June - 2013 - Superhero Life With Andrea Scher

Monthly Archives: June 2013

The battle for the steering wheel

June 26, 2013 – 6:26 pm

Nico and I have a running battle these days.

Nico wants to drive. Yes, like DRIVE THE CAR by himself. He sits in the front seat, asks for the keys, and when I refuse he pushes every switch and button he can possibly find. Wrenching him out of the driver’s seat is nearly impossible. He is a hulk of a 2 year old and you would be shocked at his strength.

I try speaking to him rationally. I tell him that he is welcome to drive in 14 years. I tell him it’s actually illegal and the police are going to arrest him. I tell him he needs to get into his carseat or I’m going to get mad, very mad.

But he just grins at me and turns on the windshield wipers.

I tried the Zen approach several times. I waited him out, pretended I had all the time in the world. I waited for him to be bored with the driver’s seat and say, Okay, let’s go! But no. Even after 45 minutes he was still happy as can be.

It always ends badly.

It ends with me saying, “Okay Nico, you have a choice. You can either get into the backseat by yourself or I’m going to carry you back.” He is silent so I repeat myself. “You. In backseat. Or I come get you.”

He considers this for a moment and then answers in a whisper, “I drive.”

When I grab him he kicks and screams and I pray that no one is in earshot of his wails. I put him in the car seat and he goes as limp as possible, slinks out of my arms and scrambles to get back into the front. I grab him again and put him back in the seat with all my strength. I can feel my blood boiling and I am SO FRUSTRATED that I have to fight him, that even after being patient for 45 minutes, it still ends this way.

I’ve resorted to bribery

But yesterday I did an experiment. I took the coveted gummy vitmains we normally give the kids inside the house and brought them into the car.

“If you want some gummies get into your seat!” Both Ben and Nico scrambled to their seats. They were practically strapped in before I could blink. Worked like a charm! I tried it again when I picked Nico up from school. Score. Slam dunk. That kid was in his seat in 2 seconds flat.

It’s a small thing. But for today (or however many days this lasts) I will not have to wrestle a 2 year old into his car seat. And for me, that is HUGE. And I know it’s bribery, and it’s basically candy, but WHATEVER. Even if it works for one more day it will be worth it.

Just 14 more years Nico. Just 14 more years.

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Parenting | Comments (24)

Super Sponsor Spotlight

June 22, 2013 – 12:01 am

Superhero Journal sponsors are, well, super! So take a minute to check out all of the awesomeness they are offering up in June. If you’d like to see your e-Course, Etsy shop, blog or business on the sidebar or in an upcoming Super Sponsor Spotlight, we’d love to have you. Just send a quick email to Amber at: [email protected] to get all the details.

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Inner Moves — Maureen Clancy

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Deep down you’re sensitive and brilliant, but you’ve been playing small. For years, you’ve been ﬁghting the feeling that you’re not good enough. But the more you ﬁght, the bigger it gets.

Meanwhile, opportunities for happiness, love, and money are slipping by.

You secretly wish you could:
• Go after your dreams.
• Take more risks and delight in the rewards.
• Release negative habits like self-sabotage.
• Feel more compassion for yourself and others.

Inner Moves is a 6-week e-Course that’ll help you do these things.

Imagine how it would feel to:
• Stop ﬁghting this feeling.
• Have specific tools to use when this feeling gets big.
• Belong to a community of women in which you’ll be encouraged, validated and safely held.
• Begin to accept — all parts of yourself (… even those you don’t like).
• Stop holding back and live the life you were meant to live.

My deepest desire for you is to love and accept yourself . . . no matter what.

Want to sponsor your friend, sister, mother, daughter? You are amazing, AND you get $50 oﬀ her fee. That’s a whole-life changing course for 100 bucks!
1. Visit http://www.maureen-clancy.com/inner-moves
2. Click Add to Cart.
3. Type sponsorasister in the discount box (as one word with no spaces).
4. Click Checkout to pay.
5. I’ll email you a gift certificate to send her.

