The honey bees have come out to play

Dandelion
Dandy Dandelion was a handsome fellow,
With his coast of green, and his vest of yellow;
He had lots of gold, he was very lazy,
So he chose to scold a modest little daisy.

Silly little daisy, foolish little flower,
Imitating me, to your best of power;
Just then some one passed, who his cane was swinging,
Snapped off Dandelion, ceased his accent singing.

Daisy at the sight, dropped a tear of sorrow,
Closed her eyes and died, opened on the morrow;
Every one that passed, gazing with delight,
Asked her where she found gems, so pure and bright.”

- from “Kindergarten Gems; Stories and Rhymes for Little Folks“

We will be more officially entering a learning unit of birds and wild flowers in our area now that our guide books have come in. We are so excited to learn more about the birds that our in our own yard. There are three male cardinals that hang out in our front tree religiously, as well as a female or two. We have a few graceful doves out there, along with a house finch and titmouse, too. Ethan just adores watching them and pointing out what kind they are.

I look forward to sharing more as we progress into the studies…

In the meantime, guess what we were up to on our first weekend of Spring??? We got snowed in! And we ran out of toilet paper, milk and eggs too! We got a little stir crazy…

Just check out the view from our front window:

Here’s one of those male cardinals – doesn’t he look striking in the snow?

And here’s Ethan and Chris’ kool-aid Snowman creation!

Good times…

Using all natural fibers is an important part of the Waldorf inspired playroom, and one of the key elements of the Waldorf play materials is the silks. The main brand that puts these out will cost you roughly $10-13 dollars for a colored square silk, and it goes up from there for skirts, robes, banners and flags, etc. Expect to see prices of nearly 100 dollars on the larger play canopies!

In my opinion, there are far more important things to spend money on when it comes to your home school program. Books, for example. Oh, lovely books! There are too many to recount – but I would start with anything from Elsa Beskow or Gerda Muller or Sibylle von Olfers, to name a few. Sweet stories and imagery to capture the imagination – to me, that’s worth every penny!

For many other things, you can learn to make yourself. Knitting playthings, wooden blocks, beeswax candles, etc: all of these one can learn to make to create a unique, handmade, inspiring setting for the young child’s mind to become unleashed. Not to mention making your own Play Silks!

It’s very affordable and very easy. Simply order some undyed silk scarves (prices range from .99 to $5), buy a big jug of distilled vinegar and a whole lotta Kool-Aid. Yes, kool-aid. Hey, there’s a reason we call is Waldorf- INSPIRED.

We spent an hour in the front yard today making our beautiful new play silks. I did two sets of rainbow colors, one in a 6″x24″ and one in a small square 21.5″. Then we did some tie-died mix-n-matches with a few larger squares. Lastly, 2 long playsilks were dyed in colors of either “warm” hues or “cool” hues. These look so awesome and I can’t believe how easy it was (totally a kid-friendly project). This fantastic assortment of playsilks would have costs hundreds of dollars from the-you-know-who company (which are oddly enough made in China- not a superior company it seems to me), but the whole sha-bang ran me a total bill of about $50. Yay for saving money! Big fan.

I would suggest, however, taking the “wear gloves” part seriously, lest people begin to wonder if you are an axe-murderer by night

Here’s a tutorial with exact vinegar/hot water/kool-aid ratios. Enjoy!!!

First – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Second – I’ve stolen a few minutes break in my day to share some photos with you:

Let’s go through the front door:

You may notice the rad (IMHO) antique forest green couches Chris found for me on Craigslist (for next to no $$$!). Don’t ya just wanna curl up? I love that our living room has no TV, too – its a great area to just hang, play board games, knit, read, whatever. I really love it here. (Good job, babe!):

Babies love it here too:

Ethan spends the bulk of his time in one of three places:
1. the “school room” area of our main room (the dining and living room):

2. his avocado colored, “enchanted forest” themed room, where Verity often joins him:

3. or his kitchen, inside my kitchen:

If you don’t find me in that cozy living room, you might find me in the office/media room/ guest room. Which is almost unpacked – or can’t you tell? HA! At least the mustard yellow paint is drying…

