Posted in Celebration, Farm and Home, Handmade, Inspiration, Nature, Seasons, Spiritual, Storytelling, tagged 2016, 2017, art, family, feathers, full circle, giveaway, home, inspiration, it's just a phase, kindness, Light, love, moon, nature, new beginnings, new year, rainbows, seasons, spider, spiderweb, spiritual, stars, sunshine, thunder beings, wall art, web of life, wind, winner on December 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Good day folks! Join me over on Instagram for a GIVEAWAY of this lovely piece, called Full Circle, pattern by Cozy Blue. I want to share LIGHT and KINDNESS with this GIVEAWAY, so LIKE and TAG a friend in the COMMENTS. GIVEAWAY closes, Monday, December 26th, at 4p.m. My children will choose a winner!
Posted in Celebration, Circle Time, Enchantment, Inspiration, Nature, Seasons, Spiritual, Storytelling, tagged bones, circle time, crystals, Enchantment, gemstones, healing, homeschool planning, magic, mama, minerals, reg downs, semi-precious stones, spiritual, stone magic, stones, storytelling, teacher, the festival of stones, waldorf, waldorf homeschool, Winter, wisdom on January 16, 2016| 1 Comment »
Soon we will hear the story of The Festival of Stones, by Reg Downs, and its winter stone magic. If mama wants to sing around the house, while washing dishes, or folding laundry, here is a recording to go by. Include drums if you have them!
It is winter, but here in Kentucky we have only had a light dusting of snow and mild temperatures so far. My duty is to Remember my Self through the seasons. In winter, all the energy goes inward. Into the roots of the trees, into the stones and bones of the earth. Stones are our libraries of the past. Pick one up and see if it has a message or story for you. If you listen, or keep it on your altar long enough, you might pick up some of it’s wisdom and healing intention. Are you drawn to any particular stones right now? Do you have a mantra for this winter season?
Posted in Celebration, Inspiration, Nature, Seasons, Spiritual, Storytelling, tagged adult men, adults, boys, broken men, community, contribute, farmer of the heart, grass roots, healed men, healing, heart, inner marriage, inner peace, inspiration, integration, legacy, love, lunar masculine, meditate, men, peace, power, proper use of power, sacred masculine, sacred union, solar feminine, spiritual, storytelling, teenagers, union, women on August 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I knew I would eventually write this post about the sacred masculine. How could I not!? I live with four males. When my husband and I decided to have children neither one of us really cared what gender we had, just health. After we had two boys I thought it would be nice to have a girl, but was okay with a boy. After all we already had the set up and knew how to parent boys. And so it happened our third boy came.
I meditate often on boys, my boys, yang. I dream and wonder how it is that I came to be One Who Prepares them. One Who Holds energy for them. Growing up we had neighbors, three brothers. I spent practically everyday I could with them. In school and including college I mostly had male roommates. It was just that way. I had no idea, but I believe I was being prepared to care for a tribe of boys. Mud slinging, rough housing, loud, energetic, gentle, sweet, caring, quiet boys.
We have been transitioning energetically out of a time known as Solar Masculine, into a time known as Solar Feminine and Lunar Masculine. Our times are known as the New Earth. Energetically things are balancing out. Women are finding their voice and standing in their power. Men are becoming more respected for how gentle they are finding power in holding energy. What I mean is they are coming into a place of peace within themselves. Preservation not destruction is in their sphere of thoughts. Creating.
In America we are experiencing devastation to the land and our bodies because of monoculture farming and pesticides. But grass roots are evident and small farms are popping up. Farmer’s Markets are very trendy and gaining popularity each year. Men and women are finding themselves abandoning the american dream as we knew it for life in the country, or even urban living with gardens and chickens. Sustainability. We are the change we wish to see as it has been quoted by Ghandi. People who never touched dirt in their life are setting up small plots in their yards and planting seeds, watering and tending and finding a nice little harvest. Folks are tired of being sick and dealing with outdated institutions that really just want to make money off of us. Illness care makes money, healthcare does not.
