Summer Sundays

Sunday has, for the most part, been a day of rest and renewal for me. I was a child during the years when shops were closed on Sundays. We went to church on Sundays. We had a big early dinner and for the most part took it easy. It's a pleasant habit that stuck with me and carried over into my family life.

Lately, we've been falling into a new habit on Sundays. The family meeting. We share our rose and thorns from last week, and look to the week ahead, to have a sense of who is doing what and when, and organize our meal plans accordingly.

This time of year is such a great time for fresh locally grown food. Our backyard garden and the farmer's market are bursting with summer goodness: ripe tomatoes, fresh herbs, summer squash, corn, green beans, yellow wax beans, a purple string bean, scallions, lettuces, onions, sweet peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, even the first of the sugar pumpkins. The smells and tastes are exquisite. It's as if the senses have become wide open and everything is better, the color, the textures, the smells and the taste. During the cold, dark days of winter, it's easy to fall into the lull of eating food that has traveled or somehow miraculously been stored to make it through the winter and then forget how good fresh locally grown food can taste.

I want to savor it. It's a bit like those moments with children when you are certain you will never forget the exact moment, or words. And then you do. I do too. We all do.

So, with that in mind, this week we'll be eating lots of tomatoes, basil, corn, string beans, cucumbers, peppers and fresh herbs. They are so good fresh, I just can't commit to cooking them. Not today.

What fresh and local or homegrown foods are you savoring this week?

The Festival of Candlemas

Sundays are a day of rest and renewal for my family. That was how I experienced Sundays growing up. We went to church in the morning. That was followed by a big breakfast and then an early big dinner ~ Sunday dinner. There was plenty of down time in between. It's always stayed with me, and I am happy for it.

I like to keep some spaciousness in my family's Sundays. One of the things I like to do is to quietly take some time to look ahead at the week, review what is coming, and make sure I have in place what I need, to be prepared for anything outside of the ordinary.

Ideally the meal plan is sketched out, our work is planned, and I know where everyone is going each day. This moment on Sunday gives me time to have a picture of the week ahead.

This week as I look ahead, I see the week brings three things that are out of the ordinary, three, well almost four, feasts or celebrations that all fall on February 2nd, which happens to be on Friday of this week. They are:

• Groundhog Day
• Imbolc
• Candlemas
• Brigid's Day

Groundhog Day is a fun little day that doesn't require too much forethought or preparation to celebrate.

Imbolc is the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. It "crosses" the quarters (or seasons) of the year.

Brigid's Day ~ I wrote about this day here.

Candlemas is a church feast. Whenever we have the suffix ~ mas added to a word, we know it refers to a feast day. Besides Candlemas, there's Michaelmas, Martinmas, and Christmas too.

Sometimes Candlemas, Brigid's Day, Imbolc and Groundhog day are conflated.

I'll begin with Candlemas and come back with some reflections on the other celebrations over the next few days.

~ painting by Lodovico Caracci 

This feast has layers to contemplate. Candlemas is celebrated in the Catholic and Orthodox Church as the Feast of the Presentation at Church of the Blessed Mary, and is also known as the Feast of the Presentation of the Holy Child, or more popularly as Candlemas. It has its origins in what is known as the rite of the "churching of women," the return of a woman to the Church after 40 days of rest, after giving birth to a child. It signifies the return of Mary to the Church after giving birth to the Christ Child, along with the Presentation of the Child in the Church.

 In our busy modern world, the notion of convalescence is becoming obsolete. Women are encouraged to "do it all," which we can't, but that is another conversation. More traditional cultures honor the postpartum period as a time of rest and of nourishing both the mother and baby. This piece by Joyce Gallardo explores this very topic, here.

Was the churching of women a recognition of the importance of rest and slowing down after giving birth, or was it a banishment that needed "purification" of the fleshly body in order to re-enter the life of the Church?  It strikes me as rather odd that it was a question for men to expound on, rather than women. But the women were busy tending to daily life, so that the men could expound on such things. Ha!

