Guys I Finally Did it!

I've been trying to blog on and off for years. This little thing called fear held me back. Fear of failure. Fear of being ignorant and not having anything to say.

Let's fast forward to 2018. I was telling hubby about all these ideas I had for a lifestyle blog and another idea for a food blog. I researched so much. So I presented him with so many facts. But that is all that I had ideas, facts, and research. Well unbeknownst to me he went out and purchased not one but two domains! He was so happy to present this gift to me and all I could feel was fear once again. What am I going to do with this? I don't know how to web design. I don't know the first thing about having a website. How do I divide my time between two very different blogs. It's like having two jobs. Not to mention I already had a job as a wife/mother/homeschool teacher.

Overwhelmed was an understatement. I froze. I didn't do anything with either site for about two weeks. Then I decided to start with the food blog. It was a "do it yourself" WordPress site. Only I had never heard of WordPress. So YouTube University to the rescue. I watched dozens of you-tubers on the subject. You know what I learned? I learned how to nap several times per day. Holy cow is learning about WordPress boring! I decided to look for an actual class to see if a live teacher could keep my attention. Our local library offered a class. It did not help. All it taught me was what I already knew. I did get a handy dandy certificate though.

So being paralyzed and frustrated by fear I just gave up. I did not touch those websites for months. Finally I decided the best thing to do was give up one site in it's entirety and just concentrate on the other. I called support from our host company and they had some good advice for me. They even had a simpler way of designing my website that did not involve WordPress. Boy was that a relief!

So I learned that when I let go of something that is completely overwhelming and I ask for help that little thing called fear becomes defeated. I have been hard at work on www.casavelilla.com.
I am so happy with what I've been able to put together so far. I know I have a long way to go and I will continuously be learning about websites, blogs, technology and so much more.

Come visit me on the website. Let me know what you think.

The Purpose of Life

The dictionary defines purpose as (n) the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists;(verb) to have one's intention or objective.

So what is the purpose of life? This question has no real answer because as individuals we are all on a different path. I read somewhere that the purpose of life is a life of purpose.

Each day has its own purpose. Each task in our lives serves a purpose. Everything we do becomes a small part of our great story. Here are a few of my favorite quotes about purpose. I hope they give you a glimpse at how important you are and how important your purpose in this world can be.

• You had a purpose before anyone had an opinion.
• Purpose fuels passion.
• When you walk with purpose you collide with destiny.
• We won't be distracted by comparison if we are captivated with purpose.(Bob Goff)
• If you want to believe in your purpose- you have to keep company with people who believe in your purpose too. (Godlywoodgirl.com)
• You were made on purpose for a purpose. (Tony Evans)

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, " There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. You may be in a season of raising little babies and you feel like your only purpose is to change diapers and do laundry. You may be in a season of doubt not knowing what to do, where to go, what to believe. Even in daily tasks, in doubt, and in waiting for answers there is purpose. Be still and listen to your heart and listen to God. He will lead you to your purpose.

 It's often said that God works at the intersection of our gifts and our passions. He created us with passions and talents. What are the things that you love to do? What are the things you find beautiful? What are the things that excite you and motivate you? What are the things that you need to stand for? 

Whatever your answer to these questions they are unique to you and they are your purpose or on the path to your purpose, so no answer is the wrong answer. If you are a person who is passionate about the environment and feel like you need to take a stand for something, do it. If you are a person that absolutely loves coffee and it just makes you happy and that perfect cup of coffee is transcendent, share that love with the world! Coffee is amazing. Can you tell I love coffee? If you love to organize because it brings order and harmony to your home and you want to share that feeling with the world, do it. Take a hundred pictures of that pantry that once made you want to pull your hair out and now it just makes you want to try a new recipe. 

Here are a few pictures of some of the things in my life that give me purpose.

 Our two youngest children whom we homeschool. Our two oldest children moved out of the house years ago and we don't get to take many pictures with them these days. But all four of them are a huge purpose in my life. I honestly believe God created me because they all needed me specifically to be their mom.

 A vegan Affogato which is ice cream with espresso. It is an experience. Try one. Anything with coffee is amazing in my opinion. Coffee gives me purpose. I have had many conversations, laughs, and discussions over coffee.

 Good healthy foods. I love green veggies with my noodles. Asian food is very vegan friendly. I try to eat as many vegan meals as possible but I don't beat myself up for having some meat here or there. Mostly on holidays because Thanksgiving has turkey.

 Not my kitchen but I really love having a clean home and this gorgeous house was super clean. I feel this peace when the house is clean and organized. I actually enjoy organizing closets and drawers. Yep I'm a weird one.

 My husband of twenty- six years. Dating him and loving him are such a big purpose in my life. Bonus it comes naturally. He gets me and he's a great person. Our marriage is a testimony to God and showing our children that all marriages have ups and downs but we can still choose to love and forgive and respect one another is a huge part of our purpose in life.

