Housewarming Party

After having eye surgery which caused me to be away from my computer for some time, I am now back from my hiatus, and would ask everyone to please join me over at Alpine Sanctum - my new blog. It is essentially the continuation of this blog, but updated slightly.

Hiatus

Due to ongoing health issues, I'm going to have to regretfully put this blog on hiatus for a short while. Hopefully I will be back soon, and hopefully anyone who currently reads DragonPetals will still be around. :) Have a blessed week.

Simple Living in Mainstream Media

Photo by Edivaldo de Oliveira

I've written before about how simple living is the trendy term of the year. It seems as if more and more people are jumping on the "simple living" bandwagon, with the comments usually opened up by a line such as "in these hard economic times..." I saw two articles on the Yahoo front page that were related to simple living, and I found both interesting.

The first article was titled "What Finland can teach America about true luxury." Here's an excerpt:

What is true luxury? Just when I thought I'd settled on my answer – a flat-screen TV the size of Kansas and a leather-upholstered car that can travel at triple the speed limit – I made several visits to Finland. Shortly after my return the financial crisis hit. Finland has been on my mind ever since. In these hard times, we could learn a few things about luxury from the Finns.

Strolling the streets of Helsinki, the capital, I noticed a lack of grand architecture and opulent homes, and an abundance of modest cars... The weather was glorious, but Helsinki felt like a ghost town. I learned that most Finns take a five-week summer vacation, and that many of them disappear for the entire time to tiny, bare-bones cottages in the woods. Curious, I wrangled an invitation to visit one of these secluded cabins. It was meticulously cared for, but lacked any creature comforts. I quickly realized that there was nothing to do and no one to see.

After a couple of days at the cabin I was a convert. It was marvelously relaxing, and I realized the Finns were on to something – a form of luxury that had little to do with high-end products, the quest to acquire them, or the need to show them off. While some Finns pursue the material trappings of success, most seem to feel that the pleasures of time and solitude are more precious.

During my visits, I met some North American expats, including a Canadian who'd lived in the US for years. "I talk to friends back in North America," he told me, "and they tell me about all the latest toys they've bought. Here I'm just puttering away on my little house like a Finn, and that's about it. The pace of life is slower. I like that."

The editorial then goes on to describe various social benefits provided by the Finnish government to its citizens, such as excellent health care and free college. It's worth a read, definitely, but while those things are ideals to strive for, and perhaps we may get involved with government on a small scale to make those things happen, they're not necessarily things we can get automatically through changing our own lifestyles. Re-thinking our definitions of luxury, or deciding that we will try to stay at home more, however, are well within our own reach.

The second article wasn't exactly about simple living, but I think it ties into the theme very well. The title was "Sleeping and eating - the French do it best" and it summarized a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which studied various aspects of people's lives including the time various nations spent on eating, sleeping, and leisure time.

True to their reputation as leisure-loving gourmets, the French spend more time sleeping and eating than anyone else among the world's wealthy nations. The average French person sleeps almost nine hours every night, more than an hour longer than the average Japanese and Korean, who sleep the least [of the 18 countries included in the study]. Despite their siesta habit, Spaniards rank only third in the poll after Americans, who sleep more than 8.5 hours.

And while more and more French people grab a bite at fast-food chains these days or wolf down a sandwich at their desk, they still spend more than two hours a day eating. That means their meals are twice as long as those of the average Mexican, who dedicates just over an hour a day to food. The Japanese, scrimping on sleep and burdened with long commutes and working hours, still manage to spend close to two hours a day eating and drinking, placing them third behind New Zealanders.

The Japanese like to spend what remains of their scarce free time watching television or listening to the radio. This takes up 47 percent of leisure time in Japan. Turks, on the other hand, spend more than a third of their leisure time entertaining friends. The survey showed that the split between work and leisure time within certain countries is striking. "Italian men have nearly 80 minutes a day of leisure more than women. Much of the additional work of Italian women is apparently spent cleaning the house," the OECD said in a statement.

I always think these studies are really interesting in comparing the lifestyles of various nations. What is valued in one culture is not always valued everywhere else. I know many Americans are proud of not having enough time to sleep or being so busy they have no free time, but is that really a good social pressure to have? Are those things something to be proud of? I personally think those cultures have it right that while they get their work done, they also put a value on eating, sleeping, entertaining friends, and just having down time.

