Xavier's guitar quartet- as yet unnamed

This summer Xavier started taking lessons with Alan Johnston and is going to McPhail Center for Music . Alan invited him to join their quartet (or what was then a trio) and they have been working together since September. This Sunday we had everyone out to Ham Lake for breakfast and a practice session. What handsome boys! Henry, Luke, Xavier and Austin (and Alan's knee).

Have you tried KOMBUCHA?

Kombucha tea is a fermented drink that is easily produced and may have many health benefits. Selena and I have been drinking it for a couple years now. The #1 health benefit for us is that we don't drink Diet Coke anymore. I could also say that it has eliminated former cravings for "soft drinks", candy and other high fructose corn syrup products, but that may also be due to other dietary changes we've made (switching to a whole foods diet). For me it's been a great aid for digestion and a great thirst quencher when I've been working outside in the garden. Some claim the following health benefits:

Relief of "arthritis pains, intestinal problems, digestive disorders, kidney stones, high cholesterol, chronic fatigue, asthma, bronchitis, migraine, eczema, headaches, constipation, diabetes, rheumatism, anxiety, dizziness and insomnia. Problems associated with advancing years, such as high blood pressure, poor eye sight, arteriosclerosis and gout may also be helped by Kombucha's anti-aging properties." (http://www.gokombucha.com/health_benefits.html)

I've noticed that the tea is sold in many Food Coops but it is expensive, especially when you can make it at home for the cost of tea bags and sugar. If you don't appreciate the fizzy taste of kombucha you can add fruit juice. A kombucha/juice combination makes it taste something like High-C, or one of the other "fructosed" drinks that is successfully marketed to children. But usually we just add raw ginger to the finished kombucha and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple days. That's quite a punch!

If you'd like to try making it the process is incredibly simple. However, you need a kombucha mushroom (a mother culture) and preferably some starter tea to get you going. (Contact me and I'll get you some!)
Below: A group of mushrooms; lovely little creatures! With every batch of kombucha they grow and reproduce themselves.

KOMBUCHA RECIPE:


The simple version first:

1.Boil the water.
2. Remove from stove. Dissolve organic sugar in water. Add tea bags and cover. Let the tea steep for half an hour.
3. Remove tea bags and pour into one gallon glass jar (pickle jar). Let cool until water 90 degrees or cooler. I usually do this in the evening so that I can let it cool overnight.
4. Add one mushroom and about 1/2 cup starter .
5. Cover the jar with a coffee filter and rubber band. Basically you want ample air for the fermentation but don't want dust and bugs in the drink.
6. Let it ferment for a week or two. In the summer it will only take a week, in the winter (in Minnesota!) about 2 weeks. **Keep the jar in a dark place. The cupboard is a good place.
7. How do you know it's done? Take a taste test. If it still tastes like black tea then it's not done. If it's fizzy and vinegary, it's done.
8. If it's ready, take out the mushroom and store it in a glass jar in the refrigerator. Make sure and save a cup of starter for the next batch.


Below: A gallon jar of tea. The kombucha mushroom is floating on top.
This is one of my jars of kombucha mushrooms that I keep in the refrigerator. My friends and relatives have generously accepted these mushrooms, or "scobys" in their homes.

A view from the top!
My collection of fermenting kombucha.

This batch is ready for consumption. For a real ZIP add raw ginger. I've also added strawberry pieces or other fruit which ends up tasting a little like sangria. (kinda...)

Concert of Sharon Isbin with Minnesota Orchestra

In September Xavier and I went to a concert of Sharon Isbin (classical guitarist) and the Minnesota Orchestra. My personal favorite is Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" (which you are no doubt hearing right now.) We had 3rd row seats and could see the expressions on the faces of the performers. Occasionally Xavier plays the guitar part of this piece and I chime in as the part of the violins (not a very good sound but I love it!) I could listen to this over and over again, so I figured out how to put in on the blog, I hope it doesn't annoy anyone!

I know, I promised...

