Only when I saw this post by Auntie Leila did I remember I had a little vase for our prayer corner for flowers for Mary in May. Otherwise I would've forgotten. That's the thing about minimalism: it helps you appreciate and use what you have more. I don't consider myself much of a minimalist, but I'm always striving to be more and more.
I feel like I live in a reasonably clean house which is pretty organized, but if you ask my mother she would tell you I live in a pigsty with subminimum living conditions. ( ;) ;) wink wink mom)
Minimalism is a constant task, especially if you have to deal with kids clothes and toys. Yikes. This past weekend I was able to switch cold clothes for warm clothes in our closets and tidy the office a little bit and it instantly improved how I felt about our house. I tried explaining to my husband that staying inside and organizing was more therapeutic for me than going outsider for a walk but he just can't understand it.
Davy in the North.
Part two of this post.
Again, these are things that I do, work for us, and bring us peace and joy. This is not meant to be parenting advice, because if there is anything that should be subjective, it's how you parent. Plus, I know a few babies who seem happier, less demanding and sleep better than my baby so for the most part I have no idea what I'm doing.
1. Continue to have him sleep on Gina Ford's schedules. Again, loosely. There are good days, there are bad days. And I follow the sleep schedules and nothing else in that book. These schedules for us mean: About an hour and a half after he wakes up (usually seven) I put him in his baby carrier while I'm cooking and he falls asleep for about 30-40 minutes. I don't wake babies up, like Gina Ford recommends. I only have him sleep in his baby carrier, so that I don't have to go through the work and take the time to help him fall asleep and can do other things. Also, I don't have to worry about his older sister making noise or going in his room and waking him up (yes, it used to happen!). Then, about two hours after he wakes up, he sleeps a longer lunchtime nap in his room with his sister. Then he goes to bed at seven or eight, depending on how tired he is and how well he slept his lunchtime nap.
2. Help him fall asleep in his bed and not in my lap, nursing, etc. This for us means holding him down so he doesn't turn over and get up, giving him a pacifier and sometimes kissing him to sleep. If he wakes up at night, see if he falls asleep without nursing, but if not, nurse him. Until he's one year old. (I learned this from my husband's cousin up North: until one year nurse at night, after that, they don't need it... milk is not their main nutritional source.).
3. Read a story before nap and bedtime from about four months on.
4. Spend as much time crawling, on the floor, as possible.
5. Teach social games of clapping, peekaboo and waving when possible.
Anything you consider essential for babies?
Today is Mother's Day in Portugal. I am especially grateful to my mother who is a wonderful mother and grandmother.
All of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books are without a doubt my favorite books ever. They were part of my childhood and are just as important to me or more now as a mother and as testaments to a collective memory.
I read A Long Winter at a perfect time in my life, because it's impossible to read it and feel sorry for yourself and your spoiled rotten life conditions. Laura and her family are surviving a terrible winter of successive blizzards, which the Native Americans said came every seven years. There is no government to help them. There are neighbors, but they are in a similar situation. Life gets down to the bare essentials of faith, hope and love. They are literally starving to death. They run out of flour and Pa manages to get them a bag of coarse wheat which they have to grind with the cofee mill everyday and they eat bread every day. But they don't complain... instead Ma compliments Pa on having gotten tea for them the summer before so they have tea to drink with their bread everyday. They don't have wood to burn and run the risk of freezing to death. Laura helps Pa twist hay every day to burn and it cuts their hands so much Pa can't play the fiddle anymore. They run the risk of losing their mental sanity and can't stand the noise of the blizzards. Instead of getting angry at each other and blaming each other, they help each other.
"Laura hoped that she seemed cheerful enough to encourage the others. But all the time she knew that this storm had blocked the train again. She knew that almost all the coal was gone from the pile in the lean-to. There was no more coal in town. The kerosene was low in the lamp though Ma lighted it only while they ate supper. There would be no meat until the train came." (Chapter "Seed Wheat")
"His arm tightened and gave Laura a little hugging shake, before he set Carrie and Grace down rom his knees. Laura knew what he meant. She was old enough now to stand by him and Ma in hard times. She must not worry; she must be cheerful and help to keep up all their spirits." (Chapter "The Hard Winter")
