Watching a sunset.
Planting flowers.
Eating an unhurried dinner together.
Having weekends free for a hike or a visit to the lake.
Being able to kick a soccer ball around the yard together or play catch and watching the dog steal the ball. Continue reading
We are continuing our look at “Completing the Circle” by Thomas Poplawski, and available for free at the Waldorf On Line library.
(If this link does not work, then please go to Waldorf Library On-Line, hit books from the left-hand menu, hit “ebooks” and go the the “C”s to find “Completing The Circle”. I have tried to fix the link twice; it worked for me but apparently some are still having trouble with the link,)
We are looking at the chapter entitled “Losing Our Senses.”
This chapter should be required reading for all parents. It is scary, it is frightening and essentially posits that the human brain of the younger generation is changing in response to the fast-paced and busy technological world we live in. Research done over decades in Munich, Germany by the Rational Psychology Association (GRP) has shown that not only are the senses of smell and taste declining, but by the mid-1980’s, the receptivity of nearly all senses was declining. Poplawski writes: Continue reading
A very sweet reader wrote in and asked me about how I center myself for writing. Well, since I have three small children and a large furry dog running about, I would say my writing at this point is only a meditative process in my head. I go through almost any drafts that need to be done in my head, and then spill it out on a blog post FAST before someone needs something. 
At one point, I wanted to take many of my back posts and turn them into e-books about development, but I do think book writing is and should be different than writing for a blog, and I don’t think I have the time it would take right now to turn a series of back posts into a book. Maybe someday when everyone is a little bit older.
There are many, many beautiful writers on the Internet, and I have rounded up a few good links for you that I have enjoyed: Continue reading
I want to thank a lovely reader and fellow blogging mother from Lima, Peru who nominated me for a Beautiful Blogger Award. Please do check out her blog, “Professions of A Paranoid Perfectionist” by clicking here: http://perfectparanoia.wordpress.com/
I was asked to entail seven blogs who inspire me. Continue reading
The Anglican Communion recognizes all the great and Holy Early Church fathers, just as our Orthodox and Roman Catholic brothers and sisters do. But we do hold a special place in our hearts for St. Ninian, a pioneer in the Christian faith during the fourth century who established a monastery in a remote isle location in Scotland.
I found a little thumbnail on the Internet that I couldn’t seem to enlarge. It was what is left of the Chapel of Ninian at the Isle of Whitby (Whithorn in his native language). Bishop Ninian is considered Scotland’s first Saint (see my Homemaking in Lent post about the very brief history of Christianity in Great Britain to understand how Christianity was pushed into Wales, Scotland and Cornwall).
There is not much known about St. Ninian. It is almost certain that was a Briton and that he traveled to Rome for training – so therefore, he was more tied into the Roman Church of the time than the Celtic Church. His monastery was a center of learning and it was called the Candida Casa, the “white house”. From there, he went out to the Picts and other neighboring tribes and took the news of Christianity with him. Part of the legend around him stipulates that he sowed seeds that grew so fast they became mature plants in a day and that is how the monastery received its food and survived. He planted his ideas and faith in those studying with him, and St. Kentigern, or Mungo as some of you may know him, became one of the most famous. Continue reading
I was thinking today about how activities are like circles in our lives: that circle that is a place of worship and all its corresponding activities, this circle that is a beautiful homeschooling group, here is a circle for the activities of this child and here is a circle for the activity of that child…
The circles can be beautiful, like overlapping flower petals..But they can also be so numerous that the center of the circles, the family, is dissected into little bits. Continue reading
I think whenever there is a lot of yelling going on in a household, it signifies the possibility of several things:
1. The household, or you, are under complete stress. What can you do to simplify your schedule, your rhythm, your life?
2. Lack of nourishment for you at a physical level, an emotional level, or a soul level. What can you do to fill your own bucket so you can be steady? Do you need a break? If you are feeling stressed, how can you change the mood? Being in nature is a huge help.
3. I find sometimes the most gentle people are gentle up to a point, and then they explode. I think this goes back to boundaries. Sometimes gentle people can be too lax in boundaries, and all the small irritations build up until it all explodes. I think what one finds with folks who have older children, who have multiple children, is that they are much quicker to set a boundary in a kind but firm way before it all escalates. Always think about boundaries. Continue reading
