Battling Dragons on Michaelmas

When we first began our journey into Waldorf education I’ll admit that many of the festivals were completely new to me and just a bit confusing. We added them in one by one, trying to find the meaning of each celebration as it fit with our family. Michaelmas quickly took on an important meaning for us and each year it becomes more and more personal to our family.

 As parents I think it’s only natural to want to shelter and protect our children, especially while they are so young. There are so many things in the world that honestly I would rather my girls’ not ever be exposed to. For right or wrong we have done our best to protect the innocence of their childhoods for as long as we possibly can. I do not want my children to fear the “evil” lurking in the dark shadows of the world. Nor do I want them to go through life blindly believing that there is no such thing, because try as we might we cannot always protect them from everything. It can be a delicate balance to attain as a parent, that struggle between darkness and light.

 How many of our children have come to us with a fear of what might be lurking in their closets or underneath their beds once the lights are turned off? No matter how many times we might try and explain to them that the monsters they perceive are not really there, it is rare that they believe us. To them, those things are real. We didn’t create this idea of something lurking just out of sight, it is something that they seem to sense intuitively. It is our responsibility, I believe, to give them the courage and tools to conquer these fears for themselves.

 For this reason Michaelmas has become a celebration of courage and bravery for our family. The stories showing us that, like battling a fierce dragon, our fears can be conquered. It acknowledges the fact that yes, sometimes there are bad things in our world but they are not to be feared because they can be beaten. We must stand up for what is good and right and believe that in the end, good will prevail.

We must be the light that shines into the darkness.

 

This Moment

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 {this moment} ~ A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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St. Louis Zoo

We had the absolute best time on vacation, and one of the highlights was definitely our visit to the zoo in St. Louis.  The girls are always excited when they get to go see all the animals, and to get to do it with a group of friends sent them right over the edge.  I'm not even going to mention what time they woke up that morning.  ahem.  I was pretty excited myself to meet up with some sweet mama friends and spend the day together with our families.  

When Daddy asked what we'd do after the zoo he really didn't expect laughter as an answer.  After?  There won't be time for anything after.  It's been a while since he's been on a zoo trip with us, and add in the extra kiddos and I knew that we were booked solid for the day with this one outing.  We had six little girls that between them wanted to cover every single inch of the zoo that day.  And when we left seven hours later I'd say we did a pretty good job of it.  Whew.  We were all exhausted by the end but it was an absolute blast.  The girls are already bargaining for another meet up with our friends.  Maybe we'll shoot for a little less walking next time...

Missouri Vacation

Last week we packed our bags and did something we hadn't done since having the girls...went on a real family vacation.  We were so excited to head to St. Louis and meet up with some incredible friends for a weekend of fun.  This was my first time in St. Louis, and the girls' first trip into the state of Missouri.  Which is really pretty ridiculous since we live so very close to the border.  I might have already planned a few more small trips back over to see some of the things we just couldn't fit into our trip this time.

Really I'm not sure why we don't do more sightseeing right here around us.  There always seems to be so much going on, and to be perfectly honest we've all become quite happy to just be at home.  I think we'll make a real effort to start getting out more and seeing the fun (and funny) things around us.

The girls were mostly excited for their very first hotel stay, and it didn't take them long at all to make themselves right at home.  In fact they said they wished they could live at the hotel forever.  I guess not having to make your own bed is a pretty sweet deal.  I was pretty fond of that part too.

Now I just need to upload and sort through the probably 4000 pictures I took while we were gone.  

Back to (Dance) School

For weeks now I've seen all the back to school pictures being posted and we're just over here, still doing what we do.  I'll admit I considered taking our own version, a "not back to school" picture maybe, but that just seemed sort of silly for us.  What we have, however, is our back to dance pictures and really, that's good enough for us.  The girls call it dance school anyway so we're going with it.

For us the return to dance class marks the beginning of the transition into Autumn and it has become a great way for us to start to embrace that change.  It's the start of returning to our Autumn rhythm and back to having a few scheduled activities in our daily rhythm as well.  Plus, my gosh they're cute in those dance clothes.