Dear blogging world. I am putting you on PAUSE for a while. I"m not sure when I'll start to play again. but for now, a long silent PAUSE.
Know that I haven't forgotten about you...in fact, the stories are a brewing in my mind. Please stay tuned...
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
lets make some pinecome gnomes shall we?
December! holy crap its December.....it doesn't quite feel like December just yet, I mean, its still in the 40's at night and there are dandelions still holding on for dear life in the yard, the kale is still in full swing and we've barely used the woodstove!? A strange December indeed, but December it is..in that Winter Solstice is quickly approaching and Yule preparations are beginning this week.
This time of year I have a thing for cranberries...I mean after Thanksgiving feast, who doesn't just want to drink cranberry sauce out of the jar? We started this morning with some Cranberry Cocoanut Muffins... YES!!!
Recipe as follows (since i know you'll ask!)
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup hazelnut meal
1/4 cup shredded cocoanut
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1/8 cup honey
1/8 cup sunflower oil
3 eggs
some cinammon
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar for extra fluff
mix, and bake for 15/20 min @350 ENJOY!
and oh yes we enjoyed them for breakfast.
We started some new songs from our morning winter circle....and then set ourselves outside in the drizzly (more like October) morning. We collected pinecones, and searched for any remnants of red berry bushes to decorate for later story time. Upon arriving back indoors, we sang a song of popcorn and pop pop pop pop pop!!! ate ourselves some, then sat down for story.
This weeks story very similar to "the gift of the mighty oak" from our first autumn story block..(remember the boy who goes out to collect acorns to feed his family for the autumn and meets up with the west wind who keeps trying to make the boy loose his way home?) Well this story being that its winter is about a little girl who ends up going into the deep dark forest to find the holly berries for her family to eat throughout the winter time when she meets old mr north wind who freezes people to ice stones. Fortunately a green cloak elder keeps her safely hidden and she was able to bring the holly berries back home along the path, of course only if she wore a crown of holly thorns to keep Old Mr North wind at bay. The children settled down for some playtime, and as usual acted out the scenes from the story :)
Lunch and naptime later, we settled down for our afternoon craft which, like the title of todays blog suggests......is making pinecone gnomes! With the gathered and dried pinecones from our morning walk, we sat down and began drilling some acorn caps left over from our fall acorn wet felting project. The caps serve as hats for our sweet little winter gnomes. We attached some wool for hair, and a beard and with some hot glue magic created....
Well, there's more beard than gnome in Banyan's version, but I think you get the idea :) We hung them up over the window in our living room as they await our Yule Tree....which SHOULD arrive this weekend sometime.
Our evening meal was around a new center piece... a simple casserole dish filled with earth, crystals, and a single candle... "One candle lighted in the wreath, the earth below, prepares to glow" and so begins the first week of Advent... Each week a new candle and verse are added until the week of Yule, all 4 candles are lite.
Stay tuned as we prepare for a special little Banyan trees 6th birthday this week!!! Recipes in the making.....
I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday <3
Recipe as follows (since i know you'll ask!)
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup hazelnut meal
1/4 cup shredded cocoanut
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1/8 cup honey
1/8 cup sunflower oil
3 eggs
some cinammon
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar for extra fluff
mix, and bake for 15/20 min @350 ENJOY!
and oh yes we enjoyed them for breakfast.
We started some new songs from our morning winter circle....and then set ourselves outside in the drizzly (more like October) morning. We collected pinecones, and searched for any remnants of red berry bushes to decorate for later story time. Upon arriving back indoors, we sang a song of popcorn and pop pop pop pop pop!!! ate ourselves some, then sat down for story.
This weeks story very similar to "the gift of the mighty oak" from our first autumn story block..(remember the boy who goes out to collect acorns to feed his family for the autumn and meets up with the west wind who keeps trying to make the boy loose his way home?) Well this story being that its winter is about a little girl who ends up going into the deep dark forest to find the holly berries for her family to eat throughout the winter time when she meets old mr north wind who freezes people to ice stones. Fortunately a green cloak elder keeps her safely hidden and she was able to bring the holly berries back home along the path, of course only if she wore a crown of holly thorns to keep Old Mr North wind at bay. The children settled down for some playtime, and as usual acted out the scenes from the story :)
Lunch and naptime later, we settled down for our afternoon craft which, like the title of todays blog suggests......is making pinecone gnomes! With the gathered and dried pinecones from our morning walk, we sat down and began drilling some acorn caps left over from our fall acorn wet felting project. The caps serve as hats for our sweet little winter gnomes. We attached some wool for hair, and a beard and with some hot glue magic created....
