What a Week.........!

That pretty much sums up my week lol. I've had one of the busiest weeks in a long time. Not to say it hasn't been a good week because it has.  I just haven't been this on the go in a long time. It felt nice to have a change of pace though, as sometimes you need to do that for a little excitement and to step out of the box a bit so to speak.

I had Juli's school and activities this week, a few overviews for my Motivated Moms business, getting Jean-Pierre ready for his new job, all of the usual house chores, quite a few errands to run, one of my best friends coming into town from Winnipeg with her 7 month old daughter, and in all that I still found some time to do a few things for me.  As I said - busy lol! I was literally on the go for three days straight.

I'm most excited though about Naomi coming into town. I haven't seen her since she was pregnant and it was the pure highlight of my week.  It's nice to have something like that to look forward to.  Meeting her little girl and getting those beautiful smiles was one of the best things. Warms my heart!  Smiles from a little baby like that is the most natural and innocent things there is.  I held her and felt her play with my necklace and my hair.  I loved it.

Brought back so many lovely memories of when Juli was that age and she used to do that.  I had forgotten over the past few years.  Was so nice to remember.  While holding her in my arms it was like the rest of the world disappeared and I lost track of all that was on my mind. It's awesome that babies have the power to do that for you.

Naomi is here for the next week and I plan on getting in as much time with Shayna as I can. Not sure when I'll get to see her again in person.  We are having a visit with my Dad and Mum today as they haven't seen Naomi in many years.  Going to be a lovely visit that I am looking so forward to!  As well, Juli is meeting Shayna today and I am super excited about that too. Juli loves babies and is so good with them. Shayna is so bouncy and energetic. It is going to be an exciting day to say the least.

Then it is going to be a weekend about family.  We're going to be seeing a lot of Jean-Pierre's family and that is going to be special. His brother and wife are in from England and I am so happy he is going to get to see them.  We don't get to very often and it is treasured time when we do.  Family is so important and means the world to us.

So all in all my weekend is going to match my week on the busy level, but it will be a good kind of busy.

Then next week begins the new chapter. I can say I am so proud of Jean-Pierre and I hope he knows that.

Well, I am going to go attack the weekend! I will let you know how it goes.  Just remember to enjoy what you do as it goes so fast!

Counting my Blessings

April 29th, 2012 is my 12th wedding anniversary.  With all the chaos of the  past week we decided to celebrate quietly as a family just the three of us. We spent a nice afternoon together and just went for a drive and did some some shopping at Fairview the local mall.  It was one of the best days I've had in a while.  The day was beautiful, a bit chilly but sunny and lovely none the less. It was a quiet day and I spent it with the ones that mean the most to me.

One thing I try to do no matter how crazy and hectic life gets - and trust me this past week is right up there - is to count my blessings.  These kind of days really bring this back to heart.  Really reminds me what I have. I do think about what I've lost (Katie) always will - and this makes me all the more thankful for being blessed with a husband that loves me and totally hyper soon to be 3 year old that shows me her love and happiness everyday.

It is so very important to treasure what you have and to show appreciation for it. I know for a fact how precious it is and how fast it can be gone in an instant. I make sure that everyday I show Juli knows how much she is loved and that we are there for her. I do the same for Jean-Pierre. My dad taught me one thing when I was growing up that has stuck in my head to this day: When you leave the house (to go any where) or are on the phone with someone you love and are hanging up, no matter whether you will see them again in 5 minutes or 5 hours. ALWAYS tell them you love them before you leave or before you hang up.

This is one thing I make sure I do all the time. If you get into the habit of this then it becomes natural and you know you will always do it. It may be one of the most important things you do in your day.  Can't say I love you too many times to someone in a day....

Another thing I know is that things can change so fast in life. My life is so different today from what is was a year ago. It surprises me when I look back on the past year.

Julianna is in preschool and she absolutely loves it. She has flourished so much. Jean-Pierre is starting a new path in life and I'm so proud of him. I've been working from home for a while now and I'm loving it. I'm able to give the time and energy to Julianna that she deserves and we are all going down happier paths and seeing a brighter future that is going to take us to interesting places.

We have all worked hard and now things are starting to happen for us all.  It is going to be a great adventure and I'm looking forward to starting it. I have goals I have set for my birthday and I'm looking forward to achieving them. I'm looking forward to be able to participate in all of Juli's school activities that are coming up. Something I couldn't do with Katie.  Going to be really nice!!

Now to begin good week.  Work on getting back on track and getting things done.  Now that the craziness (or better described as the more than usual craziness) of last week has subsided I can now focus on getting back to a more normal schedule and getting this accomplished.

Looking forward to it!!

Well that is my little bit of sentimental talk for now.  Back to life!

