I'm here in Ohio for the the Let's Fix Dinner Stouffer's Roundtable Event and I vlogged again...and you know that means I am too lazy...er I mean "tired" to write once again. But really, I'm starting to dig videotaping, so here it goes...
I also went to dinner with an old friend (Mimi) at the beautiful Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse. Yummmo! I had such a great time and if I didn't have to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow, I would've been out with her all night!
Stouffers is on a mission to connect families together with dinner. Yes, dinner! Simple isn’t it? Not really. Because of everyone's daily life demands, we sometimes just get into that survival mode as parents. You know - the quick and easy pizza pick-up on the way to after school activities so each child grabs a bite hear and there for dinner. Etc. And as much as I'd love to try in getting a full meal ready for my entire family every night, I just can't seem to get it going right. So I am proud to be one of the invited bloggers to join the Let’s Fix Dinner round table discussion on the importance of dinner with the family. I'm imaginging the wealth of information I will be gaining from this.
So next week I am off to Ohio visiting Nestles' Headquarters. Let me tell you how excited I am about all this. Other than the fact that the discussions will be near and dear to my heart, I am especially tickled that I will be sitting with a group of fabulous speakers and panelist including Antonia Lofaso! Yes, Antonia the Top Chef's Season 4 in Chicago contender! I routed for Antonia up to the last minute and now I am so excited to meet her in person. According to the welcome packet, she will be doing some Culinary demonstration for us too. I can hardly wait!
Speaking of the Welcome Packet I received, (more like FANTABULOUS Welcome Packet) I was just so giddy when Fedex came to drop of the heavy package. In it was a beeyootiful Emile Henry Ceramic Lasagna Dish, a $250 Best Buy Gift Certificate, a Stouffer Luggage Tag, a USB memory stick, a well organized agenda and travel and accomodations packet folder with a $100 Amex Card for expenses, AND...they will also be sending my husband and kids a full cooked dinner while I am away! Complete with a salad and dessert for the entire family! Now, that's way cool!
Thank you Nestle/Stouffers Team for getting me involved in this and a special thanks to Simon Bowers of Publicis PR. I am truly looking forward to my trip next week.
You may want to take advantage of theChicagonistaMother's Day Contest @ www.ULTAmateMom.com. The contest is easy and it'll save you money this Mom's Day and still get to honor her with some great prizes and an extremely sweet gesture. And I mean awesome prizes! $1000 worth of prizes sponsored by ULTA Salon @State Street and lahleyoo!!!
So, what are you waiting for? Go there now! Hurry, because you only have until the 30th to participate!
I was in my Philly hotel room getting ready for a Campbell’s day when I decided to turn in to Good Morning America. I was instantly glued and sat there watching Robin Roberts get a chance to live that moment as a Lyricist. It was the episode when Roberts get to try an alternate career suggested by the Ultimate Job Match test she and the rest of the "GMA" team took the week before.
She was then teamed up to learn about songwriting with India Arie, a singer who once touched her with a song (I Am Not My Hair) that kept her hopeful during her battle with breast cancer. A battle she so thankfully won.
Roberts expressed what she would write about and Arie took her lead and went ahead composing the lyrics as they went along. They both ended up writing such a beautiful song together and I was left INSPIRED. Their song ended up as a Bonus Track in Arie's latest CD. Just recently, Robin Roberts visited India Arie again to talk about the new CD and just watching it gave me the same happy and inspired feeling.
Some of you may have heard this song already, but like Miss Roberts, India Arie touched me. She inspired me to take life with even more vigor and with more zest. It is truly a song that gets me going in the morning. And now in hopes to spread out some inspiration this morning, I'm sharing that song with you...
A Beautiful Day - India Arie
Life is a journey, Not a destination, There are no mistakes, Just chances we’ve taken Lay down your regrets cause all we have is now
Wake up in the morning And get out of bed Start making a mental list in my head Of all of the things that I am grateful for
Early in the morning It’s the dawn of a new day New hopes new dreams new ways I open up my eyes and I open up my mind and I wonder how life will surprise me today Early in the morning It’s the dawn of a new day New hopes new dreams new ways I open up my heart and I’m gon’ do my part and Make this a positively beautiful day
Life is a challenge not a competition You can still smell the roses and be on a mission Just take a moment to get in touch with your heart Sometimes you feel like you’ve got something to prove Remind yourself that there’s only one you Just take a moment to give thanks of who you are Early in the morning It’s the dawn of a new day New hopes, new dreams, new ways I open up my eyes and I open up my mind and I wonder how life will surprise me today
This past Friday was the first day my kids are on Spring Break. There will be 10 glorious days without waking up early for school and lots of running around are planned to keep the kids busy, tired, and happy. And quite frankly, I am also mentally on Spring Break. I made sure that I ‘m not hitting any events this week, keeping minimal but necessary workload only, and will concentrate in getting in as much play as possible with my kiddos (yes, the 3 shown on the left :-).
I guess this is coming from all the guilt I’ve been having lately. You know the normal Mommy guilt about not spending enough time with the children. The hazard of being a work-at-home parent is that you end up working in and around your children’s activities that leads to some really late night workload (if I’m lucky) or no sleep at all. I’m not complaining, just tired. So you can imagine how excited I am that Spring Break is here.
But no matter how tired I am, I am still glowing with delight from so many great things happening my way. I've been meaning to write about all this, but time is just not my friend lately. So, my “want to blog about” list has piled up and of course the only remedy to this is just bullet pointing all the “schtuff”. Yes, I know. Sounds just like another lame excuse for not blogging in awhile. But what can I say, life has been great and I just haven’t had the chance to pull away while smelling all the roses. So here it goes...
• I recently took part in the Quaker Go Project along with Chicagonista. Thanks to Danielle and Jessica Braun of Edelman, I was able to experience the greatness of helping and giving through volunteer help. I’m truly inspired. So much so that I am seeking to do more of this kind with Chicagonista. I’m even more inspired that our Chicagonista volunteers want to see and be part of more volunteer work. Click here to read more and check out the video highlights too. And oh yeah, I got mentioned in the RedEye, Chicago Tribune's free daily newspaper. On print! Woohoo!
• Both my boys will be a year older this April. My husband and I still can’t believe how fast it all went. Our firstborn turned 9 and my second boy will be turning 6 next week. I wish there is a way to pause the whole process, but yet we are so excited to see them all grown.
• I did a one on one interview with Jen Schefft for Chicagonista. The Chicagoan Bachelor and Bachelorette Girl. Actually I’ve never even really seen those 2 shows (a little glimpse here and there) so I took some time to do some online research and ask some friends who has seen the show for some insights. We spoke about her upcoming wedding plans and of course Chicago. The interview went well and you can read the article here.
• I’m so excited to have Karyn of TheFabulousGiver.com, Dawn and Tina of GirlfriendCelebrations.com, Farrah of BabyLoveSlings.com and DuPageMamas.com and my other Mommy friends Jolan and Cindy join our writing and support staff in Chicagonista. I am truly blessed to have such talented women in my team. You should check them out!!!
• Also, last and not least --- I’m sending my warm congratulations to Catherine andFarrahon their newly launched site DuPageMamas.com! Two amazing and smart moms that will be rocking DuPage, IL. Hugs to both of you.
If I ever get my mojo going in updating here more often, then you shouldn’t have to endure another bulleted point list. But now that the slate is all clean, blogging should resume in a more regular fashion. But I said “should”, maybe I should say “will” instead.
