Tag Archives: happily ever after

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!

🙂 

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

  

Being Alone

Posted in Uncategorized by

I almost didn’t go hiking today because my friends weren’t available and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go by myself. I started talking myself out of hiking as soon as I learned they were unavailable.  I told myself stories like it would be better if I got more work done instead and that I could catch up. I could just exercise in the garage. I could skip exercising all together.  I could make other plans. I could yada yada yada.  I was just looking for a way out, an excuse, to not go alone and time was wasting away.  What should I do?

I decided to go, while I was talking on the phone with my sister and told her about my predicament. She was my little cheerleader, who got me over my irrational fear that I couldn’t/shouldn’t go alone.  She gave me that little kick I needed and I got myself in the car while she was still on the phone with me.  I was so happy that I did.

 I enjoyed the cool breeze flowing through the shady areas and the moments in the hot sun. I loved the beautiful light shining through the gaps, hearing the sound of the water, and seeing all the little animals and kids out exploring nature too.
 I actually loved the experience of being alone and seeing and hearing things from a different perspective. I was aware of all the people on the trail who were together. I was aware of all the sounds the animals make. I was aware of how fast I was moving and loved it. After I got to the top, I decided to run down the hill,  which is something I never do. It made an old experience new again and it felt invigorating.

 I love this tree and I know I’ve shared it before, but seeing this tree reminds me of my sister and the time we took pictures in front of it in tree pose together.  This tree makes me smile and think of her and today I was thankful that she pushed me out the door, by myself to enjoy nature, alone.

What do you enjoy doing alone? What are you afraid of doing alone? Hmm…I’m curious.

nAMaste and sending healing vibes to my friends who couldn’t be with me today.

xo

10 Minute Camping Trip

Posted in Uncategorized by

Tonight’s story is shared through playful text messages between my sister and I while I snuck away to play and lay in the sun, avoiding my responsibilities, and she got ready for the night shift.  This was a great way to relax and I adore you Tricia. Thank you for getting me and being you.

  
  
    

 
This was the happiest part of my day, laying in the “grass” for not even ten minutes to catch my breath, and to share the “quiet” moment with my people.  

The life! My perfectly imperfectly happily ever. Now I just have to remember that.

What was the happiest 10 minutes of your day?

The End!

Love this Life – Living it Up – Doing What I Love

Posted in Uncategorized by

What do you love?

I love to be busy, yet not this busy. I had a productive and satisfying day and I am exhausted. You’ll see why and I’ll probably exhaust you just by reading this crazy list.  Maybe just skim it – it’s kinda long!  Below are some of my different made up titles. I don’t use them every day, just today happened to be on fire.

Alarm Clock Sounder – Roused the kids up bright and early. They have their own alarm clocks, but for some reason they don’t always react to them. And the train has been waking me up every morning at 5:17 am!! What’s up with that?

Breakfast and Lunch Maker – We don’t have time together in the evenings as frequently due to our crazy schedules, so this Fall I’ve started making hot breakfasts for us. It’s my moment to bring us all together and I don’t mind the extra work or dishes because it’s so worth it. Today we had hash browns, scrambled eggs, apple slices and bacon.  I have a weekly rotational schedule and the kids were already reminding me that they’re excited for pancakes tomorrow morning.

Taxi Driver – 2 kids dropped off at high school, 1 husband dropped off at the train, and 1 child dropped off at the middle school, all before 8 am.

House Cleaner – Stopped back at the house to load the dish washer, scrub the pans and to start a load of laundry before heading out to exercise. It feels good to me when the house is in order.

Yogini – Picked up ML on my way to yoga and enjoyed a blissful hour of stretching and toning in a not-so-great-room-with-an-awesome-instructor!

Worker Bee – I got a new part time job!! I had my first “official” business meeting at a coffee shop today and it dawned on me, that I haven’t had a “real” or let’s say “paid” job in over 15 years!! Change is good.

