Monthly Archives: May 2016

Taste of Summer

Posted in best friends, family, food, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, joy, Love, motherhood, parenting, positive living, simple living, spark joy by

I tricked her. I went in her room while she was studying and said, 

“Come out here and be with me, …and unload the dishwasher.”

Luckily she wants to spend time with me. She didn’t however like the idea of doing the dishes, but she did it anyway. I was getting ready to prepare dinner and wanted her company.

She retorted, “Let’s empty it together.”

Deal.

She unloaded and handed them to me while I put them in their place. Then we switched without exchanging words because she was closer to the place the dishes belonged.  We danced and flowed from dishes to conversations about our day, while we began to cut up fruit and prep dinner.

She cut. I boiled. She stirred. I chopped. She drained the noodles. I spiralized the zucchini and carrots. We go well together.


Afterwards, I sat down to relax. She followed me. We read and worked side by side. 

She got up and decided she wanted to bake. I followed her back into the kitchen.

She baked. I admired. She shared. I tasted.


We all gathered in the small space together and I called for a group hug. They thought I was crazy. I know they are growing up but they’re still all my babies. So we hugged. In that moment. For a second, because they know their mom is crazy!


Summer is almost here. I can almost taste it.

Can’t wait!

🙂 

28

Posted in exercise, Gratitude, Happiness, intention, joy, Love, rooted, simple living by

I did 28 push-ups today, for real!


I’ve never done 28 push-ups before and surprised myself. I’m doing a 30 day challenge to get ready for summer, and everyday for the past 24 days the reps have been building up. I am loving this strength challenge that is pushing and motivating me to be stronger and more fit. I am surprised that I can now do 185 squats and a ton of leg lifts! 

I am loving that I’ve stuck with the challenge and haven’t missed a day. This is practicing discipline. I think I’ll do a 30 day food related challenge next month. This daily challenge inspires and motivates me and I’ve found my stick-to-it-ness!

Thank you Cori for originally sharing the challenge on FaceBook. I love it!

Do you like challenges? Are you following any that you love?  I wish you well!

nAMaste

Salud!

Posted in family, food, happily ever after, Happiness, joy, Love, simple living, spark joy by


As I’m practicing what I like to call “adulting,” I am missing my grandparents. I want to know them and to love them and share stories and my kids with them now that I’m an official adult. I keep missing them and our traditions.

I am thankful for my mama who learned how to cook the family recipe and to my husband who meticulously watched and took notes to capture how she made the liquid gold, because she doesn’t follow a recipe.  He watched as she cooked and created a Google doc that we could share, find and reuse.

Following the recipe this morning made me think of my mama and our family and the love we’ve shared over spaghetti dinners. I loved the process and the smell in the house and was excited for my family to come home to enjoy it with me.  I loved having it cooking on the stove all day, as I worked from home, getting up every so often to give it a stir, sniff and taste.

Everyone came home at different times tonight, and even though we didn’t get to sit together and share a meal at the same time, I got to see their faces and empty bowls and seeing them go back for late night snacks. 

Do you have a favorite family meal that brings back good memories? 

Salud! To your health!! 

Mangia!! Mangia!

nAMaste.

Sparked Joy!

Posted in Gratitude, happily ever after, joy, positive living, simple living, spark joy by


I went shopping with my BFF this weekend and we had so much fun, browsing and trying on shoes and makeup and clothes together. I never take the time to do this and the hours just passed by before we knew it. 

We joked together and enjoyed people watching and told each other what looked good and what didn’t, laughing along the way. She has great taste and helped me to pick out a new summery outfit, and I helped her pick out a fun new top and belt.  She really picked out her own and I just validated her choice. I had the easy part! 🙂

I was going to save my new outfit for a special occasion and then decided today was a special occasion for no reason, well actually, because I’m living my happily ever after today and that’s a good enough reason. I loved the feeling of dressing up a bit and feeling fun and cuter than usual. It sparked joy and made me happy.

The little things…and who knew?

What little things spark joyed in your life today on this magnificent Monday?

Have a great week, hot stuff!!

