I say it all the time: I am a word-nerd and I love it. I was not at all surprised to look up the etymological meaning of  mother and find that it is ‘breast-feeder’ (the English word mother and Latin mater and many similar maternal words contain the worldwide etymon ma ‘breast’ + ter an Indo-European agent suffix).

Breastfeeding my baby girls was the most amazing bonding time. Even though I felt connected to my girls since they were in my belly, breastfeeding is when I truly when I felt like a mom.

The title mother isn’t a holy term in its own. Any woman can give birth to a child, but it takes LOVE IN ACTION to be a mother. 

Love is Perfect…while we are not. It takes the inner strength of a faithful woman to wake up with the desire to exercise motherhood, to be consistent, and to put it in action throughout the day (and night)… everyday.

“Her children arise and call her blessed;her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’”

 I love that there is a day dedicated to celebrate my motherhood. I have been anticipating the day with enthusiasm:  My daughters spent their money and their time making sure I felt special… “mami, you’re going to love your surprises”… and I do.

Happy Mother’s Day to all LOVING mothers… those of  you that wear your title as a tribute of the work you do within yourselves, for your children, your spouses, your community and the Earth.  I call you BLESSED and PRAISE you all.

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

Mother’s Day is a day chosen for spouses, children and everyone else to remember to offer serenity and show much deserved appreciation for all the hard work we moms somehow manage to get done.

I know what you’re thinking: “Everyday SHOULD be Mother’s Day”… and it can. At least, it can feel like it is…and that will do!

On Friday, May 11 @ 8-9 pm CST (AKA TOMORROW) I am kicking off my webinar series titled “Mind Your MOM Business.” uring this first live training session, I’ll talk about a new approach to parenting that will help you:

• take charge of your SUCCESS as a parent
• STRENGTHEN your family
• and still enjoy peace, joy and SERENITY at home

PLUS, a Special BONUS Q&A section… ASK ME ANYTHING about Motherhood!

I promise that you will walk away with concrete parenting principles, strategies and tools you can implement the next day and start seeing transforming results almost immediately.

Remember, you are cordially invited to join me EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT for the “Mind Your MOM Business” free webinar series. Mark your calendar, set your alarm and see you on Friday at 8pm CST! It’s FREE!

Webinar seating will be limited so learn more and RSVP now! I’ll look forward to welcoming you! (this FRIDAY NIGHT, May 11!)

We’re going to have so much fun!!!!

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

Last week was one of those weeks. You know, the kind in which you feel like you just want to GO HOME… Well, maybe that’s just me. With my whole family living in the Dominican Republic, both of my brothers having a birthday and my best friend’s birthday on top of that, you may understand why I was feeling  blue rather than my usual purple.

Yes, I stay positive and grateful, but my cheery personality kinda lost a shade for a bit.  Not to worry, I’m back to my sun-shiny self. Here’s the story:

Last Friday, we went to ballet, as usual. I got the girls in and went to Half Priced Books, which is downstairs. I wanted to just be alone and bury my face in a book.   God had different plans for me.  Enter: Emery.

She sat next to me and brought a Princess Book. She introduced herself and told me my name was very pretty after I said mine. Then she “made me” read her the entire book by asking: “What does it say here?” “What about here?” “And here?” “And here?” LOL   Then she asked to write in my iPad.

How could one resist that cute smile? —–>

After a while, I navigated the store with her in search of the lost babysitter, who had 2 other children to care for.

So yes, I went and got the girls and now I was determined to get “my alone time.”  Emery made me smile and I was feeling better, but not enough, I decided.

We went to a pond by the library that has a nice nature trail. I sat by nature and breathed fresh air. I felt connected to the Creator of such a magnificent setting. The turtles and ducks (which I were surprised were ducks!!!) and the chirping of the birds, and the feeling of the grass on my feet. It was perfect.  And God had other plans.  LOL   Enter: Nadia and Samara.

They were obviously sisters, looked alike: brown skin, brown eyes, brown hair and the same hairdo. Barefoot and confused.  I came down to ask them about their parents when the couple walking behind them told me they had been walking behind them for almost a mile, no parents in sight, but they would not talk to her and her husband.  They did trust the girls and I. We thought they belonged in a day care nearby, so my girls held Nadia’s and Samara’s hands and the quest began.  They did not know their parents names or where they lived or their phone number. SCARY!

