The Maze of Motherhood

It’s Friday afternoon.  Dozens of children are swirling about, running, jumping, laughing…Disney music blares as parents shout to be heard above all the commotion.  I am sitting in an aluminum and canvas chair, normally found poolside or in the beauty of a quiet garden on a summer afternoon, with nearly the same amount of peace.
On [...]

Great Kids Yoga Book for Home, School or Studio!

Have the winter blahs hit your house?  Are you interested in learning and teaching your children something new?  Does your school or day care promote a healthy lifestyle while helping your child learn and develop?
If you answered Yes to any of these questions, you will love the ABCs of Yoga for Kids!  It’s a beautifully [...]

Too Young to Run? (Ask Coach Jenny: Runner’s World)

If you’ve participated in a few road races, you may have noticed some of them offer a “Fun Run” for kids.  I have personally wondered how old a child should be before running for anything but the ice cream truck.  This is a very insightful Q&A initiated by a mom with concern for her 2-year-old’s [...]

Fitness Tips for Families (Active.com)

The family that plays together stays together!  This brief video gives some good ideas for families, especially those with older kids.  Fitness Tips for Families (Active.com)

Yoga Twists for Teens (Yoga In My School)

Yoga Twists for Teens (Thanks to Yoga In My School!)
A great sequence of twists, taught my Donna Freeman in her teen yoga classes.  Enjoy!

Karma Kids

I wanted to share a post I recently wrote for The Kids Yoga Resource, Karma Kids and the Golden Rule.   The Kids Yoga Resource is the blog of ChildLight Yoga, and offers tons of great information on yoga for kids.
I hope you are inspired to involve your children in the Haitian relief effort.   [...]

Sneaky Vegetables: Helpful or Harmful?

Tonight was leftover night in my house.  Because Sundays are usually my menu-planning and grocery shopping day, we try to wing it on Saturdays, cleaning out the refrigerator and making the meal more laid back.   Since I had some leftover macaroni and cheese (which by the way is the easiest thing on earth to [...]

Off the Mat Moms-Lesson 5: SAUCHA

We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are. – Nutritionist & Author Adelle Davis
Being a mom is much harder than I ever expected.  One day it’s figuring out how to keep a kid in bed (when you have [...]

Reflections of Gratitude

If there is one thing that makes teaching yoga to children easy, it’s a holiday.  As a former kids instructor, I enjoyed lesson planning immensely, perhaps sometimes more than carrying out the lesson in the studio or classroom!  (It must have been the creative side of me eeking its way out to the world)  Nothing [...]

Off the Mat Moms – Lesson 2: Satya

“Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.” — Benjamin Disraeli, Former Prime Minister  of England
One day last month, I had one of those eye-opening parenting moments.
My daughter, a normally laid back child, had come home from school in a terrible mood.   Unlike most other days when she’d [...]

Life Lessons in Acceptance

Around the time of my oldest’s first birthday, I remember having a conversation with a friend who had three teenagers and coached lacrosse at the high school.  I obviously had nothing in common with him at that point in life, but he got a twinkle in his eye as he mentioned the years of fun [...]

Halloween Fun – Yoga in Disguise!

Many PranaMamas and other devoted yogis support the recent movement to expose children to yoga at a young age.  Children benefit from physical activity, creative movement, imagination-inspired games,  thoughtful group discussion, relaxation techniques, and stress-busting breathing exercises.  However, many adults are at a loss when it comes to teaching these pint-sized Shiva Rea wanna-bes.  Instructors [...]

Running is Child’s Play!

It was late afternoon, around 4:30…that magical time of day when I can look back at the day’s events with a sense of accomplishment (as my dad used to say, “made another one!”) as my kids have had adequate learning, playing, resting, social and alone time, have been fed two square meals and one or [...]

A Few Great Articles from our Friends at RadicalParenting.com

In my ongoing search for information dedicated to moms, I found this amazing site: RadicalParenting.com.  The site is truly unique, as it is a resource for parents, written by teens.  I’m highly impressed by the site’s founder, Vanessa Van  Petten, and her group of teen writers, for bringing to light many of the issues teens [...]

A Lesson Learned from the Back-to-School Rush

I love September.  The dog days of summer are replaced with crisp mornings that warm into delightful and dry afternoons.  The colors begin to come alive on hydrangeas, sedum and perhaps a few leaves, here and there.  And, in my neighborhood, the streets come alive.  You see, I live within a quarter-mile of three separate [...]

Are you an Alpha Mom or a Beta Mom?

I just found this great clip from The Today Show, discussing the differences between Alpha Moms (everything must be perfect!) and the Beta (Slacker) Mom (living in the moment, accepts that she cannot be perfect.). The women interviewed give wonderful insight into both worlds!
Which kind of mom are you? Which do you aspire [...]

Back-to-School Yoga – 10 minutes to Calm!

With many of the nation’s kids going back to school this week, it’s a great time to introduce yoga.  If your house is anything like mine, the kids have become quite used to staying up late, being lazy in the morning and having lots of opportunities to burn off excess energy outdoors and with their [...]

Time for Lunch – A Campaign to bring Real Food to Schools

Time for Lunch!, National Day of Action to get Real Food in Schools, is a  nationwide campaign to bring healthy, wholesome, REAL food to school  cafeterias.   I was so excited when I first heard about this event, taking place on Monday, September 7th (Labor Day), 2009.  What better way to start off the [...]

Is it Fun Being a Mommy?

One of the best parts about writing this blog is having no official instructions to follow or demands to meet.  I definitely try to balance the topics between the various subcategories of yoga, fitness, food, and overall wellness, but as a general rule, I wait for inspiration from events of my own life as a [...]

Bless This Mess

I recently read a quote that both inspired me and irritated me:

“For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”  ―Benjamin Franklin

Sure, I suppose Mr. Franklin was right – if we all took the extra time to put things in their proper place, then we’d all save time and frustration when it comes to [...]

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