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Soulsigh — Denise Andrade-Kroon & Hillary Rain

Denise Andrade-Kroon and Hillary Rain have birthed a gorgeous lovechild. Their e-course is designed to offer an intimate Blessingway abounding with rituals of gentleness, tenderness, wildness, nurture, connection to earth, adornment to honor our re(birth), coming h(om)e to ourselves, and to share this journey within a safe cocoon of sisters. They come from a story of not being able to conceive a child and what emerged from their healing is an awareness that their bodies are capable of carrying life and birthing. Birthing ideas, dreams and even their selves as they move throughout life.

All creativity is birth, whether it is a creative lovechild or your own soul-awakening. In this course Denise & Hillary honor the creative feminine and invite her to thrive, joyful and abundant within our hearts. This course is not only for women that have gone through an (in)fertility journey but it is designed to bring all women into a loving relationship with their body and spirit through deep nurture and tenderness in preparation for this birthing process.

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Flying Lessons — Kelly Rae Roberts

So. How do you teach yourself to paint, build a global audience, launch a successful online shop, write a bestselling book, get featured in glossy magazines & have your art licensed to national retailers — in just a few short years? While learning to manage your time, energy, priorities & fears — and telling the truth, every step of the way?

It’s not easy. It takes bravery. And it all begins by awakening your inner Possibilitarian: the little whisper of your spirit that says, “oh yes … you can.”

I deeply believe in sharing my resources, my how-to’s, and everything else I’ve learned along my journey.

So! I’ve created a series of four e-books called Flying Lessons: Tips & Tricks To Help Your Creative Business Soar. Each one contains my very best resources and how-to’s for creative entrepreneurs: painters, sculptors, jewelers, crafters, writers, and more.

You can own all four — or pick & choose whichever feel especially useful, right now.

Your dream is not impossible. Quite the opposite. Take it from a passionate Possibilitarian, who knows.

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

The swarm. Episode Two.

June 21, 2013 – 2:13 pm

This is the second time a swarm has found us.

The first time we were living in San Francisco and on a hot, spring day I returned home to a strange whapping sound. I searched around the house to find that there were bees, dozens of them, hurling their little bodies against the glass windows. What the??? I thought. As I looked around, I saw that they were everywhere, whapping against the windows like in a B-movie thriller.

I made sure all the doors were closed (and locked. You know, just in case) and my breath caught when I saw the plume of smoke in the backyard. It was a 6-foot-wide , black cloud hovering over the grass. At closer inspection, I noticed the cloud was made of BEES. BEES!

The cloud was also moving, slowly, next door.

I knocked on the neighbor’s door. “Hi. I just wanted to tell you that there are a lot of bees in your backyard.”

“Okay, thanks,” the guy said, starting to close the door in my face. “No wait, like 50,000 bees. Roughly.”

We walked through his house and saw that they had gathered in a tree in his yard. It was like a gigantic Rumple Stiltskin type beard hanging from a tree. “We’re going to call someone to get them out, ” I assured him.

The bee club guy, dressed in what looked an astronaut suit came over with a cardboard box, a large stick and duct tape. He tapped the limb of the tree, holding the box below it until the beard fell, whole, with a thunk into the cardboard. Then he quickly duct taped it closed.

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In the last couple of days, I have been noticing a lot of bees on our back patio. “Must be the season,” I told myself. But yesterday I heard a familiar drone. A loud, jet engine of a hum coming from the shed where our bicycles are parked. It couldn’t be… I thought.. Again?

I missed the big black cloud, but this time we were the recipients of the swarm. They are camped out in the apple tree on our patio and even though it’s pretty hot, I am terrified to open the back door.

The bee removal guy (live removal, hooray!) came by yesterday. He walked right into the shed, bees whizzing all around him and said, “Yep. Smells like pheremones in here. We’ll have to come back in the morning when they’re all in the hive.”

