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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Family, food, laughter and a little "Me" time, all good for the soul...

To my joy and surprise I was home and making dinner on Monday night. It was amazing to sit down and eat a delicious, Louisiana meal at home with my loved ones. I've replaced my prescription inhalant with Olbas oil and am loving it! A little night time laughter is really good for the soul.

GF Gumbo, gf baguette, coleslaw (the Southern salad).

Olbas oil and my Soul School wrist mala.

Bai and K!

It was that funny. 

Dat Soul School Life....

I am so grateful for my soul school experience. It is truly an adventure into my own soul! I am loving it! This past weekend I had several AHA moments. 
1. No matter how much I will it to be quicker, Nola is a set distance from Baton Rouge and if I just fall into the flow the travel is much smoother.
2. If we listen to our inner Shaman and allow our mind to move out of the way, our heart and soul will guide us to the right place. 
3. Sometimes we are the friend that lifts, but many times we are being lifted. I am grateful to be surrounded by so much support (and especially those that physically lift me up into handstands and such). You all rock.
4. I may be 33 (gasp) but I can still learn new things with a childlike energy I never had as a child. I.e, it's not too late for anyone!
5. As much as I thought this journey was only mine and only experienced by me, it was revealed this weekend in so many ways that I am not alone, ever. And I am overflowing with love at this revelation.
6. When we least expect it the right answer will come and Saraswati will flow through us with such grace that we are even surprised at our own eloquence. 

Girls Raised in the South, Grits






The New Orleans Healing Center. Rich indeed.

Post-yoga, post-food, rooftop high 
I ate a lot of grits this weekend.

Smile



Mini break...

K and I headed to Nola the Saturday after Thanksgiving for a little Soul School action. I met up with Andie and some other Soul Schoolers at the Downtown studio for a nice flow with Andra. We worked on dropbacks, jumps and flowing with ease. After, K and I walked to Satsuma only to discover they were out of gf bread; so, we stopped in Lost Love and had some amazing bun and spring rolls with mint limeade. Oh yea, it is that good! After we strolled through the Bywater, we headed out of town and stopped at TJ Maxx and got our shopping on and then passed through Cafe Du Monde for a frozen treat. 


So thankful...

I wake with gratitude, walk with gratitude, and rest with gratitude. So immensely grateful for this wonderful life. At times I feel overwhelmed and in those moments when I lose the connection to gratitude I start to struggle. I am grateful for my family and the richness they bring to my life. 


Post- turkey napping

Oh yea, I made all that food!
The beautiful Bai before youth group.

A little toe stand for turkey day.


Sunday, November 2, 2014

LIFE

It feels like I am living in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS! LIFE is big and sweet and succulent and all the things I've hoped for. It is happening now. I'm so appreciative and as I delve deeper into the now, the now becomes the past and the future the present and I root down to stand and sway in the whirl of it all and just smile. My heart is cracking open and life is bursting through.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

She turned her can'ts into cans and dreams into plans

"If you build it, they will come"
I had my own Field of Dreams moment on Saturday. Thanks to Bailey and her knack for marketing, I was able to provide kids yoga to any and all interested kids at SBRCA Open House as part of our family volunteer requirement. This truly was a dream come true and the energy I received from the kids was so encouraging and powerful. I was inspired by their honest and true spirit and thirst for movement. And because the kids enjoyed it so much, as well as parents and many teachers inquired as well, I will lead a family yoga class in two weeks open to the whole school! I am so excited! I am working with the volunteer coordinator to secure a proposal for mat donations and am flooded with joy by this opportunity to share yoga with so many.

The very next day, Bailey and I traveled to Wild Lotus in New Orleans to turn in my application for Soul School, just applying is another dream come true. I am so grateful for the support I have at home to pursue my passion and share yoga with others and I am grateful for the amazing teachers that I have the privilege to practice with here in town and in Nola. After we turned in the application, we headed over to Cafe Du Monde and the 2 story Target.





And just like that we have a home...

Thanks Universe for making life possible. I am in awe of the magic surrounding me and mine. Our family feels so complete and completely amazing. I look forward to our adventures on Cypress Point.  Our first adventure: choosing paint and flooring. Let the reno begin! Today is the official day of renovating as the guys are scheduled to start on our list today. It's so exciting! I look forward to seeing our ideas come to life and the birth of our modern-shabby-farmhouse-gallery vision develop.


Friday, August 8, 2014

The Whole Story....

I just hit the motherload, the whole shebang, the mecca of Whole30/paleo recipes......drumroll......CLICK HERE . I mean, only click there if you want your life to change. Only click if you want to know what it feels like to wake without dread and lick the plate clean and smile at all of the wondrous bounty surrounding you. Only click the link if you are looking to maximize your life. Yes, it is that good. If you are already gluten free, going Whole or Paleo isn't as big of a deal as one may make it (this one included). However, I am still a little turned off by the whole primal/ketogenic thing. I just love food too much to restrict awesomeness from my life. But I love myself enough to know that going Whole really can mean having it all, treats included.

