The ingredients that make up the recipe for the #bestdayever are unique to everyone's taste. For me, this past Saturday at Bottle Hill Day in Madison, NJ certainly whipped up to be one of the most exceptional days we have had in a long time...the weather was perfect, the community was welcoming, friends came out to support us, we sold lots of books, we planted seeds for our workshops and most importantly our family was together doing something we absolutely LOVE! Gardener Anna & Gardener Aidan with their #thefoxsquad Gardener Aidan working the You Are a Gardener® Booth at Bottle Hill Day in Madison, NJ Gardner Anna's Custom Made Fox Bracelets Were A Hit! To Special Order-Send Us An Email! So Many Friends & Family Came Out To Support Us! We Met Sooooo Many New Friends Who Are Going To Help Us Spread Some Seeds! Thank You Madison, NJ & The Madison Main St. Foundation For Sponsoring Such A Wonderful Event! We Can't Wait For Next Year's Bottle Hill Day! #PullYourWeeds | #PlantNewSeeds | #YouAreAGardener

Whether you are a parent, teacher, school counselor, principal or guardian...now is the time to book a virtual #PullYourWeeds® SEL workshop for your kids today! For only $150 you will be planting positive seeds that will blossom for a lifetime! Book Now-Click Here! Would you like to print this out and share the You Are a Gardener® SEL Lesson Plan? <> Are you interested in hearing what others have to say about our programs? Click Here to learn more! Now more than ever children need tools to help them navigate stress and uncomfortable emotions. By creating a new narrative that uses gardening vocabulary as emotional metaphors, You Are a Gardener®️ organically connects with children to empower them with a mindset that helps them ‘grow‘ forward confident & calm. << Schedule a workshop today by emailing us flowers@youareagardener.com >>

Hello Gardeners! Who is ready to learn how to draw Birdie from our children's book You Are a Gardener®?!? Grab a piece of paper and something to draw with because today our Illustrator, Kelsey Jordan is going to teach you how to draw this adorable character step-by-step. Scroll down to read more about how guided drawings can be a powerful tool for a child's social and emotional development. <> <> We love guided drawings as a mindfulness activity for gardeners of all ages. This powerful 'gardening tool' is a great way to de-stress, draw your attention back to the present moment and distract you from any weeds, aka negative thoughts you might have. Plus, guided drawings help children break down an entire subject into lines and shapes they are comfortable with. The sense of joy this activity brings to children is extremely rewarding especially when they complete the task and see what they have accomplished! Congratulations Gardeners...you just earned yourself the Bird Drawing Badge! How many gardening tool badges have you earned so far? Send us an email to flowers@youareagardener.com Looking to earn more 'gardening tool' badges? Press Play on the video below and earn up to 5 more badges in our very own video series Camp Hello Gardeners® Session 5. <> To learn more about our Camp Hello Gardeners® video series-CLICK HERE! #PullYourWeeds®

📢 Breaking News -The gardeners have just signed up for Bottle Hill Day this Saturday 10/2 in Madison,NJ! 📢 Come visit us at booth K11 by the amusements on Kings Road! Set an alert on your phone for 2:30 when we will be doing a FREE #PullYourWeeds®️ Workshop for gardeners of all ages. We will have kid-friendly giveaways, crafts, raffles & more fun!!! We can’t wait to get out there and spread some seeds. See you there gardeners! 🦊 For Immediate Release: Attention Madison, NJ Residents: Shanna Truffini, author and creator of the children's book and platform You Are a Gardener® will be hosting a #PullYourWeeds® Workshop for children of all ages at her booth at 2:30 this Saturday 10/2/21 at Bottle Hill Day. This free and interactive workshop will feature a book reading of her children's book, an overview of the You Are a Gardener® vocabulary/mindset, introduce kids to an easy mindfulness activity and will finish off with a fun craft featuring origami foxes. There will also be kid-friendly prizes, giveaways and a raffle!

In March of 2019 I set up a booth at the New Jersey Montessori Association Corporation(NJMAC) conference. This was my first experience at spreading seeds in a convention environment (scroll down for a pic). I have always been a big supporter of the Montessori community, as I feel extremely connected to their child-centered education philosophy. Fast forward to this summer when an email popped up in my inbox from Faatimah, an exceptional educator that I met NJMAC. This was a seed I had planted years ago and now it was sprouting! Faatimah has been reading my book to her students since that convention and she has incorporated The You Are a Gardener® vocabulary and mindset in her classroom. To bring the program full circle she signed up her students for a #PullYourWeeds® Workshop! “My students absolutely loved Gardener Shanna’s You Are a Gardener workshop. Gardener Shanna has such amazing positive energy and a beautiful message of hope for young people. The students learned a few ways to overcome negative emotions (pull their weeds) and most importantly the most important tool of sharing their challenging emotions with someone they trust. They also loved the origami activity and can’t wait for another visit. Thank you Gardener Shanna for everything you are doing for people of all ages.” Last week I had the greatest pleasure of visiting Faatimah's class of 4th & 5th Graders at the Miftaahul Uloom Academy in Union City, NJ. This was my first time back in classroom since March of 2020 and this group of students were some of the most enthusiastic, energetic, kind and welcoming kids that I have ever worked with... a true reflection at how passionate their teacher is! We ended the workshop with one of our favorite 'gardening tools'-origami foxes! I look forward to working with Faatimah and her students again soon! I can't wait to see what seeds will sprout from this adventure! Miftaahul Uloom Academy You are Gardeners! To schedule a #PullYourWeeds® SEL Workshop for your class, school or family please send an email to flowers@youareagardener.com Shanna Truffini in March 2019 at the NJMAC Conference

“Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me." -Fred Rogers We squeezed summer to the last drop and snuck in a quick trip to Nantucket this past weekend and took our annual photo in front of Fred Rogers' Nantucket home. We had the first copy of our children's book, You Are a Gardener® in the summer of 2018 and started this fun, family tradition. Scroll down to see how much these little gardeners have grown plus a beautiful picture of Fred with his wife Joanne in front of their summer house in Nantucket. Plus, read some of our favorite quotes from Mister Rogers. "There's a part of all of us that longs to know that even what's weakest about us is still redeemable and can ultimately count for something good." "Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of this jewel; and, in perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal. We are intimately related. may we never even pretend that we are not." "Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others." ~Fred Rogers

Alright gardeners today we are sharing with you one of Gardener Anna & Gardener Aidan's most joyful gardening tools! We teamed up with the inspiring Erica Lasan, aka our JOY jockey to tell us all about the power of vision boards! Visions boards are a wonderful social and emotional learning (SEL) tool because they provide gardeners (of all ages) with a daily visual reminder of our hopes and dreams. This visual tool can help us develop a mindset on how to reach and achieve those goals. It's all about planting those seeds! >>PRESS PLAY TO WATCH GARDENER ERICA SHOW US HOW TO MAKE OUR VISION BOARDS!<< >>PRESS PLAY TO WATCH GARDENER ERICA SHOW US HOW TO MAKE OUR VISION BOARDS!<< Erica's mission is to transform the world through RADICAL JOY. Creating a world where everyone is able to access joy through purpose, open conversation, and healing experiences. The hope is that this will create true healing and real change – for this generation, and generations to come. To start your JOYrney To Purpose and connect with Erica you can visit her website by Clicking Here! Congratulations Gardeners...you just earned yourself the Vision Board Badge! How many gardening tool badges have you earned so far? Send us an email to flowers@youareagardener.com Looking to earn more 'gardening tool' badges? Press Play on the video below and earn up to 5 more badges in our very own video series Camp Hello Gardeners® Session 5. <> Empowering gardeners of all ages with tools and skills to help them identify, communicate and manage their emotions to help them proceed confidently & calmly is at the root of everything we stand for! #PullYourWeeds®

I wrote this post in November of 2020 and feel it is more relevant now than ever, so I wanted to re share it...Shanna Truffini Aidan was learning about fragments the other day and read this description out loud, “Fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause.” This is how I am feeling about our current state of affairs with families, colleagues and neighbors in such a state of divide...we are so to speak, totally fragmented. We have become so rooted in our own experiences we are having a hard time seeing things from another’s perspective. One thing that connects us all as human beings is the universal desire to want and feel good’...not feel scared, not feel stressed, not feel sick, not feel bad...just to feel good. What we are doing in our own lives today is having major impact on all of our futures. This energy we are creating now will be felt for future generations. We are all part of this great big, beautiful sentence that needs one another to come together in a cohesive manner to effectively communicate our ‘main clause’ and right now that is to ‘feel good’, and not bad-no matter what your beliefs are. So as we stand on the brink of the entire world feeling vulnerable, scared, and stressed, I find myself searching for solutions on what I can do as one individual to help us come together, reconnect and feel good. I will continue to write/post positive, hopeful, and honest content that is rooted in empowering our children and ourselves with positive conflict resolution skills. I will put extra effort into spreading the word about my social and emotional learning programs that help unite children, families and educators with tools and skills to positively identify, communicate and navigate big emotions. When I am with my family, friends and colleagues I will try my best to ‘respond’ to uncomfortable encounters when they occur instead of ‘reacting’, knowing that the energy I create effects all of those around me. I will be accepting of others opinions even if we see things differently. I will continue to teach my children to be accepting and including of all human beings, no matter what...because the truth is, at the end of the day, if we all use what we learned from today, together we can make tomorrow a brighter place. ~Shanna Truffini Click Here to learn more about Shanna Truffini and the seeds she is planting for children, families and educators!

