Games

Play is such an important part of learning.  I often hear parents undermining the importance of play.  I also hear parents and teachers feel they have to legitimize play, to prove it is teaching the children something.  When did unstructured play become something that needs defending?

We have had a lot of games coming out in our house, since the fall and winter weather came.

It is nice.  I see my very active children settle down for a bit of gaming, and not the video kind.

Sometimes, some adults are lucky to get in on the action.

Sometimes a plate of cookies disappears with the gamers

This little boy carries his UNO deck around the house, hoping for someone to play with.  When no one will, he busies himself shuffling and dealing the cards, even playing a hand against himself.

Ok, so this was not a game.  It was work.  But the boys were able to make Papa's stuffing of envelopes into a rather fun game, each having a role, each doing his job. 

Yes, Virginia

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. 
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. 
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' 
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Original Source: The Sun; September 21, 1897

Response by Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church

Found at Newseum

loving

A winter work out playlist to keep me moving while I walk the dog in the cold; music

A winter cowl that knits up fast and is so pretty; cowl

A delicious way to eat up the pumpkin my sister brought to my house; roasted squash

A poem and thoughts on honesty; zen poem

A funny holiday video from a funny family; video

A beautiful wooden wreath I would like to make; Bead wreath

A Christmas CD I love to put on and play all day; Mindy Smith

What I want to make with Atticus, Dash, and Elias; Snow globes

Dreaming of planting; tulips

Friday Foto 12-2-11

December 1 2011

Here we are, in December.  

no snow on the ground yet

We visited Walney state park

We crafted

We cut old clothes into banners to hang in our "new" house when we get there.

Peace in this last month of 2011.

Monday, planing ahead tips

Today, I have a lot of hopes.
Making crafts with Atticus is a big one.  I would also love to swim with the kids at the health-club, and do some yoga.  Atticus wants to do some baking.

And, I want to head back to Walney park with the kids,  to gather myself in the quiet woods.  I feel so so so so so peaceful when I am there, and for a long time after I leave.   I would like to take stock of the pantry items we can use up before the move.  I would also like to read the books I got from the library, and get the house in order.  That is a lot of fun stuff I want to do, and there is no mention of the yucky stuff, like make dentist appointments, fill out papers for the "new" school,  oil changes and packing.  I would rather not think about the yucky stuff.  Not just yet.

I am working on developing some tricks to squeeze more into a day.  A lot of my time is spent in the kitchen preparing food, because I believe in making healthy food for my family.  And, because I love to bake and cook.  I am focusing now on making sure I don't spend our grocery money on snack foods, but  on whole foods, which means I have little to eat that is "grab and go".   I have to plan ahead, and have food cooked and ready for that moment when the children all come in to the kitchen and are starving and roaming around like monsters.  I have to have something I can pull out and whip up when I haven't planned dinner, but it is dinner time.  One new trick I love is homemade biscuit mix.

home-made sweet potato biscuit mix

home made biscuit mix

And, even though there are still steps to complete the biscuits when making them from the mix, it is easier than making them completely from scratch.  I have also heard you can freeze biscuits before you bake them, and just pull them out and bake them when you are ready.  That is next in the process of learning short-cuts.  

Hot biscuits, ready in less than 20 minutes, waiting for gravy, jelly, or honey.  These always get me extra hugs from the boys.  Especially when I make them for dinner (not just breakfast!)

Biscuit recipe taken from "How to cook the Perfect Day" by Nikki McClure.

Brothers

"Dear one, there is a way from your heart to my heart,
and there is an awareness in my heart because of seeking it,
because my heart is like pure sweet water,
and pure water holds the mirror of the moon."

(Rumi)

The connection between these brothers is strong.  They are so close, they sometimes don't even need to talk and they know what each other is thinking.  They are excited to see each other at the end of school, and tell each other about their days.  I walk close as I can, hoping to hear some of the information they share with each other, and no one else.

Left overs

We had delicious left overs hanging around our kitchen.  The perfect way to use most of them is to just re-create the dinner from the day before.  Warm up the turkey, mash potatoes, and stuffing, and enjoy.  But, there are also a ton of things one could  do, and here are some of what we did...

For breakfast, we put the cranberry sauce in our oatmeal for a delicious and healthy change to our normal oatmeal.

                                        Atticus makes it "snow" on the oatmeal...powdered sugar

yum!

I boiled the turkey carcass in water to make the stock and get all the meat off the bones.  Especially when we buy a free-range turkey or chicken, I feel the need to use everything we can.  In this case, a delicious bone broth was made.  After I boiled the bones for about 12 hours, I drained the broth and added the meat and veggies.  Some bones were soft enough for the dog, and he was so happy!  He also got a lot of skin and a few scraps of meat.  In the end, we had very little waste from the turkey dinner.   

We added a dollop of sour cream to our soup and had some home-made sour-dough bread to dip in the broth.  

Can I just say what a compliment it is when I see someone drinking the very last drop of the soup this way?  All the bowls were empty.  This is a most satisfying and healthy soup.  If you don't make bone broth, I suggest you start.  I also use the broth for cooking our rice, which adds so much goodness to the rice.  I love having a jar of homemade broth in my fridge.  It makes me feel like I am taking good care of my family.  Warm fuzzies...

Thanksgiving 2011

Since the children outnumbered the adults, it made sense to make our thanksgiving dinner very kid friendly, and have lots of activities to keep them busy while all the adults were busy in the kitchen.  First, they made the cranberry sauce;

My Nephew Isaac tastes the cranberries.

Then the children decorate the table, which is covered in paper.  They color and write what they are thankful for.  The adults do too.  It is a beautiful table cloth.

Children helped with every aspect.  By this time, they were also running around crazy, totally falling apart.

Busy busy with turkey and gravy, the last things to be ready.

Then, the meal.  Mary made corn spoon bread, sweet potatoes, sweet potato biscuits (gluten free), gravy (gluten free), and apple pie, Wade did the turkey and cornbread and sausage stuffing, I did the mashed potatoes, green beans, sauteed beet greens, and cranberry sauce (with the kids).  Matt and the kids helped a lot, were always in the kitchen to offer a hand.  It was a group effort, and lots of laughter, and some tantrums.   The children chose to tell what they were grateful for.  Elias said he was grateful for the constitution, the big bang, life, and death, because without death, the planet would not be able to continue. Isn't he interesting?!

I wonder where we will all be next year.

Friday Foto 11-25-11

November

We found a lovely farm in Berryville, outside of Leesburg, VA.  The town was full of old, cobblestone houses and stores, and was tiny.  I could totally have taken a dozen pictures of just the beautiful buildings, but all I had was my dumb phone camera, with an almost dead battery (I did not plan very well).  So I saved the battery life for a few shots of the kids at the farm.  There were tons of fun things for the kids to do, and animals to pet and feed.

Human-powered go-carts.

A strange but fun large orange pillow to jump and bounce on.

The greatest water feature ever.

Mr. Turkey.  He was so beautiful, a bright blue head and pretty feathers.  

Thomas Jefferson thought the wild turkey, not the bald eagle, should be the national bird.

And here is Elias knitting in the sunshine.  This is not how it looks outside anymore.  Now, it is gray.  Dark, misty, cold. Much more like November.

Last night, I pulled out all our Christmas books, and Atticus and I read Ollie's Ski Trip by Elsa Beskow. I just love that book, and it puts us in the mood for snow!  As much as I love sun and warmer weather, it seems natural for November to be cold and gray.  I nest, and turn on soft music, light candles, read to my children (Mary's Little Donkey!) and bake cookies.  

I am also getting Christmas presents ready.  Got some wooden dowels today to make something (secret)...and Atticus picked out some green glitter paint.  There is some elf work to be done! 

Strength

Sometimes, I don't feel like I can do it anymore.
Be positive
be patient
be loving
be tidy
be supportive
be nice
be the person i want to be.

Sometimes I want to eat whatever I want as much as I want and not exercise will power
and not exercise at all.

Sometimes I can hold it together for a long time.  Keep my families emotional bank full, take care and nurture everyone else's emotions, hold on.  Because I know I have a lot to be grateful for.  I know that.

Then, sometimes, I fall apart.  Something, one thing, happens, and the damn breaks.  The emotions come rushing out.  All the emotions that have been stored up inside, all the emotions that I take from my children, my husband, my friends.

Some people can immediately let emotions go.  I hold on to them.  Forever.  If something mildly upsetting happens to me, I think about it for days, months after.  A guy flipped me the finger while driving.  I still think about that;  "If only I could have told him what I was doing, explained my self, then he would not have thought bad about me and flipped me off..."
Any little thing that happens, I replay over and over.  Which is why I avoid conflict and stressful situations.  I don't want to have to think about how to smooth things over so I can avoid a moment that will be replayed and replayed.
And that kills me.  I mean it really kills me.  It drags me down, it makes me see the glass as half empty.

