Speaking of kharma, if someone did a bad thing to me they should quake in their boots (but they never do). I know all kinds of ways to make their online and thus their real life a complete rendition of Hell on Earth, but I wouldn’t do it. Well, unless I was really, really torqued. It hasn’t happened yet, I wouldn’t want all that bad Kharma you see. Maybe if I really felt I had been dealt with unjustly I would say, to heck with Kharma and do all those mean and nasty things, but I haven’t been in that dark place yet. Thank goodness.

So I kind of trip through life like a convoluted Mary Poppins as I try to be generally nice and not make people angry. I can’t help sometimes having blacks thoughts and then I earn negative Kharma points and these always get cashed in. I do this weird derring-do dance where I try to be nice, but this passive aggressive side I have kicks in and does all kind of evil. Hmmmm. Anyway, as I was saying. Garbage in, garbage out.

I really do believe you are what you eat. I can tell when I have had a day eating crap, I feel tired and wore down. Even right now I don’t feel so hot as I have not had my usual amount of fruits and veggies. I think people who are tired and cranky all the time really should look at their diet. What are they eating? Chances are, it is affecting their mood. Maybe I have it wrong, but if I ate at McDonald’s several times a week, I would be a mental wreck.

Isn’t that the perfect figure? Exactly what I’ve been babbling. If you are a perfect (healthy) person and you est garbage, garbage comes out. If you are a person who’s been eating garbage the last 30 years, and you eat healthy, garbage still comes out. Lucky our bodies are incredible machines and if you keep up the healthy eating, you’ll get perfection.

Wow, I have really rambled on and on here. I had meant to talk about about garbage in the more general sense of the term, and instead I end up talking about food. Typical.

Do you know any bitter, cynical, generally unhappy people? I really think it has to do with their negative attitude. If you go out with a negative attitude, then you’ll get it back. I know, you’re thinking of my toxic post from a couple of days ago where I ripped into that author. Well, I really do think anyone with a fan base really owes it to that fan base (Barry Bonds nonwithstanding) to cater to them and suck up to them. Of course, I’m not famous so what do I know? Oh yeah, I’m a fan and I know how I like to be treated.

So, the moral of the story is, all that stuff your mom and grand-mom told you is true. treat others the way you want to be treated, you are what you eat, don’t make that face because it will get stuck.

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Garbage in, Garbage out

She is a beautiful girl, as you can see. There I am with all my Auntie pride…

Isn’t she gorgeous? Oh so tall…

Watching the graduation and the energy coming from those young people was incredible. I would say if you are ever feeling down around May/June go to a high school graduation, it will definitely recharge your batteries. I looked out onto them. all those young faces full of pride, hope, eagerness, happiness. The parents and relatives and friends in the stands were full of pride, happiness, joy…it was a beautiful thing. I didn’t see a single melancholy face in the crowd.

Which makes you think of the question, what time can one be truly happy during life? Really, there aren’t that many moments of sheer happiness. Graduations, Weddings, Commencements, Religious milestones…the list is quite short. Sure there are plenty of times when we are happy, but then we always have something to distract us like the turkey in the oven or the mess to be cleaned. There just aren’t enough hands-down, throw care to the wind, happy-go-lucky times in our life. That’s a good thing or the laundry would never get done.

Even though it was my niece’s party some of that exuberance bleed from her to me. She was so excited I don’t even have the words to describe the feeling that night. Electric, charged, fulfillment were all there. I imagine every student from one of the twenty nine valedictorians to the poor soul who graduated at the bottom of the class (there has to be someone there) was happy that night.

I could say a lot about how the overachievers won’t get far in life or blah, blah, blah, but that would just cheapen the moment. It was beautiful

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

So, my regular and not-so-regular visitors know that I have in my household: One mommy, one daddy, two children, one kitty and one nanny. So that is five humans and one cat. The cat is old, she is sixteen. The children are young, and both Jason and I work full time +. I add the plus because an added benefit to our jobs is a sizable travel burden coupled with rather non-standard working hours. With all this as a factor, we decided to hire a live-in nanny to look after the kids. There was no way we could find a decent daycare, as we are scattered to the winds as far as job location, and with the travel burden it never made sense to have the kids in a day care near my job or close to Jason’s job. What would happen when one of us was on travel? We do stagger our travel time so the nanny is never completely alone with the kids, one of us is always home. We hired a young girl she was 24 when she arrived two years ago. She is very quiet. I like this. I never wanted some noisy, bossy person in my house. Unfortunately she is almost too quiet. She pretty much stays in her room, except every now and then she hangs out and then it feels weird. We don’t live in a huge house, so there really isn’t that much space, KWIM (know what I mean)?

