Happy Mother’s Day!

If you’re the mom of a baby or a grown-up, someone between 1 and 99, one or 20 kids, I wish you a very happy Mother’s Day. Here’s one of the Mother’s Day cards I received this week.

Happy Mother’s Day!

But wait, there’s more! And you can see it on my photography website.

Happy Mother’s Day!

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Friendships

Friendships are such an interesting part of life. Some of them come and go, others last forever. I have been friends with my best friend since 1988. That’s a whole 24 years! More years than how old we were at the time we met. We went though so much together over the years. We were always there for each other through life’s hurdles, the really good, the really bad and the really ugly. I crossed the Atlantic Ocean first, moving from France to Connecticut, and then to California. She came next, moving to Maryland. It’s not easy maintaining long-distance relationships, especially when there’s no email!!! I remember how we used to write each other from one continent to the other. Switching to the instant gratification of email was such a delight. Our long-lasting friendships means we can email each other every day or once a month, it doesn’t matter. We can pick up the phone and start where the last conversation stopped, it really doesn’t matter. Friends can come and go but real friends are for life and I’m blessed to have such a friend. I know she’s going through a lot right now and I want her to know I’m here for her.

I also have wonderful friends who live a lot closer and I also feel very blessed to have them. As I went through some life-changing events earlier this year, they were there for me and offered so much help, I can’t thank them enough. Of course, over the past couple of years, I’ve met new friends over the blogosphere too and it’s been a wonderful experience overall. And thanks to Facebook (love it or hate it!), I’ve been able to reconnect with a couple of long-lost friends I really missed not having in my life. What a great world we live in!

I’d love to post photos of my friends but I wouldn’t do it without their permission and I know they’d probably be embarrassed. I wouldn’t also post photos of my kids with their friends as their parents would probably freak out (how did my kid’s face end up on your blog???). So I have the next best thing. My two boys are wonderful friends to each other, even though they only see each other as brothers, not friends. They love each other, they hug and kiss, help each other, play together, and of course argue, just like real friends do.

So here are a few photos of them enjoying their friendship without even knowing it.

Friends hiking together, and whining about how long it takes, forgetting it all when it comes to climbing some trees…

Hiking together

Friends making a snowman together with Southern California snow for the first time .

Building a snowman

Friends making their own knight masks/helmets, and fighting vicious dragons.

Knights fighting dragons

Have you been lucky to experience wonderful friendships in your life that last through the years?

My best Mother’s Day present ever

This year my kids have given me the best Mother’s Day present I could ever ask for. No, it wasn’t the very cute handmade card, although this was probably the best Mother’s Day card I’ve received so far. It wasn’t the little vase with tissue paper glued to it either (I’ll do my best not to break it!). Or the dozen times I heard “Happy Mother’s Day” today, delivered with plenty of hugs and kisses.

Today, on Mother’s Day 2011, and probably for the first time since I ever became a mom, my kids slept in, and therefore I slept in. I woke up at 6am, then 7am, then 7:30am, wondering when one of them would show up in our bed. Finally at 8 o’clock I opened my eyes, fully rested, and had to go in their bedroom to make sure they were doing OK.

I slept 8 hours straight last night. More than the 7 hours I wrote down as one of my 101 tasks in 1001 days. It’s actually the first time since I started this challenge a week ago that I managed to sleep at least 7 hours, and it happened to be on Mother’s Day! I can’t remember the last time I slept 8 hours in one night – it’s been that long.

For that I’ll be forever grateful. So I’d like to ask my kids to consider instituting a sleep-in mandate for all future Mother’s Days. Do you think I’m pushing my luck? Thank you, my boys!

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I’m signing up for “101 tasks in 1001 days”

May 1, 2011 will be the start of an interesting adventure and experience for me, as a person, a woman, a mother, a wife, a friend, and a writer. Inspired by my fellow bloggers at Sarsm’s Blog and The Laughing Housewife, who themselves were inspired by the Day Zero Project, I’m taking on 101 tasks in 1001 days.

Why am I doing this? After much soul searching these past few months, and so much going on at home every day, it’s time to bring focus into my life. There have been lots of things I’ve wanted to do, but they never seem to get done. Lots of things I’d like to start working on, but I never start. Most new year’s resolutions don’t get completed because people don’t write them down. I believe the same thing applies to anything you want to do with your life, big or small. By writing them down, they become real, touchable, and we in turn become accountable, and hopefully motivated.

So I’m taking on the day-to-day challenge with my fellow bloggers Sarah and Tilly Bud. I’m counting on their support to make it through the next 1001 days and end up proud of what I’ll have accomplished. Some things on my list may seem trivial, others out of reach or unrealistic, but they’re all on it for the same reason. I want every single task (fun or not) done.

The three of us would be very happy to have you on board with us, if you’re interested in taking on the challange. Just visit Sarsm’s Blog for more details.

Deep breath… Here are the 101 things I want to accomplish in 1001 days.

