Serving ~ part 1

High up on our to-do list this year is serving others.  Why you might ask?  Well, for a couple reasons.

We feel that serving others is the best hands-on way to put some of those "heart" lessons into practice without actually hearing a lecture.  What does showing compassion for others look like?  What does it feel like to share what one has with others?  Can one feel gratitude after helping another?

We also feel that our children's "socialization" experience should be balanced.  They should have opportunities to learn from and interact with a wide variety of people.  Once they set out on their own, they will need to be able to communicate and work with people who are younger and older than them.  So, we expect that volunteering will help them get comfortable with people from all walks of life. 

We've talked to our children about what serving might look like, and they were very eager to tell us they would like to volunteer at the Humane Society.  They've donated allowance money and organized an art sale to financially support the Humane Society.  But they look forward to getting to a more intimate level with the animals at the shelter...feeding bunnies kale, playing with a puppy who could really use a friend, and changing the water and litter boxes for the cats.

Tonight though, I realized that service can be quite simple, although likely not as exciting as the Humane Society.  Tonight, we had family over, and we were preparing supper for 12 instead of 5.  That's quite a few for one to prepare for!  And while our children didn't voluntarily help, they didn't moan or complain the entire time.  And I think they enjoyed it because a lot of the food came from our garden and they were excited to share it with others.  My daughter mentioned that it felt like we were on a farm as we brought in mint and cilantro and lettuce for our supper.

Actually, when I look back at the pictures I took, I do see that there was some voluntary work done!  My son making a knotted rope for his cousins to use to climb up to the loft in the playhouse.

They may be little gestures, and I'm so grateful for their help.  I think our guests also appreciated their efforts.

Errands

I must thank our wonderful friends at the local library for their Mainly Mother Goose program.  It's a program of songs, fingerplays, bounces and stories aimed at the under 2 crowd.  And the songs and fingerplays we learned came in especially handy today.

My littlest one is a curious girl.  There are some places that are open to having little explorers, like the swimming pool.  There are others, however, where exploring doesn't work so well - like at the doctor's office.  And that is where we spent a good hour and a half this morning.  While we brought her favorite books, there's only so many times one can read Are You My Mother? or Up Up Down before both mama and toddler have had enough.

Her favorites were the bounces and the fingerplays.  We played "This is the Way the Lady Rides" countless times, and her older siblings were so eager to have a turn taking her for a ride.  We sang "Wind the Bobbin Up", "This is Big, Big, Big" and "Peter and Paul" over and over again.  When we had exhausted those, it was time to bring out the secret weapon - a snack perfect for little fingers.  Thankfully, we were on our way before it was all gone!

What do you do to pass the time with your little ones when you've got extra time on your hands?

The beach

My husband's brother's family is in town, and one of their must-do trips was the local beach.  So, we hit the beach after swimming lessons today.  Our children were quite excited by the trip to the beach, so they were wonderful helpers with getting us ready to go and packing the car.  Not that there was much to pack.  Each of us (except our toddler!) had a backpack, we had a lunch bag, and a small box with sand toys.  We're a simple bunch.  Besides, there's only so much a mama can carry with one empty hand.

Our relations arrived shortly after us, and it didn't take long to blaze a trail to the water.  My youngest was terrified of the water, and even more terrified of the blow-up turtles her grandparents brought, so she stayed in my arms or sat on the sand with a pail and shovel.  Which was enjoyable.  We built a few towers.  We looked for different-coloured stones, rubbed smooth by the waves.  We watched the antics of the gulls.  My other daughter brought us seaweed to look at.  We hung out with her baby cousin.  We enjoyed the shade while the rest got a wee sunburn.

And the other children loved the terrifying turtles.  Until the sun got the best of them and they forgot how to share.  And listen.  And fought pretty much from the time they got home until the time they went to bed, which wasn't early enough unfortunately.  

And then I found it difficult to keep my cool too.  Despite all these years as a parent, I still haven't found the magic way to calmly deal with what feels like constantly grumpy children.  And I'm frustrated when it feels there is little I can do to resolve the root of the issue.  Today, I think it was the heat combined with needing more sleep.  And it is still uncomfortably warm in our house, even after 9:00 pm, so they will likely struggle to fall asleep tonight too. 

So tomorrow, we may need to turn up the creativity.  What to do about the heat?  Maybe sleeping in a tent in the backyard.  Maybe hanging up sheets and curtains in our unfinished basement so we can sleep down there.  Maybe having an early supper so we can leisurely go through our bedtime routine, including a refreshingly cool bath for each child.  Maybe shipping them off to their grandparents, who have air conditioning, for a sleepover (with their cousins!).  Lots of cool damp cloths for sure.

What to do about my nerves wearing thin?  I'm thinking quiet time tomorrow for each child, as best I can given the errands that need to be run.  I'm thinking lots of reading time.  I'm thinking activities that my children are experts at so I can heap praise on them.  I'm thinking lots of hugs and cuddles and "love you's".  I'm thinking lots of deep breaths for me.

I think we can do tomorrow.

To become a gardener

My husband and I went to a supremely inspiring movie a while back...To Make a Farm.  In it, Tarrah Young from Being Green Farm compares a gardener to a symphony musician.  She observes that a gardener might have 30 or 40 tries to learn how to garden and be really successful at it, as there's only one try a year.  But a musician - say Beethoven - would have likely practiced the same piece hundreds or even thousands of times before performing it for an audience.  The conclusion...the learning curve for the gardener is very steep.

