I firmly believe in parenting that there are seasons to everything. Some seasons or years are being at home (especially, for example, when you have younger children). Some seasons are expansive. Some seasons might be about you and your partner – I have friends who just had the summer of “husband and wife” and traveled.

This time of Michaelmas is a calling back to our inner most selves as we prepare for winter and prepare for rest and being in our homes more.

In my season of having very different things happening – running up to our daughter’s college for varying things this fall, senior year for our middle, seventh grade activities, working, homesteading and running an equine business – I have needed some different tools to keep myself on track. I am trying these out this fall:

1. Menu planning. I always was a good menu planner but somehow got off track with moving to the farm last year. Back to planning!
2. Blocking out days to be home with a big “X” on my calendar. I usually see patients even on the weekend, so it’s important I garner some time at home.
3. Blocking out self-care – I have tried this all different ways. I do better with exercise classes outside the home so it doesn’t get shoved aside and is more treated like an appointment.
4. Not scheduling things during our homeschooling hours.
5. Making time with my husband a priority. It’s easy to lose each other because we have to divide and conquer so much of the time.
6. Keeping to the rhythm of the year. I find it very nourishing!
7. My calendar is blocked off into spring and the end of the school year with some things, and I try to schedule out exercise and self care at the beginning of each month.

I would love to hear some ways you keep yourself on track as far as your time!

Blessings and love,

Carrie

Michaelmas is celebrated in the Western Church and in Waldorf Schools on September 29. In Waldorf Schools these days this festival is celebrated with themes of bravery and courage, of the idea of slaying dragons as a physical embodiment of overcoming challenges.

The season of Michaelmas, for me, really lasts from a few weeks before Michaelmas until a week or so before Halloween.  In honor of this occasion, I have been reading the words of Rudolf Steiner from his lectures  collected and entitled, “Michaelmas and the Soul- Forces of Man”  In the fourth lecture, he relates the four major festivals of the year:  Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter and St. John’s.  He says, “ Easter: death, then resurrection; Michaelmas: resurrection of the soul, then death. This makes of the Michael Festival a reversed Easter Festival. Easter commemorates for us the Resurrection of Christ from death; but in the Michael Festival we must feel with all the intensity of our soul: In order not to sleep in a half-dead state that will dim my self-consciousness between death and a new birth, but rather, to be able to pass through the portal of death in full alertness, I must rouse my soul through my inner forces before I die. First, resurrection of the soul — then death, so that in death that resurrection can be achieved which man celebrates within himself.”

You can read these four lectures for yourself here:  http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/MichSoul/MiSoul_index.html  There is also this really interesting collection of articles, lectures, verses and stories all about Michaelmas available in  Waldorf Journal Project #15, edited by David Mitchell.  You can find that here:   http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/WJP15.pdf

I love this festival as one that illuminates the soul into the winter, takes up the challenges in front of us as we wind our way ahead in the dark to help us find that small space of courage and bravery that lets us know we are not defeated yet. We have not given up yet. Imagine a humanity where this was the theme before us of overcoming, of bringing new into the world. I may be attacked along the way of this new birth and new bringing, but I am not decimated. I can move forward.

There is a very old Polish legend about St. Michael converting his sword into a lyre. A lyre is often seen as an instrument that works to harmonize the threefold capacities of mankind: thinking, feeling, and willing. The strings of St. Michael’s lyre will be made from the valiant thoughts of mankind. You can see a version of this legend here: http://lyreassociation.org/blog/2017/12/5/st-michael-the-crescent-moon-and-the-lyre#:~:text=Michael%20will%20stand%20on%20the%20crescent.%20As%20a,He%20will%20perform%20his%20office%20as%20%E2%80%9Cheavenly%20lyrist.%22

These are lovely spiritual ideas to bring forth in our inner work this month.

Here are some physical, tangible ideas for celebrating Michaelmas with your children from young to teens.

We have done all sort of things over years past:

• Made felted shooting star balls
• Made dragon bread
• Dyed capes and sashes either golden yellow with natural dyes or red
• Had obstacle courses
• Hunted for “dragon tears”
• Made dragons out of felt
• Made dragons out of thin modeling material and put it on candles
• Made blackberry crisp
• Had puppet shows with older children presenting for younger children
• Had music and verses specific to Michaelmas
• We have made Calendula Courage Salve.
• In accordance with our religious tradition, we have shared stories of angels and verses and prayers about angels from The Bible and other sources of tradition within our church.
• We have told many stories of St. Michael and the Star Children, Little Boy Knight, St. George and the Dragon.  There are so many wonderful stories and legends!

