Blog Hop 2014

Last week I opened an email from my good friend and fellow blogger Natalie over at May the Schwartz Be With You. Now I love Natalie dearly, however, her email made me groan and want to throw things at her.

Natalie sent me what was basically a chain letter (they still exist?) inviting me to participate in a "Blog Hop." A blog hop is where one blogger nominates other bloggers to answer a few basic questions.

Ugh. But Natalie is smart and she knows me well enough to know exactly what to say to get me to agree:

"The point is, I really like you and would like to see your answers to these questions. Mainly because I know you need to write more.  It's cathartic and therapeutic."

Double Ugh. But when I saw Natalie at dance that week I agreed to write the post. So here we go.

Why do I keep a blog?

Well, my even beginning to blog is because of Natalie as well! She was blogging and I enjoyed reading her posts. I had told her that in my pre-mom days I was a writer and I missed writing. But that blogging was kind of dumb and narcissistic. I don't care what celebrity bloggers have to say and who would care what I have to say?

But she convinced me to at least give it a try. My first post was August 25, 2012. I wrote about my experience with Bikram Yoga, titled Yoga, Tuna & Heat. It's still one of my most favorite posts and, interestingly, still frequently pops up on my stats board as being recently being read. 

With that first blog I was bitten. The urge to write was reawakened within me. I didn't know what to expect and I honestly figured no one would read it anyway.  I had no idea where the blog would lead. The nights I'd write with tears falling on the keyboard during my mom's death from cancer.  The times I'd ache to write but couldn't get the words out during the unexpected ending of my 23 year marriage in a divorce.  And even the times I was so excited I was writing the posts in my head before I could get home to my Mac. 

This blog led to another interesting place too. It turns out a few people did actually read my blog. The right people liked what I wrote and invited me to write for Elephant Journal. Those posts led to being invited into a writers group. And finally it led to me writing my own book. 

(Shameless plug: Creating A Joyful Life: The Lessons I Learned From Yoga and My Mom available for purchase - well someday. )

So I guess I really owe Natalie for helping me fulfill a life-long dream and writing a book. I hope she will accept payment in ever-lasting love and gratitude.

What motivates me to teach yoga?

This sounds all new agey and woo woo, but I feel called to teach yoga. When I'm teaching is one of the rare times I feel content and confident. Similar to blogging, I kind of fell into teaching yoga. I was

Legs Up The Wall with
my class for savassana one night

a high impact cardio girl that just happened to also teach Pilate's. One day the yoga teacher didn't show up and so my boss asked me to fill in. I had no idea what I was doing. But I figured OK I'll get some training and see where this goes. By my second training weekend I knew this yoga thing was for me. A year or so later I made my first trip to Los Angeles to train and after that week everything changed both for me and within me.

I was a yoga teacher. This feeling, this activity, this "thing" is what I had been searching for. I have said before and I will say it again, yoga saved my life. Although I was all smiles at the gym, I was in a bad place in my private life. I truly believe if I hadn't found yoga when I did that I would not be sitting here right now the (mostly) sane, (mostly) confident, (mostly) put together woman I am.

What is/are my greatest strengths?

I never know how to answer this question. People tell me all the time how strong I am being a single mom of six kids.  How brave I am for fighting for what is right.  How proud they are of me. 

I don't see it. I see only that I've done what I needed to do to keep my family healthy, safe and happy. I've held my kids as they cried and turned into psycho mom defending them when someone tried to hurt them. I've done what all good moms are supposed to do. I hope.

Being organized, sometimes to a fault, is one of my strengths. It has to be with a large family. I've been told many times I'm "controlling." Well yeah, of course I am. How could I not be controlling with six kids and an alcoholic husband. It was the only way to tame the chaos. 

I am very guarded but also very loyal. Once I allow you into my inner circle you are in and I will fight for you till the end. I've stayed loyal to the wrong people for too long in the past, but I believe I now have a better sense of who to trust and who is worthy of trust.

What is my proudest moment?

Well, I'm pretty proud of my six kids. They are smart, funny and kind. Like all siblings do, they fight over everything. And I mean everything. But they will also turn and defend their siblings in a heartbeat. In fact we have the story of a broken hand earned in a fight by Kid 2 defending his younger girl cousin. And many stories of the brothers coming to the aid of their siblings during times of distress. 

I'm proud that I finally wrote my book. I can remember from the time I was very young saying I'm going to write a book. It took a long time, a really long time. But I did it.

Look closely at the kids hands. They each chose a word
to describe our family. 

I'm proud of the life I've built for my kids post divorce. My home is a happier place to be now. My kids now know that home is a place you should never feel afraid. Everyone in my house, and in my life, gets told regularly that I love them. And that's not a phrase I use lightly. If I tell you I love than it's real. I love you.  

If forced to pick just one, I'd say my proudest moment is when all six kids, and maybe some assorted
friends, are all in my house and I hear their laughter. Yes, that's definitely it. My proudest moment is happy, healthy kids.

Geez that was more work than I thought it was going to be! But now to nominate two bloggers I'd like to introduce you to.

