Goodbye, Garden Gate

Well, hello!
It's been a good few weeks since I have posted here. Sometimes I don't have the time or will to post as often as I'd like....but never the less, here we are.

 

 Today marked the end of our parent child group ("Garden Gate") at our local Waldorf School, River Valley, in Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania. We began last Spring and were welcomed back this past Fall. Much to my delight, I was asked to be the assistant during our weekday in class, as our teacher had just given birth to a beautiful baby boy and would be needing an extra pair of hands. This was such a fantastic opportunity for me and another way to be involved with our school. Each week I helped clean up, washed dishes, held the sweet baby, and offered other kinds of general assistance. Our tuition was covered in exchange, which was very helpful.

At 3- 3.5, W was the oldest child in the group of 6. I witnessed a lot of his behaviors (sometimes pushing, yelling, even hitting) and sometimes felt embarrassed. It was good practice for me to observe the reactions of the teacher (that is, focusing the attention on the child was was hurt, rather than admonishing the "offender".) Many times, W would then offer a hug to the child after seeing that this is what the adults did when someone was hurt or upset. This is kind of sticky for a lot of people. Nobody wants to see their own child be hit, and its also so difficult for the parent of the "hitter", as well as the children involved...

 

  "I won't let you hit" is my usual response...and I have also witnessed the teacher rubbing W's back firmly after he has hit, without speaking. I'm on a lengthy journey of figuring out how to best handle these situations. With children other than my own, I find it much easier and more natural of a response. With my own child....well, my own emotions get involved, and I know this is part of the problem. I do realize that most of this, if not all, leads back to me. I think its very rare for children to misbehave simply for the sake of "being bad." Children may be bored, anxious, unsettled, overtaxed, insecure, confused, and on and on.I'd love to assist again with the class, but the teacher and I both agreed that another day together at home would be so much more beneficial for W than yet another "social" day. (At this time, he's a part of the playgarden group W, R, and F, church on Sunday, Garden Gate on Tuesdays, and a parent child group I host at church each 3rd Monday of the month.) More time at home is always preferable.

A few recent photos from some corners of our home..

 

Ostheimer bridge and family

 

A very special cape created for W by his Garden Gate teacher..

We'll be back to River Valley, God willing, in Fall 2014 when W enters kindergarten at age 5. I'll be looking for PT work as an assistant or lead teacher at the school at this time. So, my master plan is to remain operating playgarden until Fall 2014. My teacher training will be over and we'll no longer be paying my tuition!

 

In other catching up "news", here are the beautiful dymondwood crowned hair sticks Jay got me for Christmas.

 

In the first 2 photos, I'm wearing them in a brioche bun, which is very simple to do. This link will take you to my most favorite youtube channel for simple long hair style tutorials:) The third bun is called The Elling Woman Bun, which is also relatively easy:)

My Lilla Rose hair clip party is this coming Saturday and I'm very excited. My mom and I are making some delicious food (create-your-own Miso soup, roasted veggie sandwiches, and more!) and I'm just as much looking forward to that! There is still time to enter the giveaway for a free Flexi clip:)

Thanks for reading and stay warm:)

An Epiphany Pageant

This past Sunday marked our annual Christmas pageant....
The day of the pageant also marks my 2 year anniversary with our church. So funny to think that I arrived there as a guest and visitor to view the pageant...and now I am directing the youth program! Full circle.

We hold our Christmas pageant after the Christmas Season...which some find odd. I very much love it. First, the pageant doesn't become "one more thing to have to do" right before Christmas when families are rushing about and most likely exhausted. Our pageant is more about Epiphany, a part of the nativity story which children may not be so familiar with.

So wonderful that this year the date of our pageant landed right on Epiphany, January 6th. It was a beautiful pageant; the children were incredibly reverent and focused. It is a day I'll never forget. These photos speak for themselves.

Photos by Ian Kindle

 

Face painting by Lauren Kindle

 

The sheep were wrapped in sheepskin rugs....fluffy!

 

Chalk rendering in my Sunday School room of Mother Mary by Lauren Kindle. I don't think I'll ever be able to erase it!

 

At the manger...

 

Mary's clothes...and manger.

(excerpt from our pageant script... text taken from "The Seasonal Festivals in Early Childhood: Seeking the Universally Human" available from WECAN books. I highly recommend this book! It is part of my required text for my Spring classes and with good reason, I believe!)

Away in the east a golden star
Called three wise kings from afar;
It shone so brightly in the darkest night
And beckoned them on to the child of light

sung: golden, golden, shines the star, shines the star so brightly; golden, golden shines the star, shines the star so brightly…

The kings come riding one, two, three,
 Over the desert, over the sea,
 They followed the star to the Child so bright
And offered their gifts to the King of Light…

(King 1):
Oh dearest Child, I bring you gold,
For you its glory shall unfold

(King 2):
With all my heart I bring with me Frankincense to honor thee

(King 3):
Myrhh is what I offer you,
Take my love and praises, too.

Thank you for your gifts you bring, thank you, oh royal earthly kings.

