gratitude day#11

Hi friends! I'm going to keep this short and sweet because it's late, but I wanted to keep the gratitude love going. Here's today's recap of three things I was grateful for:

• thoroughly enjoying my first creative writing assignment for class -felt inspired 
• I loved the fact that while everyone was sitting in a circle singing during my daughter's first music class, she stood in the middle dancing. 
• I'm grateful that I got to visit with my friend this morning and we spotted a whale splashing around close to our vantage point. 

getting there....gratitude day #10

Hello friends! A few weeks ago, I was in my element, shooting photos of dear friends with their sweet little babies, in a gorgeous, sunny, park setting. I just wanted to do a little something to serve as keepsakes for them and their daughters because they have extended so much kindness to Stella and I. One of my friends grabbed my camera, and offered to snap a few photos of me since I am always behind the lens. When I was editing all of their photos, I came across the ones that had been snapped of me, and the tears rolled down my cheeks.  I always feel radiantly happy with my little girl, beautiful on the inside, but when I saw the photos - I was saddened that my outward appearance didn't reflect how I felt- I looked bloated and tired. Becoming a mom, I had viewed my body as more utilitarian - (breastfeeding attempts, carrying my baby everywhere, pushing strollers, scarfing down quick meals between caring for others, sleepless nights) - my focus was so outward, that I had stopped taking stock of the toll it was taking on me. (It's kind of like that SNL parody ad for "Mom Jeans" - "I'm not a woman anymore, I'm a mom!")
When relaying my photo reaction to one of my friends recently, she said, "Don't be silly the camera adds 10 pounds!" My response: "Well then, there must have been two cameras on me."
Don't get me wrong - I've never put appearance high up on any parameter - give me smart/funny/interesting any day. But I was sad that my appearance no longer reflected how I felt - and I wanted to take charge of that.
So, I'm only two weeks in, but have made some big changes - ramping up my exercise regimens to almost daily (even half hour stints when she is napping) - to boost my energy levels and get the endorphins flowing. I save the sips of vino for special nights out and have embraced seafood and salads (as much as one can get amped over lettuce). I haven't hopped on a scale yet to see if anything has shifted, because it's too early to expect much and I don't want numbers to deflate my progress.
I posted the photo above, because for the first time in a year, I got dressed up for a night out and felt like I was seeing my happy self coming through again.
Today's top three on my gratitude list are:

• Being able to cook at a leisurely pace - with delicious results
• running to a great song list and feeling the rain on my face
• watching my hubby try to teach my little girl how to dance - so awesome/endearing, but his dance moves couldn't be whiter

gratitude day #9

Goodnight sweet friends, I hope you had a cozy day. Well despite what the song would lead you to believe, it didn't rain men. It didn't even rain cats or dogs. It just rained like a sonofabitch.

Three things I'm grateful for today are:

• jumping in puddles together
• having a lot of laughs over a delicious dinner with a great mix of women
• watching how deliriously happy my little girl was leaping around a bouncy castle

gratitude day #8

Happy weekend friends! What's on your weekend line-up? Here's Friday's top three on my gratitude challenge:

• Having a great catch up with the girls while our friend was up from Portland. I love it how easy it is to pick up right where we left off. 
• buying a new notebook for my writing class and feeling inspired to fill it up
• getting home in time to read my daughter a new book and tuck her into bed

here's your next party idea.....lip sync battles....

This little video solidifies my comedy crush on Ricky Gervais' right hand man: Stephen Merchant.
I love the little fun fact we find out: that Stephen Merchant originated this game with his pal John Krasinski. Which, led me to stumble upon this video of John working his lip sync magic: Check it out here. I think John Krasinski might be my new imaginary hollywood boyfriend. 

gratitude day #7

Hello friends! Well, we're one week in to the gratitude challenge - have you kept at it? Discipline is something I am striving for these days - with gratitude, parenting, exercise, and my writing class, which requires us to write daily.
Today was pretty much full of awesomeness, so I am actually going to have to limit myself to keep it to three:

• Taking my little love on her first professional photo shoot for a friend's children's apparel line: Stonz. (testimonial: Our little girl has a pair of their yellow rubber rain boots, which are her favourite things to run around in.)
• Perfect autumn weather - all day it was gorgeous outside - 20 degrees of glorious sun - we spent as much time soaking in all the Vitamin D that we could.
• Running 5 km and feeling motivated/energized thanks to Strava Run, Songza and a delicious halibut dinner.

gratitude day#6

Good evening friends! I hope you've successfully been scanning your environment for the little standout moments that make each day feel uniquely yours. You'll definitely experience days where the lists easily write themselves, and days where you are scanning....and scanning....and thinking....well, that flower is kind of pretty, maybe I better lock that in as one of my things...

Today, the three things that stirred up feelings of gratitude were:

• Having a laugh with friends over appies (sidenote: just to clarify, we weren't laughing AT the appies.)
• my mom - for being amazing: taking care of my little one and feeding both of my loves dinner.
• kisses from my family