How about you? Are you getting enough sleep? (I know that as a mother of two little ones, I value sleep now FAR more than I ever did pre-kids. I took it for granted, really. Now that I am finally able to get some sleep again, I really find it makes such a difference in my quality of life.) Are you sitting down to enjoy your meals, or just rushing a power bar on your way out the door? How much time do you spend with friends or family, just sitting and relaxing and talking? These are things I remember from when I was a child in Europe, but no one seems to be doing these things much around here that I can tell. Hopefully I'm wrong. Or maybe people are starting to realize the value of these things, even if it's under the guise of "recession logic."

5 things Sunday: Living Room

This is the first thing you see when you enter our home. It's the stairs to the upper floor where the bedrooms are; I thought this wall hanging fit perfectly here. Notice the tassel is missing from the bottom corner - Minion took a liking to it one day. >=/

Another wall hanging, this one of the tree of life. It hasn't quite hung out its creases yet. I really need to get a dowel for the top of it so it doesn't stretch out; right now it's just hung up with thumbtacks. Bad me! Also, note how the bookshelf is empty of all but one book right now... the kids are currently in "we love to eat books" stages, so their books are now housed out of their reach and only come out for story time.

A close up of my first ever knitting project. OK, so I've only learned how to cast on so far, but I only started two nights ago. I love this ball of yarn; the colors didn't come out perfectly in the picture but they're very warm and go from pinks to oranges.

I'm sure you could tell the plants on the bookshelf and staircase were fake; when I tried real plants, they were quickly spread out over our once-white carpet in a heap of leaves and dirt. Yeah. So now the real plants are in the only place that I can put them that are completely out of reach, on top of our living room armoire. It's a little jungle up there!


And these are my other plants, on the walls. I just think the Mother got art right when she created flowers. Photographs and depictions of landscapes and plants and rocks and such are my favorite form of art. They're perfect the way they are. :)

Don't judge a pie by its crust...

Today was a lovely, rainy day. Hurray for rain! We don't get enough of it out here. Anyway, what's better to do on such a day than bake an apple pie? My husband had a craving for one and was just about to run down to the store to buy a frozen pie when I convinced him it wouldn't be much trouble to just bake one myself. I was actually feigning confidence a bit; although I'm a decent cook and have made my share of bread and cookies, I've never had much practice with pie. I never even watched anyone making pie while growing up; I guess apple pie was just a little too American for my mother. ;) But I figured it couldn't be that hard. I got a simple recipe out of a vintage cookbook I thrifted a while ago, and I had all the ingredients on hand. It really was easier than I thought it would be. (Easy as pie?)

My one stumbling block was the crust, especially the top crust. Er... Well, let's just say it wasn't a work of art! I'm always jealous of those bloggers who can take such wonderful photos that even scrambled eggs look like a masterpiece. But I don't think even they could have taken an attractive photo of this particular pie. But looks aside, it tasted delicious! My husband is brutally honest (one of the things I like about him!) but even he had no complaints. :)


And finally, this is just a gratuitous kid shot. I know, I know, I'm getting bad and posting way too many kidpics. But I just love this photo so much - it captures Critter's personality to a T. She was loving on her new/old pint sized rocking chair and snuggling her huggy bear. What can I say, I'm a proud mommy. I wish I could keep her this size forever.

And for a more soothing look...

The other night I posted some photos of Minion's room, and on the photo some of the decor in his room looked a little garish. So yesterday I went and splurged early on his Summer Equinox present and got him a rug, new curtains, and a less brightly colored bean bag. Then I removed the bright jungle hanging from over his bed and moved a more gentle wall plaque over from the other side of the room. Altogether I spent less than $50 and it has made such a change in his room!

This morning when I logged into Facebook I saw an interesting conversation happening on Selena Fox's wall. A person asked if there were any pagan schools that Selena knew of, and a lot of other people chimed in about the need for one. It got me thinking. The more I look into Waldorf curriculums the more I find myself nodding my head in approval. They celebrate the "festivals" (the same holidays we do) and really believe in magical thinking. And they celebrate the seven year cycles, the same ones we hold rites of passage for. I think Waldorf, with a few minor twists here and there to personalize it, would really be an excellent vehicle to fulfilling our children's educational goals.

Happy Beltane to those who celebrate it on this day. We don't celebrate until tomorrow, but I know many do today. :)

(ETA: Selena Fox is a well-known priestess located at the Circle Sanctuary, an amazing pagan temple / retreat / more in Wisconsin. I will definitely have to write more about her and her mission in some post in the near future!)

Toys, or the lack thereof

One of the concepts of Waldorf education (which I have known about for a while but have only started seriously researching recently) is the concept that toys should be limited in number and open ended in design, so as to let the child's natural creativity shine through. I have been reading many Waldorf-y blogs and I just love the amazing things people do with their kids' rooms. (Of course, a lot of them have tons of money to spend on expensive imported wooden toys and furniture - we don't.) On the other hand, there are things I do want to incorporate into our home, and one of the most important things is to make the environment soothing, such as trading bright colors for soothing earth tones, and getting rid of any and all plastic. Minion is so highly strung anyway that I figured getting him to settle down would be worth almost any measure.

