How not to write new years resolutions.

How not to write new years resolutions:

1. I must not eat chocolate.
2. I must not waste my time.
3. I must not let my kid watch TV.

Then you can have a private little guilt spa and swim in the stuff when you break them all.

How to write new years resolutions:

1. This year I will improve my health by making home cooked meals and....
2. This year I will do 5 pages a week of the book l always wanted to write.
3. This year I will play with my kid for an hour a day, even when I have a lot of work on.

I hope that helps, I'm not pretending to be an expert on anything (except perhaps textile design) but I thought this might be useful to someone.

Happy New Year!
Xxx

Don't do the dishes, create art!

A few years ago I realized that I tended to do things in the reverse order to there true importance.

So I always washed the dishes, worked for money, bought and maintained material possessions and, if I had time left over I would, create art, play with my kid, seek enlightenment and plan for my families long term happiness.

You will be glad to hear that, although l have not made many life style changes, I have hardly ever kept up with the dishes since then! :)

Don't worry about the small stuff, like politics!

Don't worry about the small stuff, like politics!

In or out the EU, or to Trump or not-to-trump. These are not the leaders who change the wide landscapes for the people of earth. Their arguments over the minutiae of laws will be fleeting. Great thinkers, artists and inventors change the landscape for us all. People like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Josiah Wedgwood change our lives in meaningful or lasting ways.

Teach your children tolerance, teach your friends too, by example. Love all the people you can, near and far, as fiercely as you can, and defend true loving thinkers where you find them. Those things change the world. X

Children, nightmares and sleep

I thought I would share something about sleep.

My daughter is 7 but still didn't sleep well, she tended to have nightmares and wake 2 or 3 times many nights.

We already eat hardly any sugar and no artificial sweeteners, so I knew it wasn't that keeping her up. Also I give her calcium, magnesium, potassium and B1 in balance, which also effect sleep.

A couple of months ago I found out protein and sleep are related, I didn't know. I knew kids needed lots of protein to grow but now I looked into how much, way more than I thought.

My 20kg daughter needs 18 to 37 grams a day. That's like a medium sized stake a day.

Also I started checking packets and counting up grams, turns out cottage pie is only about 6 grams of protein per 100 grams, yogurt is equally useless but nuts and cheese are mostly pretty good. You really have to look to get up to 18 to 37 grams a day.

Well today I actually had to wake my daughter for school, not because she had jet lag, not because she had been up 3 times with nightmares but because she slept 11 hours peacefully! It's just about a first ever!

She is also better behaved, calmer, studies better and does not have tantrums (not that she was bad to begin with.)

I got the exact information about how much protein is enough from the site at the end of this post, but basically for every kg your kid weighs you need at least a gram of protein a day.

http://macekingsley.com/tantrums-round-2/

Talking about God and death with a seven year old.

Talking about God and death with a seven year old....

Yesterday a kid in my daughters class announced suddenly that "God is not real".

Today on the school run Jasmine asked me what I believe, and I found my self trying to explain the difference between the idea that God is that beardy man in the sky, who says if you are allowed to come to his party or not, and the idea that God is a word for the part in all of us that can love and does not die, and the connection between us.

The ground was littered with seeds so I picked one up and said, imagine the seed is your body and my hand is you. "You can tell the seed to hug mummy and it hugs mummy...it does what you want". I got another and we made them hug. I talked about my hands, "this part can't be seen or touched, but it's you, it does all the thinking and loving and it does not die when you die, this part in all of us and the connection between these parts is what I think God is." I let the seeds go to demonstrate death and as they twirled softly to the ground leaving my hands totally unchanged in the autumn sunshine I felt a whole lot of relief myself, from the loss of people who have died in my life.

This is the unexpected magic of children, they make you think, feel and look newly every day.

p.s. I really don't intend to put down anyone else's religion with this post, all mankind's spiritual ideas are treasures and valid.

Christmas, is peace on earth too sickly sweet for us?

My Christmas card to you:

Happy Christmas! Peace on earth!

So it's Christmas and the plan is to pump up the tire round my middle and be a consumer right? Oh, and makeover some pagan rituals to fit some other religions too!

Well it's also about an end to war. Peace on Earth, it's so unreal feeling a goal that saying it sounds corny, but it shouldn't. We really can stop spilling the blood of innocents on a massive scale, what's more we must.

Nostredame's predictions are vague and much translated but he more or less said that when we make it through the current chaos and war (in about 10 years from now) we will have peace for a 1000 years.

I don't really believe in predictions, I think mankind's fate is in everyone's hands every single day, but I do think we will get past war one day.

I'm making a donation to the charity I think best serves the goal of an end to war. I really believe it will be a reality in the not too distant future.

I'm blessed with a loving family, wonderful friends, and peace in my country of origin, and the country where I live. My children are safe in our home. I wish you the same this Christmas.

Happy Christmas. Love Kirsteen xxx

Good verses bad distraction!

I am sooo distractable!

 There are so many things I should be doing this morning other than chasing raindrops! However they are all mundane things that bring no lasting joy to any heart, clean the house, call the tax office... you know the kind of thing. I find if I wait to have time for art projects I never do them. So it can be good to be distracted. I'd hate to reach old age and realise I spent no time chasing rain drops. 

Here that are: