Different Sides of the Same Coin

I just finished a whirlwind business trip. The day started out very early in route from D.C. to Chicago, and after spending a day in Chicago, it finally ended in San Francisco. The day 18-hour, two-flight, 4-taxi cab journey was a bit exhausting, but by the time i settled into my hotel room that same night, i felt exhilarated! Why?

The meeting with my colleagues in Chicago went really well. (The discussion was interesting and thought provoking.  I met some new colleagues and got reacquainted with some others.)  I was looking forward to more of the same with some colleagues in San Francisco the next day.  

In addition, I was also looking forward to my husband joining me later that evening over some good friends' house for a long weekend "sans the kiddos".  In fact, it would be the first long weekend away from the kiddos or at least the first one since our 18mo. old daughter was born. 

I use to not view the world through "kiddo glasses", that is "with kids" and "without kids", but now that i have them, i can't imagine viewing the world any other way. I love my little ones. I do not like being apart from them.  Sometimes my job requires me to travel away from them though and when i do, i miss them -- terribly!  

At the same time, however, i also enjoy spending time with my husband away from the children and with my colleagues at work.  I also enjoy spending time by myself.  These are the many different sides of the same coin.  They are not mutually exclusive. They are the same.  They are me: Wife and mother of two young children that i dearly love.  A woman with a career i enjoy and numerous hobbies i have no time for! 

Reading 101

One of the favorite things my husband and i love to do with our children every day (usually in the evening before bed) is to read to them. It is so cozy to sit next to them, to capture their full attention, to read the story, and to listen/answer their questions. Now that my son is getting older (4.5years old), the tables are beginning to turn as he has started to read to us.

I'm not talking about reading Moby Dick or The Fountain Head type of stuff, but rather the "Biscuit the Dog" , level 1 reading type of stuff! He started reading a couple of months ago after he received some level 1 books for Christmas. The stories consist of about five sentences and have three to five words per sentence. (Okay so we are really talking about stories that consist of 25 words!) Nonetheless watching him hold the book, read the title of the book, open the book to the first page, read the words, turn the page and finish the book is amazing to me!

I can't recall when i first began to read, but i do recall that it was later (6+). In fact, i remember learning the alphabet in Kindergarten! My son's preschool teacher told me that children on average learn how to read between ages 3-8. That is quite a large variance in age and experience. Reading as we all know is so important as it teaches us how to think, imagine, write, speak, vocabulary, etc...

Obviously my son still has a long way to go in terms of "learning how to read" and developing a deep love and appreciation of reading. He has only just begun! So we can still look forward to reading to him every night for many years to come. In fact, I hope he will always let me read to him when he is old as his parents are!

25 Things about me that you may/may not know...

A friend recently did a post listing 25 things about herself at the request of another friend (apparently her friend asked 25 friends to share 25 things about themselves or something like that. She was one of the 25.). Anyway, i found the post interesting. I knew some of the 25 things i read about her, but i learned a few new things as well. So i thought i'd do a similar post for today.

1. I am a mother of two: boy and girl.

2. I am have been married over 15yrs

3. I am a twin.

4. I am the older twin (by one minute)

5. I am not the evil twin (aka: jemela mala).

6. I LOVE my twin! (and her husband, my nephews Ridge and the one due in May)

7. I have an older brother and sister (and love them and their 6 combined offspring too!)

8. I figured out a many years ago that a lot of things i thought were so important in my youth, are in fact totally overrated!

9. I love listening to David Gilmore by David Gilmore

10. My grandmother told me i was the "adventurous twin"

11. Until i had children, i use to day dream every once in awhile about getting lost in the desert with band of nomadic bedouins under the sheltering sky

12. I saw Pink Floyd play "The Wall" in concert at the Berlin wall in 1990

13. I spent a couple of summers working abroad -- for a nonprofit in Coslada, Spain (after college) and teaching English in Costa Rica (before graduate school).

