"My Reason" A Poem

I haven't written a poem in quite some time but this came to me, as I laid next to my sweet child while he nursed to sleep. He slowly rolled over and this poem was born. I hope you enjoy!

Baby hands
Moving ever so slightly in sleep
Checking to see if Mommy is near
My heart fills when that little voice calls out to me
Needing an extra cuddle
To drift back to sleep.

My sleeps are not my own
To do with as I please.

I wake when he wakes
If I try and catch a few extra sleeping seconds
A little face
So round and perfect

Slowly comes nose to nose with me. 

Mommy. Mommy. Mommy.

My reason calls.

-Camille

Our Labor Day and Labrador

  I hope you all had a fun and family filled Labor Day weekend! We have had so much fun the past few days. My favorite activity from our weekend was making a fire and s'mores!  Oh how I love those gooey chocolaty squares of deliciousness! They are pretty much the sole reason one would make a fire. Well, besides keeping warm...or cooking...or making potable water..but that's besides the point. ;) he he 

 For the most part we took it easy, just enjoying each others company and the company of our...new puppy!

Bjorn, our newest family member

 We've had him for a over a week now and we love him so much! The first few days he mostly slept but once he hit 8 weeks he changed into a very playful, very energetic pup. He is a little tiring, and definitely tests our patience but that sort of comes with the territory! It's even more tiring with a puppy and a toddler, but we are adjusting and figuring out our new rhythm even more each day! 

Before we got Bjorn B was very obsessed with all things puppy. He would ask for them everyday (this intensified after we went and picked Bjorn out when he was 2 weeks old) and spent more time then I cared for watching puppy videos on YouTube (usually no more then 30 minutes spread throughout the day but still). So you can imagine how happy he is to have his own puppy! He calls him “puppy" and  he wakes up and goes to sleep asking for him. The first few days he wouldn't even use the bathroom unless Bjorn came with!

Every boy should have two things: a dog, and a mother willing to let him have one. Anonymous

Eating breakfast with his puppy...to dang cute!

 I love seeing them together, it warms my heart. Especially when they are both playing nicely together, or when B goes up and gives him hugs or soft pets. It makes the chaos worth it, that's for sure!

              ....and look at this puppy face! Yep, sort of warms your heart all on it's own! ;)         

Bath time for the boys!   

 Do you have any pets or children? Both? Are they best friends? What is one tip you would give a pet owner with a small child? I'd love to know! :)

~Camille 

A new leaf

Hello everyone! I've been doing some thinking and I've decided I'll be posting a lot more. But there is just one thing I need to say...

The point of this blog is to be a place for me to dump my thoughts, keep record of our journey through life and to share and talk with others about things I am passionate about. That's a little hard to do unless I'm talking to you all as if you were right here with me. Sitting around my living room, having a picnic outdoors while the kids play or you know, what ever it is we'd be doing. So expect me to post about the not so exciting and the exciting. The everyday details, from baking to cleaning, to the bigger changes like getting a floor couch or a puppy. My life isn't that glamorous but it is unique! :)

Whew ok, now that I've given myself permission to post about the boring and not so boring...expect to see a lot more of me! ;)

~ Camille <3

Sensory Play: Our top 5!

 Today I am sharing our top 5 favorite sensory play ideas! If you haven't done sensory play with your child(ren) you really should! It's not only great developmentally but it's so much fun! For them and you! They are also safe for younger toddlers and babies you are still in the everything-I-see-must-go-in-my-mouth stage! :)

Our favorites:

5. Puffy paint. I think I enjoy this more then my little one since he isn't quite old enough to grasp the whole concept. But he still loves it! We follow this recipe. Very easy to make and it's completely edible.

Here's my little man enjoying painting!

4.  Water and Ice! My son has always loved the water so this is one of his favorite activities. I have this really cute mold that I use to make the ice for this activity. I add a little bit of food coloring to the water before hand which makes the ice easier for the younger ones to see and grab. It's also cool to see the color seep off the little men into the water as they melt! :)

3. Glow sticks! This one was my husbands idea. I had to run to the store one evening and when I was gone the power went out. Not wanting our son to get scared he grabbed a bunch of our glow sticks and took them and him up to the bath. My son loved it! A bath and glowing sticks? What's not to love!

2. Cornstarch and water. Mix the 2 together and you have an amazing solid-liquid. I just eye it and it works every time. Just add the water very slowly to your cornstarch.We have also added some drops of food coloring to this but we love it just plain white! This does make a mess so either do it in the tub, an empty baby pool, or lay a drop sheet down to make clean up easy! I've done it each way but I always start it out in a glass baking dish and then as he plays he transfers it out. 

