Cherry Blossom Picnic

This weekend saw our annual much-anticipated family celebration of spring, adopted from our soul- heartland Kyoto, Japan: o-hanami, the cherry blossom picnic. We have really made it our own at this stage - we are now on our third one.

The Myth of Happy Families - Why it Just Can't Work... and How You're Doing Just Fine

How's your day?

Chances are you're tired. Or beating yourself up at getting cross with a child. Or have just had to break up a fight. Or are hiding on the internet just to get five minutes peace.

Or perhaps you are feeling very chuffed because for the last half an hour everything has gone perfectly. You are, for the moment anyway, living the dream. You ARE the perfect parent.

Quick, grab The Rainbow Way for just pennies

I know many mamas are stuck for cash right now. I get emails telling me how much they want to read my new book, but it's just not affordable for them at the moment... I wish I could give every creative mama who contacts me a copy - as I KNOW how much transformation it's bringing to the women who have read it already.  Well, this is as good as I can do, and very nearly free!

The Rainbow Way is currently just 99p/ 99c from Amazon on Kindle... so grab your copy fast, and read it at your leisure, as this offer only lasts until the end of January. Grab it here Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com and regional Amazons around the world. And tell your friends!

If you have just got a new Kindle/ i Pad/ tablet/ android phone and are looking for great new books to feed it with, then snap it up at this incredible price... and please do leave me a review on Amazon when you've read it! (And if you don't have one, you should be able to download the Kindle app onto your laptop or desktop computer and read it on that!)

Not into e-books? Well the cheapest place to get a paperback copy right now is from The Book Depository - they have it at 29% off - so £11.32 and FREE world wide postage. There are also copies for a similar price (when you include postage) from Amazon marketplace in the UK.

Want to know what readers are saying about it.... then let me share some of the incredible reviews with you ...(PS If you've read it and haven't reviewed it yet, I be really honoured it you took a couple of minutes to leave a review on Amazon!)

I particularly LOVE this one from a very wonderful sounding husband...

"I ordered this book for my wife, since having our children her creativity has been stifled as she has devoted her time to being a mother. This book has re-energised her and re-ignited her creative spark, there is a twinkle back in her eye it is wonderful to see. A great buy."

         seamps, Amazon review 

"It is an amazing book with huge potential to change your life. It has dramatically altered by perception of myself as a mother ... The Rainbow Way is an exceptional experience to read and follow. I highly recommend it."

         Amanda, UK Amazon review

"I started your book last night, and I had a hard time putting it down.
I'm feeling a spark I haven't known in years bubbling to the surface- a drive that I buried. It's a feeling of recognition and relief that others feel this way, too.
It's fantastic! Thank you."

Julie, USA, by email

"Wow, I got my copy of the book today and I'm so excited! It's so chunky and looks jam-packed full of amazing stuff! This is the first book I've read of yours Lucy and I've now read the first chapter and I think I'm in love with it already... I can't wait to read more!"
Catherine, UK, by email 

"I’m so f***ing glad Lucy wrote this book. I know that she wrote it because she was told to. I know it was dictated from the heavens. I know it because I can feel it when I read her words.

When I got it, I consumed it whole within two days. I just couldn’t stop reading it. It felt like such a balm to my soul. I wish I’d had it at the beginning. I’m so glad it’s here now.

Recommended for: Mothers. Every single one of them. Seriously. I mean it.

Leonie Dawson, Australia 

Also till the end of the month you can listen to my interview on Look and Feel Great for Mothers on Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood - just sign up for free. And check out the interview with me on Jamie Ridler next week.

How Does it Feel to be Famous?

Well dear dreamers, I am practicing being famous - what with this double page spread interview feature in the regional paper... "She strikes me as a most magnificently enthusiastic, energetic and pro-active woman. She’d have to be."

And being involved with not one but two telesummits in the next two weeks...

A Look and Feel Great for Mother's Event January 11-20th.

And a Red Tent Summit for the month of February.

Do sign up and listen in - they're free - and hell you even get to SEE my pretty face in the Red Tent one! Priceless!

That's not to mention a few other really exciting collaborations big and small which I shall share with you over the next couple of weeks as they launch!

Exciting times!

I'm going to be spotted every time I buy loo paper now! I'll have to invest in some dark glasses... and a hair brush perhaps (no, relax, it's OK, I've got one of those... somewhere!)

So how does it feel to be famous?

I hardly know myself - the glitz and glamour and first class air-tickets and red carpet receptions... ah not really.

In the real world my head is so full of snot I'm amazed it's not coming out of my ears and so my brain is going snail paced, I only have one irreplaceable pair of trousers that are ripped beyond wearability, the kids have just had another dose our magic medicine for the unspeakables which means we had a girl up with tummy ache all through the night, however on the bright side I managed to bribe my way out of prinkle tantrums this week... and I'm famous I tell ya!

Same same... but different. How goes it with you?

Once in a Lifetime...