Yet we know that the question whether a mother who had given birth recently should enter the church or not has been debated long before the eleventh century. The most prominent example is Pope Gregory the Great's letter to Augustine of Canterbury, as we find it in the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England. Augustine had asked among a number of other questions: 'how long after she has brought forth, may she come into the church? and then adds in the end: 'All which things are requisite to be known by the rude nation of the English.' Gregory answers that even if she came the very hour after giving birth she was not committing a sin, but rather forbidding her to come would turn the punishment she was bearing for the sin of Eve into a crime. But the Christian tradition is not clear and uniform on this question. It seems that Gregory remained an exception and traditions like those of the penitentials which strongly suggested the need for purification became more influential. In the fourth century Hippolytus records that a mother who had just given birth was to be seated among the catechumens. Emperor Leo in 460 forbade women to take communion within 40 days after the delivery, but did not count it as a grave sin, if they did in case of emergency [Stephens 1854, 1751f]. 

This comes from here.

As for the feast of Candlemas - this is a feast of initiation, of possibility, of light, of the old meeting the new and the old giving way to the new, the frozen earth giving way to the stirring of new life. This is why candles are blessed in churches on this day.

This is the time of year in which the light is growing brighter, the buds on the trees are beginning to swell, the birds seem to be singing more, and on some days the feeling of the return of warmth and sunlight is in the air.

We put up our Christmas tree up later than most, close to Christmas Eve. This has wonderful benefits and challenges too. Some years we keep the tree through January, with Candlemas as the final marker - the end to Christmastide. I like the word Christmastide. It feels like so much more than a singular day that has a make or break quality to it, with reverberations that last through the year, and eventually a lifetime. Christmastide makes me think of the tide of the sea that rolls in, pulsating with energy, and then rolls out, as seasons do. Each year bringing something new.

How does this all fit in with Waldorf education and life? This is a really good question. The 2nd of February is a significant day in the rhythm of the year, as it is the mid-point, a cross quarter day, one that falls smack in between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. We are six weeks from each of those turning points in the year. On February 2nd, we are as close to spring as we were to the winter solstice. After February 2nd, we are closer to the onset of spring that the onset of winter. It is a threshold day in the year.

In looking back, and wondering how this day came into celebration among Waldorf Home Educators, I think of Mrs. M, who started the Yahoo Group that inspired (and continues to inspire) so many Waldorf home educators, as the first to make something of the day, in the context of Waldorf education. You can find the Yahoo Group Waldorf Home Educators here. It's been quiet lately, or visit her Facebook group, the Magic of Waldorf to see what she is up to. She has celebrated with a Festival of the Bees at this time of year in the past. 

What are your thoughts on the rite of the churching of women? Is it in recognition of the need for women and child to rest after birth, or in disdain of the female body? Does it matter? What can it inspire within us today? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments.

Colors and Days of the Week with Waldorf Education

Then

The world of Waldorf education first came online in the late 1990's with a chat group that included parents, teachers and administrators of Waldorf schools. A few of us had an inclination towards homeschooling, which was controversial within the world of Waldorf schools at the time, and out of that group was born another group dedicated to Waldorf homeschooling which gave birth to more groups.

Now
Today, in 2017, we have many websites as well as social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even online programs and courses devoted to Waldorf homeschooling and homemaking, including my own program and eCourses. The point being that the world of Waldorf education has opened its doors to the world.

With this expansion of Waldorf into the world, some notions about Waldorf education seem to have taken on a life of their own, outside of the pedagogical grounding Waldorf education ideally experiences in a school environment. I've noticed some online versions of things attributed to Waldorf education that I'd like to explore with you, within the context of myth busting.

Myth Busting
Steve Sagarin and Sarah Baldwin have delved into some of these myths with an exploration of the pedagogy associated with the use of gnomes to introduce the four processes in first grade and the notion that the teaching of literacy is delayed in Waldorf schools.

(The nourishment of a deep love of literacy and language begins at birth in the Waldorf realm. This is a topic I feel passionate about yet will save for another post.)

What I'd like to talk about is the use of colors and the names of the days of the week with children in the realm of Waldorf homemaking and homeschooling. It seems that once the cat came out of the bag, with the sharing of the meditative practice for the adult to reflect on the qualities of the days of the week, a whole new world unfolded online to share this with children by naming the days of the week by a color in order to create a rhythm of the week.

