making space

Oh, Loves ♥

I don't always share my Facebook activity on my blog, but when I do, it's big soul stuff like this:

New Year's Eve is such a magical day, isn't it?
Every day some of us are releasing the old to make space for the new,
but today the collective energy positively crackles in the air!
I am soooo feeling it.
2013 was an incredible year for me. 2014 is going to be absolute magic.

So, today, I wanna chat in love about releasing.

2013 held so much incredibleness for me and for my little family.

We found so.much.peace. with our oh-so-simple life and then decided to grow it grand and take it on the road.

I am ready to release that with all the gratitude in my heart ♥

Thank you for an incredible life in Encinitas, California, and thank you for our incredible free-roaming journey in Oregon, where I found my hOMe where the ocean meets the mountainy green and creates deep soulful magic.

Thank you for the beloved friends we met and finally connected with in that journey ♥

I look forward to the day when life leads us back hOMe to Oregon to grow roots in the soil, not just in our hearts ♥

And then there was Texas, an unlikely home-away-from-hOMe. I am so in love with my people there, and I know that Texas has something great in store for our big life journey. I have known it for years.

I was resistant to it when my oldest told me she wanted to stay, and it was so incredibly painful to release my attachment to Oregon and allow the shift in our journey that would keep us in Texas.

I am ready to release the pain of that experience, with all my gratitude for so much love for Oregon ♥

I am ready to release old hardships that grew from that pain.

I feel a big opening space for a new kind of magic when we return to Texas. Our beloved community and tribe are there, and I have a big huge space in my life to manifest the life I want to have in Texas this time.

I am thankful for all of the lessons of 2013, the deep soulful nourishment, the sparkling moments, the magic connections.

I am thankful for the possibilities that glisten, beckoning us into 2014 with hope and excitement.

I am grateful for what I choose to bring into 2014, into my new big wide-open space.

Oh, yes. I am so ready for 2014.

What are you ready to release from 2013?

What do you want to carry forth into your new space?

Sparkling with all the possibilities,

p.s. - I have new tabs! Take a peek if they call you ♥

The Online Caravan - If you love the travel + tribe + Sacred of living on the road, I believe you would love our online caravan. It's like being on the road with us, circling around campfires for talk about our journey, sharing pictures and videos from the road, gathering in the mornings to align ourselves in our intentions of our daily practices together.

Our Livelihood - If you know our story and are interested in how I support my family, as a single mama to 3 kids living on the road, come take a peek. I hope you will find some loving way you want to support us ♥



a new year

Freshness and newness are in the air, aren't they?

My Facebook newsfeed is full of statuses that go something like, "Loved you 2013, but I'm so ready for this new year, 2014!!!"

I, too, have been feeling it's draw and allure.

Last year, I was so geared up for a FANTASTIC 2013. And it was.

I predicted some pretty incredible stuff, and a lot of the fantastic stuff was unexpected.

2012 had been a hard year for me. It was exhausting figuring out our nomad flow and then recovering from the exhaustion. But it was just the rest I needed to be ready to create magic in 2013.

I started my internal journey toward 2013 with a reprocessing and sacred release of 2012.

I have been doing that process again this year. Wow. It is an incredible experience, to reflect, to find and show gratitude, to release, to be ready for what comes next.

And then, last year, as a part of my release and prepare ritual, I created this.

Oh, I so needed this. My beloved planner was chocked full of everything I could foresee that I would need to organize, inspire, and plan out 2013. It was an incredible process, and I used it a surprising-to-me amount of this year.

And I learned how I want to try it differently this year.

Last year, I filled it with inspiration, what lit me up and reminded me of my purpose and who I wanted to show up in the world as. Pages and pages of lists and reminders, in language smooth and sweet as a love letter. I wanted to keep it all close, within easy reach.

And I used it. I used it in my morning intention time, and I used it when life felt hard and I needed guidance and succulent reminders. It was my sacred scripture. I am so incredibly grateful that I did that.

This year, I don't need as much inspiration. 2013's life really nourished, fulfilled, and transformed me, and I find myself generally a more aligned, vibrationally uplifted being. So, the few things that I feel confident will help me during my times of unalignment or need of inspiration are embedded on the inside cover of my planner for this year.

