Living the Dream – We Love Our New Housemate!


JeanineHere’s the bizarre dichotomous nature of my life right now. On the one hand, I’m fully living the stress of this recession as my husband and I scramble to figure out how to live off of 10% of the income we had three years ago.

On the other hand, I’ve never been more rich than I am right now. I’ve never felt more alive or inspired to create; I have never been more fully expressed (I love writing my bloggity blog!), and I have never felt more gratitude for everything I have:  My family, my health, my connections with others. Pure sweetness and true wealth in my book.

And — HOLY POWER OF INTENTION — we have a live-in cook!!

Amazing!  Sometimes I still can’t believe it. I can play with my girls and/or exercise while someone else prepares a home-cooked healthy meal and after dinner I can either work or participate in our bed-time routine and someone else cleans the kitchen. What??  Is this for real??

It is. This is an amazing experiment in holding the intention for something and it coming to life.  My original  intention for the last few months has been better physical and emotional health by incorporating exercise and focused “slow family living“. I kept thinking about it and writing about it and eventually the idea came to me to post the ad on Craig’s List for a trade.

We took a risk in inviting someone to live with us that we didn’t know from Eve.  This was truly a wild card approach to self care. And our first 10 days together have been truly remarkable.

I already consider Jeanine to be part of our family.  I love her.  She is as thrilled to be with us as we are thrilled to have her with us.  Slowly but surely, I’m exercising again.  I’ve managed to get out and run at 5:00 pm four times since she moved in on Feb 1st.  My intention is to get more regular with this and exercise at least three or four times a week.

Jeanine is highly committed to our health and loves the process of figuring out what’s best for EVERY family member — including our baby.  We filled out a questionnaire that she made for us the first day she arrived asking us about each of our likes and dislikes, each of our favorite comfort foods, vegetables, and the specific health goals that Mark and I have for the family.

My general goals:  as many vegetables a day as possible — and a daily dose of leafy greens; limited fat with the exception of natural fats like avocado and nuts; soaked beans/legumes versus canned; and minimal processed foods — if any.

And get this. It hadn’t occurred to me to look into our diet to see if there was something we could be feeding our little firecracker Izzy so she slept better.  (Duh!)  Jeanine has witnessed our almost daily morning complaints around how many times we woke up to tend to her the night before.  “Last night she was awake from 3:30 until 5:30,” or “after the 4:00 am wake, she never really went back to sleep!”…..and on and on.

Tonight, she approached us and said she’d like to try an experiment with Izzy.  She had researched food today that could help babies sleep better and put together a special mix of oatmilk and flaxseed in a bottle for Mark to give Izzy at the 3:00 am wake.

(To catch anyone up who wonders why I’m not nursing at this time — we’ve got a Daddy night-care routine so that I can save my sanity and avoid the every 2 hour nursing that occurs if she and I sleep together.  I nurse Izzy once more before I go to bed which is typically after midnight these days as I work on this blog or the marketing plans for the children’s album. Then I go into another room to sleep with our three-year-old.)

Seriously — how thoughtful is our new housemate??!  We are the luckiest people on the planet to have her.

The other night at dinner Jeanine said she’d really like for Mark and I to be able to go out for Valentine’s and said she’d would like to watch the girls for us Saturday night.

Again.  Pinching myself.

Miracles do happen.

Stay tuned.  Lots of other unexpected coolness has been happening since I started the Power of Intention journaling.  Has anyone else given it a try?  I would love to hear other stories of sweet goodness that has come from practicing these gratitude and visioning exercises.

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3 Responses to “Living the Dream – We Love Our New Housemate!”

  1. Dawnie says:

    I want a Jeanine. Where can I get one?

  2. Audrey says:

    absolutely wonderful. so happy for yall

  3. You are so blessed!! I want a Jeanine too!!

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