Lesson #2 Loving Yourself

I know love was my first lesson.  It's probably going to be my second, third and fourth lesson too!  There is nothing better than love.  Life would not be worth living, if it weren't for love.  

On the notion that this post is being written out of love, please open your mind to what I am saying.

People often say that you cannot love someone else until you truly love yourself.  I am not sure if this is true or not.  I love my kids unconditionally.  I do not believe that I need to love myself in order to unconditionally love my children.  Wholeheartedly, I know that I am a better mother when I am loving myself and treating myself well (sleeping and eating right).

Lesson #2 is about loving yourself.

Take the time to get to know yourself.  You are complex.  You have genetic code in you that goes back to first humans on the planet.  You are not just 1/2 me and 1/2 you dad.  You are 1/4 PopPop, 1/4 Nana, 1/4 GG and 1/4 Granpa, but wait...PopPop is 1/4 his grandparents and Nana is 1/4 her grandparents, etc....I could go all the way back to when humans first walked this earth.

Figure out what truly makes you happy.  It took me a long time to figure out what really makes me happy and that is loving you.  In my 20s, I thought I needed to makes lots of money on Wall Street.  When I first gave birth to Gavin, I realized that I didn't need much at all.  I was happy buying clothes at Target instead of the Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  I might have chosen a different career path, if I had really known what I wanted in life.

You might read this and think it sounds silly or even simply that I am asking you to get to know yourself, but a lot of people go through life and never know the simplest things about themselves.  It will make your career so much more worthwhile, if you do what you love and love what you do.  Please do not chase money.  Money will come if you love what you do.

Your father and I both dated a few other people before we met each other.  I cannot speak for him.  For me, I feel as though I was lost before I met your father.  I was trying to make other men into the mold of what I wanted.  Those relationships never worked out.  When your father and I met.  I thought he was scary.  Scary, because I didn't need to make him into anything.  He was what I wanted.  A man who wanted to get married and wanted children.  Your father loved the idea of being a father.  He reminded me of my dad, PoPop.

In my 20s, I was trying to build my career and went to business school. I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed.  I wasn't aways happy and was often stressed out.  It was not a good time to fall in-love, because I wasn't really in-love with where I was in life.  It was a great time to meet someone who was happy and wanted a family too.  When I met your father, I was on the path to figuring out what I really wanted in life, children.  I was doing well in my career and I was overall happy.  

All four of you are great people.  You are still very young, so it's hard to say what you want to do in life or what makes you really happy.  You still have a lot to experience and see.  I hope you will keep your mind open to different experiences and people.

Love always and forever,

Mom

Veganism: Day 1

Good morning!
It's Wednesday, February 1st.  It's going to be a good day...at least I'm going to do everything I can to make it a good day.  How?  I'm going to stay positive and do what I can do to be healthy.

So, what lesson to I want to teach my children today?  That when things might seen a bit crazy, slightly depressing, that you can choose to be in control.  You can choose to smile.  And, of course, the obvious one, you can choose to love.

Today, I will eat vegan.  Whether it is determined that I have cancer or not, eating vegan is the healthiest way to eat.  I will be doing something positive for my body, the environment and the cows!

For breakfast, I'm going to have oatmeal.  For lunch, I am going to eat a salad.  Dinner seems so far away; however, I plan on making spaghetti with mushrooms and carrots in a tomato sauce.  My husband and kids will like the dinner and that will make me happy!

Anna, Liam, Owen and Gavin, you might be upset that I am going vegan.  You might not know (yet) why I am going vegan.  However, at the heart of the matter is that I love being your mother.  You four are the best gift your father and I ever got.  Not a day goes by when I do not feel so grateful that you four love me as much as I love you.

Here's to our new journey!
Love,
Mom

First Things First....LOVE

First things First

LOVE

I have always told my kids and have always believed that love is the most important thing in the world.  It was one of the first words my children learned.

First Words:
Gavin - hot, because we were at my parents' house a lot and they had their gas fireplace on.  We needed to teach Gavin not to touch the fire place

Anna - cookie.  Well, like most kids, Anna likes cookies...still does!

Owen - car.  Unfortunately for my face, Owen love Matchbox cars...he really liked throwing them at my face!

Liam - Ma.  I'd like to think he was really saying Mom!

It's hard not to get caught up in money.  We need money for everything...even going to the beach, at least in New Jersey!  I'd love to have an updated kitchen, a bigger bathroom for the kids, and at least a month a year (a week at a time) where I do nothing but sit on a beach in 80F weather.  All of these things cost money...oh wait, the kids want to play tennis, soccer, baseball, dance, go to birthday parties and have their own birthday parties.  All of which cannot be done without money.

But when it comes down to it...why do I have my embroidery business...get up at 6am to work on my orders, because, because of love.  I love my kids (& my husband).  I want them to be happy.  Making them happy, makes me happy.  What would all this be, if it weren't for love?

We talk every night at dinner with our children.  We don't repeat the same stories every night, but we do often talk of love.  The love that brought Brian and I together.  The love we have and had for a family.  The love that will live on past our existence on earth.

There is a saying that there is no love like the love of a mother.  As a mother, I believe this to be true. However, admittedly and obviously, I have never been a father, so how am I to know how a father feels.  I do tell my kids that no one will ever love them the way I love them and I believe that everyone on this planet can say that, because we are all different.

Regardless of whether I love you more than your father, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, partner, and children, regardless of whether I am near or far or dust in the ocean, I love you, Brian, Gavin, Anna, Owen and Liam.  I hope that you always remember that I taught you how important love is and that you aren't scared of it and run from it.  Your hearts are pure...let the love flow freely to and from your heart.

Your loving mother,
Laura