This practice of reflecting on the qualities of the days of the week with a particular meditation, is for adults. It is something a teacher might do.

I'm not sure how it hit the online world of Waldorf homemaking and homeschooling, but it did.

Why We Do What We Do
I've had some wonderfully wise and helpful Waldorf mentors in my life. One in particular inspires me to constantly ask myself why I we do what I do, to inform the action with an understanding of what it means for the child.

We can ask ourselves why would we tell children about a color of the day? Why would we make a chart with the colors, how would it serve the child? What is the child's experience of this?

Out of this emerges for me, a deeper question, how can we help bring children into healthy rhythm, into a healthy rhythm of life?

What's Happening Developmentally?
The young child, from birth to age 7 or so, even age 9 for some aspects, lives in the realm of the will, that is in the realm of activity.

In this stage of development, children are developing the WILL forces, the forces for doing, for being active. They are in the realm of DOING and can relate to what they will DO week after week by their physical experience of it, by DOING it, not by talking about it. 

What does this mean for sharing about colors of the day and creating charts for the activities of the week? 

Talking to children about colors of the day and showing them charts are all abstractions to a young child. To talk to them this way brings the child into the intellectual realm, while taking them out of the dreamy, wonder and awe filled realm of childhood. 

To keep track of time in such an abstract way belongs to the realm of the adult. Slowly the grade school child is brought into the realm of a schedule, initially through a strong weekly rhythm based on doing, on activities, with the same activities repeated on the same day of the week, consistently, week after week.

Name the Doing

In a Waldorf early childhood program, the days of the week are named for the ACTIVITY that is done on that day, such as "painting day," bread making day," "soup making day." These activities are done consistently week after week, as part of the weekly rhythm for children.

At home, a few examples of weekly rhythm we might have and use as names for the week:

Soup Day (we make soup)
Bread Day (we make bread)
Painting Day (we paint)
Crayoning Day (we color with crayons)
Woods Walk Day (we walk in the woods)
Playgroup Day (we meet with our playgroup and play)

So please, let's ditch the conversation about colors and keep the charts for ourselves. For the child under nine, just do it -  do the activity for the day consistently that is! 

Children thrive on having a predictable and consistent life, with days such as soup making day, a baking day, a painting day. These activities deeply nourish the four foundational senses of childhood while the strong weekly rhythm provides deep nourishment to the child, and to the whole family.

Why the Silence Over Here?

Yes, I have been very quiet here. I have turned in, to that place where I go, to that inner cave, deep within, when I need a break.

If you are in one of my eCourses or you are in my ~living curriculum program or you have sent me a note and not yet heard back, please forgive me and give me a little holler via email.

You see when I began my ~living curriculum program for Waldorf Homemakers and Homeschoolers  four years ago, I focused on rhythm: daily rhythms, weekly rhythms, and seasonal rhythms. We have been around the year, some of us coming together this month to begin a new schooling year for the fourth year in a row. And that is something very dear to me.

I began this program as a simple monthly subscription that included Stories, Circle, Nature Crafts, Recipes and Festival information for each month, along with a focus topic to study and discuss each month.

I started it as a way to share my experience of Waldorf  homeschooling and soulful parenting practices with others, parents, early childhood teachers and caregivers on the same path.

What I failed to include was down time for me.

The time for my own breathing out…

I expected myself to send daily notes, without a break. To organize a new focus topic for each month, full of inspiration and reflection, without a break, through the year and to stay on top of it on a daily basis. To freshen the materials when needed, deepen areas where members wanted to go deeper and address topics of parenting and child development that are woven through our lives.

What I came to realize, you see it took a while, as I am a slow and steady type, is that I needed to work in breaks for me. Down time. Time when I could step away freely, without any of my own induced guilt. Time to turn away and find renewal without any obligation to be present or respond, or write or think.

You see for me, those moments, when I feel so free of obligation, tend to be the times when the new ideas and enthusiasm are born.

