Yet, the most famous (and often most monetarily rewarding) of the inventions I am thinking of aren’t the complicated ones. The greatest technological leaps throughout history have not been complicated ideas. In fact, they’ve usually been quite simple ideas. Yet, coming up with those ideas have been monumental.

This gives me hope! Many more amazing inventions can still be done. We, as humans, haven’t even slightly thought up all that can be invented. Don’t sell yourself short! No matter what your educational background is, you too could be the person to come up with the next “Greatest Idea”.

Sometimes ideas come in a flash — all at once. Sometimes they come more slowly, over time, when you’ve been stuck on a problem. However they happen to you, enjoy them. Don’t forget to patent them too!

Here are some of the brilliant, yet technically simple, inventions I’ve been thinking of:

• Lightbulb
• Phonograph
• Kinetiscope
• Hot air balloon
• Fixed winged airplane
• Car

None of the above are technically challenging ON THEIR OWN. Improving and making them more efficient has been extremely complex. Don’t let that stop you! Every invention has to begin somewhere.

I have and I’ve found it frustrating. I can live with it, because I respect a private company’s right to make their own policies and procedures. What I don’t like is when the company has no policy in place to make suggestions for improvement. Who amongst us doesn’t want improvement? This is not a rhetorical question. I’d really like an answer.

What the world needs is more people who think for themselves, not more people that follow policies. I understand how policies are created, but they don’t always protect the things the people who created the policy think they are going to be protecting.

Next time you are told “No, you can’t do that because it is our policy,” ask why. Ask how the policy came into place and how it can be changed. If you can’t get a good answer, either go up the corporate ladder or take your business elsewhere. It does no good to complain to your friends about a business. Doing something about your complaint can really make a difference - for the better! If people never told the government or businesses or even their family what they really wanted and needed, we’d never improve as a society. It is important to stand up for what you believe in. Start petitions! State opinions (but have facts to back you up). Be true to what you believe in by not following mindless policies.

I’ve also included a photo of a dinosaur from Tucson’s T-Rex Museum that the museum displayed at the University of Arizona’s Solstice event on June 21st.

The following short phrases have completely different meanings based on whether or not a space is inserted. Be sure to use the one you mean, or people won’t properly understand what you are talking about. Misinterpretations are not good for relationships.

• a long vs. along
• a way vs. away
• every day vs. everyday
• lay out vs. layout
• no body vs. nobody

English has a lot of confusing words in its language. Many people use certain important homonym (and near homonym) spellings incorrectly. Some I’ve recently seen wrong include the following.

• except vs. accept
• affect vs. effect
• complimentary vs. complementary
• they’re vs. their vs. there
• too vs. to vs. two
• it’s vs. its (Watch those apostrophes! The possessive “it” does not use an apostrophe.)
• you’re vs. your
• our vs. are
• where vs. ware vs. wear
• no vs. know
• lose vs. loose

Want to double check yourself? Check out the Confusing Words website. I don’t think I’ll ever know them all, but I’ll certainly try!

Need to know how to spell something? Check out an online dictionary.

Cats

Playful Fiona
Connor comes to steal my food
Astrid sits on me

Tardis

There is a blue box
Traveling though time and space
Huge on the inside

Stars

Twinkling balls of light
So many lightyears away
Estrellas lindas

Solstice

Summer is starting
The days only get shorter
For half of the year

Moon

Throughout the phases
We only see the one side
Shining down on us

The Journal

Something to write on
And it is for drawing too
So what is it then?

Saguaro Fruit

Bright red cactus fruit
Completely full of black seeds
Like watermelon

Screensaver

On my computer
The screensaver shows me stars
Flying right past me

Volcano

Molten rock erupts
Ash and magma fill the air
From inside the Earth

Desert Animals

Rabbits everywhere
Every place I am birds sing
Desert animals

Quail

Many baby quails
Grouped around a mother bird
All so gray and small

How to Write a Haiku

Haiku is easy
Because you don’t need to rhyme
Just five seven five

Pepper

My chili peppers
Are eaten by the bunnies
Then they steal the rope!

