Confession

I have a confession...

Although I am generally a busy and productive person, my mornings are such a huge time waste suckage. This AM for instance, we got up, I turned on the tv. Played some Simpsons app on my phone, checked emails, got dexter breakfast, received two phone calls, more texts, some coffee, pinterest, some breakie... And it's almost noon!

If I could just get a handle on my mornings, be focus and have energy right away, it would make such an improvement on my days. Today for example, I know have 1 hour to get Dexter & I dressed and ready for taking our van to a garage and going to a Playdate. Neither of us is ready for the public and Dexter does so much better when he's not rushed. My house is super messy and I would be so much happier if it was clean when we got back!

Tips for morning energy and focus?

P.S.

Since I never seem to have the time (or the priority to blog "fully" I've decided today to start doing "mini" posts. Hopefully they fulfill me & my readers!

No Announcements Yet

Have you ever caught yourself acting a certain way or delaying a decision because you believe something to be true that you logically know isn't? Confusing probably.

I've been craving this one specific liquor beverage since thanksgiving and I first resisted buying it just in case, against the odds I was pregnant. Though it's pretty conclusive that I'm not since I got my period the week leading up to thanksgiving and I got a negative Preg test the day before my period arrived. And although Tyler was home for thanksgiving, we didn't baby dance. So basically, barring immaculate conception (which is of course how I was created) I am not pregnant. However, I still feel weird about drinking alcohol. I've done it, but with guilt that one of these times I will be prego. It's weird. And so Sunday night, I bought the liquors. Propped them on the kitchen counter. And have yet to make that drink. Bizarre.

Trying Again

Within the first few hours of losing Wentworth, I had thought I would never want to try to get pregnant again. The emotional pain was unbearable and I couldn't imagine taking the risk that I may have to go through that another time. However, it was before I even left the hospital that day that I realized I wanted another child and that I was willing to take that risk. Figuring out the timing was another story.

 

The first 3 months I felt almost desperate to be pregnant again. Luckily, there were some delays such as medical testing and giving the body time to heal that also allowed my mind to heal. I was very aware that I didn't want to jump into pregnancy and have a "rebound baby" so I'm thankful for that time. The testing took a while and the results were subjective so I was left feeling a bit unsure of when I should try again. My first personal hurdle was to wait until the anniversary of the date we conceived Wentworth passed. I didn't want to have to deal with a due date that was the same or similar as his or his birth date. I think that was about early May? Then I was good to go...problem: Tyler wasn't.

 

It took a while... Lots of conversations that seemed to go in circles, but then on our last camping trip at the beginning of September, Tyler spontaneously announced that he was cool with us trying to get pregnant again. I was pretty ecstatic but didn't want to talk about it too much for fear he would change his mind LOL He can be a fickle one. He works out of town so I'm not sure how long it will take to conceive. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but that's pretty much impossible. I decided to buy a ovulation test kit this month to get a better idea of when I personally ovulate. Tyler's enthusiasm was put to the test when he came home this past weekend and found my ov kit on the counter. I told him I had a 'smiley face' meaning I was suppose to ovulate within the next 48 hours (meaning if you want to conceive, now's a good time to have sex). He actually agreed to it and seemed excited (and I don't mean about the chance to have sex ha ha). So, that makes me really happy. I was/am very determined to bring this next baby into a happy relationship and I need a hubby who's on board for another baby in order to do that. I'm so glad he has come around! Now, I just need some luck and baby dust and hopefully it won't take us too long to get knocked up.

Leftover Rice = Rice Pudding!

Tyler & I really like rice pudding and it's actually super simple to make. If I'm making rice for supper I sometimes make some extra so that we can have this for dessert. I've recently discovered that with the addition of fruit it makes a pretty decent breakfast too. Especially if you use brown rice! Tyler has been doing a gluten free diet for a little over a month, so brown rice has become a staple for us. This pudding is a great alternative for oatmeal lovers.

You need:
Rice
Milk (or cream, rice milk, etc)
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Apples (or other fruit)

I put the rice in a pot on the stove, then poured in the milk just to cover the rice. Then I added brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. I like mine pretty sweet so lots of brown sugar! I brought this to a boil, and then put it on simmer, stirring often.

