For every woman who has difficulty asking for the things you want whether in relationships, at work, family, or at home, consider reading this book. It is matter of fact and downright empowering.

Harvard’s Daniel Gilbert on happiness and experience:

“People tend to take more pleasure in experiences than in things. So if you have “x” amount of dollars to spend on a vacation or a good meal or movies, it will get you more happiness than a durable good or an object. One reason for this is that experiences tend to be shared with other people and objects usually aren’t. …

You can spend lots of money on experiences. People think a car will last and that’s why it will bring you happiness. But it doesn’t. It gets old and decays. But experiences don’t. You’ll “always have Paris” — and that’s exactly what Bogart meant when he said it to Ingrid Bergman.”

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

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If you want to buy happiness, you can never go wrong with buying an experience rather than a tangible thing like a new car, clothes, or gadgets that in time would lose their value or break down. An experience like that trip you had last summer with your kids or the cooking lessons you enrolled in are much better and would only get better through time. You’ll always have them no matter what. Even if the dollar or peso crashes in the market.

Read the rest of Daniel Gilbert’s interview in NY times here.

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Grown-ups, like you and me, can easily research on things we don’t understand. We have books and the internet at our disposal. But kids don’t care much about books or the internet unless it’s about downloading their fave music or computer games. So, how do you explain a big word like autism to other children?

I am mom who has a daughter with Autism spectrum disorder. And I worry about her a lot. To think, we’re always together, I still worry. What if she starts going to a regular school everyday and would be away from me for 2-3 hours each day? Other kids could be harsh on other kids who act different. I don’t want my daughter to be bullied or discriminated. She doesn’t deserve it. In fact, no individual deserves to be discriminated against.

I hope all parents and teachers can explain to their kids why other kids behave a certain way and how they can replace discrimination and judgment to one of compassion and understanding. I found this website that could help you answer complex questions children pose about why their sister, classmate, friend, cousin behaves a certain way. Parents and teachers can also make use of storybooks that talk about autism in a light, enjoyable and easy to understand format. These two books by Marvie Ellis help parents, teachers, siblings, relatives of children with Autism and anyone learning about ASD for the first time understand the disability better.

These award-winning children’s books are available at Amazon.

Tacos Anyone? An Autism Story gives a realistic presentation of how autism affects ALL members of a family, especially siblings. Young Thomas already knows that his little brother Michael has autism but does not really know what it is. He tries to play with his brother but almost always, unsuccessfully. Enters Michael’s therapist who shows Thomas how to better communicate with his little brother. The book shows that a loving and supportive family and environment are essential in the development of children with ASD.

Keisha’s Doors is a story of 2 year-old girl who has Autism. Her parents and her older sister, Monica learn to adapt communication styles and coping skills to be able to reach out to Keisha. This is not only a story about Monica’s adjustment to life with sister, but more importantly, it’s about the parents’ journey to understand and relate to Keisha better.

April is Autism Month. Help me and other families create awareness about this growing disability that affects 1 in every 150 children. Share this article to anyone and everyone.

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It’s never too early to start teaching your kids to think and go green. It’s not enough that you give them organic food or dress them the eco-friendly way or buy toys made of beech wood. Instilling green habits take more effort than that. Kids learn best by doing. Here are ways for kids to build some GREEN habits.

At home, make GREEN rules. It’s the little things like not using plastic, turning off the lights when leaving the room, taking shorter baths to save water, turning off the faucet when brushing teeth. Build these habits early and you won’t have to remind them again and again.

Make playtime enjoyable and stripped of electronic gadgets. Limit use of playstations, TV and computer games. It will definitely lower your electric bill, will save your kid’s eyes, too.

Stress the importance of reusing, recycling, and reducing. Show by example. Kids like to imitate what they see. When grocery shopping, BYOB! Bring your own bag. Buy recycled products. Take it up a notch by buying them recycled school supplies.

Read to them constantly about eco-friendly subjects. Not only will you teach them the love for reading and books, you’ll also teach them love for Mother Earth.

Recommended GREEN Books for kids (and moms, too):

A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids by Julie Hall is a solid, no non-sense information on the effects of global warming and the greenhouse effect. Uses simple words that children can understand.

Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming by Jean Davies Okimoto is a story about a Polar Bear named Winston who is worried about icecap melting and realizes he needs the help of people to save their Habitat. Your kids will fall in love with Winston who realizes that he needs to change first before he could change the world.

