grateful friday : medicine rain

As I help my first-grader with her homework, nothing I say is right. I try everything I can, every tone of voice, but no matter what is said or how it’s said, she is defensive and angry with me. I ignore her rudeness and take a deep, cleansing breath and try once more.

Nope.

As I begin the negative-talk inside my head about how I must be a horrible mother who makes her children feel bad about themselves, my brain rushes me to the past. Suddenly I am in southern Utah.

The bon fire filled the desert night with brightness, making the stars hard to see. There were people all around and they were focusing on me. I hate when lots of people are focusing on me. It makes me feel like hiding. I struggle to keep myself from running.


What would they see in me? This was my Naming Ceremony and they had thought about me and my qualities, my good and my bad; my strengths and my weaknesses. They had each thought about what I brought to the world and the people I come into contact with. I was a councilor to kids who needed help and understanding. Did I make a difference or did I leave The Field worrying about their struggles and trials every week for nothing?


The person I loved most in the world was in front of me. He looked like a desert nomad and I loved the ghost bead necklace and the shaggy hair and beard. My heart went soft and I struggled to focus on the words he was saying.


Medicine Rain. I am healing and wise. I am nourishing and life giving. I am like a medicine man of old, full of wisdom that heals those who need healing. I am like the medicine that goes into a body and fights the bad stuff hard enough that the body can heal. I am like water, hydrating all that is living and thirsty allowing life to flourish and grow. I am like the rain that falls from the sky and reaches everything, cleansing it and leaving it fresh and new.

My name is Medicine Rain. I am healing and wise. I am nourishing and life giving. I am gentle and kind.

I am back in my kitchen, the light casting its artificial yellow light through the room and the rain is coming down loudly outside. My darling girl sits working with a frown and a pencil with an eraser that has been all used up. She must be having a bad moment. I love her and she knows it.




I feel blessed that someone I trust with my life told me about myself. I’m grateful that he saw those things in me and told me about them. I’m happy that I choose him every day and I feel blessed that he still chooses me.

grateful friday

This Quince makes me happy every time I see it.  In fact, everything that is blooming is making me happy all day long.



My little rhodies are such a happy purple--so pretty with all the yellow that spring brings. 



The little grape hyacinths keep popping up everywhere.  They're like a special treat.


My plum tree (non producing, mind you) has been letting off little fluttering petals all week that fall gracefully to the grass (that is finally green).




I can't even remember what this little shade loving beauty is, but I love the speckled varigation.  That just makes me happy!




This is a little secret bloomer.  My Pierris shrub in the back.  So dainty.



The forsythia is what wakes everyone up and lets us come out of our hybernation.  Oh, the forsythia is blooming.  Spring has arrived.


I really need to plant more tulips.  I have lost so many and now there are just a few here and there, but tulips are so sweet.  I love them best in the morning when they are all closed up again and waiting for the sun.








The violets in the garden drive me nuts because I can't hold them back, but I love it when they blossom in the grass.  Something about walking on grass that blesses me with happy flowers to enjoy makes me happy. 

I found all these on my computer and realized that everything blooming is making me happy.  There is so much happening and I feel like I can hardly think straight.  But everywhere I look things are blooming and telling me to let it all go.  Slow down. 

Okay, I've got to run as fast as I can and do stuff while the babies are still sleeping! 
Wait.
Take a deep breath...breathe...gratitude...love...blessed...

grateful friday

This week has been crazy! 
I haven't been able to keep up. 

But there have been so many good things. 
I am so blessed.

Here are some of my favorite things things from this week.

I splurged and made cookies twice this week.


I love that table cloth.  Vintage. Yummy. I love chocolate chip cookies. Yummy.


(those oreos Nie keeps talking about.  CJane posted the recipe here.)

I splurged and bought myself flowers.  Lots of flowers.  They're all over the house:) (I'm suffering from spring fever.)


The light is changing.  It's lighter longer and the sun is getting higher.  These are my happy flowers in the lovely changing evening sunlight.

Two of my favorite books from reading time with the Wee Ones this week
Ish
and
George and Martha 
Holy Moly, this book makes me laugh out loud every time.

My teeny tiniest person of them all didn't cry during her bath for the first time in weeks.  Maybe months.  I'm counting that as a blessing, and I'm grateful!



She has also been walking here and there, but today she decided to really go for it.  She was just walking around on those tiny little legs.  Holding a teddy bear and walking.  Walking and stopping to pick up a toy and walking some more.  Walking to see the big kids.  Walking with her sister crawling behind her.  Walking, walking, walking.  And every time I spotted her walking I just about died from the cuteness.  That's a lot of near death experiences today!  Someone so teeny tiny just looks so CUTE walking! 

I have so many ideas lately.  So many things that I want to create.  I just don't have the time to carry it all out as fast as I would like.  But I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to create!  It brings me joy.

Jake made dinner tonight.  I was grateful.


