So, I've had my oatmeal and honey this morning to calm my nerves. I'm not great with this. Weird.
Any extra calming thoughts, fairy dust, prayers would be welcome. Not for anything except that I'm nervous for neuro Dr stuff.
xo Di
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Neuro
I'm off to see my neuro surgeon this morning. I'm so lucky to have a great Dr who is caring and kind and doesn't rush through our visits. Yesterday wasn't a great day, headache all day, an almost 3hr nap knocked it down a bit but not totally. Dr M will send me for an MRI which is not my favourite thing but gives us a good view of what's going on.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Word of the Year......
Last year was the first year I chose a word to help define my year. Erika helped to encourage me to do this, she's done it for years. From my last post of 2015, you maybe read that last year's word was Strength. Having a word for a my year helped to remind me of the....purpose? No, the direction? No. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say. It kept me on track with a constant reminder. Just a little one :)
This year I have put quite a bit of thought into my word. I've tried out lots of words. Feeling them (sounds silly) to see if they'd fit my way of being, of direction, of need. Our 2015 year has been better than 2014 and 2013 and I know that 2016 will be even better! SOOOO, my word of the year is.....
This year I have put quite a bit of thought into my word. I've tried out lots of words. Feeling them (sounds silly) to see if they'd fit my way of being, of direction, of need. Our 2015 year has been better than 2014 and 2013 and I know that 2016 will be even better! SOOOO, my word of the year is.....
Happiness and joy are so similar to many but to me are quite different in my need. Happiness may be more materialistic but joy can be felt in my heart. I will endeavour to do things. With or without my family and friends that I want to do, rather than waiting and do the things only they want to do. Self-care. I will speak up about what I want instead of wondering what the "right answer" is. Instead of always putting myself last, I will ensure that JOY is in my heart. Laughter. Kindness. Gentleness.
This may sound super selfish, it's not meant to sound that way at all. I have always put myself last, never spoken up with what I really want to do (outings, visits, time) and lately I realized I'm missing out on my own life. Giving to others allows me to expand myself but only if it brings me joy. So from now on, only things that lift me up and truly bring me.....well, you know!
Let's encourage one another to be the best we can be in 2016!
With much love,
Di
xo
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Goodbye 2015....
Why is it that I don't feel like it could possibly be 2016? I still feel like I'm stuck in 2012 or even 2011!!
This year my word was Strength. I tried to work it in to many aspects of my life. Thoughts (the hardest). Physical. Relationships, you get the picture. I didn't "get" my word until well into January and was surprised at it's appearance. My friend, Erika, has chosen a word for her year each year for many years and her encouragement was why I decided to go ahead and do this. A positive, single word to help you define your year.
So, this year I started seeing a Naturopath to start getting my body stronger. She and I are working on fixing so many things that have cropped up and fixing negative effects from meds I take for headaches and anxiety. Strength.
This year has been a year of growth for our family in many ways. Our Valley Hops and BC Hop Company have moved forward in huge ways! BC Hop Fest took place on Oct 3rd (my 2-year brain-aversary) with only 8 weeks planning. A US delegation, many dignitaries, farm tours, 17 breweries and culinary vendors, over 500 tickets sold out, amazing bands and a waiting list for next year!! Strength...to not cave daily under the pressure or cry when I couldn't remember what I was actually doing!
For Thanksgiving this year, we hosted my family for dinner, all 20 plus a few friends. My first big dinner since my surgery! Table laid out. Turkey and ham cooked. Pot luck items arriving. It was tiring and amazing to look around the table to see our family and a few friends and the sheer amount of love that poured into each dish. Strength...to love those that we love, when all else has failed.
At Christmas, we hosted 2 dinners. A 3-course plated company dinner for 16 people, lovingly prepared by moi! My amazing helpers who stepped up when they saw I was drowning, Jodi and Megan, know my limitations and Jodi also knows when to just step in and take charge. She's the only one I will take direction from! The second dinner was on the 28th of December and was Dwayne's family dinner. It was a small group of us but gave us the space to visit. Apparently I need to make lists of what I'm serving as I forgot the mashed potatoes and Dwayne had to remind me after the food had been passed around and completely forgot the homemade (amazing!!) baked beans, which we ate the next day! Strength...to not be angry at myself!
