She is well gifted.

As she should be.

Happy Mother’s Day Meezer!

I adore my mother. And I never could fully understand what she meant until I became a mother myself. She is right. She does love me more. But I love her so, so, so, much.Sometimes my heart could burst at how very thankful I am to have my Meezer. As MY mom. I am truly the envy of all (ok, a lot of)  my friends.

Seriously, where were these weight gain genes during my pregnancies? 17 pounds. Totally unfair. But how beautiful is she? So adoring. Of me. And Eddie. Thank you for loving us so completely and fully and teaching us that we are deserving of happiness.

Thank you mom for teaching me that Sun-In is ALWAYS a bad idea. But letting me figure it out on my own. Thank you for showing me that to cackle and enjoy life. It is far better to be having the fun than to listen to the naysayers. We may be a little loud and overwhelmed in laughter but we refuse to through life crying or just not experiencing that kind of joy at all. How I wish Gia could have had one card game with Sis and Grandma. That group of five cackling together would be a moment to go down in history.

My Meezer taught me that there is obnoxious; and there is border line obnoxious. Walk the line.

Gia has my mother’s genes. Lucky. Her lean frame and legs for days. Her big heart and emotions on her sleeve. Her willingness to give until the point of breaking. The relationship that these two have is so dear and special. Smelling roses. Doing crafts- that never come out right. But the memories are made. And cherished.

My mom has been there for every important moment of my life. The gut wrenching, I should be ashamed of myself moments, to the pride inducing ones. Supporting me every step of the way. She has not always been proud, but she has always been there. Which is such a testament to who she is. As a mother it is very hard to constantly support and never give up. But she didn’t. Not once. Even though I was mean. Often.

My moms friends and co-workers often say she is well gifted by my brother and I. And she is. And all the great JCrew gifts in the world can not even compare to the gift she has given us by being our mother.

Happy Mother’s Day. I love you, Mom.

Owning it.

 

This morning I was doing my daily “me time” and read this:

“Instead of letting our kids live in the realm of excuses we need to help them deal with their tendencies and move on.” –iMom.com

And it just resonated with me so much.  I do indeed have a spunky, creative, out-of-the-box child.  And she is my heart.  She and her (very in the box) brother fill me with so much joy.  It is these unique attributes that make them well, them.  And for that I am so thankful.

But there are societal norms that we have to adhere to in order to function.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that we squash our children’s unique attributes.  I go above and beyond to foster them.  I do not want my children to conform.  But too often I find we allow those so-called idiosyncratic behaviors to be excuses to not do what you need to do.

In order to be successful, you have to do the work.

In order to be respected, you have to do the work.

In order to be wealthy, you have to do the work.

In order to lose weight, you have to do the work.

In order to make a cake, you have to do the work.

In order to have a clean home, you have to do the work.  Oh wait, you can hire that.  And I firmly believe that I have been affirming since I was six years old that someone will take care of the dirty work for me.  Waiting on the universe to place that in my lap.

…I’m still waiting, but doing the work in the meantime.

In order to be forgiven, you have to do the work.

One of my personal motto’s is “Own your shit.”  Because once you own it you can move forward.  If you never own it you become stagnant.  Or even worse you digress.

I am about to head into a teacher conference.  Which I frankly have no idea what it is about.  But my goal is to be open and receptive to whatever information that I receive and the strength to own my piece of responsibility for Gia and even more difficult as a mom force Gia to own her part in the equation.  Owning her part makes my life easier.  Until I want her to go out and be self sufficient.

I remember being told over and over- “This is harder on me than it is on you.”

The truth to those words is startling.  Wish me luck.

Sponsored: FastAction™ Fold Jogger Click Connect™ Stroller- changing my life.

I have a love/hate relationship with running. I absolutely love it when I am out there pounding the pavement getting the endorphin’s but I hate feeling guilty that I have to take the extra time away from my little guy. But a good jogging stroller is hard (and often times insanely expensive) to find. And one that does not take a cumbersome, clunky process I just haven’t found. But this new Graco stroller really has the best of both worlds. Pretty, easy, compact and awesome on the road when running. Which is frankly unbelievable. But I promise you. It is true.

That is where the Graco FastAction™ Fold Jogger Click Connect™ comes to the party. It is fast folding, comfy for my Duke and easy to fold. And when he was a baby- you can just snap in the Graco SnugRide Click Connect™ 35 Infant Car Seat through a secure one-step attachment. For reals. No need to wait the average four months that you have to with some of those other joggers on the market. And, it has these awesome reflectors on the back. So if G is asleep and my little Duke wants some mommy time we can go on an evening run (Kinder starts SOOOO early).

With Ralph’s travel gearing up and this stroller is going to be great for summer evenings. The weather will be cool (ish- kind of, not really) in the evenings and I can put Luke in the stroller and have Gia ride her bike along side. It will be a great way to get the wiggles out before bed which can always be a challenge when I lose my man on man defense.

And the best part? Is that because of this stroller coming into my life I am averaging more and more miles to my week. I am back to averaging 35-45 a week. Which is super exciting.

Graco’s NEW jogger is the ultimate crossover stroller, combining all the comfort and convenience features of a traditional stroller (FastAction Fold and Click Connect Technology) with performance and maneuverability of an all-terrain jogger.

As an added bonus, Graco’s innovative one-second, one-hand FastAction™ fold automatically locks & is self-standing.

This post is sponsored by Graco.