Keto Strawberry-Basil Ice Cream (fresh from the spring garden)

I was feeling pretty negligent about Father’s Day this year. I had this vague notion in the back of my mind that the day was approaching. I really wanted to honor the father in our lives in a special way but was feeling overworked by farm tasks and child shuttling. My go-to fix has traditionally been to hop on the internet for some online shopping. I do this fancy justifying in my mind - telling myself how the gift I’m selecting is really thoughtful and from a tasteful and socially-conscious source. But this time around the justification wasn’t working, and so I had gotten myself into the spot where - even if I did pony up to buy something - there was no delivery service that was going to make it to our rural address in time for the big day.

So isn’t it great that Father’s Day takes place during the month of the Strawberry Moon? I had spent so much time planting bare root strawberries last year (ninety of them in fact), and now the abundance was happening right in synch with the moon cycle.

Strawberry Moon Harvest

Our whole family is a sucker for the many bougeious ice cream options in Portland, OR. And one of my husband’s favorite are the ice cream sandwiches from Ruby Jewel. The options are so very well-curated: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip + Butterscotch, Brown Sugar + Oregon Strawberry, Dark Chocolate + Fresh Mint, Lemon + Honey Lavender.

Problem is - we are currently working with a child that has systemic candida. If you don’t know what that means, let’s just say, sugar is off the table. So my Father’s Day plan became to make a ketogenic, sugar-free option of the Ruby Jewel ice cream experience. It felt like an effort in keeping with the awesome-ness with the fathering we experience, plus, we got to harvest straight from our garden, bypassing the need of extra fossil-fuels.

Garden Fresh - No Fossil Fuels Required

The ice cream recipe is a riff on a recipe in the Plant Paradox cookbook. We took the basics, tweaked the flavor, and used our preferred sweetener. And for the cookie to sandwich the ice cream between, we made a ketogenic lemon cookie. We used this recipe and substituted monk fruit sweetener for the maple syrup.

Just a quick note on sweeteners - we use granulated monk fruit. You can use it in any recipe that calls for sugar, and simply substitute in a 1:1 ratio. There are a lot of articles on sugar alternatives and which ones are healthy or not. We use monk fruit often because it comes from an actual plant and has zero calories and zero carbohydrates, which means it does not affect blood sugar levels. Also, some people in our family do not tolerate erythritol which is another popular alternative sweetener. Sometimes information can be overwhelming, but I encourage you to do your own research. And if you have any feedback on alternative sweeteners, especially when used in a candida diet, I’d love to hear from you.

So below is our recipe for your garden-fun strawberry-basil ice cream.

Keto Strawberry Basil Ice Cream

Holly Jones | July 15, 2019

• prep time:30 min
• total cooking time:12 hours

Ingredients

1. 2 pounds strawberries
2. 2 oz basil (adjust to taste)
3. 2 15-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk
4. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5. 1 ripe avocado
6. 1/2 cup Monk Fruit Sweetner

Procedure

1. Make sure the bowl of your ice cream machine is well-frozen
2. Chop your basil and liquefy your strawberries using a food processor or blender.
3. Heat the coconut cream in a large saucepan, along with the Monk Fruit Sweetener and vanilla until the sweentner is dissolved. Add the chopped strawberries and basil and simmer on low.
4. Remove from heat. Add this mixture and a ripe avocado to a food processor. Blend until smooth.
5. Chill the mixture at least four hours but ideally overnight.
6. Blend and freeze according to the instructions on your ice cream macine.
7. At this point, you can choose to eat your ice cream soft serve, or put it in the freezer to get firmer. If you choose to freeze it more, I recommend taking it out of the ice cream maker. Ours got too  hard to eat. But if put in another container you can get it to a consistency between goop and rock hard.

What's On My Butt (some self-love life hacks)

The day before Valentine’s Day has been donned self-love day. It’s the perfect time to take stock of those intentions and dreams you set for the new year. How are you doing with them? Are you patting yourself on the back because you’ve already nailed it? Or do you need to gently - with a smile on your lips - help yourself recommit? Or just give yourself a little grace and empathy?

Here are four creative ways to really take care of some basic needs - rest, time management, and little self-care hacks. All of these gems I’ve learned from other people, mostly from listening to podcasts. But also, from friends and from recommendations. So before we dive in, let’s acknowledge that even in the name of self-love, we still all need each other.

1) WHAT’S ON MY BUTT (OR TAKE A BREAK ALREADY)

What’s on my butt is a game invented by a momma to help herself - and other parents - get some rest already. In the name of self-love, we could all use some rest, whether you’re a parent or not. To “play” simply lie on the couch, bed, floor (any place you can find), face down. The child (or children) then find various things from the house and put it on your butt. You guess what it is. Child puts away the object. Repeat as necessary.

