Sharing Your Passion

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What are you passionate about? Do you share your passion with others?

This is a great gift!

This weekend my family was invited to go boating and to hang out on the water at Discovery Bay with our good friends.

Being on the water is my favorite thing to do. Sharing it with my family and friends makes me giddy, content, joyous, relaxed and thankful.

This weekend didn’t disappoint.

I loved seeing my kids try new things and learn new skills. I was thankful to Rob and Marcia for sharing their boat with us and teaching my kids how to knee board and to try wake boarding.

I love that Rob shared his jet ski with Jeff and that all of us got to go for a ride with him and share the thrill of speeding on the water and fear of falling while jumping the wakes of boats nearby.

I was so happy when they offered for me to get in the water and to ski again. This used to be my biggest passion before having a family and I popped right up and could still do it. I was smiling from ear to ear. Absolutely 100% so happy!

We brought the paddle boards out too and enjoyed every minute together in the sunshine.

Life is good, especially when doing what you love with those you love.

Love this life!

9Jun2014

Work and Play

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This is one of my mottos. We work hard and we play hard. We do the work and then we play.

I’m trying to instill these values in my kids and I’m trying to help them to be accountable and responsible as we enter the summer season, much to my oldest’s dismay.

He thinks he should be free to do whatever he wants and that there should be no expectations whatsoever. He says I used to be the cool mom but now I’m a bit crazy. Bless his heart. He doesn’t understand my motivations and I’m trying to teach, ever so gently, yet we have lots of conflict and it’s only Day 1. God give me patience and grace and help me to be a good teacher.

I’ve asked them to come up with their own daily schedules to help them feel like they have structure to their days without asking me what they should do or telling me that they are bored. I told them that they have limited screen time and that they have to include time to eat, do chores, read, exercise, rest, play, outdoor time, learn and have time to be giving. It is up to them to come up with a rough sketch of how they think the day should play out and that they should think of some of the fun activities and places they would like to visit.

I want them to feel empowered and I want them to be productive, while still enjoying the laziness of summer. without being too lazy.

Each night they are to come up with a plan and write it out, share it with me and then we’ll decide if we need to make any changes. Once we have a plan, it’s perfectly fine for it to change, but doing nothing everyday is not ok.

For Juliana and Charlie, this was easy. It worked. No gripes. They worked hard, played hard and enjoyed their first day. For Christian, not so much. He didn’t like this idea at all and has resisted. He is of course a teenager and has his own definitions and knows it all, so I’m ok with that. We’re working through the chaos and conflict and loving each other despite the disagreements. I think we’ll meet in the middle hopefully by the middle of this week.

Here are copies of their charts from tonight. I especially loved Juliana’s creativity, Charlie’s family ideas, and Christian’s list of possible ideas to explore. They are thinking. They are creating. They are working. They are playing. I am happy.

Happy Summer Everyone!! If you like this idea, steal it, copy it, and let me know if you have success!! xo

29May2014

Teens

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What’s it like parenting teens?

I’ve got two of them right now, and so far, so good. I’m hoping we stay liking each other over the next 5-7 years, as I hear these years can be rough.

They say the golden years are from 4-12, when they are old enough to listen and understand consequences and still think you know it all and are the best.

At our house, we are practicing every day. That’s how I describe my parenting/ coaching and their learning/figuring-life-out-for-themselves processes. We are practicing. We are not perfect. We play and work hard and disagree and we make mistakes. And we start over again and again. And we forgive each other over and over and let go of anger as quickly as we can, never staying mad over night. We are learning. We are practicing. And so far, so good. I’ll check back in 5 years and see if we won!!

For now, I’ll keep practicing, learning, loving and enjoying these remarkable teens that live in my house.

Love this life. Love my teens. And the little one too. And the big one, of course!

22May2014

Happiness Is

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Here I Am is my life story. It’s about just being – in the moment and the pursuit of happiness. I happen to spend a lot of my time being home with my kids and family and working out and volunteering and playing, so I share these type of daily events because that’s what I do. For some reason, I find joy in sharing this journey, hoping that maybe my one life might spark something in you that helps to add joy in your life, your way.