Friend – We celebrated my friend’s birthday over lunch today. It’s great to have a flexible schedule and to have an excuse to stop what you’re doing to spend time with friends over good food.  I also loved seeing my friends throughout the day and sharing moments in person, via text, and on the phone.

Shopper – On the way home from lunch, I stopped by the store to buy perishables for dinner tonight. Google Express is doing all the rest of my shopping and giving me so much time back!! I was in and out in 20 minutes, only having to buy the perishables and everything else was delivered to my door step. Have I mentioned how much I am loving GE? You have to try it if it’s in your area.

  
Chef – While I came home to squeeze in a bit more work, I also started dinner. We had stuffed baked potatoes tonight with proteins, veggies, and other savory toppings.

Life Coach – I spent a lot of time today coaching my kids on some important life lessons that weren’t easy to teach and take some time to practice. Being a parent takes lots of patience and open communication and repetition and more patience and practice and more practice. We’re always learning and failing and trying again, perfectly, imperfectly.

Taxi Driver – Round 3 – Did a 3rd loop around the city chauffering my loved ones back and forth to our nest.

  
House Cleaner – Round 2 – Came back home to clean up the cooking dishes and to sort and fold laundry before heading out again. It’s amazing what one can get done in 30 minutes.

Volunteer – After having very little sleep last night, and by the time 6;00 pm came around, I was exhausted. It took everything in me to rally and go to my event tonight.  Once I got to the parking lot and ran into a friend, I remembered why I love to volunteer. I love my community and sense of belonging that volunteer opportunities bring to my life. I loved seeing my friends and having that time dedicated to working together for a common purpose.

House Cleaner – Round 3 – The evening house patrol involved the usual chores and involved all of us and gave us a few minutes to chat and connect. Even the evenings are busy for us.

BeLoveR – I loved kissing my little one good night, brushing my daughter’s hair and complimenting my oldest on his successes today. I loved taking this fun picture of my husband with our new fur baby that won’t leave his side while he works at night.

  
Today was good. I am done. How was your day?  I hope you lived it up, laughed out loud and loved yourself and your one, beautiful and maybe messy life.  N-Ahhhhhhhhh-ma-ste!

Are You Happy To Be Alive?

Posted in Uncategorized by

Make some noise!

I’m watching the raunchy VMAs and this introduction caught my attention, as the star got the audience responding with cheers and claps and building energy in the room.

Are you happy to be alive? Are you bringing energy to your room, your house, your office space, your sanctuary, and to your people?

Are you loving out loud and living with intention and making this life, this moment, your personal best?

I am. Every day I am practicing and making some noise! Can you hear me? Are you making noise too?

Today Charlie made my day. He asked me if he could have a Coke. He’s only allowed to have a soft drink on the weekend, so I said yes. We keep the sodas in the garage fridge. He came in the house and said to me, “Mom, I need to share this with you.”  I thanked him for wanting to share something with me and asked him why he wanted to share, and he showed me the back side of the can, that said ‘Dreamer’.”

He said, “This can is for you mommy, because you’re a dreamer.”

This made me smile. Can he see that I have big dreams for him and his siblings and our family? I love that he knows this about me and that he too is a big time dreamer and planner. I love that he wanted to share with me too.

I am happy he’s alive. And I am making some noise!!  WOOT!!

Live with intention and purpose and dance and shout, BeLoveRs.  Make some NOISE. We are A-L-I-V-E!!

Adapting

Posted in Uncategorized by

How quick are you to adapt?

Life is constantly changing and we really have no control over our circumstances, even though we pretend we do. We so want control over our lives and plan every minute, but really we are at the mercy of the universe.

We only get to control how we adapt to what is delivered to us.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin

We are always in a state of change, from aging to health to jobs and friends and living and dying and everything else in between.

How quickly are we even able to realize that life is changing and how quickly do we develop new routines based on our new and ever changing circumstances?

