As mentioned in my previous post, my mother has always had to deal with having a daughter who is unable to sit still, literally and figuratively.
As far back as I could remember she would always tell me,
“No corras antes de caminar.”
(Don’t try running before you can walk.)
Throughout my life, it’s applied to multiple scenarios.
Me:Mom, me quiero rasurar las piernas
Mom:Victorita, no corras antes de caminar.
(Me: Mom, I want to shave my legs. Mom: Victoria, don’t run before you can walk.)
Me:Mom, ya no aguanto! Quiero salir corriendo!
Mom:Mija, ten paciencia. No corras antes de caminar.
(Me: Mom, I can’t take it anymore! I want to run out. Mom: My daughter, be patient. Don’t try running before you can walk.)
She then likes to go on and tell me how ironic it is that I’m always “running†when I was lazy and took forever to learn how to walk as a baby.
The moral is that everything comes in due time. We spend our lives rushing through every moment, every phase. Sometimes you just gotta sit back, drink a mimosa and enjoy the moment.
Baker extraordinaire Dorie Greenspan never attended culinary school, yet she has won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award three times for her numerous cookbooks and culinary magazine articles. Her 11th cookbook also hit shelves just in time for planning desserts for Thanksgiving.
“Baking Chez Moi†is a culmination of Greenspan’s delicious dessert discoveries while traveling around Paris. For the past 20 years, Greenspan has been dividing her time between New York, Connecticut and Paris, but she says she feels most at home in Paris.
“Every time I’m getting ready to go, I’m excited as the first time,†says the 67-year-old in her sweet manner. “I love the way of life, the rhythm of life…There seems to be more time to have dinner together, or meet for a drink, or a coffee at a cafe. I love the way people love food in France. You can buy a little tartlet, and it’s wrapped so beautifully.â€
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Greenspan remembers vividly her first trip to the City of Lights 43 years ago.
“I came back and went directly to my parents’ house and told them they made a big mistake – I was meant to be Parisian,†she says.
Her love of the kitchen, however, wasn’t as evident to her in the beginning.
“I made French fries when I was 13 years old and almost burnt my parents house,†remembers Greenspan. “I started cooking from cookbooks when I got married [while I was in college]. It was a good feeling to cook for my husband and friends. I loved the whole process – the preparation – I loved having people around the table. That’s when I fell in love with it – as I was learning.â€
But she still didn’t think to pursue the craft as her career at this point. She graduated from college, started working, went to graduate school and had a child.
“I thought I was going to be an academic in gerontology,†says Greenspan. “But my fabulous husband said, ‘You really love baking – why don’t you make that your career?’â€
That’s when she finally gave in to her calling. She self-taught herself with books and people who inspired her.
“I was really lucky when I think about it,†recalls Greenspan. “I went to work for Elle magazine when it launched in America. It had a wonderful food section – so I got to read about the fabulous French chefs. Daniel Boulud had a huge influence on me, and then I worked with Julia Child. I wrote ‘Baking with Julia.’ I didn’t go to culinary school, but I learned from the best.â€
These days, she likes to get up early and starts working around 8am.
“What I try to do is write in the morning and do recipe development in the afternoon,†says Greenspan, who spends most of her day in the kitchen – with happy music playing in the background – and sometimes forgets to leave her house until 7pm.
She doesn’t love all the dishes she has to wash afterwards, but it’s all worth it to her.
“I love the sense of happiness that you get when you’ve made something,†says Greenspan. “I’m inspired by ingredients…and there’s something wonderful about starting something from scratch, and then sharing it with other people and making them happy. I love what I do, and because I write about it, I get to pass it along.â€
Greenspan says what she’s most grateful for, this year and every year, is her husband and son. She’s spending this Thanksgiving in NY.
Slow-roasted pineapple (Photo/Alan Richardson)
“I’m such a last-minute person, but I know I’m definitely making my slow-roasted pineapple recipe and the custardy apple squares,†which Greenspan says are two of her favorites from her new book. “I think I’m also going to make the desert roses, which are corn flakes treats.â€
Custardy apple squares (Photo/Alan Richardson)
Greenspan seems to flow with ideas, which seem to pour effortlessly onto the pages of more books. She’s already working on her next one on cookies.
If she had one piece of advice she could tell her younger self, what would it be?
“What I would tell my younger moi is say ‘yes’ to everything,†says Greenspan, explaining she wishes she started younger doing that herself. “Be fearless, try things.â€
Doing the “same old, same old†may not sound exciting, but it can actually make you – and your family – happier and healthier.
With all the stress we face in our lives everyday, it’s hard to get a handle on what needs to be done, and when. Without proper organization, important things could be missed or forgotten, causing added stress later.
