Let me first say how absolutely beautiful the book is, from the watercolor illustrations peppered throughout to the photographs of decadent food and natural products.  Providing a 21 Days-to-a-Vegan Road Map, Day encourages us to set a date and then find our muse.  Some of us may seek inspiration in our children or mindful time with animals.  Others may look to their annual physical results or love of the environment.  Day will join you in your pantry, refrigerator, closet, make-up drawer, as well as on vacation, at holiday parties, and out to dinner.

The recipes Day shares are truly delicious (definitely try the Sweet Sunday French Crepes on p. 170). Along with a strong dose of the truth, Day serves up pure joy in finding and celebrating vegan food, but she doesn’t stop there.  How about replacing some of your clothes, shoes, household goods, beauty and cleaning products with cruelty-free versions?  I have read The Vegan Way cover to cover three times and refer to it at least once a day.  Get.This.Book!

The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook for Your Instant Pot: 80 Delicious and Plant-Based Recipes That You Can Make in Half the Time by Kathy Hester. Shall I first introduce you to my new best friend, the Instant Pot?

If you haven’t heard about this electric, programmable pressure cooker, take a second to do a bit of research now.  It has made my entry into whole food, plant-based cooking simple, fast and fun.  Yet the booklet that comes along with the Instant Pot offers only a few recipes, not many of them vegan. Enter Hester’s masterpiece.  In addition to walking us through how to use, care for and maximize the Instant Pot, she shares Ninja Instant Pot Tricks to cook even faster and to make multiple dishes at one time in the same pot.

I love that she begins with Five Recipes to Start You Out so you can cook and eat within minutes of taking your Instant Pot out of the box.  I have tried The Best No-Refried Black Beans and Thick and Rich Jackfruit Ragu, both of which were heavenly. From there, Hester moves on to Quick and Easy Homemade Staples to Save You Money.  Please, please, please try her No-Effort Soy Yogurt without delay.  It has become a staple in my home, with all five of us emptying a container in just over a day.  We add it to our steel-cut oats (also made in minutes in the instant pot) and then dazzle it up with fruit, nuts, seeds, shredded coconut and maybe a touch of maple syrup.

Thanks to Hester’s clear instructions, I have also nourished my family with Whole Spaghetti Squash, Not-Baked Potatoes, Smoky Pecan Brussel Sprouts, and JL Fields’s One-Pot Black-Eyed Peas and Rice.  From grains, beans, soups, and veggies to spice mixes, nut milks, cheeses, and desserts, Hester leaves no course off the menu.  If you have any intention of buying an Instant Pot, don’t do so without buying this book first.  You can skip reading the instruction manual because Hester includes everything you need to know in her comprehensive cookbook.

The PlantPure Kitchen: 130 Mouthwatering Whole Food Recipes and Tips for a Plant-Based Life by Kim Campbell. Because it was written by the daughter-in-law of T. Colin Campbell, co-author of the groundbreaking and seminal bestseller, The China Study,  I was expecting big things from this book, and Kim Campbell delivered. Beginning with a list of plant-based pantry items for the beginner, a guide to unfamiliar plant-based ingredients like jackfruit, miso, nutritional yeast, seitan, and tempeh, and a description of useful kitchen tools and gadgets, Campbell makes turning your kitchen vegan simple.

Campbell’s book serves to remind readers that everyone can enjoy PlantPure meals as part of a healthy diet.  For those who are transitioning to plant-based eating, Campbell includes an easy-to-read list of substitutions for eggs, butter, milk, cheese and meat so that you can veganize almost any recipe you already love. Tips on meal-planning and organization, storing fruits and veggies, money-saving tips, and decoding food labels round out the introductory material to the cookbook.

Campbell’s recipe categories include:  Breakfast, Breads, Burgers, Sandwiches and Wraps, Dressings and Sauces, Salads, Appetizers, Dips and Spreads, Soups and Stews, Entrees, Sides and Desserts.  My family favorites?   Mason Jar Oatmeal Breakfast (p. 29), Easy Black Bean Soup (p. 151), Smashed Cauliflower (p. 277), and the ultimate winner, Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 248). Yes, you heard me.  Chickpeas – which are absolutely undetectable.  I promise.  They lasted mere minutes on my kitchen counter before my children pounced!

Easy.Whole.Vegan. 100 Flavor-Packed, No-Stress Recipes for Busy Families by Melissa King.   A truly fantastic cookbook that does exactly what it promises:  delight your senses with easy, whole, vegan foods that anyone can make and everyone will adore.  I was instantly thrilled by the short list of ingredients per recipe, often with items I always have on hand.  King includes detailed introductory material that speaks specifically to busy parents, so many of whom have precious little time to cook following work or after-school activities.  Her tips for picky eaters helped my family, especially as we first transitioned to a vegan, plant-based, whole foods diet.  Easy.Whole.Vegan is my go-to book on weeknights, and I often find myself wondering what I did before I found it!

