From the category archives:

Playful Self-Discipline

On falling down and getting up again

March 12, 2013

We all struggle, right? We dream and we doubt, we try and we fail, we go bushwacking and sometimes we fall down right in the middle of the swamp. Partway through his first year as an entreprenuer, my husband discovered this graph and sent it on to me. He wanted me to see that the [...]

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Merry Christmas, not Crazy Christmas (and a Blurb photobook offer!)

December 8, 2012

A couple of weeks ago I was in the kitchen, chatting with my husband about all the things that were coming up on the calendar. “I want to get all the shopping done before December,” I said, “because in a few weeks it’ll be all crazy Christmas with all the parties and things to do [...]

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Letting Go

November 22, 2012

I started getting rid of the baby stuff this week. I dragged Rubbermaid bins out of the closets and storage rooms, extricated the high chair and baby rocker from their hiding places, and brought it all out into the light of day. I sorted things, keeping only a few high-value and emotionally laden items, and [...]

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8 Reasons Why Interruptions are Awesome

July 30, 2012

If you can’t change your situation, you can always change your attitude. But some things are really hard to feel good about, and for me, being interrupted or deterred from my plan has had incredible power to derail my good mood in the past. Now that I’ve been a parent for almost 6 years, I’m [...]

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Learning to go Slow

July 27, 2012

Last week we drove from our home in Vancouver to my parents’ house in the prairies.  It’s a pretty long way. Two full 11 hour days of driving, normally.  Last year we made the journey in three days. This year we drove the Catbus, our new-to-us 1984 Westfalia.  What could be a more perfect trip [...]

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Playful Self-Discipline and Living Gluten-Free

April 30, 2012

I’ve been gluten-free for about a month now.  After the initial difficulty, we settled into a new food routine pretty quickly, and for Claire and I the results have been really positive.  Claire’s a happier kid, more outgoing and less likely to spend a whole playdate clinging to my lap.  She doesn’t have a bad [...]

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Hello 2012

January 3, 2012

The start of 2012 is feeling very different from the start of 2011.  Last year I wanted to take on big projects and create lasting change in my life.  I was fired up and ready to work at things.  This year, I’m feeling more calm.  I don’t know whether there will be big changes coming [...]

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Playful Self-Discipline: A Year Later

December 29, 2011

The end of 2011 is upon us, and in two days we’ll have a new calendar year, slowly lengthening days and a chance to make a host of brand new resolutions. That means it’s time to take stock of my Playful Self-Discipline project too. Did I achieve what I set out to do? What did [...]

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Playful Self-Discipline: Full Circle

December 4, 2011

When Tom and I first met, we spent many a long, sunny afternoon in his back garden, discussing the nature of life, the universe and everything. Could a machine be invented that recorded a person’s nightly dreams so that they could be experienced by another? How was it possible that we were both pastor’s kids [...]

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Playful Self-Discipline: 27 Gratitudes

October 27, 2011

1. Friends and family, both near and far. 2. Quiet evenings beside the fire at home. 3. My public library, excellent bloggers who share their expertise for free, the amazing vault of information that is the internet and other forms of knowledge-sharing. 4. A first (and successful!) batch of homemade lip balm. 5. Compost. 6. Garlic [...]

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Playful Self-Discipline: Gratitude and Possibility

October 20, 2011

Remember my manifestation wire? Well, that was four months ago and almost all of the drawings have been taken down because those things have come into our lives. Beatrice got her ice cream maker. I got three jars of delicious fennel and garlic fermented pickles.  We sorted out a fire escape ladder. And of the [...]

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Playful Self-Discipline: Messing it up

October 13, 2011

It’s easy to feel a sense of gratitude for all the amazing, wonderful things in life.  But life is not always roses and unicorns.  We’re human, and subject to the forces of chance, bad luck and errors in judgement.  We’re going to mess it up at some point.  Can gratitude apply here too? Looking back [...]

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Playful Self-Discipline: Gratitude

October 6, 2011

October is here, with cool, windy, wet days that send me hightailing it to the couch with a hot cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. Autumn is a natural time to bring attention inward, slow down a little and take stock of where you’re at. October is also the [...]

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