There is nothing more fun than having to take advantage of the holidays to party, socialize, relax, let your hair down and allowing your kids to stay up way past their bedtime. The holiday season and its endless scheduled family gatherings, community get-togethers and block parties creates the perfect atmosphere for this kind of free spirited celebration.

But there are times that too much of a free spirit can be a concern especially if this free spirit happens to brandish two alarmingly sharp barbecue sticks at your little kids. Yes, you read right.

My sons and I were attending a small community holiday party when I saw a small boy (I am guessing to be about 7 or running after some of the other kids (mostly the girls) and poking them with the barbecue sticks. And its not the cutesy type of poking either. Its the - I am going to poke you until it hurts type of poking. In all the chaos with the kids running away from him, I was afraid he was going to accidentally bump into my sons (who were playing quietly in a corner) and poke them instead.

I looked around to see if anyone was there who had responsibility for him, but no one seemed to be watching him. At least no one cared enough to tell him to stop. I mean, where’s your mother kid (or guardian, yaya at least?)

I’m such a coward but I don’t like reprimanding someone else’s kid because they choose to misbehave. But I also do not want my kids to think that poking other kids with barbecue sticks is a game they can play, so I chose to leave the gathering with my kids in tow. Thankfully they did not do a lot of sulking since they had already had time to play earlier.

My friends would have said I was being overly protective and that I should just let the little boys play. But I cant just sit and watch while someone else pokes at my kids. Will you? Am I being such a mother hen?

My hubby’s DSLR has been gathering dust for quite some time now so I decided to bring it back to life again. Besides, I cannot afford to buy myself a DSLR of my own so I chose to just “borrow” his.

I am not new to taking pictures but have only been focused on learning to take great pictures this year and I actually started out with photos of the food that I use for my food blog. Just today, I played around with the camera and took plenty of shots of my kids playing around in the yard this morning. It was an exhilarating experience to be taking action pictures of kids, catching their smiles and their funny faces.

It was a good thing, I found the PhotoHunt theme, Together. One of the pictures I took today is perfect for that. The picture below shows my eldest son scraping the soil in the yard as his little brother watches and does the same thing. Funny.

I was working on drafting the contents of a training manual cum user guide for one of my projects today when I suddenly wished I was in possession of a how-to guide on how to live the life of a wife and mom. Of course I would have to say rather, how to live successfully as a wife and mom. Add to that being a daughter, a neighbor, a colleague, a mentor, a sister, a friend. Don’t you think that would be simply awesome?

I have my parents to thank for my upbringing and like most people, I apply what I have learned, what I have observed, what I have been taught, what I believe to be true and what I have seen to work in many if not most cases.

The older I get though, it seems that even the best practices and proven tips have lost their effectiveness to make my life (and that of others I touch) a little more convenient and a little more bearable than it actually is. I remember conversations with my mom and my aunts on stuff like, “When you get married…” or “As a mom…” or “Don’t worry…”. I can clearly hear them in my head tell me how its better to do things one way and I would take that because I knew that they probably know better and they naturally have tons of life years and experience behind them. That was then. The confusion is now.

So whether you’re just a daughter, or a sister, or a friend, or a wife or a mother or even if you’re simply alone, how do you know that what you do is the reflection of the recipe of life? What is your guide to life when there is no one there to tell you what to do? What do you use as your compass?