Gratitude

I just re-read my last post and felt my anxiety level go through the roof. I didn't think I was that stressed, to be honest.

It reminded me of Mrs. B's Gratitude post from a couple of weeks back, so I thought I'd try listing the things I'm grateful for in a bid to focus on more positive things.

1. I live in a beautiful place. My life is a postcard.

2. I have a pretty awesome significant other.

3. Said significant other is agreeable to buying a house with me.

4. We can afford to consider buying a place in this beautiful, expensive, postcard town.

5. I have family nearby.

6. My big crazy extended family may be crazy, but that's what makes them all the more awesome, and I love them for it.

7. My sister is coming to visit in a few months!

8. Bellydance troupe :)

9. I am strong and healthy.

10. Dairy-free pumpkin pie. YUMM!

There are many more things to list, but these are the first that come to mind.

Bahhhhgh!

Summer's nerves are a little more on edge than usual these days.

First of, the virtual inlaws have moved across the country to settle less than 20 mins away from our place. While it's lovely to have family in the area (especially such nice, grounded people) it's a new demand on our time and social life.

Second, one of my younger cousins(who is stubborn as hell) has been diagnosed with anorexia, and the whole dang extended family is in an uproar while her parents are locking horns with her every day trying to get her into treatment, or, you know, actually eat food.

Third, one of my favorite profs from back in the day passed away last week.

Fourth, the boy and I are house shopping. Nuff said, right? Oh, but then we saw one that we loved, so we made an offer!(gahhhh!) So we're buying a house. But then it was rejected, so we're not. Oh but wait! They changed their minds! We're may be buying a house again! or do we make an offer on another one that we really like as well? BAHHHHHH!

I've been alternating between cleaning everything in sight out of nervous energy and collapsing on the couch with not even enough motivation to get dinner together. My kitchen sinks had better watch out: they are in mortal danger of being scrubbed within an inch of their lives, or bing suffocated under a pile of unwashed dishes.

Thank goodness for dance practice tonight.

DIY....toothpaste?

Hello folks! The vacation was lovely, but alas it's over and it's time to get back into the swing of things. I have a workshop that I'm running for work at the end of the month that I need to prepare for, so I thought I'd accomplish two things at once and share what I'm working on with you fine folks on teh interwebz.

The project is a lunch'n learn on eco-personal care that I'm offering to our staff through our HR department. I did an info session on the toxins in our personal care for the artists in residence earlier in the summer and it got a really good response. The environmental committee was impressed with all the research I had done and my borderline-obsessive knowledge of the effects of toxic chemicals, and asked if I would be interested in running DIY sessions if they helped pay for the supplies. Of course I was!

I've asked people to request what they'd like to learn to make in our sessions, and the first request I had was for toothpaste. Personally, I'm a store-bought eco-toothpaste kind of girl (Green Beaver Frosty Mint is currently in my bathroom), but I figured I'd give it a try. The following recipe is from Adria Vasil's book Ecoholic (pg. 20, in the Canadian edition), which I believe she got from www.pioneerthinking.com

DIY Eco-Toothpaste

6 teaspoons baking soda (whitener)
1/3 teaspoon salt (mild abrasive)
4 teaspoons vegetable glycerin (to create the gel)
15 drops of an organic essential oil - wintergreen, spearmint (minty fresh flavour) (I used peppermint instead)

Mix into a paste. Store in a small, labelled jar.

My slightly drippy homemade toothpaste

I....am not sure what I really think about this one. It is SUPER salty, and no amount of added mint essential oil is going to change that. However, baking soda does leave your teeth feeling very nice smooth. I found another recipe elsewhere that used coconut oil and xylitol in addition to the baking soda, which apparently helps off-set the saltiness. However, I forgot to look for xylitol at the health food store today, so that'll have to wait for another day.


I really don't know if toothpaste is one of those things you can successfully DIY. Sure, it's cheaper this way but I think I might rather wait for 10% off Tuesday at the health food store and stock up then. Has anyone else tried making their own before?

Gone Fishin'

...or something like that.

I'm off on vacation! Back to Ontario for me for two weeks for my BFF's wedding and some family festivities. It's starting to feel like fall (already!) in the Rockies, so the timing is ideal - Southern Ontario is still hot humid, and very much like summer. Also, I heard something about potential snow on Friday, so I'm skeedadling my little butt off to the airport as fast as possible! Time for some fun, sun, and yes, maybe even some fishing.

See you in a few weeks!

Summer

Feisty Foxes Bring Home the Hardware!