Start date: May 1, 2011
End date: January 27, 2014
1001 days equal to:
– 2 years, 8 months, 26 days
– Almost 33 months
– A little more than 143 weeks

Home & Organization

1) Grow food plants in the garden (Spring 2011) (0/1)
2) Grow food plants in the garden (Summer / Fall 2011) (0/1)
3) Grow food plants in the garden (Spring 2012) (0/1)
4) Grow food plants in the garden (Summer / Fall 2012) (0/1)
5) Grow food plants in the garden (Spring 2013) (0/1)
6)Grow food plants in the garden (Summer / Fall 2013) (0/1)
7) Plant flowers/flowering plants in the backyard (0/1)
8) Grow strawberries (0/1)
9) Decorate our living room’s bare walls (0/1)
10) Decorate our bedroom’s bare walls (0/1)
11) Make my office an organized, well-decorated, comfortable place of inspiration (0/1)
12) Buy new tools to replace those missing from my tool box (0/1)
13) Patch the numerous small holes that decorate our walls throughout the house (0/1)
14) Install the new curtains and curtain rod for our sliding window (0/1)
15) Install microwave oven over the stove or repair the current oven (0/1)
16) Get our stove gas burners fixed (0/1)
17) Sell the baby crib by end of spring 2011 (0/1)
18) Sell or donate the baby toys and clothes in the closet and garage by end of summer 2011 (0/1)
19) Clean out and organize the kids’ closets (0/1)
20) Clean out and organize the kitchen cabinets and pantry (0/1)
21) Redo the varnish on the bathroom vanity (0/1)
22) Clean out my bedroom closet (0/1)
23) Clean out the garage (0/1)
24) Repaint the walls of my dining room and kitchen in a color I like (0/1)
25) Create a kid’s art & craft box easy to access (0/1)
26) Store the kids’ artwork in storage boxes (0/1)
27) Clean out my various email inboxes and folders (0/1)
28) Unsubscribe from emails I never read (0/1)
29) Organize and clean up my internet browser bookmarks (0/1)
30) Edit and save all family / kid photos I took since the birth of my first child in 2006 (0/1)
31) Upload the saved photos onto albums on the Shutterfly website to share with family and friends (0/1)
32) Print memorable photos of my oldest child for the large photo collage frame I bought and put it on the staircase wall (0/1)
33) Print memorable photos of my youngest child for the large photo collage frame I bought and put it on the staircase wall (0/1)

Writing

34) Spend 3 hours a day on writing activities (paid or not) during the week, 2 hours a day on weekends (0/1001)
35) Send 100 article queries to magazines and publications (0/100)
36) Post once a week to my Perfecting Motherhood blog (0/143)
37) Post once a week to my new freelance writing website’s blog (see task #51) (0/143)
38) Post once a day to my Every Day I See a Cow blog until December 31, 2011 (0/244)
39) Post 2 to 4 times a month to my Buy Products From France website (0/72)
40) Attend a writers’ meeting several times a year (0/10)
41) Join a book club (0/1)
42) Write my first book (0/1)

Reading

43) Update my list of read books on Goodreads  (0/1)
44) Read one book a week (0/143)
45) Read 30 literature classics (0/30)
46) Re-read all of the Harry Potter books in a row (0/7)
47) Read 5 to 7 new books with my kids every week (0/143)
48) Learn 3 to 5 new words every week and keep a log of them (0/143)
49) Put a list of my 20 favorite quotes together (0/20)

Career

50) Update my LinkedIn profile to highlight my writing skills and experience (0/1)
51) Create a new website for my freelance writing business (separate from my marketing website) (0/1)
52) Create an Excel spreadsheet for my business expenses and income for 2011 (0/1)
53) Track and document my business deductions and receipts for 2011 (0/1)

Family & Leisure

54) Spend one-on-one quality time once a week with my oldest (0/143)
55) Spend one-on-one quality time once a week with my youngest (0/143)
56) Establish 2 French-only days a week with my kids, including storytime (0/246)
57) Cook one large family dish every week (0/143)
58) Make/bake one family dessert every week (0/143)
59) Try 10 new recipes (0/10)
60) Bake Christmas cookies and share with friends and family (0/3)
61) Have 10 family picnics (0/10)
62) Try 10 new restaurants (0/10)
63) Go apple picking (0/1)
64) Shop at a farmer’s market (0/1)
65) Sing in the rain (0/1)
66) Enjoy some outdoor/indoor music (0/1)
67) Go whale watching (0/1)
68) Take two family vacations (0/2)
69) Make birthday cakes from scratch for every family birthday, including mine (0/15)
70) Make sure my oldest learns how to swim (0/1)
71) Make sure my youngest learns how to swim (0/1)
72) Watch one new movie with my husband every other week (0/72)
73) Watch 50 of IMDB’s Top 250 movies (http://www.imdb.com/chart/top) I haven’t seen yet (0/50)
74) Email or call my sister at least once a month (0/33)
75) Pet a dolphin (0/1)
76) Pet a horse (0/1)
77) See a waterfall (0/1)
78) Walk in a forest (0/1)
79) Make a snowman (0/1)
80) Stargaze and look for shooting stars (0/1)
81) Visit a botanical garden (0/1)
82) Go to Disneyland California (0/1)
83) Go to Legoland California (0/1)

Finances

84) Rollover the 401K from my most recent job into my personal IRA (0/1)
85) Set up college savings accounts for my two kids (0/1)
86) Write a will (for myself and my husband) and get life insurance (0/1)

Health & Personal Growth

87) Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night (0/1001)
88) Take my vitamins every day (0/1001)
89) Eat at least one good source of protein every day (0/1001)
90) Drink Diet Coke on weekends only (0/143)
91) Exercise (strenuously) at least 2 times a week (0/246)
92) Check my blood pressure twice a week (0/246)
93) Get 2 mammograms (1 a year) (0/2)
94) Go a whole day without saying no (0/1)
95) Not swear for a whole week (0/1)
96) Spend a whole weekend without computer or internet access (0/1)
97) Complete 5 Sudoku puzzles (0/5)
98) Get one or more massages (0/1)
99) Take a class to learn something new (0/1)
100) Do some volunteer work (0/1)
101) Develop 3 new friendships (0/3)

Now, as the Nike people say, “Just do it!”

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