I’ve been thinking about writing this post since New Year’s day but I’ve struggled with finding time for blogging. Actually the real root of the problem is that I’m struggling to find time for myself, possibly because I’m not really sure who that person is any more. The past 3 years have seen HUGE changes in my life: a cross country move from California to Virginia, the loss of our support system, my first pregnancy, moving into our first (leased) house, giving birth, new motherhood, a second very hard pregnancy, birthing my second child, moving into another apartment, caring for two babies under age two. Although slot of these huge changes have been quite joyful they’ve also been very hard & have changed me so much on the inside that I’m not quite sure who I am any more. Suffice it to say 2011 was my year of Struggle.

In 2012 I will turn 40! I feel like this is going to be a BIG year for me personally. As I move into the middle half of my life I want to lose emotional baggage I’ve been lugging around for two decades & finally step into my own power as a strong, creative light filled woman; the woman I’ve refused to let shine all of my adult life. Age 40 marks the beginning of middle life & I am ready to embrace this new stage in life, one I’ve looked forward to for years. I’ve always felt that I would be a late bloomer and now I am ready. And so THIS YEAR will be different. I have approximately Nine months before I turn 40. How appropriate! The same amount of time it takes to be born. Over the next nine months I WILL find my power and rebirth myself by taking charge of my life.

So, this year instead of one word to lead me thru the year I’ve chosen 3 words to act as my guide: RELEASE. REPLENISH. REBIRTH.

Release: expectations, judgements, fears, anxieties, negative thinking, stress, anything I can’t control, and the past.

Replenish: fill myself with light, care for my soul, focus on positivity, focus on peace & contentment, take time for ME, reconnect with things I love like classical music, jazz, candles, books, bubble baths, creating, learning.

Rebirth: do the work I need to do to be my best & live my best life, accept & be confident that I am GREAT. Let go of anything not working in my life and move towards a new path.

Right now I’m trying to just sit quietly with all these big thoughts & feelings, trying to find my essential self amidst all the intense changes I’ve experienced the last few years. I feel like a butterfly about to emerge from my cocoon.

After spending the morning opening presents I baked Nora’s birthday cake and my husband John decorated it with a pink icing drawing of Nora’s favorite My Little Pony character, Pinkie Pie. Nora blew out the candles and we all ate way too much cake, except for Wyatt of course who got to eat babyfood instead. We played, watched movies and had a really nice day.

Before having a second baby, Nora got all the attention, cuddles, & love that I could shower upon her. And it was A LOT! When she had rough days or was a bit naughty it didn’t really bother me because she was my complete focus and I could be there for her, patient and loving, to take care of her needs immediately. Then came my beautiful Wyatt and chaos erupted. It never fails that Wyatt needs something or has a melt down at the EXACT SAME TIME that Nora also needs attention. So I’m constantly torn between the two, trying to decide on the fly and in the midst of tantrums, meltdowns, feedings, and diaper changes who gets attention when. Often it ends up being whichever child has the most ear piercing scream
In that moment. It’s a juggling act I often fear I don’t do very well, hence my feelings of mommy guilt. Parenting multiple children is so much harder than I ever expected. You MUST be an excellent multitasked & manager of time, both areas I am weak in. I don’t expect perfection any more. Heck, I’m pleased when we survive the day with just minimal tears ( both mine & theirs). Yet I still wracked with guilt at the end of the day thinking of situations I wish I’d handled differently & (most often) wishing I’d had more one on one & cuddle time with Nora. The baby needs to be held so much that I get limited time cuddling & holding Nora. She’s not quite two years old & deserves to still be a baby sometimes. I worry that having them so close together has pushed Nora out of babyhood too soon. I know my kids are happy & get lots of attention and love yet I still feel guilty & constantly worry that I’m not doing enough for them. Ugh, the trials of Mootherhood!!! It’s the hardest work you’ll ever LOVE doing.

“Take time to smell the roses
Before your day is through,
And think of people in your heart
Whose lives bring joy to you.

Take time to look for sunsets
And let your spirit sing
The earth displays it’s beauty
For every living thing.” Delores Acton

It’s hard to believe that we’ve begun the last month of 2011. Where has the year gone? I was just looking at photos I took of Nora last year on Christmas day and the changes in her are remarkable. She’s gone from a baby to a little girl so fast. Soon she’ll be turning 2 years old! Ugh, I just want to hold her close and slow down time. Each moment is so precious and so FLEETING.  I keep trying to remind myself in ALL things to slow down, appreciate each moment, stop worrying or stressing over unimportant things and enjoy what really matters: precious time with those you love, persuing your passions, embracing each moment, noticing the beauty around you. Life may not be perfect but this is all we’ve got and if we really open our eyes we can see that we all have a lot to be grateful for. Rejoice in the blessings of being alive in this amazing world!

*I made the digital art collage above using a magazine print of a painting I’ve forgotten the name of, a few graphics bought at Cottage Arts, and a daydream believer badge from Shabby blogs.

