The End of Summer (September '11)

September marked as the beginning of many things: the first day at the new school, the first behavior taken home from school, the first soccer class and thus for Mommy, becoming a Soccer Mom. Even though Kai had attended summer school to warm him up, I still consider September 7, 2011 the beginning of a new chapter in his life.

He loves school and loves his new friends, but nevertheless, it’s always such a joy to be picked up again by Mommy & Lil’ Bro. Routine is that the children sit and wait on the rug with one of the teachers until the parent appears in the door opening. What happens then, is just heart warming:

Parent shows their face, child quickly looks at teacher, who then nods in approval, child leaps up and runs across the floor, flies into mommy’s arms and grasps on as if to never let go again. One afternoon, Kai, filled with excitement, gave both Ryder and me this big hug, followed by: "I've got you back Mommy! I've got Ryder back! I had so much fun in school." [sigh]

The class is made up out of 13 toddlers and 2 very patient teachers. Did I mention I LOVE this school? One afternoon on the way home, Kai mentions “the two Savannah’s” who are in his class – huh? This truly is a wonderful piece of toddler logic: twins. One’s name is Savannah, the other one looks exactly like her, hence “the two Savannah’s”. Makes perfect sense, right?

Kai seems to go through phases of “obsession”. September went down as the Puzzle Month. He couldn’t get enough of the puzzles he had. It was all he wanted to play with. He got as far as finishing a 48-piece puzzle by himself and once that job was completed, there was nothing else he’d rather do than puzzle some more. Oma gets such a thrill out of this!!

When your kids are in school they bring home all sorts of things: pieces of art, stories, germs, colds, flu, habits and…expressions. Only a few weeks in, we had our first share of “where did you learn this?” when out of the blue Kai announced that he was “dope”. David and I laughed so hard we cried. When we asked him where he had learned that, his response: “Olivia from school.” (He really likes Olivia).

Given Kai’s heritage of being half Dutch, and thus soccer being undeniably engraved in his genetic make-up, it only makes perfect sense that he gets introduced to this sport at an early age. So, on September 11, he had his first soccer practice.

He loves soccer. Mommy loves Kai loving soccer. Everyone happy.

And then there is Ryder. Ryder eats. He eats. And he eats.

One evening, cucumber salad was on the menu for dinner. As I was prepping the rest of dinner, the boys came in, asking for a snack. I gave them a piece of cucumber. Within 30 seconds they were back. I gave them another piece. Then I gave them a little plate to take with them. Then I refilled the plates. Until…

… and this was before dinner had started.

Other than that, Ryder is coasting along, going his own way. He discovered the driver’s seat of the car. What a fascinating place: tons of buttons, a steering wheel, a noise maker and lights in different colors. Just like Christmas.

And there were the parties. We had a block party on our street. The last one was the day we closed escrow on the house and we were out of town. We missed that one, but now, 8 years later, we had another one. And it was fun. Music, fun people, good food and drinks, and fun games. What more would we want? It was a great day and during which we made a great discovery too: our babies got rhythm:

And finally, there was the big event at the end of the month: My friend Melanie lives in Ottawa and in April of this year she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After surgery in May, she started chemo in September, but despite all this, she took on the challenge of participating in a 5K Run to raise money for the Ottawa Cancer Foundation. Here was an amazing woman who was fighting the fight of her life and RUNNING a 5K!! “Respect” is an understatement here.

In order to support her in her efforts, I organized and hosted a fundraiser, raising $3,000 for her cause. I catered the event myself, we had an auction with amazing products and a group of even more amazing people, supporting a friend of a friend. It warmed my heart to have so many people step up and help out. Just amazing.

As I write this, Melanie is doing great. She finished her last Chemo tour on Thanksgiving Day and just arrived in Florida for a month of rest, peace and tranquility. After four chemo tours and all the effects those have had on her body, she starts her recovery. And what a wonderful way to start it off!!

So, September was a busy month. A month with lots of highs and achievements. It marked the end of summer, the beginning of a new school year and of becoming a Soccer Mom. Yes, I am officially a Soccer Mom. And Yes, I love it. (And No, I don’t drive a Mini-Van).

