The Passionate Voice

The Sunday 7

• Lifestyle

Happy Christmas eve! How is it already Christmas tomorrow?! My favourite time of year is here and before we know it, we’ll blink and it will be gone. Today, all I have planned is eating, baking, more eating, evening mass and spending time with the fam. This marks Blake’s first Christmas so this holiday is even more special. Enjoy the time with your loved ones! xo

  1. Our trip to Manitoba this week brought the most beautiful, snowy (warmer) cold weather that allowed us to spend time outdoors. I was able to get this beauty shot above before my iphone shut off from the cold temps, figures right?! We had the best time with family and I even had a chance to visit my favourite local shop, Pineridge Hollow. I grabbed this amazing smelling ‘White Pine’ candle.
  2. These creative ways to ‘dress up your toast’ for Christmas morning by food blogger Brittany Stager look oh so yummy. Try these tomorrow morning!
  3. I hope I’ve been good this year because this cool piece of new technology is on my wishlist 🙂
  4. Check out this cute desktop wallpaper to brighten up your computer or mobile backdrop to match the festive season. Anything plaid or checkered for me please!
  5. This (easy) tomato soup recipe with a grilled cheese and this will be a perfect lunch.
  6. Looking for a last minute Christmas idea (24 hours to go)?! This gold flatware set is beau-ti-ful!
  7. I love this white envelope idea for Christmas. There is so much more to the season than gift giving. I seriously love giving rather than receiving.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A Week in Reflection

• Food for Thought, Lifestyle

+ One of the greatest controls I realize we can have in modern day times is knowing when to unplug from social media and take breaks when you need them most. This is something I did this week. Not worrying about taking pictures in the moment and just capturing those moments in your mind to cherish, is needed more often than I think we realize.

+ One of those moments this week, was watching Blake turn two months. The smiles and giggles that are coming from him more and more everyday are so much fun.

+ There is nothing better for the soul than walks outdoors in beautiful summer sun, especially when its with your best friend (and her baby!) or husband and a good cup of coffee.

+ Another thing that feeds the soul? A good book like Erin Loechnre’s ‘Chasing Slow’ which I have completely consumed this week. The way in which Erin writes is truly incredible – its as if she can read my mind.

+ You can make chocolate chip cookies a hundred times and still make a batch that is a #BakingFail.

+ Visits from friends during the day, mid-week for a quick coffee and chat are the best.

+ There truly is no way to know what Donald Trump will get up too next and what his tweets may result in by the end of the week #FacePalmEmoji

+ Sometimes, you just need those deep-fried pickles you are craving. And so deserve (that’s what I keep telling myself anyways).

+ Fresh cut flowers in the house brighten up everyone’s mood.

+When you search out some awesome finds at the local antique market in Aberfoyle and negotiate the price too!

+ That feeling of accomplishment when you get through your weekend to do list (almost all of it anyways)

Summer Goals: Light on the Extras, Heavy on the Recharge

• Lifestyle, Travel

Summer Goals

Hope you’ve been enjoying your summer as much as I have been! I’ve been taking advantage of all the sun this year (even though I would gladly welcome rain no problem!). I’ve been trying to do as much stuff outdoors as possible which the photo above perfectly depicts! Andrew and I recently took a quick canoe trip down the Speed River in Guelph after visiting The Boathouse for icecream of course. Most summer nights, you can find me bike-riding around Guelph or taking walks to try and do more gym-type activities outside to take advantage of the long nights and warm air. So amazing for the mind and body.

Wishing For More Time in the Outdoors 

Access to the outdoors is definitely something I miss about not living in the country. The quick access to nature and the outdoors and the privacy that the country offers is something I often wish I could get back. I always appreciate heading home to the family farm that much more in the summer time because the views are that much more spectacular and lush and green; the smells are the best mixture of fresh cut hay on the farm, BBQ-ing and cow manure (sorry, too much?); and with our family’s cottage being right on the water, the views from the shoreline put me right at home with relaxation.

What Are Your Summer’s For?

