Fabric & Elves.

And so we begin the last week of classes.
Which will lead into the last 10 days of final exams.

And where do I want to be?

At my sewing machine.
Or with a paintbrush in hand.
Or donned with an apron (And sweatpants. And a baggy t-shirt.), baking Christmas goodies.
Or surrounded by a small mountain of sharpie markers.

You see, I can honestly say I'm very happy with my life. I enjoy most parts of most days. Maybe even more than most parts.

But. There's just this one little thing I wish I had more time for.

Crafts.

Especially at this time of the year, I get so many ideas of things I want to make. Partly it's the inspiration of Christmas craft magazines. Partly it's that I just joined "Pinterest," which will knock your socks off with its DIY craft ideas. And partly, of course, it's that my alternative is studying for final exams.

Another reason I can't complain about my life is that I genuinely believe there are many more than one ways for me to be vocationally fulfilled. When I am at school or in front of a class, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am born to be a teacher.

But, when I'm browsing in Michaels or sitting in front of a swath of colourful fabrics, I am also completely within my dreams.

Perhaps I have now jumped on a series of alternating years of teaching my heart out and crafting my heart out during nap time for little redheads...

Or, I suppose I could start a craft school.
Very similar to the North Pole, I would imagine. And, I mean, that's gone over well for as long as anyone can remember.

Sunshine and Salad.

I'm about a quarter of a way into a 16-page paper. It's due later today.

So, naturally, what a great time to blog.
Every athlete knows it's good to warm-up before you work out or play in the big game, right? [Side note: my HKin professor says that's not necessarily true in current research. But I'm old-school. And invariably tight]. So, I offer you... my warm-up.

Many little things have adorned my journey lately. Not the least of which is the Christmas music playing about 7 feet away from my desk.
And the peel of a Christmas orange sitting beside me (throw it out.... check).
And the much-appreciated sunshine lighting up my world. Literally and metaphorically.


I had a birthday last week. My 30th.
And... it was fantastic, for all of the right little reasons.

Rather than just list them, I'll identify why each of these little things was so particularly meaningful.

1. Ry took me to the Olive Garden for lunch. I love the Olive Garden. But we don't like waiting for the inevitable 45-75 minutes you have to wait for supper. Word is apparently out: non-stop fresh salad is the most amazing meal you'll ever eat without feeling a drop of sick after.

2. My parents bought me a sewing machine! I love crafts. If it doesn't work out to be a teacher... I would like to be a professional craft-doer. Maybe both. Anyways, isn't there something kind of romantic about sewing your own things?

3. Ry planned a surprise for me. I love surprises, any shape, any size. He picked a date for us that was something he knew I would enjoy, even if it's not his cuppa tea (which it turns out maybe it could be?). We painted ceramics together for 2 hours!

4. My voicemail was full. I love bragging.... Just kidding. I have a teeny tiny mailbox. But it meant a lot to me that people tried to call. I also appreciate the FB messages. It's a nice little thing to know you crossed someone's mind for a period of time. People are often so thoughtful with words, I find.

5. When we got home from our painting adventure, the kitchen was clean, and the table was adorned with three of my favourite things: flowers, sour candy, and a craft magazine. I love my husband.

6. My sister-in-law sent me a package full of wonderful things. I love getting mail. Among the treats was one of the softest pyjama shirts I have ever slept in. Every night is a nice little thing right now.

7. We had a sweet party with a bunch of friends on the weekend. I love bunches of friends. We played a games tournament, concluding with some of the most hilarious skits and song compilations I have ever heard in my life. The humour, the kind words, and the chocolate-dipping with friends was icing on the cake of a wonderful intro to my 30's.

8. Last, but not least... although perhaps littlest. I was delighted to be pregnant on my 30th birthday. I love this. Subconsciously - and at times consciously - I have always hoped I'd be a mom before I hit 30. Well, I'll take it. I am deeply thankful that God has granted us this gift at this time. And that I'm past trimester #1.


So, wherever you are... crank up the little things.
Pull out the slippers... Put in an old movie... Mix up the sugar cookie dough... Life is grand.

Twenties & Fives.

Little things sometimes add up to be a loooot of money. I'm sure you've noticed.

For example, tax. Try not to think about how much you've spent in tax over the past year. Or the past month. Especially if you're living where we are and it's a hefty 12%.

Other things add up too, though. Like, say your car gets hit, say. Say it's just sitting out front of your house minding its own business, and then boom. Ouch.
Miles of scrapes.
Dented in wheel wells.
Five feet of metal ripped off.
Oh, and almost forgot.
Axel broken.
Don't know too too much about cars, but pretty sure you can't drive when that happens.
Write-off.


