Category Archives: General Wisdom

“Growing Into Motherhood"–Angela’s Story of Motherhood and Faith

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This is the third post in our series of “Growing Into Motherhood”, and I am pleased to bring you this post by Angela concerning her journey into discovering a religious path.  Many mothers who read this blog have a strong spiritual and religious life, but some of you are searching and trying to figure out how to attain this, so I thought Angela’s experience might be helpful to you.  Angela’s story and her suggestion in the last paragraph for seekers really stirred my soul, and I hope it will stir yours as well.    Here is her story for your inspiration:

 

Motherhood and Faith

“The strong desire to be introduced to the mysteries of God is often much stronger in small children than in adults. And if children are responded to in the right manner with no arbitrary force, then their joyful awareness of getting to know God and of coming closer to Him will be accelerated up to the most intensive thinking and living with him.”

– Edith Stein

 

When Carrie asked me if I would write this blog post, I was of two minds: immediately excited about the opportunity to help some fellow mamas on their journey, and also intimidated, because I’m such a work in progress on my own journey. But I’m hoping this might be just a bit encouraging or illuminating for someone,  that it might lead them to think about Higher Things, and that it  might help them nourish their children with a life of faith. Continue reading →

Kimberly’s Story: “Growing Into Motherhood”

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I come to you today with joy in my heart as some of my long-term readers have agreed to share with you, dear reader, their own unique perspective and journey as they have grown and changed and developed into being a mother. Our second story in this series comes from Kimberly.  This is her story and journey for your inspiration:

 

Last week I felt like a new mom again. I hadn’t given birth or adopted another child; I simply found myself parenting in a situation I had never been in before and  in the moment everything I tried to do was failing. Puberty has begun for my oldest and as I tried to help him through an emotional storm I found myself feeling every bit as helpless as I did when I first had a newborn in the house.

Later I sat and reflected and asked myself what my child needed from me and the
answer was the same as it always has been. Presence. Not just physical presence,
but emotional presence.

I used to think that the three most important things in parenting and homeschooling were environment, rhythm, and health, and I still think they are significant tools for peaceful and joyful parenting, but I’ve come to see presence as being the most important gift to give my children. It has also been the very hardest lesson for me to learn. Continue reading →

“Growing Into Motherhood”–Tanya’s Story

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I come to you today with joy in my heart as some of my long-term readers have agreed to share with you, dear reader, their own unique perspective and journey as they have grown and changed and developed into being a mother. Our first story in this series comes from Tanya.  This is her story and journey for your inspiration:

 

Growing up, I had always said I didn’t want to have kids.  It wasn’t that I thought children were loud or messy or inconvenient, I just had no idea how to deal with kids.  They confused me and left me feeling nervous.  What do I do, what do I say?  So I thought that meant I wouldn’t be a good mother.  After all, aren’t you supposed to have that innate mothering nature?  So my plans were to go to college and pursue a professional career, one that didn’t seem “suited” to having children anyways. 

 

Then I met my future husband and everything changed.  Continue reading →

Parenting Just For Today

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One of my dear local friends  just sent me the most beautiful prayer from the book “Making God Real In The Orthodox Home” by Fr. Anthony Coniaris  (here is the Amazon link:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0937032077/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A6MHEJ10672MS) .  Here is the beautiful prayer she shared with me:

Continue reading →

Sunday Inspiration From “Beginning to Pray”

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“Beginning to Pray” by His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony Bloom is a classic that I think really  should be read by anyone on a journey to draw closer to Our Creator.  Here is a link to read a brief description about the really interesting life of Metropolitan Anthony:  http://orthodoxwiki.org/Anthony_%28Bloom%29_of_Sourozh

 

Here is an inspiring quote from this book:

 

“What we must do is to collect all knowledge of God which we possess in order to come into His presence, but then remember that all we know about God is our past, as it were, behind our back, and  we are standing face to face with God in all His complexity, all His simplicity, so close and yet so unknown.  Only if we can stand completely open before the unknown, can the unknown reveal itself, Himself, as He chooses to reveal Himself to us as we are today.  So, with this open-heartedness and open-mindedness, we must stand before God without trying to give Him a shape or imprison Him in concepts and images, and we must knock at the door.

Where?  The Gospel tells us that the kingdom of God is within us first of all.  If we cannot find the kingdom of God within us, if we cannot meet God within, in the very depth of ourselves, our chances of meeting Him outside ourselves is very remote.”

 

Metropolitan Anthony has many wonderful things to say about prayer, living up to prayer, taking up one’s crosses, going inward and how to do this, and so much more.  Here is the link to this book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Pray-Anthony-Bloom/dp/0809115093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310776866&sr=8-1

 

A lovely beginning to a day of rest —

Many blessings,

Carrie

Serene Summer: One Small Step #4

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Our small steps for a happy homelife continues today with menu planning.  Menu planning is important for those of us on a budget, and it is also  important in terms of saving time, energy and for providing healthy foods in as close to their natural state as possible.

So,  after our other small steps of  decreasing commitments so you can actually be at home, spending time with your spouse or rejuvenating yourself, and having a well-ordered home, menu planning is right up there.

After all, nothing goes well if everyone is hungry and there is no food in the house or no food prepared, right?  Small children and hunger leads to whiny, not peaceful,  times!

