Back to School

With March nearing the end, I've been reflecting on the small, but still amazing changes I've experienced this past month. If I had to grade myself, I would get an A-. The nagging task list seems to only be getting bigger, and although I haven't been able to cross many big projects off the list, I've taken some big steps to get the ball rolling. But other than that, I've been a superstar! I'm consistently running 3 days per week, drinking the recommended daily water intake, and taking my vitamins. There have only been a few nights where I didn't quite make the 9 hours of sleep (and that may have had something to do with drinking wine the night before). My basement is amazingly empty... or at least seems that way after I hauled off the majority of it to the dump and even sold some things on Craigslist and made a few extra bones. My mornings are running smoothly thanks to my 10 minute pre-bedtime tidy. My energy has absolutely increased, no doubt about it, and after all, that was the goal for the month. I've even been inspired to go back to school for interior design this year (as opposed to waiting to apply next year). I was worried I couldn't afford to go to school if I was unable to work, but it turns out, when you break it down and ask your self, "What is the problem?" the solution is often staring you in the face. I can start by taking one course per semester and really only works out to about $200/month. One of my nagging tasks was to call Shaw to get my cable down and ended up saving about $140/month. A few more cutbacks and I've got that covered Ta-da! That solves the money part of my worry. I was also concerned I couldn't work as much, but the course times are super flexible and many run on Saturday or evenings, some even run every day for 2 weeks and one course is complete. My new favorite quote is "One year from now you will wish you had started today" and it has truly sparked something inside of me. Having more energy makes it seem less daunting to make some big life changes. I've also realised it's a circle as well... Just thinking about making the changes gives me MORE energy. First month down... next month, Marriage!

YUM-O!

Happy Spring! The first weekend of spring and the sun is out full force. High of 17 today and best part? No hockey, soccer or ballet to be running to. Woohoo! Today some serious yard work will be done and tomorrow the basement is getting a complete overhaul. Two big checks off the list.

Tonight I am getting together with some ladies for our monthly Dress Club. When I read the Happiness Project last October, I was inspired by one of Gretchen's resolutions. In her month to focus on Friendship, she started a book club. It's a great reason to get together with your friends once a month. But, I knew I probably wouldn't be able to entice my friends to start a book club so I put it out into the universe that I would love a great reason to bring some friends together on a monthly basis. A few days later, a client told me about the ladies group she used to belong to, and so the Dress Club was born. Once a month, the same ladies get together and each person takes a turn hosting. Each lady brings $25 for the hostess and the rule is the hostess has to spend that money on herself before the next get-together. The money is mostly spent on clothes (hence "Dress" club) and with 13 people in the group, that's $300 when it's your turn. Genius! Guilt free spending. My prerequisites were you must be committed for as many months as there were members (13 ladies=13 months), if you were unable to attend, your money still had to get to the hostess. I wanted the group to be fun and to bring friends together that may have not met otherwise. I've reconnected with some friends from my past that I had lost touch with, met some people I may have never had the chance to really get to know, and had some new experiences with my close pals. We first got together in November at my home for everyone to meet and since then have done a hip hop dance class, gone pole dancing, made vision boards and tonight a chef is teaching us to make delicious desserts. As Rachel Ray would say, YUM-O! Lol! I can't even explain how much joy it has brought me. I love how my friends have connected with each other as well. And when I bought my riding boots in November, I felt really blessed to have so many wonderful ladies in my life, and everyday when I put them on, I'm reminded how each person has added to my life. Since our Dress Club was born, I've had a few people tell me it has inspired them to do the same and its bringing them the same amount joy it has brought to me. My client that was in the original Dress Club said their group went strong for almost 10 years! She now has a wine club, so instead of money, the hostess gets a bottle of wine from each member. Life gets in the way of living sometimes and I couldn't think of a better way to make time for your friends.

