Oh will you be my Valentine?

Will you? Yes, you.

Hello friends, it has been nearly two years now since I began to show up in this space and write a bit about my life, a bit about Waldorf education, a bit about parenting, striving to find my voice, to figure out what it is I am writing about. Is it our family life? Is it reflections on my children? Is it about Waldorf education? Is it as a teacher or as a mother? or both?

I'm not sure.

I've been trying to find my way through this blog world. I love visiting your blogs and connecting with you. It is fun to see where you live and how your children are growing. I love the recipes and craft ideas too.  I love most knowing that other moms, like me, are striving to hold it all together, to be present with their children and to find themselves and their voice among adults at the same time.

I imagine we are having tea together around the crackling fire of the wood stove in the playroom, each of us seeking a place to rest our cup, out of the grasp of little hands. This is my picture of us. You give me comfort that I am not alone in my challenges, in my strivings. You inspire me to keep on keeping on. You help me see the beauty along the way as well. I am grateful for that.

I'm thrilled to make connections with you in person. It was delightful to meet Mary at the WECAN conference last weekend. I feel like I have known you for years. I look forward to meeting Megan this spring too. Hopefully we won't be buried under snow this time,or if we are, we'll have an alternative plan, like skiing, so we connect no matter what.

I am flattered and honored to hear that early childhood teachers and parents read my blog too and enjoy it but do not comment. I'd love to hear from you. It's a bit like putting oneself in the window of the pet store. "Ah, cute puppy" or "no, not that one." Tap on the window pane with your comment below. I like to know that you have passed by. And it gives me a path to you as well.

We had a sweet Valentine's day this year. It began with a spectacular rose red sunrise that went on and on and on for what seemed like a while but was only a brief few moments, sort of like childhood, I though as I was rousing my sixteen year old that morning...

Valentine's continued with some sweets and a stone in each child's Valentine dish set out by the bed. I received  lovely hand made Valentines too, some hung on doors, one on the ironing board. Now isn't that a good reason to iron?

We had a visit from the secret Valentine too.

Because Valentine's is so much fun we are stretching it out over the week. Here's a sweet little ditty for you.

If apples were pears

And peaches were plums

And the rose had a different name.

If tigers were bears

And fingers were thumbs

I'd love you just the same.

Wishing you and yours all the love in the world and many moments of sweetness this week.

Happy Weekending!

Lisa

PS I'd love to know you were here. Leave a link to your blog and say hello.

Valentines Week

We are celebrating Valentine's Day all week long with more Valentines making, some mischevious Valentine's deliveries, warm tea with fancy china, some baking and some sweet red beets in our greens. We were touched by the secret valentine, who leaves hearts on doors,  this year:

 Sweet heart scones, tea and fruity whipped cream recipes are over at the monthly guide pages. The cupcakes with fluffy frosting recipe is over there too and on Scrumptious Smidgeon...

Here's a little ditty for your nine year old friends,

 it might be adapted, let's try this for a three year old:

Valentine, O Valentine

I'll be your love and you'll be with me, 

We'll care for each other,

 Fiddle dee dee 

And in ninety years, we'll be ninety three.

(oh well..yes it is silly)

Here's the official version:

Valentine, O Valentine

I'll be your love and you'll be mine.

We'll care for each other, 

rain or shine,

And in 90 years we'll be 99.

-Ian Serraillier

Valentine's Day Gifts

Oh will you be my Valentine, my Valentine, my Valentine,

Oh will you be my Valentine and wear my big rose heart?

Oh yes, I'll be your Valentine, your Valentine, your Valentine

Oh yes, I'll be your Valentine and wear your big rose heart!

(sung to the tune of the "Oh do you know the Muffin man?")

Valentine's Day brings a breaking with the contraction of winter, a stirring of life filled hope for Spring with lambs preparing to give birth and birds seeking mates for their springtime nests. The birds are singing here despite the deep snow. The depth of matter being penetrated by spirit shifts to a stirring, towards a flowing out of the Cosmic breath. Mother Earth is awakening at the surface even though she has been busy deep down in the earth :

Little dwarves so short and strong

Heavy footed march along

Every head is straight and proud

Every step is firm and loud

Pick and hammer each must hold

Deep in earth to mine the gold

Carefully flung o'er each one's back

Hangs a little empty sack

When their hard day's work is done

Home again they march as one

Full sacks make a heavy load

As they tramp along the road

Singing oh so merrily:

Crack, crack

The rocks we hack

Quake, quake the mountains shake

Bang, bang

Our hammers clang

In caverns old

We seek the gold

Valentine's is a day of fun and a day of whimsy. Children often love to make Valentines for each other. I remember making mailboxes in first grade, of cardboard boxes, paper bags, lace, ribbon and construction paper, for our Valentines. Remember the smell of the glue served up on the corner of a used torn up sheet of paper with a wooden ruler?

I remember anxiously awaiting that moment in the day when we were able to set up our mailboxes on our desks and go around the room and "mail" our Valentine's to each other. And then later to take time at home to sit down and go through them one by one and examine each gem.

The weeks leading up to Valentines are usually full of the Valentine making for friends and classmates, use those beautiful wet on wet watercolor paintings, take out the ribbons, lace paper doilies, snippets of paper "bits and edges" from past projects, glue and scissors.

This year we are making, by request, the woven Valentine and marble painted Valentines.

Over the years I have come up with a little dish for each child that comes out goes on the bedside table a few days before Valentine's Day. That usually involves some musing about the last year. One child has a Valentine Babouschka:

Another has a silver heart:

What matters to our children is not so much that it be silver or a certain design but that we find something special for them, imbue it with our love and return to it each year, making it a tradition through repetition.

I make them each a Valentine and leave it along with a simple gift and something chocolate and sweet in or on the heart. Last year I left these glass hearts. One year I left heart shaped musical chimes. Another year it was pink quartz hearts.

For breakfast I bake heart shaped scones, recipe is here. We have not had a regular Valentine's Day meal. This year I am going to make fondue as I am inspired by Cypress, over at Cypress Space, who shares her family's Valentine's traditions which look beautiful, delicious and fun here

If you want to make a little wool heart pendant for your child, it is simple to make one with wool felt and a ribbon. I like to tuck a lttle crystal inside like this:

This is also a simple project for a five or six year old or older to make for a friend. Pretty stones, crystals and chocolates make good surprises inside.

Attach a ribbon and it becomes a pendant: