Exhiliration

Today I went for a jog. Now this might not seem too exciting or exhilerating to many of you, but I can tell you, the only feeling I had was pure and simple joy. I hadn't gone for a real jog since I was in high school; back then I was part of the cross country team - and not by my own free will. See I had done something really stupid, and my parents felt the best way to punish me was to sign me up for something they thought I would truly hate. But I didn't hate it, turns out I never even complained, and looked forward to cross country every week. After I injured my back, I still went -but sat to the side and cheered everyone on. Not as exciting I know, but being part of the team was important to me.

This afternoon I set out for a walk, not a jog, but on my way I got inspired. Perhaps it was the sun, or the music on my ipod, or the crocuses I noticed blooming throughout the neighbourhood. Either way, the bounce in my step got a little quicker, I felt inspired, my heart opened up and for the first time in a long time I jogged.

I would like to make it clear that I have no aspiration to ever run any sort of marathon - that's just not my style. I find the calmness of yoga, walking and swimming far more comforting - the intensity of running is too much in my already intense life. But for today the exhiliration of a light jog was exactly what I needed to allow my already happy heart be even happier.

What do you do, or would like to do, to make your heart a little happier?

Spread a little love

Kids are amazingly innocent, resilient, and wonderful. Yet sometimes parents can be downright mean. This week I dealt with a situation I never ever thought in my entire life I would have to deal with. Upon picking my son up from school the other day, I found him hiding around the corner from his classroom sobbing and scared. A parent of one of the other students in his class had (very inappropriately) started screaming at my son as he was leaving his class, and he didn't know what to do except run away and hide. This parent felt that my son wasn't being very nice to their child, and to be honest, I bet that my son had probably done some things not so nice - 7 year olds can be that way sometimes. One day they might be wonderful and charming, and the next day they get off on the wrong foot, and everything seems to fall apart around them.

I have learned that kids learn best when shown a lot love, especially in tough situations. Try telling that to a person who is telling the principal that my child needs to be severly punished. But I feel proud that I remained calm and collected, and spoke from my heart as this woman tore apart my son. I calmly told her I would not be punishing my son, I would however help to parent and guide him through this situation, because this is the kind of parent I am, and want to be.

But the whole thing got me thinking this week about how we teach our children that life can be tough sometimes. And scary. And sometimes grownups don't do the right things. And they might not say sorry. Grownups make mistakes. What happened that has led some people to think they can treat kids with disrespect? Why did we stop taking other kids under our wings?

So this week I challenge everyone to help a kid out. Whether it's helping with homework, helping to tie their laces, or offering an ear to listen - spread a little love to a kid this week, they deserve it!

Making the Right Decision

We're faced with decisions every day - what pants to wear, what to feed our kids for lunch, and what step to take next in our lives. I have a habit of planning 6 steps ahead, and this can be both wonderfully optimistic and downright stressful. So the choice I made yesterday was to start making the right decision...this was also wonderfully optimistic and downright stressful!


I used to have a motto in university - it was "Go Hard, or Go Home." In a nutshell that means, give it all you've got, or don't bother. I have brought that motto with me to most aspects of my adult life - I give all of myself to others (someone needs something? I'm there!), I volunteer for a number of local organizations, I allow my kids to wake me up 6+ times a night, I work until I feel confident that everything is done, I continue with educating myself in the areas that I feel strongly about (mostly breastfeeding, babies, and mothering, but I also LOVE food!). My husband and I are also in the knee deep in the process of opening another local business, a bistro - and this takes a LOT of planning and creativity to get open, and stay under budget. But somewhere along the way, I forgot about me.


I forgot that I want to learn how to knit better, that I want to take my new baby girl to Mommy & Me events, that I want to take up painting even though I know nothing about it, that I want to train to swim competitively again (I'm a long way off from this one, but I can dream!), and that I love to write. I'm no literary genius, but I thoroughly enjoy it, and that's what's important. So my first "right decision" this week was to do something for me - yesterday I started this blog, today I'm taking the kids to get painting gear, and who knows what tomorrow will bring :). Any right decision you've made lately that was just for you?

Taking the Plunge

I was inspired recently by a great blog I have been following. I felt as though the author of the blog was speaking to me - only me :) She wasn't, she has a large following, but it was the first time that I had enjoyed a blog post to the point that it moved me. Perhaps I've been reading the wrong blogs, perhaps I just wasn't getting the point. Either way I decided to start my own - I officially took the plunge. So welcome!