Experiencing a breakthrough

A few weeks ago, I posted about some changes I had started going through. I continued to work on myself over those weeks, but then, while on vacation, I had a breakthrough.

All the feelings of not feeling quite like myself came to a halt.

Peace and deep internal happiness surfaced.

My mind started clearing up, and my heart flourished.

Somethings that seemed so hard to reach, like finding my old laid back self again, were attained.

A good friend of mine pointed out to me, that feeling zen is not about where I am, it's within me. So I can always find and be myself, no matter where I am. I came back from vacation, determined to remain in this zen state I experienced while away. And I have, for the most part.

I must say, the universe has put me to the test within only a few days of returning. And while I won't go into the details of what has happened, I will say that I was briefly thrown out of my zen state (I say thrown because it felt like I was hit by a bus). But after talking with amazing friends and a cheesecake and green tea outing and a good night sleep later, I feel zen again. It was all just a bump in the road and I can only be impacted by negativity if I allow it. And I don't. Maybe I did a few months ago, maybe I did briefly yesterday, but not anymore.

I am loving this new/old me!

Being positive feels SO good!

Life is too beautiful and too short to not live it fully in a happy, kind, positive and loving way.

I have been meditating almost daily for the past while, which has made such a huge difference for me! It really helps me put things in perspective, helps me calm down if I feel stressed, helps me reflect.

Life is not about reaching a destination, but about choosing what path you want to go on and the journey you experience on it. ~ Me

Deep right? Ha! I am feeling so excited about turning 30 next week, now that I've experienced this huge breakthrough! If it feels this amazing to grow spiritually and know yourself better at 30, I can't wait to see what the rest of my life brings!

In love and light,

Stephanie xx

Beautiful Prince Edward Island

Before I tell you about our vacation, let me show you what the air "looked like" the day before we left.

With about 300 fires in British Columbia and another fire in Northern Alberta that day, and add to that strong winds... well, our air quality was poor. Going for a short walk outside would have meant coming back in smelling like a camp fire. Though it's not a smell I mind (when I'm camping), imagine what it can do to your lungs. They were calling for another 2-3 days of poor air quality when we were leaving. I guess we had good timing!

The kids had as much fun at the Edmonton airport, as they did during the vacation ;)

Our airport has such an awesome playground, the kids were sad to leave, ha!

The kids were so awesome on the plane! They are used to traveling, so being on a plane was not much different to them. My son even got his sister's flu from the day before and was throwing up by the end of this flight, and yet he was still being good about it all. What a great little guy!

We spent our vacation in beautiful Prince Edward Island, on the East coast of Canada. My hubby is from there, I lived there with him for 6 years (until we moved to Alberta 3 years ago) and our children were both born there. It was so nice to be back home for a few days! We attended a wedding, visited family, spent lots of time with Grammy and Grampy and of course, I just had to get to the beach with the kids!

We collected lots of sea shells, sea glass and scooped lots of sand. I think I was more of a child than my own children once we got to the beach. I just couldn't stop myself from picking every beautiful rock, every tiny piece of glass, every perfect seashell. I even brought back some of the seashells, rocks, beach glass and a bag of red sand for some decoration projects :)

But the kids definitely helped too!

There was a lot of running. The water at this particular beach was surprisingly warm.

And the weather was perfect the entire time we were there.

What a great vacation!

{this moment}

Soaking up the Prince Edward Island sun.

{this moment} - (inspired by Soule Mama) A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Note: I know I've been missing for over a week, but I ran out of time last week and I didn't get the chance to let you know we were leaving for vacation to the the East coast to stay in beautiful Prince Edward Island and visit my hubby's family. Today is our first full day at home and I have more laundry and unpacking than I care to do. And I have yet to figure out how our place got so dusty in the week we were gone. So I will take the weekend to clean, unpack, organize, cook, bake and catch up on rest and I will be back on Monday with a whole lot of things to share with you!

I wish you all a fantastic weekend and I'm looking forward to sharing all that we have been up too!

Stephanie xx

Wandering Wednesday

A couple weeks ago, while traveling to Drumheller, Alberta, we found ourselves wandering on a suspended bridge. The kind where your hanging a 100 feet over a flowing river. I paused briefly with my daughter to take this picture, but looking down made me feel a bit queasy. The combination of the bridge having a "see through" bottom and it being able to shake with the wind and people walking on it left me all but confident while crossing. Strangely enough, holding my daughter's hand made me feel better. Every time I look at this picture, it will remind me of how this amazing little 3 year old was able to reassure me, just by holding my hand. Give me confidence, just by holding my hand. Every time I look at our feet in this picture, they will remind me of us holding hands.

