The Monkey and the Crocodile

We had a late start today, but it ended up productive. Noah is learning how to finger knit, we spent a few hours yesterday making flowers from finger knitting. Eden tags along, mostly scribbling on paper and parroting what her big brother and sister say about what they are drawing. If Ami is drawing a picture of a monkey and crocodile in her good book, then Noah draws along, creating something wonderful as well, showing me "look at my crocodile mama!" then Eden holds up her paper, full of scribbles, saying "I make it! I make a wokadile!" Adorable. She is so proud of herself and loves to just chime in and join in. I don't know what I would do without all of them, all so different and so amazing.

So, today we worked on our second day of math lessons. We went over the number 10, finding out what numbers were "in 10." (9+1, 8+2 and so on). Then we drew a picture of The Crocodile and the Monkey and wrote some subtraction problems out which were associated with the story. Ami draws beautifully and this Waldorf schooling is perfect in supporting her artistic abilities. After math, all the kids made playdough food and played with a makeshift kitchen they constructed out of a stool and a pizza stone.  Ami then read me another chapter of Owl at Home while I deconstructed turkeys on the counter--putting all our birds in to the freezer. We had a good long talk about killing animals for food, the morality of it, what the Creator/Universe ultimately wants from us (according, of course, to our beliefs), and why we will refrain from raising animals specifically for food any longer. Ami found a praying mantis today that was gravely injured and suffering, we talked about suffering and how it was more humane to help the poor thing "go back to the Creator" rather than suffer needlessly in a failing body. We said goodbye and put the poor thing out of it's misery, and the kids buried it.

Ami went to pottery class then, by herself, and created an amazing lion (Lion King, again :) After pottery, the kids played outside and then came to dinner, we had duck with plum sauce, wild rice and cranberries. Chris took the little ones to bed for some stories, while Ami and I sat on the couch knitting for a while, then I read her some Black Beauty and a great story from The Brown Fairy Book.

Inner Work: Appreciate every day and realize that the children are gifts which we will have for only a short while. Do our best to show caring, patient, reflecting exteriors, even if we don't exactly feel this way inside. Radiate calm and caring, cultivate peace. Every moment is an act of creation.