stay positive…

so, this morning was particulary difficult for me… my husband, who I’ve been separated from for the past 4 months or so, came over to take the boys to school on his way to work… it’s not easy having him here sometimes…

BUT AT LEAST he came to help. 

by 7:00am there were already a couple of small fires to put out at work…

BUT AT LEAST I work virtually so I was able to put them out in my pajamas!

I had yet to get ‘caffeinated’ so I went to brew myself some Cafe Moto (my new favorite beans!) and realized that we had no milk… (I’m a tough cookie, but I still can’t do black coffee   “no prob”, I tell myself… I’ll just scoot off to the store and be back before the brew is ready.

I’m about halfway to the store (which is only a mile away, mind you) and the neighbor calls me to say my garage door is open and the dog is out in the front yard  (I say thank goodness for my nosey neighbor!)  so, milk?  or dog?  I turn around and get the dog back inside, then turn around again to go get my ‘moo juice’.  sheesh!  all this for a cup of coffee! 

BUT AT LEAST the dog is safe.

I get to the store and now I’m a little ‘cranky’ to say the least… I need my coffee now!  So I buy a cup there, even though I know I’ve got a pot waiting at home… PMS is a bitch, I’ll tell ya… so, now I’m leaving the parking lot and the person in front of me stops short and I spill half of the aforementioned, piping hot beverage in my lap…

BUT AT LEAST i’m not wearing my short shorts!  (that would have left a mark)  AND I didn’t hit the ‘brake-happy’ fool in front of me… whew! 

after cursing in my lap for a few seconds I look up at the car I am mere inches away from and I see this teeny-tiny sticker on their back window…

it said: “Stay Positive”.  so, I think I will 

 

“real” housewives?

I wonder if anyone gets the same nauseous feeling I did last night after catching the tail-end of the Bravo TV show “Real Housewives Of New York City”… I’m not sure what they’re using to gauge what is “real” but I’m thinking they’re just a little bit ‘off’ here…

now, I’m game for a little ‘popcorn TV’ now and again, but seriously, are they kidding?  The way these women talk about each other behind one another’s back is very ‘high-shcool’ and I’m not sure how anyone benefits from it…  and I only watched 15 minutes!

 Now, I’m not saying that everyone needs to be a role model but it’s interesting that they choose such self-centered, egotistical and materialistic women to follow around.  I guess this is what TV has come to?  I think I’ll stick to Spongebob.

 

daycare… it’s worth every penny!

okay, so I survived the second week of my little ‘experiment’ to keep my little guy home 2 days a week… make that, BARELY survived.  I won’t get into all of the reasons I felt compelled to try this in the first place, but most of it had to do with guilt…

GUILT that someone else was spending more waking hours with my kid on a given day…
GUILT that my husband (who I’m currently separated from, mind you) thought I should WANT to be with my child more than working
GUILT that I was spending more money than was absolutely necessary, being that I work from home, why couldn’t he just ‘hang out’ with me and I’d save a couple bucks?

well, let me tell you, I’ve come to my senses!  True, someone else does “clock” more hours with him during the week, but it’s worth every penny!  No, not because I would rather be working, dear, but because I can be more efficient when he’s not up my rear-end, thus allowing me to be more ‘present’ when he and his big bro are around. 

more on working thru guilt later…

 

I love you… now change

Look in the mirror… do you like what you see? Hopefully you answered “yes” since that is the person who will be staring back at you for the rest of your natural life.

Sure, you’ll change in both inward and outward appearance… but if you concentrate on the ‘being’ or the ‘core’ of the person staring back at you… it’s important that you like what you see… WHO you see.

Self-acceptance, in my opinion, is the single most important quality a person can have. From it branches honesty & integrity, confidence & power and the ability to love and accept others.

Think about it… if you aren’t comfortable with yourself, it’s difficult to accept others for who THEY really are… at their core. We’re constantly trying to change people into what WE think is best… not for THEM, but for US. Of course, many of us try to fool ourselves into thinking that we want what’s best for others… but HOW WOULD WE KNOW???

 

take the help!

I’ve been very fortunate in the past few years of my life to have met and worked with some of the most intelligent business people on the planet.  With technology moving as fast as it does, by the time I’ve figured out v 1.0, the rest of the world is embracing v 3.2.1… Ever get the feeling that it’s just not possible to keep up?  I do… a lot. 

Fortunately for me, I know a lot of smart people, most of whom are more than willing to help me understand their area of business expertise.   Trouble is, I never want to seem like the “nuisance” or “pest” by asking too many questions.  I tend to “feel bad” that I’m taking someone’s time… The downside of that, of course, is a lot more ‘banging-my-head-against-the-wall-to-figure-something-out’ than is absolutely necessary.  So, I’m learning to take the help when it’s offered.

one of the more eye-opening lessons I’ve learned lately has been the idea of ‘trade’… value given for value received.  This one hit me like a ton of bricks… it seems so simple, yet it really is pretty profound.  If you bring something of value to another person, whether it be on a personal level or in business, they feel better about giving you value in return… whether it be a skill or advice or whatever… and you can feel better about taking it!  Not many people get far without some help from others.

more on this later… there’s nothing like the ‘value’ of a good night’s sleep 

 

a shameless plug…

I’ve been subscribed to a site called www.idealbite.com for a couple weeks now… I love it more every day.  They basically break down, into laymans terms, what we’re doing to our poor planet every day and the consequences.  Now I’m no tree-hugger, but now that I’m a parent, preservation has become increasingly important to me.

sign up for their ‘bite of the day’ and start learning about how all of the seemingly little choices we make every day can really add up in a big way… it’s super cool 

 

Less is, by FAR, more…

living in Southern California, it’s pretty easy to get spoiled… beautiful weather almost year-round, the beach, the mountains, the beach, the laid-back lifestyle, the beach… you get the picture.  So, like many of my SoCal friends, during the real-estate craziness a couple years back, I took advantage and “supersized” my home sweet home.  So what if it’s 25 minutes from the aforementioned beach… we’ll still go all the time, right?

Out with the coastal townhome and in with the mini-manse on a ‘bigger-than-a-postage-stamp’ piece of land… more square footage, more rooms, more yard… yippee!  wait, more grass to mow, too… and more mortgage, yep… and more house to clean!  Oh well… more, more, more… it’s the “American Dream”! 

now, don’t get me wrong, it’s really nice having enough backyard to ‘toil over’ where to put that swimming pool someday (when I hit the lottery, of course)… space for the dog to run around and the kids to play… but what I’m finding after 4 years of “more” is that it sure isn’t what it’s cracked up to be… for starters, that seemingly short 25-minute commute to the coast has proven to be too far to travel more than a handful of times since the first of the year… It may as well be 3 hours away… I’m losing out on the lifestyle that made living here so great in the first place… and besides, this bigger box comes with a bigger price tag, which means less money left over for having fun! 

So, why do we do it, people?  I know most of us could care less about those “Jonses”.  And I’m not saying I’m living beyond my means, but I do long for the days with less to clean and more time & money to play… and being closer to the places I love to spend my ‘down time’.  The tradeoff has been more space… which I quickly found more ‘crap’ to store in it.  While there’s certainly nothing wrong with movin’ on up like George & Weezie… just make sure it’s what you really want.