Camp Friday Favourites

{one}

Camp Sunsets.

I can almost guarantee camp sunsets will make an appearance on every single Friday Favourites/Friday Five List I make this summer. No further explanation required. 

{two}

J. stopped into camp for a quick visit on his way home from his sister's graduation Thursday. Long enough for me to give him a quick tour of camp, enjoy a meal at the diner close to camp and spend a few minutes reconnecting in person opposed to via technology. Plus he brought me Reese's Peanut Cups and our diner lunch involved Chicken Strips. I was a very happy girlfriend.

{three}

I've become very aware of the fact grocery shopping is my happy place. Being in the kitchen cooking makes me feel calm and relaxed and I love a trip to the grocery store. My big activity for the afternoon is going to be browsing the flyer, making a grocery list and slowly wandering through the aisles. My meals at camp are technically all taken care of by our camp cooks. But there are some times I don't like what's being served. (Shepherd's Pie is the devil as far as I'm concerned.) I like to have some individual freezer meals stashed away for those times and also for times when I just don't feel like eating grilled cheese for the hundredth time this summer. 

{four}

Speaking of food at camp...Clif Bars are going to be a saving grace this summer. I try to avoid the standard pre-packaged quaker type granola bars because it's basically like eating a chocolate bar. I realize the Clif Bars aren't super fantastic amazing food. I feel a little better about eating one of them though opposed to something else. Plus they taste amazing. I'm a big fan of the Chocolate Almond Fudge and Crunchy Peanut Butter. I can't see myself getting on board with Oatmeal Raisin Walnut or Blueberry Crisp. 

{five}

I'm not sure why I'm struggling to come up with a fifth favourite thing this week. There's certainly been lots of good moments. I'm looking forward to the summer. I feel like things are under control, the chaos is organized and the pieces are all falling in to place.

 

It's A Fine, Fine Life

Allie from Reckless is hosting a brand new link up focused on sharing what we've been liking about life lately. And the timing could not be better. Last week was rough. I'll be the first to admit I was not a nice person to be around. Without any real reason I was tired and cranky and just couldn't shake the grumpiness.

Thankfully, this is a new week.

And It's a Fine, Fine Life.

I live in an amazing country. Sometimes I wish I had easier access to Vanilla Coke, Chick-Fil-A and the mythical Cookie Butter I can't disagree with the majority of things on this list. Canada isn't perfect but I am sure am happy to live here.

I can walk into a grocery store and have thousands of food options right at my finger tips. Coffee, broccoli, chicken, bacon, spices from all over the world. And if you really stop and think about it for more than a few seconds that fact alone is absolutely incredible.

I have two amazingly phenomenal best friends. No matter how major or minor a crisis is I know I can count on them to talk me through it or give me a dose of perspective. We haven't been friends forever but they are certainly my forever friends.

I've got a wonderful boyfriend who doesn't always understand my thought processes but tries his best. Who always says good morning & good night and who goes out of his way to ease my anxious thoughts. Plus he makes me laugh, which is equally as important.

It's easy to get caught up in the anxiety. The pressure to be successful in other people's eyes and to always have answers about "what comes next" can be overwhelming. At the end of the day though I have a whole lot to be thankful about in this life. 

Five Friday Favourites

{one}

I've never watched a single second of any show that beings with the words "Real Housewives". And I've also never watched more than 5 minutes of any given Bachelor/Bachelorette season. I love reality TV but that particular brand of reality TV just doesn't interest me.

Except that I started watching Hockey Wives and those ladies are a combination of hot messes, entitled brats and really down to earth moms who are trying their best to raise their kids admit a lot of job uncertainty and constant moving. It's got me hooked and I'm not saying is high quality educational TV, but I think it's worth a watch. 

{two}
Tuesday I was a mess. I was not having a good day and was feeling totally overwhelmed. The city decided somewhat last minute that they were closing the streets for parking so they could do snow clearing, which meant that in the middle of work I had to scramble to find a parking spot, which makes me feel ridiculous anxious and stressed. The last thing I needed that day was to get my car towed. In the end J. saved the day and moved my car to a safe location. He also earned some major boyfriend points when I went out to my car after work I discovered he left a slice of pizza on the seat of my car. I'm not promoting eating ones feelings, but sometimes a girl just needs a slice of pizza after a long day. Definitely a favourite moment of the week.

{three}
Yesterday, it rained. I'm talking full on water droplets falling from the sky making puddles rain. This made me happy for two reasons the most obvious just being that I love rainy days. The second is that rain means the temperature was above 0 for the first time in months. It was warm enough for water to fall from the sky without freezing! Rumour has it we might see +5 degrees this weekend! Which at this point is tropical. Spring might actually be on it's way!

{four}

Watermelon Lemonade candles from Bath & Body works make me feel like summer is a little closer. Around here we don't have much of a spring, odds are good there will still be snow on the ground in May. It's way too early to open all the windows and enjoy a spring breeze so I'm settling for lighting this candle and imaging summer. 

{five}

Writing. One of my March Goals was to write more often, flexing my creative muscle if you will. I've discovered it's about finding opportunities to be creative. Doodling and embellishing my to do lists, or when I'm on the phone. I've also had the chance to really sit down and write and I'm still not exactly where I want to be but it's a goal I'm going to continue working on because writing is my favourite!

                             

                                  

Birthday Eve Eve

Monday is my 25th birthday. 25 is one of those birthdays that feels like a big deal. You've lived a quarter of a century. You've survived your teens, your early twenties and now you're closer to 30 than 15 which is probably an indication you need to get your life together. 

Last year when I turned 24 I wrote a post where I made 24 wishes, one for each candle on my cake. (You can read it here.) I was reading through it this morning and found myself laughing out loud at the ways in which some of those wishes have been granted over the past year. And how some of things I wished for are no longer things I want. 

#3 A lovely committed boyfriend who loves camp and is okay with watching Disney movies J has never been to camp in his life. And he won't watch Disney movies because he wants to wait to watch them again with his kids. He is lovely & committed just the same and it doesn't matter that he isn't a camp person or a secret love of watching Disney movies.

#23 A MacBook Pro I bought one last week! It was time for an upgrade and I'm pleased with my purchase.

#5 Stack of Cash I did not open my mailbox one day to find a bunch of cash, but I do have a wonderful job and have been sticking to a budget and I have no complains about the state of my bank account at this time. 

#1 Grant Approval This happened in February and it was a great experience. It also confirmed my suspicion that I really don't want to live in the city. I loved my job, but I did not love living in the city and being far away from family.

#22 Being Paid to Browse Pinterest This didn't exactly happen the way I imagined, however at one point during the summer I was in the office at camp searching Pinterest for Staff Appreciation ideas and it occurred to me that I really was getting paid to browse Pinterest. 

#6 Red Hunter Rain boots I tried a pair of these on just before Christmas and as it turned out they were SO high on my short legs that they looked absolutely ridiculous. I haven't found a store around here that sells kids sizes so until I can figure out how to wear a pair and not look totally ridiculous. 

The Pioneer Woman has not moved next door and nobody follows me around playing guitar and singing about my life. I am still reliant on my glasses to see more than a foot in front of me and world peace has not been achieved but overall it's been a good year. I have a lot to be thankful for, a lot to celebrate and a lot to look forward to. I don't have any big plans for my birthday. I'll be working, J. is still on vacation (this family trip was booked long before we started dating), and H. & R. are provinces away. I'm very content with a quiet weekend and birthday though.