Busy days

Connection and Carrot Cake

 

Half term has come to an end and we have been getting back into our rhythm ready to start school again. Hayden is looking forward to seeing his friends and his teacher Mr Lopez again. Artie is indifferent about going back to kindergarten (same old) and I am looking forward to a little bit of time to do some exercise and reading The Mother magazines which arrived in the post yesterday.  I do love having both boys at home with me, but I don't think the novelty of Hayden being in school has worn off yet, I had him with me all day every day for 7.5 years so it is nice to get time by myself or just with Artie.

  We met up with our friends today. Izzy is someone I met through Green Parent forum and we started meeting up about 6 months ago. We have a lot in common with our values, parenting ideals and hobbies so it is always so lovely to drink coffee and chat with her while the boys run around for hours. I always come away feeling nourished. I'm not the sort of person that has lots and lots of friends. I like to have a few good friends that I have a real connection with and who I can relate too.

  The boys have been magic salt painting, potion making, email writing and playing with the greenhouse and animals the last few days. We have also been doing a lot of baking the last few days. We made a gorgeous carrot cake from a recipe that I have adapted from a bbcgoodfood recipe. I often change recipes to suit our diet like swapping sugar for maple syrup/honey/sweet fruit. Sometimes the results aren't great but we live and learn and I try it differently next time. Hayden made bliss balls this morning which are basically dates, cocoa/cacao, nuts and coconut oil whizzes in the blender and then rolled into balls and coated in desiccated coconut. They are nutritious yummy snacks and Hayden made a nut free version for his lunchbox. I also made some cheese straws for Hayden's school lunches. I always try to vary the stuff he has, he likes ham and cucumber tortilla wraps the most but he also has tuna pasta salad, cheese salad sandwiches, homemade pizza and cheese straws too. I usually add a home baked good to his lunch too like a biscuit, oat bar or bliss balls

 Our diet is something I put a lot of thought into as I firmly believe 'you are what you eat'. Since the kids have been born we have always eaten a wholesome whole food diet. We are not vegetarians but where possible we eat local, organic free range meat, fruit, veg and dairy. These thinks are very important to me and although it is not always possible to stick to this 100% due to factors like budget, I try to keep in mind what my priorities are and keep to them. Packaging waste is something that really bothers me and I am currently trying to reduce this in my shopping. I have joined a Suma Coop with friends which is great as I can get things I couldn't get otherwise and for a lower price like the millet cereal Artie eats. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day in my opinion so I always try to give the boys a nutritious breakfast to gear the up for the day. We have incorporated a more varied range of grains into our diet recently like millet, spelt and buckwheat and rice and we are cutting down on wheat. I'm always trying to learn more about nutrition and what is best for our bodies. I am currently the heaviest I have ever been and feel so sluggish and need to get back into shape. I have been quite heavily depressed since Arthur birth due to the decline of my relationship with the boys father among other things and I comfort ate for so long and it is just a vicious cycle that is hard to get out of. Ive been cleaning up my diet again and exercising and am starting to feel so much better. Will be getting my munch on when my Suma order arrives and will be eating lots of sprouted seeds and beans in salad this week. Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

We have had a lovely last few days with family before tearful goodbyes yesterday. We went for a lovely muddy walk at Baggeridge on Wednesday. The kids had a play in the amazing park they have there. There were huge puddles under the swings and Hayden decided he would swing and then jump off the swing over the puddle. Luckily he managed it otherwise we would have had a very grumpy bedraggled child! The kids saw the new Lego movie with my mum while my sister and I saw 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. It was fantastic,  Leo Dicaprio didn't disappoint and was as mesmerizing as usual. The crush I've had on him since Titanic just keeps on growing.

  Today is being spent building models with meccano, magic salt painting, doing some yoga, reading and later we will go for a walk or play at the park. Looking forward to watching 'Dexter' on the bbciplayer tonight while I do some felting.

