Back from our Holiday Weekend in Rhode Island

Like you must already know, we weren't able to spend the Thanksgiving with my husband, but my friend April invited us to spend it with her family in Rhode Island since her sister was getting married. I agreed and we headed out to Rhode Island from Brooklyn and it took us approximately 4 hours.

April had a full schedule out for us, unfortunately I woke up a bit sick that day and I ended up getting worse as we drove, and by the time we got to Rhode Island I was out of voice (and still am).

We got to a place where we met with April's family, they were all gathered eating Thanksgiving Dinner, we ate and met some of the family as they were quite a bit of people. After dinner we went to April's mom's house and got settled in, and waited anxiously for the next day.

We woke up and had breakfast and headed out for some shopping at a Thrift Store called Savers, the girls got a few things to entertain themselves and then we headed out to have Lunch at a cool small town place and then we went Ice Skating. The very first time we ever Ice Skate, even though we have an Ice Skating Rink right here in NYC. But I guess we had to travel across several states to do this. I never expected to be able to do it, as it seemed to be so hard, but quickly we were able to get the hang of it and have fun in the ice, even 5 y/o Elsie was able to move in the ice with grace.

After going Ice Skating we stopped at the house for a minute and then we got ready to go to La Sallette Shrine it is an AMAZING place, it's all filled with lights and it's breathtaking, there is no way to describe the beauty of it all. But it is a place I highly recomend.

We did so much in this long 4 day weekend that I'm not going to go into details but let's just say that we had fun, and then on Saturday we went to Elizabeth's wedding and then after the wedding we drove back home, and stopped at Friendly's on our way and ate some Ice Cream.

We got home at 2:30am and spent most of the day on Sunday in bed watching TV, but we were all feeling sick so we decided to go to the doctor and in fact we all had throat infections and are taking on one more day of  rest at home.

So this was our Thanksgiving Weekend! What did you guys all do?

What does Thanksgiving mean to you?

Source: womansday.com via Elle on Pinterest

Well, Thanksgiving is fast approaching and I still have Halloween decorations on my walls and I started thinking about what this holiday means to me.

Lately I have been hearing about people who totally bash the holiday due to the Historical associations, but to me, Thanksgiving is not a day where I remember the pilgrims or the Indians or anything like that, to me is a day to sit down with family and friends to eat Turkey. :)

But it is not just about Turkey (now writing about it it's making me hungry) it's about taking the time to think about all the things that we are grateful for. And I must say I am sad that I will not have my family with me this Thanksgiving, but I will spend Wednesday with my sister-in-law and my cousin-in law to have dinner and then on Thursday I will be going to my friend's family's house to have Thanksgiving Dinner and the next day to her sister's wedding.

I am sad that my husband is going to be out of town for Thanksgiving, and I miss him so much. But I am grateful to have him as my husband and the father of my daughters and I know that we will be spending Christmas together and that makes me happy.

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Do you celebrate it? Is it just about the turkey? Or do you take the time to be grateful for all the blessings that you have?

A surge on Anti-Semitism in Brooklyn?

Today I read in the news about a new surge of hate crimes and antisemitism happening in Brooklyn.  This came to me as a shock as I work in a Jewish community and can't really believe that some people are going back in time to a mentality that has no place in the present. I believed that the world was starting to be more accepting of all the differences that there are. There is talk about equality, tolerance, acceptance and yet there are people who choose to act like Hitler's followers and draw swastikas on the sidewalks in a Jewish community.

I believe that moving to New York has made me accepting of so many more cultures than I was before growing up in Puerto Rico, because in Puerto Rico, most people are Puerto Rican regardless of their race, so I grew up having a feeling of pride in my country and all that we represent to the point of believing that we were the best country in the world. 

After 11 years in Brooklyn, I have been exposed to Jewish people, Muslim People, African American's, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Dominicans, people from Bangladesh and Egypt, and from many other countries and cultures and religions, and I have found new friends in most all of these and I have learned to see the amazing traits of so many kinds of people. I am so glad that I have had this opportunity to be immersed in the different cultures of the world and see the beauty that others might not see.

I really hope something is done about these hate crimes that have started recently, because this should be the time for acceptance, for understanding, and love towards one another.

What do you think about this? Do you have any experiences that you would like to share with us regarding acceptance or the lack there of?

Do you ever take on more than you can handle?

Hi everyone! Hope this post finds you in good health. I am writing this time because I feel as if I have been neglecting this site a bit, but it is not because I am being lazy or otherwise. I believe that I have taken on too much lately. Basically biting more than I can chew.

Let me explain. Six weeks ago I asked my boss to pay for a Social Media Marketing Boot camp at Media Bistro (Which I highly recommend to all of you, please check it out) in order for me to help him promote the Mini Mall that we currently manage. So for the past 6 weeks I have been studying online, not only I have to listen to about 3 hours of webcast a week, I also have to do research and homework. I must say I really love it. I have always had a passion for learning, so I decided to embark in another thing as well.

I recently acquired this program called the Total Transformation System. It gives parents the tools to teach your children to behave better. The program costs roughly $300, however they have a promotion that if you finish the program in 3 months, and submit a feedback questionnaire then you get the whole program for free. I think this is a great deal. My only complaint is that the program comes in several CD's which considering that I don't have a CD player anymore I find it to be inconvenient to have to wait for the computer to be completely accessible, which is usually after the girls go to bed. So I came up with a solution and it is to listen to the CD's on my car on the way to work.

It seems however that taking two courses about different topics isn't quite enough to satisfy my thirst for knowledge so I decided to Join the Facebook Marketing Bootcamp which is free, but it has 2 webcasts a week and a weekly checklist of things to do before the following week's webcast. They also have incentives by giving you $25 credit on FB advertizing.

Doing all of this has left me all feeling as if I am not using my time effectively as I have been neglecting my Blog and I really want to be able to make more time to include my Blog in this, so I decided to buy a Kindle Book called The Skinny on Time Management to see if I can figure out how to divide myself between my desire to learn things and my responsibilities as a mom and wife. So now I just have to figure out how to introduce some time to read this wonderful book.

If this seems like a lot, don't think that this is all the projects I am engaging in this past month, as I am still involved in a Women's Writing Workshop in Brooklyn which I have to write a short story to be critiqued every 2 weeks and critique short stories from my fellow group members, so that's another thing I have to find time to do, which this week I had to write a short story and I wrote it on my phone on my commute by train.

But this is not all, I am also trying to declutter my home and I am bringing things to the local Salvation Army and trying to sell some other things through local Classified Groups and through selling some other things at the local Vintage Store. To help with decluttering I am trying to squeeze some time to read the book called Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley aka Fly Lady. I highly recommend this book and website too.

Tired yet? Well, this is not all because I am also trying to follow a food program that is based on the books by Chef Jeff. He also lets you have his books for free if you take before and after pictures for him to use on his website. You will get reimbursed by the book purchase when you loose weight and send him the pictures.

To wrap it up, lets say that I am not only doing a part time job as an executive assistant/ accountant in a Real estate Management Company, I am also a mom, of two girls ages 5 and 10, who need help with homework, and need guidance and supervision, who need to be fed and need clean clothes and sheets. I also do Social Media Marketing for my job in the off hours, and take a few online courses, one CD course, and learn from 3 other books how to make my life more effective while still also needing down time to snuggle in bed and watch some TV, and take care of the bills and the cooking and ... you know, taking care of everything.

Do you ever feel like you sometimes take on too much? How do you deal? Tips welcome! :)