Marchy March

March, oh I love you and the promise of summer being so close!

I had me a little "Meet Monat" hair washing where my friends could come over and have their hair washed by moi.  And also experience the incredibleness that Monat is. 

Dr Suess day.  Have I said how much I love having elementary age children?  It really is the best.  They planned and created these outfits all by themselves.  I didn't even realize it was the Drs special day. 

I've been trying to run a whole mile without stopping.  In my previous life before child #5 I was a runner.  Ok, not entirely true because I have run consistently since she was born but I once was a fast runner and also a long distance runner.  This is literally me taking baby steps.  Not trying to "go back" but just working on becoming something I enjoy doing and health is always my focus.  

Cloe asked our neighbor and her friend to Preference.  The poor kids was like a foot shorter than her. And I don't know if he said a word the entire date.  She looked gorgeous and kind of just wanted to go to the dance so I guess it worked out. 

So I guess you could say I"m all yogi now.  I started attending yoga once a week in December and LOVED it.  I use to not enjoy it because it was slow and sometimes hard.  For some reason, it has really clicked with me and its such a part of my life.  I ended up buying a monthly pass and try to go 3 times a week on a good week.  I made goal to go inverted (upside down).  This day in the photo was the first time I had lifted my feet off the ground and trusted my body to support my body.  not yet inverted but it's coming.  

eat lunch with the chitlins day at school.  

first tooth!  Dad loves yanking with the plyers and luckily this came out on the first yank.  Just a reminder that my baby is in fact growing up.  I don't care what you say, she is still my baby.  thankfully she is a little petite thing so I can still easily carry her around. 

we are canyon buddies. 

I found this awesome farm about 15 minutes south of us.  I went down specifically to buy beeswax cloth in an effort to use less plastic.  I bought my cloth and of course some beeswax candles and while Cloe enjoyed the goats, cows and llamas in the pasture.  

I've been on an organizing and get rid of kick this year.  Not stressing myself out and doing it all at once but taking it slow.  This is our linen closet that stays hidden.  Now I'm amazed that I tolerated that chaos for so many years!!  

My cute girl Charlotte.  

What does a peaceful life look like to you?  What is a life of peace?  

In almost all religion, there is a promise of blessings through righteousness.  I think that promise is often mistaken for a peaceful and easy life.  Also in the teaching of mindfulness/meditation/positive thinking that if you put out love and positivity, then that is what you will experience in life.  And I think that gets misinterpreted as you only have positive and loving interactions with people.  Both ways of thinking, religious and positive thinking, can be harmful because when you do experience negative interactions it’s because YOU are doing something wrong and YOU are causing this to happen to you.  Of course there is a devils advocate response but that’s not my focus.  

Yesterday I had crazy interactions with 3 people.  Like, I haven’t had someone talk to me like that since 8^thgrade and this was an adult.  A mother! After, I went inward and thought “what am I doing to create this in my life?”  Through both interactions, on my doorstep mind you, I remained very calm and clear headed. But what I realized is, we have no control how others think, act, react, judge, interpret and so on.  I can be as righteous/positive thinking/meditative as I want but I can’t control people showing up in my life that thrive on drama and chaos.  I control how I react and how I let it affect me.  I control whether or not I get involved in the chaos of the situation.  I realized yesterday as I reflected on what had happened and trying to find a “why” that there isn’t a “why”, this isn’t because I’m necessarily doing something wrong.  This is life and this is living life with other humans that have free agency and that have other life experience. 

As Wayne Dyer says “Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is rather than as you think it should be.”

That perfectly sums up the conclusion I was brought to.  The way I react and feel is where I continue to experience the peace no matter what. 

I posted this to my social media and left out details to be mature.  Personal blog?  free range.  I had a bat shit crazy mom of like 10 on my porch with her barely adult daughter getting all ghetto.  Trying to insult me and my parenting and they were having ZERO affect.  I was a substitute at another one of their kids class and the kid tried to get in a fight and take it into the hallway and I was like "no, get back in the class." just picture me trying to defuse the situation and also being the responsible adult in charge of the classroom.  I said something disrespectful to her son, in her opinion so she was also going off on me about that.  my response: "call the school.  Report it to the school.  get off my porch."  When this isn't normal life for you or normal way to react to things in life, it's very bizarre and a bit jarring.