 Dragonboat festival was, in a word, awesome. Or, in three words: SO MUCH FUN!!!! (this is how I felt all weekend, complete with all five exclamation points :P)

 My upstart women’s team, the Feisty Foxes, did quite well coming in third place in the women’s division. Not too shabby for a bunch of ladies who (mostly) only set foot in a real dragon boat last week! We did have some veterans on our team, ladies such as myself who competed on corporate teams in years past, but “veteran” really means only an additional 4 hours of practice in this case.

What a great group of women, and such great community spirit. This was the first time my community had put together a community team for the festival – that is, a team that wasn’t a corporate thing. In this sort of town, it’s too easy for all of the special events to be for the tourists and leave the locals on the outside. To have a team made up of local women from all demographics – long-timers, seasonal workers, and even the mayor, certainly says something about our local community. Add in the fact that we had more committed women than we had seats on a boat, and that everyone worked together to ensure we all got a fair chance to paddle – well that certainly says something indeed.

I am so freaking proud of all these women who came together to made this team. I am even more proud of us for making this team work without any drama, whining, backstabbing, or stupidity and giving it our all in every race – even when we were doing back-to-back 500m races against mixed teams who could have easily kicked our collective asses. (btw, we actually did okay in those ones too- came  in fifth in C divison!) (Okay, fine, fifth out of six teams.) (IT WAS BACK TO BACK 500M FINALS!)

...

Whatever, we only cared about our women’s standings anyways.

Ahem. Sorry, where was I?

It’s Thursday now, so most of the sore muscles and frantic energy have worn off, but wow, what an experience. We brought home the hardware, had a great time, and can’t wait to do it all over again. All of the local teams (corporate and otherwise) are churning with ideas and by next year we should have our very own local dragon boat club. But the best part? All that training paid off, and I now have a wicked set of guns :P


Note: I wrote this post on Thursday with the intent of posting it when I got home and got some pictures. Unfortunately I'm having picture issues, so I'm posing it now and will add the pics later. Because I KNOW you all want digital tickets to the gun show :P

Hello!

Photo from North Shore Dragon Boat Festival

Just popping in quickly to let you know that I'm still here! I haven't given up on this blog yet, I promise :)

This past month has been non-stop busy with working both of my jobs (50 hours a week is FUN! :P), preparing for my best friend's wedding, creating and presenting my first Toxin-Free Body Care session for the the local community, and training for race weekend.

Yes, race weekend! I am part of the inaugural crew of our valley's first all-women's dragonboat team. We've been training since May on dry land and in large voyageur canoes all prepping for this weekend's Dragon Boat Festival! We're a casual social team with a competitive streak, and we're going up against some very experienced crews from out of province and out of country in our division. Needless to say, we've got a long way to go to have half a chance of keeping up with our competition, so we've been training hard. And it doesn't hurt that the very attractive professional coach and event orgainzer has come down from Edmonton to train us either :)

I'll be back after this weekend with some posts, 'til then, Paddles Up!

Not my team :P Photo from ottawacitizen.com

Happy Belated Canada Day!

Summer has been a busy little blogger this week, doing everything under the sun EXCEPT blogging, lol!

Summer (the season) has finally made an appearance in my neck of the woods, and it's here with a vengance! Bright blue skies 3 days in a row, hight 20-ies every day....after all the rain and cold(and snow!) in June, I'm feeling very spoiled. So, when I haven't been working at one of my 3 jobs, participating in flash mobs, training with my dragonboat team, or madly trying to get errands done in my spare time, I've been just crashing outside on the deck with a beer in hand. Ahhhhh....sunshine and beer. Good combination :)

So yes, it's been busy. I started a new position with my company this week which has been interesting and challenging, however I'm still doing some shifts in my old position to help cover until they can find a replacement. In addition to that I'm still working my part-time retail job, so I get the fabulous luck of two weeks straight without any days off! Yay! *Sigh* I know, I know,  I brought it on myself. Just...can I get to complain a little? just a little? Okay. A tiny bit. I'm done now.

I am happy being busy, it's no fun to sit at home and be bored. I just think I've overextended myself a bit of late. I actually ended up sleeping in until 10:30 yesterday. Ten thirty! Unheard of! Usually I'm up by 8am and raring to go. It's just that this summer weather is such a rarity, I can't help but wish I was outside hiking or canoing or something, rather than inside working. Granted, this does mean I get to wear pretty sundresses to work, so it's not such a bad trade-off.

I have a couple of things I want to blog about, most notably the bellydance flash mob that I was in this week, and a thing call "The Modesty Project." I originally read about it on Mrs. B's blog last week, and it's been niggling at my mind ever since. I hope to get those niggly thoughts out on blog-paper soon. For now though, I'm writing this during a quite moment at work, and should probably get back to it. Until next time!