Today, I sit in the glow of the sun. Our area still has a fair amount of snow on the ground. It's glistening. It's beautiful. I'm so proud of the Strength that I was able to dig up when I needed to this year. The kids got me an adult colouring book for christmas, which I'm loving! I think my word is figured out for next year. It came to me the other day, but I didn't think it would be that easy, so I kept searching. I'll let you know about my word in January :) I wonder if I chose "millions" to be my word that would just appear too!
Thank you for loving me, us, for this year again and still. Happy New Year my sweet friends and amazing family!
With love,
Di xoxo
This year my word was Strength. I tried to work it in to many aspects of my life. Thoughts (the hardest). Physical. Relationships, you get the picture. I didn't "get" my word until well into January and was surprised at it's appearance. My friend, Erika, has chosen a word for her year each year for many years and her encouragement was why I decided to go ahead and do this. A positive, single word to help you define your year.
So, this year I started seeing a Naturopath to start getting my body stronger. She and I are working on fixing so many things that have cropped up and fixing negative effects from meds I take for headaches and anxiety. Strength.
This year has been a year of growth for our family in many ways. Our Valley Hops and BC Hop Company have moved forward in huge ways! BC Hop Fest took place on Oct 3rd (my 2-year brain-aversary) with only 8 weeks planning. A US delegation, many dignitaries, farm tours, 17 breweries and culinary vendors, over 500 tickets sold out, amazing bands and a waiting list for next year!! Strength...to not cave daily under the pressure or cry when I couldn't remember what I was actually doing!
For Thanksgiving this year, we hosted my family for dinner, all 20 plus a few friends. My first big dinner since my surgery! Table laid out. Turkey and ham cooked. Pot luck items arriving. It was tiring and amazing to look around the table to see our family and a few friends and the sheer amount of love that poured into each dish. Strength...to love those that we love, when all else has failed.
At Christmas, we hosted 2 dinners. A 3-course plated company dinner for 16 people, lovingly prepared by moi! My amazing helpers who stepped up when they saw I was drowning, Jodi and Megan, know my limitations and Jodi also knows when to just step in and take charge. She's the only one I will take direction from! The second dinner was on the 28th of December and was Dwayne's family dinner. It was a small group of us but gave us the space to visit. Apparently I need to make lists of what I'm serving as I forgot the mashed potatoes and Dwayne had to remind me after the food had been passed around and completely forgot the homemade (amazing!!) baked beans, which we ate the next day! Strength...to not be angry at myself!
Today, I sit in the glow of the sun. Our area still has a fair amount of snow on the ground. It's glistening. It's beautiful. I'm so proud of the Strength that I was able to dig up when I needed to this year. The kids got me an adult colouring book for christmas, which I'm loving! I think my word is figured out for next year. It came to me the other day, but I didn't think it would be that easy, so I kept searching. I'll let you know about my word in January :) I wonder if I chose "millions" to be my word that would just appear too!
Thank you for loving me, us, for this year again and still. Happy New Year my sweet friends and amazing family!
With love,
Di xoxo
Monday, October 19, 2015
New learning
I love learning new things! I've always believed that if you're not growing, you're dying, so I try to continue to 'grow' even if slowly and in sometimes strange ways.
This past weekend I did something that I've wanted to do for quite a long time, I learned how to mushroom forage and identify. While this is strange to most people, it is amazing to me. The forests around our world have prizes, like an easter egg hunt, for us to explore and find.
We arrived on Friday at Evans Lake Camp in Squamish and settled in to our cabin. On Saturday morning we met the rest of our group that made up 25 in total. We spent the morning doing class time (so thankful for handouts to refer to!!) and then we headed out for a gorgeous hike in the woods in the afternoon to collect Golden Chanterelles, Winter Chanterelles, Angels Wings and Elfin Saddles. We learned so many great ID procedures and checked our books and programs for our others mushrooms we'd picked for those purposes. On Sunday, we picked more Winter Chanterelles and pickled them to take home.