As the new school year approaches (Monday), I am looking at recipes to spice up our lives and I think I will start with spices. Ooh Kathleen will love that I have a new project! (Ha) I have visions of coconut aminos chicken, pineapple and pepper kabobs dancing in my head with banana pancakes and buffalo burgers. The sizzle of a fresh farm egg hitting hot coconut oil and the arc of pink Himalayan salt cascading over the sizzling simplistic dish. This is what happens in my head when I sit to write the weekend's grocery list. Makes me so jazzed! I wonder who else gets jazzed about the grocery like this and where are those people, I want to be friends.

Perhaps all this is influenced at this moment because I know there is a cookbook on hold for me to pickup at the library tomorrow, 100 foot Journey premieres tonight and I just spent majority of my lunch break swooning over recipes online. Whatever the case, I know that food not only nourishes us and allows us to be some insanely creative omnivores, but food nourishes my soul. I love to flow in the kitchen as much as I love vinyasa on the mat. It's all interconnected and when you approach cooking connected to the ingredients and open, the plate yields a loving result. Well, work awaits and now that my grocery list is started it truly feels like the weekend is near.

xoxo

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The brave, the bold and the just plain insane....

Crazy thoughts on this Wednesday. Thoughts like: "hey self, let's quit sugar" followed by, "hey self, let's quit coffee" and "hey self, let's get up before 6 regularly with a smile" and more insanity along those lines. Perhaps I'm at my tipping point. The point where I can only go up or down and the pivotal moment where I make a decision for myself to be the very best awesome me I can be. To be. To be free. 

Last night driving home from the office, I found myself grasping for the next line of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance audiobook I am currently obsessed with and at the same time I was fighting back tears. And then I decided why fight them, let the tears flow and allow my body, heart and mind to cleanse and empty and make new. The tears were attached to so much but in short, the end of an era. And the beautiful beginning of all that is new. All that is before me yet to be discovered, observed and loved. Just permitting myself the ability to embrace these feelings is huge and evokes a different tear. Tears of gratitude, joy and triumph. I'm completely and utterly enamored and in love with my life. I'm surrounded every moment by beauty and abundance. 

So, that's where the stepping up my life game comes into play and instantly isn't so insane. 

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Being a mom....this moment

This moment is unique, individual and will never be duplicated. I'm immensely grateful for my offspring today. I love to see their faces, hear their voices and their feet on the floor. I love the smiles and the winces and every sound. I'm cherishing the cauchophony of them at home because I know more than ever that it's fleeting. Each day they are becoming more independent and larger than life. I'm immensely proud of them and my opportunity to be their mom. 

Xoxo 

Monday, July 7, 2014

A repost from Whatsapp

I love Whatsapp and how convenient and amazing it is to connect with the world and catch up with friends halfway around the globe in mere minutes. This message below is from one today, Bhupen in India. 

Acknowledge 
WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN WHEN WE PRAY? 

This is one of the nicest messages I have rcvd  and is so true:
I dreamed that I went to heaven  and a Baba Ji(GURU) was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with Sewadars. Baba Ji stopped in front of the first section and said, ' This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to GOD in prayer are received. 

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many 
Sewadar's sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world. 

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section. 

Baba Ji then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many Sewadars working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth. 

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one Sewadar was seated there, doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section, Baba Ji quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed." How is it that there is no work going on here? ' I asked. 

"So sad," Baba Ji sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments". 

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings? " I asked. 

"Simple," Baba Ji answered. Just say, "Thank you, GOD. "
 
"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.
 
"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world 's wealthy. "​​" 
 if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.." 

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day. " 

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... You are ahead of 700 million people in the world." 

"If you can attend your Temple without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world." 

"If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare." 

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair......"
 
Ok, what now? How can I start? 

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you care to, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are ....

ATTN: Acknowledge Dept. 
"Thank you God, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people to  share it with. "

Dose of inspiration

As you grow older, you'll find that the only things you regret are the things you didn't do. 
- Zachary Scott 
#noregret #nofear #autheticlife 

Friday, July 4, 2014

Afternoon snack

Craving something sweet? Love peanut butter or almond butter? Make these snazzy cookies. 1 cup nut butter, 1 cup (or less) sugar, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste and one slightly beaten egg. Mix in stand mixer, bake flattened 10-12 mins on 350. Top with melted chocolate or use to sandwich marshmallow fluff. 


Independence


Today we celebrate independence and the American spirit. We celebrate red, white and blue and the love of liberty. It's a gorgeous day and the sun is shining and we are playing outside and embracing nature. Our feet are dirty and our clothes sweaty and sticky, but we are  free and we are even off of work with pay and we are smiling and enjoying clean water and embracing every morsel of this sweet, sweet life.