These days

A few images of the past week...

The path through the cenote is progressing nicely, here is a before and after picture to show the difference

This picture shows well how much the path has been raised

At home we have been spending much time inside, attempting to stay cool in this intense heat, without an air conditioning that is.

Kaleena is doing work in her main lesson book

I have been making sauerkraut in the only two glass jars that I brought from the states. It is amazing to me that  I cannot find any glass jars here, and I LOVE my mason jars. I cannot even find tomato sauce in a glass jar, and get a jar that way. Everything here comes in plastic.

I am also attempting to get a sourdough starter going, hoping to somehow find a good wholesome flour source.

Most of our meals consists of different variations of tacos and dips.

The one below is a taco with rice and beans, chopped fresh arugula and parsley, tomato, avocado and fresh farmers cheese, and because we do not have a blender yet, we make spirulina dressings to go with them.

Very yummy!

This is one of different variations of dips.

Mango, tomato, onion, parsley, cilantro and salt. So lovely in this heat

One late afternoon coming back from getting groceries this is what I found on the front step.

They are local berries, cannot remember the name, that supposedly are great to make juice out of and that helps clean the liver at the same time. The flavor of them raw is much like a mealy apple and not my favorite. But I am making a trial wild mead (honey wine) to see how that might come out.

Here is Kaleena picking the berries

The evenings are a lovely time to step out for a walk, here are the boys in their 

Sunday best

~Blessings~

Visit to Ak lu'um, a Waldorf School initiative in Playa Del Carmen Mexico

Today I went to visit a Waldorf school in the neighboring town of Playa Del Carmen.

As I mention often I am a homeschooler at heart, yet I do go in and out of considering alternatives, such as a Waldorf school for Kaleena. In reality it is out of our budget at this moment, but perhaps a trade  could be worked out, and so I went to see the school.

A lovely place it is. The school is an initiative, which means still in the beginning stages of development.

Currently they offer 2 Kindergarden classes, one first/second mixed grade, one third/fourth mixed grade and one fifth/sixth mixed grade. There is a total of 56 children attending the school.

The surroundings are amazingly beautiful, nestled in the jungle with winding pathways leading you from one place to the other. There is a small gardening area, and lovely little buildings serving different purposes throughout. Everything is built and made with intention and care, respecting the jungle in which it sits.

I always get the same sinking feeling when I visit any school, a sense of why? I cannot help it, I wish I would feel a sense of meaning and rightness, but I do not. Perhaps because I remember my own years of schooling, how meaningless they felt and how much I disliked them. 

This little beautiful school, nestled in the jungle, small and quaint did feel like a nice place to spend a few hours of the day though, at least for the community of like minded families, to learn the language and make friends. 

There are many things to consider for me to in-role  Kaleena there, not least of which is the money, the 45 min drive each way, that alone seems crazy even with car pooling as an option, and of course dropping my child off for some one else to "raise" her for almost half her waking hours.

Certainly left me with plenty to ponder.

To give you an idea...

Winding paths everywhere

School houses and playground

Toilets

Composting garden toilet

Farm area with kitchen, chickens, turkeys and raised beds 

...and bicycle run blender

As far a schools go, this one really was something special.

~Blessings~

Early morning in the woods, and fairy looms

Tuesdays have for now become the day that we go to the country, this coincides with the day that Kaleena is now meeting with a homeschooling group to learn spanish, and at the same time Keenan has the opportunity to do a craft together with other little ones, today they made fairy looms. We head out early to make it to the farm first for our weekly milk and egg pick up, and today we had enough time to go for a walk in woods before meeting up for the class.

It was a beautiful morning and once again the peace and quiet of the country helped me to tune into the appreciation of the present moment. It is chilly in the mornings now and there was a thick fog as we arrived. Lovely lovely....

Kaleena found a little magical spot in the woods where she lingered in peaceful bliss

lots of magic all all around

Once on the island with the homeschoolers Kaleena went with the bigger children for her hour of spanish and Keenan joined the little children in making fairy looms. We started out with a fairy story after which we started with the looms. All the mammas had brought in different treasures to use for weaving and adding to our looms

we started by weaving yarn around the Y shaped sticks which one mamma 

had brought from her apple tree

and then we started weaving treasures into the yarn, there was bells, feathers, wooden beads, shell and rocks with holes in them which we tied on with twine, and other treasures to choose from

Keenan really enjoyed stringing beads onto a string and then weaving this through the yarn

he really stayed focused throughout the whole process

I also finger knitted a strand of rainbow wool and attached a holed rock to it to create a beautiful little necklace, I made one for both children. This was an inspiration from one of the other mamas, and I love how well it suited the little ones

Keenan proudly showed off his creations, even volunteering for me to take a picture ( he is a wee bit tired of mama always taking pictures:)

and here are a few more pictures of some of the different looms that the children made.

I brought home an extra apple stick for Kaleena to make her own loom tomorrow, and I think we will make a purely natural one, in the sense that we will use only material gathered on our morning walk, use hemp string and then add it to our nature table

~Thanks to the mamas today for all the inspiration, and may you all have a lovely evening~