April Currently

In some ways I feel like I blinked and April went by and in other ways I can't believe it's still April. I wasn't going to blog today, even though I have a growing list of things I want to write about I haven't been able to sit down and dedicate time to making that happen. Then I realized that I don't want to break my streak of monthly currently posts! The shoe photos are making for a top notch first page in my Project Life album and I know I will appreciate have this little snapshot into life. So without further ado, here's what's been going on this month. 

Reading... I'm about to start Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. And officially end months of failing to read anything except Buzzfeed articles. 

Playing... I didn't do much playing this month. Now that it's nicer outside I've spent some time playing with my camera, which always makes me happy. 

Watching... Big Brother Canada, I've skipped a couple of episodes because I can't handle grown ups throwing tantrums. I've also been keeping up to date with Criminal Minds and watching Project Life process videos on YouTube.

Trying... I spent a large part of this month trying to be optimistic now I'm trying not to worry. 

Cooking... I didn't cook anything exciting this month. I had a couple Pinterest disappointments but other than that I've been making a lot of easy chicken & veggie type meals. 

Eating... I ate a lot of pitas again this month and I don't regret a single one!

Drinking... Iced Coffee season is upon us! 

Calling... Lots of phone calls trying to figure out and fix mistakes with paycheques. It's the most fun. (NOT)

Texting... Mostly H. & R. this month and J. 

Pinning... I was chosen to be a Guider for a provincial camp later in the summer so I've been pinning some theme ideas and badge work related to that. 

Tweeting... Whatever Bloglovin' sends out automatically.

Going... To visit H.! 

Loving... Sunshine, trip planning and mountains. I've developed a slight obsession with mountains this month. 

Hating... Hate feels like a strong word, but I'm pretty bummed that the cycle of contract positions will be continuing for awhile long. 

Discovering... I'm not sure that I've discovered anything life altering this month. April was a weird month. 

Thinking... Currently thinking I need to change the channel because Rachael Ray is hurting my brain. And also that I do not understand this face swapping business. 

Feeling... So excited to see H.! This time tomorrow we will be reunited and going on adventures. 

Hoping (for)... I'm not really sure. There's nothing particularly big on the horizon. 

Listening (to)... Still listening to Bringing Up Betty, Stuff You Missed in History Class and Camp Code podcasts. I've also been playing Soul on Fire by Third Day and Greater by Mercy Me on repeat. 

Celebrating... Spring. I am really freaking excited that spring is (more or less) here and summer is just around the corner. I'm a happier person when there isn't snow on the ground.

Smelling... Right now I'm smelling bacon, on a more regular basis I'm smelling fresh air!

Ordering... I scored a great discount for a Studio Calico documenter kit so I went ahead and ordered that and am waiting for it to arrive!

Thankful for... Besties, Skype, Group Messages, Food, Family, Sleep. 

Considering... September plans, although I'm trying not to because it's months away and worrying about it doesn't do a darn thing. 

Starting... To jump into camp planning. 

Finishing... Office Job! Today is my last day and I'm pretty excited. 

The Highlight Reel

At the beginning of this week it felt like things were happening. And then things went back to moving a turtle's pace so the week is ending in an uneventful way. As per usual when there's lots happening in life the blog tends to get a little neglected, so the most logical thing to do is write a quick post on Friday hitting the highlights of the week and making note of the fact I am very excited it's the weekend!

On Monday I had a pre-screening for a full-time job I applied for but I haven't heard anything back. As a result everything is a state of suspended animation and I can't really make any concrete plans until that comes to a conclusion. Ideally, a positive conclusion. Positive thoughts and good vibes very much appreciated! 

Tuesday marked the start of the #The100DayProject. Initially I was going to do something photography related but at the end of the day I'm focusing on doing a 100 days of pages in my sketchbook. My sketchbook functions as part art journal, part prayer journal, part notebook. I usually use it once a week but over the next 100 days I'm going to make it a daily practice. So far I'm 3 for 3. 100 seems like a long way away but I'm sure I can make it happen. 

Wednesday I headed to town to cross a bunch of stuff off my to do list. I had to pay my car insurance, make a stop at the bank and pick up a few groceries. I also ended up taking photos for a day in the life post that will be appearing next week! 

Thursday I was up bright and early for a camp related coffee meeting. This is entirely the camp nerd in me, but staff training makes me happy. I've kind of got a thing for new beginnings and I love watching a bunch of people come together and figure out how to be a group. Honestly, I think part of the reason I enjoy watching Big Brother so much is the whole situation reminds me of camp. A bunch of (mostly) 20-somethings thrown together in one spot, living together and highly encouraged to get along. The main difference is that we don't vote people out once a week. 

Today I am so happy it's Friday. It's been a long week at work and I'm so ready for the weekend. Next week I only have three days of work and then I'm going on a quick trip to visit H. It's also warming up around here which is a guaranteed way to make life seem a little brighter!

Linking up here.

Food & Photography on Friday

This week started off strong, took a little dip and then kind of evened out. I say kind of because I felt like this week had a lot of question marks that are still question marks. I'm sort of disappointed but also don't have any super definitive answers so I'm not really sure what to think or how to feel. More on that next week, right now I'm blogging about five things that are mildly noteworthy about this week. Most of which are related to food and yet there are no photos of food. 