What Happens When You Don’t Set Your Intention?

Posted in intention, Mindfulness, simple living by

What do you find yourself doing when you don’t have a plan?

How do you fill your time and space?

I tend to play on my phone, reading Facebook updates, looking at Instagram posts and playing Candy Crush. It fills the gaps and is mindless. This is relaxing to me.

My husband tends to work and as we were relaxing and sitting on the couch, I asked him if his intention was to work tonight. I am curious how we choose to spend our “free” time and wonder if we chose to set an intention before we sat down, would we choose the thing we were doing?  

I tend to make plans for my days but don’t plan anything for my nights and prefer the natural flow of whatever comes my way.  But maybe that’s just because that’s what my family does and everyone is “busy” studying and working. But what if…Hmm… Something else to think about.

Isn’t it cool that there are always things to think about? How could anyone ever possibly be bored?

Hope you have a good and intentional night, doing what you love and desire.

nAMaste

Mindful and Intentional

Posted in Gratitude, Happiness, positive living, simple living by

What if you are intentional and mindful through out your day?  I think you then have SuPeR pOwErS!!

ML reminded me to stay intentional today and to make my list for the day after we got back from our walk.  She said that she liked my blog the other day and was practicing being intentional too and felt so good getting so many things done.  I took her advice and made a list as soon as I walked in the door.  THIS little practice is AMAZING!!

By being intentional with my 2 extra bonus hours, I got so much done and was really efficient, which made me very happy.  I didn’t waste any time and my house was clean, errands were run and dinner was in the crockpot, all before work.

I’ve taught my kids to live in the moment and to enjoy what life brings and to not be too busy to play, despite our workloads. So when I found our missing Spikeball game and had it displayed in our living room when they came home, they decided it was time to go outside and play. I was instructed to log off my computer and to take a break. They’re teaching me what I’ve taught them, which means I think they’re learning. 😉 Of course, I went outside and enjoyed my big kids, thankful that they still want to go outside and play and with me!  After we were done playing, I  went back inside to finish up work for the day. Luckily dinner was ready for them in the crockpot and they’re becoming more and more independent.  I’m liking this new stage of life.

I’ll share one more mindful moment that made my day wonderful. I took a shower later this evening before dinner. The sun was shining perfectly through the window and lit up the bathroom. The lighting was glorious and I remembered my college psychology teacher, telling us to try to be present in the moment and the example of when you’re showering, to be fully present in the shower. She said to feel the water hitting your body. Listen to the water sounds. Feel the warmth and enjoy the entire experience of showering without thinking of anything else. I practiced this and loved it, closing my eyes and seeing the brightness through my closed eyes and feeling grateful. Being mindful and enjoying the present moment in the shower set the tone for the rest of my evening. The stress washed away and made for a great night.

How are you practicing setting intentions and being mindful? You have Super Powers! Are you using them too?

nAMaste and wishing you peace.

 

 

 

 

 

May You Be Intentional

Posted in Happiness, intention, Mindfulness, positive living, simple living by

Project Happiness has a #MayYouBe challenge going on right now and today’s challenge is focused on intention.  I woke up this morning and took the challenge and thought about setting an intention for the day.

This really gave structure and peace to my day because I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I was prepared and the day flowed, just like magic.

Because I was intentional with my thoughts, I created the day I wanted. I made the time for the things that were important to me and I chose to do what was in my head. 

It’s Monday and I wanted to start the week off with an uncluttered house. I began picking up and doing laundry and sweeping the floors. I knew what I was making for dinner and I knew that I wanted to work out and shower before working today. And I wanted straight hair today instead of curly because I like that look a lot more these days. 

Those were my intentions. And guess what? My intentions became my reality and my expectations were in alignment with my day and there weren’t any gaps. THIS is my definition of happiness. I created happiness for me in these simple ways.

I challenge you to wake up and breathe and think about what you want for your day to look like. Then set out and do the work it takes to make your dreams come true, just for tomorrow. And then do it again the next day. It’s magical and oh so simple.

If you want to learn more about Project Happiness, you can check it out here: Project Happiness

🙂

nAMaste