She has the magic of Santa Clause

I debated for weeks whether to let my daughter "have" Santa Claus. I know how commerical and materialistic this time of year and this particular holiday has become. I see the Christmas decorations in the store along side Halloween decorations in early October. It is too early. It bothers me. It makes me sad. I don't want my daughter caught up in that world-that holiday. I check out books from the library on St. Nicholas, on solistice, on how we came to have our version of Santa Claus. I am overwhelmed. I am trying to tell my 3 1/2 year old...well there was this man and he did great things and the current version is kind of based on him. She asks me what to believe and I ask her what does she think, what does she believe? I don't know what to think Mommy, that's why I'm asking you. OH....

I read a book about simplifying life for my daughter. It's wonderful and I'm only about ten pages into it. But basically a point is driven home. We are introducing adult fears and stresses into children's lives way before they can or should handle them. We are creating anxiety for them. We are robbing our children of the magic of childhood. BINGO...

She gets Santa Claus. I told my husband we will be honest when she asks us what we believe. Today I was. Mommy do you believe there is a Santa Claus? In a way yes, I tell her. I believed when I was a child and was excited about Christmas morning and what presents I'd have and leaving cookies for hinm on Christmas Eve. What presents did you get as a child? She asked and it made me think and I had great fun remembering or trying to remember and tell her about my childhood toys. I also tell her that although now I know my Mum and Dad used to buy me the presents, I still believe in the idea and spirit of Santa Claus. The idea of surprising a loved one with a gift, just because you love them and love to see their faces light up with opening up a gift. I love the idea that people this time of year give to others in need, in want, or simply just because. I love all of that.

I love Christmas and making homemade cookies and crafts and gifts for my family. This I am also giving my daughter. She helped me today make handmade coasters and tree ornaments. They were simple, but they were fun and we did them together. Nothing commercial; nothing consumeristic. But in the true spirit of giving of the heart; the magic of the season.

My daughter has been giving the gift of magic. She has the magic of Santa Claus and I am so glad we decided to let her have it. She has been so fun asking for us to leave Santa three cookies along with milk. Plus she is always asking "Why does Santa burn his butt?" (when he comes down the chimney.) This young child with such a beautiful and vivid imagination has given me back the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus as well. It is truly a blessing and a gift from the heart. We gave her Santa; she has given us so much more.

A great challenge for the New Year!

This is a great challenge for the new year and everyone should do this! How fun! Nothing to lose and everything to gain! Go out and support your local library and have fun in the process! I signed up! You should, too!

Here are the details from J. Kaye's Book Blog

The 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.

2. There are four levels:

--The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.

--Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books.

--Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.

--Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books.

(Aim high. As long as you read 25 by the end of 2010, you are a winner.)

3. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader – any book as long as it is checked out from the library count. Checked out like with a library card, not purchased at a library sale.

4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

5. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.

6. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.

This is one time when SUPER SIZE ME is a great choice!

My house attracts stuff and more stuff...where does all the stuff come from?

My daughter attends preschool at our local Waldorf School. It is a place filled with magic and natural beauty and natural toys. The aesthetics are serene and peaceful and beautiful and there is a sense of just enough. I love it as does she. Since she has been there, these past few months, I am attempting to bring that some sense of everything I love in her school to our home. Today while she was at school and my husband was making homemade pasta sauce, I went through her room to do another round of decluttering. I took a lot of stuffed animals out and books. Some will be stored to rotate in while rotating other toys out; some books will come back out during Halloween and spring; some just is sitting in my trunk to be sent to Goodwill tomorrow. I also placed two end tables in our garage; I have no idea yet what to do with these. I still look around her room and see areas that need space and nothingness and yet could be used to make play areas.

The more I take out, the more I find. The more I find, the more I wonder where does all this stuff come from? I really am not attracted to stuff anymore and yet my house seems to keep it and draw more in like some sort of cosmic stuff attracting black hole. It bewilders me. I have a mental list of what is important to me and this list guides what I want to keep and what I don't.

Important stuff:
travel
knitting
reading
writing
being with family
cooking and sharing food with family and friends

It's a simple list. It isn't very long. Why then does my house have so much stuff? And who brought it here?

