Living Your Best Life!

Hello There Everyone! I took a hiatus from writing for a few months because managing my business, being a wife and mother to a 14 year old and 14 month old was beginning to take its toll on me. I needed some serious down time; time to reflect; time to think; time to just be.  During that time I made a lot of decisions; one being the transformation of content on Today’s Modern Family. While a small part of the content will be focused on the struggles that modern famillies face, a large part will be geared toward looking at the brighter side of things. We’re going to talk more about self-care, good food, style, general parenting, home decor, love and topics that focus on living your best life.

While I was in church this past Sunday, my pastor said something that really hit home. He said that too many of us are spending the majority of our time fighting SOMEONE instead of fighting for SOMETHING. We get way to involved in the mess instead of enjoying the little miracles that we are blessed with every single day. And we spend way too much time trying to change to people who constantly deplete us emotionally, mentally and physically instead of the ones who add to our lives.  Yes we have to acknowledge and sometimes address certain issues in our lives, but it doesn’t mean we have spend the majority of our time focused on them. Living your best life doesn’t mean constantly dwelling on your problems; it actually means living your best life and that’s what we plan to continually emphasize here on Today’s Modern Family.

Happy Living,

~Kela

Spicy Wifey Giveaway!

All this month we’re encouraging couples to purposely pay attention to their marriages and our friends over at Spicy Wifey are donating a gift package to help you do so.  We know how important it is to nurture our marriages and oftentimes reliving old memories is a perfect way to enable you to see the person you fell in love with and reignite that spark in your relationship. So, tell us about your spicy spouses. Do you remember your first kiss? How did he propose? Where did you spend your honeymoon? What first attracted to you to your spouse? Briefly tell us about it in the comments section below for a chance to win some Spicy Wifey his and her apparel. The contest starts now and the winner will be randomly chosen on the last day of February.

About Spicy Wifey

Spicy Wifey is a lifestyle brand designed to inspire, encourage and invigorate married women and women on the path to marriage.  We provide fashion-inspired apparel and services that celebrate the committed and married lifestyle.  Remember, being a wife is HOT!

Love Your Spouse on Purpose

February is the month of love. It’s a time to focus on your spouse. It’s a time to relive old memories, show your appreciation, buy flowers and chocolate and have a special date night. It’s a time to love your spouse on purpose!

During the month of February, we plan to encourage you every step of the way, with helpful articles such as: Tips to Build a Strong Marriage, Rebuilding Trust in Your Marriage, Recipe for Love, Keeping it Hot in the Bedroom and much more.

We’d also love for you to share your stories about how you met your spouse, fell in love, your first kiss, your wedding day or your perfect honeymoon destintation for your chance to win a prize from our friends at Spicy Wifey (details coming soon)! This month, let us all spread the love and help add a little spice in our marriages. Remember, the way you build strong families is by building strong marriages. There simply is no other way.

Lovingly Yours,

Kela and Diane

Positive Co-Parenting Binder

When co-parenting your children, it isn’t always realistic for some couples to meet over a cup of coffee to talk about the kids, or discuss the kids’ futures while at Christmas dinner. However, the need for effective communication is just as essential when trying to inflict minimal damage on the kids. They need for their parents to be on the same page and let’s face it, it can get rather confusing when trying to manage doctor’s appointments, education expenses, health care expenses and parenting time schedules between two households. Well, I’ve got the perfect solution! It’s called the Positive Co-Parenting binder, an communication and organizational tool created for co-parents, by April Zacher.

The Positive Co-Parenting binder includes a parenting time calendar, activity and school calendars, education and dependant and health care address cards (and holders for the cards), health care receipt folders, health care instruction sheets, document exchange folders, and there is even a place to record pertinent conversations!  It’s the perfect way to keep co-parents on the same page and organized between both households; something kids desperately need in order to thrive post-divorce.

You can visit www.positivecoparents.com to order a binder for $39.95 or you can even get the pdf version for just $8.95.

I’m seriously thinking about given these away as gifts. In my opinion, it’s that essential that co-parents have one. Even if you get along great and communicate fairly well with your co-parent, it’s nearly impossible to keep all the important things organized between two households. The Positive Co-parenting Binder is a great tool for all co-parents! Order your binder today!

Today’s Modern Family’s Top 10 Posts of 2010

We’ve had a blast in 2010 and are looking forward to an even better 2011. Join us as we look back at our top 10 posts of the year.

1. Former Basketball Wife, Tami Roman Speaks Candidly About Life After Divorce
2. Kiss My Azz…All Married Couples Fight
3. Brandi Glanville Speaks Out About Affair on “The Talk”
4. Living Well is the Best Revenge
5. Today’s Modern Family’s Top Ten Mom Must Haves
6. Step Martyrs Are Not Loveable
7. Double Standards of Divorce and Co-Parenting
8. Teaching Kids to Deal With Disappointment
9. Protecting the Stepmother’s Mental Health
10. Super Stepmom Syndrome

Happy New Year Readers! We wish you and your families joy, peace and success in 2011.

Grace and Peace,

Kela and Diane

Personal Thanks to Our Readers!

Hi Readers!

I hope you all had  a very Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving with my husband, children, brother, sister-in-law, nieces, nephews, mom and a host of cousins was absolutely wonderful. It was also my baby boy’s first Thanksgiving and I was happy that he could be surrounded by family. Incidentally, I want to share with you a little something that my firstborn said while riding in the car to see the downtown Christmas lights today. Often times, he just fires out these statements without any proding or prompting; just thoughts in his very mature, analytical head that come out just because.