And so it goes. Soon the bees will be gone.

When I wrote about this on Facebook yesterday several people commented on how bees choose their homes carefully, how it’s a good omen to be chosen.

Someone even sent me the animal totem for bee, what it symbolizes, and it said something about accomplishing the impossible. I love that and hope it’s true because there are a few things in my life that feel impossible right now, and I sure would love to accomplish them.

But for now, I will welcome the swarm- the loud thrum, the chaos, the sweetness + honey.

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Adventures, Good things, Inspiration | Comments (11)

Superhero Photo tip: Welcome the clouds

June 18, 2013 – 5:44 pm

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Superhero Summer Photo Tip #1

Right before I took the photos above, I shouted urgently to my friend, “Watch Nico! I have to get my camera!”

It had been bright and sunny all day – a gorgeous day by every measure – except that it was too bright to take a great photograph. The shadows were too harsh, too blinding. Too much middle-of-the-day sun. I regretted having lugged my big old camera all the way to the beach.

But suddenly, the sun went behind the clouds! We love the clouds! and created a perfect diffuser for the sun. The shadows softened and the light became hazy and almost yellow. I snapped like crazy and Nico hammed it up for the camera. The sun returned shortly after, but I was delighted to get some beautiful shots in that dreamy light.

This summer, pay attention to when the sun goes behind the clouds. Instead of lamenting the cold, celebrate the light! and grab your camera.

More great photogaphy lessons in Superhero Photo!

Class begins next Monday, June 24th, 2013.

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courses, Good things, Photography | Comments (2)

Declaration of You Blog Tour: Intention + Giveaway!

June 16, 2013 – 6:00 am

This post is in celebration of the brand new book: The Declaration of You! by Michelle Ward and Jessica Swift. I’m so honored to have been interviewed for the book (you can see my chapter by getting + get a preview of the book here). Here are some thoughts about intention, something near and dear to my heart. May the manifesting begin!

How often do you set intentions, and how do you determine what it needs to be?

If you know anything about me, you know that I love creating Mondo Beyondo lists. These lists are all about stretching yourself into new territory. It is your list of the most outrageously wonderful things you can imagine creating for yourself. It’s where you write: Live in Sevilla, Spain for 3 months, meet Alanis Morrisette and perform in a flashmob. It’s where you capture the dreams that you didn’t know you had (and don’t know how you will achieve) but they are dreams that make you feel a bit giddy just thinking about.

I use the Mondo Beyondo list as a way to expand my sense of what’s possible. If I am stretching myself into a place beyond what’s comfortable or what I think is “possible” then I am reaching into a new place in my heart. Also, not everything on the list has to be outrageous… Mondo Beyondo dreams also look like this: Heal my marriage, experience self-love, cultivate new friendships + find my tribe.

I usually remember to do a Mondo Beyondo list on my birthday or on New Year’s Day, but it would be a great practice to do each month or each quarter. Public transportation is a great place to do Mondo Beyondo lists.

Have you experienced something happening to you that you attribute to directly setting it as an intention?

So many things! The time I met Ben Harper on a bus in San Francisco is one of my favorite manifesting stories.

Why do we feel uneasy in setting intentions?

It’s natural to feel a bit uneasy when setting intentions. It leaves us a bit vulnerable. We’ve just declared something we want -something that means a lot to us- and we don’t know if we will actually get it!

For some of us, we learned it was safer to not desire things because the pain of rejection or feeling disappointed had us feel unloved. I remember being afraid to tell my parents what I wanted for my birthday as a child because I was afraid they would forget or decide that I was asking for too much. I couldn’t bear the thought of the disappointment so I chose practical things instead. Or I’d say, “I don’t need anything. Whatever you think…”

I think it’s still a leap of faith for me to “put it out there” and declare what I want in a powerful way. There’s still that voice that shows up and says, “Fat chance, that’ll never happen” or “Who do you think you are?”