We devoured the Maple Vanilla Baked Oatmeal Squares, Apricot Almond Energy Bites, Easy Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice, Oatmeal Snack Bars, and Flourless Snickerdoodle bars, also made with the ever-so-versatile chickpeas.  I didn’t have any coconut sugar on hand, so I substituted brown sugar in the topping and they were still magnificent.

We have a long list of recipes from King’s book that we still want to try, including Creamy Orange Pops (they look dreamy), Cinnamon Roll Muffins, Apple Cinnamon Quinoa, White Bean and Zucchini Burger, and Chili Mac & Cheese.  And let me just say that the Cherry Chocolate Smoothie, a blend of frozen sweet cherries, dark chocolate and medjool dates, has my name all over it this summer after a hard day’s play with the kids at the beach.  In a nutshell, King is king (or queen, but vegan royalty any way you slice it).

Plant-Powered Families:  Over 100 Kid-Tested, Whole-Foods Vegan Recipes by Dreena Burton. Boasting a forward by Neil Barnard, MD, who in essence tells parents not to be scared to fuel our children with a healthy vegan diet (because, in fact, studies show that the vegan diet is “optimal for promoting long-lasting health”), Burton’s book is like an answer to a prayer for parents of picky eaters who need a packed lunch for school – every, single, solitary day!  Yes, packing lunches can be the most frustrating of chores.  My son ate pastina for an entire year before he would allow me to pack other options.  Burton dedicates an entire section of her book (Part 3:  Plant-Powered Challenges … And Solutions!) to satisfying picky eaters, making them smile when they open their lunchboxes with minimal effort from mom and dad, and dealing with hosting and attending kids’ parties as a vegan.  Part 4 supplies even more “Plant-Powered Support” in the form of DIY Staples and Cooking Guides, Sample Plant-Powered Meal Plans, and Plant-Powered FAQs.

Did I mention that Part 2 is bursting at the seams with recipes for healthy mornings, delicious lunches and dinners, sweet treats and more?  The book has it all … and then some.  I’m in love. Here is our hit list so far:   Chickpea n’ Rice Soup, Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie Smoothies, No-Cook Oats, Hummus Tortilla Pizzas, and Home Fries.

We have bookmarked Ta-Quinos, Cream of Cauliflower Soup, Ultimate Teriyaki Stir-Fry, Peanut Butter Pudding with Berrylicious Swirl, and Fudgescles.  This is also a beautiful book with photographs that make you want to turn on some music and spend the day with your kids in the kitchen.

Still hungry for more?  Here are some of my other favorite …

Vegan Books and Whole Food, Plant-Based Cookbooks:

Living the Farm Sanctuary Life by Gene Bauer

Do Unto Animals:  A Friendly Guide to How Animals Live and How We Can Make Their Lives Better by Tracey Stewart

Vegan’s Daily Companion by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

The Happy Vegan by Russell Simmons

Sweet, Savory & Free: Insanely Delicious Plant-Based Recipes without Any of the Top 8 Allergens by Debbie Adler

The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone

Chloe’s Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli

The Vegan Bible

Isa Does It by Isa Chandra Moscowitz

VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health … for Good by Mark Bittman

The VB6 Cookbook by Mark Bittman

Films:

Earthlings

Live and Let Live

Speciesism

Peaceable Kingdom

Forks Over Knives

Cowspiracy

Vegucated

Vegan:  Everyday Stories

What the Health?

Vegan Podcasts:

Food for Thought and Animalogy by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Vegan Products Subscription Services:

Vegan Cuts

Hippity-hoppity, hippity-hoppity, Easter’s on its way!

Paging through my most recent issue of VegNews magazine recently, I happened upon an advertisement for Eggnots, a dyeable, ceramic egg that looks just like the real thing. It was the answer to a question I had posed only days before to my husband:  how can we give our children the traditional experience of dying Easter eggs without betraying our philosophy of doing as little harm as possible to non-human animals?  As our family moves toward a vegan lifestyle, we have stopped buying and eating many animal products, including eggs.  In addition, I’m severely allergic to eggs and my children don’t enjoy eating them either, so the three dozen eggs we  used to buy to color each year (a dozen per child) all ultimately go to waste.

Of course, there are many alternatives to purchasing real eggs at Easter.  My favorite online toy store, Bella Luna Toys, has a perfectly lovely selection of wooden eggs (brown, white and colored), a wood-egg painting craft kit and a felted eggs kit.  My children have painted wooden eggs before and were very creative with their designs. We wouldn’t get the felted eggs kit in our home in an effort to avoid animal products, but I imagine a similar craft could be done with non-wool yarns (perhaps weaving or wrapping colored yarns around a hard center to make an oval egg).   All of these options not only brighten up your Easter basket, but also lend themselves to creative play throughout the year, and I highly recommend them.

