So it’s Monday after a long break off from work.  Almost two weeks to just be home with the kids.  I think some parents dread this time of year.  Most kids are restless, they are over feed and over stimulated with all the parties, toys and travel.  Maybe someday I will be that kind of parent who can’t wait to get back to work- back to schedules.  But for now I am kind of sad that it is over.  Only this once a year do I get to just be home with them.  We have no agenda except to play and laugh and be lazy.  My oldest loves PJ days and wanted everyday to be a PJ and Pancake day.  My baby wanted to just sit on my lap all day and watch her new movie and make new jewelry.   I love that my kids enjoy it as much as I do.  I wonder do they behave extra good because they know how much I love the mental break from being the working Mom who always feels like she is not doing enough for the house or the kids?  I know someday in the near future I will become obsolete to them and I will embrace my working mother status more then I do now but I wish today was my clean the house and get back to normal day instead of back to the reality  of travel, work and conference calls.  I was talking with some Stay at Home Moms over the break and they asked me if I loved working.  Hard question.  Yes I do.  I love my job and I am good at it.  I just love being a parent more and wish I could do more of it.  Over these last two weeks off I spent a few days doing a picture montage of the last ten years of our life together as a family.  So much has happened in those ten years.  We got married, had two children, my husband got his Ph.D, we moved 5 times.  I kept thinking how fast it all goes and so today back in reality I am a bit sad that I will have to wait another year to get stress-free time with my kids when I can just be their mom.

It seems as though my suitcase never gets unpacked. Because of what I do for a living I am forever traveling to and through airports. Not too long ago I had to ask the front desk clerk at the hotel where I was. I had forgotten was it Dallas or Memphis? They all seem to blend together after a while. My daughter’s preschool asked me last week when I was traveling again because my four years old behavior apparently is linked as to who puts her to bed at night. When I said I would be leaving again in a few days you could see she pitied me. People see my travel as impairment to good mothering. I wondered if I should fess up and say that my upcoming travel was not for work but was really a vacation with my husband. I immediately thought I should tell the truth and tell her proudly that this was our first real non- work related vacation together in almost six years. That we were leaving our children and our work behind for five whole days. And we were going to the ocean where it was warm and no children are allowed. Without making eye contact I explained this to the teacher her face changed and I am not sure it was for the better. I think I am supposed to feel guilty about this trip. I am suppose to “wish” my kids were coming with us. As we left our children with my very capable in-laws last week my husband looked at me and said he felt guilty. I told him, “Well get over it now, because for once we are doing something for us as a couple.” As we sat on the plane and my children, my work, the bills, the errands, the football games, gymnastics, halloween costumes, holiday parties, all began to disappear so did the guilt. Could I actually just be me? Or just be a wife without being a mother? My husband and I talked about this during the plane ride. We talked about reconnecting and enjoying each other. While we were away we found out a few things about life that we didn’t know before:
1. Childless vacations are awesome.
2. Sitting on the beach without the kids means you can actually listen to the ocean and hear music in the waves.
3. Dinner can be eaten at 8 pm.
4. We are still capable of sleeping past 8am uninterrupted.
5. We can go five days with any bickering.
6. I can still read a full novel cover to cover.
7. Wine tastes better after a day of leisure rather then a day of work.
8. I am still in love.
9. It’s ok to not miss your kids until you get off the plane back at home.
10. It’s ok that the kids didn’t miss us either.

Step One found you having a love affair with yourself.

Step Two was about writing affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Wonder what Step 5 can be about? The Seeker would like you to throw your own party. The theme? What’s a party nowadays without a theme?  Let’s try Celebrate Me party! Throw it for 100 or just light a few candles and treat yourself to a lovely repast. Maybe dessert by candlelight. The Seeker can make that one. Make fun invitations and send them out to your family and friends who already know how fabulous you are! Tell them on the appointed date that they are invited to come and celebrate you. Feeling generous? How about telling everyone attending to bring a list of the 100 best things they have ever done in their lives? Okay, make that 10. The Seeker is having problems coming up with 5, but it is still early.

The World can be an unforgiving place to live in and some days the moods of our loved ones are more down than up. You have the power to lift your spirits and those around you and you don’t need fairy dust. It gets into the Seeker’s hair. Do something silly. A Seeker favorite is having everyone show up wearing a feather and rhinestone encrusted chapeau. Not your style? Well have everyone show up in any hat as long as it’s not a baseball cap (or football or basketball). Help people stretch beyond their everyday lives and watch them become the creative souls they have yet to discover.

And don’t forget to invite the Seeker. I can party with the best of them. I have had a little practice.

So are you enjoying the view from the top? Elevation in one’s life does have its rewards besides living above the smog. It is the freedom to baste in the beauty that is moi - the mind that continues to amaze, the body that struts its stuff and is adored by the mind and the soul that lovingly embraces the body and the mind as one. Because we are one fabulous package.

So Step One found you moving on up to the place where we all belong - the top of our list! And Step Two found you scribbling little love notes to yourself. Keep them coming. And maybe write one for your partner, spouse, child, friend, co-worker, neighbor, etc. You get the idea. Expand the love out to the universe. Write it down and let the love continue to flow. Who knows the Nobel Prize for Love could be yours one day! Right after I receive mine.

The Seeker has a confession to make. The Seeker has been a bit of a slacker in the area of Step Three. But she promises to do better since saying the Seeker is a Slacker three times is too much work!

Step Three: Shake it. Move it. Walk it off. Work up a sweat. Get your body moving and grooving.  The reports just came out we as a nation are becoming heavier and less fit. Colorado was the only state to have the least number of obese people but it is an alarming 18.9%.  In 1991 not one state had an obsess rate higher than 20 %.( Trust for America’s Health Report). Yikes!

Start slow, but get off that sofa and put the Ding Dong down.  It all comes down to loving yourself enough to gift yourself with some extra years to be with your loved ones. So join a gym, get a buddy to go walking and lift some weights. Put the fork down after one serving and drink your water. If it doesn’t make a difference in your life, don’t eat it. If you would kill for it then I would say have two spoonfuls and then put it away. A little more savoring means a little less laboring at the gym.

I got a pedometer strapped to me and from the looks of it, my yellow lab and I have a date to walk another 2,000 steps right after dinner. Of course, we will have to stop every two feet. I have no idea what she is sniffing at (yes, I do) and I really don’t ask too many questions. I’m just gonna walk. My butt off.