🎒 Today my kiddo started his junior year…at a new school with a graphic design program 🎨✨ Here’s the wild part: 👉 He found the program himself. 👉 I chased down info (after crickets 🐞 from the school). 👉 Principal resigned, counselor left 🤦‍♀️. 👉 Transportation promised…still no answers 🚌❌. So this morning, I drove him. 🚗 Because when our kids are excited and passionate, we show up. 💪💜 But here’s what I keep thinking: What about the kids who don’t have that support at home? Parents, we must advocate for our kids — and for the ones who don’t have someone fighting for them. 🥊👊 💬 Tell me: when have YOU had to advocate for your child? We’re in this together. 🤝💜

As parents, we often make sacrifices for our children ❤️. I must say, as much as I love tennis season for my kiddo 🎾, it definitely takes a toll on me. I’m constantly trying to keep myself well from being out in the cold ❄️ at the beginning of the season when we have multiple matches during the week. I often do not feel up to fixing dinner 🍽️. I often “crash” after a match and have to take a nap 💤 just to get through the rest of the night. It’s one of the many reasons why I left my job 💼. I knew I could not maintain working and being there for my son during the season. I do what I can to be at my best during this crazy, wonderful, and hectic time ⚡. It’s not always easy, it requires sacrifice… and I wouldn’t have it any other way ❤️‍🔥. This season has flown by ⏳ and I only have two more tennis seasons left with him. So even though it’s hard, I will be present and enjoy every moment I can because these times are fleeting ✨. What sacrifice have you made but don’t regret for your children?

Hello beautiful souls! I have been struggling with going back and forth of whether to change the Parent Power Hour time. Many seem to prefer the 4:00 time slot, so I’m going to keep it at that time. ⏰✨ However, that means I can’t do it at the regularly scheduled time until May 12. Honestly, I feel this is the universe telling me to take a break and do some self care. 🌌💆‍♀️ As many of you know, the kiddo is in full swing for tennis season. 🎾 And with a chronic illness, I am in survival mode. 🌀 Things only get more hectic and intense until the season ends. So I’m going to take a step back from meetings and look to resume for that date in May. I so appreciate your patience and support during this time. 🙏 If I’m not careful, I’ll end up down for weeks—and then I’m no help to anyone. ❤️‍🩹

Hello beautiful souls! I don't know about you but last week was a doozy. The kiddo was sick with the flu for 3 days and I'm pretty sure hubby had Norovirus at the same time. I spent the week caretaking and cleaning so that's why you didn't hear much from me. Yet, I was able to have gratitude. You see, I was able to be at home to take care of my kiddo without additional stress. I know I'm extremely lucky to be in that position. I can't tell you the amount of stress I experienced having an autoimmune disorder, trying to work at a non-profit, and trying to be a good mom. I felt horrible because I was either so tired I could barely function for my kiddo or I was getting told at work I took too much time to be with my son. It didn't matter that I would be texting a teacher till 10:00pm at night securing placements or that at my peak I was doing 300 job shadowing placements a year for students. And that was just one project of the many I was involved in. I always to try make my kiddo feel loved. We have our silly inside jokes and things that crack us up. We listen to his Nerdcore Music all the time as we are riding to and from tennis or wherever it is we are going. But last week I felt I had a huge parenting win. He told me that even though he was sick it wasn't as bad because he felt special. Because he was so well taken care of. And that made my heart so happy. I was so much less stressed because I was able to be at home. And that came through so it confirmed yet again my decision to leave the non-profit. Not everyone is so lucky to be able to have a parent stay home in this world we live in now. So it's all the more important for us to come together to support one another. That's what Parent Power Hour is all about. We can come together to support one another and help our teens and young adults find careers they will be happy with which in turn increases success. So be sure to join us today at 4pm EST. We will meet most Mondays unless I am out of town. Click here to join the Go Brunch link at 4pm. Or go to the calendar and click on the link. Please let me know if you are attending as I have also promoted the event on Linked In try and get some people from there involved in the group as well. Right now we only have 10 spots available. I can increase that if we start to have an over flow.

I wanted to introduce you all to Jared. I'm hoping he'll be able to join the group and offer a student perspective. I met Jared's brother when his brother was a senior and he was unsure😕 of what he wanted to do. Through the support of his parents we worked to get him onto a track and I'm proud to say that he has graduated and is working in a field he is happy in and is doing well. After that I began working with Jared. The following is Jared's journey: 🌠Jared told me he wanted to be in an environmental field. He already had a love for medicine though and we worked to help him transfer high schools so that he could pursue an EMT certification his senior year. All the while we were pursing an internship in the environmental field. 🌠Due to a networking connection (I'll have to do a post about that sometime) we had so many opportunities for Jared. He gained a year long internship which led to him recruiting and training other students as they had an office in our business incubator and ran that office. They did tap card projects and kids even later worked on their spring break to digitize where meters were and all of that info is being used by waste water municipalities to this day. 🌠Then one day Jared and his mom asked for a meeting with me. I thought "Uh oh. What's going on?" lol. They came in and his mom said, "Alright. You tell her." Poor guy looked distressed as he told me he really wanted to switch fields and become a physician assistant. 🌠I said, "Ok! Here is the paperwork to fill out for the hospital to do job shadowing. Summer is a good time do that because they aren't as busy...." and he just looked at me an said something to the effect of 'You're not upset? You've put so much work into this internship." I said, "No. This is the time for you to explore and figure out what it is you want to do. It's why we do this program. Are you going to finish out the internship?" My only concern was that he fulfill the commitment he had made to the internship host. He assured me he would. And he did.