Also, I learned something about that inspiration. The magic of just looking at it and being present with it's list wore off after a few months, so this year, I am trying something new. I have created space in my planner to rewrite the bits that I want to keep fresh, every month, every day, or however often I need.

Another part to my planners was the intentions. Last year, I created intentions for the whole year, a list of 100+ things I wanted to do in the year, a word for the whole year, a card reading for the whole year.

I love the concept of all of that and it was really fun to ride that roller coaster all the way to the top, but I didn't end up feeling aligned with all of it after just a couple months.

This year, I am staying a little closer to home. Smaller increments. I am going to try seasonal intentions and a word for the season, so I can have a nice chunk of time to practice, so my intentions and growth can evolve as life unfolds throughout the year, and because I feel that when I am drawn toward cleaning and shifting and realignment, it is when the earth does her shifting into the new season, too.

If seasonal feels too far apart, I plan to try moon cycle intervals. In fact, a moon ritual of intentions, card reading, and planning is already a part of what this new year has in store for me, so that might fit nicely.

My motto for this year is "do less, enjoy more". Instead of 100+ things to do this year, I think I have like 20. The things I want to invite into my life this year are aspects I have been holding in my heart for a long time and habits that feed my soul + enable me to show up in the ways I want to show up.

I am going for quality over quantity this year, and I am leaving plenty of space for the authentic growth that I know happens over the course of a whole year.

I plan to share more about this process and my new planner in blog posts throughout the week. I also plan to gather ideas for putting together your own magic planner for the year.

My baby is sick, and life is calling, so I have to do all of this in spurts.

I love you,

the peace after the whirlwhind

Hey, Loves ♥

I kinda disappeared from here, didn't I?

I'm sorry ♥

I am finally feeling the peace I need, to sit down centered and connect with ya'll.

My last blog post was about the Radiant Living & Learning Retreat right before Thanksgiving.

Just after that, we raced off toward Chicago. We stopped in Kansas, on our way, and spent a beautiful few days with our beloved Margot and Andres. What a treat!

Margot and I met online (on the Radical Mamas Tribe sisterhood mama group I founded almost 7 years ago) when our boys were little. She was facebook-present for Jaja's birth (my friend who was physically present kept our RMT mamas aware of all of the details of the event ♥).

 

All of these things we have experienced from a distance and over the phone over time, and now we got to connect and cuddle in person. Oh, she is SUCH a love. And Noble and Andres were instantly 2 peas in a pod ♥

Then we headed into Chicago and spend almost 2 weeks with our beloved friends who used to live in California. We used to visit them on the weekends and soak in the family fun, the mama time, the joy, the sweetness.

Reuniting these 2 was absolute magic

The kids got to play in snow!!!!!!

And enjoy friendship with a heavy dose of hot chocolate

 

and homemade pumpkin bread

I also sewed up a storm. I sewed so.much.stuff. Like this :))

And then we headed toward California, to be there for the winter holidays. Per Kass's request (and my heart's pull), we headed for Texas.

And on the way down, we slid out on the highway and ended up in a ditch. For 3 hours. Until a good samaritan stopped by and pulled us out. It was a little scary being stuck there in the cold, and the van is a bit banged up, but we drove away with so much gratitude.

And it got me thinking a lot about how we really are ready for a home on wheels - a fifth wheel preferably. We would have no need to race through bad weather to get somewhere warm and safe and cozy - we could have just pulled over in a parking lot, cranked up the heat, made dinner in our kitchen, maybe watched a movie on our laptop, cuddled in bed together, prayed for the drivers out there, and went to bed for the night, prepared to head out in the sun's warm rays.

I have been afraid of changing my home. I have been afraid of letting go of the ease and lightness and all of the reasons we loved and chose this. But I am very clear that it is time to release my fears about how it will change things, and start gearing up for a real home on wheels.

A home with amenities and luxuries like a fridge and a stove and a sink and a toilet and floor space for the kids to play on and storage space so we can have our things with us, instead of leaving them in a storage somewhere - somewhere that just keeps being across the country from where we find ourselves -, space I can spread our stuff out and live in.

