Days of December, Meaningful List

I am so inspired by the lists that Brooke posted over at Brooke: confessions of an urban earth mama for the days of December, that I am going to start my own list. Have a look at Brooke's blog. The list ideas is meaningful, sane and fun.
Thank you Brooke.

The Meaningful in the Holy Days

Today I am delighted to share a guest piece from Danielle Epiphani on how she brings meaning to the season.

For us it's really a season from Michaelmas to Epiphany. Lot's of time that way.

I was not familiar with Advent before being introduced to Waldorf. Fortunately, that was when my son was 1 year old and early on was able to put into practice traditions that kept ours (and my life), sane. I love the anticipation of the season and having the time to build slowly, meditating each week. and adding elements to the home.

Christmas Eve is when we put up our tree and then Christmas lasts for 12 days. In this way we have time to make gifts, deliver them, see friends whom we couldn't see leading up to Christmas. Instead we get to take in special shows or events, read stories, sing and stay out of the loop of commercial madness.

Here in California one of my favorite shows is The Christmas Revels, and of course the Winter Spiral events.

Sometimes on the eve of St Nicholas we are his 'helper' and drive around or go to neighbors' homes. When the season is spread out this way, we have lots of time to enjoy it. It is bittersweet on the eve of the 12th night, to sing all of our last carols.

Sometimes too we prepare a big feast with prime rib and invite friends to do a 3 Kings Play. It is a joy to celebrate Epiphany in this way and has made Christmas a much richer Holiday than what I could've imagined.

During Advent I hunker down with wonderful books- my favorite is Christmas Roses- Legends for Advent by Selma Lagerlof. Probably best suited for children ages 6/7+, and so meaningful to me.

::

Danielle is the mother of an eleven-year-old son, a Waldorf Early Childhood educator, and a parenting mentor. She is an Art Historian, antique dealer, and graduate from UC Berkeley. She is the Director of Margaret’s Garden, a mixed-age Waldorf, and Lifeways inspired home program in Berkeley, CA, and a graduate from the Bay Area Center For Waldorf Teacher Training in San Rafael, CA. Her work can be accessed on the web at Elemental Mother and on Facebook.

Keeping the Holidays Sane, Meaningful and Fun!

This post is the first in a series on our seasonal or festival life that begins with Thanksgiving (in the United States) and ends with Epiphany or Three Kings Day in January, sort of...

Days we celebrate include:

Thanksgiving

Advent ~ began Sunday November 29

Saint Nicholas Day ~ December 6

Santa Lucia Day ~ December 13

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Epiphany or Three Kings Day

What a great number of days to celebrate. How do we keep it sane, meaningful and fun for the children and for ourselves? These are a few tips I have picked up over the years that have made our life more simple and meaningful at the holidays:

Stay Home

• If you have children under the age of ten, stay home, let others come to you.

Gifts

• Consider requesting or giving gifts that can make a difference and ease financial pressure on a family: a tank of heating oil, an insurance premium payment, a tuition payment
• Consider gifts of service: babysitting, snow shovelling, errand running
• Consider a gift of one big thing, is there something really special your child has been longing for, a season's ski pass? ski school? a kayak? a pair of play stands you want for your child?
• Consider gifts made in the name of the recipient to a charity: Heifer International, Oxfam, Knitting 
• Consider gift certificates for lunch, driving, chores, back rubs, walks, a list of books to enjoy with a trip to the library, cleaning up a room, re-organizing a closet

Serve Others

• Consider volunteering at the local soup kitchen, volunteers and meals are usually welcomed
• Consider Christmas carolling at a local home for the elderly
• Consider helping at a Ronald McDonald house or Ronald McDonald room at the local hospital
• Is there a mom with a newborn preemie who needs clothes for her tiny baby and has no support?

Create a time out of time

• Make it a season that lasts forty days. Let this season be a time of spaciousness. Spread the festivities, activities and get togethers over forty days. Festival life has it origins in days where people took time to rest, gather together, sing songs, tell stories and prepare special foods.

