• Reflections Of Our Everyday Family Life

    Using Our Feeling Bodies To Guide Our Mothering..

    Our day started out slow. I love this kind of day. We have things we need to accomplish, but time is not pressing because we have no where else to be but home, together. The weight on my shoulders feels light and I can breathe into the moments of just staring at my children’s hands, or faces, or listening to them giggle or fight (haha) and not have to rush to get somewhere to do anything.  The biggest challenge we have been facing with parenting lately seems to land on finding a confidence on how to parent while feeling overwhelmed ourselves. Overwhelmed from worry, overwhelmed from trying to manage 4 other…

  • 3 Step Strategies

    3 Strategies for Helping Children Cope with Big Emotions

    When children experience big emotions, they need a supportive and understanding parent to help them navigate their emotions. Use these three strategies to assist your child in managing their feelings. As parents, it can be difficult to see our children struggling with big emotions. However, it’s essential that we provide a supportive and understanding environment to help them learn how to manage their feelings in a healthy way. Here are three strategies that you can use to support your child during times of emotional distress. 1. One of the most important steps in helping children cope with big emotions is to first recognize and validate what they are feeling. This…

  • Five Pillars Of Parenting To Get You More Connected NOW

    3 Ways to Establish and Maintain Respectful Boundaries
    with Our Children

    Establishing boundaries with your child is an important part of developing a healthyrelationship, but it’s not always easy to do so in a way that is both firm and respectful.Here are three practical tips to help you set appropriate boundaries while maintainingrespect for your child’s feelings and needs. Communicate your expectations clearly. One of the most important aspects of setting boundaries with your child is tocommunicate your expectations clearly. Be specific about what behaviors you expectfrom them and what the consequences will be if those boundaries are crossed. Usesimple, direct language and avoid using vague phrases like “be good” or “don’t do that”.It’s also crucial to establish consequences that are…

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    with Our Children
  • About Marlana

    About Marlana

    Marlana is a homeschooling mother of 4 beautiful and wild children. Truth be told, she never ever thought she would be one to actually grow up and have children. She began studying ballet at the age of 10 and never looked back. She studied all over the country at prestigious ballet conservatories on scholarship and eventually graduated high school early to dance professionally in Los Angeles, California. She had big aspirations of continuing to tour the world as a professional dancer and the infinite will to do so…… Until she met her husband Cody! 🙂 Marlana met Cody while she was dancing for a ballet company in Colorado. He was…

  • Reflections Of Our Everyday Family Life

    Using Our Feeling Bodies to Guide Our Mothering

    So, how do we allow children to have their feelings BUT express them appropriately? This is something we are working on everyday. Recently, there seems to be a lot of screaming and whining in our family culture. We try to guide our children to express their feelings authentically but sometimes their feelings can feel like constant disagreements, or shouts of dissatisfaction, and if one of them is really wound up, personal attacks on others can start to emerge!!! I found myself awake one morning feeling like my capacity to hold space for the big feelings coming my way was not where it needed to be to be able to constructive.…

  • Reflections Of Our Everyday Family Life

    Using Our Feeling Bodies To Guide Our Mothering

    Mothering is one of the most rewarding and beautiful things in the world. That is, when we are feeling like we have it down. For me, I am not always feeling like I have the powerful Mama mojo I want to have everyday.  There are moments when I am happy with how I have responded to a bump, moments where I knew that I got “it” right, and moments where I feel like I am investing so much into the tiny moments that I go to bed with a full and easy heart.  Then, there are those nights I lay awake and think of all the things I missed, the…

  • Reflections Of Our Everyday Family Life

    Using Our Feeling Bodies To Guide Our Mothering

    As I have grown into motherhood I have become more and more grateful for authenticity. I value it’s importance and can see the benefits of authenticity in the connection with my children. Authenticity is a form of honesty. It doesn’t mean we have to say everything we are thinking, or even feeling, if it isn’t appropriate to do so. In the context of mothering, it can mean different things at different times.  Here are some examples of authentically communicating that have helped improve the quality of connection with my children. Communicating with them dislikes or likes. Today as I was folding the 5th or 6th load of laundry on our…

  • Reflections Of Our Everyday Family Life

    Using Our Feeling Bodies To Guide Our Mothering…

    Gosh, I love my kids. They are growing up fast and it pains me and brings me such joy all at the same time. When I was younger, I never saw myself as a mother, but once I knew I was pregnant with our first born son, I felt like being a mother was what I was really here to be. It was what my whole life had leaded up to and it was my purpose.  I tend to feel troubled as I look back at pictures of their younger days and wish I knew everything then, that I know now. Being a mother of four, I feel like I’ve gotten…