Earth Day!

We passed a quiet Earth Day together today.  The kids wore the Earth Day shirts they had painted (although they were too busy playing in the dirt for me to get a picture of them).  Elliott and I spent a few delightful minutes on the couch together, folding a giant stack of wash cloths that we use for so many things around the house.  The kids took turns sitting on my lap at the sewing machine zig zagging cloth wipes for the potty.  Several of our old ones had worn out, and we keep running out between diaper loads.  I often find this type of sewing tedious, and had considered buying more, but since I already had the supplies, and the time, I decided it was more in the spirit of the day to make them ourselves.  I'm glad we did.  The kids really enjoyed getting to work on the sewing machine.  I sewed the cover for the cushion for Papa's rocking chair.  A friend and I reupholstered our two rocking chairs nearly 2 years ago now, but I'd never gotten the cover for his cushion made.  I finally had time and energy this afternoon, so I dug out the fabric and worked on it.  It isn't completely done yet, but I'm waiting to find out if Papa wants more foam for his cushion or if he wants it to stay as is before finishing it.  The children played outdoors all afternoon, soaking up the sunshine of a still rare (this spring) warm day.  Papa worked from home and neither of us drove anywhere all day.  And we finished the day off with a vegetarian dinner that was lovely!

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

A Dozen New Cloth Wipes

Holiday Season is Coming!

Thursdays around our home are cleaning days, these days. And Thursdays around the blog are going to turn to cleaning or greening for a bit. Tonight, I'm finding myself thinking about the upcoming holiday season, and what handmade items I'm planning on creating this year. At our house, there are Halloween decorations to make, Autumn decorations to make, Thanksgiving dinners to contribute to, and then, of course, the winter holidays with all of their decorations, gifts, and food!

I do my best each year to fulfill the handmade pledge by making all of the gifts we give by hand. It usually doesn't 100% work out for me (like the ugly slippers from last year that were simply NOT giftable, or the toys that Papa was set on buying for his brother), but we've made many a great holiday gift! We also make many holiday decorations each year, participate in a handmade ornament swap, and make some excellent food that we only indulge in over the holidays.

So, here I sit contemplating gifts for the littles, and handmade ornaments and decorations for this year. So far, I'm thinking hand puppets for the Bean and the Bug, some grasping toys for Squeaker, and perhaps this will be the year I actually make sets of rainbow dish cloths for the adults on my gift list.

What are you planning?

Our Mindful Holidays

Welcome to the December Carnival of Natural Parenting: Let's Talk Traditions

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama.

Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

With small children, a lot of people I know are talking about traditions, and what makes the holidays special for them. I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and about my family's perception of the holidays, and how we celebrate. We have several traditions, though I didn't think of them as traditions until I started really thinking on what our traditions are.

We decorate for the holidays. We decorate for pretty much every holiday. At Valentine's Day, we make construction paper Valentines and hearts for our friends and family and put them around the house. We put bunnies and colored eggs and spring time things out at Easter. For Fourth of July, we don our red, white and blue, put up lights on the porch, and wave our flags. For birthdays, we hang cards on a door until the entire door is covered. At Halloween, we pull out the spooky spookies and put them all over the house and yard. At Thanksgiving, we put out gourds, pumpkins, and our fall colors. For Christmas, we put up the tree and the stockings, fill the mantle with our holiday village and many snowman, candles, angels, and Santas. We spread the cheer around the house, hang the holiday cards from the door, and play Christmas music.

We make decorations ourselves. We do all of our decorating for not much money, save decorations from year to year, and work with what we have on hand. At Halloween this year, we made a graveyard in our front yard using paving blocks we had leftover from a landscaping project. We made construction paper and cardboard decorations. We painted and glued. We made a Halloween tree centerpiece for our table by painting black a branch found in the yard. We made construction paper ornaments for it and hung them from strings. For Christmas, so far, we have made ornaments for a handmade ornament swap with our friends, and painted winter/holiday stencils on our dining room windows with acrylic paint.