But what about dying eggs?  No product I knew of had existed that could be used with food coloring or traditional dye kits found in every store come March.  Enter Eggnots – the “realistic, inedible, non-perishable egg alternative created to bring the Easter coloring experience to children and families affected by egg allergies.”  Made in the U.S.A by a woman motivated to help her niece with food allergies, Eggnots are vegan-friendly, eco-friendly, and 100% safe for families with egg allergies.  My family and I rejoiced! As soon as our Eggnots and dye kit arrived, we eagerly set up our table, rolled up our sleeves and got right to work (no more spending hours boiling dozens of eggs and waiting for them to cool).

While the Eggnots FAQ page states that traditional dye kits are not as effective as their dye set (less than $6) or food coloring mixed with water and white vinegar, the insert on the product claims that they will indeed work, but will yield very light pastel colors. We decided to give two kits a try:  the 24 Karat Easter Egg Coloring Kit and Glitter Easter Eggs, each found at my local Five Below for $2/piece.  In addition, we used the Eggnots dye kit that came with four color packs (emerald green, blue, red and yellow) and four durable, large plastic cups for dying.  The results were exactly as the insert described:  lovely pastel eggs with the store-bought kits and vibrant, gem-colored eggs with the Eggnots kit.

Once we started coloring, we decided to try glitter glue pens and colored glitters from our craft drawer, adding a completely new, sparkly dimension that thrilled all three of my children.  The results were magnificent, and we now have Easter decorations that can fill our baskets year after year.

Are you interested in using natural dyes on your Eggnots?  Well that works as well. Eggnots references a wonderful article about doing just that on Ecorazzi.  The eggs can also be painted, drawn on with markers or nail polish, and embellished with confetti, glitter, sequins, rhinestones, stickers, yarn, tissue paper, ribbons and leftover fabric bits.  The possibilities for unique creations are endless.

If you are a parent of young children, I am sure you are asking about the durability of Eggnots, given that they are ceramic.  My ten-year old must have dropped his Eggnots five or six times, both on wood and glass and … nothing!  Try that with a hard-boiled egg!  I can confirm that Eggnots are not fragile and can be handled by children of all ages.

Another benefit:  Eggnots dried much more quickly than real eggs.  Once we removed an Eggnot from a color bath, we dabbed it with a paper towel to absorb excess dye.  The website recommends waiting 20-30 minutes to dry completely, but Eggnots are absolutely dry to the touch almost immediately.  I didn’t have to store them in the refrigerator afterwards either, and that means no awful smell permeating all of our other food.

Eggnots look and feel like real eggs.  My children might never have know they were ceramic had I not told them.  If you are vegan, suffer with egg allergies or just enjoy crafting, Eggnots will allow you to make Easter keepsakes that you can feel good about using.

For you vegans, even PETA recommends Eggnots as a humane alternative to chicken eggs.  Stored year after year in the adorable cartons they come in, Eggnots can be reused forever as decorations or for Easter egg hunts.  What’s not to love?  Easter 2017 is only three weeks away, so head over to Eggnots.com and get crafting!

“What is sanctuary?”

“A place of asylum and immunity.”

“A place of peace and unconditional love.”

“A place to escape from the everyday stressors of life.”

“An attainable retreat accomplished through intentional living.”

~Joanne Miller 

Entering into the serene world of Joanne Fairchild Miller is liking take a deep breath of mountain air on an early October morning.  One feels immediately soothed by her gentle suggestion to “put the OM in H-O-M-E,” for instance, and acts on her advice because it reveals the human truths we all know, but often don’t live.  

“What your child wants most – and needs – is to be with you with no goal in mind beyond the joy of spending time together.  He wants you to take pleasure in him, play with him, and listen to him.  Nothing bolsters his self-esteem more! So why not pull out an old board game or a deck of cards tonight?  Playing games is an easy and excellent way to spend unhurried, enjoyable time together,” Miller writes in Creating a Haven of Peace:  When You’re Feeling Down, Finances Are Flat, and Tempers are Rising.  

Are you reaching for that worn Game of Life box too?  Sitting down on the carpet to play a game of Old Maid with your kids?  I know I did, minutes after reading those words, and I wondered why I needed to be reminded that simple pleasures are all that really matter.

Miller is also the author of numerous children’s books, all designed to bolster little spirits and “help parents and children cope with budding expressions of independence.” Illustrated by Ross Gauss, the I Wanna Be …series includes I Wanna Be ME, I Know Who I Am, Pretty in Pink and When I Am Quiet.

I Wanna Be ME, the first book in the series, is written for the girl who doesn’t want to “wear pink and get all dressed up in frills and lace.” She likes “holes in her jeans and room to run, things to climb on and horses for FUN!”  She wants to dance barefoot across open expanses of land, seeking, exploring, and making mud pies.

I, who was called a “tomboy” all through my childhood, identify most with this book. I would fight my mother each time she tried to make me put on a dress for picture day and couldn’t wait to get out to my beloved stream in the woods every afternoon after school. My 8-year old daughter, who kept uttering, “That’s me…Just like me” as I read it aloud, thought this book was written for and about her.

