Wow, it has been a long time since I've posted on here! Though, for me, that is entirely a good thing. Over the past 8 months or so, life went from mundane and predictable to flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants stressful and is only now starting to calm down. However, looking back, while I used to have more time to write more meaningful posts, I wasn't really "living" - I was writing about living. I feel I had to do a 180 for a while, and get away from the computer, so that I could bring things back into balance.

So I am starting off this year, married (on a beautiful sunny day in October :) ), working on a very interesting, though crazily stressful contract, and looking at my life with a bit of a new perspective. It's time to slow down, strip out some of the stresses, and learn to enjoy things again! My next book (on order) is "In Praise of Slow" - and I can't wait to finally read it.

One of my new years resolutions was to invest in my health this year. So I booked an appointment with a Naturopathic doctor. She is wonderful - taking the time to investigate everything about my health and lifestyle. She quickly pinpointed why I feel so overstressed all the time and has recommended a new diet chalk full of nutrient packing grains, flax, fruits, vegetables, fish, and a wee bit less red meat. She also took me off sugar. Turns out, despite not actually eating what I consider to be 'junk food', I was still managing to consume more than four times the daily recommended amount of sugar, and not much else. This of course contributed to my rollercoaster ride of fatigue, restless energy (at the wrong times) and irritability.

I also signed up for the yoga class in Aylmer that I'd been looking at last year. It's wonderful - I really love it. I've taken yoga before, but maybe it's a combination of me being finally ready, and the teacher being so knowledgeable and passionate about what he does, that has made me love it so much this time. And in the summer, instead of regular classes, he does yoga on the beach at the marina at least once a week, at sunset. I can't wait!

I've also decided (though it's with a bit of a heavy heart, I have to admit), to not continue with my gardening group in Ottawa this summer. Last summer I found that, because it was always on a Sunday morning, I was often tired and didn't spend much time there anyway when I did go. It also meant that I would lose half a day, covered in mud, and could never do things like go to the gardening shows I wanted to, or to the farmer's market, or even to the UU church (I'm curious). It also prevented us from actually leaving the city to go relax at the cottage or spend time with our families. So this year, I'm going to bring the focus back to my own home.

One thing I've been learning over these past few months of craziness is that I tend to try to pack WAY too much into my life, because I always feel like I don't do anything worthwhile. However, I realize now that by packing more and more in there, I was barely able to accomplish anything, and when I did manage to work on something, I was already thinking of the next thing I had to do, so I never got to really enjoy the moment. So, I'm back to the basics, and hopefully this year I'll be able to get some of the things done around the house that we need to.

Anyway, Imbolc passed and the groundhog saw his shadow. Looks like Winter is not leaving us just yet, so I have more time to dream up things to do in the yard and gardens this year. I will also probably get back into posting a bit more from time to time. I have lots to chat about!

xo