When I started this blog 8 years ago I started on Blogger and it was a place to rant. I was a moderator of the AP (attachment parenting) board on BabyCenter at the time and was overwhelmed with the amount of control everyone wanted to have on their kids, how many unrealistic expectations they had and how much the term attachment parenting was getting tossed around as a list of things to do without not even looking at the philosophy. I needed a place to vent and found it in the form of a blog.

It was called: “Paxye’s Rant”

Soon, I started getting comments and realized that people were actually reading what I was writing.

After not too long I was getting tired by the limits of Blogger at the time and decided to acquire my website and domain name. As I was still remaining anonymous and “paxye” had been my alias more than a decade at the time it was the obvious choice for a domain name.

After about another year I was not writing rants anymore and decided to change my blog name to “a hippie with a minivan”.

Though I was no longer anonymous, I was still using “paxye” as my author name here until last year when I decided to change it is also. I have had the address ahippiewithaminivan.com for a while now and have been planning to move my blog over but never got around to it. Until now.

So, from now on I will be writing at ahippiewithaminivan.com/blog with the front page of the domain ahippiewithaminivan.com being dedicated to information and services that I provide with a link to the blog.

I still have a few details to work out so bear with me while I work out the kinks…

Glad to see you made it here!

Watch this video on YouTube.

Watch this video on YouTube.

a an amazing Valedictorian speech…

Watch this video on YouTube.

But there was a problem.

Can you see it?

That’s right, there was no “W” in the book.

We searched for it in all the places it should be and it was simply not there. Wilhelmina was quite sad that her letter was nowhere to be found in a book of ABC’s.

We wondered why it wasn’t there. Maybe the author just couldn’t find a way to start something with “W”. I mean it could be possible, but who would leave out a letter in an ABC book? Especially one made for L’Acédemie Française.

I went to bed and the next day I thought about the book again and thought of something. The author, Jules Lemaitre was born in 1852.  Since there are not many, or very little words in the french language, could it be that the letter W was actually not part of the alphabet at that time? I did a few searches and guess what? that’s exactly it!!

The letter W is actually one of the newest letters and was only introduced into the Latin alphabet in the middle ages and was characterized two V’s “VV” and it was introduced to bring in the sounds of the “W” from the Germanic languages. In French, the letter started slowly making a appearance in the grammar books mid 19th century but only as an extension of the letter V. It was only in 1964, so less than 50 years ago, that it became an official letter of the French Alphabet.

So now we know why our ABC book does not include the letter W. Isn’t that somewhat cool?

For Wilhelmina’s sake, I think we will need to stick to more recent ABC books.

By the way, you can check out the book here: ABC Petits Contes de Jules Lemaître

Am I an artist now? Maybe I am.

I don’t know why, but for some reason I had an aversion to using that term to describe myself. I still do in a way, but today I used it. I do know that I am proud of my creations..

The last creations that I shared here were my first two mice with clothes…

The next thing I made was this bear. I bought the brown wool for him at the Waldorf store in Montreal. It is a Corriedale batting which is so easy to needle felt but I don’t find I have enough control with it. It is hard to get smaller details because it tends to over felt easily and become lumpy. However, to make the bear coat, it was great to use and I might buy more depending on what I would need.

My next creation was these two mice. A parent and a child with a crocheted Mei Tai. Of course I had to bring my love of babywearing into my craft! The MT even has a space for the little one’s tail.

Though I have a mouse head lying around in my things, (OK, that sounds a bit morbid) I decided to make a human next…

She is inspired by myself and Willa. I am not a big fan of purple but I asked Willa to choose the colour of the cress and purple is what she choose. She has a Crocheted ring sling which the little one fits perfectly into and her dress can move out of the way so that she can breastfeed easily. And, yes, she has breasts.

I love how no facial features can still show so much emotion…

My next creation is my largest one to date and the one that took the most amount of time and is my first ever cat.

I started with a wire skeleton covered in floral tape and built on that. At first it looked like a headless boney thing but slowly I added the muscles and shaped a body and then a rudimentary head with slight features…

After that I started to add the fur and the ears and features. I was really nervous in messing him up but I actually turned out great. He is also big! Like a small real cat big. He is 10 inches long with out his tail (about twice that with it) and he is about 7 inches high.

