Do you want to be part of a Writing group?

Today is Saturday and the topic of today is supposed to be SELF.
But somehow I do not feel like writing about that, and I can't figure out what to write about, especially since I am supposed to write a short piece to be presented to the Women Writers Workshop I go to. I have until Sunday to create something, or bring back to life something I wrote a while back, and the second one seems to be winning.
So, in the spirit of writing I will take this time to promote my Women Writing Workshop Group, I have created a Facebook Page and Lisa one of the members of the group created a page with the details of our group. We are looking for more members, so if you live in the NYC area and are interested please email me.

The website for our Women Writing Workshop page is: 
https://womenwritersworkshopnewyork.wordpress.com/

And you can request to be added to the facebook group as well.

Happy Writing!!!!

Family - Where is HOME to you?

For the past two weeks I have been in Puerto Rico. Not only was this a vacation, but also a moment to visit the family I have there. My mom, my grandparents, my aunt, my Godmother, my grand-aunt, my cousins. Going back to the place I grew up in, where I played as a child, where I met my husband, where we got married. Eating my favorite ice cream, Guánabana, from the Chinese Ice Cream Store and being able to share this with my girls.


We went to the beach, ate surullitos and cheese balls, and empanadillas de pizza over and over and over. I didn't seem to get sick of them.

I walked through the town that saw me grow up, and all the memories flooded my heart. I saw my grandparents almost in their 90's and I couldn't help myself from hugging them each day and be so grateful to have them still in my life.

I was able to newly appreciate my cousins, some which I had not seen in many years, and I was touched at how nice they were with me and how I was able to relate to them at a very different level now as an adult and how familiar everything felt.

I loved being able to see my friend Ingrid, and speak on the phone with Ricardo who was my great friend since kindergarten. 

Puerto Rico to me is my family, it is part of who I am, it is in my blood. It's where everything began. It was strange to see face to face the places that appear on my recurring dreams and at times it felt as if I was indeed walking through very vivid dreams.


But in Puerto Rico, Juaco, a friend of the family asked me: "Where is HOME to you? Brooklyn or Puerto Rico?" and I answered: "Where my husband and my children are." Because even though my beginnings are in Puerto Rico, my heart lies with my husband and my girls, and with out them, it wouldn't be home.

Where is HOME to you?

I leave you with a picture of the Calle Luna the main street of the town of San German with a beautiful sky

Dreams - Werewolves...

Last night I had a weird dream like the ones I have sometimes. I was at work and some people came over to make some kind of experiment and I was going to be tested with another guy and another girl. And me with the other guy were going to be transformed into werewolves. I have to put on a suit, like a hoodie and that would made me turn. When we were all in our alternate shapes, a hunter appears and tried to kill us. But I was able to take away his arrows and render him defenseless. I was just trying to protect myself and my pack. The other guy admits to being gay and we all accept him. Then the other guy admits.to.being black. He had been rejected in school for being black, to the point of not being able to have pictures of him in the yearbook. The girl became brave enough to allow herself to be with the boy she liked.  We all felt braver and more powerful as werewolves and the experiment became a.success.

I think this dream is a combination of watching the show Being Human. Although I have not seen it since I have been here in PR. But for some reason there are shows that impact me in deeper levels. Like White Collar has done, and now I feel like the show Being Human has made an impact in my life as well. I think about the show randomly throughout the day and sometimes I feel as if the characters are in a way part of my daily life's reality. But they are not. But I don't know. What makes people identify so much with some TV characters?

SELF - Do you ever feel other people's feelings?

I just finished gazing through Kat Von D's book The Tattoo Chronicles. It is a year of her life in journal and pictures of the tattoo's she's made. I must say I read a few pages but I don't think I can read the whole thing. Mainly because it is too intense. It may seem odd, but I have the ability to absorb emotions from people and things, a trait that has me walking away from things sometimes when the emotions become too intense for me to handle. On this trip I realized that I can also absorb the emotions of my friends as I would start feeling nervous at the same time my friend would without me having any reason to feel nervous otherwise.
So as I went through the pages, I read a few words and as I did it was as if I was feeling what Kat was feeling at the moment she was writing the book and I had to stop myself from reading. Even some of the pictures carried so much emotion that I was afraid to look at them too close. I wonder if there are more people that have this ability that renders us sensitive to the energies of others through different mediums. Do you feel that way sometimes?

