Give it 45 Days: Into the Ring of Fire

NEW PROJECT
Ring of Fire: Day 1

Alrighty, here is my new project. 45 days from now I will be pretty dang close to the due date for my second child. The "due date" is September 12th and according to my calculations, 45 days from now will be September 9th. The 9th happens to be the birthday of my best friend, Emily Pelletier, and also my very special friend, Taylor Andres. I would be honored if "Scarlett Love" would be blessed to share a birthday with these two amazing women. But, honestly it also frightens me because they are both extremely strong, intense, independent & spicy in their own ways and I just *hope* I'm up to the challenge of mothering this spirited little girl who is currently residing in my womb. I saw my midwife last week who informed me, "You know she's a wild child, right?" And I do. I really do. She jumps and moves around vigorously and quite frequently. She is going to be able to hold her own with her big brother and cousins. She is blessed to be part of a family full of strong & spicy women, and she will be surrounded by a tribe made up of extremely special, strong, supportive men and women. I'm so excited to welcome this little girl... get ready, world!

For the next 45 days I plan on blogging about my current endeavors in Mindful Motherhood, including adventures with my 3 year old Bear Cub, books I'm reading, yogic explorations, and another Deepak Chopra/Oprah meditation challenge that is coming up in August... all with a focus on celebrating this pregnancy as it nears its completion. And welcoming the newest little Bear Cub into our den.


Today we had a family day together and we took off to the beach. I've been needing to feel the sand under my feet, to hear the waves, and smell the salty air. Jude has actually been asking to go to the beach, and when he has a fantastic idea we can't say no. Daddy's been needing to dig a hole and to get out of town and away from the routine of daily life. We stopped on the way to pee (for me, of course) and took an impromptu hike through the forest, over a bridge, and down to a river to throw rocks and sticks. Daddy also got to splash his feet in the river water... and marvel at my spectacular plant identification skills. Then we were off to the beach for digging, poking, sunshine, sand, lunch, ice cream and togetherness. I can't count the number of times Jude spontaneously told us both "I love you!" It was a great day.

I'm amazed at how my Bear Cub is becoming such a big boy. He ran around the beach today, jumped in the waves, splashed in puddles, explored tide pools and wanted more, more, more.

 

Here I am, Mama Bear, with my 33 week pregnant belly and my 3 year old son. I'm so blessed.

Running, splashing, jumping, smiling and soaking up our natural world.

 

*bask*

Summer Lovin: Day 45! Reflections

Wow, I am amazed that I actually stuck with this blogging project for 45 days. It seems like it's taken forever, yet the summer is flying right on by at the same time. What a strange little time vortex I live in.

For a few days, I've been wanting to write about my gratitude for my yoga practice. Last Wednesday, I was driving home from my prenatal yoga class and I felt like a billion bucks. When I arrived at class I felt stiff, achy, uncomfortable, grumpy, and tired. After just an hour of stretching, exercising, pushing myself, accepting myself, and opening at the studio I was a completely different person. When I leave a great class like this I feel like the best version of myself. I feel centered. I feel energized. My head feels clear. I am ready to return to my family and my life from a calm, positive, forgiving, accepting place. I honestly feel like this is my true nature and yoga helps me to reach this grounding, centered, and authentic place from which I can then approach living my life. The annoyances and stresses of day to day life tend to build up and cloud this perspective until I feel overwhelmed and tired a lot of the time.

It's been a long journey for me. My very first yoga class was about 12 years ago. And I'm a far cry from living mindfully all of the time. I could spew out a long list of shortcomings of my practice here - judgments about myself - negativity. But, instead, I'm going to choose not to go that route.

It's hard for me.

This weekend, Miles and I took the "Yoga Way to Birth" intensive course for our birth education and preparation. When we were pregnant with Jude Bear, we took the full 8 week series from Emory, an amazing, inspirational, honest woman and mother of 3 boys. This weekend was led by Tina Lilly, who co-created the series almost 10 years ago. I'm in awe of her as well. Miles and I were able to connect and communicate about our assumptions, fears, as well as plans and strategies for birthing this time around. It was a beautiful weekend. More than anything, I am inspired to prioritize yoga and mindfulness practice further in my daily life. It's easy to find excuses for not taking 10 minutes for myself and to fill this space with cleaning, errands, tasks, and distractions. But, really, I believe taking that tiny amount of time each day will really benefit me. In turn it benefits my family; my husband, my son, and this little daughter who we are soon welcoming from my body out into this world.

I'm grateful for yoga, for continuing to practice and learn, and for the amazing people that have come into my life through yoga.

Namaste.

Summer Lovin: Day 39

I know, blogging 2 days in a row??? It's so unlike me.
But I wanted to put up some pictures of our garden, since everything has taken off! We tried "square foot gardening" this year in the boxes that we built this spring. It's our first garden in our new home... so it's an experiment. :) SFGardening turned into a JUNGLE of plants. Our tomatoes are just everywhere, the squash is taking over the yard, and our corn is higher than an elephants eye(er?) I'm grateful for the delicious zucchini, cherry tomatoes, peas, strawberries, bell peppers that we've been enjoying so far. I'm also grateful that tonight when we make tacos I can ask Miles to run outside and grab some peppers & tomatoes for dinner. What's better than that?!