Our evening meal was around a new center piece... a simple casserole dish filled with earth, crystals, and a single candle... "One candle lighted in the wreath, the earth below, prepares to glow" and so begins the first week of Advent... Each week a new candle and verse are added until the week of Yule, all 4 candles are lite.
Stay tuned as we prepare for a special little Banyan trees 6th birthday this week!!! Recipes in the making.....
I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday <3
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanks GIVING
Thanksgiving around these parts is better known as "feasting" because, thats pretty much what happens ALL day long :)
Many of my readers know, my son and I are celiac and lactose intolerant, add to that we're on GAPS diet. (Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet) to help us Banyan with his Sensory processing disorder issues and for me, the crohn's disease that I have. This of course puts a bit of a different spin on the holiday menu.
I wanted to share with you all some of our holiday recipes (in detail) in case you find yourself struggling to make meals to appease your food allergy family.
Here we go....
First and foremost was TURKEY! We purchased our turkey at the farmers market this year from Autumn Harvest Farms. They're a sweet family run farm who raises their animals with plenty of fields, sunshine and care, we've developed a nice relationship with them over the past year since moving to Ithaca and find them not only the most accomidating and friendly folks, but also....they're meat is HIGH quality!
To prepare our turkey we made a brine bath which consisted of 1 cup of salt, 4 cups of vegetable broth, and 4tbsp turkey spice seasoning...we placed it out on the porch in a 5gallon bucket and filled it with water till it was covered overnight. In the morning,we patted her dry, bathed and massaged her with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and set her to roast at 300 degrees for quite a few hours.
STUFFING! and yes, we stuffed her full of stuffing! :)
Here is our gluten free version of stuffing...
1 loaf of pecan bread (2 cups pecan meal, 4 eggs, tbsp apple cider vinegar, baking soda, salt, honey, baked at 350 for 35 min)
once baked and cooled, chop into little squares and toast in oven...mix that with
1 onion, 5stalks celery, 1 bag of cranberries, 3 apples, salt, pepper, turkey seasoning and 1 cup walnuts. mix together and stuff into turkey to bake.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
1 bag fresh cranberries, 1 cup orange juice, 2tbps orange zest, 1/4 cup honey, 2 cloves, 1tbsp chopped ginger. Simmer all on the stove till cranberries pop, leave in fridge overnight.
GRAVY
Mix 2 cups water with turkey giblets/nccks, boil, skim foam... drain out the giblets etc... add to that 2 chopped onions, 2 cloves garlic and 3tbps parsley...boil. In vitamix, grind 1 cup almonds, add boiled mixture and 3tbsp turkey drippings blend till smooth.
ALMOND FLOUR CRACKERS
1 1/2 cups almond flour, 1/4 cup nutritional yeast 2 eggs, 2tbsp olive oil, chopped rosemary mix all together to form a dough ball, roll out between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 1/8 thickness..remove top parchment paper, cut into squares using a pizza cutter or knife, bake at 350 for 12 minutes
CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE
almond flour crust: 1 1/2 cups almond flour, 1 egg, 1 tbps cocoanut oil, 1tsp vanilla blend together and press into pie shell
filling: separate 6 eggs, blend yolks with 1/4 cup honey, whip whites till peaks form. melt bag of chocolate chips in double boiler...add yolks...fold in whites...pour into baked pie shell. Refridgerate for 4hrs, then serve.
PUMPKIN PIE
use almond flour crust above....
Filling: bake one pumpkin from your patch...use 3cups of the baked pumpkin, blend in vitamix with 1 can cocoanut milk 3 eggs, pumpkin pie spice, salt, vanilla and honey. Bake at 350 for 50 min or until top is set.
(NOTE TO BAKERS: HIDE PIES FROM SMALL CHILDREN LEST YOU FIND THEM FINGERED THROUGH IN THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING)
We particularly enjoyed adding some raw herbed goat cheese to our almond flour crackers (which I can tolerate the dairy when raw) as well as some fig, hazelnut spread (bought from health food store) YUM!!!
I hope you enjoyed your feasting today...now time for some fasting!
Many of my readers know, my son and I are celiac and lactose intolerant, add to that we're on GAPS diet. (Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet) to help us Banyan with his Sensory processing disorder issues and for me, the crohn's disease that I have. This of course puts a bit of a different spin on the holiday menu.
I wanted to share with you all some of our holiday recipes (in detail) in case you find yourself struggling to make meals to appease your food allergy family.
Here we go....