 

 

Family Fun

  We have had our family here to stay since Saturday so have been busy with lots of game playing, Lego building, watching walking with dinosaurs and doctor who. We went to Woodgate Country Park for a lovely walk in the woods. The boys enjoyed feeding and stroking the horses and the Shetland ponies. They looked nice and cosy in their winter coats. The park there is lovely too and the urban farm looks fantastic but was unfortunately closed due to the weather.
  I have got a lot of reading done whilst the boys have been playing with their nanny and auntie. Just finishing reading 'Movement and balance in early childhood' which was very interesting and fairly informative. For me it did not give me anything particularly new to do with the boys though, as the boys have always spent a lot of time in active play outdoors and we do things like yoga at home. What it did do however, was explain the science behind why movement is so important for healthy development and learning. These days children often live such sedentary lifestyles that they don't get enough of the right kinds of movement for healthy development. They often have little opportunity for play in natural environments as opposed to rigid environments like play parks. Parents are worried about letting their children go out to play around the neighbourhood, and can you blame them when the media are often scaremongering them into thinking that the world is too dangerous a place for them to play. There are not enough green spaces for children to play in towns and cities so they miss out on this vital thing that impacts on their development and learning. Even when Hayden was spending a fair bit of time on the computer when we were unschooling, we still also spent a lot of time outdoors. I have always found that if the boys don't get lots of fresh air and exercise they become unbearable to be around.There are some movement exercises I will do at home with Artie which you do alongside a story. I have been meaning to get some knitting done but haven't got round to it as of yet. I am looking for a good pattern for a tunic/vest for Artie. If anyone has one I would be grateful for a copy of it.
 

Lazy days

I have been ill for the first time in ages and its really taken it out of me so we have been having lazy home days doing nothing much the later half of this week. We went to a soft play area earlier in the week with some new friends from elmfield and an online forum I frequent called The Green Parent. Its so nice to be able to chat to other parents with similar values to me, it really nourishes me.

 Artie and I went to Baggeridge Country Park for a walk whilst bigger boy was at school. Cold and very muddy but worth it as usual to be out in the fresh air, listening to the birds in the trees and Arties little wellies squelching through the mud. Hayden lost some wellies in the mud last time we went so we avoided that area this time as Artie was worried the same would happen to him! We went to home sense in Merry Hill after and I got a lovely Le Creuset mixing bowl for an absolute bargain. 

The rest of the week has been spent indoors mooching around. There was, however, making and munching of pancakes, drawing, reading and game playing when I could muster the energy. Hayden is exhausted after his first half term at school and is sad that he won't be doing school or gymnastics for a week due to half term. He has fitted in really well and loves going in every day. He loves Spanish, his handwork lessons especially knitting and painting. He doesn't like german much though. His teacher says he is doing well, and works really hard in his lessons and is so curious to learn about everything all the time. 

We are having family come to stay for half term which were all really excited about, so looking forward to lots of lovely day trips now I'm feeling better.                                                                                                                                                                    

 

Photos from the last week.

Hello

 

  Hello and welcome to the blog of 'a little Steiner family'. I am a fairly newly single mama to Hayden who is 7 and Arthur who is 4. Their father is living and working abroad at the moment and this blog is mainly for himself and other family members to see how the boys are doing when they can't be with them.
 We currently live near Birmingham having left Somerset in the South West just over a year ago. We are originally a home educating family but since having relocated here we have joined the wonderful 'Elmfield Rudolph Steiner School'. It has taken a while to settle here but we have all started making some lovely friendships and have become immersed in the wonderful community at Elmfield. Our town of Stourbridge seems to have a wonderful alternative community which is fantastic for me as I had the pleasure of living near Glastonbury for many years and had been missing living near so many likeminded people. I suppose you would call us hippies by definition (without the free love and pot smoking so many people associate with the term). I try to live a conscious, simple, joyful and 'green' life and am always striving to do better by myself, my family and mother earth herself.
 This blog will chart our day to day lives and will have my rambled thoughts on a range of topics close to my heart woven into the fabric of it. My interests are cooking, reading, knitting and felting, exploring nature, and being with my boys who are both absolute whirlwinds of energy. They have taught me more about myself and life than anyone or anything else in this world.
 Below are some pictures of our family.