Pumpkins and More

What fun it is to see orange pumpkins!
Here's a recap of the days before Halloween up to the kindergarten
lantern walk in celebration of Martinmas.

We found 3 nice pumpkins at the AWS pumpkin fundraiser.
Not organic but a good price for a good cause.
Here's the harvesting of the yummy insides!

No need to let this all go to waste even though it's not exactly a pie pumpkin.  It made great pumpkin soup, and pumpkin puree to add to our kitty's food.  Cats love pumpkin, in case you didn't know!
Don't forget the seeds make yummy snacks that build patience and are a great nutritional value.

Pumpkin and chocolate chip pancakes!

I was so proud of my husband for creating this spooky pumpkin lantern.

It went on the Pumpkin Path but we did not get to see it as we only went on the Parsnip Path for the wee ones.

After we did about 10 minutes of trick-'o-treatin' on Saturday night and getting about 2 handfuls of candy, we called it a night and told our dear daughter about the lovely Pumpkin Fairy who gives a timely gift in exchange for candy.  This was quite well-received and even though she didn't come early in the morning, more like afternoon nap time, her little gift was met with awe.

She brought a golden felted pumpkin and a glass beaded bracelet/anklet.

The cute small one was wet felted by little miss, next to the one a la the Pumpkin Fairy.  The foreground one I made for a handwork group that is giving handmade items to sell in the school store.  So if you go to the Juniper Tree store, and see an orange pumpkin, you'll know who made it.

A lovely set of lanterns made by our little miss. One sun-bleached one from last year and this year's one made from a small mustard jar. 

Hope you were able to celebrate the autumn season with light and with the humblest of all lanterns that gives so much.... a happy pumpkin.

Festivals of Light

As fall progresses and the days get shorter, people around the world will be celebrating festivals of light.
In the Waldorf tradition, Martinmaas and colorful lanterns ask us to remember the light within.  In India and places where people celebrate Vedic culture, this is a special month called Kartik.  During Kartik, there are many festivals including a very popular one called Diwali.
Diwali is a celebration of where hundreds of lamps and candles, called diyas, are lit in homes, businesses, and temples.  It is to commemorate a special day that happened hundreds of years ago when Prince Rama returned to be king of Ayodhya. Sri Rama rescues his kidnapped wife Sita from the wicked Ravana who was the king of what is known today as Sri Lanka.  Prince Rama had also been exiled from Ayodhya for 14 years as a boon given to his stepmother Kaikeiyi.  This is a magical story filled with monkeys, flying flower-airships, battles, and love and devotion.  It is called the Ramayana and it's a well loved story in India and abroad.

I was lucky enough to participate in a Waldorf-inspired puppet show to celebrate Diwali at my daughter's kindergarten class.  All the children watched with awe.  One particular part they liked was when Rama goes to chase the golden deer that Sita asks for. My daughter was so happy to see Hanuman (Rama's most beloved and dedicated monkey friend).  Each child was given a diya to take home.  Children in a Waldorf school typically learn about the Ramayana in the 5th grade when studying world cultures.

Our Ramayana Finger puppets with handmade diya

At home we celebrated the festival of Govardhana Puja, which is a Vaisnava holiday to remember when a special boy named Krsna protects the whole village of Vrndavana from a horrible rainstorm.
The villagers of Vrndavana had gone against the tradition of worshiping Indra, the demigod of rain and the heavens, and decided to offer their thanks to a special hill named Govardhana.  This hill would give them everything they needed, such as grass for the cows, fruit trees, water, caves with minerals, etc.  Indra was quite angry and sent down rain for a week.  Krsna picked up Govardhana Hill as easily as a mushroom and protected everyone.

One of the many traditions of celebrating is Govardhana Puja to make a large feast including a hill of sweets. Since we have been trying to reduce our consumption of sugar and being sick the last week, we decided to make a hill of uppma (a semolina based savory polenta type dish..recipe here) with fresh veggies from our garden.  This was decorated with flowers, tulasi (holy basil), and some of my daughter's cows.
We also made burfi (a condensed milk sweet).

Govardhana Hill with Cows (In Sanskrit, Go means cows, Vardhana means gives pleasure)

Another ritual we do during this month is offer light to baby Krsna and sing a precious song called Damodarastakam.  Similar to the worship of the Christ-child, we come to see the Divine in the form of a baby.  He is sweetness personified.

Hope you are celebrating meaningful festivals too!

It's Autumn!

Just yesterday was Autumn Equinox, when the day and night are of equal measure. It's a time of harvest and preparation for winter. We have had much needed rain and unlike the northeast where they have true seasons, Texas looks very very green now! As the cool weather sets in slowly, I look forward to the change and the breathing inward that the Earth and all of us do.

Our nature table is slowly growing as we have been working on making it festive. We participated in the Seasons Round exchange and mailed off our package to Hannah of Home Baked Education in the UK. We hope that she and her son liked it.
Here's some materials used in the process and what we made.

Wool sweaters for felting

I made this Harvest Gnome with cordoroy pants and a felted orange sweater. He is fully poseable due to a wire frame, has warmth from wool, and a hemp belt for holding tools. He has found the cutest pumpkin with curly tendrils.

Gingko Leaves from our tree inside a little coconut top. The scene is set with a little mat I knit with 3 strands of yarn and then felted.

When our package arrives from over the Atlantic, I'll post more pics. I really enjoyed this exchange and hope I can participate in the upcoming Light one.

To keep some of the brightness of summer, I learned a great tip from Tipnut.com and made both orange and lemon vinegar for cleaning. I saved the peels from organic oranges and lemons, put them in glass jars and covered them with plain white vinegar. In about 1 more week, I should be able to strain the peels and have a safer and more natural way to clean.


Here's a happy little plant I found, bursting with berries, and the last of our summer tomatoes.

The Pin Cushion Plant

Warm Wishes,
Cristina

A New School Year

It's that time of year again. The sun still shines quite bright in our nook of the world, with temperatures still hovering around 100 degrees. We are thankful for trees and the breeze.
We feel so blessed with the opportunity to learn and grow and be part of an awesome community.

Happy Back to School Everyone!

Are you wondering about school lunches? Here's a post from my other blog from last year:
Happy & Healthy School Lunches

Late Rainbows and Family Drawing Time

This past week a couple different Waldorf bloggers celebrated Rainbow Week (Waldorfmama, Frontier Dreams). Thanks for sharing all things rainbow! I'm a little late, but I figured it's never too late to see a rainbow.

Rainbow "Thank You" Cards from my daughter's watercolor painting time. We are sending some out to thank others for coming to her birthday party.

Rainbow Wool in my recycled magazine bowl

A special Fabulous Fruit picture my daughter drew that is above her kitchen.

We got another orange tabby kitty on Friday. His name is Sunny and joins Bindi, our 2 year old orange tabby. Even though she's still being like an evil stepmother to him, we hope that she can overcome her grumpiness, be more motherly, and realize they share the love of wool.


I had bought a 3 set of Moleskin notebooks for our family drawing time. The fantastically creative mom, Amanda Soule, suggests this in her book "The Creative Family". Even though my husband was not so enthusiastic and said "He can't draw," he gave it a try. Our inspiration was Sunny. Our daughter was so thrilled at us all drawing together. It's a great way to relax and bring out your inner child, who is always a wonderful artist!

Our first entry: Sunny
Dad's pic has the cat with caption "Brains"..oh well, zombie cat returns.

Have a great week!
Cristina