Parenting - Large Families

For the past few days I have not been around. I have been writing on my cellphone, but not able to post as I have been getting home too late and too tired to sit at the computer. Also, I don't have topics about my normal schedule like I do when I write from home, but I do have about 5 posts already written that I will try to post every day from now on, except the day I will travel once again back home.

In the past few days I have gone to.pick up my nieces and took them to the mall and we spent the day together. Six girls ages ranging from 5 to 13 and me. It felt like I had 6 daughters and they were always laughing and running. They are all so pretty and sweet and I liked it mainly because they are all big kids because I like big kids more than I like babies. On Saturday we are going to go out again this time to the beach and I know we are going to have a great time. I am basically an only child, because I am the only child born to my mother so I am not that familiar with what having siblings feels like. But by being with 6 girls and spending time with them I realized that having siblings (or multiple children) even if it is that many can be a blessing too.

I love you all girls! :)

Vacation - Day 1 - Puerto Rico

Yesterday was my first day of my vacation in Puerto Rico and it seems like 2 or 3 days have passed already. We went to the airport bought some snacks including an $8.00 box of decorated cookies that the girls didn't like after they tried them, we waited for a while and took advantage of the JetBlue free wifi. We were the first ones to board the plane as we were sitting right at the last set of seats. We watched some TV and Elsie fell asleep pretty quickly. Gaby and I stayed awake longer. We had snacks together and talked a little bit about how we were inside a cloud and how I thought that was cool, but Gaby said it was boring as she couldn't see anything out the window.
We had a safe landing, and everyone applauded as soon as we touched ground. I wonder if only Puerto Ricans do this or if it's everyone?
As soon as we got out of the plane I think that felt like the second day of our trip and it technically was as we entered the airport on Wednesday and got out on Thursday. My mom and her friend Juaco picked us up and on the almost 1 hour ride to the house from the airport we talked about all the different stores we could go to buy breakfast. We bought the classic breakfast that I used to eat growing up and it's bread, salami and edam cheese. As we arrived to the house we felt like it was the 3rd day of our trip as somewhere between the airport and the house we fell asleep again. I ate a couple of sandwiches with Pan Sobao, Papperoni and Queso de Bola and after that went right back to sleep making my waking up feel like it was our fourth day on the trip.
We chilled out, the girls got into the hammocks and later we went to buy some fruits and vegetables at a little kiosk next to the house. We ate and then possibly went to sleep again because going to the mall at night was our 5th day.
It is funny how just the act of falling asleep and having something that changes the rhythm that changes your routine can make your brain get confused and make you feel like more days have passed than they have actually passed. Do any of you have gone through this?

NOTE: Beware, I have written this article half asleep so please forgive me if you see any mistakes or incoherances. Thanks!

Picture of the Day - Breathtaking Sunset

Once again, I am not in the mood to write, mainly because I'm tired, had a long day, did 8 loads of laundry and now I need to fold and put away. So I'm going to leave you guys with a picture for the day.

A sunset I took while my hubby drove past the city. Hope you like it

Household - Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

This last week has been an incredible success for me, not only was I able to broom and mop the house, I was able to get rid of an incredible amount of paper clutter, and I was able to organize all the school supplies that I had laying all over the house. Now everything has it's place and I am so proud. The living room seems so spacious now! When I need scissors or paper, or glue sticks or pencils I know where to find them. We went from not having enough pencils, or markers, or crayons or coloring pencils, or even pens, to having a whole drawer of coloring items and a whole drawer of additional school supplies. We have 5 scissors! more than 20 pencils, and countless other things. So now when one of us needs something, we know where to find it, and where to put it back soon after.
Today Elsie was able to finish her homework and choose some art supplies make some paintings, find the tape to put it up in the wall and then put everything back where it belongs. And that to me is priceless!
Have you had any breakthroughs recently dealing with clutter?

