Still here... still pregnant.

Happy Spring!

Still gestating, but I did get some pictures of our spring nature table I wanted to share.

First, here's a picture of the whole nature table. The root children have come out from underground, King Winter is gone, and Mother Earth has taken off her velvet cloak. Under the rust-colored silk is a light green "grass" silk. We'll slowly pull back the "dirt" and reveal the "grass".This is a close-up of Mother Earth. The Mother Earth and large seed baby doll were made by another Waldorf mama, but I forget who. The little "pocket babies" are from A Toy Garden (I think) and the two tiny babies are from a Ryan's Room play set. Katie Grace had the idea to cut up scraps of felt for the seed babies' clothes, and she wanted to add the ladybug we made from a rock as well. We might try to add some other rock insects to the mix. I made the shroom from wool felt.
The wooden tulips are thrift store finds. We made the snails the day we set up the table. (I have pictures to explain how we made them. They're much simpler than the technique I described in my curriculum, and I wish I had thought of this way first, LOL!) and the Blossom Baby I made at a workshop at the Susquehanna Waldorf School. I really miss that place.

How we made the snails:
First, we cut two pieces of felt that tapered inward.

Second, we laid one on top of the other and then folded them in half lengthwise.

Third, we began rolling them up, starting with the thickest end.

Finally, when they were all rolled up, we pushed in a straight pin to hold it all together and cut trimmed the snail's head.
And finally, apropos of nothing, the funky monkey cake we made for Michael's Scout cake auction. We ended up buying it back and Michael took it to school to share as a snack. He took great joy in telling everyone that "everything under the icing is organic, but nothing from the icing up is."

Spring Seasons of Joy is DONE!

I haven't updated here for a while; between gestating and writing the spring book and homeschooling, there's been little time for anything else.

But, the spring book is finished! 90 pages, 10 weeks of ideas, and full of flowers and fairies and fun.

It's available here:
http://naturalfamily.50megs.com/custom_1.html

Things are good, but exhausting here. Katie Grace is loving homeschooling again. She actually picked up a book and started reading for fun today. She's also getting ready for her ballet recital. Nicholas is just crazy and three. His latest obsession is making airplanes and shuttles from torn up scraps of paper. Which actually means he tears up paper and throws it around the room, LOL! Michael is doing well in school and is going to do a flag football workshop at the Y, which he is really excited about. I'm nesting like crazy, and am more than ready for Babymort to be born.

H h

7:00 Wake up to Michael thanking me for leaving him a note on his door. We've been having some issues with him roaming about the house, so we left him a note reminding him he could make himself some toast and then read or play in his room til a grown-up woke up.

7:15 Hubby woke up and went downstairs to read Lord of the Rings to Michael. I snuggled with Nicholas and listened to NPR.

7:45 Got Nicholas dressed and realized Michael had a two-hour delay. We had an inch of snow! Got myself dressed, tidied the bathroom, and put clothes away. Helped supervise the kids' morning routines.

8:30 Put in a load of laundry and ate breakfast. Got Katie Grace started on her daily work and set Michael up writing a long overdue thank you note to his Mimi and PeePaw for their birthday gift. Nicholas built with blocks.

9:00 Did snap circuits with Michael while Katie Grace did her copywork. This week it's

All outside is dark and cold
But just beneath the earth
Sleep seeds from which new life springs
Bringing Nature's gifts to earth.

We've been taking it very, very slowly, one line at a time.

9:30 Michael read a story to Nicholas and built with blocks with him while Katie Grace and I finished up. Today we did H, for Mother Holle's house.

10:00 Michael and I worked to pack his lunch and make sure he was ready for school. We also all had snack (organic fruit leather and honey sticks--holy sugar, Batman!)

10:30 More laundry and a little decluttering. Katie Grace and Nicholas disappeared upstairs and played. While they were occupied, I worked on writing out some music for the spring book.

11:00 Kids were still playing nicely, so I did a little planning for next week, when we focus on St. Patrick's Day. I should have cleaned, but the baby is sitting on my tailbone and I'm having a lot of ouchies today.

11:30 Kids were STILL playing nicely, so I went upstairs to be near them. Finished cleaning out the hall closet.