My 4-year old was immediately captivated by Pretty in Pink, a sweet story that celebrates the child who loves tea parties, dolls, stuffed animals and all things pink, but also can be found running outside finding turtles, bugs and frogs in her muddied jeans.  No child can or should be defined by just one trait, and Pretty in Pink avoids the one-dimensionality of so many “pink” themed children’s books.

If I were to pick a book for my cerebral son, I’d immediately choose When I Am Quiet because of its message that silence can speak volumes, for children can express themselves in a multitude of ways without words.

The prose hums quietly along, pulling us gently with it from “I like to sit upon a rock, beside a trickling brook.  All by myself, I travel far through pages in a book” to “Inside my head I can build a house. And draw. And paint. And sing. I can race a car … and farm the land … and mend a broken wing.”

I Know Who I Am is for the child who is “eager to tackle the world” and “be the star.” She is the little girl who leads with confidence, puts on shows, dreams big and tells you all about it.  Both of my theatrical daughters saw much of themselves in this final book of the series.

The nod to a vegetarian lifestyle was unexpected and very welcome:  “No meat for me! Just broccoli and corn, asparagus right from the stalk. We can nibble on power food on a bright sunny day while we go on our afternoon walk.”

I must admit that my favorite book just might be Miller’s most recent: What If It Were Possible?, co-authored and illustrated by Miller’s 8-year old granddaughter, Clara Isabel Logsdon, whose “vivid imagination” and “artistic flair” have been nurtured lovingly by her grandmother (Yia-Yia).

The mother in me loved the “About the Illustrator” page, and I found myself nodding in agreement with Clara’s sentiment that “play and imagination [shouldn’t] be just for kids.” Clara also urges her readers to “overlook any imperfections” because creating isn’t meant to be perfect.  Indeed, the beauty of art is most often found in those very imperfections.  “Embrace your own creativity and use your imagination to expand your thinking and learn to see with new eyes,” Clara encourages us.

Clara and Joanne found inspiration for the book in the antics of Clara’s dog, Harley, as he tried desperately to chase a squirrel up a tree.  Joanne asked her granddaughter, “What if it were possible for a dog to climb a tree?” and they had their opening line.

With precious illustrations that burst with color and character, the book introduces us to lions who live in beehives, ‘gators who paddle canoes, butterflies who swim, fish who drive cars and cows who wear pink shoes.  How can this be? Well, “Anything can happen if you think it might. In your imagination, Anything is right!”

The collaboration between Joanne and Clara oozes with enthusiasm for creative spirit and privileges fantasy, a childhood right we so often snatch away from young children in an effort to prepare them for the “real world.”  What a beautiful reminder that childhood is fleeting, delicate and worth protecting. There is no better way to pave the road to a successful future than to validate creativity and personal expression through art, song, words, and immersion in the natural world.

There is even more to love about this book.  The publisher, Morgan James, donates a percentage of book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, so while we readers find inspiration in the words and images of What If It Were Possible, we are simultaneously helping to make many things possible for families in need.

If you are ready to embark on the journey of creating the life you desire and inspiring your children to see the world with fresh eyes, you can find Joanne Fairchild Miller’s books on Amazon and Miller’s personal website, joannefmiller.com, where you can buy the I Wanna Be … series as a bundle.  If your children would like a copy of What If It Were Possible signed by Clara, visit her lovely website, Captain’s Creations: Creativity by Clara.  Let me know if you feel lighter and happier after spending some time with Joanne, and come back in a few weeks for my personal interview with her right here on Play.Eat.Love – Motherhood Explored.

Setting:  River Road Books, Fair Haven, NJ

Date:  February 12, 2017

Event:  Bunny’s Book Club Launch Party

Last month I attended my first launch party ever, truth be told, but I find it impossible to imagine another as purely enchanted as this one.  Truly, I felt spellbound from the moment I entered the quaint little bookstore where Annie Silvestro personally greeted every person who walked through the door to celebrate the highly anticipated publication of Bunny’s Book Club.

I came, first and foremost, to secure multiple copies of Silvestro’s debut children’s book, illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss.  One look at the cover illustration alone urged me to throw down all of my day’s work and join the sweet little entourage of animals with noses pressed to books.

As I nibbled on my carrot cake and wound my way through the colorful stacks of the bookstore, I listened in on snippets of conversation among the multitude of adults and children who eagerly awaited their turn to speak with the author.  They opened their precious copies of Bunny’s Book Club, pointing to their favorite illustrations and reading aloud bits of dialogue, changing voices for Bunny, Porcupine, Bear, Mole, Mouse, and Bird.

Our moment with the author arrived, and I will forever love the way Annie Silvestro signed our book:

“Always be greedy … for books!”