Switching gears I want to talk about Sacred Union. The inner marriage of duality. Duality is separation. When those energies marry there is oneness. Just as two people marry and become one, we have the inner energies uniting. At the very core of the universe there is no separation, however it is my belief to better understand this concept we must come to earth and then make our way back to Oneness. It is a cycle. A circle. We leave Oneness to come here, and then we immediately begin to return that that Oneness. Along the way, during our journey we live within the duality, we struggle, there’s a pulling. Spirituality is meant to be a Path to achieve balance and mastery. To ascend. To be multi-dimensional. To exist in many dimensions at once. To better understand our nature and our planet, our universe. Macro and micro. Compassion. Tolerance. Consciouness happens in waves and individuals come to earth to assist with these collective conscious awakenings. Like seeds we are planted all over. And like seeds, we take root. It may rain, and we may struggle against the wind, but eventually something grows out of it.
Honor and reverence. I believe these traits are growing out of our boys. Honor for women and their personal power and what women can contribute. I have had to spend a lot of time purifying within this life. My heart and mind are new. When I married I had no idea what would happen. I didn’t know how many children I wanted, so we started with one. I didn’t know anything about homeschool, but we followed our hearts. I had to fight doubt and learn to Trust. This may sound wierd to many, but it is completely natural to me, I have taken a lot of advice from Grandmother Nichole. My future self. The healer and teacher within travels across time and space, becoming multi-dimensional, and Sees what needs to be seen. Creator comes to me symbolically. Some people call it synchronicity. Shapeshifting, Creator visits us within the many forms of creation. Through study, trust and the Unseen we learn wisdom. We become Wisdom Keepers. Holding space and energy and even time for posterity.
Our tribe has manifested our particular heaven on earth. It looks like a little cottage in the country. It looks like our own business where creativity reigns. A legacy. Hard foundational work. We are giants and our children will stand on our shoulders. It’s all grass roots. There are many ways all of this can be done, and there are plenty of folks out there to help. Some start with current institutions rebuking them. Some, like us are starting at ground level and building new structures, new foundations. I know my boys are builders. Walkers of this path. I don’t fully know yet what they will do, but the seed is in their hearts. I hope the sacred container (home) in which they are living and learning is nourishing enough and free enough for them to unfold in the way Creator wishes it. It all starts with family culture. It took me some time to figure this out. I love helping my community, so my time is best spent at home with our children and working from the inside out. It’s how I Serve.
Maybe this made sense, maybe it’s confusing. Either way I want you to know that it is my sincerest hope and prayer that what we are doing here in our home is reverent. It is for the community. My little life is doing something big. I meditate on that often…what am I doing, what am I contributing. Once I go to dust I will live on and on and on, and that makes me eternal.
My prayer here today and always is for all the little boys, all the teenagers, all the young men and all the adult men. I pray you find peace in your heart. I pray you are not misguided and distracted from Source. I pray you unfold according to the seed that was planted in your heart. I pray that if your home was not warm, that you find that warmth yourself or in new relationships. I pray for your brokenness as I have prayed for mine. I pray for our men to heal and stand in their power as reverent. I pray men understand proper use of power. I pray for the healers and teachers. I pray you honor your women or the women in your lives. I pray for your inner marriage and integration. I pray for Mother Earth. I pray that I really don’t know anything and that God will just take care of it all.
Posted in Celebration, Farm and Home, Form Drawing, Handwork, Homeschool, Inspiration, Language Arts, Math, Movement, Nature, Seasons, Spiritual, Storytelling, Third Grade, tagged 12 senses, balance, baptism, bible, building, chickens, church, cursive, cycles, divide, ego, farmer boy, fluency, Form Drawing, french angora bunny, hearing, homeschool, inspiration, jewish festivals, judaism, laura ingalls wilder, life, liturgical calendar, math, movement, multiplication, old testament, pinterest, reading, seasons, sight, smell, soul development, speech, spiritual, Steiner's 12 senses, storytelling, taste, the bible, third grade, touch, turkey's, waldorf, waldorf homeschool, waldorf third grade, Waldorf's 12 senses, warmth on February 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
It is very hard to believe that we are coming to a close with Waldorf Third Grade curriculum, The Old Testament, Form Drawing, Math and reviewing the four processes, especially making sure we know multiplication and then divide really well. Jewish Festivals. Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Building and woodworking. Choir and a chance to perform for church. Movement, always movement. Crafting, some sewing and knitting. And acquiring fluency with reading, as well as cursive.
Waldorf is an interesting and inspiring curriculum to follow. I have learned before Waldorf that Spirit is in the mundane, but Waldorf and the rhythm required helped my will to solidify this aspect. I do read some Rudolph Steiner and respect his writings, but I also utilize my G-d given intuition to guide our children, when it comes to what I am to teach them. As a teacher I must guard my words and the mediations of my heart, as it says in Psalms 19:14, for it is our children that will inherit the earth.
