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.

We got to visit with my dad and step mom Friday night on their way through Calgary.  It was quick, but my dad got to see his Grand daughter and we got to hear about their holiday and catch up.

Saturday I took Taylor to a friends, daughter’s 3rd birthday party. It was a blast. The Mother is very creative and crafty. She had a Monster themed party with face painting, an amazing cake with little monster’s on it. Monster cookie decorating. She also made sock monster stuffed toys, and monter playdough for guests. She’s an inspiration for when I plan my daughter’s first birthday.

We headed home for a nap and to prep for our next adventure, Curling!! I love the smell of ice, wether I’m curling or skating on it, love it! Watching our friends slip and slide around is a blast too. Taylor loved the ice . We all took turns hanging out with her on the side line in between sweeping, playing skip, and shooting!! It was a great time!! I appreciate my friends that organized it.

Taylor fell asleep after curling and we went to Brendan’s cousin for a visit, it was a great time!!

The following day, Brendan woke up with Taylor while I got to sleep in. I love hearing them laugh and chase each other around the house.

That night we had Brendan’s cousin and his gf over for Turkey burgers with guacamole and a movie.

After cleaning our hot tub this weekend and turning down the temperature we had a family hot tub after dinner tonight. I love seeing Taylor kicking her legs like the doggy paddle comes naturally and reaching out to her dad and I. It was so much fun!! She giggles and splashes and screams. It was a blast!!

These quality times and memories will now never be forgotten thanks to odacava.

Please feel free to share your quality moments.

Change, sunshine, and my family

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

My eyesight. I need to wear contacts or glasses. I’m not sure what I would do without them. What do some people do that don’t get the chance to go to the eye doctor? What did people do before there were glasses or contact lenses? I had an eye appointment today and it made me thankful I have the opportunity to get my eyes checked and to see this beautiful world we live in.

TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More). Working together with my husband, we achieve more. Taking on any goal with a group of people and working together,  possibilities are endless.  I’m grateful for my soccer team. I’ve been with the same soccer team for about 4 years. It feels as though we are really gelling as a team. We’ve had a successful season so far as we’ve played against a lot of teams we are better than. It has given us the opportunity to improve our passing, shooting, communication on the field, and to get our confidence up. Tonight, our opponents were strong and played very well. We were tied throughout most of the game. It was tied at 3 all near the end of the game. Our team pulled through together and got the 4th goal to win it.  We were really tested tonight and this win felt incredible!

Family dinners – Quality time with family, amazing food, fantastic conversation, I loved every moment.

Creativity. I believe everyone has the capability to be creative. Artists, sculptors, writers aren’t the only creative people in the world. A teacher, a financial planner, a janitor are all creative. They can be creative in how they do their job, in finding solutions, or they express themselves. I love it when idea’s and creative solutions come at unexpected moments.

Our treadmill. When my husband originally proposed getting a treadmill I shut it down. I did not see us using it. Thankfully, he ignored my concerns, found a great deal on Kijiji and got  a treadmill. After being pregnant and having a baby, I am loving it!! There are a lot of days I can not make it to the gym. But if I get on the treadmill for a half hour (as early as I can in the day) I feel great.  I am energized, I see clearer, I am calm in my decisions,  and I have better focus through out my day. I am not a great long distance runner. I try to run as long as I can, when I get a cramp I just walk uphill on the steepest incline my treadmill goes to. I sweat it out for half and hour.

A night in to myself: Alone chill time is healthy every so often. I am loving it tonight!!I’m going to go to sleep

• 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!!

I am also grateful for old/new friends. We have friends that my husband has been friends with since they were young boys. We rarely see them since we moved to Calgary, however they are moving here!! So now it feels like we have new friends We had them for dinner Sunday, it was great to visit with them and we played the board game Ticket to Ride.

I made spiced chicken with mango salsa, here is the recipe:

6 servings: The sugar in the spice rub caramelizes as the meat, forming a delicious brown crust.

Mango Salsa:

1/2 cup hot jalapeno jelly
3 TBS fresh lime juice
2 1/2 cups chopped peeled pitted mango (from 2)
1 1/4 cups chopped red bell pepper
3/4 cups chopped red onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno chile, minced

1 TBS ground cinnamon
1 TBS ground coriander
1 TBS sugar
1 TBS paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
12 4-ounce beef tenderloin steaks (each ~ 1/2 inch thick)
Olive oil

Whisk: jelly, and lime in large bowl to loosen. Mix in next 5 ingredients. Season salsa to taste with salt and pepper.

Prepare: Mix cinnamon and next 5 ingredients in small bowl to blend for spice rub. Brush chicken breasts all over with oil, then sprinkle each side with 1/2 teaspoon spice rub (I drowned the chicken in the spice, it was great!).  Cook chicken at 350 for 20 mins. Serve, passing salsa separately. I served this with sweet potato fries and spinach salad with mandarin oranges, almonds and craisins.

I am also grateful for adventure. This past Family day our friends took us ice fishing. It was quite the adventure, I appreciated every moment though. Here is a photo on the lake, mountains in the background. The weather was awesome!

• 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.