Our family is well passed toddler-hood but we still have our sleepless nights. After a few nights in a row of our 7-year-old climbing into our bed and kicking us all night, I put this game to the test. I was home with the kids all day and as the hours ticked on by, I could feel the exhaustion kick in. Rather than amp myself up with more caffiene (which is not very loving to your adrenals), I tried the game. Everyone immediately dove in, amassing all sorts of objects while I fell into a light snooze. What’s best, there were plenty of belly laughs as I tried to decipher the latest object on my butt. In fact when my 9-year-old asked, “Why on your butt? Why not someplace else?”, my 7-year-old immediately chimed in “Because it’s silly.”

You can find this silly idea and many others in the book Weird Parenting Wins by Hilary Frank. My sister-in-law recommended the Fresh Air interview where I learned about the book. It’s a great interview if you want some background on Frank’s story.

One of the basic takeaways I’ve learned from this book (as well as from years of parenting) - make everything a game. That includes putting your shoes on, getting out the door, going to bed, picking up toys, you name it. When you’re running out of creative ideas or your old stand-by games are loosing their luster, this book will recharge you with new (often hilarious) inspirations. One of my favorites- included on a list of lies to tell your children about the ice cream truck - “That’s a fish truck. All those kids running towards it, they just really love halibut.”

My inspiration for buying the book was to read about the parenting wins around getting a child to eat (which my youngest is in occupational therapy for). She’s a tough nugget, and none of the suggestions are going to get her eating salad anytime soon. But it did inspire me to rename chia seeds (which I sprinkle in things to up the protein content) as fairy footsteps. Sometimes the best thing we can do as parents is just play along.

2) FIND YOUR MAGIC TIME

This life hack I discovered from self-help guru Craig Ballantyne on his Early to Rise Radio podcast. Ballantyne’s routine can seem intimidating to us mere mortals that don’t want to wake up in the 4am hour by choice, but I still enjoy listening to him. His enthusiasm for being our best selves and willingness to share about those times when he wasn’t his best, are an inspiration for loving yourself where you are at.

One of the nuggets I picked up after listening to one of his podcast episodes, is to find the time of the day when your juices are flowing. What is that time and what are you doing during that time? I don’t get up quite as early as Ballantyne, but I do get up before sunrise and find the quiet of the morning to be my most focused and alive time. It is my window of quiet, self-care and preparation. I also tend to exercise during this window, as it can set the tenor of the day. But I’ve found is that even though I get my exercise in I was still feeling antsy and anxious. And after listening to this podcast, I discovered that I might be wasting my magic hour on too much exercise (not that exercise is bad, but it’s just tending to one part of myself). Now I use this magic hour for the things that feel most pressing to myself at the moment. That might be writing or drawing or meditation or knitting or responding to emails, or it might be exercise. Whatever it is, I use this time more thoughtfully now, and I find myself feels better for it.

3) NOURISH YOURSELF WITH BEAUTY

In this age, having a gratitude practice is pretty common, but what about a simple beauty practice? I’m not talking about your cleanser and make-up regime, but rather starting the day finding something beautiful - first thing in the morning or at least after a bit of caffiene - to hold or behold. It gives your insides a little lift. Hold a beautiful mug, look at the sunrise, recall an act of kindness that touched you, read a poem.

Poet John O’Donohue was interviewed in this On Being episode and he has a lot to say about the importance of beauty and how our culture has taken over what constitutes beauty. He distinguishes beauty from glamour. He’s not talking about the image our culture wants us to project but actually the sense of interior that our culture seems to keep pushing us to evacuate. So don’t hold out for those red roses on Valentine’s Day. Give yourself a small gift of beauty each morning. O’Donahue says if you can hold something beautiful in your imagination, you can use this beauty to sustain you through the day or hard times - “If you can keep some kind of little contour that you can glimpse sideways at now and again, you can endure great bleakness.”

4) DO SOMETHING THAT CAN’T BE UNDONE

O’Donahue’s ideas about beauty reminds me of a recommendation by Sarah Fragoso and Dr. Brooke Kalanick who have co-authored the upcoming book Hangry B*tches and host the podcast Better Everyday. Their format is full of nutrition and exercise advice. But alongside their physical health advice, both these ladies have a host of mindset tools to keep our hearts as happy as our bodies.

One piece of advice is to do something that can’t be undone. Our life is full of things that will be on constant repeat. There will always be another email to answer or pile of laundry to fold. Dirty clothes are accumulating as you check “fold” off your list. But you can’t undo the effects of truly listening to a friend or partner or giving someone a hug. There are so many ways to engage in the undoable. I’m around my children a lot, so for me it may look like throwing a fir cone back at my son (since I’m a constant target), playing tag, or simply saying “yes” to whatever idea of play captures them at the moment.

