Thursday, September 22, 2011

Here I am again, barefoot and ...

Maybe the moniker of "barefoot"OCmama was just too much of a temptation for universe, especially since I have been spending so much time in the kitchen (have you checked out my new foodie blog, eatingbarefoot.blogspot.com)... 


How could this happen? 


Let me take a moment to explain. About 6 weeks ago, after we had gotten ALL the children to sleep at a fairly decent hour and had been involved in what a happily married couple should be involved in more often than we are... suddenly- well I'll let Grease take it from here.


Kenickie: It broke! 

Rizzo: How could it break? 


Kenickie: I bought it when I was in the seventh grade.



Well we weren't in the 7th grade, but let's just say I have been nursing or pregnant for over 4 years- so we haven't needed to even consider birth control- but we have held on the Costco size box of condoms we got sometime in 2005.


It broke. Really. Right after the dog ate my Dr's note excusing me from participating in this test of the emergency broadcast system.


So about 4 weeks after my 40th birthday I am due to have my 4th child. Seems like there should be a 4th "4" there... 



Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Aerial Arts Classes in Costa Mesa

My oldest sweetie, G-pie, has been in gymnastics on an off since she was 18 mos old. She has the build for it, and enjoys having goals to work towards while allowing her to energetically practice things she is already good at. Tonight she took her first Aerial Arts class with Ruby Karen. (http://www.rubykaren.com) She liked aerial arts because it's "all bendable and I like climbing and hanging and spinning around, too."





We liked the little dance studio, Dance Asylum- it looks like they have some fun classes for all ages! Ruby Karen is a good teacher, a dynamic yet serious , encouraging yet challenging and it looked like quite the workout- the first half an hour was on the floor and looked almost Pilates like. I wasn't sure my 9 1/2 year old would appreciate how important that was to the work she did later on the hoop (which she says was actually pretty hard to balance)- but I was totally impressed!

She is eager to return- actually she wants to go twice a week! But we are thinking once a week is enough along with gymnastics and this weekend she is checking out a local theater program. More to come on that! But right now my little cloud loving*, paper folding, picture avoiding girl is eager to play Gin Rummy. Again.

*in case your kids (or you) are into clouds check out this cool link (http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Learning_About_Clouds.html)

 

Monday, September 12, 2011

Powerful Fullness

Tonight- like most things is not at all what I expected or planned for. The moon is full and so were my hopes for an enlightening evening of mystical messages and metaphysical murmurings. Instead my daughter and I filled a bowl with water, sank a moonstone in it, lit a 3-wicked candle and blessed some of the herbs we had gathered. Simple, mundane tasks- although when shared with my newly interested offspring, it does make it just a little more special.

My dear friend, yoga teacher and future co-conspirator (http://ilaurajane.com/) wrote about sharing this evening with her daughter and my spirit played with them in the circle they drew. I inspired my own mother to begin a blog, she found something incredibly poignant and beautiful to share about her evening walk under the Full Moon tonight (http://magicalmymoments.blogspot.com/). I am thankful for both of their posts, their words so often fortify me in person, I am glad the rest of the world can share in discovering their special-ness.

Maybe for the new moon we will gather and peer into each other's mystical hearts...?  My own Harmony Angel reading tonight again called my attention to an unknown Leo who I seem to be ignoring... let loose your roar, oh lion of the stars- what are you trying to tell me!? Something big is about to happen... I am grateful for what is, the universe is exactly as it should be.

I leave you with my favorite participant in the Full Moon Blog-abration. Sometimes that star off in the corner of the sky catches your attention, with it's particularly sparkly sparkle...
Via Facebook comment:
I'm missing the moon bloggin' cause of my game... but you'll be pleased to know there is a full moon in Victorian London as well! about an hour ago ·  ·  1 person

Full Moon Blog-abration

Some friends and I were going to get together to share some magical, mystical moments- but the stars didn't align this full moon. So everyone is invited to share in the celebration! Many of us use different types of divination tools- cards, crystals, candles, stones, herbs, etc.


