Pics.... Madhava's Choice

Halloween Jamboree cookie eating contest with the twin spidies.


2% Sugar and spice and everything nice, 98% Breastfed! Shraddha 16 months.

This is ZOEY 2 years old, and this is MOUSEY 19 years old.
Madhava on top of the WORLD!
Shraddha bouldering on a mini boulder! 17 months

Blue Butterflies on the Basal and other "B" things from this fall.

Our Basal plants (which almost froze last night) were full of bees and these little blue butterflies. They were so much fun to watch this summer and fall. Shraddha added bees and butterflies to her vocabulary.


Shraddha (16 months here) very much enjoys playing at the beach. She would have a blast playing just in the sand and not even notice the water! But once she did notice the water she made a B-line to it! And would stay in the water until her lips were blue!

BAD Sadie...
Many people this fall were raking up leaves, not me. I was busy raking up bits of foam from a cushion that Sadie enjoyed tearing up. There was so much foam that it filled up a 55 gallon trash can!








Began kindergarten!
This fall Madhava was selected from his preschool class to start kindergarten early. He is doing a great job learning to read and to say all kinds of colorful words.

Bouldering with Bubba! We love spending time climbing on and around the big boulders!




Birdie watching and chasing at the beach. This is one of Shraddha's signs for bird.

Pumpkins & Spiders!

We have eight pumpkins the largest was about 7 inches high. And today is the very last day they could grow. It was the first official frost .... Make that a real freeze! Some of the littlest ones on the vine were pretty frozen and the vine and leaves were all crunchy...As well as the tomatoes. Anyone have any good fried green tomato recipes?



Here is a tarantula just passing through our front yard. Both the baby and the dog were quite uneasy about this little guy... (little HA HA HA) I put him in an old fish tank for the day until Madhava got a chance to take a look at him and let him go. I had to keep it in the garage (with a huge rock on top of it) to keep Shraddha from whining about it. Isn't it funny how naturally we are afraid of spiders?

Mindfulness Meditation and Mothering

I study and practice mindfulness meditation and have needed to develop and expand my abilities to keep up with my two little spiritual teachers. I just wanted to share some of what I have learned. If you are not ready to learn about meditation

... then this is NOT the post to read.

It is quite difficult for me when I see so many people suffering from stress and anxiety when they have the choice. I want to reach out and help by helping them to learn that they have a choice. However, it seems, what they feel they need is just an empathetic ear and not a lecture. I can understand that, and have needed to borrow someones ear for a while. However it is not the talking about the problem that is the problem. The problem is the anxiety and stress and unhappiness that is overflowing all over the place. I certainly am not saying that I am perfect. They call meditation a practice and that is what you do with it. Practice over and over until it becomes part of you. Then there will be the challenges and tests… helping you to learn more about yourself and realize that the limitations you put on your abilities are just an illusion. Some tests are much harder than others and I have certainly allowed the rug to be pulled out from under me a number of times. Then there are the processes that we just need to go through whether or not you believe it is a teaching that you chose before this lifetime or karma or just a unfortunate event. And then there is the realization that life goes on no matter how you choose to respond to it.

Mindfulness Meditation is when you decide to be watchful and attentive to where your mind is going and to realize that you are the master of your thoughts. Thoughts can become actions and feelings if we so choose to allow that. Or thoughts can be like clouds floating in the sky above you. For example, a dark cloud can blow over you and say, “what if I don’t make rent this month?” You can point at it and say, “Hmm. Look at that thought. That’s interesting, but it is just a passing thought.” ,then let it keep floating away. Or you can sit and analyze it and stress and wonder about the rent and money. I am not saying that you shouldn’t think about your finances. I am just saying that your clouding your mind with it for hours or throughout the day is not helpful.

Your first meditation will involve many distractions. Thoughts will cloud your mind, your mind will try to take over and tell you that it is too noisy or too hot/cold or you are too sleepy/hungry/thirsty. Your mind will lead you to believe that you don’t have time or you are just not cut out for this. THAT is an illusion. That is your mind liking status quo because that is what it knows. That is your mind acknowledging and knowing that something has to change. You have to decide that this is what you are going to do. Instead of making excuses and apologies you need to acknowledge that it is an illusion and decide to meld meditation into your day and your being.

