Hello February.

The shortest month of the year and often

the coldest here in Northern Canada. But

also the month of pretty flowers, yummy

chocolate and an extra abundance of love!

💗 Chy 💗

Goodbye February.

It was unseasonable warm, without any snow,

until this week. So now we're starting to leave

Winter and get ready for Spring, only to have

Winter finally show up! Thankful our region

is not being hit as hard as down south but also

thankful the snow may help us have less fire

concerns this Summer. More storms in the

next week. But Spring will soon be here. Yes!

Are you ready for this next season?

~ Chy

Hello February.

A short month, full of love and

hope for an early Spring. What

are your wishes and dreams

for this sweet, loved-filled time?

~ Chy

First Blooms.

On this last day in February, I hope you

will love these sweet blooms, the first

flowers we've had in the cottage for 2022.

Cherishing the scent and the colors. Spring!

~ Chy

A New Month!

Welcome February. A new month! We've noticed that our days have been getting longer and the sun is out a bit more. Despite the Winter storm yesterday, today is chilly but sunny, with blue skies and sparkling snow. My first day of a week off and I have so many tasks on my long list to look at and then decide which ones to do, in between naps and working on the dollhouse in the art studio. My list:

* create new schedule for my new hires (2 new grief counsellors) while incorporating my other counsellor and myself in to the mix. We are now a lovely team of 4.

* re~organize our home office. Time to do a little purge and reset the desk at a different angle. I have a lot of Zoom calls through the week and I'm ready for a change of scenery.

* take down the Christmas trees this coming weekend. Family is not happy and trying to convince me to leave them up. To be determined. I've stated that gifts of white chocolate will entice me to move the take down dates to another time.

* gather receipts and documents for our accountant for our taxes. In Canada, taxes are to be filed by April 30th at the very latest. We usually do this in March but I'm going to get it in earlier this year as the next few months are going to be crazy busy with renos, landscaping and the Festival. 

* figure out our RRSP contributions (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) for 2021 (you can contribute up to February 28th for the year) and set up my auto withdrawals at work on our ADP platform. My employer is now doing matching contributions and I'm excited to double my amount each year until we retire. Getting closer all the time.

* purge our master bedroom closet and front door closet. Lots of clothes are sitting and it's time to pass them on. 

* work on our half bath to get it ready for the board and batten. A little wallpaper, a little paint and wood pieces to fit.

* we're super ahead of the game for the Festival but there is still a few things I'd like to tick off my list while I have the time. The more we do now, the less we do later. I'd really like to sit back this year and actually enjoy the Festival. I want to do this with our preschool too. Get ahead of the game and then when the weather is great again and we're outside more, I won't feel torn to be enjoying myself when things need to be done. My new motto for 2022: do it well before it's due to be done! I truly have the time to do this well.

You might be wondering why I chose the photo above for today's post. It just spoke "Spring" to me and it feels like we're getting closer to the season of renewal and change. Part of my week is also to take some time to "reset" how I look at work. I now have a chance to stop working so incredibly hard and start to give my team more tasks, especially with new energetic members on board. I shouldn't have to work at night and on the weekends. Though that time is at home, I don't see other staff members doing extra work on their off time. Here and there, yes. But every day, no! I've put a message on my email and will do the same with my phone and nothing will get done until I'm back on site next week. We'll see how long this lasts as I've become a bit of a workaholic ~ easy to do when you love what you do and you're always trying to achieve the best ~ but it's not sustainable. I'm so very tired and worn down and I'm sure why I haven't been feeling the best. Here's my chance to make this change. Wish me well! I'm on it ....

What to you do to make changes in your life?

When do you know changes are needed?

~ Chy

Hello February.

Hello February! A shorter month, with a focus on

love, flowers, chocolate and family. We have a long

weekend about half way through as well. It's not as

dark as January and closer to March! A good month.

~ Chy

Bye Bye February.

.... Hello March! It was a lovely month but the

snow today has made me more excited for March.

The month of Spring, the month of Leprecauns,

the month of hope and promise for new growth.

Are you excited to say bye to February?

And a happy hello to March and Spring?

~ Chy

February Love.

The month of Love! Welcome February. I'm hopeful for peace, calm, laughter, fun, warm weather and new memories. 

Today is a work day for me. I have 2 families coming in for counselling, lots of case notes to write, then we're off to do a bit of shopping. I want to work on my Winter Project: The Bakery and later tonight, we'll snuggle down to watch our Oilers play another exciting hockey game. Dgs and dd are away this weekend at a tournament. He is actually playing right now. Fingers crossed they win but even if they don't, they'll be making great memories on their 2nd road trip. 