That evening as I read Bunny’s Book Club aloud to my 10, 7 and 4 year old children, we fell instantly under the spell of the marvelous rhythm of Silvestro’s prose and Mai-Wyss’ exquisite illustrations. With just the right amount of tension, the tale of a bunny who cannot be separated from his beloved books kept us all invested right up to the very last gem of a page.

This book is destined to become a classic.  No child’s bookshelf should be without it.  It is a rare gift when I am able to exact the same amount of pure pleasure from a picture book as do my children. Bunny’s Book Club made my heart happy and reminded me of childhood afternoons spent exploring my local library before curling up in whatever cozy nook I could find to get lost in my books – a habit I nurture to this very day.

Thank you, Annie Silvestro and Tatjana Mai-Wyss, for Bunny’s Book Club!

To get to know Annie and find out about her forthcoming picture books, Mice Skating and The Christmas Tree Who Loved Trains, visit her website: http://www.anniesilvestro.com/

Be drawn into the breathtakingly lovely world of Tatjana Mai-Wyss at http://tatjanamaiwyss.com/

Buy Bunny’s Book Club on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or at your local bookstore (shout out to River Road Books in Fair Haven, NJ).

STAY TUNED for a signed book giveaway next week, right here on Play. Eat. Love. – Motherhood Explored.

I need to be honest.  When I first heard about the new book The Danish Way of Parenting by Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl, my back went up.  Did I need to read yet another lecture about how a different culture parents better than mine does?  From The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom to Bringing up Bébé, it seems that every year someone exposes the plethora of mistakes American moms and dads make daily and espouses a parenting philosophy from another country where parents are calmer and kinder and children are more obedient and creative, far smarter and practically picture perfect.  While both of the aforementioned books gave me much food for thought, I felt frustrated by their underlying critical tone.  As a professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, I deeply value learning about and from other cultures and people, but the mother in me who is doing her very best to bring up three children in an increasingly complicated world felt chastised.

Even Parenting Without Borders: Surprising Lessons that Parents Around the World Can Teach Us by Christine Gross-Loh, a work I found enlightening, still markets itself as the antidote to American parenting:  “Research reveals that American kids lag behind in academic achievement, happiness, and wellness. Christine Gross-Loh exposes culturally determined norms we have about ‘good parenting,’ and asks, Are there parenting strategies other countries are getting right that we are not?”

My issue is not as much with the advice these parenting manuals dispense, but with the manner in which they achieve their goals by claiming one culture’s innate superiority in the already “unteachable” act of parenting.  We often tease that “no one gives you a manual” when you have a baby, but these books purport that, in fact, certain mothers don’t really need one because they are born with a keen sense of how to raise children that mothers the world over will want to emulate.  Even the premise that unruly American children are in desperate need of better parenting irks me.

There, I’ve said it.  That’s been bothering me for a number of years now.  You may ask why I felt the need then to read The Danish Way of Parenting.  Truth be told, I picked it up hoping that Alexander and Sandahl  would be the ones to strike the right tone, that they might offer insight on how Danish parents relate to their children without ostracizing those of us from other countries and cultures.  As early as the introduction, the authors remark, “Denmark is not utopia, and surely it has its own internal matters to deal with, as does every country.  Nor is this book in any way meant to be disparaging to the U.S.  This is an enormous country, and the facts and observations we state in the book are generalizations.  Jessica, personally, is very proud to be American and loves her country dearly.  She has simply had the opportunity to see the world with a very different pair of glasses on – through ‘Danish lenses,’ if you will – and it has changed her whole perspective on life”  (xxii).

The picture the authors paint of life in America is unfortunately not as rosy.  With their focus on individualism and competition, American parents fall back on our “default settings” that often put us at odds with our children.  While perhaps a slight exaggeration, this bleak depiction does, however, shine light on the “extreme parenting” that many of us have seen in our own communities.  For that reason, I forged ahead in my reading.  I’m so glad that I did because the parenting advice in the body of the book, while perhaps not entirely new for some readers, offers encouragement and advice that all parents can appreciate.

The Danish Way of Parenting operates primarily through the use of the acronymn PARENT:

P – Play

A – Authenticity

R – Reframing

E – Empathy

N – No Ultimatums

T – Togetherness and Hygge (“to cozy around together”)

Immensely readable, the book offered practical suggestions for making the parent-child relationship a haven, a safe place where children can grow into resilient, secure and empathetic adults.  For those already practicing mindful, positive, slow, connected, attached, conscious or spiritual parenting (to name just a few modern parenting buzzwords), each chapter’s title and list of specific tips will likely ring familiar, but for many parents, The Danish Way of Parenting will inspire an awakening as it encapsulates in under 150 pages some of the very best ways to cultivate happiness in your home.

What this means to me is that for all of our differences, as parents we are much more similar than dissimilar.  We can both reflect on and celebrate what Dr. Sara Harkness calls our unique “parental ethnotheories” – our intrinsic beliefs, that is, about the right way to parent – while still mining the practices of parents across the globe for lessons, assimilating what works for us and letting go of what does not.

