Do Not Disturb!

I'm sure it's not news to you that bringing up children requires a lot of learning for their parents and care-givers. More and more we're required to manage our souls in a more conscious way.

What I'm particularly thinking about right now are interruptions. Specifically, when little ones are absorbed in play. Of course, there are times when they have to be taken out of their games such as, when dinner will soon be served. It's helpful then if they're given some warning like, 'three minutes more'.  And they soon find out this can be used for their own purposes, like for e.g. 'let me play for another three minutes'! Curly-Locks used to be funny about this, because he'd try and hold up the appropriate number of fingers, but he couldn't quite do it, so we got a kind of waggle.

But there are times when we need to hold ourselves back. I remember calling, 'Hey, look at the squirrel hopping along the fence!' when the Blue-eyed Boy was lost in a game. Mistake. He didn't need to be torn out of his world right at that moment, and squirrels would surely hop for him another time.

Supplements

Supplements are big business, and they can be useful. Just yesterday my eye was caught by a newspaper report that suggests Co-Enzyme Q10 can be helpful for women trying to conceive and for the possible prevention of miscarriage. Seeing as these days more women are delaying pregnancy until they enter their thirties, I thought this would be worth a mention.

As to small children, a dietary supplement can make a big difference. I'm thinking of times of convalescence, or when your kid is looking 'peaky'. The one I can recommend is Catalyn Chewable, which is a produce by Standard Process. And no, I have no vested interest in promoting that!

In fact, my instinctive preference is not to take supplements at all. However, in today's denatured world, that's not necessarily wise or the best way to go. Like anything to do with the computer, I take this on a 'needs to use' basis. And yes, supplements have helped me considerably in the past. As has the computer, for that matter!

The better one!

Right. So here's what the Blue-eyed Boy got for his birthday. And many happy minutes have been spent since, by him, by Curly-Locks and all the neighbouring kids.

(not a great pic. Sorry)

So, why don't little children get tired and nauseous when they swing for what can seem like forever? The thing is, they tend to live in the periphery, not their centres as we do as adults.. They love to feel way out there.

I suppose it's a matter of consciousness. More and more as we grow and develop we feel our consciousness to be in our heads, but that's not really the case for the small child. If all is well, they should feel more connected to their surroundings, everything in nature and the universe. Which is truly a wonder and a gift for us adults to behold.

The swing

This is the first bit of a twopart blog post, mainly because I haven't yet taken the second photo for you. But I thought you might get a giggle out of seeing what my laundry line looks like after the Blue-Eyed Boy used it for a quick swing.

Now I'm going to leave you hanging till next time, when I'll write about why small children so love to swing, and how it happens that they can go on for so long.

Best thing since sliced bread?

If you'll bear with me, I'd like you to follow my train of thought this morning.

We're planning to make a curry tonight, shades of our Sunday night tradition from years ago when we lived in London and used to go to an excellent and cheap restaurant called the 'Shah'. Our recipe book details the spices to be used, and preferably ground in a mortar and pestle by whoever's cooking.

This in turn reminded me of when my cousin gave cooking demos in Cape Town. This was actually for a soy meat substitute and one of the dishes she made was curry. Anyhow, she got into a conversation with a woman of Indian ethnicity, who insisted curry was best when made with freshly ground spices. "Come back tomorrow and taste mine," my cousin suggested, as she'd run out. So the woman did, not knowing whether her suggestion had been followed. But when she tasted the dish, she knew. "But you didn't grind your spices," she said.

So, what did she pick up? I'd like to suggest that freshly ground spices would have been more alive in some way. Yes, we're back to the life force again and starting to look at how it can be destroyed. Machines in particular can damage it. i.e. by grinding the curry powder.

We don't make curry that often, but we do eat bread. And we prefer to slice it ourselves. It's convenient to have a thinner or thicker slice, depending on need and mood and the toaster, but I also think there's a difference when we eat those slices, as opposed to the ready-presliced.

Bread is our staff of life, and wheat connected with the sun. Our wonderful South-African bio-dynamic farmer pioneer used to do something quite wonderful, something she learned overseas which I believe is still customary in some Eastern European countries. And that was, to hold a large loaf against her ample bosom and slice towards her heart. Can't you just see it?

Yes, life, and having it more abundantly, that's what we're after.

Sleep

A baby's sleep is holy. In fact, sleep during the first three years has a completely different of quality than the rest of life. You could think of it as magic and creative, whereas later on sleep does the job of restoring, refreshing and adjusting our bodies and souls. So it's vital that baby gets as much sleep as possible.

But sleep today can be a huge problem area. Why that is, I can't say. What I can tell you is that three of my children had no problem getting off to sleep, and the fourth was the opposite. Maybe it had to do with the house not being so settled, because his older siblings would be busy with homework, reading, playing or simply chatting.

We tried 'sleep training' him and there'll be a link for on on this later. Didn't work. When we left him to cry, he'd simply get more and more upset, and so would we. Then the comforting would take even more time. So, night after night, one of us sat with him, singing until he drifted off. Sometimes big sister would play her guitar and that was good. A lyre would have been even better.

Fortunately, once he was sleeping, he tended to stay that way. Not always the case with sleep problem babies, I know. Sometimes I wonder if the 2-hour feeding schedule demand fed babies are inclined to fall into add to the waking up syndrome.

