mental health monday: saturday in the park with cam.

This past weekend, Cam and I went out to Kitchener to visit my dear friend Alana. Besides wanting to check out her new crib down by the lake, I was also going for my first ukulele lesson. Fun, right? It's hard to be sad while strumming the ukulele (more on that later). I dare say, if you aren't smiling, you're doing it wrong. After my lesson, we had lunch at the Boathouse and then took Cam to the water park so I could test out the new polarizing filter I got for my Nikon D3100 ages ago and hadn't even taken it out of it's case yet (shame, shame). Here are the unedited results. I hope they make you smile as much as I did! The tune playing in the background is Emily Remler playing "Strollin'" by Horace Silver.

everything's gonna be alright.

January was a disaster. Which is a real pisser, because it had the makings of an incredible month. Painting classes, plans to start the new p90x, my home office getting finished up, and renewed energy and focus on being happy. Well, that all went in the toilet when I got the flu. And then the flu turned into pneumonia. So, not to belabour the point, but January was not what I had hoped it would be. Though I will admit that being forced to stay in bed for two weeks did give me quite a bit of time to think about things and make decisions about what I want in my life, what's important to me, and what I am ready to let go of. I am also quite certain that if there was ever a movie about my life, Drew Barrymore would be my first choice to be cast as me (though I would insist she not rock that terrible hair she has in that save the whales movie).

Awesome things that happened in January? Max was not put off in the least with me being sick (usually a change in routine would throw him for a big loop). He is turning into quite the little comic, making jokes in therapy. His language continues to increase – mostly requests for what he would like, but also singing songs. I taught him how to turn the TV and DVD player on and start his favourite Elmo DVD all on his own (kid can rock his iPad so I figured this should be fairly easy for him).  Cam continues to be his best friend, have sleepovers in his room, and when she decides she is done playing, Max gets very sad and calls for her to come back. Amazing stuff.

February...you're off to a bit of a slow start with recovery taking its sweet time (thanks for the insomnia by the way – really nice touch). Since you're a short month, I have lowered my expectations of you, but I do need to get back to working and exercising and feeling human again. Think we can manage that?? And Valentine's Day – let's see if we can do something fun this year. We need some fun!