On Ponding

Years ago, when we still lived in our old house, Brad mentioned that he thought he would like having a pond. So when we looked at this house, with two ponds in the backyard, we were kind of excited. It was late fall at the time, and inexperienced as we were, we were undaunted by the fact that the ponds were low on water, and full of leaves.

We thought we could clean them out in the spring, fill them with water, throw in some fish, and that it would be fun. Fun! We were wrong. I'd always thought of ponds as nothing more than landscaping. But they are much more than that. More than a hobby, even. A lifestyle.

The spring after we moved, we were so busy with the inside of the house, that we didn't really do anything outside. And the ponds sat. Stagnant water. Our backyard was a mosquito city. I'm not sure we went out there at all that summer, unless it was absolutely necessary. The next year, when we started on the smaller of the two ponds, it looked like this:

And it smelled really bad. See the slimy pile of leaves in the back? The overgrown lamium patch to the left? The weeds growing through the rocks? It was awful. We drained it, scrubbed it, and filled it. Then we added water, plants, and fish.

But it wasn't actually that straightforward, because I don't like to jump into anything. I always like to do a lot of research first. Find out the best way to clean the pond, whether to add anything to the water, what to do about mosquitos, whether to add fish, and which kind of fish to add. Lots of details. It was overwhelming.

When we ended, the pond looked like this:

Not exactly the lush, green landscaping jewel I'd pictured, but it was a huge improvement.

So I have learned a lot about ponds in the last few years. I have learned about the different types fish and plants, and how to maintain a healthy little low-maintenance eco-system in our backyard. While those things are interesting to know, I have also learned that they are unimportant compared to the lessons in patience and delayed gratification that ponding has taught me. The excitement of waiting for the pond to thaw, to see if any of our little feeder goldfish survived the winter. Then discovering they had, and experiencing our first algae bloom and having to wait a month for our plants to establish themselves and clear the water so we could see the fish again.

Rhythms and routines have always been something I have always struggled with in my day-to-day activities, but during the past few years, I have come to appreciate the rhythm of the ponds. From the first cleaning in the spring, to the final cleaning in the fall. The way the ponds rest in the winter, but are full of life again in the summer. Even the somewhat annoying nightly ritual of moving the water hyacinth to the big pond and the morning ritual of moving it back to the small pond, to keep the raccoons from eating it.

It's not something I would willingly undertake, but I am glad we stumbled into it.

Elisa Kleven, Where Have You Been All My Life?

I admit to being a total book snob. In our house, we tend to think that children's books from days of yore are far superior to those of today. We're much more likely to read Goodnight Moon or Where the Wild Things Are than anything to do with llamas or pigeons.

I can't say why, exactly. There is nothing that says an older book is better than a new one, or that new books aren't good. I just think that the old ones have proven themselves. They've stood the test of time, and time has weeded out the bad ones.

Don't get me wrong, we do have plenty of recent books in our collection. I am just not as apt to buy one on a whim. That's why, when I found a copy of The Paper Princess Finds Her Way at the thrift store over the weekend, I picked it up and put it back no fewer than three times. My inner dialogue went something like "ooh, butterflies." "Glossy cover, ugh." "But I like the illustrations." "Not another princess book." "It's a paper princess." I flipped through it, and for ninety-nine cents, my curiosity got the better of me.

I got it home and read it. And I loved it.

I know Waldorf is supposed to be storytelling, but I bungle them every time. So for school, I've been using printed stories and reading from my binder to avoid illustrations, because that way I can just sort of glance down and pretend I am telling a story. I decided to go ahead use a book this week though. The timing was perfect, because the end of the book has the monarch butterflies migrating south.

I am not sure whether the book would be considered Waldorf. It fits with our philosophy toward toys though; when she encounters a group of noisy, plasticy toys, they end up in awe of the little paper princess. I was impressed with her too, actually. She understood that it was better to face the unknown than to stick around in a familiar situation you're not happy with.

So we read it today, and Lissie loved it too. I am not sure she spoke once through the entire book, and that never happens. It turns out this author has written a bunch of other books, with great reviews on Amazon, and yet I have somehow never heard of her before.