 My grandchildren. They bring me so much joy. They have opened a new section to my heart that I didn't even know existed. Just looking at this picture brings me to tears knowing that I get to share in their lives.

Event planning & interior decorating, bring me purpose. I love throwing parties and having a house full of people. Acts of service is my main love language so get togethers are my thing. In this picture I was getting a room together for a homeschool prom. The theme was Latin Nights. I incorporated some tropical touches and a few educational pops here and there like that Taino symbol on the small easel. Also I printed out  pictures of some landscapes in Puerto Rico. I wanted the children to ask about the places so we could share a bit of culture with them.

Hello Again

Author Paulo Coehlo has a wonderful quote that says, " If you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello."

 Saying goodbye can be hard but it can also be exciting. When we let go of the old we make room for the new. New places, people, things, experiences, can all be what we make of them. We can put up walls and make them negative and scary or we can embrace them and make them a wonderful part of our lives. It's like that old saying you won't know if you like something until you try it.

Earlier this year we were brave enough to say goodbye to our house. We knew it was the right choice and the right time. We were certain that this was a step God wanted us to take. So now we get to say hello to a new city. Hello to new neighbors. Hello to new stores, routes, shortcuts, landscapes, parks and trails.

Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV tells us, "For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."

 We are embracing the new. I think it will be a theme for us for a little while. Trying new things. Recently we went to NYC (my hometown). It was a whirlwind of a trip. We were there less than twenty-four hours. We made the most of it. We only slept four hours so we could do and see as much in the little time we had to explore. Although we lived in NYC for a long time it had been over eighteen years since we had been there, so many parts of it were new but it all felt familiar.

We ate at a lovely restaurant, in the West Village, called Rosemary's . It is a farm to table type of restaurant and so many of their ingredients are made in house. We had fresh pasta, house made cheeses. The most amazing heirloom tomatoes they grew in their upstate farm. They even had a small rooftop garden. It was delightful to see tomatoes and herbs and some veggies. If you are ever in NYC we highly recommend this place. They even accommodated my dairy allergy. Can you believe that lovely pasta dish has no dairy!

My hope for all of you is that any new beginning in life brings you growth, joy, and leads to beautiful memories and some delicious foods!

www.rosemarysnyc.com

This Old (New) House

Almost three years ago we were blessed with a new house. We enjoyed the process of carefully selecting the floor plan. We watched the process of the foundation being poured, electrical and plumbing being put in. The walls went up and the beautiful stuff came. Granite counter tops, porcelain tile, a beautiful front porch, even a covered lanai (as we call them in FL). We splurged on a wood and iron staircase. It was the house of our dreams. Well for the most part. When you buy a house through a regular builder you get a builder grade house. Sure you pick a different color cabinet from your neighbor and maybe even splurge on a few extras but bottom line all the houses look the same.

So for the past three years I have been trying to make this house our style. I want to de-cookie cutter- ize it. I only have one problem. I like too many things! Why is it that someone can go to a home improvement store look at five thousand colors and just pick "the one"? I have picked about fifteen different versions of tan/khaki/beige. They all look wonderful on a tiny sample paper. Then I put it up on the wall and I hate it. It's too dark, too brown, not brown enough. If I like the color somehow I hate the paint quality. So right now I have three different tan/khaki/beige colors going on. One is a flat paint, the other two are egg shell but different brands. You can tell between the two which one saved me a whopping six dollars. It looks so cheap but the color is exactly what I was looking for. So I am going to try to match the color I like to the paint quality I want. I'm crossing my fingers it works. 

I pretty much know what I like when I see it, and I usually am looking for it on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/venus615/), Pottery Barn, Ballard Design and Home Decorators. We love natural elements, rustic style with a modern twist. Kind of Tuscany meets Napa Valley meets NYC. If that even makes sense. I know for sure warm tones are the colors I tend to lean towards. So I have a plan in my head and on my boards. I see the finished product in my head, I just don't know how to get there. So as of right now I have started decorating every room in this house. Some are up to eighty percent done. Others more like five percent. I never finish a room in its entirety before I begin the next. Basically my new house looks like a really old house that has no flow, pattern or soul. I have a hodgepodge of things and a plethora of empty picture frames. But there is hope for me yet. I recently found a TV show on HGTV called Fixer Upper (http://www.hgtv.com/fixer-upper/show/index.html). It follows this wonderfully talented couple who flip homes. Their love and determination is very contagious. They have inspired me to keep working at making this house our home. I'm even going to involve the kids in a lot of what I have planned. Lucky for us one of my kids is an artist. I have commissioned her to paint some of her art on our walls. 

We love this house. It is our home. It is our safe place and our connecting place. We are comfortable here. I am looking forward to making memories with my children and my dear husband as we put our stamp in this place. Most of all I look forward to sharing this blessing with others. 

