Shoes to Shiraz

I am only willing to talk about Spring today because it seems we have skipped it and have headed straight into summer with temperatures in the high teens...practically tropical to me, which thusly puts me into a great mood. How quickly I forget the snow......

Spring in Saskatchewan is super confusing. One year you can be driving in blizzards in April to get to the bus stop where you eat snow and make snow treble clefs.

Or another year you can be enjoying an early melt and ready to get your green thumb moving right at the beginning of May.

Sadly, this year is the late snow and late melt year which means that ball season and all fun outdoor plans have been delayed. We still have snow in our backyard which means no outdoor ball games yet.

Regardless- spring to me is open windows, spring cleaning, that fresh snow melting smell, beers on the deck and walking around without a jacket.

It's the little things, right?

We had an eventful spring weekend that included two birthday parties, one Harry Potter symphony night out, a great visit and sleep over with company and a beautiful walk through the 60 acre woods.

Candace and I trying to remember how to jump rope at Ben's birthday

Just being the boss at Kinsey's birthday

Harry Pottery Symphony Night

Two besties walking in the woods

Supper with the family

Spring always makes weekends better.
Linking up with my friends on the Blended Blog- go check out spring in their worlds.

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Today is my birthday.

It is officially my last year in the dirty 30s; next year I graduate to the big leagues- the mostly feared /loathed 40s.
I feel like I have spent the last 9 years both defining and losing myself.

I wrapped my brain around being a mom in my 30s. I gained 2 beautiful children but also weight.
I experienced some of my greatest teaching moments and also said goodbye to my career.
I fell more in love with my husband, honoured my family and stayed true to my friends.

But at the same time with all that goodness, I spent a lot of time doing things for others and lost contact with myself.
I got too busy.
Don't we all do that at some point in life? When do we ever get that person/time back?

We have this version of ourselves that we're striving for that is possibly imaginary and practically unattainable. You know the narrative:
It's the if onlys that occupy our mind.

The if only I had the body I had when I was 20. My God, if only I could jump as high as I could when I was 18 without my knees breaking. If only my skin was as clear and tight and glowy as it was 5 years ago.

We're constantly looking back, wishing for something that is as far out of our reach as high, firm boobs and non-jiggly arms are.

Thusly, I have decided that starting now, I'm going to spend the preparation for this next decade looking forward. My 40s are when I will rediscover who it is that I am actually becoming. I will embrace the hobbies that cater to my creative spirit. I will let go of the people, things, habits that were of my youth that don't serve me now. I will unabashedly say no to things I don't want to do while whole-heartedly and intentionally committing to projects that bring light to my spirit and perk to my step. I will continue to cherish the friendships that have faithfully walked beside me and put all my heart into my family.

I'm not scared of 39. Too many special people in my life didn't make it to 39 and don't have this honour and privilege to walk amongst the living.

So there you have it, my anthem for this year.

This is 39

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I am Deena. I was born Dena but changed my name when I was 13. I love my family and friends fiercely but also need my breaks and my 'me' time. I stand proudly and firmly rooted in the Canadian prairies. The open skies, whether dancing with Northern Lights or speckled with millions of stars blankets our home. I live just outside of Saskatoon on an acreage but am from Prince Albert.

It is cold here. Often. You may wonder why people would want to live here, but I think just by looking at the news coverage over this tragic weekend, you would see why. Heart. Strength. Love. We are only 1 million in our province, but it's crazy watching all the coverage and seeing just how many people call Saskatchewan home. I love my home because of the people and wouldn't have it anyway. While I'm on the topic of this past weekend, please say a prayer for all the families going through a nightmare right now. I have a former student who lost his brother in the accident, so please say an extra prayer for him. *update- his brother was misidentified and is in fact alive. Prayers to those families.

The purpose of this post is to reintroduce myself to you.

Probably a good time to be revisiting yours truly as our world has shifted quite a bit since I began blogging.

I started blogging on April 15th, 2009- at that time I had a sweet little 18 month mancub at home and I was just getting my footing in the wonderful world of parenthood and was just about to turn 30. I was only 8 years into my teaching career, having just moved to my position at Holy Cross.

Fast forward 9 years and I have a 10 and 7 year old and I still feel like I'm getting my footing as we transition into a different age where the kids are super independent and pretty darn fun to hang out with. After changing what teaching looked like and moving to cyber, I am now retiring as of June. Yup, hanging up the cleats after 17 years.

In fact, I must say we're at a very strange transition point in life. For the first time in our time together, Dan isn't glued to work and is transitioning out as well. We have way more time together and it has been great for our little family. He will be busy once this snow melts clearing trees and building a fence around our new property. Meanwhile, I am (im)patiently waiting the dig for our home (also once the snow melts).

As for blogging, strange things have happened. Here I am with all this time and it has been the last thing I wanted to do. So things will be changing too- I am scaling back and am also starting to take away the content with my kids. They are getting to an age where they will be aware of their digital footprint and I don't want things online that they may not want online. The reason I started blogging was to document our life and I have done so and am glad I did. I print out books every year of all my posts. I don't want to stop doing that. So in respect for their privacy, I will be going back to blogging our going ons, but it will be on a private blog. This one will remain until my flame runs out, whenever that will be. You just may hear from me much more sporadically.

So if you made it this far, congrats. You are now well versed in the world of me.

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My dad- the king of the aviators. Just a random Tuesday chez nous.

Would the real slim shady please stand up?

Shit. Now that song is going to be stuck in my head and I only know like 2 lines so it'll be those two on repeat. Geesh.

