Vernon with food related films on topics ranging from the food revolution to food security. I don't know where yet, but I thought maybe we could make a date of it - it's on a Wednesday night.

Ostara Tomorrow!

Here is some info. from Denny's new book:

From the book “Earth Wisdom” by Glennie Kindred about the Festival of Balance and Potential:

We begin to feel empowered to reach out for what we want and to take risks, strike out on our own, go for walks and connect to the Earth again. We can use the potential and fertility of this time to create opportunities for positive change in our lives and in the world. At this point we are poised between opposite forces, light and dark, receptive and active, unconscious and conscious, inner and outer. These can be united within us so that we are whole and balanced individuals. This gives birth to actions that come from the heart.

In the past the fertile Earth goddess Eostre was honoured at this time in celebration of new life and gestation. Dragon processions celebrated the emerging active energy of the Earth and eggs were used as a potent symbol of new life and rebirth.

The Celebration:

This is a day to be outside, to enjoy the elements, to run wild like March Hare
Ask everyone to bring something to fly in the wind such as kites, ribbons or prayer flags
Ask everyone to bring a decorated hard-boiled egg (guess it could be chocolate). Before you begin your walk, gather in a circle and if there are some new faces, welcome them and help them to feel included. Everyone in turn says their name and as they do so, each person places their egg at the centre of the circle and makes a ‘pledge of potential’ to help the Earth in some way. Inspire each other with your boldness and creative plans! Enjoy the sight of all the eggs lying in the grass and pass around a hot fruit cup, offering a toast to everyone’s endeavours as you take a sip.
Gather up the eggs (eat en route) and use the walk to network and develop the ideas and plans put forward.
At the top of the hill or wherever you decide to stop, fly kites and plant the prayer flags in the Earth, sending out messages of hope and prayers for peace on the wind. Take some pens and write prayers, messages of hope and good wishes onto ribbons. These can be tied onto a stick and run with in the wind.
A chant:
Building bridges between our divisions,
I reach out to you as you reach out to me.
With all of our voices and all of our visions,
Together we can make such a sweet harmony.
Together we can make such a sweet harmony.


There is another section which is the “Ceremony” where you use chocolate eggs and that’s where you think about the energy of the Equinox Hare to lead you on a journey within, asking for inspiration and wisdom for your new plans.

Winds of Change
At this time of year we can inspire each other with prophecies of hope, the power of ‘We’ and our willingness and power to bring change into the world as we create opportunities for a bright new future. Inspire others to join in and spread actions with heart, actions that bring heartfelt common bonds of friendship and community into our lives! Bring the Equinox spark of fertility to your most positive actions! Feel the winds of change and the potential we are part of vibrating in every cell in your body!

Wishing I could be there. Hoping you find this useful.

Denny

Fire the Imagination Catalogue

I just got a couple of beautiful catalogues in the mail from www.firetheimagination.ca. They sell music and books on CD, including Classical Kids, Jim Weiss, Horrible Histories, Story of the World, Putamayo Kids and lots more. This year they also sent the Barefoot Books catalogue; I've only had one of these books from the library (The Barefoot Book of Blessings) and my kids and I absolutely loved it. Many of the books in the catalogue are based on folk tales, fairy tales and myths - they also sell beautiful puzzles and puppets. If anyone wants to take a look at them before we get our April resource money just let me know. I could bring them to Mary-Sue's or to our next meeting.

Equinox/Ostara Celebration Invitation

Hello,
Please come celebrate the equinox and Ostara (Eostar) with us on Wednesday morning, March 21st, say, around 10? We'll cast a circle around the fire (hoping for a sunny day and an outdoor event) have a potluck lunch, hunt for ostara eggs, sprinkle some seeds, sing some songs, and do some rituals...
See you then?

Question

Wondering if we could all ponder this question and bring our thoughts/feelings tomorrow night:

"What needs do you bring to our monthly homelearning support meetings? What kind of discussions would fill you up and contribute to your homelearning journey with your children?"

(thanks, Denny!)

I'm wondering if we can start out the meeting by passing the talking stick (great idea, Monique!) around and giving everyone who wants to the opportunity to share what they're feeling, what they're needing, and what they're hoping will come of this meeting. I think we're all feeling anxious about the meeting, so with this sort of empathic start perhaps it will help to calm us and feel more present. I want you to know that I deeply believe that we will all leave with more understanding, more compassion and the feeling of really being seen and heard. This is the vision I am holding.

Missing Post

Very Important Meeting: tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 13th at 6:oo pm at Bean To Cup in basement. PLEASE find a way to come to share your head and heart and discuss the future direction of our community, our meetings, and our blog. Thank you!!