Cholla

Don’t touch a cholla
I know what you would say then
Ow ow ow ow ow

Monsoon Rain

The wash is flowing
Even though the rain has stopped
There is water still

Baby Bunny

Please don’t run away
Baby bunny in the yard
I’d like a picture.

Haiku Fun

Haikus so much fun
Do you like my poetry
I’ve made a lot now

Goober’s Lab

“I’m on level two!”
That’s what Mama said at first
Now it’s thirty-two

One Haiku

I can’t think of one
At least not at the moment
Wait- this is haiku!

Arizona Sunset

Yellow in the clouds
Pink and purple everywhere
Blue and bright orange sky

Questions

Who what when where why
How do we forget this one
Question starting word?

Landing

Soaring through the air
I see cars down on the ground
The plane must land soon

Twilight

Sunset fades away
If the clouds weren’t blocking them
Stars would come out soon

Palo Verde

There’s so many trees
Only that they aren’t at all
So many legumes

I recently went on vacation and was literally in the middle of nowhere several times. During those times, I was extremely thankful all my information (manuscripts, photographs, e-mails) was on my computer. I also went without internet access for a good portion of a day a week or so ago due to a dug up line. Again, I was ever so grateful that I could still do the things I wanted to do! It’s currently “monsoon season” where I live, and that means there will be a lot of power outages. I have a laptop with a battery, so I will still be able to do most of what I need to do on my computer.

What if my computer is lost, stolen, or broken? That is what backups are for. I recommend everyone back up all their important files regularly. Then, regularly check on those files (CDs and DVDs with computer files can become corrupted).

My in-process-blog articles are my only exception to this and I often regret it. This blog is not saved anywhere on my personal computer. This means that while my computer is offline, I can’t do a thing on this website…

I find it fascinating how the milk industry has used this marketing gimmick so effectively that practically everyone I have ever met truly and honestly believes this myth.

Let’s start over. What exactly is calcium? Calcium is an element, technically considered a metal. It is naturally found in rocks. Those rocks are then situated near dirt, which has plants growing in it. The calcium goes into the plant via the soil, just as many other minerals do. Animals, including humans, eat those plants. The plants are their only source of calcium, their bodies do not create calcium.

Let’s repeat that! Calcium is a mineral. The only way for animals to get calcium is to eat plants or to eat other animals who have eaten plants. Animals and their products (such as milk) do not create calcium, calcium is just passing through them from the plants they have consumed. It is inefficient and quite unhealthy (many diseases are caused from dairy consumption) to get calcium from animals and their products.

Why not go directly to the source of the calcium and cut out the middle man (and all the diseases that that middle man brings with it)? I have personally cured the following illnesses and diseases from cutting dairy out of my diet: migraines, ordinary regular headaches, kidney stones, stomach ulcers, Crohn’s disease, IBS, severe and persistent acne, and a few others I can’t even remember. I used to have an overflowing cabinet of drugs that I used regularly. Now, my medicine cabinet contains a bottle of Tylenol for guests, contacts lenses and saline for my husband, some vegan chapstick, essential oils for fun, dental floss, and random jewelry and knick-knacks. I no longer take any drugs of any kind and that is thanks to a healthy vegan diet.

Want the truth about calcium and health? Check out these sites:

Dr. McDougall “Where Do You Get Your Calcium?”

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Here are some items I’ve made:

Check out my Cafe Press Store and Zazzle Store for more DoLifeRight products!

Looking for a super cool Unschooling t-shirt? My local Unschooling group, SOARing Unschoolers, also have a design for sale through Zazzle (currently available on shirts, bags, and bumper stickers). We’ve ordered quite a few and they’ve all turned out great, although you need to order at least one size larger than you think (every t-shirt we’ve tried has shrunk). Plus, I’m proud to say I took the photograph for this design in my front yard (the shirt was designed by another mom in our group). All proceeds on these products are given to the SOARing Unschoolers group.

