Bliss Beyond Naptime

Backwoods Mama Series: Karen

Welcome to the final interview of my series profiling some of my favourite Backwoods Mamas from my online sewing ecourse Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp. This is the lovely Karen from the blog Daily Dialect.

After the interview I have a little giveaway announcement to celebrate the fact that the snow is finally gone in these parts and I can see my garden beds and could possibly wear something other than my Sorrels for a few months :)

Hello Karen! It was so much fun to have you join us in the Spring Sew Camp! What inspired  you to learn how to make your own clothes?

Since I was very young, I've loved designing and making clothes. In school I would doodle fashion designs on my papers all the time. Luckily, my mom signed us up for 4H and I learned sewing. I made a lot of my clothes until Jr High, when it became "uncool". By college, I was sewing again. I entered a couple of fashion shows that were sponsored by the school fashion department, even winning one of them! But I was an art major, and the fashion industry was not my style, so to speak, and I let it go.

These days, technology and online selling has allowed for various aesthetics and lifestyles to prevail in the fashion world, so there is hope for my fashion career yet... and Spring Sew Camp helped energize that dream again!

Yay fashion careers! You're so speaking to the Project Runway watcher in me. So tell me, what's your fave from the ecourse: bloomers, tops, smock or ruched dress? 

Hard to decide, but I'll say my favorite project is the top. One, because I wear it all the time and two, because it was very fun to learn to sew with knits, which I had not done much of previously. I was enthralled with the double needle... of course the cute bloomers and smock are great for gardening and the dress is a fabulous basic too.

It's hard to decide sometimes, hey? I like to wear them all at the same time. Luckily layering is huge out here in the deep woods. What does your inner Backwoods Mama look like?

I have a very do-it-yourself mentality. Not that I do everything myself, but I'd like to. I like tradition and old objects. Our home is 130 years old. I don't like to pick between living a country lifestyle and social city living, so we live in the town I grew up in, near the edge but still close enough to walk downtown. We're town dwellers with a permaculture-type garden but the social aspect of town makes up for the lack of a woodlot, and my dad brings us freshly chopped wood from their woods for our fireplace... 

Awww... Dad! So, how did you find the ecourse itself? Did you find you got enough support and information?

It was very supportive and there are are a variety of ways to interact: the video, the flickr group, the written instructions, so whatever your preferred method of learning, you can tap into it. The ecourse was my first one ever and it is the only way I can take a class these days with the full time nature of parenting. I could go at my own pace, and the videos made it feel personal. The class kept me moving forward even after it was over; I made up my own projects and continued the fun!

 Yay, continued fun! Speaking of fun, share with us your perfect day.

 Wake up, make a hot breakfast for everyone in the family and while it cooks, I read blogs. Then we eat and start the day together. Scott goes to his office in the backyard to work and Lukas draws while I get ready for the day. Around 10, L and I  go on a walk downtown for coffee (real backwoods of us!) and play with whomever we see downtown.  Then home to make lunch, eat together as a family again, then more drawing time and mama has a nap or reading time for 20 minutes. Then some afternoon gardening or a creative indoor activity (or a babysitter arrives and I can do a more intense creative activity, like adult clothing sewing...) Then, make dinner, eat together, bath, bed for the little guy and a long bath for mama once he's asleep, then one or two of the following: blogging, writing, reading, movies, creative time time with Scott and another day is over!

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And with that another interview with a past participant is over and to celebrate the end of this series I want to give away a spot in my Backwoods Mama Sew Camp Ecourse to one lucky commenter. If you've Sew Camped it up already I can either give you a spot in the Indian Summer Camp, or if you've been there, done that, I can pass your winnings to a friend of your choosing.

Please leave a comment before on which prize you'd like, if it's for yourself or a friend and if you'd like to double your chances, leave a second comment letting me know if you've either tweeted, facebooked or blogged about this giveway. Comments will be closed on Saturday at noon PST and I'll announce the winner shortly thereafter. Good luck!!!