Noon Heated up beef stew for lunch.

12:30 Katie Grace and Nicholas helped scrub sweet potatoes. I put them on to boil for dinner. While they cooked, we tidied the kitchen a little. Meanwhile, the rescue workers showed up with the truck and collected a month's worth of decluttering from the porch. Nicholas was very sad--"Dat man is taking all our books!!!!"--so we stopped watching and went back to the kitchen and played with play dough for a bit.

1:00 When the potatoes were done, I drained them and popped the peels off. We added butter and brown sugar and Katie Grace and Nicholas used the potato masher to smoosh them. We sang an impromptu potato smooshing song.

1:30 One of the toys I found while decluttering was a wooden telephone. We added it to the play kitchen and Nicholas and Katie Grace made some very important phone calls while I cleared the playroom table.

2:00 Little Bear and Little House

2:45 Quiet time, including Bob the Builder.

3:30 Michael came home. We made popcorn for snack.

4:00 Played in the snow. Well, the kids played in the snow. I watched.

4:30 Warmed up and cleaned the downstairs.

5:00 The older two went to choir and Nicholas helped me make dinner.

G g

8:00 Up, dress, tidy the bathroom.

8:30 Nicholas wandered downstairs in time to say goodbye to Daddy and Michael. He helped make toast (he loves getting it out with the tongs!) and had some fruit. Katie Grace helped me sweep and wiped the table. I was very tired today. This pregnancy is in the home stretch. I didn't want to do ANYTHING today, but I just kept telling myself that all I had to accomplish was the next thing. I tried not to look too far ahead. The house was a mess--we had an insane weekend--which made it even more difficult. I tried to sing some songs as I tidied, and it helped.

9:00 Started to vacuum the living room while Nick tried to build with blocks in my path and Katie Grace did some busywork. Vacuumed the playroom with everyone's help. We sang songs and said verses and fingerplays as we moved things around, and that was our modified circle time.

9:30 G is for Mother Holle's goose. This was our last Mother Holle drawing. We also got out the glass gems and played some math games with King Winter and Jack Frost. Finally, started copying a new poem:

Blow, North Wind, Blow!
All the leaves are falling.
Cold, frost, and snow--
Winter comes a-calling!

10:00 We were going to make the rice pudding from the recipe in The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book, but the phone rang right at snack time. It was my neighbor and we were discussing the homeschool co-op, so we ended up having organic juice-sweetened animal crackers instead. We'll make the pudding later this week.

10:30 Played some beanbag games with Nicholas, and then got him and Katie Grace playing together while I put together a shelf. Now we have our "landing pad" for hats, mittens, bags, etc!

11:00 The great clothes sort continues! Nicholas and Katie Grace built a house for their pretend kitty while I worked on this.

11:30 Finished tidying downstairs. The kids sort of wandered in and out, sometimes helping and sometimes playing. The house was awful. Our good vacuum had been in the shop--it's home, thank goodness--and my hubby had a lock-in at church for The 30-Hour Famine from Friday to Saturday. Saturday night he took some of the kids to a concert, Sunday morning he had church, then a church basketball league pizza party, then he had an ecumenical service that evening. It was just crazy busy, but I am really glad we had time to catch up on everything and set it to rights today.

12:00 Daddy came home and made lunch. We also finished setting up the family altar.

12:30 Told the story of The Snow Child. Katie Grace LOVES this story (although in our version, the Snow Child comes back each winter). She wants to make a nature table with characters from the story, so I have to figure out how to make a snow child. I'm thinking maybe from a baby sock?

1:00 Made a marinade for dinner. The marinade had baking soda and rice wine vinegar, and Katie Grace and Nicholas loved the bubbles. I hadn't eaten lunch, so I got a lot of stuff out to make a salad. Katie Grace decided she wanted one too, so we sat together and ate salad.

1:30 We made "winter windows" by drawing a picture on dark blue paper and then cutting a black "window frame" to glue over it. Inspired by the story, Katie Grace drew a beautiful Snow Child.

2:00 Since we had to pick Michael up today, the kids just played while I worked on the menu and grocery list for next week.