We make handmade gifts for those we love. Instead of buying gifts for the majority of our loved ones, we make them by hand. Creating something with love is a way of giving someone something that holds your love it in all year long.

We tell stories. We tell our children holiday and age appropriate stories. For Christmas, we go for the stand-bys like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Twas the Night Before Christmas, along with personal holiday stories, such as that Daddy gave me my engagement ring on Christmas a long time ago, before we had a Bean and a Bug.

We encourage magic. We encourage our children to believe in magic, love, and hope. We feed them on the stories and dreams that help them to evolve magic in themselves.

We encourage giving. We talk about people who don't have as much as we do. We give clothing and household items we no longer need to people who do need and would use them, by taking them to the battered women's shelter, giving them directly to people who are homeless, or giving them away on Freecycle, etc. We give gifts to one another and those we love. One of my famous sayings has become, "I hate to think that we have so little that we can't share some with those we love the most."

We encourage delayed gratification. We know that we will be getting gifts for Christmas, and as our children think of things they want, we encourage them to wait until after Christmas to see if they either get what they want, or get something that they might enjoy more or be able to use for the same purpose. We also delay our own purchases until afterwards to see if they are truly necessary.

We focus on the positive. We avoid blue Christmases, scary Halloweens, cynicism, fear, or stress. We just focus on love, encouragement, happiness, and the joy that we get to be with one another. We spend time with those we have in a capacity we can - my mother has been enjoying reading bedtime stories to my kids from 600 miles away. We are grateful for what we have. We do not dwell on what we have not.

So, it turns out that my family has many more traditions than I had imagined starting out! They may not involve baking, caroling, or volunteering at a soup kitchen, but they are what we have created together and they are just perfect for our family!

