Beautiful Maine

Isn't this photo just the greatest? It screams "SUMMER" to me in so many ways. Now, full disclosure---if you know me well---you know that there are many things about Maine that I would change if I had a magic wand (i.e. eradicate all ticks, bring in a Target, a Costco, and move family closer), but summer and especially fall are so beautiful here. Like, "I'm living in a romance novel" beautiful. Put midcoast Maine on your bucket list. You won't regret it.

A Little More Compassion

Today in this moment I just feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my life. Life can be so challenging, and I try to imagine that everyone is doing the very best they can. It helps me love them more than when I judge them or try to change their behavior (even though the judging and wanting THEM to change is so easy to do!). I am discovering that when I am more compassionate with others, it helps me to be more compassionate with myself, and vice versa. And couldn't we all use a little more compassion? There is a quote by Theodore Roosevelt that I recently read:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;...who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."

Here's to being less of a critic, both to ourselves (especially to ourselves)  and all the others doing their best in the arena of life.

Essentialism

Essentialism, by Greg McKeown, is hand's down one of the most highly influential books I've read this year. I did a mix of listening to the audiobook and reading the text and found both to be interesting and applicable. A few of the big take-aways that I got from McKeown's book are:

• If you don't take control of your life/schedule/calendar, someone else will.
• Less is better. 
• Everyone is given the same amount of hours in a day. Decide what is most important to you and let your time spent be a reflection of those values.
• If it isn't a clear "yes", then it's a clear "no". Anytime we say "yes" to something, we are consciously or subconsciously saying "no" to something else. The idea that we can "do it all" is a lie. 
• You can multi-task but you can't multi-focus.
• Almost everything we do is nonessential. Weed out the unimportant stuff.
• Beware the bareness of a busy life.
• Ask yourself, "How do you want to be remembered a hundred years from now?"

"What if we stopped celebrating BEING BUSY as a measure of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much TIME we spent LISTENING, PONDERING, MEDITATING, and ENJOYING time with the most important people in our lives?"--Greg McKeown

My Butterfly

Recently Nathan has become uncharacteristically clingy in public--hiding behind me when adults talk to him, gluing himself to my leg, and refusing to communicate in anything but a strange animal noise language (wha???). He once loved to go to visit the ladies that work with Ryan because they dote on him and give him treats and make him feel like a million bucks, but these days he just hides his face whenever we walk into their office. 

If Isaac had pulled this kind of stunt as a young kid, it would have totally freaked me out. I would have been reading books about what might be wrong with him, losing sleep over his timidness, and trying everything I could to change his behavior.

Experience, though, is a great teacher, and if I've learned one lesson over and over as a parent, it's that  I can't control my children (or anyone else for that matter). And I don't need to (hallelujah!). If Nathan wants to be uncharacteristically shy, he totally can. And I can love him anyway. When he's ready, he will spread his little chatterbox wings and take off, just like this butterfly (that, as you can see, he was too shy to set free yesterday). 

A Few Favorite Read-Alouds

Over the past few months the kids and I have read several really great books together, and I always love to share a good find. My kids get enough goofy, fluffy reading in (hello Calvin and Hobbes!), so I try to choose books with a moral or social message when I read to them. Each of the following books allows for great discussion on how to treat other children who might be a little bit different than you.

Ally Nickerson has never felt smart, until she meets a teacher who cares enough to see her true intelligence. 

Melody is a 12-year-old girl who was born with severe cerebral palsy. She has a million thoughts going on in her head but has never spoken a word out loud. Read what life might be like to have so many ideas and thoughts and not be able to express them. 

You've likely heard of Wonder and Auggie Pullman, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past few years, let me just put in a plug for this book. It will tear at your heart strings. Auggie was born with mandifulofacial dystostis, a rare facial deformity. Wonder takes place as Auggie is beginning his fifth grade year at a private school after being home-schooled his entire life. It is told from several different perspectives and will have you falling in love with Auggie and his entire family. Wonder is being made into a movie that will be released this fall. Here's a trailer. Everyone ages 8-108 should read this book.