mamaUK

Homemade bread

Here is Little L eating her sandwich at the Waldorf Winter Fair at the weekend (photos to follow later on this week). There was lots of home baked food available at the fair, but as my two can be a little bit fussy when it comes to food, it is simpler for us to take our own lunch. This is our own organic homebaked bread. I try to cook from scratch as much as I can,although there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to make bread by hand so I use my breadmaker. It is very rare for us to buy bread from a shop or bakery now, it is so much cheaper and easier to make our own organic loaves at home, plus I know exactly the ingredients that go into them. After sandwiches and satsumas, the children picked out a chocolate cup cake each from the cake stall. I saw some gorgeous hot waffles being served, dusted with icing sugar with a topping of Nutella. I'm wishing I had taken a moment to try one now as I have never eaten a waffle before!

Our Seasonal Book Basket : Apples and Pumpkins

 

A new series of posts, sharing a book with you from our seasonal book basket.

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell.
Illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell.
Recommended reading age: 3-6

This Autumn/Fall picture book has very simple, seasonal text, beautiful for this time of year. It's Autumn and time for picking apples and finding the perfect pumpkin in preparation for Hallowe'en. The pictures are simply drawn using bright, Autumnal colours illustrating a family trip to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard. The story ends on Hallowe'en night and I love that instead of sweets/candy, the mother 'gives away lots of our red shiny apples for trick or treat,while I go trick or treating down our street'.

If you would like to join in with the seasonal book fun and share a seasonal book you and your family are reading this Autumn/Fall , here is the linky list.If you have a new link you would like to share with a seasonal book suggestion, please enter it below for us all to see! Then, please link back here in your post. I look forward to seeing your Autumn/Fall Seasonal Book Basket suggestions!

homemaking

 
 
Little L playing house.

Wool stuffed bedtime dolls

 

K and L have named their Christmas bedtime dolls Laura and Mary (inspired, I think, from our favourite Little House story books) They have been carried, held and kept close pretty much since they have been opened. We chose these dolls because they are stuffed with organic wool, K mentioned how warm they are to cuddle. It's sweet to see the dolls in the girls arms when they are fast asleep at night.
 
We are enjoying this quiet pocket of time in between Christmas and the New Year, enjoying having unscheduled family time, keeping things slow and simple and not having to rush. I think we have a lovely week ahead of us, here together.

Toy simplicity at Christmas

 
 
(Our Ostheimer Nativity)

As each Christmas passes we are more and more striving for simplicity in our celebrations. We want the holiday season to be celebrated by traditions and activities we do together as a family rather than through consumerism. I started thinking about Christmas as far back as July over on Mothering.Com so I could consciously decide not to over- buy toys for our children, when really, they had so many beautiful toys already. We wanted to move away from buying toys completely. In my heart, I knew that I didn't want to give in to the pressure of just buying more and more 'stuff' because I felt I had too.
 
Lots of ideas came up over on Mothering.Com and I realised that I am not the only one who is trying to move away from consumerism at Christmas, there are lots of families striving for simplicity and celebrating through experience rather then through things.
 
This idea seemed very popular:
Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to wear,
And something to read.

 
We decided to only have one present for each of our children on Christmas day from mummy and daddy. We chose these organic Pink Stripy Toddler dolls made by Nanchen so the girls can have a cuddly bedtime doll each. Each one is stuffed with wool which makes them very cuddly and warming!
 
We also decided that 'Father Christmas' would keep their stockings special with a few nice quality things, but simple at the same time.

For K we got:

• a wooden star which you wind wool through to make friendship bracelets
• a german fairies colouring book
• One pretty turquoise butterfly hair band
• My First Little House Paper dolls book
• two little tubs of play-doh
• tiny father christmas chocolates
• angel chocolate 
• chocolate gold coins
• Small box of jelly beans
• Kinder egg
• Satsuma

 
For Little L we got:

• a sharpener for her Stockmar crayons
• two tubs of play-doh
• In The Land of Fairies book by Daniela Drescher
• Two bow hair bands
• Ostheimer forget me not child 
• mini Habba dwarf dice game
• Little bracelet
• tiny father christmas chocolates
• angel chocolate 
• chocolate gold coins
• Kinder egg
• Small box of jelly beans
• Satsuma

 
We tried to keep in mind things the girls could actually use. We knew they would need some new play-doh. Little L has just started to wear hair bands but has been borrowing K's, so we knew she would like some of her own. The dwarf dice game we bought for little L will be great for when we go camping in the summer as it is so small and easy to pack. K will enjoy making friendship bracelets to give to the girls at her school in the new year....
 
