LaeLae Blog - LaeLae.com

When the People Are Away, We Will Play

5/14/2020

At this time of the year, I usually look down on our community pool and it's full of families and small children, but this year the pool is quiet and empty (I do miss the happy children's laughter) - except for two ducks who seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Although I would rather be seeing the ducks out hiking along the banks of the boundary waters as I did years ago, it was still fun to see them enjoy themselves in our pool. We are on the migratory path for the ducks as they head north and south and this time of the year they are everywhere throughout our community.

We live in a rather rural area with not much city life (although we do have the congestion of the I-5) and we are a mile from the ocean and about the same distance from two lagoons. It is a small city with a master plan to keep 40% open protected space and a maximum buildout plan to never get too large. So we have many creatures living here, rabbits under our deck, lizards and toads in the gardens, possums and even a baby skunk who wandered through recently. It's nice to know that we can all live peacefully together and, as I mentioned in my last blog, I just planted milkweed plants to draw the butterflies into the succulent garden out front .

I think how much enjoyment all of the critters, birds and flower gardens give to me and I am very thankful, that, even if I have to stay close to home except for infrequent wandering out with my protective gear on, that I have such a beautiful place to enjoy. Hopefully our pandemic will be over sooner rather than later, but, until then, it is nice to focus on the quieter beauties of life. Take care and stay well.

Butterflies

5/3/2020

I love butterflies and I found a beautiful butterfly puzzle to complete during the stay at home directives. We had fun taking turns working on it. As it is a circle and only 14" in diameter (the brown background is the table that it was laying on, not the puzzle itself). But as we got down to putting in the last few pieces, there was one piece missing. After looking all over for it we had to decide that it had accidentally been thrown away and I "made" a fill in and we called the puzzle finished. It was so beautiful that I couldn't bear to tear it down so I varnished it onto a backing and hung it in my office. It hangs there to brighten my day. Can you see the space where the missing piece should be?

Butterflies are beautiful and so endangered by the pesticides that we use today and the way that we are destroying their habitat. I want to encourage them to visit us and be healthy. The Monarch butterfly thrives only on one plant, the Milkweed, so, after talking to my daughter who has a butterfly garden, I decided to get one big healthy Milkweed plant and give it a try. I will plant it now that "spring has sprung" and hopefully we will provide a Monarch stopping point as they flutter through the area. Hopefully they will lay their eggs on the Milkweed and the caterpillars that hatch will have a nice food to munch on as they begin their lives and their metamorphosis into beautiful butterflies.

One of the most beautiful butterflies is the Blue Morpho
seen here on my sandal when I was in the jungle of Panama. The inset is the underside of the lovely Blue Morpho butterfly. When it closes its wings. It blends in with the native surroundings. It's
a terrific disguise!

The milkweed is a tall rangy upright perennial that grows in
full sun and provides the food that the Monarch butterfly caterpillars thrive on.

A Time to be Quiet and to Reflect.

4/24/2020

In this time of staying at home and entertaining ourselves, I have noticed that our habits are changing. People are reaching out to others in newer, quieter ways... innovative ways of maintaining contact without being physically close. I have had five Zoom meetings which have brought multiple people together; a Skype meeting and FaceTime conversations staying close and I have meditated from a distance (two days driving) with one of my daughters. I have reached out to relatives and friends from long ago and more recent friends to tell them that I am thinking of them. But it has been a quiet reaching out with lots of time for self introspection and time to think about what is important to me in between.

I have a small deck garden where I do some of my artwork during our beautiful sunny California days whether it is sculpting or jewelry making or reading (although I do most of that before I go to bed at night). No matter what I am engaged in, mostly I have just enjoyed sitting out among the beautiful Birds of Paradise, palms, ferns and roses of my garden with my little dog, "Inspector Gumby" (so named because he is very inquisitive), listening to the springtime birds with their new little ones and the children playing in our cul de sac in front of the house. The children are close enough for me to hear but not close enough to be an interruption as the roses (just budding now) and palms, and a peach tree beginning to bear its delicious fruit, form a green fence between me and the cul-de-sac (besides, children are the happy sign of life and I love hearing them).

I think that this is a time for us to be quiet, go within and think thoughts of love for our world and all that inhabits it. I hear that the animals have come back to Yosemite, the waters are getting cleaner and the air is less polluted. There are some good things that have come from this pandemic, and although my heart hurts for all those who have and are suffering, I also want to point out some of the beautiful things that have come from this and send out love to everyone

Something to Enjoy While You Stay Home

4/15/2020

During the coronavirus stay at home orders, it can be difficult to keep little children entertained with enough to do when they have to be distant from friends and entertaining activities. Please remember that all nine books in the Lae Lae collection have matching coloring pages that go with each book and related stickers that can be printed out over and over again to create stories and picture montages. This can be fun when little ones are getting bored and have nothing to do (or have finished their other coloring books - whichever comes first) in this time of mandatory stay at home orders. Just go to the books page on the web site and and scroll down. You will find pdf downloads of coloring pages and stickers for each book that can be printed out on any home printer. For the stickers, put full sheet label paper in the printer. Staples and other suppliers offer home delivery, Print the stickers and then, with safety scissors, your child can cut out the stickers and have fun making them into a story or vision board montage. A fun activity would be to combine stickers from different books to come up with new stories endlessly.