Once you decide to sit down and start practice, it helps to acknowledge the senses. “Oh look…there was another sound/thought/feeling.”, then let it pass like a cloud overhead. When this happens, know that you are not doing it wrong. This is normal. Soon, with practice, it will become easier.

If your mind is really racing you can start with focusing on something peaceful… a picture, a memory, a statue. At times I would focus on a candle or the stream of smoke coming from the incense stick and my breathing. There are more specific instructions that I won’t go into now. Oh by the way…sitting in the spa drinking beer while listening to jazz is not meditating…. It’s chillin’ LOL! It is certainly necessary to relax the body. But just because the body is relaxed and the mind is numbed… doesn’t mean you have found peace.

Centering…
You can start to apply this even before you master it.
You take your peaceful thought, your happy memory and when you feel that you are loosing your peace you stop and refocus on that thought. You experience all of it. You utilize all of your senses to remember it. Then you go on with your day. At first you will do this all the time. But after some practice you will stay centered longer.

Some practices that helped me were yoga and throwing clay. It seems for me, it is far too difficult to stay balanced in yoga or to center my clay when I wasn’t centered or balanced, and I was letting stress or thoughts overrun my mind. Being healthy in all other areas of my life also helped tremendously. Exercise, sleep and eating healthy all help with your practice and give you the best opportunity to find your peace.

You can be physically busy, watching your children, cleaning your house or getting ready to walk out the door, but your mind doesn’t need to be moving as quickly as you. Your mind can be peaceful and you can allow your shoulders to relax and the tension to drain out of you. Life will happen. There will be traffic, there will be flat tires, there will be bumps in the road. That is just normal. That is just life and you need to allow yourself the realization that you can choose how you will respond to those bumps.

If you choose to routinely respond with stress, anxiety, worry, anger, frustration…. Then that is how you will feel. That is how your friends will view you and that is what your children will feel from you. It will spill out all over everyone you know. Even if you think you are keeping it to yourself. You can put on a happy face but you can’t fool your spiritual teachers. Children are intuitive in ways we can hardly comprehend.

Practice and be open to new ways to allow the clouds to fly by. Ohm Shanti.

TV Time

Madhava 4 1/2 yrs., Shraddha (was 15 months in pic NOW 16 months!) Watching Baby Einstien.

Ok, since this blog is meant to be a type of journal/scrapbook of our family it is fitting to discuss the stuff that just seems so silly to me right now....TV. I know years from now it will be interesting stuff but it is just really silly to me now. First off we USED to have cable (digital even!) Oh how wonderful that was when I was on bedrest with Shraddha and I had an on-screen TV/cable guide and could just click on the shows I wanted to watch!

No, cable for us woodland folks. The techs actually laugh when you ask when it will be available. Apparently, we are lucky the phone and electricity work most of the time. That is... it works when the woodpeckers and squirrels and snowfall and lightening don't interrupt the service LOL!

Anyways.... back to the shows we watch.
Not much really these days. We only have a few channels so I end up watching things I wouldn't normally have. However, this only happens when I am nursing Shraddha to sleep or making dinner.

Game shows.... Deal or no Deal. This is really quite boring, yet I can't seem to turn away.
There is a new one I was just watching not sure of the name but they say "do you want the money or the mob?" Now that was good. It is kind of like the "Do you want to be a millionaire show".

The amazing race, I do tend to miss this one alot. I like the traveling but I just don't like the reality tv arguing/drama/stategy thing. But it is on my list to watch tomorrow night....Sunday 8pm CBS ch47

Studio60 It is a docu-drama show simulating the filming of SNL and full of dry humor. Wow just found out I can download Ghost Hunters from that site! LOVE that show! We like House too, but it is either on too late or the reception is not very good.

So that brings me to the shows I miss from not having cable.... Ghost Hunters, anything DIY, National geographic, and other Discovery/history/Nature Chanels or shows. But between BlockBuster and Netflix.com we are set.

Netflix.com rocks by the way. I can rent many of the shows that I don't get anymore only no commercials and I have pause and fast forward. (by the way, I'm sticking out my tongue to those of you with DVRs/Tivo you know who you are! I am so jealous!). We are getting caught up on House, Ghost Hunters, and now get to start watching Kratt's, Be the Creature. As well as watching music documentaries. JAZZ, Blues, and Rock&Roll.
Roger just rented this wonderful movie about a woman musician that was deaf but could hear sounds by vibration and is a world renown percussionist. Do I remember her name or the name of the movie...NO! gotta look that one up. Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie (2005). This is a definate must see - both Madhava and Shraddha loved it.

