11/20

No Yoga 11/20, I am on the mend. Hope to see you all soon.

Namaste-
Nina

No class today, 11/13. Have a beautiful weekend!

10:30 class as usual ;-)

Good morning Yoga Friends, today yoga will be as usual (one class, 10:30 @ Lucky Child) I hope to see you all there!

Halloween in review

How was your Halloween? How do you handle the influx of refined sugar in your household and in your kids? What about chocolate and the issues with most being mainstream, not fairly traded chocolate?

Halloween at our household rolled out this way: Dressing up as a leopard in the morning, headed to the local farmer's market to trick or treat (Eva got a passion fruit!), and then had a few lovely friends (hosted with the fabulous Angela & Bella) over to our commune for vegetarian chili, corn bread, and fun.

With four trick or treaters + little Julian in tow, we headed down the street for some trick-or-treating. It was a really fun time, the kids did a great job of yelling "trick or treat" and then thanking the gracious givers of goods.

Back to the homestead, the kids dumped out their "stash" and played with the candy for a bit. Eva was permitted to choose 3 pieces of candy to save for another day. The rest was placed outside the door in hopes that the Switch Witch would leave something truly fantastic in it's place.

She DID! A Charlie & Lola DVD, a Nana's cookie (refined sugar & dairy free!), and a bag of snackanimals (organic animal crackers). With regards to the DVD, for those of you who know me and know that we're raising Eva in a low media household, we've found Charlie and Lola to be a great way to let her enjoy a little viewing (at the right time of day) because the episodes are brief. They are also super cute, Charlie & Lola are a sweet sibling pair who seemingly do everything together. I really don't mind them, and the lessons they teach are really nice. That being said, we don't watch them every day (so don't read me the riot act!) and we try to watch them with her.

As for the candy, she was actually excited to swap out for something else, and she has only wanted one piece of candy as her daily post nap treat, it's been Newman's Own cookies instead. Her metabolism is so fast that candy affects her tremendously. We try to avoid it like the plague, because honestly it's not a pretty sight, then we are left with a screaming child and we just feel sorry for her, she hardly knows what to do with herself when she has a sugar overload.

I know most of the kids in my class are no or low media, and low/no refined sugar. How did you handle the Holiday?
Namste-
Nina

Mama stroke of genius

Eva really enjoys trying out the computer games for the little ones at the library, and as much as I'm not a fan of video games for preschoolers, I let her have a few minutes to check it out. Today we visited the library for story time after Eva's karate class (she was doing upward facing dog while they were supposed to be doing pushups, go figure!), I grabbed her set of kids' headphones that we bought from Best Buy a while back. I love that they fit her head so perfectly, and of course in this case that they are hers and not the community head set! Now, if I can only remember antibacterial wipes to wipe off the mouse, we'll be set ;-)

Creepy!

Hello Yoga families,

I am working on a fun Halloween lesson plan! We'll have an art activity for after class as well, so sign up if you are coming, and if you don't have time to stay, you can take your art project with you.

yours,
Nina

No yoga 10/23

Hi friends, there will be no class tomorrow 10/23 as we have had illness in our household-and I want all of your families to stay well. Big (virtual) hugs and love to all, and thank you as always for taking my class, it means the world to me.

Class is back on for this week! Friday 10/16 10:30, at Lucky Child.
Please comment on this post to sign up for class. I am so excited to see the kids again! I was hoping to do a park class this week, but I don't think the weather will cooperate ;-).

Now that we're back on our feet & healthy again, I wonder what are YOU doing to prevent illness & boost immune systems for your family? A local & amazing herbalist, Anne Salazar Dunbar recommends fish oils, probiotics, echinacea liquid, plenty of rest, and cooking with astragulus. We are doing most of these, and the grown ups here take Reishi mushroom extract also. Luckily Eva loves mushrooms, so we feed her a lot of shiitakes and fresh mushrooms from the market. A great place to find different mushroom varieties locally is a new (locally run) store called Farm Boy in Oceanside (in the Trader Joe's complex). Their prices are really good. They also have ginger root, jicama, and many other Asian ingredients.

We are also back to drinking raw green smoothies! Today, ours has:

• Kiwi (thanks Miki!)
• raw kale
• frozen spinach
• frozen pineapple
• frozen strawberry
• passion fruit

• local, raw honey

It's delicious! Today, we are going to juice some grapes & apples that are not to our crisp standards. Stay healthy everyone!

Class News

No Class 10/9, Eva & I are under the weather. Hope to see you all in better health soon!

Tomorrow, class will be at 10:30 at Lucky Child. I hope to see you all there! No sign ups necessary this week.

A beautiful children's meditation

I have been longing to find a really great children's meditation to use for shavasana. I feel that after 45 minutes of listening to my voice, the kids would benefit from hearing something else. I cried when I found this one "Inner Peace-Affirmations for growing up in a crazy world" by Stin Hansen, recorded by Tatiana-age 12. It is so wonderful in so many ways, and I love that the meditation is spoken by a child. Here are a few of the affirmations:

• I can control how I treat myself and others in each moment.
• I choose peace instead of rage or anger
• I look for the peaceful and the beautiful things that are all around me
  
• Think about the person that the best part of you wants to become
  

As I listened to it several times, Eva started repeating the affirmations. You can imagine how delighted I am to tell you that this beautiful meditation is also free to download on itunes, just plug the name into the search bar. We plan on using it when she wakes in the morning, and as she's going to sleep.
Do you have a children's meditation that you love & would like to share? Please comment below. Enjoy, and Namaste.

Dino-rama!

I'm working on a fun fun Dinosaur lesson plan this week!

