Category Archives: My creations

Whew…

Me Myself and I, My creations, When I'm not so crazy, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Presentation complete.

Stress is backing off.

I finished up right at about 9pm, I went a little longer than when practicing- about an hour and 20 min. But there was time for some questions at the end, which were excellent, as well as the moderator had some announcements at beginning and end.

My first Zoom was pretty intense. I didn’t count attendees, I noted 3 pages of logins, which my estimate is somewhere in the 60-70 member range. I found after counting page one and seeing all those faces, I didn’t need any more faces to think of.

However, once I started everything flowed well and other than a few tongue-tie moments, I think I did well. I’m confident I covered everything as intended and explained myself well.

I hope everyone gleaned helpful knowledge and that my information helps them in all the ways intended.

Sigh.

It was actually kind of odd, because after I started the slides, I couldn’t see anyone’s faces, so I almost felt like I was just doing another practice run. Regardless, I am a flushed mess at the moment, still coming down from nervous jitters, and that’s with a short workout between work and the presentation. I earned my keep, on this day for certain.

Now to calm myself enough to find sleep.

May you have good moments of feeling confident in your experience and abilities. May you have knowledge and information that others wish to utilize and share. May you find public speaking to be easy. May you appreciate your gifts and use them to help others in every way available. May you have good sighs of relief. May you know that God loves and supports you in every way and in all things.

Om Shanti

Coloring fun and presenting

Me Myself and I, My creations, When I'm not so crazy, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My little Katherine has decided coloring is fun.

Ian likes to draw me pictures. Sometimes I can tell exactly what they are, sometimes it’s more abstract or one of his mazes based on a game he plays.

Katherine however, has decided that coloring is the way to go, and she’s quickly learning to color inside the lines. She went from full page scribbles one day to actual colored images the next. I caught myself saying, “when did she start doing that”, to acknowledge I had just seen one of the full page scribbles 2 days prior.

So I’ll share some pics I snapped of her new skills at the end.

I however, have used my slivers of spare time to produce a presentation. It will count as a 1 credit hour continuing education credit for dental hygienists. I will speak for roughly an hour and then field a Q&A afterwards. My topic: massage therapy for self-care/career longevity, and client assistance/retention. I think I have finished the power-point portion, though I still need several more run-throughs to feel comfortable, so there may need to be edits to accommodate better flow. Essentially though, I’m down to just practicing my speech. It’s scary but exciting. I have one week to practice as delivery will be next Wednesday evening.

It gives me jitters just thinking of it, because the DH association of Kansas City has approximately 1,000 members and potentially all of them could log on to the presentation. The largest presentation I have given prior was my veteran’s day assembly in 2018, and approximately 120 people were present for that. If all possible members attend, I will be speaking to a much larger group than I’m used to. Fortunately, because of Covid it is presented via Zoom, so I won’t see all of their faces at once. Whew. Still nervous, but less than if I was going to speak in an auditorium. I haven’t done that since my art history presentation in college (there were 250+ in that course and I totally rocked it). So, I may not speak in front of large groups often, but I’m no stranger either. I totally got this sh*t.

All fun aside, I am very honored to have had this requested of me. I appreciate very much the level of trust that is being placed in my abilities, skills, and knowledge. It feels very good to know that professionals of another field respect me enough to essentially do a short class on how my skills relate to their field. I’m thankful for the opportunity and experience and send prayers that everything flows smoothly and I remain fully articulate and meet or exceed everyone’s expectations. Cross your fingers that it goes well for everyone.

May you see the good in your children and find wonderful fulfilling additions to your work load. May you be surprised and delighted in as many ways as possible. May you enjoy creativity, especially when your kids demonstrate it. May you give yourself a little credit once in a while for the good things you do. May you know your skills and knowledge are appreciated by those around you. May you find that many other people respect you. Above all may you have fun, knowing God loves and supports you in all that you do.

Om Shanti

New Year: She-Ra & Snow Dog

Me Myself and I, My creations, When I'm not so crazy, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy New Year’s again everyone. I’m doing my best to bring in the new year in the best way ever.

I started the day with a marathon of self-care and She-Ra.

So this linked site expounds on thoughts I’ve had today: “8 Reasons ’80s She-Ra Was a Feminist Badass and …” …I’m tempted to buy the action figures, though maybe for my birthday, give myself time to catch up from the current round of holidays.

I woke feeling stiff and my kids wanted attention. I had bookmarked the 2018 She-Ra on netflix ages ago but hadn’t been able to watch it. So, I set my shiatsu mat to rolling, turned on my ultrasound/infrared handheld, and hit play on episode one.

I was enthralled and everything was close enough to my memories of the show of my childhood, that everything came flooding back. I told Nathan “Apparently I have She-Ra programming in me too!”

I’m strong, I want to fight for justice, I zap people with my special powers (Reiki), I have to focus really hard to use my powers for good, I’m figuring things out as I go, and want to bring balance and set things right again. Now if I can just get my body to look like that, I’m set. It’s getting there. Hey maybe in another couple of years I’ll accomplish it.

I told Nathan though, my hair doesn’t do what hers does, and wouldn’t unless there was an “UP fan” blowing on me constantly. I explained my hair is so thin and has absolutely no body, so even when I’ve coated it in enough hairspray to be crunchy it still droops and ends up flat. I can’t even hold curls without a perm and for me perms wear off in half the time of other people.

Regardless, I’m definitely seeing some similarities to my life though, at least if you’re talking in broad quality descriptions. It also stirred a desire to not only finish the new reboot, but also to revisit the show of my youth.

Anyway, our marathon was 3 or 4 episodes before my kids got antsy to play in the falling snow. So we stopped the Roku and got bundled up in layers. It’s the first real snowfall Kansas City has had this winter and I wanted to make sure we could enjoy it for a long while.

Outside: I pulled kids around in the sled, I sent the two littles sliding down our little hill, we had snowball fights, I made a Snow-Angel, Anya built a small snowman, and I made a Snow-Dog. It was a ton of fun. (Pics below) the snow dog is not as impressive as the girl with cat and teddy bear I did a decade ago in KC, KS, see those here in my 3D artwork gallery.

Once we came back in, I built a fire in the fireplace, Nathan made hot cocoa, kids were sent to play in their room and I’m taking my Epsom Salt bath. So far it’s a splendid day.

May your new year start equally splendidly. May you have good times and understand where some of your programming came from. May all of your programming be helpful once you understand it more fully. May you help save the world. And finally may you know your are loved, God supports you, and your kids have the best chance of any generation to help make things right in our world.

Om Shanti