 

 

Our Sunday School Nursery

 

My little boy as a sheep. This might be one of my all time favorite photos.

 

Christmas has come and gone....and the mornings feel different to me. Chickadees are flitting everywhere and I  hear them piping their songs much to my delight. W wakes up in the morning shouting "Look at the pink sky! Wow! Whoa! Look at that! It's pink!" Our tree has been whisked away by the angels....well, leaving a tell tale trail of dried pine needles; their crispness letting us know that something is over...and something is beginning.

 The gift the angels left us in place of our Christmas Tree.

*Thank you to all who took interest in the current giveaway for a Flexi Clip! There is still time to enter:)*
 

Beauty Giveaway! (I'm excited!)

Hello everyone!

I'm very excited to announce a venture I am taking part in this month..
I am hosting my first ever "party".....a Lila Rose party, that is! I'm also very happy to give my personal review of their most popular product, the flexi clip, and offer a very generous giveaway for blog readers and party goers!

Lila Rose is a company which started out as a husband creating hairsticks for his wife. What a nice guy! Their family was in financial turmoil when they decided to go out on a limb and introduce a totally brand new, innovative kind of hair clip/barrette, the flexi clip. Turns out, of course, everyone loved it...and I do, too.

 I first tried the flexi clip after reading many favorable reviews online. I had never seen seen anything like it before. Turns out, it is one of my most favorite hair accessories and "reached for" hair toys. (love that term!) At first glance, I had no idea how to use the clip. Turns out, though, it is simple, user friendly and offers a really nice and secure hold for all hair types and lengths. They’re actually more comfortable than a pony tail holder.  They really do “flex” around you’re hair and don’t pull or pinch at all. And best of all, you can create SO many different hairstyles with this one simple clip. You don't have to be "good" at hair styling to use it. 

 The flexi clip is offered in a variety of styles (clips featuring tasteful celtic knots, fairies, dragonflies, peace signs, and roses, just to name a few of my favorites.) and tones of silver, gold, antiqued brass, or copper. I tend to favor the gold as I feel it works better with my haircolor. They are also very sweet for a little girl and make a great gift.

Lila Rose also offers hair sticks, bobby pins, ID badge holders, and several other beautiful hair accessories, as well. I had way too much fun hanging out on the website for an entire night last week.

Alright. Before I start to sound like some cheesy commercial.....I am not a sales person. I'm not good at it and I'm not really interested. I wanted to host some kind of party this year, but wasn't sure how to go about doing it. I'm not interested in new skin products (I have my tried and true tinctures!), tupperware, Avon, etc. etc. But what I really love is hair stuff.

Hosting a party and keeping all of the goodies for myself is just a little bit selfish, so I had the idea of turning the event into some kind of helping-those-in-need intention. While no money will be earned by me from the party, I will most likely accquire some free products. A girl can only have so many barrettes and/or hair sticks so I started to  think about who might appreciate them more than me at this time.

Our church operates a soup kitchen 5 days per week; serving over 150 hot meals to the public each day. We giveaway food products, personal care items, and baby/child necessities for families who need them. While a hair clip is not a necessity, I thought it might be nice for a few of the ladies who frequent the kitchen. Our rector remarked that she could "think of 5 women who would love something pretty and lady like without even pondering too much about it.." Perfect.

So- the details.

Our Lila Rose consultant is giving away one free clip for our lucky winner (who will be selected via random number generator and announced January 26th)  The clip style and size is your choice!

There are several ways to enter the giveaway:

Start by visiting my party site before Saturday January 26th. Register as a guest (fill in your details on the right) and start browsing/shopping. Pick your favorites and place an order. Each item you purchase gives you TEN additional entries! Awesome! Order 3 items? That's 30 chances. Let us know of your purchases in the comments section, please. Also, for this party, if you purchase 3 items, you'll get an additional item (up to $16) Free! This is a seperate transaction which our consultant will take care of. Contact our consultant if you happen to purchase 3 items and she'll set you up!
 ( heathershappyhair@comcast.net)

*Post a comment sharing with readers your most favorite hair secret or product.  I can't wait to read them!

*If you're a follower of this blog, this gives you another additional entry:)

*"Like" our Lila Rose consultant, Heather Hoover's Facebook page and let us know you did so for another additional entry!

Be sure to watch the sizing video before making your selections! Everyone's hair is unique and this video really helped me select the correct size!


Best of luck everyone. And thanks for reading:)

Christmastide

 

 

The birthday cake for Jesus--something our extended family has done for years.

I think W thought it might have been for him..

I hope all of you had a beautiful Christmas Day with your family and loved ones! What a wonderful day it was for us, too.