We are really in the Christmas spirit here in the Pink House, and experiencing a lot of firsts...

First yule log I've ever made. Thanks Nigella. I still love you. It was so good.

The first pony ride either girl has ever had. They were SO patient waiting their turn. Yes, they are bare legs! Prinkles!

Me and my book baby. And my real life babies. In the biggest bookstore in Cork City. Withmy book on display. Signed by the author! The Rainbow Way is still pre-order only on Amazon, and has been their Hot New Release all week in the motherhood genre on Amazon.co.uk, where it reached #17. It was outselling The Artist's Way 5 to 1 on Kindle this morning on Amazon.com, And has been in the top 40 in Crafts too! I am simply blown away! I have heard that Leonie is going to feature it as one of her top books of 2013. And the publishers have had enquiries about foreign rights! 

I was also sought out by a regional paper for an interview. There will be a feature on  me in the Evening Echo next week.

As we were leaving the shop we saw my dad's book in the FRONT WINDOW of Waterstones!

Then off to the Ferris Wheel. Another first for our kids. I've not been on one for many years. It was superb fun.


A once in a life time experience, he said...

The city lights were coming on below us...

The girls loved it too!

Then off to the Winter Wonderland in the park next door, done by the truly wonderful Doutcha theatre/ puppet company. Fairy doors in the walls, the trees lit up, live elves and fairies hiding behind trees. 

Truly magical.

 This is the stuff that dreams are made of!

Merry Christmas...  we're celebrating already!

My Creative Inheritance

Welcome to Week Three of the month-long Carnival of Creative Mothers to celebrate the launch of The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood
by Lucy H. Pearce. 

Today's topic is Creative Inheritance. Do read to the end of this post for a full list of carnival participants. 

Join the Carnival and be in with a chance to win a free e-copy of The Rainbow Way! Next week is our final week!
December 11th: The Creative Process.

**********

Many parents work themselves to the bone for years to be able to "leave something" for their children. I have been fortunate to have received my inheritance whilst I was still young, and without the loss of my parents.

They have given me a creative inheritance richer than money could buy.

Let me tell you a little about the keys of my creative childhood - the dusty smell of clay and hot parrafin wax in my father's pottery, the golden orbs of Pat Scott's paintings suspended on the rough white walls of the house my father designed and built, my grandmother's button box which I would sift my fingers through, a mother who can sew just about anything, and baked beautifully plaited harvest loaves. And the solace of books which could transport me away from bickering parents and noisy siblings and the terror of not knowing what to say, into other worlds, and bring ideas like butterflies to alight in my mind direct from the minds of others I might never meet though my soul was cut from the same cloth as theirs.

Let me tell you about living in houses whose walls were lined with the most interesting range of books a girl's mind could imagine - art, tantra, spirituality, literature, humour, grammar, gardening, cookery... all accessible. Of houses filled with interesting objects brought back from exotic global travel, objet d'arts, of craft being a part of everyday life - the bowls, glasses, tables and chairs  that we used everyday all handmade, treasured, but never precious.

Let me tell you about my family and their friends who earned a living doing what they loved, who started successful businesses and ventures creating beautiful things: pottery, glass, wood work, furnishings, portraits, food... People who lived lives according to their own rules, in homes designed to their own tastes - some wealthy, some not, but all living their lives on their own creative terms, as best they could.

This is what I hope we are passing on to our children in our turn. This creative legacy which I was so fortunate to have inherited: beauty, possibility; hard work doing what you love; courage; inspiration; the desire to contribute to a more beautiful world. Of being so immersed in creativity that it is as natural and essential as breathing to make something, appreciate something, plan and build and vision and create, in whatever medium or field calls their heart at that moment.

And they are. Already they are.

Building models, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, dreaming, designing, writing books, playing music every day as naturally as breathing. Making ad re-making the world in their own images. Writing and re-writing their own life stories.

My dearest wish for them is that they carry it on into adulthood with them. My job as a creative mother is to inspire, equip and stand guard so that the arbiters of boring life will not take a jot of it away from them.

**********

25% off ALL Lucy's books, 4th Dec only. Use code RAINBOW25.

ORDER YOUR SIGNED COPY of 

The Rainbow Way direct from the author and receive:

• exclusive access to a private Facebook group for creative mothers
• a vibrant greetings card and book-mark of one of the author's paintings.

Kindle and paperback editions from Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Book Depository, Barnes and Noble

Or order from your local bookshop.

