Ten Minutes in Heaven

By midday yesterday, I needed rescue. Too little sleep the previous night and lots of heat outside = Aggitated Mama.

When both babies were sleeping soundly in their rooms, I turned to a favorite restorative yoga pose that always refreshes. Viparita karani, or legs up the wall pose, is my go-to pose when I need a quick fix.

To get into the pose, slide your bum up against a wall and allow your legs to stretch up the wall. Your back is on the floor. I add a touch recommended by a chiropractor - putting a rolled towel under my neck to allow those muscles to realign. The theraputic benefits of this pose include the following:

• Relieves tired or cramped legs and feet



• Gently stretches the back legs, front torso, and the back of the neck



• Relieves mild backache



• Calms the mind

Ten minutes in legs up the wall pose and I feel like a new woman: maybe not Zen Mama, but at least Refreshed Mama.

summer lovin'

one thing i love about being a mama is that, through your children, you get a chance to relive your childhood.

on this scorching hot oklahoma summer morning (100 degrees!) arlo and i turned on the sprinkler hose, filled up his inflatable kiddie pool with cold water from the hose, and had our little backyard party. we splashed, kicked, jumped, stomped, skipped, and laughed.

it's the kind of joy you wish you could bottle.

Happy Dad's Day

Kent Nerburn writes that there is one place where perfection of the heart is given to us in all its fullness - parenthood. When you look upon a child you have been given, there are no limitations and reservations. You are looking with a perfect love.

On this Father's Day, I celebrate my two dads - my biological father, the late Rowdy Settles (pictured above, with me at a wedding) and my stepfather (pictured above with my son Arlo during the summer of 2008). I also celebrate my wonderful husband of five years (pictured with me at an Inaugural event in 2009).

Happy Dad's Day to all the fathers in the world who have found perfection in the heart through parenthood.

Snapshots of My Life Then and Now

Last Friday The Hub and I had an offbeat date. We saw an off, off-Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in Washington, D.C. If you are not familiar with the plot behind that story, I'll allow you to discover it on your own...Sitting in the theater, recalling the time I saw the movie of Hedwig, I couldn't help but contrast how different my life is now.

Me, then: The movie version of Hedwig came out sometime around the fall of 2001. I was a young twenty-something newbie lawyer living in Seattle, fighting the good fight at a legal services organization, not really making ends meet but having a blast. I hiked, practiced yoga, kayaked, saw lots of live music, and snowboarded. I lived in a one bedroom apartment located above a Safeway and across the street from a chill coffeeshop and took the bus everywhere. I was paid pennies for my work but I was a happy, happy girl.

Me, now: It's June 2009 and I am a wife, mama to two babies, stepmama to a 15 year old, non-practicing attorney, struggling writer, living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The Hub and I go on "dates" a few times a month. I run, practice yoga, try to meditate once a day for 5 minutes (a girl's got to start somewhere), and belong to an awesome book club. Our house is fabulously close to three super toddler parks and I drive a PT Cruser around the mean streets of our suburb. I am now paid in hugs and smiles and I am a happy, happy mama.

My Toddler (2009) / Me (1976)

Concepts that my 2.5 year old son knows that weren't in my vocabulary when I was a toddler in the mid-70s:

1. recycle

2. pad thai takeout

3. hip hop music

4. rental car

5. watching cartoons on the Ipod

6. email

I Heart the Public Library

I love, love, love the public library. It started when I was a kid. There was one summer growing up where my mom worked outside the home and my Grandma Isabelle watched my brother and me. Some days we would go across the street to the swimming pool or to a local park, but other days she would take us to a cafe for burgers, fries, and a Coke, followed by a trip to the Muskogee Public Library. The cafe/library days were my favorite.

If I close my eyes, I can recall the entire experience: automatic sliding doors; the whoosh! of cold air-conditioning juxtaposed against the hot, humid summer air; the smell of old, musty books; the sound and sight of the water fountain in the library's corner, under the stairs; the children's area with puppets and a puppet stand, old dolls, and thousands of books, all of which were ours for the taking. With our bellies full of cafe food, my brother and I would run to the children's area and spend entire afternoons, playing with the toys and pulling books from the shelves. Some books would be glanced at, considered, and then put back. Ten or so lucky books would make their way into our canvass packs to be checked out and taken home to read and reread until they were due back at the library.

I had my own library card - a source of great pride. I loved standing in line, waiting to check out my newest selection of books. With the librarian's stamping of the due date on the back cover of each of my books, they were mine for two whole weeks!

I'm passing on the love of the library to my entire family. I hooked my husband after clueing him in to the fact that they have books on tape (for free!). My son, who is 2 1/2, loves to go for the toddler storytime and to play in the children's area. (Tip: have an early lunch, around 11 am, then go the library from 11:45 am - 12:30 pm, as that is when it is most deserted because all the other toddlers have gone home to have lunch.) I appreciate that we can check out books and rotate the stories we read to him before bed. While he may never tire of The Pokey Little Puppy, I occasionally need to mix it up with other books the library has in stock.

My favorite sections? The librarian's choice bookshelf, because it contains the real gems, picked by the most book-loving of them all. Now I know I must have been a librarian in a past life.

Why Don't You...

why don't you...



get up early and go for a run?

http://www.nps.gov/choh



make your own batch of wine?

http://www.carafewines.com/



sign up for a knitting class?

http://www.knitandstitch.com/



find a hammock and get comfy with a juicy book?





give pole dancing a try?

http://www.goddessfitness.com/



learn to make jewelry?

http://www.glenechopark.org/class/classctgyIndex.aspx?ID=32



see a funky theater production?

http://culturemob.com/events/5913229-hedwig-and-the-angry-inch-dc-washington-mount-vernon-square-20001-the-warehouse