Saturday brought more Spring chicken dances,

tropical greenhouse creations,

and snuggles galore.

And on Sunday came a temple visit colored with music, community, purple bulbs peeking out of the dirt and carrots-peas-beets and yogurt mixed with fancy peacocks under the sweetest blue sky. I am so grateful to have a sacred space that I feel at home in, to sing and pray, cook and eat, give thanks, share ideas and lessons learned, and to give and receive encouragement.

Gotta soak up these radiant days because the winds are coming soon…but then we’ll be intrigued and inspired by seed catalogs and garden planning. How are your days colored lately?

I just created a page “FOR KIDS” (and parents, teachers, big kids…) — it is now in my menu above. I think it’s super fun, and I hope it will inspire young authors and illustrators. At the top is an interactive page with 27 different “clicks” that shares some of my writing & art process and research for Same, Same but Different. Scroll down further and there are videos, postcards, journal entries, and more coming soon… Please share with your kids, their schools, your teacher friends, and let me know what you think. :)

And…another beautiful, awesome, sweet, lovely day on the homestead full of incredible and ordinary things that remind me of just how blessed I am.

It was all fun, especially the ink pad and glittering and gluing hearts! And what an efficient way to make a lot of Valentines. I think the most fun will come when Tulsi gives them to all her friends and family, or surprises neighbors with them, accompanied with giant hugs. I haven’t “played” Valentines Day since I was little! We are excited about going to a Valentine’s Dance with Last to Know to benefit the Birth Center in Taos. Maybe we’ll bake some treats, too, or explore some of these fun ideas. How do you celebrate with your kids?

Patrick woke me up this morning whispering, “Jenny, go outside into the tub and watch the sunrise. It’s amazing.” This is a glimpse of that beauty — as much as my camera could take in.

Upon stepping outside, fifteen hens came speed-waddling down the mud-frozen garden trail to give a cheerful “good morning” and Little Red Rooster jumped up onto the gate and crowed his own humble salutations. I love my chickens. I can attribute countless smiles to their company. It was warm (for January) with the kind of breeze that reminds me of just before a Midwest thunderstorm. (It’s interesting how a lot of nostalgia I feel for places and periods of my life are directly related to weather/seasons/nature). While I soaked, the clouds shapeshifted from a whale to two ducks to an elephant to a dragon. If I looked away for 5 seconds, the sky was already telling a different story. During the first few months after Tulsi was born, this was my morning ritual after she nursed at 5 am, to step outside and submerge in water and watch the sky. I have been staying up late in my studio for so long and sleeping in and missing this, I thought, my absolute favorite moment of the day. This year, I want to breathe this in more.

This morning I was remembering how refreshing the sunrise feels. It is such a magical moment, so pure, such awe. It makes me feel at peace. Soft yet strong, grounded, content. And intoxicated…like when I read Rumi or Hafiz’s poems inspired purely by their love for the Divine. Do you know what I mean? Perhaps something else makes you feel this same way. Another poet or musician or place…

With the new year (a magnified sunrise), I’ve been giving a lot of thought to where I’d like to place my attention, personally and with my art, what I’d like to practice deeper, what I’d like to invite more into my life. And after two friends shared this book with me recently, this is what resonates… to practice mindfulness. Daily. I can appreciate where I am very mindful and also where I’m not. I want to “work” at it. In the smallest tasks and in bigger goals, in playing, in mothering, in partnering, in conversations, in words I choose and how I release them, in relating to friends and clients, in moving my body, in creating art and in writing stories, in loving, and in prayer.

It sounds so simple here, and yet I know it is the most profound practice. It is also the perfect thing for my art with my wild-doer mind that can get distracted by too many ideas or feel overwhelmed or watching others doing super-human things (hee). Really, it always comes back to not being in the present moment.

And what else for 2012? …so I can look back and reflect next January… to spend as much time as possible OUTside playing with my family, to grow and preserve more food, to bring a major project to completion, and to write and practice yoga daily for even just 5 minutes. There. I wrote it. YES, yes, YES!

Cheers to all of you for a soulful 2012 and to whatever it is you are practicing, loving, creating.