A few Reasons why our family Homeschools

Homeschool. The act of schooling at home. It used to be the way all children were educated at one point. It is the way many families still choose to teach their children. As a matter of fact over two million children in the United States were homeschooled in the 2012/2013 school year. That number continues to rise each year. Just six years ago that number was half of what it is today. Why do you suppose parents all over our nation are choosing to take their children's education into their own hands? I can think of many, many reasons. Here are a few why our family chose to homeschool.

#1 Education should not be limited.

As I recall from attending public and private Christian school all learning is the same. A teacher presents oral and written work to a class. It is discussed and some book work is assigned. Once they have covered the "necessary" information they move on to the next thing. If one child or several did not understand they have to move on anyway. Teachers cannot stay in one place too long because the "system" mandates them to move on. Also the child whose imagination and wonderment has been peaked cannot continue to study this subject with his peers or discuss it with his teacher due to the schedule they  have to follow. Every year it is the same. They revisit what they learned the year before and add a little more information to the subject. Nothing is ever learned in it's entirety. The children know a little bit about many things instead of knowing many things about a few subjects.

In a homeschool setting a child can learn about a subject at their own pace in their own learning style. We do not have to close the chapter on that very interesting thing we are learning about because we need to move on to the next thing. We do not have to leave a child confused and wondering how are they going to pass a test when they did not even grasp the work given to them. In a homeschool setting we can go beyond the textbook and oral lesson. For example when learning about a new country, we read about the country, we use Google maps and tour the country on our computer. We check out a couple of cookbooks from the library and make some of the dishes traditional to this country. We watch a movie from this country. If this country is represented in an art exhibit, play, Epcot country (we live in FL) we incorporate a field trip to learn as much as we can about this country. We can immerse ourselves in the subject.

#2 Schedules

We run on a different schedule in our home. My dear husband comes home between eight and nine at night. Having family dinners are very important to us. So we plan our meals and bedtimes accordingly. I remember the one year my two youngest children went to public school, my poor husband would sometimes not see the children for days. We were slaves to someone else's schedule and had to live our lives around that. The kids went to bed before their dad got home and they woke up and went to school before dad got up for work. It was a very sad situation to have everyone living in the same household and we were not having quality family time.

#3 Sleep

I am a big believer that our bodies let us know when it needs something. Whether it's water or food or rest. I remember having to fight with my daughter to wake her up for school. She would literally cry each morning because she was not ready to wake up. This was the beginning of her day and it was a lousy one. Now that she schools at home I let her wake up when she is ready. Some days she needs more sleep than others. Her work gets done but not at the sacrifice or sleep.

#4 Car Lines

Okay this one is not a huge factor why we homeschool but I really detest car lines! It was added stress I did not need in my life.

#5 The Education System is Failing our Children

My youngest children went to our local "A" rated public school for one year. During this year my daughter was in the third grade and my son in the first grade. In FL there is a test given in the third grade called the FCAT. It is a multiple choice test that is actually used to measure the progress of the children in the public education system. First of all any multiple choice test does not really measure progress it just tells us whether or not someone filled in the correct bubble to a question. When given four choices you have a 25% chance of getting it right. A lot of these students just guess and fill any bubble at random. My daughter needed a 1200 to be at grade level. Well she scored in the 2000 range. That was the equivalent of a child leaving the fifth grade or entering the sixth grade. I asked her teacher if she could be given work to challenge her due to the fact that she already knew everything they were teaching. The teacher suggested I put her in the "gifted" program which consisted of a bus picking her up and taking her to a school across town one day per week. First of all my child is not riding a school bus alone or with a handful of children and a bus driver we do not know. Second of all what was one day per week going to do for her education. That meant for the next four days she finished her work in a few minutes and was put by the teacher to help other students. It was nice that my daughter got to help others but it was at the expense of her education. This was when I knew our education system had nothing to offer our family. I let them finish out the year and never looked back.

Now this is what was going on with my son in the first grade. My dear boy was smart as can be. He aced every test they gave him. However he had dexterity problems and could not write properly. He also had a hard time with sentence structure. He would start writing a sentence in the middle of the page and finish it at the top of the page. Sometimes he wrote in a circle. His handwriting was illegible. The teacher did not see a problem with this. She said he did well on the tests she gave him so he was okay to move up to the next grade. Talk about setting a kid up to fail! So if they do well on a test that is the only thing that determines if the child moves up or not. Children are not one dimensional. There are so many other factors that they need to look at. My son ended up doing Occupational Therapy. We used many tricks and tools to help with his grasping of a pencil. We still have to tell him to slow down and take his time so his writing is legible.

So what I am getting at is this, my children both did well on tests and were promoted accordingly. However the education they needed and the tools they needed was not given to them. Children are just passed on and held back not according to how they are doing in school. It is all based on passing tests. Both of my children needed more and our Public Education system could not provide what they needed.