And so in stepping back and taking some breathing space, that really began with a writing paralysis and loss of my voice online, then became a gasp for fresh air, I have decided to make some changes in the formatting of my Waldorf Homeschooling and Homemaking ~ Living Curriculum Program and eCourse offerings, in response to your requests. 

I am busily and excitedly reformatting the program by separating it out into a simpler and easier to use bits of material, with step by step guidance for each week through the seasons. Plenty of room will remain for your tweaking, while a firmer structure will be in place to help guide you along, if that is what you need. The content will remain rich, soulful and inspiring, very much grounded in and rising out of the seasons yet will be more accessible and well laid out for you.

I'll post more about these changes soon.

Warmly,

Celebrate the Rhythm of Life 

Harmonious Rhythms ::  Parenting with Soul :: Waldorf Homeschooling

An Inner Experience of Rhythm

Q & A with Lisa

inner rhythm

Dear Lisa, I heard you talk about rhythm and remember that you said something like... "no need for making charts, you have it within  you ...and if you don't... cultivate it, one step at a time." Can you explain what you meant by that? What are your thoughts on making charts for children to learn the rhythm of our home?

We are enveloped by rhythm.

The cosmos has a rhythm. The moon has a rhythm.

Our bodies have rhythm: of breath, pulse, blood flow, menstrual rhythm and the seasons of life.

Our lives have a rhythm of day and night.

The moon has a 29.5 day cycle of waxing and waning, becoming full and new again.

Our weeks are based on a seven day rhythm.

Our year is based on the movement of our earth around the sun.

Life is steeped in rhythms. Rhythm of the day. Rhythm of the Week. Rhythm of the Year. The rhythm of early childhood, of the early grades, of the middle grades, of high school. The rhythm of life.

Yet we live in a world that is so very focused on what is "out there."

How do we return to our own inner rhythm, our own center? How do we live rhythmically and  authentically "from the inside out?"

Each morning, we awaken from our sleep to "right here" to what is inside, what is before us, in this moment. An inner life. An inner world. The ability to hear own own breathing. And that of our children.

Right now I  invite you to contemplate the value of inner rhythm. Knowing from deep within that there is a predictable and reliable order to life. Not from a chart or a picture, but from an inner wisdom, an inner knowing that just feels right, that now we have been active and of course, it must be our rest time. I feel it from within.

With the Children's Garden  I did not wear a watch, because I knew when it was time for Morning Tea, I knew when it was time for lunch, I knew when it was nap time, because I had internalized the rhythm of our days. As had the children.  

You don't need a special chart or peg dolls or perpetual calendar to help you cultivate a healthy rhythm for your family. You need one thing ~ that is to trust yourself, and work from the inside out. Waldorf education is an education from the inside out. It begins within and cultivates the inner life, beginning with having moments of silence, not needing to fill every second, and then telling stories for children to listen to, with no pictures, no screens, just listening, with no analysis of the story, no quiz, no breakdown of who wrote this story and why, just an inner experience of the story. 

Rhythm is similar in this way, in that it is something that begins with a spark within, often from a practical need. Bedtime may be stressful, mealtimes might be wild, chores aren't getting done. So we, the adults choose one thing, and work on it. We focus, and say no to those inevitable things that pop up and get in the way of the rhythm we are cultivating. Yes, absolutely, there will be moments when we flex and go with the moment, that knowing of when to let go and go with the flow, that comes from the same inner knowing. 

This ability to have an inner experience of time and activity that arises from within is a gift we can give to our children. It strengthens them, reduces anxiety, and builds confidence within, that the world is good, that this life is dependable and trustworthy because there is a natural order to life. When  the parent is bringing form to the day through rhythm, the child can relax into just being a child. Over time, the rhythm becomes habit, what naturally flows next, with no need for discussion. .

The children count on us as the adult, as the parent, as the teacher, to hold the rhythm, to carry them through the day, feeling secure that we are carrying the form. The children are free to be children and occupy themselves with play. 

When we ask children to keep track of time and what is to come in they day by showing them charts or gnomes, or lists of what will happen, they feel insecure, they feel the absence of a strong adult they can lean into. Asking children questions and asking them to think about the rhythm of the day pulls them out of the dreamy state of childhood where they are so free to play and wonder, and just be children. Children look to us to carry the rhythm. They relax when they know their adult is in charge. They are free to be children.

