Hey everyone!

It's been since before my birthday that I updated so I figured now would probably be a good time. Things here in my world are busy. Being a preschool teacher at this time of year means keeping 16 children calm while all they're little heads can think about is Santa. It's pretty exciting and can sometimes be a bit stressful.

I was doing really well with my lifestyle change...eating super healthy (mostly vegetarian meals with lean proteins and lots of leafy greens) and I was at the gym at least 3 days a week. However, the holidays approacheth and that means temptation is everywhere. I tend to be a bit of a stress eater, so the last week and a half have been horrible diet wise. Unfortunately work got kind of crazy at one point but things have sorted themselves out now. I'm hoping that I can get back on the wagon starting today. Healthy food choices and back to the gym I go!

I'm mostly done my Christmas shopping. I have a few people left to buy for which will get done as of this friday. I only have about 3 or 4 more small things to pick up and then poof! Done like dinner

In my world, I tend to celebrate more Yule than Christmas. It's basically the same thing though, I just celebrate more of nature than of religion. Yule still has the tree, the gifts and a fancy dinner...and a nifty log too...there's no church though. Since most of my friends and family still celebrate Christmas, I celebrate that as well...it's all good to me

Anyway, I have a lot of things to get done today: Christmas cards need to be written, gifts to be wrapped, weekly theme planning to be finished and a gym to get to...rush rush rush.

Hope you are all doing well and getting your holiday stuff done before the real stress kicks in

Blessed Be...

Today is my 27th birthday! As of 7:20am I became an individual in her "late twenties". I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this as I am now quickly sliding towards my 30's. However the catch phrase "30 is the new 20" has been thrown around a lot. I think this is partly true. I feel more like an independent adult than I did in my early and mid twenties. My career is really taking off; I'm exploring hobbies I didn't have time for before and I'm taking better care of myself. I joined a gym and am now working towards my weight goals slowly but persistently. I think that by the time I reach my goals I will be in better shape than I have been in my whole life. Well...except perhaps when I was a child and swam/ran/skipped pretty much all of the time!

I no longer have to rely on my parents financially, I have a stable relationship and a good home. I have pets I'm responsible for and food in my fridge (something that didn't happen nearly as often in my early twenties).

I finally feel like my life is coming together. I don't feel any pressure to get married or make babies as I've made it very clear to my family that I'm perfectly content cohabbing and I work with other people's children more than most people see their own kids! Maybe 10 years from now I will feel some pressure to have a child of my own...maybe five years from now even, but right now I'm in a good place in my life and I love it

I'm wondering if anyone out there had any sort of "quarter-life crisis"?
I know you've all heard of a midlife crisis right? Well...quarter-life crisis is sort of the same thing. I had mine around the time I turned twenty and here's why:
I was in university and profoundly unhappy and uncertain about my life path. I no longer wanted to be what I had set out to be at 18. I didn't know what I wanted in life; I was single and it seemed like all the people I knew in high school were getting married. The worst part was that my chronological age no longer ended in "teen". I was supposed to be a grown-up now and I had no idea how...it was exceedingly frustrating...but I made it through. It took me until I was 25 to get my life back to where I wanted it to be but two years later I can say that I'm really happy.

On a completely different note: it's Friday the 13th! Has anyone experienced any sort of bad luck? I know the history of the Friday the 13th superstition but how many people out there know it? This is the second birthday I've had that has been on a friday the 13th...the last one was on my sweet sixteen. Let me know if you buy into the superstition or if it's just another day for you!

Blessed Be...

I realized today that I haven't actually updated my journal in more than a month, which is sad. So here I am trying to figure out what to talk about.

Now that the semi-cold weather has set in I am doing less photography (I like to be neither cold, nor wet) and so it is the time of year when my drawing and painting tends to pick up. So far I haven't done too much in this area as I am approaching my one year evaluation at work, at which time I am no longer in my probationary period I'm really looking forward to being considered "forever staff" and no longer having to have evaluations every three months. Less stress for me and more enjoyment at work.
I have some large canvases I plan on working on throughout the colder parts of the year when I tend to be stuck inside on the weekends. However I am finding large white devoid-of-all-colour canvases rather intimidating. I know it is a state of mind and I just need to push past it and get started but...

I'm also a terrible procrastinator...like...epic. I've researched and written entire papers in a single night. I've finished powerpoint presentations mere moments before they are due and given (rather good) oral presentations with no practice; fortunately for me (and any hapless partners I had in university) I am a decent public speaker.
Thus, sadly, I look at my canvases and my big empty drawing pad and think...I'll draw later when I feel like it...or "I'm not in the mood to paint, I'll wait until I'm ready"...

So my friends, my pencils remain sharpened, my paintbrushes remain dry and my tubes of paint stare at me in resignation...I shall get to it when I get to it...

I'm starting to work through the "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book and workbook in a (potentially vain) attempt to move my drawing from child-like sketches and chicken scratch to something resembling a real live person. Again...procrastination has allowed me to read through the first few chapters, leaving all of the practice activities to be completed at a later date...I'll get to it, I promise! I hope at the very least to increase my confidence in drawing, even if my actual technique improves very little. And on that note, I'm off to have some sort of supper related food product. Enjoy your evenings and try not to be as epic of a procrastinator as I am!

I went to the farm this weekend and due to the insanely accurate internal clock of my boyfriend's middle son, I was up at around 7am. The man and I decided to go for a walk and due to the early hour spider webs were still intact and full of morning due glistening in the sunlight. A race began to get as many shots as possible before the sun dried all the dew making the webs damn near impossible to see. As you can see, despite a raging fear of spiders, I managed to get some decent shots. Most will end up as prints on my walls as my boyfriend was a big fan off all of the webs.

The last few pics are not of spiders or webs as I needed to get rid of the heebie jeebies I was experiencing, so enjoy

To everyone who has been faving as I've been uploading...thanks so very much for the support!

dA love to you all