Here (the office), I dream of one day watching copius amounts of Gilmore Girls. For now it acts as a sauna for brooding baby chicks and sprouting seeds:

In current news, today is St. Patrick’s Day, and we are celebrating! We had green eggs for breakfast:

Made green raisin cinnamon bread, properly adorned with butter and raw honey:

Wore green, of course – but took it a step further by making “Hulk” neck vein impersonations, because he is also green…

We also sprouted clover, which was a gift in Ethan’s hidden “pot of gold”. And read stories about St. Patrick. And listened to Celtic music all day. And watched “Riverdance”. And we are going to go see the Irish dancers at the library this evening. And returning home to a dinner of corned beef brisket, cabbage, and potatoes. (When the kids go to bed, we are gladly sipping some whiskey sours.)

What else have we been up to? As if that’s not enough?

Well, we have been spending time in the backyard finally! We’ve hung some linens, marked off the coop/run area and dug out two vegetable beds. We scoped out the prime fort location near a butterfly bush and began a fairy home nearby. This isn’t the best picture, but it is fairly big and brown and daunting…

AND LASTLY, I discovered to my amusement that I really enjoy needle felting. Not the bloody fingers part so much but the wool figurines made in way less time than knitting part. This new craft has helped me quickly fill up our nature table as we prepare for Spring.

Here you can see some of it – the felted Mother Earth in the back there with a little wooden “St. Patrick”, and their woodland friends – a white rabbit, green turtle, and large whimsical mushroom – all needle felted. In the tree hangs a butterfly and an angel. Spring “flower children” are coming to join Mother Earth SOON – this weekend marks the Spring Solstice! Awake, flowers, awake!

Wow – it has been so crazy this week as we move into our new place. I don’t even know where to start. How about one word: Exhausted!

We spent a total of two nights at the new place so far. Everything is out of storage and loaded up in the nooks and crannies of our home. Home. Wow – that’s weird to say. I can’t say that I feel “home” yet but I’m holding out hope that such a feeling will come in time.

This is my favorite part of the house, and the only one even somewhat settled into. When I need to crawl away to a space that isn’t loaded with boxes, I go here.

While the inside is being unpacked and organized and beautified, the outside is also a major undertaking. Chris is putting together a porch railing to keep the space up there kid-friendly. I found an old wooden porch swing at a flea market for $20 – which we will paint, along with the new railing, a color literally called “Mystery Purple”. Nice way to introduce us crazy Portlanders to the nice little neighborhood, heh? We also excavated (seriously!) an old rock path/walk way leading the porch that we are laying with small pebbles and lining with solar path lights. We’re putting in 2 raised beds (of cedar logs that Chris actually took down!) in the front yard featured peppers, herbs and tomatoes, and planting butterfly/hummingbird flowers through out the flower beds where some crocus(es? crocii? lol) and daffodils are popping up. There will also be a tire swing from the front yard tree.

The chain linked fenced backyard will feature many rows of clothes lines, a sandbox, a chicken coop and 100 sq ft run, and a long rock wall of an old city ally way on the property will be turned into a large raised bed for corn, peas, beans, squash, pumpkins, melons…

Long term goals include cleaning up a storage shed for use as storage for our bulk foods and a chest freezer, and possibly keeping bees to grow our own honey. Fruit trees some day…

Looks like we have our March work cut out for us! Pray that we’ll maintain some stamina, sanity, and fun.

We’re doing what we can to make this place a stepping stone – a place we can remain comfortable in while we get our “ducks in a row” and one day find our more permanent Home. There are so many choices to weigh and await Divine Leading on, but in the meantime we are hunkered down in Fayetteville, AR in our cozy little For-Now-Home.

I’ll leave you with some random pictures:

Here are pics of us enjoying some Oregon favs in the last 2 weeks… it’s a long slideshow so bare with me

I planned to write an in-depth memoir about what I’ve called, for as long as I can remember, “My Curls”.

But instead I will sum it up because if I wait until I have ample time I just might never get around to this, so: they’ve been with me since before I knew what it was to look in a mirror. I learned to cut them and layer my straight hair over them when I was about 8 years old after being teased on the playground one too many times. They are My Curls; helplessly frizzy curly hair on the very top of my head of straight hair.