Health & Beauty - The changes continue...

For those of you who have been following me, on Mondays I talk about health and beauty, and for the past month I have been writing about getting to a healthy weight. I am currently 170lbs. and I should be at least 150lbs to be at a healthy weight based on my age and height. Yet 150 is the top level of the spectrum. I should be between 119 to 150lbs. If I aim for 150, then it means I only have to loose 20lbs, and if I loose 5lbs a month, I would be a healthy weight in 4 months. Which seems pretty good. But the thing is that I have not lost any weight, yet. And being a woman, there is a few days a month when I tend to gain 5 more pounds and loose them right back after the week has passed. So this week I weigh myself and it's that week that I shouldn't have weighted myself, but I did. So I am going to ignore the scale and see how the rest of the weeks go. I have also been keeping a food diary and keeping track of my calories with a cool app I found for my android phone called MyFitnessPal you can also use it online if you'd like and it helps me keep track of all the calories I eat and acts as my food diary as well, it helps me be accountable for what I eat. I even bought this Lean Shake from GNC and it tastes good but I stay starving! It says I should drink it and eat a fruit, and that kinda holds me down a bit, but if I don't eat that fruit it is like it triggers in some way my hunger and it freaks me out. Today I must say I wasn't too good. I ate 1600+calories today. The problem was that I drank all the milk last night and I needed my milk for breakfast, and I didn't have it, so I had a Lean Shake with a banana and I was fine, but lunch time came and I had no clue what to eat, so I had to run some errands and I took the girls to McDonalds and I ate a BigMac Meal, and I must say I was STARVING when I ate it, and that threw me off for the rest of the day. I was trying to make no more than 1500 a day, but I just checked my BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate which tells you the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day, and mine is 1420 cal. So if I eat about 1300 cal a day then I should loose some weight. Up to today I have been eating between 1500 and 1600 calories. So next time I go to McDonalds I will have something with less calories than the BigMac Meal. What I like about MyFitnessPal is that it has almost any food I am bound to eat and it counts the calories for me, it takes out the guess work, and by having a calorie allowance it gives me a little bit more freedom in what I eat, so I don't have to deprive myself of any type of food. But tomorrow I will try to not pass the 1300 cal total in the day and see if I can stick to it and be on my way to a healthy weight. :)

Picture of the Week - Share the Warmth

Today's picture of the week is: Share the Warmth.
Spring is here and so are Spring Oreo Double Stuff Cookies and I must say I totally love these yellow center cookies. They taste like regular double stuff but they have cutesy decorations that come to life when dipped in Milk. The picture of the week is of one of my cookies floating in the milk and you can see the smiling sun with the words, Share the Warmth written on it. I must say the cookie did not live much longer after the picture was taken and I would not be able to say that no cookies were harmed in the making of this blog because I would be lying. Anyway, here it is...

Now I want to go and eat one. :)

SELF - How do you get Motivated?