{one}

Elle Luna's #The100DayProject starts next week and I'm still not sure what I want to take on for the next 100 days. I already know that during those 100 days I will be going on a trip and relocating to camp so doing anything that is going to involve a lot of art supplies is not the best choice for success. Photography is definitely the route I will be taking but I need to decide on something to photograph. I've tossed around the idea of photographing all the numbers from 1-100, or a specific shape, or multiple run throughs of the alphabet. I want it to be something that requires some creative thinking but isn't too time consuming. 

{two}

I had a major Pinterest recipe disappointment this week. I tried to make "Spinach & Artichoke Stuffed Garlic Bread" and you know what I made? Soggy bread. It looked fine but the bread only got kind of crusty on the bottom and none of the cheese really melted to make a gooey, cheese thing happen when you pulled the pieces apart. It wasn't terrible, I ate it, but I should have just heated up the baguette and dipped it in the dip as you normally would. 

{three}

I have been eating pitas for lunch everyday this week. Chicken Caesar pitas with romaine, chicken, croutons. Greek inspired pitas with chicken, feta, cucumber, red onion & tzatziki. Chipotle chicken pita with chipotle mayo, chicken, cucumber, red onion and cajun chicken and cheddar cheese. I'm not exactly sure how this trend started but I'm pretty satisfied with the whole thing. 

{four}

Next week is my last full week of work at the office job. My contract ends on Wednesday of the following week and I am kind of ready to get back to a regular schedule. Albeit briefly, since camp season is approaching and camp season does not lead to any sort of regular schedule. 

{five}

It's been rainy all week and sort of damp and chilly out but all I want to do is drink iced coffee. So tasty and delicious but also impractical based on the weather outside. 

linking up here & here. 

Thankful Things on Thursday

The week was off to a strong start. Sunday was the perfect start to the week and Monday & Tuesday were solid days. Yesterday I hit a wall and the grumpiness returned in full force, I'm happy to report that today I'm feeling a little less crazy and a little more rational. I've also decided I need to have chicken strips & fries for lunch so that's probably also contributing to my inner peace. 

I've been joining the Stuff & Things link up with Joey and Kristin for a long time now so when I found out that the link up was going into retirement after today I knew I needed to link up one more time. And since I've been feeling more grumpy than not lately I decided it would be a good idea to dedicate the last Stuff & Things to stuff and things I'm thankful for amid the current chaos of my life. 

Last year before camp started I jumped on The Fringe Hours  by Jessica Turned bandwagon and had a genuine mind shift. I always thought that I needed large chunks of time to do things that I loved. And as a consequence of that thinking I rarely got to do those things. The whole point of the Fringe Hours is to find little pockets of time and use them. And now I've discovered that by being productive when I need to be, most days I can create a full hour that I can use to work on Project Life before work. I still prefer a full afternoon of scrapbooking but I am thankful for The Fringe Hours!

Even though there's snow in the forecast, it's still starting to feel like spring around here. Blue skies, trees that are starting to think about coming back to life, temperatures that don't involve a minus sign and sunshine are all things I've been feeling thankful for this week.

Best friends, group chats and Skype dates are all things I'm feeling overwhelmingly thankful for lately. 

In this moment I'm also pretty thankful it's Thursday and that there is a whole weekend ahead followed by the last full week on work before the end of my office contract and a little break between office life and camp life.  

Also linking up here for Thankful Thursday. 

Ten on Tuesday: Things I Like Learning About

I genuinely enjoy learning. Maybe that makes me nerdy, maybe that means I'll will never be diagnosed with dementia, maybe that makes me weird and maybe I don't find any of those consequences particularly motivating. Learning is just something that makes me happy. I don't like learning about just anything though. You won't ever find me reading up on complicated math formulas or surgical procedures but my interests can definitely be summed up in a top ten list, which leads me to this week's edition of Ten on Tuesday...

Things I Like Learning About

1. Countries & Cultures. Specific shoutouts to Nepal, Cambodia, Northern Canada, Norway and Russia.

2. History Mysteries. Roanoke, Franklin Expedition, The Mary Celeste, Dyatlov Pass Incident, Oak Island...It's all fascinating in my book.

3. Disability. I'm always interested in reading up on the newest therapies and I love seeing cool things people are doing to make the world a more inclusive and accessible place.

4. Food. Beyond learning new recipes I like the history of food, why certain foods are eaten (or not eaten), how food travels from one place to another, farming, access to food.

5. People. This is maybe one of the reasons I enjoy blogging. I genuinely like learning about people. It relates a little to the countries & cultures thing but on a more personal level. I love reading day in the life posts and currently posts. I'm always curious about how people live their day to day lives.

6. Animals. Currently I'm into sled dogs.

7. Marketing/Advertising. This is kind of intertwined with food because food packaging fascinates me.

8. Religion. This could, in theory get lumped into countries/cultures because often so much of a person's culture is related to their religion.