I have been telling everyone I know that I won't be fostering any more dogs until I sell the house. The constant attention required to tend to a foster dog takes a lot of time away from doing some things that need to be done to prepare the house for potential buyers. My own dogs are pretty civilized and behave themselves most of the time (oh, except for Jota digging in the yard and occasionally peeing on the otoman) but rescue dogs, in most cases, have been through the ringer of street life, and come with a lot of unpredictable behavior. Anyway, that may seem obvious but you don't always remember that aspect when you look into their eyes. Ok, I kept on telling everyone that I was going to be good and work on the house, and I was telling everyone that because I needed to convince myself that that is what I was going to do. (I do that a lot, I realize.) Well, as you can see, I've taken in another litter of puppies and their mom. But, there is a caveat, it's only for a couple weeks and they'll be ready for new homes. Meanwhile, we are enjoying the fun of 6 week old puppies (the BEST time of puppyhood!) There are 6 of them (2 boys, 4 girls) and they look like little cows with their black spots.
The mom's name is Tara (following the Gone With the Wind theme, I'm told) and she is a Treeing Walker Coon Hound**. She's very sweet and came with an orange hunting collar. She was very thin and exhausted when she was picked up in Ramsey and no one claimed her at animal control.

Miss Pittypat























Rhett, above Prissy, right.



***According to AKC standards, the Treeing Walker Coonhound is described by the following:
Qualitative Characteristics
Energetic, intelligent, active, courteous, composed, confident, fearless, kind, graceful in pose and while active. Super abundance of sense, endurance, trailing, hunting and treeing instinct and ability.

Ilana and Jota

Jennifer's baby Ilana visited us some months ago. Here are two videos of Ilana and Jota, as well as a short clip with the puppies that we were fostering at the time.



Ilana and Salem's puppies

Let the kids play!!

I'm stealing another fellow unschooler's blog idea! I came across this video on Kelli's unschooling blog and felt compelled to share it here. Here's a brindis to getting our kids out of a lot of these structured activities and letting them explore the world through play! Heck, while we're at it, we adults need more playtime, too. The highway would be a happier place if people were enjoying the ride.

Every 1st Wednesday of the month...

Every Wednesday Selena and Xavier deliver papers for their routes. Selena uses the money to care for her ferrets. Xavier is paying back a loan from Grandma and Grandpa for his classical guitar. In the case of the paper routes, I am the driver. Generally, the routes take a couple hours each and we pass the time by listening to podcasts from public radio. Well, this is a roundabout way of explaining why I'm never at home on Wednesdays, but by chance, I was at home this month when the civil service sirens went off. We are only within 1/4 of a mile from the Ham Lake siren and the dogs really respond to the blare. Well, yesterday I got Jota's reaction on video for posterity!

Recent Pleasures

Selena and I are in the middle of enjoying the Masterpiece Theater series, "Cranford". For some reasons, which I don't feel like revealing here, we both LOVE these English period pieces. Xavier does not get too enthusiastic about them but he did stick with this one through the first two hours, but then he got tired of it and went back to his guitar and video game. But Selena and I were giggling and sighing through the first half of it. We were having SO much fun last night that we didn't get to bed until midnight. Selena had a full day of classes but had a hard time stopping the VCR and saving the rest for tonight!

Anyway, Cranford is based on three novels of Elizabeth Gaskell. It takes place during a period of intense change in England in the 1840's. Cranford is a small town with a set of interesting, funny and endearing characters. And we LOVE Judi Dench! I'll watch anything in which she appears. Recently we saw Masterpiece Theater's production of Oliver Twist, which was really good, and Xavier really liked it, too.

On a different note, I might add that I am asked at times about how my kids are acquiring knowledge of certain subjects. Well, it's easy to see in this case what kinds of things we are learning by enjoying a film like this and freely talking about it (as opposed to, for example, doing homework for a class on English literature or history, or economics, or, let's see, sociology etc..) If I had forced Selena and Xavier to watch these films and given them follow up questions afterward I'm sure that we wouldn't be enjoying the experience, and thus, learning as many things. The beautiful thing is that I can see it happening right in front of me. This life can be great indeed.