Make two lists

• First the " I should" list all things we heap on ourselves to do, to say, to be, then release them, tear them up, burn them, let go of them. 
• Then make the " I want" list. How do you envision the holidays? What makes meaning for you? What is realistic? One special moment together, truly present with our children is worth more than lots of hurried, harried events. How can you bring stillness, look inward and set the mood for your children?

Danielle Epiphany has a lovely piece sharing her insight on this topic here.

My next post will be on the Meaningful. What do you like about the holidays for children? What do you remember from the holidays and your childhood? What traditions do you wish to continue? What do you wish to create?

Until then, Bright Blessings!

Trader Joe Came to Visit

Today I am grateful to Sally over at Fairy Dust Teaching for the inspiration of Trader Joe.

He arrived in the Morning Garden this week with a chest of treasures from Mother Earth's bounty to trade for Mother Earth Treasures.

Trader Joe was so tired he traded treasures for a hot bath, a bed and a warm meal.

The children loved it. Some children, upon hearing the news of Trader Joe, sailed across the seas bearing beautiful, magestic, shells from the sea, to trade with Trader Joe.

The next day they wanted to know if Trader Joe might come back.....

Hmmmnnn......... I wonder.....

Martinmas Photos and Weckmann Recipe

So I finally added photos to my last post on Martinmas here.

Here is the recipe for Weckmann.

Formed out of sweet yeast dough, this man goes by many names in Germany— Weckmann, Nikolaus, Stutenkerl, among others—and is a popular treat for either St. Martin’s Day on November 11, or St. Nicholas Day on December 6. For the traditional Weckmann, the dough is shaped by hand into the form of a man, and raisins and/or nuts are used for eyes and buttons. In Germany, a clay pipe is often added, but this detail is hard to find in the United States.

Males: 10

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup sweet butter
• 3 tablespoon (1/6 cup) shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons real vanilla extract
• 1 grated lemon peel
• 1 packet rapid yeast (1/4 ounce)
• 3 tablespoon warm water
• 4 whole eggs
• 6 2/3 cups flour

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water for glazing

Preparation:

1. Mix yeast with warm water and 1 tablespoon of sugar. 
2. Combine milk, butter, shortening, and sugar, in a saucepan and heat gently then set aside to cool. 
3. Place flour in a large bowl, make a well in the middle of the flour and pour yeast mixture into the well, cover and let rise for 20 minutes. 
4. Add milk mixture to flour and mix all the ingredients together. 
5. Knead into a ball, dust with flour and let rise for 45 minutes.
6. Roll dough and divide into 10 pieces to form into men. 
7. Place the men on a large baking sheet covered with parchment or wax paper, making sure to leave enough room between each shape.
8.  Let rise for a further 20 to 45 minutes
9. Brush with egg and water mixture, decorate with raisins and dried cranberries for the eyes and buttons

Bake at 325 to 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy! 

Martinmas Lantern Walk

Tonight is our Martinmas celebration and it's snowing ~ the first real snow of the year.

We've been making balloon lanterns this week. Later this week, we'll gather with friends new and old, hear a story about a small boy who makes a lantern to hold Father Sun's spark and walk through the woods, share a meal and have a bonfire.

Most years we make Martinmas Lanterns from old canning jars, seen below. I posted directions for how to make them over on The Wonder of Childhood here. . 

This year we're baking Martinmas pastry, either Volaerens (donkey droppings) or Weckmann (bunmen), the dough is the same, a sweet brioche, the form is different.

The donkey droppings come from a story that goes like this:

Many, many years ago, before your grandparents were born, a young boy who came to be known as Saint Martin was journeying in the dark of the night with his donkey. Neither moon nor star glowed that night. The forest was very dark. Saint Martin was walking alongside his donkey. His donkey was clomp, clomp, clomping along the leaves that covered the forest floor when suddenly he disappeared into the wood. Martin searched far and wide yet the donkey was not to be seen. Soon he came upon a village where the children were playing in the town center. The children were given lanterns to help find Martin's donkey. They quickly found the donkey and led him to the village square in a festive parade of children, lanterns and donkey. Martin was grateful to the children for their help and to thank them he turned the donkey droppings into sweet little pastries for the children to eat. They named them volaerens which means donkey droppings in the Flemish language and still bake them today in some villages while children all over the world celebrate this day with walks and songs and lanterns.

