Trying something a little different…

I’m feeling grateful this evening…not really sure how to put it in words at the moment, so I decided to do a bit of dabbling in the poetry realm (not usually my thing, but sometimes the narrative needs mixed up).

With love and light,

Heather

The Offering

Spirit journeys through the night

Fluttering among memories

Softly landing here and there

Gathering love, gathering moments of peace

Weaving a tapestry of grateful light,

An offering of thanks

An offering of comfort for those lost in the dark.

Playing with the camera, cardboard kitchens, and reflecting

So, I may be slightly addicted to taking pictures with my phone…and it appears I have passed this trait on to my daughter.

She now can unlock the phone, open the camera, and take pictures.  This morning while I was making breakfast, she decided to have a photo shoot of her foot, pig, and duck.  Out of the 17 pictures she took, I thought this one portrayed the sock fuzz quite nicely 😀

She’s such an amazing little being.  I feel overwhelmingly blessed to have her in my life.

(Why yes, those are my socks, and that is the bottom of an 8 bit holiday wreath in the background).

We attempted to get Rudie in the holiday spirit today:

She was not thrilled, but was a good sport as always, and got lots of hugs and kisses:

On the creative attempts front, we turned a cardboard box into a stove and sink:

You really don’t need the expensive play kitchen when you have imagination and the ducks need a bath.  Plus our version doubles as a hideout/toy nap den:

I am so very lucky.  I hope your day is full of love…

and ducks

and ridiculous adorableness 

No words

I consider myself a pretty optimistic person. I think the glass is half full much of the time, but today, the glass is broken.

The tragedy that happened in Connecticut is fucked up. Period.

You can run through all the possible culprits trying to make sense of it. You can rage out trying to find someone or something to blame, somewhere to funnel the rage and despair. But nothing that’s done or said can possibly ever “fix” what’s happened.

So what do you do in the face of an unexplainable tragedy? How do you deal with the anger and fear that comes from an act so incomprehensible? How do you live with the sense of helplessness and lack of control?

Most importantly, we send love and light to all those in pain…

As a mom, I just can’t even begin to imagine the pain…so much lost…

…At times like this, even though throwing up our hands and saying fuck it seems appropriate,  I feel the need to recommit to living lives of compassion and love…

This means standing up and rejecting the culture of violence surrounding us…this means connecting with our humanity and reaching out to others…this means speaking a language of non-violence with everyone around us and ourselves…this means spreading the change and refusing to participate in destructive practices…

…it also means taking time to feel sorrow…

…a capacity for love brings with it a capacity for pain.

Hold those you love near, and send love and light through the universe…there are many souls who need it tonight.

Finding the present

My apologies for being absent as of late. Wait, let me restart, over apologizing is something many of us do too often.

Hello there! It’s good to be back!

I’ve been taking care of some fiddly bits in my world (the usual, plus some holiday-ness, plus an e booklet I’m throwing together, plus some novel editing for my mom, plus the doozie that is the 18 month sleep regression, plus writing tangential, run-on sentences apparently).

I tried creating a new recipe for you all (I even remembered to take pictures all the way through), but it was fairly terrible as you can see by Kaja’s reaction to a midpoint taste test:

We also attempted to make some salt dough ornaments…they didn’t work so well either, but Kaja had fun stomping on the dough and playing with the flour 🙂

I’ve been getting a lot of good reminders about living in the here and now lately. As much as I talk about how important it is to try and be in the present, I’m not always so great about practicing it.

I noticed the other day I rush a lot of the time. My mind gets focused on what’s next, where I need to get to, what needs to get done…part of that is out of necessity in an attempt to be somewhat organized (e.g. making sure the bills get paid, there’s food in the house, some clean clothing is accessible, etc.), but a lot of it is sooo very NOT helpful. Constantly running through the to do list doesn’t make for more efficiency, it makes for a distracted mom, and, with my already strong propensity for clumsiness and forgetfulness, I don’t need extra distractions.

So, I’ve been practicing putting what I preach into action by practicing mindfulness throughout my day. When I’m sitting with my daughter as she’s (hopefully) falling asleep and I catch my mind drifting to “the list,” I work to bring it back and focus on the here and now. I try to appreciate where I am in the moment and relax and accept that I will take care of things when it’s time, but, for now, I need to be where I am. Often I find that where I am is truly wonderful and should be soaked up. My snuggle bug is already getting so big…these moments won’t last forever. It also means spending less time in the vortex that is the Internet. The Internet is a great and helpful tool, but it can also be incredibly distracting. When utilized to connect and enrich, it’s awesome, but when it is a time sucker that keeps us from being grounded in our surroundings, it becomes an unhealthy escape, though I have to say, cute baby sloth videos are fairly essential 😀

Oh the constant attempt to find that elusive state of balance.

Speaking of, snuggling and sleep is in order, morning will be here surprisingly soon.

But, before I go, did you know that yogurt is delicious?

Santa likes broccoli?

And we have been having guests at the majority of our meals?

Oh! And exciting and completely off topic (not too much of a surprise there), I was lucky enough to win a little photo contest. It was a challenge put on by an interesting organization called The Collective that looks into building a more sustainable world through interactions between companies and potential consumers (i.e. surveys, polls, feedback etc.)

Here’s to hoping you have a present day ❤

Bloggity blog blog

So my 100th post eh? Time for a smidgen of reflection perhaps…

Originally when I started this blog, my goal was to post once a day for 100 days…I think I made it to somewhere in the 60s…

I also made a goal of creating once a day…and that didn’t last long either.

Ack…I’m not a fan of making excuses. Life definitely happened, as it does, but I probably could have found a way to finish. I don’t like my newfound knack for starting and stopping a bajillion things…

Woah! Time out! Can I just say that when you’re dog sitting at someone’s house (e.g. It’s just me, my daughter, and two dogs), it is SUPER CREEPY when one of the dogs goes and stands growling at the glass door in the middle of the stormy night. Totally sketched out and much more awake now…yay? how would you type out the noise you make when you get the shivers and are all sketched out? Hubblevubblevibble? Sent a text to the hubs letting him know I was missing his non-creepyness. That’s a compliment, right?

Anyways, what I’ve concluded is:

A) I need to stick with keeping what’s most important to me as my central focus (e.g. being a compassionate human being, spending time with my little ball of sunshine and all the other wonderful people I care about, and living in a way that grows myself, my community and aims at creating a more loving world)

B) I need to make space for creativity, and realize that there are opportunities everywhere

And C) I need to stop taking myself so seriously. I mean really, I think the one word that I say most often these days is poop. I’m not even kidding, it’s fairly mind blowing how often that word shows up in my vocabulary on any given day. Sample typical conversation in my world.

Me: hey Kaja, what’s the cow say?
Kaja: moo
Me: what’s the sheep say?
Kaja: Poo
Me: the sheep says poo? That’s out of control!
Kaja: out catroll! (snicker)

Wow, that was a very tangential and anti-climatic 100th post, but that’s okay (see point C)

Quick updates:

Smoothies happened

Giant hand clapping happened

Dessert making for Thanksgiving happened

Little Bug got sick for a few days 😦

And she learned how to get to the camera and take pictures on the phone

Rice+scoopers+tupperware+laundry basket=awesomeness

Cheesy smile is as fantastic as ever

Happy sigh. I am very grateful for my life.