I am so ready.

Can you tell?

January is dedicated to making it happen for us.

If you want to be a part of our gathering of resources, there is a GoFundMe box to the right of this where you can donate toward our cause or plenty of links up top where you can purchase something to support us ♥ There are other ways to support us, too, like sharing our story and helping us find the right people to make this magic happen. And sending us love and manifestation juju is oh-so appreciated :))

So, we spent a few days in Texas. I can't believe how much like home it felt when we pulled in. Wow. I truly love my Texas peeps. I wish I could have hugged and loved on more of them, but I got a good dose of a few until we get back there.

And then we drove for 2 days straight to get to California, to our beloved longest-time-friends Amy, Chris, and Krislyn.

Oh, the joy when we pulled in. It was incredible and absolute magic. The love. So.much.love. It lights us all up and brings us together.

So, after all the welcome hugs and crying and soaking in the sight of each other and barking in gleeful reunion (that was the dogs, not us), Amy and I did not end up going to sleep like the kids did. We raced off to Wal-Mart to overdrawn my bank account buying gifts from a very-believed-in Santa, stocking stuffers from us mamas, and holiday crafting supplies for the next few days. We have 4 kids who need and deserve a beautiful holiday and a short amount of time to do it, so we got straight to work.

And we worked good.

We celebrated Yule last night with holiday music, Yule story telling, homemade gifts, and lots of smiles.

there are lots more pics on Facebook
and yes, Kassidy, is biting her gift, and Noble is copying her

After having not slept for 2 days, I went to bed early and forgot to sing the sun back to the earth. I hear he is on his way back anyway. Kass and I will take the next shift and sing Yule songs tonight ;)

Today, I awoke, after 10 hours of sleep, feeling gratitude, ready to enjoy this homemade holiday with my loves, and peace about where we are right now.

It truly has been a whirlwind. It has been hard in various ways - not the least being that we found out Jaja has lice the morning we left Texas. *insert deep sigh of solidarity* Now, remember that she and Noble have dreads and feel bad for me (lol)

But I am so grateful to be here right now. And I am so grateful to be sitting in a spot I will be at for a whole month. Our little winter haven. I don't "have" to be anywhere for a while. I have plenty of space for some much needed self care, some business clarity, some hOMe manifestation.

I am thrilled over the moon for this new year.

But right now, I want to soak in this place of peace right here where I am at. And I want to make some hot chocolate with candy canes and prep the dough to make ornaments and other gifts this year.

What a beautiful life.

I wish, for you, a beautiful, magical, sacred holiday.

All my love,

~rainbow mondays~ Radiant Living & Learning Retreat

Oh, Loves ♥

I had an incredibly magical weekend of unschooling gathering + fall nature.

The Radiant Living & Learning Retreat was like an unschooling mini-conference at a campground (a state park). It was a fund-raiser toward a service dog for the host's son who has autism. It was a beautiful opportunity to gather and connect on unschooling and bask in the soul-deliciousness of camping.

It was created by this incredible lady here:

me & Christina

There was no wifi or phone service at the campground, so I didn't take as many pictures as I might have if I had been in the sharing mindset, but here is a peek into our soul-refreshing weekend.

Pink: for henna with glitter

Gorgeous: for transformative sessions in nature with beloved goddesses

Black: for nature silhouettes against a breathtaking sunset

White: for a full moon bathing us in her rays of grace and fullness ♥

  

Yellow: for my first sacred women's ceremonial circle. Wow.

(made possible by kids playing and watching movies in the screened shelter next to us - mama bliss) 

 

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green: for the incredible fall backdrop of our weekend

 

Pink: for the color of the inside of the bunkhouse where these girls (and several others) had dance parties, giggles, and sleepovers :))

 

Blue: (their buddy Stone not pictured) for boys romping through the wild together for 4 days

(**photo credit not mine)

 

Red: for love and a teenager's right-of-passage

 

Red & Black: for the cutest ponytail EVER :))

 

Brown: for OM henna ♥

 

~rainbow mondays~

 an opportunity to share some color from our week of travel and connection

inspired by our beloved mb

live your om

Hey, Beloved ♥

I just revamped this little e-course for you.