25 Day Challenge - Day 24 with a "Snif Snif"

First things first: let's get the awkwardness out of the way - they lost (see, the change in pronoun here?).  They lost, we lost, however you want to phrase it, it sucks.  BIG TIME!  I am bummed out and after having changed my Facebook profile pic this morning from an actual photo into the Dutch flag, I found myself changing it back to my 'old' profile picture this afternoon.  In addition, I now have to re-do my toe nails and turn them back into a 'generic' color.  Forget about what the loss means to the Dutch soccer team, their coach and everyone else who worked their rear ends off for the Dutch team!  I have to re-do my toes!!!!  Priorities people, priorities!!

So now that I have addressed that and it's out of the way, let's return to our daily lives and business.  Oh God, I am so far behind with my writing.  I have 25 Day Challenge stuff to write, recipes to share, and an awesome recommendation to share with those who live in the LA area.

I don't know if I can get all this done in one evening, but here goes nothing.  Imah-gonna-try:

25 Day Challenge - Day 24 - Yes /No - Be Assertive
As a mother I want to please.  I think as mothers we receive that blessing at the same time we find out we are pregnant.  During our pregnancies, we want the baby to be comfortable, well-nourished, happy, etc. and we pursue this goal through a seeing our health care professionals, a well-balanced diet (okay, so maybe not all the time), some exercise (well, maybe not all the time either), making sure we get enough sleep (oops...), talking to the baby, etc.  Once the baby is born we do everything in our power to keep our lil' one content: we feed, change, rock, nurse, cuddle, hug, kiss, burp, and stroke, and this is just the beginning of a long list of things we do to pursue our child's content-ness.

Personally I have found that it is so incredibly easy to get completely wrapped up in trying to please everyone around me.  (I'm talking about mainly family members at this point, though that includes our pets.)  Now that I am a mother to two, I have come to the realization that this is an almost impossible goal to pursue.  I mean, for everyone to be content, 100% of the time.  I am on purpose not using the word 'happy' as I strongly believe that happiness is not something that is dependent on one of two events that happen on any given day.  Happiness is something bigger that is made up by much bigger elements than "can I have a piece of chocolate?".

I have found that there is tremendous power in the word 'no'.  I am not talking about the "No" that we give our toddlers so many times during the day to tell them that they are not allowed to do something, such as pulling the cat's tail, sitting on the dog, throwing rocks over the wall into the neighbor's yard, hiding the dog toy under the shed where nobody can reach it, etc.  I am referring to the 'no' that we should give a bit more often to keep ourselves from getting overwhelmed.  In our pursuit of meeting everyone's needs, we often say "yes, I'll take care of that" even though we have not the slightest idea how or when we are going to do this thing we just committed ourselves to.  Saying 'no' once in a while will allow you to actually get things done and it will allow you to look back at the end of the day and say "that was a productive day".  The other scenario is the one where you said "yes" to too many things and at the end of the day you 'only' got half of them done.  In which case (given that you are most likely exhausted) you will perceive your glass to be half empty instead of half full.

It is difficult to say "no", but it is so powerful if we can use it with honesty and respect.  I am not saying to not help your kids, to not feed them, to not care for them.  I am referring to the 'small' things that come up over the course of the day that aren't that small at all and can consume more time than you have available.  Just because your toddler gets muddy outside, doesn't mean you have to do laundry right that moment.  There are other clothes (s)he can wear.  Just because you ran out of apple juice, doesn't mean you have to rush to the grocery store right that moment. They can drink something else (like water).  Just because a friend asks you to look something up for them, doesn't mean it cannot wait until the following morning.  I hope you see what I mean.

I have realized that being able to say "no" (or "not now") once in a while and knowing when to say it, is wonderful.  If you say it with honesty and respect, you will not offend anyone.  If you feel the need to explain, do so, but most likely you won't need to as the other person will get it (unless it's a 2-year old) and be fine with it.

Tomorrow's Challenge:

Being Peace
You don't need to search for peace; you are a being of peace.  Any time, and place, you can step back from your thoughts and emotions.  Just withdraw into your inner being, a place of total peace and just be.

Click here for the 'pause - think - act' elements of the challenge.

Orange, Orange, Orange, Did Someone Say "ORANGE"?

Several weeks ago, I could care less about the World Cup Soccer.  I came across a few people (and ads) expressing their enthusiasm for it, but it didn't compare to the craziness one would experience in, oh, let's see...

!!!HOLLAND!!!

