Scoop-a-Story

Our sweet lady on . Served us so lovingly every day of our stay at from her boat! A brew-tiful experience this! 😅☕️🌧🌊👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

This property has my heart. 💜 We chose to stay here in April this year because of its unique location and rustic ambience of ancient architectural style of Kerala. However, what caught our fancy even more was the fact that this place promotes all environment-friendly practices with respect to waste, water, energy and the community at large. 🌎

Would love to go back again some day! 💭 Till then, we make a reel and reminisce 😂

Everyone has a friend during each stage of life. But only lucky ones have the same friend in all stages of life. 💕💕

Can anything be more true? - you both have stood by me, in storm and in rain, in crazies and the sane! 🌪⛈😍🤩

Love you both to bits! 💜🧿🧿💜

Those new shoes you bought for that walk.

The saved phone number for a talk.

That yoga mat lying in a corner of your room.

The book waiting on a shelf for so long.

Life happens. Things carry more dust than meaning sometimes. But then, there comes a day, when you pour some love in your cup and just begin! 🚶‍♀️📱🧘🏼‍♀️📚

The essence of most Indian festivals is interconnected with Mother Nature, carrying the eternal message of protecting our environment beautifully. That’s the reason why, these festivals become a tool for me to imbibe in my daughters, a love for earth. 🌱

We celebrated the festival of today, welcoming the spirit of spring with open arms 😊

🌼 The day started with a walk in the garden admiring the beauty of nature and talking about the change of seasons. 🌷🌷

🌼 Aarna loves to sketch these days. She had made a sketch of baby feet a few days back. Today, I shared with her how she can use the same idea to sketch the feet of Goddess Saraswati. She loved the thought and did just that! 👣

🌼 Both the girls were gifted beautiful and bright yellow chunris by their dadi 👵🏻

🌼 They gorged on some yummy saffron sweet rice for lunch 🌾

🌼 I plan to share the story of Goddess Saraswati in the evening with Aarna.

Cultural celebrations and traditional tales not only add more joy to our everyday life, they also give a chance to see the world in a different and positive light. How did you celebrate today? Do share in the comments 🌻

The promise of new beginnings 🌼

Brining in spring with color and hope 🌺🌸🌷🌸🌺 Happy Basant Panchami and Saraswati Puja to everyone 🙏🏼🌻

Borrow some saffron from the marigold 🌼
A little green from the leaves ☘️
Conserve more for generation next 👨‍👩‍👧
Uphold the constitution in which it believes 🇮🇳

We try and celebrate every occasion/festival, generating waste as less as possible. We try and reuse things around the house for decorations and celebrations.

I am so glad that today, Aarna brought these flowers and leaves from the garden herself, and beautifully used them to make an Indian flag!

The conversations I have with her about the planet and environment, about saving resources, reusing and recycling (5Rs), are reflected in this small craft activity she did this morning. She also used fruits to recreate the flag on her plate 🍊🍌🍈

Let’s celebrate the 73rd Republic Day and keep the planet intact for many more. Happy Republic Day 🎉

Learning by doing has greater benefits for development of kids than rote learning, I am sure many of you will agree.

Here is an interesting and (almost) healthy way to teach children about the solar system and intrigue them about all things celestial!

🌌 Bake a cake of your choice. We baked our favourite coffee chocolate cake. 🥮😋

🌌 For the orbits - Use coconut powder to make 4-5 (depending on the size of your cake) semi-circles on the cake. The child can sprinkle the powder with fingers without needing any special tools.

🌌 Place the planets in this order on the cake -
Sun - A slice of peeled orange cut from the middle. For sun rays - use the peels itself cut into thin juliennes.
Mercury - The inside of a black grape.
Venus - Slice of banana.
Earth - For the base, use slice of a Kiwi and on top you can sprinkle pieces of blue gems.
Mars - Slice of beetroot (it’s in season 🤪) else you could use tomato too 😊
Jupiter - Apple slices bundled together to form a circle.
Saturn - Orange peel for the base and beetroot peel for the ring (why waste the peels when you can use them) 👧🏻
Uranus - A blue gem , feel free to use a blueberry if you have it available.
Neptune - Top of a black grape.

🌌 What did we learn?
🌈 Basic life skills through baking and other kitchen work like peeling and cutting the fruits.
🌈 Basics of solar system, sun, fun facts about the 8 planets, what’s an orbit, why Pluto is a dwarf planet, phases of moon etc.
🌈 Understanding why we should not waste. After all, there’s no

Hope you liked what we did! Do leave a comment below if you plan-et for your kids too 😀💜

Out in the jungle,
Where the flowers grow wild,
I want to walk and breathe,
The air

Out in the jungle,
Where the birds chirp,
I want to run and chase,
It’s only fair

Out in the jungle,
Where the bees buzz,
I want to hear the sound,
Just stare

I want to hold it near,
It’s slipping away,
Give me a hand,
Let’s care

Happy World Wildlife Day!

Marigolds were in full bloom on our terrace garden during the months of October and November. Aarna collected and saved seeds from the dried flowers (that were used for puja by her grandmom). 🌼

We had a couple of plastic bottles lying in the house and decided to reuse those as planters for sowing these marigold seeds. 👩🏼‍🌾

The plant has grown big and beautiful, however, hasn’t flowered yet. Aarna was excited to repot the plant in a bigger planter; awaiting the bloom again. 😍

From deterring pests to attracting pollinators and improving soil quality, these flowers are a garden staple for many. Totally justifying the ‘gold’ in their name, isn’t it? 🙂

Hard work, patience, persistence, adaptability, and most of all, the beauty of slow living - this little plant will teach Aarna a lot. I am a happy mom! 👩‍👧