Tuesday's Teeming With Treasures - Giant Heads of Broccoli

Just the other day, I swear, I planted 5 small broccoli plants in my vacant freshly tilled organic garden.  During their short lives, I've watered and fed them with some home made good for the earth compost.


To the side and behind the broccoli, I planted pumpkins with the idea that when the pumpkin vines twisted, turned, and took over, the broccoli would be harvested and ready to be turn back to mother earth.

Today was the day.  I tiptoed through the pumpkin leaves around the bachelor button flowers and to the broccoli.  Nestled in the middle of it's leaves, were heads the size of cabbages. I sliced the heads from their fibrous stocks, piling them in and on top of the garden harvest basket.  Each head so large that I could only place one in the basket before piling them on top of each other. 

Cleaning the heads, slicing them smaller, and steaming them in the steamer.  Bright healthy green trees on our plates to eat.  The flavor so fresh and filling one wishes I'd planted 30 more!






Tuesday's Teeming with Treasures are quick motivational notes from my life.  Mainly I post them for my use, to help me treasure each day, focus on the AMAZING-NESS that surrounds me.  Most importantly they help me remember to get out of me head and into my true self.

Maggie My Muse

Let me tell you about Maggie - Maggie my muse.   

Romancing Maggie in the Garden

 She's a fickle sort of gal, and feels that giving her a name would hinder her artistic flow - thus making it hard to pin down the appropriate one, Maggie.  

Maggie has a wind blown style about her, the one that flows and billows in the wind creating wispy texture about.  She survives on romance and dreamy air - if you want her to swoon, sip wine in the garden at dusk.  The twilight of dusk is her magical time, fairy friends find time.


Maggie is lost in time and matters of cordial comfort.  She'll bestow her creations when they are ready - waking you as the story unfolds and propelling your forward all night long.  She'll exhaust your physical platform, pushing you past your known.   She flows through time like the eagles soar above, with astounding ease and grace.  


She lusts for loads of naps, rejuvenating her spirit in order to tap her trundle of inspiration.  


She vehemently hates stress, to-do-lists, alarm clocks, should haves, and could haves -  foreign to her soul.  Zen is a must, if you want her stay.   

Maggie a seat for you

Maggie my muse keeps me craving her company.

The 'F' Word at the Hicks House - Where once was a mathematical problem, now sits a bowl of number soup.

Since the birth of Ireland's school days, she has struggled to comprehend math. She has an internal struggle between her true self and the skills needed for math. Her hippie artist heart and mind (which I totally love and don't want to change about her), just struggles with the analytical steps, straight rows, columns, exactness, organization, and neatness required for math.

When she see sits down to work on math problems those numbers start moving and soon jump off the page!  They start playing with each other, dancing around, flying in the air.  Next thing you know, they have decided to play with the dogs!  They've jumped off the table and onto the floor landing on their head, using their nose as a slide, and doing several tucks and a few 180 degree twists along the way.  


You know what that means now?  Yep, Ireland is right down there with those numbers and playing with the dogs.  

What a difficult situation, not only for her - but us too!  We don't want to squelch her little creative mind, but somehow she needs to know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide - oh my!   

When we notice her little mind switching into creative mode, we will say to her in our persistent parental voice, " Ireland, focus".

Her mind races back to reality, snapping so abruptly and quickly that she'll comment in that rude, snotty child voice, "I hate that word!"  (I think sometimes her head spins around a few times as well!)

Focus, such a simple splendid word.  According to Mr. Webster:  Focus is the ability to concentrate attention or effort.  


Hmm, just what we need for her.  

Somehow, someway we'll have to help her learn how to make those numbers line up in straight, neat mathmatical lines instead of jumping around all over the place, and creating a soup of a mess for her to learn with!