Tender Sapling

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Mama – Magic in the World

A magical mama-baby moment.

A magical mama-baby moment.

Forget Harry Potter for a moment. There is real magic in the world. And it’s sprinkled everywhere. It’s in you, mama!

This day (Mother’s Day in the United States) always reinforces for me just how magical mama really is. Just watch a babe in utero kick and mama caress her belly. Or remember the first moment you held your baby, radiating love-beyond-compare to this new being. Pure magic!

But Mama can get worn down and tired and sometimes needs to know how much she is loved, how special she is, even if dinner is just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the kids haven’t bathed in days.

Mama tends to be her own worst critic, and while I’m all for self-improvement, an important part of doing our best is forgiving and loving ourselves. When we do that, we model some mighty awesome virtues for our own tender saplings too!

So, in the spirit of helping support you in loving yourself as a mama, here is a simple little poem I just composed as an ode to celebrate YOU!

Because the world truly is perfection with mama at the heart!

Mama

The world’s design is perfection
With mama at the heart
Of each babe’s precious life
Joined from the very start.

When sliding out of darkness
The world is filled with light
A mama’s arms to hold
Eyes that shine so bright.

Days, moons, seasons and years pass,
Birthday candles reflect love’s glow
Through life’s discoveries, joys, and falls,
She’s present and always knows

Whether to hug, hold, or watch
To kiss, bandage, or celebrate.
It’s amazing how each mama and child
Are paired perfectly; it must be fate.

Mama is perfection, but not perfect
As she is also human, striving to be
The best she can, and sometimes tired
Or off, but always the right one for me.

Life with mama is a long path
Paved with love and tears and grace.
When one finds a higher power in the universe
No doubt mama reflects God’s face.

While we may sometimes doubt our role as mothers or our ability to live up to our critical and cherished calling, I truly believe we are where we need to be in our lives, and that includes our role as mamas.

So, embrace your magical powers, mama! You are the patient, loving gardener that nurtures your little acorns into mighty oaks!

And love yourself in this vital role, shaping the future world and local leaders of tomorrow! (As poet D.W. Wallace aptly ended one of his poems: “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”)

To celebrate my own mama’s hard work over the years, raising my sister, brother, and me, here’s one of my favorite pictures of her. Thanks, mom, for all your love and for showing us the beauty in the world! (And if you’re reading this today, the kids are preparing a hysterical show featuring a performing origami frog for our celebration. We are looking forward to seeing you soon!)

My mother nursing my baby brother.

My mother nursing my baby brother.

Finally, here’s a shout out to thank all the other mamas in my life who have helped me find my way on my mothering path – especially all my breastfeeding role model mamas, my playdate and homeschool pals, my aunts, grandmas, mother-in-law, and mamas I’ve been “meeting” through the web-o-sphere (that includes all of you awesome mamas commenting on the blog!).

You all rock! And rule! :)


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5 DIY Ways to Pamper Mama this Mother’s Day

What will you do this Mother’s Day for the sweet mama in your life? As a parent working on mindfulness and striving to raise mindful tender saplings, I find this American holiday a great way to teach our little ones about honoring their mother. And I love the idea of trying to make our gestures more mindful and meaningful.

It’s traditional and appreciated for dad and the little ones to come through with flowers, homemade cards, and/or chocolates (like these fair trade bars from our Global Kids Gift Guide) for Mother’s Day. While these are all wonderful, how about adding one or more of these fun, thoughtful do-it-yourself ways to show you care?

(If you’re not big into celebrating Mother’s Day, a US holiday that falls on May 12 this year, or don’t have such a holiday in your country/culture, this is a nice opportunity for the kids to practice showing love and gratitude to their mother any day!)

1. Make her a breakfast parfait
Whether or not treating mama to breakfast is a tradition in your family already, these treats make for a healthy, beautiful, fun-to-assemble start to the morning. These are probably better than making her dandelion soup, but if she’s more of an experimentalist, go for it! If looking for another lovely touch, try heart-shaped watermelon slices we shared in this post.

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Kids love cutting fruit and assembling parfaits – layers of yogurt, granola, berries or other fruit, honey or jam, or whatever you please – a beautiful and yummy treat! (shown here behind a blueberry scone)

2. Clean out her car
Send her off w/o her wheels for some mama-care time. Then grab the cleaning supplies and vacuum and get busy with the kids. If mama doesn’t have wheels, then think of an area of the home that she’d love to see cleaned up and make it shine. It could be as simple as having the kids clear the clutter off their dressers and dust.

3. Leave her love notes
Start with the nice clean car: use washable markers to leave her a message with hearts on the car window (tastefully done and not to obstruct her view of course). Then move on to post-it love notes and pictures in fun places: her shoes, her purse, the fridge, under her mug, etc.

4. Fold the laundry (and put it away!)
Unless you already have this service performed regularly by someone other than mama (dada and kids, a helper, or maybe a house elf), this will be a huge treat for her. And not just for Mother’s Day!

Two year old "folding laundry"

How many times has mama folded the laundry only to have the two-year-old undo it all! :)

5. Extra hugs
One of the easiest and most mindful ways to show your love is to wrap all arms around mama and say how much she means to you. Dad can model this and the kids can follow. It’ll leave everyone smiling ’cause the song says it best: Love is like a magic penny, Hold it tight and you won’t have any, Lend it, Spend it, Give it away and it will come right back to you! What a great way to help mama recharge her batteries.

My wife wanted me to add that one of her favorite (early) Mother’s Day gifts this year, is this beautiful origami flower that our middle tender sapling presented her the other day. What a treasure!

