{Wellness Challenge} drink more water

Hello! Did you know I run a free Facebook Wellness Tribe?

Each month we work on a wellness challenge and use a secret group to share, hold ourselves accountable and support each other. It is one of the happiest and most positive spaces online!

This month we are going to work on drinking more water. We did this last year and the results were pretty amazing. Just by upping your water intake you might loose weight, cure headaches, sleep better, think better, get rid of aches and pains.... It is really simple and much easier to work on with a group.

So, set your goal and hop over to the group where we will be sharing recipes, articles, gear and more!

Joining is a 2 step process since this group is "secret."

First, "like" Mama Scout here.

Then, drop me a message that you would like to join and I will add you in!

That's it!

I can not wait to drink myself well this month!

The winner of two spots for dream lab is.....

Click over to my FB page here to see the dreamy video Melanie made to announce the winner. Thanks Melanie and thanks all who entered. Keep an eye here and on FB as there might be some more fun before Dream Lab. Or just go ahead and sign up here. You know you want to!

{Flash Giveaway} Dream Lab

This is fun! A past Dream Lab participant and friend has offered to sponsor a giveaway for one spot in the upcoming Dream Lab. To make it even cooler, I am going to throw in a spot!

Yep, two people are getting in for free!

If you want to try for a spot all you have to do is share a person you would nominate to be a part of Dream Lab, (and let us know why they are so awesome) in the comments below. We are paying it foreword and paying it forward (kind of like the insane giving train I was in at the Starbucks drive through the other day - they were up to 4 or 5 cars who kept passing on the free coffee)

At the end of the weekend, we will pull a name and both you and your nominee will be granted a space. Whoo!

A huge thanks to Melanie for suggesting and sponsoring this! She is one of the most intelligent and compassionate women I have met online and lucky us - she will be in the lab sharing her wisdom and keen insight! She also blogs here, so send her some love!

Enter to win for yourself, pay it forward by singing a friends praises, and let's get going making dreams happen!

{Dream Lab} getting what you want

In just a few weeks, the latest session of Dream Lab begins. It is a 10 day lab full of all the inspirations, tricks and camaraderie I have to help you move forward in the creation of the life you dream of.

The life you wake up to happily each morning.

My labs are a bit different from many other online labs out there. I create the space for you to discover the way back to yourself in a method that connects to your creative voice.  I  guide you in creating your own journalling practice (not downloading or copying mine) on your terms.

What I do give you is a piece of my heart. Essays from my life. And prompts that are fun but hopefully challenging too. I want to crack your world open just a bit in a few short weeks. The support of the group is tremendous and I am there the whole time. When I am leading a lab, I read every single comment and respond. I am with you. I have taken so many online classes where the content is great but the "leader" is not present at all. This is not that type of class.

I am truly there during the lab because I am dreaming along side of you. We are in a caravan together. And you know how when people travel together they end up becoming good friend fast? Well, that happens in the labs.  Many of the relationships in my labs carry on outside of the labs with women creating their own groups and meeting up in real life. There are similar interests, introductions and connections that are passed along;  real connections have been born through these online gatherings.

In pursuit of my own dreams, I take classes all the time (writing, art, skills). I am taking a pretty intense marketing and business class right now. My big dream is to make enough extra money to travel more with my family. I really want to spend 3-6  months on the road. But, I do not want to get creepy about making money online. I have to craft it all myself (for now, maybe I will change someday). I have yet to hire anyone to snazzy my stuff up. I refuse to automate the social media landscape. I can sense when bloggers are using tricks to get clicks and I am trying hard to do it differently.

I recently conducted a survey to learn about my strengths. Specifically, I wanted to see if my perceived strengths were what my readers and labbers felt too. Talk about feeling vulnerable. I hate asking anyone to take the time to help me, and to give me compliments no less! It was like I was fishing around. Blech! Hard, hard hard! But, I did it. I am all about getting out of my comfort zone, so this qualified big time.

Guess what? A ton of people helped me out! And there was a big concinsious . Most people found me to be creative and curious, honest and open, and a great connecter (of people and ideas to each other). AHHHH! These are the things that are most important to me. So, I got a little boost knowing that I am on the right track.

In Dream Lab we will do the work together, push ourselves, take big (and tiny) steps, get uncomfortable, comfort and support each other and have fun. The class is a powerful 10 days - but that is just the beginning. The value is unbeatable. And if you join us, you will be too!

You can get the magic here.

