Day 17: Summer

Posted in family, Gratitude, happily ever after, intention, Love, Mindfulness, motherhood, one love, parenting, positive living, rooted, simple living, spark joy, work life balance, working mom by adrianahartley

All these lemons came from the same tree, and this picture made me think of my kids.

You see I’m thankful that I have one large, one medium and one small one. As the two big ones are growing up and becoming more independent and less needy of me, I still have the small one to grow for a little while longer and this makes me very happy. Having the little one makes me remember that the big one was once small too and makes me even more aware that the little one is going to get bigger too one day, which makes me be even more present with all three of them. This is an amazing, little, magical gift of three.

Today the little one and I went to the craft store together to get stuff to make stuff. We like to make things together and I love that he is creative. He picked out a wood burning tool and some wood pieces to create some art, even though we were really going in the store to find neon, erasable white board markers that would show up on his metal black board. Luckily we found some of those too on the clearance rack.

And that’s my happily ever after story for the day. How was your day? Did you make lemonade from lemons today?

Oh, and P.S., This was my way of making lemonade out of lemons today…I was actually momentarily sad about the feeling of letting go and really knowing that my kids are growing up. There’s usually a back story to every happily ever after, isn’t there? Just sayin’

nAMaste BeLoveRs

24Jun2016

Day 14: Summer

Posted in Happiness, joy, Mindfulness, nature, rooted, simple living, space, work life balance, working mom by adrianahartley

Summer is a great time to break routines and schedules and to relax.

I’ve shifted my work hours to the early mornings, so that I can be “done” with my work by noon-ish, which means I am waking up by 5:30am and starting work at 6. So far, I am loving this practice.

I made a big salad and ate a late lunch outside on the back patio all by myself. After I was done, I put up the umbrella and decided to rest on the outside sectional sofa, closing my eyes for a half hour in the middle of the day. It felt good to do nothing and I rarely just sit. I loved it, and could get used to this inactivity.

I love summer, especially this second week with the kids away! Life has been less chaotic and I got to celebrate the moments with less stress.

TGIF – have a great weekend!

14Jun2016

Day 4: Summer

Posted in belovers, exercise, happily ever after, intention, Love, Mindfulness, one love, positive living, spark joy by adrianahartley

We played dodge ball today. I wish I could share the photo of all the children, youth and adults playing together and the smiles on their faces. I am refraining from sharing to protect their privacy, but it was amazing. My favorite part was playing with the kids in wheel chairs, and watching them play and laugh with the group.

In the wake of what happened in Orlando this week, and thinking about what we can do, I have the answer.

We can choose to love one another and to play nicely together, no matter what. It’s one small way to make a difference. Listen. Share. Play. Love. Be fair. Take turns. Follow the rules. Include everyone. Be gentle. Run and laugh. Keep moving. Be kind. Repeat. (Just like playing dodgeball.)

nAMaste BeLoveRs. Spread the love.

8Jun2016

Personal Exam

Posted in belovers, connection, happily ever after, Happiness, intention, joy, Mindfulness, positive living, simple living by adrianahartley

How did you take care of yourself today?

I saw two related posts today from women I admire, that made me think about this important question.

Here’s a a quick, 4 question, happily-ever-after-today Exam:

1) Did you get enough sleep last night?

2) Did you drink enough water?

3) Did you take time to exercise?

4)Did you use time to do “nothing?”

I think these are important questions and reminders to make us think about how well we are taking care of ourselves in this busy time of living and being.

If this were my final exam (since my kids are in this space of studying for finals right now), I would have failed today, getting 25% correct on such a simple test. Ouch!

This makes me think how I need to prepare more for my test tomorrow. How well did you do?

Be well, BeLoveRs. Take care of wonderful YOU!

31May2016

Awards

Posted in connection, Gratitude, Mindfulness, motherhood, one love, positive living by adrianahartley

I have mixed feelings about awards ceremonies. As much as I love sharing the joys of life, awards ceremonies feel funny to me. They are not my favorite.

I am not the mom who put the bumper sticker on my car, proclaiming that my child is great.

Maybe it’s because this type of celebration is personal and doesn’t define my child to me. I don’t like the pressure, even though I have the expectation for them to be their personal best. And I don’t like singling them out. I prefer the connection with their peers and teachers and family and teams, as being a part of the whole.

I think I like the ordinariness of life and them just being, doing what they are doing and I don’t need an award as a receipt or acknowledgment of their success. And I don’t want others to feel less.

Awards measure what is tangible whereas I value more what is intangible: their character, and kindness, their ability to love others, their patience and determination to not give up and to work hard. Maybe the awards reflect some of these intangible values as well.

I do appreciate the awards and recognitions however they don’t bring as much joy as I would expect and that’s confusing to me. It feels like another one of those yin and yang moments. I am thankful for their hard work and that there is a way to recognize them, having us pause and to be present and to focus our awareness on all that is good in this moment called Awards Night.

Congratulations to all the awards recipients today! I guess I do kinda like awards after all, and you deserve the credit and acknowledgment for your good work.

Namaste.

22May2016

Memory Collection

Posted in connection, Cooking, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, memories, Mindfulness, positive living, simple living by adrianahartley

What memories did you create and collect today?

Are you holding them secret, just for you? Did you take a picture or write about your moment(s) to remember?

Today I baked Aunt Debbie’s King Ranch Chicken casserole for dinner. It brought back great memories of visiting with her in Colorado probably when Christian was a baby. I liked seeing her handwriting on the recipe card I still carry and enjoyed thinking of her while I cooked and we enjoyed dinner.

I love food, family, tradition and making memories!

And I love that you choose to share this wonderful life with me, by reading and reflecting, connecting and sometimes sharing a like or a comment with me. Thank you! I hope you enjoyed your weekend and have a great week!

12May2016

What Happens When You Don’t Set Your Intention?

Posted in intention, Mindfulness, simple living by adrianahartley

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

9May2016

May You Be Intentional

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

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

30Apr2016

Gifts Not Gaps, Connection vs. Conflict

Posted in family, Happiness, Mindfulness, one love, parenting, positive living, rooted, simple living by adrianahartley

These are the words that I repeat daily in my mind and out loud with my family.

Today my husband said the words, as if they were his original thoughts. This is a huge compliment. They stuck and mean something to him too and I loved this moment.

I sometimes have a tendency to focus on the gaps, the little things that frustrate me, instead of the gifts that my family bring to my life. I want to stay in the space of creating connections and happiness and seeing the gifted moments and living happily ever after, day by day. When I focus on the gaps, I get stuck in a negative place and I don’t like that. So this is a daily practice to overlook the gaps, to let go, and to get back to joy as quickly as possible.

When my kids are arguing with each other, I ask them if they are creating connections or conflict with one another and if they don’t answer with connections, I ask them what they can do to create a connection instead of a conflict. It empowers them to choose and to take ownership of their actions and to focus on creating peace, just as soon as possible. Our goal is to create happiness and to take care of each other, all the time.

This is how we find and create happiness day by day.

Choose peace.