I sat down at the computer this afternoon knowing I only had about 15 minutes of free time before baby number 2 woke up from his nap. I’d planned to start working on a fancy new header to dress up the look of my blog a bit. Ever the procrastinator I opened a file to browse for some photos to create the header and instead came across a rose garden photo I took last year and a few interesting looking photo textures. Fifteen minutes, three textures and a few photoshop alterations later, with my now awake son on my lap, I made a little something for you (few) WONDERFUL people who visit my blog and leave lovely comments. You have no idea how much you mean to me!

Just in case you’re curious, this is what the original photo looked like:

Content is something I will also be working on over the next few months. I need to dig deeper, start talking about the things that matter to me, otherwise what’s the point? I realized I was becoming bored & dissatisfied with blogging and then it hit me that maybe that’s because I wasn’t putting much into it. I’d been comparing myself to all the artsy bloggers I admire who are constantly posting their projects & feeling bad because I didn’t have much to share in the form of art. I’m just beginning to experiment with art & creativity and I felt I had little to add to the blogging community by comparison. Then it hit me that I don’t have to follow any set path. Right now my time & focus is mainly on parenting & homemaking and that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with just having a personal blog that’s PERSONAL, not devoted to one specific genre of blogging but that covers whatever I’m interested in that day, week, or month. Maybe I’ll add photos and art projects some days, maybe another will be a purely text article on parenting. Who know’s? I don’t have to try & pigeonhole myself into one narrow category. This is just my place to be ME! So, welcome to Meegan’s Place. Hope you enjoy your visit .

I’m featuring my first guest post today! This is from Sarah At Primrose Schools and seems very appropriate considering we are fast approaching Thanksgiving, a time when families often spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
*Safe Creativity in the Kitchen with Kids*

Getting creative in the kitchen is a great joy in life, made even more enjoyable when you can cook with family. Invite your littler helpers into all of the cooking activities so that they can feel included and have fun- safely. Boiling water and hot burners can be dangerous, but if you set some ground rules, spending quality time in the kitchen together can be a lot of fun.
The Recipe for Safety:
1 part adult supervision
2 parts helpful children
A Pinch of rules
A Dash of fun
Mix together and serve at least weekly so that everyone can enjoy their time in the kitchen.
It doesn’t matter what you’re cooking – let the kids help. There are plenty of ways to let them as long as you know what they are capable of.
If there are little kids around, hand them some pots and pans. Let them make some drum music for you as you go about cooking. The sound that they make will tell you exactly where they are so that you don’t have to worry and can go about your culinary creations.
The older kids can help with some of the basic preparation.
The easy stuff:
- Rolling dough
- Measuring flour, water, and oil
- Breaking eggs
- Counting slices of bread
- Topping off sprinkles
Once your child has mastered helping with some of the easier tasks, you can start to delegate some of the harder tasks for them so that they feel like they are helping even more. This will help you create a bond with your children and also help them learn how to cook.
The harder stuff:
- Mixing batter
- Filling muffin pans
- Pounding chicken
- Frosting cakes
The more your child helps, the more he or she will get a sense of accomplishment with the task. You just need to focus on the safety at all times. Keep handles on the burners facing inwards to avoid bumping. When you open the oven, make sure no hands get in the way of what’s going in or coming out. If you’re moving hot liquids around the kitchen, make sure everyone stays still while you transport the liquid.
Your children can become more responsible and more helpful when you introduce them to the kitchen at an early age. You can have them take over step by step of the recipe once they learn to read and by the time they have mastered all of the skills in the kitchen, you can hand the reigns over to them for them to create an entire recipe (with your supervision). This way you give them the ability to show off what they can do and they will appreciate the boost in self esteem.
There are plenty of cooking and baking supplies out in the market to make it easier for kids to participate in cooking. You might want to pick up a few smaller whisks and bowls so that they can use everything in a smaller scale so that it is easier to work on their motor skills before advancing to the full size version of something.
When the food is done, make sure your assistant gets first taste of everything. They should also help with the clean up so that they understand the full realm of responsibility. When it’s time to cook again, see if they have any suggestions on what to make.

Submitted by Sarah Morris on behalf of Primrose Schools- with preschools across the country, give your little on the benefits of a Primrose education.

For the past few weeks I’ve been rather quiet here at my blog because I’ve been caught up in “real” life. Nora is a VERY active toddler and at 4 months old Wyatt is also trying to get mobile, rolling about on the floor & trying to climb out of his bouncy seat. They take alot of supervision! .
Recently I’ve started letting Nora experiment with painting. We work on projects two or three times a week. She loves it!! And since I’m getting art supplies out for her I don’t have any excuse not to dabble in them myself. I’ve started work on a few little projects. It’s so much fun to dip my toes into the creative water. Up until now all art I’ve created has been digital. I’ve never had the nerve to play with paints before. We have a lot of bare walls in our new apartment & unfortunately limited finances leave me unable to splurge on buying the gorgeous art of all my bloggy friends, so maybe I can try my hand at making my own art. Here’s a little canvas I started working on; my first art project since high school 20+ years ago:

Besides taking care of babies & dabbling in art projects I’ve also been mulling over changes in design & content for my blog. Here at Blue Moon Mama I want to start broadening out a bit, posting more parenting & homemaking content along with my daily life/art attempts/ general ramblings. So hopefully over the next few months you’ll start seeing a few changes around here!

And to brighten your day, here’s Nora creating some wearable art for herself:

And her finished art project: