Carter: 6 months

While I have been blessed with multiple nieces and nephews they have often lived far away or I just don't see them often due to crazy schedules and personality differences. So when my friend Jenni, who I have known for almost 15 years, welcomed a sweet little boy into the world I jumped at the chance to be Aunt LeShayne, again. And he is precious. This week I got the opportunity to practice my photography skills in celebration of 6 months of this little guy whose bottom lip has the sweetest quiver when he is considering being upset, whose eyes are this gorgeous piercing blue, and whose smile literally transforms his little face making it so joyful you cannot help but smile along. Though he did not want to share many smiles with me this time I think the pictures turned out fairly decent. Here are a few of my favorites!

In general I hate feet. I think they are nasty and dirty and just awkward. No offense to anyone...I just don't like them. But on a baby...so. darn. cute. Absolutely love them. Had to post this one!

The Sun Will Come Out...

Tomorrow...Tori's 4th grade Spring Extravaganza Concert solo.

Make a BIG difference with LITTLE effort.

Sometimes we live in these amazingly insulated boxes we have created for ourselves and our families. They are nice boxes, with pretty paint on the walls and warm blankets to rest on. They keep us safe and more importantly they keep our children safe. But...there is this great big world outside of my pretty comfortable box that I often miss.

This weekend the window was open and I saw a neighbor in pain, in poverty, in slavery...in my very own backyard. Please don't tune out the rest of this post because you think I am about to step on some God soapbox - the tragedy I want to tell you about and the amazingly simple and FREE thing you can do to help change that tragedy is nonreligious, nonChristian, nonpartisan. Just humane.

We all know that fruits and veggies no longer have a season, this can be proven true with a quick walk through your supermarket. We just transport stuff further at other times of the year! Compliments of the amazing weather here in FL we are one of those states/countries that produce vast quantities of food for vast corporations around the nation year round. We all know about the oranges and the strawberries but do you know that many national corporations also purchase tomatoes from FL farms? Yum foods (aka Taco Bell/KFC/Long John Silvers/A&W), McDonalds, Burger King, Whole Foods, Kroger and Publix are among some of the many that purchase there tomatoes from FL growers.

Did you also know that average worker in those tomato fields must pick 2 tons - 4000 LBS!!!! - to earn $50 in one day. And most can't do that many. Did you also know that this kind of farm working is one of the leading causes of modern day slavery? In 2008 HERE in FL, two brothers were charged, found guilty and sentenced for slavery. A crime we believe died years ago. 7 men were chained in a truck every night. Less than ten years before that another FLORIDA slavery case was tried, found guilty and sentenced after keeping 700+ people enslaved working - yep a tomato farm.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is asking for our help in a campaign to raise tomato prices - 1 penny per pound. Do you really think you would notice the difference when you picked up your tomato at Publix? But 1 penny per pound is a 60% increase in wages for these farm workers. Yum foods, McDonalds, and 6 other corportations have already signed on but both Kroger and Publix food stores are refusing. They state that they pay market value and should not determine market value. But let's be real retailers have been affecting the prices of all sorts of crops for decades now - both positively and negatively. And retailers change prices based on consumer demand.

So what can you do? Join in the CIW Fair Food Campaign by requesting postcards/letters for you and your friends and family members (or your church or school groups or play groups). These postcards outline their request for 3 things - the penny per pound wage increase, the purchasing of tomatoes from farms that follow a code of conduct for farm worker treatment, and allowing farm workers to have a voice. They are already addressed to Publix (store management for the letter and Mr.Crenshaw, current CEO, of Publix for the postcards) or Kroger management. All you have to do is request the cards, stamp them, put your return address on them and mail it!

Sometimes it is easy to feel that one postcard does not make a difference. But this campaign has worked EIGHT times. Let's help add to that number.

"I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
- Edward Everett Hale

To find out more about the CIW Fair Food Campaign check them out here: CIW

Postcards can be ordered from this site as well, about half way down their is a request link. If you are in the area and just need a few Todd and I will have some soon that you are welcome to pick up at your convenience.



Sometimes we need to look outside our box, sometimes we even need to step out and do something.

Community

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a conference called A Sustainable Faith featuring Shane Claiborne. For those who do not know who he is check out one of his books, totally worth reading, or learn more about what he's about at his community website: The Simple Way. The conference left me excited about the social justice movement happening within the church, searching for ways to DO something more and reading a great new stack of books.

One of the themes of this weekend was building community. It was great to go to church this morning and be reminded about the community we have built for ourselves. It was also great to watch as my son and his friend played together this afternoon and I was reminded how much they have already learned this community building skill.

This afternoon was a great lazy Sunday. We had Dairy Queen treats, grocery shopped and then the rain came in...torrential downpour style on my real community, the one I live in! So we spent the rest of the evening playing cards around the table.

Earth Day Project #3: Canned Herb Garden

Okay so usually canning comes after the planting but this recycled can craft starts with the cans! The kids had fun painting, planting and labeling these soon to be fresh herbs.

Earth Week Project #2: Paper Flowers

Earth Week Project #1: Magazine Bracelets

I am trying to be more intentional about having fun things for the kids to do outside of the normal sports practice, afternoon homework and bike/skateboard riding. So in honor of Earth Week we are making recycled crafts this week. These quirky bracelet beads are made of scraps of magazines.

Check this Out!

In an effort to make consumer decisions that have positive affects globally, and at the very least not detrimental ones I have sought out new brands of coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate, etc...making sure that these items are fair trade as I purchase them new. I also have been on the hunt for new summer clothes and have struggled to find clothes that are both environmentally friendly as well as sweatshop free produced. Apparently you can either be one or the other but not both! So I read this blog from our local paper - a fashion blog that features lots of coupons and sales and even freebies (like Starbucks, etc). And decided they would probably do better finding some local places than I could - and look they published my question and answered it!

