Run wild my child

Run wild my child

We love to prepare a picknick basket and go out in the woods. Driving to the woods we are hearing all the “where are we going”-’s and “are we there yet”-’s and ” I don’t want to go to the wood”-’s of the world. Yes, our kids are like all the other kids in the world. But once we are there all of that is forgotten and off they go. Climbing trees collecting treasures and building castles.

We hike for a bit. Find a nice place to lay down a plaid and our stuff as a “home-base”. Chilling and eating and playing around in the shade of the trees. We spot dears, hear the songs the birds are singing to us, the wind blowing through the trees and our wildling cubs howling to the beat of the forest.

Little feet are making a wonderful crunchy sound as they touch the layered floor of the forest. Every step feels different, little sticks, rocks, bones, grass, and mosses are all hiding under a think mixed layer of old crispy and fresh soft fallen leaves. Making every step an exciting surprise. Walking on barefoot shoes is making our exploration feel natural to the touch and safe against rough undergrounds and sharp objects at the same time.

All things we normally tend to worry about seeming small and insignificant. No to-do lists, bills to pay, work to do, places to be. Because this is all that matters, this is all we need. Each other and nature. This feels like freedom. Pure happiness.

We are rich when we leave to go home. Our bounty: A scraped knee, two feathers, seven stones, four leaves, improved tree climbing skills, twelve-spotted dears, hundred stories, and five fully charged inspiration batteries.

On our way back home our little Quinn falls asleep in the car, Haley is quietly looking out the window and Miley asking us ” this was fun! When can we go back!?”

As soon as possible my little wildling.

Love,
Jolanda, Michiel
Miley, Haley & Quinn

    We love Wildling shoes

     

     Wildling shoes geared our whole family up with their barefoot shoes and we are loving it! 

    The wonderful feeling of running and climbing barefoot through the forest while being safe against rough undergrounds and sharp objects is amazing! 

    Walking around barefoot or with barefoot schoe, wair doesn’t just feel great. It’s actually really healthy too! The reason why is very well explained here:
    1- In Duch by Linde Logtenberg on her Instagram here!
    2- or in this video by Teck Insider

    We want to thank our partner Wildling shoes  for supporting us and making it possible for us to keep producing our video’s, vlogs and blogs. It’s because of these kind partnerships we get to do what we love most:
    Being creative and sharing our stories and Images!

    Run wild my child

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    Winter garden overview

    Happy new year everyone!

    We collected all Our garden adventures, routines, and preparation for winter and in wintertime. In the wintertime, our garden is in hibernation. We spent most of our time indoors.

    Now that spring has come we shake up the ground and welcome all the new life that is bursting out of the garden! Wood is being chopped for all the campfires to come with the razor-sharp ax that Weltevree has send us ! 

    The lawn is being taken care of with our brand new Hover mower we got send over from BLACK+DECKER and it’s awesome! 

    Check out our full lawn care routine blogpost over here!

     We hope you enjoyed our vlog, when the summer begins we will make a new Garden overview regarding our spring and beginning of the summer season! Until then we will have a lot of other themed video’s coming up for you! See you next time!

    Love,
      Jolanda, Michiel,
    Miley Haley & Quinn

    Winter garden overview

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    Self-care tips for moms.

    self-care guide for mothers

    Yes, you are a mom.
    Yes, you are a partner to your other half.
    Yes, you are a career woman
    Yes, you are the woman of the house…
    But YOUR “ME” needs to be taken care of too. That girl without kids, without stress and so many balls in the air… She is still in there! And she needs your love and attention!

    Most moms put their family’s health before their own.  And I am such a mom on occasion. Self-sacrifice is a natural parenting/mom thing that happens instinctively. But Putting Your Family ALLWAYS First at expense of yourself Doesn’t Make You a Better Mom. Actually… It will make you a tired, grumpy, exhausted and stressed mother if you neglect yourself for a longer period. 

    We as moms (have to) take on so many tasks, so many roles, so many faces, so many responsibilities that we tend to bury ourselves in it and carry on way too long.

    And we can take a lot. We are strong woman, and we can carry on for a long time. But we all have our limits. so before hitting a wall and end us completely exhausted and burned up. Maybe try and find, no, MAKE space for your needs. so you can be the best mom they deserve! A lot of the times the other partner/parent does succeed in taking care of themselves. And that’s wonderful! Take note. Now you!

    Some misbelieves that may hold you down:

    • You are NOT selfish for taking care of your mental needs first once in a while.
    • The world won’t crash and burn if you leave others with some responsibilities for a few hours.
    • It does’n have to cost a lot of money.
    • It doesnt have to cost a lot of time.
    • Self-care is not an indulgence, its necessity to stay balanced!
    • You are not neglecting your kids or work. You are actually taking up the responsibility for your own helath!

