Category — Photos

“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.
Each by itself has its pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair…
The mark of solitude is silence, as speech is the mark of community.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Perhaps the lack of silence and solitude is the hardest part about being a full-time mommy. If speech is the mark of community, as Dietrich claims above, then by golly, I’ve had no shortage of community for about 5 years now. From 24/7 motherhood, to church, friends, family, marriage, even a co-housing situation – speech/community has been everywhere. And there have been far too many seasons of imbalance in which the “life with others” part of my life is way overpowering the “life alone” part, which plunges me more times than I care to recount into the “void of words and feelings”.

My hope is that I can be more grateful for this time in life, knowing I will miss the noise of children when they grow up and leave home. Despite a throat/ear area swollen from allergies right now, I am trying really hard to remind myself that from the mouths of babes and infants He has ordained praise (and not just mind-blowing volume-defying nonsense!)

It’s all about balance. Balancing the noise with the silence. SO hard to do with kids around you all the time but I must find a way. I’ve got some ideas so maybe I’ll come back to the blog when I’ve implemented them

In the meantime, a photo journey of the noise/silence journey of this last week…

silence.

noise.

silence.

noise.

silence.

noise.

silence.

*First, a little business: Sarah- you were the winner of “Families, Festivals and Food”! Get me your address and I’ll get it in the mail!*

Life is mysterious. I know – how profound. But for real. And irony sure seems an ever present element in the journey. The criss crossy topsy turvy Oh-The-Places-You-Will-Go-Dr.Suess-ish-ness… I don’t even try to figure it out much anymore. The last 2 years of my life have defied or exceeded all of my former constructs. I am more convinced of the creative brilliance of the Creator of the Universe and less of the textbook, Sunday school “god” than ever before. I also get more angry and confused about it all. Sometimes it’s as absurd as growing and shrinking upon a bite of this and a sip of that down in that hurried little rabbit’s hole.

Some of you are nodding and the rest of you, if you are still reading, have glazed over eyes. I guess my mind has been full as of late. We’ve gone through a lot of changes and more are to come. For me, I’m trying to make decisions about what to focus on for awhile, even if that means sacrificing financial security. As I type, Chris is out applying at a new “green” home building retail store that just opened here in Fayetteville. The hours are perfect and his experience is so well matched, so yes, we are really crossing our fingers and saying our prayers. But he has lots of applications on lots of desks right now and who knows what the right thing will be at the right time. So we are playing a bit of the waiting game, while my own aptitude for pressing on as a work-at-home-mother with two young children in my care full time dwindles. My prayer right now is for a period of refreshing and refocusing to come, and soon!

Ok, I digress with a slideshow from Earth Day with my parents here in Fayetteville with us (sooo nice!):

Things were a little busy last week – we spent a lot of time with new friends, helped build a really cool barn style chicken coop (ours is going up next!), had a lovely day in the country (Ethan skinny dipped for the first time!), had my first Arkansas tick experience (ew!), then went immediately into prep for Chris’ big spanish style birthday shindig. We made 20 pounds of pulled pork, slow cooked for 2 days in a crock pot with lots and lots of garlic, limes and adobo. We had about 4 gallons of slow cooked black beans and rice, along with a big beautiful salad, fresh bread, lots of plaintains and even mofongo! The event was a great excuse to spend time with family and food!

Here’s some pictures of the event and other happenings this week (along with some fun pics of my dreads, now 3 months old )
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So speaking of family, festivals, and food: This is the title of one of my very favorite books. I picked it up when Ethan was about 2 years old and began to gravitate right away to what I learned about Waldorf celebrations. Lately I’ve been reading more and more books and listening to training workshops, all in preparation for something I have yet to tell you guys about but when I do I’ll be so happy to share with you all!

So, today was a rough day. I am fighting a cold, Chris and I are both very tired, Ethan and Verity are both incredibly high needs and the noise level is constant! Not to mention that I have lots and lots of work to make up and I highly doubt I will finish it all. With sore throat and ears ringing, I felt impatient and unnerved today – two things I really don’t like about myself, I must admit. I remember seeing this video recently of a Waldorf home-based educator who said that when she notices the energy of the children getting really rowdy, she first checks her own breathing. That came to mind today, as I strove to check myself as a potential contributor to the wild pent-up rainy day boredom energy of the kids.

So instead of raising my voice for the umpteenth time (working on it!), I told Ethan to be still and silent as much as he could while Chris took Verity off on a drive to fall asleep. While this was happening I made a pot of “Quiet Child” tea from Mountain Rose Herbs and the “Best Oatmeal Cookies” from that well-loved go-to book: Family, Festivals, and Food!

