My sweet toddler is under the weather and so am I; I hope all of you are faring healthy out there! Working on stocking stuffers and gifts?
I found a few links I wanted to share with you this weekend that I thought were well- worth a read and a look: Continue reading
Please link to your favorite Etsy Sellers here! I have families from all walks of life and many different countries who read this blog. Many of them are contemplating adding more handmade or small-seller gifts to their holiday celebrations for the very first time (and as we all know, sometimes this can be the first step toward also making some gifts next year!)
However, these readers have no idea where to start on Etsy. Therefore, I would love for you all, my dear readers, to post links to the sellers you love on Etsy and what you have bought this year or in the past.
Okay, let the linking begin, and thank you for helping other families move toward handmade!
Many blessings, what fun!
Carrie
I was going through some papers this weekend and came across an article by Michael Howard that I had printed out called, “Educating the Feeling-will in the Kindergarten” and this quote just popped out at me:
“The defining characteristic of feeling will is the capacity to live deeply into the inner quality of something outside us, knowing and feeling it as if we are within it or it is within us. In the early childhood years a healthy child is naturally inclined to drink in the inner mood and qualities of places and persons. It is one of the tragedies of our times that the ways of the world, including the life of the family and school, can dull rather than foster this natural soul attachment. Tragically, many young children come to kindergarten with a sense-nerve disposition already strongly developed. Their thinking has become prematurely intellectual and abstract, and their feeling life inclines toward strong personal like or dislike.”
I have been seeing so many tiny children yet with so many big opinions. Have you been seeing this as well? Continue reading
In our family, I love when the shopping part of the few things to buy is done and we can focus on making some handmade gifts! Don’t you love that too?
Here is what we are making….. Continue reading
In this holiday season, I hope we do not forget the families that are facing bittersweet moments…you all are in my heart and on my mind. This is an article by a friend a pray for daily, and I hope it will help anyone wishing to help families who are facing childhood cancer or other chronic diseases.
My friend writes:
I am the mother of a child with cancer. Long ago, my walk to work would take me past our local child cancer support office and I would think of the parents who made use of the service, wondering how those poor families managed in such terrible circumstances. Then we became one of those ‘poor families’. Our lovely and lively young daughter, Hope, was diagnosed with a rare and difficult-to-cure cancer just after her second birthday. Our family life changed in a flash and we were thrown into a new world that we did not ask to be part of, that no parent should ever know of.
Time passed and we eventually found our feet amongst the confusion of worries, intense treatment and new faces. We coped. And then, two years later and just a few short months after finishing treatment, Hope’s cancer relapsed and we were once again thrown into that murky place of despair. For our daughter, a relapse means her cancer cannot be cured and she is now in palliative treatment, treading a careful balance between length and quality of life.
I am the mother of a child with terminal cancer. People sometimes tell us they don’t know how we manage, and I have nothing to respond with except to say that when things are going well, we just live. We try not to think too far into the future and we spend time enjoying our children. But there are other times when all we can do is simply get through the next few minutes, the next hour, the next day. We don’t ‘manage’ at all.
It is in these times that we feel most blessed to have the love and support of a great group of family and friends. Continue reading
This question came in awhile ago and I have been pondering it since in the back of my mind. I was not certain I had anything valuable to add; some things ”just are”
in life, but then I did think of something I wanted to say (uh, and it turned out to be way more than I expected, so you may need a cup of tea! LOL) Here is the original comment/question:
Here is a very honest admission for you: I get no satisfaction of out homekeeping and I am quite certain that I never will 
I *can* do all the things: cook delicious meals every day, ferment, and mill my own flour, I can sew and knit and paint, I can keep the home clean and in reasonable order. But when that is all I do, I can feel my soul slowly dying! I go through seasons of pulling myself together and even enjoying my tasks, and then falling apart, throwing in a towel, because after all, what’s the point? Yes, this is a lovely way to live, to have a cozy home and good food, but I.am.miserable. I’ve been told all manner of things: I’m lazy, I need to change my attitude, I need to get therapy to deal with some deep-seated resentment and blah-blah-blah. I feel that the truth is simpler than that. I am someone who is extremely extroverted, requires massive amounts of regular intellectual stimulation, and a great deal of variety in life There must be a way to find some kind of balance. I realize that my children are young (2, 4.5, and one on the way), I am quite realistic about the care, time and effort they require at this stage of life. But I just can’t give up my sanity and my very essence to keeping the home.
Thoughts? thanks!
That is really hard and I think so many of us as mothers can identify with the feelings expressed in this comment. It can be so hard to do all the things we might think need to be associated with homemaking and parenting, to make things “right”. Maybe there is also a bit of perfectionism hidden within many of us – if we don’t do all these things, then our children will not do well. This can make things seem burdensome or a chore instead of light and lovely. And, it all can be such a big burden – why do I have to be The Queen of My Home? Can’t someone else do it? I just want to take the day off! There are days I feel that way as well. Continue reading
This question from the field came in today, and I wanted to share it here:
Hi Carrie,
Do you yourself follow a 3-day rhythm for homeschool? I like the 3-day rhythm (we do a 4-day school week) but it seems all of the major waldorf homeschool curricula follow a 2, 2-day rhythm. I feel like a 3-day rhythm would give us more time to work with a story but worry we wouldn’t fit enough in in a year (this is my first year homeschooling). In first grade, would you just introduce one letter or number per week (with a 3-day rhythm) or would you cover more than that? Continue reading
We are going to wrap up this chapter by taking a quick peek at the other nutrients mentioned:
Magnesium – is intricately involved in working with calcium and phosphorus. A deficiency in magnesium can manifest as over-anxiety, irritability, labile emotions, craving for sweets and alcohol, and stiffness of fine motor movements. Kelp, fresh green peas, whole grains, nuts and seeds are sources. See page 117 of the chapter for more information. Continue reading
Some of you have asked for very simple plans regarding Advent. I thought I would share the very simple things my family and I are doing each week. Some things are geared toward the youngest members of the family, and some are not. You can just pick and choose and take what resonates with you out of this as a good match for your family!
Throughout Advent, I will be using this book for my own meditation:http://www.amazon.com/Monastery-Journey-Christmas-Victor-Antoine-DAvila-Latourrette/dp/0764820818 and for the children we will read the Gospel portion of the day’s lectionary out loud. I am also working through the Book of Isaiah on my own.
I think the main thing to keep in mind is that Advent is a time to slow down, and just enjoy each other, to pray, to fast, to repent, to prepare – so if having a list like the following pressures you or makes you feel not happy inside, then don’t do it or again, pick and choose for your own family what is best.
These are some of my ideas for this week; we may not do them all at all! Continue reading
We are continuing our look at Chapter 8 of “The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning” by Sally Goddard Blythe with this interesting chapter on feeding, growth and brain development. The authors takes a look at several important nutrients and the research surrounding their effect on brain development. This post is going to look at zinc, because I think it is surprising the amount of research conducted on this one mineral.
Zinc – is essential for all aspects of development, and affects sperm production and fertility but also successful outcome of pregnancy and maternal behavior. Studies looking at zinc deficient diets in the pregnancies of rats showed that these rats failed to mother their offspring. The baby rats showed lethargy, reduced weight gain, and increase in emotionality compared to those rats fed a zinc-enriched diet. Growth, sexual maturity, learning ability, resistance to stress, and behavioral control are all linked to zinc. Depression, sensitivity to light, impaired sense of taste and smell, and anorexia and bulimia are all linked to lower zinc levels.
More than that, the chapter sites a source as saying, Continue reading
The Parenting Passageway 