I love my life and am always seeking ways to make it even better and I’m constantly reading and learning and adapting and changing. I tend to share the joys because those make me smile and everyone has there own burdens and don’t need anymore. I don’t like drama so I don’t write about that, even though it’s there on a daily basis. I like to smooth over those messy parts and focus on the good.

I considered stopping writing after my vacation, thinking maybe my life is “boring” to others. It has more of a routine now that we are not expats anymore. Jeff reminded me that most of the news on TV and on the internet is boring and repetitive, yet we still watch it and read it. We learn new things and have opinions and feelings and share our ideas and thoughts, and make connections, based on what we see and learn.

I decided that I want to keep on writing, because I think I know something about positive living and the pursuit of happiness and I hear from so many of you that you like what I have to say. This is rewarding to me. I don’t have life all figured out, but I love that you write to me via comments or text or private Facebook messages and private conversations and validate what I share. I love the feedback loop and hearing about your lives too. We are connected and I love this. So thank you for continuing to follow along and for sharing this beautiful life with me. You are loved.

I hope you had a wonderful day. My day was simple and rewarding. I worked out, met with some people to plan the details of an 8th grade graduation dinner next week, had lunch with a friend who just had surgery, and then picked up my kids from school. My daughter and I played tennis together, and my son and I played Connect Four after dinner.

No one had to be anywhere tonight and Jeff was home early because he has been sick. All my work is done for the day and it’s only 7:30 pm. This makes me extremely happy. I get to go to bed early tonight and catch up on sleep!! Life is good.

Have a great night!

20May2014

Teacher Appreciation

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Tonight we were invited to attend Charlie’s Classroom Celebration and Open House. We received a formal invitation with all the important details, and of course we gladly attended.

We love Charlie’s teacher for so many reasons. We have a shared history, as we first met her when she came to our school as Christian’s second grade student teacher from Stanford. Lucky for our family, she was hired on that summer and became Christian’s 3rd grade teacher. Juliana also then had her for 3rd and 4th grade. When we returned from Amsterdam and found out that she would also be Charlie’s teacher, we were elated. I think we are the first family where she’s had all 3 siblings.

I asked Christian and Juliana to join us at the celebration, so that they could see their teacher again too. This was pretty special to me.

Charlie gave us a tour of his classroom and walked us around the room, pointing out all the important details. My favorite sites were the Word Clouds that the students created for each other.

I love positive recognition and seeing the good in everyone. This activity empowered the kids to practice kindness and celebrating each other. They all seemed to like their individual highlights.

Charlie was most proud of his writing portfolio.

This year he joined the newspaper staff and every month worked on an article for the school paper. I loved seeing his skills develop and how proud he has been. He loves to write and has a natural talent for creating interesting stories that flow. He types them himself, using Google Docs, and emails them to his advisor all on his own. After all the articles are turned in, the team meets to peer review and edit the articles before submission for the final paper. He says this year he’s learned how to indent paragraphs, and to use quotation marks properly. I’m still amazed how much a 4th grader can do and love seeing him enjoy learning.

I am thankful for all the amazing teachers and staff at our school. We have passionate, smart, empathetic, kind and loving teachers. Our principal has also been supportive and has created an open environment where the synergy between multicultural students, teachers, staff and parents has thrived and has created a wonderful community.

I am happy to be back home again, living in the same, ol’ neighborhood, and getting to enjoy these last two years of elementary school at “our” school.

Love this life. Love our teachers. Thank you.

12May2014

The Real Mother’s Day

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Mother’s Day was fabulous of course – but everyone was home and together, which is fabulous too, but noisy and chaotic and messy. Let’s just keep things real.

We all know the real Mother’s Day is Monday – the day AFTER when everyone goes back to school again, and we’re so thankful for the peace and quiet and lack of clutter and arguments and messes.

My floor was soooo dirty! And the laundry piled up – even though I was the one doing the washing yesterday!

Wasn’t I supposed to have the day off? Hmmm… I kept washing, and today sorted, making piles in baskets for each of the monkeys to fold and put away themselves. They are big enough now to do that on their own. I still choose to fold mine and Jeff’s and all the towels and socks and linens. I actually stayed home for an hour today to clean up a bit, since I am a “stay at home” kinda mom who doesn’t really stay home. Seriously.