What you can’t experience over this screen is just how tasty and warm these simple little things are. Things are feeling cozier and quieter already…

Well, if you’d like to try them, leave a comment about something you use to help ground yourself or the kids on an everything-is-going-wrong kinda day. Next week, I’ll pick a winner randomly and mail you my extra copy of this book! In it you will find seasonal activities, recipes, verses and songs, and stories for your family to celebrate the year.

My intention: to release. When my palms are aching from holding too tight, and my neck is sore from the tension of the load – put it down, drop the line, just release it all.

The expectations. The fears. The anxiety. The selfishness. The opinions. The consumption. The pain. Just let it go.

Embrace, instead, the reality of true freedom to Just Be. The reality of Love Incarnate.

Here are some pictures from this week:

A discarded robin’s egg found in the backyard reminds us: hippity, hoppity, Easter is on it’s way!

The office is very much a greenhouse at the moment. along with 42 heirloom tomato plants, we’ve got oodles of sprouts already from herbs, peppers, lettuce, melons, gourds, and more. Along with a huge assortment of sprouts from a tray Ethan plated all by himself for his flower garden: foxglove, sunflowers, columbine, california poppy, chinese lantern, money plant, marigolds, zinnia – the list goes on! It’s going to be so beautiful this summer!

Verity and I were on the news Saturday night! Talking about the farmers market (I was a total dweeb. I didn’t even realize this was for the local news, I said something like “good luck on your project!” to the young man as we parted ways- for some reason I thought he was a university student, lol! Then my landlord called to tell me it was good to see me on the 5 o’clock news! Ha…)

Finished Verity’s “pixie” easter bonnet

Ethan got a handmade easter basket at the farmer’s market. I admired the flowers, pottery, amazing bluegrass musicians, and handspun yarns. I purchased a huge local smoked ham (which a portion of is currently crocking for split pea soup dinner!)

My knitting and laptop are never safe from Verity’s curious little hands…

I’ve been spending ample time in the backyard, enjoying the new blooms while the kids play in their sandbox. We’ve been doing more garden bed prep, and have put up a nice clothes line set. Also found a $25 picnic table to put out there, above which is strung white christmas lights. Can’t wait for outdoor dining again!

It’s certainly getting green out there…

Easter baskets lined with sprouts (real grass!) holding hardboiled eggs, yogurt covered raisins and pretzels, a coconut bar, and a few gifts: a dragon bubble wand, beeswax modeling clay, and beeswax block crayons (for Ver), all courtesy of Bella Luna Toys. Ethan also got a “Milo” to play with his “Otis”, and a replacement “Scorch” for the one he lost and still couldn’t live without.

Ethan playing with new neighborhood friends: a sweet polish family who lives a few doors down who we bump into on our evening walks.

I guess that about does it!

Today: enjoy the release.

(It’s quite possible that)
this life is all about
silly impressions of each other
while all around us
water.
falls.
(loudly.)

(It’s quite possible that)
this life is all about
noticing fungus
(or flowers.)

(It’s quite possible that)
this life is all about
choosing whether to be
creepy
or cute.
(or both.)

(It’s quite possible that)
life is all about
being yourself
-together.

Here I begin a new ritual at Mama Seasons: sharing, in photos, a few special things, a few special words, from my week:

Good morning, my little wild flower sprouts. So glad you survived the snow.

A sweet addition for Ethan’s table: beeswax egg candles. They warm our hearts.

Our new family pet: “Kiwi” is an all natural, genuine sheepskin/leather kiwi bird stuffed animal made in New Zealand. He was looking at me longingly as I perused the church yard sale. Finally, I caved and dolled out the .25 cents to bring him home with me. We all love him so. (For the sake of sharing my discoveries, I also got away with some wool sweaters (for felting), a soaker hose (for the rain barrels we are building), and an old Rodale’s “Naturally Delicious Desserts and Snacks” book. I think my bill was $2.)

I finished a simple wool shrug to keep Verity’s shoulders warm in the chilly Spring days. This will go with a little pillowcase dress I’m making for her birthday this month (more on that another time.)

Finally finished this sweet sundress I knitted/sewed for my niece’s 1st birthday (which was now almost a month ago, doh!) It’s gonna be put in the mail this week, guys, I promise!

That’s it for my week in photos. May you all have small moments to capture your heart this week…

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:
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