Other ideas:

**Stress doing good for others during this four-week period.  In the book, “Festivals With Children,” Brigitte Barz talks about bringing a balancing scale into the children’s space with dark stones on one side and helping the child choose a task each day to  help the archangel.  In this way, different stones can be added to the other side of the balance and hopefully by Michaelmas, the scale will be in complete balance.

**Make kites to fly.  This has been associated with Michaelmas for some time.

**Make a dragon out of clay or modeling beeswax

**Decorate a candle with a Michaelmas theme with the thin modeling candle wax.

**Tell fairy tales to the grades-aged children that fit into Michaelmas:  The Devil With The Three Golden Hairs, The Drummer, The Crystal Ball, The Two Brothers, Sleeping Beauty are all suggested.

**For children ages 9 and up, find Christine Natale’s story “The Golden Soldier”.  You can find Christine’s work here.

**For even older children, Parsifal is read in eleventh grade, so those 16 or so may enjoy this tale.

**Tell stories about St. George, a brave knight, who is a human symbol of this conflict of slaying and taming dragons; the personification of carrying inner light at a time when the outward light is diminishing

** For tiny children, try Suzanne Down’s story “The Brave Little Knight” or  the story “The Far Country” in the back of the book “All Year Round” for those five and up.

**Make plans to make “dragon bread” or a Michaelmas Harvest Loaf.  There is a story to go with this in the book “All Year Long”

**Learn Michaelmas songs.    There are some good ones in the Wynstones Autumn Book and yes, also on You Tube!

Most of all, if you are a parent, I urge you to pray and meditate over your children and their growth toward goodness, kindness, beauty, truth, responsibility and duty, and most of all self-control and compassion towards others.  It is a wonderful time for spiritual growth as a family in whatever way this is meaningful to you all as we will be heading into a season of Light for the world.

Thinking thoughts of courage and bravery,

Carrie

September is coming this week and I love this month. For me, it is a time of contemplation as we head into the mood of Michaelmas. It is truly a time of prayer, meditations, new impulses and an idea of serving others and changing the future.

There is a beautiful poem in the book “All Year Round” on page 129 that could make a particularly lovely blessing for this time of year:

Thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us;

Thanks to the rivers and streams and their water;

Thanks to the corn and the grain fields that feed us;

Thanks to the herbs which protect us from illness;

Thanks to the bushes and trees and their fruiting;

Thanks to the moon and the stars in the darkness;

Thanks to the sun and his eye that looks earthward;

Thank the Great Spirit for all of his goodness.

Adapted from an Iroquois Indian address of thanksgiving

Here are a few things we are celebrating:

Labor Day – September 5 

The Nativity of St. Mary – September 8

Holy Cross Day – September 14

Autumn Equinox – September 22 – You can see my Autumn Pinterest Board for ideas!

The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels – September 29.  This is one of my favorite celebrations in the church and at home!  You can see my MIchaelmas Pinterest Board for some ideas!

The Home Mood:

To me, the fall becomes a time of turning inward; a time of gratitude and reflection.  How do my words, my actions, reflect my gratitude toward my Creator and toward my life?  How do I interact with others in order to show this?  There is a quote I often think about from Dr. Rudolf Steiner that talks about this. He says;

The cultivation of this universal gratitude toward the world is of paramount importance.  It does not always need to be in one’s consciousness, but may simply live in the background of the feeling life, so that, at the end of a strenuous day, one can experience gratitude, for example, when entering a beautiful meadow full of flowers……And if we only act properly in front of the children, a corresponding increase in gratitude will develop within them for all that comes to them from the people living around them, from the way they speak or smile, or the way such people treat them.”  Rudolf Steiner from “A Child’s Changing Consciousness As The Basis of Pedagogical Practice”

Gratitude is such an important mood to create in the home. I think this creation can be tangible,  like those gratitude jars or going around the table at night and sharing something we have gratitude for…those are wonderful in their own way, but I think creating a  true mood of gratitude in the home actually is a much harder and deeper task. 