Clearly we're talking spectacles today as I'm following the Blended Blog prompts for fashion for the next so many Wednesdays in the hopes of getting me out of my blogging funk. I also filed my nails down so I actually like typing. Random. I know.

via GIPHY

Since laser eyeball cutting off surgery last year, I have been an avid sunglass wearer...before that not so much, so I'm pretty new to the sunglass love game.

I have found a fave though in the past year and have managed to snaggle a couple of pairs from this brand. Have you heard of Quay Australia sunglasses? They're popping up in boutiquey local stores (like White Dahlia or Dutch Growers) in Saskatoon and I'm sure they're everywhere else too. I love them because they're fun and different and I like to think that I'm also fun and different. The price point is a little high, so letmetellyou how excited I was when I found them on Hautelook via Nordstrom Rack for much cheaper (here)

This is my first fun pair:

and the second fun pair that I found during a moment of weakness while floating around on Nordstrom Rack online....

Okay. This last pair is a confession. I hate to love and love to hate the Kardashians. I cringe while I watch their show but I watch it. I buy (and love) the Kylie lip kits...just bought a KKW concealer kit yesterday and I couldn't help myself but got the following sunglasses from Khloe's collab with Diffeyewear (here)

So there you have it. I'm a weird sunglass addict and I don't want to do anything about it.

Peace.

-D

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I would love to talk to you about Spring, about how we're enjoying the fresh outdoors, with the sweet sounds of birds chirping and snow melting. But nope. We're in the -30s again and can't seem to snap out of winter.
I will attempt to get out of this 4th winter funk by joining in the TBB ASKS spring themed fun,

1. Spring starts when I bring out my Bluebellgray pillows and decor. So definitely anything floral screams spring to me.

2. The first thing added to my wardrobe in the spring is something purpley- and that usually means me rotating all the colouring clothing out of the archives and bringing out fun jackets, like Virginia.

3. First thing that is ditched is my winter jacket. It still is winter jacket weather but I'm mentally over it so just wear bunnyhugs with puffer vests.

4. I love mowing the grass so usually around the house it is either me or Will. The hubby takes care of the larger area that needs the tractor,

5. Spring chez nous is different every year. Sometimes, like this year, we can be out snowmobiling or skiing and there's a wind chill. Other times we're in shorts.

6. I love the smells of spring- melting snow...grass...bbqs

7. I'm an always cleaner...spring fall summer and winter. I have constant projects happening that involve cleaning and organizing so nothing special right now.

8. UM YES! I love ball. This year Will and Lucy will be playing and I will be back on the diamonds playing again too. Oh and also I love the Blue Jays and listen to or watch every game, but you probably already knew that.

9. Tulips anyday everyday

10. Spring Activity: ball season

11. Flowers outside will freeze still until June here. So flowers indoors.

12. Fave bird: Blue Jay :)

13. Car wash all the way...tough living on an acreage- it gets dirty so quickly.

14. I pull out my sandals after the 8th winter, usually in June.

Sigh.

Now come on, bring on spring. I'm going to try to get clothing motivated again by playing along with our fashion prompts. Join us on Instagram if you want!

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It started as a trip for Kyla and I to see P!NK in Montreal.

Then we decided it was about time that we had a siblings and spouses getaway.

And then we saw it coincided with Robbie's bday and the Jays playing 2 exhibition games in Montreal.

That's when we realized it was the perfect mini vacay for some family time because to me, it's just as important to work on those adult relationships as it is with the little ones.

Except P!NK had to postpone the concert as she was sick. I get it. I feel like we've been sick for 74% of the winter. But I was still sad.

Luckily, one can be easily distracted when in la belle province, exploring the beautiful city of Montreal. Here's a little of what we did:

1)Visited the work place of my 'jumelle Québecoise'. I haven't seen her in ten years and it was so wonderful to see her again. We also went for supper with her family and were just missing my parents for our little family reunion. I loved seeing my brother and sister back with Annick and am so happy they got to meet her brother and parents. Annick has two kids who are the same age as my kids, so you can bet we will be bringing those cuties together someday!

2) We stayed at le Centre Sheraton right in the heart of downtown. It was close to shopping on all the fun streets and a quick 30 min walk to le vieux Montreal. Subways and the underground tunnels are super easy to navigate around that area too.

3) One cannot visit Québec and not eat all the food. So many restaurants. So much good beer. We did the poutine, we did the Montreal smoked meat at the iconic resto, Schwartz. We ate outside on a patio in the sunshine in March whilst it blizzarded at home. We had a night cap every evening after our adventures in the hotel restobar.

4) We shopped and visited a spa. Yes. A spa. We even got the boys there. We picked BotaBota which is a Nordic spa on an old barge in la fleuve St-Laurent. That was an awesome way to start a day and the views were insane. As for shopping we visited some typical stores Montréalais comme Ogilvy, Holt Renfrew, Simons, Boutique 1861. We shopped on la rue Sherbrooke, la rue St-Catherine et la rue St-Laurent. We had tons of success at a place called COS which is Européen and kinda different.

5) Lastly, we visited la Stade Olympique and watched an MLB game. It was Jen's first MLB game and although it didn't count, it was entertaining nonetheless. Well I thought so anyway. Stroman pitched (yay!) and we got to see top prospects Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero Jr. make their débuts. What was really cool was that Vlad is 19, his Dad played with the Expos and the crowd went crazy. Kinda sad we weren't at the next game where he hit a walk off homerun! It was still a great experience.

Bichette on first, Guerrero at the plate

I missed the kids like crazy on this trip and Lucia was really sad I was gone- but I also really enjoyed the quality time with my people. It was super fun speaking french too.

À la prochaine!

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