Do I think this is healthy?  Do you need to tell me how unhealthy this is, and how I should stop?
No, please don't.  I know it.  If I could stop, I would have done it already.  All I can say is, I am working on it.  I am working on letting go, of being more positive, of seeing all the things I have to be grateful for, of not feeling like a victim.

This morning, while I was making oatmeal for my boys, I dropped one of my favorite bowls.
It fell onto the granite counters, and shattered in a loud, ringing crash.  I thought I would be upset.  But, I wasn't.  It felt good.  Not that I wanted to break more, but it felt like something was released.  I am not perfect.  I am also not fragile and I know I have the strength to get through a lot tougher times than this.  I have pioneer woman blood in me, I know it.  I can feel it surge up anytime I think I am going to break, anytime the children wont stop fighting and lunches have to be packed and the house cleaned and we are late late late and have to go NOW!

I have to swallow my pride and return to work at a place I thought I was done with.  It did not work out for us here like we thought it would.  My year at home is ending at the half-way point.  Atticus will return to pre-school, and I to work.  We will return to the beloved home we left only 6 months ago, packing and unpacking again.

In a way, it is a fresh start, even though it is going back.  We have new ideas for our house, new ways of handling our family stress, new sense of how we want to live our lives.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is evening now, and I feel much better after my morning breaking of the bowl.  The bowl that held nothing and the bowl that held my emotions.  Both broke, and are now are cleaned up and thrown out.  Today, I taught Atticus that when two "e's" are together in a word, they say "e", as in "tree".  He did not talk "mean" once, something we have been working a lot on.  Elias came home from school and was so proud.  He passed his strings test, and is now playing the viola with the bow (he was just plucking before).  Dash picked out a great movie from the library for movie night tonight, and the popcorn is already popped.  I went and got some candles today, and I am going out on a date tonight.  They boys will be left in the hands of our 15 year old neighbor.  She is totally immature, but her parents are right next door and the movie is long, so I think it will be ok.  It is a lot to be grateful for.

Thank you for letting me have this moment to share.

Thankful

Thankful for a little boy who finally asked to learn to knit.  He learned in 1st grade, and hated it.  His handwork teacher told me, "it's ok, some people just don't like it".  I watched other little children take to it and knit up little sheep and bags.  Elias would not do it.  I tried to work with him, to force him.  I can't really believe it, but at a Waldorf school, knitting is a big deal, and I was a Waldorf teacher, and I knit, and darn-it, I wanted my child to be the star knitter!  Silly, right?  I got over it.   I thought, fine I will accept the fact I will not have a knitter.

Then, it happened.  

And he has taken to it.  He says knitting makes him happy, and when he knits, he gets quite relaxed, his voice lowers, and he talks.  A lot.  He is not a talker.  But when he is knitting, he lets it all out! I get to hear about all his thoughts.  I am so happy! 

He also knit outside this beautiful sunday, in the sunshine.  I asked him to watch Atticus for me, and he said "can I knit while I do it?" What a beautiful thing it is to watch children grow and change.

(I took a picture of him outside, but sadly, my camera is not working at the moment...)

Thankful for moments of quiet;

And moments of excited, loud, fun play;

All the neighbor kids came over to play in the giant leaf pile.  Their parents were busy bagging up leaves  in bags to be hauled off in trash trucks today.  They did not want the kids playing in the leaves, and messing up the piles.  Elias asked if we were bagging leaves or was our pile "strictly for fun".  Uh, strictly for fun, of course!  I had no intention of bagging up all those beautiful leaves into non-compostable bags when they are like vitamins to the lawn and soil!  Anyway, we all had fun.  (again, I had quite the collection of funny photos of them buried in leaves and playing that are all stuck in my camera...)

I am so thankful for the nice weather too.  Even the rain.  We took a walk in the rain and it smelled like wet leaves and fall.  It was beautiful. 

 I am thankful for our cozy house where we lit candles because it was dark at 5, and played soft music and UNO! over and over because it's Atticus's favorite game right now (it was Candyland, and I am pleased we have moved on).  

Thankful for family coming for a visit next week, and lots of Thanksgiving dinners with friends and family.

Thankful for friends who have showered me with good thoughts during a rather strange time in my life.  It is good to know I am missed.