Channeling your childlike energy to find joy
Inspired by my daughter’s happy aura, I asked her to make a picture to hang in my office. In between turning cartwheels and singing an opera version of “My Country Tis of Thee,” she made me a rainbow-and-heart-infused sign that said, “CHOOSE JOY.”
Embracing the slower pace that quarantine has forced upon us.
Truly, I have been afraid to sit down and write in the midst of this otherworldly pandemic, fearful of how my words would spill messily onto the page. I have no words of wisdom, and my feelings sway from grateful to panicked to mournful like a rickety swing, back and forth all day long.
Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life
Shifting our perspective can be grounding and give us a path back to joy.
I’m sure it was a sight to see, a middle-aged lady lying in the grass in her backyard, staring hopefully at the sky. I glanced up and watched the light play through swaying palm fronds. I noticed the vivid blues and greens. I breathed deeply. Then, self-conscious, I jumped up before the neighbors could start gossiping about the mid-life crisis clearly playing out next door.
Making Better Choices By Setting Intentions
Setting intentions can streamline our lives and light our paths.
Let’s roll out the story of our lives like a well-loved map and decide where we want to go and what is truly important to us. Then our decisions can flow from these intentions like a river on its natural course, intuitive and blissfully-uncomplicated.
Drainers and Fillers: Which One Are You?
Exploring the positive and negative energies we bring into our lives and relationships.
Of course, we would all rather be Fillers than Drainers, but take a moment and really consider how you are interacting with and approaching all of your roles in the world. As a wife, mother, daughter, or sister, are you a Filler or a Drainer? As an employee or boss, are you adding energy or draining it? When you go to the post office, the grocery store, or the dentist, are you filling cups or draining them?
A Summer Slow-Down Instead of a Summer Bucket List
Savoring the slow pace of summer instead of filling every moment with activities.
Thank God for the summer slow-down. The rest of the year races by like a merciless bullet, every minute stuffed to the gills with activities and to-do’s. Then, the months of June, July, and August slip in like a buttery piece of poetry, beckoning us to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. An invitation to catch our breath and just be.
Stress Management for Moms: 5 Tips From an Expert
Tips from a licensed social worker to keep your sanity in the midst of parenting.
It’s at this dire apex that you officially reach your “I’m done” moment. At this point, you feel that it’s scientifically impossible for you to make another meal, wipe another nose, pick up another mess, or fold another miniature shirt. You sink into a puddle on the stairs, letting a solitary tear run down your weary face.
Self-Care 101: 3 Simple Ways to Reclaim Your Sparkle
The good news is, this self-care game doesn’t have to be complicated. Simple, deliberate acts of self-care can bring back our shimmer.
Those e-mails confirmed my long-held suspicion that I have indeed lost my sparkle. I know I’m not the only one. There are gazillions of us out there, momming and adulting as if it were a tireless Olympic event. We take care of everyone; we juggle kids, jobs, mortgage payments, and endless laundry. We’re counselors, maids, butlers, cooks, taxi drivers, and household CEO’s, all day, everyday.
Tips to deal with grumpy yet lovable tweens.
So, here we are, my son on the brink of middle school and embarking on our first forays into tween angst. Even at ten, the hormonal engine is starting to rev up, a premonition of the massive physical and emotional changes on the horizon. Moods change like the weather, dark clouds clearing to sunshine with little warning. “Mommy” is morphing to “Mom;” cuddles are swapping with eye rolls and sassy sighs.
Mindfulness and the March of Time
Using mindfulness be present in each moment of life even as it zooms by.
And yet, there is no point in becoming too despondent over the scuttle of time because in the meantime, the next moment has already arrived. It seems the only thing we can do is embrace the here and now, and do our best to thrive in each moment. Mindfulness.
5 Quick, Kid-Friendly Recipes for Busy Nights
Easy recipes for dinner that your kids will love.
Did you ever notice that kids want to eat dinner every.single.night? The little buggers always want to be fed, even when you’re exhausted and only have a 20-minute window between soccer and swim practice. With homework and after-school activities, evenings can be chaotic. It can be tempting just to toss a chicken nugget at your kids or pull the mini-van through the drive through.
lucky penny 