  “You know what mom and dad (he calls my husband dad), I have A LOT of family! I have you two and your sides of the family, my other dad and other mom and their sides of the family and brothers and a sister and I love it,” he said.

To which we replied by telling him how absolutely fortunate he is to feel loved by and to give love to, so many people. It warmed my heart to know that this is what he thinks about, from time to time and shares for no reason at all. This is what he feels because of what we [his parents] are conveying to him, and I think to myself – gosh, we must be do something right. I’m not saying we’re perfect because we all have had our share of disagreements and strife, but we’ve done our best to work them out AND we’ve shielded him from any conflict that could have been damaging long-term. Instead, he sees a family that loves him and works together; and yes, a family that experiences conflict, from time to time. However, he also witnesses us (parents and co-parents) putting our heads together to work it out and for this, I am thankful for.

I am also thankful for all of you! Thanks to all of my readers and supporters of Today’s Modern Family. Thank you for sharing your stories and allowing me to share mine. Thanks for venting your frustrations and allowing me to do the same. Thanks for listening and thanks for making others feel as if they are not alone on their respective journeys. More importantly, thanks for opening my mind to new perspectives. I enjoy learning from and I appreciate each and every one of you!

~Kela

Co-Parenting 101 Interviews Kela Price of Today’s Modern Family

Hi TMF Readers,

I hope you all enjoyed my chat with Deesha Philyaw from Co-Parenting 101. I personally enjoyed her transparency and insight into co-parenting and divorce. If you missed it (shame on you), but be sure to check it out here.

Also, Deesha turned the tables and interviewed me for her website and co-parenting information resource, Co-Parenting 101. Have a look here and leave a commen to let us know what you think.

Thanks!

Interview Series with Dynamic Modern Mamas

I love talking to other moms and stepmoms. I like discussing how they make it work with their co-parents or spouses. I love discussing parenting tips. I love talking about sex and health and beauty tips. Women are full of insight and I love learning from the many different perspectives that we can have on just one issue. 

Now you can have a chance to hear our conversations, too as I publish a series of interviews with women like Deesha Philyaw from Co-Parenting 101; Jenn Mangino from Rockstar Co-Parenting; Chick Hughes, a psychologist who often writes about relationships, sex and sometimes family; Nichole Cruz, a divorced mom and fitness expert and more!  I’m so excited to allow you to be a fly on the wall as we discuss everything from sex, co-parenting, divorce, parenting, fitness and marriage.

Our interview series will  begin next week. Be sure to stop by to have a look and/or to leave a comment, or ask a question of any one of these dynamic modern mamas! I asked the tough questions and they were candid about their experiences. You definitely won’t want to miss this!

Two New Additions to Our Blended Family

I am so proud of the huge strides that my blended family has made over the years. My ex and I and our spouses don’t always agree on everything, but we definitely co-parent well together. When disagreements arise, we either work together to reach some sort of compromise or we agree to disagree and move on. More importantly, we don’t stew over the disagreements and allow them to affect doing what’s best for our children. We have truly established what I like to call a synergistic foundation. We are separate parts of the whole who all work together for our children. We don’t intrude upon each others’ lives and have established a mutual respect for the roles that we respectively play in our son’s life.

Recently, we reached another milestone in our respective families; both my ex’s wife and I had beautiful babies who are only months apart. We have all always encouraged and fully supported the sibling relationships in our family. My ex and his wife have embraced my husband’s son (my son’s stepbrother) and my husband and I have embraced their son (my son’s half brother). And now, we have been super supportive of the newest additions to our blended family; a baby girl and a baby boy! To us, they are all just brothers and sister.

The most positive and beneficial result of all of this is the obvious joy that this has brought to my son. I’ve never wanted him to feel like he had to choose who he had to love, be it his parents or siblings and I am so grateful that he doesn’t have to. He truly loves us all and has a unique relationship with each of us. This is all because we have ALL worked together! No matter how difficult it gets at times (as I stated earlier, we don’t always agree), we clearly are all committed to making it work for our children. After all, when it’s all said and done and the parents leave this earth, our children will be left to spend Christmas, Thanksgiving and any other important occasion together. I am so glad that we’ve build a solid foundation for them to stand on in the future.

This is my personal testimony that it is possible to blend a family in a HEALTHY way! Stepmom doesn’t have to give up who she is, be anyone’s doormat or feel under appreciated. Ex-wife and stepmom don’t have to spend every waking moment together. Ex-wives don’t have to be territorial or intrusive. Ex-spouses don’t have to do weekly dinners or vacation together and no one has to hate each other or be manipulative. It is possible to have healthy remarriages AND co-parent well with both biological parents and step-parents. If you put the right ingredients into your family blender; respect, honesty, love, compromise (without totally compromising yourself) and acceptance, then your stepfamily can also evolve into a blended family. We are proof of that and I am so proud of us!

Describe Your Ulitmate Mental Vacation and win an XM Satellite Radio!

Today’s Modern Family is giving away a brand new Sirius Sportster 5 XM Satellite Radio! All you have to do is read the Take a Mental Vacation to Avoid Stress post and then describe your ultimate mental vacation in the comments section of the post. The winner will be randomly chosen on April 1, 2010 at 8pm EST.

About the Sirius Sportster 5

Enjoy the best of XM Radio with over 130 channels, including commercial free music, plus sports, talk, comedy and more! Additional programming packages are also available to suit your needs.  There’s no better way to listen to radio than with a Sirius Sportster 5!

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