Welcome back bonus

It's amazing how the sun can give you a huge pick-me-up. I envisioned Spring Break to be chaos... listening to the kids beating each other while I try to create a relaxing environment for my clients (and I stress out). I ended up having my afternoon client cancel their appointment today, so I chose to be grateful for a sunny day off and spent the day with my friend, sitting in the sun and watching the kids ride their bikes. And on the way home, I stopped at another friend's home to drop something off and was invited in for dinner. I love my friends! I was so relaxed, I really didn't want to go to yoga. Today was the first opportunity I've had to go to yoga since I blogged about going (my son has soccer at the same time normally, but no soccer during spring break). But since I did blog about it, it means I'm accountable. I suppose I could have lied about going... Anyway, I went. And I had the most amazing surprise when I got there! I misplaced my pass card (I'm sure a certain 4 year old may have had something to do with that) so I had to get them to look up my account. I bought a 12 punch pass two years ago, went once and that was it. I now have 22 punches on my card when I should only have 11! Talk about a welcome back bonus! Thank you universe (or whoever screwed up). I am truly grateful. My legs may not be tomorrow though, lol! Altogether, I'd say that today was an excellent start to my week!

Baby steps are still steps forward.

I'm always surprised when inspiration strikes. Sometimes it's on a friend's facebook status, a billboard... Today I read the most amazing quote on Pinterest that literally stopped me in my tracks.

 A year from now you will wish you had started today. -Karen Lamb

Pinterest is genious. Period. Sharing an amazing array of things that inspire you. But can you have too much inspiration? My list of DIY projects continues to grow, while the number of items being crossed off has barely taken off. Does this mean I should stop looking for inspiration?

Today my family celebrated my nephew's first birthday! It always amazes me how fast one year passes by... especially when you remember back to where you were on milestone days. I remember exactly where I was when my nephew was born, where I was in my life... If I took a snapshot of my life then and now, to anyone looking would seem almost identical. But one thing has changed. My focus and determination. My life for the past few years has felt like limbo. I'm happy, but could be happier. I love my job, but know it's not what I want to do when I grow up. But my mindset has shifted in a major way. Looking back to a year ago, there are a million things I wish I had started. Which is exactly why that quote struck a chord. Why wait?

Almost two years ago, my mom took me to a workshop to see a motivational speaker/life coach. I was bribed with a weekend away and was truly taken aback by what I took away with me. Tama Kieves' book "This Time I Dance" is about living the life you love. She spoke about listening to your inner voice that so often gets drowned out by our own negativity. What is it that is really holding us back. For many, it's fear. She had us write down 10 things we would do today that we love if money or social judgements were not an issue. I had over 30! My fear at the time? What if I choose to do one of these thing for a living and I'm miserable? So instead of making the wrong choice in life, I often choose nothing. And really, choosing to do nothing is still a choice. Looking back, it was the spark that ignited the change. I realised that most of the things on my list were all small aspects of Interior Design. Photography, painting, you name it! Today, I may not be able to quit work to go back to school, but that doesn't mean I can't paint, or even drool over beautiful photography. Baby steps are still steps forward.

For more information about Tama Kieves click http://www.awakeningartistry.com/thistime.html

To tweet or not to tweet. That is the question.

I did it. Im officially on Twitter. I fought Facebook for a couple of years before I joined, now I don't know what I would have done without it. And so it goes with Twitter. One of my blog followers (Gawd it feels weird/awesome typing that!) suggested I get on Twitter. My answer was, "Maybe I should". I had a basic idea of what I thought Twitter was, a sort of Facebook update, but in actuality, it's a micro blog. I can post links to my blog posts and follow my friends/favorite celebrities and authors. Most of you are probably thinking, Duh! But I'm kind of excited. It's never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks! It took a few minutes to sign up, I clicked on all my peeps I want to follow and then the most amazing thing happened... I got my first follower. So I clicked to see who it was and it was Justin Beiber, lmfao! Seriously made my day. And I'm only half kidding. My first "tweet": Justin Beiber is my first follower, lol! Is it wrong for a 28 year old to have "Baby" as their ringtone?

(It really is my ring tone, drives my husband nuts.) But hey! Now that the Beibs is rockin' homegirl Carly Rae, who could have anything bad to say about him? I wants to squeeze his cheeks and talk baby talk to him. Is that maybe mildly creepy?

Anyhoo, I went to the Vitamin Discount Store on 1st Avenue this morning, got some great information on my new vitamins (which she says are excellent) and she also told me I could be taking some extra iron as well on top of the multi. Done. They cost about $1/day but if I was going to try to eat enough spinach every day to fulfill my daily quota, I would be spending a lot more than that. Plus, I'm not Popeye.

