Day 51: Summer

Posted in family, happily ever after, Happiness, memories, motherhood, parenting, positive living, simple living by adrianahartley

Today is July 31st and on the 31st of every month this year, Baskin Robbins is offering scoops of ice cream for $1.31 each.

Juliana wanted to go there tonight and I resisted. I had been gone all day and had decided (today) that I’m going to start being good with what I choose to eat beginning tomorrow and I was practicing today already. She reminded me that we hadn’t been together all day and we’re trying to make the most of our Staycation and that we really should go!! She’s very convincing even though my arguments were very convincing too. In the end, I decided I’d rather play and have fun and share the experience than not.

We all loaded in the car to go and once we got there, the line was out the door with a party of 17 in front of us with more people joining from the parking lot. Luckily the family decided we should go with plan B and chose Thrifty’s ice cream from Rite Aid, which is my favorite.

Thrifty’s ice cream was only $1.99 for one scoop and $2.69 for two scoops and we didn’t have to wait in line! Since there wasn’t anywhere to sit, we wandered around the store and played a game. We each walked around and looked for the strangest thing we could find and took a picture of it to share with the group. This made “shopping” fun. We all laughed at our treasure hunt finds.

Who knew an ice cream shop could be so fun? Thanks Juliana for inspiring me to go out and play!

Happy Sunday! Have a great week.

30Jul2016

Day 50: Summer

Posted in connection, Cooking, exercise, family, food, Friends, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, one love, positive living, simple living, work life balance by adrianahartley

Today was much better than yesterday. And it’s day 50 of my summer staycation. I still woke up very early, and Charlie was up early too, so I just snuggled with him on the couch while the morning was still and everyone else was still asleep. It was nice to do “nothing” together.

After having coffee and reading the paper, I prepped the ingredients to make fresh spring rolls for this evening, which took more than 2 hours. After straightening up the house and decluttering, including washing all the dishes, I squeezed in a quick workout before showering and preparing for my lunch date.

Juliana invited her friend and her mom over for a double date with us. We served fresh fruit and baby carrots, and made grilled paninis, while they brought cookies and chips to share. Afterwards, we went to get luxurious pedicures together that felt so good! I loved the girl time together.

We got home in time to relax for a bit. Actually, Charlie asked Juliana to bake him a strawberry cake and she was busy making the frosting while I relaxed. There is a perk to having big kids! I loved that she did this for him.

Soon after we progressed on to the first stop of our progressive dinner. We enjoyed potstickers and sushi, shrimp chips, fruit and rice balls.

It felt really strange to show up empty handed. Everything was amazing!

After an hour we progressed to the next house, where we enjoyed an Hawaiian theme, with pulled pork sandwiches, mango coleslaw, and pineapple. Everything was so good and I was having such a great time, that I forgot to take a picture before we progressed to our house for the 3rd stop.

We made fresh spring rolls with dipping sauces. By the time we got to our house, we were all so full and we still had to save room for homemade strawberry birthday cake.

I was happy being organized and prepared early this morning, getting all my work done, to be able to enjoy the entire rest of the day and night. I guess that’s a bonus to waking up early. It was another fun day to be on a staycation.

I hope you’re enjoying your end of the week.

hugs

29Jul2016

Day 49: Summer

Posted in Cooking, family, simple living, work life balance, working mom by adrianahartley

Today was a long day and I was not comfortable. Some days are like that and I try to keep things in perspective, but today was a challenge.

I think it’s partially because I don’t sleep well and am over tired. And partially it’s because it’s the end of a long week and my schedule was off with two days down in So Cal and everyone is home and in and out all day.

By the evening and after work, I took the time to make gazpacho, which I planned to make earlier in the week yet ran out of time. Jeff decided to try making us new cocktails, because we are having friends coming over and we wanted to be sure we know what we’re doing. We’re givers like that! The Dark and Stormy drink was delicious and refreshing.

By the time I was done prepping dinner and making the gazpacho, I was full and had no more room to eat anything that was prepared.

Tomorrow is another day. I am off to bed “early.”

Hope you had a good week. namaste.

28Jul2016

Day 48: Summer

Posted in best friends, connection, Friends, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, one love, positive living, simple living, work life balance by adrianahartley

Tonight I am thankful for my BFF who always has good ideas and inspires me and picks me up and makes life great.

I am happy even when we are just in the same room, sitting on the beach or shopping on Santana Row. It doesn’t matter what we do, I just love her energy.

Everyone needs a good friend like her! I am thankful for my sunshine!