1. Our absolute favorite is....our shredded paper sensory bin!! This wins our number one spot because not only is it fun and relatively easy to clean but it keeps my toddler entertained for 25-30 minutes...without me!! :) Win!!

 *Please watch your child closely, especially if they are still in the mouthing stage! I'm always in the same room with my son when he plays with this, but he is over the mouthing stage. If he wasn't I would be giving him my full attention while he played with the paper bin. Especially if you add smaller objects for them to find in the paper! :)

 I add some fun things to it like pom-poms, an old set of keys, a bucket and measuring spoon, and some animal figures with he loves digging for. It also helps engage him since he keeps finding new things hiding in the shredded paper!

 For the sensory bin I used old newspapers, ads, mail, used paper etc that I had on hand and the sent them through my shredder. This is such a fun way to recycle and you can keep reusing it! We've been using the same paper for a few months now and have only added to it twice, because we had to shred some papers.

A few tips though:

  *This does make a huge mess. My son and I love to have “snow" fights and it gets everywhere. If your other half doesn't like messes this is best to do when they are not home. Although beware, just because you are doing this they will come home early or unexpected. This happens pretty much every time I bring this one out! :P Oh well, he can deal with it. ;)

(The aftermath...thankfully it takes me less then 5 minutes to clean.)

*Sweep before bringing out the bin. I don't allow this one out unless I've just swept that way nothing gets in with the paper and we can reuse it again and again!

*Make sure to have a “snow" fight. You will all love it!

* Most importantly, have fun!! :)

I hope you all love these as much as we do! If you try them I'd love to hear how you and your child(ren) liked them! What are some of your favorite sensory play activities?

~ Camille

The Freedom Of Having Less

Home. What do you think of when you think of home? How about when you think of your dream house? I used to think of this big, open home, with a library full of books and a play room, a ranch style house. I'm some ways that hasn't changed at all but in many ways, when I think of my dream home it's the small details that are different.

When I was younger my family moved half way across the country and we lived in a small cabin on a few acres. My self, parents and my 6 siblings, in a tiny, 1(turned 2) bedroom cabin with a wood burning stove for heat and just enough electricity to have a few lamps and a burner on. Some of my favorite memories are from that time.

The house was small, the space was cramped but...it didn't matter. We played outside, we curled up and read books, we laid out and watched the stars. When I wanted some peace I would take a walk down to an old deer stand, climb up with my books and pens and that was my space. My alone time. I can so vividly remember sitting up there as a young teen, nature all around me, reading and writing. I felt so at peace there.

I don't remember the small-ness of the house, in fact I remember how we would miss our small cabin when we moved out.

I want my kids to experience the outdoors. That close-ness of family.

I want my home to celebrate who is in it, not what's in it. It doesn't need to be big, and I don't want it to have lot's of stuff. I want to own my things, not have them own me.

I want the freedom that comes with having less. I have gotten that freedom more and more as I've simplified our belongings. As I've been able to focus more on what I love and what makes me happy instead of taking care of things.

Having a smaller house will also mean more financial freedom. I want the freedom to travel, to experience the world. To have my children experience the world. I have big dreams. Will a big house filled with items I don't even like, that take my time away from my interests and passions, will that make me happy? Get me closer to my dreams? No. Will a tiny house with items I love, that feed my passions and allow me the freedom to pack up and go, to travel the world? Yes, I believe so.

But more then that, it will bring me back to nature. That's what I want.

A small house on lots of land. Gardens. Lakes. Horses. Chickens. Husband. Children. Life. Love.

~Camille

Breathe in, Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Centered. *Whack* Child's head conks into mine. Whatever peace I had gathered amidst the sound of him playing or crying, is gone. Because he needed to nurse right this minute, even though he was perfectly content before I started.  Does that sound familiar? No? Lucky you. ;)

That's pretty much how my yoga routines go. Not the most relaxing, but the few seconds of peace I do get during my routine is heavenly. My favorite part? Those last few breaths sitting at the top of my mat, legs crossed, eyes closed. Taking a few breaths and finding some stillness. Breathing in, sweeping my arms up to meet above my body, breathing out, bringing my hands to heart center. Sealing in my practice. Eyes open. Namaste.

Yes, that right there is why I do yoga. The downward dogs, pigeon pose, warrior, child's pose and cobra are all wonderful too, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love a good pigeon pose, but those last few moments of finding your breath and complete stillness is what brings me back to the mat, especially on these toddler teething days!

