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Finca Cielo Azul

Finca Cielo Azul

Category Archives: blog

He’s an Armchair Expert!

20 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by Alex in blog, interviews, kids, life, Uncategorized

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Armchair Expert, comedy, dax shepard, funny, Kristen Bell, life, Monica Padman, musings, podcasts, Random, stories

Have you guys heard of Dax Shephard’s podcast, Armchair Expert?  Well, in case you haven’t, I’m here to tell you how awesome it is.  Dax Shephard is half of the amazing combo with Kristen Bell (this Kristen Bell).  And they’re just so stinkin’ cute.   I just played that video for the boys (Jake LOVES giraffes and elephants, so I thought they’d get a kick out of it – also, it helped pull Jake out of a grumpy mood, haha), and I just fell in love with them all over again.  I also realized that Jake needs to go to Africa someday to chase giraffes.

Since I started listening to AE, I like them even more.  And now there’s also Monica Padman to love.  Although Dax and Monica chat with mostly fellow artists of various mediums (actors, producers, writers, etc.), they also have “expert on expert” podcasts where they talk to someone that has expertise in any given area.

I love that the premise of the podcast is just to have open and frank conversations with people.  It’s to increase communication and dialogue, and it really allows you to get to know people you’ve seen on screen for years in a different way.  They become almost like you and me: I realize that Mila Kunis has some of the same challenges in motherhood that I have, so by extension, Mila and I could easily be BFF’s.

The last part of the podcast is the “fact check” with Monica – and it’s one of my favorite parts of the podcast.  This part is done in post-production, and Monica and Dax go through and fact-check some of the stuff that came up in the interview portion of the podcast.  It’s really great to hear Monica and Dax work through disagreements – it’s always a very civilized conversation and they both try really hard to understand where the other person is coming from.  I think this is also one of their ultimate goals in doing this podcast: showing by example how to work through differences of opinion but with love and understanding.  I also have found myself laughing out loud more than once during the fact check.

Speaking of laughing out loud: the commercials.  I’ve never laughed so much at commercials (and probably never at audio only ones).  Although  most of the stuff they advertise is way out of my price range (I’ve checked almost everything, they sell it all pretty well!).

Just a heads up that these are definitely not kid friendly – so don’t go listening to them in the car with children present.

I haven’t caught up on all of them, but here are some of my favorites so far and why:

  • Ted Danson (“TD”): TD talked about his parents a little, and I loved hearing about how exceptional his parents where and how that made his childhood that much more interesting.  I’ve seen that with a couple guests who speak so admiringly of their parents, and it really makes me want to do something extraordinary with my life, just so my kids can say “my mom was amazing..she was/did blah blah blah and accomplished x/y/z.”  Also, Ted Danson just sounds like an amazing human being.
  • Rob McElhenney: the actor and show runner for Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  They have some pretty hilarious conversations about the male physique (watch this video from the finale of Always Sunny if you want to see what Rob’s physique can do), but I love where Rob says that his favorite thing ever is when his son says “hey dad, I have a question.”  I find this to be so true.  Jake, at 5 years old, is so inquisitive about the way things work and why things are the way they are, and I absolutely love his curiosity.  And I love when Jeff or I get to explain something to him.  Or when we get to do an experiment to figure something out.  Rob follows that up by saying how kids ruin your life, haha.  The point he makes, and I would agree, is that they ruin the life you had before them.  Life after children is so completely different than the life you had before.  To balance things out, Dax spends a lot of time in other episodes talking about why having kids is so great.
  • Mike Schur (“MS”):  There were a couple things that really spoke to me on this episode.  One, MS talks about how his dad became an attorney because there was no money in the field he has then studying (linguistics).  His dad was never happy being an attorney but practiced it his whole life anyway.  The one thing his dad told him not to become was an attorney.  It makes me think a lot about where I am in life and the situation I find myself in because I did go to law school.  This will be a separate blog because Jeff and I recently had a really good conversation about this topic and how we don’t want to be sixty looking back and regretting the things we didn’t do because of the things we did do.  The other thing MS talks about is people that have won the “genetic lottery” by being born as a white male in a middle/upper class home, with two parents (or whatever the case is).  When I was working at Starbucks after college (right before going to law school), I worked with someone who I would say was a tad racist.  When he found out I was half-Guatemalan, he told me I won the genetic lottery because I look white and not Hispanic.  At the time, my friends and I were outraged that he would say such a thing.  As years have gone by, however, that phrase has popped up in my mind more than once and I’ve realized that in a lot of ways, he was right.  Although I don’t view it in the positive light that he probably did,  I do often wonder how my life might be different if my name was Alejandra instead of Alexandra (as my mom had intended), or if my skin resembled my mom’s olive tone rather than my dad’s.  I feel, sadly, that my job opportunities would have been different, and that my social circles would have been different as well.  And I would probably be a totally different person.
  • Jason Bateman: Maybe the funniest one for me so far.  Plus, Jason mentions Arrested Development a lot – which I LOVE!  And generally…I might have fallen a little in love with him.  Is that too weird of a note to end on?

