A mommy's career

Change and Mommy, do they sound coherent? Definitely not when it comes to Job. I have never heard any mom saying "Oh Job change was a seamless process". I have been through this now, and it is much more harder for moms to change jobs, as the new job becomes another baby for you. You need all the time to nurture, and take care of it, and till it is couple of years old and becomes like a manageable toddler. Does all that mean, its impossible? "No", but does that mean it is a lot of commitment and hardwork, I would say "Yes".

With 2 kids under 5, I had the support of my unconditional partner to make this happen. A lot of late nighters like a college exam or a new born. It takes "sometime" to get ready for the beast also called "interview".  "Sometime" could mean couple of months to few weeks depending on how many hours you can put in a day. For all mom's after the kids are asleep is all you can count on. Once the interview beast is handled, there is this delima of weighing in the perks of an existing work, and how that can match in anyway to the new one. There is no way to measure what you have and what you expect to get specially the so called soft benefits for "work life balance", so this is just a chance you take.

Every mom is different, but the hardest part for me was letting everyone know that I was moving on. After 8 years here, I had an extended family here, but the change had to come. Change is inevitable, and it is so for all moms too. It is just a matter of when!

Look beyond the horizon for infinite possibilities

Keeping the little monkeys busy

How hard is it to keep your kids busy? One thing that every parents like to talk about, and see what they could do to keep the monkeys in the house busy, super busy, busy all the time. I am always in search  of something, and believe the more you look the more you see and find, so keep looking out there.

I came across this set, introduced to me by a genius friend, and can be easily used as a family bonding activity. I got to learn and discovered a few things with it and helped my kids do the same.
Here are some of them :

Art - Since the sides come as a sheet, all of them have to be cut into single pieces. Drawing and Coloring the sides is another way to explore and that can take a kids mind in any direction of thoughts. Let them be free to think out loud.

Literacy - The kit comes with instructions on how to cut and assemble, kids will learn to read and follow directions, and that is must have skill in life.

Science and Maths - Do you know how many sides does Icosahedron or  Dodecahedron have? How about learning and explaining the kids on the mathematical derivations behind the shapes.

Thinking Beyond - As the instructions told to glue the cut-out together, and that was hard, Nishka wanted to use "Super-Glue", that was way beyond and we settled to using a stapler :)

Let those little mind think out loud.

Working out for Sanity not Vanity

To get started I would highly recommend every mom to watch this video. Of course all dads can watch it too for supporting their wife and kids.

I started working out 6 years back, when I was not a mom then, and that was only for vanity and I do confess it. however after my 2 girls, I feel that I needed the workout even more. I am getting stronger everyday, getting physically and mentally extremely strong. It is not just for vanity any more, but for my sanity, and that extends to my family. It has helped me spend more quality time with my family, perform better at work, focus more on the things that matter, and the biggest thing, helping me from not being Insane.

Now let me start with what I hear from all other moms, not quoting anyone in particular. "I am super busy", "I have blah blah to do as higher priority", "Who will take care of my kids", and the excuses goes on. I totally agree if the excuse holds for one day, but can something like that happen everyday?I think we are just forcing our mind to think that way. How about thinking "I have to workout everyday", just a change in thought. Practice it for a month or two, and you will get used to it.

Workout could be anything from rigorous runs, taking walks any time of day, anywhere, yoga at home, some mindful breathing, just some options that you can start with. It is not easy in the beginning. The mind is something that needs training on anything that you plan to do. Once the mind is in control and trained, you can do anything.

Here is what I do as part of staying fit. I go for bike rides, run at times, hike. I also love barre, bollywood dancing, zumba, boot camp and spin. My daughters follow me on long walks, hikes, runs. We also do small yoga sessions at home together, so its still good times with kids. We also challenge each other with 10 squats, 10 jumping jacks and 10 burpees, some laughs and we all have a blast doing it. Try it and let me know!

 Cheers to a healthier and happier you and your family.

DIY valentine pencil gifts to school

With a 5 year and a 3 year going to school, and ofcourse Valentines Day near the corner, they are super excited to share anything at school with their friends. Looking at how many I needed, 36 is a big number, Nishka has 23 class mates and Navya has 11. I also did not want to make them feel they don't have one for themselves, I gave them one each, so that makes a total of 36 of something. I gave some thought and finally said, nothing is better than pencils to make little kids happy...oh I should have said, making parents happy. Another alternative, incase you would like to please the kids, lollypops instead of the pencil work great. 

It is ~1.5 hr of work, keeping in mind how long kids take to do small things. I also split the times into 2 halves of 45mins, as kids have a hard time focusing for longer periods of time. I helped Nishka with cutting the heart shapes, and Navya with cutting and writing(she is too little to write on her own yet.) I love the times when we all get together to do something that is fun. What did you and your kids do together for Valentines day? Remember the mantra 

Happy Kids = Happy Moms

 

All you need is
Pencils 
scotch tape/cello tape,
any printing paper
marker (Any color)
red poster board or poster paper