We went to yoga class today and Bea explained that we'd been away to Buffalo, London, and Chicago. That's also part of the reason we've been away from the blog, but the every day of "just being" is really what keeps us away from the blog lately. It's more and more delightful to be offline, which raises a bunch of questions. We dumped Facebook and have forgotten about the chatter on the various neighborhood listservs and really somehow don't miss even the New York Times, but would like to stay informed about meteors striking the earth.  Also we dumped Youtube, for the sake of the kid (and the sake of my sanity because My Little Pony was full of baloney.) This has made family movie time a lot more exciting. We watch together on a big screen (not very big.)  Our friends Kent and Tara and Lyv and Fyo have a projector for their wall.  Hmm. Well, it's a thought. And Thomas brought home some Buster Keaton the other night, which had Bea cackling like a mongoose.

So what is the universe about? Mostly cooking and autonomous learning. (The term "unschooling" increasingly bristles in that it implies that school is a grid from which to "un-".) We're really using schools as places to poach from and doing something that suits us as learners. Art classes, yoga, museum tours. It's all around us and we tend to come and go as we please, depending on what time the kid wakes up and what kind of mood we're in.  But let me say now that I hope Bea never wants to go to school because I so much love our lazy morning wake up and variable breakfast-time.)  We did talk about "what-school-is" the other day and she said it wouldn't work for her if she couldn't be naked there. Fair enough.

 As for breakfasts, we're getting hot and heavy with the gluten-free pancakes. Here's one recipe we've been making use of:

4 eggs

tablespoon of honey

teaspoon of vanilla

teaspoon of baking powder (the hippie non-aluminum kind)

a handful of walnuts

a blended apple

1/2 cup of coconut flour

1/2 cup of raw milk or coconut milk or bone broth

heap up in big silver dollar shapes, slow fry in butter or coconut oil.

And yes! We just got bucket of organic coconut oil and a pound of raw cacoa powder.  It's heaven. 

We'll be back in a month, give or take a few weeks.  And here are some pictures. Peace out people.

Chicago Skyline

Central Park Snow Drops, February

Pool hall at the University of Chicago