I'm that Mom

Inspired by Ronnie, Jenna, Frank and several others, here's my impromptu blog carnival entry.

I'm that Mom who carries an amazing amount of kids' stuff in my shoulder bag or my pocket. PSP, cell phones, watches, half-eaten bags of chips or popcorn, coins, bottle caps, rocks and other special treasures.

I'm the Mom who carries all those things for my kids, because I know how easy it is for me -- at 47yo -- forget where I've put my stuff. Because I will never say to my child "sorry, you lost it, now it's gone and I won't replace it." Because it's no big deal for me to take from my child what he asks me to hold, and put it in my bag so it won't get wet, or stolen, or stepped on, or broken.

I'm also that Mom who does this so automatically I often forget what I have, or even that something was given to me, so I'm often heard to say, "I don't know where that is. But if you gave it to me, it's in here somewhere."

I'm also that Mom who always has a band-aid, no matter where we go. Other kids in our tribe know this and bypass their own Mom to come ask me for a band-aid.

unschooling myself -- body, mind and soul

Some time ago, Ronnie Maier posted a blog titled body love, body unschooling and more recently Tara Wagner blogged in the same vein, on the topic of body compassion. Since reading Ronnie's post, I've given a lot of thought to how to go about unschooling myself as radically as our kids unschool - body, mind and soul - because for me those three are too connected for me to unschool only my body. The epiphanies coming to me as I explore this idea are too many for one blog post, so there may be several. I wanted to post some today, tho.

If I truly unschool myself, body mind and soul, what will it look like? I will .....

delight in my interests, preferences and choices, just as I do for my kids,
give myself permission to change how I express myself, what I do, what I love,
explore who I really am, since it's clear to me that somehow along the way I lost, or hid, a lot of who I am,
stop demanding that I multi-task to *get more done*,
be patient with myself,
appreciate my body for all it has done and continues to do for me,
forgive my body its imperfections,
embrace and love my quirks just as I love my kids in all their quirkiness,
allow myself to feel what I feel in each moment,
allow myself time to rejoice or grieve or learn or explore my fears or try new things,
forgive myself for the moments when I feel like I've not done the best I wanted to do,
play more,
laugh more,
not rush to judgment,