• Carnival host and author of The Rainbow Way, Lucy at Dreaming Aloud celebrates her creative fairy godmothers, and gives thanks for the creative blessings that each has gifted her.
• In 'From Trash To Treasure: Christmas Decoration' Laura from Authentic Parenting shares fond memories crafting with her mom and a little project her mom did recently. 
• Lucy Pierce from Soulskin Musings celebrates the rich creative inheritance of her mother's poetic soul and artful ways. 
• Is thinking differently a curse or a gift? Zoie at TouchstoneZ susses out whether her family legacy might hinder or encourage creativity.
• Pippa at Story of Mum says she is: "Thanking my mum for the gift of dance. I am not a dancer, but her love for dance showed me how to connect to my creative core."
• Dawn Collins at TheBarefootHome Dawn thinks we're all born with a creative inheritance from the mother we all share…Mother Nature.
• Licia Berry at Illumined Arts reflects on the creative inheritance passed on by our ancestral lineage, discovered through sexuality and the Sacred Feminine within, and her own amazing recovery.
• Alex at The Art of Birth explores the nature of creativity. 
• Handcrafts are prayers, that's what Corina from PatchScrap learned from grandmother.
• Jennifer at Let Your Soul Shine retraces her creative inheritance from her childhood and all the way back to the 19^th Century.  
• Kirstin at Listening to the Squeak says "I have always known my creative inheritance and it is so very important for my children to know theirs."
• Creative Inheritance is a Beautiful Thing, says Aimee at Creativeflutters and discusses where her creativity comes from and what influences in her family have helped her on her artistic journey. 
• Georgie at Visual Toast shares her creative inheritance.
• Esther at Nurture Workshop expresses the gift of a creative mind and the doors that are waiting to be opened for those who are willing to explore.
• Whitney Freya at Creatively Fit is inspired by the sacred spark within each of us, a spark that transcends time and is infinitely creative.
• Denise at It Begins with a Verse  looks back at her family's creative inheritance.
• Lys at Stars and Spirals looks at the creative inheritance as described by the astrological chart, drawing on her personal journey into motherhood and reawakened creativity.
• Biromums wrote poems about their creative inheritance.
• Kae at The Wilde Womb reflects on the various artists within her family and how it has shaped her identity and what impression she wishes to leave her own children. 
• Marit's Paper World shares her creative inheritance.
• Lucy at Capture by Lucy  reflects on her experiences of creativity.
• Knitting blankets and the inner landscape--my mother's life's work, writes Nicki from Just Like Play. 
• Something Sacred - Sadhbh at Where Wishes Come From writes about how the creativity of the women in her family has influenced her.
• Mamma Bloom at Breathe and Bloom writes about her creative inheritance.
• Mama is Inspired shares how she loved to make holiday ornaments as a child, and now is continuing that tradition with her own child.
• Ali Baker is a creative mama to twin girls who reignited her creative energy and sense of who she used to be by just doing it and creating whatever needs to be created in an imperfect way. 
• KatyStuff hopes inheritance is a long way off, but, when the day comes her woodworker father has already said he is comforted by knowing his work is in so many homes.
• Jasmine at Brown Eyed Girl realizes that the creativity she craves for so deeply may actually be something that runs deeper than just her imagination.
• Darcel at The Mahogany Way shares her creative journey.
• Rising on the Road shares her experiences at Finding Life in a Death.

Nurturing a Family Culture of Creativity

Welcome to Week One of the month-long Carnival of Creative Mothers to celebrate the launch of The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood
by Lucy H. Pearce. 

Today's topic is Nurturing a Culture of Creativity at Home. Do read to the end of the post for a full list of carnival participants.

Join the Carnival and be in with a chance to win a free e-copy of The Rainbow Way!
November 27th: Creative Heroines.
December 4th: Creative Inheritance.
December 11th: The Creative Process.

**********

One of the best bits of having children around is having the “excuse” and the materials on hand to be creative almost all the time! And what is more, we have companions who do not know the rules, who have imagination and energy by the bucket-load.

We have the chance for a second bite of the cherry of childhood. Being a parent gives us so many wonderful opportunities every day to connect with our own creativity again. It allows us to explore a huge variety of art forms that in the adult world we are cut off from because we are not “good enough” to indulge in them, which make the human spirit soar: singing, dancing, storytelling, improvisation, clowning, painting, sculpting, collage, playing percussion, dressing up, puppet shows, model making…the list is endless!

Our role as parents cultivating creativity, as I see it, is four-fold:

• First to provide a rich environment – not necessarily of expensive paints and costumes, but basic materials.
• Second, to step back and see how they intuitively choose to use them and join them in this.
• Third, to share ways that we know to use these materials, and share our skills with them.
• And fourth to model our own creative process to them – both by letting them see “behind the scenes” in our creative lives, to share how our creative process works, and allow them to see us fully absorbed in it.

Creating together is not just about today’s painting or model, but about setting the tone and feeling for your child’s experience of creativity for the rest of their lives. When we can see it as a privilege to engage creatively with our children, our time together becomes richer and more rewarding for us and them.

Nurturing a culture of creativity allows your child to regularly experience autotelic experiences (those which enable a flow state). Csikszentmihaly’s research into flow states found that: "early childhood influences are also very likely factors in determining whether a person will or will not easily experience flow."