So today I went and collected up the last of our toys that, for whatever reason, had snuck into our home via my husband or well-meaning relatives. Here is the pile that ended up in the purgatory of our basement:

I thought I was doing pretty well on the few toys aspect of things, and although I had some plastic toys, but it turns out we had quite a few after all. I'm not getting rid of them just yet, but we'll see how much they are missed. The plastic horse I am trading for a regular old fashioned rocking horse, although it is with a pang - my husband bought it for my son and he was so pleased with himself for it. And I do admit, the kids enjoy the toy. But the one time I saw Minion on a real rocking horse, he liked that one just as much, so I'm sure he'll adjust.

So these are some photos of what we have pared down the toys to. Here is the view into Minion's room. I purposely took a photo with the basket dumped to show how messy it gets at its worst. All the items around the bed can fit into the basket. I want to at some point replace the bright polyester hanging above his bed and the car rug with more soothing versions of the same.


The cloth play house holds small stuffed animal figures and finger puppets.

Minion sweeping his garden. (I know... plastic again! But this is something I can't easily replace in anything wooden; it'd be too expensive. And both kids adore it.)

The bin of stuffies at the end of his bed - if he gets a new one an old one leaves so there's no overflowing. The doll isn't a Waldorf doll but close. And we do have some Care Bears, but shoot me, I think they're cute and Critter absolutely adores them. :)

Now for Critter's lair:

Again, the Bambi poster isn't very Waldorf-y, but it's cute.

A close up of the baskets. One holds herbal bean bags and wooden animal figures, and the other holds play silks.

Besides these things, they also have outside toys (a couple of plastic riding toys, a big ball, a small ball, a slide, gardening tools, and a sandbox) and a bucket of various small toys for car trips. And downstairs we have books, a bin of musical instruments, and I'm putting together a large basket of play food. They're not interested in them yet but I make one piece at a time and I plan on giving them a kitchen for the winter holidays. Minion is also really into puzzles now so we have a rack of them. He uses the pieces as play things as well; you can sort of see it in the photo of his bed - he was playing with the vehicles of one of the puzzles and making them race and stuff.

Moreover, I have noticed a huge change in Minion's behavior in just one day without his plastic stuff. He is notably more creative and his attention span is improved. He and Critter spent an hour or more playing quietly in her room with just the silks, the bean bags, and some rhythm sticks (which were actually the removable wooden wheels from a little felt car). It was just amazing. I can't wait to see what other changes can take place as we delve deeper into putting Waldorfy ideas into practice. I know we're never going to follow it 100%, but there are a lot of ideas connected with it to explore.

I do have to say that if you have high strung kids and your house is overflowing with toys and "stuff" to do... try taking some of the items and sequestering them for a while. I know mine are still little and aren't really asking for favorite items, so I imagine it would be different for older kids, but I still say it's worth a shot. Try it out for a week or two, to see what their personalities might be like with fewer "stuff" around them. Perhaps they will surprise you with new aspects of their personalities. :)

In remembrance

We are not panic-driven individuals in this house, and my husband and I share a cynical streak in that we all too often make light of the dramatic coverage of events in today's hyped up media. (After all, one of the coverage events for CNN's "100 days of Obama's presidency" was, "Are we covering this too much? Discuss!" Too funny and ironic.) But I am starting to worry about the whole swine flu thing. What hit home for me was the first U.S. death that took place on Monday night, but was only confirmed this morning. The victim was a 23 month old toddler. As anyone who reads my blog should know by now, I have two toddlers close in age to that little baby, so this hits especially home for me.

I am now all too glad that I have already decided to make May a stay-close-to-home month, and also that we have a pretty good stockpile that should indeed last us quite a while if used frugally during an emergency situation. There are a few more things I'd like to stock up on later today, but more for the sake of convenience than necessity. Rhonda has a very good article on stockpiling on her blog today if you'd like to see her take on things.

Alright, kids are screaming, so my morning posting time is officially up!

Today was an awesome thrifting day. Mondays are half price tags, so I got all these things and a sandbox for the garden, AND a fire truck for under $50. I would have taken a photo of the fire truck, but Minion took it to bed with him - that's how much he loves it. :)

A pair of embroidered slippers for Critter - I used to have similar ones when I was growing up. I don't know what happened to them, but I would have loved to pass them on to her. Next best thing, right?