Whether it’s reading, yoga, or just spending time with your family, having committed daily acts are essential to everyone’s day. Having a routine means that your body naturally knows what needs to be done, which eliminates a lot of unneeded stress in daily life.
For me, my early morning power act kickstarts my daily routine:
I begin my day at 4am with one hour of reading, meditating and prayer. Then I walk 3 miles and run 3 miles back. After that, I do a ½ hour of yoga, and then my reward is jumping in the ocean and watching the sun rise.
Make routines work for you. Be happily flexible. Rigid routines are more likely to fail; flexible ones are more likely to last.
Here are some steps to help you get started:
1. Make a List – In order to start getting your life organized, making a list is imperative. Start with a list of things that absolutely must be accomplished that day. Write down what you have to pick up at the store on the way home, or what tasks are due at work. Being able to cross completed items off the list as you go provides a sense of self-confidence and encourages you to check more items off of your list.
2. Keep it simple and specific – Make the goal tangible such as, “I get up every morning at the same to take care of my body and spirit.”
3. Plan for success – Think through what you’ll do if confronted with challenges. Always think if x happens, I will do y. This kind of mental preparation will help you to stick to a diet or exercise routine.
 4. Make your goal a habit – Getting into a daily routine when you’re constantly used to running around can be a hard at first. Set a goal of getting into a routine for 30 straight days. This will turn into a daily habit, and you won’t even have to think about it again.
Dr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach, fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.â€
As anyone can imagine, raising two kids on your own is no easy feat. Now, imagine one of those kids being a high strung, energetic, siempre a millón (always going at a million) daughter like myself.
I’ve been blessed with a mother who knows how to deal with crazy, and in turn, has tried to teach me how to not allow the crazies of the world make me crazy(ier). Or, as she says,
“Donde hay un loco que no hayan dos.”
(Where there’s one crazy let there not be two.)
As simple as that phrase is, I can’t tell you how many times it’s helped me both personally and professionally. When people are under stress, they tend to act out.
So, whenever you find yourself in a situation where you feel everyone is acting crazy, just remember to keep the calm.
After spending many years working relatively secure jobs in research, marketing and sales in the corporate world, Geri Stengel transitioned to the uncharted land of freelancing. Since 1994, she’s been working on her own – mostly providing other women entrepreneurs advice.
The nearly 62-year-old from Queens, NY says she spends most of her time heading her own firm Ventureneer, a digital market research company which helps corporations reach small businesses. She also recently authored the book, “Forget the Glass Ceiling: Build Your Business Without One.â€
“A lot of my work is doing reports…interviewing people for the reports, attending conferences, or events, and sometimes speaking,†says Stengel. “The last three to six months I’ve been doing a lot of speaking on women and entrepreneurship, and women investing in women.â€
She says her favorite part about her job is analyzing and interpreting data.
“I’m also very social, so I like networking and talking to people,†says Stengel. “I pretty much fall in love with all of my projects. Right now, I’m working on a project on crowdfunding. Women are more likely to try and raise money privately than publicly. The report will be about women who are seeking funding, and women as investors.â€
Stengel says she didn’t plan on becoming an expert on entrepreneurship but ended up teaching four years on the subject at The New School, and presently, she’s facilitating a class offered by NYC for women who want to grow their businesses.
“Everything was evolutionary,†says Stengel. “I thought I was going to be psychologist. I went to school to be a psychologist, but I took a year off after my BA, and when I started working in Manhattan for businesses, I really enjoyed it and changed my direction. I didn’t think it through.â€
She says doing project management for large corporations and internet startups gave her a lot of experience writing strategic plans.
“A lot of my work was doing business plans for businesses that were raising money,†says Stengel about her corporate world experience. “I had differences with my partners and left. I stepped back and said, ’Where do my skills fit in?’â€
The proud business woman says her first independent project was a dollar store in Syracuse, NY, and it won a Goldman Sachs competition.
“That was my first,†says the woman who went on to write a grand prize-winning business plan for the Yale School of Management and was honored as a 2012 and 2013 Small Business Influencer for her articles on Forbes about women entrepreneurs.
If she had one piece of advice she would tell her younger self, what would it be?
“I think find mentors and people to support you in whatever careers aspirations you have,†says Stengel. “I tried to do it all on my own, and I think having advisers, mentors and peer support groups help fortify you and provide direction. You need people to give you tough advice and advise you as you’re moving forward.â€
Victoria Moll-Ramirez is a broadcast journalist based in Atlanta, GA. She is originally from Miami, FL and had the great fortune of being raised by the sassiest, spunkiest, wisest, most hysterical Honduran woman in the world. Victoria’s mother, Bélgica, is 60-years-old, resides in Little Havana (Miami) and enjoys a good margarita accompanied by a heartrending ranchera. Victoria blogs about her mom’s funny and wise sayings on, “In My Mother’s Words.â€