I think it’s important to WRITE THE LISTS ANYWAY.

And keep them private if they feel too vulnerable. Sometimes I make a list and put it under my bed. They are my private little deal with the Universe anyway.

What’s your personal declaration around intention?

I believe that my intentions are a powerful declaration both to myself and to the Universe. Speaking them out loud (to myself or to someone else) sets something in motion, a kind of wave of energy that I have to be ready to ride. It will usually require something of me — courage and a willingness to be vulnerable. If my intentions are aligned with my spirit however, this momentum can only take me to new places of growth, joy and fulfillment. I trust my intentions to carry me exactly where I need to go.

The Declaration of You! will be published by North Light Craft Books this summer, with readers getting all the permission they’ve craved to step passionately into their lives, discover how they and their gifts are unique and uncover what they are meant to do! This post is part of The Declaration of You’s BlogLovin’ Tour, which I’m thrilled to participate in alongside over 100 other creative bloggers. Learn more — and join us! – by clicking here.

P.S. Leave a comment about something you are currently manifesting and you could win a copy of the Declaration of You!

UPDATE: The winner of the Declaration of You is Amy (Badgroove Amy) I will email you today! Congratulations!

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Giveaways | Comments (27)

Sean Hayes is really awesome.

June 14, 2013 – 9:35 pm

Sean Hayes playing at the UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley, CA

Sean Hayes playing at the UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley, CA

You can hear more music from the incredible Sean Hayes here!

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Adventures, Good things, Inspiration | Comments (0)

Start a Foolish Project- an experiment in aliveness.

June 10, 2013 – 10:51 pm

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As I lay down in yoga recently, a line from a Rumi poem came to me:

Start a huge, foolish project
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

It felt like a message. Nothing short of divine. I had been feeling around in the dark all year for my next e-course but coming up short. I wanted to create something that would delight + energize me. Something that would be a huge gift to my community. Something that connected all of us in a meaningful way.

My body buzzed with excitement as I realized what my next offering would be- Start a Foolish Project! And by foolish, I mean awesome. Foolish projects are those things we do simply for the delight and the joy.

They are things like creating a wish tree or hosting a Storybowl. They might be organizing a bubble flash mob in the park or a book club for people who only read self-help books. A foolish project might be buying that pink ukulele that caught your eye and learning to play it. A foolish project could be deciding to make 10,000 hats and give them away.

Foolish projects make us feel alive.

Here’s my foolish project:

I am going to gather a group of women here in Berkeley (you’re invited!), hire a choreographer and learn a cheesy dance routine. Emphasis on cheesy. Then, we’re going to flash mob it! Yes, like in those you tube videos. Doesn’t that sound like so much fun?!!!

Foolish projects appeal to my sense of play, my desire to feel alive + my love of stories. No matter what happens, you will always have the story about that time you were in a cheesy flash mob, right? Even if it was a total disaster. It really doesn’t matter.

What’s your foolish project?

Maybe you do something like my friend Maya Stein who decided to celebrate her 40th birthday by bicycling across the country dragging an old-fashioned typewriter and holding spontaneous poetry workshops.

Or maybe you are more like that woman I heard about last year that was craving community. She decided to drag her rarely used farm table to her backyard, hung some twinkly lights and extended an open invitation to her neighbors for a potluck dinner every Sunday evening at 6pm. She transformed her entire community this way.

Join me + discover the foolish project inside of you.

This 5 week course begins July 1st, 2013.

Early bird registration available now for $79!

If you are in the Bay Area and want to be a part of my cheesy flash mob, you are more than welcome. The more, the merrier. ([email protected])

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courage, Courses, Good things, Inspiration | Comments (10)

Adventure at Heart’s Desire Beach in Pt. Reyes

June 3, 2013 – 8:18 pm

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Adventures, Good things, Photography | Comments (4)

Superhero Life With Andrea Scher

Monthly Archives: June 2013