Critter is going through a serious Care Bears jag, and these came in one lot, so I decided to get them. The rocking chair is also adorable - and very sturdy.

My husband thought this bed tray was super corny but I absolutely love it. It's so cheerful! I'm sure eventually it will come in handy if one of the kids is sick and needs some chicken soup in bed. It might be a while until they're old enough to use it, but I want to be prepared. ;)

I just love how cheerful these are. I'm not sure what to keep in the grape jar yet; raisins would be appropriate, no?

A new basket for my yarn, AND all the clothes inside... It's a good sized basket, and the clothes were all half off. Score!

I figured I'd get my thrifting out of my system for a while. I've actually been really good - it's been months since I even went in there, if I remember right. I am so proud of myself in that I just balanced our budget perfectly for this coming months, found a few ways to save money in different categories, and while we're not swimming in money by any means (in fact, we're living well below the poverty line, believe it or not!!) we're able to eat healthy meals and have a cozy home to call our own, and not have to lose any sleep over our finances. However, lately I've been slipping a bit and coming out short at the ends of the month, having to dip into our savings. So I thought I would make May a no-spend month, where we only buy what's budgeted and absolute necessities. (No-spend challenges are pretty commonly chronicled throughout the blogging world. Here is a list of some posts, but I know firsthand there are many more out there. If you want to be inspired, search some out for yourself!)

I'm also trying to drive as little as possible, staying at home more than we have been. Unfortunately we don't have anything within walking distance except other houses, a fire house, a Starbucks, and an overpriced convenience store. We're simply in the middle of suburbia around here. Once a week I'll still try to make it down to our play date with some friends in the south of town, and I'm sure on the weekends we're going to do something together as a family - lately we've been doing grocery shopping together and then going out for ice cream - a definite plus for Minion. In fact, he just said his first sentence the other day: "Ice Cream... happy... go!!!" Maybe not quite grammatically correct, but eloquent nontheless. ;)

What with our no-spend and little-drive resolutions, and MAY DAY coming up... I am very much looking forward to the coming month!

Enough with the encores, Snow!

This morning we woke up to this scene. Very pretty, but not very almost-May. I think my tomato plants are shot, and my petunias definitely are. At least I brought my two pepper plants and my mint plant inside, where they're happily resting in the kitchen. Ironically, the plant that is seeming to be doing the best so far is the mint - and I realized only belatedly that I can't have any mint, since I'm nursing, and various mints tend to make the milk supply dwindle. Grr!

In the photo above you can see my started composting ring. If anyone is interested in the background behind composting, I've found this site to be a pretty good summary of the practice!

We had another perfect day today and I took advantage of it by planting some extra seeds: chives, chamomile, basil, sage, lemongrass, and, er, something else, too. There's one more, but I forget. Oops. Hurray for container gardening! I'm hoping to get at least ONE successful container sprouted up this season. If I get more than that, I'll consider it a bonus. ;)

I tried experimenting with bread machine recipes. I no longer have the original machine's manual so I can't see if they have any high altitude recipes included. I did try altering a recipe on my own, but it didn't quite turn out a perfect loaf; the top was still sunken. BUT it was not too dense, like the "regular" loaves that have come out of the machine since we've moved here. It tasted fine - just the top was a little indented. I'll keep trying, though. I know it's not just up to the ingredients but also altering the cooking times, and I'm not sure how to alter those with a machine. When I make it by hand I know I have to refrigerate the dough and punch it down more often, but I just don't see myself making loaves by hand every day with the kiddos underfoot. When they're older, sure, but for now the bread maker would make life SO much simpler... if only I could figure out the perfect recipe, though!

The kids enjoyed it regardless of the shape. It was a perfect springtime dinner - fresh, warm, homemade bread, (store-bought) raspberry jam, and milk. (In case you're wondering, Minion is now off of his gluten free diet...)

I just had a heart warming moment after I put Critter down to sleep a few minutes ago:


Oh, and for what it's worth, I got the test results back from my little cancer test, and the results are somewhere in the middle - not nothing but nothing that requires immediate surgery or other action. The game plan is to keep a close eye on it. Sigh. I was hoping I would get the all-clear, but I guess this is better than nothing. Right?

Gardening... etc.

Spring is here again! I have never been much of a gardener, and this Colorado climate is really foreign to me. Hurricane force winds, dry, drastic temperature changes, late frosts, freak snowstorms... You have to fight for grass to grow here. Where we're from, you just have to mow the thing once or twice a week and you're good; here it's a whole business to just keep it alive. But, I thought I'd give a try at it anyway. I want a garden, darn it!