This is definitely a book I will revisit as I continually strive to raise kind, responsible, confident and balanced children who will take direction from their hearts as well as their minds and who can independently “reframe” life’s challenges into lessons and blessings.  Parents from every walk of life, I suspect, would hope for the same.

For further insight from Alexander and Sandahl, visit the The Danish Way of Parenting website and blog.

Watch Jessica Joelle Alexander’s interview with BBC about The Danish Way of Parenting.

Buy The Danish Way of Parenting on Amazon.

What this post IS about, and what I’m so very excited to share, is the ANTIDOTE to that very effect: The Lottie Doll! I came across Lottie while searching for a posable, child-like doll to empower my adventurous girls to be exactly who they are in this very moment in time, to encourage creative play and to allow them to see in their dolls a reflection of themselves. What immediately struck me was that Lottie looks like a little girl: no exaggerated make-up (I’m looking at you, Bratz dolls), high heels, jewelry, or racy attire. Her body was based on that of a nine-year old child, so her proportions are realistic, with the one exception of her head which is ever so slightly enlarged so kids can play with her rooted, soft hair. She’s also ethnically diverse, immediately available in a range of skin, hair and eye colors, so that every child can find a doll that speaks to him or her.

At 7 inches tall, Lottie is small enough to tuck into a pocket or bag and take along for play anywhere. Unlike Barbie, Lottie can stand on her own two feet (lucky gal), so she can partake in all of the grand adventures that our own children invent and imagine at home or on the road. Even from inside her colorful, reusable box (which aims to minimize blister packaging), Lottie’s big personality is evident. Lucie Follett, co-founder and creative director of Lottie, says of Lottie’s character: “Lottie is a feisty character; she can stand on her own two feet and whilst she occasionally makes mistakes, she learns from them. She is not perfect. Lottie loves adventure and the outdoors and uses her imagination. In many ways, she is inspired by the spirited female characters in books we loved as children: Anne of Green Gables, Pippi Longstocking, Jo in ‘Little Women’, Nancy Drew and George in the ‘Famous Five’.”

Lucie, you had me at hello. Pippi, Jo, Nancy Drew, Anne of Green Gables! These were the heroines of my childhood. Just throw in Ramona and we’ve reached a state of pure childhood bliss. These characters came to life on the page, drawing me into their worlds so completely that I often had a hard time coming back when the book was done. Pippi and Ramona are familiar friends to my children, and I’m (not so patiently) waiting to introduce them to Nancy, Anne and Jo.

Lottie’s adventures take place on an imaginary island called Branksea, which is loosely based on a real-life island called Brownsea Island in Dorset, England. Branksea’s rich history of Romans, pirates, Elizabethans and Victorians, coupled with its woodland topography that all sorts of wildlife call home, makes it the ideal storytelling locus for Lottie’s escapades. I’m particularly drawn to the outdoor play that Lottie brings to the table, from body boarding, horseback riding and butterfly protecting to splashing around in muddy puddles and jumping into enormous piles of crisp autumn leaves. She’s an active girl, as comfortable in her karate, soccer and gymnastics gear as her soft pjs and school jumper.

And speaking of school, in a world where STEM (and now STEAM which rightfully values the role of the arts in education) dominates, Lottie tells young girls that science is not the sole domain of boys. Stargazer Lottie, the first doll in space (she’s back!), Robot Girl and Fossil Hunter Lottie are just three examples of Lottie getting her science on, but the possibilities for exploration in the lab and the natural world are endless.

If you think that all of this necessarily excludes the child who still longs for fantasy play and dress-up, feast your eyes on the adorable Snow Queen Lottie, Pirate Queen Lottie, Spring Celebration Ballet Lottie, English Country Garden Lottie, Branksea Festival Lottie, Pandora’s Box Lottie and Rockability Lottie.

As I marveled at each wonderfully detailed doll and read the pro-girl storyline synopses on each Lottie box, I wished for a male counterpart that boys could relate to and girls could add to their Lottie-inspired world. Enter Finn, an equally realistic and childlike doll that promotes wholesome play as he sends up his blue and orange kite at the Branksea Kite Festival or heads out for a day of fishing at the watering hole with his trusty rod. No guns, no violence, no adult themes to interfere with his complete and active immersion in nature.

Arklu has a game changer on its hands, one that I’ve awaited since well before becoming a mother. While Arklu kindly provided Finn and Stargazer Lottie to me for my review, I was so utterly enchanted by these dolls that I purchased seven other dolls and a few outfits for holiday gift-giving. Lottie’s tagline, “Be bold, be brave, BE YOU!” galvanizes young children to embrace individuality, as they recognize and celebrate what makes them and others unique. While this may seem simple, it is actually quite revolutionary in a toy industry that continues to market look-alike dolls that standardize beauty and personality.

