“Grace reveals to you a great mothering love that you can step into, that’s been here before you and will be here after you. Grace will be with you as you open your arms, as you release your children and send them out into the world. If you listen carefully, you can hear grace whispering its thanks to you for being a mother to these souls.” –Denise Roy (Momfulness)

As we enter 2014, I’ve got a couple of huge projects on my priority list. One is that I must commit to using my writing energy to focus on completing my thesis project, meaning thesis is first, rather than what I do with my leftover time (and thus blogging, by necessity, moves into the “leftover” time slot). And, two, after having quit his job this summer to join the rest of our family in our home-based life, Mark and I have been very hard at work on our new, shared project: Brigid’s Grove! This site will be an “umbrella” to embrace all of our projects, particularly our shared endeavor of pewter-casting and jewelry-making. Brigid’s Grove will officially launch on February first and we’re working on some launch products for our etsy shop as well as a special site launch discount code AND a fun and useful freebie, which will be a collection of my ritual “recipes” (outlines for mother blessing ceremonies and other rituals, not food recipes!). You can sign up for our newsletter now and you will then get the ritual kit on our launch day.

We’ve also been working on a new womb labyrinth pendant to have ready as one of our official launch products! It will be ready for Feb 1st and we will have a brand new nursing mama pendant design to unveil then too.

As anyone who has given birth knows, it can feel hard and even scary to let go and transition into new things. I’ve written about how I’ve recently retired as the FoMM newsletter editor after seven years of volunteer work. Last year I stopped offering birth classes and this year I’ve stopped offering birth classes. However, I’m also recognizing that letting go of some things, opens the way for new things to be born. One of my fears in letting go of my face-to-face birth work was in letting go of the opportunity to “make a difference” through one-on-one connection with pregnant women. Well, surprise! There are lots of different ways to make a difference and that can even be through jewelry and art. For example, this week one of my etsy customers sent me a picture of her laboring while wearing one of our birth goddess pendants! (And, she DID IT. I got a picture of her beautiful baby too. ♥) And, Rolla Birth Network has also started offering a free monthly mother-to-mother Birth Circle and I’m excited to be a part of that project too.

The colors of creativity!

(I can’t sculpt now without thinking about my Rainbow Way “releasing our butterflies” post. These are my “butterflies” and they’re flying! ♥)

I’ve got more on my mind, like the fact that my baby girl turns THREE this weekend, but this is all I’ve got in me to write for now! 😉