 
To help put this into context for any new readers, this is what the girls already have in their playroom collected over the last three years:

• wooden tea set
• Ostheimer figures
• little wooden fencing for Ostheimer animals
• Spiel and Holz dolls house frame
• Spiel and Holz doll house furniture
• Evi dolls family
• hand sewn felt fruit and veg
• spiel and holz wooden hay wagon and horse
• play silks
• one felt ball
• one wooden car for evi doll
• wooden small stacking house
• rainbow stacking rainbow
• wooden stacking bowls
• stirring wooden Xylophone
• mini three tone flute
• Bamboletta girl doll
• Bamboletta Baby
• wicker baby crib
• patchwork baby quilt
• play blocks
• basket of crystals/pine cones/pebbles
• Cosy corner with lambskin for children to sit and read in
• 5 co-operative board games
• enamel pots and pans
• wooden play kitchen
• books
• play-doh
• table and two chairs with stockmar blocks/crayons/lyra pencil crayons

We're really looking forward to keeping Christmas simple this year!

Holiday Season

 

The children paused for a moment outside the Lantern Community Cafe next to the Waldorf school to look at the wintery scene in the window. It is lovely during the holiday season to catch glimpses of Christmas, a tree lighting up someone's window in the twilight, snow lying on the ground, wrapping paper peeping out of shopping bags...I enjoy the sense of anticipation that hangs in the air at this time of year.

Even though there are lots of jobs I haven't done yet, like baking mince pies (I have yet to master the art of pastry!) wrapping presents, making Christmas biscuits, it's nice to stand still and enjoy these precious, fleeting moments that this season brings

Outside a Waldorf Kindergarten classroom

 
 

 
 

 
 

(Can you see Little L clutching her paper snowflake she got from King Winter?)

While we were waiting to go into the puppet show at the Waldorf winter fair, the children  explored the outdoor area at the centre of the Kindergarten classrooms. There were wheelbarrows to push, a wooden swing and see-saw and puddles to jump in. As it is winter, the large sand pits that are sunk into the ground were covered up with planks of woods to stop the rain flooding them. The girls loved jumping up and down on the planks as they were quite flexible because they were wet! It was a lesson for me that no matter how cold and damp  it can appear outside to an adult at this time of year, the weather doesn't stop children using what they have around them and making their own fun. It's a personal challenge for me, because I'm not fond of being outdoors in very cold weather and prefer to be cozy inside! Luckily, we had a spare change of clothes for little L because even with welly boots on she soaked her pink dress in those puddles.

I love to photograph our local Waldorf school as it is such an inspiration for our home, indoors and out. From the soft, muted colours inside and the collection of well played with pots and pans, spades, rakes and buckets outside that have been weathered and aged by the elements. Oh, and I can never resist photographing the wellies all lined up outdoors just waiting for little children to pull them on and go and get busy with their days 'work'.

Waldorf Winter Fair

 

 
 
 
 

We took the children to visit King Winter  at our local Waldorf school today. After waiting in line we were asked to take our boots off where there was a wicker basket to pile them into.  K was asked to knock on the door, we then had to get on our hands and knees and crawl through a beautiful, curving tunnel which was made from pure white draped material.There were little gnome houses hidden in the folds of the fabric as we made our journey. Incense was burning and we could hear the gentle tinkling of a glockenspiel.  The children were so excited! The tunnel slowly got higher and we all emerged into a small room, completely draped in soft, white fabrics, sparkling silver tree branches, and small crystals scattered around and lit by lantern light. King winter (who was actually a girl) was waiting with an assistant. They were dressed in white magical gowns and had winter crowns on. King winter undid a scroll and read a winter verse to K and L. The assistant then presented them with a wooden bowl full of silver stars and glitter and asked if they wanted to scatter a handfull into the pool to make a wish. It was so sweet to see Little L and K gather little fistfulls to scatter. King winter then offered them a delicate white snowflake as a gift. It was such a magical experience.

K also dipped a candle, threaded some beads for a bracelet and made a lantern to take home. It was extra special because her little friend joined us at the fair. It such a beautiful, festive day.

Snow day

 
We woke up to fresh snowfall this morning! K came into our bedroom shouting that new snow had fallen. Looking through the window they could see that a little cat had padded through our front garden, leaving tiny footprints in the blanket of white. It's always a little chaotic in our home on a snowy morning as we never know whether K's school will shut and she will have a snow day. It is so exciting for her to have an unexpected extra day of freedom! There was lots of jumping up and down and squealing when she found out there would be no school today. The little golden star I folded yesterday to go above our nativity looked so pretty in the window.

Postscript Note: I've had lots of new readers this week. Thank you so much for joining me here! I have been a little bit behind in replying to some of my comments, so please, if you haven't had a reply from me, please do check back as I have just had a few quiet moments to catch up.

Chocolate angels

 

We visited The Lantern Community shop today which neighbours our local Waldorf school. There were so many pretty christmas decorations for the children to look at. Little L kept saying 'Christmas tree, christmas tree'! Upstairs there were lots of  books on display ready for Winter. I bought this  for when the season changes.

 I also found these sweet little angel chocolates for 'Father Christmas' to put in the girls stockings. I've hidden them in the bag with their other presents.