Come back soon for a video review of all of our Lottie Dolls and let me know your thoughts on Lottie in the comments. #LetThemPlay

For those of you who still use Ziploc baggies and aluminum foil, I can save you money, time and energy with this review, and perhaps more importantly, we can together reduce your carbon footprint. Disposable products should really be a thing of the past. Aren’t we evolved enough by now as a species to see the damage we cause with our throw-away culture? In a pinch, these things are fine, but for daily use, reusable containers are the way to go. Many plastic reusable products exist, often under labels like Tupperware and Rubbermaid. They cost less than PlanetBox; however, they don’t last long, so they too will wind up in landfills, polluting our earth.

If the green movement doesn’t inspire you to act, perhaps your health will. We have all heard the scary reports not only about BPA, but also about those purportedly safe “BPA free products.” Frederick vom Saal, a University of Missouri biologist who studies endocrine disruptors such as BPA and other chemicals like it, issues this warning to consumers: “Until we have some idea of what chemicals are added in all stages in making a final product, we will not be able to determine the safety of any plastic product.” Clearly, switching to leach-free materials like glass and stainless steel as much as possible is a smart move.

Have I convinced you yet? No? What if I told you that PlanetBox is just fun. Yup, I said it. Fun. Fun, fun, fun. What mother (with the exception of those on 1950s television or Pinterest) has ever uttered, “I can’t wait to get the kids to bed so I can prepare their lunches for tomorrow?” I love parenting, but I simply detest the lunch packing process. I spend hours drawing pictures and writing notes for my children to read when they open their lunches, yet my husband and I agonize each night, just about 7 p.m., about what to place inside their lunch sacks.

Enter PlanetBox. Seriously! You don’t believe me? Look at the individualized compartments. No mixing of food from one space to the other. No leaking. No separate baggies for each item. Genius. In the Rover, my first choice for school children, there is ample room for a main meal, as well as veggies, fruits, snacks and even a little treat at the center. Children can personalize their PlanetBox Rover by selecting a colorful carrying case and magnets for the outside. PlanetBox just launched custom magnets too, so you can upload images and text and let your kids design their own. The magnets must be removed before washing, a bit of a nuisance, but children really love them. If you are buying a PlanetBox for yourself, I’d say splurge on the carrying case and ice pack and forget the magnets!

So what about you? I’ve been using the PlanetBox Launch, my top pick for adults, for a number of weeks now and it looks like it just came out of the box. I’ve thrown the entire thing into the dishwasher, tossed it next to me in the car on the way to work and dragged it around from class to class. With the help of the optional ice pack (you can use one of your own, but theirs is the perfect fit), my food stays cold and fresh. The glass container has a silicone lid that wraps tightly around the rim and the little dipper, a small cylindrical container made of stainless steel, is perfect for salad dressing and dips. I even tuck almonds and string cheese on the side of the glass container for extra storage. I’m eating better because of PlanetBox. Maybe it’s all in my head, but it inspires me to pack a healthier lunch for myself and my children. Nature’s foods provide far more beautiful colors and shapes than do processed goods. I also think I look pretty cool eating out of the PlanetBox, but that may just be my inner geek’s wishful thinking (I am a college professor, after all).

If you visit PlanetBox’s website, you can watch videos about all three versions of PlanetBox to see which is best for you. They also offer a new meal planning app that allows you to create, save and share ideas for packed lunches. There, and also on Pinterest and Facebook, much more creative souls have posted myriad pictures of beautiful lunches packed in PlanetBox. I don’t claim to have their aesthetic vision. No matter! Even my more pedestrian attempts make me happy. Lunch just looks better in the PlanetBox.

Take a PlanetBox for a spin and let me know what you think. Maybe you’ll look as hip as I do!

Why the melancholy? Parenting, I’ve learned, is a series of “letting goes,” each of which tortures me in small and big ways. When your children are babies, no one mentions that each milestone is, in essence, an end as well as a beginning. As your one-year old toddles toward you, arms outstretched, and collapses into the security of your embrace, you simply don’t project your mind forward to the moment when he will be walking away from you, looking for a measure of independence so crucial to his growth.

Days pass, then weeks and months and years, and you hardly notice how tall your daughter is until she is standing barefoot in her bedroom, toothbrush dangling out of her mouth, and she seems a giant all at once. Each season you pack up their clothes to make room for new ones and note that the soft footy pajamas they wore night after night now look tiny. One summer night your baby sleeps through till morning without calling out for you once. You donate playthings that lay abandoned behind the couch because your children have moved on to big kid toys.

A tooth is lost, a fairy visits, boo-boos are mended, hair is gently brushed, and foreheads are kissed before everyone is tucked in on another night in a seemingly endless string of moments together. And then a significant “letting go” arrives – a first day of kindergarten, your youngest growing out of babyhood – and you pull in your breath, overwhelmed by a sense of being in a time warp. How can it be that the very child you cuddled every night at bedtime, the one who wouldn’t leave your side at story time in the library, who clung to you desperately as you tried to fill your cart with groceries, today is off and in the world without you?

