Make the trade.

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We all have our happy places.  Mine is most definitely alongside Lake Ontario in downtown Burlington.  More specifically, I love a glassy lake, running shoes on my feet, and the solace and peace of an early morning.  I got that two days ago, and my runner’s high is still holding strong more than 48 hours later.

But my happy place comes at a price.  You see, to access this place, you must make a trade for sleep.

This is an internal dilemma that I wage with myself most Sunday mornings.  It’s still dark, life has been busy, I’m too tired, my legs need rest.  All of these things come to mind when my alarm beeps at 6:00am and my duvet is seemingly always at its coziest.  But more often than not, the thought of my reward pulls me from slumber.  This is my prize:

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This view greets me less than 2km from my front door.  And on a warm Summer morning, the excuses fade away as soon as my feet touch my bedroom floor.  I know that the fleeting moment of choosing to get up is the hardest part of an early morning workout and the adrenaline waiting at the finish line is well worth the temporary fatigue.  I got the glassy lake I love and a deserted lakefront walkway and I was back home soon after my children woke up, ready to join in on a day of family time.

The end game of all this is that I’m planning to run in the Road2Hope half marathon in Hamilton on November 6th.  I have many friends and patients also running this race, and it’s the last local race weekend of the season, making it the perfect choice for slowly building my mileage back up.  I live my best life when I set personal goals, and my early-morning-run motivation dips miserably low if I do not have a specific race on the horizon.  So I had 14km on my training schedule and managed to sneak out without my four-year-old running buddy tagging along.  I stopped en route to take the above picture to share with my kids, as I often do.  I usually see some pretty interesting things… skunks, swans, and even a naked man on a bicycle.  True story (but no picture).

But the best part of my happy place is the effect it has on me.  The peace.  The gratitude.  The overwhelming contentment.

I hope you’ve got a happy place too.  And I hope that you go there often.  Even if you have to make a trade to make it happen.

Choose the trade.  Choose happy.

Everyone’s got a Hip story

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I always write about what’s going on in my life, and today is a big day in the world of me.  Today, my friends, is Hip day. I’ve got tickets to the Tragically Hip show in Hamilton tonight, and August 16th has been looming large on my calendar for many, many weeks.

If you’re reading this blog and live in Canada, chances are that you know the backstory here: The Tragically Hip have been a staple in Canadian music for many decades.  Their lead singer, Gord Downie, announced in May that he has terminal brain cancer and The Hip quickly released final tour dates Canada-wide.  A victory lap, a final farewell, and a chance for Hip fans to say goodbye and celebrate the Hip soundtrack running through their memories of days gone by.

Music has a way of doing that, doesn’t it?  Sometimes a few notes, a simple lyric, a quick guitar chord can transport me back to the 90s, back into my prime Tragically Hip time.  The Tragically Hip is road trips and lake swims, best friends and music festivals, Summertime and Canadiana.  You see, everyone’s got a Hip story.  This happens to be mine:

I was about 17 when I was first introduced to The Hip’s music.  I had a boyfriend who was a couple of years older, and his group of friends were slightly older still; they were cool, I was impressionable, and I pretended to know about all things Hip.  “Day for Night” became a staple in my life and “Fully Completely” played everywhere from his car to his apartment to my volleyball practices to house parties.  Fast forward a year or two, different boyfriend, this time a drummer, and my weekend nights were often spent dancing to his Tragically Hip covers at a University bar.  The albums were “Trouble at the Henhouse” and “Phantom Power” and the background noise was school and friends and Varsity track.  But despite how this paragraph might read, my Tragically Hip story is not all about boyfriends and beer, but rather a time in my life when the future stretched unknowingly before me.

The life I live today is far more fulfilling, far more complete, far more incredible than anything I could’ve dreamed; but back then, back in my Hip days, this life was not one I knew awaited me.  For me, the Tragically Hip represents an entirely different chapter, one where my roots were grown, my identity was formed, and my goals were set.  It was a happy chapter, a fun chapter, but a chapter of uncertainty, as it is for many in that early-adult demographic.  So, I’ll be at the show tonight with my husband and some great friends, and I’ll be thinking of that girl, that version of me, who didn’t know that she’d end up driving by Bobcaygeon on cottage weekends and saying goodbye to the Tragically Hip on a Tuesday night in August, with a babysitter and two sleeping kids waiting at home.

