Pay it forward

Life is very busy and stressful and very often we do not take time for the important things in life. If I think of myself, I work 8 hours a day, I travel 3 hours to work and back and the time that I am at home, I spend cooking, cleaning and preparing for the next day. This leaves me with about 1 hour each day with my son and very limited time for my dogs and husband. 

Yes, time is little and should be cherished. Ever so often you should stop what you are busy with to allow yourself the chance to appreciate each precious moment and those special people in your life, that mean something to you. That is why I try to do something nice for someone at least once a week. It does not have to be for friends or family, it can be random people at work or even for strangers. Letting someone else feel special, valued or loved is truly a wonderful experience.

I would like to challenge you to go ahead and do this weekly too. Maybe on your worst day of the week. Mine is a Tuesday for some reason. Give someone a gap in traffic; compliment someone unexpectedly at work on anything, whether it is a nice top, their work or their sparkling personality; let an older person take your place in the queue at the shops or buy your loved one a gift just because. A smile, a gesture, nice words, a flower, a compliment, these things are what makes our world go around and can mean turning someone's else day around completely.

I would love to hear from you on whether you did try it and what your experience was?

Happy Tuesday from me ;)

Blog Photo Attribution: By Daniela Hartmann, alles-schlumpf 

Blog Photo 1 Attribution: By LJWDevon

Changing friendships

My original name for the post was "Things change when you have kids" but I changed this as I did not feel it was bringing the true meaning of the blog across. This change I was talking of is a positive one more than a negative one. Our children (pets and kids) are our blessings and I would never ever want to experience my days without them. 

Very often, I think back of what I imagined life to be like. The normal path of meeting the man you love, getting engaged, getting married, going on honeymoon, buying a house, expanding the family with dogs and having children. These are normal life events most people long for and eagerly search for all their lives. And when it happens to you, it is the most amazing thing in the world. Love and family truly is amazing.

When realizing all those dreams and doing this together with your soulmate, one automatically changes, one grows together, adapts to each other and forms dreams together. And it is at this cross road of changing lives and changing goals and targets as one has fulfilled the "normal steps" in life, that one often "outgrows" existing  friendships. It is not because one wants to, but priorities in life change. I no longer long to go out clubbing, meeting new people and partying, I long to spend a little quiet time with my family, I long to relax and kick off my shoes and I long to just sit back and dream more dreams of what is to come. I try to give my all to my family and this includes ensuring that we are able to provide our son a stable, sound and safe environment with a routine that he needs to develop and grow. If I think about it, our whole lives have changed to revolve around providing our child with the best possible and I think this is awesome.

Sadly, there will be people that do not understand why one would rather stay home with a sick child or not want to break their routine and uproot their lives. There are people, that are still searching for those "normal things" in life and just have different priorities and that is absolutely ok. Maybe, somewhere along our the way, our two different roads will meet again. But when one travels on different roads, it is nice to know that on this same road you will find people that do understand and support you, and you will meet new people that share the same new important role of parenthood as you do. Their lives too have a new meaning!

And until you are a parent, you will never understand. But once you have reached this amazing new path in life, there is just absolutely nothing better and more precious and amazing then creating of life and nurturing it in such a loving and caring way. Love and Family are what life is all about. Mine in any case :)




Blog Photo Attribution: By Jo Christian Coterhals, jcoterhals
Blog Photo 1 Attribution: By Dru Bloomfield - At Home in Scottsdale