Month: October 2016

As a teacher and parent I tend to do school events twice, once at work and then repeated at my childrens’ school.  The work events are more stressful as I am usually involved in preparing and presenting the event, but at the primary school, I enjoy relaxing and watching the event as an enthusiastic and supportive parent.  At this time of year its harvest festival, our school event this year featured a scarecrow parade which was brilliant.  We simply offered some ideas and inspiration to our classes and the results were stunning, ten life size scarecrows accompanied me in presenting our harvest festival and the children dancing Dingle Dangle Scarecrow with their models was just a classic moment.  The primary school’s festival took place in our local church, a gorgeous and atmospheric setting.  All the children sat at the front in their classes and sang and did the actions to their well rehearsed songs.  There are some lovely harvest songs now, my favourite contemporary song is Harvest Samba, but the reception children singing Big, red combine harvester is always a super sweet moment too.  I do miss Colours of Day and Autumn days from my primary school days, I may add one to our school festival next year for a retro feel!  Thanks to some helpful advice from Little Man’s 1:1, we were able to secure prime position to see our little ones perform at the church.  Little Man needs reassurance and to be able to see us clearly at such big events, so it was a relief for us to be right in front of him and able to give him broad smiles, thumbs up etc.. Little Miss was two rows behind him.  For her, singing and performing come easily and confortably, she has a beautiful voice and loves to sing. It was wonderful to see them both perform and be proud of their role in the festival.  I do enjoy harvest festivals, they are a lovely autumn tradition and I’m lucky that even when my children leave primary school I’ll still be able to continue celebrating them annually at my work and to give thanks for our harvests.

At this time of year as Autumn draws in, I like to focus on creating a cosy, warm home. A home that from the first step in feels comfortable, relaxed and safe.  In the autumn, it may be the smell from a slow cooker recipe wafting through the house, the blanket on the sofa to snuggle into whilst reading a book, a candle or essential oils filling the air with a warm and spicy aroma .  Much of this is compatible with the Danish philosophy of Hygge which is very much in vogue at present.  I was introduced to hygge last year in the Simple Life magazine and recently read a book on the subject by Pia Edberg. Hygge is a difficult word to translate from Danish, Edberg describes it as ‘the concept of cosiness ….. the art of creating warmth, comfort and wellbeing…’ From my reading it’s creating a simple, purposeful life and a philosophy so much to my own too.  I think living in a small rural town, we have less materialistic  pressures, we have small, mainly independent shops and buy what we need.  When I visit big town I feel quite overwhelmed by the choice.  In a small town we create our own leisure time as facilities are limited, there is a culture of joining clubs and supporting local events.  Daytime activities are using and appreciating our environment whether it be for running, walking or water sports and evenings are for sports, drama and creative activities.  We live surrounded by the wonder of our natural environment, I love to walk along the beach in wellies, wrapped up in a scarf and woolly hat and just look out to the sea.  Until I lived at the seaside I never realised the different shades of blue for the sea, it really is different every day.  I tend to run off road in the fields and countryside and again the colours as they fade from green to brown show the changing seasons.  The beauty of spending time outside is the opportunity to warm up in front of a fire or relaxing in a warm, bubble bath.

I am interested in the concept of hygge and how it relates to our happiness, I think being with nature grounds us, enjoying simple pleasures relaxes us and being with friends and family in comfortable environments encourages good mental health, everything always seems better once discussed and problems less surmountable.

Resources for Hygge

http://www.thesimplethings.com/blog/hyggetalk