    What is self-care?
    The better question is: What is self-care to YOU? All the little things you do that will take your stress away, give you a more emotionally balanced, centered feeling and generally makes you feel happier and give you a more positive outlook on life will count as Self-care.

    What makes you happy that you do just for YOU!?
    Take a pen and paper and write down what kind of little fun of relaxing activities you would like to do if you had no responsibilities or stress in the world? (maybe even think back to the time you didn’t have children) There is no right or wrong answer here. Are there little things that need to be resolved that are bugging you? make a list. write down what you need to do to take care of your needs.

    For some that may be taking a long hot bath and read a book or listen to music.
    For others It would be doing Sports, Yoga, painting, or meeting up with your friends and talk, going on a date with your partner, sauna, massage, swimming, writing in a journal, painting your nails! Or maybe all the above! Whatever you can think of that will make you happy, that will make you re-charge. That will get you to exhale for a few seconds and stop rushing.

    For moms of tiny little babies making time for self-care will mean relaxing while having your baby near you but in the care of another person. That way you will be “able” to relax without feeling anxious about leaving your baby or checking your phone every 3 minutes.
    Never let anyone tell you “you need to be away from your baby to relax” if you feel in your heart and stomach that you just don’t want to leave him/her.

     

    It is hard to create space for self-care as a mom

    How to find/create the time

    • The little things
      Small little routines like journaling before going to sleep or cooking a fresh meal in peace. Making up your bed every day.
    • Ask for help.
      What do you need to make it happen? A lot of the times someone will need to take care of the kids for a little while! Your partner will need to pitch in! The other parent in your family can hold the fort while you exhale for a couple of hours. For single parents (SO much respect) that will mean you will have to look for help elsewhere. Your Parents, friends, neighbors, parents of your kid’s friends, anyone you may trust and dare to ask for help! Please, people may surprise you! Lovely mama…Take a deep breath… and just. ask. for. help.
    • Reserve a date and time
      Block a space in your agenda for your self-care moment… now block the 2 hours before that time as a buffer. Better yet, plan at least one moment every week as me-time! It will become easier if this turns in to a little weekly/bi-weekly routine.
    • No Bailing on yourself!
      Take away your biggest stress factors, distractions & excuses to bail on yourself in advanced. Make sure that whatever happens. you will take time for yourself!
      Clear the road!
    • Pick it up again!
      And if you fail to take the time for yourself anyway… no worries! Don’t stress about it. That’s actually the very thing we want to prevent! Life happens. Kids can get sick, plans can change. I fail at it all the time! Whatever. The important thing to remember is… just pick it up again as soon as possible. Re-schedule. You deserve to be happy! And your family deserves a happy mom! You matter!

    Set the right example!

    Want the best for your kids… And how would you like your kids treating themselves as adults later in life!? Lead by example! By showing them that self-care is an important part of life and demonstrating that we all should help each other create space for individual needs they will learn how to take care of themselves and others in a balanced way later in life. And be happier people for it.

     

    Love,
    Jolanda, Michiel
    Miley, Haley & Quinn

    33 Self care inspiration list ideas

    1. Go to yoga class once a week
    2. Take 40 minutes every day to journal and reflect.
    3. Go and have lunch with your best friend!
    4. Take a hot long bath and read a book every week!
    5. Take a nap without an alarm clock
    6. take a walk through nature
    7. Craft something
    8. Go swim for fun
    9. Make art
    10. Sing and Dance like nobody is watching!
    11. Go online and learn a new skill using tutorials!
    12. Listen to a podcast
    13. Go to the gym
    14. De-clutter and re-organise your wardrobe or beauty products
    15. Unplug from social media for a day (or at least a few hours).
    16. Go to the spa
    17. Feeling overwhelmed? Create a plan to create order in the chaos! Start with all the small things so the list gets shorter. Then order the tasks from most-pressing to least-pressing.
    18. Pick flowers
    19. Bake something
    20. Cook something delicious 
    21. Learn 4-8-7 breathing
    22. do some mindfulness exersizes
    23. Write down your life goals and dreams and create an inspirational collage to hang on the toilet! (“toilet” a.k.a. safe space for moms…the only place you can run to for some peace and quiet when the kids are around)Get a massage.
    24. Go hiking, camping, or backpacking and spend some time in nature
    25. Go S.U.B-ing (stand up paddle)
    26. Go on a date with your partner
    27. Sleep in
    28. Do some gardening
    29. Take care of your houseplants.
    30. Restyle a room in the house! Change some pillows rugs, blankets, wallhangings and plants. A little bit of styling can make a big change! (search on Instagram or pintrest for inspiration)
    31. Meditate
    32. Spend 1 on 1 time with one of your kids for some quality time!
    33. Plann your next vacation!

