Imbolc

We celebrate Imbolc last night. It was very beautiful to share this with my daughter F. A is still to young and was sleeping when we did our ritual. I will say it again it was just beautiful, F was amazing. She did well with sitting still and visualizing what I told her to. She is turning 7 in March and I can see the changes happening now. This is her drawing of Bridget, she has fire hair and is helping the plants grow.

The few days leading up to Imolc we have been reading a few stories, at bed time, from Circle Round. One was about the Goddess Bridget and two kids that call in her to bring spring, but they must do something to help her first. It's a beautiful story that we will be reading every year. The other story was about the goddess Cerridwen and how everything is connected and one.

The day before Imbolc we had our weekly co-op group come over. We listened to a story about Bridget from PookaPages . Then we drew a picture about a wish or intention we would like to come true this spring. F first drew a picture of money "for mommy" she said, then of a chihuahua. She really wants her own dog. Then we got a flower pot of earth and placed a flower bulb ,with our wishes, inside the pot. Then we covered it with earth. I wish I would have gotten photos of this, but I was busy spending time with everyone and directing the project. The night of Imbolc we placed a candle in the pot and did a small ritual to visualize our wishes.

I had F first relax an clear her mind using the Peaceful Piggy technique, as she likes to call it. Then I told her to imagine a circle on the ground, around us and the table, that this circle was to keep out anything bad or negative and only let in the good and positive. Then we pictured the elements in our mind; the earth which we stand on and grows trees and food for us. The air and sky which has the clouds and birds and give us breath. The water which we swim and drink to feel good. Then the fire, which we respect, that gives us warmth, is the sun, and cooks our food. Last spirit which is our heart and brings love and joy to us and those we love. Then we pictured the goddess Bridget and asked her to watch over us.

It helped that we had read stories from Circle Round and the one from co-op, in order to visualize her. We then looked into the flame and imagined our wishes coming true and that spring would come a little sooner. We sat thinking about this for a few minutes. When F was ready we thanked the goddess for listening to our wishes. Then we thanked the earth, air, water, and fire for all the things they do for us. That we live by them and thank you. Then F wanted to just cuddle up in my lap and stare at the flame talking to Bridget. She was precious. She asked me all day, "when is Bridget coming" I guess she took this as her coming. Which is not what I was intending, but exactly what a ritual is about. 

I took a photo opportunity of her cuddling. After she was done, we opened the circle by picturing it blowing away. Then we read the book Annie and The Wild Animals. It's about a little girl, set in winter, who's cat goes missing and she is trying to befriend other wild animals to be her new pet. Untill spring comes and ... shh spoiler.... The cat comes back with kittens.

I feel so blessed to be able to finally be able to share this with my daughter. She is at a the age where she is questioning "magic" she sees in movies or books and wants to know the real stuff. I explained to her magic is like wishing, we sit and think about something we really want. Like spring to come, a friend to feel better, ourselves to feel better, something we need or even want. This was the perfect first ritual to introduce "real" magic to her.

Mommies Journey Part 2

Part 2 of my journey to bettering myself. It took me a bit to get back to this topic.

As I said in my previous post I am going on a journey to become a better parent, wife and friend. So another habit I am trying to change is waking up before the kids in the morning to get some time to myself. My husband leaves for work at 4am and does not come home till after 8pm, Monday though Friday.  At about 6:30 A will wake up and around 7-8 F wakes up. F does have a "please stay in your room till 8" rule, but she seldom follows it. They are both usually down for bed at 8pm. When my husband gets home I try and spend a little time with him before he passes out (usually right away). So mornings are my only alone time. For me getting up in the morning before the girls is a challenge. I prefer to sleep in, but if I do I know I will be cranky for not getting to do something I would like to do by myself. Like post blogs, listen to an audio book or podcast. Check Facebook LOL! I also have been trying to abstain from my phone and internet from 8am till 3pm. Its a little encouragement to get up to be able to do those things in the morning. It also has been helping me actually be there with my kids.