Positive Side Up!

Be positive.....

This is something that I really learned a lot about in the last year and found it to be so true.  What you think is what you attract.  If you are always negative you will attract negative people. If you are positive then positive people will be drawn to you.  Like minded people are often found together - it is a known fact.

I have experienced this so much this year.  When things aren't working out and get frustrating, I take a step back and look at what I'm thinking and how I'm reacting.  When I do that, I often find that I have been thinking something like "why do things always go wrong" or "why can't something go right".  When you change that thought to "today will be a better day" or "things are going to work out better today", just that slight change in thought and you will find that it will change the whole outcome of the day.

Now don't think this is easy as it definitely isn't. It may be a big change, but it might just be one of the best ones you make to help improve your life.  It took me about 6 months to learn to start applying it in my daily life. But I'm not one that adjusts to change very well as my close friends know all to well about me :).

But if you need a change then it is probably one that you should try first as it only takes you to do it and it doesn't cost anything.  I just woke up one day close to my birthday last year and realized that I was getting too old to be unhappy all the time and I wanted a change and to start enjoying life and feeling good more than feeling bad. So I listened to what many of my "happy" friends were telling me to do and I finally allowed myself to really "hear" what they were advising and try to apply it.

For many things in your life you are the one that decides how you feel and react. No one can make you feel sad or bad. You have control over that all the way. You decide how you want to feel or how something will affect you. You can decide if a cloudy day will allow you to feel depressed or if you will turn that around and have it be a good thing.  Have it give you the opportunity to get some organizing done that you've been wanting to do but avoiding doing because you don't want to stay in on a sunny weekend.

Almost everything can be turned around to be reflected in a positive light. Are you a "glass half full" type of person or a "glass half empty" type of person. You have to choose to be the half full type.  And for a while it might mean reminding yourself that the glass is half full and to look for the positives, but after a while you will start to see them from the beginning.

Choose to live more positive emotionally. It will only bring good for yourself and your self-esteem.  Also try and live day to day as much you can when it comes to the basics. Don't worry about things too far into the future as you can't change them now and you never know if they will end up happening.  That used to be something I did all the time.  Until I realized how much time I was spending worrying and on top of it worrying about things that never ended up turning out the way I was worrying they were going to in the first place...  Way too much negativity on my body and mind.

Well those are my "be happy and love yourself" tips for the day :).  I hope they help you as much as they have helped me so far.

My Crazy Life :)....

Welcome to my crazy life.  I try to think positively about life.  You need to.  I love life.  And I do believe that I'm lucky! It does get crazy busy, and crazy fun at times. Between my almost 3 year old Juli (and all of her activities), my family (being a wife and all that comes with it), my business, awesome friends, hobbies and just finding time for myself things can get busy.

I love working from home. It means that I can take care of Julianna and be there for her, but that I can also bring in an income and help my family. That is important for me. I can let her do half days at school and be there to get her at lunch and take her to swimming in the afternoons. Take her to play dates or just Mommy + Juli shopping dates at the mall... It's the best of both worlds. Truly one of the best decisions I ever made.

I'm also extremely environmentally conscientious. I know that we need to treat the Earth right so that She can be there for our children. They need to have a healthy planet to grow up on. This is extremely important. I recycle everything I possibly can and always do my part. There are so many harmful things out there today. I'm always educating people about this. Deep passion of mine.

But between all that and being a wife I make the effort to find time for me. It is one of the most important things I have learned. If I don't take care of me I can't take care of them. Took me a long time to learn this. So I make the time do things for me. Exercise - I love Yoga and Pilates. My soaps - yes I am a big soap fan lol. Reading - my Kindle gets a good work out. Photography - a big passion of mine that I love to indulge in. And last, but I think one of the most important Genealogy - I'm compiling our family history so that my daughter will know as much of her roots as possible.

I took this idea from my late grandfather and have really developed a passion for it. I recently also discovered that one of my close friends has a passion for it is well so we make the effort to work on it together. Discovering your past and all about your ancestors is such an amazingly fun thing to do and it is very time absorbing. You can really lose yourself in it. You can learn so much about yourself too. It has been very inspiring for me.

Most important of all though: be true to yourself. Life is too short to not be happy. I finally came to understand that at the end of last year and have been working really hard this year to put this into action. You have to remove the negative from your life and focus on the positive.  I didn't want to look back 10 years from now and realize that I have been unhappy.  Realize that I could have focused on better things for my daughter and myself. The time to change this is now. So I have worked very hard on this.  I think I have done a pretty decent job so far.

When you think positive you attract that into your life.  Things are changing for us and Juli is a very happy child. I'm taking better care of myself and those are the important things.