Be well, my friends. And be a good friend!!

nAMaste

27Jul2016

Day 47: Summer

Posted in love and light, memories, motherhood, parenting, positive living, rooted, simple living, space, work life balance, working mom by adrianahartley

Forget the shoulds.

This was the highlight of my day. My old BFF and I went for a hike together first thing this morning and this was one of the little nuggets we unveiled.

We shared stories and ideas about life and parenting and adulting. We shared our vulnerabilities, and our joys and we listened to each other, while we enjoyed two hours moving up and down the hills together.

We talked about life and where we are now and what we dreamed of becoming and how far we have come. We decided that one of the best ways to enjoy this one life and to create our happily ever after and our Norman Rockwell moments was to live life in the moment, not wanting for or wishing to be anywhere else and to accept where we are right now. We decided that we had to stop thinking of all the things we should be doing or should have done and to be okay with what is and what we have chosen to do. We know we need to enjoy the present moment and not to compare our present moment with anyone else’s. Pretty basic thoughts, but we so often forget, especially as social media tells us stories and we create stories in our head of what we should be doing to vacation, to exercise, to be beautiful, to be a good mom, and to be whatever. Let’s stop the shoulds and the stories in our head and create our happily ever after in this moment, right now, enjoying what is and making the best out of our one, wonderful, imperfectly perfect life.

So simple, right? Wanna try? Are you ready to practice with me? Let go of the shoulds. You’re doing great just being where you are right now, doing your best.

Tonight I chose to eat ice cream with my family, even though I “should” be watching my calories. There is always tomorrow.

nAMaste

26Jul2016

Day 46: Summer

Posted in Beach, connection, family, fear, simple living, work life balance, working mom by adrianahartley

It’s almost August. I think it starts next week. Oh my goodness. It does. That means school starts up again 3 weeks from tomorrow, which seems like a long time but it’s not really! We have residency verification dates and photo dates and school schedule pick up dates and pirate camp and life guarding and driving lessons and homework to still squeeze in before we are done. It feels like summer is almost over and that gives me anxiety! I feel like it just begun and I’m finally getting the hang of it. I’m a little slow at this adapting thing, and once I finally feel comfortable, it’s gonna be time to create a new schedule again and to change again.

Hopefully I’ll be ready, but right now I’m already feeling the end of summer blues.

How do you handle change? Do you flow? Do you get anxiety? Is it no big thing? I am curious.

Here’s to slowing down and enjoying the last few weeks of summer! I plan to go paddle boarding and to get to the beach before it’s over. What will you do with your summer days?

25Jul2016

Day 45: Summer

Posted in connection, family, happily ever after, Happiness, simple living by adrianahartley

4 years ago today we moved to Amsterdam,with fear and excitement in our hearts. This was what prompted me to begin blogging and I have been enjoying sharing my days here for more than 4 years now.

Today we drove back from Southern California to our home in Northern California. It’s always bittersweet to say goodbye. We had a great vacation with family and wish we lived closer to each other.

Do you live close to your family? Would you choose to live close to your family if you could? I would, even though I am happy where I am.

nAMaste

24Jul2016

Day 44: Summer

Posted in best friends, connection, family, happily ever after, intention, joy, Love, memories, motherhood, parenting, simple living, spark joy, Uncategorized, work life balance by adrianahartley

Today we celebrated Charlie’s birthday at Hurricane Harbor in Valencia with his cousins. We were worried about the air quality as the Santa Clarita fires are burning out of control and were only 10% contained this morning.

We were lucky that the park and freeways were open and we were able to arrive before the park opened for the day.

As soon as we entered the park, we went to find lounge chairs in the shaded area first. Once we were settled, everyone began exploring and cooling off, as it was already so hot first thing in the morning.

We all had a good time, floating down the lazy river, splashing in the kid areas, bobbing up and down in the wave pool and riding a handful of rides.

Happy birthday, Charlie! Today it was fun to play in the water and in the sun with our family.

Life is good.

23Jul2016

Day 43: Summer

Posted in connection, family, happily ever after, intention, one love, parenting, positive living, rooted, simple living by adrianahartley

What was your favorite part of the day?

My favorite part of the day was when all 10 of us were in the pool at the same time. All the cousins and aunties and uncle were together in the water and this made me happy.

I didn’t take a single picture today and that is rare for me, especially with so many fun moments.

By not taking pictures and not being on my phone, I felt more fully present.

At dinner tonight, we all agreed to leave our phones down and it made a big difference to the experience. I know this should be obvious, but it’s not in my family, and I enjoyed us all being in the moment together with limited interruptions.

Life is good. Keep on loving each other and lifting each other up. I hope you had a good day.

Namaste