Comments closed for sure now! (I don't know if you caught this yesterday but I thought it was today and so we have two winners!). The second winner is Whitney from Lucky Beads Me! Yay! I'll be contacting you soon lucky lady ;)

 

Backwoods Mama Sew Grads

I'm excited to do a little series here profiling some of the sweet mamas that I've had the pleasure to meet through my sewing ecourse Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp. The best part of putting together this ecourse was establishing some special friendships with so many like-minded mamas.

The first profile we have here is of Nikki who happens to be one of those sweet bonus buddies. And speaking of bonus, hang on to the end of the interview to catch in on special offer to those who sign up for Spring Sew Camp before end of day April 2nd!

Nikki is a stay at home mama to two (Kelwyn 4 and Adeline 2) little ones, and wife to a loving and supportive husband.  She blogs over at Wild Violets. She loves to bake, make herbal potions, knit, sew, quilt and do as much fiber spinning as she can. She also just welcomed a beautiful angora bunny, Violet Star, to her home for a sweet pet and, of course, fiber!

Hey there, lovely Nikki. What was your favourite project from Spring Sew Camp?

My favorite project from the Spring Sew Camp was the smock.  I used a robin's egg blue linen fabric, lovely for the all the life returning around us this time of year.  It is so comfy, functional and cute.  I spend most of my days with my little ones outside playing, gardening, exploring and getting dirty.  The big pockets are always handy as there seems to always be something my 2 need or want me to hold one of their treasures.

Cute! What can we find in your smock pockets these days?

Flowers, leaves, rocks, sticks, seed packets, tissues and angora rabbit treats.

Those sound like some happy pockets! Tell me about your world. Like, how handmade are your surroundings?

I have bits of handmade all over my home.  It fills me with love and joy to be surrounded by items others have made with their hands and hearts.  Our couch has handmade pillows, quilts and crocheted afghans to bring comfort and warmth.  My daughter's bed has a quilt made by her great Grandmother and a pink crocheted afghan given to me as a little girl from my Grandmother.  My walls have beautiful prints from a dear friends art work.  Handmade table linens and tea towels from my grandmothers, pottery in the kitchen, needle felted and knitted toy animals for my little ones, and more quilts than I could ever dream of to keep me warm as I knit through the winter.

Quilts! That is the new frontier I want to start dabbling in next. Would you mind telling our beautiful readers out there about your experience with Sew Camp itself?

The format of the sewing course was perfect for me.  I was able to sew at night when the lilttle ones were asleep, from my computer and in my pajamas (hot chocolate or a glass of wine in hand too:)).  I could watch your video tutorials as much as I needed, stop if something came up and take a day off if something came up.  If I had a question about fabric or my sewing project you quickly responded to get me back on path.  The patterns were easy to follow, fit nicely and turned out great!

Thank you Nikki! If that doesn't get sewing mamas to sign up then I don't know what will! Wait a minute, I think I just thought of something...

With purchase of Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp before I put Daisy to bed on April 2nd, participants will recieve, in the mail, a hardcopy of all the pattern pieces for all the Spring projects (hand drawn by moi) so you can bypass the whole printing out and taping together of patterns step and a love note scrawled onto a spring flavoured watercolor (hand or foot painted then handwritten by moi as well)! Lucky ladies!

Please ensure that your paypal address is the one you want the goods sent to, and if you want to be sure please email me your current mailing address.

Happy smock, bloomers, top and dress making!

Love,

Kathy

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Be sure to sign up for the weekly Mama Bliss E-zine to stay on top of all the news, specials and ways to nab more bits of bliss througout your busy mama-ing day. With sign up you also get my ebook Handmade Time: How to Squeeze in a Little More Crafting Everyday. Yay, more lucky ladies!

