Wordy Wednesday on a Thursday...

It's been that kind of week, where I am a day behind everything! How is your week going? How was your Hanukkah/Solstice/Christmas/Kwanzzaa this year?

I've been sitting here in front of my laptop since Tuesday feeling all sorts of pressure to come up with something witty and inspiring for our last Wordy Wednesday of the year. It's Wordy Wednesday and I am at a loss for words.

Ironic really, isn't it?

I can't say that this post will necessarily be inspiring or witty but I'll open up and share with you one of my struggles this past fall if you are willing to listen, and I'll also share with you the one special word I am reminding myself of on daily basis. :o)

One of the things I have grappled with the last few months is our homeschooling journey. Since September our life has been a gong show and 'school' has been put on the back burner. It's not to say that learning isn't happening (because as far as I am concerned humans, especially children, are learning and growing all the time) but for this first year we have aligned with a few subjects so we are responsible to have something to show to our school board by next week. Think workbooks and the like.

We made it through Christmas, the first Chrismtas without my brother and my mom and I feel that I have turned a corner in my grieving process, which is good (that corner sooooo needed to be turned but I also was aware enough that I couldn't force it, I just had to go with it...). We are settled into our new house and I finally am getting a grip on my 'new normal' and coming out of that fog that can have one so entrenched after major life changes such as we have been through.

All of a sudden the fogginess lifted this week from my aura and psyche and I 'woke up' to look around at my life and saw that my house is chaos, my kids are chaos, which means that me and my hubby feel like we are in chaos and I especially feel like I am running to catch a fast moving train so I can get all caught up on everthing in my life, as of like, yesterday. I'm an Aries, when I decide things need to be done, I decide they need to be done, as of like...well... yesterday. :Þ

The one thing I need to get a grip on is how I am helping my children learn. I don't want to use the word 'teach' because I don't want to teach them per se, I want to help them grow and learn. I want to be a facilitator in their learning process. As a mother I am naturally a teacher yes and that comes with the job description of parenthood.

However, I realize that I never 'taught' my children to walk. I walk, my husband walks, all the people around them that are bigger and older etc walk, so naturally they learn to walk. No one has to teach them. They just learn. On their own. When they show interest yes we help them, but no one is sitting their child down and introducing official lessons on how to walk. The same goes for talking. We don't teach our children to talk, we help them with sounds and words as that part of them is developing, but the learning is their own process and of their own volition.

It is an inate natural human desire that is rooted deep within us to learn. To grow. To explore. To create. To discover.

This week when I saw the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and then actually got through that foggy tunnel that grief can envelope you in, I remembered one of my homeschooling mantra's that I told myself as I started this journey:

Trust your children.

And I mean really truly trust them when it comes to what and especially how they learn.

Trust that they want to explore. Trust that they want to grow. Trust that they want to create. Trust that they want to discover.

And just as importantly:

Trust that you can trust yourself to trust your children and help them grow in any direction they want to go in.

The key word is TRUST.

It seems so simple really, but it is so much easier said than done.

There is a secret I have found to helping them do that, but for now I am going to let you all chew on that for a bit. I'll post my little secret to the trusting process this weekend for our Friday Finds, which following the trend for the past few days will be a day or so late, because well it's just been that kind of a week. :D We'll get back to our regular schedule next week. ;o)

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve!

With love and light, ♥

Wordy Wednesdays - 29 Gifts by Cami Walker

Yesterday I mentioned that last year I had started reading the book  "29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life" by Cami Walker, and how much I loved the premise of it. If you haven't read yesterday's post, go read it now and then come back and join me here. :D

After a quick Google search I found that there is also a very cool website dedicated to this and I have joined in hopes of turning my grief into something lighter and more positive instead of letting it consume me and turn me into a depressing, sludgy mess that it was quickly starting to.

So listen up my friends, this is what I want you to do, I want you to come along with me and join 29gifts.org.