So in this difficult time, please remember to stay home and stay safe. It's a time to be loving to your immediate family,and send love from a distance to your friends, the people you know and all of those that you don't know but who are sharing in this crisis with us. Please don't forget to give love to all the animals who give us so much and send love to the beautiful world that we all share. We will emerge from this pandemic soon. The earth is waiting for us. We need to heal and be ready for it.

An Award For "At The Beach"

3/27/2020

Teaching children how to enjoy and also take care of the ocean is so important. The ocean is the source of life and we are polluting it, abusing it and destroying it. I am so proud that my little book, At The Beach, was just awarded an international award because it is about taking care of the beach and the ocean while enjoying it, an issue that is critical to all of us, The health of the ocean and the appreciation of it and healthy enjoyment of it are basic to our wonderful world. In this book, Lae Lae and Timmy go the beach and play at the water's edge under Lae Lae's mom's watchful eye. The children learn beach safety in addition to beach appreciation. Beaches can be treacherous with strong tides and children have to be carefully watched over around them. Timmy and Lae Lae learn what is at the beach and what should be left there and what should be picked up and either thrown away or recycled. There is so much that is carelessly being swept into the ocean today and so much that our fish and ocean creatures are ingesting that is very harmful for them...and for us.

As with all of the other books in the collection, there are fun games and activities to enjoy that help teach children about how to care for and enjoy the big beautiful world that they live in.

*********************************************************************

Just a reminder, in days when children are forced to stay inside, there are free coloring pages and stickers that can be downloaded from this website over and over to enjoy freely. Look on the pages where the books are listed and you will see the PDF files to download. Printed books can be ordered and E-books are also available. Enjoy teaching your kids about our earth, and its creatures. They can play along with Lae Lae and her gang of friends (including her invisible friend, Poco and her puppy Patches) as they learn through the story and the games and activities..

A Child's Aquaponics Garden Tower

3/13/2020

Aquaponics, the growing of plants with water and fish, produces edible garden plants - with an underlying aquatic ecosystem as its base. Children can enjoy learning how this works with a self-sustaining aquaponics garden tower. In this multi-layered garden tower the fish in an aquarium below feed the plants up above and the plants then provide clean water back to the fish below creating a completely enclosed self sustaining eco system. Aquaponics differs from hydroponics in that it is not developed with a chemically treated water system but is more like a "wetland" or pond world.

How does it work? Fish living in an aquarium at the base of the tower produce a waste product which is filtered to break down the toxic ammonia and is turned into a nitrogen fertilizer. That water is pumped up through tubes via a power source, either electric, battery or solar, where it feeds the plants in trays above, giving the plants needed nutrients to help them grow. In return, the plants filter out the nitrogen in the water and the overflow goes back down a second set of tubes to the aquarium, denitrified, to the fish below. It's fascinating to see how the "two worlds" work together to produce wonderful healthy green plants, lush fruits and vegetables and happy fish. Another positive aspect of the system is that a well maintained aquaponics fish tank is self cleaning and shouldn't need to be cleaned by hand.

Many different kinds of fish will do for the aquarium If you are using them just to enjoy, goldfish are wonderful because they are beautiful, come in many varieties and naturally grow to the appropriate size of their living space. Be very careful to feed the fish only once a day with a food for your type of fish and remove what is not consumed in 30 minutes. Overfeeding will produce rotting food and disease.

Worldwide, aquaponics is being utilized to produce healthy, wholesome food in small spaces and more than 150 different vegetables, herbs, flowers and small trees have been grown successfully in aquaponic systems. Aquaponics is becoming an important way to provide food to the world today.

Aquaponics Garden Towers with fish and plants are fun for a child to build, watch and learn from and they will be proud of what they have accomplished as they share their produce and show off their little fish partners to their friends.

A Tribute to King Ryder

2/26/2020

You sometimes meet the sweetest passengers while flying. This was the case with Ryder and his mom. Ryder was probably five years old and just adorable. We played for most of the several hour plane ride and he created this self portrait for me. He is eating candy and wearing "cool" dark glasses. I am not sure what the other symbols are on his chest but I know they are important as he is wearing a crown and is "very important".

He was so shy that he asked him mom if he could give his creation to me and she said yes. I told him that I wrote childrens' blogs. I said that, if he signed his creation for me, I would put it on my blog. That is his signature on the left hand side and he wrote it all himself. Athough I am late in posting this creation, it is for King Ryder. Here is to the creativity of a five year old. May he not lose it as he grows and develops.

