An update and coming clean!

Dear Friends,

 

Wow, where has the time gone?! It’s been one whole year since I’ve created the space to regularly write here on the blog. Even though it’s been quite awhile, you all have been on my heart and mind regularly. 

 

I’m not sure if you care (or even remember me, ha!), but I wanted to give you all an update about what I’ve been up to if you are interested.

 

Most of you know that I recently became a first time mother unexpectedly. My little guy must enjoy giving surprises because he decided to arrive 2 months early and I was totally unprepared – both for his arrival and for getting the blog set up in advance so I could take a long maternity leave and have the blog running. 

 

But holy moly, was I ever unprepared for how much having a baby changes things! Call me naive, but when I was pregnant, I envisioned working on blog posts while the baby slept peacefully beside me. Let me just let out a loud laugh right now because that was far from my reality! (I got the energizer bunny baby who never wants to sleep, but that’s another story….)

 

 

Even though I haven’t updated the blog in about a year, I have so much fun stuff going on in my life……new dreams, new projects, new passions, and as always, learning so many new things that I can’t wait to share with you all (more about that below). And of course, a new little person has taken over our life, who we adore.

 

 

Motherhood

 

Motherhood has been a wonderful mess of emotions. It has grown and stretched me more than I thought possible. Never have I experienced more ups and downs than I have this past year. The most beautiful thing is that it’s brought me face to face with so many long held fears and given me the opportunity to let them go. I’m a far more patient, humble, joyful, open and non-judgmental human because of it.

 

Sam is a true joy and such a bright light. I hope you enjoy some of my favorite pictures of us throughout the past year 🙂

 

(FYI –  I share our life through the stories feature on Instagram daily. If you’d like to follow our adventures with pictures and videos of our daily life, you can find me on Instagram @primallyinspired)

 

 

 

 

 

 

My passions have changed a bit!

 

I need to come clean about something. The things I’ve been learning and can’t wait to share with you have nothing to do with food or nutrition. To be honest, I’m so over all the food and nutrition stuff and have been for a few years. I grew really tired of all the food fears and anxiety surrounding the nutrition industry. Don’t get me wrong, we still eat an organic, whole foods based diet. But for the past few years, we’ve had no restrictions. We eat alllll the things. Yes, even gluten. We truly feel amazing and are as healthy as ever. Sam’s over a year old and hasn’t even been sick yet – not even a little sniffle or cough and he’s been exposed to numerous things! 

 

We do a lot of listening to our bodies and eat what our body is telling us it needs. Long story short, we’ve ditched the food perfectionism that was creating anxiety and even fear around certain foods. We started giving thanks for ALL food and believing in our hearts that our body is not meant for restriction, but to enjoy and give thanks for all things. I really think that’s key. At least it has been for us. Anxiety and guilt creates disfunction in the body. Thankfulness creates healing. 

 

Since having a baby, I’ve gotten very passionate about child development, parenting and Waldorf and nature based education. As much as I’ve resisted posting about it on the blog (because I really didn’t want to turn into a “mommy blog”) I can’t hide my passions and knowledge anymore! I’ve read almost 100 books on these subjects, taken numerous courses and am completing my forest kindergarden teacher certification in May. It’s not fair to keep all this valuable knowledge to myself – I have a lot of amazing information and resources to pass along and I can’t wait to share what I’ve been learning!

 

Current Passions

 

Here’s what I’ve been up to this past year (well, besides Sam!):

 

Gardening – I’ve always loved gardening, but it’s become quite a fun hobby and learning experience for me. We had a fantastic garden last year and we’re going even bigger this year! I’m doing a super cool, French Potager Garden this year. If you aren’t familiar with that type of garden, it’s a well designed mix of food and flowers, designed to be both practical and extremely beautiful.  It’s going to be gorgeous and we’re even putting a little sandbox right in the garden for Sam to play in while I work in the garden 🙂 Am I being naive again? HA! 

 

Waldorf and Nature Based Education – this is one of my top passions right now. I dove head first into education philosophies while I was pregnant.  Waldorf philosophies resonated with me the most powerfully.  And it probably comes as no surprise that I adore nature based education being the nature lover that I am. This May I’m completing my certification to be a Forest School Kindergarden Teacher.  

Our dream is to start a non-profit Outdoor / Nature-based School on our property. I’m SO excited that our dream is starting to move forward!

 

Hiking – we take a hike around our property nearly every single day, no matter the weather. Call me crazy, but hiking in the rain is my favorite! I don’t do any formal working out these days, but I do challenging hikes on our hilly terrain while carrying Sam. I love it and it’s keeping me in great physical shape!

 

Herbal and Homeopathic remedies – obviously, I’ve been passionate about these things for years, but I have a new appreciation for them since having a baby.

 

RIE Inspired Parenting Approach – I’ve read 48 books on parenting during my pregnancy. Reading them must have been the way I dealt with my anxiety about having a baby lol! Anyway, we’ve been raising Sam using a RIE style parenting approach, which is a very respectful, emotionally nurturing, communicative approach with daily rhythms and clear, firm boundaries. I was raised in an authoritarian style environment, so this parenting style was very new to me. It’s been wonderful for us so far and I’m already seeing so many benefits and successes from the efforts we’ve made. If you’d like to learn more about RIE philosophies, HERE is the blog I recommend.

Want to know my favorite parenting books out of the 48 I’ve read? It’s THIS one and THIS one!

 

Personal Development – I’ve always been big on personal development even though I’ve never really talked about it on the blog. But the past few years, personal development has become a bigger part of my life. My husband and I recently took THIS course and it was downright AMAZING! If you are looking to take an area of your life to the next level, I highly recommend checking it out. It’s taught by the very top leader in personal development (and my husband’s mentor!), Bob Proctor. You can check out the course HERE.

My husband is also looking forward to contributing some personal development articles on the blog. He’s amazing and has been blessed with an abundance of wisdom, love and peace to share. I think you’ll enjoy reading his perspective. 

 

Cooking and Eating Good Food – I still love to cook and create in the kitchen! Sam loves alllllllll food and it’s been fun introducing him to so many fun flavors. We’ve been doing baby-led weaning since he was 6 months old so he eats what we eat. He has such an adventurous palate…the spicier the better for him! It blows me away what this kid eats! 

 

What’s next for me and the blog?

 

I’m here to stay! I love this blog and this community. The readers this blog attracts are some of the very best, kindest and openhearted people around. My goodness, how I’ve missed you.

 

I love learning and I truly enjoy sharing the knowledge I’ve learned.  I just got 2 baby-free afternoons a week that I’m using for space to create blog content. My weekly newsletter will resume again. Woohoo!!!

 

I’ve grown and changed tremendously the past year and my blog content will reflect that. I invite you to join me on my journey! But I totally understand if what I’m writing doesn’t resonate with you anymore. You can always feel free to unsubscribe – no hard feelings. Either way, I’m so thankful for allowing me to share my journey with you thus far! <3