Valentine's Day Weekend

My weekend started a day early with a snowstorm that hit just in time to cancel work for the day. It was a welcome day off and I celebrated by making chicken strips & fries for lunch. Followed by another attempt to watch Orange is the New Black on Netflix. Maybe I'm too old fashion or a little uptight but the show is just too much for me. I'm disappointed because I really did enjoy the book and I'm interested in a lot of the characters but so much of the 'adult content' just seems unnecessary and doesn't actually add anything to the show. 

Saturday I worked a few over time hours in the morning and then afterwards I had to get the oil changed in my car. J. has been house sitting for his parents this week so when I was finished that I headed over there where we put my car in their heated garage and got to work solving the honey garlic situation. We went out to lunch and he gave me a stuffed frog and chocolate. I thought the frog was pretty cute, I used to collect frogs when I was younger and he remembered me mentioning it once. I went home in the early evening since there was a big storm predicted for Sunday and we'd both had fairly busy weeks. When I got home Peyton was pretty interested in the frog because it smelled like J.'s cat. I thought it was kind of adorable that it looked like she was kissing her frog prince. Kittens want love too.

Sunday I was invited to supper at J.'s parents but we got hit with another snow storm. At one point in the day this was the message I saw when I looked at the weather.

I am currently very envious of all you southerners out there strolling around in hoodies, blissfully unaware of the frustrations that come with serious winter driving, temperatures of -20 and 45 cm of snow falling in one day. The snowbanks are so high right now, driving around town is awful because you can't see and the streets are so narrow. Soak up some extra sunshine for all of us on the east coast.

Since I was housebound again on Sunday I decided to try out a new cookie recipe I had pinned long ago. It was one of those pins that had a 50/50 chance of turning out great or turning into in an epic Pinterest fail. I am happy to report that these Fudgy Dark Chocolate Avocado Cookies turned out delicious! I followed the recipe almost exactly, I didn't have quite enough cocoa powder so I used a little extra (about 2 tablespoons) more flour to make up the difference in the dry ingredients. I also didn't have any dark chocolate so I used regular semi-sweet chocolate chips. The next time I make them (and there will be a next time) I'll pick up some dark chocolate and make sure I have the exact amount of cocoa. 

The cookies were so fudgy and delicious without being overly sweet! Perfectly paired with a glass of milk. I'm anticipating a fairly good week ahead, the last two weeks it seemed like I had a lot of errands to do and things that needed to be crossed off my list. This week I have a few projects I want to tackle but nothing super pressing. 

I'm looking forward to continuing last year's lent journal I never did continue with the circles after Lent finished, so I am planning on digging out the same duo tang from last year and picking up where I left off. And if for some reason I can't find the duo tang (although I'm pretty sure I know where it is...) I have lots of other notebooks that are waiting to be put to use. Anyone else doing something to celebrate Lent? I'd love to hear about it!

Linking up with Biana for Weekending and Meg for Mingle Monday.

40 Days of Life

I was going to post about my weekend at home but then I realized I need to recap and reflect on Lent! I loved the idea of doing a Lenten Journal but I missed the boat on ordering one online and I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in stores. So I got out my markers and felt tip pens and got crafting! 

First I found a weekly template that was meant to be used for to-do lists on Pinterest. I used this one and you can find the free PDF download here. I did some quick math and printed out enough sheets for the entire season of Lent plus extra to keep going. Then I hole punched the whole works and put them into a duo-tang. 

My goal was to take 10-15 minutes each day and fill in the circle for the day. I didn't give myself any rules about what could and could not fill a circle. Some days it was full of random doodles, others a verse, sometimes a single word and sometimes a combination of everything. I used the "Notes" section of the page to add in any extra prayer requests for that week or praises as the week went on. 

I'll be honest and admit there were nights I missed, but I made a point to catch up the next day. I never let myself get more than two days behind and for the most part I stayed on top of things. Overall it was a positive and productive experience. So much so that I am going to continue with it, it really doesn't take that much time and I really like having that quick snapshot of each day. 

Honestly it's hard for me to believe that 40 days are over. It's one of those things that seemed so long at the beginning but in retrospect went by fast. It has become part of my routine though and I am so happy that I was able to fully establish a meaningful and positive new habit during Lent!

