Shoes to Shiraz

{Wistful Wednesday}

Typically the May Long weekend for me growing up meant a softball tournament.  Sometimes with snow.  As a grown up, I associate May Long with getting the garden in and the flowers in.
This year was a little different- we shook things up and spent a gloriously sunny weekend over in Calgary for a basketball tournament.

My highlights from our weekend are:

1- the family time in the car for the 6.5 hour LONGASS drive to Calgary.  The kids alternated between reading books, playing games and watching movies while I did my cyber, blogged, sang songs and listened to Dan.
2- family time in Calgary.  My parents and sister and her family all ended up in Calgary too, visiting my brother so we had the entire gang out for suppers and to watch Will play basketball.  I love seeing the support for our kids.  The love is felt.


3- Time with my bestie and her family, where we stayed.  It's great having our kids together and get to be in their space for way more time than if we just would have gone out for supper.  Plus she made me mojitos and made me watch the Royal wedding.



4- Shopping time with Christy and a surprise guest, Jordan.  I bought a denim mini skirt and am quite proud of myself.

In other fashion fun news, I wore my Smash and Tess Romper out in public....I didn't get any compliments on it and my kids kept asking why I was wearing my pajamas but I was cozy AF for travel day and two bball games so I was quite happy with myself.



5- The weather.  I feel like we have officially skipped spring and are headed straight into the glorious days of summer- the drive home, while long, was actually quite beautiful with the sun and the big open blue skies.

That was my long weekend- I'm looking forward to having the day tomorrow to catch up on some yard work!  Linking up with the girls on the Blended Blog.

They are the women I turn to when I need advice or when I feel like bragging about my accomplishments.
They are the ones who knew me in my teens, walked beside me in my 20s and now are wrapping up the 30s with me.
These women are the ones I quietly observe, taking note of their doings as mothers with pride that they are my people because they are damn good moms and wonderful role models.
These women are my sisters; They are my family.


A huge part of self-care to me is being with my friends and I am so in tune with that fibre of my being that when things in life start turning sour, I immediately crave a night out with my girls.

Many of the resources I have read (okay, just one: I have only read Girl, Wash Your Face recently) state that we need to unlearn our bad coping habits...like being an emotional eater (ahem, me) or drinking (I like wine) and instead we should deal with things by doing something healthy like going for a run, having sex or spending time with our friends.  Because I hate running and I'm definitely not dishing about sex on the blog (you're welcome, mom)- I figured I could most certainly cover my favourite of all self-care activities: investing in my friendships.


And this is where my self-care and take care of my friends gene kicked in and away I got planning.

Me??? Planning things? Gasp.

I booked us a suite at the James Hotel, a boutique hotel on the riverbank in Saskatoon where I knew we'd feel pampered.  I can only dole out compliments for this hotel- I need to stay there again.  It's so quiet and small and fancy and grande and the views....the views from our balcony were amazing.


We're also 800% sure that Shania Twain was staying in the Penthouse as the hotel was swarming with her dancers and back up singers for the concert the next day.  We also dined at breakfast right next to the premier.

Because it also happened to be Mother's Day weekend and well, let's face it, husbands don't always live up to our expectations for that day- I thought I'd throw in something special for them.


I like feeling special, but I like making people feel loved even more.  So a huge part of my self-care is taking care of my friends.
Does that even make sense? 
I feel good when I get to do something nice for someone, it makes me feel like I'm bettering the lives of others.  The whole point of self care is to take care of yourself...but a huge part of me needs to feel like I'm contributing to the betterment of something.  So I take it out on my friends.




For my birthday, my sister got me a beautiful circle pennant from The Silver Wren...I loved the simplicity of it and then found this rock and knew immediately that they had to have them, because really, it couldn't ring more true.  They are my rocks.

Our 24 hours together were spent how we typically spend all our time together- eating, laughing, drinking, reminiscing and resting.  Somehow even after only a couple of hours in the presence of these remarkable women I feel renewed.  I feel stronger.  I feel brave and courageous and proud of who I am.  Spending time with my friends lifts me up and helps me remember that I'm much more than just a mom.


Time with my friends is one of the most basic and easiest forms of self-care.  I hope you can find some time with your tribe too.

As for you Christy, we were all sad you couldn't be with us...but we'll make up for it this weekend.