As a parent I must guard our children’s senses. There are actually 12 senses. Touch, life, self-movement, balance, smell, taste, vision, temperature, hearing, language, the conceptual and the ego senses. Some of these senses are inner and some are outer.
Touch, is the internal response to contact with the outside world. Life, this sense is the internal feeling of well-being and being alive. Movement is being inwardly aware of the way the body parts move in relationship to each other. Balance, this sense orients us to the world with respect to up, down, right and left. Smell is the sense that allows one to come with the outside world via odors carried by the air. Taste is a deeper connection with the outside world in which flavors are directly sampled. Sight is the sense that takes in the exterior images of the outside world. Warmth, with this sense we are directly aware of the warmth of another body. Hearing, this sense can tell us more about the inner structure of an object than sight. When an object resonates, we learn about its deep structure from the sound we hear. Speech. The sense of speech, word or tone, which is the hearing that involves meaningful words. Thought refers to the deeper sense of entering the being speaking through their words. Ego, this is the sense of ego or I, which enables us to turn our thinking towards the being of another and behold their I, their unique individuality directly.
Here are two links to provide you with deeper learning. I used the chart in the first link to bring you the 12 senses in an organized manner.
http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/twelve-senses
To remain aware of all these senses within oneself, as well as meditating on these senses for our children takes a lot of work. It takes my inner work and time management. This past week was a long and hard week. At the beginning of the week our beloved pet friend, Kiva, who was almost 17 years old, dropped her robe. She ran across the rainbow bridge and I could see her smiling, looking back and running hard and fast to the pasture in the sky. We have dealt with that grief of burying a friend this week and honoring her the best way we know how.
One of our children also began violin this week. We had choir, Cub Scouts and the children went with Papa Bear to the wood shop. I am always preaching balance at home, so much so it probably gets on everyone’s nerves when I have to say “no” often, so that we do not overdo.
Well, this week we overdid. My middle guy woke up this morning with the responsibility of going to an early church service and having to speak a short passage, the Cub Scout Promise. He had the passage down, but to culminate the week his front two middle teeth fell out last night. What changes this child has seen recently! And this child needed more sleep to process all that he has seen, heard, felt and sensed this week. I was not able to bring this balance to him and this morning he was showing it. I felt so bad for him as he was so tired, but had to keep his responsibility to his Pack and Den. It was my responsibility, and his dads to protect him. I promise to do better next time that we have such a hard and long week. Children are half our size, four or five times younger and cannot endure what we adults endure. We all must remember this as parents. It is okay to learn, stretch ourselves and grow, but we have limits and boundaries for a reason.
Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder has been one perfect book to help us in the 9 year change process. Almanzo provided some insight to the changes one sees in our child throughout the year, and the growth, will and responsibility that ensues. My oldest has really come a long, long way this solar cycle. We vision these changes for our child, we assist, but the work is truly up to them. I could not be more proud of Eagle Boy. He has grown with his building skills, skills I have always seen within him, and spends some time with dad at the wood shop, one to one and a half days a week on average. I can’t say how Good this is for him to be with a masculine authority figure enough.
At the start of the year we had chickens and a tom turkey, as well as a female turkey on a clutch. By the end of fall all was lost, so we will be starting over this spring. We do still have and love our French Angora bunny. She has a lovely bunny condo near our basement, packed with straw for warmth. We feed her timothy hay, pellet food, applewood sticks and pine cones, sunflower seeds, banana peels and plenty of water. We have also collected some of her hair, and plan to do something with it, but no ideas as of yet. It seems as though bun bun will be on a cycle of 90 days with shearing. We welcome her up in our kitchen most days to hop around and visit. And we purchased a nice round pen for outside days and plenty of hop time. Occasionally, I allow Eagle Boy to walk her around on a bunny leash, which is a sight.
Jewish Festivals and Judaism was a large portion of the teachings this year as well. The Old Testament is the Christian Model and perspective of the Hebrew people. However, the Jewish people themselves follow The 5 Books of Moses, also known as the Torah. Nevi’im, which is the book of the Prophets, and the remaining writings are known as the Ketuvim. When asked to sum up the essence of Torah, Rabbi Hillel famously responds, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Now go and study (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a).” The Golden Rule is at heart a Universal Ethic. Here is a link to take you into a further study of the many faiths and their way of speaking the Golden Rule, Living Reciprocity. We did not delve into the Hebrew Bible, but we know there is a difference between the Christian model of the Old Testament though. And that is a start.
