Tu B’Shavat, is a Jewish holiday that celebrates trees. I am not Jewish so I asked a few friends about how they celebrate. From what I gather it is a holiday that isn’t very widely celebrated here.
In my classroom full of toddlers, we talked about the trees giving apples, oranges, mangoes, and bananas and also how trees give homes to squirrels, birds, and other animals. Our school campus is on an old tree farm so we have a few quite large old trees which are very beautiful.
I picked up a lichen covered branch that had fallen down in a recent storm and brought it into our classroom. Then, I cut out leaf shapes from finger print paintings the children did. We spent our circle time decorating our tree and singing happy birthday.
I think it’s important to teach our children to honor the natural world around them.
I also think it’s important to teach our children to honor other cultures and customs.
I spent some of the weekend cleaning out the pantry cupboard. We live in a rather tiny, but just the right size for us, flat. We have just one cabinet for storing everyday foods. It’s tight and it can be frustrating at times when looking for just the right thing. I find keeping it well organized very helpful. Also, it settles my soul to see things so neat and tidy.
It’s been quite cold here of late. It’s not been as beastly cold as some places but even still it’s rather uncomfortable for getting out of doors. Over the weekend I had to run and get a present for my granddaughter, Natalies’s 3rd birthday party and I also needed to get some marketing done. Other than that I stayed cozy and warm inside. I love to watch the morning or late afternoon sun come through the windows and shine in little patches in my living room. This old bureau was a gift from a friend of my husband’s and the chair used to be my mothers. Everything has a story. It’s rare that I buy new furniture.
I made the most delicious pizza the other night. I bought whole wheat pizza dough from the market added pesto, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and a little chopped kale. I sprinkled a small amount of plant based mozzarella over it and baked it at 425 for about 20 minutes. It wasn’t completely plant based/vegan because there is parmesan cheese in the pesto but you could buy vegan pesto if you want to…or if you can find it.
Happy third birthday to my beautiful and sassy granddaughter, Natalie! Love her more than words can say!
From sundown on the 24th till sundown on the 25th was a Jewish holiday calledTu B’Shavat…loosely translated as the birthday of the trees.A day to celebrate the trees and in Israel, plant trees.The holiday isn’t always on the same day as it is based on the Jewish calendar.It is nowhere near tree planting weather where I am so to celebrate with my class full of toddlers I brought in a large branch that the wind had recently blown down. It was covered inlichen and very pretty. The children have been finger painting every day so I cut some of their pictures up into leaf shapes and we hung them on the branches at circle time. One of my students brought in a book titled Tu B’Shavat and we read that as well. We talked about things that the trees give us such as apples, oranges, mangoes and bananas. We talked about who lives in trees such as monkeys, squirrels, and birds. Then we sang Happy Birthday to the trees and we placed the branch on top of a shelf in our classroom so that we could see it all the time. It really does look pretty there.
I noticed a few comments in my spam folder which I have approved. Maybe that is all it will take to make commenting right again.
I have been having trouble with blogger so I decided to move over to my wordpress blog. I am trying to figure out commenting. I wasn’t able to comment on wordpress blog when I was using blogger but when I am using wordpress I am not able to comment on blogger blogs. When I have some time this weekend I am going to try to figure it all out.
Joe and I went out for a walk oat Appleton Farms in Ipswich which is one of the Massachusetts trustee properties. It was gloriously sunny even though the wind was biting cold. It wasn’t so much of a hike as it was a walk on the trails. Joe isn’t in the best of health so we only got to walk for one slow mile. I was hoping for at least 3 briskly walked miles. He was sweating by the time we got back to the car even though it was so cold out. Next weekend I will go by myself on Saturday and then invite him for a shorter walk on Sunday.
We came home and had leftover soup and cornbread for lunch. A perfect day.
So. much confusion about this sign…dead slow isn’t actually slow.. it sort of implies no movement whatsoever.
Don’t even get me started on the horses, dogs, children.
We woke up Tuesday to another snowfall. By afternoon it had turned to rain so I’m glad I got a photo of it while I could.
So far we have had two small snowfalls but no snow days at school. I’m hoping for a few of them this year.
One of the children in my class came to school wearing this shirt. We had blueberries for snack…which she loved. It was so cute. Honestly though, she is the sweetest little thing and almost never very salty at all.
Occasionally, parents at my school will gift the teachers with cupcakes or donuts, or other various things. It’s very thoughtful of them. This week one of the parents gifted a large bag of Starbucks coffee. No one else wanted it so I got to take the entire thing home! Yay me!
Let your focus shift to the scale of a dewdrop, the forest landscape now becomes the blurred wallpaper, only a backdrop to the distinctive moss microcosm.
–Robin Wall Kimmerer
-a microcosm, in case you were wondering is defined as, “a community, place, or situation in miniture the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger.”
The good, the random, the fun…in no particular order
I was sick all last week with a terrible tummy bug. The wind roared up from the harbour and the rain blasted against the windows as I lay in bed. I couldn’t even look at a screen without feeling woozy.
I began to feel better on Friday and Saturday afternoon Joe and I shared bowls of homemade soup and cornbread while listening and old Neil Young record on the turntable. The rain had stopped by then and the sun was streaming through the kitchen window as we sat at the wooden table.
When I finally felt well enough to check the mail box I was happy to see my tiny order from Baker’s Creek Heirloom seeds had come in! A long weekend was just the thing I needed to figure out how to use that dehydrated sour dough starter.
a spirit of simplicity 