Category Archives: Parenting

Just a Motivating Monday – Stop to Kiss That Precious Smile

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If you’re just joining in:
-Write a blog post about ANYTHING at all that inspires you, or something you feel will inspire others. 

-Please link back to Garibay Soup 

-Please snag my Just a Motivating button on your post.

-I hope that we can all go and visit each other’s blogs and read what everyone has linked up ~ I hope that this carnival can bring more traffic for you 🙂 So, spread the comment love!


I did not have the best week ever… but I’m going to try to turn that around this week. I’m focusing on the positive.  I get so stressed out sometimes with work and my kids and the house and then feel like I completely suck at everything… and I know that I’m not the only one who feels this way.

I read this poem somewhere.. I have no idea who to give it credit to, so if you know who wrote it please let me know so I can credit the writer.


Dear Lord, it’s such a hectic day
With little time to stop and pray
For life’s been anything but calm
Since You called on me to be a mom
Running errands, matching socks
Building dreams with building blocks
Cooking, cleaning, and finding shoes
And other stuff that children lose
Gitting lids on bottled bugs
Wiping tears and giving hugs
A stack of last week’s mail to read
So where’s the quiet time I need?
Yet when I steal a minute, Lord
Just at the sink or ironing board
To ask the blessings of Your grace
I see then, in my small one’s face
That you have blessed me
All the while
And I stop to kiss
That precious smile

I want to talk for a minute on why this poem really hits home with me.  We strive to do a million things throughout the days/weeks and we need to stop to appreciate the biggest blessings that we have received and it’s the sweet faces of our babies.  I hope that this post motivates you to do something special with your children this week.  Something out of the ordinary, something that lets them and you know that they truly matter.  They truly are the reason for every single thing that we do in this life.  They are the reason you are keeping your blog, they are the reason you feel complete.  Stop, kiss that precious smile and be thankful for the stressful moments, the screaming moments, the tears and fears…. because it’s all a blessing and a beautiful one at that.

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8 Years Ago Today I became a Mom

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8 years ago today I learned what it truly means to have someone in this world grasp and cling to your heart in a way that nobody has ever done. I learned so much about unconditional love, understanding and striving to be the best I can possibly be.


8 years ago today, a beautiful baby boy came out immediately peeing on his mama. I fell in love the minute I looked into his sweet, sweet face.


Over the years watching Jayden grow into such a respectable, beautiful, stunning young man I can’t help but Thank God for blessing me with probably one of the sweetest souls I’ve ever met. If you’ve had the privilege of meeting him, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Jayden,


I just want you to know that you are the most special little boy in the entire world. I know that you were put on this Earth for something big, and I can’t wait to figure out exactly what it is. I love you so much, and am blessed to be able to call you mine. I love you forever and always!  Happy Birthday, my baby boy.


Love, Mama

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Tips to Surprise Your Kids

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To be a good parent we are not always meant to stand as fun. We are not supposed to be the “friend” especially to our teens. We are here to ensure that our children receive structure, rules, morals among many other life tips that we hope they carry on with them.

In between all of these events of training our children up we need to mix in surprises! Surprises that remind them that while we may not always be all about fun, we still have fun in us. Here’s a few tips to excite your kids!

  • Go in 20 minutes after your kids have gone to bed and get them up to take them to ice cream in their pajamas {Read this on twitter! Can’t wait to try it}
  • Surprise them after school with a picnic in the park for the after school snack
  • Show up at your kid’s school and have lunch with them
  • Have breakfast as a picnic on mommy & daddy’s bed… and a fun breakfast at that!
  • Have a hookie day at least 2 times/year where you go and have a full day of fun – their choice of activities
  • Let your kid choose and help cook whatever meal they can make up in their mind… and sit down as a family to lavish over it
  • Mix up meal day where they can choose what they want to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner…. as long as it’s mixed up (ex: lunch for breakfast, dinner & lunch, breakfast for dinner)… that’s always fun… hey maybe even let them have dessert for lunch! One day won’t kill them
  • Make an art gallery of their art work, framed an all for them to come home to… talk about feeling uber special!
  • Surprise them with a half year {birthday} celebration party ~ no presents, just a celebration w/maybe cupcakes and some friends and games….. maybe a fun slumber party
  • For your little girl, let her play dress up with your makeup and take her out for a special treat…. she’ll feel beautiful!
  • For your little boy take him to a sports game (even if it’s a local high school, or any local school one) and choose a team to cheer for and get all excited with them. It’s fun!