How do I really permeate this mood and carry it, even when things are overwhelming, is for this season of overcoming and courage as we head toward the longer nights of Winter. I think this is especially pertinent for those of us with teenagers and young adults who often are in the throes of figuring out who they really are, what turn their life is going to take as they launch. It can be a daunting time requiring inner strength on the part of the parent to really hold for that teenager.

I think prayer comes to the forefront if that is in your spiritual tradition. I have never prayed as hard as I do now for my young adults and all the things they face. Even knowing from a certain perspective that they are made for these times, it can still feel overwhelming for them. Teaching them deeper joy in the midst of transitions is something valuable that they still can learn from us! The teaching and guiding is not over and in many ways they need us more now than they did when they were small. I also use many affirmations and place that positive energy out into the world on their behalf.

Ideas for the Home:

• The seasonal table is transitioning to yellows with dried flowers, seed pods, bunches of oats or wheat or corn that are dried, cornucopias, nuts, acorns, leaves and little “helicopters.”
• I am going through and taking stock of fall and winter clothes and purging what we do not need.
• Fall menu planning – a time of chili, soup, stew, warming dishes
• Crafting – I have some autumn crafting ideas on my Pinterest board, but I think I am going to start with Michaelmas crafts  and autumn lanterns.

Ideas for Celebrating this Month with Littles:

• Quick Autumn Ideas for Waldorf Kindergarten
• Favorite Fall Tales for the Waldorf Kindergarten
• Fall Stories for Puppets
• Cook, bake, and preserve with apples
• Crafts with leaves, although down here sometimes we don’t get the best color to our leaves until October
• Sing favorite Autumn songs

Ideas for Celebrating this Month With Older Children:

• A Beautiful Back to School Ceremony
• Start working on homemade holiday gifts
• Celebrate an attitude of kindness and gratitude
• Celebrate apple picking and cooking with apples
• Knit fall projects!
• Long bike rides and walks in the cooler air

Ideas for Celebrating this Month With Teens:

• Find great theater, museum, and festival events to attend
• Longer hiking, camping, and backpacking trips
• Bake and cook fall dishes
• Work on fall organizing and cleaning
• Stargazing
• Find new activities outside the home that your teen will adore
• Find  new knitting, crocheting, sewing, woodworking and woodcarving ideas to try

The Farm –

We are ordering cool weather seeds and setting out seeds and transplants for a fall garden, and we are ordering more apple trees to plant in winter.

I am contemplating ducks much to my husband’s chagrin. He is not enthused, but our middle daughter and I would love them!

We are enjoying the antics of our two barn kittens and our dogs who love them and want to go outside and play with them in the barn.

The equine end has been a time of injury and healing for nearly all of our horses, which is a very disappointing way to have our middle daughter’s senior year to be honest. No lessons, no showing. Horses are almost like a long term project in which the fruit does not always ripen at the time one thinks it will.

Our bees will be headed into winter in decent shape and we hope to pull honey in the spring

Homeschooling and Working:

Work has been busy both at the clinic and with my private patients. So much so that it has been hard to find time to do things like get a hair cut. Every day is busy.

Homeschooling our seventh grader has been going along – also busy! I am trying very hard to keep pushing him forward with math as he is interested most in science and science in the upper levels and college really requires math. We are also working on writing quite a bit as this has never come easily to him. We are studying African geography and this history of African kingdoms and different African cultures. We are also finishing up Middle Ages right now so we can move into the Renaissance.

Our senior in high school needs physical science to graduate and at her school this was done much earlier, so we are doing that at home along with two online electives she needs to graduate. Wish us luck to get it all done!

Our college junior is sort of in the homestretch as she attends every semester (through the summer) now until she graduates college in December of 2023. She wishes it wasn’t flying by so fast!

What are your September plans? If you blog or on social media, please leave a link in the comments below so we can follow each other’s plans!

Blessings,
Carrie

I have heard it said that parenting is a small series of letting go..the first crawling away, first steps, first “bye bye”, the first “no” (“I am a different person than you!), all the firsts…until your child is ready to live on their own, go to college, have their own lives.

This time of year, many people are posting sadness on social media about their child going to university and wondering how to let go.

I think this is so very individual, as individual as the temperaments and the situations and dynamics involved. Overall, though, I think if we build our parenting lives around the fact that our children are their own unique selves, their own people outside of us, with a journey when they are ready toward their own individual experiences, then the idea of letting go becomes helpful and not a hindrance.