Ingredients:

• 1 package uncooked whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 1 package lite tofu
• 1 package vegan mozzarella cheese - cut however you want
• 1 package frozen spinach
• lots of fat free tomato sauce - we used 3 jars
• onion powder or dried onions (to taste)
• garlic powder or garlic (to taste)
• vegan parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat to 350F. Crumble tofu in a bowl and mix it with the spinach, onion and garlic. Layer the lasagna over and over again in this order: sauce, noodles, tofu/spinach mix, vegan cheese. Do this until you’ve used up all the ingredients. Finish making sure tomato sauce covers all the pasta - if it doesn’t, the noodles won’t completely cook. Cover in vegan parmesan if desired. Cover with a glass lid, or parchment paper covered in aluminum foil (it is important to not let aluminum touch your food). Cook for at least an hour (we cooked ours for almost 90 minutes), allow to cool slightly, then serve and enjoy!

My family and I live on an acreage south of Tucson, Arizona. We are fortunate enough to have land with many mature saguaros (as evidenced by many of my photographs on this site). We’ve owned our land for four years and we’ve lived on it for slightly over two. In those years, we’ve never quite known what to do with the fruit we’ve seen at the tops of our saguaros every spring/summer. So, the birds and other animals have been enjoying them. This year, we decided to learn how to harvest the saguaro fruit. [For anyone wondering, the flowers of the saguaro are white.]

We picked a fruit about two weeks ago, cut it open and tasted it. It had a green outer layer and was green on the inside. It was bitter and gross! So, we decided it wasn’t ready yet. (We were right.)

Sure enough, San Juan Day came (June 24th) and all of a sudden over half of the saguaro fruit on our saguaros turned a deep bright red. Since we didn’t have the traditional saguaro ribs to make a pole out of, we improvised and used a long stick, a rake, and a yard stick. We’re going to use an orange picking pole (with a little basket on the end) to pick our next batch. We did make the customary Tohono O’odham offering of our first fruit and we then took as many of the red fruits off the tops of two of our “not so tall” (about 12 or so feet tall) saguaros as we could. There is no way we can possibly reach the tops of our tallest saguaros, so we’ll let the birds have those.

We plan on harvesting several more saguaros worth of fruit over this next week. With this batch, we were able to get enough to make one platter of dried fruit leather. We also, of course, ate some fresh fruit. We met a woman last Saturday who said they just allow the fruit to dry naturally and then snack on it as candy over the course of a year. The fruit can also be made into a syrup, a drink, and even pie. I’m sure these are just the tip of the ideas. The taste is similar to prickly pear fruit, but closer to strawberries. I read somewhere that it tastes like figs, but I don’t think so. It is definitely a unique and wonderful flavor that I have never had elsewhere.

When the fruit is ready, the outside of the fruit is a deep red (or at least has a lot of red on it). Pick the fruit from the saguaro however you can. Break off the stem top (this was where the flower was) and use the edge of the sharp stem as a knife. Carefully (watching out for the needles on the outside of the fruit) cut it open with the makeshift knife (which works better than any other implement we tried). Pop it open, and then scoop the bright red fruit out. It is full of pure black seeds. The outer shell can be left for the animals or in a compost bin. Our rabbits, in particular, seem to really love this. We tossed our shells outside of our back door so we could watch the rabbits eat it. The empty shells look a lot like watermelon shells (green and red).

To learn more about saguaro harvesting and recipes, check out these sites:

• Arizona State Museum: Saguaro Harvesting Traditions of the Tohono O’odham

• DesertUSA.com’s Saguaro Fruit information

• Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert

Here are some photographs of our saguaro harvesting adventure: