learning new skills

I don't generally impose arbitrary chores on the kids, but I do ask them to help out around the house.  Usually they are happy to do so.  In an effort to clean this morning, I insisted that each girl pick up some aspect of the livingroom.  Well, there was resistance, and it led to some sort of meltdown freak out, without much getting done anyway.  However, less than an hour later, after watching Papa change the oil on my car, Camille single-handedly changed the oil on Papa's car, cheerfully.  It was her idea.

Papa finished putting up wiring, insulation, and drywall in Camille's bedroom.  So, I took over and did the taping and mudding.  It's a job that suits me.  It's messy, sculptural, and a bit picky.  Camille took photos.

Sylvia is usually happy to help bring Ayla to the potty, or play pattycake with her to keep her entertained while I'm busy.  She loves to set the table.  She's been known to 'do the dishes', which generally involves lots of suds and splashing.

Each family member is learning new skills and filling in where they are best suited.  That is so much more important to me than obedience or arbitrary chores.  

That's all.  I'll update photos of Camille's bedroom-in-progress as more gets finished.

dodecahedron lanterns

With the earlier sunsets, we find ourselves cozying up in the evenings.  Lantern light can make this evening time feel special and magical.  

We still have and enjoy our star lanterns from last year.  And our balloon lanterns didn't hold up past a couple of uses.  This time we decided to try making dodecahedron lanterns from watercolor paper.  Tutorials can be found here and here.  

Just to make things difficult, my printer isn't working so I couldn't print a pentagon template to start.  I tried tracing one off of the computer screen, but my screen apparently stretches things out, because it came out all wonky.  I couldn't find a protractor, just a compass, so I went with this method of drawing a perfect pentagon.  Did you know that if you take a strip of paper and tie it in a loose knot and slowly flatten and tighten it, it always turns into a perfect pentagon?  It does.  Try it.  That page explains why, and also shows how to fold a perfect pentagon using both the American and Japanese methods.  I'm a bit of a math geek, so I love this kind of thing when it comes up.

 Instead of doing a big wet-on-wet painting and cutting shapes out of it, the girls wanted to use watercolor pencils and draw different images on each shape.  Then they painted over the drawings with water.

Gluing the eleven pentagons together was a bit of a challenge, and I ended up doing this part on my own.  I did the top half and the bottom half separately and then attached them together by alternating each flap inside and outside of the structure.  I used Magnetix to hold the flaps tightly while the glue dried.

 Sylvia's and Camille's

My camera doesn't adequately show how pretty these look lit up, but they turned out really fun and lovely.

By the way, we love Magnetix.  They get a lot of use around here, besides holding glued lantern pieces together.

Labels

Labels are not inherently bad.  They are a way that we can communicate who we are or what our ideals are, especially if the labels are self-chosen.  There are labels that I would use to describe myself and I'm proud of, but no longer shout from the rooftops about.  Homebirthing, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby-wearing, attachment parenting.

There are labels that have fit for a time and then been shrugged off.  I dabbled with Waldorf, spent 7 yrs or so as a strict vegan and even more as a vegetarian.  I had a hard time giving up the describer unschooling when Camille chose school, but I replaced it with country-living, respectful parenting, and joy-seeking, and I feel pretty good about that :)


The reason labels are on my mind is that I have a very sensitive girl with big feelings that she doesn't always know how to process very well.  Ordinary life moments can sometimes throw her into a blind panic.  I know that a lot of kids in similar circumstances are labeled with a diagnosis.  I know that this can be a welcomed thing.  It can give parents a sense of being able to identify, seek support, and move to a better (or different) way of approaching or helping guide their children through their feelings.  This kind of label is so different from a self-chosen describer, though, and I hesitate to take that path.  I think for now, I'm going to go with free-spirited for her, unless she asks for outside help managing her big feelings.

running in the moonlight

Any stories, advice, or links to resources that come to mind, are welcome here. 

first snow storm (and power outage) of the season

Aaaah, the first snow!  Besides bringing beauty and playful fascination, brought a nearly 24-hour power outage. We were well stocked with wood for the stove, so we set about enjoying it. 

  Besides lots of snow play, we put together puzzles, readied candles and food supplies, read Little House in the Big Woods, and cooked a not-so-frozen pizza in a cast iron pan in the woodstove.

 The perishables that we weren't going to eat went into the car trunk to stay cold, and more wood was brought in.

 The girls had to try out these cross-country skis that were passed down to us.  Fun!

 We heated melted snow on the woodstove for the dishes and the chickens.  We made up stories and giggled and snuggled in front of the fire.

  Those little blurs on the left are Camille and Sylvia playing in the snow past dark.

When the electricity came back on this morning I was vaguely disappointed for a minute.  But, well, melting snow to flush the toilet because the well pump doesn't work is not that fun.  Everything else about it was, though.  No reason we can't have electricity-free days and nights just because we want to, right?

Gratitude over Guilt

 Some days I can hardly believe that I get to have this life.  Some days I am filled with the wonder of it.  I get to romp in the fresh air with my kiddos, read in the sunshine, eat food straight from the earth.

 

  Sylvia and Ayla were thrilled with liberating the milkweed seeds from their pods.  Sylvia said, "I am the midwife, helping the milkweed fairies be born."

Besides spending our day in the sunshine, we baked buttermilk biscuits from scratch, then gluten-free buttermilk biscuits for (and by) Camille.  We slathered the biscuits in butter and this strawberry jam.  Papa whipped up some eggrolls with the cabbage from the garden.  We read aloud three chapters of Little House in the Big Woods.  Sylvia chose to watch Strawberry Shortcake on Netflix.  Camille chose Fairly Odd Parents.  I knit in the spare moments, hung laundry on the line, sliced pears for snack.  That, in a nutshell, was my day.
I know not everyone gets to, chooses to, or would want to even if they had to, live my life.  I sometimes feel guilty that I am not more actively involved in community/political/environmental action.  I do make my personal and consumer choices as ethically as possible, and so I am choosing to feel gratitude instead of guilt.  I am truly grateful for this simple life.

At the zoo

Beautiful November weather, a birthday party for a good friend, at the zoo, with balloons, and a carousel.  Good stuff. 

  

  

 I could watch the playful river otters all day.  They put on a good show!

Camille and Sylvia used to both be scared of the aviary.  They didn't like the loud screechy sounds, so we haven't been in there in years.  Both girls ventured in to be with their friends, and actually enjoyed it.  I was ready to bolt out in case one of them panicked.  We've had an aviary melt-down before, but not this time :)