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A Much Needed Mommy Field Trip

Posted on May 12, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Yes, it is true. This mommy took herself, and a friend on a field trip the day before Mother’s Day. Some may call it selfish; others call it a must needed adventure. I call it being a GEM and knowing that I need ME time. Thanks to Rene Syler, I have realized that it is fine for me to need time away from my family. I love the boys, but this mama likes time with friends and having some additional estrogen in her life.

The reality is that a lot has changed since we got back from Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. At the time, I knew there were big changes coming, but never could have imagined the way it would play out. We started to look at different schooling options for our son. After a major bullying incident, we had to look into this faster than we had intended. I am no longer associated with the local magazine for a variety of reasons. What I realized during all of this chaos is that I love my family/friends and their place in my life. I also saw how people stepped up, helped me with things, and allowed me to laugh during a highly stressful time. Most important of all, I saw the power of women coming together. Reinventing myself is happening with each breath that I take.

Since we got back from Disney, I have been communicating with Rene Syler. Rene has been awesome cheering me on in the background as I embrace my inner GEM (Good Enough Mother). Her energy is contagious. At one point, Rene and I realized that we do not live too that far from one another. The Head GEM suggested that we meet for lunch one day. Before I knew it, Rene and I set a date for a Mommy Field Trip for the two of us and Christina from Cutest Kid Ever.

This past Saturday, yes the day before Mother’s Day, we met at a restaurant. After lots of hugs, we sat down, ordered some drinks/food, and talked up a storm. We had a lot to chat about. Business, families, education, social media, fun, Disney, and pretty much anything else you can think of was on our agenda. Being bloggers, we all took turns taking photos of our food and other items:

Of course, being the social media groupies that we are, we also sent out some Tweets from the Mommy Field Trip. Here is the TwitPic that I captured of the beautiful Rene:

Before we finished our meal, we asked someone in the restaurant to take a photo of us. We hoped to get one outside along the Hudson River, but needed one from inside. Here is a view from our Mommy Field Trip:

Before we knew it, the time had come to head out to our cars. Lots of hugs, some photos by the river, and promises to do this again. It was an amazing first ever Mommy Field Trip for me thanks to the women I was with. Thank you Rene for being an inspiration. I know that Christina and I will use your words of wisdom in the not too distant future. Thanks to you, I move forward one step at a time toward my GEM reinvention. Thank you for supporting me and my new projects that are yet to be seen.

Have you been on a Mommy Field Trip recently? If not, what are you waiting for?!

Categories:
decisions DisneySMMoms food glorious food friends fun interesting laughs looking back me moments photos road trip weekend

School Visit Time

Posted on May 3, 2011 7:33 am by TheAngelForever

Plans come and go, especially as a parent. The boys were supposed to be in school today, and I was going to write a review on a new book for Tuesday Tales. Instead, TechyDad and I will be researching school options for our boys. Over the last year, a lot has changed. Things that had been acceptable are now terribly bad.

For weeks I have wanted to sit down and vent on my blog about the happenings, but knew it was not the right thing to do. Still, I need to write something. I have to come clean that things are not going well.

I actually went to school on Friday and removed my son at 9:30 in the morning. Why? Quite simply we feared for his safety. Our son was punched in the ribs and had bruises after another child attacked him.

I want to say more, but need to save it. This was not the firs incident and we believe that our son was the victim of bullying. There is no acceptance in my world for bullying. People that look the other way and constantly make excuses for the bully will not be tolerated – it’s that simple.

Have you or your child had to deal with bullying at school? If you have I would really like to hear from you. How did your school respond? Any advice and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

What had once seemed so clear, is now quite blurry. As a parent, the unknown can be so very difficult – especially if you once believed in something.

Categories:
bad news decisions school TechyDad vent

The Mom Song Mommy Moment

Posted on April 25, 2011 8:08 am by TheAngelForever

I recently made a big decision in my life. It was time to think about my family and put them first. The item is too fresh to really explain right now, but it was the right thing to do for my entire family.

Of course, this made me think about a song that Susan Egan and Georgia Stitt performed for us at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Here is my video of them performing it:

This song is perfect with Mother’s Day coming up and reminds me that even when the kids may make me want to rip my hair out, I know I am lucky to be home with them.

Thank you Susan and Georgia for helping me to smile and relive those magical memories from a month ago. I really needed this right now and hope it will make others laugh and smile this Monday morning.

Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The sweet conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, several meals for the entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a long time Disney fan, it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event.