We adults can create this natural order to our child's world by being present in the moment. Sure we may make notes and plans and tweak them, and have lists or charts of our own, but ultimately any lasting rhythm rhythm will emerge from within. 

Children learn by our example. They learn through doing. Children imitate our doing. It is what we do that they absorb. When we find our stride with rhythm, the children come along.

If you are making charts and signs and pictures for your child, I encourage you to go within and look to see if you are living the rhythm first, if you are carrying it. Let our doing create the steady points in our children's days. Let us be the ones who carry the burden of finding the rhythm and holding its form around our children, like a container that provides protection from the chaos and overstimulation of the outer world. This is a gift, this experience of rhythm from within. Once it is established, it tends to flow with ease.

It is easy to be tempted by what is "out there" yet I know that any changes in rhythm in my household  must begin with me, for I am the model, the example my child imitates. 

When I am living my rhythm from within, it is freeing and energizing. The child absorbs the inner mood that is created, almost as if by osmosis, and comes along into the rhythm, from an inner experience.

At times, I fall off the rhythm wagon, we get into jags of staying up too late or going out too often, or trying to do too many errands in one trip. When that happens, I know within. My body tells me.

I know when we are doing too much. I am the one who needs to make the changes.

As for the activities we do only now and then, like the eye doctor or a visit to the museum, these are not part of our daily rhythm, they go on the calendar. 

It is when I come home to myself, to the stillness of the moment, that once again, I notice my breathing, I see my children, I begin to live again into our daily and weekly rhythms.

If you are striving to bring rhythm to your home, start small with one simple change and slowly over time build on that so that your child experiences rhythm as something that envelopes him or her each day and not as a sign or a chart hanging on the wall, but as an inner knowing upon waking that it is a home day or a school day, bun day or soup day. The child knows from a living experience, from living education what to anticipate. This is the gift of inner rhythm.

Q&A with Lisa is my way of responding to your questions that I cannot answer individually. Send me your questions at lisaboisvert(at)yahoo(dot)com with Question in the subject line. 

If you'd like to work with me, consider joining my year round program with monthly guides and eCourses. 

Rhythm ~ Waldorf Style

I wrote this article for my monthly subscription program Celebrate the Rhythm of Life ~ a living curriculum, when I did a test run. Because it has been viewed more than any other page on that site, and because rhythm is such a important and fundamental element of early childhood, I am sharing it with you here.

Rhythm is life! Rhythm is strength! Rhythm can carry you.

We often hear these words but what matters most.... is our relationship to rhythm. 

If we tend toward the precise and exact and well... maybe even rigid,  we might need to loosen up and have more fun, be more fluid, go with the flow, laugh more and get the children to laugh too.

If we tend toward the loose with little structure to our day or week, we might find that the day has slipped by and we have not had lunch or fed the dog or thought about dinner and we're out of milk and no time for breathing into the fun. We might need to tighten up our self discipline, set tiny goals for the day and meet them.

Balance

Rhythm is really about balance, finding our own, finding our way to breathe through the day, to be calm and present and bring attentive awareness to our lives with children. Rhythm is flow, a feeling that we are moving in and out energetically with the needs of the day. Rhythm is finding rest and a time for pulling back in after having been out in stimulating activity.

Baby Steps
We begin to find our rhythm by taking baby steps, one at a time. What is the structure of our life right now? Do we go to bed around the same time? Do our children? Do we rise around the same time every day? Do we have regular meal times? Do we set a pretty table?

It's helpful to let go of trying to make many changes at once, we might try for one small change, maybe rising first or dinner by five or bedtime by seven.

In the Moment
When we are running from behind, always trying to catch up, we find ourselves breathless and not in the moment. When we are too focused on the schedule and on what is coming next, we are unable to relax and be in the moment.

Flow
Finding a rhythm that flows is key to life with children, for children thrive on a rhythmic and predictable life and a strong rhythm can carry us all through the years with breathing time and time for grace.

