Change- my love/hate relationship with it

This will truly be a rambling post as my thoughts are so scattered tonight.

I love change. I love when the seasons change, when I get to a new location for a shoot and it's amazing, a new running route, a new paint colour, rearranging furniture...you get the idea.

I also hate change. The change I despise so much and have trouble dealing with is change I cannot control.

I know, I am a control freak... I have to let it go.

icky sicky yuck

that's kind of how I am feeling right now. My day started off great, but by the time I had finished putting on a coat of paint in the kid's playroom, my throat began to get scratchy. I then headed out to Rona where Connor picked out this killer colour of orange for the playroom. I was all ready to get home and put it on, but by the time I arrived home all I could do was lay on the couch and keep myself from falling asleep before it was time to pick up Elissa.

I've been editing all afternoon and I think I am nearly caught up, just a bit of burning and packaging left. I had big plans to make a yummy vegetable soup with fresh buns, but the energy just wasn't there... maybe tomorrow.

waiting for Fed-Ex and logo design

So this pretty much sums up my day. I went to a grueling Bikram yoga class this morning. My arms feel like jelly and I'm not sure I can make it down the stairs to grab another load of laundry out of the dryer. I have some lovely lululemon yoga shorts coming via Fed-Ex. According to my tracking #, they are in transit and are due to arrive today :-) Yay, although I am scared to leave the house b/c I don't want to miss them. So here I wait...

Also I know I should be editing my sessions from yesterday, but I am feeling this overwhelming desire to have a new logo, or any logo, since I have never really had one before,, well one that I like. So I have samples... here they are:

Opinions? Yay, nay? Back to Photoshop?

Sunday

I woke up yesterday to one of the most lovely surprises ever! It was around 7:30. I put on my slippers and a hoodie and walked downstairs. I kissed my kids good morning and proceeded into my office. I turned on my computer and opened the blinds. I was expecting to see a cold drizzly morning, but instead I saw this...

It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I had ever seen. Bright oranges, reds and golds, mixed with an opaque layer of fog. I knew I had to capture this. I only wish I could capture the whole feeling... the peacefulness, the cold crisp smell in the air, and the stillness. It made my day.

The sun and the fog didn't last very long. Unfortunately by the afternoon the rain had begun to fall, and I began to wonder how my original plan of running 10 km was going to unfold. I decided to do it anyway, I've been wanting to to do it for a long time and I am so glad I did. It felt so good, although I have to say I am a wee bit sore this morning. I want to do it again, like right now! Thanks for all the encouragement ;-)

Pro-d day

I love these days! Being home with the kids, not worrying about rushing out and picking them up or trying to be somewhere at a certain time. I have to admit, my day wasn't completely without a schedule. I arranged to have my photo shoot that was originally booked for 9:00 am this morning yesterday, as I thought the weather was going to be rainy today. I am glad I did. But that also freed me up to do another hot yoga class this morning! It felt so good! Anyway, I thought I would document today in pictures.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins....

Burning one of my favourite scents, patchouli (although it's been referred to as something a grandma would like)
Keeping Hannah inside so she doesn't get wet and stinky.
Afternoon Starbucks break
The water bottle I use at yoga...yep, I drank the whole thing!

new record...

I have this thing with grocery stores.

I don't like them. Not that there is anything terribly wrong with them. Although the thought of so many sick people with germs, or even people who aren't sick, who touch the shopping carts and baskets, really creeps me out. But that is another issue altogether.

Unless I have a specific recipe I am dying to try, I simply find shopping for food boring.

So I usually try and get through the store asap. Well today I broke a new record! I was out of my car, into the store, grabbed some veggies, beef, and yogourt, through the check out and back in my car... all within 9 minutes! I was very excited. I get excited easily, can you tell?

Bikram Yoga

This morning I did my first hot yoga class. It was quite the experience, and although I felt like I was going to die near the end, it also felt sooo good. They reccomend not eating before the class or else you will puke. So since it was a 9:15 class and I didn't wake up until 7:30 I didn't eat anything. Which normally is okay, but the last time I had anything to eat was 5:30 last night. I drank lots of water like I was told, like maybe half a bottle ;-) So with the room starting off at 90 degrees and getting warmer and warmer I felt slightly lightheaded and dizzy, which apparently is good and normal... who knew? Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect so when I walked into the yoga room and saw about 20 people lying on there backs completely motionless staring up at the ceiling I knew I was in for some fun. As it turns out that pose is called the "corpse pose" nice huh? On a side note, I thought it was kind of funny that one guy was so relaxed he had fallen asleep and was snoring.

Anyway, we went through the poses and I dripped sweat. It was 90 minutes of pure sweat. It was a lot harder than I thought, I mean really, you have your feet planted on the ground pretty much the whole time, how hard can it be? Well, I can barely lift my arms and my legs feel like jelly and I am sure after a night of sleep I will be a wee bit sore. But I like a challenge and this was a good one. Now I have to figure out when I can go next. FYI this is one of the poses, I don't think I had the same dorky smile on my face, but hey, it's not as easy as it looks!

I ran 8 km this afternoon. It was okay. My legs wanted to keep going but I got horrible cramps and felt like I was going to puke. The leaves were really pretty and the sky was interesting. I completely overdressed, but when I left I was cold. Very random, I know. Now I need shower.

Rain

It's wet outside today. Cold, windy, and wet. I often find the rain soothing. Not today.

carrots, beets and squash?

I spent a wonderful afternoon outside in my garden today. This morning started out dark and dreary with gusts of heavy rain falling at times. I thought for sure this was going to be a curl up-in-my-favourite-sweats-and-read-a-book kind of day. And although I did do a bit of that I was also pleasantly surprised when the sun peeked out and the temperature seemed to rise by 10 degrees.

I have been meaning to clean out my vegetable gardens and figured today was the perfect day. I cleared out a lot of rotten tomatoes and old pumpkin vines. I dug up a lot of carrots (that will be used somehow in tonight's dinner), pondered what to do with my parsley that has grown a little bit out of control and dug out some beets. The beets I do hope to "pickle," perhaps with more than just vinegar ;)

As all of this clearing was going on I came across what looks to be a squash. I've never bought a squash or cooked a squash, I actually don't think I have ever even tried it, so I am very confused as to how this squash like vegetable began growing in my garden. Anyway, it was a fun little surprise, just not sure what to do with it.

I thought while I was outside and enjoying the fresh fall air, I should give Hannah a good brush. I took a lot of fur off of her. I then thought that maybe she could use a bit of a hair cut. Now, since I am not a hairdresser and have never cut dog fur before things got a little out of control I think. Not that it won't grow back or that her owners are coming back anytime soon, I just feel a wee bit guilty that it is going into winter and her coat just got 10 pounds lighter.

Simplicity

I spent some time today reflecting. I am reading this book called Less is More. We hear this all the time, but do we ever really apply it to our lives? We live in a society where we think we deserve the newest trends, gadgets, cars, and yes, even computers :( Do all of these things really make us happy? Maybe for a few minutes, or perhaps even a few weeks, but it wears off.

They define simplicity as this:

"Simplicity is a complex concept, but at the core is voluntary limitation of our outer wealth so that we can have greater inner wealth."

Our earth is so full of junk and stuff that was once treasured (probably for only a very short time) and is now left in a landfill. We have been blessed with such a beautiful earth, and I am feeling more and more guilty about what I fill my house with. Especially things made in China, where children are being paid peanuts to produce toxic goods. That is one reason I despise Dollar stores so much, but I won't get into that rant today.

Anyway, just my thoughts for the day! I am challenging myself to not buy anything else this week that will harm the earth.