paintedpinkmountains

Been longer than I planned since I updated.  It's been a really slow process in terms of changes in my hair.  There are, at the current moment, three locks forming quite nicely and I haven't yet taken any photos of them as it's kind of hard to do myself.  So, perhaps there's a little metaphor in this part of the journey.  Ask for help :)  It's really not that hard, but asking for help shows vulnerability, which I have a hard time with.  And hence, another reason for embarking on this journey.  I want to allow myself to be more open, more vulnerable.  There are certain situations in  my life that have given me the opportunity to learn patience and gentleness and respect for the journeys of others.  It is easy to look at anyone from your own perspective and judge them and expect things of them based on your own needs.  But often, what these people truly need is your tenderness, your ability to put their own needs ahead of yours, kno...

When I first mentioned that I was letting my hair dread, my kids had mixed responses.  Seth was excited, and Sean wasn't quite so much.  I didn't really explain in detail why I was doing it; just that it was a journey I felt I needed right now.  Seth actually said he wanted them too, though his hair is much too short for it, and due to their change in schooling, it’s not something that he will be able to do.  In fact, the beautiful long hair Sean has grown all summer has now been chopped, which was pretty tough for me to deal with.  I loved his long hair with its thick and beautiful golden strands that hung perfectly around his gorgeous face like those of a beach-loving surfer. But it’s all part of the journey I’m quickly realizing, as Sean has now made it clear that he doesn’t want me to grow dreadlocks because he will miss being able to play with my hair.  Many evenings we would spend on the couch with him running his fingers through my hair like a c...

Last Wednesday I packed my boys in the car and headed to the beach for a couple days of camping.  Thanks to a very sweet friend I was supplied with all the necessities to ensure we remained safe and comfortable.  A tent large enough for the three of us, a canopy to make sure we had shade from the sun, a lantern and a few other handy tools for “roughing it”. And rough it we did.  Since there was no sun in sight we refrained from setting up the canopy and as the wind began to blow pretty hard it was probably a good thing.  I spent a few hours after the boys fell asleep wondering if there was a tropical storm coming that perhaps my handy weather app had missed.  Fortunately we didn’t blow away and I eventually fell asleep, but when the morning came so did the rain.  And it rained most of the day on and off.  The sun never came out either, but DUDE….we were at the beach, so I flipped up my middle finger to the showering skies and we trekked out on...

My boys turned 8 last month.  One wanted a Polaroid Camera for his birthday, and unfortunately the one that I decided upon for him took over three weeks to arrive, but it finally did arrive!!!  And this is the first shot he took with it using  Impossible PX70 Color Shade film!!!  (Actually I took a photo of the photo with my iphone....) It's not perfect, and we still have quite a learning curve with the camera, but I couldn't be more thrilled that he's loving it as much as I am.  Better yet, I found the 600 Land Camera that belonged to my grandparents, so there will be many excursions shared in the future! And I have a million excuses for why I didn't post the past two days, but there are no rules so if I failed to abide by any that I set at the beginning then it's quite acceptable.

I've been reading Susannah's blog for quite some time.  And last year I wanted to participate in this , but I was in the process of many things, and while I still am, there is no better time than now to jump in.  Especially since I just finished her book!  And as someone who has suffered through the grief of an unexpected and terrible loss of someone I loved, her words really hit home to me.  I could continue to write a million other words, but, since there are no rules to the August Break, I'm going to just stop right now and save some of it for later.  Tomorrow perhaps, I'll write more.  Perhaps not.  Either way, the only rule I'm holding myself to is that I post something every day, because I like having this blog, and I don't give it near the attention that I would like to.  And I would love to change that, in addition to changing the look of this blog. Bonus points for anyone who can see the ladybug in the photo!  And more bonus po...

Reading back over some recent posts on this blog, I see that I am pretty open and honest in my writing here.  Granted, I have only shared this little space of mine with a very select few of my closest friends, and I assume (on most days) that no one else anywhere has even found this blog, let alone spent any time reading it.  And I guess in some ways that gives me a little more security in allowing myself to be more raw here.  No one is going to read it anyway.  And I guess the .01% of me that occasionally thinks that maybe someone out there does or will read it and find some relation to what I say here.....I guess that part of me gains a little bit of excitement in the possibilities.  So, in all the other blog reading I do, I found this one today:  http://www.creaturecomfortsblog.com/home/2012/5/3/things-im-afraid-to-tell-you.html .  And I'm taking this as a sign that it's time to update my own blog, with a bit more of that raw honesty that ...

it seems fitting that i should be hit with a stomach bug over New Years, thus being forced to stay in. It will be the first New Year's Eve I have spent completely alone, and in all honesty, I'm not all that sad about it. The more I think about it, the more perfect it seems. I have much purging to do and I have to take this time to clear my head and focus on what I want to accomplish in the coming year, what I need to do in order to succeed in all my goals. Besides that, in my continual analyzing, it seems like a contradiction to the whole "start the year fresh" idea to go out and drink all night, staying up late only to wake up in the morning starting the new year off hungover. It seems to me that it would make more sense to spend the evening centering the self so that one can wake up feeling refreshed and focused. On that note...welcome 2012! Consider me centered!