For those of us who work with young children in Waldorf nursery and kindergartens, and at home as our child's first Waldorf teacher, we have a rhythm of the day, a rhythm of the week, and, a rhythm of the year.

The Daily Rhythm
is the flow of the daily activities, a balance between quiet inner focused ones and more rambunctious outer focused ones, an in breathing and an out breathing, all anchored in four basic activities for health and well being. 

Every day, every child needs these elements to develop and thrive as a human being, along with a strong relationship with a warm, loving adult and protection from too much stimulation and the adult world. 

By warm loving, I do not mean sentimental and gushing, I mean present, one who sees, hears and feels the child and responds accordingly with warmth and support. 

Once we master the flow of these, we have a solid foundation for our children's early years. They are:

1. Eating

2. Sleeping  

3. Free play

4. Fresh air

Sample daily rhythm --> Rise ~ Mama time ~ Breakfast ~ Chores + Outside Play ~ Morning Tea ~ Guided Activity ~ Lunch ~ Nap/Rest ~ Afternoon Tea/Snack ~ Outside Play ~ Dinner Prep/Play at Kitchen Table ~ Dinner -~ Bath ~ Bed

Consider additional activities, such as circle, storytelling, cooking, baking, painting, craft making to be transitions between theses anchors with the basic four taking precedence over all other activity. Cooking and baking help satisfy the eating need, so you might start with those activities. 

Circle, painting and craft making can wait until children are five years old, it is in the kindergarten traditionally that children first had some of these experiences. 

We need to ask ourselves if we want these activities for ourselves or for our children. If the answer is for ourselves, then consider how and where they might fit and respect the child's need for time and space and play.

If your child is four or older and you have time and space in your life for crafts, circle and painting by all means do them, just not to the detriment of eating, sleeping, playing and being outdoors and most importantly, not if it gets in the way of your sanity.

If you are a child care provider and have parents clamoring for activities and projects to take home, think about what the child needs to grow into a healthy human being and find ways to convey what is needed for healthy development to the parents with articles, parent nights and laying it all out in your literature and your interview. 

Free child initiated play is fundamental for healthy growth. Eugene Schwartz has a great article on play, From Playing to Thinking, in the kindergarten as the basis for scientific learning later on. It is the child's ability to take time to do small tasks in the early years, like putting on their boots, tying their shoes, wrapping a gift, collecting an egg from the henhouse, so carefully reaching in, that lay the foundation for math later on.

The rhythm of the week is the pattern or flow of activities set for the days of the week.

The nursery rhyme reminds us of how our mothers and grandmothers lived with a task for each day of the week.

Wash on Monday

Iron on Tuesday

Mend on Wednesday

Churn on Thursday

Clean on Friday

Bake on Saturday

Rest on Sunday

Homemakers have had a homemaking task for each day of the week out of pure practicality, the oven was stoked with wood to run all day on Saturday to bake the beans and the bread. The clothing that was washed on Monday, got ironed on Tuesday and mended on Wednesday. Butter was churned on Thursday, ready for Saturday's baking. The wheel went round and round, week to week and the chores got done. Everyone knew what to expect. Life had form.

Now, with all our conveniences at the flick of a switch, we are forced to carve out our own rhythm in the home.

On mending day we can add a day for mending of toys. We can darn socks, mend holes in the toes, replace a button. A toy with a broken part can receive attention on mending day. This is one way to care for things that get broken.

In the Waldorf nursery and kindergarten, a weekly rhythm often involves a grain for each day's menu based on Rudolf Steiner's work on nutrition and an activity for the child for each day.

The example below is a rhythm that has worked for me, with my own children and with the nursery program group of mixed age children. I have shifted it over the years to accommodate morning naps, mid day naps and noontime pick up. I find it flows best when it is consistent with the fewest transitions and just enough time with each activity to be satisfying - yet not get in the way of play, which is the real work of childhood.

What really fosters play in young children is an adult nearby engaged in productive work with tangible results, results you can see, sweeping, shoveling, folding, ironing. The computer and telephone do not do it for children. A weekly rhythm of home making tasks can help make a time for everything that needs doing.

