The Power of Fresh Air Makes for A Lovely Weekend

This past weekend -- simple as it was -- really filled my bucket, as my niece would say. It started with a spontaneous call from Chris on my way home from work on Friday, asking if I fancied happy hour at local, authentic little British pub.  There was no arm twisting needed here, so we met up and sat in the pub garden in the sunshine, grateful for the consistent, cool breeze.

What Month Is It?!

Between both the greeting card timescale and that of a part-time freelance writer, I find it especially difficult to keep track of what month we are actually living in!  Greeting cards need creating at least two seasons before they are due to hit the shelves (often even sooner!), and freelance writing can often require planning for a particular season.

While this certainly keeps things interesting, it can also be hard to stop, take a step back, and appreciate this moment.  Once upon a time, I was a planner through and through.  Now, I am much more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda gal.  The only conclusion I can think of is that the ways of my free-spirited husband have slowly rubbed off on me.  And if not, well, I'm blaming him anyway.  

I have, however, been trying to focus on living in the moment a bit more lately.  Moments where I am not thinking about what in the world I am doing with my life, the direction I want to take in my career, or whether I am saving enough for retirement.  So basically all of the boring adult responsibility type things.

This reflection may have been inspired by the life gurus we have seen speak over the past few months (including Sonia Choquette, Wayne Dyer, & Deepak Chopra), so I can't exactly take all the credit for this burst of inspiration.  

Here are some ways I am doing my best to live in the moment as of late.

The addition of this antique wooden crate/night stand, because it's just what my bright corner of the room needed!

DIY, because it soothes my soul... (big reveal coming soon - eek!)

A little picture frame makeover, because our bedroom walls are still bare... (this is the before)

These mirrors because craigslist finds make me happy!

This little reminder of Thailand, because I left a piece of my heart there, and because we finally put something (anything!) on our bedroom walls! (side stage right: another craigslist find from a few months ago, painted with my trusty chalk paint, of course!)

Cross country skiing, because we were excited about the arrival of snow! (though the same cannot be said for the freezing temperatures that followed!)

The beautiful Fall sunsets we get here in Colorado, because they really know how to brighten up a tough rush hour commute.

I love to sit and think about all of the little things I am appreciating at the moment.  It always brightens my mood.  Looking forward to holiday travels, seeing friends and loved ones (not mutually exclusive), and getting out of our daily routines at home.  Because you know we love to shake things up around here!

As I teased above, I should be posting a big DIY project (along with a mini one!) sometime after Thanksgiving.  So basically whenever I can physically finish everything!  I can't wait to show you!

And last but not least... who has decorated for Christmas already?  Am I crazy because I want to do it this weekend?!  Prepare for Christmas overload here on the blog in the weeks ahead.  The music has already begun!

Snowshoeing Fun

On Sunday, Chris and I carved out some time from our afternoon to go for a beautiful drive up in the mountains.  Oh, and we decided to throw our snowshoes in for good measure.  The destination we had in mind, ended up having weather much like that of a warm Spring day, which also meant no snow.  So we carried on a bit further, and finally came across enough snow to break out the snowshoes.  

It was my first time, so it took a bit of adjusting to the "duck walk" that I felt like I was doing.  But once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it!  It was another big reminder that my lungs haven't had much of a workout the past 6 months, due to my knee, but inspiring to get out and brush out my cobweb-filled lungs.  Filling them with fresh, mountain air couldn't feel better!

Overall, it was a very nice and active weekend.  I was, of course up and right back at it yesterday morning for another early morning yoga session, and have now hit the 30% completion mark with today's class.  A very good feeling! Another update coming later this week on that front.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are having a great week so far!

Turning Thirty

Okay, so I celebrated one of my best friend's ("twenty ninth," wink, wink) birthday last night, letting loose with a whole two glasses of wine with dinner.  Fun, right?  Well, um, I feel like I partied all night last night.  Is this what happens when you are approaching your own "twenty ninth" birthday?!?!  Because if so, I might have to stick to mocktails in the future. ;)

The restaurant we went to was really great.  It has a rooftop bar that serves drinks out of an RV (amazing, right?), and you get amazing views of downtown Denver.  And "normal" size dinner portions, of even more amazing food.  We will definitely be going back again.  And on a random plus side, we found a view point to take visitors.  Not what I had in mind when I put that one on my list, but I actually think it's better!