I know that I am blessed to have the ability to stay home with them and take their education into my hands. I am blessed to have a husband who is on board 100%. I am blessed to live in a state where homeschooling is made possible and there are many support groups and educational co-ops. I am very blessed to have met so many other homeschooling and unschooling families and have them share their journeys with us. Most of all I am so blessed to be going on this journey with my children.

 This picture was taken at Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival. My children learned and watched the life-cycle of butterflies.

This was at the home of one of our homeschool families. My children learned a lesson on gravity and physics. They got to build their own catapults and test them out with giant Marshmallows. When he got home my dear son made Spiderman escape from the bad guys using this handy dandy device.

Here is my sweet girl in the middle of a science lesson. We planted different types of seeds and had to chart their progress.

Story of my life

I take a couple of moments out of my day to call or text my best friend, Her name is Diane. She lives in Arizona and I live in Florida. Even though we are so far away from one another it feels as if we live parallel lives. I guess being the mother of four children each can lead to some pretty funny scenarios. Over the years we have shared everything from poopie stories to heart breaks and our hopes and dreams.

Today, over text I was letting her know how I was very productive in my household chores yesterday but seemed lacking today. To which she responded that she was having a productive day today but had given herself more work because she started to clean her car and that lead to putting clothes to wash, which lead to going through clothes that didn't fit the kids anymore.

I recently visited Diane in Arizona and read If you Give a Pig a Party to her sweet little girl. Of course my brain being what it is one big jumbled up, non stop, amusement park, I got an idea. Our every day lives are like those sweet books written by Laura Numeroff. We start doing one thing which leads us to another and so on. So please enjoy this little parody.

If a Mom Starts to do the Laundry by Venus Rivera

If a mom starts to do the laundry, she will check the pockets

When she checks the pockets she will find some candy wrappers, Pokemon Cards and a nickel.

She will go to the kitchen to throw away the wrappers.

When she gets to the kitchen she will see crumbs on the floor.

She will sweep the floor and when she bends down to pick up the crumbs the nickel will fall out.

She will remember to put the nickel in the coin jar they keep in the office.

When she goes to the office she sees the wastebasket is full.

She will empty out the trash and decide to check all the rooms for trash.

When she gets to her son's room she remembers the Pokemon Cards.

When she places the cards on his nightstand she will notice the dirty sheets on the bed.

She will take the sheets to the laundry room.

When she shakes out the sheets to put them to wash, out will fall a marble, a sock, and some Pokemon Cards.


This ladies and gentlemen is why mothers spend all day long working and sometimes feeling like we didn't get anything done. Now to go finish my laundry.

I love Florida

After living in Florida for the last eighteen years I felt as if I needed change. I wanted seasons and a different landscape. I wanted to get away from the multitude of tourists that come each year to Orlando. I wanted to get away from the humidity that plagues me with hair that won't stop growing. I wanted to get away from five months of hot uncomfortable temperatures. Did I mention the never ending construction?

Well I got what I wanted. I booked us three weeks in beautiful Arizona. My dear daughter and grandchildren live out in Arizona. My best friend whom I love dearly and missed terribly also lives in Arizona. I couldn't wait to see the mountains and the different landscape. I couldn't wait for the dryness and what that meant to my hair. I couldn't wait to be out of Florida.

It is my fifteenth day here in Arizona. I have loved, loved, loved being with my daughter and grandchildren. I love that my bestie and I have had wonderful moments and gone down memory lane. I love that our children are bonding and becoming besties of their own. I don't love how DRY it is here. Goodness gracious, it is dry. I feel like there is not enough water in this world to quench my thirst. My dreams of perfect hair days did not go as planned. In Florida I can curl my hair and have beautiful beach waves all day long. Sometimes the curl lasts into the next day. Here in AZ my hair is flat. Shiny but flat. I curl my hair and with in the hour it is gone. My sinuses are out of control! I have been getting a nose bleed several times per week. My allergies are out of control. My right eye won't stop crying from the allergies. I must look like a drippy, scary Halloween character.

I never thought I would miss Florida but I really do. I miss the lakes( alligators not included), I miss my landscape. The beautiful lush trees that line every street. I miss the majesty of the tall oaks draping with Spanish Moss. I miss grass! Most of the houses in AZ have rocks in their gardens. I tried walking on them barefoot one day, not a good idea. I miss the architecture of the FL houses.

I can appreciate so many things about AZ but I can honestly say I can now appreciate where I live so much more. I am grateful that I didn't have to move out of FL to find this appreciation. Don't get me wrong AZ is wonderful and beautiful and has it's own list of amazing things to miss, but there is no place like home. For me that is Florida.

 Arizona living vs Florida living. Both beautiful in their own way. I am blessed to have known both.