I am very concerned about the direction of our last post. I am concerned that there are people who feel hurt and misunderstood and judged and I just thought that it would be better to suspend that conversation until we have it in person. I am also concerned about having such a personal conversation in such a public place. I have saved a copy of the post and all the comments so that if we need to see them, we have them. I hope everyone is okay with that. Maybe we can start a thread here about when we can meet. How about Wednesday evening at Bean to Cup? Or would it feel better in someone's home? What do you all think?

Craft social morning Monday the 12th

Everyone is welcome to come over Monday morning anytime between 9-930. I was thinking we could make windsocks. Would anyone be willing to bring extra scissors,as well as hot glue gun mine is packed, and then things to decorate your sock with. I will get enough big foam sheets for the body of the sock as well as I have different decorating things. How many are coming? Does everyone know where I live? Looking forward to it. Michelle

Kaetlyn's Insulin Pump fundraising

We are having a ritual to set our intention for raising the money for Kaetlyn's insulin pump this Friday at 7pm at our house. You can find the details at www.chickadoodle.blogspot.com (and our first fundraising efforts are up there now, too). You are all invited. We'll have some snacks and we'll brainstorm and plan and do a ritual to get this started off.

Thanks for all your support!

Kids Yoga

Post from Angela
Our last yoga class of this session is on Thursday ... if anyone wants to join for the next 6-week round it will start the following Thursday, March 15th. I feel so fortunate to have Terryn offering this. She has such a respectful manner and is particularly in tune to what our kids can bring to the experience ... like she realizes that it's not just us benefiting from this, that it's a mutual relationship and she too is learning and growing due to her involvement with these kids.
Here's Terryn's email to me:

Hi Angela,I wanted to start by saying how much I appreciate youinquiring into kid's yoga. I am so honored that I getto teach the kids and it's such a blast!Thank you for manifesting kid's yoga in Vernon!Also, tomorrow will be our 5th class so I am justchecking in again if people want to do another 6sessions.I know that you all do a bunch of different activitiesso I am not sure how long you expected it to go for orhow long you wanted to do it for. I will continue toteach on Thursdays as long as I have enough studentsso those that want to continue it would be great andthose that don't I just want to repeat myself insaying Thank you!Terryn

4-H

A post from Angela,
Hello all,
I was just talking with Lorna Kotz, the 4-H coordinator in our area. I had a great experience with 4-H when I was growing up and I know a lot of homeschoolers who speak highly of its benefits so I decided to inquire about the options here. Lorna (lkotz@shaw.ca) would like to start a community group that would allow members to pick and choose which focus they take, choosing from the following options:
 Adopt-A-Grandparent
 Agricultural Awareness
 Agro-Forestry
 Aquaculture
 Beef
 Bicycle
 Cavy
 Clothing
 Cloverbuds
 Craft
 Dairy
 Dog
 Enviroment
 Field Crop
 Foods
 Gardening
 Goat
 Honeybee
 Horse
 Leathercraft
 Llama
 Marketing
 Outdoor Living
 Photography
 Poultry
 Rabbit
 Sheep
 Small Engines
 Swine
 Tractor
 Wool Craft
Lorna's daughter is a 4-H ambassador and would like to come to our homeschooling meeting next week to answer any questions and to tell us a little more about 4-H. Would that be okay with everyone?
Here's a site to check out a little more about 4-H.
Angela
Side note: Angela and I discussed whether the 4-H structure would really mesh with our goals/philosophy, especially with respect to record keeping/badge earning, so I will ask about this - can we do 4-H on our own terms, without the factor of having to "earn" anything. If we could access the resources etc. but not be forced to use their structure, it could be good for us. Anyway, we can discuss it and who know what can come out of this. Angela can't make the Wednesday meeting, but if we are prepared with questions (unless anyone really doesn't want the ambassador coming to our meeting) then we can see where it goes.

Sharing Resources

Hi folks,

I was thinking that it would be great if we could share those kinds of resources that are expensive and that schools usually have but we don't. For example, if I bought one of those funky plastic skeletons I could put that on some kind of list that we keep, and then if you want to borrow a skeleton - there it is. I'm thinking of science-type stuff and whatever. So if people think this is a good idea perhaps we could start a list. So far I don't have much, but what I do have may be useful to others, such as my plastic beaker set. I would have a few things to put on a list if I thought about it a bit - things that we wouldn't mind sharing for a month at a time or so (we could trade them back and forth at our monthly meeting). So whatcha think?

PS - does anyone have a plastic skeleton?