Today I was busy exercising and burning off all the extra calories I consumed in my celebratory state. And then I spent the day in misery – shopping for a bathing suit. No woman really likes to shop for a bathing suit. It’s depressing. I went everywhere – trying to find one that looks half way decent. You’re not going to believe this, but the last place I went, was a walk by, grab and go, without even trying it on WIN!! I literally had five minutes left of shopping time before picking up Juliana, that I just grabbed it off the rack, went up to the check stand and asked if I could return it if it didn’t fit, if the tags were still on. SInce they said yes, I took my purchase and shoved it in my purse (because they don’t give out bags anymore!) and raced out the door, so I could be 3 minutes late to pick up my daughter. I came home and tried it on with my full dinner belly, and actually didn’t cringe. It looked ok – it’ll do. And my misery is over. Just like that. 5 minutes. After hours and miles and a gazillion shops and try ons that didn’t work. Oh, I wish it could be this simple all the time, and next time, before I put in the hours of work.

How was your Real Mother’s Day?? You get me, right? tee hee hee…. xo

I leave you with this, that I found on Momastery –

Mamaste

“My soul honors your soul.

I honor the space where

Motherhood resides in you.

I honor the love, hard work, frustration and exhaustion within you,

because it is also within me.

In sharing these things, we are one, we belong to each other, and

I hope you survive the day. ” – by Channa B.

Namaste, Sisters!! xo

11May2014

Happy Mother’s Day 2014

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We were in Sunnyvale today. Just me and my little family and no guests.

It was a great day to be home and at the club, playing tennis and watching the kids swim.

The kids all made home made cards and decorated the kitchen to celebrate ME!! I love being spoiled with attention and love that they took the time to think of me.

They joined me for coffee in bed and then Jeff made me a healthy egg white scramble with chicken, kale, garlic, tomatoes and goat cheese that was fabulous!

After breakfast, Jeff and I worked on sorting through our digital photos for hours, even though we need months to make sense of them all. At least we touched them again and made a little progress. Every time I work on the backlog, I feel so frustrated because it’s overwhelming and is such a slow process.

After working around the house, we headed over to the club to play tennis as a family and to swim. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine.

I didn’t want to fight crowds at a restaurant, so we went to a Japanese market and got fixings to make sushi and shrimp and noodles. Our dinner was beyond fabulous and I kept saying Mmm… between every bite!

I wish my extended family was with us to share this delicious dinner. It was so easy to make and assemble and there was no rush and no crowds.

Love this life!

Hope you had a wonderful day celebrating all women and sisters!

8May2014

Do What You Love

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Tennis is what I love to do right now. My hobbies and passions change often, but this one has stuck with me for the past 6 years. I started playing tennis to get out of volunteering, following a wise friend’s lead. She had started taking lessons twice a week, so that she would be “busy” and wouldn’t always be available to say yes to volunteer requests. I thought that was brilliant. And it wasn’t that she didn’t volunteer, she was just the UBER volunteer and was so good at it, that people were always asking for her help. I really admire her and followed in her footsteps.

I still volunteer and love that part of my life too, but I really also love having something for myself. I love the practice and skill building. I love the social aspects. I love the physical and mental challenges. I love the new friends I meet and hearing their stories. I love working hard, playing hard and winning!! There’s always something new to learn and practice and perfect and it’s always changing and stimulating.

Tonight we had an evening match in a beautiful location. However, I screamed out loud twice when I noticed a squirrel trying to get a nut out of my bag. Someone had to shoe him away and off the tennis courts twice. This was a bit distracting, however we still won our first set 6-1 and were having a lot of fun. At the beginning of the second set, my partner hurt her knee. At first she tried to keep playing, and then sat out for the 3 minute time period allowed for physical injury recovery. We iced it, rubbed some aspercream on it, and wrapped it in a brace. When the 3 minutes was up, she bravely decided to come back on the court to play again, yet her knee just wouldn’t allow her to continue and we had to forfeit the game. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to continue our match, but was thankful that she didn’t fall down or hurt herself more seriously. I know that she was disappointed too, but she handled herself with grace. And hey, that’s just part of the game. Life happens.