You can read my previous self-care post on meditation here.  Any suggestions for another self-care topic?

I wish I could go back to 2003 and give myself some fashion advice.  I totally wasn't dressed for my body type. That dress is horrible.


Luckily my style has changed since I started teaching or graduated for that matter.....but maybe not? I looked back out of curiosity on my blog and two years ago we did a graduation post...and I kinda cringed when I looked at those pictures of my dress picks.  You can see for yourself here.  I also can't handle my hair colour, which makes me sad because I am really going gray and don't know how long I can pull off the dark.
But I love the dark. Sigh.

Here's a little of what I've been wearing as of late;







So there you go, a bunch of pictures so that in a couple years I can look back and roll my eyes at what I was wearing :)

My big list of things that have been entertaining me:

• Not blogging.  Or rather going through random spurts of inspiration which usually end in me completely forgetting that I had wanted to post something.
• Watching the sunset, wishing I could wake up early for sunrise.  But sleep is gooood.
• Online window shopping for mostly everything but clothes.  Most recently (5 minutes ago) bought some Hask shampoo from Amazon.
  
• Exercising daily.  Except for today. Gotta have one day of rest.
• Hanging out with my hubby and enjoying every minute of it.
• Planning all the fun excursions for the upcoming months.
• I re-watched all of the Office and just finished it last night. Now I need another series to watch....any suggestions? I was thinking maybe Scandal? I like to laugh though.
• I haven't been to the movies in ages but there are tons of shows I want to see, so I gotta do something about that.  Also popcorn.
• Yard prep for summer is almost done.  This week my goal is to finish tidying up the flower beds so I can plant next week.  The garden was planted this weekend!
  
• Ball season is in full swing and basketball is approaching the end. Our nights are FUULLLLL.  I will only get in one of my games with my team this month as they ended up falling on the nights that I'm coaching Lucia...but I had a great first outing in four years!  I hit a triple, two singles and flied out to right.   
  
• I've been just kinda into books lately.  I have been occupying myself reading the Tudor series- I have been fascinated with royal history.  Then my sister and mom recommended books from the 70s by Helene Hanff.  They made me want to go back to England...you should definitely give them a try:   84, Charing Cross Road and the Duchess of Bloomsberry Street are the ones I just finished.
• Our house is dug!  Concrete should be poured this week.  I need to really start thinking interior but have lost my drive.  Maybe next week.
  
  
  
  

I don't know about you, but the louder and busier my life gets, the stronger my desire is to pull back and seek a place of peace and calm. Thankfully my friend Dawn, owner of ClubMynx in Saskatoon invited me to a teaser class of her meditation series, so I grabbed Abbie (Grumbling Grace) and we set out to find our calm.   And no, wine wasn't involved.


Just by walking into the space that Dawn created you felt at ease- there are comfortable adjustable floor chairs and a peaceful ambiance created by the flicker of candles and soft music.  The group was small and was perfect for those (me) feeling a little nervous about meditating in a group setting.


Dawn led us through a guided meditation with her soothing voice that had us walking through nature, hearing the birds and floating on the clouds.  Actually, at one point I thought I was going to start to float as I was so relaxed and deep into her instructions.  The 30 minutes was the perfect amount of time for me to be able to concentrate on what she was saying without getting distracted by all the other things I had to accomplish that day.

At the end of the guided meditation, she had us go deeper into a personal quiet zone, repeating the mantra "Aham Brahmasmi" which is a Sanskrit Mantra that means that the core of our being is the ultimate reality, the root and ground of the universe, the source of all that exists.  At that point in the meditation, I didn't use the mantra as I was so far in a zone that I was able to maintain my focus.  Interestingly, talking to Abbie after, she started repeating "Be still and know that I am God" instead of the mantra.  I think that's one of the cooler things about meditation- it can be made to resemble whatever your spiritual practice is.


I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to take the time out of my day to practice this form of self care.  Since then, I have been making an effort to find at least 15 mins a day to meditate and I have to say that the days that it doesn't happen roll out quite differently than those that are started in such a grounding practice.

ClubMynx will be offering a 6 week meditation for self-care series on Wednesdays starting May 30th from 12:05-12:55 for 60$ and I am already signed up.  Want to join me?