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    Bathtime goals

    We don’t wash our kids…

    Our bathtime ritual.
    We made a video about our thoughts on getting our Baby and kids “clean”.

    When you explore, you tend to get dirty! But that doesn’t mean we necessarily want to get cleanBecauseouse whenever we get a bit crunchy of all the playing, we just play some more in the tub!

    It you think we take a bath to get clean… think again.
    Kids don’t care about getting clean!
    Kids just want to have more adventures!
    Climbing mountains of foam, You can be a superhero with superpowers,
    You can make it snow, Play hide and seek, Explore, 
    You can be a hairdresser or make high fashion

    And the getting clean part… oh, that just happens. Just like the getting dirty again thing. But who has time to think of those kinds of things, when there is so much having fun to do.

    So do you wash your kids? or do you just let them PLAY some more!?  

    We want to thank our partner Naïf baby for supporting us and making it possible for us to keep producing our video’s, vlogs and blogs. It’s because of these kind partnerships we get to do what we love most:
    Being creative and sharing our stories and Images.

    And Thank you for watching our adventures, blogs, and videos! Your interest in our adventures is what’s giving us the biggest motivation to keep on producing our content!
    And we love you for it!
    Love,

      Jolanda, Michiel,
    Miley Haley & Quinn

    Bathtime goals

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    Shoot us mom!

    Never let children pose… let them be themselves!

    From the moment Miley was born until she was 4,5 years old we had a big photo studio. She grew up surrounded by camera’s, lights, makeup, fashion, and set styling… She occasionally watched the models getting ready and saw me shooting them in our photo studio. She saw them “pose” naturally and make subtle changes in their pose with fluid movements. changing expressions, taking directions from me and all of that without looking forced or unnatural. And she loved it.

    As it comes to photo shooting kids, I like them to be interactive. give them something to do, something to engage with, something to play with. Anything but posing! I don’t like kids posing, because most kids (Really, I mean 99%) look forced and unnatural. That kind of photo’s with kids smiling those fake (almost creepy) smiles makes my hairs stand up. Not cool. Just fake.

    So whenever I’m shooting kids (my one or any kids for that matter)… I let them play.
    I have a strict NO POSING rule.

    But… Tiny baby girls turn in to big baby girls! And then that day came, the day when Miley (8yrs) Came up to me dressed a bit much over the top and  Asked me “Mom? Can you shoot me? I’ve made everything ready!”
    I looked over and there was my living room turned in to a complete styled set. With 3 different concepts, she wanted to work on!  I was like “What the….!?!? uuuh… Ok!? I guess?”

    So we could proceed in peace. After every Klik, Miley made a tiny adjustment in pose, expression or looking direction. I didn’t have to give her any directions. She was totally in control.  Like she understood exactly what it was she wanted to reflect, express and what story she wanted to tell. I felt a warm proud glow in my heart for her. What a great way to express yourself.  There goes my “NO posing rule” for her… She has got this down.

     

    Turned out she had a school project where they had to take their favorite piece of clothing, make a photo of it, and write a little poem about it. She wanted to create a photo she had pictured in her mind. (Creative little creature) So who am I to refuse such a brilliant initiative from my 8-year-old.

    I grabbed my camera gear and as she stepped in front of the camera. Wow! She is actually doing a really good job posing! Not one Photo where she looked unnatural or overly posed. I guess she intensively studied the professional models in our studio! My little baby copy-cat. Loving this…

    After a few minutes, her little baby sisters decided they wanted attention too, and started to jump on top of Miley… So I had to promise them that I would shoot them too tf they waited their turn. And If they would go and play a bit more I would call them and take their picture.


    As for her sisters… The rule still stands. No posing! PLAY! Once I called them for their turn to shoot, I gave them something to keep busy! Singing a song,  playing peekaboo, giving them a ukelele or a watering can to play with. And as usual, that way I had a fun and playful shoot with my two babies. And my no posing strategy still worked out worked perfectly fine with them! Scroll all the way down to see the rest of all the photo’s we took!


    How do you take pictures of your kids? I’m thinking of making a series of DIY video’s in photography toppics like “kids photography” .
    Would you think that’s something you would like to see? Anny requests on specivic photography toppics!?


    Love,

      Jolanda, Michiel,
    Miley Haley & Quinn

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