- Poetry workshop - I had this all lined up but it was the night my in-laws arrived. But it's monthly so I 'm going tonight and hopefully every month.
- Writing workshop/retreat - I'll be doing one this month as well.
- Shakespeare in the Park - I'll have to try and do this next summer.
- Full sail with my husband - I can't believe I didn't manage to fit that in!
- Day of cooking with my mom - I really wanted to make a whole bunch of her signature dishes and get the recipes written down.
- A fun "intimacy" workshop with a girlfriend - it was cancelled but we'll be doing it later this month. (Don't tell my husband.)
- Drumming class - why is there no bongo's in the park in Toronto? I did find a drumming class that is every Thursday night so I'm going to try and hit this in the next couple months.
- Favourite food day - Start the day with Eggs Benedict. Have sushi for lunch and then Thai food for dinner. And then some chocolate in there somewhere ... and maybe popcorn.
- Have some pictures taken with my kids - Been meaning to do this for ages.
- Green smoothie challenge or juice cleanse - inspired by an awesome friend.
- The Minimalists 21 day challenge with my clothes - this is where you pack everything up as if you're moving and then you only take out what you need over the next 21 days, and then you toss/donate everything else.
- Zumba
- Go see a stand-up comedy show - I used to do this all the time in high school when I was underage. I love stand-up comedy! (when it's good.)
- Something with my "Fear-Not Club" - this is a couple of girlfriends and we try to do things that scare us a little bit or a lot. We have something scheduled for this weekend.
Doing this project in the month of August and the start of school was a bit nutty. It's a really busy time of year. What that meant was that I was not able to do all the activities that I really wanted to do. So in the spirit of full disclosure and for my own future reference, here's a list of activities I wanted to do but didn't manage to fit in - and my plan to do them.
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I also thought I'd include this list - since they weren't necessarily my favourite activities but were my favourite blog posts. There is some overlap though. And again - there is no order.
A few people have asked about my favourite activities. So here they are. Some of them I've already done again and the rest are on the list to do again. They are not in any particular order. Favourite Activities
Some of you may think that today is my birthday since today is day 40 of my 40 Days to 40, but my birthday is actually tomorrow. So day 40 is, in fact, the last day of my 30s. I can't say it was a miscalculation per se - it was something of a choice.
Today, on my last day of my 30s, I found myself having a moment that I was not expecting, that I thought I'd share. The Day's EndAfter a long day, which involved a playdate for my son, swimming at my dad's pool, and dinner out with my dad, we arrived at home at 8:15 pm with two very tired children. And it was my turn to put them to bed.
My husband and I sometimes argue about whose turn it is to put them to bed mostly because the five minutes that it takes to get them upstairs and begin the bedtime routine is not the part of the day you tell your friends without children about. But after those five minutes, getting them into their pjs, getting them to brush and floss their teeth and reading two stories (they each pick one) - well, that's still not my favourite time. Lately, my son's just trying to bug his sister all the time and that includes during teeth brushing and story time. But after all those things are over, then I sing to them. And that is one of my favourite times of the day. Today was my youngest's first day of school. Of course we were all very excited. I was a bit nervous because my son cried every day for the first six weeks of school, which was no picnic.
But, true to form, my daughter saw kids in line, told me she wanted to line up to, gave me a big wave good-bye and just walked into class. I said this was true to form because my daughter is pretty easy going in most ways but also because I was expecting it to be bad and the fact that it was the opposite of my expectations was the true to form part. I find that happens a lot with my kids. So at 9:10 am I was home on my own ... no kids. I would like to say that I got straight to work since I had so much to do. But truthfully, I made myself a cup of chai and savoured the quiet. And then I got to work. It's amazing what you can get done when you don't have two kids asking for food, help, attention, a band-aid, food, or a wipe of the face and/or bum. This evening I had dinner with three women I had never met before and one new friend. The new friend, someone who is the mom of my son's BF from daycare and someone who I've always liked, invited me to join in her brand new book club.
I used to be a part of a book club years ago, but it sort of faded out after a while - people started moving away I think or had kids or both. So I was very excited to become part of a new group and do two of the things I love the most - hanging out with fun, interesting women and reading books. This first meeting we had dinner, we talked and got to know each other a bit, we decided our first book and we made a date for our next meeting. Mostly we talked about our kids or kids-to-be (one woman is having her first baby in January), parenting, our parents, our in-laws, men, what baby stuff we had for the mom-to-be, the stress of packing lunches for our kids and our paying jobs. Oh - and books too. You may remember that near the beginning of this project, on Day 7, I went to see the Dusk Dances in Withrow Park. I had misunderstood the nature of the event and was disappointed that I didn't get to do any dancing.
So today I did some dancing! It's kind of a travesty that it took til Day 36 to dance, but there it is. I didn't go night club dancing - those nights are becoming more and more infrequent (so sad!). I went to a dance studio called Joy of Dance. I don't think there could be a better name for a dance studio - that is exactly what I feel when I dance. Come to think of it - there should be a "Joy of Chocolate" chocolate bar, a "Joy of Singing" choir or karaoke bar and a "Joy of Cooking" cookbook. Oh - someone already thought of that one I guess. I suffer from insomnia - and suffer is the exact right word here, as anyone with insomnia knows. It comes and goes and sometimes it's worse than others. I've tried all the over the counter medications, which keep me awake BTW. And I've tried a few under the counter (?) medications as well, which also keep me awake or just make me feel out of it.
When I'm having a really bad bout of it, which I have been having for about two weeks now, I do have one foolproof cure. His name is Lester Ponce and his company is called Corpus Sanus. He's pretty much my doctor, since I haven't seen an MD in quite some time and I see Lester 6 to 12 times a year. He's cured me of things ranging from sprained ankles, parasites, food sensitivities and allergies, and physical injuries. My dad calls him our "voodoo" doctor - only because it's really difficult to describe what he does. I do love to swim. I've often wished there was the equivalent of a marathon for swimming - where you didn't have to do running and biking in a triathlon. There must be something but I have yet to find it. I've always loved swimming in a lake. I started going to overnight camp on a lake when I was 5 years old so I spent a lot of time swimming in a lake from a young age. I'm not very fast but I used to be able to swim for a long time and not feel tired. I would just get out of the water because I had to or maybe I got a bit bored but not because I was tired. Swim #1So this morning I thought I would do a little distance swim (is that even possible?). Anyway, I managed to extract myself from the children (who were fishing off the dock) and swim from the middle dock to a floating dock near the beach. I'd like to say it is a distance of about 200 metres but I doubt it was that far even.
Actually, I tried to get the kids to come with me, but my kids were warned about all the seaweed that would touch their legs, so they chickened out at the last minute. |
I want to feel...Creative. Connected. Bold. Active. Productive. Old PostsDay 36: Dancing After Dusk Archives
September 2014
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