The day care workers had no clue whom or whose these cute girls were. The nice couple called the police. The father ended up showing up at the same time as the cute cop. It was all resolved, but yet, my question remains: WHY oh WHY are all these cute girls UNATTENDED?!!!

Besides a lesson in child safety, what a confirmation this was that life is happy when you get out of your own way and decide to be a service to others.  Helping these lost little girls sure hit the happy spot and helped me find myself again

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

You probably didn’t know that April 30th to May 6 is  National TV-Turnoff Week. I’m serious…really!

I don’t subscribe to cable TV or miss it the least bit. We get DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs at the library FOR FREE and we watch them happily together. Sometimes I rent a romantic comedy and treat myself after putting the girls to bed for the night.

I don’t know who came up with the TV-Turnoff Week  idea, but that person is genius!

DID YOU KNOW THAT…

Statistics show that kids in the U.S.A. will most likely spend more time in front of the TV than in school this year.   YIKES!

Here are 5 reasons I think TV is pretty much useless:

1. CNN = Constant Negative News
2. Kids who don’t watch TV usually get straight A’s
3. A lot of TV time = Obesity
4. You can burn more calories staring at a wall than watching TV
5. You could be spending quality time and finding teachable moments (building a family legacy)

Unplug the TV and connect to LIFE… you’ll be saving energy, too.

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

Thank you reading my Positive Mom post. If you LIKE it and appreciate it, please COMMENT and  SHARE it!
Copyright © Elayna Fernández 2012

As I start writing this post, I don’t know where I am really going. I may surprise you…and myself.  I have recently been attracting a lot of information about marriages that last over 50 years.  It seems like a formula and not a matter of being “soul-mates.”

I saw a cute picture in which the man asked the woman how they managed to stay together all these years and she replies: ”we were just born at a time where when things were broken, we didn’t toss them, we fixed them.”  

Perhaps “meant to be together” is a crazy myth. And soul mates, mmm, here’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s definition (on Eat, Pray, Love) :

“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.

A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.

A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life…”

Being with a soul mate sound like pain-inflicting experience. I have been in a painful relationship with a fault-finding, unappreciative, controlling, excessively demanding, extremely selfish man. Yes, I learned a ton from it…but that didn’t make it fun and that won’t get my years back.  I love who I am for where I’ve been yet I recognize there is indeed a better way.

Finding a soulmate must be a conscious decision based on shared core values and a joyful experience together. Yes, we could experience and accelerate learning in an unhealthy relationship, but isn’t it better to do it at our pace while being happy with someone who simply wants to make us happy?

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

I recently got an ad in the mail in the form of a survey.  It is a compilation of questions of everything from decisions my parents made to my own decisions as a mother, and in between, all kinds of decisions I’ve made as an adult woman.

This assessment is supposed to be mailed back in the handy postage-paid, self-addressed envelope they provided so they can basically tell you everything that is wrong with you and, naturally, how they can help you “fix it.”

While I believe in Plato’s maxim “Know Thyself,” I think that self-analysis is a waste of time, or even worse, a destructive practice when it is done for the purpose to find out what’s wrong with you and what made you do it (or not do it) or how you have a problem for choosing so.

The quality of our questions really helps determine the qualities of our lives.  Questions are requests.  “Ask and ye shall receive” is a pretty clear statement. What if instead of questioning ourselves because of past experiences that didn’t go so well, we became curious about the potential we have and how those experiences have equipped us for a better life?

Here are 3 guidelines in writing intentional lists to know yourself and manifest what you want:

1. Write in Present or Future Tense… Forget the past. Truth is, as much as you get to the root of it and understand every detail, the past CANNOT BE ALTERED. You can only take TODAY and make a difference.  There will be TODAYs in your future, too.  TODAY is the only DAY that counts.
2. Be a Curious Positive Believer… Walt Whitman said once:   Be curious, not judgmental, and that applies to self. We must stop judging ourselves and pointing fingers… let’s get curious about the possibilities that lie ahead.  The gift of a new day means that you can and must experience life as it was intended: it is God’s desire that you be happy and know how loved YOU are!  If you believe it, let your language show it!
3. Don’t be Stingy … or Greedy… When you’re seeking manifestation, remember the limitless abundance of blessings and miracles that God provides each day. You can and do have access to much more than we can all imagine… ASK for it!  The same way you mustn’t be shy about asking you must ask consciously and conscientiously. Greed makes us blind and ineligible to the amazing power of service and contribution.