If we are sad, that is for us to process and hold. It gives us space to find the new things in our life and to figure out how to forge ahead in our relationship with our children as that relationship is changing yet again. It is okay to be sad. However, this is the season of Michaelmas, a time of bravery and courage. Sometimes we just need to figure out what the new normal will be. We can make time for our now adults on their schedule, we can plan around them and go to them. We do this because we nurture these new adults in the family just the way we would nurture any other special and utterly important relationship.

One of our children told me the other night that she was grateful I taught her how to handle life. She said it wasn’t by giving her too much information or access into my own adult life or necessarily even sharing a lot about how I was as a teenager, but how I modeled and showed how we handle things that came up with a level of maturity. That was probably the best compliment I have ever gotten; that our children feel capable to handle life. Because that’s really what this parenting is all about.

Give your children roots and then wings to fly. Model, teach, guide at the different developmental stages and be prepared to be amazed by the young people that are born ready for this time in history on earth.

Feel how you want to feel about letting go as all feelings are valid! However, be proud of all the wonderful things you did for your children and the time you invested in them. That energy and time investment pays off in the long run with capable adults and seeing them so ready for life on their own terms is so heartening. Your relationship may shift and change, but it will never be any less. It just may have a different form.

Many blessings and much love,

Carrie

This past week was an exercise in frustration: our third week of homeschooling for the year technically but we lost week number two due to illness and then there were a lot of bumps during week number three.

Work

Two vet visits and a farrier visit to the farm

Driving to the vet to get the kittens spayed and neutered

A challenging time for a family member states away that involved multiple calls to hopstial staff and others.

(We also ran up to our daughter’s university at the beginning of the week and she came home to celebrate her birthday but that wasn’t a distraction or impacted school. It was very welcome!! <3)

Week number three was a long week, and while we got some things done it certainly didn’t feel as productive as it could have been.

But the reality is that many weeks in homeschooling are like this than not; always juggling and trying to hit moving targets. It was easier when the children were smaller, because I think our lives were more about holding the rhythm in our home, but now there are lots of outside forces that influence things…

Small steps are what is needed.

I had made a little general written flow to our homeschooling days, and while it didn’t work perfectly this week, I think it is generally going to work just fine. I don’t have the luxury of planning a lot of margin into our days or weeks, but that’s ok. We keep moving forward!

The thing that suffers the most when we have a lot of outside pull is the creative pieces because creativity requires time and space. So, I decided to build our foundation around this piece first thing and see how that goes.

How are you making your homeschooling work for you?

Blessings,

Carrie

Despite what is frequently portrayed in media, development doesn’t end in our twenties; of course we grow and change throughout our lifetime. This is my birthday weekend and on Monday I will begin another trip around the sun!

My few years into the decade of my 50s with its backdrop of COVID, political drama, economic uncertainty has certainly been a strange decade so far in many ways. The book “The Human Life” by George and Gisela O’Neil and Florin Lowndes is always a good reminder as to what to expect with aging in a more archetypal sense that transcends immediate circumstances.

Of the years 49-56 they write: “At the onset of the second phase, traumas are possible. It is as though new vitality were lent man, and adjustments are called for. For the one still adaptable, whose sense of humor or perspective is intact, the transition can be smooth. Symptoms can be reminiscent of adolescence. In the profession it is called “the change of life”, and here, definitely, distinctions are permitted. The “he” who avoid self-knowledge in these years is prone to the heart attack – a rather two-meaninged expression: either late summer romance or hospital care. The “she”, of course, much reckon with a metamorphosis of bodily forces into “spirit-life” powers. The powers of maturity now manifesting can be seen in the forcefulness with which a person in these years can promote a new cause. It can be seen in the power which an older eurythmist or an older actor has on stage, or an older teacher with young children. There is something quite different from the talent and skill with which younger people are endowed. It is as though the wisdom of life becomes now instinct in their whole being…..”In summary: whereas in the forties one is conscious of the ideas one has in mind, in the fifties one can find the strength to bring to life these ideas as intentions, and only in the years following will one have the native ability to realize these ideas and intentions in their final forms.”