I can, thankfully, get a good relaxing yoga routine in after he is asleep. Which I am working on doing more once I get a solid nightly routine going. My plan for the next week! (Stay tuned haha) because I really do love my yoga and being able to hold all the different poses without a toddler climbing all over me! :)

Do you do yoga? If not I highly suggest you go look up some yoga routines on YouTube! My favorite yogi is Erin Motz, the “BadYogi." Check out this 30 day yoga challenge of hers on DoYouYoga.com. It's one of my favorites! (You can also search it on YouTube but if you don't sign up you don't get the daily emails to remind you.)

If you do, do yoga, what brings you back to the mat? Do you have a favorite pose? What centers you? I'd love to know!

~ Camille

It's Official...(Couch Free Update)

 I am in love. This has been, by far, the biggest purge I have ever done. I've purged over 2,000 items since the start of my minimalist journey a year ago, but nothing has been as noticeable as this, not even getting rid of our bedroom set!

 Our couch is gone. Banished to the garage until I can find a new home for it. In it's place is our new full sized futon mattress, piled with pillows and blankets. A lovely nest. I loved it as soon as I saw it laid out, bare as could be. Adding the sheet, pillows and blankets were the touches that pushed me over into complete giggly joy!

 Seriously now people, who knew you could love a non-couch so much? :)

 Not only that, but my husband loves it too! For reals. :) He's told me more times then I can count how much he likes it and that he should listen to me more. He also keeps exclaiming over how comfortable it is! He even wants to get another to make a bigger nest and tumble area!

 If you would like to go couch/furniture free free but are unsure perhaps our list of pro's and con's will help you decide! If not, you can still enjoy our list and think how crazy we are as you read them. ;)

Pro's:

- Super easy to move! This is the first thing that made my husband love my couch free idea. We had to move our couch all of 50 feet to get it situated in the garage and it was such a pain! That thing is so big and bulky, we are so happy we don't have to move it to any new houses!

- Cleaner. Our couch was leather so I just had to wipe it down with a rag to clean any sticky hand prints or spills, but in between the cushions was a pain to vacuum. Not to count what made its way behind and under the couch. I plan on lifting the mattress weekly/biweekly to sweep under it. It also has a water proof sheet over it to make cleaning spills super easy!

- Extremely comfortable with many more seating positions. We can lay, sit, lean, sprawl, you name it we can do it!

- Great tumble mat! I haven't done forward rolls in years and today I did at least 10, with my son giggling to see his Maman doing something so silly!

- The living room feels so much more airy and welcoming! I love how without the high couch back the light from the window spills all the way across the floor to the hallway!

- I'm sure there are more that I have yet to discover!

Con's:

- It's so comfortable it makes me want to lay right down and fall asleep. But I'm not even convinced that's a con!

 So there you go! Couch free for me, baby! The before and after pics I promised:

Before

After:

 Oh I almost didn't mention! My husband and I pulled the “switch" last night after our son went to bed. This morning when my son and I came downstairs the look on his face was priceless! He was so confused and had to jump down and go inspect the new arrangement. I'm happy to say that he, of course, loves it too. He's been rolling around, jumping and just resting on it all day. :)

Happy Maman, happy Papa, and happy baby = Win, win, win for me! :)

~ Camille

Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes!!

Have you ever experienced an epiphany? You know, when you see, hear, or in any way learn of something new to you and it sets off this  reaction in you- that you know this is something that is good- something that you can get on board with or even just really want to try out for a while? Well I've had that happen to me a few times lately.

I've always loved going barefoot and sprawling on blankets and pillows, so I guess neither is a huge surprise. What are they? Well I'm sure you've guessed one. The first is wearing no shoes or only minimalistic shoes. The second is going without a couch. I'm going to only talk about the couch in this post but I'll get around to my barefoot desire later! These *are* intertwined, even though they were both born differently for me, but I think its best to stick with one “out there" topic for now! :)

So, no couch. Am I crazy? Perhaps! Or does it just seem so because everyone you know has a couch in their house? I'm going with the latter. I've thought before how I'd like to downsize our couch but I stumbled across this post the other day and I knew instantly this is something I wanted to do.

Going Furniture Free. That's a title that easily and quickly caught my eye so I decided to open it, seeing as we have minimized our furniture I thought it would be interesting to see what else was ditched or what made the furniture “list" for this family. What I learned from reading this post and Katy's blog just made so much sense to me! The benefits to our body is/was a driving factor in my decision, and one that I foresee bringing many changes to our lives. (But again, let's just talk about the going furniture free part for now, you can read about the why's and how's of it being beneficial in that post and her blog. I would also most likely butcher and confuse you if I tried to explain it!)

Our furniture, at this moment, is as follows.

