It’s been a very busy and stressful week and it’s Friday night. I am happy to just be home, with everyone home too by 7:30 pm and no where to go and no one to pick up and nothing left to do. We can take comfort in this simple fact. This is just like what Melissa says to us at the end of our yoga practice and I love the feeling of being done and resting.
Our week is complete and now we get to take comfort and rest and enjoy the week-end. Best night ever.
I wish the same to you.
nAMaste
Have you ever thought about courting in terms of friendships and platonic relationships?
Courting means to pay special attention to (someone) in an attempt to win their support or favor. Typically courting is used when trying to pick a mate to marry. But what about when you think of the friendships and relationships you wish to create? Is there an element of courting involved? I think so.
Friendships take time and investments of self. It takes two interested parties who choose to engage equally or near equally with each other to build a connection. I love connections and so this topic is very interesting to me and I’m surprised I never really thought of dating my friends or family or husband this way. Hmmm… learn something new everyday.
I realized that I am not typically the one to initiate the courting process with friends. I usually wait to be invited or asked out and typically am not the initiator. How about in your friendships? Are you the planner and organizer? I always love when someone else does the planning and inviting, but now I think I should be the one who holds court more often. It feels good to reach out to others and to be the first one to say, “hi, how are you? what are you doing? wanna meet for coffee?”
I tend to let busyness fill my time and when busyness becomes still, I relish in the stillness and don’t feel the need to reach out and court someone. That sounds funny, but it’s true.
Today, I decided to reach out and connect first and loved it. I loved when I had a few moments, that I decided to text a couple of my BFFs to see how they were shining today. 😉 It’s the giving part that creates happiness, that I forget. I have to be better at this courtship thing, because I think it works, and I’m definitely interested in my friends’ lives and strengthening our bonds.
I have a courtship that I maintain with my mama and sisters almost everyday. I’m never too busy to listen and to share and to connect with them. They are part of my inner circle and it takes time to invest in them and to strengthen our bonds.. It’s so worth it.
Does this make any sense to you?
Here’s to making the time to court our friends and spreading love and joy.
nAMaste, BeLoveRs
xoxo
Something is seriously wrong with me.
I went back to work and I’m now trying to merge my stay at home mom lifestyle and expectations with my new part-time, working mom time commitments. Wednesdays are my “day off” and feel like my Sunday, like my day to catch up and to exercise and see friends and make appointments and to run errands and to supposedly cook like a wild woman!
Yesterday, I had to leave the house early and was gone and in and out all day and night. I had no time to cook and this bothered me. I like to have food readily available for my family when they come home. They’re all busy too, and providing food feels like I’m providing comfort and energy so that everyone survives. So dramatic, I know. But seriously. They can cook on their own and make their own food, but I still want to do it and feel like I’m doing my job. I want to take care of them this way and show them my love this way. I love that they enjoy my cooking and I feel connected to them through food. So when I literally couldn’t fit in the cooking time any time during the day yesterday, I felt like a failure. Not really, but really I’m feeling dramatic today, so let’s just go with an F- in the food department.
So today I made up for it because I had time. I also had pounds of chicken and beef and veggies that I had planned to use yesterday, so I got busy. I had leftovers to repurpose and new recipes to try and a dish that Juliana asked me to make, plus 2 dishes I wanted to recreate from the Indonesian restaurant we visited this past weekend. I had big dreams to fill today and I made 6 different things, plus washed all the dishes and put them away. All in a day and now I feel happy with my full fridge.
In case you’re curious about what I made, I made a spicy Indonesian beef rendang, Indonesian sayur lodeh, gluten free/light/baked coconut chicken, some sort of mediterranean chicken and cauliflower in a tomato and onion sauce, chicken marsala, and Julie’s spaghetti pizza bake recipe. Oh, and Thai jasmine rice to soak up all the sauces.
So no one should go hungry for the rest of the week. Phew. I feel so much better now with food in the nest, ready to feed my flock.
How do you nest?
nAMaste BeLoveRs
In honor of Carmen’s quilting patterns and love of color and good food, here’s my perfectly imperfect tribute of something beautiful on an old table. Yin and yang
I left Carmen’s house tonight, inspired, as always. Carmen makes me smile and I love just being near her. She exudes light, through her eyes and her smile and her confidence. Her house is filled with bright colors and as you look around, you can’t help but feel happy, looking at the bright orange walls in her kitchen, the rainbow carpet in her family room and at the whimsical and colorful hand made, intricately designed quilt that covers one wall.
