Thursday Thoughts

This week has felt eternally overwhelming. I've been plugging away at my to do list all week and now I've reached a stand still, there are still things to do, but before I do anything I need people to reply to e-mails and return phone calls. Which is pretty much my least favourite thing. In 9 out of 10 situations I'm a patient person, except when it comes to other people inhibiting my productivity. Then I just feel annoyed. I'm trying not to feel that way though. So I'm taking a deep breath, putting down my planner and taking a break from hitting the refresh button on my e-mail. 

I have been having the worst nightmares for almost two weeks now. I've been so focused on getting into a really good bedtime routine and the fact it's not working is the worst. I know I need to keep plugging away with it because eventually it will make a difference. 

The fall weather around here has been beautiful, highs are still in the high teens and nights are averaging a low of five. That is pure magic, I'm not even close to ready for below freezing temperatures. Or winter driving or mountains of snow or anything else that typically happens around here from November - April.

I take a little bit of pride in being a really good gift giver. I enjoy the process of shopping for others and finding things that I know the gift receiver will love. That was before J. came along. His birthday is the beginning of November and I have no idea what to get him. He definitely doesn't need any clothes and although he loves sports he also has a lot of memorabilia. For Christmas I did the whole 12 months of dates thing, so that's out. 

Blue skies and white fluffy clouds are kind of amazing. We all know I love a good sunset but I've been missing out on blue skies and cotton candy clouds. 

I've been thinking lately about how I need to do something with my 25x25 list. I'm not sure I want to go with the obvious 30x30 and 101 in 1001 seem like too much of a challenge. I know I want to do the Project Life Project 52 next year (basically just committing to doing a spread each week for the entire year) so I'm thinking maybe coming up with a 52 in 52 list. My SMART Goal loving self loves the idea of knowing that in order to complete the challenge I need to do one thing a week. And doing one thing a week seems totally attainable. 

This week is Thanksgiving here in Canada and I'm mostly excited for stuffing. I don't really like turkey all that much but I am all about the stuffing. And mashed potatoes with gravy. And probably dessert. 

I'm linking up with Stuff & Things  today!

'Twas The Day After Christmas

I had such a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. God is good. 

Christmas Eve we had supper at my aunt & uncle's before church then we went to church where my cousin's baby was baptized. Afterwards we all went back to my aunt & uncle's and just enjoyed each other's company. Watching the excitement of my three year old cousin A. was the absolute best. We had given baby M. a present for her baptism and didn't want A. to feel left out so we brought a little something for her too. (And by little something I mean a single Christmas ornament that we found at Wal-Mart for under $5.) When she found out she was allowed to open it then she carefully but enthusiastically tore off the pink paper and squealed with delight and yelled "A decoration!" then she ran around the room to show everyone her new "decornation" and simultaneously offering up a "sank you". I also loved watching her in church as she proudly stood up on the pew, hymn book in hand and sang her heart out. I am so thankful for her and pray with every fibre of my being someday it's my little girl keeping everyone entertained Christmas.

Christmas Day we opened presents and I was seriously blessed. My biggest surprise present was a Magic Bullet Deluxe set with a bunch of different blades and attachments for the cups! I haven't gotten a change to try it out yet but I see A LOT of smoothies in my future. And homemade salsa. And iced coffee. I may even attempt to recreate Second Cup's Frozen Hot Chocolate! 

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I also got an amazing gift from my friend who I met through church back when I was in university. We send each other a Christmas package and I was so excited when I opened this on Christmas morning. At this point you all know how much I love words of affirmation and I love how much thought went into this gift. I'm using a lot of willpower not to read all those little notes right away but I really do want to save them and read one each day in 2014. I've also been thinking about how I need to get back into journalling with a real pen & paper. The next time I'm in town I'm going to pick up a notebook and for each day of 2014 I will glue in the quote I pick from the jar each day and scribble down a few words about the day, draw a few doodles, and by the end of the year I'll have an amazing scrapbook. I think I even have a blank Smash* Book that might be perfect for this project. That's a post for another time though...back to Christmas!

I got some great new clothes including this hoodie that has been on my wish list for months! 

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I also got some new make up, a supply of body washes & lotions to last well into the new year and a few gift cards to spend once things quiet down a little. 

And of course the kitties got some new toys too. 

We enjoyed Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then spent the evening with my mom's side. I can't put into words how thankful I am to have so many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. And that family really is a priority. I can't imagine growing up without cousins and aunts and grandparents, but I know that for so many it's hard to imagine growing up with that kind of extended family. Mine certainly isn't perfect and there was the usual arguments about how many chairs we need and the uncles probably had one too many glasses of homemade wine but that's life. 

I'm off to spend the rest of the day enjoying the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives marathon on the Food Network making homemade pizzas for supper and visiting with a family friend this evening. I hope everyone is enjoying time with family & friends! 

Girl Between The Lines

I am really excited to be linking up with one of my long time favourite bloggers Hayley, and one of my recently discovered bloggers, Lauren for the first week of The Girl Between The Lines link up! I don't know about everyone else but I love reading about people. I enjoy reading about bloggers' daily adventures too, but my favourite posts are usually ones that are about the person behind the blog. Today's prompt is to share a picture of yourself along with three things that you love about yourself.

