Snowy Winters.......

We've been in Maine for over three years now, this is our four winter, and I have to say- I love snow. There is something so magical about it. I know that sometimes people dread it or get tired of it or just plain hate it here but after so many winters of gray and rain, I am so happy to be in a place that has winters of sunshine and glittering white snow. I feel like a kid!

Occasionally winter will run long and my toes will be so tired of being cold but beneath that, there is such a love of snowy winters that lives in my heart.

This winter has been particularly mellow and mild and I find myself missing the constant snow fall and cozy fires. I admit it- I don't miss shoveling but I do miss that magical snow fall that makes me think of hot chocolate and snowmen and sledding. The kind of winter days that end with tucking in with the kiddos and making a gnome. 

Of course, there was that night I came home to snow gnome in my driveway complete with knitted beard from our dress up box....

So, I dug up some of those wonderful snowy memories.......

Weekending- Gnomes of the Week

And during the week, I made gnomes- oh those gnomes!!

Every weekend I list up the gnomes that were made during the living that took place that week. Here are the newest gnomes of this crazy and enlivening daily practice. Their dates of creation and any personal tidbits are located below each photo......

This fellow seems particularly cheerful and ready for adventure- it seems fitting since he is, after all, a New Year's Day gnome..... (created on January 1, 2016)

I felt the need (no pun intended!!) to do something soft and small and along came this tiny gnomeling. Such a sweet and gentle, giggly soul she is! Surely a bringer of joy! (This gnomeling was created January 2, 2016)


This fellow is a big fan of sledding and wakes up every morning ready to get started- such energy! Such enthusiasm!
(This gnome was created on January 3, 2016)


This gnome is a weaver and she loves nothing more than bringing color and patterns together with her loom and her clever hands.... Such magic!
(This gnome was created on January 4, 2016)


As you may guess, I have become extremely fond of a gnomeling in a pointy hat. This little one loves singing and has such a keen ear for a tune!
(This gnomeling was created on January 6, 2016)

This fellow is quite knowledgeable on many, many subjects and enjoys nothing more than an animated, intelligent conversation with another being...
(This gnome was created on January 7, 2016)

Yes, you may have noticed there is a gnome missing- for Tuesday.
I actually can't believe it! I forgot! I did and I only realized it when I woke up on Wednesday morning. I had had a wonderful afternoon felting with students at a school on Tuesday and came home a little tired. Perhaps my brain equated the felting class with actually felting but somehow, my brain let it go. I still can't believe that I did that but, this is one of the lessons we learn with a daily practice: forgiveness. It is important to understand and embrace our fallibility and know that that are mistakes don't define who we are, they help us learn and grow and evolve.....

In Gratitude

Sometimes it just takes a moment for us to change our perspective and sometimes that moment seems like the hardest thing in the world to make space and time for; it feels impossible.

But I believe that the fastest way to create positive change is to find gratitude and embrace it. Wrap your arms, your heart and your soul around it and hold on tight, the magic is there.

Sometimes it is something small, something seemingly infinitesimal in the middle of chaos or loss or madness but it's always there. 

For me that gratitude starts with daily practice, a moment when I can breathe and slow myself and create so when the rest of the day is a blur, or a tear to the heart or a chronic out breath of busyness I can always take a moment to sit in gratitude. 

These moments were with me in the midst of driving back and forth between family and home, too-short visits with beloveds, getting back into the rhythm of work and homeschool, tidying the house and making up schedules and in the midst of the ongoing complications parents sometimes face with the testy, lovely practice of raising human beings- life's sticky like that, isn't?....

I am grateful for:

Ferns in the snow and a silent concrete bunny hidden in fronds......

Bees and the memory of so many of them swarming my lavender bushes in Portland, Oregon......

Gnomes who seek their own adventures and opportunities to commune with nature......

String lights in the dark parts of the year......

Wool to process from my own sheep............

A treadmill with a felting table on top so I can walk (ever so carefully) while I felt.......

Constant, glorious sunrises and sunsets..........

Canada geese overhead reminding me to stay light, sing loud and find my rhythm with others.....

In the Wake of Busy

It was a busy and lovely autumn and holiday season. So much felting got done! I made gnomes and ornaments and wool paintings and my heart was SO FULL of JOY! 

And then my arms started to complain- a little in the beginning which I ignored (I can't stop now!) and then they really started to complain, pain shooting down from my shoulder and muscles getting weak in my hands so when the dust of the holiday prep settled, I made myself stop felting daily.

Wait- what?!? 

Yep, you read that right. I stopped. I allowed myself to felt for about 15 minutes every few days and I rested. My fear was that I would get an official "stop felting" request from a doctor if I continued to ignore the pain and over-use and what would I do with a mandatory no-felting request?!

Choosing self-care over the joy of daily practice is difficult but so necessary. It made me wonder why it is so hard to pause to repair in this day and age. Is it that our never ending list gets too long and needs constant maintenance? Is it the need to keep busy, keep moving, keep doing? Is it the habit of saying "Not today, tomorrow, this can wait"? 

What is it?