Tonight, her observation stayed with me for a long time as I reflected on our gardening experiences.  I've already mentioned some of our failures this year.  And we've had more learnings since.  Like where we will put our bok choy next year so that it will hopefully not go straight to seed.  And how we will keep the ants from eating our sui choy.  And what we will do to try and prevent water from simply floating over the dirt and making its way to the sidewalk instead of nourishing our onion patch. 

My heart is at ease knowing that my children are learning beside me, and that they are already on their way on the gardening learning curve.  And it's exciting that they too are marvelling at how quickly nature can take its course.  When my daughters and I went to our community garden plot, I asked if they noticed anything different.  Jaelyn immediately saw the peas that we will likely be able to pick later this week.  And that the pumpkins were almost twice as big as they were the last time we visited.  And that our potatoes, which we had planted just a week ago in our failed corn patch, were starting to come through.  And that 21 corn plants did make it after all.  She immediately set to weeding, then got out the hose and started watering.  Then knew when she'd had enough and played with her sister while Mama finished up.

And we're having some successes too.  Like enjoying the first few raspberries of the season.  Or munching on cilantro just because it's there and ripe for the picking.  Or the tomatoes that are doing fabulous.  Or those peas at the community garden.  And now I've realized that I've moved up the learning curve too, because now I know when the peas will be ready.  I know when our lilies will burst open.  I know when the corn can be picked.  These are things I didn't know too long ago, but that knowledge is with me now.  And I can share it with our little ones.

I truly love being on this learning journey together.

A week in pictures

Some fun we had that we didn't write about...

Enjoy your weekend!

Club Day. Nature Version. Volume 1, Issue 1

My daughter has also started a club.  She chose a Nature Club, because, as she says, "She likes nature."  So simple, for both of us.  She gets to be with the friends she's made over the last two years at school and be outside.  And "nature" is so wide open that we should be able to run this club for a long time before needing to repeat an activity.

Our first meeting had me observing how different this group of children was from the ones in the Birds of Prey Club that was on Tuesday.  While the crew of 9-year-old boys didn't want a snack, this group could have ate all afternoon.  While the "Birds of Prey" could have made up games to play all afternoon, this group wanted - needed, perhaps - someone to guide them through structured activities for the whole time.  It was this last point that I totally wasn't prepared for, as I really believe in the value of unstructured play time and wanted to give them the opportunity to just enjoy one another.  I had one activity planned, and just wasn't in the frame of mind for thinking on my feet.  Well, lesson learned, and we'll be ready for next time. 

Well, I guess I did think a bit on my feet.  We had a short little scavenger hunt while we waited for everyone to arrive.  So, the children learned what baby basil looks like, what cilantro tastes like, and that celery grown in a garden in a cooler climate looks much different than the stuff in the grocery store.  We also played a short game of Monopoly Jr.  Nothing to do with nature, but a good game for this age group.

Our main activity today was making nature journals from Tyvek house wrap.  It is a project from Maya Donenfeld's inaugural book Reinvention:  Sewing with Rescued Materials.

 
There was some pre-work involved on my part...measuring and cutting out the wrap and the paper, sewing the fronts and backs of the journals together.  My daughter helped by getting all of the painting materials together.

As we painted our journal covers, we had a brief chat about what "nature" is, and that although Tyvek doesn't look like or feel like "nature", everything we use on this planet has to come from the Earth.  What's different is how much work needs to be done to get it to its end state.  We also talked very quickly about the life span of materials, and that it seems that the longer it took the Earth to make the materials, the longer it takes to for that material to be reabsorbed by the Earth.  Which is why, instead of sending our Tyvek scraps to the landfill, we turned them into beautiful journals.  It was a lot for 6-year-old minds to absorb, but perhaps a nugget or two will stick with them.

It was a lovely meeting, and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Do re mi

In January, my heart was telling me we needed a piano.  Sure, there was a 30-year-old organ sitting down in the basement with flashing lights and lots of different sounds.  But it seemed like a piano would fit in nicely with our antique (read:  hand-me-down) furniture and with the sensibilities we're moved to follow.

I scoured the web for free local finds, and was lucky enough to spot a 1929 Heintzman & Co. upright piano.  Once we moved it here, I went far back into my memory and started to play.  I've never had a desire to really read music and would prefer to play by ear, so it didn't take to long to get back into the groove.

Still, being an organ player, my left hand was never very strong.  So, I set out to teach myself some new songs.  I went to the used book store to pick up some books and started learning to read music.  I practiced.  I made mistakes.  I played the same tunes over and over until I got them right.  I would play for my children and niece if they asked.

Then, something unexpected happened.  My daughter sat down at the piano and tinkered around.  And it sounded good.  Then she did it again, and again.  Was there some interest in learning an instrument?  I wasn't, and am still not, willing to put her into lessons until she is asking for them.  But what would happen if we worked on some of the basics on our own here at home?  And where would I begin?  Would learning piano be terribly different than learning the organ?

I wasn't sure, so I picked up a few beginner piano books.  The Alfred's Basic Piano Library All-in-One Course to be exact.  When my daughter showed interest, we would look through the exercises and songs, and play a couple.  Other times, I would walk her through a song she was familiar with and teach her how to play it.

Last week, she opened to a page that was just too advanced for her.  I suggested we start at the beginning and, if we practiced, we would get to that song she pulled out soon.  Today, she showed interest in getting into some more of the details.  Like how long to hold the notes.  The notations that indicate volume.  When to know that the song needs to be repeated.  How to know the song is done.

So, we opened up our piano book and started.  And when she was done, we stopped.  She did a beautiful job.  It was thrilling to see her learning a new skill and being a part of it. I'm full of gratitude for the moment we shared together at the piano.