Keeping My Feet On The Ground

I had all kinds of things I planned on writing about over the last two weeks. Pancakes, Lent, Frozen Yogurt, Writing/Journalling, Reading, Living in the City, Life Update…and obviously I neglected to write about any of them.

I've been so focused on not letting myself be overwhelmed that I've officially run out of back burners to put stuff on. This past week we did a March Break Day Camp and to say it was a long, stressful week is an understatement. It was wonderful to hang out with campers but coordinating volunteers was a bit of a nightmare. I ended up working the past two weekends going to recruiting events and preparing for Day Camp so when I woke up this morning with nothing to do for two whole days it was kind of thrilling. 

It's almost 1 p.m. and all I've done today is indulge in a bagel with cream cheese, drink two cups of tea and catch up on Grey's and The Middle. My only plans for this afternoon and this evening are drinking more tea catching up with Survivor and Big Brother, reading through at least some of the 299 unread posts I have on Bloglovin' and deciding if I want to make pizza or mac & cheese for supper. 

I did start a Lent Journal of sorts, but I fell way behind this week…I really want to blog more about that  because I'm pretty happy with what I came up with and the first few days were great. I am definitely going to set aside more time this week to do that. And some more time this afternoon and evening to fill in the blanks from this week.

I've really missed blogging the past two weeks and everyday I see teasers on Instagram for posts people have written, I want so badly to read them but I haven't been making that a priority lately. I truly never realized how much time I spent in the blog-world before office life started. I knew it was a lot, but I think I still underestimated the hours I spent writing, reading and commenting on posts.

Here's hoping I can get back to being an active member of the blogging community without sacrificing time that needs to be for working (and sleeping, eating and showering). 

Snow & Sneezes

This is the THIRD Monday in a row that the combination of snow/rain/freezing rain/wind has cancelled school - which means it is also the third week Brownies has been cancelled. Someday I will get to celebrate Valentine's Day with my favourite 8 year olds. This week we had planned to celebrate Guide/Scout Week with the other Girl Guide units in our area with the traditional torchlight parade followed by cupcakes & hot chocolate. As disappointed as I am that I haven't gotten to distribute Valentine's Day treat bags, or make Valentine's Day themed picture frames and feed the little ladies cupcakes and watch their eyes light up with excitement as they learn to play a new game; I'm thankful for today's weather cancellation.

Saturday morning I woke up with a cold and have felt totally miserable ever since. I'm feeling a little better today but I have no desire to move from the couch for any length of time. My plans for the rest of the day & evening include nothing more than drinking cups of peppermint tea in between drinking lots of water while watching silly day time talk shows.

The whole not feeling great has really put a damper on the "I'm going to do yoga every day for Lent" plan. I have been doing a good job remembering to read the Verse of the Day, so that's something. Fingers crossed that by tomorrow or the next day I'll be feeling better and can really get serious about my plan.

Pancakes & Snow Storms

School was cancelled yesterday, which means our usual Monday night Brownie meeting was also cancelled. So instead of spending yesterday evening playing games, making adorable Valentine's Day picture frames and consuming unhealthy quantities of red food colouring I watched TV and made a feeble attempt to organize my crafting supplies.

Today is Pancake Tuesday, which means tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Instead of the traditional 'give something up for Lent' idea the last few years I've tried to start something new and do good. This year I played around with a few different ideas; at first I was going to try and read a book of the Bible every day then I came to my senses and realized as good as it sounds in theory right now I 'm doing good if I remember to read the 'Verse of the Day' on my phone's Bible App. For about five minutes I thought it would be a great idea to do something food related, try out the vegetarian thing, really go hard core and go vegan and then I remembered how much I love pepperoni & cheese pizza. Next I debated giving up pop but that didn't seem like that much of a commitment since it's not like I drink bucket loads of it everyday.

With all that being said I finally decided I would commit to doing yoga everyday. I've gone to a few yoga classes but never really stuck with it so I've invested in a few DVDs that were on clearance after the rush of January Weight Loss resolutions and will start with them. I'm anticipating that I will have to take some days off and give my body some time to rest so for those days I'm gong to take advantage of all of those free Meditation Apps & YouTube videos.

The over-arcing theme for the next 40 days is "Body, Mind & Soul", taking up yoga is one step but I also want to be more intentional about the things I'm already trying to do like picking up a book instead of the remote and clicking the "Read Full Chapter" button as I skim the Verse of the Day.