Month: May 2014

Tell me something GOOD

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Every week, I try to drop a little dose of motivation. To tell the truth, I write to motivate others AND myself! All mamas need a little “you don’t suck” every now and then, right? The goal in this here space is to move us all to do a little more of what makes us happy. It’s a beautiful thing! This time, I’m taking a break from my usual posts  to do something a little different.

I’d love to get to know YOU. I’ll start by sharing a few fun things.  I’ve got a list of seven things about me. Why seven? Well, whenever anyone asks what my favorite number is, I say seven. It’s like my knee jerk answer. I think that’s because it’s supposed to be lucky! So by all means, let’s get to know each other a little better.

something good

1 Pilates is definitely my workout of choice. I got addicted when I was pregnant with baby number one.

2 Speaking of babies, I have two – a boy and a girl.

3 I’m addicted to loose leaf tea. Most people HAVE to brew coffee every morning, for me it’s tea..

4  My husband and I went to the same midwestern university at the same time and didn’t meet until we both ended up in California. The university had about 2500 students. We even had some of the same friends while in school. Odd. And meant to be. 🙂

5 I make lists for everything. everything. So this list came naturally. Ha!

6  I am teetering toward being a vegetarian. I’m getting more and more over meat and thinking the plant based life might be good for me. We’ll see.

7  I’m 6’1″.

How’s that for getting to know you? Tell me something about you. Any odd quirks? Crazy dreams? Spill ’em!

It took extreme pain but, lesson learned

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A week ago, I had two wisdom teeth removed. I had it done on a Friday and figured I’d rest over the weekend and be better by the time my husband went back to work on Monday. Well, it didn’t go as planned. The dentist had to crack my bone to get one of my teeth out and that made my healing torture! I’m still healing.

This experience has taught me that I need to know when to give myself a break. With my jaw throbbing, my teeth feeling like they were shaking in my head, I was still trying to work. At night, I would sit at this laptop frustrated with myself that I couldn’t focus. I wanted so badly to stay on top of the schedule I’d set for myself. Really, I was crazy! It took a friend to remind me to take it easy on myself. I needed to rest. Working was only making me feel worse. I couldn’t be so focused on creating my future and ignoring my present pain.

iPhone May dump 147Sometimes we have to know when to say when. I wasn’t doing that. My body forced me to check myself. I think it’s common among women, especially moms. We push forward hard while downplaying what may be going on with us. I was busy making my kids a priority. I was doing drop-off,  pick-up, packing lunches, play dates and mommy and me classes while being in extreme pain. My kids got what they always get from me. I did have a day or two in there where they watched more TV than they should have. I was wiped out and couldn’t do more in that moment. I think that’s the day it started sinking in for me that my balance was thrown off. I forgot about putting the oxygen mask on myself first. I made sure the kids were good but I was struggling. I had nothing left to give when it was time for me to work.

I decided to stop trying. I had to give myself some grace and just shut this computer off. Instead of trying to write posts and finish books and structure marketing plans – I took my sick behind to bed! It’s so simple but it took extreme pain for me to see it. Taking the pressure off of myself to be superwoman was freeing. I so believe in taking a step closer to your dream everyday. I keep that firmly in the front of my mind. So much so, that I have a hard time taking a day off of dream building.

Here’s the deal, my dreams don’t work without me. I’ve learned to do as much dream building as self loving. One without the other doesn’t work.

I’ll be getting back to me soon enough. I’ll just keep this in my back pocket as a lesson learned.

How do you balance taking care of yourself with taking care of everyone else?

I Almost Said No

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I almost said no. It was Mother’s Day weekend. It started off easy enough. There were brunch reservations. Mimosas were had. Then my husband asked me what else I wanted to do. I was sleepy. I wanted to stay home and take a much needed nap. Instead, I opted to let him surprise me.

yesHe loaded the kids in the car and promised me I could sleep on the way to wherever we were going. I guess that should have been my first hint. We took a drive. I like to think of it as a mystery drive. We live in the Los Angeles area and we drove up the coast.  We cruised around Malibu with the ocean as far as you can see. As we drove further we were surrounded by mountains. There were animals grazing on the side of the mountain, there were rabbits happily hopping along. We eventually drove through Oxnard and saw lots of farm land with markets along the sides of the road. Our kids were getting a kick out of it all. They were really fascinated with the animals. My son wanted to know more about how a farm works. We took some time to take the scenic route and eventually got to the highway entrance. The signs were pointed south back to Los Angeles and north to Ojai. I assumed my husband would head back home. Instead he took the Ojai exit! Our adventure was going to continue!

ojai welcomeWe checked out the city a bit. After a while we found a family friendly restaurant for dinner. It was great to go take this impromptu trip with the kids. I always love experiencing things through them. One thing is for sure, my son is not a fan of road trips. He hasn’t been on a road trip in about two years. He kept asking my husband when he was going to  park the car!

I’m happy I didn’t take that nap. Being open to whatever and having a why not attitude ended up being a wonderful surprise. I’m learning to do that more and more. It’s proving to be a great way to let new experiences happen.

What have you just said yes to lately?