Friday's Nature Table

You are most welcome to share this great resource on your own blogs... (save the above Friday's Nature Table button to your desktop and then add it to your blog as a picture gadget linking to this code...

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Welcome, Friends!

Friday's Nature table is where we share our inspiration with each other. I can't tell you how many wonderfully fantastic ideas we have found from your links... your blogs, your creativity, your families, your loving... has touched my heart and enriched my life.

Thank you to all who share and visit today.
And, for those who haven't entered our GIVEAWAY yet, pop over to leave a comment to enter..

Blessings and magic,

Donni

Discovering Waldorf - 'Waldorf and Illness'

Please welcome Samantha. I know I'm not alone in dreading the common sickness that winter brings and it is at around this time of year that I start to frantically research how to keep my family healthy through the 'sniffle' season. Samantha has some pretty wonderful help for us...

(Samantha is not a doctor. Please research fully, any medical care you administer to your family)

* * *

::Waldorf and Illness::
By Our Waldorf Home Mama: Samantha

This is a great time of year to talk about illness and traditional Waldorf treatments. Between colds mid-October, to the full-blown flu in January, there are many types of little bugs that make our little wee ones sick and miserable! Fortunately, a lot of the common illnesses our littles get, can be safely and gently cured in the comforts of our cozy homes.


Rudolf Steiner, a wonderfully dedicated scientist, esoteric spiritualist and founder of the amazing Waldorf education, concluded that illness is not random or even from simply catching a bug from another person, but could be linked to a much larger picture in life (or in his studies, past lives) he believes that the the human body must be treated three-fold. Physically, mentally and spiritually, the whole body is treated and thus creates a faster recovery and perhaps shorter and milder versions of future illnesses.

Anthroposophy, Steiner's religion is a foundation for all things Waldorf. Within this belief system, Anthroposophy looks at the world both spiritually and physically and concludes that certain ways of living can lesson or stop certain illnesses from developing. Health runs the gamut, from Demeter certified farms (biodynamic) to the use of homeopathy, herbs, curative eurethmy and even planet alignment all contribute to ones health and well being.


So what can we Waldorf mamas do for our little ones without getting all caught up in Steiner's studies and beliefs? Well it's simple, whatever illness may come should be treating gently with love, and understanding of conventional as well as alternative treatments for each individual case. Anthroposophical doctors are first MD's and second trained in Anthroposophical medicine--- which means when applicable antibiotics will be used, and other times herbs.


Waldorf does not reject conventional medicine as some may believe but instead uses appropriate treatments. For our little ones, prevention is key with hand washing and keeping littles home when sick. But other things, things we may not even think of, all help to keep our wee ones healthy... things like drinking lot's of water and keeping the child warm. If the child is warm the body can concentrate on higher forces within, thus spending less time warming it's self up and more time healing and recovering. Hats traditionally should be used on little children up until the age of five, even inside. Tinctures, homeopathy, and syrups can be used when needed. My personal belief is not to rule out the use of Tylenol or other pain relief to help the child through a period of heightened discomfort. Teas and decoctions can be used especially in the Winter time as they are very warming to the child, as well as at bedtime.


A simple tea made of Chamomile, Red Raspberry Leaf, Lavender and perhaps Valerian root makes a wonderful sleepy time tea. Even warmed milk and honey can nourish a sick child's soul when prepared with love. Plenty of rest and even surrounding the child in warm colors can do wonders for an upset little person! Putting up a play silk on the t.v. the radio, or paintings with harsh colors bring harmony to the child's inner chaos.

When necessary, my children see a doctor, especially when my natural and gentle treatments have failed.

Having a sick child is never fun, but, with understanding and love, a child can be supported through an illness and remain stronger afterward.

* * *

Thank you for sharing the methods you use to help prevent sickness and promote healing in your family, Samantha. We do much the same in our family.

Please visit Samantha's wonderful blog, Our Waldorf Home, for more of her sweet Waldorf wisdom and gentle simple living. It is a treat to visit and fills me with peace.

Here are then other great articles in the Discovering Waldorf Series.

Don't forget to enter our super GIVEAWAY with Meadowsweet Naturals.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Feature and Giveaway - Meadowsweet Naturals.