That girl is happy she ended up here.  And so is this one.

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SummerTIME.

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Summertime is the best time, isn’t it?  THE BEST.  My husband is a teacher, and my work hours are currently part-time (but growing enormously next week; stay tuned) so Summer for us is all about time.  Time together, time apart, time to explore, time to grow, time to learn.

A few years ago, I started making lists of our adventures (60 Adventures in 60 Days), both to use as a reference for myself at a later date and to share with others who might enjoy some of our finds.  This year’s list comes from our goal to have a “low key” Summer, following our busy Summer of 2015 when our move to a new house occupied much of our time.  A low-key Summer it was most definitely not, but an amazing Summer it was.

I hope you put some of these gems on your Summer 2017 list (and yes, many of them are food related.  No judgement.), and I’ve included links on most if you’re curious to learn more:

  1. Canada Day 5km and 1km races.
  2. A toy and lemonade sale to benefit the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation.
  3. The Farmer’s Market at Burlington Mall.
  4. My daughter’s weekly soccer game with the Burloak Soccer Club.
  5. Sleeping on a sailboat in the Picton Harbour.
  6. Sandbanks Provincial Park.
  7. Wild Waterworks.
  8. Strawberry/raspberry/pea picking.
  9. Blood donor appointments.
  10. BlueJay games.
  11. Way of the Woods Camp (Conservation Halton).
  12. Burlington Beach.
  13. Royal Botanical Gardens 1/2 day camp.
  14. Taco Tuesday at Maracaz.
  15. Overnight guests- friends and family from Alberta!
  16. Cupcakes at Kelly’s Bake Shoppe.
  17. The boat pond at Spencer Smith park.
  18. Sunday morning runs by the lake.
  19. Dundas Driving Park and splashpad.
  20. Finding Dory in 3D.
  21. Biggest Little Night festival.
  22. Camping at the Pinery.
  23. Centreville at Centre Island.
  24. Hosting friends and family for backyard BBQs.
  25. The City of Burlington’s SNAP camp.
  26. Doughnuts at the Sunshine Doughnut Company.
  27. House projects (painting deck, painting fences).
  28. A weekend at my sister-in-law’s cottage.
  29. Assumption Sports Camp.
  30. Family reunion for my mother-in-law’s side of the family.
  31. Sunripe kids triathlon.
  32. Making a batch of pickles using a many-generations-old recipe.
  33. Kid’s dentist appointments.
  34. Optometrist appointments (new prescriptions and glasses for both kids).
  35. Weekly Wednesday morning 3-generation golfing.
  36. CrossFit.  CrossFit.  CrossFit.
  37. My monthly book club meetings.
  38. Hosting hot tub parties.
  39. School uniform shopping.
  40. Fishing and feeding chipmunks at LaSalle park.
  41. Hot yoga.
  42. Pool time in family and friend’s backyards.
  43. Monthly massages.
  44. Watching my husband’s touch football games.
  45. Mountainside Pool.
  46. IV therapy for athletic recovery.
  47. Playdates for my kids and their school friends.
  48. Tragically Hip concert.
  49. Burlington’s Children’s festival.
  50. Stand up paddleboarding.
  51. Celebrating 10 years of marriage.
  52. Watching the Rio Olympics non-stop.
  53. Fishing at Robert Edmundson Park.
  54. Hiking at Mount Nemo.
  55. Lunchdates with girlfriends.
  56. My husband’s annual NFL Fantasy Football draft.
  57. Driving range and the mini putt course at Within Range.
  58. Ice cream at nearly every Burlington ice cream shop.
  59. Grandpa playing in the Canadian Men’s Senior Championship at the Grand Niagara Golf Club.
  60. Ribfest.

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