 

SS Wednesday: Sew, Love, and Relax

 

Last year I interviewed my mama while she was here for her annual spring visit. I condensed it down to the sew love highlights but if you want to see the full, unedited version you can kick back for the full duration of a cup of tea and witness the look of  my mama's motherly concern around my mental health when I unveil to her the secret of my inner French child named Madeline.

This was filmed last spring whilst I was in the midst of launching my Spring Sewing Course which you can sign up for here. And once again it's the season to get our smocks and bloomers on! So tell a friend, or don't tell her and then make a whack of these sweet spring flavoured frocks and then sell them them to her from your Etsy shop! :)

SS Wednesday: The Turbanator

image from Karen Walker

This Sustainable Style Wednesday post comes dangerously close to being an SS Thursday one due to me being so silly busy! The last full moon was a doozy for me resulting in this post being short and sweet. Being so busy to tend to many of the things that usually make feel in balanced I did what any card carrying creative would do in times of such stress.

I created.

I needed a project that was super quick and practical. And seeing as how I've been too busy to even get a shower in these days, coverage of greasy hair was as practical as creative goals gets. I got pretty darn inspired when I saw the above image from pinterest and quickly searched for a tuban making tutorial and found a nice one here.

Et Voila. Took me ten minutes and just seeing Edie's face as she saw me slip it on was worth every precious second.

K-Wow: So.... what do you think?

Edie: It's weird.

K-Wow: Like cute-weird?

Edie: Freaky-weird.

K-Wow: I'll be back (talking like the Turbanator)

Edie: (Stares blankly. Clearly the pop culture reference flew straight over her little Waldorfy educated head.)

 

SS Wednesday ~ The Christopher Robin

When Kale was first born (in our bathroom, on our old pink futon that was hastily tossed in there right before I flung myself off the toilet in mid-contraction) we thought we would treat ourselves to savouring his new born status as a non-gendered little being for about a half an hour. I remember when we finally released him from my tight hold, Craig was finally checking things out under the hood and I heard him say "you have a pee pee!". A boy! Oh, boy.

This might sound strange but for some reason my first thought upon hearing this was: What if he get's into hockey? And then my second thought: What am I going to do with his hair? And this is when there was a deep subconcious desire started whispering into my heart's ears; the boy will have a Christopher Robin (or Louise Brooks; whichever way you want to roll).

With Edie it was easy. I simply did to her hair what my mom did to mine when I was her age (though I spared her the super tight pigtails that could have triggered migraines in a weaker scalped child). I cut her baby bangs so she can see and keep it long everywhere elso so we can braid it up or ponytail it down.

With Kale I still wished for him unobscured vision though I loved the little wild child vibe that is pretty prevalent in these parts (either commune living all one length to the waist or Lord of the Flies, neo-Pixie, choppy with many leftover strands straggleing - so cute!) but I was smitten by the idea of a Christopher Robin so I pretty much gave him the Edie special with a cute wedge jutting out the back.

We have been reading Winnie the Pooh on the couch all winter long and I love the dreamy, nostalgic quality of the the boy's deep, deep play with his toys and his whole look kind of captures that whimsy. The vibe seems perfect for my mini-Sensitive New Age Guy.

So here's a little how to if you desire a little Pooh flavour in your home. Grab a roll of masking tape and begin the process by taking a piece about four inches long, stick on top of your head in front of your child and then rip it on and off several times while joyfully giggleling and saying "that tickles!". Do that a few times and be convincing because in all truthfullness it does smart a tinch but the tape is an essential component of this technique.

Then take a five inch piece of tape and tape to your child's forehead trying to capture all the hair that is combed down, wet, over the eyes. I aimed for temple to temple. Don't be afraid to cut them too short. Children's hair grows like weed not to mention their forheads are much shorther than adult's so there's less distance for it travel to cover any whoopsie daisies.

Cut along tape line. Gently remove tape.