***

Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Traditions? What traditions? — Olivia at Write About Birth needs your advice: how can she make the most of the holiday season in a new country with only her immediate family? (@writeaboutbirth)
• TRADITION!!!!!! — Ella at My Intentional Journey reminds us all to be thankful for family traditions; there are those who have none.
• tradition! — Stefanie at Very, Very Fine came to realize that families can make incredible memories, even if they're not wealthy (or organized).
• Taking a child's perspective on traditions — Lauren at Hobo Mama wants to keep in mind how important even the mundane traditions will be to her little ones. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Sunday Dinners and Lullabies — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment finds traditions in the small things throughout the year.
• Simple Family Advent Traditions — Michelle at The Parent Vortex crafted a set of advent bags with daily surprises to eat and to do. (@TheParentVortex)
• Parenting: Family Meetings - A Timeless Tradition — Amy Phoenix at Innate Wholeness discusses a year-round tradition in her household: Family Meetings. (@InnateWholeness)
• Our Mindful Holidays — They may not be "traditional" traditions, but they fit the family of Kellie at Our Mindful Life.
• Our Holiday Traditions, New and Old — Even with three young children, Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings is finding ways to be intentional and meaningful about holiday traditions. (@sunfrog)
• Our Cupcake Custom — Amy at Anktangle knows celebrations need minimal excuse and lots of cupcakes! (@anktangle)
• On the bunny slope of tradition-making — Jessica Claire at Crunchy-Chewy Mama is finding her groove as a holistic-minded mama with a joyful holiday spirit. (@crunchychewy)
• No, Virginia, There Is Not a Santa Claus — Just because her family is not going to do Santa, does not mean that Sheila at A Gift Universe can't instill some mystery and magic into Christmas. (@agiftuniverse)
• New Traditions — Becky at Future Legacy shares a few traditions she is starting for her family, including popovers, a birthday banner, and service.
• My Holiday Family Traditions — The Artsymama continues a long tradition of adopting family members and sharing two favorite games that work well for a crowd.
• Mindfully Creating Family Traditions — Alison at BluebirdMama has ideas for celebrating birthdays, Valentine's Day, and Christmas — though her family's still figuring some of it out. (@bluebirdmama)
• Memorable Traditions — Lori Ann at MamaWit follows four mindful steps when instituting any tradition.
• Let's Talk Traditions — Lily, aka Witch Mom shares her family's traditions that are centered on the wheel of the year. (@lilyshahar)
• Homeschool Christmas — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now did not always celebrate the Christmas season in the same way with her family, but they always celebrated together. (@DebChitwood)
• Holidays, food and family — For Kristen at Adventures in Mommyhood, the holidays are about family and food. (@crunchymamato2)
• Giving Christmas to the Critter — Rachael at The Variegated Life has found a way to tie her Zen practices to the Christmas story of the baby in the manger. (@RachaelNevins)
• Family Traditions + To Santa Or Not To Santa — Stop by Natural Parents Network to discover some of the traditions from other natural parents. NPN is also featuring snippets of posts from NP bloggers on the topic of whether to encourage children to believe in Santa Claus. (@NatParNet)
• Family Tradition Origins — Momma Jorje discusses her family's traditions, and her desire not to make anyone feel obligated to conform to them.
• Everyday Traditions — For Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children it's the small, daily traditions that make life special.
• Establishing Traditions and Older Child Adoption — MrsH at Fleeting Moments is trying to find ways to start traditions with a family that was made very quickly through birth and adoption.
• Emerging Family Traditions — Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! shares some of her favorite birthday and Christmas traditions. (@bfmom)
• Does Rebellion Count? — Seonaid at the Practical Dilettante has instituted a day of rest and PJs at her house on Christmas. (@seonaid_lee)
• December Carnival of Natural Parenting: Family Traditions — Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker tries to give her girls a mix of traditions to foster togetherness — but worries that not being near extended family is a disconnect.
• Craft-tea Christmas Celebrations — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud created a delicious Christmas tradition that she named "Craft-tea."
• A Christmas Tradition — Luschka at Diary of a First Child knows that even though she won't be able to have her usual holiday traditions this year, the important thing is that she has her family. (@lvano)
• Celebrations without the Holiday — Asha at Meta Mom shares several ways to celebrate the winter holidays without focusing on religious traditions. (@metamomma)
• Celebrating the Journey We Have Traveled Together — Acacia at Be Present enjoys the chance to draw closer to her family during the Christmas holiday.
• Celebrating Motherhood — Do you celebrate the day you became a mother? Dionna at Code Name: Mama offers some ideas for traditions to mark your passage into motherhood. (@CodeNameMama)
• Celebrate! Winter Traditions Brought Home. — At True Confessions of a Real Mommy, TrueRealMommy and her family are celebrating many different religions and traditions this month. Stop by to see their schedule of events. (@TrueRealMommy)
• "Always Ready", Holiday Style — Amy at Toddler In Tow discovered that it's not the traditions themselves, but the emotional experience behind them that makes them special.

Birthday Party

The Bean and the Bug have birthdays 16 days apart.  For their birthdays this year, we had BIG plans!  We left town on Beanie's birthday for camping, visiting with out of state family, and then another night of camping.  We came home and had one week of unpacking, cleaning, remembering our usual routines, and then it was time for birthday party on the Bug's birthday!  Whew!  What a whirlwind!  But, we had a fantastic birthday party, and I wanted to share.

The gifts were perfect!  There is nothing in life like receiving a special gift that is just exactly what someone knew you would love.  And my kids received just that for their birthdays.  A Hobby Lobby gift card that brought so much pleasure to crafty Bean.  A wooden race car for the Bug.  A patio set that they had picked out from Lowe's.  New craft supplies.  A new cattle round up game and new play food (hand crocheted).  Our first train set from Mommy and Daddy.  New clothes - both kids are wearing the same size tops now!

The company was fabulous.  Not too many, yet not too few.  Just enough that everyone was comfortable, and the kids knew everyone well.  No overwhelmed meltdowns.  No tears of frustration.

And the food was great too!  Grandma supplied a veggie tray and cantaloupe.  Mommy baked a cake.  I actually bought (almost) white sugar to ice the cake with, since I have my natural food dyes now, but the Bean was very upset that we were going to frost the cake!  She'd never had frosting before and was not interested in trying it.  So, I whipped up a lovely lemon and blueberry cake the morning of the party.