The other day I was chatting with a friend when they pointed out that the new generations lack the curiosity and motivation that was prominent many years ago that allowed Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and so many others to come up with the amazing inventions they did. Back then there was a lack of commodities, so there was a need for so many things and I think that's what motivated these people. Now, on the other hand, people have almost everything, and even though not all people have everything, the majority of things that are actually needed for us to have a comfortable existence have already been invented, so this leaves all these new generations feeling all comfortable and great, so they don't feel the need to create. Now it's all about making improvements to what already exists and even all the old movies are being re-made. It seems that now there's no new things happening anymore, not in books, not in movies, not in music, not in technology. Everything is re-made, improved, but rarely new.
These new generations seem to be looking now for better rights, save the planet, helping out, and all this is really great, it seems to be an attempt to fix things from the past. But it is still a movement that was started many years ago, it is still a variation from the past. Nothing new is happening. Are we stuck this way? Is there no room for new things? How about something that will guarantee world peace? Or something that will end world hunger? Is that even possible? But then when people try to create hybrid foods in the efforts to diminish world hunger, people are criticized for going against nature. Now many want to go back to the basics, everything must be organic, eat only raw foods, etc. Maybe this is a way for the world to have a new beginning when everything has already been invented. Start from scratch. But we can't forget that light bulbs exist or telephones or computers...or money. If we could only find a way to bring resources to the underdeveloped countries, bring the technology to allow everyone to stay healthy without having people come and criticize the efforts as unnatural.
How can we stay motivated? How can we create again, without having the fear of being turned down by society, how can we innovate? How do we teach our children to be creative when we don't even know how?

How to Improve your relationship without talking about it.

I just recently finished reading an amazing book called How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It It is an amazing book, and I think every person who is in a relationship or who has ever been in a serious relationship should read it. I am sure that if everyone read this book, there would be less divorce and more happy couples. I personally bought the Kindle version of the book and I am very happy with my purchase and I am sure that this will improve my marriage without talking about it.
It makes so much sense, think about it. A woman is upset with her man, and she approaches him with, "we need to talk" How do you think the man is going to react? "Sure honey, sit next to me and let's talk" When was the last time you heard that? How about never!
What if she suggests therapy? How many men you know accept to go willingly to marriage counseling? and if they do agree, how many times has it really worked?
I have read numerous books on relationships and the majority of them needed the male counterpart's cooperation in order to work, but this book actually works even if your partner doesn't read it, or even if you don't even tell him that you read the book, or ask him anything about it or comment anything about it.

The great thing about this book is that it helps you understand the other side of the coin, it explains the differences between men and women and how each have their own way of dealing with stressful situations, how men tend to feel shame and need to feel like they are providing for their family and being good, sexy, amazing men to their wives and women fear abandonment and have a constant need of feeling loved and protected. It helps you see how many times the things we do can cause these fear/shame dynamic to unfold, without us meaning to do it, even without us knowing. It help us learn to catch these instances, and help us be compassionate of the other and change our behavior and in return our partners change their behavior as well, when they no longer feel the need to be defensive.
The book is written by a man and a woman therapist ( Steven Stosny Phd (Author), Patricia Edd Love (Author) ) and they write for each of the sexes so men or women can both benefit from it. I wonder if it would work for same sex partners? or if it would help in other relationships as well?
The only thing about the book is that it might not be as effective if it's read by a newly wed couple or a couple who is still in the romantic phase of their relationship, unless that person has previously experienced some kind of rockiness in their previous relationships, because they might not be able to relate to it. When a couple is new it tends to be all lovey dovey and everything is pink and flowers and someone in that stage probably wouldn't  believe that there is a possibility that they could ever have problems in the relationship so they wouldn't believe it. But if you have ever been in a relationship where you felt like you had a hard time communicating with your partner then this book is for you. Go and buy it. What are you waiting for? Yes, you. The one that's looking at me looking at you looking at me. Ha! Just kidding. But I do recommend it and I would put it on the list of books that changed my life.
Can you relate?

Parenting - Do you ever wonder what your kids will be as teenagers?

The other day I was about to take the train when I saw a group of girl teenagers hanging out in the train station waiting for the train the same as me. They were all from different nationalities, and one of them was fair skinned and with glasses and slightly overweight, and she seemed to be the one carrying on the conversation at the moment, her friends who ranged from Eastern European to African American and Hispanic were actively listening to the first girl rant about how she couldn't believe the hideous dress that whatever girl was wearing that day. "O my Gawd! She looked so hideous, her skirt was all long it looked like she was a grandmother wearing that!" The others agreed with her and proceeded to comment about all the other girls that were ridiculous or hideous or simply didn't fit the standards that these girls had placed on them. At that moment I thought to myself:
"I really hope my daughters don't grow up to be like that!" And honestly I really doubt it. But as I see them grow and see their friends I know that it is my responsibility to teach them to be respectful to others and teach them good values and to accept people and not gossip. I like to lead by example here and I do think that they will grow up to be respectful people and that they won't end up hanging out with their friends talking about how horrible the other girls dress was. I expect them to not contribute to the gossip if they ever encounter themselves in a situation where her friends are doing it and would prefer if they had the option to walk away from it. Sometimes they will be able to walk away and sometimes not, but in the end I know that they would choose to be respectful.
Do you ever imagine your young kids as teenagers? Is there anything that worries you?
Or if your children are teenagers or older? Are there any thing that worries you about them?

