I did it…

After debating the decision for quite a long time…

I woke up this morning and decided that it was the day last day that my hair would look like this…

From this

I called my neighbor and got a recommendation for a Salon (I have not had my hair cut professionally in years!) and came home looking like this…

Me with a new haircut...

What a change!! it feels so light and well, short! (the braid that was cut off was about 18 inches so it is quite a change)

I actually was thinking of going shorter but the stylist loves long hair and she was cringing at even going this short…

Feels good…

How far I have come…

I have said it in the past, yet I will say it once again. I have always wanted to journal, yet never found the medium that inspired me to keep at it. This blog is what changed that for me. Now, as more years go by, I am enjoying going back and seeing how much I have evolved as a parent and as a person… as I updated the blog I happened to find myself re-reading a few old posts. It is amazing to me how far I have come in the last years.

When I started this blog I was a mom of two… Xavier was 2 and Colin was about 9 months old, I was the moderator of the AP board on a very popular mainstream site and needed a place to rant. I defined myself as “AP” though I was past that “list” stage, yet it was still was a way to find like-minded people. I was not yet an “unschooler” though I did know that we would be homeschooling with little to no structure. I had ideals, I had a parenting philosophy, I knew what was important to me, yet I did not have the experience. I read what I wrote so many years ago and realize how I was so “new” at being a parent.

So many things have changed over the years, yet it has only evolved in what I see is a positive way. I remember being told “oh, you just wait and see…your kids are young/you only have one/you only have two” when it came to subjects that were not in the mainstream, as if my ideals would change as my children grew or I had more. I agree, they have, but they have not been crushed or been left behind, they have only evolved or have been reinforced.

I used to have ideals that I believed were true and possible, now I have the same ideals that I know are true and possible. I have seen my children learn to fall asleep without ever being trained or crying and without having sleepless nights, I have seen my children wean without weaning them. I have seen my children learn to walk though I always held them and wore them. I have seen how EC works and how amazing it can be to have a baby not wear diapers. I have seen my children learn to read without having taught them. I have seen my children learn boundaries without punishment, whether it be physical or emotional.

It is what I have seen and experienced that has made something change in me.

I no longer have the rants in me that I once had. I saw that shift when I decided to change the name of my blog from “Paxye’s Rant” to “a hippie with a minivan” back in 2007

I knew that I didn’t need to rant as much anymore but I don’t think I understood why as much as I do now.It is in this respect that I see how far I have come…

I now see that my rants were often signs of defensiveness. Not defensive because I felt I was doing something wrong, but because it was all still so much of an unknown. I was parenting in a way that was foreign to the way that I grew up, that was foreign to the way those that surrounded me parented. I knew in my heart that it felt like the right to parent for us, yet I did not yet have a concrete example of the results that would be attained by doing so. Of course, I am still learning each and every day how to break the cycle of the way that I was brought up. I am still a fairly “new” parent with many trials ahead of me.There are still many mistakes to be made and that have been made, that I have learned from and am still learning from. But, I can see that it is no longer as easy for other parents to say “just wait and see”, I am now a more seasoned parent of four that is not only talking the talk, but has been walking the walk.

I look forward to seeing this post in another 6 years and again understanding how far I have yet again come from where I am now.

Bear with me…

As you can see I am in the middle of changing the layout of my blog…

It isn’t changing much in the look, though I do think it looks fresher with the small changes I have done… but it is changing a lot in the background.

One thing for sure is that my brain is getting a workout getting everything working the way I want it to.

I would love some feedback 🙂

Sugar Cookies for Valentine's day…

Can you believe this colour is Natural?

(Can you believe that the beautiful red colour in this Icing comes from a beet?)

I originally got this recipe a few years ago from here

I have used it quite a few times and I love them. They are easy to to make, easy to roll out and cut and hold their shape perfectly when baked.

For the Cookies….

  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one by one and incorporate them well. Add the extracts.

In another bowl, mix flour, salt baking powder and baking soda together and then mix with the butter mixture.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.

When the dough is ready…

Preheat oven to 400.

On a floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut out your favourite shapes…

Cutting out Valentine's day cookies... another kid... another technique...

Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 4-6 min.

Butter cookies

Transfer to rack and let cool.

When the cookies have cooled, make the icing…

  • 2 cups sifted icing sugar
  • 1 tablespoon milk (or any liquid… Today I used the juice from a grated raw beet to get an amazing red/pink colour)
  • 1 tablespoon light corn syrup (this is optional but gives the icing a beautiful shine and helps it harden)
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla… or vanilla bean)

Mix all of the ingredients together. You might need more liquid to get it to the right consistency… you want it thick but spreadable.

Using a pastry brush, ice the Cookies and let the icing harden before storing…

Here is the shredded beet and the beautiful coloured icing that I got from it…

Just grated it finely and squeezed out the juice…

Shredded beet to colour the IcingIcing is ready

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Beet coloured Butter Cookies.

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