On just doing the next right thing

Glennon Doyle Melton's book Love Warrior stayed with me for days.  I felt like I was walking barefoot in summer and phrases that stood out to me walked beside me throughout the day.  "Just doing the next right thing" was something Glennon learned when she attended meetings to become sober.  I felt the power in those words as I read them.  

This week I would have been due to birth my baby. Instead of creating a new life inside me my mind has been pushing me to start living a creative life.  The one that is always close to my consciousness.  I was drawing in OldHand the other day and a girl came up to me and said "I see you here doing art sometimes, do you have your art on Instagram?"  I laughed and said "no, I just come here to have some me time." In my heart I thanked her for coming over to me because in my mind she told me something important. She said, I see you there creative spirit, let it out, we want to see.

I watched an interview with Maria Forleo and Elizabeth Gilbert and they talked about Elizabeth's book Big Magic. The conversation landed right in my heart and big tears rolled down my cheeks.  The fears and doubts I have about my abilities were called out by their words. To paraphrase Elizabeth, who cares if it's all been done before, it hasn't been done by you.  Those words took the power away from my fear and all that's left is curiosity.  I pulled out the lap loom I bought eons ago and wound on my warp.  As I pulled the yarn through it became almost meditative.  I want to be gentle with my words in my mind. I want them to feel like the feeling I get from wrapping my hands around a mug of hot tea. And so for now I pull the yarn back and forth creating lines of peaceful meditation.

 

 

One Love Organic Farm

 On Friday afternoon I was excited to be on Chris and Becky's farm, meeting people, bundling produce and soaking up the feeling of being on the land.  Organic produce makes up our salads and smoothies.  In August the flowers will be out in full bloom and will make you smile just by seeing them.  These photos give just a little taste of what you can expect to find. 

one love organic farm

on this cloudy day

 This past month has been filled with canning and trying to get my Oma's plum cake just right:)

 Opa came for the day and Nala loved having "story time" with him.

 Neka started her dance class and is in love with it!

 We took the girls to a kids raw food cooking class where they made these cute Mr. Potato heads.  Also on the menu was raw apple crisp and raw peanut butter cookies.  I will definitely go again when it is offered the kids raved about it:)

 I'm all about making home feel cozy.  Que the ikea kitchen:)

 This reading nook has already housed a tea party and mama and baby time.

 The rain started today and so I moved the teepee and a few other things upstairs onto the deck so that the outdoor play could continue.

I've started homeschool with Neka and Nala of course wants in on the fun so our days have started to follow a really nice rhythm of breakfast followed by school time.  The girls are really enjoying the art part:)  Now off to the weekend where I see pancakes, tea and snuggle time with my family.

I'm back

This is my space.  Do you know what I mean?  The one that I carve out that has me written all over it.  I want to share to show up and speak what's in my heart.  
This is my latest piece. that I am donating it to the 
Shanti Uganda Society - Evening of Art 2012‏
 to raise funds for Shanti Uganda’s Solar Powered Maternity Center in Nsaasi Village, Uganda.  I was honored to be asked to be a contributing artist and felt a part of me open up as I started working on this piece.  I remembered a part of myself that came before being a mama.  I want to cultivate her.  I will visit this space once a week, join me if you will.

summer

This is where I've been!  I'm on summer holidays so blogging has been on hold:)  I haven't found myself wanting to take so many photos.  I'm more interested in being with the kids. These are a couple of photos that give a feel of our days.  I'll check back in with this space soon!

one with the land

I wish I was related to SunRay Kelley so that he would design a playhouse for the girls. You can imagine how organic and one with nature it would be.  I always talk about a commune where all our friends would be together living off the land, I can only imagine how "magical" it would be with these kind of homes peppering the land.  I'd bring in some solar panels, windmills, geothermal heating and my own design for my eco house but I can see these buildings being studios, workshop spaces, and story telling places.  I love how creative people are!

food, fun and family

Since the sun has come out I've barely been indoors which means my posts have been few and far in between.  I'm storing all this sun up in my bones for I know I'll be craving it when winter comes.  There have been so many moments that I thought Oh I should have taken a photo but then I stopped and said, no wait, I'm just being in the moment right now and that's ok.  On Saturday morning I baked these scones, with some devonshire cream and jelly on top they melted in my mouth!

 Family came together in the afternoon and I just revelled in watching my kiddies having fun and doing their best to entertain everyone:)

 Sancho brought his coffee machine and made the most wonderful iced drinks for us.  I made a vanilla cake with butter cream chocolate icing that is originally a cupcake recipe found on joy the baker I was loving it!

 I got an inflatable pool that doesn't hold air and today I exchanged it for one that works:) But in the meantime the kids had a blast splashing and pretending to be fish.

 Tey's parents were here for the weekend as well and on Monday we headed to Cultus Lake where the girls built this sandcastle with Grandpa.  They were so proud!

 This is our drive home, two very content and happy kids in dreamland.

 The order of this photo is a little off it should go on Saturday's story.  In the afternoon we headed to the spray park and I love anytime that we can have a family photo together:)  I feel so blessed to have this family.