We have talked about meal planning before on this blog, but I have a few things that have been working well for me lately that I want to share: Continue reading →

Serene Summer: One Small Step #2

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How did everyone do with small step #1 here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2011/06/27/serene-summer-one-small-step-1/     Now that we have pared down our commitments,  I think the second, small, concrete step to build a solid foundation for parenting and homeschooling success is to set aside time to be with your partner. If you are single, how about setting time aside to spend with a mama friend, or to just  rejuvenate yourself? Continue reading →

Serene Summer: One Small Step #1

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SSSSS

 

Today we are beginning our series of  small, steady, concrete steps that you can take in order to build a foundation for an improved family life and homeschooling success. In the past, I have often talked about how the foundation for the family begins with you, your attitude, where you are and how to work with personal, internal development.  I still think this is true and vitally important, but in this series I actually want to start with some of the outward things.  Perhaps having a small taste of success with some of these outward tasks will suit many of you and provide inspiration to tackle more regarding personal development in the future.  Having the outward things in order can be a springboard toward honing  the internal qualities that make family life successful.

 

Our one small step for today is to make time to review your commitments outside the home and, if you are not single, to talk about your commitments to your spouse or partner. Work together to form what you will participate in outside of your home.

 

I want to start here  because in order  to really improve things around your home and in your life, you will actually have to be at home, to really be present,  and not be pulled in fifty thousand directions.  Continue reading →

A Special New Series And Our New Book To Read

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So far, the books we have read chapter-by-chapter on this blog have included “Tapestries” by Betty Staley, “Discipline Without Distress” by Judy Arnall, “Love and Anger: The Parental Dilemma” by Nancy Samalin with Catherine Whitney.  You can find the posts regarding each chapter under the “Book Studies” tab along the top.

I am pleased to announce our next book will be “The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning”, by Sally Goddard Blythe.  This is such an important topic, and one that is near and dear to my heart given my background as a neonatal/pediatric physical therapist.

As far as a new special series…

I have a dear friend who was talking to me about a situation where I didn’t really want to weigh- in my opinion on a matter.  I was keeping so silent, and finally my friend said, “Carrie, you know, we like road maps!  Give us a road map!  We can modify the map, but at least it is a starting point.”  Her words startled me out of my reticence to comment to the group we were addressing, and it also led to a thought for this blog.

How would you like a starting point toward creating the family and homeschooling life you have always wanted?  How would you like a place to exchange ideas to help each other and where you could take what resonated with you for your family and your situation?

I guess the closest I ever got to this idea of a road map in the past was “Twenty Days Toward Becoming A More Mindful Mother” – were any of my current readers around then and followed that series?

I have been speaking with many mothers locally regarding what challenges they are facing in their families and how they are trying to build a scaffolding to support homeschooling, so I thought perhaps this summer would be an excellent time to pave the way toward a happy, healthy family for fall.

I am planning to post one to two concrete,  small, “do-able” things to make your real family life more in line with the family life you envision during this time.

I hope you will  enjoy this and plan to join me!

Many blessings,

Carrie

Back To Basics: Cultivating Gratitude In Children

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One of the frequent complaints I hear from parents is that their children don’t seem to appreciate things and express gratitude readily.  Parents have told me stories about how their small children just want, want, want, want and how they feel angry, sad, wondering what they did wrong because their children are never satisfied.

That is hard, and the beginning of this is to look at how you feel about the negative emotions your child expresses in general.  Does it bring up your own “stuff”?  Usually when a child does something that really bothers us, there is a reason from our own past, our own baggage, that makes this issue a hot button for us. 

How are you yourself modeling gratitude in your family?  Is there a general attitude of contentment or are you always searching for more, for bigger, for better?  Are you a complainer yourself? 

What do you do each day ACTIVELY to model gratitude?  Do you say a blessing before meals?  Do you pray and say thank you for things? Do you recount good things that you are happy about before you go to sleep?

What is your environment like?  Is it simple, with everything having a toy, or is it towering and teeming with STUFF?  How many toys does your child have?  There can be too much even if it is “natural” toys.  Try this back post for suggestions of how many clothes and how many toys and what kinds of toys your child would like at each age:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2008/11/23/holiday-gifts-for-children-how-much-is-too-much/ 

What age is your child?  The three to six age range (if not before!) can be really, really difficult to take  to stores.  They really do not understand why you cannot afford to buy X,Y and Z and you cannot reason with them, so as much as possible I advise you to run errands alone.

Can you mirror back your child’s wishes?  “I wish that too”  “That would be fun” can be really simple small phrases to let your child know they have been heard.    Can you write down what they are asking for on a birthday or holiday list?

What stories could you tell to bring a healing element into all of this?  I love the Grimm Brother fairy tale “The Star Money”.  This is a lovely tale to tell around the holiday season.    Here is an on-line version:  http://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/the_star-money  This story would be appropriate for ages four to six (say most Waldorf resources, I would say ages five to six to really “get” it). 

Do you have a spiritual community that can carry doing anything charitable?  Even small children, within the context of a strong and nurturing community, can carry making shoe boxes for children who will not receive other holiday gifts, drives for the homeless and food pantry, etc.  Remember, it is not so much talking about all this, but the DOING.

What are you doing to physically wear your child out? What work does your child do?  How does your child contribute to the welfare of your home and family?  To me, children who have time to wish, wish, wish about things probably are not expending enough physical energy!  Also think in general about warmth, about the number of choices the child is being asked to make, and the rhythm of your home.

I would love to hear your suggestions below!

Many blessings,

Carrie