happy 4th birthday!

Today was my wonderful North's 4th birthday. He spent the day at his Waldorf preschool playing with friends. Indigo and I joined in the celebrations for a beautiful Angel Birthday story (something similar to the one found here) and then we shared another coconut apple cake with his class.

He has been waiting with great anticipation and excitement for this day and I hope that it was as magical and fulfilling as he hoped it would be.

Happy Birthday to my growing boy wishing love, peace and blessings for your many journeys ahead.

 

xo Mama.

Solutionaries

Happened upon this inspirational TEDx talk by Zoe Weil. Above all, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times is definitely on my reading list now.

Enjoy!

her 2nd birthday

Yesterday my 'baby' turned 2. She was treated with french toast for breakfast, egg salad sandwiches for lunch and hearty yang stew for dinner (all of her favourites). She was showered with gifts, many handmade by her loving brother who has conveniently developed a drawing, cutting and pasting fetish at the moment. At the end of a slow and calm day at home filled with love Indigo got exactly what she asked for for her birthday- 'a birfday cake'. A scrumptious vanilla apple cake made with coconut flour, eggs and sweetened with maple syrup. I'll write up the recipe for you soon- gluten-free too!

Love to my darling Indigo on her 2nd Birthday. May your feet take you where your heart wants to go.

xo Mama. 

(photos taken from my phone- camera in for repairs!)

made with love

We discovered a beautiful treasure in the backyard yesterday- a tiny nest that must blown right out of a tree. Inside were little pieces of eggshell- unfortunately it looks as though the eggs never had a chance to hatch. The nest was constructed with such beautiful precision and lucky Mama bird seemed to have happened upon some wool which she wove into it with care.

I am happy to report that after two years of felt crafting I felt confident enough to sew together a little felt sparrow right in front of the children - in other words time was of the essence. Within 15 minutes she was finished. I used the same pattern as I did when I made the springtime fingerpuppet bird and chicks, but I created a circular base and stuffed the bird with a bit of rice so that it could perch in it's nest without falling on it's side.

Although North was quite amazed with the nest and had a lot of questions (Is it an owl's? Is it a possum's?) I must admit I was the one most awestruck by this miraculous cloister of thin twigs threaded together to form a warm little cradle. 

Made with unquestioned loving intuition.

Are there any bird lovers out there who know what kind of a birds nest it is? My guess- a Noisy Miner as they love to frequent the Cammelias in our garden.

::grateful::

for

:: cute and barely there ponytails

:: soaked goji berries as a last minute tide me over before dinner

:: water colour paintings proudly brought home from school to brighten up the kitchen walls

:: poppies slowly blooming one by one in their own time

and most of all, for

:: you!

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement through comments and emails. I have been overwhelmed with the compassion, support and love sent to me this week. I can feel the inspiration gathering inside of me and it's all thanks to you.

xx m.

a very honest explanation...

As many of you know I am doing my Steiner Teacher Training right now. One of the modules we study is called Life Phases. After doing some extremely interesting readings on 'The Spiritual Rhythms in Adult Life' (amongst others), we are expected to write a biography (based on hundreds of questions) of our life from our birth to present day. 

Pages and pages of me... stream of consciousness...

Sometimes fun, often times confronting, very much exhausting squeezing it all out of me...

I finished the bones a few days ago. Now I must start on my 'reflections'.

So I began to re-read what I had written and here is a snippet I found today that I thought you all may be interested in, I certainly was:

"Inner Conflicts (age 28-35)

At 29 I went from being vegetarian for 4 years without exception and raising my children vegetarian in a very stubborn (but healthy) and headstrong way, to cooking and serving meat to my family. 

I made the decision almost a year ago and I still feel the heavy weight of that choice and the sting from the slap in the face that was this change. If ever I felt sure about one of my beliefs it was vegetarianism... and then one day, I just let it go. 

The whole experience has been so humbling. I feel like I can’t act like an authority on much any more as perhaps one day my opinion might change.

Although we still eat a largely plant based diet and the meat we do consume at home is organic and ethically labelled, there is still a huge difference between being vegetarian and the eating ethics we currently prescribe to. For me, the act of killing was the number one reason not to eat meat. I believed if I couldn’t do it myself I didn’t have the right to eat it. I also thought that the world could never be peaceful if we continued to eat meat- as it is a violent way of living. I wanted to believe in the possibility of Eden, of world peace - whatever you want to call it - and I thought one of the best (and easiest) ways of being the change you wish to see in the world was to be vegetarian. 

But then something in me switched. My daughter was diagnosed with a slew of food allergies and all of a sudden our already restricted diet was becoming even more restricted. I had to make a decision to either raise an essentially vegan child or start feeding her meat. I did a lot of reading, soul searching, crying... but I wanted what was best for her. Even though I felt so ashamed and embarrassed to tell people I had made the switch, I just didn’t feel right raising my child on a purely plant-based diet. I also started to embrace a darker side to the world. I took comfort in the fact that creation and destruction are inseparable, that vegetables cannot thrive and grow without blood and bone, that I could make powerful and ethical consumption choices without having to label myself as a this or that.

Since then I have become quite quiet about my opinions regarding anything - education, eating, raising children, breastfeeding- things that usually got me all riled up and that I often spent hours debating with parents or in-laws or my husband about. 

I also almost completely stopped blogging after writing every single day for 2 years. I was just so emotionally shattered by the choice and the psychological consequences it had on my identity. I’m so afraid to hold blindly to another belief and to voice it to the world only to change my mind again later. "

An explanation of sorts.

I seem to have lost my voice. I'm not going to stop writing but I am still in search for what it is I want to share.

Until then yours in love and appreciation for your readership and support over the past three years.

xo m.

has it been that long? ... and pumpkin spice muffins

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted... or maybe I can.


Still thoroughly enjoying living into my year's word: breathe. 
We arrived home a couple weeks ago after six weeks in sunny Canada. A week was spent getting over jetlag, re-organising, re-folding, cleaning and sprucing up the house. The next week was spent sewing up our weekly rhythm and adjusting what it was to what it should be to suit my almost 2 and almost 4 year olds. The trip was beautiful and it was such a blessing to be with my family every single day. I am also happy to be home... and a bit surprised how much Australia feels like home to me. Year by year this place that once felt so foreign has transformed into a place very familiar and warm. Home is surely where the heart is. I hope I will start blogging a bit more often than I have been...In the meantime, enjoy these phenomenal (if I do say so myself) pumpkin spice muffins. I really love this recipe!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups pureed pumpkin with spices (tsp each nutmeg, cinnamon and all spice or gram masala)

2 eggs

1/2 cup coconut oil 

1 cup honey 

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt 

2 1/2 cups white spelt flour 

1/2 cup coconut flour (can substitute with spelt flour)

1/2 tsp bi-carb

Directions

Boil 2 cups roughly peeled and chopped pumpkin 

Put soft and cooked pumpkin into food processor, add spices and process until smooth

Mix wet ingredients together (melt honey and coconut oil if it's very cold)

Mix together dry ingredients and then add wet

Mix just to combine- the less you stir the fluffier and lighter the muffins are

Pour into greased muffin pan (this recipe made 22 large muffins for me)

Top with pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Bake in the oven at 190˚C for 20-30 minutes (depending on your oven!)

Let cool before removing from the pan.