New Year, New Beginnings

Take time to reflect on the past year. Revisit all those moments that made you laugh, made you cry, made you want to do it all over in a different way.

Now is your chance to let the past go and start fresh.

Here's how I'll be doing it:

1. Clean House
(My Kiddos are NOT going to like this one!)

I'm not supermom anymore and living with three teens, four dogs, four more miscellaneous pets/familiars, and Hubby...it gets messy around here. My new job hours have changed which is great for us as a family but it isn't so good for the housework. So today we are going to clean! Not a spotless clean, but a nice sparkly, free flowing of energy clean!

The Chinese have a custom of cleaning house on their New Year's Day. It cleans out all the old, bad luck energies from the previous year and welcomes in fresh, good luck for the new year.

So I will enlist my family to help me clean house! To sweep out the old to make way for the new!

2. Release
(This will be a hard, emotional one for my Kiddos.)

This is a twist on a journal exercise that I teach. This will be a family exercise that will bring up some raw and possibly unresolved emotions. We are going to write down anything "bad" that happened this past year. Each person will write as much or as little as they want. Free form is best.

We will not share these stories and we will have the option of being in the same room or going off to different rooms for privacy.

All pages will be folded and gathered together to be burned in a small ritual along with a few cleansing herbs, outside of the house. We will gather the ashes and release them off the property as well.

3. Cleanse
(Caution this could lead to fun and giggle fits!)

Cleaning the home does clear out most of the stagnant energies that may be lurking around, but to really get a good cleansing of energies we are going to use the four elements. It will be my take on a ritual that Silver RavenWolf has on her blog. Find her original ritual here! This ritual does wonders and using all four elements will let all the Kiddos participate!

4. Ground and Center
(Bring in the carbs!)

To bring the energy levels down and center us as a family we will have a family favorite dinner...Tacos! With a side of family time.

A nice simple way to bring us together as a whole!

5. Gratitude
(To start the new year right!)

We are going to have a "Gratitude Jar" for the family! A one gallon pickle jar will be repurposed for this. Over the next year we will put in little notes of any events that we are grateful for in the jar and we will share them at the end of the year.

A new family tradition...maybe!

6. Count Down

We will joyously celebrate the end of 2012 and welcome in 2013 with love!

Wishing You Many Blessings and Much Love for 2013!
Andrea Faye

Patience is a Virtue Learned

One thing I love about my Kiddos is that they are the best teachers that I have ever had.

One of the lessons I have learned is "patience". I have always been a tolerant person, but my Kiddos have helped fine tune that tolerance into patience.

Tolerating something/someone means that you can wait for or put up with whatever, if you have to. You don't enjoy the situation so your mood will start to fray, as well as your nerves, the longer you wait or put up with the person or thing. You may begin to think, possibly mumble, unappreciative words about this person or thing. Your energy levels will lower and become heavier and greyer, which will in turn only make the situation only seem worse and possibly ruin your day.

Having my Kiddos has opened my eyes, and heart, to this trend. It is very easy to loose your grasp of patience with a child of any age. It is a very tough lesson to learn, but when you understand the concept of patience, harmony follows.

Being patient with a person or thing means that you do not loose your temper. You are calm and relaxed as you wait on or put up with the someone or something. Your thoughts stay in your control. Your energies are higher, lighter, and lovingly brighter and your day is experienced in wonder and compassion.

One thing my Kiddos have taught me, and I use this in many aspects of my life, is when I feel my patience slipping I breathe.

I stop, I close my eyes, and I breathe.

I vary it according to what I am doing, but it is generally the same technique. (You can't safely stop and close your eyes in the middle of the road after all!)

Energies shift and harmony and patience are set to right.

Bringing patience into your situations will ease stresses, calm nerves, and make you a more compassionate person. Not only will it shift your perception of the world, it will also shift how others perceive you as well.

Bringing patience into your life will also help you to realize that neither Spirit nor the World are "out to get you". Everything does happen for a reason, though we may not understand what at the time, but there is always a lesson in it all. Patience will help ease the sting of the lessons and help you to understand them easier.

