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We must not be afraid of failure in order to succeed at our wildest dreams.

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If I were to ask you what some of your wildest dreams are, could you answer? When was the last time you gave them any thought or attention?  If it has been a while, why? Due to an incredibly difficult and serious burden put on my life a couple months ago, I have decided to reassess my life, my past choices, and where I am headed.  The nature of this burden is one that forces a person to face mistakes and at a high cost.  For me, part of facing mistakes is to learn from them, and do better.  I have been inspired and motivated in a very practical, real, and crazy way and I am excited!  I am soaking up words of advice, podcasts, sermons, and books to feed this drive within me. I will speak more about the burden, and the mistakes, and the goals at another time but this post is about some advice that was given to me recently that I desperately needed, although at the time I didn’t realize it.  The advice …

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year my friends. Heres a look at my “best nine” of 2018 instagram style. From top left to bottom right: Our house. My man and I. With a  great friend on her wedding day. Ashlynn loving on the kiddos. One of our favourite views on Oahu. My home library being built. Enjoying vegan ice cream at “banan” in Honolulu. Me playing my new guitar.  Baby girl and I at her first concert, in Boston. Starting today, I have many commitments that I plan to begin.  Some will be lifestyle restarts. Some will be accomplishments for within the year, and some will merely be the beginning of new things. One commitment is to get back in a groove with my blog.  It has been a crazy five months of highs and lows since my last post and I pledge this New Years Day to keep it more fresh and up to date.  There have been a lot of lessons, gains, and losses, and I hope to share them all with you. My hope for …

I’m Still Alive

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This month marks ten years since my father died.  I knew I didn’t want to let the month pass without writing something about that, something that might help or encourage someone else, because this is real life, and My Aloha Journey is all about speaking to someone, anyone, even one. You see, when my father died it was sudden, it was unexpected.  He was young: 44 years old. And the circumstances between us were not great, in fact they were pretty awful. I had been harboring a lot of anger and unforgiveness toward him in the year or so leading up to his death and I wasn’t even speaking to him.  I was ignoring his phone calls, and every attempt he made to talk to me.  Subconsciously, perhaps even a little consciously if I am honest, I would think “I can always talk to him and forgive him later, but not right now”. Then, on June 5th2008, as I was hosting a tent at a marketing event in downtown my mum called me.  She told me …

Never say no!

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“Never say no! Never say no!” These are the words I heard my sweet almost six-year-old son recite over and over again first thing this morning.  I went into his room to check on him and to figure out what was going on.  He was still laying in bed, under his covers in his PJs. “Why are you saying that?”  I asked. “Because, today I want to not say no to you,” was his reply.  Then he continued with “Never say no, never say no, etc…” Holy cow.  Mic drop.  For a moment I was stunned. My son, in his very young age motivated me in a way that I haven’t been in a long, long time.  If he can wake up, and first thing in the morning, reign in his thoughts and devote himself to do something out of character in order to have a better day, and help his Mumma have a better day then why the heck can’t I?!  If he has the courage and ability to, without question or hesitation, convince …

The Homeschool Post

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I realized something the other day.  Our homeschooling journey began long before what it would seem.  To some, on the outside looking in, it seems random, and to others it can be rationalized with our move to Hawaii.  But as we approach the end of our first year homeschooling, and we talk about what our options are for the next school year, I have had a lot to think about.  We have asked many questions, and I have had so many memories flood my life.  I think one of the best things we can do as parents is ask questions.  It’s easy to get caught up in the busy-ness, and to just go through the normal systems and institutions and rarely wonder why or how.  I have nothing against the systems and institutions, in many ways I think they are great.  I am not so ignorant to not recognize their benefits and strengths, but I do think it benefits us to sit back and understand the active role we play in our children’s lives.  Whether …

Faith Over Feelings.

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  So this happened. A Plane Engine Fell Apart In Midair  One thing my close friends and family can say about me, is that they know what some of my deepest fears are.  In fact, I am pretty open about my fears, and sometimes I may come across as anxious or fearful, but I like to think I am just more honest and vocal perhaps than the next guy.  Because I’d be willing to bet he has just as many if not more, fears as me.  He just doesn’t think about them, or like to talk about them as much. Probably the biggest phobia I have right now is my fear of flying.  I can’t tell you where it comes from, as I used to fly just fine! It wasn’t until about five years ago it started to develop.  I am actually wondering if I have a fear of heights in general.  The most scary and daunting situation to me is flying over the ocean, specifically the Pacific Ocean, mainland to Hawaii. And yea, we …

When Perfectionist is a bad thing

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Another parenting post. But perhaps this can apply in many other situations in our lives, whether with people that work for us, spouses, or anything really. I was talking to a friend recently, who gave me some good advice. “Don’t expect your 8 (5, 1) year old, to act older than their age.” I have often been disappointed or frustrated with my children for things that could be considered normal behaviours. Example: I pick up all the couch cushions and pillows off the floor, for the thousandth time this week, the millionth this year, and my toddler within minutes tears them all off again, laughing and finding it to be the best game he’s ever played.  I see the out-of-place pillows; I obsess over the dirt and dust they are rolling around in; my mind is wrought with concern over rips and tears; I get mad.  I have to remind him, AGAIN, that this is not the purpose of the pillows.  I resist the urge to yell “Sage! Stop!” as a last-ditch effort to end …

A Little Sidenote

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I am interrupting my afternoon laundry folding/homeschooling/dish washing to deliver a quick message to you, friends!! My husband is on his way home!  (No, that’s not the real message).  He has been gone for 4 weeks for a job.  It’s the longest we’ve ever been apart, and the longest he’s been away from the kiddos.  His absence was tough on us, but with a ton of grace, a little patience, friends, and prayer we made it to the other side! While he was gone, I read a few great books, and got into a couple mediocre TV shows.  One of them being, “When Calls the Heart”.  It’s not the best acting, or the most flawless plot, or sexiest dialogue, but there is a slight inspiration I get from some of the characters. What inspired me to press pause on Netflix and write this post is that, in the episode I was watching just now, one of the characters has just offered to make a repair in a single mother’s home for her.  The mother hesitated, …

Throw me a bone

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I wonder, as a mom, how many times in the last few weeks alone, I have asked myself, what am I doing wrong?  I have even recently asked it aloud to a close friend of mine. She gets sassy. What am I doing wrong?  She gets mean to her brothers or friends.  What am I doing wrong?  She is disobedient.  What am I doing wrong?  She challenges all the consequences.  She doesn’t eat.  She ignores me.  She shuts me out. What am I doing wrong?!?! Why is that always where my mind goes?! Last night, I was given a beautiful glimpse of something else. There was a HUGE pile of clothing on my bed that needed folding. After finishing up the dinner cleaning, I remembered about this pile and I sulked upstairs to finish yet ANOTHER chore.  Much to my surprise – this is what I found! Not only was the clothing folded but it was mostly put away.  I asked baby girl if she did that. She told me that she saw I needed …

An Ode to Growing (and guitars)

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This June marks ten years since my father passed away. My parents split up when I was pretty young.  One spring, I was 12 years old, my mother sent us to stay with my father in central Maine for a week during school break.  I have a lot of memories from this trip, but the most impressionable one being my introduction to the guitar. I am told that my dad was an excellent guitar player, and loved music.  In fact, music runs deep in the blood of my paternal family.  And although music had always fascinated me, this was the first time someone else was excited from my interest. My dad played a little guitar for me, and then he let me try it.  He showed me some of the basic chords such as Em, D, and C.  We played a game where I would strum a chord, and him with his back to me, would have to guess what the chord was.  He got it right, every single time.  I was in awe.  I …