hoop love!

Not too long ago, I saw this video on Boho's blog.



I'm in awe.

And yesterday a new friend taught me to hula with her homemade hoop. I was instantly hooked! I went to a couple of stores, but the cheap, flimsy hoops that I found were very sad. I couldn't get them to do what they're supposed to do... and for the first time ever, I blamed the hoop instead of my body.

So, I looked online and found DIY instructions. One trip to Lowe's, where I'm glad I hemmed and hawed instead of overspending, and then a trip to Mendard's, where I found just what I needed for about half as much money. It was easy and fun and very satisfying to make my own hoops, and I'm tellin' ya- these hoops are magic. Everyone's a natural.

transitioning (again?)

It almost seems silly to say that I'm going through another transition~ it's sort of what I do. But I think this one is different...

Well, I DO.

It came out of that special brand of clarity that comes out of crisis, and I think there's something to it. Without getting too involved, I'll just say that a relationship came to a close and the current source of my salary was never meant to last forever. (And time really does pass quickly.) Once again, I had to decide: What Next?

I did some hemming. I did some hawing. I cried. I grumped. I created scenarios (including some really ridiculous ones) inside my head. And it all crystallized into these two Big Questions:

Where do I really want to live?
and
What do I really want to do?

There's a lot that I can't control. That's a lesson I've learned a thousand times over. But what I can do is listen as kindly as possible when my heart speaks up.

I don't want to move away. And the thing I've loved the very most is being a postpartum doula. That's what I want~ to stay here where I'm so at home, and to be a postpartum doula all the time.

I decided to tell someone.

It seems that I told the right person, because all of a sudden everything starting falling into my lap. I wanted to be more involved in the birth/doula/new family scene and three days later I was offered a teaching spot with an awesome local organization. I wanted to go to a DONA postpartum doula certification workshop, but the closest one was in Chicago, so I e-mailed the teacher and asked if she'd like to come here. She responded half an hour later, saying "Sure!" I didn't have to talk anyone into anything. And that's just how it's been going.

It's been like magic.

So here I am, surrounded by opportunity and hosting a hearty colony of bronchitis bugs. Maybe one day life will stop surprising me so completely, but it sure hasn't happened yet.

more fun with rocks

The baby I've been taking care of is now 15 months old. (That whole thing about how quickly they grow up is cliche for good reason.) I've tried to stay connected with the girls I was with for the previous five years, and had a lunch date with the older one last weekend... but we weren't hungry.

I had brought along two painted rocks and a paint pen, so we sat outside in the sunshine and I explained how I had painted a bunch of rocks and that I had hidden one in a tree at the park. I suggested that we write on the rocks I'd brought and then hide them for people to find... She thought for a few seconds and said, "But what if they take them?" She seemed a bit perplexed when I said that that would be perfect. :)

Her idea for the purple rock was CAT. After a bit of carefully played discussion, we ended up with the cat's pajamas theme. With the creative juices flowing, her first suggestion for the yellow rock was much more elaborate... "How about you smell like a tomato?" And then, "what about you smell like a zucchini?" Oh, she's funny. (She really is an extraordinarily funny kid.) Then she suggested you smell sweet, which is how we ended up with the final product above. We placed the yellow rock on a shelf in the children's section at Borders, but I could tell she was having a hard time parting with the purple rock, so I offered her the option of taking it home. She graciously accepted.

A few weeks ago, I went to check on the Play! rock, and it was still there! It has been rained on and snowed on, so the paint is wonderfully peely and cracked. I hope that someone has seen it and just chose to leave it for other people to find.

*The same day that I went to check on the rock, we were walking around the park and saw a little Yorkie running around. She stopped and appeared to be getting ready to tinkle, but instead she lifted her hind legs off the ground.

We looked at her, looked at each other in disbelief, looked back at her, and LAUGHED. She just gave us this what?? kind of look and trotted off. We'd bring it up and giggle for the rest of the day. I just wish I'd had my camera ready.