Tonight I will be doing my own Angel Card reading/ full moon meditation and blessing. I will blog in full glorious detail about it, and ask any of you who feel moved to share something, connecting us to this blessed harvest moon and each other as we transition into fall.

Please enter your blog information below - if you are on Facebook we are also connecting our notes through the virtual event I set up. Like this post and I will be sure you get linked in!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Looking back

Our first few weeks of 4th grade have been an enlightenment phase. G-pie has rediscovered self reliant time management (ie, managing boredom) while Sugar Daddy and I have researched and pursued business endeavors hoping to provide a life for our children, the snack pack has wrestled with their huge emotions, their tiny bodies and their jealous need for mama.

My sweet family.
The goal this summer was to orient ourselves and become fully engaged in life, lay a stable family foundation for our childrens' (and our own) journeys of self discovery through community based education, and our socially productive pursuit of happiness. Albeit a migratory one in our case... this was move number 11 for us as a couple.

But this month Sugar Daddy has been doubling his efforts to find a job- the license/ lapse of consciousness issue still looms and with nothing good to report. But we cannot wait for the Department of Morons and Villains to make their assessment (especially since our medical "professional" will not fill out the stinking form!)... so he won't be looking at any outside sales jobs- but I diverge, and my blood pressure rises and I start to breath erratically....

The day I started this post was an archetypal lazy summer day- it was HOT. I stayed in my pajamas all day. J-cakes in her bathing suit, G-pie sequestered in her room, hibernating in the cool darkness of the shadiest room of the house. C-dough was on change number 5- and had just unplugged my power source calling to mind the reminder to schedule myself an eye appointment as the screen dimmed...

And here we are 4 days later on this somber Sunday. Thursday, we enjoyed perfect weather, dinner guests and vision building, Friday we met and played with our friends at the cool, shady park, Saturday we were awoken by a thunder storm, cleaned house and went out a date (I kid you not!), and here I am (Air Hockey Champion, thank you very much!)  as I return to the pleasantries of capturing my own musings for the amusement of some.

We have been through a lot in the past 10 years since "the world went crazy"- that surreal day, I was pregnant with G-pie, planning for our future. I was filled with fantasy about family life and prepared to be a perfect parent. So much has happened in the world and in our life during this roller coaster decade.

It was hard to imagine bringing a child into a world filled with the horror I felt when terror struck- we sure didn't know what the reality of our future would be, but I am thankful that we had one- and I am sad as I think of all the lives lost, the children orphaned and parents who must mourn their progeny. Life is precious, it is never what we expect, it is miraculous and stunning and absurd and sometimes it just is- indefinable, without label and I find myself totally without understanding, so I breath in and out and it goes on.

Throughout I have been Learning Barefoot, alongside my children, about myself, about relationships- about how humans learn, how they fail, how they connect. About how I function in intentional tribes of mamas bound together by a desire to do some things a little differently. The "rules" are different, the technology is AWESOME, food is medicine (we are over medicated!) and media is EVERYWHERE.

Information age enlightenment, evolved social structures and tolerant living styles have been our environment, and we have indulgently explored family style learning (aka homeschooling). We have made so many friends, so many connections to other humans.

Humans are pretty spectacular specimens when you study them closely- and that is the subject matter for us moms- humanology. What makes a human, what should we feed it, teach or share with it, how should it sleep, how should it spend it's time, what makes it feel loved, accepted and supported? How does a human become an adult human and what will it need to adapt along that evolution?

Something big is about to happen- we have incredible opportunities, intriguing options, and inspiring offspring! My mind has been swimming with the things that I have learned about attentive, peaceful parenting- anecdotes and advice from our first 5 years of alternative education. Fun, creative ideas that I hope will inspire and inform many a new mama as they fantasize about the moments they will spend with their adorable, aware and always amazing adolescents. Courage building basics that will edify empowered parents as they enter the early years. It will all be in my book, and it is on it's way.

Memorials of tragedy and loss fill the airwaves today, and we humans reach out to share our stories of that day because we care about each other and we want to feel connected. We explained a little more to G-pie today, it helped me put things in perspective as we used terms an almost 10 year old could understand.

Raising humans is the coolest thing to do on this planet- except maybe making them. =)
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