Do we drag our feet? Jump right in? Create new routines? Complain? Embrace the change? Or what?

We all have a free will and we can choose to adapt quickly or drag our feet. We can resist change or we can embrace the change and enjoy the new level of life and accept what is.  This can be really, really hard!  But we must adapt, and the quicker the better so that we can continue living happily ever after on a new plane of what is.

Meet yourself where you’re at. See the change and figure out where you’re going next to become the new, best version of yourself and to enjoy what is, what you have, and who you’re with.

I’m in the process of adapting to having independent teenagers. This is a new summer experience for me and I am adapting to being a chauffeur and chef and not being in charge of creating our shared experiences and accepting that sometimes I am not included in the experiences at all.  It’s not comfortable for me and yet I am adapting, slowly and am ready to speed up the process of acceptance, like today. I’m there.

What about you? What change are you experiencing?  Are you adapting quickly, or dragging your feet? Are you aware that there is even a change occurring?  The quicker we can adapt, the quicker we can find peace and continue creating our new happily ever after.

Don’t you love this constantly changing life?

Thanks Trish, for the topic idea for today!! Sometimes it’s challenging to think about what to write every day and I like how you made me think. Thank you, Love.

Goodnight, BeLoveRs. This world needs our love. Prayers for Maddy’s family in Santa Cruz and may you somehow find peace with the injustice that has come your way.

nAMaste

Is Summer Over Yet?

Posted in Uncategorized by

I love summer. It’s my favorite season.

20140807-213246-77566123.jpg

20140807-213247-77567242.jpg

20140807-213248-77568084.jpg

I love the unstructured nature of it with flexibility and togetherness and ice cream and water play until I don’t anymore and I long for the next season to bring back a breath of fresh air and structure again and some alone time for ME!! Have I told you that I haven’t worked out hardly at all this summer? Maybe that’s why I feel cranky and fat!

I never look forward to the fall and the early morning alarm clock and demands for lunches to be made and forms to be filled out and homework to be completed. I don’t miss that part at all.

I do look forward to having an expected routine again and to have the kids separated in different schools and not bickering with one another or trying to get out of chores or manipulating a way and finding or begging for a reason to have more screen time.

I’m done. I’m baked.

I’m ready and thankful for all the teachers that care for and teach my babies every week day and give me a break. I love you!! And I love my kids and our wonderful life journey we’re sharing…I’m just ready for them and I to go out and learn by ourselves and to come back and share our experiences maybe over dinner and maybe not all the hours in between if you know what I mean.

School starts in less than two weeks, but who’s counting? Are you ready too?

xoxoxo Adriana

Stuffed

Posted in Uncategorized by

Do you ever feel stuffed?

This feeling overwhelms me sometimes.

My messy linen closet is symbolic of that feeling.

20140731-003027-1827415.jpg
It is stuffed beyond capacity and there is not enough space to store all the stuff so it quickly becomes disorganized. I’m embarrassed to share it, but let’s keep things real. Life gets messy when you’re busy living happily ever after.

It’s a trade off and I’m ok with it until I’m not because the space doesn’t work anymore because it’s too stuffed, like now!

I need to take everything out and start again and create nice new stacks. Maybe then the stuff will be easier to find and manage.

It just takes time to get everything back in it’s proper place and there is too much stuff to fit in the small space.

I know, I should just get rid of half of it but which half? My linen closet is tiny and stores sheets and mattress covers for 6 beds of different sizes, bath towels, wash cloths, table cloths, beach towels, blankets and Charlie’s shoes. I think I’m trying to have it do too much for it’s limited space. It’s probably why it looks like this.

I know, blah blah blah…stop making excuses and just do it, right? I’ll add it to my To Do list. But for now, I’m “too busy.”

What’s stuffed at your house?

I wish you enough and time to stay organized and unstuffed.

Purge, baby purge!

Namaste.