Our Favorite Lantern Songs

I'm walking with my lantern,

My lantern is walking with me

In heaven the stars are shining,

On earth are shining we

Oh lantern bright!

You shine tonight!

May all the Angels see,

May all the Angels see,

I'm walking with my lantern,

My lantern is shining on me,

In heaven the stars are shining

On earth are shining we

The cock doth crow,

The cat meows,

La bimmel, la bammel la boom!

The cock doth crow,

The cat meows,

La bimmel, la bammel, la boom!

and this song which is known as "the second grade song" for the children learn it in second grade:

Saint Martin, Saint Martin, Saint Martin rode through wind and snow

On his strong horse, his heart aglow,

He rode so boldly through the storm

His great cloak kept him well and warm

By the roadside, by the roadside, by the roadside a poor man arose,
Out of the snow in tattered clothes
He said please help me with my plight
Or I shall die of cold tonight

Saint Martin, Saint Martin, Saint Martin stopped his horse and drew
his sword and cut his cloak in two
One half to the beggar man he gave
And by this deed a life did save

Saint Martin, Saint Martin, Saint Martin rode through wind and snow

On his strong horse, his heart aglow,

He rode so boldly through the storm

His great cloak kept him well and warm

The music for this song is here although the words in this version are a different translation.

Maybe a post with snapshots and recipes tomorrow.....

The next day.....

Martinmas Blessings upon you and yours!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A few photos- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

A game of Poohsticks. 

Me too says Moe... I want in on this one.

Along with SouleMama

Waldorf Homeschool Network

Announcing the Waldorf Homeschool Network!

I've just created this blog as a place to come together and share and connect around the work we are doing with our children at home in Waldorf education.

Come join this blog, you can be an author and post on the blog or link to your own blog. It's a place to connect, share resources and trials and tribulations for those who are doing Waldorf education in the home, of the grades, or early childhood, and for those with early childhood groups in their home too..

Won't you come along?

It's right here:

http://waldorfhomeschoolnetwork.blogspot.com/

Warmly,

Lisa

Verse to Start the Day

It seems fitting to share this verse today, during the feast or festival of Saint Martin, known as Martinmas, a time of remembering to kindle our flame, to acknowledge by seeing, hearing and feeling that flame of the other, even when it is masked and vulnerable.

This is the verse I say to begin my day of homeschooling: 

A Teacher's Thought for his Children 

You who out of heaven's bringhtness.

Now descend to earthly darkness.

Thus through life's resisting forces,

Spirit radiance to unfold

Spirit warmness to enkindle

Spirit forces to call forth

Be you warmed through by my love

Radiant thinking

Tranquil feeling

Healing willing.

That in Spirit's heights well- rooted

And in earth's foundation's working

You may servants of the Word become

Spirit illumining

Love evoking

Being strengthening.

Rudolf Steiner

May we all warm and be warmed through by love.

Hey Ho for Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite time of year. 

For years when I wrestled with questions of religion and spirituality and sought clarity on what made meaning for me, Halloween stood out as a holiday I could fully and whole heartedly embrace with no uncertainty or feelings of discomfort. Halloween does not invoke the sort of stress that other holidays seem to call forth for me.

Halloween is all fun. Dress up and go out and play with the crunch of leaves underfoot and darkness everywhere.

I had the good fortune of living in San Francisco's Mission District for four years in my young and carefree days and experienced the celebration of the dead, with The Day of the Dead celebrations, procession and rooms. This deepened my passion for Halloween and created a bridge from my Catholic upbringing to the beliefs and values I embraced. It was empowering and awakening for me along with Z. Budapest's Spiral Dances for women at Halloween.  