I know that there a million things out there that you could do, but I just wanted to throw a couple of things out there for you so that you can realize that it really is simple to have some fun with your young ones.

Throughout our crazy, busy lives we can sometimes forget about the small little things can make our kids have fun memories of their childhood.

These are my little things that work for me and my kids. There are HUNDREDS of tips from others for a huge variety of different topics. {Kristen} is hosting this fabulous carnival! Go join in the fun!

And come back on Monday for {Just a Motivating Monday} hosted by me! It’s my day where I write an inspiring blog post and have a link up for others to link up their inspiring posts. Even if you have nothing to share I hope you’ll stop by to read what I have to write.

He didn’t get the memo: Bad Attitude Sucks

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When you think that you have your children figured out they throw you for a loop. For the most part my son, Jayden, is very well behaved. The manners this kid owns put people from the olden days to shame. He has this soul about him that makes people wonder about him. I am not a believer of pasts lives, I feel like we get one chance on this earth, but it’s almost like he’s been here before. The way he talks is so meticular (I don’t even know if this is the right word to use here, but it’s what comes to mind) and it will stop you in your tracks.

My son holds a very large part of my heart in his tiny, little hands. I feel protective over him, because he has a sweet soul. He’s not a very grimy, bug searching little boy. He washes his hands throughout the day on his own, does not like to be dirty and will notice if my car is a bit out of sort…. and makes sure I know it. There’s so much of him that makes him HIM and I love it!

So when you have a little boy that for the most part listens and behaves and he switches it up on you for a day, how in the world are you supposed to handle that? Today is just a complete off day in our home. Jayden is doing every, single thing I tell him NOT to do. He kept knocking on my door (while it was open) and I asked him to stop. Did he? NOPE! So I threatend to take today’s swimming trip away if he knocked 1 more time – he did it! The kid completely tested me…. so no swimming trip. Well, since there’s no swimming trip, now he decides to go and knock on EVERYTHING in my room – including me, my pillows, everthing he could knock his little hand on.

It made me feel like I wanted to put a pillow over my face and scream as lousd as I could. WHY is he acting like this? Nothing different is going on in our home, I just don’t get it. After things cooled off I went up to his room to talk to him and he said he couldn’t stop himself. He had to knock. Does he have OCD or something?

I know that everyday is not suppposed to be perfect. I know that my son will soon be changing and developing attitudes, become more secretive about things and it all scares me. The attitude I’ve watched slowly trying to sneak into his soul is scaring me to death about what’s to come. Being a parent is such a gift, but boy does it have it’s trials!

**The picture here I took last night of him holding his new baby cousin, Paxton.

I’m still sappy – oh, and a bash is coming soon!

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I’m still pretty much in shock at what happened with Ella. I really feel like it’s given me a different outlook on my life. I’ve stopped fretting the small stuff, and while I know this won’t last a long time, I sortof hope it does.

The other day while we were driving Ella dumped popcorn all over her, the next day it was lemonade. Before I’d be so frustrated and dwell on this, that it would effect me. Now it doesn’t. It’s not that big of a deal that I’m going to have to clean something up ~ thank God she’s here so I can have something to clean up. What would my life be like if she wasn’t? I’d probably be praying for her to spill that popcorn a million times if I could just get one more smile, one more hug, one kiss.

I promise the depressing posts will stop soon, but for now I’m lavishing in the fact that my daughter is okay.