Inspired by Garden Mama and her Wandering Wednesday posts.

Salt dough sculptures

A little while ago, on a rainy day, I decided the kids and I would try a new salt dough recipe to make some creations with.

You see, we had made some ornaments last December, using Christmas cookie cutters, to give as presents for the special people in our lives and the recipe we had tried failed miserably. They just would not cook properly, even though I left them in the oven double the time, and then let them air dry for a few days. They would break and crumble. So those presents never happened. We have since tried another salt dough recipe that also did not work, so I had given up...

Until I stumbled upon this recipe over at Wee Folk Art. Michelle's project looked beautiful and it obviously worked for her, so I decided to give salt dough one more shot.

We made some creatures (see my snail in the middle?), some ammonites, a bowl, flower, worm and Arianne even made some chocolate chip cookies ;)

Then I baked them according to directions and to be safe, we waited until the next day to paint.

The kids had a great time, it kept them busy on a rainy day AND now I know we can make some ornaments to give away as presents this year that will actually hold together!

Just be careful though, my sun and flower did not survive (though I could just use a hot glue gun). But if it's mostly in 1 piece, it works like a charm!

Mission accomplished!

A day at the beach

Yesterday, we spent the entire day at the beach. We had such a good time, soaking up the sunshine and...

Digging in the sand

Discovering colorful moths on tree branches,

Getting wet in the lake,

Getting buried in the sand,

Digging ourselves out of the sand,

Building sandcastles and all that other fun stuff that goes on during a day at the beach.

My kids were so happy they were grinning from ear to ear all day long.

And so was I :)

It was a perfect summer day!

{this moment}

this moment} - (inspired by Soule Mama) A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Internal changes

A few months ago, I started feeling the need for change. A change on a emotional and spiritual level. I was not sure why, but I new it was important for me to run with it. I started reading books such as Eat Pray Love, Quantum Wellness, The essence of Buddhism, and Living Yoga. I started reflecting on motherhood and the type of mother I was at the beginning when I had my children, and the one I became. Started asking myself if who I am is really who I want to be.

Then it hit me why I was asking myself all these questions, and feeling such a deep need for change.

You see, in 4 weeks, I'm turning 30. The big 3-0.

When I was about to turn 20, I went through something similar, but it was much more superficial at the time. My challenge was all about where I was in life and what I was doing (such as school and work).

This time around, it's all about who I am.

Am I the kind of mother I want to be?

Am I the kind of person I want to be?

Am I as artistic and spiritual person I want (used) to be?

The answers? No, no, no and no.

So how to I achieve this?

Well, I'm working on it.

First, starting this blog really helped me to start slowing our lives down, and noticing the small yet happy moments in life. I am doing more crafts with the kids, we collect nature treasures when we go for walks weather we are in our little town or out camping, and I stopped rushing the kids when we go on outings. The latest made a huge difference in the kids behaviour when we go out, and consequently, it makes me more happy and unstressed. All this really is making a huge difference to help me become the kind of mother I want to be. Helping me to return to a more laid back attitude, though this takes lots of work and time. I've also been meditating, exercising and doing more creative things, as these are all things that relaxes me and make me happy. All these things are interconnected. They make me happier, then I become a better person and mother.

I knew I had been neglecting myself for a long while, but putting it down on "paper" really makes me realize just how much I need to take better care of myself. I am no good to my kids or anyone else if I cannot take care of myself.

I get that turning 30 is just a number and in the grand scheme of things, it's not much. I get that turning 30 does not mean that I have to "race" for the next 4 weeks to achieve the best ME possible and that there is no winning medal on my birthday if I achieve this by then.

But it's all been a definite eye opener that NOW is a great time to start working on me.

There is no better time than now.

Our camping adventure in dinosaur land...

For a camping trip, this last one was certainly packed full of discoveries and adventures.

We headed to Drumheller, Ab for the first time. There was so many mosquitoes, that we were unable to even spend anytime outside our camper. We ate in it, played in it. Yes, mosquitoes were that bad. Even with bug repellent. Our faces, arms and legs are proof.

