I snapped these shots about three weeks ago. Sophie started asking me if I would tie one of the play scarves so she could carry her penguin just like she has seen me carry Ava many, many times (and her before that!). So on one occasion I had to get some photos. I thought it was so cute, esp. how she gazed lovingly at the stuffed animal, like mama with baby. I will have to get her a Waldorf Doll very soon. Her birthday is coming up in September so maybe then. The current doll she has is too small for this :)

The penguin is from a recent trip to the New England Aquarium. Needless to say we don’t leave home without him. :)

One thing I always enjoyed as a child, was baking with my dad. My great-grandmother taught him to bake, and he passed the enjoyment down to me. As I got older my parents allowed me to bake on my own despite the mess – and enjoyed the finished project no matter how lopsided or odd looking. :)

So a couple of weeks ago on a rainy Thursday – I thought this would be a good day to introduce baking to Sophie.



The recipe we used was for simple, easy whole wheat bread found in the book “Heaven on Earth” by Sharifa Oppenheimer (on a side note: I cannot say enough about this book. It resonated with me on so many levels, and gave me many tools as to how to parent creatively in every situation, good or bad!)



Starting off with the wet ingredients. Sophie is only two, and you can expect a two-year old to make a mess! But with the proper guidance the mess can be kept to a minimum. This was a good time for me to practice using positive words rather than focus on the negative – instead of saying “don’t spill it” I would say – “stir slowly, keep it in the bowl” – this takes patience and thought before words, which is particularly hard for me when it is second nature to focus on the negative. Mindful parenting means just that – taking the time to stop and think of our words and actions. How will my words impact my child? I can remember how those words affected me – as harmless as they were meant when I was little (this by no means is a perfect practice for me – there are always bad days. You simply have to reflect, forgive yourself and strive to do better the next day. It is a journey that I will take with my children – together there will be ups and downs!). .





Slowly adding the dry ingredients – the dough is starting to thicken now…



Ava was happy to explore and play on her own – and would come over to the table to see what we were doing every so often…





Our dough is now the consistency of pizza dough and is ready to be formed. You could do a lot of things with this – cut with cookie cutters of different animal shapes, braid the dough, form it into a loaf of bread…I decided it would be the easiest for Sophie to simply form them into balls and make rolls out of them.





The finished product…





A tasty bedtime snack. The honey in this recipe makes them irresistible. :)

I would really like to try weaving a story into our cooking…I think it would add an element of fantasy/creativity as well as help explain the elements involved (such as mixing, and keeping it in the bowl or forming the dough into balls). Story telling is one aspect of my parenting that I really want to work on. It doesn’t come natural to me – yet anyway. ;)

…thus far, anyway…



Not sure if this is record breaking temperatures, but this is about as hot as I have ever experienced it (in this country, anyway -particularly with the humidity!). Since moving here to Qu̩bec, the summers have been relatively lack lustre. I can hear all my neighbours with pools (which is everyone except us according to Google Earth РHA!) heave a huge collective sigh of relief that it was worth their while to pay for extra water fill their pools this year. ;)

My little friends care not about the heat. Life is still carefree, esp. in a nice airy sundress! :)





The cats however – our other little friends – may think otherwise. ;)

I am behind on updates. Earlier I posted about making felted shaker balls. We ended up wet felting 3 more balls in plain core wool. Once they were dry I spent the next few weeks working on needle felting them when I had a spare moment. The girls loved to watch the balls come alive slowly with color, with Sophie asking several times, “Is it done? I can have now?” before one ball was even finished. :)

Before…



….and after….





The gray and blue ball on the far left, got wet felted, then needle felted – then wet felted AGAIN – on account that it got caught out in the rain. I had loosely felted this one, so I decided to throw it into the dryer with our clothes to see just how the felt would contract. And the results were quite nice – a very durable felted ball.





All 4 finished balls, they get a lot of play in our home. In fact at the moment, I am not sure where they are! :)