Toddler Yoga

My daughter loves to watch me do yoga and try out the different poses, but eventually, usually after a few moments she gets bored with it and would rather use my strange positioning as a jungle gym. Shortly after she started doing this I found the most wonderful Yoga channel on Youtube. It’s called Cosmic Kids Yoga and it’s absolutely fantastic! The instructor Jamie, is a wonderfully cool blend of Mary Poppins and that perfectly balanced “yoga” frame of mind. She’s keeps the sessions fun and exciting while working real yoga poses into the stories and giving tips on posture and positioning. My daughter loves it, and honestly so do I.

Gratitude Series: My Older Sister

I watched this video on gratitude and happiness the other day and it inspired me to write this series. The world and the internet are full of so many things that are supposed to make you happier, or improve your bad days, but before this moment and watching this clip I never realized that there was one thing, that no matter how sad, lonely, depressed or just plain bad you feel can always lift your mood, and you don’t even have to be unhappy to get an extra little healthy boost of happy from it. It’s called Gratitude.

I have the words Be Grateful tattooed across the inside of my right wrist and I always thought of them as a reminder to appreciate the things I have and remember that life is a blessing no matter how messy or confused it can get, but if I’m being honest I had never thought of being grateful and showing gratitude as one in the same. Yes I knew I meant to appreciate my life, my home, and my family, but until now I didn’t realize that what was missing from my philosophy was not only feeling grateful, but showing gratitude to those I am grateful for.

So today I write a letter to someone special, someone who means so much to my life and hopefully next week I’ll write another and so on, I may skip a week or not get around to it as often as I should, but I would like to continue on with this Gratitude Series and show all the people who mean so much to me that they hold such a special place in my heart.

Here goes…

 

To my Older Sister,

I can not muster a memory from my childhood that doesn’t have you in it. You never came into my life like some people do, I was born into yours, and with the seven year age difference I was well aware of the fact that sometimes to you I was small and annoying, but that never stopped you from making my life special, from taking time out of your busy existence to make my childhood both wonderful and magical. I remember hearing sleigh bells on Christmas Eve and waking up to special presents slipped onto my pillow while I was sleeping. Once you transported me to an African Safari full of wild animals and elephants. We had Koosh wars, and whip cream fights and despite occasionally shutting me out, my whole life I have been confident that no matter what you would always let me back in.

When I was a teenager you were my rock. No matter the time, or the day, or what you were doing you always had the time to listen to me if I needed to talk or you’d drop everything to pick me up when things weren’t going so smoothly at home. You treated me like we were equal and told me about things no one else would.

There have been few moments that I have truly felt like I was being there for you and as much as life has thrown your way you always seem to stand tall despite it. You are the strongest person I know. Out of everyone, and though I know you have your bad days and your rough moments you always look for a positive spin and pull yourself back up and find the beauty in the world and the people around you.

You have been an invaluable influence on my life and I could not and would not have the happiness that I have today if you weren’t my sister.

I love you,

India

 

DIY Tea Cup Candles

If you follow my blog regularly you will now have noticed that this week has been very project oriented and every post has been some sort of DIY. I’ve been feeling very inspired in our new home and I’m just having a lot of fun creating and embracing the new space and really making it feel like our own.

A little while back I made teacup candles which are an inexpensive and fairly easy item to create. I picked up the tea cups I used at the local thrift store for .10 cents a piece and you can buy wax from the craft store or melt down candles from the dollar store or if you save old candles you can melt them down and make something new.

Making Contemporary Art with Children of All Ages

My daughter loves to do art projects and I love to do art projects with her so I’m always looking for ways to help her make art that can be easily displayed and add to the eclectic charm of our home. We’ve been doing a lot of painting lately and she just loves making hand prints, which is where I got the inspiration for this sophisticated, Contemporary Black, White and Red hand print painting and the best thing about it is it’s a wonderful project for all ages!

How To: Orange-Clove Pomanders

With the Autumnal Equinox right behind us and the promise of cool crisp days full of showers and the ever changing rainbow of Autumn leaves in our future it was most certainly time to embrace the season and bring a bit of Fall festivity into our home. As a child growing up off the grid we often spend time doing hand crafts and I think my Mom always took advantage of anything that would sit us down at the table and keep us occupied for a long while. I remember making clove oranges every holiday season my entire life. I’d sit down at the table with my brother and sister and we’d spend an afternoon covering every inch of orange with whole cloves. It smelled amazing and by the end of the afternoon we were sticky with citrus juice and rich with the smell of spice.

Autumn on the Pond

Autumn is coming. Slowly but surely the days are getting shorter and the air begins to grow cool. Rain in the forecast and apples ripening on trees. My favorite time of year.

Potty Training and Giving Them Grace

If you’ve ever read anything about potty training regression you know that the number one and number two biggest reasons for increased accidents and disinterest in the toilet are moving to a new home and having a pregnant Mom or a new sibling.

So basically a month ago when I was stressing out about escrow and our routine had gone to crap and moving was imminent and pregnancy was taking over it is no wonder that my daughter stopped having ANY interest in using the potty. I mean in a world where Mommy is stressed, Daddy is stressed that Mommy is stressed and you’re two and half and unable to control much of anything, why wouldn’t you take control of the one thing that you can and flat out refuse to use the potty? I mean is there really any other option?

So here we are back in diapers, and not the frugal, earth friendly cloth kind like we used to use, no, the landfill filling, .50cents a pop kind with unicorns on the front and magical stars that disappear when you pee in them kind. Because today when I put her in a cloth diaper she waddled around for a few minutes, told me it was too big, that it hurt and she really didn’t like it, but again what could I expect? When you don’t wear cloth diapers for 6 months it’s inevitable that you forget how to exist comfortably with the cloth diaper bulge and bubble butt.