2:30 Read a page of Little Bear Goes to the Moon. Katie Grace was laughing the whole time. She really found it funny.

2:45 Went to pick up Michael. We left early so we would get a parking spot in front of the school. We took Little House on the Prairie along with us and read while we waited.

3:15 Michael was surprised to see us! Usually Daddy picks him up. Came home, had snack. Michael did his homework while Katie Grace got ready for ballet.

3:45 The babysitter arrived and I took Katie Grace to ballet.

5:00 Home and started dinner. We had a really yummy sesame beef and stir-fried rice. Daddy had a meeting, so after our Bible story for Lent (Sarah Laughs) the kids helped clear the table. I told them the legend of the Pheonix and they played a little before baths and bed.

Growing in Faith: Praying with and for Your Children

We do something called "Milestone Ministries" at our church. At baptism, babies receive a faith chest, hand-carved by church members. When they're two and start Sunday School, they get prayer pillows. When they start kindergarten, they get Beginners' Bibles, and so on, all the way up til high school graduation, when they get hand-made fleece blankets. For the past four years, I've been leading a workshop for the parents and toddlers who get their prayer pillows, both at our church and another local church. I got asked to do it again this year. I really wanted to say no, but I'm a pushover, LOL!

It is an interesting topic to me. When I was in grad school, I did a huge research paper of James Fowler and faith development in children. Anyway, since today was largely taken up by a drive to the local camp to pick up song books and a midwife appointment, I thought I would share my thoughts on stages of a child's prayer life.

Before baby is born or adopted, pray for the child.

In infancy, make daily routines--bathing, rocking, nursing, etc-physical incarnations of prayer.

From birth on, place your hands on Baby's head and pronounce a blessing. Pray over your child.

In toddlerhood, prayer becomes a relationship. A child's image of God is strongly based on his relationship with his parents. God is a person, not an abstraction or a spiritual being. A toddler's prayers have mixed motives and are spoken with a sense of conversation and companionship. God is a friend, and prayer is grounded in moral realism.

As a child grows, prayer becomes attentive. It becomes more outward-focused and attention is directed more towards God, friends, family, and creation. Prayer is less self-centered. Children may begin to examine their consciouses and confess faults. They ask questions, and begin to listen for God's answer.

Older children view prayer as a way of participating in God's work. Prayer matters, and can change the course of events. Prayer can increase a child's feeling of active engagement with the world, and prayer begins to strengthen a child's sense of compassion, understanding, and charity.

Finally, prayer is transformation. "To pray is to change." (Richard Foster)

D d, E e, F f

Somehow, I got behind on the letters. We've been telling and retelling Mother Holle. D was the door to her home, E was the golden key she used to open the gate. And now, for today.

8:00 Another late start, but we all got up and got going.

8:30 Breakfast and tidying up the kitchen. Katie Grace is quite the little helper. She likes to wipe the table, take out the recyclables, and then use the dustpan after I sweep. Nicholas likes to help wipe the table and open the door so she can take out the recyclables. We sang a winter verse I made up to "Good Morning, Dear Earth":

Good morning, dear frost
On my window so dear.
Good morning, dear snow,
I'm so glad that you're here!
Good morning, dear ice
And dear wind rushing free.
Good morning to you,
And good morning to me.

9:00 Circle Time with Mother Holle and King Winter

9:30 F is for Mother Holle's feathers that were shaken from her quilt. Nicholas played with k'nex while we colored.

10:00 We made oatmeal muffins from a recipe in the old Mothers in the Kitchen cookbook from LLL.

Combine 1 cup rolled oats and 1 cup buttermilk.
Add 1 egg, beaten and mix well.
Add 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup oil.
Sift together 1 c whole wheat flour (although next time I might try a mix of unbleached and whole wheat), 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda,and 1 teaspoon baking powder and add to the oatmeal mixture, only enough to dampen.
Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

They were pretty yummy!

10:30 Nicholas wanted to play Chutes and Ladders, so we got it down.

11:00 Clothes sorting--I got all the girl clothes sorted and boxed, W00t!--while Nick and Katie Grace played upstairs.