Almost forgot to mention football. NFL. 49ers Fan here but I also like to follow the Raiders, Broncos, and Chargers (not that I really have time to 'follow' them LOL!) Just about any professional football game is fun for us, sometimes basketball. You won't find me watching baseball unless it is little league!

Our all time favorite shows to watch are American Idol and Rock Star (You have to see their site!). The kids even get into watching those shows.

Counting baby pumpkins

Counting pumpkins…..
Are these little baby pumpkins?
Wow! This little plant is taking off!
6 little ones all together


And an unexpected little bloom! Of course the plants that I didn't plant will grow beautifully! - Well, I had high hopes for that little weed I was watering. LOL!
I believe this is a purple aster. Ok time to get my aster back to folding clothes!

Our Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to US! Three whole years woo-hoo! Time to head back to Yosemite! Wow, how beautiful was that day? It was one of my favorite memories. We even had a coyote come to the ceremony.

Ok… lost in lovely memories …. More blogging later.

Pumpkins are winning!

Well, at least the varmits haven't found them yet or the pumpkins grow faster then the gophers can eat them. These 3 plants shown here were only planted about a month ago! The leaves are bigger than 2 of Shraddha's heads! These are called Sweetie Pies - cooking pumpkins. But the leaves are different on each plant. One is all green, one is varigated and one is almost white.


Today we have some enormous pumpkin flowers and a little bee buzzing away inside the flower.




Ahh, nice sleeping baby.

Blogging baby pic and blast from the past

Shraddha insists on blogging with me tonight. I have been trying to wait for her to fall asleep but so far it isn't happening before I am too exhausted. I got this cute pic and now I wish I had taken it in a higher resolution because it is such a good pic!

She was so upset when I wasn't home after tucking Madhava into bed and singing night-night songs. Roger says she went to the door and cried Mama Mama Mama for a while before she settled down to watch TV with Daddy. Apparently she was just fine when they all went to Red Robin for dinner. Wonder if she got to have her own bowl of mac & cheese or if she was eating her brother's instead? Last week Madhava was having to share his macaroni and cheese and was sad watching Baby eat it all....., "Oh, I hope she leaves some for me!"

I was having fun rocking out on the drive home. My ears are still ringing from blasting, "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)" by Offspring. You know this song was released 12 years ago?! Man, seems like yesterday I was just blasting this in my dorm room. Way back when WWW didn't really exist and I was typing on a word processor, not a computer. When I was really buff and would roll my eyes at guys asking if I needed help carrying my bike up 3 flights of steps, "Do I look like I need help?" Yes, my bike slept in my dorm-room with me. Way back when I was exhausted trying to keep up with all my reading and homework.... dreaming of the day when there was no more homework. HA HA HA HA!

Now, I'm blogging while nursing my baby, surrounded by piles of homework. At least this isn't the kind of homework that someone else gets credit for after all my hard research. Now I would LOVE if someone noticed that I needed help and offered to help me. My baby sleeps next to me instead of the bike and I enjoy shopping for cloth diapers online. If anyone ever tried to tell me that this is what my life would be like I would have laughed. And I still laugh now knowing that I wouldn't want it any other way.

ahhhh silence

Sleep deprived and oh so tired but not as tortured as Tina is now or Tyren for that matter (poor baby). Way too tired to sleep. Just awake enough to jot some incoherent thoughts down until my mind catches up with the rest of my body and goes to sleep.

But who could sleep when Halloween and autumn (my favorite time of the year) are so near? There is so much to do.

Shraddha and Madhava both slept for 4 hrs today... the exact same 4 hrs! Is this the Twilight Zone? No no no... this must be a dream LOL!

I have so much to post but not tonight. Just a bunch of complete nothingness. I seem to all of a sudden become enormously busy. Scouts, Communication Seminar, Halloween Party, and I am sure there is something Babyfest that I could/should be working on. Oh I forgot that I was gonna drop the should's. Usborne is also on the list. Nothing immediate happening with that but it continues to take up RAM in my brain.