Looking deeper into the Jewish festivals we used many books suggested by our local Jewish Community Center. Also the book Jewish Festivals, by Drucker and Patz. I also found my private online Waldorf community of Jewish people and non-Jewish people extremely helpful in schooling me on the facts and the emotions these festivals bring to family life. I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn and study deeper many faiths and to bring these faiths to our children, so that we may have tolerance, understanding and compassion for our fellow brothers and sisters.
Form drawing has been a very pleasant element in our schooling for several years and I continue to use Christopherus Form Drawing and Waldorf Essentials to aid us in crossing the midline and bringing focus to our week. Especially on Monday’s!! After speaking with our eye doctor two years ago and recently again this year, Form Drawing has really helped to strengthen the eyes and help with convergence. We are proof!
Reading! I knew that we had some work to do this past year with reading, but we buckled down and got to it. Daily reading is so important. Taking the time to snuggle up and practice is really a pursuit of the will, especially if your child does not come to it easily. I loved reading A LOT, so I had to have patience with my older guy who loves reading too, but only in his own time and only what he wants to read. I did really want to nurture and respect his coming to reading in his own time, but I could also tell as a part of his will development, he needed me to help him stay focused. Sanguine and choleric in nature, we needed that impressed into our rhythm. I did allow him to read what he wanted, but occasionally we ran out of books that he liked and had to just read what we had on the shelf. Although in Fourth Grade I intend to go to the library a little more with him and learn some Library Science, researching skills and the checking out of books that will enable him to continue strengthening his fluency, as well as comprehension and book reports.
Cursive has finally taken a front seat with Eagle Boy’s summaries and slows him down a bit, which is needed for his soul development. Verses, and summaries for the Old Testament stories and Jewish Festival teachings have held priority the last half of Third Grade with cursive. He proudly enters these into his Main Lesson Book.
Movement never leaves our sphere for learning. The boys take hikes regularly, jumping on the trampoline, and having a lot of fun building in our backyard. We have a lot of wood that Papa Bear could not use or store at his new wood shop, so the boys have had a daily access to Some tools and this wood. Papa Bear made a small structure on a large fallen limb from Grandfather Tree, as a fort. The boys also have access to fire building with permission. Over time Eagle Boy has collected knives as tools, not toys, and this has been a huge teaching in itself. One aspect to this past cycle that really turned us upside down was getting sick several times in late fall and early winter. For about 2 months we were pretty down and out, and have had to make up some schooling recently, so that everyone can be prepared for this next cycle. But we enjoy learning, so it is okay. Although, this down time really got us out of our rhythm of Movement, in comparison to our normal routines. We are slowly bouncing back and are very grateful for our health.
Lastly, almost one year ago our family began attending my childhood church. I felt the call home and it was perfect timing with our Old Testament studies. Our boys have flourished in many ways. They have made good friends and have come to love going to Wednesday night fellowship, eating with friends and doing crafts relating to the liturgical calendar (which is circular, not linear!) I am pleased with this and Eagle Boy will be attending, by his own accord, a Baptism class beginning next Sunday. Baptism will be at Easter service which will bring us full circle, as that is the first service we attended last year, where he saw his friends doused with holy water. I love that our church sends a small bottle of this water home with the child as well. Eagle Boy initiated this process on his own, so I feel it is good timing and an excellent ceremony to end one season of his life and begin anew.
Winter is my time for planning and dreaming and we look forward to learning more in Fourth Grade about Norse Myths, Viking life, Geography and Mapmaking, Math, Reading, more Form Drawing, Grammar, Cursive, Archery, Land Management, Tool-making, and whatever Great Mystery brings us.
Hopefully, in my next post I will explore First Grade coming to a close for Little Fox and all the exciting changes and growth happening for him. Thanks for reading this post and keeping up with us. Now, we must take the rest of the day to rest and prepare ourselves for another week.
Here’s my Pinterest board for Third Grade if you need any extra links or visual inspiration!