This is the fun part. Take a long piece of tape and mark now from earlobe to earlobe from the back of the head. You want to aim for the bottom of the "brain case" to really emphasize that bulbous effect. Cut, remove tape and fluff up the whole hair do for optimum cute factor.

After whatever natural hair products you want to play with (I like to throw on a dab of coconut oil to give him that whiff of edibleness but it does attract flies in the summer) kick back and admire your self-sufficiency as your little Dutch Boy goes deep into his work of play with the perfect playtime hair do!

SS Wednesday: Backwoods to School

Since we last left off, Edie has started to attend this Waldorf homeschool enrichment program on Mondays and Tuesdays. It's going along really sweet though the drive is pretty epic (thank goodness for podcasts!) and Kale sure misses his 'Didi Bird' on those days (they sure make up for it with the deep imaginative play when she is at home - usually involving Kale going to school and Edie being the teacher. Love it all until it comes to the recorder lessons part.)

The decision for us to homeschool, as is the case for a lot of families, is a multi-layered one. Many factors come in to play in ours; the temperment of our eldest, my leanings toward Steiner philosophy that make it hard for me to expose Edie, who's still such a dreamy child, quite yet to the somewhat more head-centred cirriculum at the public school, and loving the simplicity of the flow of our days.

But there is the other side of the coin as you can probably imagine.

Edie's now at an age where she is curious to be around kids her age more and is hungry to learn in a really structured setting. For now, this arrangement is fitting our needs and I have to say that this teacher is probably the best first grade teacher on the planet so, really, it was almost an impossible opportunity to pass up.

And let's be honost; there are two other, perhaps more Kwow-centred reasons I'm all over this new arrangement. First of all, I have such stellar plans for Bliss Beyond Naptime that involve me diving deeper and dirtier into its tagline: dreaming up soulful strategies for creative families.  With me having all of Monday (well, from 8:30 to 2:30 while she's at school anyway)  to myself, you can find me in the library in town working on this mission. Can you say bliss?

 

And second of all, I get to sew up some 'first day of school' type of dresses. I had her pick out a couple of patterns from my favourite Japanese pattern books. She chose two dresses from Carefree Clothes for Girls so far (the pink one's the Cinderella Dress and the blue one the Lace Doily one). She also picked out a skirt from Girly Style Wardrobe  that I haven't started yet due to another, more subtle leftover bug that renedered me energy depeleted this weekend.

Yes! To tired to even sew! Scary, no? I'm much better now, though, thanks.

 

I love these books. The attention to detail is so inspiring. For instance in the Lace Doily dress they suggest to sew the collar with gold thread afterwards for embelishment and so I did because i wanted to be just as cute as the picture. But then that detail was so subtle that even when I was pointing it out to Edie, two inches from her nose, she was like, "where?"

 

And then the patchworkings on the pink dress? Edie was a little opposed to the idea. I did it anyway and told her I could rip it out if she still 'doesn't care for it' (the h-word has cropped up here lately and that's our newest distaste filler). Turns out I don't think she minds them so much. But of course she doesn't ~ they're cute!

So, I can cross off another of fantasy of mine materialized. Primarly the one of my daugther going to school and having her teacher say "isn't your mother clever." Oi! I just realized, after the realization my ego was talking there quite loudly for a second, that Edie's first grade teacher has an English accent just like mine did (we don't live in the UK to first time readers by the way)! Ah, the sewing circle of life.

SS Wednesday ~ Happy New Pants!

Look up my nose. You know you love it. And you also may know, perhaps love too, that I’ve challenged myself way back in '06 when I started this blog to make everything I adorn or at least buy it buy second hand or have gifted to me. Unfortunately, making myself a decent fitting pair of jeans has been tricky and despite some heavy hinting to the Universe that I needed me some fancy pants I finally scored a pair from my friend Gemma Luna who handmade these. You know when you try something on and you hear angels? Well, I tried them on and then Gemma said something and she happens to sound like an angel because she's a songstress as well as a seamstress. And then she's angel like because when I told her about my jean making grief she floated up to my Loft Nest, looked over my slacks patterns and gave some pointers on how to whip up a pair that stay up without aid of staying up devices (ooooo... but I never thought of rainbow suspenders until now! That could be interesting.).