We went on holiday last week, and in a effort to be nice I asked if she wanted to go along. At first she said no, then she changed her mind and said yes. You know, I must be a glutton for punishment. So we had booked in this lovely Marriott property that was a timeshare resort. It was fantastic and it had two bedrooms and lots of living space. I guess I had thought she would be sharing with the kids, but she didn’t want to. Okay, I reasoned that she had paid her own air travel down, and she was mostly paying her food bill. Of course we were paying for the room, the extra car rental for we need a van, etc. never mind, she wants her own room. Luckily, there was a sofa bed and the kids slept on that.

Well, she just kind of lurked around the hotel room. Honestly, I hadn’t expected to see her much. I thought she would be out on the beach, or at the pool, etc. She just kind of shadowed us everywhere. Very weird. We didn’t do much, we had the little ones so it was like, beach, pool, room, watch TV, find food, sleep, TV, pool, beach, go to playground, food, etc. That kind of thing. When we went to the pool, she went to the pool. When we went to the beach, she went to the beach. One day she did her own thing. She went with us to the Everglades and even though I knew she wanted to go on an airboat tour, she never went. Jason and I didn’t want to take the young ones on the noisy boat ride, but the nanny could have went. It’s not like we would have left here there. She never “worked”.

It was just having her there was a bit weird. You know, it kind of felt like going on holiday with someone you’re dating. It always seems like when you get home you break up. I never noticed how lazy she was, for example. Then I recalled she always put the kids in the car to drive them to Emma’s school, even thought it is literally a block from the house. Like, a three minute walk. I always kind of bent over backwards for her, but then the light went on in my brain and I thought, “bad economy”. I’ll bet there are lots of nannies out there right now who need work. Why should I cater to her?

The other thing is that I am really getting sick of someone who is not related to us, living with us. It is getting old. Really old. The older the kids get, the older it gets. There we are, sitting down enjoying an evening of tuning out, and she pops out of her room to do laundry or log onto the computer. It’s just a jolt, but one you don’t really appreciate. Especially as these are the years where we get these long, free evenings. Soon they will be gone. Unfortunately, I just don’t see any other way to have childcare that will mesh with our life, plus get the in-home privacy we crave.

Listen, you didn’t come here to hear me moan about my child care situation. The take home message is this. Don’t ever take your nanny on vacation with you unless you intend her to work. Then it will be your vacation, not hers and you will have to pay her for the week + give her that time in vacation for herself. If you don’t intend for her to work, then don’t take her. Trust me on this.

I just re-read this, and I know it sounds like I intensely dislike the nanny. This is not true. The fact is I find some of her habits annoying. That is all.

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

The Nanny vacation

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Fearless….

See you next time!

Photos fixed!

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Vacation

I love the little things. Things how these pink nails will make Emma happy when she sees them. I have a lot of milk to drink, that means more lattes! I can have cereal for breakfast tomorrow instead of running out the house hungry. I have to stay a bit later anyway, and I really need to clean Samantha’s kitty carrier and she has to go to the kennel tomorrow. Things like how nice it is that my kitty is still around and very lively even though she is 16 years old (where is that kitty, anyway?). I get happy when I look at my mad flower beds and know that they are lovely from all the weeding Martin and I did. I still love the smell of baking cakes and cookies, and how lovely a chocolate chip cookie is straight from the oven. I love when I make Jason smile over some silly thing I did or said. I love that first sip of a perfect cup of coffee from my awesome machine (seen in the Flickr RSS on the side.) I love playing a new video game, and revisiting an old one. I love the feeling of those sweet little baby arms around my neck, and the feel of their soft skin under my lips and they give me a tight hug and everything is alright in the word.

See, the little things really do make life better.

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

The little things

Hi there!

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Back to it, when you get to it