Wonderful lab for guiding your future path. Snap it up if you have the chance. -Sarah

{diary} death + orange blossoms

The orange tree is so full of blossoms. 

Creamy white, fragrant and promising. 

I sit sadly under it and breathe in its scent which I believe must trigger something deep and familiar in all Southerners. 

I instantly remember open windows in the evening, after the rain, when the scent would curl secretly into my bedroom. 

And later. 

Driving miles of back roads home from college, windows cranked down, speeding through groves. The warm humid nights seem to always release the odor - until it become thick and palpable - like you could scoop it right front the air with your hands. It gets caught in your hair, behind your ears and sometimes in your tears. 

This tree, I planted 10 years ago when my children were young, in my belly or not even dreamt of. She is blooming her last song. Both of our reproductive years have come to an end. Mine from choice, hers from disease. She has greening and will be cut down and burned after this last show, this last gift of hers.

The current devastation of greening on the Florida citrus industry can not be under estimated. It is the slow death of an industry some say. Already, many groves have been bulldozed, burned and replaced with blueberries fields, peach orchards or track housing. Those that remain are being soaked in chemicals once a week to slow down their inevitable death. 

The smell of orange blossoms, the taste of fresh organic juice may be a thing only remembered by people of a certain age.

The little death to our family is monumental too. It is under her leaves that my son, at 5, first found all the stages of the lady bug life cycles. We always check under the leaves now. 

Her roots hold the body of our beloved Boston Terrier who could jump as high as your shoulders and almost mastered a back flip. 

My youngest son staked claim to the tree a few years ago and has spent time watering and weeding around it. 

The death and euthanasia of this young tree marks the death of our family's first season together. One where we planted hoped and ideas - some of which are just bearing fruit now and some sadly that have been culled. 

I am broken hearted when I walk outside and smell the blossoms that will never become juice on our table. But, in an effort to preserve her memory just a bit longer, we have been harvested and drying the blossoms to be used in teas and bath tubs. Hopefully, drawing out the heady scent long into the summer. 

{book club} The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

This post is sponsored by Grammarly.

Use Grammarly for English proofreading because...
we can't all pull off the e.e.cummings thing.

"It seems to have been the beginning of everything. The treasures of a new, beautiful world were laid at my feet, and I took in pleasure and information at every turn. I lived myself into all things. I was never still a moment; my life was as full of motion as those little insects that crowd a whole existence into one brief day. I met many people who talked with me by spelling into my hand, and thought in joyous sympathy leaped up to meet thought; and behold, a miracles had been wrought! The barren places between my mind and the minds of others blossomed like the rose." - Helen Keller


My kid's book club recently read The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. This corresponded nicely with a local play of the The Miracle Worker, as well as our family's classic movie night, where we watched the 1962 Patty Duke movie, The Miracle Worker.

The kids were enthralled with the story of Keller's life in darkness and her eventual language acquisition. They could not believe the gulf between her early bad behavior (especially as acted out in the play and movie) and her later abilities. She learned to climb trees, row boats, bicycle, read in multiple languages, identify plants, write books, and even to speak! The kids found her flowery language hard to appreciate, but overall, I they would recommend it.


After we discussed the book, we talked a lot about our senses and how they inform each other. I blind folded the kids and then served them each a snack. They had to figure out how to neatly eat a cupcake and ice cream cup (that had a lid). Then they cleaned up their area and walked across the room to throw away their garbage based on what they remembered of the room we were meeting in. This part of the meeting was a hit!

Luckily, our library has a small braille book collection, so we explored those and talked about blind people we knew. In particular, I shared about my grandmother who became blind later in life. She had all sorts of helping devices and tricks in her apartment. We also talked about service dogs and what might have happened to Keller if she did not have a family who could afford to seek out help for her.


I personally was impressed with her story and resolve to both understand the world and communicate her ideas. Her life was full of hard work and amazing teachers and mentors. As a mother and homeschooler, her educational journey was inspirational and certainly motivated me.  She writes the following of her beloved Anne Sullivan,

"Thus I learned from life itself. At the beginning I was only a little mass of possibilities. It was my teacher who unfolded and developed them. When she came, everything about me breathed of love and joy and was full of meaning. She has never since let pass an opportunity to point out the beauty that is in everything, nor has she ceased trying in thought and action and example to make my life sweet and useful."

Yes. That is what a teacher should do.

Have you read The Story of My Life with your kids?

How did they respond?