About Me

I’m Lisis (LEE-cease), aka Serene_Balance.

I’m an unrelenting idealist, best known for my extreme empathy, and unbridled passion.

What am I passionate about? Education, Peace, Health Care, Overcoming Challenges, and Prickles & Goo.

I care… about you, and about everyone else.

If you still want to know a bit about me, I’m a stay-at-home wife and homeschooling mom who has lived in San Diego, Costa Rica, Austin, Georgia, and now, Vermont. I enjoy travel, new experiences, simplicity, and learning new approaches to everything. I’m a pilot, who hasn’t flown in ten years, and is getting a little restless about it.

I am the world’s #1 fan of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and will never forget their now-retired flavor, Wavy Gravy. My latest favorite is either Cake Batter or Banana Split, and I’m pretty sure their Magic Brownies should be named something else (nowhere NEAR enough brownies). If you are reading this, and use twitter, send @cherrygarcia a note, and tell them @Serene_Balance is their greatest fan. 

I love to read, but not most “best seller” type books; I always get the sense that they were written on a deadline, or in a great hurry to make a profit. I prefer to read the classics, books that were written to entertain and amuse, but also to educate and enlighten. Most recently I’ve discovered the beauty of Jens Peter Jacobsen and Rainer Maria Rilke. My other favorites include: Viktor Frankl, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, the Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh. Mostly, I love to learn.

I like watching movies, but I won’t pay to go see anything in theaters. Netflix is my new best friend. I especially like true (or true-ish) stories, really silly (maybe dumb) comedies, and anything with Russell Crowe. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a good actor or because he looks like my flight instructor, but I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as it makes for good entertainment.

That’s about it for the basics. I spend most of my time finding different ways to make school new and exciting for my son (and for me). When I’m not busy in third grade, I play armchair psychologist to various friends and family members. I look forward to meeting new people and hearing their stories.

This blog is about my personal quest to find the balance between the things I need to do and the things I want to do… or finding happiness amidst the challenges of life. To understand more, see Why Read This?.

Please feel free to email me directly at: MyQuestForBalance (at) gmail (dot) com

or find me on Twitter at Serene_Balance.

Special Note:

Just like a book often has an author and an editor, this blog does as well. My not-so-silent partner, Alison, is the invisible hand that makes this blog run smoothly. I know very little about all things technical, and would suffer in frustration and despair over those pesky little things that tend to go wrong with blogs… were it not for Alison.

Some of you may have met her already; she is FairyBlogMother on Twitter. She earned this title because of the many times I have gone to bed wishing I had done things a little differently on the blog only to wake up the next morning and find that the changes have been made for me. She’s a mind-reader. Or, more accurately, she is the other half of my brain. Ali and I have been “partners in crime” since our early college years. She has lived through the ups and downs of my quest for balance and, consequently, knows what I am thinking and trying to express.

I am the author of this blog, but without Alison it simply would not exist. She has been on my case to write something, anything, for about 14 years now. My daily hope is that I can put together posts that will make my FairyBlogMother proud.

Thanks, Ali, for EVERYthing you do!

To reach Alison, send her email at: fairyblogmother (dot) q4b (at) gmail (dot) com.