First and foremost was TURKEY! We purchased our turkey at the farmers market this year from Autumn Harvest Farms. They're a sweet family run farm who raises their animals with plenty of fields, sunshine and care, we've developed a nice relationship with them over the past year since moving to Ithaca and find them not only the most accomidating and friendly folks, but also....they're meat is HIGH quality!
To prepare our turkey we made a brine bath which consisted of 1 cup of salt, 4 cups of vegetable broth, and 4tbsp turkey spice seasoning...we placed it out on the porch in a 5gallon bucket and filled it with water till it was covered overnight. In the morning,we patted her dry, bathed and massaged her with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and set her to roast at 300 degrees for quite a few hours.
STUFFING! and yes, we stuffed her full of stuffing! :)
Here is our gluten free version of stuffing...
1 loaf of pecan bread (2 cups pecan meal, 4 eggs, tbsp apple cider vinegar, baking soda, salt, honey, baked at 350 for 35 min)
once baked and cooled, chop into little squares and toast in oven...mix that with
1 onion, 5stalks celery, 1 bag of cranberries, 3 apples, salt, pepper, turkey seasoning and 1 cup walnuts. mix together and stuff into turkey to bake.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
1 bag fresh cranberries, 1 cup orange juice, 2tbps orange zest, 1/4 cup honey, 2 cloves, 1tbsp chopped ginger. Simmer all on the stove till cranberries pop, leave in fridge overnight.
GRAVY
Mix 2 cups water with turkey giblets/nccks, boil, skim foam... drain out the giblets etc... add to that 2 chopped onions, 2 cloves garlic and 3tbps parsley...boil. In vitamix, grind 1 cup almonds, add boiled mixture and 3tbsp turkey drippings blend till smooth.
ALMOND FLOUR CRACKERS
1 1/2 cups almond flour, 1/4 cup nutritional yeast 2 eggs, 2tbsp olive oil, chopped rosemary mix all together to form a dough ball, roll out between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 1/8 thickness..remove top parchment paper, cut into squares using a pizza cutter or knife, bake at 350 for 12 minutes
CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE
almond flour crust: 1 1/2 cups almond flour, 1 egg, 1 tbps cocoanut oil, 1tsp vanilla blend together and press into pie shell
filling: separate 6 eggs, blend yolks with 1/4 cup honey, whip whites till peaks form. melt bag of chocolate chips in double boiler...add yolks...fold in whites...pour into baked pie shell. Refridgerate for 4hrs, then serve.
PUMPKIN PIE
use almond flour crust above....
Filling: bake one pumpkin from your patch...use 3cups of the baked pumpkin, blend in vitamix with 1 can cocoanut milk 3 eggs, pumpkin pie spice, salt, vanilla and honey. Bake at 350 for 50 min or until top is set.
(NOTE TO BAKERS: HIDE PIES FROM SMALL CHILDREN LEST YOU FIND THEM FINGERED THROUGH IN THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING)
I hope you enjoyed your feasting today...now time for some fasting!
Monday, November 21, 2011
ThanksGIVING tree
The single hardest thing about homeschooling (for me) is those days when despite all of your planning, all of your organization and all of your ideas.........your heart is just not in it. Its like having to go to "work" when you just want to call in, except that you don't even have the time to call in because your boss wakes you up at 6am and is ready ready READY!!! to start the day.
Today and most of this week has been like that for me...life has this way of happening that doesn't necessarily correlate with what you plan. So I've taken a few days to ease up off of our rhythm a bit...to sloooooww it all down and stretch out the day with the kids...so we're doing everything we intended to do, but with ease.
I had this idea of a Thanksgiving project in mind for a while now...despite "life" and how my heart/mind/spirit were feeling today, it needed to be done. So late in the afternoon, after the sun set, the children and I got out some pencils, scissors and paper and began constructing....
Every Monday is usually our watercolor painting day. This season I'm using the colors Orange, yellow and Red to reflect the colors of nature. Come winter, i'll use blues. I saved the few masterpieces over the weeks, and the other paintings were today were cut into leaves...
Leaves for what you ask?
Our Thank YOU TREE!!
The children decorate and colored in the branches/bark of the trunk...and were curious just what we would do with all of these leaves?
As we placed each leaf on the Thank you Tree. We wrote on it what we were thankful for this year.
Here is the list...
Bailey
My food
The fish
Trees
Water
Nature
Alligators (??really Malaya?)
Grandma Marsha
Grandma Quinn
Mama
Family
Friends
God
My soul
Yoga
Gnomes
Mermaids
The tasty grass (malaya)
Our neighbors
Music
and that is how far we've gotten so far........
each day this week I suspect there will be more to add.
