So as Christmas approaches we have a couple family traditions and a few more we are going to implement this year...The most popular one being...we cut down our own tree during a day trip to Utah, but due to our hectic schedules (which is maybe the one consistent thing in our life...hectic schedules) we were unable to make the trip this year. However we have never settled for a fake tree, so a quick trip to the Home Depot Christmas Tree lot, solved the dilemma.
Onto the craziness of being myself and adding more and more to my plate...each day (during the 12 days before Christmas) we will engage in some form of Christmas related activity (focusing on family time and time old forgotten traditions that have been dried up with the new age of technology and busy schedules)...so far the same boring stuff as most people...tree decorating, holiday movie, Santa letters (which we will be delivering to Macy's special Santa Mailbox, what a great scam that is, build it and they will come, if they weren't making a $1 donation for every letter dropped in the special Santa Mailbox believe me we wouldn't be stepping a foot in there..all for charity...more on that later...).
Today's activity: well with the goal being to teach the kids the importance of giving and more importantly sacrificial giving we decided to deliver some of our famous homemade salsa to clients and friends... like we didn't have enough going on with parent teacher conferences in the early afternoon and a trip to the ever so popular (and somewhat tacky) Magical Forest at Opportunity Village tonight.
With two oldest boys (7 and 9), an ice chest, personally designed Christmas cards and 20 fabric bow wrapped containers of salsa in tow we headed out on our journey, we might as well have painted the famous yellow initials UPS on the side of our brown mini van. To get us in the mood I put the radio on holiday music....several hours, 7 monotonous renditions of "Jingle Bells", and a tank of gas later...I began to ponder on the success of my goal..teaching them about the spirit of giving and recognizing those that have helped us along the way...did it really sink in, because to me they seemed bored, somewhat confused and of course unappreciative. They were more interested in the free lunch at McDonald's that I had promised them if they did a good job and the 15 minutes of playtime in the ever so popular germ infested indoor playground. Where had I gone wrong, how come they weren't getting it?
Quickly I remembered what other...let's just use the word "more experienced" parents had told me..."they won't appreciate it now, but in the future when they are older, and maybe have their own family to share it with". Ok so my impatience to see immediate parental gratification was kicking in along with the happy hour/sugar cravings. With that somber reflection and way to many replays of "Feliz Navidad", we headed home. As I looked in the rear view mirror at both of them, one picking his nose, looking for the nearest form of paper and the other scarfing down the reminents of his left over 4000 calorie happy meal, I was content knowing that they just wanted to hang out with me....it didn't matter what we did or where we went, they were happy to be included in my 9-5 world if only for a day. With each delivery I must say they did excitingly express "Where to next Mom?"
My end of the day internal reply "wherever you want as long as you don't grow a day older...."
Lessons for the day...be in the moment...and realize the fruits of your labor may never be seen by you, but more importantly shared by others...
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Fight
Welcome to the exciting life of a middle aged woman, with the average responsibilities for women these days. To sum it up in a few words oldest of 11 children, mother of 5, CEO, Entrepreneur, and wife (of yes "a repo man").
Probably lots of questions with the above facts...yes we (brothers & sisters) all have the same birth mom, no we are not Mormon or Catholic (however raised Catholic for 15 years), no we don't live on a farm. Huge age difference...youngest sibling 10 years old and me as I mentioned middle aged (btw 30-40). Don't want to bore you with demographics, as more will be shared through unraveling stories.
The last few years of my middle aged life have been I must say unwelcomingly challenging with obstacles stemming from choices made and the consequences that followed.....a worthy fight indeed. Wouldn't expect life not to be strenuous with my overly optimistic outlook. See you have to understand, statistics would say, I should be a single mom on welfare, living in government housing, with no education and content with weekly visits to the 7Eleven for a 40oz and a lottery ticket. First confession (there goes that darn Catholicism), I did purchase a 40oz recently in 7Eleven because of the name (Tilt) and my curiousity of the product, but all for business purposes. It was research for a client. Who would've thought you could write off a 40ounce from 7Eleven. How? We'll get to that later in another post. FYI, I tend to jump around a lot...my apologies in advance for being all over the map.
Statistics are funny thing the more you fight them the harder they fight back, they are always lingering there trying to convince you to join them and that you don't belong in that other tax bracket, the one with benefits for those that make over $250K annually (what a joke). Well fighting is part of the family DNA, when people ask me what Nationality I am I quickly respond....Irish, Indian (Native American), and Mexican..a born lover, fighter, and alcoholic. Sounds funny but there is a lot of truth to that very statment. In high school my nickname was Rocky, mostly because of one alcohol related incident resulting in an undeserving black eye, (sorry Jennifer). However in time, Sylvestor Stallone actually became my idol, not because he was one of the hottest stars in the 80's but because of what Rocky Balboa stood for...which brings me to:
Life Lessons Learned From Rocky Balboa
Probably lots of questions with the above facts...yes we (brothers & sisters) all have the same birth mom, no we are not Mormon or Catholic (however raised Catholic for 15 years), no we don't live on a farm. Huge age difference...youngest sibling 10 years old and me as I mentioned middle aged (btw 30-40). Don't want to bore you with demographics, as more will be shared through unraveling stories.
The last few years of my middle aged life have been I must say unwelcomingly challenging with obstacles stemming from choices made and the consequences that followed.....a worthy fight indeed. Wouldn't expect life not to be strenuous with my overly optimistic outlook. See you have to understand, statistics would say, I should be a single mom on welfare, living in government housing, with no education and content with weekly visits to the 7Eleven for a 40oz and a lottery ticket. First confession (there goes that darn Catholicism), I did purchase a 40oz recently in 7Eleven because of the name (Tilt) and my curiousity of the product, but all for business purposes. It was research for a client. Who would've thought you could write off a 40ounce from 7Eleven. How? We'll get to that later in another post. FYI, I tend to jump around a lot...my apologies in advance for being all over the map.
Statistics are funny thing the more you fight them the harder they fight back, they are always lingering there trying to convince you to join them and that you don't belong in that other tax bracket, the one with benefits for those that make over $250K annually (what a joke). Well fighting is part of the family DNA, when people ask me what Nationality I am I quickly respond....Irish, Indian (Native American), and Mexican..a born lover, fighter, and alcoholic. Sounds funny but there is a lot of truth to that very statment. In high school my nickname was Rocky, mostly because of one alcohol related incident resulting in an undeserving black eye, (sorry Jennifer). However in time, Sylvestor Stallone actually became my idol, not because he was one of the hottest stars in the 80's but because of what Rocky Balboa stood for...which brings me to:
Life Lessons Learned From Rocky Balboa
- Be proud of what and who you are, your circumstances nor environment determine who you will be...with confidence you will intimidate your opponent and win every round
- Remember your humble beginnings...don't forget where you came from
- Acknowledge the people that support you (Yo Adrian), no one ever succeeds alone
- Faith & family first, Rocky always sought blessings from God and took care of his family (even Paulie the alcoholic brother in law)
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