Son's room: Floor bed, One 3 cube shelf, Tent and tunnel (not sure if that counts as furniture or not lol)

Our bedroom:
- Queen mattress and box spring, although we plan on selling the box spring along with the rest of the bedroom set that is sitting in our garage.

- 2 night stands, also going to be sold as part of the matching bedroom set.

- One 4 drawer dresser

- Rocking chair.

Living room:

- Desk and desk chair
-very small TV stand to block the cords so our son won't pull them out, and to hold our router, Wii and DVD player.

-6 cubed shelf for our sons toys

-Criib sized mattress for our son to play on along with 2 mirrors on the wall for him to enjoy his reflection in.

- Couch and ottoman

Kitchen:

Weaning table with bench for our little man.

- Dining table with chairs.

That's our furniture!

So not a whole lot, especially once we end up selling the bedroom set and finally move the night stands out of the room.

I feel like I should say that so far my husband has been onboard with all the changes I have made to the house and our way of living and he has even suggested some. He loves that we have floor beds and has said that all of our children should use floor beds too, for example.

Now when I sprung the no couch idea on him he was...well hesitant is not a strong enough word. ;) I mean really, who gets rid of a perfectly good couch, for...no couch? Apparently I do. Or would...will.

I have been looking around for more families who don't use a couch and have been suggesting ways that I think would make it seem better to him so he would be less resistant. He said that he would be willing to try it if we got a futon mattress but said that we would do that later on. Me being the jump right into something that I am, in these type of situations anyway, didn't like that answer. I mean, I wanted to try it now!

“We wouldn't have to sell our couch, just put it in the garage for a few weeks while we test this thing out," was my biggest pitch. We have the crib mattress already in the living room, lots of pillows and a mattress topper that we could move down that I thought would be a good, dip our toes in the water type of deal. My husband did not agree. He is more of the, if we're going to do it we're going to do it right type of person. So I have been trying to accept and curb my crazy *Iwanttodothisnowandseeifweloveit* feelings. But then I read another post, that didn't even have to do with going couch free, and then that led me to another post, which lead me to a minimalist family who...didn't have a couch. Oiy.

Long story short, my husband just ordered us a futon mattress to use downstairs, although the reviews are so great it might end up being switched with our sons since I sleep on that a lot and his is only 4' and this new one is 8'. :)

By the end of this week I will be able to have my own couch free living room! :) Am I going to love it? I think yes! Will my son? Yes! Will my husband? That is to be determined...but he's resisted some of my other “crazy" ideas before and then loved them after getting used to it, so I'm hoping it will be a yes for him too. :)

I have some great ideas for the space, yoga anyone? :) Some nice family stretching on our new floor “couch", mommy and son cuddles and reading sessions, and being wrapped in some blankets watching a show while drinking some tea sounds perfect on our “couchless" space!

Would you ever consider going couch-less? What would you do with the space?

I'll update once it gets here and as we decide whether or not we like it!

(Let me just add that I would be happy with some floor pillows but I think the futon will be good since we have hard wood floors... I also love sprawling so it should be great! *fingers crossed*)

~ Camille

* I must add that last night after I wrote this, as my husband and I were getting ready for bed, he told me that he is excited for the futon to get here. I think I'm converting him! Hehe! He really is a good sport! :) I'm so grateful he is a minimalist too! :)

Let me introduce myself

Welcome! Bienvenue ! 

My name is Camille and I'm a wife and Maman, just trying to live my life to the fullest while working towards a multilingual, simple, real food, minimalist and green living, happy family and life.

I am definitely “against the grain" in a lot of ways, but I'm also just like everyone else. Working towards bettering myself as a person, being the best wife and Maman I can be and raising my family to the best of my abilities!

Here's a little more about me and what I enjoy!

- I am currently learning French as I want to raise my son and future children to be  multilingual. French will be the first of, hopefully, many languages!

- I love simple. Less is more...and less to clean. ;)

- I really enjoy crafting. Sadly I don't spend as much time crafting as I'd like but my focus is on other things at the moment. Although I am currently working on hand sewing a Waldorf doll for my little man!

-I love fishing and camping. My husband and I used to spend hours fishing and we are excited to rake our son on his first fishing trip. Even if he is too young to really grasp the fishing experience.

- I am a stay at home mom and wouldn't have it any other way!

- I love to run, do yoga and workout.

-I love real food, but this is definitely something I struggle with following through with each meal.

-I love the Waldorf and Montessori styles of learning and try to implement what I can when I can. I still have a long way to go though, but mostly I just follow my child's lead!

These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head but I hope they help you get to know me a little better and what topics I might write about. I hope you'll enjoy sharing this journey with me! :)

~ Camille