Internet Happiness

Last weekend H. & R. were together in the city and they spent some of their time together hanging out in H.'s hot tub and drinking wine. Earlier in the day I was Skyping with them and of course we started talking about camp and next summer, which lead to H. & R. making all sorts of ridiculous demands (they're both head counsellors). I (jokingly) told them that in order to consider their requests a formal presentation must be made, the topic changed and I assumed they had forgotten. Not so, post wine & hot tub they got to work and the director & I found this in our e-mails Monday evening. A full length 20+ slide PowerPoint presentation. I honestly laughed until I was near tears as I read through their "wish list", which was followed by the "10 Reasons H. & R. Should Be Hired Back In Spite of This Presentation". I can't decide if my favourite item on their wish list is a hot tub or that they want to hire the Hemsworth brothers as male counsellors. Both have about the same likelihood of happening. 

By far the best thing to show up in my inbox! (Except for all your lovely comments of course!)


There were a lot of great things on the internet this week, at various points over the past few days I've checked my phone to find these links sent to me from friends.

These 12 Life Lessons Learned From Your Cat is spot on. Cats truly are wonderful creatures.

A friend also sent me an article on "Seasonal Romance"  that definitely hit close to home. The only difference is I'm not quite ready to stuff all those memories in a folder and move on quite yet. The time might come when that has to happen but for now I'm in a good place with my "seasonal romance".

And BuzzFeed is always a reliable source for some internet happiness. Facts to Get Through the Week and some perspective that you might be having a bad day but at least You're Not These People.

What happy things did you find on the internet this week?

Show Us Your Life - Reading List {November 8}

I am a huge bookworm. I was never one of those kids who hated reading, I raced to get my other work done so that I could pick out a book to read. In grade 6 I got in "trouble" because I read way ahead and finished the chapter book we were supposed to be reading as a class. (But really, who reads just one chapter a day!?) I am one of those people who can re-read the same book over and over again, especially one that I love. If my bookshelf had a "Most Read" list attached The Princess Bride by William Goldman and Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli would be at the top of the list. And I have a deep love for Laura Ingalls Wilder and have read the Little House on the Prairie books hundreds of times. 

I also have a huge love for "camp books", it's a niche genre but I've got a whole shelf full of them and they make me happy. If you're a camp person I strongly recommend Campingly Yours by Thomas C. Adler and Cabin Pressure by Josh Wolk. 

I read books from almost all genres, except for horror/mystery and over the top romance books which I stay away from. I tend to alternate between YA fiction and historical non-fiction, opposite ends of the reading spectrum for sure but I think they balance each other nicely. Since I just finished the first two books in the Divergent series and two other YA easy reads during my last trip to Chapters I picked up two heavier books.

12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northrup

and

The Tin Ring by Zdenka Fantlova

I'm currently reading 12 Years A Slave and I'm finding it hard to get into, I've read quite a few slave narratives and I usually have a hard time putting them down because there is so much suspense, but this one is different. I'm only two or three chapters in so hopefully once I really get into the story it will hold my attention for longer. 

What are your book recommendations?

Refresh(ed)

After I hit 'publish' on yesterday's post I got to work and accomplished quite a few things on my to-do list. I spent almost the entire afternoon cleaning my room, caught up on Teen Mom 3 while cleaning, plus had a quality dance party/sing a long with Luke Bryan. Once that was done I sat down with an ice cold glass of pop and caught up with blogs. And much to my surprise and delight when I went to tackle Google Analytics again it was magically working! I also did a lot more googling and got the button/grab box issue resolved! It's now hanging out on my sidebar and I am super excited to start taking part in button swaps and sponsoring other blogs! 

I feel like I've moved up just a little from the kiddie table of the blog world. Still not at the grown up table, but inching my way closer!

Yesterday when I said I needed a pause button what I really needed was a "Refresh" button. Once I crossed some things off my to do list, had a giant and delicious stir-fry for supper, caught up with H. & R., gathered supplies for a DIY Project I have planned I felt a lot better about life. I also got to enjoy the amazing combination of fresh sheets and freshly shaved legs as I climbed into bed last night. It's the little things in life.

In the spirit of appreciating the little things I'm linking up with Brianna at Endlessly Beloved for 10 Things I'm Thankful For:

1. Hot showers, yummy smelling body butter & crisp pyjamas. 

2. Broccoli. The most delicious of all the vegetables.

3. Wool socks. I hate having cold feet!

4. A good pen. Writing is so much more enjoyable when you find a pen that glides smoothly across the page. 

5. YouTube. Because sometimes you just need to watch cat videos. 

6. Luke Bryan. 

7. The Blogging Community. 

8. Friends who have the best sense of humour and kindest spirits. 

9. My faith. 

10. Moments of silence to just take deep breathes and appreciate what I've been blessed with. 

Pause

The past few days I've felt like I needed a "Pause" button for life. There are just so many things I want need to do but every time I start something else comes up and I never finish. 

My room is in desperate need of a good cleaning. 

I have yet to write a full sentence for NaNoWriMo.

I'm running dangerously low on face wash & deodorant. 

My phone bill needs to be paid.

Laundry basket is overflowing.

