On a Whim in Nicaragua

Last year closed out with a numerology reading at a wellness fair I attended.  Long story made short, I am a bunch of sevens and this year is my 8th in a 9 year rotation...the eighth year is meant to be the year that all the hard work of the last 7 start to come to fruition.   Last week I was approached by a group of Nicaraguan women in workout garb requesting use of my space.  Entonces, this week we will start offering Zumba classes in OnaWhim, monday-friday at 4pm.   Last week marked the beginning of a new journal.  That is 2 that I have completed in less than 4 years...lol...I have unfinished journals spanning my whole life but now I have 2 that are full.  I have started a new one for the new year.  Who knows if its completion will coincide with the end of this year.  I change the layout so often its hard to calculate.  I also baked cookies on Friday and Sunday of last week...they were both so delicious they soldout...very exci...

For me reading is a form of listening so this month I am going to listen to the my intuition, while following the written instructions of famous chefs and cookbook authors, to make delicious treats, sweets and meals for our Hotelito family. The part where I always seem to substitute something....usually honey for sugar will be my intuition as are the times I skip the salt.  I am always changing some ingredients because I just can't get everything for the North American and European recipes here in Nicaragua. My culinary passion is baking, cookies, pies, cakes or muffins...as long as its a sweet I am in.  Since being a part of Dulce Mareas I have upped my savory game too...although that can include chorizo bread pudding or beef pot pie. My planner side said I needed a list of inspiring cookbooks I have on hand in Nicaragua and in my ever growing digital library. Check and ready! Milk Bar Life: Grandma's Oatmeal Cookies My most used cookbook is definitely the Pur...

Flying High with Acro Love Acro Yoga has become the newest tool in my teaching tool belt.  It is up there with teaching kids gymnastics something I did once upon a time.... You can't help but find your inner child....I have even found myself skipping once or twice.... I went to my first class at The Surfing Turtle Lodge in 2017 and then a second class at the same place a few months later.  It was the start of a beautiful thing.  Acro Yoga Weekend Workshop:  Teaching Intensive October 2017 ....what a fantastic group of ladies and gents to learn with.  We learned so much and had an amazing time doing it.  I have taken workshops before and this one ranked in the top percentile of grrrreat.... I have since started teaching a class on Wednesday mornings from 9-11 in my studio.  I also teach a class on Saturdays from 9-10 in Leon for Yoga Leon Nicaragua. And then came the workshops......February and April 2018....I couldn't attend...

Book Club will be a continuing series culminating with an overview of the book on May  27.  We will be exploring the chakras using The Wheels of Life as a guide.  Our Journey begins March 4 at 9:30 am with the opening meditation for the first chakra followed  by a restorative yoga class focusing on the muladhara chakra. March 4:  Chakra 1 March 18:  Chakra 2 March 25:  Chakra 3 April8:  Chakra 4 April 22:  Chakra 5 May 6:  Chakra 6 May 20:  Chakra 7 May 27:  Overview of book The theme of my classes will follow with this program for the next 2 months...using the tools I have and those I find in this book as inspiration.  

I started the month with a Bach Flower Remedy Workshop given in Spanish.  Two for one..yay me.  An interesting topic that has applications with a number of other interests I enjoy.  The fact that I kept up in Spanish is a huge accomplishment for me. It kick started some research into ayurveda again...always an interest of mine with aromatherapy.  For March and April I will offer chakras themes 2 weeks at a time using the Wheels of Life by Judith Anodea as a guidebook...ending at the end of May...what to read in June? It encourages me to try other courses...like the red cross lifeguard course.....it is Saturday afternoons with a swim to Poneloya...a prerequisite for the life guard certification, if I understood in Spanish correctly?  Followed by Sunday mornings rescues and first aid I think.  They also swim in Leon from 4-6 in the morning...I thought 6 was early when I was a kid...I cant imagine being up that early now or ever...to swim. I love to bak...

As a new year starts..a review begins..and then the updates roll in... My mission statement and profile in general have not changed in a couple years, but I sure have. The cooperative I teach with in Leon was also asked many months back about a mission statement.  How do 7 people make one mission?  Do all 7 people know their own mission?  Where do we start? Right at the beginning of course..... Yoga means to come together; to unite.   "To attain what was previously unattainable" The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar has given me some very valuable insights into who I've become, what I want and how to get it.... "we can begin practicing yoga from any starting point, but if we are to be complete human beings we must incorporate all aspects of ourselves, and do so step by step." "Purusa denotes the position from which we can see;it is the power in us that enables us to perceive with accuracy."  p12 Svadhaya means; self study or ...

  Week 1:  The quieter you become, the more you can hear.  Ram Dass. Week 2:  before you speak, listen. William Arthur Ward Week 3:  The earth has music for those who listen.  Shakespeare Week 4:  LISTEN=SILENT This word met me in different ways this month... an intensive Acro Yoga weekend filled with communication....where I learned that when I am listening to my body I have trouble speaking at the same time.  I also attended a workshop on Bach Flower remedies in Spanish, I understood almost all of what was said, but it takes immense focused concentration to keep up.  I have learned how to listen intently.... The other way listen hit me this month was right in the jaw....I wasn't listening closely enough to my body and got a sinus infection that spread into my tooth....surgery ouch...antibiotics worse....almost recovered and paying close attention for signs my body is sending.