But the truth is, it’s all completely normal. I think half the reason I’m writing this particular post is to remind myself that it is in fact incredibly normal for potty learned toddlers to have regression even without monumentally life changing events. So really all in all we’re lucky that a little pee on the floor is the worst of our whole moving/family expanding venture.

So I will give her grace, and I will look at the big picture and take the time to see that she needs normalcy restored to her world before we can move forward with anything else, and to create that for her I will take the time to make this house a home as quickly as I am able, and I will put aside my “to dos” and have diner ready at the normal time, and keep an eye on the clock so that our bedtime rituals are consistent, and most of all I will love her with everything I have, because while this has all been very stressful for me it has been more so for her because she can’t grasp the big picture, or the reasons for Mommy being grumpy, she only knows that things aren’t “right” or the “same” and needs me to be there for her as we work towards our new normal.

And may I just add I am completely aware that when the baby actually arrives all of this will once again become a whirl wind of late diners, and missed baths, but all I can do is give her one day at a time and when the baby does come we’ll have a better foundation to work back to.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask questions or leave comments

 

Chicken Soup with Love

Fall is by far my favorite season. I love it when the days start feeling chilly and I can finally break out those sweaters that have been lying dormant in my closet all summer, but not all good things come with chilly weather. Fall means cold/flu season and feeling under the weather is an almost inevitably unavoidable. So when you or a loved one does start to feel a little sick, grab your favorite chicken soup recipe and head on over to Sophistimom for a tutorial on how to add a little extra love to your comfort food with heart shaped carrots. It’s way actually quite easy and makes such a surprise in every bowl.

Letting Children Be Perfect

To say I’m a perfectionist would be very close to the truth. I like things a certain way and I like them to have been done a certain way to get there. This was my biggest fear before my daughter was born in 2011. I worried that my need for other people to do things correctly would be the same with my child as it was with adults, and I knew that expecting anything from a child besides presence was expecting too much. So I worried and I wondered, and then as babies do she arrived.

And there I was holding this tiny person, this tiny perfect person. She was so small and so fragile and made from so much love that I immediately dropped my fears and knew that I wouldn’t expect her to do things a certain way, because in her own creation she was the most amazing, perfect things I’d ever seen.

Fast forward to toddler-hood and the real test (so far) of this theory, but even in her juice spilling, food throwing, doesn’t quite follow directions glory I still found myself thinking that she’s doing it all with such quality and finesse and what’s a little spilled juice and missed direction when it comes to the amazing person you’ve created? It’s all part of the stage and I was and am often overcome by the way she does things and the intelligence in her actions even if they’re not the actions I was hoping for.

Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes I get completely overwhelmed. I cry(even when I’m not pregnant) and wonder if I’ll ever make it through this whole parenting thing, and I have moments when perfect isn’t the word I would use to describe my little hellion, but the truth is, she is perfect. She’s perfectly her, so at the end of the day when I’m looking at the things we’ve done and the way I’ve handled each situation I find myself always wishing I’d just let her be perfect, let her be the perfect person that she is naturally, the one that she is growing into, the one that my husband and I have the blessing to guard and nurture until she can blossom into a self confident adult who knows that it is her uniqueness and those things that could be considered imperfections that make her who she is, and that just in being true to herself and her character she is perfect.

So today when she takes all the measuring cups out of the drawer and asks to paint for the 10th time while I’m trying to get things done; I will stop and ask myself “Why can’t she do this?” and if I can’t come up with a good reason then I certainly can’t say no to her, and really what’s a little extra time teaching her to clean up when she’s done in the kitchen? Or the few moments and the casual supervision it takes to get her ready to paint?

Everything… that’s what those things are. They’re valuable life lessons and encouragement that will last her her whole life, and are far more important than finishing the dishes or avoiding a little bit of paint on the walls. So I let her paint, I let her paint and I give her the freedom to experiment and learn. I don’t tell her how to paint or correct her when she begins to use her hands. I just let her paint because the way she paints in perfect.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment and/or as questions.

 

 

Pastimes for Your Future

What do you love to do? What are those things that just make you happy no matter what? Though I don’t get the opportunity to do it very often one of my great loves in life is working with clay. It’s like reconnecting with the earth and immersing yourself in the very base of nature. The way the cool body feels against my warm hands and the smell of earth that emanates up as I wedge it into a more useful form. The way clay makes me strong both physically from the pure force needed for manipulation and mentally because it’s truly one of my most peaceful and centered places; the endless possibilities each bag possesses and how with the right technique and proper dedication you can turn it into anything imaginable. It’s bliss, pure, earthy, messy, cool, bliss.

As you can probably tell clay is my happy place, and I think that anything that makes a person happy on that level is not only a gift to ones self, but a gift you can so easily share with your children. Have you ever been completely taken by someone talking about something they were truly passionate about? So absorbed in their words you found the interest almost contagious because it obviously makes the speaker feel more alive? I have, and there’s not difference for children.

Whether it’s sitting at the wheel with me or curling up in here Daddy’s lap while he plays a game on the computer my daughter is entranced by anything we show passions for, and the level on which we are able to connect and share with her the things we love is amazing because not only are we being filled with a sense of happiness by doing what we love we are overcome with a sense of pride as we watch our daughter, the person that we made from love, as she learns to love and appreciate the things that mean so much to us.

So get out there and share with your kids. Don’t expect anything from them, but give them the opportunity to amaze you with the interests and new light they can shed on your most cherished pastimes.

 

Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment and/or ask questions.