It's A Beautiful Day

It was a beautiful weekend in Dallas. I got to go outside and enjoy some sunshine and enjoy some time with my family.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had typed out this huge post and forgotten to hit "save" before my browser crashed on me. Boo. I used to hate that in college; I would work on a paper or a project and the good old computer would crash and take my work with me. Ah well. You would have thought I would have remembered by now.

It has been a very busy month and a half for me since CHA-W tradeshow in Anaheim. The show was early this year so it seems to have thrown my timing all off but in a good way. I admit I grumbled that it was so early since that meant I had to send my kids to school throughout the Christmas holidays and only got to spend 3 days off with them. But I have been making up for it with extra loving time after the show.

On my personal front, 2013 has been a game changer for me. It is hard to believe that it has almost been a year since my dad passed away. It gets better with the waves of time washing over all of it. His birthday was a bit bittersweet last month:

This is one of my favorite photos of my dad, my sister and me. I have to laugh when someone mentioned to me that my sister's dress was really short. It just reminded me that we were very poor growing up. Our clothing consisted of hand-me-downs.  My sister is about a year and a half younger than me so she ended up wearing a lot of my clothing; as you can see though, she had a bit of height on her. My parents didn't expect her to catch up to me so quickly, I suspect. Even now, my sister is about 3" taller than me.

In 2012, I would have looked upon this photo with much more sadness than 2013 has brought. Slowly time has brought acceptance. Seeing my dad suffer from stage 4 lung cancer (non smoking) often times finds me stopping at internet articles about break throughs (and set backs) when it comes to lung cancer now. While my logical side can accept his death, there are times I wonder about what ifs but I know that he is in a better state than he was the last two years of his life.

At the same time, while my sister and I mourn our dad's passing not with tears but with just slow ebbs of trying to understand our small stages of grief; I can say that time has been a kind gift for my mom. She is back visiting with us now:

Her grief is still there but we see more smiles than we did. She and my dad were together over 40 years and it has been difficult. 2013 seems to have been a fresh start for her.

On my personal 2013 goal front, I have been challenging myself to run 12-15 miles a week plus I added in some yoga classes too. In my former younger life, I would probably roll my eyes at yoga as I would run upwards of 30 miles to train for marathons and half marathons. But I am not the person I was from 20 or even 10 years ago. 

I actually have to admit that I am now a yoga convert. You probably won't see me sweating it out 3x a week but I have been doing a warm fast pace Vinyasa type of yoga that has helped me manage my aches and pains that I have acquired over the years. I plan on taking classes 1x a week and seeing how it helps me with my running this year. 

As for the running, I have been keeping it up for most weeks this year. Even with a cold, the 4 trips I have made this year already, I have been working hard to keep up my running. I find that I am a much more focused and balanced person when I run - that I don't get as grumpy easily. I also plan on running a 5k in the next month or two and hope to shave 2 minutes off of my last 5k time. That is a doable goal. Gone are the days when I could pound out a 5k in under 22 minutes.

Also on the personal front, I have been working on trying to cook more meals for my family rather than use the old stand by of going out to eat.

 I find it too easy to say, " hey I am too tired, let's go out". With that, I have been working on lots of different recipes in my house. Some get the two thumbs up including this one:

And a new banand bread recipe was well loved by the family:

My kids are also doing such amazing things in my eyes. It is hard to believe I almost have a boy who is 7.

And my little gal is three:

We have been working with them on the importance of hard work, even outside of school. We told them (especially me) that we expect them to always try their best and work hard. They are starting to realize that working hard truly pays off in ways they never imagined.

But also with the hard work, we try to have fun from making Valentines:

To shrinky dink keychains from their drawings:

On the work front, we have been busy as anything shipping out orders from CHA-W and also planning for the next trade show.

I had the honor of teaching at Crop and Create - Markham earlier this month. When I arrived, I was greeted by this:

This Texas gal was not expecting that much snow! Good thing I was indoors with my good friend Catherine and her amazing team most of the weekend. I taught a bunch of classes to lots of fun Canadian friends:

I also got the chance to teach some classes here in Dallas at Scrapbook Expo with my good friend Carolyn:

I have to say I love the teaching part of it, but the kitting part kills me every single time.

I am also working on some upcoming classes I am teaching - here is a peek at one of them:

And finally the products we have coming out in CHA-S? Wow, well those are just going to knock your socks off! I really cannot say more than that but we have been working like crazy on some exciting new things that everyone is going to want for their projects.

And that in part is how my 2013 has gone so far. Every day, I say a prayer and thank God for the chance to start a new day with grace and love. Some days aer better than others but I will take each new day as a chance to begin again.

Comments

[Miriam Prantner]

Thanks so much for sharing with us!