I am thankful for:
A wonderful visit with family and friends during Thanksgiving.
My beautiful children who bring me joy everyday.
Little boy laughs and baby girl smiles.
Seeing the glowing white moon rise above the tree tops.
I love pulling out my apron for baking. It is definitely my favorite thing to do in the kitchen. I did quite a bit of baking before I got far along in my pregnancy and tired with Adeline. Now I can bake with Kelwyn which is even more fun. I want to include into our weekly routine. Today we made pumpkin muffins from Martha Stewart online.
Kelwyn seems to enjoy dumping in the ingredients and helping with the stirring.
The pumpkin muffins turned out wonderful. The recipe call for sugar and walnuts on top, which I left out for Kelwyn's half.
It looks like they passed his taste test. "It's delicious", Kelwyn said.
We made turkey hand print cards today for Thanksgiving next week. I got the idea from The Crafty Crow. I put together a mixture of brown, yellow and red tempura paints to make the print with Kelwyn's hand on construction paper. I was trying to dip his hand in the paint mixture, but he did not like it one bit. So, I thought what could I do to make our turkey prints. I started painting his hand with the colors and he was ok with it and thought it was a little funny. His hand print turned out great and I will add a few embellishments to give the turkey a face and legs.
Kelwyn decided he was not done with the paint, so he painted a picture. Afterwards he was all ready to hang it up on the window with the rest of his art work.
We had a nice time playing today. Kelwyn got on the floor and played with Adeline this morning. He was knocking the wooden toys above her head and giving her lots of kisses. They are so sweet together and she just loved it. I have a feeling they will be great friends.
We went outside this afternoon to let Kelwyn run out his steam, and it was also a beautiful day. He is getting so agile and fast! It is amazing how quickly they go from crawling to standing, walking to running. I love to watch him run. I remember how fun it was to run when I was little. It just felt so good and I felt so free. Kelwyn has been twirling is circles acting like the wind. Oh, to run wild and free and feel the wind in your hair..........
Color speaks to our souls. Think of the emotions that can be stirred up watching a beautiful sunset, the burst of a tree bud in spring, a rainbow after a fresh summer rain, a leaf falling on a crisp autumn day, and the peaceful glow of fresh fallen snow. Color surrounds us in every shape and form and is part of our everyday lives. We are surrounded by the most colorful and beautiful palette of all in nature, which can touch us on a deep spiritual level.
Children love color and they absorb all the colors around them. They take in all their surroundings with their entire being, body and soul. I was excited to get Kelwyn's watercolor supplies in the mail yesterday from Nova Naturals to embark on a new art adventure. Watercolor painting is a wonderful way for children to experience color. We used the wet watercolor paper method which allows color to be in tits own true element. We started with the color yellow, and then will later incorporate blue and red. The Waldorf inspired book, You are your child's first teacher, has a wonderful section on watercolor painting with children. Kelwyn seemed to enjoy dipping his paint brush into the golden yellow and stroking it over his paper. He was also happy to put a few dabs on the window too.
Kelwyn loves the color red. We were leaving this afternoon to run to a bakery for some tasty treats and I told Kelwyn I was going to go get my shoes. He ran into my closet and chose my red shoes to wear. They were not the ones I was thinking of, but I thought they would make a nice addition to my outfit. He also loves his red shoes and picked them out at the store over several other colors.
Adeline was ready for our outing in her pink rose bud bonnet.
Kelwyn's little red rocking chair painted by his Nana, with the baby blanket I knitted while I was pregnant for him.
Today we had a small celebration for Martinmas. It is a day which originated in France and spread though out Europe. It is a story of St. Martin who met a poor beggar at the city gate. He was shivering with cold and St. Martin took his sword and split his cloak in two, giving half to the the beggar. He gave compassion, warmth and hope to the beggar; as we can have warmth and hope for the cold, dark winter to come. Martinmas can also be seen as the end of Autumn turning into winter.
It is celebrated in Waldorf traditions with a lantern walk and singing. A lantern is typically made out of paper or beeswax for the children. There is a wonderful Waldorf community in town hosting a lantern walk tomorrow night. Kelwyn is very sensitive to his night time routine, so I do not think we will make it this year. Any changes seem to throw him off and cause him to not go to bed well. So we lit our own lantern and gave thanks for the light to shine our way through the darkness, and enjoy the last glows of the autumn sun.
We may feel that we are giving protection to our own little 'flame' that was beginning to shine..., so that we may carry it safely through the dark world. It may only be a small and fragile light-but every light brings relief to the darkness.
I made a bean box for Kelwyn. I saw the idea from The Magic Onions and was inspired to create one of my own. I got several bags of different sized beans and rice and placed them in a card board box with the tops cut off. I put some scoops, cups and a paper towel holder for a funnel for him to experiment with. We tried the bean play a few weeks ago inside, with a smaller box, and I left the room while Kelwyn was playing for a few minutes. Needless to say when I returned every single bean was on the kitchen floor! I put the big bean box outside on top of a blanket to catch some of the spilled beans. I did not make that mistake twice.
He loved playing with all the different shapes and textures, spilling, pouring, filling and dumping the beans.
I think I see a little smile.
I was pleasantly surprised to receive my gift from Sarah of Quince and Quire today. Jean from the Artful Parent did an interview with Sarah and had a giveaway for reading and placing a comment on her blog. She sent a beautiful fall felt crown, which Kelwyn proudly wore for a few minutes, then threw off his head.
She also sent a few lovely embellished fall leaves. I never would have thought to paint on leaves. So creative and inspirational. Kewlyn and I have a few in our press kit right now. I will have to think of something fun to do with them.
I love to knit. It helps to bring an end to my day. Sometimes I can sneak a little in during the day too while Kelwyn is immersed in his play and Adeline is asleep in the sling. It is very meditative and relaxing for me and I love to create wonderful things, while working with beautiful materials. Like the spider who spins her web, I feel like I am working a little magic. I get so excited for a new ball of yarn and endless projects to knit. If you are a knitter check out Ravelry, if you have not done so already. You will always find a new project to knit and share.
Lotus hat
Cozy shawl
It was a beautiful, crisp autumn day. Downtown was bustling this afternoon. People were singing, playing music, shopping, eating, drinking, riding crazy bicycles, and we even saw a wedding party that came out for pictures. The whole family went out for a lovely day and a little Christmas shopping.
I came home after a trip to a wonderful knitting store, Purl's, with some beautiful yarn for a holiday gift. I could have stayed in the store for hours, but I knew my boys were patiently waiting for me.
I could not leave downtown without a visit to my favorite place, The French Broad Chocolate Lounge. Oh my, I cannot say how absolutely delicious this place it, especially if you are a chocolate lover. I left with a chocolate chip cookie and the Buddha truffle. I was nice enough to share.
Picture from French Broad Chocolates.com.