We live each day with reverence and graditude for all of life's blessings...so the idea of Thanksgiving isn't something that is new to us. We do plan to have an extra little feast at the house with our harvested pumpkins, squash, picked apples, and organic local farmer turkey. I'll be sure to share our gluten free/paleo/gaps diet Thanksgiving....pumpkin pie isn't quite the same you see....but still oh so YUMMY!!
What are YOU thankful for this thanksgiving?
Today and most of this week has been like that for me...life has this way of happening that doesn't necessarily correlate with what you plan. So I've taken a few days to ease up off of our rhythm a bit...to sloooooww it all down and stretch out the day with the kids...so we're doing everything we intended to do, but with ease.
I had this idea of a Thanksgiving project in mind for a while now...despite "life" and how my heart/mind/spirit were feeling today, it needed to be done. So late in the afternoon, after the sun set, the children and I got out some pencils, scissors and paper and began constructing....
Every Monday is usually our watercolor painting day. This season I'm using the colors Orange, yellow and Red to reflect the colors of nature. Come winter, i'll use blues. I saved the few masterpieces over the weeks, and the other paintings were today were cut into leaves...
Leaves for what you ask?
Our Thank YOU TREE!!
Here is the list...
Bailey
My food
The fish
Trees
Water
Nature
Alligators (??really Malaya?)
Grandma Marsha
Grandma Quinn
Mama
Family
Friends
God
My soul
Yoga
Gnomes
Mermaids
The tasty grass (malaya)
Our neighbors
Music
and that is how far we've gotten so far........
each day this week I suspect there will be more to add.
We live each day with reverence and graditude for all of life's blessings...so the idea of Thanksgiving isn't something that is new to us. We do plan to have an extra little feast at the house with our harvested pumpkins, squash, picked apples, and organic local farmer turkey. I'll be sure to share our gluten free/paleo/gaps diet Thanksgiving....pumpkin pie isn't quite the same you see....but still oh so YUMMY!!
What are YOU thankful for this thanksgiving?
Friday, November 11, 2011
11/11/11
So here we have this magical number day today, which also happens to be Veteran's Day....which also happens to be the day that we celebrate Martinmas. Wow, three things in one...
Some say that the numbers 11/11/11 symbolize doors, or new pathways to walk through...an evolutionary door...one free from fear, and full of love. I'm not certain what it all means exactly...but it most certainly has been an interesting week leading up to this day.
The week started with a nice afternoon walk in the woods with my little ones over at six mile creek.....
we built boats, set them sail, and ate lunch dangling our legs over one of the waterfalls.
It was that 70 degree day in November....you know two weeks after the October snow we just had! It was a beautiful day of feeling like it was spring once again...atleast for day until it dropped back down to the usual 30's....and once again we had a wee little flurry on our hill today.
The week progressed into what I would call hormonal mama just isn't feeling this homeschooling thing right now dang nabbit vs stubborn Taurus ascendant sensory seeking boy is freaking out because of that Taurus full moon and previously stated mama's crappy energy vs feeling it all 2yr Pisces girl who imitates everyone and somehow ends up a freaking out mess with a rash around her mouth from some "unknown" food source. It started with a disagreement over who was going to clean up the eggs off the floor from Malaya's tantrum and spiraled into a whole two days of YUCK!. I'm ashamed to admit...my waldorf parenting skills went straight out the window and I turned into a thankfully much more mild version of Mommy Dearest mixed with Roseanne Barr for a few hours. Lovely, Jamie, just lovely. Lots of tears from us all, some chill child tea, and bedtime later.... I was woken up at 2am by a chttttttttt, chtttttttttt, ??? what the heck was that? I was pulled out dread world and thrown into fight or flight over a squirrel that had somehow gotten into our cabin and was now RIGHT under my bed, chattering away at me. Ahhhh (have I mentioned I was attacked by a squirrel in my teenage years and have PTS?) GET HIM OUT PAPA BEAR!!!
"oh he'll find his way out, just go back to bed"
" UM, NO, there's a WILD animal in our house!!"
"sigh....grrrump....thud thud thud....." he gets the broom and by the time he returns our sweet little pest had disappeared. I sat up half the night awaiting his return, and eventually passed out feeling rather exhausted by the whole week.....As I woke this morning we were all on shaky footing...we all hesitated going down THAT road again. Somewhere in me, I knew all of my inner bullshit was being thrown in my face in order for me to confront....I mean, thats why these things surface right? to be released....