I like to choose a word each year and see if I can embody and embrace what that words stands for in the coming year.  This year I have decided that I will use an acronym that will give me 4 words to work with but before we get into that..... Let's look back briefly at the stats from last year: taught 83 yoga classes gave massage 16 times made 9 blog posts bujo 9 months This year I strive to: teach 160 classes write 12 blog posts bujo 12 months give 52 massages These are the tangibles.  Now back to the words of the year and my intangible goals. Listen and educate without ego, adventure and play without limits is my mantra for the year.  I expect I will not arrive at the end of this journey by the end of the year but a worthy goal has been set. Using one of these words each month I will explore what it means in the different areas of my life and share those insights in future blog posts this year.  I am going to start the journey in the yoga sutra...

A very interesting journey began for me in April.  I started a bullet journal in a composition book pictured in the bottom left corner.  By August I was ready for the real thing and moved into the A5 size Pentalic Sketch dot grid.  In November I expanded and changed to add an A4 Pentalic sketch dot grid.  The evolution has been substantial...... I had lots of supplies and I thought I had arrived at planner peace after 5 months...who was I kidding? This is where I am in a homemade 40 cent planner/padfolio turned rogue traveler's notebook.  Its too big.  I want something smaller, a pocket size with wallet insert, perhaps...... Now to decide where to get it.  So far I have looked at Galen Leather , Sunday Leather Craft and Chic Sparrow .  They are all beautiful and I am having a very tough time pulling the trigger and making an order. For the rest of the year I have had 2....the A4 I walk around with that contains my day to day, w...

Join us....Send Inquiries to:  kurmasana@onawhim.ca or  whatsapp: 5828-0555 in Nicaragua

I used inspiration from the internet to draw my witch on the broom....I am pretty happy with her. Here is the rest of my spreads for this month....However I have run across a desire to change my weeklies to a pocket size that I can carry around easily like a wallet.  I am working on it now.  Check back for later this month or for it to begin in November..... This month I chose doodle prompts by @ellolovely.  This will remain in the A5 for future months as I like to see how my doodling advances over time.  I used the dutch door again as you can tell by the prompts in the margin. I like the spider web and little spiders for my habit tracker this month.

TRAVEL-Isla Juan Venado   First a consideration of the 5 senses:  sight, smell, touch, sound and feel.  In everyday life often are we overwhelmed in one or more of these senses?  What do we do?   What makes us feel balanced again? When we smell the garbage truck, we go ugh and plug our nose. When the disco plays until 2 am and we can almost feel the music, we cover our ears with a pillow or create a white noise to drown it out. When all of my senses are overwhelmed, I use one of 2 responses:  I cry or I withdraw into myself blocking out all sensory input, not unlike a turtle.  Yoga Sutra 2.54 by Patanjali discusses pratyahara:  withdrawal of the senses. "When a yogi withdraws all his senses from the objects of perception as a turtle withdraws its limbs when retracting into its shell, then the yogi is firmly fixed on the path towards wisdom."  Bhagavad Gita 11.58 In Kurmasana, we root the sitting bones, flex the f...

Open the lid to find: numerous gel pens my only roll of washi tape multipurpose tool from Creative Memories (handy item when gluing small things).   pencil sharpener post it note tabs (used for indicating where collections are throughout my journal  a green highlighter a yellow highlighter with post it tabs my worm book mark a mechanical pencil Take out the tray and we encounter the rest of the markers and post it notes in my collection: 50 Artist Loft markers Creative Memories fine and round tip primary color markers Creative Memories jewel tone markers with round tip Crayola glitter markers Micron black markers in various sizes calligraphy marker in black with 2 tips scissors protractor the other thing that makes circles...name escapes me at this moment post it notes in various sizes, ruled and unruled in a good combination of colors glue dots cricut cutouts I use as stencils I also have a pencil case that I take ...

Welcome to September....I had a notebook I was going to use, before I got this Pentalic dot grid, and it had some Minion stickers.  I will use them throughout the month... Speaking of stickers, I was recently at home in Canada and found my old sticker album from grade school....I loved stickers and the scratch and sniffs still worked.  Look for some of those recovered stickers to show up in my future journal pages...old meets new.  I love this page...the sticker is so cute and fun.  This month I am also trying post it notes as part of my journal.  The items I get done get permanently written on the page, everything else gets stuck to a new page.  Now that's efficient. I used the monthly calendar for a doodle challenge I found on instagram #sealemon as well as its real purpose to keep track of appointments and meetings. Last but not least some minion eyeballs for my dailies and habit tracker... More posts this mont...

The garden started last November as a small plot of land behind On A Whim , that had been used for many years as a dumping ground for trash of the community.  In collaboration with Abonatura , La Casa Verde and Rebecca Hervieux clearing of the area took place. Now it was time to plant.  We started with 2 banana plants donated by Hotelito Dulce Mareas , 2 plantains and a big grass donated by Rebecca, and a basil plant donated by El Cardhu Del Mar .  Unfortunately due to water restrictions during dry season the bananas and plantains didn't make it.  Around this time a private donor also gave us a number of seedlings.  I did my best to keep them alive but in the end I think it was the leaf cutter ants that enjoyed them most.  A coconut tree was donated by Beth but from the early stages it lost leaves to hungry horses, cows and pigs.  The basil plant however has flourished.    At this point La Casa Verde swooped...

Taking a break after setting up for August. Lovin' life at the beach. He knew just what I wanted. At the end of the rainbow! Where the butterflies fly and the habit trackers track... There's a bi-weekly vertical dutch door set up with lots of list space on the other side.  I have a number of items that happen every week and being a bullet journal, meant to be about productivity, I really don't want to write them every week. They fit great in the left margin. These are the beginning of some collections I am working on for the year.   The @ is for my websites page views and blog post dates.  The yoga man is for tracking my teacher hours, but I have not figured out how to create something to color here and incorporate the information I want to keep.  Like me on facebook:  onawhimnicaragua . Help color another lotus petal....