Authenticity A few months ago, I had posted about giving up on riding horses, because every time that I tried to do that in my life, something happened to stop it. However, life is just always full of surprises. About two months ago, Alafair told me that she wanted to start
Trust I am finishing my last segment of learning to advance in my teacher licensure. This segment is all about family engagement. In particular, we have been learning about building trust with families. One of the videos that I watched instructed us to think about people as marble jars. Do you
Family Engagement I'm currently working on my final quarter of work to level-up in my teaching licensure. This quarter is all about family engagement and how it leads to student success. I wanted to discuss the assignment I recently submit. It was a personal reflection of my Pre-K through 12th
Womanly Wins I've been thinking about how happy I am that schools now have free menstruation pads provided in the girls' restrooms. I'm a little shocked that it took them so long to provide this necessary item when both boys and girls are legally demanded to attend
Yoga Therapy I call myself a yoga teacher, but the more I develop myself, the less inclined I am to teach group, mainstream, yoga classes. I think I'm more interested in being a yoga therapist. I love getting down to the deep anatomy and energetic issues. The yoga classes I
Yoga and Emails Yoga is finding peace and balance in all aspects of living. I even take my yoga practice into opening my emails. Since I work with a lot of people, it doesn't serve me well to be bothered by everything. Before I open emails which I suspect will be
Vitamin Deficiencies I've been doing vitamin IV drips for more than a year. Since starting these drips, I have reduced the amount of anxiety medication I take to help me fall asleep. Previously, I took 1mg of alprazolam every night for a few years because sleep was so elusive. Now,
Pink Lately I've been finding balance in my wardrobe. In the past 15 years, I've rarely done multiple outfit changes a day. That was reserved for my college, self because she had lots of energy. Since having children, I've mostly rocked my yoga clothes all
Poignant Moments I had a turbulent relationship with my father. It would have been easier on me if he had been all bad or all wrong. No one is, though, and the more I have practiced compassion in my life, the more I have been able to think about my dad with
Parent Check There are memes going around saying that parents grow up with their first-born child. I have been reflecting on how accurate that is for me. Yes; I did get better as a parent when I chose to grow while raising Aidan. However, I think that my biggest emotional mistakes were
Silent Prayers I find my prayers being less words and more breath and silence. Growing up, I was taught prayers, and they were great for focusing my attention. I found a lot of peace in praying the Rosary. At a certain point, though, words just aren't as adequate as sitting
Connections Feeling connected to other people can be such a nice sensation. I was at my son's band concert recently, and I was watching people as they entered the gym. A mass of supporting adults and siblings filed into the hot gym to sit on uncomfortable seats for an
Discomfort in Asana Asanas are what the poses in yoga class are called. Asanas are only one of the eight limbs of yoga. Not only can they feel challenging to physically do, but many people don't realize they can feel emotionally "yucky" to do as well. Last night, I
Loving Kindness Meditations I discovered 'loving kindness' meditations about 10 years ago. They are especially useful when I'm angry, or hurt, by people and there is no solution for the situation. I hear the saying, "To forgive is divine," and in my head, I want to easily
Animal Friends I'm frequently impressed by the beauty and friendship of animals. I get tired of having pets, but then I know that I don't do great without them. I've read pretty frequently that empaths need animals in their lives, because they are soothing. When they
Active Social Lives It's exhausting to be the social coordinator of the family. Over the past 19 years, Caleb and I have switched roles for who schedules our social lives. I know I used to do it a lot more before I got pregnant and then when the kids were tiny.
Good Beds This is about good beds; it's not about being good in bed. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive. Anyway, back to my main idea. I remember those early Tempurpedic commercials almost every time that I hop into my bed. In the old commercials, there
Joyful Couples Lately I have been thinking about joyful couples. Growing up, I don't think I ever witnessed the adult couples in my life playing with each other. There were moments of laughter, but I don't think their relationships were a source of true joy. Something has happened,
Going with the Flow As a hobby, I haven't been successful at being a horse woman. I think the mommin'-and-military-spouse life just doesn't allow for such a time-consuming hobby. Lately, I've switched from trying to develop myself as a rider to developing myself as a pilot.
Rough-housing Times: they are a-changin'. I used to have to say to my kids, "You have two parents!" when they would walk directly past their dad to ask me to do something for them. You know what I'm talking about. It doesn't matter if
Wild Hair I remember the wild hair of my youth! It was the expression of my youthful impatience to get going! My mom would try to wrangle my hair into adorable ponytails, and I would let her because she had a firm grip on my head, but those ponytails didn't
One Year Well, well, well. I have made it to one year of weekly posts. Go me! I'm halfway to my goal. It's taken me 3 years to get this far. The first two years, I was just too smoked to do weekly posts. I had to do
Leveling Up I've written about working to obtain my Level 2 licensure in teaching. I think that I've been doing this for about 3/4 of a year, now. Initially I thought, "Ugh...more classes," because college really didn't prepare me for being a
Body Acceptance Body acceptance is still really tricky for me. I admire people who have body confidence. Sometimes I do and other times I just feel deflated by the person looking back at me. I think people require a strong sense of what healthy feels like in their bodies, because our visual
Shifting Focus I find myself so focused on other people that it's hard for me to concentrate on an energetically higher state of living. When I was living in Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, my kids needed me at home, and I spent a lot of time working on raising my