{ the only photo I took all night. not even one of the birthday girl. fail. }

On a complete side note, I LOVE birthdays.  Like, seriously love them.  Who wouldn't?  It's a day to just celebrate YOU, and the day you came into this world.  I say embrace it.  Even if you have that pesky "getting older" anxiety.  Live your life to the fullest, and make every year in between these celebrations really count.

Birthday party, take two is next weekend, so hopefully I can actually remember to take some photos this time around.  And avoid a college hangover the next day.  Ha.  Unlikely, but a girl can wish.

Habits

Habits are a tricky thing.  Why is it so easy to create a habit, yet so hard to break it?  I tend to have better success if I start small with habits.  

How so?  Well, over the years, I have had lofty goals of wanting to work out every day, or lose ten pounds, or keep a spotless house.  The way I approach these things has historically set me up for failure.  Assuming that I will go from a messy ("well-loved") house to a spotless one (and keep it that way!) overnight, is unrealistic.  Or that I will suddenly exercise every single day.  So I decided to start smaller, and give myself a better chance of success.  

The result?  It works!  Slowly but surely.  In today's world, we can have virtually whatever we want at the drop of a hat, so this slow approach was not my preference.  But I did recognize that it was the approach that yielded the best results.  

For instance, a few years ago, in an effort to be healthy and avoid illnesses down the road, I started buying organic fruit, and doing more research when it came to GMOs and doing my best to avoid them.  I didn't say, okay no more sweets, fried food, meat, soda, processed food, non-organic foods, etc.  I started small.  I was already buying fruit and vegetables, so I started to change until I bought almost exclusively organic.

Then, about a year and a half ago, I eliminated meat from my diet.  And I haven't looked back. Most recently? I gave up soda 4 or 5 months ago, and it didn't feel that difficult.  Because I was doing one thing at a time.  The most difficult part was not that I missed the actual soda, just that it was an automatic habit to order it out at restaurants.  My best advice?  Find drink alternatives that you can fall back on that are healthier.  Water is the obvious choice, but a small fruit juice, healthy lemonade or tea are all great alternatives.

I really want giving up sugar to be my next goal, but having a sweet tooth like I do, I know this one will be much more difficult.  But I know that as long as I take a slowly but surely approach, and forgive myself when I crack and give in to my sweet cravings, that I will get there eventually.  Luckily, I have a really supportive (and healthy!) husband to help me when I need it.  

Now if only I could get better at the whole messy house "habit."  Hey, some things are just better left alone. Or to a house cleaning service.  No one's perfect, right?

What habits have you successfully kicked?  What tips can you share to help me on my journey?

Breaking the Rules

I realized this morning that I completely missed my regular Sustenance Sunday and Language Barrier Monday posts again this week.  I had plenty of time to write over the weekend, but decided to spend my time doing other things.  And you know what?  I'm okay with that.  It is, after all, my blog.  I'm allowed to break the rules every once in a while, right?  

My regular posts will be back next week, but today I am happy to find myself okay with not doing things the way they are supposed to be done.  I am finding this so much more important the older I get, and this quote sums up my feelings on the subject of perfection, well, perfectly.

I think growing up, I always assumed I would reach a point where I had it all figured out.  As many before me have done, I have realized through many ups and downs, that that is not the case.  That likely (hopefully!) I never will have it all figured out.  And being okay with that is another one of those growth opportunities.

For so long, I invested so much energy in making sure things turned out the way that I wanted them to.  Even for something as asinine as the dining room table not having any visible mistakes.  I had to stop myself as I was reviewing my paint job of our dining room table, when I found myself disappointed to find some obvious places that I had messed up (i.e. it didn't look perfect).  I realized that I had the expectation that it would look flawless, as though it had been purchased white, instead of being an old wooden table that we decided to transform with white paint.  It sounds silly, but I really had to make a conscious effort to stop myself and be like, "who cares?! you still accomplished the task of brightening up the dining room with a bright white table.  and those signs that you see as blemishes or mistakes, will only point out to friends and family that dine at the table, just how hard you worked to make this table look beautiful."  

Cheesy?  Absolutely, but sometimes we need to give ourselves a good-old-fashioned pep talk and remind ourselves what is really important.  So the table doesn't look perfect, sue me.  :)  I'm cool with it now.

Repeating my mantra (learned from a meditation/breathing course a few years ago): Expectations reduce the joy in life.