She always has a little bit of wisdom to share, that I hold onto and want to remember. For example, tonight somehow we were talking about problems and worry, about what exactly I don’t remember, but she shared something that her brother taught her about how we shouldn’t spend our time worrying, for if there is a solution there is nothing to worry about and if there isn’t a solution there isn’t anything you can do anyway, so why worry? I’m sure I messed it up, but the message was to stop worrying and the way she shared her story just made me smile.
She showed me her quilting room and I was in awe. It was my favorite room in the house for several reasons. It was organized and neat and was a creative haven for her to practice her art. She had all the right tools and bins and surfaces needed. It wasn’t huge, but it was perfectly balanced and I could imagine what it would be like to be her, inside her little room during the day with the sunshine streaming in, listening to her music and quilting away in her happy place, making quilts to give away, which makes her even happier. I loved this space and love that she is so passionate and has created a place to work her magic.
I also love that she loves to travel and how she adores her family, especially her grandkids, and lives life up beautifully, every day.
It’s always great to have mentors, and Carmen is one of mine.
Who is one of your mentors and why? What do you admire about the person that inspires you?
Thank you Carmen – for the visit, for the treats to share with my family, and for being such a lovely soul. xo
nAMAste
We celebrated Halloween all month, culminating in a big party last night and lots of candy and clutter. We’ve had decorations all over our house and in our yard the entire month too. This morning we deconstructed Halloween and stored everything back in the attic. I love that everything is back in balance again, at least until the next holiday.
After cleaning up all day, we had a couple things to do this afternoon and we found ourselves with an hour to spare while waiting for Juliana and decided to stop at the park, which was a great idea!!!
When was the last time you strolled through a park? I forget how great they are, now that the kids are older. I loved seeing all the families and dogs, kids and squirrels, and just breathing in the fresh air and getting some simple exercise.
Charlie loves to go geocaching and knew there were two caches to find in this park. We followed along to discover the treasures with him. It was really fun searching and uncovering the secret loot and watching Charlie sign the logs, showing that he was there. 
As we walked through the park, we saw a family having portraits taken as the sun was setting. The lighting was gorgeous and it was the best time of days for photos. I teased Jeff and asked him to come pretend with me that we were taking holiday photos. The more selfies we took, the more I laughed and cracked myself up. I actually liked a couple of them and wished I had all 3 kids with us to snap a family selfie. Next time!!
As we were getting ready to leave, I loved listening to and watching these little ones riding their scooters up and down this little hill. I was scared for them, speeding down so quickly without helmets on and so close to each other, but they were so happy! I just watched and prayed that they would be safe, marveling in their lack of fear and pure, repetitive joy.
Today was a perfect day to go outside and play. How did you rest and play on your Sunday?
Hope you have a good week. xo
We enjoyed another holiday shared with good friends, great food and lots of fun decorations and costumes.
I loved seeing the kids come to the door dressed up and excited, anticipating what kind of candy they would get. I showed some kids a bowl with broccoli and carrots and asked them if they wanted that or some candy. They picked the right choice and their parents giggled along with me.
The kids are big now and invited their friends over for a dinner party before they all went off on their own. I enjoyed the transition this year. I also loved my friends being here and helping me cook and set up and serve everyone! It was a great night.
Hope you had fun with your family and friends and trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood.
Happy Halloween 2015.
It was a very busy day with overlapping events and I am ready to be done. It was a great, full day and I am ready to relax.
Some days are just like that.
How was your day?
I made dinner at 7 am because I knew the day would be full. We got the kids off to school and I got to work so that I could sneak away to the afternoon homecoming parade. I’m so glad my kids got involved with their school spirit.
In the afternoon, we did some shopping and then dropped off one kid to homecoming and the little one and I went to set up for Trunk or Treat.
And if we weren’t busy enough, we went to the homecoming football game to enjoy the experience with the kids after we packed up from trunk or treat. This made life fun!!
All is well, just ready for bed and to get ready for a big day again tomorrow. It’s Halloween and we change the clocks on Sunday, so we’ll enjoy that extra hour of sleep then.
Have a good weekend!
If all girls played like this, the world would be a better place!
