Mother Earth and The Root Children, pt.1

Inspired by my favorite childrens book The Story of the Root Children, I asked Mel from Etsy's Haddy2Dogs if she could make felted characters to depict the story for our nature table. These are the incredible figures she created to illustrate the preparation for Spring...

Under the ground, deep in the earth among the roots of the trees, the little root children were fast asleep all winter long... They slept peacfully in their warm burrows. They were dreaming of the sunshine in which they had played all through the summer. And what wonderful dreams they were!

"Wake up, children" Mother Earth called kindly.

"Time to get up now, You've slept long enough. Spring is coming and there's work to be done."

The ladybird, the beetles, the grubs and the bumblebees had also been sleeping under the ground and had now woken up. They had to be washed and brushed, painted colourfully and made to shine so that they would look as beautiful as possible. What a hustle and bustle was going on down there!

Would the root children be ready in time?

Scenes From Our Farm

Mama Cow feeds her calf while she drinks
... as Matteo liked to point out "Just like Mama and Baby Luca"

Nico and his goat family
(the boys have assigned their own names to the figures)

Rooster and hen up in the hay loft

Matteo and his donkeys

Squirrel and acorn caps

Papa Bear kisses his cub
Matteo insisted that the bear was a daddy bear, not a mommy bear (harumph!)

Happy Anniversary, Ivan

"Kind & Generous"
by Natalie Merchant

You've been so kind and generous
I don't know how you keep on giving
For your kindness I'm in debt to you
For your selflessness, my admiration
And for everything you've done

You know I'm bound...
I'm bound to thank you for it

You've been so kind and generous
I don't know how you keep on giving
For your kindness I'm in debt to you
And I never could have come this far without you
So for everything you've done

You know I'm bound...
I'm bound to thank you for it

I want to thank you
For so many gifts
You gave with love and tenderness
I want to thank you

I want to thank you
For your generosity
The love and the honesty
That you gave me

I want to thank you
Show my gratitude
My love and my respect for you
I want to thank you

I want to...

Thank you


With All My Heart, Marina

Warmth and Softness

I'm feeling the need for comfort this afternoon and nothing does it for me like wool.

Looking at it ....

Fairy Mobile by Nature Child

Gnome Lakefront Estate by Haddy2Dogs

and wearing it...

my toasty toes in Padraig slippers

Sending warm cozy thoughts to all :)

Crazy Crayon Hearts

I feel as if I should start a category called Crafting-By-The-Seat-Of-Your-Pants. Matteo's Valentines Day party was at school today and as usual, I was pulling something together at the last minute yesterday, though I had this idea in mind for a few weeks.

We made heart shaped crazy crayons, which are incredibly easy and fairly quick.



First, we peeled the paper off of our gazillions of broken crayon pieces and broke them into smaller pieces (I put them in a plastic bag covered with a dishtowel and let the boys go to town hammering at it)









Then melted them at 250 degrees for about 7 minutes. I learned from previous experience that when you let them melt for too long you just get a big pool of brown wax. Here they are after they've cooled and I've taken them out of the forms.









I used Valentine themed stamps, labels and red yarn to make tags. I crocheted 30 stitches (leaving about 6" at each end) to make it a little bigger than bracelet sized.














and MY favorite part... drilled holes into the hearts to thread the yarn through. Don't you just love crafts that involve power tools?

and Voila'! Our (nearly) quick and easy Valentine craft :)

Wishing Everyone Much Love!

The Lemonade Award

I'm feeling humbled, I'm feeling honored, I'm just feeling oh-so-verklempt...

See that pretty little lemonade stand? That's the Lemonade award- an award that is passed to bloggers for showing great Attitude and/or Gratitude... and I am the blushing recipient of this award from some wonderful blogging pals Nicole, Cat and Jumbleberry who I am sharing the award right back to and will be named below (as part of the ten fabulous bloggers I can shall pass this award along to), cause gosh darn it- I love these women *mwah!*...

The rules of this award for recipients:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.


