{This Moment}

Joining Soulemama today for {This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Have a wonderful weekend :)

May the light of your soul guide you...

The girls were sitting at the garden table all afternoon simply drawing.

A simple drawing book and a pencil should never be underrated.
...

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work



You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.



May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.



May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.



May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.



May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.



May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.



May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.

"May the light of your soul guide you"
John O' Donohue

I pray today that I will be guided by the light of my soul.

Not those bright, unremitting, startling lights that distract.
But the gentle, light that wades into soft child steps.

The light which warms all things,
draws tree sap to the surface
with transparent strings.

This is the light I will seek
and follow.

Make Clay Fairy houses...

This year I wanted to try something a little with our fairy garden.

We found a lovely wooden wheelbarrow at the local garden center.

We lined it with a bin bag so that it the compost we would be filling it with wouldn't rot the wood.

We planted some little violas plants around the edges, took a "cutting" from one of our conifers to plant as a tree.

We also used a pine cone for a tree!

We made a fairy sized washing line and placed some special stones and moss found on walks for a fairy path.

Finally we placed our fairy houses in their new home and scattered grass seed around them.

Hopefully as the warm weather continues the grass will make a lovely, soft green carpet for a our fairies delicate littlefeet to tread upon.

Here is how we made our clay fairy homes.

***

We warmed the clay between our hands, added a little warm water to soften it and rolled it into a log shape.

I began by cutting the log into approximately 1 inch slices for the houses.

I rolled out one more log with the second block of clay and made 1/2 inch thick slices to make the thatched roofs.



The girls and I had fun decorating our houses by carving into them with different utensils.

Sharp pencils and blunt table knives seemed to work well.







We attached the roofs with lots of warm water to help them to stick. Then we scored and cross-hatched them with our blunt table knives to create a thatched look.



The clay feels so nice and cool and wet :)



We put the m on a baking sheet in a very low oven for a couple of hours until they were properly hardened and set.

After they cooled down we painted them.

Unless they are professionally fired and glazed in a kiln these fairy houses work best for indoor fairy gardens as they will spoil if left to weather outside.




We sprinkled grass seed around the houses and waited for it to grow.

Sometimes we even find the odd little fairy friend hanging her washing to dry or dipping her toes in the a glitter sprinkled shell pond.

Sometimes they even leave treasures behind like little notes with the tiniest of writing, or special feathers or shiny pebbles!

Look who's learned a new trick!

She is so very pleased with herself.

Looks like I'll have to get myself a pair of running shoes to keep up now.

It was crazy enough when she was crawling laps around the living room and hallway and trying to escape across the grass at the park.





 

Unconditional Parenting

 

"Humiliation, like other forms of punishment, is counterproductive. 

 "Doing to" strategies -- as opposed to those that might be described as "working with" -- can never achieve any result beyond temporary compliance, and it does so at a disturbing cost." 

That cost, he says, is that the lessons learned by children are not the ones that the parent intended. What harshly disciplined kids absorb, he warns is "

(1) my parent isn't a caring ally whom I can trust but an enforcer I should try to avoid,

 (2) when you have a problem with what someone else has done, you should just use power to make the other person do what you want, and 

(3) the reason not to steal (or lie or hurt people) isn't because of how it affects others but because of the consequence you, yourself, will face if you're caught.  

 No wonder so many adults who do terrible things were humiliated, or spanked, or otherwise punished -- often harshly -- when they were young."

~ Alfie Kohn, author of Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason

{This Moment}

Joining soulemama for {This Moment}

{rejoice}

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,
if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,
rejoice for your soul is alive.

~Eleonora Duse

First Birthday

Nola was a a little overwhelmed by all the excitement circling around her at first.

It was so wonderful to see my little one year old's little face slowly realize that indeed, this day was all about her :)



She loved it when we all gathered around her to sing Happy Birthday.
She began to cheer and clap and dance with great exuberance.
Matilda played along on the piano, a little out of step but perfect all the same.
We had to sing Happy Birthday at least 20 times through the morning just for all those sweet smiles.



Each of the girls made a beautiful card for their baby sis.
This is Fi's card. She crayoned a picture of an elf and a rainbow.
Nola "cuddled" the elf with glee.



I wrapped a few little gifts in play silks to make it easier for her to unwrap them.



Here is a little cushion dolly I stayed up till midnight making on a whim.



She is filled with the softest lambs wool and is super cuddly.
The girls christened her Marigold, then Rose then Petal. Petal seems to have stuck the longest so far I think she looks a little like a flower petal don't you?



And here is Strawberry Shortcake, named by Boo for Nola. She will be Petal's big sister :)













Nola's birthday breakfast muffin went down well :)




Matilda's birthday card



Nola loves her whistle.



My beautiful, cheeky, spirited, funny, sweet, cuddly, snuggly, clever and cute one year old!!!

Happenings and moments from the last couple of weeks...

Tilly in her Easter Dress. This girl just loves anything pick and sparkly!



Getting the highest scores "so far" for presentation, taste and difficulty with this yummy carrot cake at Tani's work's first ever office "bake off."



Finding, Identifying and drawing lots of Spring animals. birds, bugs and flowers on our afternoon walkabouts.

I printed off some identifier sheets for the girls from the woodland trust nature detectives. There is a prize for the first one who ticks off all their boxes :)



A new home for "Arrietty" made by Boo and Matilda :)



Story time.





Colouring in Matilda's birthday mandalas.


Looking through old photo albums and watching old home movies on rainy afternoons.



Play dolls house. Matilda loves to rearrange the furniture in her dolls house. Her dolls are particularly house proud :)



I love the endless stories the girls come up with for their little animals and dollies.

Sometimes they will follow the story line of a favourite film or book, other times the stories will be far more mundane and include everyday details an family anecdotes, often their stories will escape completely into the realms of fantasy and fairytale.







An early morning sunlit capture of my fairy princess Tilly.



And this sweet babe. Of course I couldn't not include at least one picture of her...