Three sensory seeking tantrums into the morning, I took the advice of my higher self and hoped into the shower leaving all of the screaming behind me and taking five minutes to breath under the sound of the water. Ah, well that kind of felt a bit better, despite the chaos that continued around me. I bent down to pick up some soap and WHAM....the shampoo bottle feel on my foot. I started crying, got out of the shower, got the kids into the car and went to Target to buy ourselves not only a new shower caddy (cause our other one was half broken, hence the bottle falling) but also a cute little blue bird shower curtain. For once I didn't care if it was made in china, or that I was in Target....I just bought the damn things and left, feeling rather satisfied. I got home, decided to clean the entire bathroom, put up my new decor and all of a sudden, the rain cloud lifted off of us all. It was like we could all breathe again.
As my energy started to flow once more (in a positive direction) I decided that my confused boy needed himself a Weekly Rhythm chart. So he would STOP asking me 10 times/day what we were doing the next day, or when is monday etc... We sat down at the table and colored a rainbow, each day of the week was a different color....then we cut out little activity circles and taped them to their according days. I watched as he began to make sense of the week....and actually remember the numbers.
Some sweet potato muffins later, we sat down to read the story of St. Martin. Which is our semi counter culture version of "Veteran's Day" Saint Martin was born into a military family. One day after being deployed himself to serve in duty, he came upon a peasant in the streets...it was a COLD evening, and the peasant was barely dressed. Martin wore a sheep skin cloak and barely felt the cold. Compassion over ran him and he took his sword and cut his cloak in two...handing the man half of it so as to keep him warm. That evening, he went home, and had a dream.......in the dream Martin saw the man wearing the half of the cloak, and as he looked into the mans eyes, he saw the divine light of God. When he woke up, he decided to leave the military and follow a life of God and became a saint instead of a warrior.
Pretty powerful story for veterans day. It hits home in our family as papa bear became a conscious objector from the Marines back around September 11th. Recently he had his crazy Marine tattoo of a bulldog shooting a machine gun covered up with a bear claw...."papa bear" and all :)
I enjoy telling this story to the children, because they can see the power of compassion, and also see that following your heart and dreams leads us to our inner light....bringing us closer to God.
After the story was finished the children took to their crayons and redrew the story from memory.
"Mama, do my eyes have the light of God in them?"
"yes banyan, they do, I can see it."
So, this whole homeschooling thing shifted into a MUCH more positive ending.....maybe there is something to this 11/11/11 afterall?
What divine blessings have you been bestowed with today?
Some say that the numbers 11/11/11 symbolize doors, or new pathways to walk through...an evolutionary door...one free from fear, and full of love. I'm not certain what it all means exactly...but it most certainly has been an interesting week leading up to this day.
we built boats, set them sail, and ate lunch dangling our legs over one of the waterfalls.
It was that 70 degree day in November....you know two weeks after the October snow we just had! It was a beautiful day of feeling like it was spring once again...atleast for day until it dropped back down to the usual 30's....and once again we had a wee little flurry on our hill today.
The week progressed into what I would call hormonal mama just isn't feeling this homeschooling thing right now dang nabbit vs stubborn Taurus ascendant sensory seeking boy is freaking out because of that Taurus full moon and previously stated mama's crappy energy vs feeling it all 2yr Pisces girl who imitates everyone and somehow ends up a freaking out mess with a rash around her mouth from some "unknown" food source. It started with a disagreement over who was going to clean up the eggs off the floor from Malaya's tantrum and spiraled into a whole two days of YUCK!. I'm ashamed to admit...my waldorf parenting skills went straight out the window and I turned into a thankfully much more mild version of Mommy Dearest mixed with Roseanne Barr for a few hours. Lovely, Jamie, just lovely. Lots of tears from us all, some chill child tea, and bedtime later.... I was woken up at 2am by a chttttttttt, chtttttttttt, ??? what the heck was that? I was pulled out dread world and thrown into fight or flight over a squirrel that had somehow gotten into our cabin and was now RIGHT under my bed, chattering away at me. Ahhhh (have I mentioned I was attacked by a squirrel in my teenage years and have PTS?) GET HIM OUT PAPA BEAR!!!
"oh he'll find his way out, just go back to bed"
" UM, NO, there's a WILD animal in our house!!"
"sigh....grrrump....thud thud thud....." he gets the broom and by the time he returns our sweet little pest had disappeared. I sat up half the night awaiting his return, and eventually passed out feeling rather exhausted by the whole week.....As I woke this morning we were all on shaky footing...we all hesitated going down THAT road again. Somewhere in me, I knew all of my inner bullshit was being thrown in my face in order for me to confront....I mean, thats why these things surface right? to be released....
