October 2020

This year has given us challenges we never thought we'd face... hardships we weren't sure we could overcome and loved ones who were taken from us too soon... This morning I sat near my window with the bustling of my kids preparing for the brand new school day and thought to myself... we made it through another challenge... it's a bright new day after the storm... we've persevered... we've got this♥

 “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”~ Steve Maraboli

 

"This too shall pass."~ Lindsay's Granny

 

 “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”~ Helen Keller

 

“No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear.”~ Greg Kincaid

 

“My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.”~ Mizuta Masahide

 

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”~ Margaret Thatcher

 

“On the other side of a storm is the strength that comes from having navigated through it. Raise your sail and begin.”~ Gregory S. Williams

 

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." ~ Mark Twain

Remember dear soul...  kindness is the language of love...  you are so kind to others... please be kind to yourself as well...♥

Reflections and contemplations for healing...

Someone who shares a very close kinship with our family

is loosing a very brief, aggressive battle with cancer...

She is a loving, caring, vibrant soul...

It feels like a life cut short...

A life still full of possibility and endless love...

We've decided as a family we are going to create

a healing circle bonfire this weekend...

A time for connections and contemplation...

Many reflections have led to deeper contemplation

while gazing into dancing flames in a crackling open fire...

Our prayers are for healing and connection in a time when feelings of helplessness and loss are overwhelming... 

 

 

Hygge Wellness for Children♥

We’ve been talking a lot with the kids about the things we do to take care of ourselves.  Beyond the normal “self-care” routines, we’ve focused on matters of the mind and a sense of hygge wellness. 

  

Parents.com has some lovely “tips” about wellness. 

• “Nourish the mind with activities that encourage mindfulness, such as yoga, tai chi, and guided imagery are powerful tools that help build insight, awareness, and perhaps most importantly, tolerance for discomfort," Louis says. 

·          

• “Make downtime a priority. Doreen Arcus, an associate professor of psychology at UMass Lowell who specializes in child development, says even young children can benefit from downtime.” "Routines that include quiet time, even if it is a few moments being held in a rocking chair, perhaps being sung to or read to, offer opportunities for centering and connection," she says.

• "Older children and teenagers should be encouraged to take time out of their busy schedules," she adds. "Take a break in between school and diving into homework, then take a break after each assignment is completed to go outside or get some exercise or even go back to the old rocking chair."

Musings of Hope...♥

Just like you, we are still navigating our new normal.  We are doing our best to relax and think through the issues we are facing.  Morning meditation and reading have been calming and soothing, with a little Cosmic Kids yoga thrown in.  My kiddos have immersed themselves in the arts for a long portion of the day.  Their creations range from modeling clay pokemon figures to miniature family members to the fairy tea party pictured above.  My daughter was especially pleased with her modeling clay tea cups, saucers, dishes and fruit, all set up with her other loose parts... absolutely delighted and lost in her imaginary tales... pure bliss♥

I know it doesn't look like it but we too are suddenly home schooling again but this time it's due to the pandemic.  What I like to share with parents who haven't home schooled is... you don't want your home to be just like the institution you just left.  Don't try to recreate school at home.  Home is their safe place, their comfortable retreat from the world and where we can be love and be still.  We also don't focus on the pandemic but do add in a daily update and the new "normals" we need to accommodate and participate in.

We have been reading 'Ominous Campfire Adventures' that we started just before 'World Storytelling Day'.  Instead of saving it for our campfire adventures in summer, we decided to make up a makeshift campfire out of collected sticks, tissue paper, wool and sparkly pipe cleaner!  We added mini marshmallows on skewers to fully immerse in the experience of the Northern Ontario Canada campfire tales.  A special thanks to Grandma (my Mom), for the great series of short stories... a truly awesome Christmas gift!  After this, we will return after a brief intermission, to our morning readings of the screen play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  I read to the kids over our breakfast and tea in the mornings before school.  My kids are ages are 6, 10, 14 and 16.  They all enjoy this time we share in the mornings and the stories we read!

 

We still enjoy our time in nature especially since the wakening of spring.  So much to explore and discover in spring.  During this time, we have seen the closure of our favourite spaces to hike and explore, but as long as we all shelter in place and do our part to plank the curve, we will be exploring again in the near future.  I'd like to share one of our meditation poetry moments and wish you the peace that comes with stillness...
"Today I'm flying low and I'm not saying a word. I'm letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep. The world goes on as it must, the bees in the garden rumbling a little, the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten. And so forth. But I'm taking the day off. Quiet as a feather. I hardly move though really I'm traveling a terrific distance. Stillness. One of the doors into the temple."
~Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings

Today, we received the news with the rest of the province, that we will have another month of our home schooling endeavours but will also have to add in school led instruction time on computers.  This too will be incorporated but it will be added to keep them on track in their studies.  We will still embark on home school interests while we can... reading, art, meditation, yoga and exploring interests.  This time has been scary,  with horrible loss... make sure they have good memories too... Breathe, remind ourselves and them that we are all enough and doing enough.  “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” ~WB Yeats... like the wonderful author Jean Pendziwol says, "don't worry about the pail, just keep the fires lit".  She also wrote this poignant poem about hope for these uncertain times...

