Category Archives: simple living

Rise Up

Posted in connection, Gratitude, intention, positive living, rooted, simple living, tree pose by
Rise Up

Rise up with your arms, your heart, your head, your eyes, your thoughts.

Inhale. Close your eyes and pause. Exhale.

Bring your hands to your heart center, with palms touching each other. Feel the earth beneath your feet, as you are rooted in love. Feel the sun shine on your face.

Take this moment to feel gratitude for your breath and being alive. Think about someone else that you appreciate and wish them well, in your mind.

Enjoy this moment with whatever feelings arise as this is part of our journey.

Namaste and Happy Memorial Day, honoring those who have served others and have died and gone before us, with love and gratitude.

💛

Hindsight 2020

Posted in covid-19, Gratitude, happily ever after, intention, positive living, presence, simple living by

It’s 2020.

l o v e

I feel like playing with words after thinking about the saying that hindsight is 20/20. This saying means that it’s easy to know the right thing to do after something has happened, but it’s hard for us to predict the future.

What if during this Great Pause/Pandemic of 2020, we could look back to see what we’ve forgotten during all our busyness up until this moment and we decided to apply hindsight 20/20 to our future 2020/2021?

What if we chose to set an intention about the path forward we wish to create once we are free from this time of quarantine?

As we get to choose how we want to live our happily ever after, what path are you choosing to make the most of your journey? I wish you well.

🙏🏻 namaste 💛

Be Giving

Posted in belovers, connection, Cooking, food, Friends, Gratitude, simple living, work life balance, working mom by

“Be giving, forgiving, compassionate and loving.”

You gotta love a cup of tea that comes with an inspirational message.

Julie gave me this fun mug for my birthday and when I drink from it I think of her and smile. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. I brought her with me to work and it was like having my friend with me.

Speaking of my giving and loving friend, today she sent in a healthy breakfast for our bright and early team meeting. What a sweet and caring surprise. I love her and the breakfast parfait was quite a treat too. I am so lucky!

I am surrounded by giving and loving friends and family and they sure make life sweet. Last night Pat baked three different types of cookies for our PEO meeting to share with all of us. And today Sam took me out to lunch because he thought I needed to get out of the office. I want to be like them when I grow up! Or maybe I am practicing being like them, while I grow up.

Tonight Juliana and I baked Snickerdoodle cookies to share and give away. As she was packing up some up to take with her to share with her friend, she said that I had rubbed off on her. I smiled. Today was good.

Life. Full circle. Karma. Connection. Thankful.

I am content and can’t wait to share cookies and tea again tomorrow.

Namaste BeLoveRs.

xo

Life is Good

Posted in intention, simple living by

“Create the sequence of goodness, consequences will be always good.”

What did you create today that was good?

What did you do that made you feel good?

I created dinner with Jeff and Christian tonight and that was good and delicious.

My sister called and we chatted for thirty minutes. While we were chatting I jumped on the elliptical and ran 3 miles. That felt good!

I shared texts with friends that made me smile.

And I created space to do nothing today and enjoyed how the day filled up. Today was good.

I hope you enjoyed your Sunday and took some time to relax and let go. Have a good week!

Sharing Tea

Posted in Love, positive living, simple living by

Hello BeLoveRs! It’s been awhile since I last wrote. More than a year, actually. And since I just renewed my blog subscription for another year, I thought maybe we could share a cup of tea, some thoughts, and to start fresh again, you know at the almost end of February…a perfectly imperfect place to start again.

This year I thought we’d share some tea and the little things. Everyday I enjoy drinking yogi tea because I love opening the little package and reading the paper attachment tied to the tea bag. It makes me smile. I usually take a picture, detach the paper from the string and save the quote to share, to store in my journal, or to post up in my kitchen or on a social media post like this one. I like these little positive living reminders, and don’t we all need a little self-compassion? How have you been taking care of yourself? I’m curious. 😉

I hope that you are well. xoxo

Explore

Posted in simple living by

What will you explore this week?

I want to explore new things and places and experiences.

Last week, Juliana and I went to explore the new Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino.

We literally live less than 2 miles from it and have watched the development grow over the last couple of years. We’ve also watched the traffic expand and have experienced longer wait times at lights and longer lines trying to move across town, but that’s another story.