My house is demonstrating the state of my mind at the moment. Of course it doesn't help that Shraddha prefers to throw all the clean laundry out of the basket (folded or not) onto the floor. What is it with the books? Leave all of her 40 books on the floor and there they stay where she left them..... for days even. But if I dare to put them neatly back in the bookcase.... they only stay there for mere moments.

Ok all systems seem to be equalizing now.... off to bed.




Before you speak, THINK
Is it necessary?
Is it true?
Is it kind?
Will it hurt anyone?
Will it improve on the silence?
Sathya Sai Baba

I have to laugh because I am sure glad this post wasn't taking up precious silence.

I did however very much enjoy all the great laughs at the communication class. Thanks Beckie you crack me up!

ugh! blog issues

After my last post my sidebar didn't line up anymore. Apparently my pictures were too wide or something wierd happened so I am going to redo that post - working on that now. I may need to repost for Sept 10th too. Wish me luck... I am still learning Html.

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Ok,the last post is fixed....
I ran out of new posting time today...gotta go tackle the laundry pile.

Upcoming posts will include some of the following topics...
- The creatures that share our property with us
- I found some interesting factoids on blue bellies
- Garden update - will those pumpkin plants grow or will the gophers get to them first? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Come on now... I could be posting about how to get the stains out of the diapers!

Blue Lizard Tree Ranch (revised)

Ok, here are some more pics of our property at Ryan's request (that's my brother). He hasn't had the chance to get up here to visit because of his tour bus company in San Diego, Epic Limo.
This is Blue Lizard Tree Ranch. I'm trying to see if this name will stick. It was named after the huge Oak tree above where a number of Blue Belly Lizards live. I have some pics of one of the cobalt blue jeweled Blue Bellies that Zoey found for us... but I will post that later.




These are the BEFORE pics. The AFTER pics will come when the AFTER finally gets here. What I am trying to say is that we have a ton of landscaping to work on. Our plans consist of a nice grassy play yard, an aloe vera, herb and rock garden in the front yard. Gotta love rock gardens...those rocks are great for novice gardeners and the gophers seem to leave them alone. We also plan on making a vegetable garden and planting fruit and nut trees. We had millions of wild flowers in the spring , now we have nice golden hills.

Shraddha's first hair cut

Mama went wacko with the scissors and chopped my bangs. Good thing I have curly hair! I'm 15 months old and I am glad that I can see now without my hair poking into my eyes. - Shraddha's thoughts.

I got to catch a couple of extra zzzzz's this morning after I plugged Shraddha into the TV. But now I can't seem to get Barney's voice out of my head LOL! "A circle shape is round, a circle shape is round. A circle shape is like a wheel that is round and goes rolling on the ground." UGH! Barney! Who is more annoying Barney or Elmo? I have to say they are both like music to my ears compared to whining and screaming --- ha ha ha.

Varmits and fall planting!

Ok so I started my late summer planting a little more towards early fall. But next year I will be more with it. I am excited though! We finally have the invisible fence up to keep Sadie dog out of the planting beds. She thinks we are making fun digging and sleeping beds for her!

We planted pumpkin seeds a few weeks ago and now have some decent size plants... they might actually make it....IF the varmits don't get them. GOPHERS why don't they eat the weeds? Why do they want to eat my plants? Well, we have great drainage in our play yard, thanks to the myriad of holes.

I found a great site to buy seeds from gardenguides.com and they listed all types of flowers for late summer planting. AND there is free s/h. I can't wait! I ordered...

Basil Custom Blend
Amaranth Burgundy
Blue Flax Seeds
Delphinium Pacific Giant Mix
Verbena bonariensis


Ok back to folding clothes.... Note the pics of Madhava watering the pumpkin seeds in his shorts, baseball cap and yes..... cowboy boots ( squaw valley style LOL!). Shraddha watering the Sweet Basil plants between sips of water for herself. It WAS hot when we took these photos a couple of weeks ago, but now we have nice cool weather....ahhhh finally!

Madhava's favorite family picture

Madhava says,

"I love this picture because, it is funny how we can see Sadie's behind. She is also has a lovely smile while she is looking at the camera. It is also a picture of our whole family."