We were also fortunate enough to find an AMAZING Lobster Mushroom. This is a crazy non-mushroom actually. It starts as an inedible white mushroom called Russula Brevipes and then this mushroom is infected with a mold that turns it into an edible Lobster Mushroom. It's got a slight lobster smell and flavour and when it's cut it looks like lobster meat. Very cool!! We also found numerous Matsutake Mushrooms (Pine Mushroom) on our way out of camp.
Needless to say, dinner last night was steak and mushrooms!! All sorts of great mushrooms, sauteed only with butter so that their flavours could be tasted fully. I LOVE MUSHROOMS!
I'm headed out today to our forest behind our home to see what I can find. I'm sure there are some great prizes. Now I know how to do some ID and what could be deadly or inedible, I'll be sure to be careful.
My friend and I sure had a great time! Our adventures are going to continue!
Love to all!
Di
xo
This past weekend I did something that I've wanted to do for quite a long time, I learned how to mushroom forage and identify. While this is strange to most people, it is amazing to me. The forests around our world have prizes, like an easter egg hunt, for us to explore and find.
We arrived on Friday at Evans Lake Camp in Squamish and settled in to our cabin. On Saturday morning we met the rest of our group that made up 25 in total. We spent the morning doing class time (so thankful for handouts to refer to!!) and then we headed out for a gorgeous hike in the woods in the afternoon to collect Golden Chanterelles, Winter Chanterelles, Angels Wings and Elfin Saddles. We learned so many great ID procedures and checked our books and programs for our others mushrooms we'd picked for those purposes. On Sunday, we picked more Winter Chanterelles and pickled them to take home.
We were also fortunate enough to find an AMAZING Lobster Mushroom. This is a crazy non-mushroom actually. It starts as an inedible white mushroom called Russula Brevipes and then this mushroom is infected with a mold that turns it into an edible Lobster Mushroom. It's got a slight lobster smell and flavour and when it's cut it looks like lobster meat. Very cool!! We also found numerous Matsutake Mushrooms (Pine Mushroom) on our way out of camp.
Needless to say, dinner last night was steak and mushrooms!! All sorts of great mushrooms, sauteed only with butter so that their flavours could be tasted fully. I LOVE MUSHROOMS!
I'm headed out today to our forest behind our home to see what I can find. I'm sure there are some great prizes. Now I know how to do some ID and what could be deadly or inedible, I'll be sure to be careful.
My friend and I sure had a great time! Our adventures are going to continue!
Love to all!
Di
xo
Friday, October 9, 2015
What a crazy 8 weeks....2 year brain-aversary
On Aug 3rd 2015, Dwayne breezed into the family room and casually asked "what about a beer festival celebrating wet hopped beer?". I starred at him. Computing. Thinking. Then with enthusiasm answered with "why not!". Well, you don't know what you don't know!!
We'd never been to a beer festival, ever. Never been to a festival that included going booth to booth like this (except for a farmers market). We got ahold of Donna Dixson, who as it turned out would be our fairy godmother, and the 3 of us embarked on what would be less than 60 days of planning. We thought we had it all under control and were totally confident....until we attended the GCBF in Victoria on Sept 11. We had NO idea! We snuck 'back stage', questioned volunteers, asked security, took copious pictures and realized, we hadn't really scratched the surface. GAH! With less than a month to go, I began to panic internally.
We had amazing sponsors, vendors and support for our very first year. Ticket sales were lagging, we thought but we were told to be patient. Volunteers were pouring in with friends offering help and strangers coming forward. I was thrilled.
Donna, Dwayne and I met constantly to ensure we were covering everything. The Province did a story with BC Hop Company on the cover (THE COVER!!) on Sept 7th, which helped start a month of free media. CFOX picked that up and came out for an interview. Donna was amazing with media releases and we were everywhere!
Fast forward to Oct 3rd, the day of the event. It was a beautiful day on the farm. Windy but sunny. I was so great. WE WERE SOLD OUT!!! Brewers were thrilled with the event, patrons loved it, food trucks sold out, bands were great. Can't wait for next year!
Now, a week later, I'm sleeping constantly. I loved being needed, engaged and useful. I've never been so tired after a project though. Dwayne is away this week and I'm secretly thankful as I can nap whenever I need to and sleep until later in the morning :) The project was an amazing thing for me to witness from a place of awareness (does that make sense?). I was very aware of the fits of anger or tears that overcame me when I least expected them. I knew when I needed to put the computer down and go lay down. It was like seeing myself from outside of my own body on occasion.