They looked like this:

I never felt like any one quite understood how odd this little facet of my tresses was, until I was reading Anne Lamott’s book Traveling Mercies about 5 years ago and jealously read about her transition from untamed locks to DREADLOCKS. It would take several more years and lots more courage for me to actually try them myself…

I began to stop cutting my hair about 1.5 years ago, as well as going “No Poo” to help my scalp and hair make the transition to healthy natural oils and no harsh chemical shampoo. Instead I do the baking soda scrub, apple cider rinse every so often, and other times scrub a little with Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap.

I felt more ready at the turn of 2010, when all these crazy changes began to happen to us and I felt like I was shedding another layer of baggage and identity. So I took the dive!

Here I am getting the backcomb/twist method done. I opted for the no wax method based on this site, which I love. Verity and Ethan got a kick out of the process, which lasted about 4 hours. The result was the most fluffy crazy dreads EVER! For the first week or two I was totally freaked out by my hair.

I kept it under wraps (literally) and continued to care for them with palm rolls. I also decided to comb out the ends so I would still have soft, feminine tips I could style if I really wanted to. It didn’t take long for them to lose some volume. It’s interesting to watch the process, as they lose shape before the actually “lock up”, which takes from 6 months to YEARS to truly mature. Styling dreads is so far really simple and versatile. I don’t think mine are even very obvious. Dressing them up with hand felted wool beads I found on Etsy has been a fun thing too. When I wonder what the heck I am doing, I browse dread photos like THIS GALS and get all inspired.

All in all, I have finally made peace with my curls, as they wind their way into an existing dread and find themselves at home

One more step towards simplicity. But let’s not attribute TOO much weight to the experience- it is JUST HAIR, after all!

Here we are a few days ago feeding ducks under the St. John’s Bridge. I have more pictures to show of this event and all the other things we are doing in Portland before we leave. But I’ll save that for another post.

The path I am on has recently taken quite a turn. Or maybe I just see it up ahead, but haven’t ACTUALLY changed course yet. Perhaps I’ve been on whatever trail this has been for so long that I have to keep rubbing my eyes as I approach the upcoming crossroads. Is that a mirage I see?!

These are some findings:

Life is very peculiar. There is so much to be suffered. So much heartache and confusion. Especially since moving to Portland, I have realized just how essential community is to overall mental and emotional health. There are times, seasons even, where being out here has felt poignantly lonely. But for the most part, we have found relationships of support, investment, respect, generosity and love. For that I am so grateful. For SO many things I have found on our most recent leg of the “path” here in Portland: I am grateful.

Life also contains so much joy, surprises, and sweet, simple moments of surrender and worship. What a trip!

And now, change is on the horizon. Life and decisions and freedom, too.

I have a vision of our family a few years from now: homesteading a little urban bungalow somewhere; me- getting slightly better at being energetic and patient as a work-at-home, homeschooling mom; Chris graduating – and more importantly, finding his passion; our children enjoying life and learning and play; our home a place of solace and rest balanced with joy and production, with our hens in the backyard, most of our property covered in food producing gardens, Ethan and Verity’s paintings scattered across the walls. The vision rocks me to sleep at night and soothes the hardest of times. I believe it is a gift from God to catch for yourself a vision for the future and feel even slightly hopeful about life not ALWAYS being how it is now

Very exciting.

Curious about Urban Homesteading? Here’s a great article. Gives me chills just reading it!

In the meantime, enjoy some recent snapshots of our family… there is never a dull moment:

Our Puerto Rican style Christmas Eve was a great idea this year. We began baking the 21 pound turkey we didn’t get around to at Thanksgiving, along with a 5 pound pork, on Tuesday night. I can’t tell you how many garlic cloves I used that night. At least 30. Anyway, once all the good saucey Adobo mess was slathered on, the meats began slow cooking overnight while I finished some handmade gifts. Christmas Eve morning we saw a smattering of snow on the ground and again began cooking, this time to the groove of a salsa Christmas CD. The pernil asado was to die for – nice and salty and garlicy and limey, mmmm… And the turkey came out great too – falling off the bone to reveal the slivers of garlic shoved into the meat, the stuffing of ripe plaintains/rum/dates/cinnamon, and studded with olives. I also made arroz con gandules but had to come up with an old school method for achiote ( sauteing the annato seeds in oil) for yellow seasoning, so that came out kinda bland and not very yellow. I also couldn’t get the thawed (because they weren’t supposed to be!) alcapurias to stay together, lol, however the pasteles Chris’ aunt made were boiled to perfection. I also fried tostones (green plantains, fried, flattened with a plate, fried again and dashed in salt) and maduros (very ripe plantains sliced thick and fried for juicy sweetness). Chris made homemade Coquito which was, well, I had way too much anyway!