Just in case it is, here’s something random to end on.  A couple years ago we started planning meals for the week – and it was such a game changer for our week nights.  If I can plan meals on the weekend, and buy all my groceries by Sunday, we’re guaranteed to eat better and to not spend as much eating out.  But, you know me…I need something to keep me organized…and to make lists upon lists.  I found this great meal planner on Rifle Paper Co. (I’m also really into all things floral lately, so that helps).  I used my handy hot glue gun to attach a giant magnet to the back of it, and keep it on my fridge.  The left side lists my meals for the week, and on the right side I can add things throughout the week that I need to get on my following run.

I hope you’ll start listening to AE – then I won’t be the only one I know singing “He’s an armchair expert….” to myself all the time…

Happy listening!

Parenting Hack: The Chore Chart

18 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by Alex in blog, DIY, family, Jacob, parenting

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chore chart, chores, DIY, family, life style, parenting

Recently it’s been harder and  harder to get Jake to do the things we have to do everyday: brush your teeth, let’s get dressed, it’s time for a bath.  “I don’t want to!”  He’s 3.  I get it.  But still…someone give this kid a chill pill before I lose it.

We bribe Jake all the time.  I’m not gonna deny it, and I won’t dance around the subject.  We’ve done it ever since he started [not] eating regular food.  He’s a terrible eater, to the point that I worry about his health and growth (we actually have an appointment with a specialist in a couple weeks), so yeah, if I have to bribe him with a cookie to take two bites of chicken, I’ll do it.  It works well…until he decides he doesn’t want the cookie and my leverage disappears into thin air.

But I digress.  One morning as I’m trying to figure out how to bribe him to brush his teeth so it doesn’t turn into a crying and screaming affair, I bribed him with some stickers I remembered I had in my craft desk.  Here’s the funny thing about Jake: most of the time…if I don’t remind him about the prize he’s earned after his task, he forgets about the prize and just does whatever I ask him to do.  But I feel shitty cheating him that way, so 99% of the time, if I remember, I give him the reward anyway.

So yeah, I offered him stickers and then forgot to give them to him, and the next day when I wanted to bribe him with stickers again to brush his teeth, I realized I had forgotten to give him his sticker yesterday, then I had to double down and offer him TWO stickers, one for yesterday, and for today.

But a lightbulb went off…what if I had stickers every day to bribe him with for all the things I want him to do?  Like….A CHORE CHART!  TA-DA!  Totally unique, never been done before. So I started brainstorming and looking around online.  I found a couple on Etsy that I liked, but weren’t EXACTLY what I wanted.

Here’s what I wanted:

  • Something that showed the days of the week, with images so he can associate the day of the week with a routine that happens that day (like a trash truck on trash day)

  • A way to track completed chores for the week, in a way that I can re-use the same chart every week (VELCRO!)

  • “Markers” that would be attractive to Jake

I couldn’t quite find something on Etsy that met all my requirements, especially since I wanted the days of the week to be pretty customized anyway.  So I decided to design one myself.  For each day of the week I put a picture to associate with that day of the week: for Mondays,  a picture of my mom since she watches the boys on Mondays, and a picture of my in-laws on Tuesday since that’s when they start watching them.  Wednesday has  a trash can because that’s the day we take out the trash.  Thursday has a garbage truck because that’s trash day.  Friday has a street sweeper and a picture of Sarah, who watches the boys on Fridays.  And Saturday and Sunday has a picture of Jeff and I, since we’re home those days.

For the markers, I knew they would have to be construction trucks.  It was almost by accident, but Jake helped me google images and picked out most of the markers himself, which is great because he’s that much more invested and excited about them.  I will say, I printed a couple pages of black and white ones because I wasn’t sure I’d have enough to fill the chart if things went well, but had to just get rid of them because he refused to pick the black and white ones, ha!

I also did a google image searches for each of the chores so there would be a visual for each chore.  At one point I googled “cereal clipart” and then I went to google “bath clipart” but instead I googled “cereal bath.”  That’s a thing.  Most of the images are NOT pretty.