All you need to do is go to http://www.29gifts.org/ and sign up. It's simple and of course you'll make a significant impact on someone else's life when you start this. (Sorry, I couldn't help the pun, I love our blog and our motto, what can I say? LOL :Þ)

Then you simply need to do is think of someone other than yourself and give one small thing away each day. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't even have to cost anything. For example it can be your time or simply sitting quietly and sending good energy/prayers to a specific person. It's the intent that counts and the intent that it will benefit someone else (not today I'm going to say a good prayer for Jane and hopefully that will be enough for me to win the lottery on the weekend - that isn't what I am talking about here).

I'll confess that today I gave my kids the gift of 'me'. I don't mean that to sound as facetious as it probably does.  I've been so wrapped up in our move, packing and unpacking and then my brother's sudden passing and everything that goes along with a suicide for the survivors, that my poor kids were seriously lacking in my attention. Today I don't care about the dishes or what my house looks like, it is just all about my children having my time and attention and me loving on them they way they deserve.

I don't know what my gift will be tomorrow (I don't think that far in advance usually :Þ) but I am excited to wake up and think of what I can do to make someone else's day better!

What are you going to do? Comment down below and share with us! :o)

With love and light,

Tree Hugging Tuesday - A Gift to Mother Earth...

My brother died on November 14th. His death was sudden, tragic and gut wrenching because it wasn't an accident and we had just seen him the night before for supper and had a wonderful time.

I've been walking in a fog for the last two weeks and that dark depressing rut that shows up in times like this and tempts one to jump right in and throw themselves a massive pity party, has been calling my name. It has been very easy to get stuck in that pit and have that depressing, sludgy energy swirling around me and my family in what was fast becoming a viscous cycle. This crappy energy that is enveloping my house needs to stop and I've been thinking of ways to accomplish that while still being able to grieve the way I need to.

Quite frankly I've realized with 3 kids to get caught up on homeschooling and my hubby working full time, me getting all down and depressed isn't going to help anyone at all at this point and it certainly won't bring my sweet brother back...

Every time I ask however, "What do I do? How do I get through this?", I hear something almost whisper to me, "Give back...".

So that is what I am going to do. I am going to start giving back and doing it consciously with the sole intent that it will bring lightness and good to someone or something else. If anything it will give me something more positive to focus on that has nothing to do with me.

(Now before y'all start commenting that this has nothing to do with Tree Hugging Tuesdays, bear with me, I'm getting to the point I promise!)

I started reading the book "29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life" last year by Cami Walker and I loved it. True to my nature however, I got distracted and I didn't finish it, but I loved the premise. This book suddenly popped up onto my radar again quite by accident when I was rummaging around in my garage last week searching for a sweater. (And if anyone is wondering why on earth I was looking in the garage of all places for a sweater, it's because we just moved last month and I still haven't unpacked! :Þ) 

This book seems like it was meant to be at this point in my life.
 

My first "gift" is to Mother Earth herself. This is the time of year when the most recyclable waste is created whether it be through the wrapping, the gift bags, the shopping bags and even the gifts themselves. So, my first "gift" is to not use any plastic shopping bags for the entire month of December. I often forget my big bulky grocery bags (which I'll be honest - they annoy me so I use bins whenever I can) and I chide myself for getting the plastic ones and then I turn around and soothe myself all at the same time by reminding myself that I do in fact make sure they are all recycled. But still, there is no need for me to even require or use any store shopping bag at all, unless of course they are offering one that is environmentally friendly.

From there I am going to start my 29 gifts for 29 days and with a smile, remember what an amazing person my brother was as I am doing it.

Stay tuned for Wordy Wednesday tomorrow and I'll talk about the book a bit more and then I'll fill you in on my newest challenge on Friday!

With love and light,

 

Today's Enlightening and Motivating Friday Find!

I woke up this morning at 5am. It was still and silent in my house (a rarity for sure most days!), and I was convincing myself I need to go back to sleep, but of course I couldn't. So I do what I normally do at these times, I pick up my iPhone and see what is going on in cyberspace, what people are up to on Facebook and if there is any interesting news since I last checked.

