Life Dust ~ Toe Stand Twist - Ganesha Mudra

 

Parivrtta Prapadasana - Twisted Toestand Squat 

Ganesha Mudra

Remove all obstacles.

The nitty-gritty (grimy), survival-phase, practical-based lifedust is settling over here and the mythical, dazzling, yogic sparkle is revealing itself once again. APARIGRAHA - yogic letting go - is only figurative when we are growing a young family: in reality, it’s Hold On Tight or Else! But a lighter touch is now possible as the fog lifts (my body is my own again): goodbye clinging, grasping, clutching, gripping…

Lavender Fields ~ Headstand Variation

Sirsasana ~ Headstand variation 
To safeguard my neck, I typically headstand with tripod arms.

When I was growing up, the day school ended my family and I flew (fled?) to the French Riviera and returned to the USA only after the school supplies had - much to my dismay - run out at the American stores. Summer was not filled with planned activities or camps or playdates but with open-ended European road trips and unhurried, unstructured, seemingly endless days chez nous en Provence. 🪻🪻🪻

With my four petites being ages 3-13, it is likely not prudent to emulate this relaxed, improvisational, détendue, and highly unAmerican protocol, but I am going to give it a shot. I will let you know how it goes...

❤️Red 🤍White 🩵Blue & 💓Pink ~ Headstand Yoga Pose variation

Sirsasana - Headstand variation 
Loving red-white-blue (plus pink).

In preparation - or was it the opposite? - for this Summer I said sayonara to my week-daily sunrise yoga, I eschewed all camps for the kiddos, we bought only one-way airplane tickets, and I haven’t sought out a single sitter. Naturally, I am becoming petrified and beginning to panic as school winds its way down  (4 kids - 10 year spread - 75 straight days!), but this weekend is going so well I think it’s going to be the best Summer yet!!! 💙🤍❤️ ✌️🤞😎😎😎😎😎🤞✌️❤️🤍💙

🌼 Ditzy Bimbo 🌼

What is a girl to do?

I have a penchant for embarrassing myself. Hopefully it amuses others and maybe puts them at ease? This blonde likes to have fun and doesn’t mind looking like a lunatic doing it (knocking over cups full of pens in a solemn bank meeting 😬, showing up to the pool opening - and swimming! - 2 days early with 6 kids in tow: “why is no one else here?” 😬, bopping around town with my shirt inside-out 😬, stating my drive-thru order loud and clearly into the trash can placed en route to the speaker 😬, and on and on all the days long…)

Happy-go-lucky, carefree and a bit daffy while hard-working in my home, active at our school, engaged in the neighborhood, out-and-about in my community…

When actively occupied both at-home and about-town, faux pas are bound to happen and, in my case, it is gaffes galore!! You are welcome?🙏 

Candles On My Cake ~ Virabhadrasana II

Virabhadrasana II - Warrior 2

 

__ Kisses when I wake.

__ Candles on my cake.

We have closed ‘Birthday Season’ (until next October) in the Kirschenbaum home. A huge EXHALE for a mother who decorates and celebrates (6 human stars and a sparkle pup) in fantastical excess. 💐 

Inner Universe ~ Meditate with Bolster 🦋

Hand to Heart and bébé belly.
Butterfly Legs Seated on Bolster.

 Make PEACE (rather than happiness, joy, love) your aspired state of being.

Is Your Rest Constructive? ~ Constructive Rest Pose

Constructive Rest Pose

Knees together, feet apart.

 Deeply relaxing - like a self hug. 💞

Just as your food should be nourishing, your rest should be deliberate. 🫛

Green Goddess Dressing, Flower Blossom Cookies, Nut Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates, Mamachi’s Tomato sauce has carrots and cream, Homemade Food makes your fridge beautiful.

Garnish with your garden flowers (lilac here).

Life Lived In Full Color ~ Winter Rainbow

Easter Bunny spotted on Aspen Mountain!

There are as many ways to do things as there people upon this earth and as many ways to asana as there are yoginis!

🌟🎀 🐣🩵 Easter on Aspen Mountain.🩵🐣🎀🌟

❄️💎🦊 “I Made It” moment ~ Easter on Aspen Mountain with my family; including an egg hunt at the spot where we were married! (16 yrs.) 💍💎❄️

Badass Then, Badass Now, But Different … ~ Knee to Nose Pose

Knee to Nose from Three Legged Dog

Weight forward, shoulders over wrists, for the ‘badass’ version.

Wear leopard-like patterns and large gems.

After dropping the girls off at violin lessons this afternoon, I took the boys to the new North Boulder Library and parked right in front of an apartment that we lived in for two years. It has been exactly a decade since the one toddler days we spent there, but, as I did then, I still have a three year old. Patrick’s comportment at the coffee shop and playground nearby was so similar to Goldie’s ten years back that I came home exhausted from the surreal experience. I was badass then, and I’m badass now, but different…

Hand-me-downs ~ Virabhadrasana I

Virabhadrasana I - Warrior One 
The color of the heart is green.