Be scared for a cause

My DH is a HUGE Halloween fiend. We have large amounts of Halloween props stored under our house with which my hubby makes our house look spookier and spookier every year. He has always loved Halloween. Our first Halloween together was fairly simple. He wore a spooky mask, opened the door, and scared the kids with a loud Boo or What do you want? while wearing a creepy looking mask. Every year on the first of November, he leaves the house very early and goes to all the Halloween stores and buys props for next year's Halloween at huge discounted prices. He has done this each year since we've been together (almost nine years now) and needless to say, we have A LOT of Halloween props under our house in our storage area.


I have fun participating and helping him scare kids. I have more fun visiting with our friends who help and getting them snacks and drinks while staying warm inside. I most of all love listening to my husband scaring the kids and then them all laughing. He is a HUGE kid this time of year and it is fun to watch.

Something shifted in me this year, though. It is a big shift. It really dawned on me this year that I don't want us to spend so much money on all of this stuff (most of it, unfortunately, made in China, which bugs us both) to just have it up for one day of the year. Getting all of the stuff out is a hassle for my husband, putting it all out in time for trick or treaters stresses him out, and then the clean up takes a long time. All this time, I lose space in my garage and my front lawn looks even messier than usual.

But my husband loves it. I mean really loves it. It's his Christmas and I cannot take that away from him. But because I want us buying less stuff and really focusing on the important non material stuff in life, I had to say something. Then it really dawned on me. It would be okay, but it must serve a larger purpose than mainly entertaining my hubby, our friends, and the neighborhood. It must do good somehow, it must serve a cause. I told hubby this yesterday and he was completely okay with it and ran with our idea.

This year we have set up a small barrel and a sign from the Thurston County foodbank. We have sent a small announcement to the on line version of the local paper and will tell everyone we know. Come see our house, come be scared, come do it all for a cause. Bring donations to the local food bank. I am so excited how my husband got this all in action for me just after a brief conversation yesterday. HUGE KUDOS to him! I am so proud. He can have his super fun Halloween experience. We can make a difference in our local community. It is all good.

Come be scared for a good cause! Happy Halloween everyone! Keep safe. Be warm. Have fun. Help your community.

Knit, paint, knit, paint, I am an addict

My daughter goes to our local Waldorf School three mornings a week at their new preschool. She loves it and the sense of community she is joining and I am joining is sheer bliss. I am so happy we decided to send her there, despite the amount of money it is costing us. It is helping me to see how simply she can live and we can live and live a more fulfilling and rich life. Their world is natural and her school grounds her and I am feeling those effects as strongly as she is.

I recently re-took up knitting. I know the very very basics. I am learning again and am challenging myself to further my skills so that I can knit more than my practice squares or a long rectangle that I can call a scarf. Em's new scarf will have a pocket, which she is quite excited about and has decided it should be green and on the left. I'm not sure she has realized quite how scarves work and that they don't have true sides. I am excited that I can sit with her and knit. I can knit at the library or like last night, while we were waiting for our food and her daddy was telling her silly made up stories about our kitties exciting adventures scuba diving and collecting golf balls. What excites me the most is that this is natural and something that women have done for centuries. It is grounding for me. It is simplicity perfected and I love it and am becoming an addict. We are going to Victoria, B.C. next weekend and instead of silly souvenirs that take up space I don't have and collect dust that I don't dust away well, I am going to a yarn shop for wool! I am so excited!

My other new addiction is painting. I have the front hallway just about all ready to paint. I have the color, I have the desire, I have the overwhelming urge to leap from this table and paint paint paint. I cannot wait to see the color on my walls and see my house becoming a home that is light and warm and beautiful. All that is holding me up is finding the paint brushes and rollers after my husband comes home from work tomorrow. I have shown Em the swatches and she is so excited to see the paint on the walls. What I love about this is when it is done I don't plan to put things back on the wall. Em made a comment several weeks ago that I had too many pictures on my bedroom wall. I agree with her. So I am going to slowly take down pictures and only put up one or two that are natural in color-leaves, pumpkins, sunflowers, oceans, trails in the woods. One picture is worth a thousand words. I don't need lots and lots to confuse me under a myriad of several thousand words enveloping my already busy brain.

Paint, paint, knit, knit. My home is slowly coming to fruition. It will ground us as a family and show us what true happiness is when you can look into the beauty of a newly painted wall without any further adornment while wrapping yourself up in a newly knitted warm cozy pocket scarf. Pics of the finished projects to come next week.