Thank you Ryder for making a boring plane ride fun.

Over the Rainbow Bridge

2/15/2020

Everyone who knows me, knows that I love all animals, but especially I love dogs. To me they are gifts from the universe to give us love and caring while they are here with us. I have posted about Nunzi before but I think that this should be reposted.

We adopted my little Shih Tzu Nunzi when my partner was told that he would have to have open heart surgery - as a companion for me during his surgery and recovery. Nunzi was considered to be a senior dog at 8 years old and he had a funny gait as his front legs were crooked and a little bit short....but he was adorable and I fell in love with him.

He was with me through Earl's recovery, several trips back and forth to Sedona and many other life events. One day, when he was between 12 and 13 years old, a suspicious swollen lump came up on his paw. I thought that the swelling was from a sticker that had gotten into his foot but after having a biopsy it was determined to be a dreaded mast cell tumor that Shih Tzus (and others) can develop. I took him to several vets with knowledge of mast cell tumors. I also sent his urine off to be tested for contaminants to see if there was a cause for the tumor (I just had a feeling that there was). The sample came back that Nunzi was very high in glyphosate (the same thing that Round Up is being sued for). Our homeowners association had been using a glyphosate product.

The veterinary specialist suggested that I have a very expensive surgery, chemo and radiation for Nunzi. They would have to cut most of his foot off; results weren't guaranteed and they couldn't tell me why it came up or if it would come again. Given his age (13+ years at the time) I did not want to put him through all of that so I found a naturopathic vet who was willing to work with me with natural supplements. Our idea was that we would give him natural herbs and supplements to build up his immune system and fight the tumor growth at the same time. Nunzi received everything, including CBD, and I fed him a healthy diet for dogs with cancer. He loved it all and for a long time I thought that he could heal because he was happy, if not healthy. He had a wonderful appetite (including for the supplements that I added) and woke up every morning barking for food.

In the ninth month however, his lymph gland began swelling and his tumor grew huge. One day the tumor opened, started bleeding and he went into shock. I wrapped him in a blanket and took him to my vet with a sinking feeling that I was losing my baby. By the time that I got to the vet my baby was just laying in my arms. I had to make the awful decision to let him go.

Why am I writing about my little furry man again? Pets are a very special gift to us and we must take care of them. I believe that the natural herbs and supplements kept Nunzi alive and happy for nine months (a very long time in a dog's life) instead of radical surgery and drugs. We achieved something - while I cannot say that glyphosate caused Nunzi's cancer, it is a known cancer causing product and my HOA quit using it. Rest well Nunzi - you were much loved!

A New Year - A New Book

1/29/2020

I mentioned in my last blog that I shared my new book with little Mariah over the holidays but I did not really talk about the book itself. Let's Play is the ninth book in my Lae Lae book collection and, as with all of the books in the collection, it is about the love of children everywhere and the nurturing of animals and the environment. This new book is about the importance of play in the human development process and how children all over the world love to (and need to) play. Play is a fundamental part of the human spirit and an emotional, physical and mental necessity in the growth process. As with my other books, this book includes games and activities suitable in different ways for children between the ages of two and six. The collection has been awarded three book awards, two of them international and books have sold as far away as the outback of Australia.

In this book, children will learn how to play the Vision Board game to realize their dreams for themselves and for their world. Vision Boards have been used down through the ages as useful tools to manifest dreams and goals into reality. In addition to the Vision Board there is a section of the book dedicated to games from around the world that parents or caregivers can share and play with their children.

Nurturing children is one of the most fundamental duties that we adults have and playing games with children or guiding them in play can be instrumental in that nurturing. Children copy the world around them and we must be careful about what we expose them to. They will be the stewards of tomorrow's world and will have the great responsibility to make it a good world. We need to help them handle that responsibility with love and care. Games encouraging cooperation, communication, partnerships and team work in a fun atmosphere can help in that effort.

A Holiday Celebration

1/12/2020

The holidays are always fun with a just turned six year old child. This year we spent them with Mariah and her family. The expectations of wonderful surprises had prompted little Mariah to be as good as a little girl can be. She is absolutely adorable all the time and is so full of impish personality but she was especially helpful and polite during this holiday season. It was endless music and dancing as she played her way toward "the Big Day".

Since she was such a good little girl and surrounded by a wonderful, loving family, she had many treats to unwrap. Among the things that she received was the first copy of my New Book, "Let's Play". I will admit that her action toys came first in her priorities as she played because she is a bit of a tomboy. But then she settled in and we had a wonderful time reading the book and playing the games and doing the activities in the book. She told her grandmother that she was surprised to see that the book had my photo in the back...and her grandmother told her that that was because I had created the book. It was wonderful experience enjoying "Let's Play" with her and seeing her 6 year old reaction to it.

Happy New Year everyone! Best Wishes for 2020!