Premiere Southwestern Kimchee Post

So, it's the Fourth of July.

Independence Day!

And I am thinking that we are on the verge of a new era for the family.

We are still focusing on these things: Urban homesteading Traditional Foods, living simply, enriching our lives with BodyTalk (www.bodytalksystems.com) as I study to become a certified practioiner and being as joyfully in the moment as possible!

As we step into this new era, I find myself thinking about a lot of things. How things are constantly changing but when they feel static, the ground feels more firm. But how this is all illusion.... How quickly my kids are growing and how to balance each of their needs with the needs of the whole family.

Let's back up. Here's some background: We started out as primal parents....birthing at home, eventually by ourselves (freebirth/lotusbirth), wearing our babies, extended nursing, co-sleeping, homeschooling. It was so satisfying. We moved off the grid in 2005 for three years in CO. While we learned so much, I was also incredibly lonely. The children grew up some more there, we learned how to deal with solitude and isolation, snow and icy roads, different cultural elements we'd never been exposed to. When we finally sold our cabin there, and moved to sunny Albuquerque, I felt like I'd aged. A lot. Or was on a long solitary retreat. We also moved out of a lot of our single-mindedness about what a family "should" be. And I came to terms that some of my ideas about myself were more ideas than true reflections of my real personality.

For example, I had a hard time staying at home all day with children. I felt tapped out. I didn't enjoy the "fun" messes that creative homeschooling entailed. I was grouchy a lot. I yearned for some outer world that was hard to come by when you have children all day long. I wanted more financial stability for our family. I wanted my husband to feel less burdened and pressured supplying for us all.

The challenge I suppose comes from not overreacting to it all.

So, next year, the kids are enrolled in schools. I am forging my way to a new vision of mothering, that will probably entail working outside the home. I'm looking into various schooling options, while also pursuing my interest in the BodyTalk system, which amazes and intrigues me.

Anyway, fastforward to our lives here. We've almost lived here a year. Finding that we can do a lot more "homesteading" than we were able to do in CO, despite living in a very urban area. We have a big. lush garden. (Our farm in CO had only an old well with extremely hard water. Most farmers there did "dry" farming) We have chickens and turkeys. And so many more resources and company while doing it! We feel like we're home. At last.

But how to venture into the next phase of life, with grace? With everyone feeling taken care of?

That is, of course, the question!