Three sensory seeking tantrums into the morning, I took the advice of my higher self and hoped into the shower leaving all of the screaming behind me and taking five minutes to breath under the sound of the water. Ah, well that kind of felt a bit better, despite the chaos that continued around me. I bent down to pick up some soap and WHAM....the shampoo bottle feel on my foot. I started crying, got out of the shower, got the kids into the car and went to Target to buy ourselves not only a new shower caddy (cause our other one was half broken, hence the bottle falling) but also a cute little blue bird shower curtain. For once I didn't care if it was made in china, or that I was in Target....I just bought the damn things and left, feeling rather satisfied. I got home, decided to clean the entire bathroom, put up my new decor and all of a sudden, the rain cloud lifted off of us all. It was like we could all breathe again.
As my energy started to flow once more (in a positive direction) I decided that my confused boy needed himself a Weekly Rhythm chart. So he would STOP asking me 10 times/day what we were doing the next day, or when is monday etc... We sat down at the table and colored a rainbow, each day of the week was a different color....then we cut out little activity circles and taped them to their according days. I watched as he began to make sense of the week....and actually remember the numbers.
Some sweet potato muffins later, we sat down to read the story of St. Martin. Which is our semi counter culture version of "Veteran's Day" Saint Martin was born into a military family. One day after being deployed himself to serve in duty, he came upon a peasant in the streets...it was a COLD evening, and the peasant was barely dressed. Martin wore a sheep skin cloak and barely felt the cold. Compassion over ran him and he took his sword and cut his cloak in two...handing the man half of it so as to keep him warm. That evening, he went home, and had a dream.......in the dream Martin saw the man wearing the half of the cloak, and as he looked into the mans eyes, he saw the divine light of God. When he woke up, he decided to leave the military and follow a life of God and became a saint instead of a warrior.
Pretty powerful story for veterans day. It hits home in our family as papa bear became a conscious objector from the Marines back around September 11th. Recently he had his crazy Marine tattoo of a bulldog shooting a machine gun covered up with a bear claw...."papa bear" and all :)
I enjoy telling this story to the children, because they can see the power of compassion, and also see that following your heart and dreams leads us to our inner light....bringing us closer to God.
After the story was finished the children took to their crayons and redrew the story from memory.
"Mama, do my eyes have the light of God in them?"
"yes banyan, they do, I can see it."
So, this whole homeschooling thing shifted into a MUCH more positive ending.....maybe there is something to this 11/11/11 afterall?
What divine blessings have you been bestowed with today?
Monday, November 7, 2011
in a milkweed cradle...
Ah, November, you're turning out to be nicer weather than that October was! Remember my last post about how imperfect I am? Well...its been quite a many day since i've written in this here blog, which might clue one into thinking...she must not have had many amazing wonderful moments to share.
True it is... See last week, I was spoiled by my mother visiting and being Grandma for a few days....and so I've got the post grandma visit blues.
Last week I was also offered a position doing work trade for a local Yoga studio....which I"m so joyously happy about!!! Ahhh yoga classes at my leisure..tis a MUCH needed blessing for a homeschooling mama. So, now that I"m in my yoga groove, I'm realizing how much JUNK is brought to the surface to be relased during my practice. And this week, I've been sitting with all of that junk...and its HUGE heap to clean up I must say. Amidst some of my inner cleaning, I was pigeoning on the rug when I looked over and found my little master yogi Malaya busting out some of her own poses rather intuitively.
Yes, as I marveled at the flexibility of a small child, I wondered to myself....when did I loose it? I mean when do we ALL loose it? When do we all become so locked, so rigid, so tight and tense? What can we do to retain the flexibility of a child? The ease and grace, the lack of tension....and oh don't you know she was smiling immensely throughout her practice.
Later in the morning as we began to head outward I hear a loud "MAMA!!! MAMA!!! COME HERE NOW!!!" Oh dear....whats going on?
Well don't you know....our morning circle song all of a sudden had MEANING!
"In a milkweed cradle
all snug and warm
tiny seeds are hiding
safe from harm
tucked inside the milkweed pod
are magic things
flat round seeds lie in a row
each has a set of wings
and when the seeds are ready
the pods burst open wide
come mr wind,
help them FLY!"
All of a sudden, the afternoon felt complete. The children danced around watching the milkweed seeds take flight and leaping and chasing after them. It was a magical discovery for them. To learn that yes, Milkweed cradles are in fact real, and the seeds do fly. I'm imagining the song being sung with much more gusto at tomorrow's circle time.
