Strong women

I am a little late on my post this week but I hope it will be worth it.  This post is dedicated to strong women.  Being around strong women and reading about them makes me happy.  As I reflected about this post, I ran across an article in the Smithsonian about Marie Curie and her achievements.  The article discusses her Nobel prizes and life and makes the reader aware of the pressures in society for women and what she went through to achieve what she did. From attending school secretly, and saving money to attend Sorbonne in Paris.  I thought to myself, how times have changed and how women have fought and earned their place in society. As I internalized the information, I thought of my upbringing and how I was never aware women were a minority group until I was an adult. I was raised in a family with educated and strong women.  My grandmother was a pharmacist, and at times worked multiple jobs and juggled motherhood like we do today, but she did that over 50 years ago!

I dedicate this post to the strong women in my life and I especially want to dedicate it to my mother because she has over the years demonstrated the greatest strength and has earned her position in society with poise and sophistication.  It is a long story but worth telling.  In the early 70s she came to the United States as an exchange student to learn English and ended up in Indiana where she met my father.  Going abroad at that time was not as common as today with all the globalization and ease of travel.  Long story short at 26 she was divorced and had a 5 year old child to raise. 

We moved in with my grandparents and my mother finished her law degree as she managed motherhood.  At one point she taught at my school in the morning and also worked at the courthouse in the afternoon.  She did it all with humor and satisfaction and never demonstrated frustration with me regardless of how hard it was.  She never remarried and dedicated her life in raising a child as a single parent and as my grandparents aged she took care of them as their only daughter.  As one of my grandparents’ friends told my grandfather one day, “Your daughter is worth 3 men. “  She has always been tough.

As we lost my grandfather, she was able to manage alongside my grandmother the family affairs with no help from others.   Now that my grandmother has left us as well she has now an even more difficult challenge which is to manage it all by herself.  I have confidence she will do a fine job, as the educated and intelligent woman she is, and will make good decisions because she has earned the right and respect to handle her affairs as an independent woman.

I thank her here for all she has done and continues to do for me and also for the woman she has grown into over the years.  You are an inspiration to me and to all the women who aspire to achieve greatness.  I love you.

Lesson of the day:  Strive to achieve greatness and become an inspiration to others.  Thank a strong woman who has made an impact in your life.

Caring

This post is related to caring .  When you have kids, you always wonder how to make them caring and genuine good people.  My kids are now 5 and 2 and one may think that it is too early to see those traits but I beg to differ.

As one would expect, the volume in my house is between loud and louder and it becomes quite chaotic in the mornings before school.  This week I prepared breakfast for both kids and asked them to come on over.  My son came running and screaming "I coming!!!!", sat down and said thank you Mommy.  Score 1x0 for a caring moment.  He actually appreciated what I had done.  Thinking the score was pretty good for a morning, my son continued and called his sister (actually screamed) to come join him for breakfast.  He wanted her there sitting down with him.  2X0!!   Yes they do provoke each other and fight, but they just love each other to pieces and most importantly care about one another.  My son, for instance, will not accept a snack for himself until he is sure he has one for his sister.   And he is only 2!!

My daughter also had a great caring moment with her brother this week.  She ran into him and he fell to the ground.  It was dark and a complete accident.  She hugged him and told him it was an accident and ran to the freezer to get him some ice.  Once again, she cared and stood there making sure he was ok.  He also enjoyed the hug.  She is a good sister and takes care of him on a daily basis.  She will read to him, play with him and even wipe his nose if Mommy and Daddy are tied up.  =)

Aside from caring moments between the kids, Mommy also scored a moment this week.  Knowing how I am, my daughter measured her words and told me that she really loves the quesadilla I make for her to take to school, but was wondering if I could not push it down the container so much because it sticks to the bottom.  I thought to myself, very well spoken and caring.  She wanted to make sure I felt good about my quesadilla making skills and then offered the feedback.  

I also witnessed a caring moment between unrelated kids.  We drove to a friend's house and my kids and hers went out trick-or-treating.  She has 2 boys, ages 9 and 5. It was really interesting to see the 9 year old holding my 2 year old's hand and making sure he did not trip on the steps while they were out.  

Speaking of Halloween, I could not leave my husband out who was coerced to go trick-or-treating, despite not enjoying it just because he cares about us.  Like he told my mom, “I went with the 3 kids in the house and they had fun”.  Thanks Honey! 

Lesson of the day:  Caring is innate but also learned and practicing it leads to a better environment for all of us to live in.