Posts by bluebirdmama
Inspiration Round Up
Since my post on Refreshed Resolutions last week, I’ve stumbled on some other blogs that offer a similar way of approaching the New Year. Need some more ideas, some inspiration? Check out these bloggers and tools: Kelly Rae Roberts – scroll down almost to the bottom of her post, just past the line of stars and the photo of the seashore and you’ll find more questions to ask yourself about 2009. Superhero Journal – she discusses the idea of picking a word of the year and offers some other interesting tools for exploring your intentions for 2010. Mother Earth News – quoting Cold Antler Farm writer Jenna Woginrich, talks about resolving to meet your goals one hour at a time. Definitely inspirational! I really want to hear what you come up with so don’t forget to link to your post in the comments to my post for the New...
Read MoreWhen I Grow Up…
Some of the interesting and amusing future occupations of the fabulous Mr. Rain Wild: Midwife Inventor Santa “Mailman who helps other mailmen who have sore legs or broken legs” Surfer Diver That’s my boy! Do you know how happy and proud I am that this list doesn’t have anything lame like fireman* on it? I’m sure there are more to come. I will definitely update this post as I hear them. *No disrespect to firemen – it’s just not very original.
Read MorePaperless Christmas
This is the second year in a row that we opted not to buy any paper wrapping for Christmas. Last year we started using cloth for all of our wrapping. We store it in a bin and plan to re-use it every year. We do run into some issues with gifts given outside the family because I have a hard time giving away the cloth and not getting it back. This is primarily an issue of finances at the moment because we don’t have the funds to replace it. Plus, I would like to know that the recipients would use it again and not toss it or else it defeats the purpose. For now, we’ve been using up the last scraps of paper and gift bags from other years on friends. But we are finally out so next year will truly be 100% paperless for us. Ribbon We save ribbon whenever we get gifts and toss it in the bin so we have quite a stash now. I’ve noticed that many people use cloth ribbon even on paper wrapped gifts and I never ever let it go to waste. I also picked up a few rolls of ribbon on sale at the dollar store after Christmas last year. The rolls were deceptively sparse (very big cardboard tube inside) but there was still a perfect size piece for 1 wrap job. Cloth I went to the fabric store early in December last year and bought fat quarters from the quilting section. There were lots of Christmas prints to choose from and the cloth was already cut into usable pieces. This was a little pricey but I’m sure you could find good deals if you were to visit the quilting section now as they would be selling off the Christmas stock. My husband saw some Christmas dish towels at a dollar store on sale a few days before Christmas last year and picked those up. They work perfect and it’s nice to have some pieces that are bigger than the fat quarters. They are a little stiff but they do work well with the ribbon. Next year I plan to pick up some fabric by the yard for bigger items and also to sew into draw string bags of various sizes. Even my mother-in-law has gotten in the spirit. Last year she bought each of the kids a new beach towel and used that to wrap their gifts. This year, they each got a new blanket as wrapping and we got a new table cloth around our gift. There are lots of ways to be creative and get rid of paper wrapping. Technique You can tie the cloth in various ways according to Furoshiki. Here is a good how-to page with pictures showing techniques for various sizes and types of objects. It’s fun and doesn’t require any ribbon. You’ll need soft cloth though that is pliable and easy to manipulate. The fat quarters work well for this as they were thin cotton. Otherwise, wrap as you normally would and use ribbon to tie in place. You might need another person to hold the cloth for you while you get it tied but that doesn’t happen too often. It’s also pretty easy to adjust the fabric and tuck in stray bits once the ribbon is tied. The biggest issue I ran into this year was not having pieces small enough for stocking items. I think the drawstring bags would work well for this or we could choose not to wrap stocking items. Overall, paperless Christmas was another big success this year! I love the look, it’s easier for the kids to unwrap gifts, there is less garbage to clean up and dispose of and it’s a lot more fun and creative than buying paper from the...
