it's my girls' world

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Currently--- on my birthday!!

It's my birthday, friends!! ANother year, so many blessings in my life. Every year ON my birthday, I like to do a little currently- sort of like a state of the soul if you may.... Here's this year's currently...

Currently....

thinking | That this past year really had its fair share of ups and downs but also about how many blessings I have in my life! So many things I try not to take for granted!

drinking |lots and lots of water and tea! But I see a birthday martini in my future tonight :-)

eating |all the soups and salads after a most decadent December.... However, there is also a piece of chocolate cake in the future as well tonight.... a quite large piece ha!

reading | Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult for book club next month. It's a good read but the white supremist's POV is very hard for me to stomach.

loving |We have been grilling on weekends. We put the grill very close to the door and are able to BBQ in the colder months. It feels like such a special treat.

wanting |to lose 9 lbs. I'd even settle for 4!

watching | The Crown on Netflix. Kind of timely with the whole Royal Brexit! I'm not going to call it Megxit-- as it's really both of them!

listening | To my kids squabble. They have been especially ornery this last week.

trying | to organise summer camps for my girls.

wishing | that this year is a good one filled with good health, happiness and peace for us all.

planning | travel for the rest of the year. I'm not hating it, I'll confess ;-)

enjoying | the smell of this awesome cream.

day dreaming | We are heading out to some warmer temps in April and I'm really looking forward to it.

waiting | to see how they explain Alex Karev's departure on Greys!

liking |Toyblast, this game that my seven year old introduced me to-- I'm embarrassingly good at it!!

needing | A facial. My skin is starting to get that winter dullness!

wearing | some colours.... in the winter, it's so easy to wear my blacks, greys and other muted tones but I'm trying my best to wear some jeweled tones as well!!

starting | to really love quiet mornings when no one is around and it's still dark, those first sips of tea and those first relaxing breaths of meditation bring me a lot of contentment.

smelling | my very favourite almond oil shower gel in the shower... it's the little things, right?

thanking | God for another beautiful, healthy year!

Cheers, friends!

Monday, January 20, 2020

The Houston Zoo and a Little New Year's Eve

One of our very favourite visits on our recent trip to Houston was the beautiful Houston Zoo. So many different animals in a sprawling acreage of beautiful land, this zoo is the second most visited in North America and I totally understand why. There were so many different animals I had never seen before and the displays were so informative and interesting.

Of course we had to visit the primates section.

The orangutan was legit smiling at the kids.

I have never seen a cheetah up close. They were absolutely beautiful!!!

The tapirs were so beautiful!!

Love me a good giraffe. They are so graceful.

We are obsessed with flamingos over here.

We came home, rested a bit then got ready for a New Years' Eve party at a friend's family's house...

Big news, I sported a red lip :-)

It was a combo New Years' Eve/Birthday combo.

It was a good time for sure....

The next day, we spend the whole day at our friends' house. Totally low key day with a walk outside, some play with the kids, drinks, really delicious food and lots of laughs.

Have a marvelous Monday, friends!

Friday, January 17, 2020

Houston #2 and yay for seven blogging years!!!

Yay for Friday!!! These weeks in January are just tiptoeing along and I for one am very okay with the weekend ahead!

Also, today is 7 years since I started blogging!!! What started off as a way to document all the little happenings in my girls' lives has turned into this wonderful outlet of random self expression for me. I love the blogging community and how kind, encouraging and empowering you ladies are. I know that online can be a tough place at times but blogging folk are a special sort who really do strive to lift each other up. Cheers to you, all of my friends, family and other readers. Thank you so much for reading and following along!

In other news, here's a little bit more of our visit to Houston... It was so action packed, this is just 48 hours of fun as it's sooo many pics to go through!

Day 2 started with an accidental trip to Tacodeli, this Austin chain with gourmet, fresh delicious tacos. Everyone loved it so much, we returned before we left Houston.

The queso was soooo good, my kids went a little crazy! Let's be honest, so did I.

Then we were off to the Houston Aquarium. We bought a City Pass which gave us access to 5 different tourist attractions. Highly recommend it for the bigger cities!

It was a quick visit to a smaller aquarium but it was so beautiful though a certain seven year old found some of the bigger fish quite scary!

There was a random live white Bengali Tiger as an exhibit as well. I didn't understand how he fit in but he was a beauty for sure.

My kids wanted to go on a ride before we left.

We headed to the very busy Galleria mall after for some shopping go lite as we just walked with carry on luggage. Side note, we almost spent as much time looking for parking as we did in the Aquarium #truestory

A's namesake and her birthday twin at their house for dinner after!

The next day, we were off to the Space Centre.

We clearly had the same idea as about 5000 other people!

There were so many cool interactive experiences and stem activities!

And then my friends, we took the kids on A's 'dream come true'.... her words.... to the Unicorn- A Magical Dessert Bar.

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A little something for everyone!!

Linking up with Andrea.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

New Year, New Resolutions

Image result for goodbye 2019 hello 2020

Yay for Wednesday--- says no one ever ;-)!

I figured since it's January and still not too late, I'd touch base on those new year resolutions!! Before we commence with 2020, let's take a look back at 2019 and how I did.

Reduce single use plastics

Yep, we are still chugging along. We do what we can and bring our bags and bottles whenever we can. But man, so many things still come in plastic containers....even so many of our fruits and veggies!!! And so many herbs dry out when we use our mesh.As much as possible if we absolutely must have plastic, we reuse them as much as possible-- like refilling a plastic water bottle so it's no longer single use!

Eat more (sustainably sourced) fish

Wednesdays are now usually fish days at our house so I'm pleased that we got this in there. As much as possible as well, I find myself ordering seafood when we eat out as well. My body feels better but my wallet doesn't-- ha! In a perfect world, I'd like to become pescatarian but chicken is just so easy! Oh but I didn't get into eating sardines as much as I wanted to!

Call my friends and family more

Yes and no. I still call the same old people, sometimes I do call others as well but life gets in the way of constantly being in touch!

And now onto

I usually have a few but this year, it's very simple. My main focus is to embrace meditation more. I've meditated off and on since twenties without too much success. Then I started guided meditation most mornings and this seems to really work for me. Using the Headspace app, I started in the fall of 2019 and now D gifted me an unlimited subscription for 2020. I enjoy the self awareness that it brings, the stress reduction, the mindfulness and the overall well being.

So yeah, it will have over arching effects in many other areas of my life so not too much more resolutions.

Interior Design

My living/dining space is due for a bit of a refresh so D and I hope to do some of this in the spring and summer of this year.... Exciting!!

We usually try to support the kiddos in their goals as well so this year C (10) wants to smile better in pics-- a hilarious but true goal; and A wants to watch her tone when speaking- also worthwhile LOL.

Do you have lots of resolutions this year or just the main one like I do?

Make your Wednesday wonderful, lovelies!!!