Anyhow, I have no words of wisdom to add to the topic. All I can do is refer you to a book that a good friend and long-time kindergarten teacher and trainer recommended to me. It's called 'The No-Cry Solution to Sleep'.

And here's the link to a recent Guardian article if you're interested:http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/12/health-dilemma-sleep-train-baby?

p.s. yes, I do believe a regular bed time ritual can help. So don't give up on this!

How homeopathy works

My last post gives me a good way in to explain homeopathy.

One day I was sitting on the beach chatting to a young doctor. She said, 'I'm interested in homeopathy, but I don't understand how it works.' At that time, sadly, I hadn't thought it through. I only knew it worked like magic on me and my family. However, before I go any further let me say that some people respond better to homeopathy than others. Also, it's important to have the right remedy.

If the idea of formative forces resonates with you, then you'll have an idea, because it's in this realm that a homeopathic remedy takes effect. The potentized medicine will stimulate that area of the etheric/life body which is ailing and therefore act to heal and strengthen. This is why sometimes a one-off course of treatment can completely cure a chronic complaint.

Potentization is something conventional medicine can't get its head around. There has been quite some controversy around the theory that water carries a memory and that's why the remedy remains 'in' the liquid. This theory has already been demolished by traditional science because, duh, memory lies not in the physical realm.

Exactly!

Formative forces

The most recent report on research to catch my attention had to do with putting on weight. More specifically, the researchers focused on cannabis users who, as is common knowledge, suffer from 'the munchies'. What the researchers proved was that the 'smokers' didn't put on weight as other people would, but they had no idea what the reason was.

Spiritual science brings an explanation.

One of the basic tenets is that our physical body has an overall organizing principle. This is what sustains our form and prevents us from the 'dust to dust' that happens after we die. We call this the etheric, life-body, or, most accurately, the body of formative forces. Now, at the risk of upsetting some folks, I have to  suggest that using cannabis interferes and even destroys this body of formative forces. Put another way, you could say any kind of drug-taking has a chaoticizing effect. (quick note: if you've done some of these in the past, don't beat yourself up. What's done is done.)

So, with regard to our children, we want to preserve these etheric forces that begin to work in the womb and are mostly strongly present during the child's first seven years.

The best way to do this is by providing your child with bio-dynamic food. I know this is not always possible or easy. For myself, I've rather lapsed over the last years and have simply gone with organic. But last week a friend was away and offered me her CSA share from our local b-d farmer. We got onions, potatoes, tomatoes, red peppers, beans, marrow and parsley. I haven't used them all yet, but the first thing that struck me was the parsley. When I began chopping some to add to a soup, the most parsleyish smell drifted into my nose. Amazing!

Then there were the onions, the shape most pleasingly round. And the layers of flesh... All I can say is that it was somehow denser, crisper. That applied to the potatoes too. All this made me realize how kind of soft and sloppy my usual onions and potatoes are. And I started thinking, 'yes, I need to make the effort again and get me some bio-dynamic food'.

p.s. make that...

Ooops, not that it matters so very much, but I remember now that the game the children played was 'sardines'. i.e. one person goes and hides. when somebody finds him or her, they hide alongside until all are squashed into the space like sardines in a tin.

Here's a pic for you of Curly-Locks's rainbow silk scarf. Yes, the couch covering is much too busy for little ones, I know, but I had it covered long before the Blue-Eyed Boy came to join us. But at least it's linen and the cushions are down!

Games small children love to play

This year we had a family vacation. The granddaughters-of-my-heart are now eleven and nine years old respectively, and the boys are five and three. We stayed in a large house which was on three levels and proved just perfect for hide and go seek. That soon became the boys' new favourite game. They wanted to play every morning and every evening. The girls thought it got a bit old, but they indulged their younger cousins (good for them!)

Babies, from a surprisingly tender age, love it when you play 'peek-a-boo'. They'll smile when you dip down and then bob up so they can see you over Mom's shoulder. Later on, a silk scarf covering a two or three year old's head can be pulled off so they can 'appear' brings much delight.

I was thinking about all this and wondering what the deeper, underlying appeal might be. Then inspiration struck. Of course! This is our whole, hidden, life's goal: to seek for our true selves, the self that most often hides from us.

So join in, and teach your kids to play 'hide and seek'. It will be fun for you as well.

Unnecessary stress on children

Yes, I'm back, and hoping to post at least once a week in future. Meanwhile, I'm working on a new parenting book proposal so I can send it to my agent. Some of the content will be based on previous posts which I intend to elaborate and substantiate. It's so encouraging that more and more research confirms what I wrote in 'Magical Motherhood'.

Here's a confession: I find myself asking my grandsons to make too many decisions. Is it something in the air or the water? I'm sure I didn't take this question route with my own kids. Not when they were small anyhow.

I've written before about the unnecessary stress we can inadvertently subject our little ones to. So before I go much further, maybe you'd like to follow this link and read about what's considered a new phenomena in adults: 'decision fatigue'. Actually, this is something I've been aware of for years... in fact, ever since the day I first set foot in a North American supermarket and was faced with a mind-boggling choice of different varieties and brands of... rice!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=1

You think our kids don't suffer? Staying in the supermarket setting I've heard mothers ask their small children 'what vegetables would you like?' and even 'what cereal?' Apart from believing it's our responsibility to make the choices and make them healthy, I can see how much trouble this attitude is going to cause down the line. After all, who really should keep the power in this relationship?

So as for me, I'll keep my questions to a simple either/or and even try to avoid that.