Be Mine, Valentine!

It is our tradition every year to make homemade Valentines for my daughter's classmates. Ever year since junior kindergarten (2006), we pull out the red and pink posterboard or card stock, stickers, heart templates, glitter and glue and craft away! And this year will be no different.
However, this time around we have got an early start (rather than scrambling the night before to finish them up!). We have actually been working on them for almost a week already. Some of them are ready to mail, tomorrow to friends in our old hometown (a nice way to keep in touch).

And this is my first ever share with the group from over at Creative Every Day. And yes, these are my daughter's creations but I will be helping her to finish up tonight and that is when I will be creating the Valentines to send to MY friends.

the organized work station

the finished products
the messy supply station.

Stay tuned for those results of me being "creative every day"!!

Closing My Other Blog

Since I decided to recommence this blog endeavour, I thought that it would be a good idea to try and maintain only ONE blog.

Yes, I did have another one going as well. It was called Om~Mama~Shanti. Today I decided to close it and merge it's content and future posts and followers here in one convenient location.

Here is my final post from over there:

Well, I finally feel like blogging again! It's only been 2 years. What can I say, I was in a kind of writing slump! And so, I have started again, slowly, to write at my other blog (which, without showing any favouritism, I also abandoned two years ago!).

The way I see it now, I was really trying to accomplish too much in attempting to manage two separate blogs. See, this blog was to be my mommy, family, cooking, recipe, book sharing type blog and the other one was more my own personal, seeking, chasing and manifesting my dreams type blog. Well, I now see no reason why the two cannot peacfully co-exist in one shared space. In fact I may actually end up posting more frequently!

It was hard to decide which one to officially terminate. However, my "And a Bowl of Oranges Too" blog was my first and I have a bit more of "me" invested in it. So, this blog will officially cease to be and all future posts for the former "Om~Mama~Shanti" can now be found over at And a Bowl of Oranges Too. So, If you happen to find yourself here, by all means, please feel free to head on over there!

So, if you are a reader here or just happen along, you can allways check out my old blog over there.

Well, So Much For That!

This new beginning only mangaged three posts for the month of January, but it is afterall, a beginning. So I'm not about to beat myself up over it. In fact, I think I will celebrate the fact that I did indeed make three posts in the month of January. Goodness knows, I did an awful lot more than that in the other corners of my life in January. In fact I'm feeling inspired to.... make a list... (drum roll here).

In the month of January I have:

~started walking again! Most mornings, I walk my daughter to school (that only takes about 7 minutes at a leisurely pace). Then, instead of heading directly home, I take a new and different "long way home" which usually ends up being about a 20-30 minute brisk walk (as well as allowing me to become more familiar with our neighbourhood and the many lovely old century homes in the area-we just moved to this town in the summer of 2011)

~really been focusing on my word for the year by committing myself to daily guitar practice. Honestly, a minimum of 30 minutes each day is doing wonders for me. I mean, there have been days that I have skipped, but on the whole, if I can manage to pick it up for at least 30 minutes, I often end up playing for a lot longer than that or returning to it several times thorough out the day. I have several new songs that I can now play to show for it too!

~completed the Morning Pages Challenge from Jamie Ridler. This has been very satisfying. First of all, I love the routine of it. Since I haven't been working much since before Christmas, I need something to get me out of bed a little bit early and the Morning Pages have been my motivation. I have also loved having this little piece of the day in which my thoughts flow into words onto paper and I gain a sense of organization over my thoughts, needs, wants and desires. It gives me an opportunity to send a little message to the universe, a documentation that doesn't have to be a committment, simply a voicing of what is floating around in my head. Finally, it has provided me with the starting point for the rest of my day as I often make a list of my things to do within my morning pages. This has been extremely helpful in acheiving consistency in the two items mentioned above (walking and guitar).

~been working on menu plans and cooking yummy meals. Why, just the other day I made delicious cabbage rolls, something that for some stange reason, I have never made before. I also made a heavenly split pea soup with ham, which has always been one of my all time favourite meals. The meal planning is coming along, I get the ideas in my head for what I'd like to prepare; it's the actual putting it down onto paper part that is still in the development stage.
Perhaps that is something I can develop here on my blog! Oh I love the lightbulb moments!!

~begun to reacquaint myself with my yoga practice. In fact, yoga practice is next on my agenda after completing this post. Which, much as I'd love to write more about my relationship with yoga, I must postpone for another post as I need to get moving onto the actual practice of it and then guitar and then the dishes and the laundry and the rest of the TTD list for today.

And so, I think all in all, January was a pretty good month for me. Now here, three days into February, I am looking forward to even more of the same,but with more hearts and chocolate !!

A Wish for Wings

Every Wenesday, Jamie Ridler asks, What do you wish? This week her query was "What do you wish to reclaim?"

Well, "I want to know where my confidence went, one day it all disappeared." a line from the Blue Rodeo song, Till I Am Myself Again, describes how often I feel these days.

And so today (a day late as I often am!), the thing that I wish to reclaim, is my confidence.

My confidence to get a good job.
My confidence to practice my passion of music.
My confidence in my ability and talent and overall worthiness of being!





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMHwfVkA1D0


It's certainly not my favourite Blue Rodeo song, Ill post some of those later.

My Word for 2012

I have some work to do in achieving a few dreams of mine.
The word for the year needs to be inspiring though.
Not something dreaded.
And so I choose Commit.
A much friendlier word indeed.

I will commit to:
~ happiness and being the best me I can be!
~practice!!! (guitar, voice and yoga)
~getting things done (projects I've started or have been intending to start)
~eating healthier and menu planning
~stengthening and maintaining relationships
~doing the "work" neccesary to achieve the above desired goals.

New Beginning

Ok, so it's been almost 2 years since I abandoned this blog.
Well, I think it's time to rekindle an old flame and get right back up on the nearly dead horse and see how many more cliches I can bash up in the process!

The idea is, not to overthink it, I've decided. So rather than agonize over my content and grammar and spend all kinds of time rewriting and reworking, I'm just going to journal, more or less.

And add photos.

And simply express my creativity.

Perhaps join a group or two (I have been doing my morning pages for 4 days straight now!)

I'm feeling a wee bit giddy and excited! Yippee!

That Tastes Different

"Where do you wish to make a difference?", asks Jamie Ridler today for WishCasting Wednesday.

Hmmm. Well, it's 6 1/2 weeks into the new year and I'm still not doing the wonderful meal plans and cooking better/healthier meals for my family that I had planned to. And I'm still struggling with keeping a schedule in order to use my time more efficiently.

I SAY I'm going to do it. But I'm not so big with the follow through.
I mean, there are some good days.
But many days I just feel pathetically ineffectual.

So, "where I wish to make a difference" today, is in sticking to my plans and following through with scheduling meal planning and preparation so that the long term difference will be a healthier me and a healthier family.

I will do it one step at a time by spending one hour today to work on the menu plans and grocery lists.
Tomorrow, I will check my progress and spend at least 30 minutes to pick up where I left off.
I will call a friend today and tell her I am doing this and I will call her tomorrow to tell her of my progress.

She's a good friend .
She will support me.

I love cooking and providing Nourishment for my family.
I love to cook REAL FOOD. (Thanks to BlissChick for this timely post!)

I hope to share some of my recipes and meal plans here.
I hope there are others who have the same aspirations to healthier consumption.
I hope you will join me and perhaps we could support one another in this nourishing endeavour.

Here's to making a difference with good eating!