Read MoreRefreshed Resolutions
Every year at this time when I hear people asking about and making New Year’s Resolutions, I do something different. In general, I see Resolutions as a self-inflicted attempt to make myself feel shitty by March. In my early 20’s I used to make Resolutions and it was too easy to lose momentum by Spring. Life gets busy. I would fall off the wagon and it seemed to take even more effort to get back on. It’s harder to make that effort half way through the year when I wasn’t coming off the high of Holidays and New Year’s Eve revelry. I also realised that I wasn’t making realistic goals. New Year’s Resolutions often seem to lack real goal setting features like being specific, measurable and achievable. If your goal is to procrastinate less, how do you decide if you’ve actually met that goal? (I guess you’ll decide later?) I am not a personal coach or goal setting expert but even a layperson can see the difference between that and something more like “I will lose 20 Lbs by June 1 and another 25 Lbs by Dec 31” or “I will create a filing system for my office by March 1 and plan meals weekly before grocery shopping.” Resolutions fell by the wayside. In their place came Reflection and Looking Forward. For about 7 years now, I’ve spent the last week of December going through the process of reflecting on the closing year and looking forward to the next year as a whole. I examine all areas of my life: individual, work, family, friendships, creativity, spiritual and I try to ask questions that allow me to see the big picture rather than focusing on individual goals. Reflection: What were the prevailing themes of the last year? What were the successes? The challenges? What was I happy with? What would I have changed? If I could boil down the year into one word, what would it be? How did this year fit in the continuum from the year before and the year ahead? Looking Ahead: What are my hopes and dreams for the next year? Where do I want to focus my energies? What word would I like to predominate the new year? How would I like this year to differ from the last year? What positive things from this past year would I like to carry forward into the new year? What things do I anticipate for the upcoming year (this question relates to things that may be out of my control or have been pre-planned, like expecting a baby or moving)? What can I do to make those things successes or less challenging? What goals would I like to achieve this year? How do I see this next year contributing to the years that will follow? What do I want to build on? Some of this process occurs at the back of my mind as I go about my daily duties but I always make time to sit down and either write it out or talk it out. In the past I have done this by emailing back and forth with a friend, posting to a message board or having a quiet cup of tea with my husband while the kids napped. I think it’s important to have both aspects: the free-form brainstorming on the periphery without looking right at it and the dedicated time spent solely on the task. I’ve been doing this for so long that I end up beginning the process around Boxing Day without even realizing it. The questions just start bubbling up and I don’t shy away from them in the same way I eventually shied away from the idea of a Resolution. This process doesn’t seem tinged with potential failure from the beginning. It allows me to close the year feeling positive rather than unhappy that I didn’t reach my unattainable goals. I will post my finished product on Monday January 3. Feel free to join me. Answer the questions that speak to you. Make up your own. Focus on a theme...
Read MoreChoosing Less
This year we made the decision to stay home for the holidays. Having moved last year and now living away from our families, this meant it was our first Christmas just the four of us. No grandparents. No cousins. No aunts or uncles. Just us. In our own house. Though finances did have a big part in that decision, there was definitely some choice. The choice to forgo the big family Christmas was made because it would be easier on all of us. We gave up the time with our parents and siblings so that we could sleep in our own beds, get our own Christmas tree (for the first time!), eat on our schedule and spend time with our kids (rather than chase them down as they run around with cousins). Though some of this was selfish (because I wanted things to be more stress-free), it was also about doing what was best for the kids. Travel is hard on little ones who thrive on routine, who sleep better in familiar surroundings with a predictable bed time. Visiting family often means missed naps, late dinners, late nights. The result is that the holiday is often exhausting for everyone in the end. So we chose to let go of some traditions and stay home. I’ve been reading Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, Energetic by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. In her chapter on Holidays and Vacations, she says Unfortunately, we are often drained by baking, shopping, entertaining, cleaning, driving or other activities. When our kids need us the most we’re not available. Sometimes in order to bring joy to the holidays and vacations we have to let go. Traditions are supposed to be fun—an opportunity to come together as a family and celebrate. We collect them as we go along, gathering some from the family we grew up in, from our spouse’s family, and from friends. The result can be an overload of traditions. Too many should that lose their joy. We were on the right track when we chose to stay home this year and focus on the needs of our young children. Being home, however, meant that I could try to do more myself. Homemade Advent Calendar, special meals for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, homemade gifts to finish on deadline, potlucks to attend, dresses to sew. Considering I am still waking with a nursing toddler 3-4 times per night, I don’t have the luxury of staying up to squeeze everything in during the late night hours. Out of necessity, I started dropping things off the to-do list. I chose to do less. I gave up the tradition of pumpkin pie since making pastry was just too much work when only two of us would even eat the pie. We had crème brulée instead. It was easy to make and it was divine. I sewed one dress as a gift but didn’t get to the one for my daughter to wear for Christmas. We had a pj day instead. I got the blanket I was knitting sewn together but I left the trim for after Christmas. The passage from Raising Your Spirited Child really resonated with me today because it reminded me that letting go is best not just for ourselves. It also helps us be more present with our kids. If we are less stressed and haggared by the flurry of holiday shoulds, we feel better, we have more fun and there is more of us still functioning to help our kids through. Holidays are exciting and even at home in our familiar surroundings, it gets a little out of whack for little ones. School’s out, treats are in, routines get loosened. At such a busy time our kids need us more. Sometimes it feels like the long list of things to do is for the kids, that we are making the holidays special for them. But if we were to ask our kids we might find that they’d rather have less traditions and more time with...
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