Patience helps you live in compassion, love, and harmony.

Blessings and Love to All,
A.F.

The Giving Season

Yesterday was an extremely wonderful day. We went on one of our infamous family road trips and I got to share a valuable experience of generosity with my Kiddos and a stranger.

We stopped at a gas station to fill up, grab some grub and drinks. I had noticed an older gentleman enter the convenience store before we did.

I've seen this elderly guy walking around town. He seems so lonely. Every time I see him my heart aches for him. He isn't very clean or well groomed. He is one of the "forgotten".

I noticed that he was looking at the coffee and so I walked over to the cashier and I told her, "Whatever the old man gets I'll pay for." She looked confused. So I pointed with my chin and said, "Whatever he gets, I'm buying." She said "Ok."

My youngest heard part of the exchange and I explained to him that I intended to pay for whatever the old guy was going to get. He was awed and immediately went and told his siblings what was going on.

My Hubby came in and we all finished our brief shopping spree. The older man got to the counter just ahead of us and the cashier looked up at me and I nodded my head.

She explained that we were paying for his coffee and sandwich and he looked so confused for a few seconds. I walked up and told him that we were paying for him. He was so moved especially after my youngest walked up to him and shook his hand.

Everyone in that little store was teary-eyed. As I payed, I noticed that the old guy had walked away from us. He wasn't being rude, he was discretely wiping the tears from his eyes.

That moment in time will stay with everyone who was there.

It was a simple gesture of generosity that seems to occur more often at this time of year than at any other part of the year.

It is sad how many of the "forgotten" are ignored until the "Holiday Season" brightens our spirits.

That simple $6 charitable moment may not seem like much to alot of people, but it was a life changing moment that I do not intend to push aside and only repeat once a year.

I intend to find other ways to spread love, compassion, awareness, and harmony throughout the year.

For my Kiddos to be there and experience that moment was a priceless example of generosity and "Living My Path".

For that older gentleman, it was an unexpected moment of compassion and recognition.

For the witnesses, it was an example of how we need to be aware of and remember the "forgotten".

For me...it was an affirmation!

Blessings and Love to All!
A.F.

Taking the Initiative

I was astonished, my first year in Idaho, at just how much snow could fall in one night. Every year since then I have noticed less and less snowfall.

This morning I looked out my window in hopeful anticipation of a "White Christmas" only to see the dull green grass and a clear blue sky. My Kiddos and Hubby were also disappointed.

We did the usual Christmas morning, present-opening-chaotic-mess-making-merriment. After all was picked up, tried on, played with and not put away, Hubby and I walked into the kitchen to make some food and talked about how pretty the mountains must be with all the snow up there...

...we put the food away...

...told Kiddos to bundle up...

...loaded into my wagon...

ROADTRIP!!!!

Yes we went on a Christmas Day Roadtrip into the mountains!

Just about 100 miles from home we found a beautifully white oasis to play in the wet fluffy stuff! Snow balls flew as soon as everyone got out if the car!

We even went out on the edge of the lake near by and skated on the ice! (It was the first for my Kiddos and I!)

We were exhausted, cold, and soaked by the time we stumbled back to the car.

We dusted off snow, kicked off footwear, peeled off socks, cuddled under blankets and blasted the car's heater.

We were red cheecked and red nosed happy!

We had so much fun we didn't remember to make a snow man!

We stopped at the first gas station found open and got hot chocolate for the Kiddos.

We listened to one of our audiobooks, enjoyed the scenery, and the Kiddos napped on the way back down.

We saw bald eagles, geese, ravens, deer. We examined animal prints in the snow by the lake.

We enjoyed Nature's bounty!

More importantly...we rook the initiative to GO and have the Winter experience we had wanted.

We went and did.

We Did Not sit and mope. We Did Not complain about not being able to do or not do.

We went and did!

We took the initiative of going where we needed to go and accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.

We took the initiative!

It was a magical few hours that almost didn't happen. Memories that almost didn't occur. A family milestone was almost missed!

Take the initiative in your life!