So in creating a culture of creativity, not only are you passing on valuable skills, confidence in their own creative ideas and abilities, but you are helping to wire their brains to more easily experience optimal experiences for the rest of their lives.

A culture of creativity honors and requires:

• Space for silence to bloom: for concentrated work, and contemplation.
• Space for sharing our voices, visions, experiences and dreams.
• Appreciation and enjoyment of the process, not judgment of works in progress.
• Courage and respect for trying new things. Being allowed to like them…or not.
• A need for responsibility.
• A time for mess!
• A respect of basic safety guidelines and rules.
• Prioritizing fun.
• Support for developing abilities.
• The understanding that creativity has an intrinsic value, beyond its extrinsic practical worth.
• Self-reliance.
• Dreams, possibility and the fully-fledged imagination.
• Celebration – of big festivals and small mysteries, and knowing how to mourn the losses and failures too.

When we choose to nurture a culture of creativity, we commit to giving our children the support and appreciation necessary for the breathtaking unfolding of their unbounded intellectual, aesthetic, collaborative and imaginative capacities.

We show them that we are responsible for creating our own lives and that we can have a direct impact on every area of them. Our creativity can be used to create our living spaces, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the gifts we give to each other. But most of all we share directly with them that life is good, and that joy, celebration and beauty are to be nurtured and treasured – that life is not all work, hardship, suffering, nor should it be dominated by practicality and money-making. 

Through nurturing creativity we give our children the practical and emotional skills to be productive, engaged authors of their own destinies. 

**********
**********

ORDER YOUR SIGNED COPY of  The Rainbow Way! and grab your free extras  (first 200 orders only!): - exclusive access to a private Facebook group for creative mothers - a vibrant greetings card and book-mark of one of the author's paintings. Kindle and paperback editions from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com Book Depository, Barnes and Noble or order it from your local bookshop!

• Carnival host and author of The Rainbow Way, Lucy at Dreaming Aloud shares an extract from the chapter Nurturing a Family Culture of Creativity.
• Lilly Higgins is a passionate food writer. Now a mother of two boys, she's discovered a new calling: to instil in them a love of food and creativity in the kitchen.
• DeAnna L'am shares how visioning the New Year with your child is an invitation to be inspired: use creativity and resolutions to create a fun road map for the year ahead.
• Molly at Talk Birth on Releasing Our Butterflies - balancing motherhood with creativity.
• Laura shares some of the creativity happening at Nestled Under Rainbows and a few thoughts about creativity.
• Georgie at Visual Toast celebrates her own unique culture of creativity at home.
• Esther at Nurtureworkshop spreads the love of the ordinary, the delights of everyday things that can be an adventure of the imagination.
• For Dawn at The Barefoot Home creativity is always a free form expression to be shared by all in a supportive environment where anything can be an art material.
• Naomi at Poetic Aperture is a mother, artist and photographer who tries to keep her daughter away from the expensive pens and paints.
• Aimee at Creativeflutters writes about keeping your sanity and creativity intact with small kids in the house in her post: Mother + Creativity - They Must Coexist.
• Amelia at My Grandest Adventure embarks on a 30 Days of Creativity challenge...you can too!
• Becky at Raising Loveliness explores creating with her smaller family members.
• Jennifer at Let Your Soul Shine reveals how children help us connect to our souls, through music and movement.
• Mary at The Turquoise Paintbrush shares her experiences of creating with kids.
• Joanna at Musings of a Hostage Mother explains why creativity at home is important to her in her post "I nurture a creative culture."
• It took until Amy at Mama Dynamite was pregnant aged 35 to discover her dormant creative streak - she has found lovely ways of tuning into it every since.
• Emily at The Nest explores how creativity runs through her family's life together.
• Jennifer at OurMuddyBoots sees that encouraging creativity in children is as simple as appreciating them for who they are: it just means overriding everything we know!
• Lisa from Mama.ie has discovered that a combination of writing and traditional crafts can provide a creative outlet during those busy early years of new motherhood.
• Anna at Biromums shares what nurturing a culture of creativity means to her.
• Zoie at TouchstoneZ argues that the less they are interfered with, the more creative children become as they grow up.
• Darcel at The Mahogany Way celebrates creating with her kids.
• Sally (aka The Ginger Ninja) of The Ginger Chronicles is continually inspired by her own mum and grandmother.
• Just being creative is enough, says Nicki at Just Like Play, as she ponders her journey of nurturing a creative family.
• Allurynn shares her creative family's musings in her post "Creativity... at the Heart of it" on Moonlight Muse.
• Laura at Authentic Parenting explores how being creative saves her sanity.
• Mama is Inspired talks about how she puts an emphasis on the handmade in her home, especially in the holiday season.
• Kirstin at Listen to the Squeak Inside shares with you several easy ways for busy mamas and dads to encourage their children to be creative every day.
• Mila at Art Play Day always lived in her dreams, sleepwalking through life ... now she is finding out what creativity is all about.... her inner child!
• Sadhbh at Where Wishes Come From describes how picture books can nurture creativity in young children.
• On womansart blog this week - nurturing a creative culture at home.