Anyhow…I’m not gonna lie, printing, cutting, laminating, and cutting all those tiny markers was a lot a work.  But we’re a few weeks in now and it’s been helping A LOT.  Brushing his teeth has become much more bearable now that he knows he’ll get a sticker once he’s done, not to mention getting dressed.  I also included all three meal times, which it just struck me that this is not a “chore” and not something most people would include on a chore chart, but for Jake, it IS a chore and although not 100% successful in these areas, I do think using the stickers as a reward has helped a little bit.  It’s also helping us teach him the value of saving: he get’s a quarter a day if he gets enough stickers, and he knows that if he gets enough quarters, he can buy himself a toy.  It’s hard for him to understand why he can’t have that toy NOW, but we’re getting there :)

A Birthday Outing

13 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by Alex in blog, family, hikes, my-husband-is-awesome, nature, parenting, Uncategorized

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exploring, family, hikes, lifestyle, orange county

My birthday was on Saturday.  We had some plans with family later in the day, so I figured we would spend the morning doing mundane house stuff (picking up, doing laundry, etc.), but Jeff had the great idea of just heading out.  So we did.  And it was awesome.  We drove through Trabuco Canyon which is so green and beautiful right now, and into Modjeska Canyon and the bird sanctuary they have there.

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It was a little cold and drizzly, which made it quite beautiful.  We hid under a tree for a little bit when it got a heavier, but I’m glad we stuck around and explored a little longer.

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Excited to check out this bird viewing area in the Summer.
Excited to check out this bird viewing area in the Summer.
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This is Billie the Bulldozer. Jake was busy doing a "yard pee" so mommy took care of him for a sec.
This is Billie the Bulldozer. Jake was busy doing a “yard pee” so mommy took care of him for a sec.

Ended the day with a little help blowing out my birthday candles.

The good pictures are thanks to my husband :)

Organizational Tools

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by Alex in blog, DIY, events, lists, planning

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Tags

Event planning, get organized, lists, organization, planning, to-do

I love lists.  I love planning things.  I love organizing things, putting them into corresponding groups.  To that effect, I’ve created a couple templates that I can use for these purposes, rather than constantly starting from scratch or just using a notepad.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: I made these myself.  I’m not a perfectionist.  If you’re a perfectionist or OCD about line spacing or things being centered…DON’T USE THESE-they will drive you crazy.

1). Work to-do list.  I love this one because it helps me prioritize things: there’s a “Top 3” section with the things I HAVE to get done, no matter how much I don’t want to do them.  Then there are the other must do items, which maybe I just should have named “to-do,” and them my “long term” column.  Here I put all the projects that I would LIKE to do, but I know they’re not a priority so they don’t have to overwhelm me by being in my general to-do list. Click here to download.

to-do-checklist

2). Event planning list.  This should absolutely NOT be used for wedding planning.  I have a five page excel document for that.  This is for..your kids birthday party, or Friendsgiving, or the staff ice cream social.  I haven’t had a chance to actually USE this one yet, so I’m not sure there is enough room for everything, but I’ll adjust if I realize it’s impractical.  I have used this layout to help me plan several events, just not this document per se, and I love it.  I usually use an 8.5×14 sheet for this, but it seemed more practical to format to 8.5×11 for easy printing.  Feedback is welcome :) Click here to download.

event-planning-template

Happy planning.  Happy organizing.

Literate Lushes: June 2015-January 2017

13 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by Alex in blog, book review, books, Literate Lushes, Uncategorized

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book club, book review, books, reading

Wow, I have over a year and a half to update, so I’ll keep the commentary to a minimum and just catch everyone up on our reading list…

June: If I Stay, by Gayle Forman

July: A Wild Ride Through the Night, by Walter Moers

September: A Good and Happy Child, by Justin Evans

November: Broken Monsters, by Lauren Beukes

December: The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins

January: Far From the Tree, by Andrew Solomon

February: Me Talk Pretty One Day, by Dave Sedaris

April: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers

This one generated a lot of discussion…

May: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

June: The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith

I really liked this book and I hope I get around to reading the sequels someday.

July: Many Lives Many Masters, by Brian L. Weiss

August: All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

I absolutely LOVED this book.

October: Mothers Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of a Tragedy, by Sue Klebold 

November: Voices in the Night, by Steven Millhauser

I wasn’t a huge fan. But I did discover the use of audio books with this book, and it’s been a game changer.

January: A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman

Loved, loved, loved.

Bonus: because thanks to audio books, I listen to them while I pump at work and on my way to work and home.  It’s not quite the same as reading them myself, but it’s better than not reading at all.  I do think this is pretty life changing for me…so, I finished our January book with time to spare and decided to start reading Yes, Please by Amy Poehler.  An enjoyable “read” so far!