Another thing that is helping me is after I read though the FlyLadys book Sink Reflections. I used to subscribe to her emails back in the day, but they became to over whelming and then we moved in with my in laws and my whole cleaning schedule shifted to how my MIL likes it. I actully got this book in a very good time. My MIL and I got into a "debate" about my cleaning habits vs hers, and this book is helping me keep a neutral happiness in the house. I did decide her schedule in the book was not going to work with being a homeschooling mama. I finally learned to not let that mold me and to make it mold to me. I made my own rhythm instead of a schedule. This is my Mommies Morning, Weekly Blessing and Evening Rhythms that I put in my "planner" that I always carry with me. Feel free to use this if you like, I will try and add a PDF later, if you would like to print them out.

       

I place these in the front of my binder, as it is usually the first place I go to check to see what lessons we are doing that day. I put them in plastic protector sheets and check them off with a dry erase marker. If you do this get the heavy weight protectors as they can stand up to the use and the markers. The thinner ones are hard to wipe the marker off of at the end of the night. For markers I like these as they are low odor and have a magnet, so I can slip then under the rings and they stay stuck to the metal part of my binder.

One big thing that is getting me up easier is getting my clothes laid out the night before. I used to hate this cause I always thought I would change my mind anyways. So far I have not changed my mind at all. I look ahead to the weather for the next day, what I will be doing and if I am leaving the house or not. Another thing is putting on shoes right away, I have a pair of tennis that and now dubbed my house shoes, cause we done wear shoes in the house. They have also been helping me from wanting to naps and keep me going all day. This is another thing I was apposed to but its really working. Sometimes I don't fully finish my list, but I don't let it get to me, or keep me from doing it tomorrow. 

Now in order for me to actually get up and not hit the snooze button ... I will share in another post, gotta get going now. My box from our csa is calling me to go pick it up!

Mommies Journey Part 1

This image is the perfect introduction to this post, it is by Allison Crow. I think I might print it out and add it to my daily binder. I will talk about my binder in another post.

I have been on a journey to better myself. To become more happy with life. To be less angry, not angry anymore or at least not you show it as much (ie. screaming). To better my habits and get myself together. I have been doing some reading, ie listening to someone read to me. Trying to meditate which is a really hard one for me. Becoming more self aware, mindful, and in tune. So I can be a better parent, wife and friend. 

 

The start of this journey was inspired by an awesome podcast called ZenParentingRadio.They are available on iTunes and their website. zenparentingradio.com . They are a lovely couple who talk about bettering yourself and becoming more self aware as a parent. I have to say it has helped so much. One thing that has helped on podcast is when Cathy mentioned watching Oprah's Super Soul Sundays. I was skeptical about watching it, but I started to record some to see what it was about. SSS (what I am going to call it now) is very amazing show. It does have some hit and misses but generally it has opened me up. It has also lead me to some amazing books and audio-books that I try to listen to or read when I get a chance. I really enjoy listening to them and knitting or crocheting, very soothing.  
 

 

I started with Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin . Which is helping me better my habits using my personality (temperament) . One thing it has helped me understand is I am an abstainer, I can not indulge at all in something I want to quit. If I do indulge its just a downward spiral from their. I am still listening to the audio book. I plan on posting more about how I am changing my habits. One thing i have started now is  changing from coffee in the morning to tea. I get angry when I crash from all the caffeine in coffee. First I started with decaf coffee. Why do they not make any good flavors for decaf? I switched to tea quickly. We have a keurig so I got some Twinings Tea in English Breakfast. I am a little lazy and need instant gratification, so waiting on my tea to steep etc, I will end up back to coffee and angry at 3pm.

Another book I have been listening to is Making Marriage Simple by Harville Hendrix and Helen Lakelly Hunt. An older couple who have a few other books I am looking in to also. They have a very unique way of explaining why we are attracted to our partner. Basically they say that our partners remind us or have traits of our caregivers and or a traumatic event. That we have to work though those things with our partners in order to make our marriage simpler. My husband and I are both listening to this in trying to make our marriage better. What they say in the book makes a lot of scene to me. My husband reminds me of my Father, when I was a child, a lot... I am a bit scared to know what I remind my husband of.

Ending this blog now, we need to do lessons now. I will post another one tomorrow (if I have time).

Bad blogger!

I am a bad blogger, I know this, I admit this. Now to fix this! I am now making this blog public.
I am really going to try hard to post once a week, hopefully more than that.
Our home school journey has gotten better and better, not to say it has not had it moments of stress induced chaos, but it's getting better. We are improving our rythm every day, and I am working on habits, good and bad.
In our journey though grade one we have finished up letters and numbers. It was so much fun telling the stories and drawing the pictures. Right now we are working on math operations. With Waldorf you introduce the four operations at the same time. We have met three so far, today we are meeting our last one.
I plan on adding photos of our journey thus far soon.

