this weekend i spent a morning listening to Rahima Baldwin speak about bringing harmony to our homes.  she is a gentle, down to earth woman with no pretension.  she laughs easily and said that she made every mistake in the book with her own children, and that’s why she had written the book You Are Your Child’s First Teacher!  inspired by Sarah at Handmade Homeschool, i’ve been working on a mind map of her talk.  but here are a few morsels.

• children need fewer choices and more guidance.
• children love to be capable.
• create routines of helping.
• children are held by rhythm.
• mothering demands creativity.
• reverence and gratitude form the basis of the life of the spirit.

and a note about the crow picture…i took this picture at the beginning of spring, before the trees had leafed out. it’s the view out my window and across the street.  like me, these two had a new baby this spring and spent all summer fattening him up.  now the trees are bare again, and this afternoon i saw the crows sitting together companionably.

o lord my god,
make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care,
and let me by my life and speaking set forth your true and living word.
for the sake of your son Jesus,
amen.

three years old this one.  when she was new i said it felt like we had a wild animal in the house.  it was exciting and beautiful but also scary.  and that’s still how i feel around this girl.  she’s got a house big heart, a deep memory, eyes open wide.

(this picture is from late September when the swifts were flying…her nose is scarred from the big fall down the stairs and her mouth is smeared with chocolate!)

…is coming to Portland!  she will be speaking at a Waldorf school in town.  here’s a link to more information.  and here’s a link to a short YouTube clip of Rahima.  i hardly recognized her without her mullet!  her books, You Are Your Child’s First Teacher and Special Delivery, are my favorite childcare and birth books.  her writing manages to be both gentle and radical.  and her message is full of respect for mamas and for children.

what a wonderful morning!  we went to the first in a series on children’s concerts put on by the Oregon Symphony.  all about the strings.  Mabel got to talk to the cellist named Trevor, pluck the strings (they used to be made out of sheep guts, now they’re steel!), feel the vibrations on the belly of the instrument as Trevor played.

the program itself was about 30 minutes long with a nice mix of fun and information.  even though it was held in a school gym, it wasn’t over-crowded or too loud.  the musicians were friendly and enthusiastic.  and all for just $2.  we’ll be going to all of the 9:30 concerts at Peninsula Elementary.  maybe we’ll see you there!

by the by, the concerts are listed as appropriate for ages K-grade 2…Mabel is not quite three and it was great for her.  there were also older children, and they seemed to like it too.  even a babe in arms who bonked her head and got a bloody lip.  but her mama loved her up and nursed her a bit.  and she was all better!

John Holt always said that if you were interested in something, you could find someone who was working in the field and ask to learn directly from them. that learning could happen outside of formal schooling. or that the whole world could be your school.

i’m realizing that my experience–limited as it is–with building and architecture has followed just that pattern. we went out to the desert and built a cob house, learning with our bodies and our minds. and now i have an architect for a neighbor. i asked for a reading list and this is what Don sent along.  first a lovely quote about how to set about beginning, then the list of books:

You can read about architecture all day (and there’s nothing wrong with that) but, like music, architecture needs to be experienced to be appreciated.

There’s no substitution for being in great buildings. Wherever you go, there are great buildings. Drive to Mt. Angel and walk through Aalto’s library – the most wonderful building in Oregon… or Washington… or California. Take a sketchbook or a camera.

Having said that, aside from history and theory books… seek out books with photos, plans and sections… the next best thing to being there. Just photos will not give you an idea of the overall concept. Just plans and sections are too dry.

–Robert Hayden

Picture Books

Great Streets by Allan B. Jacobs                                                                                                                                                                                   Not-So-Big House by Sarah Susanka*
Rural Studio by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean & Timothy Hursley*
Architecture Without Architects by Bernard Rudofsky
Courtyards by John Reynolds*

History Books

Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling byRoss King
Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King*
The Prodigious Builders by Bernard Rudofsky
The Life & Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Theory Books

Gentle Architecture by Malcolm Wells
A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe by Christopher Alexander

see his shining knees?  they’re just at shoulder level, perfect for rubbing!  he stands watch over one of the bus terminals in Paramaribo.  each bus circles round him on their way in or out.  often he is festooned with a wreath of flowers.  a truly lovely sight in the middle of the city.

a few things that are singing to me just now…

a post written last year from Tonia at study in brown about the artistry of our everyday lives

a post written this week by Ann at Holy Experience about the every day un-doing of our work as home makers

and finally a charming animated talk by Alan Watts about music and education and the point of it all

and it’s finally October.  i’ve got The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime out from the library, and am going to be using it as a guide to my prayers.

That’s what i love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and then that tiny thing  will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book.  It’s all geometrically progressive–all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.

: Mary Ann Shaffer in Guernsey (11)

so here’s a few rabbit trails to follow…

• i started reading because of a recommendation from Melissa Wiley.  here’s a link to an open thread about The Guernsey Literary Society
• and of course after Juliet and Dawsey write so much about Charles Lamb, i had to put Tales from Shakespeare and Everybody’s Lamb on hold at the library
• and that made me remember that there’s a great essay by Anne Fadiman in At Large and At Small about Charles Lamb
• and that made me want to recommend The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, also by Fadiman.  this is an excellent, amazing and tender book about a group of Hmong refugees traveling the hard road of sickness in America.  so very important.  especially for anyone working in another culture

Andy and i were looking around our house and realized that, with the exception of our computer and Mabel’s bed, all our other furniture had been given to us.  hand-me-downs and inheritance and plain out gifts.

but a couple of weeks ago, we bought a new couch.  no, it’s not really new (third hand!).  and it’s really a futon.  but it’s new to us!  our last couch was a gift from my parents…part of a couch/loveseat/chair/footstool/endtable score.  all for $30!  but almost every day Mabel would take off the cover and wrap it around herself and dance around and then leave it all in a heap.  and i would fume.  we didn’t need to be fighting about that.  plus, we have visitors often enough that it’s nice to have a place to put them.  but my favorite thing about the couch is the wide arm rests…a perfect place to set my coffee in the morning.

more to be grateful for.