11:30 Noticed it was snowstorming! Had several deep intense discussions with DH about canceling my midwife appointment, which I did. Katie Grace found her baby quilt and pretended to be Mother Holle shaking it out while singing some of the songs we've been learning.

Noon The snow stopped. DH came home for lunch and decided to work from home for a bit.

12:30 Retold Mother Holle with some songs. We also read the picture book Grandmother Winter, which is essentially the same story.

1:00 Tidied the kitchen and did some dinner prep (made some bacon for the quiche).

1:30 Kids played "puppy" by tying silks around each others' waists and going for walks while I worked on the Spring book.

2:00 We almost finished reading "Birthday Soup" from Little Bear and started "Little House in the Prairie".

2:30 Bob the Builder and nap for me.

3:30 Snack and homework. No outside today, as it was below freezing.

4:00 The kids were really into building with blocks, even Michael.

Ash Wednesday

Today was the first day in our Lenten journey. We turned our family altar into a Lenten alter, with a purple base cloth, a bare wooden cross draped in purple, an unlit candle, a statue of Jesus DH's parents brought back from Israel, and a vase filled with bare branches. I want to also add a bowl-full of earth, but the yard is covered with sludgy snow and bare earth is a little hard to come by right now. We also made a paper chain with purple links for weekdays, golden links for Sundays, and a white link for Easter.

I was reading All Year Round by Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton, and Marije Rowling and loved what it said about Ash Wednesday, Lent, and children:

Fasting and self-discipline have little relevance for young children, even though they attempt to "give up sweets for Lent." They will participate in such moral content more through the unobtrusive example of the parent or teacher, who leads them in this way through what is really an adult festival.

Easter is very much a morning festival--the women disciples came to the tomb "very early in the morning." To be properly awake to what the morning can bring, we need to have had a "good night." We need to have spent some time in our own quiet darkness away from outer stimulation, in that mysterious place which is yet familiar-- a space which is, above all, restorative.

This is what Lent could be for all of us, a time during which we gather the forces needed to meet the vital renewal of our daily lives. For young children, their pleasure in the fullness of Easter Day can only be greater if they have been prepared through the quiescent "night" mood of Lent. (pages 41-42)

The last bit reminded me of something Katie Grace said on Sunday when we talked about "putting away" Alleluia during Lent. She thought about it for a bit, and then said, "Oh, I know! Alleluia is a joyful word, and we save up all our joy during Lent for Easter morning!"

So, in our family, we celebrate Lent by...
...eating simple meals with no deserts (or fruit for the littles) except on Sundays and feast days
...the aforementioned paper chain
...reading a story from Bible Stories for the 40 Days each day
...paying special attention to the dawning of the day (if we're awake!) and the coming of night

Shrove Tuesday

Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan.
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake,
Catch it if you can!
-Christina Rosetti

Happy Shrove Tuesday! Today was a laid-back sort of day. It had to be. I don't know why it is, but it seems like whenever we have a really good day, the next bad is really hard. I don't know if it's that it takes so much energy to have a good day, or that I set myself up for a fall, or what, but it always seems to follow. Yesterday was good, today was not so good.

We did a lot of cleaning and planning and getting ready for Lent. We're also working on creating a "landing pad" for hats, coats, mittens, backpacks, library bags, etc. I told the story of Mother Holle today, and Katie Grace really liked it. Nicholas liked the part where the naughty sister was covered with pitch, LOL!

Tonight we had what Michael calls "binner" (breakfast for dinner). We made Irish Pancakes from a recipe in A Continual Feast. They were yummy!

Recipe:
Sift together 2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt. Next, beat an egg and combine with 3 cups of buttermilk. Mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff and cook on a griddle or in a frying pan.

They're really yummy.

You might notice I went to moderated comments. Honestly, when I started this blog, I debated whether or not to even have comments. I never meant for this to be anything but a recounting of our days and a memory for our family, and if there are ideas someone else can share, great!

To the person who keeps leaving nasty comments: I'm not going to respond and I'm not going to post them. My blog isn't about you or your feelings. If you have some issue with me and would like to discuss it without hiding behind the cloak of anonymity, please feel free to PM me over on MDC since you seem to know me from there. If reading about my life is stressing you out so much, by all means, stop. Live your own. Peace.

