On the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Garden Bouquet picked for my mum. Welsh Poppies, Lavender, Thyme, Grape Hyacinth Seeds and other mixed flowers and Greenery.

Today I am making a meal for my brothers belated birthday…we’ve been gardening a little too, whilst the weather is nice and breezy ( not too hot) .

Today at home we celebrate Immaculate Heart of Mary - and today I have been reflecting on my role as a mother and a daughter. How do I bring love and kindness to my husband, my children, my family members through kindness, humility, charity and love. How to I give to them and enrich their life.

This world we live in sells the idea of self seeking happiness, ‘This will make you happy, that will make you happy, and it does for a while, but it does not last forever and before long we are trying to find the next thing to fill the spot.

LOVE on the other hand, and not just the romantic love, but the love we feel from one human being to the next when given can flood the heart and soul with gratitude and peace.

Sometimes we need to look after ourselves to replenish it. For me this is done in prayer and walks in nature for others it might look like meditation, a bubble bath, time to realise a craft project , a book or a simple cup of tea.

As I picked these beautiful flowers for my mum - I thought about our journey, how she has shown me love over the years, how she has emptied herself of love for the sake of others, when she had very little to give and I feel so thankful and blessed.

I know I am not perfect as a wife, as a mother, and still have so much I would like to do in my community in this community too. My prayers today ask for Mary’s Intercession, to guide, to give me strength, to have patience, to help draw my family into the love of God through all I do.

The first step. To give flowers which always make her smile.

Bee Buffet Packs

Bee Buffet Packs 🐝

So we have had fun this week exploring the wonderful world of Bees and sowing a Bee Buffet.

We had some @nationaltrust@thompsonmorgan1855 seeds left over and also I had accidentally ordered three copies of ‘A seed is sleepy” a while ago so I decided to repurpose our Bee thumbprint pictures we did earlier on in the week into seed packets. The packs I have made I will give to my friend for her children and to a neighbour who home educates for her children.

To make the seed packets I oiled the paper first and let that dry to keep the seeds free from moisture until they are used, I wrote what seeds were included on a little card and a few activity suggestions.

I’ve decided next spring with a little planning we are going to make little vegetable seed bags and start some plants off for local families. We have lots of families around here with young children and it would be lovely to spread some love.

I think the thumbprint Bees have worked so well as little packets they look so sweet!

Waldorf and Catholicism

As we approach the little ones third birthday in September I find myself thinking deeply about what her education may look like, how we are going to enable her to grow in this world.

It’s never been a question since discovering Waldorf Education that this was a path we would carve for the little one and in her not quite three years she is already thriving. Through my own experience as a mother to a 13 and a 10 year old I can testify that Steiner’s observation of the child and their development is spot on in many ways. I find the Waldorf way, a way which is a ‘living education’ a beautiful way of introducing children to the world, an education that respects the child and their needs, that falls in line with their development rather than the other way around.

As a Catholic mother, there are many parts of Steiner’s anthroposophical view (his own spiritual science) I disagree with, some I embrace - I’ll go into these in a detailed blog post this week. But largely I feel that the Catholic education system as a whole could learn a lot from his approach to educating the whole child in love and reverence in a very human and applied way.

There are of course parts of Waldorf Education which don’t fit the ‘Catholic home’ and that’s fine. As home educators we can adapt and adjust how we incorporate the beauty of Waldorf Education into our daily lives, just as educators have done worldwide to make Waldorf more Secular and embracing to other cultures and those with differing beliefs..just as other home educators from a variety of backgrounds do in these squares.

I really look forward to sharing a couple more in depth posts off the back of this post this week. Exploring how we are planning our year from September (no formal learning, all play based but we still like to plan) and how Catholicism and Waldorf Education can beautifully sit in harmony in the home to make one beautiful and magical education