Free to BE You and Me

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

It’s Memorial Day and I am married to a veteran. We take the time to reflect and remember that our freedom to BE is a gift from those families who chose to sacrifice and give of themselves and we are grateful.

Today we celebrated with veterans in Santa Clara and smiled at Denny and his wife Marilynne who shared stories with us as we admired their courage and history in serving our country. I loved this moment and loved their hugs and kisses. There was an instant connection through our gratitude and recognition of their service and I was touched by our spontaneous interaction. I wanted to hear more of their story. Denny teased me and handed me his biography. He was decorated with several honorable medals, including a Purple Heart and a Navy Cross. He was a true gentleman and I admired his pride and character.

We are thankful for our veterans and their families, especially PopPop and MamMam, Algin Hughes and Elaine Hughes.

Life is good and we thank you, veterans. xoxo

5May2015

Teacher Appreciation Week

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This week is teacher appreciation week at our school and I’m sure for others across the nation.

I was up early preparing a main dish to share at the luncheon, while Charlie was up early writing a hand written thank you card. He proudly brought the first round of gifts to class today.

BJ lead the teacher appreciation luncheon and decorated the staff room with a beautiful island oasis theme. I love seeing how all the families bring food to feed the teachers at this type of event. There is a mutual reciprocity of gratitude between the parents and the teachers and back again. I think the volunteers have just as much fun as the teachers.

I ran into Charlie’s teacher there today. She had a big smile on her face and thanked us for the lunch and also told me how much she enjoyed having Charlie in her class. She said she really enjoyed his gift and the letter that he wrote and noticed that he’s been trying really hard to do his personal best. I loved hearing this feedback from her and was thankful for these few moments together in the lunch room.

This was my last teacher appreciation luncheon at our elementary school as Charlie is promoting in June to middle school. It’s hard for me to believe that all three of my kids will have completed elementary school at the same place, despite the year abroad. Charlie has been going around the house singing the shooting star song that they sing at graduation that I’ve heard once or twice before and I know the end is near.

Today was a good day and it put me in a happy mood to be sharing time with my friends and volunteers and past teachers, grateful for the years together in our little community.

Thank you to all who choose to teach and to all the volunteers making our lives great. I hope you feel appreciated and loved!

nAMaste

25Apr2015

Cabo Yoga

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This is what it looks like living it up in Cabo with my BFFs, in the sun, doing yoga and loving life.

My smile says it all.

Isn’t she amazing? It is such a joy to watch her practice and to be with her and all the other awesome women.

I am so grateful to have been invited on this trip and am thankful that my mama came to look after everyone while I am away.

I am lucky.

Thank you thank you thank you!

nAMaste

29Nov2014

Friends and Family

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

This sign was hanging in the women’s restroom in San Luis Obispo.

In the men’s room, Jeff says the sign said, “Some call it chaos. we call it family.”

I think we have it all.

We spent a lot of time with extended family this weekend and I feel sad leaving them, even though I am happy to be going home again.

I love being together and embracing the chaos and love that swirl around us, tying us together through shared experiences and laughter.

There were several highlights from our time together, however my favorite was when friends and family gathered outside and held hands, all 26 of us, and shared a Thanksgiving prayer before dinner acknowledging our gifts and our heartbreaking loss of Chase this year. We were able to smile and cry together and it was a beautiful moment of being safe and authentic, vulnerable and real. We were happy to be together and sad to be missing a loved one. Yin and yang.

I love the unique gifts that each person brings to our family, quirks and all.

Homemade bacon.

I kept reminding myself that we all bring love to share in our own way.

Baking together.

I am especially thankful to my parents for opening their home to everyone and making us welcome and embracing everyone with unconditional love.

We left their home this afternoon and headed home ourselves. My favorite place to be, besides home, is at the beach. My BFF ML also loves the beach and was at Pismo today. We were so lucky to be able to find each other on the beach and watched the sunset together with our families.

This was such a great way to wrap up the day and I was so happy to see her and to be together on the beach!! Simple joys, I’m telling you!!

Life is good!

I hope you enjoyed your own family and friends this giving thanks weekend, and always.