I'm off to treadmill then shower and then in to town. Hope you have an amazing, productive day and February is a month filled with love, family and peace. Namaste!

~ Chy

Hello February.

 

Hello February! A month that is for celebrating the loves in our lives. And the fact that we survived January. We're just a bit closer to Spring (49 days) and the days are getting longer. I can't wait to see blooming buds again.

January was a bit off for our house. It started lovely with a New Years Day Evening Dinner with our neighbors and their sweet kids. We had a great time, lots of laughter, great food and good company on a cold and frosty night. Our holidays lasted well into the first week and we truly enjoyed being home and cherishing our country home in the big woods. No schedule, no deadlines, no worries.

Then the second week, we all went back to school and work .... well almost all of us. I ended up coming down with a pancreatic attack and missed a whole week of work. Very painful and totally took my energy away. I'm thankful for a loving staff and caring people around me who made sure I could just rest and recuperate. And very thankful I didn't have to go to the hospital for IV fluids. I hate IV's! It takes about 3 weeks to get the energy back in to my body after an attack, so I'm thankful that I'm now starting to get through the day again without a nap and I'm all caught up on most of my tasks again. A few more lines to tick off my to do list but it will get done. I'm also thankful that this only happens about every 5 or 6 years. It's been longer than that since the last one so I'm very lucky it's not chronic. And we know how to manage it so I don't end up hospitalized. So very lucky.

During the time I was down, we ended up experiencing a big storm that included freezing rain and wind, bitterly cold temperatures and nasty roads. We had to cancel preschool twice. Then once I was back to work, it warmed up beautifully for about a week. This week, the temperatures dropped again and we're in a big of a deep freeze but this time, the snow feel too. We had 28 cm's accumulate out here in the forest. Another day of preschool was missed. We always leave room at the end for snow days that we make up for in June. More important for us that our kids and our staff are safe. 

Financially, we're doing just fine. Dh had to take his lease back to the dealership (no fees!) and pick out another car. We did all the negotiations on December 30th and picked up the new one a few days into January. Really happy with the vehicle and happy that we got to negotiate to the invoice price and a better lease rate. Ended up with a bigger vehicle, with more options, at a lower rate and way less than what others will pay. Good to have a relationship that is respectful ~ makes it so much easier at the negotiation stage. We've had great success with our deals.

A nice surprise for January was the offer of a raise from my hospice job. I truly wasn't expecting that and am grateful for the extra dollars this year. I think I'll tuck the extra away to start a fund for a new car for me down the road. Mine will be 7 years old this year and it's running just fine and looking great but a few years down the road, it will be time. Starting the saving now so it will be there when it is time. Kind of excited too.

We have 12 more "interest free/no admin fees payments" left on our cabinets for the Art Studio. We pay each Thursday and the final payment will be taken out on April 12th. Our wood chipper is on a different plan and that will be paid off in 2 months as well. As a former banker, I don't alway advocate the "buy now, pay later" formats but for us, it has worked well over the years. For the cabinets we had the amount saved in our house account but the promotion came up just as we were finalizing our order so we took it. It was to give us 18 months to pay off the cabinets. But we will be done in less than 8 months. They require a small monthly payment and I'm sure some may choose that and then owe a big amount at the end, or forget and have to pay the interest that has accumulated for 18 months. We set ours up to come out weekly and break it down to a payment we like, which always works out so that we pay it off way before the due date. Never once have we ever paid interest. A great resource if you plan it right. What I'm really excited about is once these two items are paid off, we'll have an extra $975 a month to tuck back away in to our savings, maybe towards my car account. And the beautiful thing is that both those amounts are still sitting in our house account because though we saved for the cabinets and the wood chipper, we ended up not using those savings to pay for them! Win win all around. The only other projects we have planned for this year are our deck (saved for), the garage (paint the walls and epoxy the floor) and the interior trim work we'd like to conquer with wainscotting and crown mouldings. It's going to be a lovely year to really enjoy the house as the major things are now done. Looking forward to having a deck out our back. We have our little back porch but once the loveseat, 2 chairs and table are on it, along with the barbeque, it's too tight. We really need a lower level off the porch where we could have a nice long dining table and some other seating for gatherings. 

That's all for now. My recap for January as we move in to this new, short month. Hoping its a bit less crazy than January and that everyone's health continues to be well. Hoping it is also a month of warm temperatures and tons of sun. So far, next week we'll be back into above zero's (in Celcius) and lots of sun, with no snow in the forecast.

What was the month of January like for you?

Are you excited to say "Hello" to February?