Annie Fox's Blog...

Thoughts about teens, tweens, parenting and this adventure of living on Earth in the 21st century.

Annie Fox, M.Ed., is an internationally respected parenting expert, award-winning author, and a trusted online adviser for tweens and teens.

Alone again… naturally

July 3, 2014

Took a hike with The Pupster Tuesday, late afternoon. Went again this morning, first thing. I spend too many hours on social media so I try to get unplugged, alone time every day.

Lucky for me, there are lots of nearby places to wander into and lose your mind. Also lucky I appreciate these hills. Speaking of which, green’s a cool color, but this golden thing we’ve got going on right now, is awesome.

Mount Tam morning

This thistle can’t whistle or tweet. But it’s cool

Way up there

Way up there

Do you see a dog?

Heading back before the coyotes come out

Home again. Sweaty. Restored. Grateful.

Filed under: Parenting — Tags: , , , , — Annie @ 12:57 pm
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Home is where the pancakes are

April 25, 2014

Remember what Dorothy said? “There’s no place like home!” Man, am I feeling it today. It’s been a loooong 10 days since my last blog. In that time I:

  • made a killer Passover seder for 13 most loved friends and family
  • hosted a baby shower (the grandboy is due in  6 weeks!)
  • created three new PowerPoint presentations
  • flew to Montana via Salt Lake City (Two of the “bounciest” flight of my life. Seriously, it took me 48 hours to fully recover)
  • presented four sessions at a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Conference
  • met a crocodile

    You can smile at this guy!

    You can smile at this guy!

• photographed the sky

That's why they call it Big Sky Country

That’s why they call it Big Sky Country

• flew West (without bounces, thank you!) and photographed the ground

Approach to Great Salt Lake City

Approach to Great Salt Lake City

• arrived home to David after midnight.

All I can say is…. Ahhhhhh.

Sometimes we need to push, push, push. Forget how we’re feeling or what we’d rather be doing. The work needs to get done and it’s on our plate. And sometimes we really need to stop, take some delicious deep breaths, make pancakes for breakfast (even if it’s not a weekend), drink hot chocolate, and cut roses from the garden.

Bounty from the wet garden

Bounty from the wet garden

We need to take off shoes, sink into a couch with a good novel (Certain Women by Madeline L’Engle) Get another cup of hot chocolate and snuggle with a dog who loves us.

GracieClear

I’m glad you’re home, Mom

That’s it. I’m done for the week. I’ve earned a rest. I’ll bet you have too.

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Day 21: Kindness and Respect Challenge (The Apple, through my eyes)

October 21, 2013

My friend, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, has created another cultural fog-buster in Technology Sabbath. In six minutes she sounds an alarm and gently nudges us to unplug and create time for the people we love and the non-tech activities that make us whole.

Inspired, I stayed offline from Friday evening til Sunday morning. No email, Twitter, FB. No IMDB, Wiki, Yelp. And absolutely no regrets. So what did I do for 36 hours without the Internet?! I did not climb walls, turn into Super Bitch, nor eat massive amounts of chocolate. Instead…

Early Saturday morning, after bagels and blueberry smoothies, David and I romped with The Pupster through the wet grass at the beautiful park over the hill. From there, we headed south to Puppy Training Class. Then up, up and up to Mt. Tam, for a hike through redwoods high above the bay. In the evening we met up for dinner with our lovely son and daughter-in-law, and her awesome parents.

And in between? While David worked and The Pupster sacked out in the sun? I crawled through a portal of my own devising, out of the 21st century and into a timeless time. And there I stayed for who knows how long, content simply to observe and draw an apple.

I started with this:

Simply beautiful. Beautifully simple.

 

Expressed it as this:

 

Gala Time Unplugged by Annie Fox

Then, like a guiless Black Widow, I devoured my model:

Delicious sweetness

And still, this remnant of a remnant continued to draw me into itself:

 

Trapped potential

Trapped potential

And hold me there:

Power unlocked

Until what remained was:

All that's needed to start anew

All that's needed to start anew

Enjoy your week, my friends. Be kind and respectful to yourself. Take the time you need to be outside of time.

 

 

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Sometimes you’ve just gotta get out

December 1, 2012

David and I work at home. We’re in the house a lot. In our offices. In our minds. Ensnared deep within the inter webs. That’s why I sometime feel an intense need to break out of IN for some quality time OUT… way out.

Today the need was great. It’s been raining… a lot. But David and I had a window between 1- 3 pm to escape before the next edition of the Pineapple Express (aka atmospheric river) slammed into San Anselmo. So we laced up our hiking boots and headed for the hills. A five mile drive brought us to the Pine Mountain Road trailhead, a 1.5 mile hike brought us to Carson Falls. Here’s what awaited us…

Is this Middle Earth?

Trees blanketed in moss

Carson Falls, putting on a show

Impressive from any angle

C'mon, admit it. This is cool!

It was a great Saturday adventure. And the rain kept its word by not starting up again until after we came home. Which, by the way, feels like the perfect place to be right now. See, it’s not that I don’t enjoy being inside. It’s just that sometimes we have to unplug and get out.

Filed under: Parenting — Tags: , , , , , — Annie @ 7:25 pm
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