Spring is almost here and I feel a urge of transition and change, I feel connected to our environment. So much to look forward to!

After a career transition workshop I’ve been coached how to tell others I’ve been laid off. I started a business a year and a half ago with the gut feeling I’d be laid off. Now that it has happened I’ve got major pressure to ensure our business can provide financial support once my maternity leave is over. I went to my accountant who is also a business coach and teaches many entrepreneurs. I asked him a general question about the universe trying to tell me something. Or why are a lot of crummy things happening at once? He said, I think the universe is just telling you, that you are now an entrepreneur.

After a crazy week of feeling like I was a frozen computer, we hit the road to Kimberly to get in some amazing powder turns snowboarding. I got to ride with a great friend who is also a local. She took me to her powder stash, and what a stash!! Just when I thought it was over, bam!! another field of untouched powder. It was nice to get away and leave stresses at home.

Once back home, I had a fresh perspective, outlook and energy. As I’m sure most people have an inner dialogue, I too have an inner dialogue. I find myself repeating these four P’s a lot lately.

• Patience
• Persistence
• Positivity
• Persevere

Patience, things don’t always happen as quick as you expect them to.

Persistence, Go back to the contacts you made, over and over again. Give it time and you’ll build a relationship, they’ll want to hire your services.

Positivity, believe in your dreams!! You can do it!

Persevere, expect challenges, nothing will always be perfect and run smoothly. Persevere through the road blocks. You’ll learn and they will only make you stronger. And the next time it happens, you’ll work through it with ease.

Ingredients:

• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups cauliflower florets
• zucchini cut into half moons
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• salt and fresh ground black pepper
• roasted red pepper, (from 1 pepper)
• 3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, second portion of 2 Tbs
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 10 eggs
• Romaine lettuce

Steps:

1. Roast red peppers. (cut up, broil with skin up, once skin shows some black, remove from oven, cool, peel skin off, cut into strips). Once red peppers are done,  Set oven to 475 Fahrenheit
2. Use an 8″ nonstick oven proof saute pan. Heat oil over medium high heat, add cauliflower and zucchini and saute for 5 min. Add garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and reduce heat to low until veggies are tender (another 5 min). Stir in red pepper, increase heat to medium high.
3. Whisk together 3/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, basil and egg in a separate bowl. Season mixture with salt and pepper to taste. Stir mixture into veggie pan. Once eggs begin to solidify, flatten with a spatula while the mixture is still wet and stop stirring. Cook undisturbed for one more minute. Transfer pan to the oven.
4. Bake in the oven for 8 more mintutes until the eggs are completely set. Remove from oven.
5. Sprinkle 2 Tbs of Parmigiano-Reggiano over Romaine lettuce stalks. Place a strip of the Frittata on the Romaine and enjoy!

My iphone doesn’t take the best pics, but at least its some sort of visual

• shivers – from inspiring clips like the TED talk from Amy Purdy

• connections – I hated “cliques” growing up in high school, so I tried not to get associated or pin holed to one clique. However, looking back I realize the people in these cliques had strong connections and perhaps I was envious of their chemistry. Although I may have been jealous of some bonds, I am confident I made connections with many people among various groups of people. It is a great feeling to re-connect with friends, to share a great conversation, share things you are proud of, things you are trying to over come, things that inspire you. Thank you Tanis for the great visit today!!

• focus – tomorrow will be a focus day. It will feel good to get a lot accomplished

Good night!!

• Body flow at Goodlife fitness. It is a wonderful mixture of Pilates, yoga, and tai chi with a great soundtrack set to each movement and breath. It starts with a Tai Chi track, moves into Sun salutations, standing strength, balance, focus on hips, core, back strength, hamstring stretches, twists (helps immune system) and ends with meditation. I love it!!