The Wait is Over... It's Here!!!!!

THE WAIT IS OVER!

I know, it feels like forever... but it's finally here!

THE RAINBOW WAY!!!!! My book baby. The biggest book I've ever written - over 2 1/2 times the pages and almost 4 times the words of Moon Time. The Rainbow Way is 335 pages of life-changing glorious words, ideas, exercises, reflections and support which are about to be let loose on the world and I am so excited I can barely contain myself. I keep reminding myself it's "just" a book. 

But who I am kidding? 

It is SO much more! It's massive in every way! It is pure creative energy, insight and inspiration in page form. It's the book that changed my life in the writing of it. Totally transformed me, from depressed stay at home mama to the rainbow coloured creative entrepreneur you see glowing before you.

I am SO excited that you can finally ORDER YOUR VERY OWN COPY NOW! And then tell me what YOU think about it, and how it's transforming YOUR life. Do leave reviews on Amazon or email them to me! It's available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk too! W

ant to know what glory stuff is packed into it? Check out the list of contents and extracts.

"Is this is the creative rainbow mama book?" people keep asking me - yes, yes, yes it is!

It's the very first book I started writing... and the most recent book I have written. It's been two and a half FULL years. This book has carried me from aspiring writer through self-published to now published author. 

This is the book that when I am skating on the edge of burn out refer myself back too. Or when I am feeling uninspired and all dried up, or frustrated with the creative process. It is my go-to guide... even though I wrote it! How mad is that - to read your own book? 

But don't just take my word for it. Read what some of my biggest creative heroines have said about it - their words of praise for it leave me truly breathless.

Wow, look a nice, shiny BUY NOW button. I dare you to press it... butterflies will fly out of your computer screen... 

Wow! Magic! ... Well not now... but when you open its pages. So say the women who've already gotten their hands on a copy.

Buy one for yourself, for your sister, your best friend, your grown up daughter, put it on your Christmas wishlist!

The first 200 copies are signed and include:

• an inspiring book-mark
• a vibrant greetings card of one of my paintings (you can even put in a request for your favourite!!)
• exclusive access to private Facebook group for creative mothers. 

But even more exciting there is a SPECIAL BONUS GIFT!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember when I was designing covers for it? Well 10 4 lucky customers will receive an original labyrinth mono-print that I made (7x5 inches). Each picture is totally unique, and naturally quite rainbow-ish. (*Orders number 1,12, 25,38, 52, 71, 84 and 99 and the first 2 orders of 2+ copies will all receive a print!)

I'll see you over in our secret hang out on Facebook - there are already nearly 50 women there: it is a supportive place to network, meet other creative mamas, find resources and get inspired. After the busyness of the launch I will be doing some group projects in there too!

And don't forget to join us for the online launch - 4 glorious weeks of creative mothers around the world writing about nurturing creativity, creative heroines, creative inheritance and the creative process, linking up in blog land... starting tomorrow!!! We have over 70 women from around the world signed up already! You can find out more and JOIN US here!

PS. Kindle and paperbacks editions are available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com too - I just don't make much of a living from them. (Please do leave me a review!)

Paperback editions are also stocked by Book Depository, Barnes and Noble...or order it from your local bookshop!

ISBN: 978-1-78279-028-0
ebook ISBN: 978-1-78279-027-3

Tender

Yesterday a lovely blog reader shared a comment on my post about doing battle with my daughter:

"I know this scene! We can do that dance. Just last night. Afterwards my daughter made me a card, carefully cut out with coloured in love hearts and best handwriting "To Mum, mum loves me, I love mum" (oh!) and sweet words, connection, understanding. This love is so huge. "

Reading it, a rather profound thought just occurred to me - maybe the fight beforehand is a way of tenderising us, like the way we bash meat with a mallet to make it less tough.

Perhaps anger, battles and even hate are the best way the Universe knows of opening us fully to love. Of taking away our defences, leaving us standing there vulnerable and open so that love can just pour in. So that we can really feel it to the tips of our toes, really feel how big and true it is, so that we can, even if just for a moment, have our entire beings taken over by love, and feel the most profound connection - made even more special by knowing how it feels to be absent from it and have come so close to losing it.

Imagine.

I think it might just be true!

And if it is, it means that everything that comes between us is just interference in the bandwidth of pure love flowing between us all.

The Matador

"I love you mummy," she whispers in the dark. Warm body curled into mine.

I am the matador. She the bull. We have danced our dance. Her horns, my red cape. Swirling, skidding, almost colliding, side stepping. The chance of a goring always close.

Ten minutes earlier a scream in the dark. Full throated. A mama who had reached the end of a very long tether, of side stepping and distracting this bull child who has been needling for a fight for days. Like seeding rain clouds she finds some inner relief in it, it seems.

But it is exhausting, this battle of wills and patience.

