I am starting a new little project on Mama Scout. Every so often, I am going to interview someone from the world of awesome.
This week, I interviewed Shawn from Awesomely Awake. Shawn is one of those amazing bloggers who is able to motivate her readers into action, helping them create the happy family life they want. Her blog is packed with bookmark worthy, informative and inspirational articles. As soon as I met Shawn, we had an immediate connection and I knew I had found a soul mama! Enjoy!
1. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.
I am the founder and author of Awesomely Awake, a blog dedicated to parenting from the heart. I'm a creative soul and a Mama to a set of sweet twin girls. I'm on a mission to create a world of happy parents, happy children and happy communities. I believe firmly that we must be the change we wish to see in the world -- and how many of us wish parents did a better job raising children?
2. How do you encourage creativity and open ended learning in your home and in your own work?
We recently had an interesting experience and a first of its kind. My daughters were painting with acrylics on canvas on the front porch. One messed up almost instantly. She cried and cried. It wasn't what she expected. We stuck with her and encouraged her to keep working at the painting until it becomes something she would be proud of. She cried about it all day, in fact, and never really came around to liking it. The next morning, though, she confessed: She liked it after all. It now hangs in her room with a second one that she likes even more. All this is to say that we have allowed for creative expression of all kinds in our house and we try very hard to turn our mistakes into works of art. The beauty is in the trying at our house.
3. What has been the biggest internal shift in you since you became a parent?
Focusing on what truly matters. I have, in the past, gotten worked up over things not only out of my control but things that had no direct influence on my family. Since becoming a mother, I have highly refined values and I stick to those. This helps me determine how to spend my time and energy.
4. Have you earned a Mama Merit Badge? Which one and for what antic?
Yes, for traveling with kids. (You can read her merit badge tale here.)
5. Turn us on to your current favorite book, film, music, performance artist, or idea.
I do not watch TV at all. However, my husband and I discovered a mutual love of the television show Parenthood and we've been watching it for couch date nights on Netflix. The show is emotionally moving, wise beyond its years and helps put our family life into perspective. We just finished Season 2 and I'm bugging to get Season 3, which is not on Netflix yet.
Shawn has offered us giveaway! Leave a comment about your favorite way to connect as a family and you will be entered to win a copy of The Playful Family: Simple and Fun Ways to Connect and Engage as a Family. I will pick a random winner next Friday!
++++++Winner is Peterson Party!++++++++
________________________________________________________________________
Want to see more of Awesomely Awake's work?
Did you know Shawn wrote an e-book?
Click on the picture to find out more!
You can sign up for her e-zine, Wake Up here.
And she is offering an e-course in October called Messy Family!
I would love to win this book. As a family, we love spending the majority of our time together. We connect in all kinds of ways...walks/family bike rides, playing games together, family picnics, cooking/baking together. There are so many fun, memory-making, opportunities available in our everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The ordinary is where the magic is!
DeleteI love her blog!! I think Wordpress randomly suggested it when she was on there. I had just started blogging myself. I read one post and have been hooked. It's nice to know another mom feels the same. She's open and real!! Her articles are definitely thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteOur family connects through silliness. We have our own language. My kids have great humor! We all just get silly sometimes for no reason. It's great diffuser in tense situations. I also make a point to get into whatever the item of the moment is with my kids so we can at least talk about their interest if nothing else. :)
I'd really love to win!!!
i love a well developed sense of humor in a kid. makes everything so much easier and funner!
DeleteSo I actually found out about MamaScout through Shawn!
ReplyDeleteI think our favorite way to connect is through bedtime reading together. Our daughter is 12 (!!) and that hour or hour and a half in the evening just sitting around on her bed and floor reading aloud to each other is OUR time, just Mom, Dad and Sarah. :)
I would really really really love to win this ebook. We are always looking for ways to engage our family in fun activities. Our favorite thing to do lately is to get joke books out of the library and our first grader will read a joke and we try to figure out the answer... like riddles.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun idea!
