Littletree started her own blog, called The Life of Littletree
It seems that she plans to write about all manner of things; her adventures, science, kittens, and ALL the things!
You can check it out here: http://thelifeoflittletree.blogspot.com/
Regular readers might have noticed the new ads I have on my blog the past couple of months – they’re hosted by Nuffnang and so far I’m super in love with them; it’s a great blogging community and they have great support.
As it turns out this month they are holding The Nuffnang Christmas Blogger Challenge, which is:
The prize for this is an Apple iPad, which would be SUPER AWESOME to win. My first computer was an Apple: an Apple IIe to be precise. It was possibly the best computer ever made. But now there’s an iPad out there and I would so dearly LOVE to win one, not only because it’s really cool, but because early next year we’ll be going on a round-the-world trip to Argentina for the next World Rainbow Gathering, then to Israel for Littletree’s 8th birthday, then to India, because it’s Litteltree’s big dream to go to India, and if I had an iPad it would be so much easier to keep up with blogging along the way.
But the challenge… to pick out the best blog post from 2010. Whoa. I have 110 blog posts so far this year – it took a couple of hours to read through them all and select the contenders for best post. Another few hours were spent in whittling it down to a short list of 10 posts. I ummed and ahhhed for ages.
Should it be Of Rainbows and Sunsets, which has awesome pictures and encapsulates my life and my blog quite well, or should it be Surprise Flower, which is short and sweet? Should I go for something funny, like When Life Gives you Bananas or what about something that showcases Littetree’s cuteness and intellect, like The Question of Invention? And don’t forget midwifery-related posts like Beautiful Birthing.
So I got out all my tools and set to work to build the ultimate machine! Unfortunately, just like the computer in the movie, it failed to yield the correct answer.
Perhaps I wasn’t being scientific enough. I tried to concoct a super elixir that would give me infinite wisdom
Still undecided, it seemed I needed to be more methodical, so I went for the Tibetan Deduction Technique demonstrated by Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks
It turns out (as would have been evident to anyone who knows me), I never managed to hit the bottle at all.
I realised that since this is about my favourite post, I would have to delve into how I really feel about it, tuning in to the heart rather than the head, so I had a sitting with a Tarot-reader…
I now know that there is a tall, dark stranger and an Apple iPad in my future, but as to which blog post is best, I was still in the fog. Clearly, I needed to connect with my own inner being. I sat in deep meditation and asked a pendulum…
The final answer still not coming to me, I went to my Guru and Master… Littletree. She just laughed at me, and finally we went with my best blog post for 2010: Faerie Shoes.
I love this post because it’s a little humorous, it has nice pictures, and in one brief snip gives a neat look into my life and what my blog is about. And it’s the post that’s gonna win me the competition, which will be the best Christmas present ever! Best of all, we’ve decided to celebrate Christmas this year, so it will be extra excellent to have a cool present under the tree.
So, everyone, tell me what you think; how do you go about making tough decisions?
Another natural parenting article of mine was published on Essence of Life last month, it’s called Love is its Own Reward, which you can read HERE. It’s about raising children without bribes and rewards, but connecting with them through love and respect. The article goes as a partner with my previous article, Respect Not Punishment which you can read HERE.
(and I’m posting a cute picture of Litteltree just coz – she’s so sweet with my scarf on)
A new Natural Parenting article of mine was published this week on Essence of Life, it’s about the art of being patient as a parent, and finding the spiritual journey within parenting.
You can read it HERE
It seems I’m a bit behind in the times. Several of my Natural Parenting articles have been published lately – shows how much I’ve been checking the Essence of Life website where I work since I stopped managing the forum there.
So, there’s an extended version of my post on Children learning when they’re ready HERE
And an article on the Unrestricted Diet part of Radical Unschooling, which I allude to frequently. You can read the full article HERE
It’s basically talking about the idea that if we trust children to eat what they feel (as we do as adults), then they will be confident to trust their bodies and be healthy naturally. If we put a lot of restrictions on them, we’re showing children that they can’t be trusted to know their own bodies and make healthy choices.
A new article of mine was published on Essence of Life, about Gentle Discipline – probably it will be the last one; sadly the English site is closing down and it seems I am also out of a paying job now.
Ah well, I’ve been writing for them for about 3 years now, and it’s probably time to move on and open up for other things. (hint: I’m happy to hear from anyone who might have a job for me)
Anyway, the article can be read HERE, at least until they close the site. They are keeping up the Hebrew edition of the site, and my articles will be there, albeit in Hebrew, though apparently there will be a translate button.
While we were away another of my Natural Parenting articles was published at Essence of Life
This one, called, Safety Comes From Within, is about the folly of "stranger danger" and raising children respectfully, so that they are safe.