But it could also be a simple heartfelt text sent to a friend. A phone call to a family member. Or this could be the little thing that you give to yourself - whether that’s a nice, long bath or a quick five-minute break to read a poem or sing a song. This effort can take way less time than a 10-minute meditation practice but still fuel your self-love tank.

Audio Books for the Sensitive Child

Do you have many miles to go? And do you have a 3-year-old that hates the car, but is frightened even by the dramatics of Romana Beasley? I feel your pain. That was our scenario for many years.

My 3-year-old is now 7-years-old but continues to be sensitive to anything that contains an inkling of suspense. Forget anything with a soundtrack that might help to build the action. Absolutely out of the question. And yet, my now 9-year-old - who isn’t as sensitive to these things - is looking to hear some well-told tales. I wish I could say I can make up my own story for three hours non-stop (heck, even a half hour). I’m still working on that. In the meantime, here are some really sensitive stories we’ve dug up to help pass the travel time:

Libby and Dish by Sparkle Stories. Libby and Dish is a series is about a young girl - Libby - who actually is sensitive - gets nervous about play dates, doesn’t like to mix up her routine, has techniques for calming down. Her best is her cat Dish, who helps her navigate through the world as a sensitive child. I mention this series first, because they even have a Thanksgiving Day story about how Libby deals with her mom being busy and anxious as she prepares for relatives to arrive - a real thing for a sensitive child (and really for every child). I also mention Sparkle Stories because I wish I had found it sooner. It is a subscription story service with an exhaustive library of original tales. Not only that, you can search the stories according to age (starting as young as 3-years-old), theme, or - once you get to know the stories - collection name. There is a collection about a brother and sister - Martin and Sylvia - who home school and who attend a nature school. There is a collection about each state (if you’re traveling through many states this holiday). There is a collection for sleepy time. There is a fairy collection and a medieval collection. So many options. The subscription service is $15 a month. For us - with the amount of peaceful, enriching hours it’s helped pass - it’s been worth its weight in gold.

The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure by Jill Tomlinson - a super sweet story about a little aardvark who wants to know how it is exactly that he is an aardvark. He lives in his burrow with his mother and meets several other animal friends who explain how they get about in the world. He learns what makes an elephant an elephant, what makes a monkey a monkey and so on. And most importantly, her learns what makes him uniquely an aardvark. Maureen Lipman narrates this tale and she is fantastic - entertaining to both children and adults alike. The only questionable part happens when the little one thinks he smells a lion. But there is no soundtrack to accompany this part and it lasts no more than 30 seconds, so feel free to skip over or hold hands through it. If you like this story, there is a whole series by the same author and narrator. The only one that was on the scarier side is The Gorilla Who Wanted to Grow Up. We enjoyed all of them and listened to each several times.

The Lighthouse Family Series by Cynthia Rylant. Cynthia Rylant is a well-known and beloved children’s book author that writes really thoughtful books. In this series, children will meet a family of new characters - Seabold the dog - who gets stranded at see - Pandora the cat - who runs the lighthouse and rescues Seabold - their three adopted mouse children love to go on adventures by the sea. They take care of each other’s hearts and bodies and live a charmed life with some not-too-harrowing adventures. Good for the whole family.

For the slightly more advanced:

Love Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles. I can’t tell you how much we love this story. So funny, so deep. Judith Ivey - the narrator - is simply fantastic. And yet I rarely see it on audio book lists. I say it is for the more advanced because there is some tension between Ruby Lavender and some other characters in the story as they navigate some hard feelings around a mutual relative that died in an accident. However, even these moments of tension are told with such humor that a more sensitive child may be able to sit through it. My sensitive one was able to listen when she turned six-years-old. The other bonus of this story is that we laughed and laughed. Ruby Lavendar is a country-girl form of Ramona Beasly. She is full of spunk and a big heart.

Sit Spot Challenge

Today I started the 15-day sit spot challenge posted by the Wilderness Awareness School. Sit spots are a core routine in the Coyote Mentoring curriculum (the other two core routines are gratitude and the “wander”). Last year when we did homeschool at Hillstomp, I had really lofty ideas about doing sit spots together in the forest on a semi-regular basis. This was not successful. Even though Max and Ella found a really cool sit spot (at which we eventually discovered Reishi mushrooms), the actual sitting part was met with much resistance. There was also the time that Max cut his hand with his knife while he was “sitting” (not really such a big deal - just another Big Growth Opportunity). But really, the reason I stopped was that there was so much whining and misery about it that I felt it was creating the opposite effect it was intended for - connect with nature.