Origami tulip - created by little hands with love!

Origami tulip – created by little hands with love!

Again, these ideas are all ways husbands and children can shower mama regularly with our love and appreciation. ‘Cause mama-gardeners love TLC from their brood of tender saplings and mates anytime. And nurturing the nurturer helps her do her vital work of parenting. So sprinkle in some mindful surprises often!


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Migrate to Mongolia: A Tender Sapling Travelers Cultural Adventure – Part 2 (Prayer Wheels)

This post is part of the Tender Sapling Travelers Series and Part 2 of a 3-part installment on Mongolia. See Part 1 here.

After a wonderful introduction to Mongolia, covered in our Part 1 post, our oldest son was ready to focus on an area of interest to present on at our monthly Culture Club homeschool cooperative. In past years’ learning about Mongolia, his interests veered toward the incredible dinosaur discoveries of Roy Andrew Chapman and team (see book recommendation in the Part 1 post). But this year, he chose to focus on the Mongolian Prayer Wheel.

What’s that? Read on to learn about this fascinating prayer tool, if you will. Plus, use objects around the house to create your own! The step-by-step craft instructions follow the prayer wheel intro:

MONGOLIAN PRAYER WHEEL

Mongolian hand prayer wheel

Our oldest tender sapling found the Mongolian prayer wheel interesting from several perspectives: its design, its spiritual significance, its history, and its recent rebirth as a sign of the revival of Mongolian culture following decades of repression. Here are some of the points he enjoyed learning and sharing with the thirty other children who had each been studying Mongolia on their own: Continue Reading →


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May Day Fun: Dandelion Soup Recipe

Picking dandelions.

Picking dandelions.

You know the saying, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade?

Well, we decided to apply that to dandelions last week!

It all started when we walked outside to see a sea of dandelion blooms dotting our grass with happy, yellow splotches. It brought to mind my friend Heather’s brilliant easier-than-weeding plan to arrest the spread of the dandelions in her yard. She hired her four boys to pick them, paying them per flower.

I offered a deal that couldn’t be turned down to my two oldest boys: 1 cent per flower. They paused and I feared they would scoff at my low-ball offer. But, seeing as they have precious few opportunities to make money around these parts (something we’ve been meaning to remedy), they got busy. Pails in hand, they fanned out across the yard, hunched over in determination to rid the yard of the splashes of sunshine. (Can you tell I have mixed feelings about losing out on their beauty? Plus childhood seems so much sweeter with plenty of dandelions to make wishes on and blow their seeds into a carefree dance on a spring breeze.)

My father arrived soon after and, learning of the kids’ mission, mentioned that we should use the dandelion flowers to make soup! He had tried a dandelion soup while living in China and liked it. We had used dandelion greens in salads before, but I had a long list of to-dos that day and making dandelion soup was not high on it. Yes, I know, my father’s words can be well worth listening to, but I tried not to this time. Continue Reading →


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Migrate to Mongolia: A Tender Sapling Travelers Cultural Adventure – Part 1

This post is part of the Tender Sapling Travelers Series.

Mongolia-Vanishing CulturesOn to Mongolia, Tender Sapling Travelers! While our family had studied Mongolia in prior years, this year brought us new discoveries. We were immediately transported by the vibrant images of nomadic life in Mongolia, another Vanishing Cultures book like the one we read for Norway about the Sami peoples, also written by Jan Reynolds.

I wish I could express adequately how entranced my kids – ages 2 to 9 – are with the Vanishing Cultures books. We’re talking immediately-stop-bickering-with-your-sib-and-pile-onto-the-couch-with-smiles attraction as soon as I pulled the book out! The visuals draw the reader in to another world, making it theirs for a brief while. Life told through the eyes of a child their age helps bridge the cultural gap, filling their minds and hearts with the universal experiences of other children, in this case expressed in a Mongolian setting.

Wild Horese of MongoliaSpeaking of visuals that transport you to another place, my tender saplings also enjoyed watching Wild Horses of Mongolia. This PBS production features Julia Roberts’ journey to the steppes of Central Asia to get to know a nomadic Mongolian family and their wild horses. One of our favorite parts is Continue Reading →


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Show Love to Mother Earth this Earth Day

What will you do to show some love to Mother Earth this Monday? That’s right, Monday, April 22, 2013, marks the 43rd Earth Day – a day that has inspired people across the globe to engage in more than a billion acts of environmental goodness in the last two years alone!

This year’s theme is The Face of Climate Change. What’s the big deal about climate change? Check out this video by our oldest tender sapling for his summary of the issues.

Everyone can do something to spread green love on our planet this Monday or this weekend if that’s easier! You can keep it simple and stay home to: Continue Reading →


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Take-off to Norway: Explore the Land of the Midnight Sun

This post is part of the Tender Sapling Travelers Series.

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Chowing down on some yummy Norwegian Pannekaken!

Human nature craves warmer climates in the midst of winter, the tail end of which most of the world’s population is currently experiencing. I guess that’s why Norway’s nickname isn’t Land of the Noontime Moon (its winter personality).

As March transforms from a lion to a lamb weather-wise and as the northern hemisphere welcomes longer days of sunlight (or any at all in the case of the northern reaches of Norway), please join us in “visiting” Norway – the Land of the Midnight Sun.

This is the first stop in our new Tender Sapling Travelers Series. Each month we aim to focus on a part of our wonderful planet and its peoples. This installment will explore the original peoples of Norway, a gripping true story of bravery and love, and lots of food, with links to ethereal music and a couple of meal blessings sprinkled in. Continue Reading →

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