Anyways, that's obviously not the little thing. That was kinda the big thing.

Here's the little things:

#1 - Rental car. ICBC covers the rental... but we "strongly encourage you" to get our insurance package. Being hyper-sensitive to potential danger, we of course gladly accept the kind offer. For only $16.99/day you can be completely insured. Let's just say we have the car for 16 days, the first 8 of which it is parked. Just sitting there. But we had to. Ya, good job math whizzes. Ouch again.

#2 - Then let's say your bank kindly reminds you that you should do a lien check before you buy the car you're considering. Great idea, we'll take one of those. Of course you will... for $65... plus tax. But niggling in the back of your brain is "what if we get saddled with someone else's loan? I mean, he seems like a trustworthy guy, but...." Yep, all good.

#3 - Oh, and for just $22 more, you can make sure that the car actually hasn't been in any reported accidents. Again, I mean, he seems so trustworthy, but we should check. For 2 cars we're thinking about. First one, well spent. Car came back with seven accidents. Seven. One of them was a total write-off. Suddenly the $22 is a breeze - thank you for saving us from a likely lemon and a lying gentleman.

The second one... perfect. Normal. No accidents. Just like the seemingly-trustworthy guy said.

#4 - Then of course you want to have a thorough inspection done on it. With inflation, the $102 you paid for that service three years ago has now made the reasonable, gradual jump to $156.
(At that rate, if we're buying a car another three years from now, I'm reading up and then inspecting it myself. Or using an iGadget of some sort that will, by then, be able to do it for me).

#5 - I think my favourite little thing was when the guy at the insurance plan place tried to scold me using a little money as leverage. Yeah, scolding. I know, I'm like do you know that I'm almost 30? Only I didn't say that because then he might have said "Right, so then you really should have been mature enough to remember that one document you forgot..."
Instead, he said, so much more scoldy-pants: "I'm going to have to charge you 5 dollars for forgetting that document [you should have obviously known to bring]." Five whole dollars? Take it, buddy. We're scamming you. You have no idea that we've paid way more than that for far littler things than a document that lets us buy or not buy the car.

Funny thing is, he forgot to charge us.

Institution and Resolution.

This post isn't going to be polished.
I'm supposed to be getting into my homework any time now, but I can't focus because I just feel so relieved.

I've had some "issues" with my schooling to start this year off. It came down to a lot of trying to find a paper trail, needing to prove why I felt I was misled, yada yada...

It's been a process. But in the end, when it all comes down to it, my resolution has come from sitting in a room with 3 people who can do something about my situation - one who knows me a bit better than the others - and sensing that they genuinely wanted to help me get it right.
I was heard.
I heard them.

In the end, that's all that really matters. I don't have to be right. I just want to be a teacher some day :). Again.

Anyways, I am just so thankful, but for a different reason than I originally thought. Originally I thought I would be thankful if I achieved a result I was hoping for. And for sure I am thankful that things are working out in a way that's not going to cost me more time or money than we have.
But I'm for some reason thankful for the difficulty of the process. I've learned a lot this past few days - following a chain of hierarchy and conversations...
And through it all, I have somehow sensed that this is exactly where God wanted me to be. I think He is refining something in me through this process. So I feel the 'wear' of that for sure. But I can honestly say I feel content.

Very similar to the sore-muscle feeling you experience while you're drinking your smoothie after a hard work-out.

Meat and Potatoes.

Oh-for-three.

I thought it was oh-for-two when I first sat down to write about the little things I missed in the process of being a really cool, well-read person.

But nope, oh-for-three. And that's just the ones I know about...

I was really excited a few weeks ago to find the title of a book I've been wanting to get on Amazon - and cheap, too! So I added it to my "shopping cart." No biggie. What's this, free shipping if I spend more than $25? Yes, please.
So I added one more book I've been looking for. Great deal. Puts me at $26.81. Nice.

We leave on our trip to Ontario.
We get back.

I anxiously look for our mail, and I'm so lucky. Like, I thought I was going to have one of those "please pick up your package at this post office that's in the busiest traffic area in your city at your earliest inconvenience." Which would have been fine, because excitement would have gotten me there.


But, like I said, I'm so lucky. The box just came right to the door; imagine that.


But I don't feel as lucky right now. Because the original book-I've-wanted turns out to not be that book exactly. It has the same words in the title. And even the same author. But rather than being the meat and potatoes study I was looking for, it's the "Personal Reflections" series about the book I originally wanted. Nothing against personal reflections. Heck, I'm an Education student. I can reflect with the best of them.
But that's why I was craving meat. And spuds.