But...

There was so many things to see!

We climbed all the way to the top of this giant dinosaur

And here is the view of the town once at the top. Oh, and the kids and I. A rare picture of me, but for once I remembered to ask my hubby to take a quick snapshot. So that's me. Hi! :)

We crossed a hanging bridge at one of the old cole mines that used to be in the area.

The view there is unlike anything I've seen in the province. They call them the bad lands, and when you go there, you truly have the feeling that you are entering a different time period, because of the scenery.

I am so glad my son asked me to take a picture of him on this dinosaur, outside of our campground. I just love this one!

And then there was the dinosaur museum (aka The Royal Tyrrell Museum). I had forgotten how much I love museums... What can I say, I'm a nerd at heart! No pictures can do justice to what we saw there. But all I can say, is if you ever have the chance to check it out, do it!

Needless to say, after this week, my kids will be playing all kinds of pretend dinosaur games! What a great experience!

Am I seeing this right?

We are back home from our camping trip and we had a great time. So many new things we experienced! And while I plan on telling (and showing) you all about it on Monday, I had to show you this today.

We heard a different noise outside at 9am and we could not believe our eyes when we saw this:

There is a small airport outside (on the other side) of our town, and small planes fly over town from time to time, we had never seen this kind of flying around here.

This guy was amazing! He would fly as high as he could, and then just let himself fall down before turning the engines back on and continuing to fly, sometimes upside down. I'm not sure if he was showing off, or just practicing, but I could tell he was having a blast!

I guess living on the 3rd floor has it's perks sometimes, as it made these (and many more) photos possible. Well... that and my 300mm lens ;)

What a sight! I can't even begin to describe how excited the kids were to see this happening, right in front of our own home! I think it all made our day :)

Gone Camping

My hubby is home for his days off after a long 14 days away, so we are heading off for the rest of the week to Drumheller, for some camping, golfing with the kids, exploring the dinosaur museum and the bad lands for the first time and just trying to soak up some sunshine and quiet time around the campfire.

Wishing you a great week and "see" you when I get back!

Stephanie xox

Enchanted fairy party

I've always had a soft spot for fairies and toadstools. I mean, what's not to like?

Well I was not planning on writing a post today, but when I saw this post on Kara's Party Ideas this morning, I knew I wanted to share with all you nature, fairy, toadstool and Waldorf lovers out there. Because the details in this party are incredible.

You can see the whole party HERE. This was all created by the brilliant Amanda Parker.

Enchanting, isn't it?

I just love me a good deal!

Lately I've been scoring lots of great thrifty finds, and I just had to share!

First, I set out to find sandals and a dress for my daughter. So I went to Once Upon a Child, my favourite second hand shop for kids, and found all this great stuff! The sandals are from Old Navy and were never worn.

Can you believe the details on this sweater? I also scored some Melissa and Doug dinosaur magnets for the kids, bonus! And found these two dresses. Since I'm slightly obsessed about all things knit lately, I instantly fell in love with the dress on the left!

I usually shop there for my daughter, because their clothes are in such good condition (they are very picky with what they take in the store), for a fraction of the price. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has girls slightly older than Arianne, so I don't have any hand me downs for her. But on the other hand, I do have a friend who brings me her son's clothes when he outgrows them, and she just brought 2 boxes and a huge bag full of goodies for Ashton. He's set until at least next spring, if not later. And it's exactly the style of clothes he likes, and just in the right sizes. Perfect!

And then last week, I went to my local thrift store, and was ecstatic with my finds...

I found these two aprons (I didn't own any before and just decided I needed a few). I got both for $2.25. I plan on using them while I bake something messy, but I also wanted them for the kids to use when they do messy craft projects.

OK, so it might be a wee bit big for them, but it still works ;)

Another thing I didn't own was table cloths. And since I've been wanting to add some color into our home and we are not allowed to paint our white walls, I figured table cloths would be perfect. I wanted to find a used one to save money since I wanted one that had some kind of pattern on it and I knew it would be more expensive than a plain one, and because buying used means reducing your carbon footprint.

On the same day I found the aprons, I found this:

It's not the right size for my round table, obviously, but with my large white fruit bowl in the middle (not pictured here), it looks perfect! To me anyways :)

And I also found this yellow one (it has an Asian print on it).

So how much did these cost me? A whole $4 each!

Gotta love thrifting!