Before the long days of summer parenting melt my brain, I want to capture some of the good that happened this spring. I wrote in late April about what life looked like in the first two months of my separation from my husband. Daily journaling for myself has become very important, but time capsules captured…
mindfulness
It all comes back to – or starts with – childhood
Five years ago, in January 2013, shortly before I was to turn 40, I experienced something of a seismic shift from which I’m still feeling aftershocks. In the space of just a few weeks, I had the opportunity to interview three amazing people and be present to the same message told from three different perspectives:…
Missing the moment, and then not
When I saw the other parents in the room at my daughter’s last dance class of the session, I froze. What were they all doing in there? I was supposed to be on a phone call! I mean, I could have figured we might be invited in at the end of class, but from the…
Taking the message to heart
I had a wonderful time this weekend at the National Kids Yoga Conference. But I did end up missing the last hour so that I could heed the advice of Leah Kalish of Move with Me Yoga Adventures: to take care of yourself before your To-Do list. Or, well, maybe I kind of mixed them…
No expiration date on learning or growing
Today I led a meditation at a health & wellness fair at my children’s school! This happened because last year, after I attended the first National Kids Yoga Conference, I suggested to the principal that mindfulness activities at school be considered, in general and in particular using the wetlands learning lab we built three years ago….
Identifying the good
It seems a little surprising that I’m feeling so calm on such a full day. It sure feels different to be trying to figure out why instead of figuring out why I don’t feel well, which is a lot more common! I woke this morning with a sore throat and tight chest thinking, “Oh, maybe…
Grounding in fall
This fall I have noticed the leaves without trying so hard and have immersed myself in a lot of interesting activities that seemed to land in my lap. I have been so many great talks and events, and I’ve wanted to write thoughtful and helpful recaps of all of them for my website, Mindful Healthy…
Failure to thrive in motherhood
The moment I realized I could no longer handle teaching high school, I was sitting in a Teaching for Change-organized class with Enid Lee, one of the authors of Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development and a huge force in the area of critical literacy, which was…
Morning with a high-maintenance mama
If “high-maintenance” means “requiring a lot of attention,” put my picture by the definition. With all the things I’m having to do these days just to make my body function (or to figure out what that even means in this shifting landscape of health), I feel like my children’s lives are passing me by, and…
The short and long view
It’s now been over three months since I started reading Katrina Kenison’s The Gift of an Ordinary Day. I’d picked it up even before that, but three months ago I devoured as much as I could while away from my kids at a conference. Since I’ve been back, time has been scarce amid getting unpacked,…
Mindful holiday prep
Hop on over to TheDCMoms.com to see my Green post today on making thoughtful plans as you head into holiday hosting. Let’s see if I can take my own advice this time.
Walking the talk (to slow down)
There’s so much to report on from the Freedom for Family Wellness Summit. But I have hardly had the time to go through my the messy, sketchy notes I took while my baby girl slept in the sling. And as it turns out, I missed a lot of the conference because it was just too…
Time to heal
Sigh. Sometimes it’s easier to mother when your child is really in a rough state. My son has been mildly sick for over a week, just sick enough that he’s been unable to go to school. And I’ve been unable to work. It’s been a delight to see him fully immersed in play by himself,…
The day after
It was nice to have such warm & fuzzy feelings about my son yesterday, but today I just feel guilty. He was so whiny and out of sorts this morning. It’s great that he can adapt well to situations (like yesterday’s marathon of being in others’ care), but I feel like we always pay for…
I sewed! It’s a miracle!
While cleaning out a closet in the midst of the current series of snowstorms, I came across some felted wool that I cut out to make a little person as my last project in last year’s Waldorf school Parent-Child class. Now, I might have made my son a Halloween costume, but I’m not one of…