Posted in Inspiration, Nature, Spiritual, Storytelling, tagged boys, dark, distractions, ego, empath, extrovert, females, G-d, gift, gifts, girls, gratitude, highly sensitive, highly sensitive child, highly sensitive person, indigenous, introvert, Light, males, medicine, men, miscommunication, modesty, nurturing spirit, offering, power, raising boys, religion, sacred feminine, sacred masculine, sensory avoider, sensory seeker, spirit, spiritual, spirituality, The People, trust, unconditional love, women on January 30, 2015| 1 Comment »
There have been a lot of posts going around on the internet lately about young girls dressing modestly. Mostly I feel dressing modestly is not a terrible thing, and all people have a right to dress how they want. This is not the case in other countries where women do not have any or many rights though. But here in the Western world much of anything goes it seems. In the past, I have spent my time wearing bikinis and crop tops. I do see the body as a gift. A temple. A holy place that houses my spirit. Am I a bit different now as a woman than I was as a child? Yes. I have riden the wave of confidence and shame.
Mostly, I want to address what it is like for me to raise boys, to meditate on the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine in these times we are living. After I began having children, boys in particular it became apparent that I have a huge responsibility. I have chosen to look at history, to listen to the Ancestors and to learn from many cultures. To me this is the proper way to assess the world that we live in today. I do not Just want to take from that which is around me, because I know full well there is so much more out there. I want to be Awake and live multi-dimensionally.
It has taken me some time to learn about the power I possess as a woman, and to learn about sacred union, men and boys and family culture. What I will not teach my boys is that girls and how they dress are stumbling blocks for their soul and development. Do I love what the stores are selling to young girls and women. No, I do not. If I had a girl child would I dress her in the clothes that these popular stores are selling. No. This is in line with how I dress my boys. I prefer non-brand or non-logo clothing. Do I believe in self-expression. Yes, I do. I allow for freedom, but I am also a guide and protector of my children’s senses till they have developed their thinking brains more fully.
Here is what I will teach my boys. I will teach them they have the power within them for all things. I will teach them that the way a woman or a girl dresses is not a stumbling block for their behavior and how they may treat women. I do not believe Jesus created women as stumbling blocks for men. And if you do not know what I mean about stumbling blocks, I mean lust. We all have lust in us, at the basest parts of our souls. At the most primitive, Kundalini depths lust lies. It is in teaching my boys to raise that vibration from low and baser vibrations to higher soulful love will they understand their power. There are different types of love, but this is not a post for that topic.
Teaching our young men and women that Christ or G-d thinks these things about them is taking their power away. Too many times I have been in spiritual communities where I have been taught things and I allowed those teachings to drain my power. I gave my Power away. By power I mean my medicine. My gifts. Gifts and wisdom I bring to this world that G-d endowed me with when I passed from the Spirit realm to this physical world.
I will not allow my children to grow up to misunderstand and I will also leave a place for wonder and for them to form their own thoughts. It is not religion that I have a problem with, it is the language and interpreters that are miscommunicating to The People. I Love and embrace many cultures. I learn from the many cultures a more whole perspective. It was through the Native American tradition that I came to better understand many things, we are living on Turtle Island after all. The Ancestors that dwelled on these lands were indigenous, civilized, loving, respectful people. I do chose however to walk the walk of the Christian model and to teach my children this language as well and those ways. It is nice to have a model to help us form the formless that comes from within us, and to also have some time to take the form and allow it to flow formlessly. Transformation. Transmutation. I feel it and I can see it, there are pictures in my heart.
There is such a practice as Prayerful Parenting. Am I a Master at Prayerful Parenting? No, not even close. Do I pray on my knees often and then open myself up to what comes? A lot. Am I prayerful while I am living the mundane life that we are walking day-to-day. I do try to keep it in mind and heart. When I wash dishes, when I am changing the baby’s diaper, when I am engaging on Facebook with friends or my home school community. Prayerful Living has helped to guide me through the Great Mystery of home educating my children. As hard and rewarding as it is I Love teaching my boys at home. And I believe they love it too. Do we have fights, yell, miscommunicate? Yes, it does happen. But, I am positive it also happens to many other families walking all the other different paths.
My path is raising boys. Three of them. They are beautiful, unique, clever, introverted, extroverted, sensory seeking, sensory avoiding, creative, loud, dirty, loving, wild and quiet. They are exactly what this world needs. They came here in this time and so did I because we were needed. I will not teach my boys what it takes to avoid lust and that it is a girls fault if he has lusty thoughts. No, I will teach him that his power comes from within, where G-d lives. I will not take his power away from him. I will be with him, guide him and love him fiercely.