Cc

Michael was home today for Presidents' Day, so it was a good opportunity to "try out" having him home. It went remarkably well!

8:30 Woke up, showered. Nicholas and Katie Grace were still snuggled up in bed. It is really, really hard to get out of bed when they're so snuggly. Usually, I give in and stay with them, but this morning I won the battle against myself and hopped out.

9:00 By now, the two littles woke up as well. It was a really peaceful transition. I'm not sure why though. Sometimes, when things are going really well, I think to myself, "I really need to take a moment and mark what exactly is happening that makes this work." But then it's so peaceful being in the moment, that I don't want to put myself outside of it by thinking too hard.

9:15 Breakfast. Michael had already been up and downstairs for a while, and he created this really elaborate scene with the playsilks, blocks, and animals. He found my Lion King Broadway Soundtrack and is really into it, and that's what he created. There were five separate components to it. I took pictures; I'll have to post them sometime. He tidied up while we finished breakfast. Then he and Nicholas helped me in the kitchen while Katie Grace made her bed. I switched the laundry and we all got ready for the morning.

9:30 We skipped circle this morning, partially because we had a late start, partially because we had fun singing rhymes up when we were getting dressed, partially because Michael was home and I haven't yet worked out how to do it all with all three home. Michael looked at some books that mentioned the presidents (he seemed to really like "A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln" and "A Picture Book of George Washington) and decided he wanted to "do a report." Nicholas colored while I told Katie Grace some curled-up cat stories for the letter C. We took it pretty easy today.

10:00 Katie Grace and Nicholas built with blocks while Michael and I cracked open the Snap Circuits set he got for his birthday. We did the first two experiments, and Michael really loved it. When he was done, he drew a picture of what we did so he could share with his daddy.

10:30 We made brownies--yum!--and dusted and cleaned the living room. Everyone helped. The stars must have been aligned just so, because no on fought for a change.

11:00 Michael worked/played in his room and I kept up with the Great Clothes Sorting Project. I found about 5 sweaters for him that I didn't know we had. Whoops. Katie Grace and Nicholas started out playing together in her room, but ended up sitting on the bed and watching. Katie Grace especially has this odd sense of nostalgia when she sees the little dresses she used to wear. They both get so excited when we find things for the new baby.

11:30 We all went downstairs and played The Princess and the Dragon. We bought it this summer at the Higgen's Armory Museum on vacation, and hadn't played it yet. Even Nicholas could participate somewhat.

Noon Lunch. Nicholas wanted cold pizza (odd child) and the other two made their own sandwiches. We followed up with brownies for desert. Daddy surprised us by coming home and we got to share our brownies and tell him about our morning.

12:30 Story time. We started Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire. It was too long to finish in one setting though.

1:00 Katie Grace's turn to work on her room while the boys helped me in the kitchen. First we cleaned up the remains of lunch. Then I taught Michael how to use the child-safe knife from Pampered Chef. Last night he cut his finger because he was trying to use kitchen scissors to cut celery. :( So he washed and cut carrots and celery for the stew. Nicholas scrubbed the potatoes and put them in the crock pot after I cut them.

1:30 They ran loose while I worked on curriculum for a half-hour.

2:00 You read to me and I'll read to you time. Katie Grace is reading Birthday Soup from the Little Bear book. If we go with Oak Meadow next year, she'll have it again, but she's taking it very slowly. I think she read three pages today. Then we read another chapter in Farmer Boy. We're almost finished. I wish she would pick something else, but she wants to move on to Little House in the Prairie after this.

2:30 Naptime for me, Bob the Builder time for them.

3:30 TV off, and then snack and we got ready to go to the library. Daddy came home early and we all went, then we came home and had dinner. We made a yummy cherry pie desert with homemade whipped cream for Presidents Day. The only downside was DH had an unplanned meeting at church, but he was able to read Michael a chapter of Lord of the Rings before he left, so there didn't seem to be any hard feelings.

Tomorrow Michael goes back to school. I'll miss him!