And the funnel necked top is the one Craig's been teasing me about and is another one I made from the Manhatten pattern again from Wenlan Chia’s Twinkle Sews. I’m making one for a friend as part of a trade and I wanted to take another practice run to be sure I got the assembly down pat. Plus you can't have too many of these awesome tunic tops!

And I wanted to share my magical night last night. I told Craig  to go ahead and watch that political thriller without me because the genre doesn't particularly politically thrill me much, and instead I ran a hot bath, threw in a couple of drops of this fancy essential oil blend I splurged in and hopped into a freshly sheeted bed and whipped out my Big Idea Book outlined with the prompts from the 2012 Goddess Workbook I gushed about last post. Some of the epiphanies from the scribbles from last night:

• 2011 proud highlights include the successful launches of both Backwoods Mama Sew Camps
• Teaching Edie to write and read has been pretty tender and magical
• I pulled through the scary bits of 2011 stronger, more courageous and full of deeper gratitude for the blessings in my life
• The yoga retreat I went on by myself was a dream come true
• So was Edie and I knitting side by side
• I turned forty and it didn’t smart as much as I thought it would
• I’m going to implement Early Bath and Bed Tuesdays and Stay Unplugged Sundays this year
• I’m excited about my financial goals (Craig's going to be so pleased)
• More massages will happen this year as will water consumption
• A couple of ebooks are coming down my creativity birthing canal along with a fabulous ecourse this spring. Stay tuned!

Phew! And this is only being only halfway through the workbook. Can you imagine the fabulousness of 2012 once I'm done? Hang on to your happy pants! 

Make A Haramake

I'm subscribed to a lot of newsletters online which are fun to recieve  (though I'm trying to cull them thanks to time management advisors) but I'll never unsubscribe from my accupuncturer's seasonal real life, tangible newsletter. It's very short, obviously generic (he simply stamps his stamp on and, voila! Newsletter!) and written in a no-nonsense, slightly cryptic asian translation style. Love it! In this issue there happened to be an article that got me running to my sewing machine; "What in the World is a Haramake?".

Little side note about the speech bubbles; this is an ode to the guy I dated in highschool; "Good For Nothing" which my mom affectionately reffered to him as and he, surprisingly, affectionately responsed to. He always wore this orange tshirt with that bubble bubbling up from his naval. I've always wanted to embroider that somehow on to my kidney warmers. Until then, photoshop it is. So a Haramake is basically a kidney warmer; a topic I've gone on and on about here on the olde blogge over the years. So keep your kidneys warm because even generic newsletter says so. And I quote:

Traditionally worn by the Japanese, the Haramke, a wide waistband made from cotton or wool and covers the location of the Adrenals and Kidneys, protecting the Vital Energy and Essence for the body. The cloth extends from the lower rib cage down past the belly button, covering the entire middle of the body and protecting the organs, most importantly the Adrenals and Kidneys, from external elements. A Haramake also protects the body from cold, exhaustion, stress and illness, ultimately helping to prevent illness.

It goes on to tell you that you can make one youself simply by sewing two ends of stretch fabric, 12 inches wide, to form a tube that fits snug around your middle. I, on the other hand, like to make things a touch more complicated (but not in the parenting front, of course) but a little prettier:

I had just enough organic fleece leftover from another project and cut it out to a 12 inch by 32 inch (my hip measurement) rectangle and designated the fuzzy side the "right" side because I want that to touch my skin, or most likely, the outfit I'll probably be wearing underneath my haramake. If you do this ensure that the stretch stretches the most across the body or you'll never be able to step into it. I then cut out a piece of stretch lace the same size and placed these two right sides together and sewed the long sides together as indicated by the one way signs up above.