Hello out there! Anyone still listening? :) After a fun, whirlwind month-long book tour, including 12 bookstore and library events, 25 presentations at schools, 8 cities, and 48 hours in NYC, this mama and daughter are HAPPY to be back home with Papa Bear, in our sweet world full of hidden funny faces and magical blue skies. Tulsi is all about making pictures on ANY surface. Even I am her canvas! Ha. Yes, that is my leg below. And the drawing on the right is Tulsi’s portrait of me wearing 2 hats with a ball on top, and the colors to the upper right are “a wild rainbow rain”!

More posts coming about the past month!

Here’s an update:

After the smoke and wild winds left, the bears came. Patrick and I discovered our “roars” and have managed to scare many away (thank goodness, our 17 chickens have survived, too! There were some close calls). Tulsi has been developing her chicken wrangling skills and loves to watch the chicks play tomato soccer — quite a thrilling event on our littl’ homestead!

We have been blessed with another bountiful garden season that is in its most magical-stage right now. Canning season is very near. I am recruiting MY mama again this year.

I have “sorta” taken a photography course with Andrea Scher, only life got in the way of that, too. Still, I have been taking more photos than ever and learning a lot from her course emails. Just looking at the endless photos participants have posted has inspired me and pushed me to think differently when holding a camera. Andrea rocks! I highly recommend her course. This is a photo of Tulsi dancing with peacock feathers in the peacock yard at Baba’s house (the temple).

Other than my family, what has filled my summer mostly, is goddesses and mama-meditations and research and collage and stories and collaboration. I’ve been painting my heart out on an oracle deck, coming your way Spring, 2012! It has been a challenging and beautiful project on many levels that I will share about in the future. I’m nearing the end and looking forward to seeing it come to life AND for a much-deserved, family vacation. Feels like I’ve been running a perpetual marathon. I haven’t painted this much since finishing Same, Same but Different.

And so, the countdown now is 30 days! THIRTY days until my new book is released! Whew! And a really exciting thing just happened — I found out Same, Same but Different got into the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators in NYC! I am happily in shock and feel so honored :). OK, actually, I cried when I found out because I was in awe reading the list of illustrators who are in the show (you can download it on the show’s link page) — SO many of whom I adore and respect. Eric Carle, Maurice Sendak, Tommy de Paola, Giselle Potter, Calef Brown, David Wiesner, to only name a few — really, I could name them ALL. I can’t wait to see their art in person in NYC in October and visit with my editor and friends. I know it will inspire me like crazy.

I will be posting a schedule soon of book events this Fall in NM, Colorado and the Midwest, so stay tuned.  I hope to see some of you who live in those cities!

Hope your summer has been beautiful!

The bottom photo was taken by Colin Dullaghan back in October, 2010 — paradise on a clear, Fall day! The top photo was from last week.

Ahhh, it’s been awhile. There is a big fire in New Mexico, about an hour and a half south of us, and the winds have filled our valley with smoke. So many people and animals have been affected, as well as sacred sites. We are in such a drought. The sky wants to rain so badly, the clouds drum and echo their music across the mesa, but their rain evaporates before ever touching the earth…there are some 10-second sprinkles that Tulsi and I were lucky to dance in, naked. Yeah, that is the cool thing about living in the mountains on private land with few “surprise” visits from neighbors.

The smoke was so thick last week that we packed up and headed north to higher ground, good friends and barefoot picnics in the grass. One surprising and comforting thing was the answer to the question, “If our house burns down, what would we want to take with us?” Our answer as we looked around our house, very little.

I’m also in the THICK with my card deck project and was kinda exhausted, so a forced, otherwise impossible spontaneous roadtrip, was re-energizing. And the “distance” was just what I needed to gain perspective. I’m pretty happy about it so far and am having fun. This deck is a “dream job” in a lot of ways. I love the project and there is no art direction. This is rare — nearly unheard of in the publishing world. It feels both empowering (to be trusted) and scary (to have such a wide open sky). Although I wish I had more time, I see how I’m being “pushed” and am growing a lot from creating a large number of pieces in such a short amount of time. And, it is fun how inspiration (for other projects) seems to pour like monsoons when I am painting this much. A little glimpse…

I’ll post a garden update soon! Every year is different and full of curve balls and new learning. As for Tulsi, I love that she loves the garden and chickens and dirt as much as ever.

So we made a mask and she sat in front of a mirror on the floor holding it up, yelling, “CAAAAWW, CAAAAAAWWW!” for fifteen minutes. She reminded me how much I love corrugated cardboard and tape.