Here are some before shots:

 

I'm sorry, but I can't remember exactly when I took those pictures. And here are some pictures that I JUST took.

 

 

Like I said; it's crazy, messy, wild, a JUNGLE. But, it's ours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Lovin: Day 38

Picture Catch-Up!
Here we are, and here are some of the summer adventures we've been having. I keep getting bigger, Jubie keeps kicking me, Jude keeps growing taller, and Daddy keeps up on his Mad Daddy skillz.

Hallelujah! The zoo train returns!

Daddy & Son at Cousin Eli's Kindergarten Graduation.

Helping Daddy feed the garden... those tiny squash are HUGE now!

Summer Lovin.

Mommy & Jude in our backyard. Planting a tree for our 5 year wedding anniversary.

On a toddler dinner date with our favorite girl, Athena, who moved to Minnesota - *sniffles*

Blueberry picking : Take One

Bounty!

On the 4th of July - my little firecracker.

On the 5th of July: First ever Mini-Golf experience!

Yesterday: Blueberry Picking : Take 2

Jude & Cousin Dylan with their blue mouths.

Preggo x 2: Me & My sis, Rachel

The bellies are coming!!!

 

My favorite. ;)

 

 

I'm grateful for:

 

1. Houseguests! In the past couple of weeks, we've had a weekend with my niece, Gwen, and her friend, Fiona, while we all celebrated Gwen's 16th birthday!

Also, 4th of July weekend my cousin, Jamie & her hubby, Nick, stayed with us and we had an awesome cul-de-sac party with my neighbors & more family, played mini golf, and explored Oregon. I love having a big house where my family is welcome and there is plenty of room for all of us!

 

2. Blueberries: So far this year we've picked 22 lbs... plus a couple of lbs that ended up in Jude Bear's belly, I'm sure. We've got amazing jam and I've made 5 batches of lemon-scented blueberry cupcakes that are to die for.

 

3. Letting it go. Being open and receptive to the good, to help from others, to joy and beauty. Things I'm constantly working on & making progress.

 

4. Big Brother Club: Jude is amazing about this baby. His cousin, Elizabeth, who is 1 was over yesterday crawling all over our house & he was so interested in her and very, very sweet with her. I'm so excited for our family.

 

And grateful.

 

*bask*

Summer Lovin: Day 25

I just came to a realization while thinking about this blog. And it made me feel really grateful to have this perspective in my life. Thoughts tend to race around my head like, "Where the heck did June go?" "How is my baby 3 already?" "Why is this pregnancy going so fast?" Every morning I'm rushing. I'm Rushing to throw everything together that we need for whatever outing we're rushing to get to. I'm late to every play date & activity. I don't know how time is slipping away from me.

And then there's this. Today is day 25 of my current project: focusing on gratitude and blogging about our summer adventures. I'm getting ants in my pants, thinking, "This is boring." "I want to blog about something else." "45 days takes For-ev-er." I'm itching to escape. To move on. To abandon this focus and switch to something else. I should just switch my blog to a "4-5 day" timeframe. I would (maybe) be able to stick with that project...

It made me smile to realize this. And I'm so grateful to even have a "45 day" perspective available in my mind. It helps me to realize that, in fact, I'm not running around like a woman with my head cut off. Even when I feel like I am. It's all in how you look at things. If I choose to focus on the fact that life moves too fast, then, SPOILER Alert: it does. But, if I stretch my perspective a little bit, and challenge myself to stay In The Moment and refrain from the urge to move on to the next best thing... then I feel like I can breeeaaaathe. It's a more joyful way to Live. And Love it.

I obviously Rock at blogging every day for 45 days. And, if you know me, you know that I beat myself up for actually Not Rocking at this. So, F*It. I just realized that this is not what my blog is about. I just opened myself up to a new level of mindfulness and self-acceptance.

I'm sticking with gratitude.

*Bask*

P.S. I am also grateful for:
*Air Conditioning! Sweet, sweet, sweet A.C.
*My niece, Gwen, who spent her sweet 16 weekend with a friend of hers at our house, while they rocked the socks off of LeakyCon and we rocked her socks off with a surprise party! This girl is amazing. I'm so proud of her. If I'm lucky enough to have a daughter with her wit, responsibility, morals, and brains... I will kiss her feet. I was a Hot Mess at 16.
*Putting myself out there - meeting new people and stepping outside of my comfort zone.
*Baby kicks - if I could be pregnant all of the time I would. (If I didn't have to give birth & raise the kids, that is!) I ROCK at being pregnant. I'm so healthy, I'm doing yoga 3x a week, drinking water, eating well, and I'm so happy. My house is getting pretty clean, as well. But mostly, I am absolutely in LOVE with the feeling of this girl rolling around in my body, kicking my ribs, sticking her butty-butt out... it's just the coolest thing in the world. And I know, like after I had Jude, I will miss this belly so much and the connection that me & my baby have during this precious time.
*My parents' carpet shampoo-er!  And their generosity in letting us use it! We were about to spend $$ we didn't have to get our carpets steam cleaned again because they were driving me C.R.A.Z.Y!! This is so much better. Someday we will be able to afford to replace our flooring, but I'm learning to be happy in the now.