First is Anita at Moon Fairy Life and Dreams. Anita is a fellow yoga teacher and soul sister. We both have a large family and full time jobs so we don't see each other nearly as often as we'd like. And, because it's true, I'm going to steal Natalie's line here: I'd really like to read more from her and because I know she needs to write more. It's cathartic and therapeutic.

Second is Rick Watson at Life 101.  Rick and his wife Jilda are both writers, singers and songwriters. Rick also often posts amazing pictures he takes with his iPhone of rural Alabama where he lives.

Natalie thought she would get an award for procrastinating because she didn't post until one hour before her Blog Hop was due. Well, my dear friend,  I did what you asked. And I did it with a full ten minutes to spare before it's due date!

I Accept This Award and Pass It Forward To...

I've been a little behind on reading both my Twitter feed and favorite blog list, so it took me a couple days to realize my fellow blogger Yoga Crystal had written a post making me one of her favorite bloggers and offering me a Liebster Award.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure what  Liebster was at first or if it was a good thing. Turns out it's quite a good thing. Liebster is a German word meaning "dearest" and the award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers.

To Yoga Crystal - thank you, I'm honored to be included amongst so many great writers.

As part of the award, I now get to pass it on to five of my favorite bloggers. Please, go check out these fellow writers:

1. Transformation Information. My dear friend Jilda writes daily about yoga, her dogs and her life. I'm privileged to know Jilda in person, and every time I'm in her presence I feel calm and peaceful. That serenity comes through in her writing as well. And although he has too many followers to be eligible for the Liebster Award, also check out Jilda's husbands blog Life 101.  Rick is a local newspaper columnist in Alabama and he writes real life personal interest stories.

2. This Is Who I Really Am. Travis is a runner, yogi and big time music lover. Each week he writes about a song that inspires him and finds a way to relate it to his - and his readers - life. Read his "Music Monday: Bully" post from April 3, 2012. It's powerful.

3. The Pondering Yogini. I have no idea why Meredith only has 60 followers. She is a fellow yoga teacher who often writes about applying yoga lessons to her life. She's also one of the founders of the Twitter Yoga Book Club. Her meditation posts always inspire me to sit and get quiet myself.

4. Slimming Down to Sexy. Honest, humorous writing from Natalie about her weight loss journey. She details her successes and her failures in a way we can all relate to.

5. YIOM. This one might be kind of cheating because I'm going to sneak in two great blogs in one here.  The YIOM (Yoga Inspired Online Movement) site is a collaboration of yoga bloggers, a list of their blog sites, and once a month a review of the months writing. The YIOM site is cared for by Thais who writes one of my top favorite blogs at Living In The k(N)ow.

6. Yes, I know I'm supposed to only have five. But I have to mention French Christmas. Noel is a writer I met two years ago during #reverb10. She sent me encouraging and touching messages as I wrote about my moms death from cancer. She is quite a talented writer.

Book Whore Snob vs. The Kindle

Evil technology! My resistance
is weakening.

I want a Kindle.

No, I don't.

I'm a book person. Nothing can take the place of opening a new book for the first time, cracking the spine, the smell of a new book, the smell of an old forgotten book, turning the pages, etc. I'm a literary traditionalist and in this area will not give in to technology.

But, I do kinda sorta really want a Kindle.

Tonight was date night with the hubs. Don't get too excited. In my life date night means we drop off one or more kids at their assorted activities, then we go somewhere for a quick dinner where we share an appetizer, spend our last remaining minutes browsing a book store, and then go pick up assorted kids and come home.

Glamorous, huh?

OK, back to the Kindle story.

So we are walking through the bookstore and I decide nothing can replace a book store full of possibilities. It's been a semi-secret long desire of mine to someday see my name on a book jacket. A book jacket, not an e-book. How would I have a book signing for an e-book? Confession - I've actually spent time thinking about this.

My arms are soon overflowing with books I've picked up. Then I start thinking about packing so many books to take with me on our vacation next week. It would be so much easier to just pack the Kindle with pre-loaded books.

And, hey, it's more environmentally friendly to read e-books. I'd be saving trees. That's it, I've decided to put the books down and come home and order my Kindle!

But I just can't make myself push that "order now" button. Yes the extra shipping I'd have to pay to get it here before we leave for vacation is part of it. But, it's just not a book.  That's it, I've decided I'm a book person and will not buy a Kindle.

To take my mind off this nonsense I log on to read my nightly blogs. And what do you know? My South American friend Rachel wrote a post today about how she's in love with her Kindle!

Thanks a lot Rachel's Rantings of Rio! Now I'm back to wanting a Kindle!

This whole thing is making me slightly schizophrenic.

I like being a book whore snob who can turn pages and highlight favorite passages. But I'm tempted by the instant gratification of wi-fi downloads.

What to do? What to do?

All this fretting over how to read books is leaving me very little time for the reading of books. And forget about the actual writing of a new book. Until someone tells me I can have a book signing even for an e-book I'm keeping the literary genius in my head to myself.

That's the story I'm going with anyway.