At least I got the second book right, though.... Oh, wait. Nope. Same title I asked for. Same author. But if I had zoomed in on my original order screen to 700% or so, I would have noticed the tiny white writing that says "Participant's Guide." Great, I guess, if you have the DVD series. I don't. And I'm too disappointed to get it now.


But I said oh-for-three, didn't I? Well, this one just kicked me while I'm down. Not having the benefit of learning-from-my-mistakes this morning, since I didn't have our mail yet, I am now swimming in a pool of unluck.


Always a fan of saving a few bucks, I decided I'd try ordering my textbooks online today as well. This decision came on the heels of my decision that I shouldn't have to pay $96 for a book I can see when I can order one from an invisible place for more like $17. I would still be feeling proud of myself, except that I just checked the order status of three of the books I ordered; try to spot the one I'm concerned about:


1) Processing order.
2) Processing order.
3) Awaiting publication.

How is that even fair. I was duped into believing that if a book had a virtual cover the size of a large postage stamp, it had a real cover somewhere the size of an individual pizza box. With, like, actual pages beneath it.


Silly thing is, you probably would have felt sorry for me if I just told you that last one. Now you're singing to yourself (quietly, so as not to make me feel bad), an octave above your usual pitch, "...common denominator?..."


Me too.

Gloves & Java.

I had a craving to write this morning.
I didn't wake up with it.
Because, really, the only thing I wake up craving is coffee.

I heard the mild rebuke in Ry's voice yesterday when I explained how my day was off-balance until I found that precious cuppa. Yeah, that's right, I said cuppa. Do you know what cuppa is? I don't officially know... but the author of the book I'm reading has used the word a few times, and I want to be like her. She's a really good writer.

But, see, that right there is an example of not a really good writer: to describe the creator of a delicious, haunting novel as "she's a really good writer."

She weaves a magical web...
Mysteriously, she orbits the edges of a tragic tale...
As pieces of an entangled puzzle are gently connected...

(All of that without a thesaurus, by the way).

So, this delightful novel has all of the things that I need in order to drink the author's KoolAid:

- The majority of it takes place in England (really, I could stop here, as you know if you've been reading me).

- There is a garden involved, and it's both wild and perfect. Perfect.

- Also there's an English cottage, shrouded in mystery but you know it was beautiful once-upon-a-time...

- The inside of the front and back covers have drawings that are carefree yet magical.

- England is a prominent setting.

- Actually, the other setting is Australia, and I love hot places.

- Instead of saying something like, "It didn't make sense to her", the author says something like, "The truth still fitted like someone else's glove..."

- There is also an English castle, an English ship... although I still like the English garden and the English cottage best.


So. Here I am, with my cuppa - which I can now assume means tea, given the quaint yet illustrious setting. But I have my Canadian cuppa, which led me to sit, which led me to write, which I hope will lead a few of you to read...
Not my words.
Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden.

Yarn & Parsley.

It is wonderful to have time.
Time that isn't already spoken for.
Time that can flex as we go.

Yesterday, we did yoga for an hour and a half, and it didn't make us late for anything.

We watched 2 periods of a hockey game, and then left the cafe... (but really, how much did that have to do with having time, or was it sparing ourselves?)

I crocheted almost half of a blanket that I've been working on for... sheesh, I don't know. I bought the wool when I lived in Regina, so what does that tell you?


On a different note, I also spent some time while we were watching the hockey game looking up healthy recipes - which brings me to my next train of thoughts:

I really enjoy looking at healthy recipes. I sometimes even like shopping to make those recipes. And even less frequently, but still occasionally, I like making the recipes.
Really, though, just by browsing through them, I feel like a healthier person. I mean, I could be looking at the "how-to-make-a-cake-that-will-leave-your-dinner-guests-longing-for-more" page. But I'm not. I'm looking at oatmeal and dressing-less salad, and quinoa.

The problem I find is this:

I also really like some food that is not good for me.
I don't think what we eat is by any means all bad. In fact, I think I'm a pretty balanced eater/cook. But I definitely resort to comfort foods and cravings more frequently than I care to admit.

And sometimes that makes me feel guilty.

So, the only reasonable solution I can think of, really, is to stop looking at those healthy recipe pages.
All they make me do is wish that I had a garden combined with a green thumb.
And a kitchen full of herbs combined with a food processor.
And an organized grocery list combined with a lot of time.

Instead, I am choosing to be thankful. Thankful for tasty treats, for 4 food groups, and for the very occasional salad.