You can read it HERE
Don't forget to check out the Essence of Life FORUMS where you can join on the discussions about the articles on the site, or just anything spiritually-related :)
The Essence of Life website, which I write for, has been updated - it's all shiny and new :) Since the update, all the URLs from the old articles have changed, so I updated all the links to EOL in the sidebar - if you scroll down my blog on the right side bar there's full lists of all my articles there.
They also have a new article of mine published, about Birthing without Fear. You can read it Here
And the forums are all upgraded and looking great (functioning better as well), so check it out Here
My latest natural parenting article was published on Essence of Life; it's an article that uses fairy tales to illustrate the importance of honest communication with children.
I was sitting with Littletree tonight, watching a movie, when we heard a rustle up on the pantry shelf. I thought it was probably a rat, but I haven't seen one for a couple of days, and this didn't sound quite like a rat, so I went to investigate...
it was...
Two brown snakes!
Naturally, the first thing I did was get my camera and snap a few shots.
I'm not much of a snake expert, but they looked like brown snakes, which are terribly poisonous, the second most poisonous land snake in the world. There are brown snakes on our property, so though it seemed weird to see two of them together, and at night, I had to assume that's what they were.
Not knowing what to do, I called my neighbour, who gave me the number for the local Snakeman.
The Snakeman came out straight away, despite it being 11pm. By the time he got here, my little brown buddies had slithered away, but he did look at the photos, and declared them not brown snakes, but brown tree snakes. Still poisonous, but not nearly as dangerous.
The Snakeman turned out to be an interesting guy, and we chatted for a while about shamanism and snakes and the Hare Krshnas. I told him about my drama last night with Littletree being sick.
Littletree came down with a fever the night before, when we were staying over at a friend's house. She wasn't too well all yesterday, being feverish and headachey, but last night around 7pm her fever spiked and she spent a few hours alternating between sleeping fitfully for about 15 minutes, and waking up and being delirious for a while.
It was pretty scary, at some point she was waking up and calling for me, she stared through me as if I wasn't there, and didn't seem to recognise that I was holding her. She started to see things I couldn't see.
Difficult though it was to see my little girl sick like that, I held firm in the knowledge that there is no danger in a fever whatsoever, as long as it's not a case of heatstroke or meningitis (both of which I can rule out), and did my best to support her, keep her hydrated, and let the fever run it's course and do it's work in healing my child.
At some point, I decided to burn some sage to smudge the house. I had a strong feeling that there were some negative energies around, so I worked on clearing them.
Right when I finished, Littletree settled into a restful deep sleep, and even responded lucidly when I carried her upstairs to bed, so I guess something worked. :) This morning Littletree woke up and vomited, still with a low fever, but by the end of the day she seems perfectly fine.
So it's been just one drama after another around here!
My newest article was published on Essence of Life. It's called Letting Children Find Their Own Strength
It's about trusting children to know their own abilities.
We're home again! I was so sad to say goodbye to Lush, but she's gonna be back down here in about three weeks or so, when her contract with work is over, so it wont be too long.
After two fun weeks in Cairns, we packed up and did the long drive home, we actually went pretty fast, and made it all the way home in two days. Way faster than the three days it took getting up there, though we stopped to visit people on the way up.
The drive was around 1900km (almost 1200mi), 12 hours on the road on Friday and 14 hours on Saturday, including stops for fuel, food, and playgrounds. We got home totally exhausted at about 11:20pm last night.
It's funny, we totally would have stopped to sleep around 10pm, we'd gone far enough and were tired enough, but by then we were so close to home, it seemed silly to stop. Not to mention driving through Brisbane and the Gold Coast, there isn't much in the way of rest areas till you get to our neighbourhood.
Anyway, it's good to be home!
And today I have the nice surprise of seeing another of my articles published; one about an inspiring young musician called Amalia Rubin. Check it out!
Essence of Life published my latest Natural Parenting article; interestingly-titled, The Right To Be You.
Well, I couldn't think of a good title, so I left it up to the editor. Yep, that's what you get.
check it out Here
The wonderful folk over at Essence of Life published an article I wrote about Capoeira; a martial art which I play.
It's a nice article, and comes with a nice pic of me strutting my stuff
If you like it, head on over to the EOL forums and say so :p
My very good friend, Littletree's godmother (well, one of them), known to me as Littletripper (though she's actually a scientist and not little at all), sent to Little tree a huge parcel full of fantablous art supplies in the mail.
The funny thing was that the parcel contained a pack of "Brenex" squares. Coloured paper squares that were the staple of my primary school art classes.
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