I guess that's what I get for being a book snob.

Meet the Elder Brothers

Yesterday we made "elder brothers" out of felt to go with our story, "The Elder Brother".

We gathered leaves on our walk earlier in the week, and used some of them as patterns.

I cut the leaves out ahead of time. I debated whether to have Lissie do some herself, but am glad I decided not to. She could have done it, but the felt was really fiddly to cut through and even with the leaves cut out, these took a long time to put together.

Aaaaand We're Back!

To normal. Just as if all the fighting, hitting, hair chewing and screaming fits in the middle of the night never happened. I'm glad it stopped before they were done rebuilding our neighbor's porch, because I know the guys doing the work must think I spend my mornings torturing small children. Maybe now that things have settled down, they'll see that my kids are not tortured. Unless they think I've locked them in the basement... or worse.

We talked a little bit about the Autumn Equinox during circle time this morning, and our story this week was the story of Persephone and Demeter, so we read that too. We had guests on Monday, so we took that day off and started school on Tuesday, but it worked out well because otherwise we would not have done our story during circle time on a Thursday. Tuesday, we made pomegranates with our modeling wax. They were a nice step up from the moons we did last week, but still very simple. I planned to serve pomegranate seeds for snack today, but couldn't find any.

We skipped coloring today and took a field trip instead. It was a beautiful first day of fall and just the right temperature for walking around outside. We headed to the Meijer Gardens to check out the gorgeous fall colors. The ArtPrize exhibit opened a few days ago, so we were able to see that as well, although they don't allow pictures in the gallery.

This is what you get when you ask Lissie to smile. We had to get a picture in front of the hydrangeas, because the first time she saw white ones she asked if they were wild cauliflower. Hah! Now I guess they look more like wild broccoflower, but Lissie doesn't even know what that is.

No idea what they were thinking with the hats, seriously. Too big, too small, we had it covered.

Max, despite not napping, was cheerful until the very end.

The very end when we were trying to leave and Lissie was all "mom, you know those giant pumpkins?  You should take a picture of us sitting in front of them before we go! You know, the really big ones by the door? Just ONE picture, it'll be really fast, I promise.  Pleeeaaaase?" You saw that picture and thought it was the only one, didn't you? Come on, you know me better than that. I took many. It was not the only one, but I am sorry to say it was the best one.

On a Good Day

There is dancing:

Helping:

And everything is put away when we are finished:

So we can craft:

Tiny golden cloaked fairies sleeping in peanut shell beds:

(after a long night of bringing in the harvest):

And smiles:

Harvest Moon Magic

Last night was the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the name of the full moon that occurs closest to the Autumnal Equinox. Most years, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but every third year it comes in October. It is called the Harvest Moon, because on these nights it is bright enough that the farmers can work late to bring in the harvest.

This week, to celebrate the Harvest Moon, we are using a story from Suzanne Down's wonderful book Autumn Tales. Autumn Tales is a collection of short autumn themed stories and poems for young children. Since I didn't have any moon related stories in mind for this week, I was excited to see that this book contained the perfect story: "Harvest Moon Magic". While flipping through the book, I noticed a cute story called "Harvest Moon Magic". I had no idea what the Harvest Moon was, so I googled it.  Apparently God loves fools and unprepared mothers, because the Harvest Moon was that very night. Ooh, did you totally feel a shiver when you read that? 

Today while we read our story during circle time, we used beeswax modelling clay to make moons. Aside from complimenting the theme of the story, I thought that a simple round ball would be an ideal first sculpture, because what could be easier than making a ball? Except you can't just say you're making a ball, because that would be so "mo-om, I've already done that a million times before" boring. Not moons though. Moons are fun to make.

Tonight we'll stay up late and look at the real moon. I know, yes, the Harvest Moon was technically last night, but this is close enough. It's not like we're bringing in the harvest. And even if we were, we'd have plenty of light from the streetlamps in front of our house.

(moon photo - jason.kaechler)