Serving One Unhappy Customer


Oh boy. Just look at Diego’s little face as he is about to dig in to his sweet Morning O’s and that juicy slice of orange. This is Diego’s look every time he is about to eat anything! And he loves the cereal and fruit!! The poor kid has a pajama/pizza party at school today and he is bent out of shape because he doesn’t eat pizza and he doesn’t want to be the only one who takes a lunch.

Jose and I are really surprised that Diego is a super-picky eater. Diego has been to ten different countries and has managed to find things to eat during our travels without having to resort to a restaurant that is an American franchise! We wouldn’t call ourselves foodies but Jose and I know how to enjoy a good meal. We love to chow down! And we don’t consider ourselves picky at all. There is always a diverse amount of food in our house and when we eat out, we never eat fast food (except Chipotle). We indulge in sushi, Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, and Indian food! We can’t understand why every time we have a meal with Diego (twice a day for me) everyone is unhappy, threats are made and the meal is pretty much ruined. [Read more...]

Book Review #3-Raising Happiness


Just finished Raising Happiness by Dr. Christine Carter! Wouldn’t you say that the title is brilliant? What parent doesn’t often say, “I just want my kids to be happy”? Dr. Carter claims that it just takes “10 simple steps for more joyful kids and happier parents”. When you start reading you will notice that there are only 10 chapters (hence the 10 simple steps), but there are many suggestions, recommendations and tips in each chapter! So I realized that you just can’t do 10 things and yay everyone in your family will be much happier.

So I marked this book up with so many pink, sticky post-it-notes that Jose laughed at me, my doctor laughed at me (but I flipped the cover because I didn’t want to concern her as she was about to check in on my third child) and Diego said, “Wow Mommy! Lots of bookmarks! You want to remember all of that?” Kinda. Of course I marked 18 little sections that I thought were interesting to review, practice or continue practicing in our lives and pass it on to you. And I am not suggesting you are raising unhappy children. I don’t think I am… but when I reviewed Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, my friend Vanessa suggested I now read Raising Happiness. So I am now going over my crazy notes (just look below) and in a nut shell, I will attempt to help you raise happier children (if you want to know more…click on the image of the book at the top of this post and order)!

So shall we? This is what I gained from 185 pages of great advice: [Read more...]