14. I also spent a summer working and traveling with my husband in Slovenia and Eastern Europe during Graduate School.

15. I have felt the earth move in San Jose, Costa Rica and Mexico City

16. I have seen death in the afternoon in Madrid, Spain

17. I love the ripe smells of life: mulch, sulphur by the ocean/bay, and muck in horse stalls

18. I love the smell of my children and everything about them!

19. I have the constant urge to hug, squeeze, and kiss my children

20. My husband and I check on our children a couple of times each night before we go to bed just because...

21. I like listening to my husband read to our family

22. I like hanging solo or with one or two friends more than hanging with a big group of people

23. I like to horseback ride, to paint, take pictures, read, and blog

24. I wish i had more time for these activities!

25. I am still learning...

Truisms of the week

Today is a gift, that is why they call it the present! (Eleanor Roosevelt) 

Indeed it is. I am so thankful to alive and to be blessed with great friends and family. My husband and I talk about it all the time.  I pinch myself every once in awhile. That isn't to say that i don't have my moments, hours, or days when i don't feel so fortunate, but rather sad. I do.  However, when i am down i remind myself that it is a choice. I can choose to be happy or sad.  Of course, i choose to be happy!  Sometimes it isn't that easy, but i keep plugging along, shaking things up until i am.  

The quote has a lot to say about living in the present, not living in the past, and not postponing life until the future.  When i was a lot younger i use to not live so much in the present. I was always striving to achieve some goal in the future.  And once i achieved that goal i would be happy, but then I would immediately establish another goal to achieve.  This served me well for a long while (e.g. I graduated from some good schools with good grades, got a good job, got promoted quickly, traveled extensively, etc...).  However, there came a point in my life in my late 20s when i realized that i wasn't so happy, that i wasn't allowing myself to indulge in the present. To have fun, enjoy friendships, etc....  I got sick of striving for something all the time, not living in the now, sacrificing today for tomorrow.  When would it end? It never would! 

So i started reading things like the Tao Te Ching and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and i stumbled upon another truism: 

Betting today on tomorrow is a bad bet. 

I agree and since then (15+ years now!), i have tried to live my life more in the present. Of course i am still a strategic thinker by nature and prone to planning for the future, but i make it a point to be happy today. To live in the now, not in the past.  No more waiting for the future. The future is now, the present and the present is a gift!!!   

Florida Weekend in Review...

Yesterday my family and i returned home from a long weekend in Florida. We had a great few days of fun in the sun away from the cold ice and snow.  We stayed at some very good old friends of ours who live near the beach.  Below are some of the highlights from the weekend. 

1) Hanging on the beach and watching the waves crash on the shore; building sand castles, chasing seagulls, flying kite, throwing the Frisbee and football with my son and daughter.

2) Sleeping like a den of bears in the guest bedroom.  My daughter slept in her portable crib to the left of the bed and my son slept on an air mattress to the right.  Very cozy.  On the first night, our daughter woke up at 1:00am and saw us sleeping on the bed and got so excited she stood up in the portable crib and shouted "momma" "dadda" over and over again.  We repeatedly told her it was "night night" time and to go to bed until our son woke up. After which my daughter got even more excited seeing him in the room and added his name to the list of words she for the next hour or so.  Around 3:00am, we all finally fell back to sleep.

3)Eating, eating, and more eating.  We all love to cook and eat and we did a lot of that over the four day weekend! Including, but not limited to: grilled tenderloin with homemade onion rings and pulled pork barbecue sandwiches! Homemade brownies and rice crispy treats! OMG!

4) Watching the Superbowl! What a game! I am not a rabid football fan like my husband, but what a game it was! Two fantastic teams. Two fantastic touchdowns at the end by the Steelers. What a game!

5) Cuddling on the plane ride home with my daughter. She feel asleep about 30minutes into the 2.5hour flight. She had her arms wrapped around me and her head on my shoulder for two whole hours. Cozy *1000! 

6) Hanging out, talking, catching up, picking up right where you left off, with old friends.

7) Doing #6 with my husband!

8) Watching a special series of Animal Planet on HBO with our good friends, husband, and son (while my daughter slept). Did you know that dolphins and ducks can work together to "squeeze" a school of sword fish, such that they can catch the fish and eat them? Did you know that Polar bears hibernate for 4 months after which they must leave their den to hunt food for their cubs who are vulnerable to being killed by male polar bears! 

9) Watching my son and daughter (try to) walk the little dogs on their leashes.

10) Watching my son and daughter play, hug, kiss, laugh, and bond with our good friends.

11) Coming home!