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Please join me over at my Nurturing Spirit Blog if you wish.

Also feel free to read my Path pages located at the top of each blog.

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In Joy!

Nichole

~Gratitude and Making Space~

Many, many gratitudes to all who have followed my posts over the last year.  I have come full circle.  Like the potent Super – Moon, on Saturday night, there is completion.  I have prayed about it, and I am to end my journey here.  I am open to The Great Mystery and have total trust I am to be shown where the next step with self-expression will be.

If you want to contact me, my email will be healingoneself(at)gmail(dot)com for now.  All attachements or cords to this site will be severed after a small period of time.  I would like for the readers to have a few days to read my final post of Gratitude and Goodbye.

I plant the tiny seed of humility that if we are to meet again, it will be.

All is well.

Aho.

Making room for children to unfold~But being there for teachable moments

I have come to learn alot about intuitive teaching and learning.  Of course, there is MUCH for me to learn, when mixing with Community.  In my sacred container, called home, we are safe and warm and happy and well fed, with breezes coming through the windows.  There is plenty of room for us to unfold.  In these moments we are able to learn.  Many, many times for children, from birth to around seven years old, we find ourselves as parents repeating our actions and words to the little people.  Parents are advised to have much patience and support in these years, as it can set the tone for the next 7 year cycle of the childs life.  Do not take many things young children say personal, but listen to them.  Make sure they have plenty of rest and a moderation of playing, laughing, imitating, imagining, nature and spirituality.  Actually, give me a dose of that too.  Ebb and flow.

Once children reach around 7 years of age, or in the transitioning time beforehand, they will begin to really test their owns theories in life.  They will begin to be more Self ~ Conscious.  Aware.  Becoming more self-aware means more analytical time.  Less time will be spent in Wonder.  So as a parent and a guardian of the little ones I find protecting these Early Years a large task of mine.  The only way for me to do it, is to give my children space, so I can Witness and watch Creator at work.  They are to be taught and guided in the Ways of your Walk, but most imortantly given the space, so that we may surround them with teachable moments in love and compassion.  Just as the Ancestors surround us every day, and if we are listening, we receive teachable moments and messages.  Let us mend the sacred hoop beginning with our children.

Aho.

Resource~Article

Happy Spring!~Intention with your thoughts~

I have been speaking to my husband lately the importance of our thoughts.  Our thoughts are very important, because they determine our quality of life in SO many ways.  If we have the 10,000 things running through our heads how can we listen to our Higher Selves and know what is right!?  It is important we quiet ourselves.  As much as I do think, I do know listening is important.  Clearing your head and making space is an art form almost.  I say this because the world is SOOO distracting.  We have many forms of media putting information in our faces, and very rapidly.  I am blessed in many ways to live in the country, where it is much quieter during daily life.  This provides me and my children with more access to quiet time.  By no means are my days actually quiet with two boys running around, BUT opportunity is there. 

Your thoughts are so powerful!  I can’t really stress this anymore than the fact that you Must know this.  If you are looping negative thoughts in your head, how can you live with a good quality of life.  Becoming Aware of these thoughts, or the 10,000 thoughts is Step One.  Shifting is Step Two.  You might ask me or yourself what you Shift the thought too?! 

GRATITUDE!  Then, maybe nothing-ness.  If you need help, shut off the TV, the radio, the dishwasher, the computer, the iPod, what else!?  I say it is possibly an art form, because it takes practice, like a mastery.  Life is a process, and so is Shifting your thoughts from 10,000 to nothing.  Or 10,000 thoughts to one single thought of Gratitude.

It is newly Spring.  A time of new beginnings.  The grass is newly sprouted.  Daffodils, clovers, buds on the trees, and cole crops are abound.
Think about (but not too much *grin*) letting go of the many things, the many responsibilities, the multi-media distractions, and give breathing with space in your head and heart a chance.

I have a wonderful blog, of which I was partially inspired to write this, here for you to view.  It is mainly geared towards parents, but it is a wonderful tangent to this post.

HAPPY HAPPY SPRING!  I wish for you New Beginnings!  I wish peace in your head and heart.  I wish for clean drinking water and food for all.   I wish for quick assistance to those in Japan who are suffering.  I pray for compassion to fill us, in our personal and community experiences.  I pray we all have support when we need it.  I pray we can purify ourselves enough to feel the flow of Creation.  I pray for the Standing Tall Nation (trees) to be healthy and to always be replanted when they sacrifice their lives for our needs.  I pray for plenty of play time for all, as life is not balanced if we work all the time.  I pray for us to continue connecting with our children in ways that promote education and the conservation of our Mother Earth, through respect and understanding.

May it be so, Aho!

“I cannot give, what I do not live.”

I did not mean to post more today, as I have a day off.  Fridays are for transitioning.  The family merges for the weekend, and many times we travel.  So, there are things to be wrapped up here from school, laundry to be done, menus to plan, and suit cases to pack (sometimes).

