I am reading a fabulous new parenting book called "Heaven on Earth." Its focus is on the Waldorf school of thought and I am soaking it in. The book really lays out in easy steps the ways you can incorporate wild, sensual, nature play with your kids and living in a harmonious rhythm. Sweetpea is growing up in a city for now, I always imagined when I had kids I would be living on a farm. It makes me sad she is not getting that sensual earth connection of living close to the land. I think in her lifetime we will live this way but for now I am making it happen in a city way. I grew up in a small city and found lots of ways to live in the wild. In my neighborhood growing up there was secret dappled light hiding spots, flower gardens and a woodsy park. The windows open all summer long breathing in the moist hot air of summer.
I bring Millie to the park almost every day, when there we look and play with the trees but spend most of our time digging pebbles and climbing the play structures. The same in our back yard, she immediately gravitates towards the plastic toys in our yard instead of seeing the whole yard as a place to play. In the book the author talks about awakening your child's imagination to the sensory play of her environment. Today in the back yard I had us look for families of sticks. We chose two large ones for the parents and two smaller ones for the kids, and then there were the babies. We had the sticks sing to the babies, and then tied the small baby sticks to the bigger kids with springs of grass. She loved it and I loved finding toys in nature.
Side note, Millie just awoke from her nap and came in and lied on my belly, somewhere between sleep and awake she lies nestled on me, I smell her sweet baby sweat from the nap, this is very nice.
"Blessings on the Blossom
Blessings on the fruit
Blessings on the Leaves and Stem
Blessings on the Root"
I am now incorporating this earth prayer to each meal we have. It makes Millie laugh with glee whenever I say it. I see the words delighting her and reminding us both that food is sacred and its good to acknowledge that. The book even outlined a simple meal plan to follow that helps when you are super busy and hungry. The plan is to eat in categories Mexican Mondays, Pasta Thursdays, then just choose what meal you want to have from that category. We are trying it out this week, I am excited to have a framework to think about dinners, firstly so they happen and secondly so we will have more family dinner together some days of the week. I am working on Daddy and the housemates around making this happen.
This week we head to the beach for our first real family vacation in Texas. I am excited to see the gulf and be inspired by the waves. Being a coastal child I have always loved seeing the edge of the land and the expansiveness of water for miles. Sharing the ocean with Millie as a toddler will be a sentimental and pleasure filled experience.