Starting our Journey.

We started out main lessons today. We are on a 3 day main lesson schedule. Monday's are co-op, Tuesday though Thursday are main lessons and Friday is finishing anything we need to get done and park day.

I started by drawing this before she got up. This is a picture depicting a part in our container story. It's about a boy and a girl who are asked by the fairy queen to help her break a spell on a kingdom. They will have to go on 3 quests learning new things as the go along. What we are doing the next two weeks is getting ready  for the quests. 

We stared our day again with a walk counting to 100. Then some yoga with the book "You are a lion" which F already told me she knew the title, then read it to me. She is doing good reading. Then we had circle and main lesson time. We made magical wands that will help us write our forums, letters and numbers in the air. 

   

Then we talked about our first forms which are line and curve. I showed her what the forms where, she made them with the braided yarn and walked them. 

Then she drew it next to mine. It took a few times to get her to draw a curve and not a circle missing a little. :) 

So we read our main lesson story then ended our morning lessons. When playing out side I drew the line and curve line in chalk and F walked, skipped and ran them. 

After that F pointed out all the lines and curves we had out side. 

I love this one she was super excited to find 2 on the tree, the bottom trunk being a straight line and the branches making curves. 

Then for afternoon lessons we painted.

We are learning how to use watercolor paints on wet paper. So our first lesson was yellow circles 

The method we are using has me paint right next to her, which is awesome cause I learn something new too. I actually practice before, a few weeks ago so I know what I am doing when I show her. Here is my painting. 

They are a bit hard to see. These are hers, she wanted to do two cause you could not see circles in the first one. 

Then we got ready for our journey by making a ball with our yarn. During our journey (with the story) we will be knitting things to keep us warm in the winter. It's a great hand eye coordination task and calms our minds. We also listen to our favorite sparkle stories as we do this. Here is her yarn ball. She wants to make a bunny out of it. It's an easy knit square and you sew it into a bunny. I made one for A, for her birthday.

That's the end of our day. Dinner is cooking (red beans and rice cause it's Tuesday) and then getting ready for bed, story (we are reading the Rainbow Fairies we are on the 2nd book Orange) and passing out! 

See you tomorrow.

First Day of First Grade!

So today starts our first day!! 

It started light, because we had co-op at 11. First I got everything ready for our day. 

I did the chalk board to match what we are doing today. Which is co-op herbs. We are using the herb root zines that come with herb fairies. The month is Elderberry. 

Daddy helped with the chalk board to use with the photos this morning. 

This is our circle time basket. Today it has everything so I can show her what we will be doing this month. Right now it has 2 recorders, her yarn and kitting needles, rhythm sticks, block and stick crayons, bean bags, dancing ribbon and our circle time songs and verses. (I for got the silks)

We made a rhythm clock to put in her room, it's marked in different colors for when things are happening. At 8 she can come out of the room and start her day, any time before that she gets up and gets ready, she can also play. At 8 is breakfast and chores. 9 to 11 is morning lessons. 11-1 is out side play and lunch time. 1-3 is afternoon lessons. 3-5 is free time or out of the house activities. 5 is dinner, 6-8 we get ready and go to bed. She picked out all the colors and was next to me the whole time we made it as I explained what every thing meant. 

When she came down she was already dresses and excited, a little early but it's ok. I gave her her rose and showed her around. She had breakfast and a photo op! 

After that we did some Yoga and went for a walk while counting to 100. We came back home and did our first circle time. She thought it was fun. 

While waiting to leave to co-op she played out side and found a friend a pill-bug, or we call them rolly polly. 

We went to the co-op and had fun learning about elderberry. I don't have pictures right now. It was a little crazy, a friend took photos, so I will post when I get them. 

Edited to add photos I received from a friend at the co-op. The kids had fun learning about elderberry. We took these for documenting purposes. These are the kids making elderberry syrup, to take for when you get a cold. First one of the adults told them a story about an elder tree, while two adults (one being me lol) acted it out. Next time they will act it out, while an adult reads it. Then the last time the kids will act it out on there own.