What will happen in the future? Will my boys grow up perfectly and not make mistakes? No and yes. They are perfectly imperfect as am I. And I wish I knew all of this when I was struggling to raise two boys 21 months apart years ago. I did not realize I was an introvert by nature those few years ago, or that might have helped me in my daily journey. Nor did I know I was an empath, or highly sensitive. Nor did I know about temperaments. Nor did I know much about the brain and the body and how it is all So connected. But I do now. I don’t know it all, and never will. I just know my Path. I know I spent much of my time alone, cursing myself, or living like a melancholic. It was easier for me to point out all of my personal mistakes in parenting, even though I didn’t know any better, than it was to point out to myself that I was a good, and loving mother. It is Much harder to love ourselves and to love each other than it is to let go of the all the hard and messy relations in life.
I know now that Mother/Father G-d has plans for me as he/she has had all along. It is easy to be distracted in this modern world, and busy, or extroverted is honored a little more than slow living. But, for now we try our best to live a little slower, more intentional. We fail though on a daily basis, but this brings us closer to each other, it teaches us unconditional love, it helps us understand our higher potential.
So I will say it a different way here. To say that girls or women are dressing in a way that is a stumbling block for boys and men is to say that males do not need to do their inner work and that it is the outer world that determines all. No, I do not think so. This belief is taking their power away. It is saying, no you don’t need to do your inner work first. It is saying others are responsible for your actions. That is Not how the world works. It is time we take our power and responsiblity back as parents and teach our boys they also have the same power. We can be weak as humans and I do believe I need G-d, but G-d is within me. It is up to me to meet with G-d as often as I can and honestly I do not believe I am separate from G-d ever. I believe the spiritual and the physical realms co-exist.
Source Loves Us. Sources does not intend for us to be stumbling blocks for each other, but this outer experience happens all the time. For example, have I allowed media to get in the way of me parenting, perhaps and yes. Should I get off this blog and go be with my children. Maybe. Do I need to write and express myself to feed my soul? Yes I do. Not because I am feeding my Ego, as I have been told by people I trust, but to contribute my form of art to The People. Even though it may only reach 40 people. Numbers do not matter.
Planting seeds in others hearts is work for G-d, not me. When things outside of myself tend to get in the way a little more than I care to admit, I hear the quiet whisperings of Creator beckon me to a place. A place of peace. A place I have created while living and that was created before I came along, Within myself. This “place” is where I swim in Love. It is a place where I am nurtured, and then I take that nurturing and give it to others. We all have what we need. But sometimes we need to give it away to others as well, because our cup is full. There is balance here. The giving and the receiving. The Elders call it Reciprocity.
I will not tell you all my spiritual name, nor will I tell you my children’s or husbands spiritual name, although I use nicknames on the blog. But I will tell you my middle given name I go by. Nichole. This name is no coincidence. It means Victorious Heart. There was a time in Ceremony a few years ago that I felt and saw G-d cleanse my heart and drop one tear on me. I felt that tear from G-d and what an honor it was to receive. My heart was replaced then. Renewed. I allowed my self to step more fully into my heart, and to honor why we have Ego to begin with as well, because I also believe the Ego is greatly misunderstood.
Despite what others think, I am teachable. So if you have something for me, I will listen. I am not set on this view forever. Some new truth may alter or shine light where there is darkness. I am open.
So to tie up all these threads into a garment I want to say thank you for following this story. I need to get off of here and get back to raising boys. There is Gratitude and Trust that I am being led. I am writing this for myself and for whoever decides to read it. It is an offering that I leave on the table. If this offering speaks to you, please take it as a gift. If it does not speak to you, then leave it for someone else.
Posted in Art, Circle Time, Farm and Home, First Grade, Form Drawing, Handwork, Homeschool, Inspiration, Language Arts, Math, Movement, Music, Nature, Seasons, Spiritual, Storytelling, Third Grade, tagged adding a third baby, angels, archai, archangels, archetypes, baby, buddhist, chalk drawing, christian, circle time, cursive, drawing, early childhood, fairy tales, first grade, growth, handwork, homeschool planning, movement, music, native american, rhythm, sensory, spiritual, storytelling, sufi, third child, third grade, waldorf, waldorf homeschool, watercolors, wet on wet watercolor on August 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »
2014! With plenty of preparation work for two years, life has been like a spool of neat thread unwinding itself and revealing what is being made. Cedar blessed us with his arrival last October 2013, and we settled deeply into dreaming and planning, as we do in winter. Slow. Winter. Good. We had enough inner light to burn our way through the darkness of the cold season until Spring. For most homeschooling families February is a transition month. Cabin fever. Spring wants so badly to arrive, but Jack Frost sometimes lingers and the roots are reluctant to send the energy upward. The Light is yearning to unite fires within us again encouraging springs in our step, curls at our mouth and early spring morns on the porch with breakfast.