Too many games

Yesterday my daughter told me she had too many games. She voluntarily gave up one game which I could try to sell through Craigslist. I tried, once, to talk her out of it. It was practically a brand new game. I just bought it for our trip to England earlier this spring. She has played with it about two times. I loved it. You collected socks from the sock monster and could win clothes pins. (It's a game called Lucky Sock Dip from HABA-great toys!) I then decided I should not talk her out of it. I am trying to convince her to get rid of some of her toys. It's kind of a slippery complicated Mommy made slope. I have bought her more than she needs and more than she has asked for. It's easy to do. Shop at garage sales and thrift stores and you can acquire a lot of neat stuff for not a lot of money. It no way justifies getting STUFF-simple because it is inexpensive doesn't mean you should buy it. It doesn't always end up being quite the bargain you thought once you have to find a place for it and clean it and deal with it once it's become old and boring.

I was very proud of her for giving up a toy. She has loads more I wish she would give up, but perhaps that will come with time. I have been watching and listening to my daughter a lot lately. She is more like me than I think. She gets overwhelmed with her stuff. Especially when it is time to clean up her stuff. I just don't think she has the concept or the words to fully express this feeling she is having. I am trying to help her just as I am trying to help myself. I was explaining today how we should give up at least one item for each "new" one we bring into the house.

I am wondering now why I haven't listened more to these words myself. I clear out loads of my books and trade them into our local bookstore only to discover I can order wonderful children's books (for myself, the budding children's writer) from Amazon.co.uk. They are great and aren't ones released yet in the U.S. So now I have undone all that uncluttering I just did these past few months. Hmmmm....

So how do we help ourselves and our children to lessen the burden of stuff and the overwhelming feelings that stuff gives us? I wish for a magic wand. I wish for a clutter free mentor to come show me the errors of my ways and take the extra stuff away. One huge relief came to me yesterday after my daughter's voluntary releasing of her game: I can, without any guilt, tell the grandparents and relatives to not spend money on stuff this year. We can upgrade my daughter's play kitchen to a beautiful wooden one like she'll play with in her Waldorf Preschool. They can help contribute to her "new" bunk bed which will replace her crib/toddler bed. One thing in, one thing out. Nothing to overwhelm any of us and we'll all get what we need, not just what we want and will possibly regret later.

Now to declutter those bookshelves...magic wand work your magic.

Several days later at Sleepy Cottage

I have been trying to see my house in the light of the fact it will be paid off in less than four years. This strange new idea comes at my brain and heart in a myriad of ways, good and bad. First in order for my husband and I to accomplish this feat, we will be taking all of my available retirement account and cashing it in. I still have part of it for when I truly "retire" but a huge chunk will be used to pay down the principal of the house. This scares me. I wish I could say otherwise, but it scares me. I have no liquid assets that are just mine, no money, no job. I have been a stay at home mother for almost three and a half years since a week before Em was born. What if my husband and I go our separate ways? I have no money of my own. I wish I didn't harbor any of these thoughts, but they push their way through my brain. Nothing rational, no reasoning behind the thoughts. They just scramble around and arrive without any invitation.

On the flip side of this, we will own our house in less than four years. My daughter will not even be eight years old and will live in a house that is truly owned by her parents. Her home will be secure. That is an amazing feeling and I am so excited about that. But also, we will own this house THIS HOUSE that sometimes drives me crazy! It needs a new roof, a new paintjob, better lighting, a completely new master bathroom due to an ugly mold problem due to shoddy workmanship. Do I really want to own this house? But then I think of what DH said...we can finally afford to fix things. True, no house payment would mean more spare cash for repair and renovation.

All in all this is a good decision. My daughter was made in this house; she has lived here her whole life. I was proposed to in this house. We plan our future here; we disagree here; we make up here; we dream here; WE LIVE HERE. Sleepy Cottage has given me food for thought as usual. Yes I will be glad to own this house fully. Amazing how four walls can change your life.

Day One at Sleepy Cottage

I am in the midst of preparing our home to be more in line with a simple life. Not necessarily a clutter free or stuff free life, but a simple life. A home that houses what we truly love and use-those things that bring life and enjoyment and love to the family housed within. Art supplies, books, music, those are okay. But one of things that takes up my time and our space is lack of a decent linen closet. I bought an over the toilet shelf unit yesterday. I am hoping to use this as a way to get things off the bathroom counter. That way Monday morning cleaning of the bathrooms will be even less time consuming. Simple cleaning, simple life. One step closer. We will have to see how it works over the next few weeks. Next comes the painting of the hallway.