Twenty years later as a parent, I bring aspects of these celebrations to my children whose ages span from seven to fifteen.

Some favorite songs:

Who are the Witches?

Chorus:

Who are the witches? Where do they come from?

Maybe your great, great grandmother was one.

Witches are wise, wise, women, they say,

There's a little witch in every woman today, 

There's a little witch in every woman today, 

Witches knew all about flowers and trees

How to use the bark and the roots and the leaves,

When people grew weary from hardworking days,

Witches made them feel better in so many ways

Repeat chorus

Women had babies and witches were there,

To help and to feed them and give them some care,

And witches knew stories of how life began,

Don't you wish you could be one, well maybe you can......

Repeat chorus

Some people thought that the witches were bad,

Some people were scared of the power they had,

The power to give and to heal and to care,

Is not something to fear, it's a treasure to share.

Repeat chorus

A fingerplay:

Five little witches sitting on the gate,

The first one said, " oh my it's getting late,"

The second one said, "Halloween is in the air,"

The third one said, "let us take to the air"

The fourth one said,  "when I finish my brew,"

The fifth one said, "my black cat comes too "

The night wind whispered whooooo, whoooo

So they put on the hats
And flew into the air, 

Singing all together, 

Hall-o-ween is here!

A Song:

Hey ho for Halloween!

When all the witches are to be seen.

Some in black and some in green,

Hey ho for Halloween!

Hey ho for Halloween!

In 1973, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English wrote Women, Witches and Nurses: A History of Women Healers , online and at Amazon. It is well worth the read, still timely and sheds light on healing, medicine, the role of women and the divine feminine.

Blessings!

A Halloween Story

by Elizabeth Thompson Dillingham

Once upon a time a big orange pumpkin was growing just outside a stone wall, far off in a field, all alone. The farmer had gathered all his pumpkins and stored them carefully in his great barn. But no one knew of the big orange pumpkin growing just outside the wall, all alone. The big orange pumpkin was lonely.

"I wish I belonged to some one, " said he.

"Miew, miew! I do, too," cried a little black pussy cat, stretching herself and jumping down form the stone wall where she had been sleeping.

"It will soon be winter," said the big orange pumpkin; "lets go find some one to belong to."

"Yes, lets do," said the little black cat, eagerly.

"I want to belong to a little girl with a sweet face and shining eyes."

"And I, said the big orange pumpkin, want to belong to a jolly little boy who whistles and sings when he works. Let's hurry right away to find them."

"Yes , let's do," said the little black cat.

So off they started-the big orange pumpkin rolling and tumbling along, and chuckling to himself as he went, and the little black cat pit patting along on her soft little cushions, purring because she was happy.

On and on they went, over the fields and through the woods. It began to grow cold, oh, so cold, and dark, too. The little black cat shivered as the wind whistled through the trees.

"See here," said the big orange pumpkin, "you can't sleep outdoors to-night. What shall we do?"

Just then they saw a man coming along the path with a bundle of wood on his back.

"Ho, Mr. Woodcutter!" cried the pumpkin "have you a knife?"

"That I have," said the merry woodsman. "What can I do for you, my fine fellow?"

"Just cut off a piece of my shell where the stem is, and scoop out some of my seeds, if you please," said the pumpkin.

No sooner said than done. "There, my little black pussy cat," said the pumpkin, "when you wish to sleep to-night, you may curl inside and be as warm as a sunbeam."

"But will you not come home with me?" asked the woodsman.

"Have you a little girl with a sweet face and shining eyes?" asked the black pussy cat.

"Have you a jolly little boy who whistles and sings when he works? "asked the big orange pumpkin.

"No, ah. no," said the woodsman, "but I have a pig and some hens."

"Then we'll go on," said the pumpkin, "but thank you kindly."

So on they went, and on, until the stars began to shine. Then the tired little pussy cat curled in her hollow nest, put on the cover, and went to sleep. In the morning they went on again, but before long
it began to rain. The pussy cat's soft fur was soon very wet.

