Weekend With Family and a New Puzzle

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend we got a few things done and I started my new Ravensburger puzzle called cozy retreat on Amazon. It is another cozy scene puzzle. I wish I could jump into this puzzle as it is a perfect scene and there's even yarn in the puzzle. I didn't realize I bought the large size puzzle pieces, so this puzzle will be big! I am still putting together the edge pieces and will keep working on the edges this week.

My parents came by to visit this Sunday and spend time with Millie. I also gave them photos from the wedding. We are still wrapping up wedding stuff even now it takes quite awhile for us to complete everything. I have plans to share on the blog my wedding day as I only shared one photo and have so many more to share now. It was truly a wonderful day.

After my parents left, Millie was very tired and slept about 5 hours. She had a lot of playtime during their visit.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! How was your weekend?

Have a great day!

What Happened When I Did The Miracle Morning for 30 days - Friday Focus

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I restarted The Miracle Morning routine in January this year. I had done the routine a few years ago and loved it, then with time I stopped doing all the savers every morning. At the end of last year I was starting to think about starting up again. Then I was listening to a Linked In learning podcast with Hal Elrod speaking about what successful people do in the morning and then I decided to start the routine again and buy the app. I am so glad I did because it is changing my life again for the best. I discuss below what changes I saw and what I enjoyed most about the routine over the past 30 days. I woke up at 8 am daily an hour or more before work and did the savers. I always wake up feeling hopeful for the day ahead and as I am doing the savers I am feeling grateful and hopeful as I bring intention to my morning and the day ahead. 

The app has been so much more helpful and motivating than I thought. In a previous post, I shared that the app include a different video from people who did the miracle morning. This is an awesome start to my morning because they are always talking about how the routine changed their life and it makes me excited to continue on and see the same results in my life. I love how I can check off the savers as I complete them and there is a popup after that is so satisfying that says how many days you completed with confetti. In Hal Elrod's podcast he recently shared that they will be adding more resources to the app soon and I can't wait to see what else they share. Once I completed the 30 days (on day 33 now) I received a 2 minute message from Hal and it was inspiring to continue this journey.

The SAVERS (Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, and Scribing)

Silence - I have meditated for 39 consecutive days so far. Before this I wanted to have a more consistent meditation schedulem but it was hard to do it everyday because I didn't set time aside in my mornings. Now that I carved time out of my schedule before I start the workday, I am in the habit of doing it and it calms me before the day. I do guided meditations and the Insight Timer app I use will recommend meditations to me based on my mood and to offer me the best meditation for how I am feeling. I also join live events on the weekend and there is meditation as part of the event. Next month, I will be continuing to meditate using guided meditation, and also incorporate some just timer meditation to be silent and practice stillness and focus on my breath.

Affirmations: I would write that I am committed to my personal growth and development and my health most mornings. I also would find some affirmations or read out some from Pinterest. You can see my miracle morning board here for some ideas I have shared.

Visualization: I visualize what I want to see happen in my life. I picture a few things for my work life and also for my personal life. Doing this daily has given me direction and makes me realize what is truly important to me and what I want most in life. I have started making moves each day to obtain these wishes that I have been visualizing. I think this is probably my favourite and most important of the savers for me because I can visualize what I want every morning to remind me to keep moving forward and working at my goals. 

Exercise - I felt so much stronger and more flexible as I am doing a 10 minute exercise daily. I have been doing the same morning stretch workout from YouTube daily. It is from MonikaFit and the standing morning 10 minute exercise. I feel like I am much stronger in the movements than when I started and feel more flexible and it makes me feel happy doing the workout. I think that the low impact stretching and movements helps to wake up my body and mind for the day. I want to check out some more of her videos to try out next month and also incorporate more yoga exercises.

Photo source

Reading: I finished reading a book called The Bookshop of Yesterdays during the 30 day challenge. It takes me a long time to finish a book sometimes working fulltime and not devoting time to it. Reading part of the savers I finally had the push I needed to read a bit each day. Even if I read 3 minutes some days it was better than nothing and I enjoyed it. Now I am excited to read more self improvement books in the upcoming months to feel motivated before the day starts.

Scribing: I wrote in my 5 minute journal app by Intelligent change. It helped me to set goals at the beginning of the day and count three things I was grateful for. It also prompts you to enter some affirmations and what are you going to do today to make it great. 

After the past 30 days challenge, I felt overall more positive and hopeful. Each day before work and my weekend days, I paused to think of what I was grateful for, affirmations, moved my body, read my book. I think doing these things each day made me so grateful for my life and excited for what is to come. The visualizations I think of daily keep me focused on my goals and hopes for the future and remind me of what is truly important to me.

Thank you for stopping by today! I will continue to do the Miracle Morning routine every morning and will share some more updates with you in upcoming posts. I think my life has improved since restarting this routine and I am so happy I made it a priority again. There is so much that can be shared regarding morning routine and my experience. Let me know in the comments below if you do the Miracle Morning too or what your routine is that works best for you. 

Have a great day!