It has taken every tactic I know to keep a smile on my face and the show on the road. We have had not a threat, nor a raised voice from the matador. Tights have been adjusted and readjusted for half an hour at a time. Every morning. And blankets. Multiple times. Every night. And everything else has been done and redone for her. Until finally, and suddenly, red. Enough. Scream.

The horns were there ready to gore me. My weakness finally exposed. "You hate your children," her voice crows, triumphant. No, no, no I don't, I say inside and out. Just this matador's body and brain are tired. There is no more fight, nor patience left in me.

A retreat. I am followed. An explanation. And back into bed. Together. In stony silence and blackness. Broken by a kiss. "I love you Mummy," she says.

Prinkle Karma

"My tights are too tight," she wails, "They've got prinkles!"
Legs thrashing she lies on the floor. Distraught with discomfort.

What are prinkles? you ask.

Fucking karma, that's what it is.

Invisible fucking botherances which require an hour of smoothing and stretching and un-stretching, and taking on and off and on and off of tights and boots and socks and shoes looking for a magic fix. And humour and ultimatums, and alternatives and every other fucking trick in the book.

And all the while remembering another little girl lying on the floor, almost three decades ago, thrashing, hating my clothes. And my dear mother doing the best she could. Morning after morning. Keeping it together, most of the time. And I channel that love and patience, and memory and compassion for my five year old self, and keep it together... most of the time.

I never wore trousers till I was 8 (and I still rarely do!) I hated ANYTHING tight, or scratchy. I had one pair of baggy blue knickers that I wore endlessly, which must have been silently washed and dried at night in secret, much as we now do with karma child's favourite pink (now nearly grey) dress that she wore for the ENTIRE summer holidays. I was happiest running naked, and every picture of me during the summer from baby hood to aged 7 is entirely naked. I thought that was the norm in the 80s... until I noticed every other child, in every other picture was clothed. Karma child would be happiest in her pink dress, no knickers and flip flops. Even in the middle of winter.

Image: inhabitots.com

We try as best we can to find compromises. And I have told her that come adulthood she can emigrate somewhere year-round sunny, so she can live in her outfit of choice. But till then we have to find a way of getting round school uniforms and Irish winters that doesn't kill us all.

Ah karma. My butt is well and truly bitten. EAAAAAAARGGGGGHHHHHHHHH IT PRINKLES!!!!!

Mindful Nurturing: Play

Play... sometimes we set up activities, sometimes it spontaneously evolves. Pants super heroes. Cardboard box rockets. Yesterday, here at the Pink House, we had SO much fun with our new glue gun! And using a white pen to create white on black zentangles.

But for those days when you - or your kids -  feel uninspired, let me offer up this amazing new e-bundle up at my affiliate partner: the Mindful Play eBundle. This bundle contains 9 play-oriented e-resources, plus 3 phenomenal bonuses and is on sale only until October 3. SALE EXTENDED TO MONDAY 7TH OCTOBER!

There's a little something for everyone, geared to kids from ages 1 to 12: coloring pages, a yoga story book, mandala drawing initiation, treasure baskets, modeling play, and much more.

Click here to visit Mindful Nurturing.

 Here's a bit more about the exciting contents:

• 
  Alphabet Glue, by Annie of Bird and Little Bird: Alphabet Glue is a downloadable e-magazine for families who love books. Filled with activities, printables, projects, and plenty of inspiration, Alphabet Glue was created in hopes of helping more families incorporate creativity, imagination and all things literary into their everyday routines. Each issue contains leveled book recommendations organized by theme, bookmaking tutorials, story-building activities, and hands-on projects that complement favorite titles in children's literature. From stories to science experiments, Alphabet Glue has a little something for everyone. This bundle includes two fall-themed issues: Volume 9 and Volume 14 —Â Fold functional paper periscopes for amateur espionage and make simple plant presses. Sail a fleet of tiny sailboats and learn a bit about surface tension in the process. Reflect on the shape of rain drops, and create a bit of refrigerator-ready art while you're at it. Make bouncy balls out of laundry room staples and handy office supplies, and spend a bit of time thinking about how fossils are formed before trying your hand at making your own. All this and more in two fun- and story-filled volumes!

• 
  Mandala Doodles, by Sara McGrath of Unschooling Lifestyle: Learn to draw mandala doodles. With something round to trace, pens, and an eye for discovering the patterns around you, you can draw round mandala doodles and non-circular doodle designs.Click here to visit Mindful Nurturing.

• 
• Mudworks: Creative Clay, Dough and Modeling Experiences for Kids, by MaryAnn Kohl: Mudworks offers a delightful range of over 100 hands-on creative modeling mixtures and recipes for children to explore and experience. Kids like to call it the goosh and moosh book! All projects use common household materials and require no expertise. Ideal for fun or serious art for all ages, at home, school, or childcare. A classic!