According to CASEL, "Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. GET ON OUR SCHEDULE TODAY! Our #PullYourWeeds® SEL Program Is Rooted In ✔︎Children embracing & understanding that they have the power to control the way they feel. ✔︎Empowering children with growth mindset tools and mindfulness activities. ✔︎Self-empowerment, self-compassion and confidence building. ✔︎Keeping the lines of communication open between children and trusted sources. ✔︎Strengthening and building positive conflict/resolution skills. ✔︎Encouraging empathy and responsible decision making. We are now offering our virtual #PullYourWeeds® SEL workshops for elementary schools, private family sessions, non-profit children's organizations, parent groups and more! To book now please email flowers@youareagardener.com or for testimonials of our program Click Here! RECENT TESTIMONIALS OF THE #PULLYOURWEEDS® PROGRAM The presentation was outstanding to say the least! The second graders learned numerous techniques to manage their stress. The power of positive thinking is the focal point of this creative presentation. It is very apparent that Ms Truffini is extremely dedicated and dynamic. The children learned lifelong social- emotional skills. ~Tara W. 2nd Grade Teacher Cedar Grove, NJ The Gardener program was a great way to help students navigate their emotions and it gave them the tools they need to take control back in regulating their emotions! I loved seeing them try out the breathing techniques and sensory activities on their own, even after the workshop. Thank you for providing our students with these tools they will use in 4th grade and beyond in life! ~Kim T. 4th Grade Teacher Denville, NJ I can't think of anything more necessary right now than teaching our children and students mindfulness and ways to manage stress. As an educator, our students deal with so much, from academic pressure to peer pressure. Social media along with the pandemic has heightened our already anxious children. Shanna Truffini's book along with her academic workshops target today's students brilliantly. The message of managing anxiety and practicing mindfulness is clear and universally age appropriate. The students' response to Shanna's workshop along with her book was incredible to witness. Now more than ever, integrating mindfulness should be a top priority for all districts, parents, and educators. I highly recommend contacting Shanna for more information regarding the "You are a Gardener" program. She is relatable, knowledgeable, and creative in tailoring parts of her program to fit your individual needs. As an educator and a mother, I can't speak highly enough about Shanna and her incredible program she has created.” ~Stacey I 4th Grade Teacher Watchung, NJ >>Get Your School, Group or Family on our schedule today! << flowers@youareagardener.com

>>PRESS PLAY TO TAKE A QUICK TOUR OF OUR #PULLYOURWEEDS® PROGRAM<< Introducing the You Are a Gardener® mindset to children a consistent basis is where the real benefits of our program take root! Our virtual #PullYourWeeds® SEL Workshops use gardening vocabulary to help kids identify strong emotions and turn them into empowering and positive solutions! Press Play to take a tour and start spreading some seeds today! Please email flowers@youareagardener.com for pricing and availability.

The first time I had hummus I was a freshman in college and my dear friend, Danielle brought in a big batch from home that her mother had made for a family celebration. The creamy, nutty, rich flavor somehow melted in my mouth and tasted good on everything. Needless to say it was love at first dip! (Scroll down for ingredients & a fun joke : ) These days, this popular Middle Eastern dip can now be found in almost every grocery store and convenient store, but none of the brands I have tried have ever matched the flavor of Danielle's family recipe. So, today on the #PulYourWeeds® Blog I am sharing with you this jewel of a recipe that Danielle and her family shared with me. Not only is this minimal ingredient recipe easy to make, kids love it and it is also fun to put your own spin on it. Enjoy! Danielle's Delicious Hummus ✿ 1 15.5 oz can of chickpeas washed and drained ✿ 2-3 tablespoons of good tahini ✿ 1/4 cup of frsh squeezed lemon juice ✿ 1/4 tsp of salt (or more to taste) ✿ 1/2 teaspoon of frsh garlic (or more to taste) ✿ 4-5 tablesppons of olive oil ✿ 3 to 4 tablespoons of water Mix all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. You may have to add more oil and/or water to reach that creamy consistency. This particular recipe is hard to duplicate. Every batch tastes a little different so taste as you go and add a little more if the flavor isn't coming through. You want to be able to taste each ingredient. Danielle's Pro Tip: Do not double this recipe. Make in small batches. The beauty of this recipe is you can mix it up with different toppings or mix ins. Try these for a fun flavor spin: everything bagel seasoning, paprika, roasted peppers, extra lemon, extra garlic, toasted pumpkin seeds, roasted pine nuts, olive mix, or chopped up jalapenos. #PullYourWeeds | #FamilyRecipes | #TasyTreats -

I have had a lot of requests lately for flyers and information on the roots of the You Are a Gardener® platform. I am extremely grateful for all the seeds so many supportive gardener friends are helping me spread far and wide! If you would like to learn more about what we are doing to help raise a new generation of emotionally empowered kids, scroll down and dig in! Please feel free to share any of our information to your family, friends, schools and organizations! For more information please email us at flowers@youareagardener.com #PullYourWeeds®