I also want chickens. This is not our own photo; it's a design I found online when researching urban chicken keeping. My husband is against it because he's afraid keeping chickens will get the neighbors angry with us. It's true that we are VERY close to our neighbors; we have five other houses looking into our tiny backyard, and the only place we could put the coop would be directly bordering the fence, fifteen feet from one of the neighbors' back doors. From what I've read, chickens are not smelly if you keep them clean, and there are no regulations in our city against keeping chickens. (Roosters are not allowed, though.) But I'm worried that the noise would be bothersome; according to my research, normal chicken noises carry for 25 feet and loud ones carry for about 50. This is a bit too close for comfort with the proximity of our neighbors, and my husband thinks we would be considered too "weird". People try to fit into this community a lot and no one has even a simple vegetable garden, never mind clotheslines or composting bins or... chickens. =/ And then there's the matter of foxes and snakes they might attract. So the chicken thing might not happen. But who knows... it might. ;)

Speaking of composting, this is the very beginning of our compost pile. Instead of buying a formal bin (which might have been a better option, actually, an enclosed one that isn't an eyesore) I made a base for one out of chicken wire, according to instructions I found online. I'm pretty sure it would work out fine, but it also could be something of an eyesore and I'm afraid my toddlers or animals might try to pick through the exposed bits. Yeah, I'm thinking about it more and more as I'm writing the post, and an enclosed one seems like a better idea. But it's also a much more expensive one as well. Ah, the dilemma!


The start of my container garden. Today I only planted my transplants and tomorrow I will start on the seed sowing for those varieties that you can start directly outdoors. It will mostly be an herb garden so far. Next year, if all goes as planned, I will put in a raised square foot garden in one side of our yard, but this year we didn't have the funds for it. And the year after THAT, if all goes as planned, we will fence in our front yard (against wandering deer) and try to cultivate that part.

My inspiration is The Path to Freedom site and blog. For anyone who has not yet visited this amazing site, a short summary is that a group of people bought a largely decrepit urban lot in California, and over the course of a couple of decades, they have cultivated it to be an urban homestead. In a garden that's only 1/10 of an acre, they harvest about 6,000 pounds of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and berries, cultivate over 350 varieties of them, keep chickens, rabbits, ducks, and goats and are pretty much self-sufficient. Their story is really incredible and I always enjoy visiting their site, looking at their before-and-after pictures of their lot, and seeing how much they're cultivating from a little urban garden.

Not that I think that we're going to recreate their successes. Our yard is much smaller than theirs - our whole lot is 1/10 of an acre, and most of that is house or driveway, and our climate isn't the same either, and gardening is not (and honestly never could be) a full time occupation for us. And we definitely don't have the know-how. In fact, I shouldn't even say "we" and "us" - my husband has zero interest in gardening and he told me if I was going to pursue it, I'd be on my own. But at least it's nice to know it can be done and it's a nice "if only" inspiration to set eyes on.

Rite of Passage

My son had a rite of passage today. He got his first-ever pair of skinned knees. He didn't cry or anything - but he did ask for a hug. Ah, the magical time in a child's life when mama's hug makes the hurt all better...

Critter showing off "her" fuzzy socks - she stole them from me and just thought they were the best thing in the world. ;)


Miss Critter feeling sorry for herself because she ate her whole banana and there was none left. Clutching Mr. Fox for comfort.


What can be more fun than a Bunnyhouse, made of a sheet draped over a table? Not much, according to Minion!

5 Things Sunday: Office

This is one of those cheapie paper lanterns that you find everywhere for a dollar or two. I love it, though! I have a matching one but nowhere to put it.


I'm going to cheat a little bit here and do two pictures and count them as one. I painted these a couple of years ago and I still love them. I'm not much of an artist (my husband is much more talented than I am) but I still like the way they look. The photo didn't do them much justice, especially the flash...

One:

And two:


An Islamic prayer rug imported from Egypt. I hesitate to describe it as such but it's actually made of a sort of cheap material, but I love the bright color and the lovely design. And it really does remind me to pray - even if it is on the wall instead of on the floor.


A doodle my husband drew for me one day. I thought it looked so cool that I put it in a spare picture frame and it's been sitting on my desk ever since. It's a simple design but it took a lot of time to draw, so it's special to me. :)

And finally, a mouse pad I've had since I was... twelve? I think I was twelve. It's been with me from my very first computer onwards. I've gone through many other mouse pads since, but never found one I liked so much. I'm not even sure what it is, some sort of science fiction city set on another planet, perhaps? I just love the colors and I've always found space to be so fascinating and mysterious.


And those would be my five things for this week! :)