"You poor little thing," said the big orange pumpkin; "curl inside your house and I will trundle you along."

"But it's so dark inside, and I couldn't see where we were going," cried the pussy cat, holding up a tiny, dripping paw.

"Windows!" cried the pumpkin. "Of course, windows! How silly of me! Wait here under this fence, my little friend, until I come back."

Then off he hurried across the road to a carpenter's shop.

"Ho, Mr. Carpenter!" Cried the pumpkin, "have you a knife?"

"That I have," said the jolly carpenter. "What can I do for you, my fine fellow?"

"Just cut some windows for me, if you please."

So the carpenter took a sharp knife and cut four windows-just like a face he made them, two for eyes, one for a nose, and one for a mouth, and he laughed as he did it.

When he finished the mouth, the pumpkin laughed too.

"Ha, ha, ha!" cried he. "What a relief to have a mouth to laugh with! Ha, ha, ha!" And he laughed all the way back in the rain to where the little shivering pussy cat was waiting.

And she laughed, too, and climbed inside her coach, and put on the cover. So on through the rain they went, and on and on. Just as dark was drawing near, they came to a wee, brown house by the side of the road. In the yard was a little boy picking up chips and putting them into a big basket. He whistled as he worked, and then he began to sing:

"If wishes were horses, then beggars might ride;
If turnips were watches, I'd wear one by my side."

Then the door opened, and a little girl with a sweet face and shining eyes stood on the threshold:

"What do you wish, John?' she called.

"Oh," Laughed the boy as he came in with the chips. "I wish I had a pumpkin for a jack-o'-lantern, for this is Hallowe'en."

"And I wish I had a pussy cat to love," said the little girl.

"This is the place for us!" whispered the big orange pumpkin; and he rolled up to the door, bumpety bump!

"Look, John!" cried the little girl, "here's your jack-o'-lantern!

The fairies must have sent it. Isn't it a beauty?"

"There's something inside," said John, snatching off the cover, and out jumped a tiny black pussy cat, straight into the little girl's arms.

"Oh, oh!" they cried.

And when mother came home in the dark, a jolly jack-o'-lantern with a candle inside was shining out of the window at her, and close beside it sat a little black pussy cat.

Snip, snap, snout, my stories told out. 

Elizabeth Thompson Dillingham was born in 1880, in Honolulu, Hawaii. I tried to learn more about her life and was unable to piece together a biography.

Warmly,

Storytelling ~ Sources of inspiration

My sources of inspiration:

Other people telling stories especially at Waldorf schools: kindergarten, parent child group, play groups, nursery programs, Joan Almon, Connia Manson, Suznne Down, workshops, trainings, performances

Books:
Storytelling with Children by Nancy Mellon (do it as a group if possible)
Suzanne Down's Autumn Tales are inspiring simple nature stories
Susan Perrow's Healing Stories for Challenging Behavior

Stories from childhood What stories do you remember hearing as a child? What stories did you tell or act out? What were your favorites?

Nature What is happening in nature now? What is the inner mood or feeling of the season we are in? In autumn, I feel the wind and the leaves, whirling, twirling, falling, pulling in, storing up, reckoning with the need to fan the flame within, light withdrawing, dark increasing, what are the elemental beings doing now?

What is the story line best suited for a child's perspective?
(blog post in the works on what stories for what age and why)

What does my child need? therapeutic stories? What is the picture I wish to make? What will feed him or her developmentally to see the picture I wish the story to carry?

At bedtime Ask for help from the spiritual world. We adults have a guardian angel who will respond to us when we ask for help and guidance. Bring the questions into sleep and pay attention upon wakening and during the day to the answers that just seem to arrive. Also ask our guardian angel to communicate with the child's angel and support us in our desire to meet and nourish the child.

Take a quiet moment and do a meditation. Close your eyes. Picture the child in a situation that you find really challenging and hold that picture while you breathe into your heart, breath love into the picture in your mind and ask for a story to address the challenge.

Most of all play with it, make it fun, not too serious!

Blessings