I think it's because we are creative. Whether we are cleaning a home, paving roads, bagging groceries or bandaging wounds, we are creating: organization, clean smooth paths, a bag of nourishment, a better outcome. Everything we do is creative because we thrive on it. In every moment of the day we are creating because we are innately creative. So when we are asked not to create or told not to create in the way that we are used to (or in the way that fills us with joy), I think we get a little lost, our skin feels different and the world looks a little lopsided as we try to find balance in a new reality. And I think this makes us avoid stopping; avoid changing even if it's what is needed.

I think the trick in those moments is to remember that we also create in other ways- our thoughts create, our words create, our hearts create and our feelings create. So, in those moments when we are interrupted in our usual ways of creating, we are given the opportunity to check in with our other innate abilities to create. Sure, it can be scary but it helps us evolve and round out our abilities.
What if we pause to take in our other creative abilities?

I have begun to sneak a daily gnome in, going slowly, paying attention to the way my arms feel. And, as I sit here, resting my arms (well, except for typing which I am doing carefully), wishing I was felting more than my body will currently allow, I stretch out my muscles and try to pay attention to the different places in my body that I feel pain.
What can I do to support and heal that pain?
And while I am resting what else am I creating?
Are there story ideas floating through my mind that I may have missed because I was so focused on creating in other ways?
Are there any ideas on what my next piece will be when I embark (oh so carefully) on a new felting adventure?
Are there any memories I can be creating with my children and my family right now?
What have I been creating while I was so focused on creating? 

Creating comes in so many different shapes and size.
What are you creating?
I'd love to hear.....

Weekending......

Weekending with Gnomes.....

What did you do with your weekend?

 



 

And a very special gnome drawing from a particularly special six year old.....
 

Happy New Year! It's a Gnomey Makeover!

For a while now I have been considering the marriage of two blogs- this one and another blog that I started a few months after this one at the request of friends who wanted to know just what this Maine adventure was all about- and why we were doing it.

I wrote for a while on that other blog, managing to maintain two blogs for a brief space of time before I had to choose between them. 

I chose the gnomes- isn't that just the way?

But I still have so many moments in my day where I think: "I wish I could blog about this project/story/adventure. This is so funny! No one would believe it." But I always wonder "Can I just leap into non-gnome posts like that? I have done it in the past once in a while, but this would be rather consistent."

Hmmmmm.

I was stuck on the idea that this blog could pretty much only be pictures of gnomes. 

ONLY. 

I've realized that just isn't the case. 

So, I'm stepping into somewhat unfamiliar territory and wondering if I can expand this to encompass the multiple impacts that happen around a daily practice. Maybe it will work, maybe it will return to just the gnomes but I want to try something new.

I want to write about what happens in between the gnomes- there's meat there. How do I fit them in?

Yes, I make a gnome pretty much every day- they are constant- even when I've missed a day, I am thinking of the gnomes. But, I am also the mother of four complicated, delightful, intriguing and wonderful human beings who require a lot of attention and connection because they are humans and I am given the gift of a brief moment in the vastness of time with them and I need to be conscious and present with that. 

And I am a happy momma of three dogs, two cats, two goats, two sheep (plus one that boards with us), a miniature horse, six chickens, two ducks and now a rabbit. That is a lot to take care of but the love is so present!!

The thing that keeps me so busy is homeschooling. It is a pleasure and sometimes completely intimidating. We have a sort of odd blend of unschooling, Waldorf influences and whatever I can find that helps the children find their way and inspires them to seek knowledge. That is what I really want- my children to seek to learn daily so that when they think of a question, there are no qualms about seeking the answer. 

The gnomes trickle in at different times in my day- though this year I want to create a sacred space in each day for the creation of them, to take that practice to a new place in my heart and in my soul.

So this blog is mixing things up a bit- there will be gnomes- so many gnomes! And stories and adventures about this place we live.

In the old, familiar words of my very first Gnome a Day post:

Here. We. GOOOOOOOOO!

There Be Changes Here- Coming 2016!!

You may have been wondering what on earth is going on with this gnomey blog. 

I would like to be updating it regularly but with some unexpected adjustments in our home and on the family front, I have let go of that updating piece of bloggy-goodness and I've been sticking to tending the growing needs of my sweet kiddos, the animals, making art and creating those daily gnomes that keep me sane. 

There are changes coming to the blog- they won't be too overwhelming (I hope) but I have long had a hankering for a new approach to the blogging piece; a new way of going through this blogging experience.

If you want to keep track of daily gnomes, I often post them on Instagram which you can either follow me on by clicking here OR you can visit me here on the blog and look at the recent photos that scroll by on the right in my Instagram feed. There is also the option of visiting my website www.themoongoat.com where you can also see my gallery and check out recent Instagram-ed gnomes. 

I know, that isn't quite as rockin' as sitting down and creating a blog post with clearer, higher quality photos and a little bit about that particular gnome. But I have had to make some time choices and the daily gnome (of course) had to stay in tact while I had to make a choice about the blogging. That said-- I have something in the works for a new (and improved?) blog in 2016. I'll announce it once I've got things up and running.

In the meantime, you can always email or peruse the archives of gnomes, knowing that everyday (well, pretty much) I sit down and make that daily gnome to lift me up, settle my soul and keep my rhythm.......

2015 A Gnome A Day - Day 287 & Her Family

The final custom gnome was a gnomeling- a sweet baby girl (I think) with purple hair. She giggles and emanates joy- how can she not with so much joy from her parents wrapped around her?

This gnomeling was made on October 15th, 2015