We didn't get a picture of it with the birthday ring on it, but it was beautiful.  We actually made the birthday ring decorations ourselves.  And we served it with So Delicious Coconut Water Sorbet in Raspberry and Mango.  The cake was made with whole wheat, almond milk, turbinado sugar, all natural, mostly organic, dairy and soy free ingredients, and blueberries that we had picked at the Berry Patch this summer and frozen.  The sorbet has no milk, no soy, no artificial flavors or colors.  All of it was divine!

The decorations were 6 rainbow colored latex balloons, 3 mylar balloons, and some red crepe paper streamers.

Overall, it was simple, healthy, environmentally responsible, and easy.  It was also the perfect birthday party for my kids.

And now that my crazy 16 days is over, I'll be back to blogging regularly!

Holiday Greetings from Mindful Life Shop!

Yes, the holidays are upon us once again.  Our thoughts this week are turned towards giving thanks for the many blessings in our lives.  We are grateful for the good food we eat, for our warm home, for our warm clothes, for the simple blessings we are given daily, and for the love of friends and family.  We will give thanks for the Earth which we have been provided and we will make steps to care for her while we are enjoying all of her gifts. 

By this time next week, we will be working on decorating with evergreen and holly, candles and bells.  We’ve already been planning the surprise gifts for those we love.  What an exciting time of year!

At our home, being grateful for the gifts we receive each day is a way of life.  I’ve been asked several times lately why I chose to open Mindful Life Shop.  The answer is simple.  I believe strongly in what we do, and the products we use.  I believe that the safest, best products for our bodies and our planet are the right ones to be using for my family.  I believe that these are the products we should all be using.  I believe that they can be affordable to everyone.  So, I started http://www.mindfullifeshop.com to give everyone a chance to have these products.  With our discount prices, it is much easier to afford laundry products that don’t pollute our waterways, baby shampoo that doesn’t contain carcinogens, teas and spices that don’t add chemical pesticides to our ecosystem, and many other products that are just better for you and for our environment. 

Our food this season will be flavored with Frontier and Simply Organic brand organic and all natural spices and seasonings.  Our baked goods will be decorated with India Tree brand natural food dyes and naturally colored sugars, decoratifs, nonpareils, and bark.  Our holiday teas will be blends from Zhena’s Gypsy Teas, Celestial Seasonings, Frontier, Traditional Medicinals, and Eco Teas. 

This year, our gifts will include Melissa and Doug toys (puzzles, games, plush toys, play food, and classic wooden toys), LunchBots (stainless steel lunch containers; perfect for Bento boxes), Miyim organic toys, candles made with essential oils, Chico Bags, and natural and organic beauty products made without harmful chemical additives. 

Also, we have added handmade products to our line up!  Our first is TeePee Cloth wipes – a great alternative to toilet paper or diaper wipes.  Watch for other great products from some of our favorite work at home moms that will also support your eco-conscious lifestyle.

Of course, all of these things can be found at http://www.mindfullifeshop.com at prices far below our retail counterparts.

We hope that our company helps your family to live a happier, healthier life, and to spread that joy to those you love as well.

We are now placing Frontier orders on the 8^th and 22^nd of each month and Melissa and Doug orders every Friday.  We are getting ready to place our first orders with LunchBots, India Tree and Spry.  Now is the time to get in on these so that you will have your items in plenty of time for the holiday season!  I hope your holidays are merry and bright.

Gratefully yours,

Kellie Barr

Owner, Mindful Life Shop

www.mindfullifeshop.com

Christmas Crafts

I have been just bursting to share this part!  I love my crafting, and I was so excited for my Christmas gifts.  I'm not sure what everyone thought of them, but I was happy nonetheless.

The right mitten.  It did get finished.  The left is still working on a cuff.

The matching hat and scarf.

Playsilks I dyed for the kids.

A needle felted ball for the Bug.  Bean and I made the felted ball with a jingle bell inside.  We dyed the ball afterwards and dyed more roving and added the star.

Daddy's scarf that didn't get finished.