Hello dear friends. Can I shock you? Ok, so here goes... hold onto your seats... there are only 58 days until Christmas! This shocks me... utterly! I'm still getting used to the new year, still settling into it. Oh yes, I always start my dates with "09" by mistake (in fact I wrote 1999 on a check the other day!) And Christmas! I feel like I've only just given my kids the beautiful Christmas gifts I so lovingly sought out for them last year... can it really only be 58 days until Santa comes again?? You betcha!

So, to help you find those lovingly sought out gifts for Santa to give to your little sweethearts, I am going to introduce you to my wonderful sponsors. A new sponsor each week. Their shops are truly filled with beautiful gifts... handmade, handpicked treasures. The love and caring they put into what they do shines forth from each of them and you can rest easy knowing that the safety and well-being of you child is of utmost importance to them.

Please welcome Pamela of Meadowsweet Naturals. Pamela will share the story of her shop and, yay, offer a great giveaway too...

* * *

Hello, this is Pamela of Meadowsweet Naturals, and Donni, our host, has graciously invited me to share our story with you.

I am just one of the ten people that make up Meadowsweet Naturals. Along with myself is my husband Ray, and our children, Olivia 3 yrs, Aaron 5 yrs, Liam 8 yrs, Aidan 9 yrs, Jordan 14 yrs, Jacob 15 yrs, Justin 17 yrs and Matthew 21 yrs. Yes, you read that correctly, one daughter. Meadowsweet Naturals is our family’s home based business, which started out of my desire to have a place for local friends to find the quality nutritional supplements that I liked to use myself, and recommend for their families. At first I stored these items in an extra room in our home but shortly thereafter we purchased farmland and began building our farm and home. Since we were prepping the land and building the house, with the help of some great friends, we needed a resting spot, a place to store tools and take our meals we built a little cottage, affectionately known as the “vitamin shack”. It is this building that now holds our Meadowsweet Naturals Shop. We are located in Columbia County, NY and are open by appointment, if you are local just call or email me us to stop in. Our shop is filled with Natural Supplements and a full assortment of books, felts and Waldorf Inspired Art Supplies and Choroi Flutes.

You will find even more than is shown on our web-shop. As a large home schooling family striving to live a more natural lifestyle we see how difficult it is for many families including ours to purchase quality natural supplements, natural body care products and the beautiful art supplies that many of us value for our families, thus arose our passion for offering these items at the most affordable prices possible, along with the best shipping rates and personal caring customer service.

After we filled our shop with lovely items we wanted to reach out to a wider audience but living off the grid for the last few years made it difficult to set up a website and keep it maintained. Fortunately a few months back we secured power and shortly thereafter my wonderful friend Melisa over at http://www.alittleflowergarden.com gave us a good push to get a web-shop up and running. We opened in August 2010. The response to our site has been great and we are enjoying getting to know the wonderful families who have been shopping with us. I get to integrate some of my favorite interests, natural living, organic farming, nutrition and herbs, especially for moms and children and Waldorf Education.

As Winter approaches customers have been asking me what some of my favorite Winter formulas are, here are a few our families relies on:

Children’s ViraClear EPs 7630

Carlson For Kids Ddrops 400 IU

BLUE ICE™ - Fermented Cod Liver Oil - Non-Gelatin Capusles Orange

I invite you to visit our web-shop and sign up for our new blog where you can stay informed of new products and sales. Our blog is http://meadowsweetnaturals.com/blog/

Donnie, thank you for sharing this space with us on your beautiful blog.

Warmly,

Pamela Neves

* * *

Ooh, Pamela... I spy quite a few goodies that will definitely be in Santa's sack! Thank you for sharing the story of Meadowsweet Naturals with us.

But that's not all, Folks... Pamela has offered to give away a set of 6 Giant Lyra Pencils to one of you lucky peeps. You will be able to choose your favorite colors. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment at the end of this post. The winner will be chosen by Mr Random on Sunday evening.

If you share this giveaway on your blog, tweet or Facebook, please let me know and I'll enter you an extra time per sharing. This giveaway is only open to US residents.

Thank you Pamela and Good Luck to all.

Blessings and magic.

Donni

Let's make Harvest Candle Holders.

Don't forget to enter our wonderful GIVEAWAY from Meadowsweet Naturals.

After yesterday's horrible spider's nest pumpkin, we decided to make something sweet and calming for today. We are enjoying the early darkness as, each night, at our evening meal, we light a candle as we sing our blessing. The kids take turns to blow it out when the meal is over... being the 'candle blower' is a big deal and there is much discussion over whose turn it is . Funny to us as there are only two of them to choose from... either you blew it out last night or you didn't... dah! But, to them, it's very important that they get it right... wouldn't want to miss YOUR turn.