It is the foundational tool I use to iron out the wrinkles in my values + intentions + life, the tool I use to sink deeper into what's important to me, to be more thorough in what is meaningful for me.

It's small, but it packs a big punch. Lasting effects, the whole shebang.

So, I wanted to let you know it's available for your "embodying your values" needs, and you can find more info on it here.

All my love,

~rainbow mondays~ Sandy & Lily

Hello, my darling ♥

I hope you are really loving these rainbow mondays. It is such a treat to share juicy pieces (like pictures + colors) of this gypsy journey with you ♥

This last week, we have been enfolded into the beautiful loving home & life of our dearest Sandy and (her youngest daughter) Lily ♥

It has been so sweet to be here with them ♥ Sandy is absolutely incredible. We met a few weeks ago at the Goddess Harvest Meditation and Visioning that my sister, Osun, and I did. I knew she was a sweet treat then. We talked a bit about my road life, and she was so inspired, she went home and did her research, and then catapulted herself toward it!! It is so awesome to be here witnessing her fast-flowing journey of releasing her life as she knows it and her stuff, to embrace the simplicity and om of the road. She is so incredible, the way she just flows with it all.

We ♥ Sandy & 4-year-old Lily ♥

Jaja and Lily are little girls heaven and are IN little girls heaven. Thank goodness Noble has his toys and my laptop :))

So, without further adieu, our rainbow for the week...

Skin colors: for holding hands when they walk

 

Light & Dark: for hugs between new sisters

Pink & Purple: for sharing jammies and breakfast on the counter after a sleepover

 

Black & White: for kid-crafted wood race-cars

Purple & Black: for gymnastics together

Pink: for aerial silks in circus class

Red: for an impromptu puppet show

 

Pink & White/Black/Red: for movie dates in 3D

 

White: for Nanners, the sweetest doggie in the land

Red & Blue & Yellow & Green: for a good ol' fashioned game of Twister

~rainbow mondays~

 an opportunity to share some color from our week of travel and connection

inspired by our beloved mb

the way we do the way we do ♥

Hello, my love ♥

How are you, Darling?

I hope this love letter finds you feeling like you are zen in a park, hugging a tree somewhere ♥

 

We have been on such an incredible journey recently.

For the past couple months, we have been spending a lot of time in the homes of several beloved, incredible people, who each have such a beautiful unique way of being, and a kind and loving mirror to myself and my family.

It has been such an awesome opportunity to reflect on our ways and our style and what makes us... us :)

It is a beautiful opportunity to witness our diversity of similarities and our easy samenesses.

I wanted to share a beloved piece of our big journey with you.

It is such a deep piece, that most of my life grows from it. And I sometimes find it is in contrast to the majority of people who live "alternative" or intentional lives. So, I think it might be a beautiful piece of my love message to you and our sisters and brothers in this whole world.

When I consciously decided upon natural birth and green living and alternative healing and organic eating and gentle parenting and unschooling and simplicity and other things I decided to put into practice, I instantly felt how right it was, and so felt that other ways of doing things were wrong.

I felt guilt and shame about my old ways, and I was scared to slip up and do things in ways that were obviously going to mess up my child, and I felt other parents should do things this new way that I found, too.

It made it very hard to connect with mamas who lived differently, and it made it impossible to find someone else who did things "perfect" so that I could be comfortable being close friends and not feel judgmental or worried for people whom I had grown to love so much.

And I resisted being judgmental, because I have always been about love (which I also found was another "should"), and it made me feel bad about who I was being. Even when I was coming from a place of love and trying so hard to not be judgmental, I still felt some ways were better than others, which caused the way I interacted with people to be slanted or skewed in some way.

I remember coming to the conclusion that I just wanted to embrace everyone in their paths, knowing that they made their best choices for their family, that I have never walked a day in their path, so how could I possibly know what was best for their family.

And then I got the biggest opportunity to explore and practice this.

My younger sister had a baby. We had been raised by different moms in different households, and our choices were often different. Our births were no exception.