THIS happened tonight.
The coach of one team got a red card at the beginning of the last game of the Polo season. The girls were devasted and still wanted to play their last game. While they waited for the officials to figure out what to do next, they decided to join together in the pool while they waited.
This made me so happy. They just wanted to play and have fun. They decided to have a short scrimmage and the coach for the other team acted as the ref so that the girls could have their last moment in the pool.
The coach from the other team was filled with grace. She is a true leader and role model. And all the girls and fans benefited from her leadership tonight.
Look at us SHINE together!
Girls rising strong.
I love it!
Do you ever think about how much time you spend getting ready for the day or if you’re a girl, how much time guys spend getting ready compared to you?
I mean how much time do you spend picking out your clothes and shoes and accessories? And how much time do you spend shaving your legs, washing and conditioning your hair, putting on makeup and styling your hair? Probably a lot longer than men do. Men have a time advantage that women choose to give up to be “pretty.”
I tend to not care either way, but I definitely notice a difference in the way I feel and how others see me when I choose to invest time in myself. This is a conundrum to me.
I am perfectly content to go out with no makeup, hair up in a pony tail and work out clothes on. I’m happy to go out with makeup and curly, wild hair. I feel prettiest when I take the time to blow out my hair and straighten it and when I put on makeup and cute clothes and shoes. However, the latter takes me an hour whereas the not caring might take me 15 minutes. 5 out of 7 days I probably choose the quickest way out the door, little makeup and wet hair in a pony tail/bun twist. However, when I do take the time to take care of me, I do feel better, which makes me wonder. Is it worth it?
Today I took the time to get ready and felt really happy about that. Maybe that’s what people saw, or maybe they saw that I took time for myself and was happy on the inside and it shined on the outside. Or maybe I looked more put together than usual. Who knows? i know that I liked the way it felt to have done the work to look “shined up” and I know that I don’t like the amount of time I spent getting to that state.
What are your thoughts? Do you take the time to get ready every day? Or do you skip a shower, go out with your workout clothes and don’t care? I’m so curious. I’m always trying to maximize all the things I can get done in a given day, and blow drying my hair isn’t high on my list. Except for today.
You’re beautiful just the way you are, with makeup or not. Don’t forget. And it’s okay to take time for yourself, if that’s what you wish for yourself.
Good night!!
You were very interesting when you were born. We all were. We all had people interested in our coming to life and celebrated us. We were very interesting, probably for a very long time. But over the years, some of us become boring. Why is that? Are you boring or are you interesting and what makes you interesting? Hmm… I’m always interested in learning about other people and their interesting interests, even when I don’t share them. I find passionate people very interesting.
What are you passionate about? Are you afraid to share your interests? I think fear gets in the way for some people and they hide away instead of connecting and celebrating and living out loud.
Seth Godin just posed this question here -> Seth’s blog and he made me think of the most interesting person I know, who fascinates me.
This would be my husband. He is one of the most interesting people in the world to me and I love hearing his stories and being a part of his life.
Like right now, he’s making a slab of bacon on the smoker, which has been smoking for 6 hours. The smell of the apple wood chips burning in the smoker is drifting into my kitchen while I write. I’m smelling the sweet smells and hearing the hum of the smoker’s convection fan. He promised his friends at work that one day he’d bring them some home made bacon, but he didn’t tell them when he would bring it in. I bet they are going to be surprised this week.
I bought a pork belly at Costco last week, and it has been sitting in our refrigerator, rubbed in spices and curing, as he turned the slab from side to side every day, awaiting today’s smoking. After it smokes, he will slice it and share it and fry it in a pan. I can’t wait. I know his friends are anxiously waiting too for the day to arrive with bacon in hand. Who doesn’t love bacon?
And this is only one interesting fact about the man I married. He chooses to show up and to share his gifts and talents EVERY day. He is funny and kind, hard working and loving and I love how much others love him too. He sincerely cares about people and is always making this world a better place. I’m so happy he was born and that he chose to share his life with us. He is VERY interesting.
I could go on and on, but I’ll save that for another day.
What makes you interesting? Go out and SHINE!
Who is interesting to you? Share. Connect. Think about it. This is a fun one!
I hope you have a FaBuLoUs and iNteResTing week.
nAMaste BeLoveRs
xoxoxox
here i am 