New digs

Hi all,

I've moved over to new digs at tumblr.  Come see me there and update your RSS feeds! I've got a giant new project in the works and hope to share my many adventures with you.

Sara

Focus frustration

I've experienced huge amounts of frustration with my own blog writing recently. Posting here is a delightful way to share what I'm thinking and learning about, and it is a great way for me to see and track my own growth over the years.

However, what I learn and think most about is barely showing up in my writing here - developmental attachment and our growth to our full human potential.  In pondering my frustration with myself, I've been watching what drives my writing and posts here.  It turns out, I spend huge amounts of time elsewhere writing about what I know and am learning via the Neufeld paradigm.  I think this means when I come here, I've essentually used up that part of my brain - I'm out of gas. The blog becomes a place to share all the other fun stuff in my day.

Knowing this hasn't given me any answers - I can't really stop writing there to write here, and I can't push myself to do more when I'm used up. It does have me thinking about my frustrations in a different light.  I'm still in the process of seeing how I spend my time and energy, and I'm sure I'll come up with a solution that delights me - at some point.

In the meantime, thanks so much for sharing in my adventures.

Busy Cindy weekend coming!

Our Seattle Neufeld Community leadership team has been sooooo busy recently.  Honestly, sooooo busy.

One of the exciting outcomes is a list of sure to be incredible events with Cindy Leavitt, faculty member of the Neufeld Institute.  We also now have a beautiful new website and a fancy and deeply useful registration tool.

Cindy is coming Valentine's Day weekend.  Her presentations focus on our children's and our own hearts.  In a world where keeping hearts safe is so underappriciated, I think her talks will be both refreshing and inspiring.  
Wed, February 13, 6:30pm - Heart Matters-Winning, Safeguarding, and Strengthening Your Child’s Heart
Sat, February 16, 8:30am - Growing Together-Relationship as a Vehicle for Transformation

And because my fellow team members are so creative and brilliant, we're having a date night event! Music with both Paul Durham and Miss Rose & Her Rhythm Percolators while sipping drinks with friends and supporting our growing community - how fun is that?!
Sat, February 16, 8pm - Date Night Fundraiser

Join us!  Or if you live far away, humor me and click on the link to admire the glorious work that is blossoming here in Seattle!

I haven't posted any cute animal videos in a while...

Forwarded from my dad, who always loves a good chuckle.  I'm thinking if we show the video to Mason enough, he'll figure out this stunt.
Silly, cute, chilly Labrador


From Mark's Daily Apple
Trying To Find What I'm Looking for in the Chest Freezer
The kids kept asking, is someone going to help him out of there.  And I kept replying, no they are too busy laughing and taking a video.

Adventures Galore!

Hi all,

The family and I are headed south to Ecuador for my brother's wedding and some serious homeschool fun.  I'll be back in December, hopefully with some amazing pictures and stories to share.

Talk to you then!
Sara

What is iTunes thinking?

So, I'm listening to music and trying to conquer the avalanche-prone heap that was once my desk.  I'm feeling lazy, so I picked play by genres.  Pop seems like good, upbeat sorting music, right?

What I want to know is how Michael Jackson, Iyaz, Air Supply and Frank Sinatra could possibly all fit in there together?

Weird.

Wish me luck on the piles.

A Very Full Life

I'm sure you've noticed I have not posted in a while.  Everyday I mean to - I've been learning so much I'd like to write about, both for my own internal processing and integration and to share with you all.

This year, Bill and I have decided to add back in neurodevelopmental programs to help shore up several places where each child seem to be struggling.  What does this really mean? Thanks to an evaluation with my friend Donna Bateman (one of the most dedicated mamas I know and a true delight), who trained with the Family Hope Center,  I'm helping the kids do lots of reflex stimulations (as explained by Donna here and by another site I found here) and creeping and crawling. Yes, creeping and crawling like puppies and crocodiles.  Remember, the brain is a muscle that grows through use and when we spend time on our bellies and hands and knees, we organize the pons and mid-brain, areas responsible for hearing, reading, writing, emotional control, following many step commands, plus tons more. And by we, I mean my kids!

To quicken the neurodevelopmental work, we're focusing on some important complimentary areas - especially nutrition, still sticking with the paleo theme (plus we're about to start chasing the Candida plague around here) and integrative manual therapy.

Of course there is always the academic work, though scaled back some, we need to get through in a day.  Plus all the fabulous classes our Seattle homeschool community provides.  Right now either one or both of the kids is doing: Japanese class, piano lessons, hip-hop dance, math class (with our math hero, Jenn), girl choir, guitar, soccer and scouts.  Whew.  And all the associated driving.