Okay now I'm not even making sense to me. Clearly I need to put the computer down.....
Thank you to everyone for your support, love, notes and reminders of self care. Oct 3rd (event day) was my 2 year brain-aversary, we celebrated BIG!
With Love,
Di
xo
We'd never been to a beer festival, ever. Never been to a festival that included going booth to booth like this (except for a farmers market). We got ahold of Donna Dixson, who as it turned out would be our fairy godmother, and the 3 of us embarked on what would be less than 60 days of planning. We thought we had it all under control and were totally confident....until we attended the GCBF in Victoria on Sept 11. We had NO idea! We snuck 'back stage', questioned volunteers, asked security, took copious pictures and realized, we hadn't really scratched the surface. GAH! With less than a month to go, I began to panic internally.
We had amazing sponsors, vendors and support for our very first year. Ticket sales were lagging, we thought but we were told to be patient. Volunteers were pouring in with friends offering help and strangers coming forward. I was thrilled.
Donna, Dwayne and I met constantly to ensure we were covering everything. The Province did a story with BC Hop Company on the cover (THE COVER!!) on Sept 7th, which helped start a month of free media. CFOX picked that up and came out for an interview. Donna was amazing with media releases and we were everywhere!
Fast forward to Oct 3rd, the day of the event. It was a beautiful day on the farm. Windy but sunny. I was so great. WE WERE SOLD OUT!!! Brewers were thrilled with the event, patrons loved it, food trucks sold out, bands were great. Can't wait for next year!
Now, a week later, I'm sleeping constantly. I loved being needed, engaged and useful. I've never been so tired after a project though. Dwayne is away this week and I'm secretly thankful as I can nap whenever I need to and sleep until later in the morning :) The project was an amazing thing for me to witness from a place of awareness (does that make sense?). I was very aware of the fits of anger or tears that overcame me when I least expected them. I knew when I needed to put the computer down and go lay down. It was like seeing myself from outside of my own body on occasion.
Okay now I'm not even making sense to me. Clearly I need to put the computer down.....
Thank you to everyone for your support, love, notes and reminders of self care. Oct 3rd (event day) was my 2 year brain-aversary, we celebrated BIG!
With Love,
Di
xo
Monday, July 27, 2015
Paying attention...
I have the attention span of a knat. My mum will say I always did (I'm sure my dad will agree) but now I get exhausted when I get to my "glazed over point". At brain group this morning, we had a discussion about this. I've become increasingly frustrated with my inability to stay on task longer than about 90mins. I get exhausted. My brain needs a break. I yawn. I could put my head down and nap at that very moment!
The other day during a business meeting at our home, we were working with an IT guy on some items and I was suddenly done. I knew this. I wandered off and did laundry, hoping this would help focus me...it didn't. I tried to get back into the meeting. Flitting off to do other things here and there to try to re-constitute my energy didn't work. I was told by other ABI people this morning next time to sit quietly for 10 mins or so and rest, it'll help more than moving to another task. Noted. Brain breaks...needed!
On another note, BC Hop Company had been born! We've got Valley Hops going strong and now BC Hop Co is moving up. We are getting into the floral sector with our hops now, breweries In the fall and the culinary world next spring. It is exciting and wonderful to be focusing on such amazing growth of farming and revitalization! Check us out of fb, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
I'm off to nap now after my brain group session this morning. That is a mentally taxing 2 hours too.
I hope you are enjoying summer fun with family and friends!!
Love,
Di
Xo
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
July 9...or is it the 8th
July 9th is the date that Dwayne and I have been together since we started dating. We've always thought it was the 9th until he found an old day timer (anyone remember those??) and the 8th was marked with a memo, "date with Diane". So now, I think we should celebrate both!! Tee hee
This year is 27 years since that first date. Hard to believe really. I don't seem old enough. He was 16 and I was 18 (ya, ya, I'm the older but not wiser woman!). Crazy to look at our kids and their ages and know that we were already connected.
I can't believe how things have changed in our lives and in the world in these years. The path has been bumpy at times but it's always been an adventure and full of love and promise.
Love!! Di
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