We had a great time relaxing with friends over our Christmas Eve meal (Christmas Eve meal is the big one for Ricans, traditionally – that’s what Chris said anyway!) We also have TONS of leftovers that we keep picking at.

After Christmas Eve early dinner we headed to Evergreen Christmas Eve service. Ethan sat intently the whole time, very interested in this gathering. He also was a total STAR (I’m his mama, I can brag) of the “I Saw Three Ships” children’s “choir” – oh he was a riot and had all the moves down pat. Later we drove (yes, our own little christmas miracle- a couple went out of town for 10 days and left us use of their vehicle! thankyoujeebus!) through Peacock Lane to look at lights.

Back home we read some books and left out Santa’s snack, while Ethan hurried to bed. I had the notion that I’d stay up again to 1am like I have been for weeks to get the last minute gifts done- I need to knit something for the waldorf doll I made him and stuff and sew up the knitted gnomes. That didn’t happen. lol I gave up and knew he would be just as happy to watch me knit “Coby” a sweater this week — (that’s what he has named the doll – who he’s carried with him all day and slept with and made best friends with his favorite stuffed animal, the dragon “Scorch” – I can’t tell you how sweet it is when they love the toys you actually MADE with your own bare hands. It’s so special!)

This morning felt very lackluster for me. For one thing, my cold took a turn for the worst (sugar and lack of sleep will do that to ya!), so we didn’t make it to the christmas morning brunch we had planned with some friends. However, Ethan was very excited to open his gifts from us: a ton of new wooden “people” and accessories, a waldorf doll with a hammock, pillow and sheet, thai yoga/lounge pants, an old fashioned locally made wooden Top in his stocking with a large all natural candy cane, a few colors of wool roving and a needle felting kit, a kids’ first knitting needles set, and some new chapter books; Charlotte’s Web, Mary Poppins, and Little House in the Big Woods. From grandma he got a cd player with a cd story book of Little Bear, and from an aunt/uncle he got a Go Fishing game. Verity made out with her new blocks we made her and a wooden rattle and BabyLegs from grandma.

While we were trying to find room on the camcorder to record this morning’s happenings, we came across Ethan’s first Christmas – piles and piles of wrapped presents and battery operated whats its. He was 5 months old! It was crazy to see that in comparison with how simple and even elegant Christmas has become for us: good food, good people, a few special gifts under the tree. Very sweet times.

Despite that this morning I was tired and cranky and felt no spark of magical Christmastime that I always have on previous Christmas mornings, I’m still delighted to see the kids enjoy this day. We had our traditional cajun beignets and mimosas (just OJ for the little guy – another novelty), and all three of us took a nap through the afternoon! Right now Ethan and dad are curled up on the couch watching Polar Express and he is sucking away at his candy cane. We are stuffed from leftover turkey and pasteles and eager to get back into bed on this chilly night.

Well, my matcha tea is calling, along with MY Christmas present – the book “Heaven on Earth” which I can’t wait to dig into! So I will bid you adeiu.

Merry Christmas, my friends. Let the Epiphany festivity preparations begin!

“I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

‘We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,’
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.”
- Oliver Herford, I Heard a Bird Sing

Ethan and Caleb gaze at the flames from their handmade beeswax candles

Verity’s Christmas present: blocks cut and sanded by dada, polished with beeswax and emollients by Ethan and mama

Ethan snapped this picture of me knitting Chris a hat in church on Sunday

Despite that I managed to blow up a blender today and send homemade carrot babyfood and glass flying all over the kitchen, (while my 4 year old bolted towards the living room screaming like a lobster in a pot of boiling water… ohhhh, the chaos that is my life at times…):

I am listening now to Sting’s introspective Christmas album (thank you, Maw Maw) and sipping my holiday tonic tea blend and, what can I say? All is well.

