I love Halloween! And I adore pumpkins!

http://www.christmas-graphics-plus.com

Here are some great websites for you to check out….

World Record Pumpkin Pie

World’s Largest Pumpkin 2009

How to Grow Your Own Pumpkins

Tons of Pumpkin Recipes!

Health Benefits of Pumpkins

Pumpkin Costumes for Everyone in the Family

Pumpkin Carving Pattterns

Check This Out!

MSNBC Animal Tracks Photos

I review so many books lately, that I cannot keep up with all of them once they are published. Here are 2 reviews that came out this week on Good Reads with Ronna from LA Parent Magazine.

Young adults will love reading Natasha Land Down Under by Katherine McCaughan. Click here for the review. It is a wonderfully written story about the challenges of a 10-year-old Russian girl who immigrates to Australia after growing up in Shanghai.

Children interested in Charles Darwin’s life will enjoy One Beetle Too Many by Author Kathryn Lasky. The highlight of this book is undoubtedly the very unique, mesmerizing illustrations by artist Matthew Trueman.Read the review to learn about the mediums he used to create his pictures.

It is gardening season in Miami, and one of my favorite schools, Miami Christian, is starting its wonderful winter gardening program for the year. Elementary students plant organic vegetables in raised beds outside their classrooms. At harvest time, they sell their veggies to community members. And the money earned is sent to an orphanage is India. How splendid is that? The children learn so much, and they are doing such a generous deed for the needy at the same time.

Today I visited the school to talk to the students about what I know about organic gardening and especially keeping those pests off the plants. Then we planted a few tomato seedlings I grew for them. I praise Miami Christian for their project, and I adore their curious students!

There’s a whole lot more to come . . .

Raised beds make for easier gardening for the children

An eager student from Ms. Cabrera’s class plants a tomato seedling

A board in Ms. Cabrera’s classroom proudly displays photos and letters of thanks from the children in the Indian orphanage

Read my latest review on Wandering Educators. The book is called Letters from Leaders: Personal Advice for Tomorrow’s leaders from the World’s Most Influential People.

This is a great read and gift for new grads! Totally inspirational. I loved it. Check it out!

The amount of planning, work and physical labor that has gone onto planting our tomatoes this year has been intense. Here’s what we’ve done to get to this point:

• Research organic seeds  online
• Order seeds
• Buy small seed starter greenhouse
• Plant seeds
• Water
• Transplant to larger containers
• Water
• Go to store to buy 25 bags of organic soil. HEAVY!!!!
• Load up soil in car and bring home
• Move soil from car to back patio SORE ARMS!!
• Arrange pots
• Pick up bags and dump into pots ACHING BACK!
• Plant seedlings
• Water twice a day

25 bags of organic soil!

Couldn’t do it without my hubby!

Can’t wait to eat my first tomato!

Yesterday’s post was all about the odd things that make me sad. Now on to the things that make me happy…

1. Wagging Tail – When I approach my dog, Gigi, and she wags her tail in anticipation of me petting her, that makes me very happy. It is as if she is saying, “Holy crap! She’s coming this way! And she’s gonna love me up! Here she comes! I cannot wait!”I feel her excitement, and pure joy. It is simple thing, but always a happy one.
2. October 1 – That feeling of Halloween approaching brings me pure joy. We do not experience autumn temps or leaves changing color in South Florida, so all we’ve got to bring us into the new season is Halloween! When I see a house all decorated and waiting for trick-or-treaters, I am happy, happy, happy!
3. Feedback – After author visits at schools, children often come over to me to tell me stories relating to something I said during my presentation. You cannot imagine how cute it is when a wide-eyed first-grader tells you all about a bug he found in his backyard or a shy third grader shares with me how terrified she is of the dark. It makes all the hard work totally worth it!!
4. Tomatoes – In the winter when I pick a perfectly round, ripe, unblemished tomato from the first harvest of my plants, I feel total satisfaction, pride and pure bliss. You’ve got to try organic gardening in order to experience this for yourself!
5. Old People – I think old people are really cute, and they make me smile – even if they are grumpy.
6. Ice Cream Truck – I love the sound of the ice cream truck going through our neighborhood! Instant happiness. (Even though the driver is kinda creepy and the truck is filthy.) It takes me back to my childhood and the Good Humor Truck!
7. Head’s Up – It sounds silly, but I know I’m going to have a great day when I find a penny on the ground, but only if it is head’s up.
8. Bird Feeders - There’s nothing like watching a family of birds on a bird feeder. We have tons of wild green parrots here, and I often see them eating on bird feeders in my neighborhood. Gotta smile when you see one of those in use!
9. Home Sweet Home – One of the happiest feelings on earth is arriving home after traveling. The plane landing, the drive home, and then unlocking your door. Ahhhhh. Home sweet home!
10. Gobble - One of the highlights of every year is when my daughter and I go to our favorite poultry store and pick up our turkey the day before Thanksgiving. The place is packed, and there’s so much excitement. Happy!

What makes you happy?