It is this time of year that I feel thankful to be discovering the fullness of the Christmas Season-- not just one day, Dec. 25th, but an entire 12 days leading up until Epiphany, January 6th. (Also the day of our Epiphany pageant at church! Can't wait!) This is so much better, for me especially, than one day being over and done with and feeling the post Christmas let down kick in. Just as the hopeful and quietly expectant mood of Advent has been discarded in large segments of Christianity, so too has the feasting and joy during the full Christmas season. In church this past week, we have still sung carols, the decorations remain and by last year at this time I discovered that by the end of Christmastide, I was ready to move along. There was no more letdown. Our tree and all decorations will come down the night of January 6th while W is asleep. In its place, in the morning, he will find a new and beautiful houseplant to enjoy throughout the year...with a green ribbon affixed, the color for Epiphany. All other greenery is removed from our home before Feb. 2nd, Candlemas, the first official Spring festival of the year! I like to do this the eve of Candlemas, as it makes it seem all that more real for me.

It's very easy for me to get caught up in moments; to look forward to something so much, to be standing in that moment and breathing it in, thinking, "ahhhh! This is the time! This is it!" This is the second year that I have served as an acolyte during our church's Christmas Eve service. This year, I was the crucifer; the acolyte who leads the service in the procession, holding a huge, tall, gold, ornate cross. The high altar was decorated so beautifully with pointsetais and the music was loud, mighty and beautiful! This was Christmas Eve! The cross is affixed on top of a 4 foot long wooden rod and feels very heavy for me. I had vivid dreams of dropping it, it falling over, or something else terrible happening. Fast forward to about 45 minutes into the service, where the other acolytes and I sit up at the high altar, pretty much in front of everyone. The cross, which was sitting in its appropriate place, latched with a hook....and seemingly all of a sudden fell over, crashed, and nearly broke. Envision 100 people or so gasping at the same time at this loud noise....and then watching it being picked up, all mangled and bent. Oh man. I felt like all eyes were on me. How did this happen? AHHH!

Turns out, the cross was in its right place--it just so happened that on this day, at that hour, in that very moment, the wood snapped. Wow. As I walked back outside into the dark evening, snow was falling. The night was quiet. There is always a real hush I experience on Christmas Eve night. The night seems endless...and I always wonder what every single other person in the world is doing at this very moment. I think the same thing a few moments before midnight on New Years Eve. What I do know is that I am here. I am looking up at the sky...I am laying in bed with my husband and Wesley, and we are all holding hands. It is warm. It's a nice feeling, especially when bed time has been an insane and sometimes really terrible experience for us these past few weeks.

This is my life. For all the wonderful and not so wonderful times. For everything that is fair and unfair. For where I come from, who I am, and what I have become.

A token of the Victory of the Sun

 

Caring for our Advent gardens, now adorned with our handmade candles and ready to be taken home!

It is quite true that Christmas falls when it is still Winter, but nature is already heralding a victory which can be a token of hope in anticipation of the victory that will come in Spring- a token of confidence, of hope, of faith...to use words which are connected in nearly every language with Christmas. There is confidence that the sun, again in the ascendant, will be victorious over the opposing powers of nature...

~Rudolph Steiner, lecture: The Christmas Festival: A token of the victory of the Sun.

(full text found here--and it is an incredible and worthy read.)

 

 

bowls set up for setting the table..

 

 Making our own grated cinnamon! I think I recall finding this little grater at the dollar store! It is well loved here:)

 

 

Clove oranges, one of my favorite Christmas crafts. Poking holes with a fork prior to inserting the cloves is helpful in guiding little hands...

 

One of my gifts to each playgarden child..

 

Little balls of rainbow yarn..

 

Some reflections on doll play by waldorf teacher, Christine Natale:

"A young child playing with a doll, investing it through their imagination with life, with needs, with wants, with the need for the child's love is the first and primary exercise of the child's soul capacity for empathy. Playing with a doll and imagining that it needs care, feeding, "changing", rocking to sleep, to be taken for a "walk", dressed, bathed and to be spoken to and sung to is the essential way for the child to practice loving in a safe way. By safe, I mean that because the doll only gives the child "feedback" that is in the child's own total control, the child does not have to cope with or deal with any negative reaction from the doll unless he or she creates such a reaction in his or her own imagination. This is possible, and a way for the child to process the experience he or she may have had with his own reactions to his or her parents or other people or other adults' and children's reaction to him or her. But this whole process is still safely in the child's own emotional control.

By practicing on a doll or stuffed animal or any other "inanimate" object, the young child becomes more and more ready to invest the power of their own imagination onto living people and animals. The child grows more and more aware that babies, other children, animals and even grown ups have the same needs, wants and feelings as they themselves do. This is empathy. This is the ability to project oneself into the life of an "other." This is the prime foundation for healthy relationships of any kind. This is the emotional shift from "I need", "I want" to "you need", "you want." Without this shift, no amount of "moral" education will ever be possible.

There is a popular meme circulating around. I believe it features a bust of Socrates and goes something like, "For a healthy person, no laws are necessary - for an unhealthy person, no laws are effective."

This kind of imaginative play - imagining LOVE (and need we say it? NOT imagining violence) is a non-gender-based necessity and its acceptance is a wonderful sign that we are finally emerging from the military/ industrial complex paradigm of the 20th century.

Blessings on all parents who recognize this and not only "allow" it but support it whole heartedly. And God Bless the Mothers and Fathers of our world to be! "

 

Wishing you and your family a most blessed Christmas Season....

May it be filled with magic and light!