Parenting | The Mindful Parent

Love Languages for Valentines Day

By shaila at February 14, 2012 | 6:53 am | 2 Comments

“I love you Mama.” “I love you too, and I’ll see you both in the sunlight.” These parting words, exchanged between Kiki, my 10 year-old son and me, occur every night before I close the boys’ door and they go to sleep. With love in the air this Valentines’ week, I thought there was no better time to reflect upon how we love our children and they love

Climbing The Parenting Staircase

By shaila at January 14, 2012 | 9:36 am | 2 Comments

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase” -Martin Luther King Jr. Whenever I read Dr. King’s poignant quote, I think about the parenting staircase we are all climbing. Whether confidently or cautiously, we scale each successive step without complete certainty of where it’s leading us

The Wisdom of Steve Jobs: Some Great Reminders for Parents

By shaila at October 24, 2011 | 7:56 pm | 1 Comments

[caption id="attachment_500" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Steve Jobs famous commencement speech at Stanford in 2005"][/caption] With the sad death of Steve Jobs earlier this month, and release of his biography last week, a number of articles have been written that give both depth and detail to his groundbreaking career as well as to the ups and downs of his

A Vision for a Great School Year

By shaila at September 7, 2011 | 5:32 pm | 5 Comments

Hold on to your pencil boxes, because the Back to School season has arrived! One of the annual activities at our house this time of year involves taking stock and stocking up. Whether it’s supplies, school uniforms, or physical exams, September always seems to be the time to take an inventory of what we have, what we need, and what we can discard (we’ve currently

Struggling With Happiness

By shaila at August 8, 2011 | 6:23 pm | 2 Comments

So how’s the summer going? Everyone happy? Are your kids basking in happy family vacations, happy camp experiences, happy meals, and of course, enjoying every minute of their visit to “The Happiest Place on Earth? We parents sure go to great lengths to keep our kids happy, don’t we? A web search I did the other day on “raising happy children” came up with

The Connection Dance

By shaila at July 6, 2011 | 7:43 am | 3 Comments

July is birthday month for my boys. Conor, the Leo, begins his second year of teenagerhood, while Kiki, the Cancer, enters the world of double digits for the first time. Despite the unbelievable speed of these developments, many things about their birthdays have remained constant throughout the years: the candles blown out on Krispy Kremes instead of cakes, the

Conquering Those Hills Together

By shaila at June 12, 2012 | 8:04 am | 5 Comments

[caption id="attachment_594" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Running together in the Stud Ironman"][/caption] Dear Conor, So here we are. Middle school is coming to a close and it’s time for both of us to enter the big leagues: you as a High Schooler and me as a Mama of a High Schooler. Is this really happening already? Wasn’t it just a couple

Setting Intentions with the Black Eyed Peas

By shaila at March 13, 2011 | 12:04 pm | 9 Comments

Evenings are tough for me. I’ve always been a morning person, awakening most days with high spirits and goals (I started writing this at 5:48am), but finding that as the day wears on, so does my energy level. From late afternoon to bedtime, I’m often battling a mixture of fatigue and sometimes even dread. And as we parents know, this is never optimum,

Blog , Parenting

Hands Upturned: The Wisdom of Mick

By shaila at April 16, 2011 | 8:21 am | 5 Comments

Every year around Christmas time, my best friends and our families gather at our house for a holiday dinner, singing and celebration. One of the highlights for the kids is their annual gift exchange of $10 or less. As the kiddos wait expectantly to share and open their nerf footballs, bath gels and iTunes gift cards, they can also plan on hearing what I

Blog , Featured , Parenting

A Toast to Mother’s Day, Everyday!

By shaila at April 28, 2011 | 12:45 pm | 1 Comments

[caption id="attachment_451" align="alignleft" width="162" caption="My wonderful mom"][/caption] With Mother's Day coming this Sunday, I wanted to remind all the incredible moms out there of the importance of nurturing ourselves as we take care of our children and families. And I'm talking about more than the once a year mimosa brunch or bubble bath on Mother's Day