1st World Problems

Today I am half way through my first month of my happiness project... which means my Gemini self is ready to move onto next month's projects, lol! But alas, one of my major overall goals is to finish my projects to completion. With the organising well underway, and the nagging tasks being picked at slowly, but surely, I am feeling more energetic every day.

Yesterday was the start to my basement overhaul, nothing major, but finally bought a shelf to get all my paint cans up off the floor. This makes me very happy indeed. I have found the greatest storage shelf at Costco... $30, made of recycled plastic, super durable AND... I put it together in 4 minutes with no help and no tools! I figured on my monthly Costco trip I can grab one of these babies and have the organised basement of my dreams in the next few months (without breaking the bank).

I've been taking my multivitamin daily, which reminds me, I ran out today and forgot to get some more. Damn. Guess I'll be running out in the morning to pick some more up. And I will make sure to get the non-chewable kind this time! I was telling a client yesterday about my horrible vitamins and she said, "Well, that's definitely a 1st world problem". She proceeded to explain how 3rd world problems are having no clean water to drink, no shelter, etc. And here I am complaining about the texture of my vitamins. She told me about how she got called out by her niece for complaining there was no iPod docking station in her 5 star hotel room. Yup. 1st world problems at their best. Time to suck it up in the vitamin department. (And really, wasn't "Be grateful. Always." one of my Commandments?)

It's exactly one month today to the Vancouver Sun Run. Since the end of January, I've been running three days per week and in the last three weeks I've been hitting 10km at least 2 of those days. Maybe it's time to make some longer distance goals! This month's Canadian Running magazine is all about the half-marathon. It even had an article about how iron depletion can affect your endurance. I was absolutely supposed to read that. Women should be getting 18mg/day of iron. So I checked the label of my vitamins to see how they added up and I am actually supposed to be taking 3 (not 1) of those awful pills per day! Oh my god, I am so blonde sometimes. The article also explains why runners are at higher risk of iron depletion as well. Who knew?!?! Progressive Multi are actually a great multi-vitamin specifically for women, and not only contain the vitamins and minerals we need, but also many added ingredients to balance PH and enhance digestion. And while I was looking for a picture to post, I discovered they have a vitamin especially for active women, and it's not a chewable, Yay! So starting tomorrow, I'm upping my daily dose, lol!

PS. If you want to actually pee your pants laughing... Check out www.first-world-problems.com/. It's a blog of random 1st world "problems" like this beauty: "My Porshe is too old to be new, but not old enough to be classic". Seriously. Funny. Shiznit.

Mindfulness

Mindful (adjective): Attentive, aware or careful.

This month's focus is all about boosting energy. And my energy is definitely improving. My pace has picked up throughout the day while I'm working, and my butt isn't dragging anymore in the afternoon. I've cut out my afternoon tea (that I loaded about a tablespoon of sugar into) that I previously could not survive without. Goodbye empty calories!

I had a plumber friend come by today to give me a quote to rough in our ensuite (and he is willing to trade for his services!!!!). Even if it takes a year to complete the project, just getting the ball rolling is extraordinarily exciting for me.

Although energy is my main focus for March, I keep coming back to mindfulness. Mindful about what I'm putting into my body, what I'm spending monthly on "things", how I spend my time. Going back to my Vision Board, the centre petal is all about paying off debt, cutting spending to build an emergency fund, etc. I have a fairly good idea where the dollars go each month, but slowly every month, the bills keep creeping up. My husband and I both work from home, so last month we cut back the number of days my daughter goes to daycare and saved a substantial amount of money. Today, I called our cable provider and saved an additional $140 per month. I'm still in shock. Next plan, budget baby! All my bills are sent to me via email and are all due on different days. My email goes to my phone, and I've decided that's not maybe the best idea for me. I check it and forget about it. Last month I forgot to pay my hydro, cable and phone bill. Whoops! Big whoops. At least with a paper bill, I can leave it out and it's a constant reminder for me to pay it. So... identify the problem! To keep it simple, I'm registering all my bills to automatically be paid on my prepaid credit card (best part, no bill at the end of the month!), and then I have only one bill to pay per month. Less time wasted seems to be the emerging theme. I'm streamlining my life and baby, and boy does it feel good!