Random Snapshots with Round Objects

Live By Example

I love the blog - Cheerio Road http://www.mommazen.blogspot.com/

If you haven't yet seen it check it out. It is written by the Zen Buddist priest, Karen Maezen Miller, who also happened to write the book Momma Zen. Both are lovely. I am going to copy and paste below a recent entry of hers called The Monestary of Mom and Dad. I loved it. It's just a great arrow of reminders for how to have a wonderful life with kids.

A cozy set of practical guidelines for mindful parents:

Practice in plain sight. Place your zafu, or meditation cushion, in a conspicuous place in your home, such as on your bedroom floor. As you pass by, let it invite you to practice meditation daily. Even five minutes morning or night can turn your life around.

Live by routine. Take the needless guesswork out of meals and bedtimes. Let everyone relax into the predictable flow of a healthy and secure life.

Elevate the small. And overlook the large. Want to change the world? Forget the philosophical lessons. Instruct your child in how to brush his teeth, and then do it, together, twice a day.

Turn off the engines. Discipline TV and computer usage and reduce artificial distraction, escapism, and stimulation. This begins with you.

Give more attention. And less of everything else. Devote one hour a day to giving undistracted attention to your children. Not in activities driven by your agenda, but according to their terms. Use a timer to keep yourself honest. Undivided attention is the most concrete expression of love you can give.

Take a break. Before you break in two. Designate a chair in your home as a "quiet chair," where you can retreat to decelerate conflicts. Or walk around the block and see how quickly your own two feet can stamp out the fire on your head. Suggestion: change out of bathrobe before leaving house.

Be the first to apologize. Practice the miracle of atonement and instantly restore household harmony. By your doing, your children will learn how.

Be the last to know. Refrain from making judgments and foregone conclusions about your children. Watch their lives unfold, and be surprised. The show is splendid, and yours is the best seat in the house.

Clay

We've been working with clay lately. Making a series of clay faces to hang on the wall. There is a difference between an almost 5 year old's ability to focus and concentrate and a 2 year old's. Anders was hard at work - and Kuba was not really willing to sit down. It was touch, poke, and go for him. It is all about the experience anyway. We are just plain old lucky that we get to use clay on a Friday night in our very own home, no matter what our level of concentration.


Here is Anders first face. Gotta love it!

Call me a Madwoman!

Okay, call me a madwoman! I thought Kuba looked so completely adorable this evening and all I wanted was one good photo...so I chased him with the camera...scaring him a little I think, and also catching nothing. I even followed him up the stairs. But he really was not cooperating...and so you just have to believe me that he was absolutely the cutest boy in the whole wide world tonight...ski boots on, onesie hanging out, Anna's hat on his head with the green dangling ball. He looked simply adorable.

TWO

I never did manage to post Kuba's second birthday photo....so here it is - and with last year's photo when Kuba just turned one! I feel like he has been so big for so long that I would hardly notice a difference in the two photo's, but clearly...he has grown.

Alpaca

Our friend Cathy went to Ecuador....the boys were gifted the softest sweaters in the universe afterwards. Here they are modeling them for the camera. Here, here, to kind friends who love our boys!

Gotta Love The Snow!

After one mighty snowfall, we romped and sled and shoveled and igloo ed our day away!

Wigilia

This bowl of soup is no ordinary bowl of soup.
No.

This is a bowl of divinity.
Served only on Christmas Eve.
It is a Polish tradition.

My family is Polish American.
We have celebrated Christmas Eve the exact same way every single year of my life.
And before me, my parents have celebrated this exactly the same way every year of their lives, and so did my grandparents.

Our Christmas celebration is called Wigilia and here is what I found written about it:

"Among Poles, the most beloved and beautiful of all traditional festivities is that of Christmas Eve. It is called Wigilia, and it is when Christmas Eve Dinner is served. It is a solemnly celebrated occasion and arouses deep feelings of kinship among family members. For days in advance, Poles prepare the traditional foods and everyone anxiously awaits the moment when the first star, known as the Gwiazdka, appears in the eastern sky. For that is when the feast to commemorate the birth of the Christ Child begins.

Before sitting down at the table, everyone breaks the traditional wafer, or Oplatek and exchanges good wishes for health, wealth and happiness in the New Year. This is such a deeply moving moment that often tears of love and joy are evoked from the family members who are breaking this symbolic bread. The Oplatek is a thin, unleavened wafer similar to the altar bread in the Roman Catholic Church. The wafer is known as the bread of love and is often sent by mail to the absent members of the family.

Traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner must consist of Lenten fare – no meat, except for fish, can be served on that day. Wigilia should consist of 12 dishes. One should try at least a little bit of each of them.
Although the dishes vary in different regions of Poland, there are some more popular ones. The most typical soup that is served in Polish families on that evening is a mushroom soup with mushroom dumplings (called ‘uszka’ – small ears). Haddock, one of the other most important parts of Christmas Eve dinner, is usually fried. Other popular dishes are cabbage with peas or mushrooms, pierogi (dumplings) with cabbage, cheese or sauerkraut, noodles with poppy, or golabki (stuffed cabbage). "

It is remarkable how closely my families tradition follows the description above!

The photo of the bowl of soup was taken by my niece this year. If you look carefully you can see the uszka...big mushroom stuffed noodles!
This soup is without a doubt a soup that holds magic for all of us.
For years we have all participated in the making of the uszka - gathering in someone's kitchen up to our elbows in flour! I have so many childhood memories of rolling out dough, and stuffing the little noodles, and shaping them into what looks like a little crown. The uszka are somewhat like tortellini stuffed with minced onion and mushroom, but they are nothing like tortellini in any other way.
They are simply incredible. The soup is also filled with lots of chopped mushrooms, dried mushrooms and uski noodles.
We also make our own pierogi; cheese and sauerkraut. The ritual behind the preparation is pretty remarkable and one that I miss now that my family lives so far away from my parents. But I so appreciate my siblings and parents for their fabulous work to prepare this meal.

One of the other more amazing parts to the evening is the sharing of wishes for the new year. This is the most intimate gesture by all family members between all family members and it is unbelievably moving. Each one of us gets a piece of oplatek (a thin wafer) and one by one, we each speak to each other from the heart, wishing for each other what we most think the other would cherish. After speaking your wish the other person then breaks a piece off of your oplatek and eats it, symbolizing the taking in of the wish. And then you reverse rolls....receiving a wish and breaking and eating a piece of their wafer.
It is deeply moving and intimate and such a beautiful expression of love.
This year, Anders was completely able to take part in this exchange - and his wishes were real and beautiful and simple. I was struck by his ability to connect so intimately with all of his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, and by how grown up he is getting!
For me, this moment- the sharing between family - is probably the most powerful and meaningful out of the entire year. We are all so busy and live so far away that this kind of connection doesn't happen very often. Looking into the eyes of each family member and in a way giving them a blessing for the year is indescribable.
Being one who thrives on intimacy and connection, you can see how this fills a deep need in my own soul.

So Happy New Year to all, and may your year be filled with health, happiness and a deep sense of love.