Category Archives: happily ever after

Day 63: Summer

Posted in Beach, best friends, connection, Friends, happily ever after, Happiness, simple living, Staycation, work life balance by


Today I am thankful for these beautiful ladies. Our babies are seniors in high school this year and have been friends forever. 

We hosted a summer birthday celebration at the beach today before they all start their last year together. I am thankful that when we moved back from Holland, that these friends were planning their annual birthday celebration and invited us to join them and we’ve been celebrating ever since. 

It was a cold day at the beach, but it was fun to be there never the less. When we arrived, the parking attendant shared that there was a shark sighting 100 yards off the shore, so the kids stayed out of the water besides splashing around on the shore.  They had fun playing with full sized shovels and digging holes and building ramps.  They enjoyed eating chips, fruit, candy and Subway sandwiches, but not necessarily in that order. A day at the beach is always a good day.

Life is good.  

Day 61: Summer

Posted in family, food, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, intention, joy, Mindfulness, motherhood, parenting, positive living, simple living, spark joy, work life balance, working mom by

A week from today, the kids will be back in school. Summer is winding down. While I’ve mostly enjoyed the unstructured afternoons, I’m looking forward to a more normal and expected schedule that the school year provides for our family. As I practice living in the moment and being thankful for what is, here are three events that filled me with joy today. 

I enjoyed a lunch break with Jeff and Juliana between our work schedules. We chose to get falafels and schwarma wraps for lunch and it was all delicious. We wondered if my parents might like this food and wanted to share it with them when they come to visit soon. 

After work, Jeff and I enjoyed going for a walk and doing a kettle bell workout together. 

As we waited for the rice to finish cooking as part of our dinner, Jeff and I sat on our comfy outdoor couch with a drink and listened to the water fountain, while we relaxed and chatted about parenting teens. We are growing up!

What three things brought you joy today? 

Day 60: Summer

Posted in connection, family, fear, Friends, happily ever after, simple living, work life balance, working mom by

My eyes are red. I was going to post a picture but it was too freaky. They are red because I am over tired, but not because I was crying or sad. I am writing earlier than usual tonight and plan to go to sleep earlier too, to clear the red out, I hope.

People are starting to go back to school, which means summer is almost over. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but probably feeling a bit of the yin and yang. Has it really been 60 days already? I think I’m ready for another change again?!?

My sister was supposed to come visit today but she was sick and had to postpone her trip. This does make me sad as I was looking forward to her company and hope she feels better. We were hoping for one last hurrah before the structured days set in again. Now we will have to wait. 

How was your day? Did things go as planned or did you have to adapt too?

Wishing you peace, wherever you are! xoxo Adriana

Day 59: Summer

Posted in Beach, best friends, connection, Friends, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, work life balance, working mom by

Tonight I’m thankful for our camping friends who invited us to come join them for the day. This is glamping, staycation style and I loved it and brought the smell of the campfire home with me. How did I get so lucky? 


Thank you friends!! We had a great, windy, cold, fun time with you. 

xo

Day 57: Summer

Posted in Cooking, family, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, positive living, simple living by

What made you happy today?

I love the little things. 

Today Jeff helped me to fix my fountain. My fountain tends to get clogged and hasn’t been working forever. I asked Jeff to fix it with me today and he did. We got the shopvac out and vacuumed out the dirt and leaves. We washed the filter screen and reassembled the parts and then filled the fountain with water to test it. The best part was that Jeff stayed calm throughout the process, which was a miracle!! He hates hassles and he didn’t complain, which made me as happy as the fountain working.


This made me so happy! I love that my fountain is working again and the sound of water fills my yard. 

We enjoyed the rest of our steakation, sitting on our outdoor sectional couch and planning to go to the new Whole Foods to get delicious, juicy steaks to grill out for dinner.

We had to try the Mochi ice creams before dinner, because it’s summer time and we can have dessert before a late dinner.


Life is good! 

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend!

Love,

Adriana

Day 54: Summer

Posted in best friends, connection, family, fear, Friends, Gratitude, happily ever after, joy, motherhood, one love, parenting by


Bad Moms!!!

This was us pretending to be the stars of the movie in the poster behind us.

We laughed so hard and saw ourselves in the women on the screen. 

The moral of the story is we all have our struggles, we’re all doing our best and we love our kids no matter what. We are perfectly imperfect and we have each others’ backs.

One Love.

Carry on, warrior mamas! We are all amazing! Just don’t expect me to ever be your PTA president. 🙂

xo

Day 53: Summer

Posted in cats, family, happily ever after, Happiness, intention, simple living, work life balance, working mom by

Jeff took Juliana out to practice her driving tonight, which made me happy. I love that she had time alone with her daddy and I know she appreciates his attention. I love when my family is content and together.

I sat down for a few minutes this evening, as I’m super tired today. As soon as I sat down to relax, my little partner came up and forced his way between my hands and my eyes, as I was looking at my phone, of course, catching up on social media.  He wanted my attention.


Do you see his paw?  That’s where it usually is. And if I stop petting him, he nuzzles a little closer. He makes me smile and helps me to relax.

But I can never sit for very long. I soon got up to tidy up, as having a clean kitchen always makes me happy. As I loaded the dishwasher and swiped down the counters, I looked up to find my buddies watching me again. 


Maybe they were telling me something, like they wanted some food? Or maybe they wanted me to go relax again.  I chose both options.

I’m thankful for my furry friends today. But Juliana is now asking for a dog…uh oh.

How was your summer day? What made you smile?

xo stay loved

Day 52: Summer

Posted in best friends, connection, family, Friends, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, motherhood, parenting, positive living, simple living, work life balance, working mom by


If a picture could be a receipt, this picture would be my receipt for another happy summer Staycation day. It captures a moment in time and I can see my babies growing up and still loving and admiring one another. Charlie adores his sister and loved that she was the lifeguard on duty at the pool today.  I loved that he was happy swimming alone in the deep end, having her undivided attention.

When we arrived at the pool, Juliana was on a break because there weren’t any kids in the pool. She didn’t mind at all to put her book down and to come watch her brother.  They make a great team and watching them made my heart content.

My BFF and her daughter came to join us and we enjoyed the afternoon hours together, catching up and relaxing and sharing stories

Life is good. I’m loving this staycation thing!  Happy 1st day of August. I hope you’re off to a good, new beginning, whatever that may be.

xo

Day 51: Summer

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

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. 

xo

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

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