Visiting the visitor center is an experience. There is underground parking with a parking attendant available to guide and direct you as you enter. There are three main parts to the center. As you walk in, you notice the all glass walls and gigantic doors. The first part has an aluminum model of Apple Park, where there are live hosts holding iPads for your use to experience an augmented reality version of visiting Apple Park, which is actually closer to visitors. The hosts were very friendly and shared stories about the building and how to navigate the iPad experience moving from building to building, and changing the lighting one might experience as day turns to night.

The middle part of the center (that sounds funny) housed the retail section, where you could touch, play, read, and view books, electronics, cases, bags, and clothes. There were friendly Apple employees ready to answer questions and to sell you products. I especially liked flipping through the product development history books, touching the high quality paper and appreciating the design aesthetics. The watch band display caught my eye, as well as the mega screen showing advertisements.

I also loved the natural sunlight streaming in through the glass walls.

The third part of the center was the restaurant. I found it odd that 6 employees were standing away from the service counter, with a couple employees working behind the counter. The line of friendly employees were ready to assist you with your order once you placed it on an iPad, I think. We didn’t order anything, however that would have been an interesting experience too, just to see how things work. I think I prefer the personal connection and conversation with the wait staff versus interacting with an iPad. I guess I’ll have to try it next time to experience the difference.

Everything was aesthetically pleasing and flowed together. Overall, I enjoyed the visit and will bring guests who would like to see it too and maybe grab a coffee.

xo Adriana

Happy New Year 2018

Posted in belovers, connection, family, food, happily ever after, intention, joy, simple living, work life balance, working mom by

Hello BeLoveRs…how have you been?I’ve been feeling a strong desire to write again and I hope the feeling lasts.It’s been two and a half years since I changed my path and began working from home in a paid position and chose to slow down sharing my written story. This morning there was a quote shared by Gretchen Rubin that connected to my afternoon yesterday that inspired me to write today.“Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself.”

– Bernard Berenson, Sunset and Twilight, from the Diaries of 1947-1958Yesterday I lived. I worked. I helped. I danced. I served. I played. I felt content and uncomfortable and smiled and wanted to capture the moment and to remember to do it again. The feeling of being unrushed. The feeling of creating space to let in the unknown and unplanned was liberating. We followed his agenda to go to the new grocery and he lead the way. There was wine tasting when we walked in and samples of drizzled popcorn and mandarin orange slices. We played with the chilling station to see how it worked. We picked out steaks for dinner that he chose and potatoes for baking that he also thought were a good idea. We bought a crab because we didn’t know what to do with a crab and I want to learn something new related to cooking every week. The butcher cracked it open for us and wrapped it up and found us in the store to give it to us when it was ready. We looked at all the different types of teas and marveled at the salt and pepper grinders. It was a joyful experience. We rarely go shopping together anymore and I loved experiencing the simple shopping outing with him.When we got home, Charlie and I danced in the kitchen as he kept repeating a song verse all afternoon that was driving me a bit crazy. The verse went with a song and dance he learned at school. It all makes sense.So as you go through living your day today, I wish you the freedom to be and to enjoy the moments as they are and to see and feel them whatever they may be.Namaste.

The Little Things

Posted in connection, Cooking, family, food, Gratitude, happily ever after, intention, Love, motherhood, simple living, Uncategorized, work life balance, working mom by

I’ve missed writing and think about it often, wondering what I would write if I chose to write each night I think about writing but don’t actually begin.

I’ve enjoyed the gift of time from not writing and also miss the days of continuity and focusing on what went well each day when I was writing. That yin and yang thing is always present and there are trade offs, aren’t there?

The little thing that caught my attention today was making the kids’ lunches again. I used to make their lunches, then Jeff made their lunches, and then they made their lunches, you know, practicing growing up and being responsible for taking care of themselves.  When we had our Japanese exchange student with us earlier this month, I was making breakfasts, lunches and dinners for everyone, including my BIG kids. After Kohei left, I kinda carried on and continued making lunches, gave up breakfasts and still make dinners. I realized I actually love making their lunches and the connection this creates, providing for them this way. I love that it makes them happy and takes a little bit of the burden away from their busy mornings, even if they could do it for themselves.  I love when Juliana texts me during the day to say how much she enjoyed what was prepared for her, or shares her gratitude and a moment of thought, connection, love.

I love the little things.IMG_8436 2