This is Big

I love this post and thought it prudent to share!

THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle
www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove

::Emotional Midwifery ::

Today, if your child behaves in a way that you find particularly annoying or upsetting, try this perspective:

My child's behavior is *not* what's really upsetting me. The behavior is triggering unresolved feelings that have nothing to do with the present situation.

In other words, your child is doing you a favor! S/he's giving you an opportunity to heal -- to resolve an old hurt and release the stress it's been creating. You don't even have to figure out the cause of the unresolved feeling. Just *allow* yourself to feel it, and it will resolve naturally.

The following will help:

* Take some deep breaths and locate the feeling in your body.

* Don't judge, express, or react to the feeling; just be present with it, and let yourself experience it, even if it hurts. (Notice it hurts less if you don't resist it.)

* Be like an empowering midwife to the feeling, which is giving birth to new awareness, clarity, and freedom.

* Silently bless your child for playing a part in your healing.

Stuff

Sheesh, I just can't seem to get into being on the computer at all lately. Every time I get on, I'm there for all of 5 or 10 minutes, but then I just ***crave** being with the boys, so off I go.
John got home on Thursday and has been crazy busy since then. He leaves today at noon to go to Omaha, NE. We won't be going with him because it's only a 5 day job.
He knocked on a whole bunch of doors yesterday and handed out fliers about himself for the election coming up. Only a few more days to go. He's hoping to be back here to meet more people next weekend.
We went to a costume party on Friday at the Schuster's home. It was much fun, lots of games and goodies. The kids had a blast. Then our little Emma (my sister's baby girl, 12 days older than Sage) turned two that day, so we partied a bit with her to help her celebrate!
The Jenner duo came on Friday and is spending the weekend with us. We're doing a whole lot of slackin' and that's a good thing. Diana took Hayden and Saylor down to help paint some pro-choice signs yesterday; Saylor said he had a good time doing that.
Today we're off to church; they're having an inter-generational service for the Day of the Dead. Should be interesting; I always enjoy spending time with that community of people, and the kids are coming to know the other children there, so I love that for them, too.
We have another Halloween party to go to on the 31st, with our Mother's Collective tribe. Sure to be lots of yummy but healthy food and snacks, and games for all the little creatures that come.
And now, I need to start putting my mind into birthday mode, for our little man Sage will turn 2 on the 8th. Doesn't seem right! My baby . . .

Ok, Already!

Since I get so much guff from my friends when I don't post, here's one for ya'll! :)
We're busy here in Rapid City, hanging out with friends and otherwise keeping busy playing together at home. We had a large crew of mama's and energetic, wonderful children over here today. I made a big pot of tomato leek soup and some homemade apple crisp, and the other crunchy mum's brought yummy food to share, so we spent the day feasting and talking and laughing. The kids enjoyed each other, and ended the day watching some of Over the Hedge, which we'd just rented last night (and my boys have watched, oh, I think 4 times now?)

Heidi (of the FiveFreeBirds) mentioned on her blog that she felt like she didn't have a lot to write about now that they're off the road. I can see where she's coming from. When traveling, every day is really an adventure. Not that we don't have our share of them now, it just seems that days fill up with stuff, and at the end of the day you're thinking "what did I do today?" When you are on the road, that's all you have to think about, what will we do today, what did we do today, oh, better blog about that... There isn't a WHOLE house to take care of, and a WHOLE yard, and 20 steps to get from one room to the next to deliver a snack or a drink of water. And I am beginning to see the beauty of only being able to do laundry *1 TIME* per week.

John is still in Colorado Springs working, and will be over the weekend and into next week. I had a slight break down the other night, but after talking to him for 2 seconds, felt better. I was really just pissed that we aren't together, so I aired it and he heard it and empathized and I moved on. That was also the night I really wanted a glass of wine and the corkscrew was in the bus, and the door is sticking and I couldn't get in to get it! Which is probably a good thing! Not such a good idea to turn to a substance when your stressed, but oh, a half a glass woulda been oh so good.

There you have it! I'll try to be better at this now that we're home. Love to all! :)

Home

Just a quick update, here, then off to bed for me!

We left Maple Grove on Saturday morning, and drove about 6 hours to 'drop cord' at a friend's home out on the plains, near Kennebec, SD. Tried to have a fire under the lovely full moon, but the wind had others ideas, and the darn clouds kept hogging the view for themselves.

The boys had a good time seeing John's llama's, and running about. We left this morning (Sunday) and drove the rest of the way home. This is where we are, and waiting to see where we'll be next.

There are rumors of a short job in Colorado Springs, and if so, the boys and I will likely stay here and meet up with John after they've had time to re-connect with all their buddies.

Then, maybe??? after that, on to Cali?

I'll keep ya posted!

My Happy 34th

Well, been meaning to get this day blogged since the 26th, but life gets busy and my beauties beckon. Now that everybody is sleeping and I can’t stay on-line to check my e-mail for god knows what reason, I’m putting together this entry to cut and paste later!
The day was the nicest, weatherly speaking, day we had all week. Sunny, just the right temp, not windy, just a really pretty day. John even got off early and was home by about 4:30, instead of the usual 7 or 8. My lucky day!
Before John got home, the boys and I went for a bike ride, played shuffleboard, did 5 loads of laundry (yeah, on my bd, it’s all good!) and played on the playground for a while. While doing laundry, met a musician from Hawaii who’s been on the ‘mainland’ touring since May. He described his music as similar to Jimmy Buffet’s…island type of music. I told him if he saw us out and about later to come on over and have a Corona with us to celebrate my day.
We grabbed some take-out from Applebee’s, brought it back here and had a picnic, then some cake, and a fire, and some more cake. The cake really flowed the rest of the night, mainly from Stone and Sage’s digging fingers, and it was gone before we went to bed. (don’t worry, though! It was a small cake! Whew, I’d just polished off a good chunk of the cheesecake I’d made the day before, so thanks for takin’ her easy, John!) The Whaleshark did come over to enjoy the fire and a couple cold ones. Rain forced us inside the bus where the boys promptly crashed and Eric, John and I chatted til after midnight.
We also met another nice gentlemen today, Tim. He’s spent the last 9 years re-storing his GMC motor home thing? Not sure what the technical name is, but he calls is “The Greenroom”. It was the first year GMC made a motor home, if that means anything to you? He was in broadcasting, was also a traveling musician, and now is doing? Not sure? Anyway, he gave us a tour of his pad, and it was very cool, in a retro-disco kind of way. Mirrors everywhere, all the lighting on dimmers, lots of neon, high tech, sleek lines, and a disco ball! (Told John we gotta get one of those!!) We invited him over to help us eat cake, so we had a nice little party around the fire for a while, complete with new friends.
John bought a speaker dock for Saylor’s iPod, so we have some good sounding tunes in here now! It’s really a gift to us all, more than something just for me, and that’s the way I like it! I think I’ve got to save some pennies now for a bigger iPod. Saylor’s Nano is already full, and the same 88 songs over and over….well?
Got some phone calls with loving wishes from my family and friends. It was a good, good birthday. Looking forward to this next year on my journey!