I love this idea that the most productive period to come, of final forms of ideas being produced. I have several projects on a personal level and watching them come to life is exciting. Some are small scale, like steps toward my own health. Some are medium scale such as the farm and what we intend to produce and how we intend to shape the house and the land. Some are larger such as how to carry out my professional work into my retirement years and what my husband and I will do in retirement. I am lucky to have him by my side and I also so lucky to have been able to watch my children grow up to this point – they are now going to be 21, 18, and 13 this year. What a gift and a treasure to be here with them, to be working and helping people, to be on our farm.

The few things I have learned in these decades outside of loving people, always loving people, always meeting people where they are is that we need effective ways to educate and bring balance to our young people. We need to help our children develop their will and new skills and new faculties as they navigate their 20’s and then 30’s. The later 30’s and early 40’s can be lonely times, but as we head into our 50’s perhaps we can see a new progression toward community, building our family up again, re-connecting, seeing unity – at least perhaps in those awake enough to think along these lines! How can we best prepare our children for that point?

Peace from my corner of the world,

Carrie

I love August so much! It’s the beginning of another trip around the sun for me and this year I will be 52! I will be honest, 50’s have been kind of a strange decade so far, but I think that was mainly due to all the big shifts that have occurred in my personal life and also with all the background of the pandemic and world events. So, I am looking forward to 52 being a wonderful new beginning in so many ways!

This is a month of sunshine and sunflowers, lakes, and fun – and here in the deep south, it’s also time for back to school. School down here begins this first week of August or the second week depending upon your program. For a long time this seemed quite off to me after growing up in New York where we start school after Labor Day, but now I have lived here much longer than I ever lived up north, so it just seems natural.

The things we are celebrating:

August 6th- The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ

August 8th- My Birthday!

August 10- School starts!

August 15- The Dormition of St. Mary

August 28 – our oldest child will be 21! Doesn’t seem possible! So excited for her bright future and watching her graduate university in 2023!

Ideas for Celebration:

• Making a  beautiful triptych to celebrate the life of St. Mary.  There are many wonderful ideas regarding this on the Internet.
• We have about another month of tubing, swimming and water park availability to us, so we hope to take advantage!
• Camping – it can be super hot here, but I am already making camping in the fall a priority.
• Gazing at the stars
• Equines and apiary – We have settled in to having four horses on property and their daily care. The bees are doing well and we already got a little honey for our pantry back in June. We aren’t going to pull any honey until spring, so hopefully that will go ok. We have two barn kittens that are quickly growing up!
• Walking in the mornings
• Working out.  Move!  

The Domestic Life:

This a good time to take stock of needs for fall/winter in clothing, shoes, outside gear, school supplies, art supplies

I also think this a great time to go back to manners.  Children are often in an expansive place with summer weather and may need some help in remembering school behavior, work ethics and manners!  

Getting back into a rhythm that supports school is also a huge help with that.  Rhythm is a key word for this month and the structure of the rhythm of school for homeschooling does us all good!

Meal planning gets us through because I am too busy to have to spend a lot of time every day planning.  So, I like to plan 2-4 weeks of meals and shop in bulk!  

Homeschooling:

We are jumping into seventh grade (for my third time!).  I am looking forward to it, and have plans laid out for 3 weeks of physics, 3 weeks of math, a week of the life of Buddha, the Renaissance for four weeks, two week of perspective drawing, and two weeks of Astronomy and Navigation to start us off in the fall. (Plans always subject to change, LOL). He also has sailing, horseback riding, 4H, our place of worship and youth group to keep him busy!

Our twelfth grader (last year of high school) is in an outside hybrid homeschool program, so mainly we are at the stage of finishing high school and looking at universities. She is interested in smaller schools, so it is a different experience than when we looked at colleges with our oldest. We are so proud of our high schooler.

We are super proud of our girl at university! She is an amazing adult. She had a great summer visiting Greece and France and she and I just took a weekend trip together. I am trying to make that an annual tradition for us. When you have adult children, you have to make time to see them as they are busy leading their own lives as well! #dateyouradultkids

Self-Care and Rhythm:

With farm life, working, homeschooling, consulting — I am working on keeping my morning rhythm of self-care, and making time for exercise and food prep! This is really, really important to me.

The other thing I make room for is on Thursday mornings to meet with a group of ladies from my place of worship. This helps anchor me for life!