Now, if we could only do something to clear out mama's pile of junk so she could relax enough to enjoy these moments with the kiddo's, I think we'd be onto something......I think some Snatam Kaur is in order..shall we?
True it is... See last week, I was spoiled by my mother visiting and being Grandma for a few days....and so I've got the post grandma visit blues.
Last week I was also offered a position doing work trade for a local Yoga studio....which I"m so joyously happy about!!! Ahhh yoga classes at my leisure..tis a MUCH needed blessing for a homeschooling mama. So, now that I"m in my yoga groove, I'm realizing how much JUNK is brought to the surface to be relased during my practice. And this week, I've been sitting with all of that junk...and its HUGE heap to clean up I must say. Amidst some of my inner cleaning, I was pigeoning on the rug when I looked over and found my little master yogi Malaya busting out some of her own poses rather intuitively.
 |
| I missed the shot where she had her feet on her head! |
 |
| head to floor pose |
 | |
| downward dog with extended leg twist |
 |
| her own made up pose, her favorite one |
Yes, as I marveled at the flexibility of a small child, I wondered to myself....when did I loose it? I mean when do we ALL loose it? When do we all become so locked, so rigid, so tight and tense? What can we do to retain the flexibility of a child? The ease and grace, the lack of tension....and oh don't you know she was smiling immensely throughout her practice.
Later in the morning as we began to head outward I hear a loud "MAMA!!! MAMA!!! COME HERE NOW!!!" Oh dear....whats going on?
Well don't you know....our morning circle song all of a sudden had MEANING!
"In a milkweed cradle
all snug and warm
tiny seeds are hiding
safe from harm
tucked inside the milkweed pod
are magic things
flat round seeds lie in a row
each has a set of wings
and when the seeds are ready
the pods burst open wide
come mr wind,
help them FLY!"
All of a sudden, the afternoon felt complete. The children danced around watching the milkweed seeds take flight and leaping and chasing after them. It was a magical discovery for them. To learn that yes, Milkweed cradles are in fact real, and the seeds do fly. I'm imagining the song being sung with much more gusto at tomorrow's circle time.
Now, if we could only do something to clear out mama's pile of junk so she could relax enough to enjoy these moments with the kiddo's, I think we'd be onto something......I think some Snatam Kaur is in order..shall we?
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
addicted to perfection.....
She lifted up a red book upon her desk.. "I brought this out so that you would see the title" Addicted to perfection it read....
oh boy...not everyone's therapist busts out a book of that title...and so it got me to thinking...
of all the ways that I'm NOT perfect......and ok with them. Because while the outside things seems a certain way, inside...their NOT at all :)
From the outside, people who don't know me read my blog and envision this totally together mama who's happily married and raising a special needs son and angelic daughter using this highly idealic "sensory input curriculum" I've gotten comments like...wow, i only had it THAT together...or....how perfect. For those people, I wanted to write todays post which i'll retitle:
"Hello my name is Jamie, and I'm NOT perfect"
1. I raise my voice atleast once/day despite my best efforts not to...
2. I dont answer my phone unless its someone I want to talk to
3. I eat chocolate more than I'd like to admit
4. I secretly dream about what it would be like to have a life without family or obligations
5. My juicer hasn't been cleaned out for DAYS
6. There is likely poop smeared on some wall in our home that I just haven't gotten around to wiping off properly
7. I'm allergic to wheat and dairy and I eat them both atleast once ever few weeks
8. I don't return phone calls or listen to messages
9. I haven't watered my plants in weeks
10. I can't keep a beat for more than 30 seconds
11. I sing all our our fuffy little Enki songs out of tune
12. I wear my hair in a pony tail everyday because I just don't give a shit about my hair or how it looks
13. I've worn the same outfit pretty much the ENTIRE week
14. I spend way too much time on facebook caring way too much about things that don't concern me
15. I don't take my vitamins
16. My cat hasn't been groomed in over a month because i'm too lazy to do it
17. I don't let my kids eat treats, but I sneak them when they're not looking
18. I don't know how to have adult conversations anymore without talking about my children
19. My sense of humor is insulting and dry
20. I think of ideas more than I implement them
21. My kids wear their pajamas all day long
22. I literally just burned the bottom of a pan on the stove by typing this blog and not remembering that I had tea set to boil
23. My kids spend most of their time outside because I'm sound sensitive.
24. I don't go out much because I feel overwhelmed by life outside my bubble.
25. There is a load of washed laundry in my washer that hasn't been put into the dryer for a day because I'd rather blog or eat chocolate almond flour bread than get up and switch it over..which will likely cause a tantrum when someone can't find their favorite pants in the mornin.
shall I continue?
eh, I think you get the picture. So I'm writing this because I want all my readers out there to be aware that the moments I choose to share in my blog are those awesome moments....the moments I am consciously choosing to embrace, share, and focus on.....to remember....to counter balance those "other" moments when things are NOT so peachy and keen!