BUT, today I have a day off, sort of.  The boys are at Grandma’s, and I am trying to decide where I start my day.  I already slept in (8:15 am!!)  It is very important to me that with all of my giving, I give to myself as well.  I will still clean toilets today and wash up the dishes from last night.  I will still feed the chickens, and do a little prep reading in learning our newer curriculum.  BUT, I will also quiet my mind and listen.  I WILL take an in-breath.  I will release and restore myself, so I can continue to give, in the never ending cycle of reciprocity with family and life.

Before I move along to those things, I found this blog post very interesting.  It is spiritual.  The post is about a mother reviewing her first year of homeschooling.  What did she like?  What would she change?  In reflecting she found two things most important. 

1.  Be myself!

2.  Live it to give it!

If you are interested in reading her thoughts further, click here.  More questions you might ask of yourself.  Are you being authentic with your life?  Are you taking in and out breaths?  Who do you admire?  Who do you want to be friends with?

I believe the title quote is related to Ghandi saying, “Be the change you wish to see.”  So, go a step farther.  What is it you wish to see?  What do you Vision?  Write it down.  Say it out loud.  Taste it in your mouth.  How does it taste, were it a reality.  If it doesn’t feel quite right, re-image it.  YOU HAVE THE POWER.  Stand in it.

I have chewed on these thoughts for some time now.  What I have experienced and seen the problem to be is…we are seeking outside of ourselves.  We are seeking others to tell us who and what we are.  It is true that when we look at others we see likes and dislikes of our Selves.  But, we are each unique in a way that makes us not the same, yet we are from the same Oneness.  I know, back to duality.  There is such a thing as separation, a part-ness, duality, because Creator didn’t know any other perfect way to teach us the Oneness, the feeling of Source.  God.   Separation is an illusion.  It can be a good teaching tool, if one could turn their heads and look in other directions.

So, noting such;  go within.  If you do not like what you hear or see, change it to what you wish it to be.  I have sought inner peace.  I feel it.  I do not hold it, because it cannot be captive.  It is as free in the flow as you or I.  We just can’t let go enough to experience the freeness of freedom.

And please, PLEASE, do not forget along the way, that no one is perfect.  We are meant to stray to either side of the center line.  How else would we know what Center is.  An experience is not a mistake, but learning.  Unless you repeat it many times, then, is it considered a mistake.  Magic is everywhere, risk opening up your heart enough to receive it.  Aho.

Beyond Stereotypes: the new face of homeschooling!

At Simple Homeschool, guest writer Mischa Thompson has taken the time to show us who is homeschooling these days.  Click here to know more.

Here are the boys, and sister-friends Asha and Kyra, at Kentucky Wool Festival.

FREE March Enrichment Guide~Little Acrorn Learning

Please check out Little Acrorn Learning.  Owner Eileen Straiton encourages you to sign up for her monthly e-newsletter, all the while receving a FREE 23 page guide to March.  I cannot begin to describe all the books, wonderful ideas, crafts, menus and inspiration all piled into one.  Good stuff here for Spring!

Free guide here.

Sign up for newsletter here.

“G” is for Grass

If you start to look around, at least here in Kentucky, grass is beginning to sprout.  Daffodils are dotting the landscape with yellow, and crocuses are pushing their heads up and toward the sky.  During letter “G” week we read several nature stories pertaining to the end of Winter and beginning of Spring time.  We also began sprouting wheat grass, then planting a couple trays full.  I will show these pictures, once we see some pretty grass.  We will use the wheat grass in Easter baskets, instead of purchasing plastic grass, which ends up in a landfill.  If you want another alternative, shread some green construction paper and scrunch it up in the baskets. 

Having a letter of the week and combining the craft with something textural really imprints the phonetic sound within the child.  It is something tangible.  Matching up the letter and something current, like “G” is for Grass and seeing Spring’s newly sprouting grass, creates an even deeper experience.  It is like connecting the child to the web of life in a rich way. 
 
For the adult, inner work is being done and in association with the sprouting of seeds, the tending of the garden, the thinning to make room, the growing and maturing of the plant and the harvest.  Which stage are you in?  What season are we entering and how does it relate?  I am thinning the newly sprouted seeds within.  I am being born into a new Season, freshly cared for, with thoughts of intent.

Enjoy “G”.

“F” is for Feather

I am catching up on our ABC category here with this and the next post.  During the week of the letter “F” we read McElligot’s Pool, by Dr. Seuss.  The kids were enjoying the rhyming, and guessing which word ended each sentance.  When it came time for the craft I ended up doing “F” is for feather, because we had also participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count.  The kids enjoyed the feathers, and were blowing them in the air and making a game out of it, which helps them understand breath.  Enjoy.

~Maple Syrup Festival~2011

You are in for a picture-rich post.  If you want more information on this Maple Syrup Festival, please visit here.  For homeschool or enrichment communities there seems to be a unit study on this very topic, right on the website.  My kids are not old enough to go into that amount of detail.  Also, click on the pictures that tell a story to enlarge and read.  Enjoy!