• Learning about my baby. When I found out I was pregnant, my sister in law lent me the book, Pregnancy day by day. The information and illustrations satisfied my curiosity as to what was going on inside my body. It also motivated me to eat healthier than ever before and to exercise. Which made out for a very smooth pregnancy and birth. Now that my little munchkin is almost 9 months old, I’m learning about babies sleeping needs. The book I’ve been recommended is, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It is a little late to learn however, better late than never. Her sleep through the night is good. Now we are working on putting her to bed for naps during the day and letting her fall asleep on her own to learn self soothing. Today was day one. She fell asleep after crying for ~20 minutes. We did similar sleep training to get her sleeping through the night. It’s time to create good day time sleeping habits. It’s hard at first, but I know it will be better for all of us in the long run.

• Family walks in Fish Creek Park

Loving the view of the mountains, the bow river and downtown Calgary with a tea and my family.

• The Okotoks Toy Library – Today Taylor and I went to get a couple new toys for her to play with. We got a membership when she was very young. As she grows out of toys or stops playing with them I exchange them for different ones. It is a great way to save money and not end up with a basement full of plastic. So I believe it is also great for the environment. The membership has paid for itself about 10 times I’m thinking and Taylor would have never gotten the chance to play with such great toys if we hadn’t got this membership.
• Evenings my husband makes dinner. My husband really appreciates a meal that is all ready when he gets home from work. With me being on mat leave he’s been fortunate to have this quite often lately. However, I appreciate a break every once in a while. Today he called me and was craving pizza so he took charge of making dinner and made a gluten free pizza. I was impressed!!
• Breaking Bad TV series – We are addicted to this show right now. I appreciate the creative people that write and produce crazy stories.

Life has been busy since I last wrote here (almost two years ago). I quit my job and then went back to it, I read some amazing books, I went on a 10 day canoe trip in the Tundra, I went on many snowboarding excursions, I was pregnant, I started a business, I had my first child, I had struggles in my marriage and got through them, I tried new recipes, the list goes on. All amazing accomplishments, however it is hard for me to keep track of it all and remember them.

Very often I find myself thinking, I need to get back on ODACAVA. I saw a TED talk Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work and was re-inspired.

Motivated from the video, I want to share everyday positive experiences with you. I want to share stories about the amazing people in my life. I want to share what I am grateful for and my passion for being healthy. I am a doer, but I realize, I need to share my experiences and stories as there are so many great tools out there now to do so.

Here goes, I am grateful for:

With it being Valentines day, I am grateful for Love. I rediscovered Love in the last year. I read the Love is patient, love is kind… (bible verse) every night when I brush my teeth. I’m not a religious person either. I started this after I went to a wedding. My 21 year old young cousin asked me, “What is marriage like?”, I replied, “It’s a lot of work”. As the ceremony began, the new priest started (It was his first wedding). He was not  married himself so he asked the same question to married people he knew, “”What is marriage like?”,  Coincidentally, most replied, “It’s a lot of work”. He then continued on to read the Love bible verse. I had heard it before at previous weddings, but it really hit me hard this particular day. I went home, printed it, and I look at it everyday. Everyday different words stick out and I learn something new about myself everyday.

I am also grateful for my daughter. She is almost 9 months old now. She is sooooooooooooooooooooo much fun!! She makes me laugh. I chase her around the house, she giggles, she is learning so fast. It is amazing to see all the new discoveries she makes every day. She’s our little “day maker”.

I am also grateful for my husband, I have been resentful towards him in the past. Through the love reading I realized this. Just becoming aware of these feelings I am able to control them and stop them and it has really helped our relationship as I have control over negative feelings. My husband is amazing. He is incredibly smart, handsome, athletic, funny, caring, loving, and he does everything he can to take care of our family.

That is all for now. Please don’t judge my writing. In the past I would get hung up on editing and then never publish posts. I’m not going to do that anymore. I want to publish something everyday. It is easy to journal what I am grateful for, so if that is all I have time for each day then so be it, but I want to share as much as I can, so I believe it is a matter of getting back in the habit and to stop being fearful of what others will think and to stop being so knit-picky about editing.

Cheers,

Krista