stop and smell the snails

Look! snail!



We decided to call him Frank.





Mia watching snail in his temporary digs.



We released him to the great outdoors the next morning.
It was awesome.

chasing gratitude

I have allot to be grateful for.
All of us do.
I'd like to get into the habit of counting these things off each day - not so much as an exercise but more as a way of life.
Kinda like praying under your breath - a way to acknowledge and remember.
It's too easy, in the busy day to day, to forget what I DO have - in the constant pursuit of what I don't.

I think we could all do with a little stock taking if you will. An inventory list of what is right and good and great.

Think I'll start with the obvious:
~ my healthy, happy baby

santa's on his way

I try, year after year to make it happen. I really do.
I have the loftiest of intentions. I resolve to have Christmas cards ready and mailed, I agonize over the cards themselves and buy enough to send to all my far flung family and friends but somehow....the cards remain in their boxes and the season passes and I end up putting them away till the following Christmas where I unearth them only to decide I need a fresh pack.
We have a lot of Christmas cards.

This year was going to be different.
This year, cards would go out AND they would not only arrive on time but they would also include a lovely photo of my two girls in matching dresses in a festive scene.
I made the date, I got the two mice in their dresses and off we went.

You can see what I got.

Amalia Rose was so terrified by the bearded guy she lost her mind.
Bad Santa!
Anika, the little trooper, did an admirable job posing.

I had to laugh and well, cards will go out this year but they won't be on time and they won't have a photo of Santa but they will be special none the less.

After a long day working in the shops, Dutch Husband and the girls came to get me and we headed out to Kits Beach.
The idea was a stroll along the waters edge to hunt for beach glass.
I love beach glass.
I have a little antique silverplated creamer filled with last summers treasure and am hoping to build up our budding collection.

Hunting for beach glass is fun.
Unfortunately, those lovely tumbled bits of magic are hard to come by, so we also tend to gather other treasures - bits of tumbled shell or pretty pebbles.

Watching the sunset we decided it was officially time to go home but Anika felt we had to stay a bit longer since "we haven't found enough pretty things together"
I swear, she said this.
It made me do a little happy dance inside.
I did however point out that, yes, we had found a few pieces of shell and some glass together and that tomorrow was indeed, another day.

Unfortunately, I will be in the shops all day and the girls will go to the beach with their loving daddy - I will meet up with my brood after we close for the day.
The waters edge and it's infinite treasures awaits.

My juggle of business and motherhood continues...

life lessons

I have been baking cupcakes allot lately.
Allot.
Bad enough that I end up eating most of them - me and cupcakes/fish with bicycle - not so necessary.

They aren't even the good homemade-from-scratch-cuz-I-am-amazing-mom-of-the-year-material.
They are from a box.
A box purchased at SuperStore.
Insert gasp and clutching of pearls here.

I'm even eating one now, as I write this.

How did this happen?
I think there was some vague idea that I should start honing my cupcake skills for future school bake sales and fundraisers.
After all Amalia Rose is almost a year old, any moment now I will be called upon to provide some sort of baked good for some sort of event. Right?

I had some notion that cupcakes, like a good soup, would be difficult to master and was a skill I'd best start working on right away.
I decided that to come out of the gate with a 'win' was best, shore up my confidance as it were, thus the box of cake mix. How can you f-up a box of cake mix?

Apparantly, you can't. It comes out 'perfect' every time.
Spongy, moist and oh so perfect.
Every. Time.
And easy.
I can rock star a batch of cupcakes for a crew of hubbies buddies in forty minutes from start to finish.

I have become "TBW" (the better wife) amongst hubbies friends.
Hubby is basking in the reflected glow from my cupcake glory.

How can I possibly now risk trying a real recipe? the box is so...so...easy.

growing pains

It is now 4:16 am.
Still time to be sleeping.
I am not.
Baby has two new teeth and countless others that are tormenting her and subsequently...me.
I have been up twice now to soothe her.
I am no longer sleepy.
I know that she will cry out again in an hour or so.
I seem to be back to those nights of two hours sleep at a time.

No one really warns you about this.

I'm finding that there are allot of things that no one really tells you about.

I guess if you really knew what you were in for you might think twice and then where would we all be?

I met a woman the other day who had raised seven kids.
She told me it was a conspiracy the way we women forget.
I guess that explains the seven kids.

Finding the balance of business woman and mom is an ongoing challenge. Add to the juggling act - wife, lover, elderly parent caregiver, taxicab, boss and loyal friend.
I know that I am not alone and I do take comfort in that.
I also appreciate just how fortunate I truly am - I run my own business and get to have my baby with me.
I am a lucky girl.
A stressed out girl, but darn it, lucky lucky lucky.

Today was a day filled with life's little, and not so little challenges.
I found myself this afternoon needing a good cry.
Sometimes the strain of being a grownup can be too much and a good cry seems to be not only necessary, but right.

I feel better now.
The world is still big and scary and challenging but it's also still full of possibility, hope and magic.