See there where I'm holding the fleece bits right sides together again? Sew that together but keep sewing so that you then end up sewing the lace bits together too eventually leaving a three inch gap so that you turn things out right side out and then hand sew the gap shut.

 

And then here I found an opportunity for a design feature. Things were a little unsightly due to my haste to hurrymake things up whilst handsewing. And fleece, being not the stretchiest thing on the planet, made things a bit gappy up under the rib cage where some "Vital Energy and Essenceses" like to leak out. So to add a securing device, I made six teeny weeny buttonholes straddling the gap to thread a string of stretch lace through corset-style.

Ta, da! Edie thinks it looks silly but don't worry about that. She's a homeschooled seven year old that thinks kidneys grows on trees that are tended to by organ fairies. I know my internals are happy, and when I squint my eyes when checking out my style I look cute. And for that I am internally grateful.

SS Wednesday - Onesie as Far As the Eye Cansie

This is embarassing to report but I’m turning into a slack jaw movie watcher. It’s true we are without tv but Craig and I on occasion like to shimmy up to couch together when the munchkins finally fall asleep (on that note, oh my goodness, have you heard of this book? I had the pleasure of hearing Samual Jackson read from it on the radio one day. Too funny.), turn on Net Flix and feel our brains melt into putty just inches from each other. Very romantic. Unfortunately, this is also my designated knitting time.

 You know how they tell you to relax your jaw muscles when you’re in labour because it assists in relaxing other areas of your anatomy that may in turn result in a smoother going birthing process? Same same but different with knitting. My jaw slacks, then my fingers relax to the point of paralysis. Let me just hop on over to  my ravelry page for a second here to see exactly how long... oh my gawd! This teeny weeny baby sweater has taken me three months to complete! I hope it still fits the sweet angel it was intended for. Luckily her parents are little people (though not midgets) so hopefully she’ll have a couple of months still to play in this. It is amazing how stretchy hand knits can be. Especially when the Mama is a knitter herself!

Which brings us what this knitter Mama was donning this week. First, the background story: When Edie was about three months old I went into one of my favourite pre-Edie haunts; a clothing store in downtown Calgary where the owner was familiar with my tendency to try many things on, but buy very little (remember, my mom’s a seamstress). So Ms Patience of a Saint Owner was curious why she hasn’t seen me in so long. I explained I had a baby and I was wondering if she had any really long tops that snap at the crouch to keep my kidneys warm over the winter. I promised her I’d buy this time.

 She re-framed my question; “You want a giant onesie?” Oh my god, I do! What kind of Mommy monster have I become? So I guess this mildly Freudian type desire has never truly subsided because I caught myself purchasing this Hot Pattern on sale and made this body suit in my now trademark banana yellow.

I’m also sporting Kale's scarf that I knit but he can no longer wear due to his apparent wool allergy (I'm not ready to talk about this yet) and a vintage jacket I picked up at a church fundraiser in town last weekend.  It’s awfully soft and fluffy and smells like mothballs. I don’t want to get into the fabric choice but dang it's warm, really, really old and way cuter than my minus forty temperature down parka I’m usually sporting this time of year. And, of course, the jeans I made so long ago. If you zoom on in to the pelvic area you will see I even popped my button recently but haven't had the time to sew a new one on. Thus, it takes just a simple tug on the release cord to drop my pants to prove to you that, yes indeed, this is a onsie. It was pretty cute how Craig, who was acting as my tripod for the shoot, was embarrassed for me. He thought it was so inappropriate. I assured him we’re all ladies here, right?

