Earth Hour

My husband and I celebrated Earth Hour together on Saturday. This is the first time he has been home from work to celebrate it with me. We decided to have the neighbors over to celebrate too. The plan was to have fondue and some wine to celebrate (trying to make snacks that we didn't need electricity for). Unfortunately, our neighbors came down with a bug and had to cancel so it was just my husband and I. We covered our table in candles and played cards together. The hour passed by in a flash and we were having such a good time we continued until 11pm. Then we put out all the candles and went to bed. It was a lovely night and made us both realize how much we are losing by sitting in front of the TV every night. I think it may be a regular thing for us to turn off the power bar to the entertainment unit and just sit together.

Squash, Quinoa and Lentil Coconut Curry

I had a spaghetti squash that needed to be used up. Also I want to try more vegan/vegetarian meals for the kids. I found it nice, hearty and filling.

Ingredients:

1 cup of cooked quinoa
1 spaghetti squash cooked
1 can of lentils rinsed and dried
1 tbsp of coconut oil or olive oil
1 can of coconut milk
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic diced
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (or dry ginger if you have it)
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 cups of kale leaves well rinsed and ripped into bite sized pieces
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander

*you can add cayenne pepper a pinch or 1/2 tsp of green curry to spice it up***

Directions:

heat a wok or large skillet to medium. add your oil and let heat. add onion and garlic to wok. once onion starts to brown add the ginger, spaghetti squash, lentils and coconut milk. add all the spices, the quinoa and the soy sauce and let simmer for about 5-10 min stirring frequently. add the kale, give it a good stir and simmer until kale is slightly wilted about 5 min.
Serve and enjoy!!

The Essential Herbal free issue

The wonderful people that produce the fabulous magazine The Essential Herbal are letting everyone view a sample of their magazine.

Please visit www.essentialherbal.com/documents/mar-apr-2010.pdf to view.

I just found this magazine but have already fallen in love with it. It is a great read for anyone that enjoys gardening but also has a passion for herbal healing.

Spending my time well.

So for the past few days I have been spending almost the entire day scanning old documents and photos. My passion is my ancestry and I had a huge stack of old photos from my Grandparents collecting dust in my room. I figured that now that I am off of work and waiting to hear about school I might as well get them scanned and then store the photos properly. I also have a pile of letters that my Grandfather sent to my Grandmother when he was courting her during the war. They are so amazing, he sent one pretty much everyday and in the end he even sent her a engagement ring with one of the letters.
Such an amazing love story. They met while he was on leave one night. My Grandfather and his buddy picked up my Grandmother and her friend whom were hitchhiking. They all were headed to a local dance hall. They had a great night together and my Grandfather asked if he could write her (as he was scheduled to leave again the next day), she agreed but figured she wouldn't hear from him again. He wrote her for the first time the day he got back and never stopped up to the point of them getting engaged.

Planning my Gardens

I got excited to see my Ricters Herb and Seed catalogue in the mail last week. I spent the weekend perusing it and writing down what I would like to get. I am planning a new herbal medicine sort of garden as well as our regular herb garden.

So I am excited to design a new garden as well as get my vegetable garden ready. It has been warmer here lately and I do have some tulips sprouts popping up. It is nice but considering that this is only the end of February and I live in Ontario, Canada, I don't think it will last.

But the warm weather combined with my new plant catalogue makes me excited for spring.

Winter

Silence,

White,

Falling,

A Howl,

Broken,

Nothing,

Quiet,

Night.

Patience

This week I want to work on patience in my family. I have little patience at times and this morning I saw that coming out in my children. It breaks my heart to hear them losing their patience. I am supposed to be teaching them how to have patience and instead I demonstrate the opposite. So I have decided in attempts to make changes in my life for the better I will pick something to work on every week. This week I had thought to work on exercising more or making a conscious effort to meditate every day but I think patience will be what I am working on this week.
I am going to make an effort to recognise when I am losing my patience and work on regaining it. Even once I stop myself from fully losing my patience I still have a short fuse once its already been ignited so I need to work on bringing myself back from that edge. I need to learn and teach good strategies for dealing with frustration. I think my whole family would benefit from breathing techniques and learning when to step back for a minute. I am pretty good in recognising it in the kids and removing them from a situation that I know will turn volatile, now I need to recognise the same things in myself.