"Today I had fun swinging on the tire swing. Uhm, I really had fun watching Daddy smash up a hard drive and pushing him on the tire swing."

"Hey look Mommy, I can see the word "the". That is very fascinating!"

YAY! I am back online!

I am so happy that I can be back online posting again! So, I will get right to it.

Summer is over and I am ready for cooler weather. It's a nice 67 degrees out now (but then it is also fairly late at night.) I will take whatever I can get for now LOL!

I saw the first tarantula a couple of days ago. It was crawing back into its nest only 5 feet from my back door. I also found a 4 ft long garter or racer snake. It noticed me LONG before I notice him. Needless to say, I am no longer walking around the property in the evening or at night to toss the trash or hang/get laundry. I get the creepy crawlies whenever I think about it... it isn't even October yet! I think I will be ok if they just not come in the house like the scorpians do. Haven't found any scorpions under the sheets for a while but I won't climb into bed until I check everything...even under the pillow. But I always wonder, if they climb in there when we aren't there.... then what keeps them out when we are in the bed?

Madhava started kindergarten this week at 4.5 yrs old. He is starting a year earlier than we planned and it may just be for fun for now. He is just loving it though. His favorite thing is share day, when everyone gets to bring in a favorite toy to share with each other. I want to get some pictures up but can't figure out how to upload them from the camera right now. I will try again tomorrow.

Right now he is very into robots. He loves to watch movies but Jumungi and Zathura are his favorites right now. I still think they are just too scary for him but he keeps asking his dad if he can watch it again and again. He can write his name when we give him an example. He can spell his name when asked. And he can write almost the whole alphabet as well as come up with words for the different sounds. I just started working on site words with him and "the" is the first one we are working on. He finds it on signs when we are out and about. He is still working on understanding the time of day, and past and future tense. I spent quite a bit of time explaining what yesterday and tomorrow means. He still thinks it is morning time when he wakes up from his nap ~ but if I slept for 4 or 5 hours in the middle of the day, I would be a bit disoriented too. I'm just happy to be sleeping that long without being woken up at night. He also just loves playing with Sadie and Shraddha. It is so fun to see Shraddha screaming with glee while Madhava runs around saying ,"You can't get me, baby!"

Shraddha, now 14 months is learning ASL along with the rest of us. She knows: eat, dada, thirsty, drink, water, bath, diaper, banana, mama, nurse, car, bird, tree, elephant, cat, dog, duck, flower, dirty, cracker, cheese, peach, ball, book, more, music, hat, shoes, bread, apple, cereal, bed, toothbrush, hot, cold, all done, down, cow, night, moon, stars, fan. 42 signs. She is a sponge... asking me "what's dat ?!!" and watching to see if I will teach her the sign for what ever she just noticed She is also making up her own signs. She saw a picture of a pterodactyl and signed elephant-bird.

Her speech is coming along too. She says, mama, dadda, daddy, bubba, Elmo, meme, mooo, book, up p p p , dadoo for thank you, adie for sadie, itty for kitty, mmmmm for yummy and flower while she signs flower, iaper for diaper, apple. She is also demonstrating great understanding. I will tell her to go give daddy a kiss and off she goes to plant a big hug and kiss on daddy. She understands brush your teeth, feed the kitty, where is...., go outside, time to go to sleep/bed, watch a movie.

Shraddha loves watching her Signing Times and Baby Einstein and Elmo movies. She also loves to pull out anything new she can find in the cupboards, LOVES reading books and just can't get enough of that. SCREAMING for fun, especially to chase the cat or bubba. Our cats and dog get plenty of hugs and kisses from Shraddha. She also loves watering the plants, smelling the flowers, looking for birds and of course.... waking bubba up from his nap.

So much for getting caught up on dishes, laundry, and sleep LOL! I don't even know what that is like. Does that ever happen? If it wasn't for Roger's help, I don't think I would ever see the bottom of my sink.

Madhava - I'm the big brother

And I am 4.5 yrs old.

Shraddha crawling in the meadow

April 24, 2006 10 months
Shraddha is entertaining herself while mama hunts for wildflowers. It's funny how long I spend searching for the best wildflower when the most beautiful one of all is crawling at my feet.

Squaw Valley, Backyard Views in Spring

Brodiaea in bloom in our wildflower meadows. Bear Mountain is in the background.