Elizabeth Stone once said becoming a parent is “to decide to forever have your heart go walking around outside your body.” When your children, those little extensions of yourself who, nonetheless, pulse with an energy all their own, face the world without you, you become physically and emotionally unsettled for a spell. With all of the challenges of parenting, I genuinely enjoy having my children around me. During the summer, I can live under the illusion that they will never go away. Though hectic at times, summers present a series of long, dreamy days when we can just be. Nowhere to go, no one to see, nothing in particular to do. Pajama days spent in the happy exercise of fort building. Meandering walks in nature. Time to watch a line of ants march or a fuzzy caterpillar mosey across our path. A time of wonder and enchantment, laziness and activity both. Summer days allow for discovery as we shed all inhibitions and commune with the animals, fauna and foliage in our little piece of the world. Home takes on a new meaning. No longer a place to land after a long day at school, home is the place we settle into, deeply and purposefully. We wander along with our children and simultaneously wonder at them. They are fascinatingly spectacular, aren’t they, with their innate curiosity and impulsive desire to know everything about the world around them?

And then September comes, sweeping away August with its cool breezes. Streets fill with yellow school buses. Children, laden down with brightly hued backpacks, dot the sidewalks. Beaches empty. Parks are still. And I am reminded again that my children are growing up and away. I mentally begin to prepare myself for another letting go, knowing deep inside that I am meant to give my children roots and wings.

My children are mine, and yet they are not, and I must find a place to dwell in those contradictory truths. I silently chant the words of Khalil Gibran:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

School brings an incessant hum to our days that both exhausts and energizes us. It propels us forward, leaving scarce time to reflect on those “letting goes,” and perhaps that is how it should be. Our children learn. They thrive. They begin to transform into who they are meant to be. How wondrous it is to watch. I rejoice truly in each new adventure. And yet … there is a persistent tug on my heart that won’t relent, even as I become more accustomed to September farewells. These incremental “letting goes” lead, pass by pass, to ever bigger ones. My children will need me less during the school days and less still as the years continue to slip by. And yes, of course I know that my children will be under my roof for another decade. No need to tell me they will still fill my heart and life once they live outside of these four walls. I know this, too. Like a mamma bird though, I will feather my nest, make it comfortable and warm and safe. Call them to it, make certain they know it will forever be theirs, help them develop their wings so they can one day fly away from it. To me, my three children will always be the babies I marveled at late into the night. Toni Morrison, your words have taken up residence in my heart. I understand, finally.

Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother.
A child is a child.
They get bigger, older, but grown?
What’s that supposed to mean?
In my heart it don’t mean a thing.
– Beloved

As we head into another school year, I’ll be sharing some thoughts on what an ideal school should and could be according to educators and experts of early childhood. First up, the great Bev Bos and the ever inspirational Sir Ken Robinson

“Children were not born to walk. They were born to run– barefoot, over rocks, through the water, through the mud. We need to give greater recognition to the energy and joy of children.” — Bev Bos

And speaking of schools, what does Sir Ken Robinson think an ideal school would look like?

December 6th is celebrated by many around the world as St. Nicholas Day.  While Thanksgiving here in the United States marks the official start of the holiday season, in Italy the Feast of San Nicola holds that honor, and the holiday season continues for one month until January 6th (the Epiphany and the arrival of La Befana).

If you don’t know the history of San Nicola/St. Nicholas, the holy man who inspired the beloved St. Nick/Father Christmas/Santa Claus/Babbo Natale figure, the St. Nicholas Center website provides a wealth of information on his life and ways to introduce his story to your children.

While many adhere to the custom of leaving shoes outside of children’s bedroom doors to be filled with sweets by St. Nicholas, here at our home, we do as children have done in Molfetta, Italy for ages.  On December 5th, the eve of the Feast of St. Nicholas, my children pen letters to San Nicola telling him how good they have been and promising to continue showing kindness to others in the new year as San Nicola did during his life.

They often draw pictures of San Nicola standing next to them, all decked out for the Christmas season.

That evening before retiring to their slumber, my children leave their letters on separate ceramic plates emblazoned with San Nicola’s image (a gift from their Nonno and Nonna) at the base of our hearth.  They send the letters off with a flurry of kisses and wishes and head to bed.

During the night, San Nicola piles the plates with sweets, candy canes, golden chocolate coins, nuts, and fruits (apples or often oranges to remind children to be like sun and light the world).  These gifts are meant to be shared, and not hoarded, and thus we leave the plates out for a few days for everyone to enjoy.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the tradition is the letter St. Nicholas deposits on the plates for each child.  These missives also remain on display as part of our holiday decorations as a reminder to all of us that the season truly marks the importance of sharing our abundance with those less fortunate.

If you would like to bring this tradition into your home, you can find some suggestions here: Celebrate at Home.

Buon San Nicola

Happy Saint Nicholas Day