(I'll preface this by saying I hate pictures of myself, so much that I almost skipped out on participating today. And since I lost my hard drive a few weeks ago I don't have any pictures on my laptop I had to resort re-posting a photo I've shared before.)

Three Things I Love About Myself

I have a really good memory! I remember little details about people without much effort and sometimes I have to hold back on making reference to these details because I'm scared people will think I'm a total creeper. I promise I don't spend hours stalking Facebook and blog posts I just have a weird ability to remember that one time six months ago when you mentioned your favourite cartoon character for a week when you were three. I love that I'm able to remember the details and use them to make people happy. 

I'm a really good gift giver! This one pairs nicely with the first one, being about to remember little details about people means I am a pretty awesome gift giver. I will go to great lengths to track down a specific item I'm looking for and if I can't find it I'll get creative and make it myself! I love that I'm able to show love by putting thought and creativity into gifts for others. 

I'm creative! I enjoy writing, doodling, scrapbooking, crafting, decorating, ect. Anything where I can experiment with colours, textures and just lose myself in what I'm creating. I know there are people who hate the idea of writing for pleasure or sitting down for hours with piles of papers and photos to create something from nothing, but I am the complete opposite. I love that I'm able to express myself so easily. 

Playing Catch Up

Oh my, I didn't plan on taking so many days off from blogging but Saturday night I came down with a stomach bug. Sunday I was absolutely miserable, I couldn't eat or drink anything, I just slept all day. Yesterday I still felt crummy but I had an appointment in town at 9 a.m. to complete some more paper work for the never ending grant project. I managed to to pull myself together to go in but it took longer than I was expecting and the whole time I just wanted to sleep. When it was finally over I high tailed it home, took some Gravol and slept until supper time. I managed to crawl out of bed long enough to sip some tea and eat some crackers. Today I'm feeling better, but I'm still exhausted. It's barely 11 a.m. and I'm already anticipating bedtime. Not a great way to start off December!

While I was busy being sick I got way behind in the blog world. When I checked Bloglovin' last night there were over 60 unread posts! I'm looking forward to a lazy day snuggled on the couch with a cup of tea catching up on everyone's Thanksgiving celebrations! Before I get to that though I want to link up for the last instalment of "These Are A Few of My Favourie Things" Link Up with Elise & Jen to share some of my favourite gifts that are under >$100! As a matter of fact, all of these gifts are under $50!

Who doesn't love a new mug to sip tea or coffee out of on a cold winer day? I really like filling the mug with K-Cups, individual hot chocolate packages or a gift card to Tim Horton's! I think it's the perfect Secret Santa gift and depending on the mug & what you put inside you can easily keep it under budget!

I adore board games! Apples to Apples is one of my favourites. I think board games make great gifts because it's something you can play during holiday gatherings, but you can get lots of use out of it all year round too! I always have at least one board game on my Santa list!

The past few years TV Shows on DVD have been a bit gift in our house! We've all got favourite shows that we like to re-watch and Dad loves DVDs of the shows he watched growing up (think, M*A*S*H).

I have yet to meet a female who doesn't love new pyjamas! And if you want something a little more expensive, you can always pair it with a mug/gift card or DVD and give the recipient all the ingredients for a cozy night in!

One of my favourite parts of Christmas is admiring all of the ornaments on the tree and reminiscing about where each ornament came from and who gave it to us. Christmas Ornaments  can make great really personal presents, either you're lucky enough to stumble upon the perfect one in store or you find a great DIY to make one or you are able to purchase something generic and add a monogram or engraving.

I mentioned before that one of my favourite gifts to give to friends is to fill a stocking with a whole bunch of their favourite things! I'm working on gathering things to make a few of them right now and it's so much fun to just pick up little things that I know they're going to love. 

Check back tomorrow when I link up with Erica to recap my November Goals and publicly declare goals for December!

Stocking Stuffers!

I absolutely love stockings. Some people dream about going to the pumpkin patch to take family pictures with their husband and babies. I dream about monogrammed stockings. I can't wait until I can hang stockings over the fireplace with mine and my husband's on either side and 3-4 stockings in between for the kiddos. 

Etsy

As kids (and even know) my brother and I always opened our stockings first before any of the other presents. Santa also took the time to wrap all of the individual things in our stockings, which I love and plan on doing with my own kids. I had all kinds of pretty pictures for last week's wish list post but I quickly realized my favourite stocking stuffers don't make very interesting photos. So, this week's post will be in list form!

Favourite Stocking Stuffers

Lip Chap & Lip Gloss 

Mascara

Nail Polish

Hand Cream

Face Wipes

Hair Accessories

Candy

Fun Socks

Stickers

Pens

Tape

Notebooks

Ornament 

I think stockings are so much fun! There's lots room to be creative (one year my stocking was entirely scrapbooking supplies and another it was all camp things). I've even put together stockings as gifts for friends before and they've been very well received!

Don't forget to link up your favourite stocking stuffers here or here!