And speaking of dinner, one of the favorite things I watched this week was Food, Inc.  (click on the link to watch the trailer.)
I keep thinking about it. If you haven't seen it, rent it on demand or do whatever it is you do. But watch it! Together we'll take a stand by purchasing the right kinds of food.



xox
Brittany

grateful friday

(we switched everyone's bedrooms around. now we're in the midst of painting and organizing...)

children that throw parties for each other for no reason

online inspiration (seriously--it's never ending.)

good friends

date night

DVR

nap time

flickr (I love doing my project 365. My vision for the whole thing is to print a book at the end of the 365-year (I started the day the babies turned 6 months old) and have it as a visual journal for this year in my life. I'm trying to get pictures of every day things and watch the children grow. Images of our surroundings and things that we enjoy. Food that we're eating and places we love.)

motrin

spooning with my honey

baby voices

hand made lotion (you can be thankful for that too--go here;)

free online crocheting and knitting patterns


I'm making an article of clothing. (No. 11 on my list) I'm starting small.

friday feet

punky brewster's got nothin on my girl. (she's wearing a bright pink tunic with sequins on top.)


bouncin high


ridin the polly 'cycle


downin the cream o' wheat

my feet are running fast. gonna teach a lotion making class tonight. I'll probably have some available in my shop by monday along with a bunch of origional artwork.

happy friday!!

grateful friday & stuff

At least once a day every day this week I have been getting that feeling.

The one that feels like:

How did I get so lucky? I love my life!

Look at this place I call home.

See this family.

Feel this joy.

Blessed.

I am so unbelievably blessed.

So after spending time with a bunch of creative types last week and seeing how artists dress themselves, I came home to realize that I have another artist living here. Every morning as we've waited for the bus this week I kept thinking, she’s an artist! Look how she’s dressed! I took the liberty of taking a snapshot the last couple days:

She says she doesn't want to be and artist. I’m not saying that her version of “artist” is the same version I have in my head - she's her own kind of creative being. I think some day she'll realize that she can't help it, it's part of her: the need to create something.

I’ve been getting a lot of fan mail lately:

It’s kind of nice. It helps balance out the “you’re the worst mommy!”s and the “You’re the meanest mommy!”s. Life isn’t perfect, but I’ll take the happy and remember it;

focus on it.

I found clay board. I had never even heard of the stuff before, then I took a class with Mary Beth Shaw and I am now on a mission to stock up my art supplies with clay board. It was so fun to work with!! I suggest you give it a try. Here are a couple pieces from my class:

There is an interview with yours truly up at Art Espirit. Two of my paintings are for sale at the artstream gallery—you can check them out online by clicking here.

picture taken by my awesome sister-in-law

{Happy Birthday today, Dad-o! I love you.}

grateful (beach) friday

for beach fridays with friends

for aunties who get off work early to take the kids to a movie

for a clean floor

for a husband that buys the air conditioning unit even when i say

don't do it; it's too much money

that i don't feel like this anymore:

(i did earlier this week)

that I have two origional pieces in the Vision of Squam art show at the Artstream Gallery next month

grateful friday

I’m grateful that I got to pick some weeds in the garden. {it means that there’s something pretty going on}

I’m grateful that I can liken that to my life in several ways off the top of my head.



I’m grateful that my husband took time to take #3 to the doctor so I wouldn’t have to take 5 children into the doctors’ office. Sweet, no? and very thoughtful.



I’m grateful that my 7 year old made a mii of Bob Ross. It really looked like him, too! Made me laugh.



I’m grateful that my babies smile up at me with their sweet little faces. Melts me every time.

grateful friday

“…prodigal summer…It could wear out everything in its path with its passionate excesses, but nothing alive with wings or a heart or a seed curled into itself in the ground could resist welcoming it back when it came.”
-Barbara Kingsolver



I live in a place like this. Where after the cold takes the color away and urges us to retreat indoors, suddenly one day the grass starts to turn green. From silence the first buzzing sound emerges as a bee seeks out the first pollen of the season that has burst forth. I didn’t even know to look for it yet, but when I heard the buzz, I knew the crocuses must be up pleading for the sun to shine so they can open up and see the world.



Here we are with the smell of lilacs floating through the air and it seems like only a day or two later. Where does the time go?

grateful friday

Last night I took some pictures for my friend for a mother’s day gift. (I don’t think she reads my bloggie, so I’m posting some.) It felt so good to be at the beach. The weather was beautiful, the company was fun and energetic. I got to be creative. I love taking pictures!



I finished The Host late last night. I love a good book. I’ve been thinking about it all day. It was a great read, very thought provoking. (But don’t expect it to be like Twilight, it’s totally different.) I've decided that I think Stephenie must be a genius.



My awesome neighbor just dumped a bunch of 8-yr-old manure into my vegi garden. (she’s got 2 horses.) (and apparently lots of extra poop that she’s willing to share;)



New things are blooming every day.



I’m going to bed early tonight and Jake and I run our first half marathon in the morning! (with Matt & Liz, too) Wish us luck – I’m afraid we’ll need it, the forecast is for rain. (thanks for watching the wee ones, Jess!)