Tag Archives: Happiness

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? 

Bubble Soccer

Posted in exercise, family, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, intention, Love, memories by


The boys played bubble soccer today at their end of the season soccer party and everyone had a good time, watching and playing. It was hilarious to watch them bumping into each other and trying to get up again. I would definitely recommend this for a party!


June is a busy month for us and it feels like Christmas time with all the commitments and celebrations.  Maybe bubble soccer will help us to remember to go with the flow, to let things bounce off of us, to get back up when we fall and to laugh along the way!

Life is good! Stay calm and cool.

A Clean Sink

Posted in Gratitude, Happiness, simple living by


You’re gonna laugh but having a clean and empty sink at the end of the day is something that makes me truly happy. I’m even happier when I’m not the one doing the emptying and cleaning. I’m also extremely happy when all the dishes are off the counter and put away, even those that were “drying.” 

When the sink is empty, I feel likes it’s a clean palate to begin creating something wonderful again! 

The kitchen is the hub to the family. If it’s orderly, everything else seems to flow smoothly. When it’s messy, things feel chaotic and the hub feels rickety.

So I’m happy tonight with my simple, clean sink! Now if someone would just clear the papers and clutter from the table…I can just imagine the joy to come.

Cheers to clean kitchens and simple joys! May we all have them.

xo

Salud!

Posted in family, food, happily ever after, Happiness, joy, Love, simple living, spark joy by


As I’m practicing what I like to call “adulting,” I am missing my grandparents. I want to know them and to love them and share stories and my kids with them now that I’m an official adult. I keep missing them and our traditions.

I am thankful for my mama who learned how to cook the family recipe and to my husband who meticulously watched and took notes to capture how she made the liquid gold, because she doesn’t follow a recipe.  He watched as she cooked and created a Google doc that we could share, find and reuse.

Following the recipe this morning made me think of my mama and our family and the love we’ve shared over spaghetti dinners. I loved the process and the smell in the house and was excited for my family to come home to enjoy it with me.  I loved having it cooking on the stove all day, as I worked from home, getting up every so often to give it a stir, sniff and taste.

Everyone came home at different times tonight, and even though we didn’t get to sit together and share a meal at the same time, I got to see their faces and empty bowls and seeing them go back for late night snacks. 

Do you have a favorite family meal that brings back good memories? 

Salud! To your health!! 

Mangia!! Mangia!

nAMaste.

May You Be Intentional

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

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

đŸ™‚

nAMaste

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!! 

Office After Hours

Posted in Gratitude, Happiness, Love, positive living, simple living, space by

This is my small, home office, viewed from my couch after work, where I work from home.

  
I am enjoying seeing it from a different perspective, after dinner and dishes, just relaxing and doing nothing while the day light turns to night. I haven’t turned on the lights yet and like watching and feeling the transition of time changing and passing, but now it’s starting to get too dark and it feels weird to sit in the darkness.

 Let there be light.

 
When I illuminated my messy desk, I noticed that love surrounds me that I didn’t notice before. There is a heart shaped stand that holds a picture of my family. There is a glass blown heart that I received on a trip to Cabo with my BFF and there is a heart shaped frame holding a picture of me and my honey. I like this space, and like it even more now that I am seeing it from a different perspective.

What does your space look and feel like? Do you like the place where you spend many of your waking hours? What can you do to make it enjoyable? 

nAMaste BeLoveRs

Stanford Dish 

Posted in best friends, Gratitude, nature, simple living by

  
My BFF came to town today to spend the day with me. We decided to go back to our old stomping grounds to hike the Stanford Dish.

It was a gorgeous day and so great to be outside walking and talking and catching up.

I am thankful that I have a flexible work schedule and that my kids are now capable to get home from school by themselves.  This is a perk of having big kids, that I never dreamed of.

I am thankful that my friend took the time out of her busy life to come and see me. I’ve missed her and love how we just flow together like we’ve never been apart. Come back soon! Miss you already.
Life is good.

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