He has a tuff of white at the end of his tail and he is made from super soft merino wool which makes you want to pet him. He has perfect little pick pads under his feet and the cutest little cat nose. His whiskers are made of upholstery thread which turned out great as it has just the right amount of lift to the amount of floppiness.

Isn’t he adorable?

My latest Creation which I finished this morning is this woodland scene.

The story is… Maeve went out one beautiful spring afternoon to collect mushrooms and stopped on the way to take a little rest on a log that was next to two giant toadstools. A little bunny hopped up to inspect what was in her basket..

The base of this is made with a core wool surrounded by a lofty amount of soft Corriedale roving. I made two large toad stools and felted them into to the base. I then made the log out of a mix of browns and beige and then moss green on top and then the little bunny of grey merino.

Maeve has a wire frame to make her posable and hair hair in the most amazing and softest superfine Merino wool… (it was may more expensive but I had to have it)

The last thing I made was the basket and two tiny tiny mushrooms to go in it.

So back to the Artist word.

Well, about two weeks ago I stopped into a new boutique not far away from here that displays and sells the works of local artists. It was just before they closed on a Sunday afternoon and I went in to see what they had and mentioned that I make crafts and showed what I had made through pictures on my Ipad. They said they would love to see in person once they cam back from vacation. So today I called to see if they were open (they were not but opened any way) and I arrived with a box of my creations. It is a couple that runs the boutique and the guy took the cat right away and couldn’t believe it. They hadn’t heard of needle felting before so I had brought a bit of wool and a needle to show. They work on consignment and are open to me having things on ETSY to sell at the same time so I left quite a few of my creations there today. It felt so weird to leave them behind but it also makes me proud.

It is one thing to see it in an image but it is another thing to feel it in your hands. Especially the cat… the owned LOVED my cat :)

I am on display. People will see my art. So does that mean I am an Artist. I might just have to admit it.

Oh, they also want 8X10′s and 5X7′s of a selection of my photography images. So not only will I have needle felted creations but my photography on display and for sale also!!

I mean, I do believe that happy parents make happy babies. Babies pick up on our emotions and will react to them. If we are stressed, they will be stressed. If we are sad, they will be sad. If we are happy, that will be happy. As a human being, our emotions and what we project will affect the people around us. Depressed people will bring others down and happy people will lift others up.

However, this argument is something that comes up often in parenting discussions and most often it comes up to justify a parenting choice that puts the needs, wants or expectations of the parent, over the needs of a child and that is where I have a problem.

When we choose to become parents, we choose to accept that there will be differences in our lives and that there will be some of our needs and definitely some of our wants that are put on the back burner. Is it about being a Martyr? No, not at all. It is about being a parent. An infant is helpless and they simply cannot meet their own needs. As parent we must meet their needs for them. It is that simple. Of course there are times that our needs may come second, but we should be mature enough to accept that we have to wait sometimes.

So now I hear it:“Exactly, which is why we have to “teach” our kids that sometimes they don’t always get what they want right away”. No! this is not the way it works. It is actually the opposite.

If our needs have not been met, then we have been ingrained to do everything and anything to get our own needs met because if we don’t do it, it won’t be done. But, If our needs have always been met, then we have the trust that our needs will be met even if we have to wait. This includes not only the physical needs but of course, and maybe more importantly, the emotional needs as well.

So to learn that we can wait, then we need to have our needs met.

For an infant, or a young child, that does not yet have the capacity to meet their own needs (physical and emotional), If we do not step up and meet their needs, ALL of their needs, their needs will simply not be met, and that, is not acceptable.

Also remark that by putting our needs on the back-burner, it does not mean ignoring them or disregarding them completely. We do have needs that have to be met but it might not always be done in the way that would want. We have to eat. We have to sleep. We have to go to the bathroom. In these cases, it becomes essential that we find a way to meet everyone’s needs and this is when the scale needs to be balanced but can easily be tipped. This is when we often need to make compromises with what we “want” to then meet every ones needs.