I’m going to say that I don’t blame myself for what happened, because I honestly did not expect her to get up on the counter and get her medicine, but the fact that it was me who put that medicine on the counter puts a little bit of a blame on my shoulder. I’m not going to dwell on it, I’m going to use this as a learning experience. I’ve learned that bad things can happen to my kids, and unfortunately all it takes is a couple of seconds and they could be fighting for their lives. This scares me. Life is so scary. I hope that my story will help other moms out there realize that it can happen to you.

On a completely different note…. I’m announcing something that’s coming to Garibay Soup from 7/23/09-7/25/09 ~ it’s a Happy BlogNerd Bash! It’s happy, because my birthday is 7/24/09 and it’s BlogNerd, because it’s for us nerds that aren’t able to make it to Blogher this year.

Stay tuned for more details and a button to share on your blog 🙂 Also feel free to start tweeting and sharing the word that Happy Blognerd is coming to Garibay Soup 7/23/09-7/25/09 ~ if you don’t follow me on Twitter you can do so {HERE}

Welcoming Paxton – sharing the Easy Schedule

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Yesterday my nephew was born. He was 6lbs 15oz. and 19 inches long. Talk about 1 adorable, precious baby boy! His name is Paxton Richard ~ and here he is – isn’t he absolutely adorable?!?!?!?
So, my Works for Me Wednesday is a repeat, but I’m repeating for the new mom!

The EASY Schedule for your baby ~

I have done this with Jayden and Ella. I got the idea from Tracy Hogg’s book {The Baby Whisperer} My Grandma bought me this book when I was pregnant with Jayden and tried her tactics and THEY WORKED!! Here’s how the EASY Schedule works:

E stands for Eat
A stands for Activity Time
S stands for Sleep
Y stands for You Time

So, here’s why this schedule works WONDERS with me. Your baby wakes up from a nap and you instantly feed him/her. You do not let them fall asleep while eating. After they finish their bottle you give them activity time. For a newborn this can be a bath, staring into the wondrous world before them. Just time for them to be awake and not be sleeping. Then when they get fussy, guess what! They’re not hungry!!! You instantly know what the deal is. They’re tired. So you wrap them up, rock them and put them to sleep….then you get YOU TIME (time where you can sit and hear the peace, that is if you don’t have other children or the other children are in school!!) You can even schedule out what you’re going to do for each You Time!!! Ella’s at the age that during activity time she likes to get in her jumparoo and jump jump jump and that’s my internet time. My You Time is USUALLY spent working or doing my housework.

This schedule has not failed me through 2 kids now and I love it. I always know what’s next and so does Ella (she’s my current baby) I’m a WAHM and it’s nice to know that things are not out of control. It’s easy for us and I know that I can tell someone when I will be calling them back, because according to Ella’s schedule I know when she’s going to be tired.

OH! And w/this schedule, Jayden never relied on a bottle to fall asleep. Therefore, when he turned 1 – I threw all of his bottles away on her b/day and we had NO ISSUES!!! Straight to the sippy cup like a big boy!

And the exciting thing today – she’s sleeping right now, and when she wakes up she gets to eat baby food for the first time!!! Stay tuned for pictures!!!!

Hope this works for you like it’s worked for me!! I highly suggest reading her book 🙂

For other things that work for other’s head over to We Are THAT Family and enjoy yourself!

As for Brittany, the new mom of Paxton, I am buying you a copy of this book!!!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. You did a wonderful job yesterday and I LOVE my nephew!!!!!

Works for me Wednesday – Summer Learnin’

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Welcome to {Works for me Wednesday}!!

Summer time is a great time for kids to start to forget all of the things that they learned throughout the year. That way when school starts back up it takes them a while to get back into the swing of things, because let’s face it at the end of August Long Vowels and Short Vowels are pretty much the same thing in the mind of my 7 year old.

I found a way to see to it that this doesn’t happen to my main lil’ man!

Passing through my mall we have this awesome store where you can buy curriculum packets for homeschooling and a ton of other awesome educational things, and they had a stand right outside of their store with {Summer Bridge Activies} books. I stopped looked through one and was sold I bought one for my son going into 2nd grade and LOVE it!!!

