Bowling

There is nothing like bowling on a Thursday morning with the homeschooling crowd to feel like you have the best life in the world!

Plan drawing, Ojos de Dios and pita baking

Lately, Aisha has been drawing the most amazing plans, with tons of steps, the material list and lots of details. There was a wooden scooter bike, a train, a wool plant (from shearing to balls, with lots of floors and great grand parents working in many different rooms of the plant!) and just last week, this very complex traveling machine (with 5 buttons to press to go to either Costa Rica, Yukon, Utah, Italy and Florida)! I love it!

 Some Christmas card making... Oh yes! The Christmas elves are already busy here!

 Lots of music playing!

Mathilde and I made Ojos de Dios, a yarn weaving traditionally created by Pueblo Indians for celebration or blessing, presented as a gift or designed to bless a home. The spiritual eye has the power to see and understand things unknown to the physical eye.

And we made some pita breads. It was the first time I tried to make them and it felt like magic to see the pockets appear during baking without any special folding...

The dancing leaf

There are lots of trees in front of our house. All are bare but one little oak tree with about 15 leaves left on his branches. There is one leaf just a little higher than the others and this little lonely leaf is always moving from left to right, while all the others remain still. 

Mara was the first one to notice it. We all looked at it, trying to understand why it was moving in this way while the other ones didn't budge. Mathilde said: Maybe it's a happier leaf! It can't help but dance all the time!

Mara, soaking up the November sun on a rock during a hike.

It is a pretty funny sight, this little dancing leaf, while everything around it is decaying, dead or sleeping... Every time I catch a glimpse of it through the window, it makes me smile. Every time, it reminds me that I can chose to dance, even if everything around me compels me to sulk.

Lately (some projects)

The apples never fall far from the tree they say... Well, my girls need projects and lots of them! I wonder whom they get that from... We made tipis (and burned some sage in them, so smoke came up the opening at the top).

 

 We made window transparencies (Mara made that one all by herself)....

Mathilde made many recipes from the great vegetarian recipe book she got on her birthday (here, the couscous garden and the tofu spread roll family).

Music is a big part of their life right now and they like to write their own compositions or just copy down the songs they know...

 

We were introduced to a great series produced in France about 25 years ago called C'est pas sorcier (on YouTube) on tons of scientific topics and the girls love to watch those lately.

Snow changes everything

As I sit at the breakfast table, soaking up the morning sunlight coming through the window, JF notices how different my mood is since there is snow outside. "Of course, I say, the light is so different!" It is so luminous and joyful when there is snow, so... white!

I will take a sunny snowy day over a gray rainy one anytime! Even when we lived in Costa Rica, I noticed how my mood was different when there was a gray rainy day... You would have thought that with all the sun from the previous months, my solar batteries should have been charged, but it seems like they don't keep their charge very long!

The first snow was such a treat to all of us. My Yukon-born girls were so thrilled after 3 years without a real winter!

When we walked outside today along the same path we take many times a week, Mathilde said: "Mama, everything is so different when there is snow! It's like a new place that I want to explore!" It's so true. Everything looks so different, the smell in the air is not the same and we notice new things, as if we were seeing them for the first time...

As the wind bites my cheek and my thighs burn from the cold, I remind myself to relax into winter. My body is one big contraction, my shoulders are up to my ears, my fists are clenched in my pockets. If I am not careful, the cold hardens me and I end up hating it for that, but if I pay attention, dress properly, choose the right time of day to be outside, I can see winter through my girls eyes, I can truly revel in the joy and playfulness of that season.

When the forest is quiet...

We live in the backyard of a beautiful National Park in Quebec and that means that going there on the weekends or anytime during the high season means hiking trails that feel like highways... 

This specific park is especially known for his Flambée des couleurs (a festival that celebrates its beautiful colors during fall). Now that all the leaves are on the ground and that the days have grown cold and wet, the trails are all ours to explore!

There was ice on the puddles along the trail and beautiful frozen branches over the little river...

And the best thing is that the little wooden shelter that we love is almost always empty at this time of year. The kids each claimed a bed and loudly played while we chatted by the stove and served lunch.

It was so quiet in the forest, that we almost felt like we were intruding on those two young deer meal.

:: On the way back, a little someone was very proud to be the train leader... ::

And each time I set foot in the forest, I am reminded that this is where I belong, where I heal, where I breathe more deeply. Its quietness helps me connect with my inner wisdom, my peace.

Light and darkness

My friend wrote to me the other day saying something that really touched me. She said: Et j'ai tellement peur. Peur de moi, peur de ma lumière, peur de mes ténèbres (And I am so afraid. Afraid of myself, afraid of my luminous side, afraid of my dark side).

I know I struggle right now with finding peace with my luminous side as well as with my darker side. My bubbly, impetuous, unsettled and adventurous side is partly what lights my fire... It is also draining to be me in the humdrum of everyday tasks, in the midst of real dailiness... Unsatisfied with routine and the usual flow of life, I feel like my fire is dying... Which easily brings me to the darker side of myself... My stubborness to create a life I feel is worth living for. Life easily lacks purpose for me; it quickly gets boring and tasteless...

Of course, wherever I look, I see purpose, love, meaning... It is joy that I struggle the most to find lately.

I know however that discomfort needs to be embraced. And this is where it gets tricky for me: discomfort prompts me to act. It is a driving force that motivates me to be better, to reach for what is calling me. But sometimes, I wonder if my discomfort-o-meter is not too sensitive... 

I want to be content with life, but not settle for what it is.

And as I try to embrace my dark side, I am reminded that it is inseparable from my luminous side. They are truly only one. The many complex facets that make me, me.