The more we meet our children’s needs, the more they will know they can count on us and the more independent they will become because they always know there is someone to fall back on. This is the one of the fundamentals of a secure attachment and this type of attachment will flow into all of the stages of childhood until a child becomes an adult and is ready to be on their own and will make it easier to parent. (read my post on Discipline and how non-punitive parenting works)

Our society has unrealistic expectations. Babies are expected to sleep through the night, they are expected to not breastfeed as much as the need to, they are expected to sleep alone, they are expected to willingly and happily go with other people other than their parents, they are expected to adhere to a parental schedules. There are so many expectations. However, societal expectations are not congruent with biological needs. They are not natural and they are based on a point of view that has been manipulated and skewed over the years in favour of parental wants over biological needs.

This is when parental wants often supersede a child’s needs. This when the argument “Happy mom = happy baby” often comes out to justify favouring parents wants over a child’s needs.

The thing is, parenthood is not always easy…

A mom should be happy, but happiness is also a frame of mind. You have to be happy with what is handed to you and you must have realistic expectations and meet a child’s needs and understand that they re the ones that know best what they need. And, no, I am not talking about giving kids everything they want, I am talking about needs.

I do think moms need to take care of themselves and keep healthy to be an optimal parent, but baby’s are only independent for a short time in their lives and i don’t think it’s too much for a parent to set their own needs on the back-burner and maybe even put their wants aside and put kids first. Pretty soon they grow up and can make their own breakfast while you get a few extra zzzz’s.

Colin’s first creation is the little bird in front (nearest to camera)

In the summer, we have access to quite a bit of local food from stands that can be found all around the city.  It is not organic but it is local and fresh. However, in the winter, like many places the prices goes up, the quality goes down and we even though most grocery stores now carry a few organic choices, there are very little actual choices, and what it there, is not very fresh, and often looks pitiful.

I am always in awe when I go to grocery stores in Montreal. So many options…  quality and quantity…

We only have one grocery store that carries Kale around here and they often don’t even have it! We simply don’t have options. I miss being able to go to fruit and vegetable stores and come out with plenty at reasonable of cheap prices.

I think it was one of the things that I missed most when we moved here.

But now, we have an option. We can get organic vegetables and fruits delivered to our door!

Jardins Des Anges is a Laval/Montreal based company that delivers Organic Vegetables and Fruits right to your door. They say that their mission is to provide the largest selection of Organic/local/ethical products all year round. Yes, I sound like an ad, but I am so excited that they are now in my area. I don’t mind giving them the spotlight!

So today I got my first order. We are a family of 6, soI took the largest basket, made a few substitutions (you can do that in your cart for things that you may not use) and I added a few extra fruit, a jar of raw honey and a bag of raisins. It came out to just over 80$ with the delivery included in the price. I think that it pretty amazing! I have been wanting to eat more veggies and this will force us to eat more and give us more choice then I can usually find. It will also force me to add a bit more variety to our meal plan to incorporate the foods that we receive.

Here is the order as it arrived… yes, plastic, but at least they are 100% bio-degradable (within 12 months)

Here it is all laid out…

This week, I got a braising mix (kale, mizuna, mustard or swiss chard), baby bok choy, parsley, carrots with greens, celery, green beans, lettuce, leeks, mini-peppers, radishes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, pineapple, bananas, coconut, grapefruits, pears, oranges, green apples, red apples, kiwis (a lot) lemons, avocados, kale and clementines… (+ raw honey and raisins)

I just have to buy a few things to complete meals and that is it…

Again… I am so happy about this!

Last time, I shared this guy:

Well, now he has a mate and a little baby!  Isn’t the baby adorable? She can nestle up to her mama and it looks like she is nursing. The adult Bunnies are around 5″ tall and the little one is about an 1 1/2 inches…. The parents both have their own personalities and I love the way the whole family looks together.

This mama and baby are a bit rustic but I still love the way she turned out. She has a bun in her hair and a beautiful green dress all made of wool and she even has underwear under that dress ;)

I need to get more comfortable in making humans though because there is something about the face that gets me. I see the attraction of doing Waldorf style dolls for that reason because they often don’t have a face.

I really like the way that these mice turned out but there was something about them that were not exactly what I wanted when I thought of what I wanted my mice to look like. I feel like these two belong together though. I have come to think of them as the twins… After having made my last set of mice, I am now thinking that they guyys may look more like rats. Though I am still not sure… what do you think?

