Hello Summer!

Hello Urban Goddesses & Gods,

The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of activity and personal life drama (that part not so fun). The craziness threatened to take over super-alien invasion-like and then June rolled around and I inhaled the freshness of summer.

To summarize the madness, here are a few highlights and see pictures at the end of the post:

• Health issues
• Loss of a friend battling depression
• Another bought of depression of my own
• Urban Goddess Mama-to-Be releases!! Yay! Click here for more info.
• Starting of a new book. Another yay with a splash of "oh crap, are they going to like this one?"
• Friend's wedding 
• Birthdays (Hubby's 40th and mine and no I'm not going to tell you how old I am)
• Day job stress learning a new database system
• New laptop (birthday gift from Hubby! BEST. MAN. EVER.)
• Birth Without Fear Portland Meet-up
• AND Portland Moms Blog

Phew! And that's not all, but I'm not going to bore you any longer. As June is about to wrap up, I will be taking the summer off from blogging, except for Portland Moms Blog.

Summer is a time to celebrate family , nature, and the gift of life. This summer I'm going to focus on that. We're taking a family vacation to the beach to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, Boo Creature and I will also be taking a couple of trips to visit out-of-state family, and there will be lots of concerts, music festivals, camping, and outdoor activities throughout.

I'm absolutely excited about taking a summer off to enjoy family time. I won't totally be off because I still have my day job, but I'm also taking a little time off from that too.

So enjoy your summer, my divine friends! I'll be back early September and with some really exciting news to share with you (it's still in the works and I can't talk about it yet.)

I leave you with a few pictures, as promised.

Much love,
Melania

Boo Creature all dressed up for the wedding.

Book Baby #2 is out!!!!

Birth Without Fear Meet-Up! January Harshe is the ultimate mama goddess.

This was my first real book-signing event. I met some amazing women who really inspired me. For more pictures of the event you can click here.










Finally this is how I spent my Birthday. Massage, pedicure, and new haircut. If you can't practice self-care on your birthday, then when can you?

Dear Daughter

Dear Daughter,

Every day I spend with you, I'm completely blown away by your grown. Each day I will you transform from a toddler into an independent child complete with strong opinions and curious ideas. You're imagination is unbelievable.

Last night as you fell asleep and rolled over to press your little soft cheek to mine and hold my other cheek with your little hand, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I could have stayed like that forever and been happy as can be. I love our snuggle time so much. It teaches me to slow down and to be present. 

Some days I see myself in you clear and true, others your father's personality comes through, but most days I look at you and I see just you, a sweet, energetic, curious girl who's in love with life and her pink bear.

I love watching you play. You are so funny and the little jokes you tell yourself are hysterical. I wish I could capture these moments as save them forever. Pictures and videos help just don't quite cut it.

I hope you see how much I love you and know I'll always be there to snuggle with you at night or hold you when you're having a bad day. You are my sweet child and I am so honored when you call me mama. Thank you for choosing me to me your mama. I'm certainly not perfect and I've made plenty of mistakes. We're on this journey together. Thank you for your patience.

Can't wait to see what's next, but right this second, I'm really enjoying this moment we have together and will treasure it forever.

Love you to the end of the universe and back,

Mama

Why I loved Kill Bill

Huh? Why would I write a post about two extremely violent films on a zen goddessy blog? Good question and hear me out.

Back in 2003 & 2004 when the films came out, I had ZERO desire to watch them. Yes, I love action and films depicting strong females, but from the previews these just looked way over the top. As I got older my taste for action films weakened especially after I had my daughter.

Photo via IMDB

Then when my daughter was about twelve months old she went to sleep early and I was in the mood for some mommy entertainment. As I browsed Amazon Prime I came across Kill Bill Vol 1.

What the hell, why not. I punched in my password, poured myself a glass of wine, and began watching. The beginning of the film where she takes out the first lady and kills her in front of her daughter was enough to make me stop the film right there, but I kept watching.

I nearly dropped my glass of wine the moment when she wakes up in the hospital and she realizes she no longer is pregnant. My uterus cramped when she let out that belly-clenching scream. In that moment I knew her pain and understood what she was going to do.

Photo via IMDB

Any mother would understand this woman's mission. Every cell of my body could relate with mama bear instinct to find her child and do everything necessary to get her baby back.

Yeah, twelve years ago, if I'd watched these films I'd have been like, "whatever." But now, I get it and I applaud Quentin Tarantino for creating such a brilliant film that truly depicts the inner mama bear.

If anyone dared hurt my baby or attempt to take her away from me, beware. I will learn the art of Japanese-sword fighting. I will track you down. And I will inflict justice upon your sorry ass. I will cut you down. Do not mess with my inner warrior goddess named Beatrix Kiddo.

You have been warned.