Deal Divas

I also found this site,that well there are many more many sites whose prices start at $50 and go up from there - I just don't and can't spend that kind of money on clothes. I don't think I own a single dress over $100 unless it was a bridesmaid dress.

Fair Indigo has dresses from $40-$70 and tees from $10.50 -$28.00. Each item has the story of where it was made and what that particular project/community is accomplishing!

A Bit of Ordinary

Busy work schedules, work training, baseball games and softball practices, field trips and field days filled this week with lots of stuff but ordinary stuff. The kind you remember as being comfortable and the calm before and after storms. We had one of those weeks. And it was good. We played with dinosaurs...

and we read books...sometimes in very uncomfortable looking positions...

We painted pictures and argued over what silly band we should trade for the coveted red dragon or the hot ticket large bull...

We played on the beach with friends and saw a breathtaking view.

Gambradel.

Compliments of a work training thing I could not pick up the kids from school yesterday. And my brother...he works for my dad...who works for himself. So I figured I could con one of them into picking up the kids and playing with them for the afternoon.

So my brother, the fabulous uncle, picked them up in Big Red (the truck we have all grown to call by name!), bought them slurpees, let them help him run errands and then played ball with them in the front yard. In the meantime he also taught them this "joke" that Tori tried out on Todd at the dinner table.

"Hey dad do you know if you say cheese really slow it will sound like gambradel?"

Dead pan face from Todd.

And then it hits me "Do you know if you say cheese really slow it will sound like GULLIBLE?"

Tori has a new word, sort of.

A Big Day

I sometimes forget how big my little girl is getting but today, as she stood in front of ALL her peers and gave a speech about saving lives and then stepped up to bat with those crazy long legs of hers...it was hard to remember that she's still a little girl.

And despite that they seem to fight incessantly lately over silly things my sweet silly boy was right there championing his big sis today!

Spring Greening

To know me is to know that I like things clean and organized, really clean and organized, maybe even a little obsessively so. So in my house spring cleaning is nothing but fun for me and torture for the rest of the family. But this year we are doing something new...Spring Greening. We have made some positive changes in what we eat - more organic, less meat, nuts and produce from local farmer's market, etc. Next step - recycle. Now I realize we are late in the game but we have no pick up here. So we have to make the effort to not put recyclable items in the garbage but also then deliver them to various recycling centers (neither have all recycled items). But the kids are doing awesome and the sign on our trash can screaming "RECYCLE" helps!!!

In case you did not know you can recycle tons of things - cereal boxes, milk jugs, every bottle and can under the sun, foam trays that meat and cut fruit come on, plastic bags, paper bags, cardboard boxes, jars, etc.

To be greener via planting is a bit hard in a villa where none of your land is actually...your land. But the kids did plant some flowers and have been having fun checking on their progress. Supposedly these cute little greens will eventually be giant zinnias and mixed carnations - kids Walmart picks!

We have environmentally friendly light bulbs, are using filtered water instead of bottled, shutting off lights in rooms we are not in, etc...any other family friendly green ideas for us?

Easter Fun

Okay so the balloon eggs were a total disaster and I went back to my standby holiday project - baking. I hate to cook but this girl loves to bake. And decorate baked goods. And I have taught the kids to enjoy it as well. So with the help of these awesome basket wrappers from Michael's I present the project that succeeded!

And we dyed Easter eggs...because that's what you do. And they also turned out ok though I did learn this: Organic hard boiled eggs are WAY harder to peel the shells off of then my standard boring Publix eggs. So this years deviled eggs were a tad bit ugly but still delicious!

Easter Morning we woke up and had delicious homemade caramel rolls (did I mention I like to bake?) followed by an awesome church service with music that just makes your heart happy. Hope is a really powerful thing.

We took a few pictures in the park and my parents joined us out there for a picnic lunch.

Took a few pictures but this is my favorite - a classic Maddex kid pose. The kids do one of those hand clapping things we all did in elementary school that goes something like "Lemonade, Crunchy Ice, Sip It Once, Sip it Twice....Freeze!" Not sure what comes in between. But at the FREEZE they pose like this and its so funny to see them scrambling to get there backs to each other and it makes them both laugh so you get almost genuine smiles everytime...hence the odd pose!

We played bocce ball, aka lawn bowling, and headed home to play with some of the toys the bunny brought - like this awesome 3D sidewalk chalk. You paired certain colors together, put on the silly glasses and the chalk actually looked like it was floating above the sidewalk!

Life's A Beach

It has been warm here for a little over a week now...but between work and other scheduled things we've only gotten short bursts of outside time. So this Friday with no other plans on the schedule we decided it was a beach day to end spring break. Thursday night I went to bed with that awesome anticipation of great things - you know how you feel the night before Christmas or before you leave on a vacation. I have spring fever so bad and my beloved beach was calling me. So we packed up, got haircuts for the kids on the way only to reach downtown Clearwater and see that the causeway is backed up all the way over it. The chance of us getting to the beach within the hour in that kind of traffic was nil. So we changed course and headed to Honeymoon Island and it was all I thought it would be. Perfect blue skies, warm sand to dig your toes into, and the sun baking the whole beach to that absolutely perfect temperature with the slightest breeze to keep you from being too hot.

Funny I hate feet in general - its an odd phobia like thing. But love kids feet, made all the better covered in sand. The kids love gathering "treasure" at the beach, funny the things they come back with. Sandy toes and sandy treasure - love it!

Loving the new camera and all the fun things I can do with it! Still learning but enjoying the things I have learned thus far.

When we first got to Honeymoon Island it was not too busy - we found a spot with no problems. Three hours later when we left it was...well...busy! Welcome to Spring Break Florida style!