I want to hear how August is shaping up for you! How is school looking?  I have been very busy doing homeschool consulting this month! If anyone needs help with homeschool planning or planning for family life, please email me at admin@theparentingpassageway.  My rates for a half hour phone call are super reasonable and I have helped lots of moms this month!  I also answer fast questions via email for free, and always give my single moms free help. Please let me know if I can help you!

Lots of love and many blessings,
Carrie

“A course of this kind naturally makes many demands, for it will show us to what an extent the interests of Agriculture are bound up with those of the widest circles of human existence and that there is scarcely a single sphere of life which has not some relation to Agriculture.” From Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Lecture I, 1924

I talk to people all day long as a physical therapist, as a lactation consultant, as a parenting and homeschooling consultant, and I think there is a lot of despair and unsettled feelings related to overall background of life right now:

The pandemic.

Political situations.

Gun violence.

The economic situation

The rates of depression, anxiety, suicide in young children

I told my husband the other day that sometimes I feel like we are watching Rome fall, but instead of the Roman roads crumbling and eventually castles and fiefdoms are taking over, now there is retreating into an increasingly physically isolated but interconnected digital world. We saw this during the pandemic with a necessary shift to everything being online, but I think the other thing we saw is that this gave people the ability to move out of cities and find increased acreage/ land due to the ability to work remotely.

So, when people ask me how I think we are going to deal with the things going on in the world, I can’t help but wonder if some of it will be healed by agriculture and coming back to the land. There is nothing like healing emotional and mental anguish with working on the land, being in nature.

Many of us are homesteading in whatever capacity that means to us, whether we are on acres of land or in an apartment. Many people I know have three months or more of water and food stocked up just in case job situations change or the supply chain runs short. Most of the farmers I know believe that hay and grain will be hard to come by this fall and winter, which in turn will affect food prices.

I think the other positive thing that has happened is people are living smaller – Instagram is full of families taking to the road in RV’s or living on boats. Mobility is a good thing, and while full time RV living has been around for years, I think the numbers have really gone up in the past few years. People are opting out of a mortage and instead living simply. They get to be in nature, and pursue hiking, biking, travel, and being together. I think this trend will continue and since housing prices are high, it may end up being a typical way for young couples to start out as well.

So, I often meditate on the fact that we can as a people be healed if only we could return to simpler ways and into nature. I read an article this morning about expats retiring in other countries and one thing they were distressed about was having a beautiful ocean –and sitting on their surfboard or walking the beach and seeing all the plastic float around them.

Live smaller, live simply.

Reduce, recylce, reuse.

If you have land, grow something, nurture something and as we do this people will be healed and nurtured.

So instead of bemoaning the current state of the background of life, I often find the small and still voice – what can I do in nature today? What can I grow today? What can I do where I am right now?

Blessings,

Carrie

Recently a friend and I made a list of what we wanted to see in our own self-care. Self-care is the basis of family life and because we carry much of the labor and emotional holding for the family (and even more if you are educating your children at home).

I would like to say that I put myself first and do these things before I start my day, but honestly self-care is still kind of squished in around work, homeschooling, farm life, parenting. Many times I have to jump out of bed and get ready for work or dive into farm chores.

It helps me to look at targets in self-care for the whole week, not by day, because it’s easy to miss things on any given day and feel badly. I will confess it is much easier now that my children are older. If you are looking to garner self-care and your children are very small, I think you need very bite-sized pieces that take 10 minutes or under multiple times a day or you need to have help to watch your children in order to have a bigger piece of time. Some pieces of self-care you can have your children do with you! I know for me, my husband traveled all week long for years when our children were small, and having three children of varying ages didn’t seem feasible to really ask someone for help a lot.

This is my self-care list:

My absolute daily things:

Prayer and meditation. I start every morning with affirmations that I hand wrote for myself. This started when I had a lot of uptick in anxious thoughts and it was helpful. I also read Psalm 91 outloud at the beginning and end of the day. I usually listen to Meditation Mountain on Spotify in the car.

Water. I use a stainless steel water bottle and carry it around.

Dry brushing. This can be hit or miss for me.

Supplements. I have a small and manageable list of supplements that I have found helpful for being older. I tried to have more supplements and use a pill box, but that was overwhelming and I still would often forget to take them so I just pared my list down to the essentials.

Exercise and move – this is actually fairly easy to hit on the days I do the horse care, but other days I need to plan a bit more for this. The days that I work and see patients in office I usually don’t exercise because I have the commuting time, notes to write, and I am mentally exhausted. Just being honest.