I found hope in a cherry tree that places tiny buds

on shivering leaf-bare branches in autumn

knowing that shadows can disappear
and stories can howl like wolves
and snowflakes can be icy and sharp
and there is no way for the tree to be sure
that the buds will ever bloom

But the cherry tree knows it is hope in autumn

that brings flowers in spring

 ~Jean Pendziwol

Thanks so much for joining us... wishing you love, calm, peace and fortitude in these challenging and uncertain times, Sherry♥

Preparing the spirit...

“I think the human spirit is like a daffodil bulb, preparing for the spring by refreshing its roots, so it can bloom again when the time comes,” the poetic musings of Stafford Whiteaker

I'm back to reading poetry with my babes and enjoying the hibernation part of winter... January was a difficult, challenging month for my emotional well being, my mental state and my spiritual health... I am definitely ready for renewal...

"The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up" ~ Mark Twain

What a wonderful thought and theme for February.  Immersing ourselves in act of spreading joy will fill the buckets of others and in turn fill our own buckets.  Here's to hygge thoughts, feelings and actions this February... we raise a cup of cheer to you♥

"Invictus" Latin for "unconquered"

"Invictus" (Latin for "unconquered")

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

2012 Autumn, back to school and big changes...

2012 Autumn, back to school and big changes...

The kids are heading to a new school, embarking on a promising new year of learning and growing.  We had an extremely busy summer with the purchase of our beautiful new home in the country.  The kids feel like we moved into the forest or a park with all space and mature trees.  We feel so very blessed... words can't express how happy and content we are here.   We have much to be thankful for heading into the season of Thanksgiving♥

Where we love is home

Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

As always, back to school remains ever bitter-sweet as I miss my sweet babes as they go off on their own adventures.  We enjoyed the summer reading program at the library and always had volumes to read under our shady trees.  Autumn is almost upon us once again and I like to pack a short poem as a small piece of home to take with them when they go to school.

  

Autumn Bird Song

Over the housetops,
Over the trees,
Winging their way
In a stiff fall breeze.

A flock of birds
Is flying along
Southward, for winter,
Singing a song.

Singing a song
They all like to sing,
"We'll see you again
When it's spring, spring, spring."

Autumn Wind

When autumn wind goes running
It does some magic things.
It gives the shadows dancing shoes,
It gives the bright leaves wings -
When autumn wind goes running.

It curls the bonfire's tail of smoke
And shares a little whispered joke
With cornstalks who delight to prattle,
It turns a seed pod into a rattle -
When autumn wind goes running.

An Autumn Greeting

"Come," said the Wind to the Leaves one day.
"Come over the meadow and we will play.
Put on your dresses of red and gold.
For summer is gone and the days grow cold."

Microsoft stock photo, love it♥

Spring Renewal...

Even though there is snow on the ground and we still go sledding each day after school lessons are done... my mind turns to spring and renewal.  I've suffered profound losses over the past few months... my Grandmother and then... my unborn baby.  

 "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature— the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."
-   Rachel Carson

It is comforting to return to the hope and renewal of spring.  There is something rather cathartic about spring clean and shedding excess winter clutter, dust and to lift and eliminate all that weighs us down.  

Faith to light the darkened sky

Strength to carry on

Love to touch and heal the soul

Hope to grace the dawn

I also think of the children as we are preparing for spring and poetry lightens and inspires them as well... here are some of the resources I use for the kids during spring...

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/spring/poem/index.htm 

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems16.html 

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/spring/kids-poems-rhymes/ 

I hope you and yours will also find renewal this spring and find joy in each new day♥

Kisses From Above

Our family has been dealing with the death of my Grandmother, 

Lillie Doreen Blunden.

My kids attend a Super Hero Reading Program at our local library and today, my Son Collin, picked out an interesting book.

When asked why he picked this book today he said 

"I saw the Angel and Grandma is an Angel now, so I got this book for us to read to help you feel better".  The gesture in itself brought tears to my eyes.

The book was well written and deals with loss, my Son and I recommend 

"Kisses From Above" by Susan Devenyi

Perhaps it can help someone you love feel better too♥