I am stuck on the Stuff Merry-Go-Round. Packing for a family of six makes me lose my mind a little. I have beneficially and appropriately kept and corralled many, many seasons and sizes of duds and doo-dads, but this again? How many times can I unbox, unfold, sort, fold, wash, dry, sort, fold, pack, unpack, sort, shakeout, dust off, examine, sort, fold, keep, pass along, repeat …

Early Riser ~ Virabhadrasana II

Virabhadrasana II - Warrior 2 Pose

Surya Namaskar - Sun Salutation

To each era its own rhythm and organization: I may rise at 5am regularly now, but I was not astir so early when I frequently awoke throughout the night with bébés - or in my twenties with other motives and goals!

Parent Handbook ~ Utthita Parsva Konasana

Utthita Parsva Konasana - Extended Side Angle Pose
You are right - it is not easy. 

Parenting is the epitome of primal living. It is unyieldingly petrifying, thrilling and rewarding. Good luck! 🍀 

Cookies, Socks and Winter Activities - Oh My 😝 ~ Parsva Urdhva Hastasana

Parsva Urdhva Hastasana - Upward Salute Side Bend Pose
Can you straighten your arms? All the way?

I am back in the kitchen with verve baking up a storm once again. Is it my new “easy bake oven” (air fryer)? Or the fact that my youngest is now three and slightly less underfoot? It is both I am sure, and other factors, too. (Chilly weather💨.) Whatever it is sparking my creative joy, I will run with it…as do my children and so should you! 🍪

Brownies, banana bread, oatmeal raisin balls, yogurt cake, sugar cookies, cream cheese frosting… biscuits, french fries, quiche, pigs in a blanket, pizza, grilled cheese, quesadillas, roasted (air fried) everything and the list goes on… I kid you not, these kids actually expect me to feed them EVERY DAY!!! 🤪

My daughter knits socks.  🧶 🧦 For MY feet. 😍🥰

& these adorable and refreshing Gen Alpha kids also sing, tinker on the piano, play violin, craft, craft, craft and, obviously, level-up our nestle chips. 🎻🌸🎉

Notes from my last flight

Notes taken in the air - originally in pen 🖊️ in a mini notebook 📓 — never, ever leave home without one. 

🩵💚Not to be forgotten when flying with kiddos 💛🧡

It will not always be easy

Virabhadrasana A - Warrior I Pose

Virabhadrasana A - Warrior I Pose

I birthed my four babies at home and I have always known intuitively never to speak about it in common company. When your life challenges conventional - conformist - foundational beliefs, the threatened masses will act out (and sometimes with virile hostility). Thinking ‘differently’ from the majority is a sure bet side effect of a consistent yoga practice and is mostly fun, but on occasion you will feel confused, misunderstood and alone (or even outcast and humiliated when you are the more outspoken type). Welcome to rare and lasting inner peace and outer beauty! No one said it would be easy. 💖

PS :  If you are not having these black sheep issues - get thee to more yoga classes! 🤭😋🙃

What are you building?

Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana - King Pigeon Pose in happy frenchie cool girl stripies

Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana - King Pigeon Pose

Add flourish to your asanas. 🐚 

Everyday around 10am, for eight days straight, our family of six, (with cousins in tow,) headed to the beach. My youngest, age 3, would promptly ask me to “build a road”. We scooped, dug, piled, grated, patted, and decorated gaping holes, super highways, winding rivers, picturesque villages, connecting tunnels, long islands, creepy faces, and even a giant sea serpent monster. What were we making? We never knew. We just kept constructing. 

🧜‍♀️🧜‍♀️Sea monsters🧜‍♂️🧜‍♂️

Observe

 

Malasana - Garland Pose starry ⭐️ bubbly 🫧 lovey 💕 dovey 🕊️ 

Malasana - Garland Pose

Sit back and watch the frenzied, delirious world do its thing whilst you do peaceful, casual yours. 

Buttermilk snow bunnies gone disco crazy 🐰 🪩 

Jingle all the way 🔔 

🌟 Starbaby 🌟

 

Yoga Mudrasana - Psychic Union Pose

Lotus legs, hands bound, third eye to the floor 🧿

🌈 How do you prepare for your birthday? ✨ 

Nowhere else I would rather be

Marichyasana III - Sage Marichi Pose 3, Seated Sage Twist With Bind C

The kiddos, or you, or both 😱 are sick and suddenly, without warning ones focus is single minded and undivided; nothing else matters. 🧿

Crunchy

Eka Pada Uttana Padasana - One Legged Raised Pose

I still slide my hands under my hips to support my lower back.

& Featuring what fun it is to be a hippie yogini (mommy).

PLASTIC - it’s everywhere!! I’m pretty sure my underwear is made of plastic. I am just so over plastic. & Chemicals. Unnatural clothing, bizarre body products. PLASTIC. …

Post-birth of each child I give myself a pass — the generosity to be gentle and relaxed with my otherwise crunchy ecological, home and health rules. (EG processed foods ordered in, tacky crafts or mittens overnighted in bulk.) But, youngest Bébé is now three, so I am no longer in ‘survival mode’ and am empowered - aka ruthless and rageful - against the world’s BS once again. 🐅 All crap must go.