Knitting the Copy Cat Cowl and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you doing well. I have been having a good week and it is going fast because of having Monday off work for the holiday. I have been knitting more of the copy cat cowl by Verna Glass. This pattern has been fun to knit up and I am almost done. I have to start thinking about my next project. 

I am reading Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Expecting Better by Emily Oster. I still haven't read too much of these books yet. But since I finished the Bookshop of Yesterdays By Amy Meyerson, I will be reading these much more now. I gave the Bookshop of Yesterdays 4/5 stars on good reads because I really enjoyed the book. There were times I felt Miranda's character was a bit rude to her boyfriend, but I guess there could be reasons for that because she has her own journey she was working on and she expected everyone else to understand and be there for her. I think that it was an interesting novel and it kept me reading on and intrigued to the end. My favourite characters were Billy and Malcom. I think that I felt connected to Billy because we were constantly learning more about his character. I definitely recommend this book!

Photo source

Photo Source

Millie was busy playing a lot today and keeping us busy. She is so sweet and chatty and it is so fun to have her with us. I was just playing with her cat dancer tonight and she really enjoys this one so much and also the ball toy in the photo below.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you are having a good week so far and enjoy the rest of your week. I will see you again for Friday Focus where I talk about my experience with the 30 day challenge doing the Miracle Morning these past two months.

Happy Family Day! Long Weekend Relaxation

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Family Day to those in Canada and President's Day to those in the states. It was the long weekend this weekend we had family day today. This weekend has been so nice and relaxing and much needed. On Saturday I did grocery shopping and Sunday I cleaned the washrooms and did laundry and facetimed with family. Then today I spent a lot of time reading and finishing my book and then studying for my course. We also went for a walk it was a sunny day, so it was really nice going out. We had banana chocolate chip pancakes this morning. I enjoyed having more time this morning to make them and enjoyed eating them with Liam and chatting. 

I finished reading The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson today. It was such a wonderful story and I enjoyed uncovering the mystery of the novel along with the protagonist. I am going to be continuing on reading Expecting Better by Emily Oster and Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid this week. I also started doing some planning for the week in my Happy Planner. It always helps me to get an idea of the week ahead. I like to plan at the start of the week to jot down important events, appointments, and to plan out my goals and what I want to accomplish for the week.

It was nice spending more time this weekend playing with Millie. She is such so playful and likes to be around us. Usually on a Monday Liam and I are both still working from home, but I had a bit of a playtime with her in between her naps today.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope that you enjoyed your weekend too and have a great start to your week. This week I am planning on knitting more of my copy cat cowl and reading more of my other books.

Have a great day!

Work-Life Balance - Friday Focus

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! For today's post I will be talking about work-life balance, what it is, and what I do to help with my balance. I am definitely not at the perfect work-life balance and am constantly trying out routines to have the best productive week and also have that downtime after work and before work I need. 

I have always heard the term "work-life balance" and thought of it as trying to juggle it all with working and also having a personal life. I read up about it for today's post and it is more the balance of work and personal life and finding the right balance or routine that works well for you. Since the start of the year, I have been thinking a lot about my routines, habits, organization, and systems that I want to have in place to get all the things done that I want to do and being productive and my best at work too.

Some things I do to promote work-life balance is:

Morning routine - I start every day the same way by doing the miracle morning savers. I started this routine again 25 days ago and it always helps me start the day feeling accomplished in my personal life and what I want for myself as a person before I start my work day. 

Exercise - I have been doing 10 minutes exercise mostly stretching in the mornings and I do yoga on sometimes on my lunch breaks if I have time. I feel like going for a walk at lunch also helps me to take some time away from work for awhile and the fresh air helps. 

Setting goals in my work life and personal life - I set goals at work and create to do lists daily and priority lists. I got these ideas from Linked In learning courses on time management. I liked the idea and just jotted down a few priorities each day so I did the important things first so I could get those done and the rest I could either do at the end of the day if I was done or move to another day. In an article from Mental Health America they discuss how important it is to set goals at work each day that can be accomplished and to also work more efficiently to get the work done. I have been working on this and getting better at getting my work done on time and then not putting in too many extra hours to avoid burn out. Also for my personal life, when I set monthly that I also started this year again I know what I am working towards and feel like I am using my me time more wisely and feeling more productive and rested.

Time for recovery - my favourite magazine Psychology Today discusses the need for active recovery in our days comparable to those of athletes. We need to spend time after our busy days for ourselves. I like to spend some time after work just looking over my planner or reading or watching a YouTube video to just spend some time "recovering" from my day before I head into making dinner and winding down for the night. This helps me to have my me time after a busy work day and then I can feel more refreshed and ready to be present and feel better to spend time with my family. I added a photo of my kitten Millie because she really knows how to relax.

I am adding this in later in the day because I wanted to also mention that I find that working from home has improved my work-life balance because I can spend more time at home than before. I have more routines before and after work because of this. I am also able to spend more time with my husband and kitten during the week than I normally would. I also feel like my days are an even better balance of work and personal life because I can switch between the two easily because of working my my home.