• 
  Treasure Basket Play, by Melitsa Avila of Raising Playful Tots: Treasure Basket Play shows you step by step how to effectively and safely set up and use a treasure basket in your home today that will engage and challenge your baby each time the basket is used. Treasure basket play is suitable for sitting babies to approximately 12 months.

• 
  How To Fool Your Kids Into Having Fun So You Can: Travel Games Without Gadgets, by Iyas of Freaky Rivet: Born out of 6 months of travel with the author's own 4 children, How to Fool Your Kids Into Having Fun So You Can is an ebook packed with over 100 games for travelling without gadgets. These are not just your standard car or plane games, but also ones to keep them amused in restaurants, hotel lobbies, boats, and all kinds of places you might find yourself. Some will educate them along the way; most are just outright fun. And it doesn't have to be in some far-flung continent — they are just as useful even at your local deli. You could give your kids an electronic game — but this way you can give them some good old-fashioned fun interacting with people and the environment around them. Bring your sense of humour, and dive in.

• 
  Animal ABCs, by Carisa of 1+1+1=1: Animal ABCs is a fun way to take your toddler or preschooler through the alphabet while learning about animals along the way. Each letter features one animal that emphasizes the sound of the letter. Animal ABCs was created for children approximately ages 2-4 years. The bundle includes: Full-size display letters, full-size blank letters and animals to cut for craft, package of printable extras for each letter, all flashcards, all extra additions (Dot Fun, Play Dough Mats, Wall Posters, & Lowercase Letters). Once you purchase, you have access to a private page and you can come back and download anything new that's added!

• 
  Summer Fun, by Joni Rae Latham of Tales of a Kitchen Witch: This is a 15-page coloring book PDF with natural-parenting line drawings by Joni Rae Latham. The drawings depict different families having fun in the summer with scenes including cosleeping, breastfeeding, tandem breastfeeding, and babywearing.

• 
  Sophia's Jungle Adventure, by Giselle Shardlow of Kids Yoga Stories: Join Sophia's jungle adventure! Fly like a toucan, slither like a snake, and flutter like a butterfly as you act out this journey through a Costa Rican jungle. What else might you see? Follow along with Sophia's story and her yoga moves. The storybook includes a List of Kids Yoga Poses and a Parent-Teacher Guide.
Click here to visit Mindful Nurturing.

Sensory Bins: the What, the How and the Why, by Sharla Kostelyk of The Chaos and the Clutter: Sensory bins are a simple and inexpensive learning tool that can benefit all children. Whether you are interested in incorporating sensory bins into your home, classroom, or homeschool, this guide will provide you the necessary knowledge and ideas to get started. It includes idea lists, storage and money saving tips, information on using sensory bins with Sensory Processing Disorder, and helpful recipes.

PLUS, three exciting bonuses:

• 12 play-themed coloring pages, by Hugo Smits:These coloring pages are a playful example of how Hugo combines his attached parenting style with his passion.
• Playful Rituals eBook and a Sample eCourse, by Shawn Ledington Fink,author of The Playful Family
• Audio interview with industry expert on treasure baskets, via Melitsa Avila

Inspire your family to grow closer together as you foster your creativity and playfulness!

***Read more about the resources here, and then get your bundle today for only $14.95, at over 80% off a retail value of $74. It's available only until October 3, so hurry!

Click here to visit Mindful Nurturing. 

Buying this bundle supports this site! I am very grateful.

Kid-speak

My brother called cucumber "bocum" when he was two. He has just turned 20 and the whole family still calls it bocum!

This post is a celebration of kid-speak. Those precious words, you know, the ones your child makes up, or muddles up, that bring such a freshness to language that your family repeats them for years? I just love them!

In the haze of the last few years intensity, I do not remember many neologisms from our elder two children, I'm sure I stashed them away on a scrap of paper at the bottom of their file in the filing cabinet. The only ones I remember are Timmy's ham-pine car-vester, and then pine cone harvester for combine harvester.

And Merrily's wonderful phrase which she still uses: "I'm true" - which means I'm telling the truth. But I just love that turn of phrase - I'm true!

But at three Ash is in full flow and has so many sweet ones that I want to share and remember here.

For about a year she called an elephant a sur-lap. That took a lot of figuring out - but we all call them that now!

Dogglers are what she calls goggles - my heart just melts every time she asks me to put her dogglers on - it's like proper BFG-speak.

Now, where be your dogglers, little girl? 

And then yesterday she asked Patrick to take her badger off. She meant her badge of course, but my mind was conjuring up images of cute black and white furry creatures!

In our household female gentalia is called a yoni - but the way she says it sounds like own-y - which is rather lovely - my own-y, as in my very own special part of me. And friend's son calls his genetalia peanuts - a great combination of penis and nuts!

And yesterday she was telling me that they were playing with a power suit at play school, it took me a while to realise that she meant parachute!

And then of courses there's Paptin Hook.  Who sounds much less scary than the real pirate captain!