News for Fall classes

This week, Friday's classes will be offered at 9:30 & 10:30, at Lucky Child in Oceanside. I have changed the class format to 45-50 minutes, as I have observed the kids are ready to move on after that amount of time.

Please leave a comment here, or email me directly to register for class. If you are registered with the yahoo group, you can sign up there. Classes are limited to 8-10 participants, depending on the number of siblings involved. I want class to be enjoyable for all ;-). I will post when classes have filled.

I also spoke yesterday with Margaret, the owner of Yoga Tropics , who has invited me to teach class there- and we are moving forward with an Encinitas location...yay! Please comment below for what days & time of day work best for you at this location (downtown Encinitas). I want to have one later morning class so that we can all meet for lunch at the Lotus Cafe afterward.

Magic moments

In order to escape the paint fumes (our entire apt complex), Eva & I decided to take Cisco out to the Lotus Cafe for his first visit. I knew he would love it, as it reminds me in so many ways of cafes we love in Minneapolis. I think the only thing that would make me feel more at home would be a giant chalkboard with the menu scrawled upon it, what is it about those that makes me so happy? The food was fantastic, we had the vegetarian chili, a portabello mushroom sandwich, and Eva's new- staple- item the Indigo Child's wrap.

The best part? Community, of course! As soon as we arrived, Cisco saw a fellow yoga instructor friend (and Budokon student), and the feeling of being rooted in a community of yogi friends washed over us. What bliss! I also found out that the owners are yoga instructors who ran a not-for-profit yoga center in Oregon for 10 years!

You had me at soy cheese

The new Lotus Cafe in Encinitas has opened & we couldn't be more thrilled. I've been watching and waiting (it's right across the street from Yoga Tropics), so when we passed by yesterday with a hungry child& saw the doors open, I popped in for take out. The kids' meals are all $3.50, and really substantial. We ordered the Indigo Child's Wrap (whole wheat chapati folded over pinto beans & cheddar cheese) and was delighted to learn that they have soy cheese too. The wrap came with blue corn chips & salsa. This made for two meals for Eva.

What else did we spy on our visit? Muir Glen organic ketchup, mustard, bottles of Bragg's, and then some. It's counter service (order & sit down to wait), which I find to be one of the easiest and stress free ways to feed a family. The employees were awesome, I felt totally welcome even though I was only ordering kids food. They have two rows of gorgeous wooden booths, and the whole place is lined with windows. Lotus cafe, thank you for doing it right! I'm already planning a mama meet up there, it is a delightful addition to our community. I snagged a to go menu, here's a sampling of what they offer. I wish I had brought my camera!
Shanti burger (tempeh burger)
Grilled portobello sandwich
tempting tamale (veggie tamale)
All sorts of smoothies & shakes
And, yes, they do carry meat based entrees as well.
Located right around the corner from SoulScape, I can't think of a better location. They even offer vanilla soy ice cream.

Treading lightly

Fletcher's Cove, Solana Beach



A glimpse of our beach going tiffin. I get asked about this thing every time I'm out and about, so here's the scoop: Charita at Om-goods sells these awesome & safe food tiffins. We love packing ours full of nutritious goodies. The tortillas are organic whole wheat/corn from Trader Joe's, filled with Almond butter and jelly (farmer's market) & the dip for the snap peas is Majestic Garlic's basil dip, ummm so good. In addition to this, we made a big family salad (which we ate with our To-Go Ware . Trying to "just say no" to plastic utinsils, this set of wooden ones is just lovely. I love waste free lunches!

The class that I had the honor of teaching at UU summer day camp. Look at those upward dogs! I felt like I was flying after this class and am so completely thrilled beyond words to be teaching. I have never done anything else that feels so amazing. The kids are so lovely to teach, and I couldn't be happier than to be surrounded by them. I know it sounds corny, but the future looks so much brighter when you talk to and interact with the future generation of peacemakers and leaders. I truly feel that way.

A Yoga filled Friday

Thank you to my sweet friend Robyn, who is allowing me to use her beautiful studio to teach class. This morning, I had a really lovely class with so many sweet little ones that I love! How could one possibly NOT feel blessed when completely surrounded by these sweet spirits. A few favorite highlights of the day:

• Two sisters snuggled together during shavasana, I don't have words for how beautiful and special that was to witness.
  

• As I was rolling up yoga mats, Ty Ty asked if we were going to do yoga class again. I said "Right now?" and he nodded yes. What a cutie!

The title of the book that I read today is The Mouse & the Buddha by Kathryn Price, about a mouse living in Dharamsala. The illustrations are beautiful and the lessons are priceless. Be kind to one another, be loving, and help those who are in need. It's a beautiful story. I will definitely be reading this one again, and adding it to our home library.

Have a great idea for a book I could use in my class? Comment below please!

In the evening, Cisco, Eva, and I went to family yoga at Soul of Yoga in Encinitas. It's so fun to stretch and play together. We were lead by my instructor, Jodi Komitor, who always leads a wonderful class and is such an inspiration.

A beautiful day of yoga in the park! The kids loved being chased around after yoga by the three dads who attended class.

I did it!

Yay, I am now certified to teach kids' yoga! I took a course through Next Generation Yoga, and I'm ready to rock, roll, and airplane with the 2-7 year olds of the world! I had an amazing time at my teacher's training, met some truly lovely people who I hope will spread the love and what we've learned to the schools, homes, and yoga studios in their lives. I have had so much fun with this just in the last few days with Eva and Bella, it's truly a blessing. Much love to our beautiful instructor, Jodi (aka Jojo) who is talented beyond measure.
Namaste-
Nina