Charlotte's Web in my House :)

Well it looks like we need to re-name our pets - Templeton and Charlotte. The rat has become quite curious lately and wants to get out of the cage and play all the time. His favorite new hobby is playing with the "spider next door". I imagine they are having conversations like in Charlotte's Web?

Welcome to Oscar!

I want to put a little plug in here for the animal rescue leagues of the world (or whatever they are called in your area). Ours offers pets for $105.00, which seems like a lot, but they come with all their shots, a tracking device, a collar, tags and initial vet visit for free - about 300-400.00 worth of "stuff".

We went to visit them today to take one last look for our lost cat, Abby, who has been missing since May. She was not there but the cages were FILLED with kittens and adorable pets and puppies of all types and sizes. It just broke my heart. I wanted to take them all home.

I had promised Sunii that if Abby did not come home by now we could get him a new cat so we spent another hour there "testing" different cats and kittens to find the perfect fit. We came home with "Oscar" who is the sweetest most cuddly cat I have ever met in my entire life. I am SO HAPPY we went today and got him because he is just a little angel! It just makes me want to cry thinking of how if we didn't get him he may have been a "goner" in a few more days. He is not a kitten so it is always harder to adopt the older ones but Sunii wanted a cat that was "like Abby" one that was calm and would sleep with him and cuddle so he loved this cat when he met it.

Anyway...here is a picture of Oscar and an encouragement to everyone - please do what you can to track your pets (we made the mistake of thinking Abby was safe because she never went outdoors so she didn't wear a collar), have them neutered (we saw SO MANY KITTENS there today!!!), pick up any strays you may see (because someone like Sunii may love them) and go and adopt and angel from the animal rescue league. We are all so wealthy in so many ways and this is a wonderful way to give back to the earth and spread the love and wealth of our lives.

And on the homeschooling side - our pets have taught us SO MUCH about life, science, mammals, reptiles, spiders, animals in general, responsibility, etc...wow! I can see why animal care is such a big part of 4-H. It is something that every child should be part of. There is even a school I heard about recently (a private one...but anyway) where all the kids are given a horse as part of their curriculum and they get a grade for how well they take care of it, etc...cool! Wish I could have gone to HS there! Anyway..if you have pets you already know this but if you don't...consider getting one...even if you just adopt a fish or a bird :)

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

http://www.thedreamangels.com/

http://www.earthschooling.com/

Sharing our Waldorf Enrichment Day :)

I had four Montessori students come over yesterday to share our day with us. They were here from 8am-3pm and we had so much fun. My favorite comment of the day was by the little four-year-old who looked at me while we were making lunch and said, 'Miss Kristie, why are we having so much fun here today?'

Since they don't come over every day we did a little Chinese New Year - Winter Cold inspired lesson. We did a lot of cooking and baking (a great winter activity!) and I told a story about Dragon Stew. Then the kids (having been here before) asked "Oh! Can we do a play about the story?" I really had not planned on it - but they were really into the idea and they already knew what role they wanted in the play so we spent another half hour doing a "play"! What I do for this type of "play" is that I tell the story again but I pause as often as I can and leave out as much as I can (like a narrator and a bit more sometimes) so the kids can have a chance to act out and say their parts. Depending on which child is in the role I will leave out more or less. Some kids really get into the improvisation in this!

We also did some watercolor paintings of dragon flames which everyone enjoyed. It was an easy enough project for the four-year-old but also interesting enough for the 11-year old.

Well, it is said that pictures say 1000 words so I will leave the rest of our day to the pictures above!

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

Do you ever get that sneaking feeling...?

I always had this sneaking feeling that nobody in the house could function without me. The coats stay on the floor unless I remind people, teeth stay dirty unless I tell them to brush and the laundry is never picked up unless I point out that the floor is not visible. I come home from leaving them with someone else and it looks like a tornado hit the place, etc...then I told myself I was being paranoid.

They were fine without me. Sometimes Suni makes lunch when I am busy, sometimes they do pick up their toys and coats and things without me asking. And I think I actually hear somebody brushing their teeth now! But my hopes of an independant household were dashed this morning when I woke up and found 2 cats and a bunny patiently waiting and staring at me sleeping in bed.

Apparently they were waiting for me to feed them. There are three other people in the house who were all awake and they were sitting at the side of the bed staring at ME! I have no idea how long they were there. But it was a bit weird and definately confirmed my suspicions (LOL).

I felted my pet cat's fur yesterday!

Dear Parents,

So what does one do with their fingers when they have been knitting like mad for a month and suddenly one day they have a break with nothing to do with their hands?

Well, I ended up felting my pet cat's fur. It was sort of an accident, really. She saw that my lap was free (this cat follows me aroud like I am the Pied Piper and waits for me to sit down) a lot yesterday so she got petted A LOT. Finally I decided to switch to the little cat brush we have. So I brushed an brushed an removed some hair and had this little pile of cat hair. I was talking to a friend at the time and didn't want to get up and throw it away so I held it in my hands for a while and started messing with it...pretty soon it started to take on a felted texture. So I thought...hey - perhaps I could make something out of this....so I made a little skirt for a doll.

Encouraged I made some hair for the doll and then a little baby dragon. Ran out of hair then. We have a nice white bunny and I tried to get some hair from her (I was having fun by this time) but she didn't want to be petted so...

Anyway, this was really easy. All I did was roll the hair around in my fingers for a while until it started to come together like felt. Before it was too stiff I started shaping it into what I wanted. I didn't use any needles. So I guess this would be "finger felting?" is there a such thing?

Enjoy!

Blessings & Health,

Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
Mother to Mosi, 13: Suni, 11: Sofi, 9
http://www.thedreamangels.com/
Natural Healing Online at: http://www.herbnhome.com/
Visual Resources for Waldorf Parents at: http://www.thewaldorfchannel.com/
Waldorf Lessons Plans at: http://www.waldorflessonplans.com/


BLOGs about Waldorf, Healing & Humor at:
http://herbnhome.blogspot.com/ (Frugal Natural Healing and Living)
http://waldorfschoolonline.blogspot.com/ (Waldorf Home Schooling Inspirations)
http://healinghumor.blogspot.com/ (Healing Humor)
http://thedreamangels.blogspot.com/ (Inspirational Thoughts)
http://yearofthelimo.blogspot.com/ (A BLOG about my crazy car and charity work)

Merry Christmas Squirrel

Fluffy Squirrel was our first guest at the wildlife Christmas tree this morning. Scroll down to see how we made the tree...

PS. Someone just e-mailed me from another list that peanut butter is bad for squirrels so to make sure the strings get hung far from squirrels. I didn't know that so I just wanted to tell everyone else too. For some reason this squirrel knew that - all he wanted was the oranges and apples. But, their advice was to hang anything with peanut butter away from the little fluffy darlings :)

Winter Snack w/Special Guests

This is now located at www.BEarthBLOG.com

Fairies Got Stockings Yesterday

Yesterday we put the finishing touches on the tree and the fairies got some Christmas stockings in their fairy house (see picture) as well. I always let the kids decorate the tree. Sofi did a great job hanging ornaments and Suni did an amazing job stringing the lights! They both decided that one of my knitted unicorns should adorn the top this year. I wonder what Santa will put in the stockings for the fairies?

That really big red present behind the tree is a super large book I found at Sam's club for $15.00 all about CATS. The pictures in the book are larger than real cats. I labelled it "To Stripey and Catnip" (our cats). It is driving the kids crazy! They keep telling me "Please tell us what is in it - we won't tell them (the cats)!"