Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Importance of Slowing Down

Adam received some surprising, cautionary health-related news this week - and so, as a direct reminder of why we started this blog in the first place, and why we continue to work towards our book series, we decided we needed a weekend to s-l-o-w down.

(via)

Our ssllooww weekend...in numbers:

Naps on the couch - 4
Trail and park walks with the dog - 5
Slow cooker meals prepared - 2
Sleep-ins - 2
Good movies watched - 2 ('Hanna' and 'When Harry Met Sally')
Good reconnecting-with-family phone calls - 2
Christmas trees decorated - 1
Seasonal iPod playlists made - 1
Seasonal iPod playlists repeated - still counting

Errands run - 0
Extra house projects done - 0
Bills paid - 0
Lists made - 0
Lords-a-leaping - 0
Maids-a-milking - 0
Ladies dancing - ok, 1 - (me - but only because I love me some seasonal tunes)

We really do love Christmas, and find it a pleasant and relaxing time of year, but we're p-r-e-t-t-y darn happy that our pre-Christmas rush schedule allowed us to just enjoy some 'slow living' this weekend.

Have you tried this lately? How do you slow down when things get busy?

And to our American readers, we hope you enjoyed a nice slow-done Thanksgiving - complete with family, friends, fun, food? (some dogs?) Happy turkey coma :)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Exterior Illumination

Catching up...my apologies for being away - we've been spending a significant amount of time sorting out the administration of our new house - billing, repeat billing, overbilling...you know the drill.

We've spent the last couple of weekends tidying up outside and sorting out some maintenance before the winter comes.

Ironically, this weekend appeared to be Christmas light weekend in our neighbourhood.  We had fairly pleasant weather this weekend, and on our tri-daily walks with everyone's favourite neighbourhood dog, Juno, we observed our fellow suburbanites hard at work hanging Christmas lights and accompanying seasonal ornamental yard decorations.

Noteworthy are the oversized snowflake pathway stakes, the multi-coloured sets of jumbo holiday orbs hanging in the front yard oak trees around the corner, and the 6-ft wide garage wreath down the street.

Christmas in suburbia? You bet 'ya!

Hopefully our strand of white lights and two mini trees by the door will do.  We're in for a heck of a season!

Loving every minute of it :)

P.S. As my husband and brother-in-law joke annually with their Dad, (my father-in-law), "Dad, you taught me everything I know about exterior illumination." - Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold in Christmas Vacation