And now, these words from our sponsor...

I've been struggling with the title for my blog for months now. Since I hope, perhaps, maybe one day, my readership will grow by leaps and bounds, even astonishing me (a girl can dream), then I figure I should have a catchy title that is memorable and meaningful to what I write about. Not that simple since I don't really have a niche, I just throw stuff out there with regards to what's going on around me at the moment. Life, as it would turn out, is my niche!

Quite frankly, I felt my original title was actually condescending to my children and since they are so important to me, it didn't make sense to continue with that one. The current title was just stuffed in as a "place holder" until I could come up with something better. It's been there awhile now so I surveyed a couple of friends about it, they said it was catchy as is. Great! But what does it mean to me? That all my blog posts will all be trying to sell something?? I don't think so! That's not my style at all.

I continued to ponder my blog title and as I increase my activity in publishing more posts it grew in my mind that I really need to determine if it is suitable as is or do I find something else. As Winne the Pooh would say, "Think, think, think". Who is my sponsor? I don't have one. Hmmmm. And then it dawned on me, my sponsor is God. Granted, I don't feel that all of my posts are lead by the Lord, but definitely a good percentage of what I say comes from what I feel are lessons He is trying to teach me, or at the very least, inspired by seeds He plants in my mind. The rest is just my humble opinion that anyone is welcome to take or leave ;). Can you think of a better sponsor? I sure can't, and while I won't claim to be speaking on His behalf, I am feeling lead to share these lessons so, perhaps, the title can stay as is. What do you think?

Completely off topic, can anyone explain to me why cheese, although lovely as is, tastes so much better when melted?!?

~ Shannon *Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ*

True North, Strong and Free!

As most of my friends could easily tell you I’m not a political person, I don’t follow or even comprehend politics. This is a choice, I research an eclectic array of topics, but I have little interest in politics, it is most definitely not within my realm of knowledge. Besides, it seems to me politics has become more about how to get the other “guy” to look bad instead of trying to make our nation a better place, more about gossip than governing. Because of this lack of political curiosity, this blog posting is an extremely rare public statement for me, if you don’t agree, please don’t roast me ;). Do, however, feel free to share your opinion/feelings, I love to hear what others think, even if we don't agree.

On May 2nd, 2011 Canadians made their voices heard. Perhaps in my political naiveté I believe it’s less about which party so much as a unified nation coming together to say, “we are tired of the crap, let’s quit the quibbling and start leading”. A majority government brings us closer to a united people than we’ve been for a long time, even Quebec stood up and seemed to say, “enough separatism, let’s work together, let’s be a country”. Some people are complaining but seriously, did you really think the NDP would win? Or the Liberals? If they did, where would we be? Back in another minority government with continued backstabbing pugnacious nonsense, not to mention another general election in 2 years… or less. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the rubbish in-house fighting, “united we stand, divided we fall”.

Canadians have spoken, we want change, we want action, we want to see our government take care of our country and heed our needs! I just hope Prime Minister Harper understands, this is not a win for the Tories, this is a victory for the people of Canada, this is about a strong country standing together as a nation and saying, “we will not go quietly into the night”. Mr. Harper has four years to prove to Canadians that we didn’t make a mistake, so he better get to work!

I’m not a Tory or a Liberal, nor even a Democrat… I’m green, but I’m not Green, I’m Canadian, and I’m damn proud of it! I want to prove to the world that we truly are, “The True North, strong and free!”.

 

       ~ Shannon *Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ* 

♫♪ God keep our land, glorious and free ♪♫

Day 3!

Holy Dinah! Has it really been this long since I posted?? Goodness gracious and even a good golly! To be honest with you though, I didn't really feel I had anything interesting to say and I've been feeling the pressure of not writing in another blog that I've made a commitment to. Anyway, whichever, it's not the end of the world, the long cold winter is finally relenting to something resembling spring, I'm ready to shake off the cobwebs and do something productive, anything.

I've talked in the past about the right way to eat and take care of our health, or rather my take on the right way, but I'm afraid I've been great at dishing out the advice, but when it's time to take it myself I smother it with chocolate sauce and whip cream. Technically the advice was for myself, but more often than not I'm just not so great on the follow through. But there comes a point where we hit the proverbial wall. I've hit the fat wall, I'm tired of being fat and tired of being tired and I'm ready to do something about it.

On Tuesday, I walked two miles and on Wednesday I walked two more miles and I did it three minutes faster than the first day. Good start even if I still ate some junk food, it's still four miles of exercise I did that I didn't do the day before, or the week before, or even the month before. Then last night I had this epiphany! I realised something, that nearly every other time I lost weight, I didn't give up a darn thing at first, I just moved more. I started by exercising, as I exercised my metabolism increased, as my metabolism increased I lost weight, as I lost weight my cravings switched from junk food to healthy food and guess what?? You got it, I lost more weight! I've always kind of marched to the beat of my own drummer, it just never occurred to me that the way I lose weight and improve my health could be bass ackwards too ;).

I hope all that clarifies why this is Day 3, and not Day 1. I won't be blogging every day, no need to bore everyone to tears, but I will blog a couple times a week. Today is rest day and I took that a little too literal, having been ridiculously unproductive but here it goes. I'll outline my plan in the next blog posting and if you're interested I'd love to have you join me, the more the merrier and the more people I'm accountable to, including myself and family, the more likely I am to "get 'er done".

How have you been procrastinating getting on the health bandwagon? Do you know what's holding you back? Please feel free to share! I'd love to hear your stories :).

Until next time, I bid you adieu and God bless!

     ~ Shannon *Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ*

Happy New Year 2011 !!

To all my wonderful friends and family, I wish you a year of joy, prosperity, peace and that when you look inside you see the firework I see in you. 
I love you exactly as you are, wonderful , beautifully and uniquely you! 
God's blessings upon you in 2011!!

"The winds of grace are always blowing, all you have to do is set your sails"    Ramakrishna
~Shannon.xoxo