I was also trying to narrow down what I was going to post and chit chat about today because all through the week I find all these great links, articles, toys, gadgets and I always am saving or bookmarking something to share with our readers at a later date.

On Facebook my aunt shared a great link and I knew immediately this is what I was meant to share today on Friday Finds. I love my family (hi Aunty Deb!), we all think so much alike, it's wonderful!

I am copying and pasting the entire article from One Powerful Word.com  To just copy and paste fragments wouldn't be doing the entire article any justice. I just found their site this morning and I am in love with it, so please click through after and go browse there!


12 Simple Ways to Get on Top of the World
(You can see why the title grabbed me right? We're all about the simple and the significant here! :Þ)

1. Try Rising Early

 “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" – Ben Franklin, famously said this. There are numerous benefits to rising early – Meditation, Exercise, Breakfast, Review your goals, set appointments. Make sure you sleep early and as soon as you close the alarm walk outside the room.


2. Practice Patience

This is a difficult virtue to obtain but with practice you can master it. Accept that you are human. You will grow, learn and change all the time. As humans, we make mistakes. Get over it and get on with life. Forgive yourself for your mistakes, weaknesses and imperfections. Instead of beating yourself up over past mistakes, accept them as part of who you are today.

Life is about progress, not perfection. Confront your fears about not reaching your goals. Remember that the world was not created in one day. Let go of worry. Worrying about tomorrow saps your energy and strength today. Instead, use that energy to work toward your goals. Become your own best friend. You are the only person you will live with your entire life, so get to know yourself well and treat yourself as the valuable person you are. Be patient.


3. Exercise

Make this a daily habit. Exercise not only helps you lose weight, but helps you to think clearly. It makes you feel better and it can be a time to practice concentration by focusing completely on exercising.


 4. Meditate

You might not be into New-Age stuff, but meditation is a very simple method for relaxing and replenishing your energy sources.



5. Acceptance

Accept things the way they are. If you keep thinking that you will be happy when you get to a certain place in life then you will always be looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Instead, try being happy with where you are, with who you are, and what you have.


6. Visualize

What would your ultimate life be like? Where would you live, what would you do, what would you do with your days? Come up with a clear picture of this, and write it down. Once you know what you want, take massive action. See what is working and omit actions which are not working. Calibrate and keep taking action until you attain your goals.


7. Long Term Goals

Set long term goals and then pick one to accomplish within the next year, and really focus on that. Now, pick one medium-term goal to achieve in the next few months that will get you further toward your longer-term goal. Now decide what you can do this week, and today, to get you to your medium-term goal. Just choose one thing at a time, focus on it, make it happen, and then choose the next thing to focus on.


8. Family Time
Spend as much time as possible with those you love, and truly enjoy those times. Be present as you do it — don’t think about work.


9. Motivate yourself

There will always be times in our lives when we get a little down. Remember how you feel depends on what you focus on. Change what you are focusing on and you can easily make yourself feel better.



10. Focus on pleasure, not pain
If you find yourself struggling to do something, stop thinking about how painful it might be to actually do the task but focus on the long-term pleasure (Benefits, Opportunities) you will gain by finishing the task. By changing the way you see things, you can change how you feel about them and make it easier to get things done.



11. One-Task-One-Time

Avoid Multi-tasking. Day to Day, moment to moment focus on one task at a time. This leads to greater productivity and less stress. You can have multiple goals but when you are doing something make sure you give it your 100% attention.



12. Help others

Volunteer some of your time. All of us can find a couple of hours in a week or a month. You will build connections with humble and good people who might influence and bring more positivity in your life. 



Again you can simply click to find these 12 steps here at One Powerful Word. Aren't they wonderful? :o) I don't know about you, but this is exactly what I needed today!


We'll, I've accomplished the getting up early part so far! Even if it is begrudgingly it still counts right? I think these 12 steps are worthy of printing out and putting on the fridge. They are great little reminders!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

With love and light,