I decided to stay and watch my teammates play on the other courts and this is where the photo above was taken. It was a gorgeous night out. One of my opponents came to sit by me and we enjoyed a lovely conversation about our match, while nibbling on healthy kale and quinoa salads and sipping wine. She told me that she didn’t play as well tonight as she usually does, and then proceeded to tell me that she is a breast cancer survivor and was proud of her short , dark, hair that had grown back. She told me how she played tennis through her chemo and recovery and that she didn’t give up. I told her that I had a friend who was just diagnosed with breast cancer, and was just beginning her treatment. Right away, she had a compassionate look on her face, like she was a sister. She gave me her contact information and told me to tell my friend to call her, if she needed someone who has been through the experience. She said that so many people helped her and that she wanted to help others too.

And that my friends, is another reason why I love tennis. The stories, The hope. The friendships. The movement. The personal growth and challenges. It’s all good. Even when your game gets forfeited.

Love this life.

7May2014

Sometimes the Little Things are the Big Things

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Today I have three examples of how the little things mean so much, and yet they seem so trivial but really help to create those connections that make people like each other a little more. I probably have more than 3 things, but these three things come to mind first.

I made dinner tonight while everyone was away, using lots of pans and knives and cutting boards and bowls. I made fried rice and had it ready to go for everyone when they came home at different times and when they were hungry. I chose to wash all the dishes and pans and such so that they kitchen was clean and no one else had to clean up. This is a big deal in my house. We all work together, and it’s no one’s job to do the dishes or clean up, we just do it, whoever is able and there and has the time, which usually means Jeff or I. Sometimes we just want sandwiches for dinner so there is no clean up, because we’re all busy and tired at the end of the day. Jeff was so happy that there was “no” more work to be done after dinner. Silly, but true and such a simple way to connect.

The second thing that made Charlie happy was allowing him to stay after practice for 45 minutes longer to practice his catching skills. He wants to be a catcher, but is the youngest kid on his team and the coaches aren’t quite ready for him to be playing catcher in the “big leagues.” I was thankful to the coaches for giving him more one on one time, and to allow him extra practice time. Charlie was happy that he got to play catcher. I stood outside freezing in my shorts and flip flops, not expecting to stay late, but the little things make life more meaningful. When I told Charlie he got to play for an extra 45 minutes, he was surprised it was that long and was thankful and told me so. More connections and gratefulness.

The last little thing, that is a big thing, is Jeff decided to go pick up the kids from the last event of the evening. I was so cold from standing outside so long (and am still defrosting), that he decided he would go out and do the last pickup, even though I was expecting to do the work. This little gesture was huge to me. He was stuck in traffic forever and had already been in the car for so long, yet he decided to let me stay home and warm up and he went out again. The little things. I’m so thankful. And that’s BIG!

What little things are BIG to you? Did anyone make your day? Did you make anyone’s day? It’s the little things…

p.s. Two more little things that made me happy today – Trish and Kimmy both called me in the middle of their busy school schedules. It’s so nice to be loved. And thanks to Jeff who inspired this post tonight! xo

Love this life.

6May2014

Teacher Appreciation Week

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This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at school. I love that students and families are taking time to slow down and be thankful for our teachers and staff.

There is a schedule of appreciation at our school, should you choose to participate.

Monday – Shower with flowers or Healthy Snacks

Tuesday – Teacher/ Staff Luncheon – Donated food items

Wednesday – Parent Notes of Appreciation

Thursday – Classroom Supplies Donations

Friday – Student Notes or Gift of Appreciation

It’s fun to see everyone walking in with different treats. Charlie brought some type of chocolate covered Goji berries yesterday.

Today we prepared a green salad and served at the teacher luncheon. My favorite part was chatting with the other volunteers and sharing stories.

Our school has a great community of students, teachers, parents and staff. It’s a wonderful place to raise kids and to be part of such a loving community. I am thankful for all that everyone contributes to make our school and society a wonderful place to learn and grow up.

Love this life.

Namaste.