In what seems like a true act of self-indugence, I've signed up for the Advanced Studies Program with the Neufeld Institute.  I can't even put to words how much fun I'm having learning more deeply about the developmental attachment paradigm Dr. Neufeld has created.  I've just finished a training for his Vital Connections course and will do my first practicum facilitating it in January.  Somehow at the same time as my training class, I volunteered to host another Intensive 1 group.  Intense has been the correct word for doing two Neufeld courses at the same time!  So much fun, I managed to double schedule again for January when I'll facilitate the Vital Connection course while completing a training in his Making Sense of Play course. At the end of the 2 year program I expect to be facilitating both the Vital Connection and Art and Science of Transplanting Children for the adoption community in the Puget Sound area, helping moderate a dynamic Neufeld focused community in the Seattle area and using the knowledge I have as a parent coach to support other parents.

While I truly love the work Dr. Neufeld is doing, I also adore and deeply value Holly vanGulden's work with developmental attachment and adoption.  I did a 3 day training with her in Minnesota this September and have been integrating what I learned in my daily interactions with my kids.  I've also been sharing more about it with other adoptive parents as I see how much Holly's knowledge and experience speaks specifically to what we see in our adopted kids.  In the pause between my Neufeld courses, I plan to sit down and brush up on her training manual.

Not something I'm likely to post much about on the world wide web, I still put quite a bit of time and energy each week into my personal growth hobby.

My brag for the month is that 6 days a week for the past 3 weeks, I've been in bed asleep by 8:30, and mostly slept until 7 or 8:00.  I'll keep on sleeping 10+ hours a night until I'm naturally waking up rested around 6am.  Chipping away at my apparently enormous sleep debt may be the only thing that really helps me keep all these balls I'm juggling in the air fairly gracefully.

Add these to my daily attempts to run the household, connect with my husband, keep the dog well exercised, practice guitar, present delicious nutritious food 5x a day and somehow fit back in my beloved CrossFit, and sadly, I just can't post right now.

My hope is that once I have a few training courses under my belt I'll have more brain space to write about the things I'm learning.  For now, though, consider my blog on pause.

Feel free to email me or call if you have questions or want to say hi.  I'll miss you all!

On The Road

Wednesday our family hits the road.

First, we're off to camp near Mt. Rainier with about 30 other homeschool families - tribal living as humans were intended to exists, plus marshmallows!

From Rainier, we're trekking up to Vancouver Island, Canada where I have the great pleasure of attending an Intensive 3 course with the Neufeld Institute - focusing intensely on the 6 levels of attachment.  Bill's bringing his work, the kids will find themselves rubbing shoulders with Canadian kids at a not-completely-randomly-picked summer camp.  Wish us all luck!

We're back around the 15th, it'll probably take a few days for me to get back on my writing feet.  Until then, enjoy the sunshine!

I was going to post....

But my bedtime alarm went off.  Yes, I really have an alarm set on my phone to remind me to go to bed.

As you can see from my post times, I usually blow it off.  Sigh.  However, I have a bonafide prescription from my doctor to go.to.bed. and get at least 8 hours of sleep.  We all know I know this from the 23 previous posts I've done about sleep.  Double sigh.

I have a follow up appointment with her in 2 weeks, so the shame factor is kicking in and I'll be going to bed at a reasonable hour for the next few weeks.

Other posts in the works, look forward to talking to you all tomorrow.

Random and Captured by Pirates

Last night I woke myself up.  I was dreaming that I'd been captured by pirates, and they were tickling me.

One of my new favorite bumper stickers: When Jesus said love your enemies I think he probably meant don't kill them. Of course I have mixed feelings about this and think these sorts of issues are not so black and white as that, but I still really like the sticker.

The new Girl Genius is out!  Theo doesn't know, and I waiting for him to LEAVE so I can read my copy in peace. Then I'll tell him.

JJ, our UPS driver, is getting seriously stalked by our family right now.  Theo ordered a custom Lego Hero Factory creation - it is on its way from Poland.  I ordered a box of books from Sonlight that cover Ancient History and the "Far East." Both of us are beside ourselves with excitement.

We redid our yard - I'll post before and after pics someday.  When the guy came for the final review and payment, he left me a flat of basil that didn't have a home!  That's 18 plants, people!!  Pesto party at my house in August!

Bald eagles have been soaring over our house everyday this week.  Living in Seattle can be so darn cool.

Rosie has been creeping and crawling for 2 weeks now.  I think I already see a difference in her emotional level - she still feels everything really strongly, but she seems able to moderate and handle it better.

It's a beautiful sunshiny day today.  Let's hope it holds!

Comments Not Working?

I've gotten several emails from y'all saying the comments aren't working on my blog.  Blogger says it is a known issues and they're "working on it."

I wonder what that means.  Hopefully comments will be back up soon.  In the meantime, I love your emails.  Keep sending them.

Ouch!

I woke up at 5am with the beginnings of a serious migraine.  I spent most of the morning trying to find relief, throwing up and snoozing. Somehow around noon I started to feel better. So no thoughtful blog post today, but all offers of sympathy accepted.

See you tomorrow.

Yee Haw! Updated Template.

Look at me!  I updated the blogger template after years and years of the same old thing.