In the meantime, I chopped my apples, with skin, and put them in a microwaveable bowl. I pre-cooked them in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds and then I poured them into the pot on the stove. Continue cooking the whole mixture until its as thick as you like it.

The whole thing took about 15 - 20 minutes and I'll have breakfast for a couple days :-) Yum.

August: the month of courses

I have signed up for 2 official and 1 non-official courses this month and I am pretty psyched for all of them! 

1. Mutual Funds Course - this one is official. It is offered by a seperate company but I am sponsered through Primerica. It's a $400 webinar based course plus the cost of babysitting Dexter. The course is one 2 hour intro session, plus 6 two hour webinar classes. While the intro class is on Aug 10, I basically need to start my pre-studying ASAP. I printed off the unit questions last night and read through the math lesson and overview. I'm hoping it won't be too bad.

Sidebar: Since it would be near impossible to concentrate with Dexter home (plus unprofessional), I looked into a part time day home. A friend of mine uses it and has been very happy. When I showed up to interview here,  I was a bit embarassed to realize I had been there before, two years ago when I was looking for casual day care for Dexter. At the time, he was around the one year old mark and Tyler was concerned with the amount of kids she had that were younger. Now the day home has a bit older kids and I feel confident she can do a good job.

Back to the course, it requires about 30 hours of pre-study prior to the webinars and then of course the webinar work. Afterwords, I am able to take a test at NAIT and pass with a minimum of 60%. Then I get to fill out a (29 page!) application for my Mutual Funds licence. This licence will authorize me to be full service with Primerica and offer RESPs and some other items that I am not currently eligible to do. I'm nervous about the course, but more so I'm nervous about the commitment that taking this course means. It's another financial investment and as well you have to be "full time" to hold a Mutual Funds licence. That means I need to stop procrastinating and get passionate about my business!

2. Brave Girls' Club: Soul Restoration I - this is the other official course. Again it is web based, but it's more of a self study/exploration, art class and it starts on Aug 7. The instructor have videos, assignments and artwork to print off and we make mixed media collages, an art journal, and personal truth cards. My friend Sian took a different course through them earlier this year and I thought her projects were fascinating. When she let me know they were offering this course, I promptly signed up. I'm super excited as I am into the self-exploration stuff right now and I've never done mixed media art before so it's a whole new technique. Seriously, super excited.

3. The Spark Kit - this is the unoffical course. A long while ago, in November in fact, Sian had offered a free download of this "Spark Kit". I didn't know exactly what it was about other than for business woman to enhance their business selves. Intriguing. She also had the download so we were talking about it the other day and she asked if I'd be interested in working through the sessions with her. Then she thought it would be really fun to blog about our experiences in a shared blog. I agreed profusely, it sounded like lots of fun! We're working on the shared blog part because we have a vision but I'm not sure if we'll be able to execute it using the free blog hosting sites available. So far my research has been a no. But I'm going to reach out to my facebook family for help! We're meeting on Aug 12 to make a plan on how we're going to execute this. Sian is also taking a work course in September and is equally busy with a working-out-of-town husband so it may be a 'slow and steady' work through.

In addition to my courses, I am planning a Alice In Wonderland themed, Unbirthday Tea Party for a few friends this month. I'm hoping its fun and can become an annual event. September is the birthday extraveganza month so lots of work for that, and we're also planning a trip to Vegas in November so some work involved there. Busy, busy as always!!

It's been so long...

It feels like a lifetime ago since I wrote a blog post. Why is that? The last post I wrote was in June, a mere 6 weeks ago. But quickly scanning back, I see I've only wrote a few posts over the last several months. I am constantly thinking about blogging. I'll think of a topic, idea, or event I want to share about and make a mental note...but all those mental notes do NOT hold up to pen and paper lol I also find the longer I wait to blog about a topic, the less relevant and necessary it seems. I've often wished for a way to simple way to record my voice and have that technologically transfered into a written blog. So, if you're capable of hooking me up with a free version of this, or know of where it exists, please let me know!