Penelope Illustration • Penelope Dullaghan

even temporarily falling off the path

even losing your temper

even knowing you did a good job

even forgetting to send in your taxes

even procrastinating

even jealousy

even red and purple sunsets

even… everything.

- sunset pizza parties on the beach. completed with fresh cantaloupe and homemade chocolate chip zucchini bread. yum!

- running around in just a diaper because it’s just too hot for clothes.

- taking a weekend ayurveda workshop. so inspired by all this new info! wondering how/if I can do something with this.

- working on paintings in the evenings.

- picking the most delicious sweet pears from the tree in my mom’s yard.

- creating an ENORMOUS dream board and pasting all kinds of magazine pics and fun stuff to it. Think big red barn, yoga classes, killer light filled art studio, kiddo yoga and art messiness. Um… c’mon universe! You hear me talkin’ yet? :)

My work has picked back up and is starting to pour back in (looks like my mojo resurfaced just in time!)… this was a recent project I finished. A couple of illos for Country Living Magazine. I love old fashioned swimming caps, don’t you?

I taught my first yoga class tonight. Oh yes I did. It was so. much. fun. I can’t wait to do it again next week!

The weekend workshop was AMAZING. Nothing short of beautiful, fantastic, hard, information-packed, crazy fun, super sexy juicy goodness! We talked for hours about big bellies, birthing mamas, inner goddesses, and giving love through the mama journey. I am so grateful that I was able to go. I’ve thanked Colin 6 hundred times for being super-dad and giving me all that time to do the workshop. I left feeling so inspired and lifted. I feel like I got my mojo back!

ALSO! …Tonight is my first class. I’m teaching a group of students for the first time! I’m so ready. I ran through my sequence a few times. I have my music mix ready to go (lots of upbeat, move around and shake it music!). I have all my props packed in three enormous bags waiting on the kitchen table. I’m set.

The expression on my darling girl’s face in the photo pretty much sums up what my insides are doing. Happy flips and smiles! Yippee!

I just gotta tell you what I’m so excited about: tomorrow (friday) through sunday I am taking an intensive (17 hours!) pre-natal yoga teacher training workshop. Just listen to this description:

Sarah Longacre’s Blooma Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training is all about finding the goddess inside of the instructor and training you in a sequence that is all about birth! (or, “a sequence specifically designed to empower and prepare women for birth.”)

Drawing from her core belief in the inner strength of women and the power of the breath, Sarah will share stories and wisdom from both her years of teaching prenatal yoga and from the hundreds of births she has attended as a doula. You’ll leave prepared to lead a beautiful prenatal practice that builds a mother’s confidence, connects her to baby, and uplifts her mind, body, and spirit.

Doesn’t it sound amazing? I can’t wait to learn all this good yummy juicy stuff this weekend! I’d love to help new mamas (and veteran moms too) through their pregnancies and birthing journeys. Yoga helped me so much through my pregnancy and especially my birth. I just want to share that peace that’s available through yoga with women who need it. I so so can’t wait! eep! :)

“It is the enjoyment of every step in the process of doing; everything, not only the isolated piece we label art. If accomplishing is the only goal, all that it takes to reach that goal is too slow, too fatiguing — an obstacle to what you want to achieve. If you want to rush to the accomplishment, it is an inevitable disappointment. Then you rush to something else. The disappointment is reaped over and over again. But if every step is pleasant, then the accomplishment becomes even more, because it is nourished by what is going on.” ~excerpted from Plain and Simple: A Woman’s Journey to the Amish.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I have been obsessed with the Amish lately. It’s the simplicity of their life that is so intriguing. Each activity serves a purpose and is done with great care and attention. The ordinary is valued. Living close to the land. Close to family and friends… community. Finding meaning and making a life out of the everyday, seemingly mundane things.

I’ve also been reading more about radical homemaking. It seems like the two line up on a lot of levels. They share a love of living simply and being mindful in everyday activities. Stepping away from materialism and the whole rat race rigmarole, to focus on relationships and sustainability.

And strangely, I think some of this overlaps a little with yogic philosophy. Stuff like: Being present. Non-harming (ahimsa). Aparigraha (non-possessiveness… or limiting possessions to what is necessary or important). etc.

It could just be that I’m interested in these topics and my brain is finding ways to connect them and bring them together. But putting that aside, there do seem to be clear similarities. And because I am recognizing them, I realize that I’m trying to align more with those principles myself. Things like: washing the dishes by hand and really being present for it. Limiting what I buy and buying used whenever I can. Taking care of what I already own so it lasts (trying not to take part in a “disposable society“). Enjoying the process of life instead of focusing on accomplishment. All that stuff. I think this is what’s driving the idea to move to the country. So I can go deeper into these ideas… ’cause I know I’m just scratching the surface. And that excites me.

Amish… homemaking… yoga. It’s all in the soup.

Last Thursday I visited a yoga studio that was out in the middle of nowhere. County Road something or other, turn left at the pond, make a right when you hear crickets. No sign out in the yard. And even the numbers were scratched off the mailbox so I couldn’t tell if I was at the right place. I ended up pulling in and walking into the garage yelling “hello! Anybody home?!”. I was then told that the yoga was in the barn in the back. I could hear kids giggling.

But sure enough. I walked around… took in the stunning view of farmland for miles… not a soul in sight… and saw a new(ish) barn in the back. The inside felt familiar. An incense holder. A sign in sheet. A place to leave shoes. I knew I was in the right spot.

And the class was awesome. (A yin yoga class… if you haven’t tried this: It’s super intense, but so so yummy. Shari: you were right… I loved it.)

Anyway. I should backtrack and mention that Colin and I have been talking about IF (and it’s a big IF at this point) our house sells… we kind of want to move to the country. Not the city like we were originally intending. The outskirts of town. So we’d be close to Indianapolis, but not too close. Close enough to easily go in for activities. But far enough away where we could see stars and have a big garden and need a pick-up truck to plow snow. I’m really glad our house didn’t sell right away like we thought it was going to because we’d be stuck in the city right now scratching our heads! (For the record, we are still deciding where we want to be… I assume something will happen and this will become clear eventually.)

So back to the yoga. This woman was living what I have been dreaming about. She had her kiddos at home with her (3 of them started school next week), a giant garden with tons of veggies, flowers to pretty it up, a small but charming house, and a big barn in the back. Her husband uses the ground floor for manly stuff and the upstairs is a beautiful yoga studio. Seeing all this, I left smiling.

The vision dancing in my head right now looks kind of like this: a cute country cottage with tons of good light. Not too big. Not too small. A big barn in the back that houses my art studio and my hubby’s writing area and a gorgeous spacious yoga studio. A big yard (wooded)… a few acres at least… for having bon fires and a big garden and kids running around and hanging clothes on the line. All that yard stuff I’m deprived of right now. I’d love to teach yoga classes… and art classes… and kids art and yoga classes… and have it be a women’s retreat space… a place where people can come together and be quiet. Meditative.

But I’m getting WAY ahead of myself. We’re still sitting on our house here. And I still have to teach my first yoga class in two weeks (!)… hee hee. I just need to dream out loud sometimes. :)

What are you dreaming about?

it was a squirrel until we ate his ears off.