I found myself realizing that I really wanted to honor my sister, regardless of AND FOR the choices she felt drawn toward.

And that was when it came to me.

How could I honor someone's choice, when it was so different from what I felt I had to do?

And of course, I HAD to do it, or I would poison my child or the earth, or mess my kids up emotionally and cripple them for life. I HAD to sacrifice, for what was best for my children. I was doing SO much, giving SO much, because it was the right thing to do, because I had to, because it was better. Because how could any mama who knew better do any less?

Wow.

Did you feel that?

Can you relate to that?

Let's take a moment to sink back into our real Truth.

That? That was a lot of pressure. All over the place. That was fear and anxiety, and that was not coming from my Truth or my heart.

So, what comes next?

Step #1 was owning my fears, knowing they were about some internal journey of mine, and none of that stuff was about anyone else.

But I did like those choices. They just weren't feeling like real choices. So, what was amiss?

I reflected on those things and began a journey of re-choosing my choices, and exploring how something can feel right to me without the rest being wrong. It's a different kind of right. Like alignment. Specific to me. Stepping from that place inside of me.

Mmmmm, an opportunity to explore what was inside me.

What was my deepest relationship truth? Love.

So, what was the real practice of love? Not because I had to love, but because I chose to love, because I wanted to love, because being love and stepping from a place of love felt soulfully nourishing and oh-so expansively right.

What would love do?

Mmmmm.

Returning to my deeply natural state of being free to make choices was liberating and gave me a life full of space to grow from, in a way that still feels like I was made for this.

I could finally truly grow and tailor my life, and shift and expand it based on our needs, not the "shoulds" inside or outside of me.

Being free to truly make choices has kept me so busy loving and living my life, and it allows me to be totally at peace with people making their own choices, too.

It opened me up to loving myself, even when I fall short of my own intentions, since there was no pressure, just joy. And feeling less pressure about my intentions means we actually live them easier, since I am not pulled down (every time I move out of alignment) by guilt and shame and fear that made it hard to recover and live how I want to live. We can just make a choice and do it. No beating myself up along the way necessary.

And I am so grateful whenever I catch myself in that "judgment" place, because it can be such a soul-delicious opportunity to check in with my life again - is that another path I followed because I felt I had to because it was "best"? Would I have made that choice, if I had a million other just-as-valid options around me?

And what would it look like to completely design that?

This "choice therapy" stuff has opened me up to be truly me, and to be with people in a way that is truly loving them and connecting to them. To really, really SEE people ♥ To honor their journey, to embrace and be with them in their All.

So, when we chose to eat organic produce and support our community through our spending or not immunize each other or embrace tough feelings or learn in a way that feels right to us, it is from a place of internal yumminess and stepping from a place of being true to ourselves.

When I witness fear-mongering posts on Facebook or conversations in presence, I just send an energy hug and ease on down my road (btw, you MUST see this video the kids made).

It's not wrong or bad to be afraid, or best to be unafraid - I just don't feel aligned with that feeling.

We do these things because they feel good inside us, because they nourish us, because we live what we believe.

It is my pleasure and such an honor to share this with you, to love you in your journey, to feel connected to you in what feels like sameness and might look like differences.

Keep choice-making, Love.

See where is leads you ♥

All my love,

No, really, ALL my love,



~rainbow mondays~ Kirby Creek Park

Hello, again, Darling ♥

So, as I consulted my calendar, I realized that I had missed a week of rainbow mondays, so this is our make up, from Kirby Creek Park the last week of October.

Purple: that face

 

Blue: for more silliness than this mama can handle sometimes :)))

 

Yellow: for that tiny flower Noble found when we were looking for something yellow

Orange: for our sweet spot (in this park, and in our life - these are my Gypsy Om)

White: for wishes 

 

Blue: for that crabwalk he has been perfecting

Purple: for cartwheels

 

Purple: for dancing

(since purple is my favorite color, I can do it 3 times in this post, right? I'm an unschooler - I am here to break rules lol)

 

Golden: for that boy I can't get enough of

 

Sunset: for poi

 

Pink + Green: for love

~rainbow mondays~

 an opportunity to share some color from our week of travel and connection

inspired by our beloved mb