They need to see us engaged in work and when they see us grapple with something, with mending or sewing or repairing a door frame, it brings a gift to them, that humans sometimes have to grapple in life for that is what growing can be grappling for children. They need to see us do it and persevere and succeed in our endeavors, even when they are hard. This helps grow children who will strive and get through the hard parts of life.

The Weekly Rhythm
 in the kindergarten or the home is a set pattern of activities, one for each day of the week. The more they can be integrated into the home life the better.

An example of activities of a weekly rhythm:
Monday ~ Visit farm or go for a nature walk, make soup stock

Tuesday ~ Make Soup

Wednesday ~ Coloring/Seasonal nature craft day

Thursday~ Baking day

Friday ~ Painting day

The Key
 to the Rhythm of the Day is to wake up before the children and

1. Get Dressed
2. Start the laundry
3. Think about dinner/organize it
4. Have mother time before the children rise ~ whatever it is that helps you put the spin you need on the day. It might be a quiet cup of coffee or tea, to read a verse, or say it aloud. Maybe it's meditation, yoga, reading, a walk, whatever it is that helps you orient yourself for the day. 

Something to think About
What is your relationship to rhythm? Does it come naturally? Do you have to work at it? What helps it? What gets in the way? Did you have a rhythmic childhood?

What does your rhythm look like? Where are your challenges? How do you move through the transitions? How does it differ in Autumn?

I love to see your comments and feel free to link to your rhythm below in the comment box.

xoxo
Lisa

Coming in January 2025

Rhythm in the Home

eCourse

::

Celebrate the Rhythm of Life 

Harmonious Rhythms ::  Parenting with Soul :: Waldorf Homeschooling

~living curriculum program to support parenting and homeschooling

The Anchors of the Day

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, the anchors in our lives are eating and sleeping. We all eat and sleep, everyday. Babies spend most of their time eating and sleeping. Toddlers eat and sleep. School age children eat and sleep. Adults eat and sleep. We all need to eat and sleep every single day of our lives. It is that fundamental.

We can drift this way and that, into the longer, lighter, warmer days of the year when we want to be out of doors all the time and then into the cold frozen winter of the year, yet it is the two basic threads that keep us firmly anchored through the year: nourishing food and adequate rest. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bedtime. Sleep time. Awakening time. These anchors tether us to a dependable healthy rhythm. A healthy breathing in and a healthy breathing out.

Food and Rest. Eat and Sleep. 

It took me a long time to figure this out. When I began working, three o'clock would come and I would panic and my brain freeze if I did not have a meal planned for dinner. Sometimes I’d wing it and pull something together, other days I’d make a quick dash to the store. Sometimes we ate leftovers or a quick-to-pull-together meal like pasta or eggs. It was stressful.

Now I have a plan. On Saturdays we go to the farmer's market and on Sundays I plan the menu for the week. We have a weekly rhythm for breakfast and dinner. This is what works for me. This is my salvation. My children thrive on the predictability of regular dinner themes, so I made a regular, predictable breakfast menu for the week too.

The anchors help me keep us tethered to the health giving forces of life, the nourishment of gathering around the table, the nourishment of good food and each other. Without adequate sleep or upon getting hungry, meltdowns are more likely to occur. Sleep and food nourish us deeply on many levels.

I incorporate as much S.O.L.E. food into our meals as possible. You might be wondering what is S.O.L.E. food or isn't it spelled SOUL? Well yes, and no. S.O.L.E. stands for Sustainable, Organic, Local and/or Ethical which means seasonal too.

I use a meal plan based on a theme for each day of the week: 

:: Monday is Mexican
:: Tuesday is Thai
:: Wednesday is Pasta
:: Thursday is crockpot and/or children cook
:: Friday is Pizza
:: Saturday is grill or baked beans in winter
:: Sunday is grill/roast/casserole

I experimented with a Thai Beef Salad this week which I'll post on Scrumptious Smidgeon as well.

If there is a person who does not wish to eat what is served, then toast and butter is always an alternative.

What do you do about eating? How do you plan? Is there a rhythm to it? Do you have any good one pot meals with recipes to share?

What are your anchors?