Bringing up toddlers with relevant books

Reading is what I do for a good part of my week. Partially because of my research, but also out of habit. If I don’t read daily, I feel a hunger for words and ideas.

However, I wouldn’t call last year the most nourishing reading-wise. I read far too many guides on how to be a better mum that made me actually feel confused and not up for the job. My child entered the ‘terrible twos’ a few months back. He became more demanding. Playtime needs more effort now. The titles that I read then were not giving me the guidance that I sought, simply because they were not practical enough.

I wanted to know more about how to play with a two-year old, how to organize our time together and I was in need of having a good range of games and entertainments up my sleeve that would be safe and appropriate for his age. I thought I was a fairly imaginative person, but the things that I was coming up with were not always enthusiastically received by my little and headstrong bundle of energy.

I’ve done some searching and have come across a few fabulous titles that both my husband and I are really taken with. We pick a few activities out of these books and it’s great to see how our son responds to them and plays along. The same happens when I try them out in one of the playgroups for small kids that I run every so often.

I know that some of you have children in a similar age group so I thought I should write a short series of posts with book recommendations. I am pretty sure that some of these titles you’ll be happy to have on your shelves too.

The first post in the Book Recommendations Series will appear at the beginning of next week.

The right time

Last year I started two small projects that didn’t come to anything. The work was done but the fruit was not born.

One of the projects was related to my garden. I turned the earth, removed loads of rubble and old dead roots, filled many flower pots and garden patches with earth and compost, and planted seedlings, seeds and bulbs. A bit too late to the season. They have grown to an extent but unfortunately never revealed its full beauty. Never blossomed.

This little incidence taught me something: Timing in life is important. It seems to me that many of our projects or endeavours in life have their time bracket. Ultimate conditions for growth. The right time. Perhaps it takes a failed attempt at making something happen to recognize that right time and to make use of it.

In the coming months I’d like to be a bit more aware of time (its presence, limitations, seasonality, etc.) and work with it and within it. Not against it.I think that time and I may even become friends this year.

What’s your relationship with time like? How do you stay in beat with it?

A blank canvas to start the year

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

These photographs were taken during my stay in Poland. A day before our flight back to the UK snow began to fall. I was thrilled. I had what I waited for and I’ve captured our little walk around my dad’s orchard above. I think that it was in my childhood that I have somehow persuaded myself that the snow needs to fall for the new year to begin. It’s as if a blank sheet was put on my old scribbled paper and I am now allowed to start again…. with lungs full of refreshing air.

May we grow

I have started this year strong and vibrant, with a head full of ideas and projects to implement. This would probably not happen if it wasn’t for my visit to Poland and the kind heart of my mum who has really helped me to reset my brain and energy levels. She did pretty much all the cooking and that was such a blessing. She gave me time and thus granted a lot of mental space that I happily filled with dreams and ideas for this new year.

I have got a friend in Poland who I love visiting. She’s a very beautiful and a very independent woman who has this fabulous ability to make things happen. Like a magical fairy with some secret golden powder that she scatters around, invisible to ordinary mortals, she creates beautiful things around her. Wherever she goes, wherever she’s present, she carries that charm with her. When you talk to her, it’s just a matter of seconds before you start noticing a change within yourself. You feel that you are surrounded with positive energy that gives you the confidence to do things yourself.

I hope that this new year will give you all this magical powder to work with. May you see growth and beauty in all areas of your life and in all your pursuits. I hope this year we will blossom together.

Happy New Year Friends!

Peace is Needed for Renewal, Peace is Needed for Change

As much as I see situations when I would agree with the title of this post, I wouldn’t say that this is what I experience when I am in the process of creating something. I am often troubled and pressured by a guard in my head telling me that I am too slow, too quick, or that I really should be doing something else, and of course that there is a better, simpler, easier or a more sophisticated way of doing whatever I am doing. This internal judge can speak quite loudly, boldly discrediting or shaming whatever project I am working on. The voice is especially powerful at the end of the year when I am trying to catch up on some often self- or socially-imposed agreements.

This voice is a fairly competent time thief. Because really whatever I am doing I love doing and whatever project I dive into answers a craving of my heart and soul in some way, or answers some needs that the season and family life creates.

Life is too short to take yourself too seriously (yes Rachel, you’ve told me that). Too short to focus only on one piece of a jigsaw puzzle. One piece never builds a view. It never gives you a sense of completeness. Life is made of many pieces, many wonderful pieces that complete and complement one another.

I wish we were more forgiving towards ourselves. Less judgmental. More understanding. We are all trying as much as we can in the areas we find ourselves in. There is no need for additional pressures (external or internal) on top of those that are already present.

It doesn’t matter if we are quick or slow. If we do things in this manner or another way. If we make occasional mistakes. If we don’t do things as well as someone else. The important thing is that we have the willingness to do things, that we have the willingness to renew, change or just carry on. The willingness is often enough to move us forward and it is this willingness that I am today grateful for. The need to persevere.