I know I should not start out a blog post with a negative title like this, but I feel compelled to do it. I took my poodle for a walk this morning, as I always do, and we walked down an alley. Here’s what I saw:

So sad – someone had this hideous, smelly  couch in his house

Lonely beat up chair with moldy cushion and side table missing a drawer

This discovery made think about things that instantly make me sad, even when I am in a perfectly happy state of mind:

1. Discarded Ugly Furniture – There’s just something depressing about it. I suppose it is partly that the people living inside the house lived with the ugly, dismal stuff in the first place. With it lying there in disrepair, I am forced to conjure up images of family members sitting on that furniture for many years. Then perhaps there’s an element of sadness due to the pathetic abandonment the furniture appears to be experiencing out in the alley, awaiting a pick-up to its final destination (As if the furniture had feelings.)
2. Drug Commercials on TV – Every time I see a commercial for depression  drugs, I get totally depressed. And at the end when the side effects are listed, I go into a deeper funk. Okay. So I am supposed to take this drug to help me with depression, but I am more likely to commit suicide if I take this drug, than if I don’t. Yet I am taking this drug because I am already depressed. You see, it never ends. And it is indeed depressing. So in a nutshell, the ad is working, because it is making me need the drug. The good news: I have learned to change the channel the second the ads comes on.
3. Stacks of Beer or Liquor Bottles in Recycling Bins – Excessive drinkers – especially those with kids at home – depress me. I am shocked when I walk by a house with a recycling bin containing dozens of beer bottles after just one week. And week after week there are stacks and stacks of beer bottles in that family’s recycling bin. Bummer. And I have to wonder how the drinker must be feeling when he/she wakes up every morning. All that intestinal gas from the brew. Awful!
4. Abandoned Shopping Carts – When I see a grocery cart in a part of town, far away from the store from which it came, I can’t help but feel sad. It just seems so cruel. And if it is banged up and abused, that puts it in the category of “complete despair.” There’s even a website to stop the abandonment and abuse of shopping carts. Check it out. But you’ve been warned: it will make you sad.
5. Outdated Political Bumper Stickers – I recently saw a beat up, old car with a very washed out bumper sticker that read “Mondale for President.” How depressing is that? He was nominated and ran for that office in 1984. Why can’t people take off their old political bumper stickers after elections are over? These are the same people who attach Christmas wreaths or bows to the front of their cars and fail to remove them even long after the holidays are over. It’s July 4th and a lady is driving all over town with a filthy red bow on her car. All she has to do is walk up to the front of her car, untie the bow and take it off. But day after day, month after month, she fails to do it.  That is way too depressing for me to even think about.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s list of things that make me instantly happy. (Thank God!)

Figure out how many world leaders you know from the countries listed below. (See answers below.)

How many do your children know as well?

Countries

1. Afghanistan
2. Argentina
3. Australia
4. Brazil
5. Canada
6. China
7. Costa Rica
8. Cuba
9. Egypt
10. France
11. Great Britain
12. Greece
13. India
14. Indonesia
15. Iran
16. Iraq
17. Ireland
18. Israel
19. Italy
20. Japan
21. Monaco
22. North Korea
23. Mexico
24. Russia
25. South Africa
26. South Korea
27. Spain
28. Sweden

http://www.freshfreestuff.net

Answers*

1. Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai (President)
2. Argentina: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (President)
3. Australia: Quentin Bryce (Governor General)   -  Kevin Michael Rudd (Prime Minister)
4. Brazil: Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva (President)
5. Canada: Michaelle Jean (Governor General)   -  Stephen Harper (Prime Minister)
6. China: Hu Jintao (President)
7. Costa Rica: Oscar Arias Sanchez (President)
8. Cuba: General Raul Castro Ruz (President of the Council of State)
9. Egypt: Mohamed Hasni Mubarak (President)
10. France: Nicolas Sarcozy (President)   Francois Fillon (Prime Minister)
11. Great Britain: Elizabeth II (Queen)  James Gordon Brown (Prime Minister)
12. Greece: Karolos Papoulias (President)  -  Konstandinos Karamanlis (Prime Minister)
13. India: Pratibha Patil (President)
14. Indonesia: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (President)
15. Iran: Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamanei (Supreme Leader)  -  Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad (President)
16. Iraq: Jalal Talabani (President)
17. Ireland: Mary McAleese (President)
18. Israel: Shimon Peres (President)   -  Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu (Prime Minister)
19. Italy: Giorgio Napolitano (President)  -  Silvio Berlusconi (Prime Minister)
20. Japan: Akihito (Emperor)  -  Yukio Hatoyama (Prime Minister)
21. Monaco: Prince Albert II (Chief of State)  – Jean-Paul Proust (Minister of State & President of Governing Council)
22. North Korea: Kim Jong Il (General Secretary, Supreme Commander of Army and Chairman of National Defense Commission)
23. Mexico: Felip de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa (President)
24. Russia: Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev (President) -  Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Premier)
25. South Africa: Jacob Zuma (President)
26. South Korea: Lee Myung-bak (President)  – Han Seung-soo (Prime Minister)
27. Spain: King Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon  (Chief of State) – Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (President)
28. Sweden: Carl XVI Gustaf (King) -  Frederik Reinfeldt (Prime Minister)

How many did you know? How many will you remember?

*Source:  https://www.cia.gov

My latest book review on Good Reads with Ronna from LA Parent Magazine.

Greetings from Kiwi & Pear by Joyce Wan

Your child is never too young to learn about geography!!