Peace, grace, tranquility and surrender: find them. Keep them close.

If we bring an awareness of Advent to the home it still brings light and warmth to winter days. A wreathe, or simply the attractive arrangement of four candles on the table with red ribbon, a bit of evergreen, or pine cones, is a symbolic centre piece… Advent is a time of preparation. Children can busy themselves making cards and gifts… – from Festivals, Family and Food, by Diana Carey and Judy Large

Christianity stands as the external mystical fact for the birth of the light. Christ brought to the earth what had existed from the beginning, although it was hidden from mankind throughout the ages we have been speaking of. Now, however, a new climax was reached. Even as the light is born anew at the winter solstice, so in the fourth post-Atlantean period the Savior of Mankind, the Christ, was born. He is the new Sun Hero who was not only initiated in the depths of the Mystery temples, but who also appeared before all the world so that it could be said, “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). When it was recognized that the Divine could descend into a personality, the festival celebrating the birth of the Sun Hero, the Christ, came to replace the festival celebrating the birth of the light.
…
All the great teachers of wisdom — the Egyptian Hermes, the ancient Indian Rishis, Confucius, the Persian Zarathustra — have spoken the Divine Word. In Jesus the Christ, however, the Divine Word Itself walked on earth in a living shape for the first time. Before this time there was on earth only the Path and the Truth. Now we have the Path, the Truth and the Life. The great difference between earlier religions and Christianity consists in the fact that Christianity is the fulfillment of the previous religions, that in Christ we are not concerned with a great teacher of wisdom — teachers of wisdom were present in all other religions — but with a human personality who at the same time must be revered as a Divine Personality. Herein is to be found the importance of the disciples’ message, “We have laid our hand into His wounds, we have heard His message.” The emphasis is placed on the appearance, on the direct impression. It does not merely listen to the word but considers the personality. The conviction prevailed that Christ was, in a unique fashion, the Cosmic Sun Hero.

If we comprehend this, we also understand that the ancient festival of the winter solstice signified something different from the present Christmas festival. In Egypt we find Horus, Isis and Osiris, the archetypal image of what also lives in Christianity. In ancient India we have the birth of Krishna by the holy virgin. We find echoes of this myth everywhere, but what is important in Christianity is what I have just expressed. … The most important event for the men of this age is the fact that the Christmas festival, which always represented the birth of an initiate, now represents the birth of the greatest Sun Hero, of Christ Himself. Thus these two facts of necessity sound together in the world’s course.”
- Rudolf Steiner, 1904, Signs and Symbols of the Christmas Festival: Part 1: The Birth of Light

Ethan creating advent candles from sheets of beeswax for the dinner table Advent celebrations this month

The official Advent dates for 2009 are:

* First Sunday of Advent (Sunday, November 29, 2009)

* Feast of Saint Nicholas (Sunday, December 6, 2009)

* Second Sunday of Advent (Sunday, December 6, 2009)

* Immaculate Conception (Tuesday, December 8, 2009)
Holy Day of Obligation

* Our Lady of Guadalupe (Saturday, December 12, 2009)

* Feast of Saint Lucy (Sunday, December 13, 2009)

* Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) (Sunday, December 13, 2009)

* Fourth Sunday of Advent (Sunday, December 20, 2009)

* Christmas Eve (Thursday, December 24, 2009)

* Christmas (Friday, December 25, 2009)
Holy Day of Obligation

Here is a wonderful article outlining the winter festivals within the Waldorf home school.

This weekend marks the Feast of Saint Nicholas and the coming post will talk a little more about that! Stay tuned…

Enjoy recent pics:

Ethan and I ice skating this week

I awoke to find Ethan’s morning alone time activity: building a bonfire for his “friends”

Just off the needles: slouchy beanie for mama

Ethan helped me with gourmet homemade pizza on family movie night tonight

My first waldorf doll, a floor puppet

Verity in her cutie vintage thrift store bonnet

Ethan’s playtime activity- his nature arrangement of winter elements