The truth is, in a home with three sensory sensitive people, and one very non sensory sensitive person life is HARD! We fight, we yell, we stomp our feet, we struggle to understand one another, we struggle to love one another.....
These moments (like pictured in the blog) that we are able transcend our chaos and find that grace are worthy of celebration, but they are just that, moments....often times brief moments of celebrating piled under many other moments of bleck!
We all do the best we can....and while we can all strive towards our holy versions of ourselves, we are in fact HUMAN and lazily floating, walking, running, and often times fumbling towards grace. Those fumble moments are the moments that create the balance of good days and bad days, and its that balance where one finds perfection and freedom. I encourage everyone to embrace those shitty days, those imperfections, those inner struggles....forgive yourselves, and keep moving onwards and upwards on your path. Blessings!
oh boy...not everyone's therapist busts out a book of that title...and so it got me to thinking...
of all the ways that I'm NOT perfect......and ok with them. Because while the outside things seems a certain way, inside...their NOT at all :)
From the outside, people who don't know me read my blog and envision this totally together mama who's happily married and raising a special needs son and angelic daughter using this highly idealic "sensory input curriculum" I've gotten comments like...wow, i only had it THAT together...or....how perfect. For those people, I wanted to write todays post which i'll retitle:
"Hello my name is Jamie, and I'm NOT perfect"
1. I raise my voice atleast once/day despite my best efforts not to...
2. I dont answer my phone unless its someone I want to talk to
3. I eat chocolate more than I'd like to admit
4. I secretly dream about what it would be like to have a life without family or obligations
5. My juicer hasn't been cleaned out for DAYS
6. There is likely poop smeared on some wall in our home that I just haven't gotten around to wiping off properly
7. I'm allergic to wheat and dairy and I eat them both atleast once ever few weeks
8. I don't return phone calls or listen to messages
9. I haven't watered my plants in weeks
10. I can't keep a beat for more than 30 seconds
11. I sing all our our fuffy little Enki songs out of tune
12. I wear my hair in a pony tail everyday because I just don't give a shit about my hair or how it looks
13. I've worn the same outfit pretty much the ENTIRE week
14. I spend way too much time on facebook caring way too much about things that don't concern me
15. I don't take my vitamins
16. My cat hasn't been groomed in over a month because i'm too lazy to do it
17. I don't let my kids eat treats, but I sneak them when they're not looking
18. I don't know how to have adult conversations anymore without talking about my children
19. My sense of humor is insulting and dry
20. I think of ideas more than I implement them
21. My kids wear their pajamas all day long
22. I literally just burned the bottom of a pan on the stove by typing this blog and not remembering that I had tea set to boil
23. My kids spend most of their time outside because I'm sound sensitive.
24. I don't go out much because I feel overwhelmed by life outside my bubble.
25. There is a load of washed laundry in my washer that hasn't been put into the dryer for a day because I'd rather blog or eat chocolate almond flour bread than get up and switch it over..which will likely cause a tantrum when someone can't find their favorite pants in the mornin.
shall I continue?
eh, I think you get the picture. So I'm writing this because I want all my readers out there to be aware that the moments I choose to share in my blog are those awesome moments....the moments I am consciously choosing to embrace, share, and focus on.....to remember....to counter balance those "other" moments when things are NOT so peachy and keen!
The truth is, in a home with three sensory sensitive people, and one very non sensory sensitive person life is HARD! We fight, we yell, we stomp our feet, we struggle to understand one another, we struggle to love one another.....
These moments (like pictured in the blog) that we are able transcend our chaos and find that grace are worthy of celebration, but they are just that, moments....often times brief moments of celebrating piled under many other moments of bleck!
We all do the best we can....and while we can all strive towards our holy versions of ourselves, we are in fact HUMAN and lazily floating, walking, running, and often times fumbling towards grace. Those fumble moments are the moments that create the balance of good days and bad days, and its that balance where one finds perfection and freedom. I encourage everyone to embrace those shitty days, those imperfections, those inner struggles....forgive yourselves, and keep moving onwards and upwards on your path. Blessings!
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