Gardening with Kids

The garden was my children’s domain as well as mine because I wanted them in the garden, connecting with the earth. As they planted seeds, watered growing plants and picked fruit and vegetables, they became attuned to the rhythms of nature.  My kids marvelled at the power packed in a tiny seed because after planting one bean seed, they soon ate handfuls of green beans……

Even Pets Can Have Chores

No able-bodied human or animal would live in my house without contributing in some way to our household Our pet guinea pig pushed his luck one day when I discovered why Guinea pigs are called PIGS. It is because they eat just like real pigs that's why. I was losing patience with ours; every time…

Wordless Wednesday: From Prenatal to Adult

Happy Wordless Wednesday, dear friends! It’s time to share your favorite photos – with or without words . A black and white collage of my kids from prenatal, childhood, teen and adult years.

Humour Helps: Housework AND Kids

First fact to accept as a new mother: Kids are messy. In fact mothering is messy so you might as well laugh about it. Getting frustrated  is a waste of energy. Getting angry over reality simply upsets everyone. So laugh. Trust me, it works.  Accidents and mishaps are simply part of every day life when you live……

Wordless Wednesday: Who Me?

I am rarely wordless, hardly ever even speechless; I even talked my way out of a rape. So, I feel uneasy about not talking but I am answering this prompt to stretch my inner boxes and form new paradigms. Ta-da: My life surrounded by kids

Are You Sure You’re My Kid?

This picture is a great symbol for how I feel as I watch my offspring. Sometimes I think, “Are you really my kid?Where did that talent, personality or characteristic come from?” All my children have the same parents and  have lived in the same environment but each child inherited not only different physical genes but different……

Pets

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Laughing Belly Laughs

Daily Prompt Photographers, artists, poets: show us JOYFUL. The greatest gift I have ever received is a gift of joy, a gift of laughter. I can laugh in the face of the absurd. I can laugh in the face of tragedy. I can laugh at myself. I can laugh at the antics, messes and work……

10 Tips for Parents from Mother of Nine9

As a mother of nine kids, people often ask me, “How on earth did you manage without any help? ”   So I present a list of my top ten tips for a happy family life    . 1.  Focus on the joy of parenting, not on everything we are giving up to raise a family 2. Mothers, remember, we have one……

Remember: One Mud Bath Per Year

Ah, farm life. Fresh air, plenty of room for children to run and play safely with a kind of freedom that is not possible in modern cities. Our children played more like children of generations past, building forts, scooping up minnows, catching tiny tree frogs and jumping in the hay loft. There were negative aspects to this……

Finding My Way Back to Writing

Outwardly, my life is diametrically opposed  to anything I could have imagined as a teenager. Yet this strange life I find myself living has brought me more fulfilment and joy than I ever could have imagined. At sixteen, I was still an avid reader, who loved school.   As  expected, I completed an Honours Degree in English Literature. By 23,……

Ingenuity And Creativity: Birthed In Boredom

I learned that children need down time.  They need time just to be and relax, even time to be bored because that is when creativity and ingenuity are born. Surrounded by babies and toddlers, I was not always free to run outside to solve every obstacle my kids faced as they played. At first, I frantically……