Seriously, if you think that this country (the US) goes crazy over the baseball, basketball or football...think again!!  (I say this lovingly)  Real craziness is my home country when it comes to soccer.  Once 'we' (afterall, it's a team effort right?) made it to the quarter finals, the orange fever got to me as well.  I have been gone out of The Netherlands since 1999, but as I mentioned in a previous post, you can take the girl out of The Netherlands, but when it comes to soccer, you can't take The Netherlands out of the girl.

As I just said, WE have made it to the finals.  I mean, if the Dutch team was sent home after their 2nd match, it would have certainly been 'they', but now that we're talking World Cup Finals, I mean, hello!!!!  WE made it to the finals!!!
For those of you unaware of what the term "orange fever" means, let me explain with the help of some pics I pulled off the glorious and generous internet:

Just to give you an idea.  We take soccer very seriously as you can see!

Even though I cannot say this for sure, but I have a sense that many neighborhoods will look somewhat like this:

And while all this craziness is going on at home, awaiting the big game on Sunday, I am back in LA, mad at myself that I didn't buy any red-white-blue or orange flags, decorations or whatever to show my support (and pride).  So, what's a girl to do?  Right, I went to Target this morning and purchased the things I needed to show my support for as much as I can at this late moment.  The result:

(The dots are red, white & blue by the way).

So, as you can see: I am ready for Holland to win.  Bring it on!!

25 Day Challenge - Day 22

It may sound arrogant, but I'm stuck on today's challenge (well, kinda): the challenge for today is to take 10 minutes to reflect on any mistakes made over the week and to ask myself: What did I learn?  What will I do differently and better as a result of what I know?

Provided it's only Hump Day and there are still several days ahead of me this week, I have a hard time coming up with any mistakes made this week.  Having said that though, the 'think' part of the challenge is something that is worth looking at:

"I am able to learn something useful from every situation."
With Kai sick yesterday and with the semi-finals of the World Cup Soccer, I felt as if the day passed by without me noticing.  At the end of the day I was still wearing my lounge pants, hadn't brushed my teeth yet and hadn't even combed my hair.  I felt like an absolute slob who hadn't gotten anything done.

I shared my frustration with David over dinner and he reminded me that sometimes it's okay to have a day like that.  Afterall, the Netherlands had won the semi-finals and with that placed itself in the Finals for Sunday.  I did get my laundry folded:




But most importantly, I cared for my sick toddler who really needed a dose of mommy-love.  He was so right and that, my friends, is one of the biggest lessons I learned over the past few days: sometimes it's okay to cuddle up with your baby and watch movies the entire day (although I am soooo trough with Thomas, Finding Nemo and Cars).  Sometimes that's the best thing you can do for a day.  The bottom line: every situation provides us with an opportunity to learn.  It's not easy to always remember, but worth the try.

Tomorrow's challenge:

Abundance
Abundance is to see that there are endless possibilities before us.  And at the same time, still see an incredibly rich existence right where we are.  It is a feeling of gratitude for everything and everyone we have in our life.

Click here for the 'pause - think - act' elements of the challenge.

Post It Note Tuesday

It Ain't Much If It Ain't Dutch...

...especially today as my home country of The Netherlands beat the (currently) #1 ranking soccer country in the world Brazil with 2-1.  I had the foresight to actually set the DVR to record the game, which aired at 7am this morning on ESPN.  (For those who missed the post in which I shared 7 things about myself: I am Dutch.  Born and raised.)

Me watching the game live, lost to Kai watching Sesame Street (afterall, mommy knows what's good for her), so I ended up watching it once Kai decided he had enough of his morning fix of Elmo, Abby, Zoe and Murray.  Thank god it didn't occur to him to ask for 'Curious George'.  When I turned it on, 'my' team was behind at 0-1.  Not great to wake up too.  But...that all changed and without boring you with the details of the game, all there is left to say is that now my throat is sore from the scream I let out with they scored 1-1.  By the time it got 2-1 I had to swallow my excitement as Ryder had just fallen asleep for his morning nap.  

Even though I do not follow much of what happens 'back home', I have to admit, I am all in the Orange Mood right now.  Afterall, you can take the girl out of The Netherlands, but when it comes to speed skating (that sport on ice that is so popular during the Winter Olympics) and soccer, you just canNOT take The Netherlands out of the girl.

So, you betcha that I will be watching the semi-finals.  I may not paint my face orange and top it off with red-white-blue flags on my cheeks (like I did back in college), but in spirit I am as orange as it gets.  Because, at the end, It Ain't Much If It Ain't Dutch (just ask my hubby ;-)