The work week is busy and there is so much to do each week. I can say I love my work weeks and I feel like I have a routine figured out that brings me joy. These were just some ideas and things I do during the week and they may not work for everyone. What do you like to do during the week to promote your work-life balance? I also love blogging three times a week now and spending more time with you all that make my week better.

Have a great day!

Knitting Cowl and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am happy it is Wednesday and getting closer to the weekend. This week is going by a bit slow, but it was fun on Valentine's day Monday. It felt special celebrating with Liam and with some work activities during the day. 

I am still knitting the Copy cat cowl by Verna Glass on Ravelry. I am getting close to being done and hopefully will reveal the finished cowl next Wednesday. I am loving this pattern and find it so relaxing to knit while watching TV.

Millie is my favourite coworker. She keeps me company while I am working sleeping on the bed we have set up for her on the desk.

I am still reading The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. I have been enjoying the story more and more. I have been reading a bit every morning, so I am getting more reading in now that I am sticking to my morning routine and reading is a part of that routine.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope that you are having a good week so far. Hope to see you again Friday for the Friday Focus post.

Have a great day!

Happy Valentine's day! Knitted Heart and Finished Puzzle

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Valentine's day! I had a good weekend, we celebrated my mom's birthday this weekend and had dinner at my sister's place. The weekend flew by and it was nice spending it with family and getting a few things done.

I finished knitting a small plush heart this weekend for Valentine's day. I used the pattern Hearts by Amanda Berry on Ravelry. I used 3.25 mm knitting needles and some left over worsted weight light pink yarn. I filled the heart with poly-fil stuffing once the heart was complete. 

I finished making the puzzle I have been working on since January. It was a fun puzzle and I loved the image of the cozy scene. My sister got it for me from Indigo for Christmas the name of the puzzle is warm & cozy.

Tonight we will be ordering some takeout for dinner from an Italian restaurant for Valentine's day. Liam bought me flowers and chocolate and it has been a nice Valentine's Day so far. I hope you enjoy your day too!

More Self-love this Valentine's Day - Friday Focus

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! It is almost Valentine's day and it is a time to celebrate all kinds of love. Love for others and love for yourself. I have been working on self-love over the years. It hasn't always been easy to feel the love for myself. I do love myself now and feel happy with how far I have come and I am doing things each day to keep working on this important relationship. I am posting below some tips I found online to practice more self-love, some of my own ideas, and my experiences with each tip. 

Choose a positive mindset. Psychology Today has a tip to "be a life coach to yourself". which is true and it made me think of a recent podcast I listened to from Natalie Bacon on her podcast Design your Dream Life called Three Default Mindsets. She discusses choosing the mindset that you have all the time. I have had different mindsets in the past sometimes it could be really negative and constant negative self talk. If you are easier on yourself if you make a mistake and treat yourself with the kindness and love then you can develop more self love.

Spend time on things you enjoy. I try to spend as much time doing the things I love and bring me joy like knitting, blogging, reading, and spending time with loved ones. I think by purposefully making time for the things you really love and that are important to you, you will send yourself the message that you matter.

Make peace with the past. This is one that I struggle with. If we dwell on our past mistakes, it makes us feel regret and shame. If we accept what happened and work hard each day to move forward, then we can understand ourselves better and to make better decisions for ourselves in the future. Our past selves were just learning as we went along, and we are the people we are today because of an accumulation of all of our experiences.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope you are having a great week so far and enjoy your weekend!

Knitting Cowl, Knitting Heart, and Puzzle Updates

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am glad we are mid week now and the week is going by quickly. I need another weekend to just relax and it is a special weekend coming up with my mom's birthday and Valentine's day early next week. I have been knitting the copycat cowl daily and loving it more as it is getting longer. I am looking forward to wearing it once it is done. I have been reading  a lot of The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. 

I am also starting to knit some hearts for Valentine's day. I am using the Hearts pattern by Amanda Berry. I just started knitting one tonight so I will share photos of them soon when I am finished.

I am also working on the puzzle and made a bit more progress. I didn't do the puzzle this weekend much so I hope to make more progress on the puzzle this week and finish it. It is a fun puzzle and I feel so peaceful when I am sitting down working on it. 

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and hope that you are having a good week.

Weekend Knitting Copycat Cowl and Reading

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend was a really nice one filled with visits with our families and good times. I did a bit of knitting and reading here and there. I also worked more on the puzzle and will show you once it is done. The weekends always go by so fast. 

I knitted more of the Copycat cowl by Verna Glass on Ravelry. I like how it is turning out and interesting how you keep increasing the number of stitches as you go. I wasn't sure when I cast on the 88 stitches if it would be wide enough, but you do add on to the original number of stitches.

I read more of The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. The book is turning out to be so intriguing with lots of mystery and I am still reading on to find more answers. I have the other two books on the go as well, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Expecting Better by Emily Oster. I am trying to focus on Bookshop for now to finish this week. 

Hope you had a good weekend too and have a great week ahead!