I apply “Know Thyself“  in every aspect of my life and I have taken it seriously.  I make lists of questions and statements and requests. I write letters and scripts.  I analyze and assess, and most importantly:

1. I forgive myself for what made me unhappy, unbalanced, upset or unwell.
2. I celebrate myself for what made me happy, grateful and excited.
3. I embrace the divine greatness within me as a Child of God and the endless possibilities He’s provided.

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

As I celebrate Easter Sunday today, I do not think about bunnies, eggs, chocolate or even dinner arrangements. I am beyond grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ, for his infinite, eternal, and everlasting sacrifice, convinced that HE is RISEN, that HE indeed LIVES.

I Google everything, so I was disappointed to find that the word RISEN brings up results of a movie and video game that are short of spiritual, to say the least.

So, I went to the dictionary… and here are all the definitions I found:  rise (rz)  (v. rose (rz), ris·en (rzn), ris·ing, ris·es)

The girls and I are big “YouTubers.” We have fun “YouTubing” stuff: funny videos, inspirational videos, baby videos, puppy videos, romantic videos… you know, stuff girls like!
Earlier this week, I showed them the video “The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes.”  Have you seen IT?  You Gotta!

Here’s the transcript! (drum roll, please) Prepare to be WOWed!

Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. – The Environmental Children’s Organization. We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.

Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.

I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.

I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don’t know what chemicals are in it.

I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going exinct every day — vanishing forever.

In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.

Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?

All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions.

I’m only a child and I don’t have all the solutions, but I want you to realize, neither do you!

* You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer.
* You don’t know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream.
* You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct.
* And you can’t bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert.

If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!

Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or poiticians – but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles – and all of you are somebody’s child.

I’m only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil — borders and governments will never change that.

I’m only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.

In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.

In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share.

In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter – we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.

Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: “I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection.”

If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everyting still so greedy?

I can’t stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.

I’m only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:

•  not to fight with others,
• to work things out,
• to respect others,
• to clean up our mess,
• not to hurt other creatures
• to share – not be greedy.

Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?

Do not forget why you’re attending these conferences, who you’re doing this for — we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying “everyting’s going to be alright”, “we’re doing the best we can” and “it’s not the end of the world”.

But I don’t think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says “You are what you do, not what you say.”

Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening

So much wisdom in such few words. Let’s make our children’s world a better world!

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

Have you ever felt highly motivated to do MORE and be MORE?

For me it happens all the time (like the Lady Antebelum song says).

Today, I felt a sudden urge to STEP UP and get some things done. We all get so distracted sometimes, and, don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed my distractions… but it’s time… it’s MY time!

A few years ago, I went to UPW (Tony Robbin’s “Unleash the Power Within”) and it was an incredible experience. Not only did I get to walk on fire…yes, LITERALLY, but I also learned this ‘chant’ that I am sharing with you.

Say it loud, Say it proud… LIVE IT UP!

“Now I am the voice ~ Now I am the voice
I will lead not follow
I will believe not doubt
I will create not destroy
I am a force for good
I am a leader
Defy the odds
Set a new standard
Step up ~ Step up ~ Step up”

I am SO ready to STEP UP, play FULL OUT and not be Distracted.

Life is about setting new standards, our own standards. It’s about becoming better, being better than our old selves. I am committed to a new standard… and boy, am I excited!

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

I grew up loving and devouring books. I loved self help, marketing, business, Spanish literature, and, the Bible. I read anything my mom or dad would bring home and anything I found in the trash.

I remember the first time I was actually given  a book.  My own book.  I was 13 years old and highly enthusiastic about learning English. It was  Scott, Foresman English in Tune, Level 3. I will never forget it.

I am an avid reader and so are my daughters. I’ve taught them that:

The more you READ
the MORE you know.
The more you KNOW
the SMARTER you grow.
The smarter you GROW
the STRONGER your voice,
When speaking your MIND
or making your CHOICE

The girls do own lots of books. Besides the fact that they go to the Dominican Republic and get to experience what a treasure it is to have access to the amazing treasures that are books.  We also go to the library and the bookstore on a regular basis.  A book is a friend… and you can never have too many friends!

Enjoy your book!

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,