This summer, while busy with weddings and milestone events, its been a welcomed time for rest, relaxation and recharging. With how busy the fall/winter/spring are in my line of work, its nice that even though summers are busy, there are less expected demands and asks. I appreciate that boards that I’m involved with don’t have as many meetings to accommodate people’s holidays and that late night meetings aren’t the norm during the summer months.

Summer for some, depending on what industries, are extremely busy and others use summer as a way to travel, explore and see as much as possible. What am I trying to do this summer? Do as little as possible. You probably see my travels and adventures through my Instagram or Twitter accounts, but what I’m aiming to do this summer is strike a balance that I’ve been really trying to hold myself to this year. I’m trying to keep busy doing the things I love and keep it ‘light’ on all the extras, especially relating to work, meetings, stuff that isn’t urgent, etc. I’ve kept these boundaries in mind that I blogged about a month ago. I’m trying to do the stuff that only summertime allows you to do in a non-guilty way compared to all the other months in the calendar year – spend time reading on our deck, enjoy outdoor BBQs with friends, try new hobbies, yoga in the park, camping (or glaming for some!), take day trips to explore and discover new places across Ontario, and maybe drink a beer (or two!)  – because hey, that is what summer is for!

Setting Boundaries

• Career, Lifestyle

Setting Boundaries

Hope you are enjoying your coffee this morning like I am, how awesome are Saturday mornings?!

Something I’ve gotten A LOT better at in 2016  (there is always still room for improvement, of course!) is trying to set more healthy boundaries in both my personal and professional life. It dawned on me over the holidays at the end of 2015 that the insanity that is life, will always be this crazy and insane. Its how you manage it and decide to make it as crazy/insane (in a fun way!) that will dictate how much of the journey you enjoyed in life.

I realized that if I continually take on more activities, to-do’s, say yes to too many things, push myself TOO far and TOO hard, burn the candle from both ends and don’t refuel and recharge myself, then it is a recipe for disaster. I really am a ‘work hard, play hard’ type of person but at what point do you decide that you are over-doing everything and not really enjoying anything? Its something ask yourself.. something I’m glad I did at the end of 2015.

In an effort to try and help myself, I proactively decided it was time to set better boundaries to everything I was doing, both at work, at home, with The Passionate Voice and in my extra-curriculars. I have taken small steps to create some helpful boundaries that really do add up to more free time throughout my day resulting in feeling a lot more productive and purposeful at the end of the day. If you’re in the same position as I am and need some quick and actionable steps to feel like you’re making changes that will help,  try one (or all) of these changes I’ve made and let me know what you think!

10 Steps I’ve Taken to Set Healthy Boundaries in 2016

  1. Removing Facebook from my phone as an app
  2. Not checking social media as often as I do (even though it sometimes kills me to miss certain conversations online, its not life or death so I’m fine!)
  3. Use social media more purposefully – setting scheduled tweets/posts and using it in a more professional/productive manner rather than just wasting time on it
  4. Creating a ‘To Read’ folder in my inbox and setting it up so all of the subscriptions/eBlasts I subscribe too automatically go into the folder for me to read at a determined time
  5. Using 3 methods to capture all of my blog reading I like to do by using Feedly, Pocket, and creating a Microsoft OneNote for all the articles I want to save and reference for future use
  6. Limiting the number of blogs I follow and read – this one has been hard because I’ve been a loyal blog reader for 10+ years  to many blogs but there comes a time where only the blogs of most value and the ones that are the funnest to read are what I consider the most enriching so I’ve got 100+ blogs down to under 25!
  7. Creating a reading schedule so I only check and use these 3 above mentioned platforms and read from my ‘To Read’ email folder once a week. I have apps on my iPhone and desktop so I can easily save articles of interest, but I only read them at a scheduled time slot every Monday morning.
  8. Going to bed earlier and (really) making a conscious effort to not use my phone before bed
  9. Working out more – this has seriously changed how healthy not only my body is but my mind as well – I have felt so much sharper and fresher since I started working out on a regular basis again.
  10. Taking planned days off and getting outdoors where I don’t plan anything; don’t open up my laptop to send one last email and try and get outdoors to do something fun (since I spend a lot of my time indoors during the week)
[Photo Source]