Weekly, monthly, yearly, and even uncategorized.
You’ll find some of my projects that are currently still under construction in this section of my blog. It’s a work in progress, so I ask that you be patient and follow along as I become inspired, organized, and challenged.
Projects so far:
A friend of the Nuggets
I am excited to announce that I am dedicating a space to guest writers. The writers that will be appearing on my blog are friends—or acquaintances—that I’ve invited to write on my blog. I’ve invited them because I feel like they can bring something valuable to my space. I want my blog diversified in ideas, perspectives, knowledge, and I want to further extend my transparency. I want what I stand for to be clear. What do I stand for?
Authenticity
I strive to be real, to minimize the ‘happy’ filter. I want the world to know that I am a human and with all the positivity comes negativity. With all the happiness and success comes sadness and failure. I have seen the effects of being genuine. I have received a much greater response to living my true life and sharing it, and no, I don’t share it in hopes of gaining a following—at least I don’t anymore—because I know now that for it to happen organically is much better than for me to force it.
Respect
I love being able to agree to disagree and still find space to be civil, friendly even. If you don’t agree with my perspective or the perspective of my friends, I ask that you try your best—consciously try your best—not to negate what and why I/they feel it. To truly respect is to truly live in harmony with other human beings. I’m not asking for you to accept another person’s truths, I just want you to leave the differences behind and respect the giver of these truths as a standing human being just as you are.
Sacred space
I don’t attach the word “sacred” to any religion or deity. I like explaining “sacred” as, according to dictionary.com, a dedication to a person or purpose. In this case, the person is my invited writer and the purpose is life and the experiences it brings while living it. “Sacred” to me also means a safe space for my friends to give their perspectives on topics that fall in line with what I write about (or possibly not). I want their voices heard, their thoughts read, and their being honored.
I’m a firm believer that we can all learn something from the experience of others. Of course, often times, our own experience is the ultimate teacher, but it really doesn’t hurt to listen to what others have gone through. Giving our hearts and ears the opportunity to listen may potentially make us (more) conscious, sensitive, and empathetic. What a thought!
Now, I open my ears, quiet my mouth, or in this case, open my eyes to read and give my fingers a break from typing to bring you “A friend of the Nuggets”.
Big Nugget Adventures
I’ve heard many times that children learn best through play. This has brought up some questions for me that I’ve decided to turn into a project.
When does this change? Or does it ever?
Do adults continue learning through play too?
Where is my imagination, and why is it so hard for me to use it now?
Is it only me?
As Little Nugget gets older, he asks me to tell him stories, and I’ve been finding it challenging to do because of how rusty my imagination is. I have to work hard to awaken my imagination nowadays. It’s almost as if I need to warm it up. It hasn’t been used in a while. It’s grown weak.
My intention with “Big Nugget Adventures” is to exercise my imagination (and storytelling) at least once a month. That seems like a reasonable goal. I haven’t written make believe stories like this (that I can remember) since elementary school, so be patient with me. Enjoy the ride.
Here it goes…
Birth Center Project
I have began a project that stemmed from my love and appreciation for midwives and their birth centers. Having had two birth center births, I am absolutely grateful that I had the option and opportunity to birth outside of a hospital. This appreciation led me to this project where I plan to visit as many birth centers as possible and feature them on my blog. One of my intentions for this project is to be another resource for mothers and parents-to-be to learn about birth centers. My ultimate goal is to become something of a birth center guru. I have so much love for midwives and their spaces that I would love to share it with as many people as possible. It may be crazy to think, but I want to create a movement where mothers-to-be are calling their insurance companies to ask why birth centers are not covered (more) in their plan like hospitals are.
If you are a midwife with a birth center or a parent that knows of a birth center who would like to be featured, please contact me. Please help me discover, write about, and photograph these special spaces that deserve more attention.
I scream “Je t’aime”
Often times I forget that I have such an amazing man by side. I am not proud to say that I forget, but in admitting it, I believe it helps me acknowledge and cherish all of the amazing things that my husband does for me and for our family. I get so caught up in being a mother, daughter, sister, cousin, friend that being his other half gets pushed to the side.
Often times I get extremely overwhelmed with love for my husband that I literally want to climb a mountain top and scream, “I LOVE YOU JOSHUA!” for the world to hear, so in March of 2014, I attempted to do just that. I printed a “Je t’aime” (French phrase meaning “I love you”) sign to visually do some screaming. Corny, I know, but I like the idea of taking this sign to places high up to let everyone know how madly and deeply I continue to be in love with my better half. I also like this idea because it’s a visual timeline of my love for my husband.
Please, feel free to be inspired by my idea, make it your own, climb high, and let the world know how in love and how happy someone makes you. If you do, tag your post with #Je t’aime for others to share and feel your happiness.
Let us visually bring love to those who have lost sight of it.
Truth is
Positive Patty normally shines through me most days, but I do have my Negative Nancy days where the world seems to be against me. Truth is…it’s never as bad as I think it is. There is a positive side (pro) to everything just as there is a negative (con) to everything.
I’ve decided to dedicate this section of my blog to those situations/moments/statements that I allow to defeat me, when in reality it’s better than I make it seem. After giving myself the chance to be human and feel the negativity, I do my best to get up, wipe myself off, and see/find some light in the situation.
I invite you to join in!
I invite you to share your negatives and how you’ve turned them into positives. We all need more positivity floating around to feed off of. Write your own post about your obstacles or feel free to comment in the box following my post. If you decide to write a brand new post, tag your post with #truth is so others can find it in the reader or leave a link of your entry in the comment box.
Just imagine the community of Positive Patties that we can build (or that already exists)! Negative Nancies are also welcome.
Let us bring light to those who are having gloomy days.
The Nugget Life 