Joy Rebel Monday!

This past week's Joy Rebel assignment was called "Pick a Colour Any Colour" (only without the "U"s...I added those because I am obnoxiously Canadian).  We were to pick a colour and then go through the week photographing anything that was that colour.  And then Brandi gave us links to a program that would make our photos into a photo mosaic.  So fun!

I picked orange.  Couldn't say why, I'm not even that fond of orange, but I did find a lot of orange things around the house!  Here's my collage:

OK, OK, I admit that that photo of me and Little Bear was taken several months ago, but it was on my computer and I couldn't resist!  As for the rest of the photos, it was like a scavenger hunt!  I kept catching sight of things I could photograph.  It occurs to me that I should have dug in the fridge for the oranges and carrots, but oh well!  Definitely a fun activity :)

In other news, I am having a spectacularly joyful day!  Not sure why, but I am LOVING it!  I seem to be surrounded by people who are reaching out to each other with love and kindness, or who are speaking out to each other in gratitude and appreciation. So much love in the world. So much beauty if we take time to see it. So much joy if we just set our radars to look for it. It makes me ache inside.


Happy Monday!

HAPPY JOY REBEL DAY!!

The first-ever official Joy Rebel Day was on July 1st! I meant to post yesterday, but things, as you will see, are a titch CRAAAAAAZZZZY chez the Bear family.

Here's how our day went:

Little Bear woke me up bright and early as usual -6:45 or so. I got up, picked him up, walked down the hallway, and surveyed the living room:


IT WAS MOVING DAY!! I hyperventilated for a minute or two and then walked into the bathroom, looked at myself in the mirror and thought "I CHOOSE JOY." Check out the big grin:


I changed a poopy diaper:

(you didn't really think I would post a photo of poop, did you?)

And then I made an especially yummy Joy Rebel Day breakfast for myself and Little Bear:

(That's cherries, homemade muffins, and marble cheese)

I thought it was delicious. Little Bear wasn't feeling too hungry, I guess:


After breakfast I cleared some space and Little Bear helped me sort the laundry:





So helpful!

July 1st is a holiday here in Canada-land, so in the afternoon our wonderful friends came to help us move. They fit an astounding amount of stuff in the van! Here's what was left after the first load:


And this is the van. Kind of like 3-d Tetris!


Our friend Greg stood guard:

No one was going to steal our stuff with him watching over it!

We made a second run with the van to pick up the bits and pieces, and then we all went over to the new place and had supper in the backyard:



(This photo has inspired me to invest in awesome patio furniture as soon as some comes up on kijiji -now that we have a back yard I I want a back yard oasis!)

Here's our new view!


The weather was grey and a little chilly, as it's been for the past month or so, but it was so green and beautiful! I can't wait to live here!

The grass was wet, so I tried to keep Little Bear on the patio, but he managed to find things to explore (aka get into) anyway:



"Hi Daddy!"


And to finish off the day we spent some time inside. Some of the guys had a crazy dart gun fight all over the house while Little Bear practiced getting up and down the step from the living room to the dining room.

I can tell that he can't wait to live here either.
Soon, little one...soon!

He fell asleep on the way home:


I put him to bed with no trouble and had an hour to myself before watching the fireworks from our balcony (no photo because I didn't want to miss them). I'm going to miss being able to see the fireworks from our house, but I think the trade-off is well worth it.

Happy Joy Rebel Day everyone! I hope you had a great one too!

Joy Rebel Mission: create your own definition

This week's Joy Rebel Army assignment was to think/write about being a Joy Rebel and what it meant to us. I took most of the week to think about it because it's actually turned out to be a complex and deep-rooted thing for me. In the end this is what I came up with:

I’ve been mulling this over, and I think to me joy rebel-ness is a combination of a few different things in an equation that is constantly shifting. The components are:

Mindful/conscious living - choosing to see and feel joy in the every day, appreciating the “small” things, remembering to breathe

Self-care - being gentle with myself when I’m having a bad/low-energy day and instead of wallowing in it trying to do something to break the negative cycle...drop my to-do list, take a bath, get outside, have a hot chocolate at Starbucks, watch a happy movie, or listen/dance to fun music

Joyful Activities - This is where the creative expression really comes in - I’m a dancer by nature, so that's often the first thing I think of. Writing and taking pictures and doing crafty things (knitting, cross-stitch, painting, making collages, and I want to learn to sew this year). Doing yoga and walking outside. Cooking and trying/creating new recipes (I’m learning to bake bread this year...it’s very fun!). In summary, doing SOMETHING creative and/or active -remembering to explore life instead of just numbing out.

Spreading the Joy - Things like giving hugs, keeping in touch with people, remembering to kiss my husband good morning (you wouldn’t think that would be something I’d need to remember, but Xander and I get up before him), sending care packages, making cookies, commenting on friends’ blog posts...etc etc etc.

I think sometimes these categories overlap...like I might bake cookies because I’m feeling down, and then the joy spreads when Matthew gets to eat them too...or I do something creative like knit a scarf, but then I share the joy by mailing it to a friend who lives far away...that kind of thing.

And finally, I wanted to say that being part of this Army has really and truly helped me. I'm playing more, and I'm appreciating my life and my family more, and I'm not as prone to expanding negative moods (not that I don't HAVE them, but I'm finding it easier to stop obsessing about them and making them worse). So thank you!!!

I'm not saying that I'm happy and gleeful every day (because that would be a lie), but I really do feel like this process has helped me. Really, the whole SARK messageboard has helped -it got me away from the parenting sites and interacting with women who have more than one thing on their minds (no, I don't really mean that parents/parenting board people only have one thing on their minds, really, but it IS refreshing to be in a place where one out of 200 posts is about kids as opposed to vice versa and where any post about a kid is about how amazing/fun/unique they are and not about their various bodily fluids, sleeping habits, diets, etc)

Photo Safari

Today Little Bear and I went on a photo safari around our neighbourhood. Let me show you what we saw :-)

First we paused in the lobby for a photo:


And I took a detail shot of the beautiful wall-sized water feature:


Then we left our building behind:


Went through the parking lot:


And headed down the street. We passed lots of trees with buds!


And saw a beautiful weathered telephone pole (it makes me think of angels):


I love the way they painted all the power/phone/whatever substations...so pretty. I think this is my favourite:


The evergreen bushes by the bank were starting to bud:


And then we went down the road to the library. Our library is surrounded by half a moat! Here it is:


And here's the bridge you cross to get to it from the sidewalk:


I really like our library.


I've been avoiding it for the past 4 years because I owed over 40 bucks in late fees (yes, really!), but today was the day I decided to take care of it.


On our way out we saw this beautiful painting:


By this point Little Bear was long overdue for a nap, so I decided to take the long way home:


I paused to photograph this creeper:


And this sign that someone made and posted (so cool):


And by the time I rounded the corner....SUCCESS!


He slept all the way home. It was a great safari!