I had a pretty good weekend. It all started so innocently – my father had given Leo a gift card to Half Price Books for his birthday, so we ventured out to make use of it.

I was thrilled when Leo selected a set of magnets, kind of like this one:

“He’s into SCIENCE!”, I thought as I imagined him going to medical school and having a luxurious, satisfying life.  Inspired, I asked him if he liked a book about the anatomy of the human body.  “Sure!” he said, enthusiastically.  We were on a roll…what else would he pick out?

THIS.

Disgusting. Pile. Of convincing rubbery brown poo (lower right).  This was one of those times where I decided to put on my Mom Poker Face and just go with it, even though my inner voice was screaming It’s poop!  Fake poop!  A book explaining bodily functions that we do NOT speak of!

A little background on that:  My parents raised my brother and me to not speak of poo.  It was something to be hidden, quickly flushed, and covered up with massive amounts of Glade spray.  (My paternal grandmother grew up in the Victorian culture which influenced my dad’s sense of propriety.)

Thank goodness I married someone who is irreverent and casual about it.  I’ve errr….loosened up about things.

Anyway, back to the weekend.  After the book store my hubby read the book with Leo.  We all had some good laughs.  We took turns holding the gelatinous poo, eyeball, and brain.  They are glorious in his five year old eyes.

My husband pretended to be asleep on the couch and put the fake poo square on his forehead.  Surprise, surprise, Leo had to do it too.

 

This was one of those times where it was good to be flexible and balanced.  To think of all the joking around and fun we all would have missed out on (at least two hours worth), had I whipped out my Mom Veto Card.  Plus, it got Leo thinking.  He started asking all sorts of questions about the human brain (me: Uh…I don’t know. We’ll Youtube it!).  That got my husband thinking about all of the other science videos we could show him, and we did show him videos about the planets.  Lastly, my hope is that my son will grow up without hang ups about poop.

Now if I can just reach equilibrium and convince him to stop yelling Bye, Grandpoop! to my dad.  Or to stop saying poophead around our friend’s two and a half year old (he repeats everything!).

If you’re really brave and you wanna give this adventure a try with your kids here’s the book on Amazon.  In case you don’t want to make the trip to Half Price Books.

 

Have a balanced day!

~Jacqueline

 

This post contains affiliate links which means I can make money from your purchase. But it doesn’t make the price go up for you. 

 

 

So I know my first blog post, if you read it, was light and fun but today I want to share something about self care and goal setting that’s been on my mind. I’ve been a goal setter ever since I started my own business. Yet, I never realized what a big role identity plays until just a few months ago.

Ever since one of my friends posted this article, it’s been on my mind. I was reminded of all the times I told myself “I am ______, so I should/should not be able to become _________.” This despite that I consider myself an optimistic, everything-is-possible type of human.

For example, I used to think “I am creative, so I can’t become a veterinarian.” What would have happened if I had told myself that I AM the type of person who could become a veterinarian? No regrets here; rather, an example of how our inner identity (how one sees oneself) is important and directly related to how successful our goal setting will be.

Fast forward to today, when I saw this inspirational video.

Watch it, especially 0:31 – 1:12, and hear what she said.

What really struck me was when Lakeisha said:

“I always just thought of myself as someone who was unattractive and was not fit to be married or have kids. I have a lot of friends who are, you know, moving in life and doing really great things and I’m happy for them, but I still feel that I’m kinda stuck…I want you to see how one person really changes everything about their life.”

Notice how she used the past tense “I always just thought of myself…”. In other words, at the beginning of her journey, she doesn’t think of herself that way anymore. I’m going out on a limb here, but perhaps she began to think “I am the kind of person who can _______.”

What things have you told yourself you can’t do, because you’re not that type of person?

What would you accomplish if you believed you ARE that type of person?

My hope is that this gives you something positive to think about.

Jacqueline

Hey there, for those of you who don’t know me I’m Elysa the Editor and “Chief Bloggess” of Genpink.com. I started Genpink in April of 2007. The purpose of that blog was to create an outlet for Gen Y women to talk about all aspects of twenty – thirty-something life. In the seven years (crazy to think about) since I launched Genpink I’ve had over 70 contributors on topics ranging from beauty, to career, technology and even sky-diving.

Genpink (the main one) has over 600 blog posts that are not in the realm of the “mommy blog.” In the last year or so I’ve gotten very involved in several blogger networks (more about that later) and had the pleasure of meeting so many great bloggers, most of which seem to be mom or dad bloggers.

So, after a spontaneous lunch with my friend Jacqueline we decided this would be a good time to launch the Mommy side of Genpink. For those of you who know me personally, no this is not a secret announcement that I’m joining the mommy club. I just happen to have a break in my career at the moment so I have some free time to do the technical side of launching a new blog. The plan in the long run is to have a Wedding Genpink (soo many posts saved in my Evernote) and a Mommy Genpink.

I do however, has a slight obsession with buying baby gifts, particularly ridiculously adorable animal hats. So, as Genpink Mommy grows I’ll be adding posts about gift ideas I discover. Here’s a photo of my friend’s little one in a super cute hat I bought her.

My husband and I launched a food blog in 2011 that’s also a contributor model like Genpink. So, I’ve learned a lot about working with one-time guest posts and also regular contributors. The plan for this blog is to have regular contributors, hopefully moms with different age children, so there will be a variety of info shared. If you are interested in contributing or just want to know more info feel free to email me.