So speaking of embarrassing myself; I have an idea to celebrate the launch of my new website name: Bliss Beyond Naptime. Many reasons for the change but primarily it was becoming a hassle spelling out my email address over the phone (Wild Tangerine Dreams? No. White Tangerine Dreams? No. What Tangerine Dreams? Never mind!).  So for Monday I will don lots of lead free organic makeup, set up the tripod (the non-Craig one) and answer reader questions about me, Daisy, my Simplicity Parenting training, guilty pleasures, anything! So if you’d like, email a question to Kathy at Bliss Beyond Naptime dot com or leave one below in the comments. Simple as onesie, twosie, threesie.

SS Wednesday - Sew Camp and Simplicity

 For this episode of Sustainable Style Wednesday I'm sporting the capelette I made from the Backwoods Mama Indian Summer Sew Camp (now available for purchase), the leggings that are also from the ecourse, and as well a tunic top I made from some fabric gifted from Mom (leftover from a top she made when I was kid so it's pretty surreal to look in the mirror and see my mom's top on me. Especially at boob height!).

I have a huge wish list of things to sew and have an inviting, freshly organized wall of fabric beckoning me but I've been busy with some other important projects. Mostly hunkering down on my Simplicity Parenting Leader studies. So off to the backwoods burners those sewing aspirations go for now!

One of our first assignments was to write an essay on our thoughts and experiences regarding the book the course is based on; Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. For fun I thought I would share with you a portion of my essay so you can see why I'm so excited about this endevour:

I first read Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne when Edie was a toddler and was blown away by how much it echoed what my inner mama bear voice was softly growling to me all along; too much, too fast, too soon. The intensity of love I experienced from becoming a parent turned up the volume on both the techno colour beauty and the heart breaking dark side of the world around me.  I wanted to expose my children to all the best the world has to offer yet keep them close so that they may safely bloom into their authentic selves.

Questioning the status quo upon issues that rise up when the pregnancy stick comes up positive led me down the path of homebirthing, attachment parenting, RIE approach, Waldorf principles and homeschooling. These choices are not for everyone but just so happened to work for us in our current life situation and mesh cohesively with our family values. But at times these personal choices were the proverbial can of worms when interacting with well-intentioned family members and friends. It was sometimes even suggested by some that I may be depriving our children of some important experiences and ‘head starts’. I often felt I had no concrete way to defend some of our choices other than a strong mother’s intuition.  So it was with great relief upon reading Simplicity Parenting I was able to put another’s beautifully worded, and researched, reasoning behind some of my core parenting principles and also reap some practical suggestions that assisted me in recognizing new opportunities that arise as my children grow older and parenting seems to get somewhat more complicated.

As a new parent I was attracted to the aesthetic of Waldorf schools and homes; the natural materials that comprise the toys, the soft, ethereal gestures of the art, the sweet angelic sounds of verses and lack of media pollution. Learning more about the pedagogy I felt very excited to embrace the therapeutic effects of this holistic philosophy that honours the development stage of the child. I think this is another reason Simplicity Parenting resonates with me. It echoes aspects of the Waldorf tradition that I feel bring so much peace to our home and smooth flow to our day. Children thrive with predictability and not being rushed too much. I see in my daughter in how she gets excited about the start of home school year for she loves hearing about what our daily and weekly routine will entail. I notice how when the kids are out having Dada fun day they don’t notice the missing toys from their minimal yet abundant collection upon their return; and I notice too that there is definitely an ‘allergic reaction’ when I succumb to kid movies to buy me some time to get a task accomplished. Not a worthwhile investment!

 

Embracing the principles outlined in Simplicity Parenting I observe how more open-ended toys bring hours of imaginative play, which in turn, makes my home a welcoming environment for both children and adults alike. And with this quiet humming of kids hard at work being kids I relish in the side benefit of seamlessly carving out time for myself to engage in my personal pursuits which is what I require to reach my own personal potential. Something I especially feel good about modelling to my daughter.

With the principles from the book surrounding simplifying, recognizing ‘soul fevers’, decluttering, establishing rhythm and minimizing schedules, many aspects and dimensions of our family life have benefited allowing all of us the space to grow into and reach our highest potential.