Please do share your family's kid-speak below! I can't wait to hear their funny, creative uses of language!

Emotional Stew with Dumplings on Top

My feelings are all of a muddle.

I had been warned by mothers a-plenty that this would happen. But, in the way we all get through life, I had decided that it wouldn't happen to me. That I would be different. I was, after all, exempt from the emotions of other mere mortals.

Yeah right!

So the morning that I have been longing for for almost 4 years arrives. Ash started playschool today. And now all three kidlets are in school/ playschool five mornings a week.

Am I dancing on the rooftops?

Nope. My mama heart is broken open, sad and lonely. Echoes of silence mock my glee at being alone. I go to a cafe to be fed and have company.

I am sad.

But I know I will be happy.

I feel empty, but know I will be fuller and richer as a result.

I am an emotional stew with dumplings on top!

Change, change, change. That is the only constant in this life. We long for it... then suffer through it. And never learn. As stifling as the present moment usually is, the future is often emptier. Emptiness opens up space for potential new growth. But it is only when we have the space that we see how much we are attached to the past that we struggled with.

Teachings from the Buddha Boy

My boy, only just eight, has been sharing incredible wisdom and insight with me the last couple of weeks. I keep being completely in awe of what comes out of his mouth. Words that have brought pricks of proud tears to my eyes.

I'd  love to write something inspiring and eloquent about it - but I am busy on a lot of other things at the mo, and also don't want to overshadow his voice - I shall share his insight with you in his words.

The first instance we were driving down the road and the teenage lads were hanging out in the middle of the road. I rolled my eyes and muttered under my breath about what a stupid place it was to hang out and he says: "They just haven't found their path yet". Boom!

Another day we were talking about his feelings about going back to school. He's grown his hair, and we told him he needed some way to keep it off his face for games and reading etc. He decided on a bandanna, but was concerned the other kids would laugh. We talked a little about what he could say to them if they did. And I told him that if he was going to choose to be a bit different in life, he was going to come across this feeling many times hence forth. And he says: "But we're all different. It's important that we're different. If we were all the same there wouldn't be enough things for us all to do." I paraphrase - he was much more eloquent.

And three, I was talking about how I'd met a nice mum at the school gates, and how often I felt quite uncomfortable talking to the other mums cos they were looking at me, making judgements about my differentness and he said, I kid you not: "But you should ask them: "Do you know who I am?" And who am I? I asked, thinking he was going to say "Stephen Pearce's daughter". But no, you know what my boy said? "Lucy H Pearce, the writer." (With a special emphasis on the H). Oh yes. I am Lucy H Pearce the writer, so don't give me no shit school mamas!

And finally, you may remember me last week asking for your recommendations for books for my boy's spiritual education at school, whilst his classmates were preparing for their holy communion. I sent him in with something Ok-ish and said I was on the case, just hadn't found anything great yet. And you know what my wise, clever, inspired boy said. Something that had never occurred to me. Just so matter of fact: "But you can write me a book, mum". Just like that.

So I am!

Changing Gear

We are changing gears.

School is back tomorrow. And our littlest starts pre-school.

Five mornings a week. Three hours a day. Can you believe it? I can't!

I genuinely never thought this day would come. I see the mornings opening up for me. I will get to work every day. Every day, people!!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled my creative self is. (Though I'm being realistic and not counting on this actually happening for the first month as she settles in!)

And then the mama bit of me feels it's the beginning of the end. How can my baby be big enough to head off? I keep holding her tight - that sparky, funny, cute, clever little monkey child. She's off on her little way into LIFE without me!

My mind keeps jumping ahead to next year, when we'll be sending all THREE of them off to big school. I can hardly breathe at the thought... but part of that is the expense - nothing... nothing prepared me for how expensive it is to send children to a supposedly "free" school in Ireland - we're looking at about a grand next year - and that includes one child in handmedowns! Scary!

So having spent nine weeks getting used to having them round all day, every day, we'll be back to packed lunches and early mornings and uniforms, and remembering which day to send them in with their sports kits, and hassling over homework.

And quiet days and a tidy house. Time to think, and be still and not race and rush... until I'm late for picking them up... again.

So there we have it, less mama-ing and more creating - eeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkk!

More time to be doing stuff like this...

This is part of the Irish Parenting Bloggers Back to School blog march. If you’re interested in how much it costs to go back to school in Ireland you can read this excellent infographic from Barnardos which is based on a survey they carried out earlier this Summer. You can also read from the selection of Irish Parenting Bloggers over the next couple of days:
Sunday, 25th August: The Clothesline – It All Adds Up
Monday, 26th August: The Mama’s Hip – Homeschooling haul and chatter
Monday, 26th August: Awfully Chipper – Back to school in America
Tuesday, 27th August: Learner Mama – Back to school – A costly business
Tuesday, 27th August: Office Mum – School Costs & The Double Income Contradicton

Tuesday, 27th August: Musings And Chatterings – Crests and costs – starting big school part 1