I also missed reading quite a few of these books…with having a toddler, then being pregnant, then adjusting to life with two kids…time was harder to find and I was much pickier about what books I chose to read.  I’ll usually give anything a try, and I’m really looking forward to Literate Lushes in 2017 and hopefully reading all the books that we pick, and MORE!  I have so many books written down in the Notes section of my phone and it would be nice to scratch some off instead of just continuously adding more books I want to read.

New Year Goals

09 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Alex in accountability, advice, beginning, blog, family, goals, inspiration, new year, organizing, projects, Uncategorized, yoga

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goals, meal planning, new year, organizing, resolutions

I’m not calling them resolutions, I feel like that’s setting myself up for failure.  I just want to incorporate a few changes to help me not stress or worry so much about the little things.  I’m a list maker…but sometimes thinking of those lists is stressful when I’m constantly trying to check things off.  So, I’m trying to be more aware of the things that are good around me, that I don’t need to stress about, and learn how to plan my lists a little better so they’re more manageable.

I’ve changed my morning routine this past week, and I’m liking it.  I don’t have any projects or work to do before work right now (crafting for a birthday or babyshower, or working on a wedding timeline), so instead I’m waking up and doing 5 minutes of yoga or other exercise, and then a 5 minute written reflection.  My reflection is taken from Slow Family Living by Bernadette Noll, and a series of questions suggested in there, although I think I might change the questions in time.  Right now they consist of:

  • Seven things you are thankful for (seven seems excessive, but maybe that’s the point…there are a lot of things in our daily life to be thankful for that maybe we don’t realize on a daily basis)
  • How are you feeling (everyday seems to start with fine or tired, so I’m not sure this question will make it through the year)
  • What are your intentions for the day (I do like this one, it makes me refocus and try to stay positive through the day)
  • What did you learn yesterday
  • What are your goals/desires/wishes for immediate or distant future
  • To-do’s (these almost replicate my other to-do lists, but sometimes it helps me bring to mind the immediate to-do’s)

Another great tip that I’ve picked up from this book is to have a “buffer time” in between things, and to not try to squeeze in one more thing before rushing off to the next.  The author mentioned trying to send “one more email,” and how that then makes her rush to accomplish the next thing.  This is something I do every morning…I push my getting ready for work time until the very last minute, trying to squeeze in one more task to mark off my list.  I’m trying not to do that so much, and to leave more time to get ready and head out the door.  And to put on mascara.  THAT is a New Year’s Resolution: try to at least wear mascara a few days a week.  At a minimum (I mean, I’m almost 34…I have to start caring at some point..right?).

I also purchased a planner again this year.  I’ve been using Google Calendar for the last few years, and I can’t remember the last time I had an actual, physical planner, but I think it’s time to go back.  It means duplicating some calendaring (to keep both my google calendar and my physical planner up to date), but I like the ability to see things on the planner, plus it allows me to break down daily and monthly goals, which I’m really liking.  I don’t have to have one long list that I’m constantly trying to tackle, instead I can break it down by week or month.  It also has places to write down monthly goals, which I’m loving: I can focus on something to work on each month and have it written down to keep me accountable.

Yesterday (Sunday), I implemented several of these goals and the results were pretty awesome.  I got up early (Josh wakes up to nurse around 530/6 and then it’s hard for me to get back to sleep anyway, even on weekends), did my 5 minute “workout,” did my reflections, and then went to the grocery store to buy groceries for the week.  I had time to meal plan on Friday, which was GREAT…usually I put off buying groceries until Sunday evening and we try to meal plan at some point over the weekend, but it’s so hard to squeeze in those five minutes with two kids and a house of things to do.  Let me tell you, shopping at 7am solo vs. 5pm with kids is a GAME CHANGER.  I put on my headphones and listened to an audio book for the Literate Lushes book of the month, and checked everything off my list.  I was back home, with groceries unloaded and put away, before anyone even woke up!  And then….I didn’t have it in the back of my mind all day…I could just smile knowing that it was done and all our groceries were already in our fridge just waiting to be made, haha.  I was so much happier once everyone woke up, knowing that I had already been productive and had some “me” time.  Will definitely try to keep that going through the year.

What are your plans/resolutions for 2017?

 

New Layout-ish.

22 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by Alex in blog, opinion, thoughts

≈ 1 Comment

Some of you may notice there are some [minor] changes to the blog. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I like the new color template because it’s a lot easier to read. And I love the old map background at the top. But I can’t get my picture to be centered, and that’s driving the OCD-part of me a little insane. Any thoughts or suggestions? Should I got back to the old format or try to figure out this new one? Change is usually difficult for me, so it feels weird to switch this up, but I’m thinking it’s time.

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