It has a summer reading list, flash cards, a fitness program, things on feelings and every day there is a worksheet for them to do that keeps them brushed up on the little things. Plus there’s a TON more things packed in this nifty workbook. Every day’s worksheet is different, it takes them about 15-20 minutes for them to finish it up, and you don’t feel like the day was a complete waste of their minds!

So, this summer this is what’s working for this family, and my son even loves doing his worksheets! I highly recommend this program for the summer.

To read about what works for others head over to {We are THAT family}

A peek into my heart…. on Father’s Day

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Unfortunately, Father’s Day was never an important day for me. I have a dad, but growing up I refused to refer to the man as that. I am now older and have tried to accept him as my father, but continuously don’t feel it in my heart.

My father was 16 when I was born. That pretty much sums it up right there. He was never there, went on to conceive 3 more daughters with 3 different women. Each one I’m sure has their sob story about the man, and I still cling to mine every, single day. I want a dad. I want a dad that cares enough to call me at least once a week and see how I’m doing. I want a dad that can put me first for once… not always focus on his youngest 2 daughters. I want a dad who cares enouch about being a grandpa that he asks how they’re doing, or wants to see them. I just want a dad.

I have a couple of memories that stab my heart, and I think it’s time I talk about them. The first Father’s Day that I spent with my father was in 2006. I was newly pregnant with Mya. We drove all the way up to where I now live just to spend Father’s Day with the man. In addition to him, it was also the first time I was going to meet his 2nd daughter.. dysfunctional, unstable Britney. I know, I have hate issues…. I told you Garibay Soup is the ingredients to a dysfunctional family…. which is EXACTLY what I have.

Anyways… continuing on. I had mentioned to my dad that he could play catch or baseball or fricking something with his grandson {Jayden} that he never sees and the man actaully had the nerve to say to me, “Well, I have Tiona too… it is Father’s Day.” Wow….. this man is a loser.

My dad married his 4th daughter’s mother who is a whopping 2 years 11 months older than me. SICK! At the wedding in the middle of the ceremony they had her come up and be a part of it and even gave her a ring…. I was his only other daughter at this wedding. I felt {AWKWARD}

His 2 youngest daughters are his everything, I am nothing. For this reason alone I have not care for Father’s Day all that much. The 2 situations above are just a couple of things that have stabbed my heart…. there are many, many more, and I need to learn how to let go and be grateful that my children will never have to feel the way I have felt.

My children have a father who loves this both so much and distributes it between the two equally. They will never, ever have to feel the feelings I have felt growing up, because their dad would do anything in this world for them. I am proud to say that this man is my husband.

{Gino}, I know I tell you a lot, but I’m going to say it again……. you are a wonderful dad. You have made choices and changes that they will someday be so thanful and proud for. I just want to thank you for being a dad to my children, I couldn’t have picked a better guy. You make their eyes light up, you put smiles on their faces, and it all makes my heart melt.

I got my picky eater to eat asparagus

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It’s Works for me Wednesday over at Kristen’s blog. I LOVE going through all of the posts of things that work for other moms. I’m constantly changing the way I do things, because let’s face it…. I’m still learning. I think I’ll have things down a little bit more when Ella gets older since I’m using Jayden as my own personal guinea pig. Great mom… I know.

So, Jayden is EXTREMELY picky. Beyond picky. We’ve actually sought out the help of doctors and have come to the realization that there’s actually a pretty big problem here. We think he has a sensory problem, and he can’t handle certain textures, smells and all that. So, we don’t force food on him, because we like to enjoy our dinner without watching our 7 year old son throw up everything we’re eating on his plate.

I came up with a plan and all on my own this time. Well, it wasn’t rocket science, but it definitely is working, and nothing else in the past has.

I printed out a simple chart off of word. It has 25 squares, and every time he tries something new without throwing up he gets a sticker. If he actually eats it all he gets 2. Once he fills up that chart, he gets to pick out a Wii or Xbox game. That was all the motivation I’ve needed.

My kid ate asparagus, people! This is huge.