Goodbye October.

A very busy and productive month.

Getting ready for our centre and Hygge.

~ Chy

Spring is Here!

We are in full Spring mode up here in the

northern part of Alberta. Bits of snow

remain in the shade of the forest but any

spots that have even a bit of sun on them

through the day have no snow at all. I'm

so excited to start to see little bits of green

emerge from the very frozen Earth. March

was a super busy month here but April is

a bit quieter. This week, I only work on

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then

I'm off for 5 incredible days, all in a row.

A rarity lately! Planning is underway for

my time off. I hope to finish up a bit of

paperwork but then I want to chill and try

to get my energy and my confidence back.

It will take time but I'm on the mend now!

How was your March?

Are you excited about April?

~ Chy

Crazy Busy.

Ahhh!! I have no image tonight, no picture, no visual. I'm still learning to use my Mac and for whatever reason, it won't let me copy and paste a graphic to add some character to my post. So bear with me and I hope you can read this without anything to entice you to continue on. 

June is always a hectic month. Programs are ending, summer holidays are just around the corner and the deadlines are huge. I have a scrapbook to finish, a grant to write, an Annual General Meeting to prepare for (report and audited budget), goodbyes to prepare and a very long list of thank you's! It's also the month we have to schedule a visit with our builder to go over any deficiencies in the new house. Can't believe we've almost lived here for an entire year. It's also the time we start planning for fall programming so we can get our promotional materials organized. And our grieving kids daycamps are just weeks away. On top of all this, my dh may be making a career change. Which will mean tying up loose ends before he moves from one contract to the next one. Fingers crossed we can get this all done well before the deadlines and with our integrity and energy still intact at the end.

What did we do this weekend to be ahead of the game? A number of things to tackle the crazy busy list and a few extras thrown in as distractions, and they worked! Saturday morning, I worked within our grieving kids program, then after we debriefed, tidied up the classroom and gathered our things, I headed into the big city to deliver a presentation to a group of women who had invited us to a special meeting  to share our work, our passion and our future plans. It was a great opportunity and I used every moment I was given in the room. After a round of questions and discussions, they thanked me with applause and unexpectedly, an envelope full of money. I love presenting and teaching but it's even sweeter when my words can express our philosophy and intent. 

My family was still out when I got home, so I had a little time to myself, a treat after a busy day. Once they were home and we had all caught up, dh made a scrumptious dinner (chicken and veggie wraps with poppy seed dressing), we did the dishes and I cleaned up/re~ogranized the laundy room and then we decided to watch a movie (The Martian ~ very good!) while I did some work on the AGM budget and a bit of program planning. After the movie, we went up to bed to read but we both fell asleep before turning the first pages.

Today, we were up not too early, greeted by a very sunny landscape. After showering and tidying up a bit, we ventured into town to do a quick shop at Costco (yes, it's possible), then we headed over to our rental home to meet our new tenant for signing the lease. After she left, we got to work doing some of the tasks we need to complete before she moves into the house on July 1st. Our list is long but with each bit of time we can devote to it, the list is getting shorter each time. We boxed up some items still in our garage and took those to the charity shop. Tomorrow we'll be back to box up the last bits, then do some touch up painting if there is time. We also have to stop at the hardware store to pick up items that are needed before the possession date. I'm so excited we finally found the right family and hope that our gut instincts are correct. So far, so good. 

After we left the charity shop, we stopped at the grocery store to buy a small roast for dinner. One item turned into several but I'm happy we have dinner covered now for the week. When we were finally home, we put the groceries away and then did a bit of work outside. Took our garbage bin and recycling down the lane to the main subdivision road for pick up tomorrow. Watered my pots on the veranda. Came in and water my indoor plants. Re~organized the linen closet, then took quite a bit of time to re~do the pantry. Big job but it looks so good now. And truly, we won't need food for quite a while. The freezer is full, the pantry is full and even my overflow secret cupboard is full. Other than replenishing the milk later in the week, we're not hurting in the food department. 

Dinner was amazing (pork roast with poppy seed dressing, country mushroom rice and steamed veggies ~ broccoli, cauliflower and carrots), with Rolo ice cream for dessert. Yum! We watched a bit of tv, then went for a run down our lane, back in to do the dishes and then it was back to the computer to do some more paperwork. Another tidy (we like to take time each night and anytime during the day when we can, to put items away and straighten life out), we decided it was time for bed, knowing we had done all we could today and that tomorrow would be another crazy busy day!

How was your weekend?

Did your to~do list shrink?

Busy Day .... Lazy Night!

