Category Archives: parenting

Happily Ever After Today

Posted in connection, family, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, joy, Love, memories, motherhood, parenting, positive living, simple living, spark joy by

How did you live your happily ever after today? After all, we are not promised tomorrow. So how did you make the most of your today?

This is how I think. I think that today is my best life ever and how am I going to live it up? What will spark joy?

Today I got to go for a walk with my BFF in the middle of the day, since we had to miss yoga. We made time for each other to escape our responsibilities and to go outside for a short while and to enjoy the sunshine, today.

I took my kids out to celebrate Charlie’s Student of the Month award to get bubble tea before dinner, as he requested. We took time to celebrate his gifts and he even got to sit in the front seat, a place usually reserved for the eldest. I loved just sitting with him and Juliana, sharing stories about our happily ever after day.

What else? I called my sister, I texted with my family, and made dinner and we gathered around the table. We didn’t have to go anywhere tonight and it was a gift to stay home and relax.

Today was good. I liked going with the flow and enjoying my family and friends, living the dream, one day at a time.

 What’s your dream? Are you creating it? Go ahead… get started! You’ll thank yourself later for choosing to start right now.

Chaperoning in Chinatown

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


I got to chaperone a field trip to Chinatown in San Francisco today and am thankful.


I’m thankful that Charlie wanted me to go with him. I’m thankful that he was excited to go on this trip with his classmates and I loved hearing his anticipation about possibly getting a straw hat all week. 

I enjoyed the car ride with the other chaperones and was thankful I wasn’t riding the bus with all the kids.


I loved letting my little group lead and negotiate which direction we should head and which shops and sites we should visit, while I watched over all of them and kept them safe and together.

The weather was gorgeous in the city today and I loved the break in my routine. 


I am thankful for my flexible work schedule that allowed me to chaperone without feeling guilty.

And I’m thankful that Charlie found joy with his new straw hat. It’s the little things worthy of celebrating!

Today was good. 

How was your day? What made you feel thankful, wise one?


Namaste.

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!

🙂 

Mother’s Day

Posted in family, Gratitude, Happiness, Love, motherhood, parenting by

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas in the world!

  
I think this is a day to celebrate unconditional love and to recognize womens’ work!

I am thankful for my mom, my sisters, my girlfriends, my husband’s mom and our grandmothers. I am grateful for my kids, who made me a mother and for my husband who played a part in the creation process and who loves and supports me and our kids, unconditionally.

I love being part of the motherhood and sharing this day with y’all. Happy Mother’s Day!

nAMaste Mama Lovers!! 

Lockdown

Posted in family, fear, one love, parenting by

“we’re in lockdown”

These are not words you want to receive from your daughter and son.

“i’m scared”

Me too.

The lockdown didn’t last long. Just long enough for adrenaline to rush through my veins and to leave me shaken again. Vulnerable. Afraid. Helpless. Nervous. Scared. Angry.

“we’re on the ground”

Stay calm. Breathe. Do what they tell you and cooperate. Fight if you have to.

What the hell are these words?

I hated this afternoon. I hated the feelings that some teenager walking with a toy gun created for our family, our friends and our community.

Luckily they were freed and everyone was safe and physically unharmed. Emotionally, I still don’t feel good, even though the situation didn’t last very long. I felt helpless and mad that my kids had to experience this fear and had to lie on the ground without knowing if they were safe or not, while I helplessly waited for their homecoming.

When they came home, I cried and hugged them and cleared my schedule. I was thankful that the local police had the situation under control immediately and the kids were freed to come home to their worried mama, who was texting and calling and searching for answers while I anxiously waited.

When they came home, we all sat on the couch and watched Gilmore Girls on Netflix. We didn’t stress about dinner or homework. Afterwards, Juliana and I went to relax and got pedicures together, on a Monday at dinner time, instead. This made me happy.

Hug your kids and loved ones and enjoy the shared moments.

nAMaste BeLoveRs. Carry on. All is well.

 

 

 

 

 

Gifts Not Gaps, Connection vs. Conflict

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

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.

Choose love.

Choose gifts.

Choose connections.

We get to choose every day!!

What will you choose tomorrow?

nAMaste

  

Attraction

Posted in parenting by

I am working on this one.

I am not trying to attract attention, but maybe I am.

I am trying to attract like mindedness with my kid, who at the moment (this morning), is frustrating me. He has a very strong will and so do I and I’m the mama so I have seniority and tenure, as if that means anything. I find that when I react in a negative way (think yelling and threatening to take away everything he desires), I attract negative behavior back. He mimics me or I mimic him or maybe we mimic each other.

I am practicing staying calm and focused on being kind and firm as I guide him and I together on our shared trajectory. I have so many things to still teach him and to learn myself, at least that is my intention. I am hoping that if I stay calm and don’t overreact, that he’ll mimic me and listen and learn about cause and effect and make good choices too. I am still learning and practicing repetition, breathing and patience. I know it works. It just takes time to practice and it isn’t easy and it’s work. UGH.

All good things take work. I’ll keep practicing and loving on him as we grow up together, one day, one hug at a time. I’ll check back with you in 7 years and let you know how this little experiment turns out.  🙂

nAMaste