Two wonderful woman bloggers

Two amazing woman out there doing amazing things.

First Lunchability, she posts her packed lunches everyday. My children get lunch at their Kindergarden, but if they didn't.....

And something that creates order. Jasmin is five, and right in that age where she wants HER things in HER drawer, and she wants to know where things "live", so she has received her own little night stand by her bed, with three drawers. She kindly enough took only one herself, and gave one each to the twins.  And she has her clothing bag, which she opens herself in the morning and gets dressed on her own. Here I found another genius way to put things in order :

Now this is a smart mom.
Shivaya Naturals: Tutorial Tuesday ~ Children's Activity Bag

Orange Pumpkins

Stocked up on dates, nuts and feta.

Went a little bananas at an arab grocers shop in Bergen a few weeks ago. Everything is so much cheaper and fresher and better in town. Ah, the sorrows of living rural! Well, went a little crazy at this small shop, and came home with f.ex. a 7 kilo pumpkin, 5 kilos chickpeas, beans, parsley and miscellaneous you just cannot get out in the district. Like REAL hot chili flakes...

We have had pumpkin soup a few times, baked it in bread, and so on. Wonderful and nutritious. And very orange. Matches the late summer now well. We are enjoying hot summer days, but the cold autumn is always lurking in the back of my mind, I just keep expecting to start putting hats on the kids, and the rain getting cold, and the oak trees fading. BUT they don't. So, life moves along. Official daycare start gone well. Lucky that Noa and Lea are so old they can speak up for themselves. And say how much they missed me and love me when I pick them up.

I am bunkered down in the office, trying to write and read and do all these adult tasks. Lucky life indeed. Teh break from constant childcare is welcomed. I feel graced to able to just be me for a while, do my yoga and breathe, read what I studying with full concrentration and gusto. Very exciting.

August, by Ruth Elsassar

Am keeping up with the rhythm of our days I feel though all the same. We pick up the children at 14.45. Home to relax, we make dinner together and eat at 16.30. Which leaves wonderful time to DO things. Take walks in the wood, swimming in big basins of warm water out on the deck. We still watercolor paint, draw every morning breakfast and do arts and crafts, though they will mostly be on the days I am home with them all.

Tuesdays wildflowers,pressed on watercolor painted boards

(sample wooden floor boards we receive in the mail for the new house)

Chores in The Waldorf Spirit

Helping and encouraging the children to help out is not just simply to make our lives and days a little easier. It is also for their own good. To bring rhythm, the single most important aspect of home life, is exactly what cleaning up and chores are, the utter consequence of things.

But it is not always easy, and it takes a lot of work, or stamina to see it through. Even when one would simply like to sit and enjoy that one cup of tea after dinner, trying to talk to each other, you know that being able to hold the space, and see it through the evening ritual is absolutely necessary.

A couple of weeks ago I had left the blocks out on the floor in the evening. We usually clean pretty well before we go to bed, but we have been working on the insurence papers practically every evening, and opted to get some sleep over picture perfect. The first thing Jasmin says as we stumble down the stairs at 6am, to make tea and make a fire, is : Oj, what a mess! I was heartbroken and so proud at the same time. Well, at least she has expectations, and has learnt how nice it is to be met by a clean inviting space t the beginning of a day.

Helping in the kitchen is our forte. We are incorperating the "island" in the kitchen in the new house, simply because we love having the kids help. And they are quite capable if you just let them ahave go at it. ( With a healthy dose of fear for the big knife...) They can see forst hand what goes into the compost, the necessary ingredients for baking, the process of whipping cream and making my coffee. They roll and cut and stir and especially love watching the popcorn pot, waiting for the first corns to pop. (A great opportunity to do tongue twisters by the way. Pop, pot, stop, a lot...)

A quick look in our "helping out" rhythm for a four year old on a regular day:

Putting away nighties in the morning.

Clearing breakfast dishes.

Sweeping.

Wiping table.

Washing pots in the sink. Water play in reality.

Putting wool clothes back in shelves when we come in. Hang up suits.

Put away playthings.

Set table.

Sort silverware from the dishwasher.

Light candle for King Winter on the Nature Table.

The list could go on...

This was an uplifting exercise, seeing how much she actually tries to do.

Happy days with the children to you.