Happy Music 🙂 Again, easier to listen to adult music now that my children are all ages almost 13 and up!

Read books! I read daily.

Talk to my close friends.

End the day early. We have a pretty quiet house at night usually. In the winter we usually do night check around 9 or so, but in the summer it’s easy to do chores right after dinner and be done for the night.

The other things (daily if I can, weekly if not):

Food Prep- I do prep things every few days typically and put in the refrigerator. Sometimes this is just chopping up fruits and putting them in mason jars so things are visible, pan roasting veggies and having those on hand, making chia seed pudding or overnight oats, or it can be prepping an entire meal I can put in the crock pot or instant pot.

Napping/resting. On the days I am home, I still like a quiet time after lunch and on the weekends, I like to nap if I can.

Spiritual – worship on most Sundays, and I have a smaller group on Thursday mornings. Both have online options which can be helpful since our place of worship is about forty minutes away.

Date Night! Now that our children are older, we can go out by ourselves and it’s easy. I love Thursday nights for date night. Thursdays are such a good day of the week for me!

Writing and painting. This requires being alone and focusing, so this is much easier than when my children were small.

What kinds of self-care things do you love to do? I would love to hear from you.

Blessings and love,
Carrie

I almost missed posting this monthly round up for July (almost), but here we are! July has been a busy month for us on the farm. We pulled some honey, we have switched over some leasors on some of our horses, we have been shuffling a horse that needed training, acquired two barn kitties, graded some land, finished some more fencing and started some seeds for fall.

The only thing we really celebrated in July was July Fourth (by staying home with our horses, but we could see fireworks for the town miles away from our pasture. I hope you had a happy Fourth of July for those of you celebrating it.

July used to be a month of complete doldrums for me with the intense heat and being exhausted from being outside every day with small children. Then it became a month of doing homeschooling consultations, which lifted my spirits! Now I am mainly working outside the home, and still doing some consultations, which is great fun. I am looking forward to sunflowers and some lake trips.

July Fun Round Up!

Are you thinking about summer menu planning?  I have a back post on July Menu Planning to grab!

Ideas Of Things to Do With Children:

• Fourth of July decorating; patriotic crafts
• Find traditional patriotic American music to listen to!
• Go to Independence Day parades!
• Sunflower crafts
• Drying herbs and making things from herbs
• Picking produce; canning and preserving
• Earth looms and weaving could be lovely; see my summer Pinterest board for even more craft ideas

Ideas for the Home:

• Going through the school room or school area and cleaning out
• Ordering art supplies and new resources for the next school year
• Making new seasonal things for the home
• Changing out toys if you are on a toy rotation for smaller children

Our Family Life and Homeschooling Fun!:

Our 21 year old is headed back to university and will work four straight semesters through before she graduates. She had a wonderful opportunity to go to Greece early this summer with a tour from university and then later in the summer to France with her boyfriend and his family. She had a well-traveled summer!

Our middle child is headed into senior year at her hybrid high school and looking at colleges. Applications open August 1st. She already had a large scholarship offer, so we will see what decisions she makes.

Our youngest has been busy sailing, doing things with 4H, and riding horses. He went to an overnight camp associated with our church for a week that was a lot of fun and fostered some good friendships. I am working on seventh grade for him now, even though I sometimes vacillate at this point as to whether he should go to full time school or not. However, the Waldorf Curriculum is so beautiful it is hard to give up! I have my blocks planned out along with some extra work in math and spelling. It’s going to be an amazing year!

Self Care

I feel pretty good health wise lately despite the busyness of life. There are some essential check points I put in my schedule for my health including prayer and affirmations, drinking much more water than I used to, eating more fish and more plants, and scheduling out some time to exercise just for me (although we get plenty of physical work on the farm!) and this seems to have been helpful.

Artistic Endeavors

I am trying to write a little more again. I went through a phase where I just felt like being on the farm and thinking I didn’t have much left to say with children nearly grown but here I am again! 🙂 I have some plans for watercolor painting so that should be fun.

Great Reading

I am re-reading Betty Staley’s “:Between Form and Freedom: a practical guide for the teenaged years” which is always a treat!

Please tell me what you are up to! Happy July, family.

Blessings,
Carrie