Daddy's lunch bag - 100% cotton, including the batting.

My sister and mother got the same gift, only in different colors/fabrics.  The black is my sister and green is my mom.

The whole package.

Two reversible grocery bags that fold into a pocket, 2 crocheted mesh produce bags and 4 Incredible T shirt bags for produce or bulk items.

Christmas Bikes

This is a subject near and dear to my heart.  It is something that I haven't spoken about much, but I am going to now, in an effort to encourage others.  I want to talk about our Christmas bikes.

When my daughter was born, I decided to do something that I had long wanted to do - give to others.  It had always seemed impossible, but I was so grateful that we had been blessed with this tiny little person that I needed to give to someone else.  We decided her first holiday season to go to an angel tree and buy a gift for a child the same age from the tree.  But money was tight and we couldn't afford to do it until the last minute.  By the time we got to the tree, there was only one baby left with a nearly undecipherable wish.  The rest of the tags were split about half and half.  The first half were older children who wanted expensive video game systems, expensive clothing, or other expensive gifts.  The people who were giving on the tree were obviously not in the market to spend several hundred dollars on a child they didn't know.  The other half of the kids weren't asking for something frivolous, though.  They were asking for bikes.  Literally, about half of the tree was children who wanted a bike for Christmas and weren't going to get one, because they were too expensive for a donated gift.  It took everything I had not to stand in the store and cry.  In fact, I am tearing up again remembering it two years later.

Well, we couldn't afford to buy a bike - we could barely afford ten dollars for the baby gift we were there to donate.  But I couldn't let it be.  I looked at the ads and the bikes at stores and found that most of them started around $50.  They didn't have a bunch of bells and whistles, but they were good, solid kids' bikes.  And I had a year to come up with $50 for a bike for Christmas next year.  And that was only a dollar a week.  So I set up our savings account to automatically withdraw a dollar from our checking every week.  At the end of the year, I had my $52, and I excitedly bought a bike.  Ok, so really, Micah bought the bike because I was at home with a baby and we couldn't fit the bike and the carseat in the car at the same time.  He also took it and donated it at the battered women's shelter on Christmas Eve and got to see the excited faces as someone showed up with such a prized gift.

Well, I was hooked!  The savings kept pulling out a dollar a week and this year I watched the sales like a hawk.  I knew it was possible, what I wanted to do...  I offered up a bike on a local help list and was told that there was a little boy who wanted a 12" bike.  And I watched and watched.  And in the day after Thanksgiving ad there was a 12" boy's bike for $25!  I got 2!  I am so excited!  Two bikes for kids for Christmas!  The first was delivered to the first youngster and the second was offered up on freecycle, simply called a bike for a child for Christmas, and asking that the respondants tell me why they were interested in the bike.  I gave it to a family on a fixed income whose kids didn't even have a tree this year.

This is truly my favorite part of the holidays.  I am so grateful for the gifts that I have been given in my life.  I may do without sometimes, but my kids have a warm house and good food.  My kids are loved.  My kids are healthy and happy.  There are children out there who aren't that blessed.  There are kids who will wish for a bike their whole childhood - and what is more a part of childhood than a bike?  So, I save my dollar every week.

The reason I am writing is that I hope that others will follow suit.  I am challenging, asking, praying, hoping that you who are reading this will get out a jelly jar, or set up a savings account (you can get one free, no minimum balance, great interest at www.ingdirect.com), put an envelope in your sock drawer, or whatever else you can think of.  Please put a dollar a week in and at Christmas next year, please buy a bike for a child who won't have one.  If you can't afford to save a dollar a week, try for 50 cents and watch the sale ads for a $25 bike.

Ideas for places to donate a bike:

Battered Women's Shelter

Toys for Tots

Angel Trees (found in stores, at the front, with the names of kids in need)

Local toy drives (firestations and local businesses do these a lot)

Freecycle

Craigslist

Churches

Talk to people you know to see if they know a family in need

I truly hope that this post will touch some of you and that you will find it in your heart and budget to make a child's holiday wishes come true next year!