Preparing for Third and First Grade has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed deeper spiritual learning with our main lesson of the Old Testament and Grimm’s Fairy Tales, with the archetypes. I keep in mind specific goals set for each child. Movement is always at the top of the list, rhythm and anchor times equally important. I feel blessed to observe, pray and listen for each child. Listening to Creator brought me insight to adding more music this year assisting the nine year change and seven year change as well as transitioning our little nursling with us through the day.
For our Native American block the boys have deep roots and some live education with Elders from the Hopi and Choctaw people. As their parents we have spent time doing our inner work with the encouragement of these Elders, their ceremonies and wisdom. All of that has carried over into our daily work. We have some unique teachings to bring to them. We also provide Buddhist, Sufi and Christian teachings. I think it is important to recognize the Ascended and Holy Peoples and to make available a universal language. It’s all about communication and connection, whether you prefer psychic or prose.
Music. Our circle time music has been our own songs that inspire us, and the Summer Songs from Music Together, which is Cedar’s baby music class playlist. My big boys are helpers in the music class and I see them getting so much out of the experience. For one week we spent time at the lovely First Christian Church Music Camp, in my hometown. I adored the music teacher and the kids. They worked hard with a tight schedule to really learn alot. I am impressed at the growth and stretching they had to endure. I felt I could See the transformation of their hearts and throat chakras. Flowing. Singing is magical for many reasons. The breath of Creator is at work.
Movement. I have been spending time with the boys this year learning about stretching the body and becoming more aware of their spiritual vehicles. Everything is sensory. Stress can be useful but also dangerous, so we have spoke some about how important drinking water, taking salt baths, regular bedtimes, clean foods, and movement can help assist our sensory experiences. Creator wants to come through us and touch all the materially dense richness. The earth. The wind. The warmth of a hug. The cool water that flows down our throats. Thankfully we have added new elements to our movement apparatus, like a slackline and trampoline. Existing equipment includes a zip line, 4 acres to run and bike. Trees to climb. Porches to swing upon, especially when it rains. Wood to chop. Fires to jump. Critters to feed. Free play. My boys do not lack for play time and joint compression. They are very creative and I have always nurtured and assisted that play with props, dolls, action figures, furniture, lighting, wall paint color, board games and card games. Natural materials are preferred but we possess some vintage classic toys. I do see the difference in feeling the materials personally. Plastic is cold.
Handwork. Handwork is many things. A nine month old baby is handwork as a nursling. My handwork. Handwork to the boys is taking care of their room, arranging a shelf or an altar. Brushing their teeth. Learning to knit a row. Taking blocks out and putting blocks away. Chopping wood. Whittling a stick. Modeling with mud, clay or dough. Sanding or polishing. Sewing. Picking up baby brother and helping him explore.
Watercolors and Wet-on-wet. I’m trying. A couple years ago I presented the color wheel teachings to the boys. I am revisiting watercolors again, the brushes, the feel. I have Painting With Children by Brunhild Muller, and the Waldorf Painting Education binder. IT’S HUGE, and I haven’t made it all the way through. I struggle with building scenes and I always add too much water! I am a work in progress.
Drawing. Chalk drawings and practice drawing have become staples in our process. We ingest the stories of each grade that are developmentally appropriate, draw and retell the stories. Some we love and some we take in and think maybe work is being done on us in the night by the angels who know better than we do.
Angels. Archangels. Archai. This is truly a personal relationship. We each have one for ourselves, as a group, the community, the earth and so on. Many times I go to the angels when I am struggling. But I do see them in the everyday, like when Cedar discovers his own voice. Or when River smiles at me shyly, and how he always nurtures me. Wolfsion, he champions as a helper to me and the land. He’s a steward. A trailblazer.