Categories:
decisions DisneySMMoms looking back me moments sahm video

Figuring Out The Answers

Posted on April 1, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday, I wrote a post called Are You a Good Enough Mother? At the start, I asked:

Have you ever had one of those moments where you doubt yourself, wonder what is happening, and question whether you are a good enough mother/parent/adult/human?

I explained that I am working on taking the words of Rene Syler, aka the head GEM/Good Enough Mother to task.

Now, thanks to Rene and some Rene-isms (also listed in my post yesterday), I have a lot of things on my mind, planned for my blog, and more importantly ideas for my life. The first is to be able to accept that nobody is perfect and know that being a good enough mother is awesome. Oh and thanks to a comment from Rene, I have another Rene-ism to add:

“You may not have all the answers, but you’re smart enough to figure it out.”

I know this statement from Rene is true, it’s just hard to sit by, be patient, and get those answers figured out – especially when your children are involved.

Today, my Aloha Friday question continues along with my quest to bring you along on my journey as I embrace my inner GEM and work on reinventing myself. The reality is that most of us do reinvent ourselves at least once in our lives. So my question to you:

If you had the chance to reinvent yourself right now, what would you want to do and why?

_____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #145

Categories:
Aloha Friday Blogging Conference Conference decisions DisneySMMoms me moments

Are You a Good Enough Mother?

Posted on March 31, 2011 10:00 am by TheAngelForever

Have you ever had one of those moments where you doubt yourself, wonder what is happening, and question whether you are a good enough mother/parent/adult/human?

Welcome to my current world.

As I hinted at the other day, TechyDad and I are in the process of making some tough decisions for our family. I have shed a lot of tears since we got back home from the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Let’s just say that coming back from a week of magic, where you can forget about reality, is harsh.

Fortunately, I am trying to remember some wise words that I heard at the conference. I am working on embracing the philosophy of the The Good Enough Mother. This means accepting that nobody is perfect, being able to let go of things, allowing for me time, and realizing that I am not failing my children. We all make mistakes, learn from these mistakes (not failures), and grow thanks to them. Still being a TypeA personality, it is not easy to let go of my ways.

So who helped me to see the light? This beautiful, amazing, and truly inspirational woman that I am standing with below:

Meet Rene Syler – the head GEM. What is a GEM, read more about what it mean to be a Good Enough Mother on her website. Here is a little biography that was provided to us before the event at Disney:

Rene Syler has had the opportunity to interview famous faces, political personalities and countless authors during her four year position as one of the anchors of The Early Show at CBS. In March 2007, Rene’s first book Good Enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting was published by Simon Spolight Entertainment. From that her website, www.goodenoughmother.com was born.

Rene came onto the stage at DisneySMMoms and stole my heart and many others in the audience. She spoke to me on so many levels. Almost two weeks after hearing her inspirational speech, my brain is still going a mile a minute – not a bad thing honestly. Rene’s words have helped me during the moments where I wanted to quit being an adult and return to my childhood. Seriously, recalling her words has brought a smile to my face when there were tears in my eyes.

My plan is to bring you along on my journey as I embrace my inner GEM and work on reinventing myself. I will continue to explore more lessons from Rene and channel her energy here on my blog.

For now, I would like to share some of my favorite Rene Syler-isms from her talk. I Tweeted about many of these during DisneySMMoms, but think they deserve to be seen again:

Being washed up is just another word for reinventing yourself. You can always reinvent yourself.
Just because you used your womb doesn’t mean that you don’t use your brain.
Real growth hurts. You cannot grow when you are comfortable, and you cannot be comfortable when you grow.
Follow your passion, because you can never go wrong.
It is okay to say to your kids, “Come here. Listen, Mommy need a break from you.” It’s good for you and for them.
When you spit fire the message is lost.
People who make you feel bad have no place in your life. Do not let people get you down about not being perfect.
You only have so much energy and do not need to waste your energy on negative people.
Anyone who says they are perfect is lying!

To read more about Rene’s talk, head over to Cutestkidever, where Christina live blogged.

One more thing, Rene is a big fan of Dancing With The Stars. She actually Tweets along with people using #dwts during the live shows. The other night, she mentioned that she would love to be on the show. Cindy, The Mom Maven, listened and started a Twitter campaign and wrote a blog post to let the powers that be know that Rene has our support. Please help us to get Rene Syler onto Dancing With The Stars – the world could learn so much while watching this amazing woman strut her stuff.

Rene is a one of a kind woman who can teach all of us so much. Thank you, Rene, for being you, for sharing with all of us your gift, and for Tweeting and supporting Social Media and Moms in general.