5 Easy Ways to Add a Little SUNSHINE to Your Morning

I love to embrace each season, to revel in the cycles of nature and the turning of the year - but I have to admit that sometimes winter can really get me down. Day after day of grey skies and dark mornings and early sunsets and cold...brrrrrr! So how to I keep myself from slipping into a full-blown case of the Winter Blues? Well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Why I Believe Homemaking Skills are Important

This morning, while I was waiting for my tea, I caught a few minutes of the cookery segment on a morning show. I was stunned to see the "chef" and tv hostesses teaching their audience to prepare...scrambled eggs with cheese. Aren't scrambled eggs one of those basic dishes that every adult knows how to make? Apparently not! 

Bringing in Spring

We had sunshine and relatively warm (53F!!) temps this weekend...the snow cover on the back deck melted enough that we could shovel a path to the kitchen door - and open it for the first time in over a month! I've opened up my windows and aired out the house without also acquiring frostbite....

All of this combined to create a raging case of Spring Fever...

Starting Fresh

January is often a month of fresh starts, of resolutions, of lists. I'm often too busy in January to even bother...preferring spring for my fresh starts. But this year, its different.

This year, my freelance job lost its funding...2 days before Christmas. This year, I have time on my hands. This year, I'm starting fresh in January - like it or not!

So I am taking things one day at a time: catching up on sleep, catching up with friends, catching up with networking. I'm taking the time to do a lot of the things I already *know* are good for me, but that I let lapse while I was "too busy."

These days, I do not skip breakfast! I wake up and drink a glass of lemon and chia water while my tea is brewing. I make myself a scrambled egg on toast or have a yoghurt (protein is important!). And I have a luscious piece of fruit.

These days, I do not skip my yoga (and nothing tells you how creaky you are like re-starting yoga!). I spend a gentle 15-30 minutes taking care that I will be able to touch my toes when I'm 90!

These days, I do not skip a daily long walk. I may use my walk to run errands, like returning books to the library. Or not. My favorite walks are those that encourage my mind to clear, that has my wandering worries settle down, and true focus to kick in.

These days, I am catching up on all those little chores that always slipped to the bottom of my endless "to do" lists: mending hems, adjusting sleeves, finishing half-done sewing projects, and all sorts of little odds and ends around the house.

Are you having a fresh start in January?

In Defense of Home-cooked Breakfast

I often hear the argument that home-cooked breakfasts are a luxury...that it is faster and more convenient to grab fast food on the go than to crack an egg or two and cook an omelet. NOT TRUE.

Being Content

Today I had a lesson in being content with what I have.

Now, please keep in mind that being content is not the same as being complacent! Complacency moans "I don't care..." or drawls "All is well..." when all isn't - whereas contentment says, "I am ok where I am right at this moment, because I see that I am on a path I want to be traveling."

Sometimes being content is easier said than done! Being content means that even tho I eventually want to own a home with some land for chickens and a larger garden, for now I am happy to be in my large, quirky and bohemian rental apartment.

Being content means that altho it may be fun to have a bottomless wallet of cash to spend on any little desire, I do not wallow in envy or resentment over what I do not have. Instead, I try to always celebrate what I do have! I create my own unique and beautiful home and gifts and lifestyle with what I find around me and what I am led to seek out! No amount of cash can buy my little niece snuggling in and saying, "I really love snuggling with you, Aunt Kathryn. You feel like love."

But this morning I had a run-in with "but I want it!!!". As I was photographing my kitchen manger, I once again noticed the icky textured and lumpy white walls . Most of the time I don't even see this anymore, but this morning the walls screamed at me! As the only real repair is to demolish them altogether, I had decided to just live with them. This is just a rental, and not my "dream house", so usually it is an easy task to let it go. But this morning I was consumed with kitchen envy - envy of all those beautiful kitchens in the shelter magazines and on HGTV. Argh!

Fortunately, this spell did not last too long. I went for a loooong walk and regained my perspective. But it did shake me a bit to see how all these negative thoughts and feelings are just lurking around waiting to take over!

How do you handle creeping discontent?