I love how this Bird and nest came out. The bird is a perfect size for playing with and the eggs are so simple and look no natural in the nest. The nest itself is made from two different coloured wools and I just felted it until is came into shape. I have a feeling that there will be more like this in the near future…

Right after I made the bird and nest, I made these… it actually started with just one and then I decided to try to make an earring out of it. It was much simpler then I thought.  Then of course I have to make another that looked exactly like it. Which worked out perfectly.

My last and latest creations are another set of mice. These were more what I was envisioning and I am so proud that they turned out the way they did!  I started with one, which turned out to the be little one and then realized that he looked childish so of course he needed a parent. When I was done both of them, there was still something missing, so I started on the scarf and vest. Now they are perfect! The scarf is knitted on size 2mm needles using Fine (Sport or 2) woollen yarn and is just 8 tiny stitches across using the stockinette stitch. The vest is crocheted out of the same yarn using a size 2.5 hook. Aren’t they cute?!

It can and does take hours for these creations to come together but each one take on a life of its own and I love to do it.

Of course, if you have fallen in love with one of these little guys, check out my Etsy page!

And then I found this recipe. It looked great so I had to try it…

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose flour, took out 2 tbsp of flour and replaced it with 2 tbsp of cornstarch)
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup oil (light tasting)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used 1/2 cup soy milk with 1tsp lemon juice)

Directions-

• Preheat oven to 350*F.
• In a medium bowl, add  flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
• In another bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds until they are pale in colour.  Add sugar and continue to beat for about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil and beat again.
• Slowly add about half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and fold. Add half of the milk, fold and then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk. Mix until just combined but do not overmix.
• Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners and bake for 12-14 minutes.
• Let cool before adding icing.

The cupcakes were delicious and baked perfectly. But if I am honest, it still was not what I am looking for, but they could easily be someones perfect cupcake.

So I am still on the hunt for the perfect vanilla/white cupcake recipe. Any suggestions?

Unschooling is educational choice, an ideological shift that yes, may look, and feel like a continuation from toddlerhood and the preschool years for many, but is at the same time, very different.

Children are only required to go to school or have an alternative educational model once they reach school age, and once they reach that age, unschooling is not a choice that is not taken lightly as it requires a complete paradigm shift on how children learn and trust that children will learn what they need without any imposed curriculum.

Preschool is not a requirement just as daycare is not a requirement. Many parents that choose to use public school or homeschool using a strict curriculum will not choose to send their preschool, yet it doesn’t mean that they are that they are unschooling or “unpreschooling” just like not sending a baby to daycare is not “undaycaring” it is simply called all just part of parenting, it is simply letting pre-school aged children be themselves and learn organically. Then, when they reach school age, unschooling demonstrates that there is no schooling involved and when we reach adulthood, the term is left behind again. There is already so much confusion around the term unschooling that adding another term, especially for an age that is not school aged,  just makes it more confusing.  Essentially, I think that this is why the term “life-learning” is gaining momentum over the term unschooling in many circles.

Another thing is that in my experience over the years, what happens when applying an educational term to this age group is that parents start looking for and applying educational value on activities, and pages and websites that talk about unschooling in the toddler years often paradoxically focus on educational activities, things to do and educational websites. They focus on tricks and games for learning letters, numbers and colours that are fun etc… There is a focus on it being “child-led” yet it is often still parent directed. Basically, it is often about homeschooling based on a child’s interests (which is not unschooling at all).

In many cases that I have seen, parents that don’t agree with unschooling, or child-led learning, but don’t send their kids to pre-school, or don’t start homeschooling curriculum before a certain age, are often less preoccupied by what their pre-school age child is learning then parents that are “unschooling” a pre-schooler or “unpreschooling”.

Until a child is school age, educational terms should be set aside.

All children that are left to their own devices are learning organically. (In essence  until children are expected to learn, they are all being unschooled) Once a child hits school age, unschoolers simply let that organic learning continue and the educational term comes into play as a way to explain the educational style chosen.

But until then, letting a child be a child should be awesome enough!