~~nature's beads~~

combine a little girl's love of crafting and nature walks and what do you get?

a snowberry tiara!

(some websites say that snowberries are toxic, others write the snowberries are only inedible due to their taste. our children have each tried them and i have no fear of them ever eating another!)

~~birthday in the raw~~

gotcha, didn't i?

so now you're wondering how that title has anything to do with this picture, eh? i'm venturing a guess that only BB has any idea. :) well, this little mrT4 has had reactions to dairy, eggs, wheat, and corn.

so WHAT to make for a birthday cake?

a raw one, of course. you have to check this out. the ingredients are:

~cashews, ground pretty much to a paste

~avocado (yes, you read that right)

~cocoa

~cream cheese (why he could handle this, i don't know)

~coconut oil (i melted it, thereby skewing the 'raw' part of this cake)

~peppermint

absolutely amazing (BB, if i forgot anything, could you zip me the correction?)

you should try it.

When the Trees Fall in the Forest...

any of you who know us well also know how MrT and I loved treeplanting. we worked primarily in northern bc, prince george, houston and mackenzie forest districts as well as southern alberta in the kananaskis area. wow. who else gets to be outside everyday, see some of the most beautiful places in Canada and get paid for it? not only that, you don't have to cook for yourself!!! *sigh* i miss the simplicity.

that's why...

...recently i've started walking in the mornings (well, before i sprained my ankle) on the cut block near our house and got to witness the day to day growth of the natural pharmacy God has put in our back yards. for example, arnica--the yellow daisy-like flowers that you see first in spring-is one of the best healer for bruises, yet, if you've cut yourself and some of the tincture enters your bloodstream, it could kill you. also, the dandelion... yes, my favorite flower. google 'dandelion health benefits' one day and see the amazing power of this so-called weed!

one of the greatest delights of cut blocks i've found is when there are no trees, the contour of the land is easy to see. it makes me think of God and the way He cuts the excess (NOT that trees are excess. :) ) out of our lives to bring out what really is there. it's no longer hidden by beauty, or not-so-beauty (natural equivalent: bug kill?). it's there for all to see. the question we have to face, then, is whether or not we will gracefully bow to the Master Planter's plan to re-seed/re-forest our lives to His glory?