DeleteI would love to win this book!
ReplyDeleteOur family is made up of mom, dad, 5 year old sister, 3 year old brother-- because our kids are not in school yet we are connected all day, every day! We are always reading, goofing around, cooking and eating, and venturing out into the world. I love this and am trying to imagine how to hold on to the time and connectedness as my children start entering school.
This time is magical. While homeschooling is not for everyone, this is one of the main reasons we decided on it. We were just having too much fun together:)
DeleteI have fallen in love with Shawn's work over the past few weeks. I discovered her through a Pinterest board and, of all the Mama-style parenting kind of blogs out there that I've seen and bookmarked, hers is the only one that I return to time and again! I signed up for her newsletter and blog posts and am very excited to get updates.
ReplyDeleteEverything she says, I know, nothing is rocket science, and I think that it is exactly in that simplicity that the charm lies. She is REAL, HONEST and non-judgmental.
I have followed her "10 ways to connect" series and have seen immediate results. Besides avidly reading her posts and wanting to sign up for her messy family e-course in October, I personally am very eager to join her for her writer's workshops too! She would most certainly be an instantaneous friend if I had met her face to face!
Her posts are short and sweet, to the tee, easy to read and realistic to follow and I find myself inspired each time to be more in the moment with my kids, to trust them and follow them and go with the flow of our family. I would simply love to have her e-book too!
Oh dear... see I completely forgot to tell you WHO we are and HOW we connect... so here goes that part ;-)
DeleteI'm a stay-at-home unschooling Mommy with a passion for green eco living, herbs (and sustainable living gardening) and writing (and reading!) I have two wonderful little girls - Miya who is six already and Leia who turned two in April.
Being at home with them ALL the time, we do EVERYTHING together, but I would say that without a doubt the connection time I have with my girls is when I read to them and we all get really involved in the story :) We also bake together, go for nature walks together and sometimes just dance to a good tune on the radio! Going out every once in a while for a breakfast with Dad on a Saturday morning and lazy picnics are our favourite whole-family times.
I do get despondent sometimes when I feel I could do so much more with them and get anxious that they are growing up too fast! Every mom needs as much help as they can get with keeping play and being connected and being in the moment alive and easy in their daily lives!
Oh my! Seems I got so carried away with praising the blog that I never got to answer the real questions! Well, here goes...
DeleteI'm a stay-at-home unschooling mom who loves green eco living, herbs and self-sustainable gardening and writing (and reading!)... and dancing in the first spring rains.
I have two daughters, Miya who is six already (wow!) and Leia who has turned two in April.
Being with them ALL the time, we tend to do EVERYTHING together (which can become a bit exhausting at times...), but I would say that the best connected times I have with my girls are when we read together and get swept up by the stories. We also bake together and go for nature walks together very regularly. And of course we garden together too! Spending some Saturday mornings out for a special breakfast with Dad is a treat and our best whole-family connections are when we go off for lazy picnics.
Our family loves to connect by taking long walks (often to the neighborhood playground). We also love to have family dinners and church time together. I would love to win this book as I am always looking for more ways to enhance our family bond.
ReplyDeleteWe love long walks too!
DeleteI am a stay at home mom of soon to be 3. We connect during bedtime routines of reading and singing together. But this is definitely an area I need work on so I would love a copy of this book to help me improve. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteOur family bonding time is mostly during bedtime routine. Singing and reading books. This is definitely an area I need more work on so I would love this book to help me do just that, improve my relationship with my family. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI cherish the bed time routine too - even though my kids are getting older. maybe that makes it even sweeter!
DeleteSome ways we connect as a family are by simply drawing with chalk together on the driveway and snuggling up for books and bed at night time. On of our favorite things to do is go for family walks after dinner and watch the fireflies wake up.
ReplyDeletelucky you! i wish we had fireflies here!
Delete