Don't you think this view is amazing?

Today I don't feel like writing, but I feel like I owe it to you all to give you something, so I am enclosing a picture that I took at night from my building the night the moon was supposed to be at it's biggest. So here it is, a picture of NYC at night and a picture of the moon. If you look closely you'll see the man in the moon. Do you see it?

Tell me what do you think. :)

Household - How do you keep up with it all?

Lately I've been feeling like it has been hard to keep up with it all. It seems like I have not mopped in 3 weeks and I sweep whenever I see something in the floor, at least once a week, and I have been culling through paper and other clutter and while I am creating a dent on it all, it still seems like there's much more than I can handle.
The dishes have been staying half way done, as it seems like I do the dishes and 20 minutes later the sink is full again, so I just do enough dishes so I can see the bottom of the sink partially and I feel like at least Ive done something. I am behind in chores, and I struggle thinking about which is more important? Spending time with the hubby or Putting away the laundry? And it seems the hubby is winning because the laundry is still untouched since Thursday. But then it's so hard to find underwear or socks when all the clothes are still in the laundry bad, and then after being there for so many days the clothes get all wrinkly and then I have to iron it and I truly don't want to do that. So how do you set priorities on what to do next? How do you choose what to do when the list of things to do is too much to do in one day?
I need help in this area? All tips are welcome!

Health/Beauty - The struggle with the food.

Days pass and my husband has started a new dieting system, I find myself re-evaluating my own dietary habits. The new system consists of 5 mini meals, low in carbs, and 1 lean green meal, 6 to 8 oz of lean meat and 3 servings of non starchy veggies. I think I am going to try that approach, yet I have to organize myself and find substitutions for the mini meals. My hubby is going to be eating those protein bars, and some low-cal-low carb snacks (soy crisps) etc. Each mini meal is only 100 cals ea. and the regular meal it's like 500 cals so it's like 1000 calories in a day. This is definitely something that will make you loose weight, as you will be lowering your caloric intake a great deal and then because you eat every 2/3 hours then you can think that you are eating more than you think, also it recommends taking at least 15 minutes to eat each meal, and never allow yourself to get to a level 1 or Zero in hunger, Zero being that feeling when you are so hungry that you get cranky and will eat anything and everything in sight, and I noticed that I get to that level quite often, and I need to change that. But I'm such a picky eater that I have to find things I can snack on throughout the day that will agree with me. I don't like cereal bars, or granola bars, or shakes, or soups, I don't know I'm very hard to please. Yet I have simple tastes. But this week as I watch my hubby and help him out organize his daily meals I will try to get familiarized with the program he's in so that I can tweak it to my particular idiosyncrasies. What is your relationship with food like? Do you ever allow yourself to get so hungry that you are ravenous? Why do you do it? I do it many times because I am to lazy to cook and can't find anything that is quick and easy and that will satisfy me.

Before I go, I want to apologize for not being consistent in the past couple of days. Life has been hectic and my head has been spinning with all the things I have been meaning to do but haven't, and the worst of all is that once I skip a day from Blogging, the next day I find I have to force myself to write, because I get into a lazy streak or something. We need to push ourselves to be our best everyday otherwise we can slack off constantly until we find the strength to go back on schedule.
Do any of you a struggle with keeping a schedule?  I want to hear from you!