Not that I was planning a new, updated and seasonally appropriate look. The old format was too narrow for us to see the whole Eureka! screen so changes had to happen. I may be a tad on the practice and routine  part of the human spectrum.

Hope your eyes enjoy the renovation. And better Eureka!

Brain Full

In that past week, I've tried several times to post.  I sit in front of the computer, my fingers poised to type but nothing comes out.  Or alternatively, I write a bunch of words, decide they make no sense or are way to personal and immediately delete the post.

Swimming around are facts and ideas from:
- Cindy Leavitt's visit presenting more of the Neufeld material, focusing on gifted and sensitive children.  I attended 4 presentations/small group conversations in 4 days and am still trying to incorporate the information.
- Lee Binz, a local homeschooling mom who coaches parents in homeschooling, did a talk three days before Cindy's on homeschooling gifted children. Her ideas dovetailed nicely with quite a bit of Cindy's information. Lee seems to be a very practical woman, so her lecture included the added bonus of how-to's that I'm trying to figure out how to bring into our days.
- I was captured over the weekend with the idea of a professional pursuit.  Something I haven't been interested in for at least 10 years.
- Bill and I considered and passed on the opportunity to adopt a sibling set of 3 children, ages 4, 2 and a baby. Just trying on the idea of suddenly becoming a family of 5 was intense and letting go of it has been hard for me.
- At least 2 other things that are major and important for our family have opened up, neither of which I feel comfortable broadcasting over the internet right now.

So my brain is full, but my blog is empty. Maybe a few more days of letting the information ripen will eventually lead to some meaningful output.

Dropped Off the Face of the Earth?

Okay, so I didn't actually drop off the face of the earth as soon as NaBloPoMo ended, but apparently I do better with structure than not. Currently I'm considering posting on all the odd days of the month (because face it, I'm a little odd).  Perhaps that will get all of these thoughts and ideas out of brain and onto the "page."

It is a beautiful sunshiny October morning here in Seattle. We're off to Japanese class and hopefully playtime with friends this afternoon.

Congratulations to Me!

Here it is October 2nd!  I made it cleanly through September's NaBloPoMo and posted at least once a day.

Writing, and creating the time for it, takes a fair amount of energy for me.  I'm proud of the work I've done.  While I don't plan to continue posting everyday, I still have quite a bit of blog fodder in my brain and intend to post regularly.

Yay me!  And I hope you enjoyed the ride.

The Mindlessness of Privilege

Last night, I was taking a big-picture look at my blog.  In particular, I was thinking about categories.  It occurred to me that in the past month of posting, probably the only category I didn't post in was "How White I Am."

Somewhere between surprised and sad and embarrassed, I decided that this in and of itself is a signal of how white I am.  I think about race and its effects on my family most days. But there are days when I can easily not and rarely a day when race related issues are really up in my face. Heck, I can go 29 days without a post mentioning race.

The mindlessness of being white is a privilege most of us white folks probably never fully recognize or understand.

3 days left!!

Not that any of us are counting, but there are only 3 days left in September.  That's a lot of blogs posts from yours truly.  And I think I'm going to make it through the month.  Wheeee!

What Do You Think About Blog Comments?

I follow about 85 blogs on my Google Reader.  Rarely do I comment on a post on any of these blogs, in part because it is a pain from my reader to click through to the  blog (wow, this reeks of a 1st world problem, doesn't it?).  Other times I decline to post because I fear that my voice or perspective would not be welcome to the conversation.  Sometimes I actually write the entire comment and then delete it rather than hitting the submit button.

Yet I find I really, really appreciate and enjoy comments to my posts. Comments are interesting, informative, sometimes just plain fun.  But they are always affirmation that my writing is not only being read but actually reaching people. Very rarely do I find a comment from someone to be unwelcome enough that I would consider not publishing it.

Some of the blogs I follow host entire communities and life-changing conversations in their comments section (NakedWithSockOn takes the cake for this). On other blogs the comments section is turned off or seeming completely ignored by the writers.

What I can't figure out for my own blog is how to handle the comments section. Should I respond to every comment or is that over-involved? What prompts you to post or not to post your thoughts on the subject at hand? How do the bloggers you admire handle their comments? What do you wish I would do?

Holy Cow!

Welcome Unshelved Readers.

My dearly beloved husband linked to me from his blog on Wednesday, and you came.  Wow did you come.  My usual blog hits hover pretty steadily around 20 per day.  The last few days have been over 1000.  Woof!  Talk about jump in readership.

I was planning a fancy blog celebration when my subscriber numbers finally drifted up to equal my age, figuring it would take quite a while to work my way up from 22 to 41.  Thanks to you all they jumped from being young adults to retirement age this week.

Whooooo hoooooo!!! (how's that for a fancy celebration?)

Thanks for coming, and its an honor that you're choosing to stay and read.  I hope you enjoy the ride.


PS.  Warm, warm thanks to you loyal 22 out there that have so kindly supported me over the years.