Waldorf Essentails curriculum, Melisa Neilsen homeschool teacher trainer and consultant, the Thinking, Feeling, Willing group of women on Facebook and my own spiritual path have been critical. Aside from doing a lot of listening to my Maker I try to keep my influence minimal or I can easily get distracted. I find that continual purification of the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual intelligences are absolute for the path. Each of us have a process. Recently, I disconnected from the grid for a couple of months and the time away really energized me, renewed me and helped me ground into my present life. We discover this as our intuition, the angels, our children and our own paths merge. It is also when we decide to manifest and come in tune with our soul that our Path becomes clear.
Rhythm. I need structure, but love the permission to unfold freely within that structure. Like the earth and the water flowing through and around. I allow space for the kids to unschool themselves with my guidance also. There are some days where that is absolutely called for. At some point I may share a photo of our schedule, it comforts me and transforms through the year, as we school (a)round the wheel. In and out breaths as the masters speak of in early childhood with anchor times, sleep, play, handwork and meaningful work are so very important. They are important to me as the teacher and as a human in grounding to this earthly experience. Life is intensive, but it all depends on how committed one is to the process and the path chosen. I am working on my Calling and Mission and that changes as the faces and places change, but the sanctuary and the familiarity of home remains.
Farm and home. For us this block blends nicely with our geographic location of Kentucky. Bodies of water with as much shoreline as Alaska. Rolling hills and knobs. Bluegrass. Large and small scale agriculture. Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder is a good Wednesday read, coupled with our nature-farm jounral. The boys draw pictures, write summaries and include math measurements or calculations to describe their work. We raise a few chickens, a turkey and a rabbit with a cat and two dogs, along with a children’s garden. That proves to be plenty of work for us.
Cursive has been pleasant and enjoyable. I liken it to form drawing, so we do it two times a week. After bringing forth the letters, we are now practicing cursive words and seasonal verses.
Early childhood is surfacing again with Cedar on the scene. I am having things click for me that we did not have time for before. The stories are becoming a part of me. I have more of my planning together and props available. I am slower, more mature. Patient. I imagine this comes with any teacher or parent. The settling in. It is comfortable and exciting. The journey. The Great Mystery ahead. As time goes on I really note that honoring myself and honoring my family and friends is also loving myself. And there is nothing wrong with that. Most importantly my lessons have come from making mistakes or as the Elder’s say “learning.” I realize when I am having a hard time it is due to the level of love I have for myself. [HUGE!]
Admist the birth of our baby and a new school year we have also birthed our own family business that has grown over the last 12 years of hard work, and we will be celebrating our one year anniversary as Cedar turns one in October. I am so proud of my husband for his work ethic, his talent and his ability to (at least) appear like he has left his work stress at the door. When he enters the house, he gives us himself, which is a gift. Check out http://www.coydogstudios.com or visit us on Facebook at Coydog Studios. We are also on Instagram Coydog_Studios and Twitter.
Thank you for reading. There will be more to come, as I find time. Development, the grades and the spiritual nature of our process is important and it is yearning to find it’s way out of me and into words. In the meantime visit me over at Pinterest as Nurturing Spirit and on Instagram as Healingoneself
xoxo
Posted in Adventure, Art, Celebration, Enchantment, Inspiration, Movement, Music, Nature, Spiritual, Storytelling, tagged adventure, altar, art, celebration, farmer of the heart, healer, healing, inner work, love, meditation, movement, music, nature, obwisana, rumi, sensory, spiritual, stones, storytelling on June 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Let’s play a game like the Ancestors. Obwisana is a children’s game out of Ghana, which encourages cooperation, movement, oral dexterity and even accuracy. Cooperators use stones and move them from hand to hand, getting faster and faster.
Let’s take [it] a little farther. We can be farmer’s of the heart as Rumi says, and remove the stones from our hearts field. I will help you. Go with me to the field, it’s a short walk. I have water. Close your eyes, and sing with me. See your heart. See the field. Walk the rows you have tilled over time. Feel the dirt on your feet. Sense it. Look for the stones. Pick up the stone and speak to it,
“I am going to move you, like the wind moves me.”
“I am going to mine you from my heart, and I will make an altar of you.”
Let’s transform this field into a lush garden, and it will bear seeds for a new generation.
Posted in Celebration, Inspiration, Seasons, Spiritual, Storytelling, tagged celebration, disciple, G-d, holy people, holy spirit, I Am, Light, peace, renewal, rest, sat nam, solstice, spiritual, Stillness, storytelling, The People, yahweh on June 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »
And The People (Disciples) began to speak the many languages as the Holy Spirit poured through them.
Nurturing Spirit 