So here are my 10 in no particular order:

Imagination in Parenting- For beautiful photos of everyday life, go visit Annie's blog. Food, knitting, crafts... she's like that super cool friend you want to hang out with all the time.

McSmithleyville- I've known Jen FOREVER. Her family pretty much adopted me when I moved thousands of miles away from home after college and I spent many happy holidays hanging out at her folks house. Jen used to let me bootleg copies of her Prince cassettes when she was in high school- she was so cool even then. Through her blog, I get to see Jen now as a mother- an amazing, wonderful sweet mother with a gorgeous little boy. She's a yogi, knitter, professional smart person (she teaches) and is just an all around fun person.

AmLo Farms- Oh Cat, I just adore you in spades. There is so much joy, happiness and gratitude for everyday life in her blog. When I feel like just being happy, I stop by Cat's blog

One Hook Wonder- Nicole cracks me up. She is so REAL and just a funny, funny person who does some pretty crafty things. I feel like she's my doppelganger. I'm just wondering what it's going to take for her to join my Lost Waldorf Mamas group (and anyone can join by the way, the only requirement is an affection for snark). Yeah, Nicole, I'm calling you out in public... luv ya' babe... mean it.

Soulemama- Everyone knows Amanda, everyone loves Amanda and I know I wish I could take pictures and write like Amanda. The woman rocks.

Frontier Dreams- Nicole! Nicole! Nicole! There's not enough exclamation marks to describe how much I love this woman. She has the sweetest soul and some crazy knitting skills. I love reading her blog (her photos are amazing) and following her family's Waldorf journey.

Ordinary Life Magic- The name of the blog says it all. Stephanie makes homeschooling look so much fun. I'm breathless from following her fantastic adventures. Her days are magical and filled with so much imagination and creativity, I feel so lucky that she shares it with all of us.

Autumn Oak Homestead- Tahara is an incredibly wonderful person with some truly adorable boys. Her blog just exudes so much serenity. I look to her for her wisdom in raising sons and marvel at the lovely environment she's created for her family

Jumbleberry Jam- This woman has a way with words. When I first read her blog, I was just blown away by her clever and intelligent writing and I've been so flattered (and relieved) that she hasn't put out a restraining order on me for all the fawning I do over her.

Mom in Madison- As a former Madison dweller, I love to read about Denise's homeschooling adventures with her boys in one of my favorite places. She has the best craft tutorials and some seriously fun kids.

So that's my list, my friends...

What are you still doing here??!! Go...go on now... check these spectacular women out!

xoxo,
Marina

Reality, pt2

This is what happens when you leave three baskets of folded laundry up in the kids playroom because you finished folding it at 2AM and you didn't want to wake them by putting it in their room. And you weren't paying attention this morning because you were nursing an extra strong cup of cofee while breastfeeding the baby and the sounds from the playroom were of little boys laughing so you figured everything was OK and they weren't killing each other and you had a momentary respite from refereeing...

Yup, this is what happens

Play!

"It is a happy talent to know how to play"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

This morning, the boys and I went to the kindergym at the YMCA and Habitot, the local children's museum.

Matteo just rolling along

Despite this expression, Nico loves the ball pit!

The artist, ready to paint something other than his face

The train aficionado, choo-choo'in along

I swear the baby in this picture isn't Luca Bean

...and then this afternoon, some nice quiet play at the farm (and mama rests)

Matteo was very proud to have set this up all by himself

Matteo's new favorite animal figure is the Buntspechte donkey


So many things to do and so many ways to play
all in one day
busy, loud, colourful
...then the peace of coming home

For us, both necessary in their own way and own time

Happy Play!

Waiting

I signed up for an invitation to Ravelry... here is where I stand

You are on the invitation list!

You were added to the list on February 2, 2009 at 11:44 PM
When it is time, we'll send your invite email to xxxxx

There are 1928 people ahead of you in line. Your invitation should be sent in about 2 days.

Sigh...

it's worth it- right?

Our Imbolc

We were going to make candles this afternoon
but my boys had a different plan

and I'm fine with it... very fine

Happy Candlemas