Wishing you peace and love! xo

25Sep2014

Give Yourselves A Cheer!

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I just want to thank you for sharing this wonderful life together. I hope your day brought you a smile or two.

I want to thank you for smiling when you read Here I Am and for sharing your thoughts and comments and letting me know you get something out of it.

Sometimes I wonder why I continue to share the highlights of my one life story every day. Then one of you BeLoveRs call or text or comment or like one of my posts and you let me know that something touched your heart or you changed something that you’re doing and you share your happiness and journey with me. I love this. We’re connected. You keep me motivated to write and I thank you for this gift.

So cheers, my friends! Continue to let your light shine and make this world a better place, one moment at a time. xo

7Aug2014

Is Summer Over Yet?

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I love summer. It’s my favorite season.

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

19Jul2014

Blogging Vacation

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

Friends – I am taking a blogging vacation. I will miss you and hope you’ll join me again next week. Sometimes you just need to unplug.

Before I go, I’ll leave you with a story.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 am to work on my photo-storage-backup-elephant in the room before everyone woke up or needed anything from me.

I keep putting it off as you know and the elephant died.

I was moving the 3700+ photos to a safe place and before the migration was complete, an error message popped up. All of a sudden, my 3700 turned into 10. Where did they go?

Just lost.

Gone.

I was extremely sad for my loss, especially as I was trying to fix my problem.

I decided to try to recover. I went through the steps to recover a backup from iCloud. I followed the rules. I read help pages and sought advice.

But my elephant must be just too big.

8 hours later my problem is still not resolved. I felt many emotions. Sadness. Anger. Frustration.

As I sat with my frustration and tried to get control over it, I cleaned and organized everything else. That’s what I do when I get flustered and had a short temper. I get quiet and I clean. Weird. And I laugh when I should cry. And then I cry. And then I say so what.

So what. I mean, really.

They are photos and memories of the past. I’m holding on to the past and wasting the present moment. I hate that. Let it go, mantra, remember?

As I sat there feeling sad and mad at myself for not keeping up with my photo project, I thought of real loss and the families who died in the airplane accident this week, and all the other real pain that people carry. This is nothing. It’s just a little something.

I am walking away from the problem for today as I had enough.

Despite the chaos of life, I always look for the silver lining and there were several today.

My sister was texting me throughout the day and “listened” and supported me and reminded me to breathe. Thank you. I love that you get me.

My kids were so patient when our expectations for the day changed. Even though they had lots of questions, and were waiting, they were helpful and got it even though they thought I was crazy.

My husband is my rock. He went and got lunch for everyone. He helped with the technical solutions, even though he doesn’t really want to be family tech support. When I wanted to give up, he offered another idea and took me to his office where the wifi speed is faster than our home. He didn’t give up on me, even when I wasn’t so nice. I really like you. Thank you.

After nothing was working, I finally chose to give up. We got back in the car with the kids, and I just sat quietly in defeat.

As I sat still, I let go. We have places to be. I will deal with the elephant carcass next week.

I will be thankful for the love and support I received today and be ok with my loss.

So that’s why I’m taking a break.

Going unplugged this week. I need a tech cleanse. Aaaahhhhh.

Namaste. xo

20May2014

Teacher Appreciation

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

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.

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.

5May2014

Being in 3 Places at Once

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This is my biggest challenge right now, being a mom of three. How can I be at three different events at the same time? And why is May such a busy month?

Today I was thankful for my husband, who chose to go to work early so he could leave a bit early today, to come and support our kids and me. I couldn’t have done it all alone and I was most thankful for him. I was happy that he got to see Juliana win her tennis match in the middle of the day. I was also thankful that he could stay with her and wrapped things up, while I went to watch the middle of Charlie’s baseball game.

CJ texted me from his track meet and was able to finish his work without us. Phew. I’m starting to think that him being able to drive soon will be a big asset to our family.

The best part of my day was just knowing that we all support one another and make things work, despite the work and tension and conflicts that arise. It’s kind of like a dance, where we lead and follow and get into a rhythm together, and for this I’m thankful and am glad our dance is done, at least for the night, almost.

Did you dance today?

Namaste.