Today we made little apple and pumpkin candle holders.


All we needed was an apple and a small pumpkin, a sharp knife, and apple corer and a candle.


We cored the apple...


Making the hole just big enough for the candle to sit in snugly.


Isn't it too pretty...

We did the same with the miniature pumpkin, using the sharp knife to score the hole for the candle.


Our home is starting to look wonderfully 'harvesty'.



On a side note; the apple candle holder did not make it through the whole meal. It just looked too delicious, flickering with golden light. Teddy had it for desert!

Happy Halloween week,

Just a heads up to look out for a super Giveaway that is coming up... I'll post details soon.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Let's make a Spiders Nest.

Halloween seems to have crept up on us this year... is it really only one week away? We had better hurry up and enjoy some Halloween crafting!

Today, we made a horrid pumpkin... a really SCARY pumpkin! Look at it... eeek! It's not nice at all!!


It's a pumpkin spiders nest and it creeps me out! Teddy had the best fun making it... he really thinks it's cool and so does A Good Man... must be a boy thing.


We started with a pumpkin, sharpie, sharp knife, a hot glue gun and a bowl full of spiders.



Kitty is in First Grade and she is learning her letters. She was very proud to be able to draw a big 'O' for the 'O'pening!


I carefully cut out her hole with Mr T ever so eager to start placing the spiders.


With our hot glue gun, we stuck the spiders in place to look like they were swarming out of the hole in the pumpkin.


Yuck... I can't stand it. Make it at your own peril...


Happy Halloween week.
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Silent Saturday

Fairy by Dovie Moon Photography

Blessings and magic for a happy weekend.
Donni.

Friday's Nature Table

You are most welcome to share this great resource on your own blogs... (save the above Friday's Nature Table button to your desktop and then add it to your blog as a picture gadget linking to this code...

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/search?q=Friday%27s+Nature+Table)

Welcome, Friends!

Friday's Nature table is where we share our inspiration with each other. I can't tell you how many wonderfully fantastic ideas we have found from your links... your blogs, your creativity, your families, your loving... has touched my heart and enriched my life.

Thank you to all who share and visit today.

Blessings and magic,

Donni

Discovering Waldorf - 'I am a Child of Nature'

(Please feel free to add the above Discovering Waldorf button to your blog. You can do this by saving the above image to your desktop and then adding it to your blog as a Picture Gadget that links to this code:

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/search/label/Discovering%20Waldorf )

I have been very busy with my shop lately. There has been a flood of orders for Autumn weddings and I have been spending so many hours 'working', trying to catch up. My children have had to spend large chunks of time amusing themselves, which is good for them, I know, but I cant seem to shake this guilty feeling that I'm not spending enough time outdoors with them. With this in mind, I wanted to take Discovering Waldorf back in time to our very first in the series. I read this and I remember that, no matter what else is going on in our lives, playing in nature is paramount.

* * *

I am a Child of Nature by Beth Curtin

We don't need scientists and psychologists and environmentalists to tell us why it is important for children to spend time in nature. The children tell us everything we need to know.

The first times I went into nature, you carried me on your back.

You showed me what I can eat in the woods.

Now I make wild food.

I cook it in my sea cauldron and

on my campfires.

I clear the way through the tall grasses with my stick.

I learn to make toys out of things we find.

I can build a shelter.

When I play in the woods I add layers to my bravery

and to my confidence.

I am small but I am strong. I can carry a fallen tree.

I can climb.

I can jump from up high.

I can throw heavy rocks.

Your interest in nature is contagious.

I learn by touching, so

I love it when you let me play with sand, water, dirt, rocks, sticks and grass.

Sometimes I play with quiet absorption.

Sometimes I am boisterous and rowdy, and I get all my yells out.

When I come back I am tired and merry. I have been where I belong.

I am a child of nature. Nature is a part of me, and I am a part of it.

Take me to the woods today, Mama and Daddy. Be amazed at what I am, and what I can do.

Copyright Beth Curtin 2010

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I know Beth as a mamma, an artist, a doll maker, a writer, a story teller, a friend and a lover of life. Her enchanting blog is called Acorn Pies and is daily inspiration for me. Her creativity and imagination, quite wonderfully, fills me with awe. She will enchant you too.

Here are the other articles in the Discovering Waldorf Series.

Blessings and magic,
Donni