Store's open, come and share your support for the Barefoot Runner's Society!

I'm in the process of building our store to offer a variety of goodies, from clothing, to travel mugs to window stickers and temporary tattoos. Share your support for barefooters and purchase your BRS gear today barefootrunnerssoc's Store at Zazzle

J'aime le francais with Emily

Nyla and I have embarked on an adventure together, in learning how to speak French! And oh how lovely it is. My friend Emily Watkins, our Madam (French Teacher) is hosting a small parent and child French class in her home every Wednesday morning. Nyla and I not only get to have some great one on one adventure time, we get to learn another language. Nyla and I've decided together that her, in class French name will be Bijou (a name I've loved for a very long time, since Leah told me about a little girl named Bijou she used to care for at the old gym she worked at). Today we learned a simple salutation "Bonjour" (Nyla's rendition incorporates an l at the end for some reason), how to ask " ça va? (how are you)" and to reply "oui ça va, et toi? (fine and you?)" . We also learned to count to 10 and the alphabet. It was hard for me to let go of my natural tendency, or should I say learned tendency, to want to pronounce them with a Spanish accent (since that is my second language). Language and Culture as such a passion of mine, I look forward to this adventure and many more and hope to continue to share these experiences with my kiddos. If we can't travel the world and venture out to different cultures, then we'll bring them to us until we can.

5 miles Barefeet to the Earth and all her fallen leaves

Kicked my shoes off and set out on a 5 mile barefoot adventure along the bike path that accompanies the Zumbro River. The jaunt through the Pinewood forested area, left me with senses wide open to late summer sunlight peeking through the sparsely leaf covered trees, the smell of fallen early Autumn kissed leaves, the warm later summer breeze across my face and the cool pavement dotted with damp slippery leaves underneath my barefeet. If this isn't the way we were meant to run, I don't know what is. Little moments cherished!

Garden Wonderfulness, Fall Garden Veggie Soup!

With this being the end of the season, we're doing lots of harvesting of our veggies and putting them to good use. I'm particularly fond of garden veggie soup. Today's soup included from our garden and my inlaws garden: green pepper leaves, tomatoes, butternut, eggplant, zucchini, 2 serrano peppers and from the store: onions, garlic and carrots (our carrots never grew and we've used up our onions already...note to self, plant more onions next year, making room in our garden to grow garlic).
Ingredientes:
1/2 eggplant cubed
1 large zucchini cubed
2 medium carrots chopped
1 large onion cubed
garlic to taste (2-3 cloves is good, minced or sliced thinly)
3 medium tomatoes, diced
2 serrano peppers minced
1c cooked, mashed butternut squash
2-3 handfuls whole green pepper leaves (plucked right off of the plant, top tender leaves are best)
2c chicken broth
In a large heavy bottom stockpot, heat 3 tbsp olive oil. Mix together eggplant, zucchini, carrots, onions, serrano and garlic. Heat until veggies are tender (about 5-7minutes), stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, heat and stir about 5min. Add broth, squash and leaves. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30min. Serve with fresh bread. Great leftover too or with meat (shrimp is delightful) or chickpeas would be a good protein addition.

It's that time of year again and I've got 2 babies off to big kid school....

and one in preK. When did this happen, I swear the snow just melted and we were heading merrily into June's warm days?? I have to admit, I'm pretty darn excited for them all though, they're excited to be back. However, before even beginning his first day Max explains that he doesn't like school because he doesn't want to do homework. I then asked him, "well don't you like to draw, write and color?" "yes, but.." "well, Max, that's the sort of 'homework' you get to do in Kindergarten". He got to be the teacher's helper on the first day of school, leading the other kids in talking about what the weather was like, what the date was etc. Overall, given Max's temperament (strong willed, slow to transition/warm up, highly sensitive) he is doing a fantastic job in school so far. Olivia, enjoys her class though is really a bit meloncholy about her first week in a different classroom, with a different teacher and different classmates. She misses her 1st grade buddies and who wouldn't miss Jane, I miss Jane! Absolutely fantastic teacher, I had the pleasure of volunteering with her every Thursday afternoon all year last year. I'll be spending 1.5hrs in Max's class (with Ms Lisa) and in O's room with (Beeman) every Thursday morning, I look forward to getting to know their new teachers and new classmates.
Nyla, sigh. Well we, amidst typical beginning of school chaos, rushed around like chickens with our heads cut off to rush to her class to find dark empty rooms. Apparently preK starts next week. We wrote out trip off as a time to spend dancing, singing and giggling in the car...Nyla's got some smooth moves to Biddi Boddi Biddibu.
So here we are, a week into the school year and nary a complaint (well, except for Max's 'dont' want to do homework' complaint...I'll have to get creative with his homework I'm thinking).
And to conclude tonight's story on little big kids and their school adventures, Max asks me during out pillow talk time "Mom, will you do more homework with me tomorrow morning?" "Sure buddy, I'll do some homework with you <3". I knew it wouldn't take long for him to come around.
'Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.' ~Ronald E. Osborn

When do we lose this kind of creativity?

The other day, Max presented Ian and I with this
confidently claiming that this was his dog. We both just looked at the tiny, carefully trimmed bit of pink post-it then tilted our heads trying to see if we could figure it out from a different angle, holding back giggles. I encouragingly said "he looks like a very nice little dog", Ian was questioning Max about his dog trying to make out a dog of this shape lying there before us. Max was so proud of his little dog, what a treat to see such creativity and genuinity. The kids come up with some of the most amazing and honest things.