Relationships
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Play :: Creating a Summer Bucket List for the Kids
The idea to create a bucket list for the family this summer came to me while looking through Pinterest. The pictures that people post are such eye-candy – it is hard to get off the site! I came across a bucket list that a woman had made with her kids. I loved the idea so we are planning on creating our own bucket list this next week once my daughter is out of school. Granted, I have a journal that I write down ideas from time to time things I want to do in my lifetime, but this bucket version is a shorter one that you create with the kids so they…
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Reflections :: To be alive with what is alive
Here is a thought worth contemplating. It comes from a man named James Hollis in his book The Archetypal Imagination. Hollis reminds us that the Greek word psyche, which is the root of words like psychology, means soul. Today the word psyche is associated with our mental life, as in our thoughts and emotions–what’s going on in our head. Meaning psyche as soul could be showing itself in whats running across our mind. Soul is a funny thing to talk about. It’s not something that can be counted or added up. It has much more to do with quality. So let’s call it quality of life. Starting with the idea of…
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Special Needs Parenting: Uncoventional Choices and Unconditional Love
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a soon-to-be-single mother of two special needs children.. I love duct-tape, MacGyver and was born thinking outside the box. I am an independent thinker who often got in trouble in school and college for speaking my mind and not following the crowd. As far as I’m concerned – that qualifies me to be one great special needs mother. Not quite three months ago, I made an irrational, illogical and emotionally-based decision that I had been struggling with for over a year. My bipolar/add/LHON/anxiety/pediatric migraines with aura daughter (Bipolar Girl) was deeply depressed and unresponsive to medication, counseling, social events/play dates, etc. She…
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Musings :: The Intrigue of A Dream Catcher
Yesterday, I took my daughter out of kindergarten early and headed to Knott’s Berry Farm. Lately, I have been feeling like time is just going by too quickly and she is growing up right before my eyes. The other morning I came down the stairs and found her playing with her Lego’s in her superheroes pajamas and it reminded me of a story I had read years ago about how the author found as the years went by the fingerprints on the walls went higher and higher as her children grew and the toys she had to pick up on the ground went from baby toys, to Lego’s to teenage…
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Three Things to Teach Your Kids About Being Mindful
Three things to teach your kids about being mindful “Mindfulness” is about being in touch with the present moment — paying attention to what is happening now – your thoughts, your feelings and your way of being. Practicing mindfulness is a powerful tool for creating a sense of well-being, for managing stress, and for creating overall good health. Therefore, it is an important skill to teach our kids. There are three things to teach your kids about being mindful: First teach them to look for the “grungies”. Grungies are “negative feelings” such as fear, anxiety, frustration, and worry which often come from thoughts about the past…
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Community :: Honoring Memorial Day
Many of us will be celebrating Memorial Day with our friends and family and enjoying some down time. I plan to relax, pick up a bit (if I am so inspired) and enjoy this time with my family. But I also plan to talk to my daughter in an age-appropriate manner about the true meaning of Memorial Day and why we celebrate the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. We are fortunate that the men in our immediate family who fought in previous wars (WWII Veterans, Vietnam War Veterans) came back home, but it is so very important to honor all those who did…