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is a classis Seuss and just like his more famous book, The Cat in the Hat, it makes a statement and that is, to save our planet before it’s too late and that progress is not always better especially if it’s at the expense of Mother Earth.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is a story of a boy who makes the tree happy. Everyday, the boy would come to eat her apples and swing from her branches. As time passes, the boy demands more and more from the tree until the tree has nothing more to give. This is a story made for different interpretations. Read this and discover your own and your children’s, too.

My Bag & Me by Karen Farmer is a cute 100% recyclable children’s board book that comes with a reusable Tyvek bag. Now, what can be more eco-friendly than that? It’s a story of a boy who goes grocery shopping with his mom and somehow learns to save the planet one bag at a time. Your children will surely love this.

Unplugged Play: No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun by Bobbi Conner is perfect for families with children ages 1-10. Contains more than 700 ideas for play and games without the use of plugs, batteries or electricity. Helps conserve energy and helps build imagination and “sweat”.

Together with our kids, let’s save the planet one GREEN book at a time.

If I’ve got nothing else to do, you would probably catch me reading in one corner. That is, if I have nothing else to do. But being a mom, it’s such a difficult ordeal to find time to do other things aside from home management and child rearing. I haven’t had a maid for more than two years now. It’s a personal choice since I really wanna be hands-on with my children. Aside from that, it’s hard to find house help you could trust. So, it’s all me when it comes to cleaning, cooking, laundry or just everyday errands.

Reading is one of the many things I miss doing ever since I had my second baby. I used to read at least 2-3 books a week. I would stay up late just to finish a novel then would start immediately with another one upon waking up. One of the books I enjoyed reading was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I think anyone who has read the book would understand if I say that it’s not an easy read. Not because it’s hard to understand. For a regular reader like me who reads for leisure, the small text and the more than half a million words of the book is quite a challenge. Last I heard, this was made into a movie and is yet to be shown this year. It stars Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart, the female lead character.

The love for reading came to me when I chanced upon the novels of Sydney Sheldon in my search for a better read. I used to settle for fashion and gossip magazines when I decided that it was time to move on and widen my horizon. Suddenly, Julia Roberts’ big hair, Demi Moore’s boyish cut, platforms and Doc Martens, Beverly Hills 90210 TV series, and the grunge look became unappealing. I was ready for a change. I was lucky having discovered Sheldon’s books first. Sydney Sheldon is a brilliant storyteller. If it had been another author, I wouldn’t have the same passion as I have now. And there was no turning back since then. I became a constant visitor of bookstores and would check out bestseller lists. As I got older, my preference evolved. I began choosing from different genres–classics, self-help, philosophy, travel, mystery, biography and autobiography, women issues etc…

The good thing about reading is you can let your imagination run wild. Not too wild, I guess. You don’t experience this when watching movies. Our imagination is restricted to what we see on the screen. Of course, building your vocabulary, expanding your knowledge, improving your readings skills are among the many advantages we can derive from reading. But, the most important thing is to make reading a pleasure rather than a chore. I suggest one should read books with topics she enjoys before switching to other subjects that are more difficult.

I just finished a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera. It took me a month to read it in between household chores, changing diapers and emergency whatnots. It’s a novel about two young lovers, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino Ariza with his letters to Fermina did not succeed in winning the heart of the latter. Instead, Fermina married Dr. Juvenal Urbino. The marriage could be seen as unhappy at times and happy the next. It could even be illustrated as the appropriate destiny for her. People viewed them as the perfect couple. Florentino, on the other hand, had his share of “relationships” but remained single. He vowed that his heart would only belong to Fermina whose image lingered as the “love” of his youth. In the end, the two people found each other in the waning twilight of their days and soon realized that they were completely different people from the young lovers they once have been.

It’s a story about love experienced in youth with all its innocence and the love in one’s concluding years, more serene but both filled with the same degree of passion. Moreover, it’s a love triangle–Florentino loses his only love, Fermina to Dr. Urbino but in the end, finds her again. There’s also a lot of sex courtesy of Florentino Ariza. One of which, the last one with America, I find distasteful. I really don’t like the the character of Florentino Ariza. It seems he has many contradictions and his views on love somewhat distorted. But all in all, it’s a very compelling read with colorful characters as rich and interesting as the South America setting.

Go buy the book now or wait for the DVD release of the movie this May.