I'm behind on Teen Mom 3.  (Maybe not the end of the world)

My BlogLovin' feed has 30+ unread posts. 

I am supposed to have a pile of Christmas cards made for the church tea & sale next week.

Google Analytics Round 2. (Seriously, WHY WON'T IT WORK!?!?!)

Blog Button Round 4. (I'm pretty sure the problem with this one is my lack of HTML skillz)

And here I am blogging about it all rather than making it happen. Except that blog should probably be on that list too

Anyone else need a 'pause' button for a few hours? 

Patience is a Virtue...

I've been thinking a lot about patience and waiting and I came to a realization. When it comes to people I have buckets, dump trucks even, over flowing with patience, but when it comes to having patience to wait for something to happen I have raindrops. 

Via

Working with campers who have special needs I've developed a lot of patience when it comes to teaching a camper a new skill or encouraging independence. Without giving it a second thought I will happily wait for a camper to tie their own shoes and zip up their coat, it might take them 10 minutes when I could have done it in 10 seconds but that's not the point. If a camper wants to do something and is able to do it I am more than willing to support them, and sometimes support just means not rushing them. 

Via

I'm also pretty patient when it comes to waiting for Mr. Right. I fully admit I don't like waiting, but I am firm in my belief that waiting for the right person is worth every second. I would rather wait until I'm 30 for Mr. Right to come along than to settle. I refuse to settle for anything less than what I want. If I want a specific shade of nail polish I don't buy the closest thing to it, I wait until the one I want is back in stock. I'm not going to settle for a guy who is good enough when in a couple more weeks (maybe even years) I can have exactly the one I want. 

\

Via

It seems like every week I type the sentence "I should hear this week about the grant that will make my current seasonal job into a full-time/year-round position." And it still hasn't happened yet. All the paper work has been submitted. The case file has been assigned to a specific person. Ten days allowed for processing have passed. The status of the application has been checked 100 times. But it still has the same "Under Review" status. We've been told it's a good time to apply for this particular grant because they're not that busy, most organizations apply in the spring/summer so there's a better chance of getting approved. But there's still no change. So I'm stuck waiting. Trying to be patient. The longer the wait the harder it is to be patient. Even though the situation is totally out of my hands. 

Check! Check! Check!

I just love the satisfaction of checking things off a to-do list and this month I got to make lots of check marks! 

Last Months Goals: 

Blog 15 times in October

I blogged a grand total of 22 times this month! I am quite pleased with myself. 

Participate in 2 new Link-Ups/Blog Hops

I actually lost count of how many new link-ups I participated in this month. It feels like a lot, and some of them I enjoyed more than others. I did find some great new blogs to follow by joining in link ups of bloggers that I don't usually follow, which is always exciting!

Try 3 new recipes

I tried exactly 3 new recipes this month. Gingerbread Syrup to use in coffee, a teryaki chicken marinade and pumpkin spice muffins!

Read 2 books

I read 3 books this month! 

November Goals

Create a Blog Binder. There are so many awesome free printables and suggestions for how to organize posts, I want to figure out which ones work best for me. 

Blog 20 Times. Self-explanatory. 

Read 3 Books.

Do Yoga 4 times.

Make progress with 3 of the things of my 25x25 list. 

I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo this month...but that's a whole other goal...and I have written a total of 8 words so far. Ideally I would like to complete a novel, but I think aiming for 50 pages of writing will be my bare minimum goal. 

I'm linking up my november goals here & here. 

Five on Friday

{one}

After reading countless tutorials on how to make a blog button with a grab box for my sidebar I decided I was ready for the challenge. I was wrong. Everything worked perfectly up until the point where I pressed save and a button and grab box did appear on my blog...except the grab box was empty. And no amount of fiddling or Googling or re-reading tutorials and double checking every character of the HTML code would solve the problem. I still don't know what went wrong, I gave up after about an hour because Grey's Anatomy was coming on and at that point I was so frustrated I just needed to step away from the computer. Sigh. Blogging is hard. 

{two}

I made these Pumpkin Spice muffins Monday using the "Two Ingredient Recipe". I can't believe how easy they were to make. A box of spice cake mix and a can of pumpkin, mix 'em together, divide into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes. I wasn't blown away and they weren't the best muffins I'd ever had but considering how easy they were to make I was impressed! 

{three}

Peyton was a ballerina for Halloween. I bought the tutu at Target and it was the best $3 I've spent in a long time. She looked adorable and one little Ninja Turtle who came to my door was beyond impressed that my cat was wearing a costume. The tutu lasted for about 45 minutes before she wiggled her way out. 

{four}

I miss summer. The novelty of wearing boots and tights has worn off and I am ready to return to sundresses, flip flops, shorts & tanks. I am seriously dreading the next 5 months of freezing temperatures, snow, cold feet  and snow. 

{five}

I've been a big fan of the company 3E Love for almost a year now, I have a T-Shirt, hoodie and several stickers & pins. They are a fantastic company and I love supporting them. They made a list of 100 Accessible Halloween Costumes and I encourage everyone to go check it out! The costume pictures can be found HERE. I promise they will bring a huge smile to your face and brighten up your Friday afternoon!