Ella shows me how to play

This year, enter a new Hillstomp Homeschool paradigm. I connect with nature with my kids. It is usually led by them and involves a lot of fun. Sometimes it also involves some quiet (like the time we practiced making the OM sound and noticed how the song birds came to us and the kids saw their first spotted Towhee). But again - although there may be some nudging by me - it is mostly child led. The general idea is that I’ve deleted pressure and inserted playfulness. Apparently I needed a year of homeschool to learn that lesson (okay, it actually took me a few years).

What our nature connection looks like

And now, I’m doing the sit spot. Why? First of all, I’m the one what wants to do the sit spot, and there’s a few other reasons why that I’ve outlined below.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

I’ve started my sit spot at a Hawthorn tree because I want to have a relationship with that tree. This year, we harvested from that tree to make medicine with Lara Pacheco. As we scribbled out our ingredients, ratios and cooking times, plant mentor Lara Pacheco reminded us of another way to harvest health - by developing a relationship with the plants. So often we get caught up in “what can this plant do for me” approach that we’ve inherited from our culture. But really, that is a new approach.

Consider Thomas the Rhymer, the 13th century Scottish poet and mystic. According to folklore, a cuckoo beckoned him to a Hawthorn tree and from there she led him to the Fairy Underworld. Although Thomas thought his visit was brief, when he reemerged, he had been gone 7-years. And since then, the Hawthorn tree has been associated with its connection to the fairy realm. Legend has it, where you see a Hawthorn, there must be magic afoot nearby.

Hello Hawthorn

Could I write such a story about a tree? I’ve gone through almost four decades without the kind of tree-intimacy that might inspire such a story. Do I know what it looks like each season? When it blooms and when it fruits? Whose home is it? How do I feel when I’m near it? I want to know…. how well can a I know a tree? What might I want to give it?

HEARTWORK

When we think about what the Hawthorn gives us, there is a lot of evidence that it supports our hearts. A quick google search will tell you that. But a lot of the work I’ve been doing recently is around self-love. And I wonder what the Hawthorn tree can tell me about that.

When I look at the tree, I notice that there are thorns. They aren’t as obvious as blackberry thorns. Energetically, the Hawthorn tree feels more welcoming and open, but still with clear boundaries - a lesson I could do well to absorb.

“In a world where it’s easy to download a recipe for a tincture, it can be challenging to find your own medicine. Your medicine might be a song that never gets downloaded by anyone”

I’m excited to dig deeper here. And the funny thing was, I never noticed how obvious this connection was - that I’m working on the contents of my own heart and that the Hawthorn tree was made for this magic. I was taking things so literally - thinking about blood pressure and antioxidants - that I didn’t think about how a relationship with a tree might strengthen a heart’s other potential. It’s potential to love.

In a world where it’s easy to download a recipe for a tincture, it can feel challenging to find your own medicine. Your medicine might be a song that never gets downloaded by anyone. Who’s the audience? Does anyone care? Well, the Hawthorn tree might, if you made a song for it.

BEING A ROLE MODEL

I model a lot of things for my children - making healthy choices about food and exercise, caring about certain issues, understanding emotions and being okay with expressing them. Now I want to model that I care enough about my nature connection to make a routine out of it. I don’t expect they are going to run out and start sit spotting next week, but they are going to know I care about it. That’s enough.

Ella being my role model

How to have the best leaf-hair

TAKING CARE OF MYSELF

As I mentioned, I tend towards the healthy. I also tend towards the ungrounded. Today - on my first sit spot - there were no big reveals. I didn’t see the most amazing sun rise or have a thrush sing me a song. But as I dipped in, the to-do lists dropped away and I felt the sun on my cheeks (a pretty big deal in the PNW). I tasted the woody air. The sounds of the field filtered in - the caw of crows, the shrieks of scrub jays and the cry of the red tail. Not earth-shattering. Instead, person-settling. It was good for me. I hope that someday, I’ll do some good for the sit spot.

Trash Car

At Hillstomp Homeschool, no one is exactly crazy about writing yet. But here is something both Max and Ella sunk their souls into - the design of a trash-fueled car. During one of long gasoline-fueled drives to and from town, I heard Max waxing philosophic about a trash car. So, the next day, during writing time, I suggested they write about a trash car. The rest is Hillstomp Homeschool History. They asked to write about their cars for the next three days. Can I get a yee-haw for self-directed learning! I had to enforce some editing which was not met with as much enthusiasm. Yee-hip…..

So, what do you think? Do you have some engineering suggestions? We'd love to hear your input. Take your imagination for a little whirl and give us your thoughts. Scroll through for the essay and images.