Music, music, music.....

Well, this week I'm participating in the unplugged project at Unplug Your Kids. The theme is music and I have a long video of Olivia singing a spring song that I wanted to share with you but I can't get it off my camera. Since it has taken me 3 days to even be able to attempt to get the video off my camera I have decided that I had better post some pictures of the jam session. I will keep trying to get the video up here.

Sitting in the 1st Spring Sun

Sitting in the 1st spring sun and watching you play,

Right now no one is as lucky as me.

I can truly see you for who you are,

~one a talkative, busy, animal lover

~the other a quiet, agile, explorer

Although I often dream of a home belonging to us

I wouldn't ever trade that for today (or any day) spent with you.

I have been really wrestling with my perceived need for a larger income so we can buy a house lately and have been considering getting a job somewhere. I have also been wondering if maybe I should just put the girls in school and increase the bottom line a bit. Really saying no to a free Waldorf education where Dada would be up the hall is quite hard some days. Today I was reminded of why I shouldn't do that :).

I have never claimed to be a good poet (or a poet at all for that matter) but this morning while the girls played around me and I sat in the sun I was moved to compose this. I thought I'd share it with you.

I'm it....

I've been tagged by Amy at ...what I am..... The rules are as follows:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So in keeping with the rules here are my 7 things:

1) I was born in Sweden.

2) I have a serious addiction to reading parenting books and I think I need to stop because I am feeling too conflicted in my parenting.

3) Todd and I eat a snack almost every night.

4) Since I was a child I have had an obsession with the mail. I wait and I wait for that letter carrier to come. I'm even happy with a bill.

5) I LOVE salty and savoury food and could really take or leave sweets. I'll take a chip over a chocolate bar any day (Yummmm!)

6) The curtains in my living room are unfinished, cut pieces of fabric. As is the table cloth on my dining room table.

7) I often feel so busy and overwhelmed that I get stuck doing nothing when what I really should be doing is one of the many things that are overwhelming me.

I'm tagging......

Amanda at The Rowdy Pea
Carle of Our Holistic Life and Waldorf in the Seasons of Life
Emilie of The Little Nest
Mom Unplugged at Unplug Your Kids
Gypsy at Domestically Blissed
Sarah of In These Hills
and finally Taimarie of Small Wonders

Yay!! I'm no longer it. You are!!! I'm sorry if I double tagged anyone :-s.

Happy Valentines Day!!

We had a nice day today. In the morning the girls received their gifts from Todd and I. They each received a Mama made heart necklace and knitted gnome with a felt heart needle felted on it's chest. They loved them.

The gnomes were dragged to the pool where we had a GREAT swimming lesson with no tears. I wish I hadn't spent half of last night worrying about that. After swimming we came home. We had planned a play date with some friends for after lessons but those plans were canceled as the Mama wasn't feeling well. I was happy to spend some time here cleaning and hanging out with the girls. We made a big meal (complete with pear crisp) and then they were in the bath and off to bed.

Olivia's gnome has managed to earn itself top billing as a friend in the bed tonight :).

I hope you all had a lovely day too.

Of Felted Balls and Swimming Lessons

Today Olivia started a new set of swimming lessons. I know that I only briefly mentioned the lessons so I will catch you up........

She really wanted to take lessons. She has never really done anything with a stranger without me before (what most children experience when they enter pre-school) and she did not fair well when in the middle of her first ever lesson the instructor played a "bubble monster" game. After that we had a few lessons that started in tears. I offered for her to stop taking the lessons but she insisted that she really wanted to. In total there were 10 lessons by the end of them all she ever talked about was her swimming lessons. She LOVED her instructor and was so psyched to take more lessons.

Today she started the new set. She had been warned that there may be a new instructor and said she knew that and that hat was fine, although she would prefer to keep the same one. There was a new instructor and she started the lesson in tears again. It just breaks my heart to see her crying on the pool side. She knows that I would never make her stay in the lesson. She could have walked away anytime but she chose to sit on the edge of the pool crying.

At times like these I start thinking: Am I failing her? Do I need to just push her into uncomfortable situations so she gets desensitised. I know my mother, and most other members of our society, would recommend these things but they just don't sit well with me. In the end after I had spent a great deal of time worrying she was smiling and having a grand old time. I wish that I could just be the strong, self assured parent who never doubts herself but I guess no one is 100% sure of their parenting choices all the time.

On a brighter note I have finished the needle felted ball I was talking about in my last post. It is the first in what will, hopefully, be many such balls. Some of the balls will be intricate and some won't. Here it is, the first needle felted ball for my shop.

I hope you like it as much as I do. Oh and here's a sneak peak at what I will be listing tomorrow. I love this ball.

That is enough talk about my shop for a while. I promise to get back to posts about my regular life now.

Pssssst .....

I'm so excited!

I'm back into the swing of things at Etsy. I am making an attempt to post something new every day, I have 2 new categories coming into the shop and I sold something within 20 minutes of listing it today (what a high!!!).

The new categories are upcycled toys and the other is needle felted balls. These new categories will be filled slowly but surely. I have tons of ideas for them.

I have added a Waldorf style doll (the one pictured above) made out of a felted sweater to the upcycled toys category so far and am still working on the first felted ball. I will post some pictures of the ball as soon as it's done. It will probably still be a few more days as it is very involved, you'll see. I have more ideas for more balls which I can't wait to get underway.

Just in case you're new to the term upcycling (as I was until very recently)Wikipedia defines it as:

".......the use of waste materials to provide useful products. Ideally, it is a reinvestment in the environment and embodiment of the notion that while using resources one is also contributing to them and their value. This is antithesis of the consume and waste concept in society. "Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value.""

I'll hopefully be back very soon with some pictures of the ball.

What we do twice a week

I have a confession.......

Twice a week when I take Olivia to her swimming lessons (the ones she hated and now loves) I let the girls play hide and seek in the lockers. I know that my mother wouldn't approve. Good thing that these spirited girls are mine and not hers. Who cares what others think, we're not hurting anyone.