Hi everyone!

Today was an incredibly busy day. Between intensive paperwork, housework, phone calls and connecting with my community, I had no time for a single break all day but felt proud of my extra energetic productive energy.

 

But then I came home and it all fell apart!

 

I sat on the couch and fell asleep sitting up! The rest of the night was filled with dinner and more laying on the couch. Crazy turned upside down day!!

 

Do you sometimes overextend your energy?

And pay for it later with some lazy time?

Groovy Saturday!

Hi everyone!

Our weekends have always been a mix of busy activities, followed by relaxation and letting go. Now that we are in the process of getting this house ready to sell while our new home is being built, weekends have become a bit more hectic trying to fit in the extra tasks that need to be completed before we list. Compounding this time frame is the fact that I usually work on Saturdays. But we have created a pretty good schedule and so far, as my graphic says, our Saturdays have become "groovy"!

This Saturday, I went to my office just a few minutes from home to provide counselling services for some clients then spent a bit of time rearranging our art cupboard and my office. Two summer daycamps are just around the corner and I really need to have my work spaces organized and clutter free before the kids arrive. Once those items were crossed off my list, I headed home to paint the second coat in the living room, staircase, hallway and front door. As much as I was not crazy about the neutral color at first, I'm loving it now. Such a "groovy" color! A quick dinner and shower then we were off to be part of a fundraiser in the city that was planned to help raise money for my dh's Fringe theatre show in August. Goodies, drinks, a silent auction, panel discussion from the cast, a photobooth and a comedian, who is a friend of ours. It went well, we had fun, made money and everyone was happy at the end of  the night. 

So that was our "groovy" Saturday. A busy day, productive work and fun to end the evening!

How was your "groovy" Saturday?

Lazy Sunday!

After a very full week, with activities that included meetings, groups, strategic plans, financial duties, training, writing, negotiations, lots of physical gardening & family time, I am so very thankful for a day off, a day to laze around & do nothing. The house is clean, the laundry amounts to only one small load later today, the recycling is done, the fridge clean & the gardening, well, we're ahead of the game there.

Dh is filming today but with the rain that continues to fall, lightly but still there, I'm not sure how long the shoot will take today. Hopefully, he'll be in for dinner. My girls & grandson have gone out to do some shopping & all the puppies are sleeping. It's just me, the tv & my computer. I feel sooooooo lazy but know by the end of the day, I'll have my schedule worked out for the next few weeks, I'll have some writing I've been meaning to do caught up, I'll have our grocery/menu list created for the week, I'll have our banking sorted for the week, I'll have a spreadsheet of the things we want to accomplish over the summer started & I'll have our trip spreadsheet with all the things we need to do before the 28th finished. From the outside, it looks lazy, but reality is, my body gets to rest in a comfy spot, while the rain falls outside & I get the "paperwork" part of life all organized. 

What do you like to do on 

days off like this? Do you feel 
guilty & try to fill it up with 
activity? Or let it happen as it 
needs to, taking in whatever 
comes your way? 

Full day ....

.... that I get to decide what to do with. My list of possibilities is long but I truly only have about 7 hours to play with before I have to go in to provide counseling for a grieving widow. Til then, I plan to:

*pull up the last forms for our taxes so we can print & send. We're getting refunds so no worry about deadlines here.

*input my receipts into my spreadsheet for reimbursement on Thursday, just in time for our holidays at the end of June.

*do our personal banking for June & maybe even July - a busy 2 months coming up & the last thing I want to be doing is worrying about deadlines for payments.

*take in a deposit of cheques & cash for the centre - my administrator usually does this but she's in the city & I have all the money here. Faster for me to do it rather than drive it all the way in to her. 

*box up the brand new printer that is not working to take back to Costco. A really good one but we appear to have chosen the dud in the pile.

*create a press release for our new centre - exciting news that our community needs to know about!

*wash the floors - we have tiny doggy prints gracing the landscape from all the rain on the weekend.

*start to pot all my flowers sitting on the deck in the sun - they are doing well but I need to move them off the deck & spread the color around the yard.

*pull up the rhubarb and the weeds - a big job that we started on the weekend but it kept raining, so we had to keep stopping. Blues skies today so this task should be finally completed.

*mix the organic dirt we bought with some new grass seed to fill in a few dead spots - our grass is looking lush & full, except for a couple of spots that aren't as nice.

Whatever does not get done today, no despair shall incur, as I have tonight off & tomorrow too!! It will feel good to go back to work on Thursday, with all of these completed. Wish me luck!

So what's on your 
to do list for today?