9. Adoption. Ever since I read about Karen's adopted sister from Vietnam in the Baby Sitter's Club Little Sister books I've been fascinated by the idea. I'm always curious to read adoption stories, books on adoption and watch documentaries.

10. Socio-Economics. The ties in to a lot of different topics I've already mentioned but I think it also deserves it's on category. Inequality plays such a huge role in society and I find it interesting to read about why things are the way they are and how they can be changed.

Back on the Bright Side

If you happened to stop by on Friday it will come as no surprise that last week was not great. Big thumbs down to last week. The good news is that it's a new week and this week I'm back on the bright side. 

I had forgot that weeks ago I agreed to help chaperone a sleepover for a group of Rangers (the oldest group of Girl Guides). Help chaperone is probably a bit of a stretch, more along the lines of hang out with a group of incredibly awesome young ladies. Since I didn't have to be at the sleepover until 6:00 I spent my Saturday tidying up my make shift craft room and then I spent some time watching The Pioneer Woman and eating chicken wings in my most unflattering of $10 Wal-Mart jogging pants. It was lovely. 

The sleepover started with pizza and then we headed to do an Escape Room. If you're not familiar with the concept, the easiest way to explain is a giant, physical puzzle. Our group of six entered a room and had an hour to solve two questions related to the mystery we had been given at the beginning. There were about a dozen locked drawers, boxes and closets within the room and by solving clues found around the room you were able to figure out the combinations to the locks, which would reveal another clue or lead to more locks. It was so much fun! They seem to be gaining in popularity so if there's not one near by you now there probably will be soon.

We ended the night the way all good sleepovers should end, huddled under blankets in a dimly lit living room discussing insider info about various Guiding events and general life. Sunday morning we woke up and ate pancakes before going our separate ways. I stopped in to pick up a few groceries on my way home and then got to work on my to do list, but not before eating samosas for lunch which I've been craving for the past two weeks. 

I unpacked, put on a load of laundry, showered and had every intention of continuing the string of productivity. Instead I took a nap. It was lovely and I didn't feel even a little bit guilty! When I woke up I set to work making Sunday supper - roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes and cajun seasoned chicken breast. And cooked enough chicken to have for work lunches all week, which is always a win. I did a bit of Project Life-ing before watching Big Brother and crawling into bed by 10:30. 

So I'm going into this week feeling overall better about life. It's amazing what a weekend of tasty food, good company and exciting adventures can do for a person's mood. I've two and a half weeks left of my office job contract and then I'm off to visit H. for a few days before switching into camp mode for the summer. So here's hoping I can stay planted on the bright side! 

Linking up here & here. 

The Kind of Week It's Been...

If I had to summarize this week in one sentence my response would be along the lines of, "I feel like I've been trampled by a herd of elephants". If I were to summarize the experience in a photo I would choose this one:

Wednesday night the meditation app on my phone flat out told me I had too many feelings. 

The good news is, Friday has arrived and once today is over the entire week is also over. I'm planning on spending the weekend secluded with my Project Life supplies and a shoebox full of stuff that needs to either find a home in an album or the trash. 

Here's hoping next week better. 

Ten on Tuesday: Questions I'm Asking Myself

April isn't a month I've ever given a whole lot of thought to, it comes and goes. It usually snows and there are a few sunny days thrown in for good measure. By April I know what my work schedule will look like until September and it's generally a peaceful, uneventful month. This year the weather is the same but the peacefulness is lacking. There are some things still up in the air and it means that I'm struggling to balance optimism and reality with an extra dose of anxiety for good measure. 

So I'm going to take the opportunity to link up with Karli and share ten of the most pressing questions I'm currently asking myself. Maybe some of you have answers, if so please share. Maybe next week I can avoid writing a 'Ten Reasons Why I've Lost My Mind' post. 

1. How often is too often to check my e-mail? Every 10 minutes? 15 minutes? Maybe just once an hour. I can't help myself so I'm opting for 15 minutes. 

2. How long to I keep checking my e-mail before I cut my loses and get on with life? Three days? A week? Two weeks? I'm saying a week, but I'm not sure that's the right answer.

3. Is it selfish to pray for good things to happen to myself? How does that balance out in the scheme of the world? It feels impossibly to balance hopefulness and being graceful. 

4. Is it too soon to plan a second trip to Disney World? I want to go back and do a full out Disney trip but I also recognize I am in my mid-twenties and childless so maybe that's weird?

5. When am I going to make time to organize the quantity of 'stuff' that I have been saving for the past few months under the guise of using it for a Sparks craft or camp craft or 'this might come in handy someday'? 

6. Why are people on the internet so passive aggressive? I know people are also passive aggressive in real life but it just seems so much worse on the internet.

7. What am I going to wear to work? I was busy working on Project Life album all day Sunday and neglected to do any work prep for the week. 

8. Where did all my motivation to read go? I used to easily read a book a week and now I haven't read anything since January. Nothing seems to peek or keep my interest. And that makes me sad.

9. Are there really people out there who don't feel stressed/anxious about deadlines and what happens next? What's it like to identify with the Type B personality? Teach me your ways. 

10. Where do people find the answers to their questions? Does wikipedia still hold all the answers or are folks resorting to Facebook and Twitter?