The Real Life of Natacha Beim

It’s a sea of firsts, as usual. One thinks every year will be similar, but every year, there are such immense changes in our children’s lives and likes, it becomes this amazing journey, which is unique in its own way.
The first day of school has been a long time coming with us: new clothes, new shoes, new backpacks, fresh haircuts, brand new notebooks… I love the start of the school year.

This year, my mom got the boys special highlighters. I remember when she bought me new stationery, I loved it!! It is funny, but they are some of my strongest memories of my childhood… Finding new highlighters in my shoes in the morning, as a surprise. I loved that she got the boys special stationery too, continuing the family tradition.

But this year, what made me realize how incredibly lucky I am, was this: J (now 15, going into grade 11), helped D (13, going into grade 8) prepare for his new, bigger high school. They are now both in the same school again. J carefully looked at D’s clothes last night, asked him to try on his new pants and t-shirt, trimmed his eyebrows (wow) and just made sure everything was absolutely perfect for his brother’s first day. This morning, he styled his little brother’s hair with pomade, and made sure every detail was taken care of.

They only had one hour of school each. one at 8:30am and the other at 1pm. We all drove together this morning, and then J and I went for a coffee after dropping D off. I wasn’t nervous for D at all, but J kept saying he was nervous about D’s first day. He so wanted his brother to have a good start, he was more concerned about that than his own first day with the IB program. It really was seeing empathy firsthand. The love and care with which he helped his brother enter a more mature world brought tears to my eyes. Like I said, I didn’t even feel as nervous about D’s first day as he did. I just felt excited. But today, during our morning coffee, he shared with me what it was like to start grade 8 in a new school, and I felt so close to him.

Hubby is away in Germany, and kept writing all day to see how they both did. It is such a great experience to go through as a parent, and it is one we treasure every year. I have to say, it gets much easier every year! I remember labelling the boys’ pencils and material until 3am every year, and now they no longer need their name on every pencil, glue stick and marker. They are responsible for most things, and we are just there to enjoy it as parents.

I feel so lucky to be able to take the day off and share these moments with them! It is on days like today that I am really grateful to own my own schedule.

I am working now, of course, but still, it was amazing to share the day with them. Being a mother truly brings so much to my life! I am grateful for every minute.

Hubby went to sleep already, and I am just now managing to write him with all the details of the day, but how do you describe every feeling, every moment you didn’t expect?

Hope your first day of the New Year was as amazing as ours.

Sleeping on the streets, in the cold and the rain, is something I can’t even imagine having to go through. Yet, so many teenagers and youth do it every night, because they have no other option.
If you know me, you know that I’ve dedicated my whole life to helping children. That’s why I WILL BE SLEEPING ON THE STREET to raise funds to help children get out of the streets and rebuild their future.
My goal is $5,000. Please help me reach this amount by donating here:

SLEEP OUT EXECUTIVE EDITION 2015 – Support Natacha Beim
http://ift.tt/1L3xFNw

So much has happened in the last few weeks, and yet, none of it made it to this journal. :(
Each day was a struggle to get through, thanks to, as usual, my health. Merde.

In the last week I had someone I really really like leave to work for someone I have no respect for. I wanted to say so much, but when she told us, I said nothing. I again had the feeling that the way I see things in my head is so much brighter than the way it comes together each day – do you ever get that feeling?

There is always so much to do when a company is growing, and even more to do when although everything you have created is amazing, you know you can create so much more. Sometimes I think “I only have about 45 years where I can contribute, and there’s so much I want to do!”

If I look at the past year, we have come so far, and have grown so much! Not sure if we stopped long enough to recognize that, or to share with the team and celebrate each step. On my list for this coming year.

Glad to be able to work today! I can’t stand it when I am so medicated I can’t even string together one coherent sentence. Nevertheless, today is a new and amazing day, where amazing things will happen, no doubt. Some already have! I wish I could count on having every day, and feel sorry for myself sometimes when whole weeks are spent with the mental capacity of a worm, where my only contribution is making my children laugh at my nonsensical speech. But when I feel well, everything is amazing, and I can’t wait to contribute!

So – here’s to a great today! :)

I’ve been at the office since 8am, which is a miracle considering how sick I’ve been feeling, and how much medication I’ve been taking for two weeks now. I really struggle when my health gets that weak, because I feel like I lose control. I don’t know if I will be able to go to meetings, or go to work, or even just type a letter. It is very disheartening.
One of my most difficult battles to fight is being consistently reliable.
When I get as sick as I have been getting for the past few weeks, the phone is put aside and not answered, e-mails don’t even get looked at, computer is shut off, I am completely disconnected.
Last week, I worked really hard on the week-end to catch up on all the work I was behind on when I got sick. Now this week the same thing happened, and here I am on Monday morning, back to where I was last week: A whole week behind :( It is hard emotionally.
One thing that made me feel immensely better was a phone call from my mom. When she called, I was sleeping (yes, at noon), and my husband woke me up to talk to her. She has major health issues herself, and gets what it’s like, but you know what she said? “You have got to figure something out and stop taking these medications, you can’t even function on them. This can’t happen [by this time I was feeling really guilty]. You are a brilliant, exceptional woman, we need you to be in good health. Having you down and drugged is a waste!” Anyway, I am not even sure of the exact words she used, I didn’t have the mental capacity at that time, plus it was in Spanish, so not translating literally, but they were the perfect words. What she said, in essence, was that people like me should never be down because they are changing the world, making a difference, and one day down is one day wasted. Wow. Only a mother could believe in you that much, right? I am a lucky girl.
I really hate letting people down, it affects me to the core, and yet I seem to always be cancelling meetings and commitments because of my health. It makes me sad. Most days I think “well, tomorrow is a new day, the world didn’t end, I’ll pick up where I left off” which is true, but whats’ also true is that I’m not even sure if I will be able to work the next day, or to be my best self, and when it doesn’t happen for many days in a row, I feel like I am imposing on everyone else around me.
Today I am at work, medicated just enough to be able to type and have a simple conversation, so let’s see how far I get. Hope your last week was amazing! :)

I always have a hard time explaining what Alex does to others. He wants to create amazing moments, magical moments, playful moments in people’s lives. Lucky him, this is what he does with the company he created. Imagine dedicating your life to make others’ lives more magical? Pretty cool!

Here he is, talking about what he does:

http://ift.tt/1DuGFxE