Dwell on These Things

Blissing about Fair Isle Sweaters

We're up to our neck in packing boxes and have little time to bliss about anything non-moving related but had to take a quick sweater break. We love a good Fair Isle sweater and was happy to see two adorable offerings.

This sweet dog cardigan is available from LL Bean and we shoudl have snapped one up when we ordered our kids' snowsuits (alas, now they are sold out in our size...)

 

We saw this cute LAMB version at the loca Winners. Too cute!

 

August's Bliss Notes

This week, we sent out, Givers of Strawberries, our August issue of Bliss Notes. Enjoy!

Bliss at the Speedpark

Today, we went on the much-dreaded annual shopping trip for school shoes. Les enfants are not born shoppers and we try to purchase as much online for them as possible (we've pretty much cleared out the Lands End overstock sale to get snowsuits and tights and other basics for a song). But shoes and haircuts require the children to put in an appearance. And sadly, the shoe places are not as bribe-friendly as the haircut places so it can be a bit of a trial.

(Heavy artillery enters, stage left.)

We decided to hit Vaughan Mills. With the promise of a rented double-decker firetruck stroller-thingy and a trip to Bass Pro Mills to look at the party barges, we figured we could sneak in a trip to Geox. 

The shoes were purchased incident-free (my son decided he had to have light up shoes and I began to fret as I was not aware they made light up shoes but they had one last pair IN HIS SIZE! Oh the universe was smiling on us today, my friends.) 

We celebrated with lunch in the food court and a trip to the NASCAR speed park.

The kids wanted to play games so we bought them some tokens. Once they figured out that the tickets won at the games could be traded in for prizes, they began playing with intensity. We were a little concerned that the larger prizes required thousands and, in many cases, tens of thousands of tickets and our five dollar token spend had yielded about thirty tickets. We started to work on setting realistic expectations ("those stuffed animals take a lot more tickets than we have but we might be able to get one of those cool rubber Madonna fan circa-1984 bracelets!") when a man and his older kids, tired of waiting in the line to cash in his tickets handed us all of theirs. Suddenly we had over 800 tickets and the nice lady behind the counter said that the kids could each have a kite even though we did not have quite enough points because they were really excited about the kites and that kind of joy is contagious.

We then paid if forward by giving our ununsed ride tickets (the rides proved to be a little scary) to a family coming into the place.

Bliss at the Speedpark. Who knew?

Bliss in Today's Parent

We are thrilled that our article Five Ways to Get Happy: The Beginner's Guide to a Life of Bliss appears in the September issue of Today's Parent magazine. We wrote this article at a time when it was hardest for us to write about happiness, yet most important for us to write about the subject. We thank the universe (and the good people at Today's Parent!) not only for the publishing opportunity but for the healing opportunity as well.

 

 

Blissing about Bikes

I have never enjoyed bike riding. In fact, up until a few weeks ago, I believe that the last time I had been on a bike was in grade 6 when I ran into a pedestrian. In my defence, I had just moved from a banana-seated cruiser bike to a racing handled ten speed and I was not used to hand brakes.

No one was hurt but still -- not blissful.

But now my daughter has developed a passion for bike riding: it is the one activity she longs to do every day. And so I decided it was time to join her.

And off to the bike shop I went. I wanted something with thick wheels and easy to use gears. And it had to be pretty, like the bikes in the J. Crew catalogue.

Enter the Trek Navigator in Ice Blue. I'm not sure how many gears it has but gosh is it pretty and easy to ride. I am able to keep up with my five year old and I can even imagine the day when I might take it for a spin on my own just for the fun of it.

Biking can be blissful. Who knew?

Blissing about Spiral Notebooks

The lovely people at Indigo must be mind readers and know how much I adore quotations. They gave me a sample of one of their new eco-friendly Pistachio spiral notebooks with a lovely quote on the cover. It's almost -- almost -- too pretty to use. Thankfully I'm in the "Use the Good China" frame of mind. They had stacks of them in store at Bayview Village. Pretty and practical!

Blissing about Wizards

We must try not to sink beneath our anguish . . . but battle on. 

     ~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

We saw the new Harry Potter movie today. We are huge Harry Potter fans and were not disappointed by the movie. Even though we have never been fans of the fantasy genre, the books are so incredible and we liked how this movie focused more on the characters than special effects. Plus, we think JK Rowling is one of the most inspirational people on the planet and like to support anything she does.

Life is Sweet

Life is best when we set our judgments aside and savor the moment of whatever it is that the universe is dishing out, in big or small servings.

- Addie Johnson, Life is Sweet.

Recently, we picked up a copy of Life is Sweet: 333 Ways to Look on the Bright Side and Find the Happiness in Front of You. (It's one of those little hardbacks with smooth paper. It has a nice drawing of a pear on the cover. How could we resist?) It's a quick to read little pick me up with a lovely forward by MJ Ryan, who urges us to focus on the donut rather than the hole: good advice, really.

Blissing about the Den

OK, so they are cynical and hard-edged and a little bit mean, but man are we loving Dragon's Den on CBC (now in new-to-us reruns.)

Bliss Tip: Have a Big Tent

I once had the honour of interviewing author Caitlin Flanagan for Literary Mama. It was one of those interviews that stuck with me. Though I remain bearish on Ms. Flanagan's book and her politics, I have become a fan of Ms. Flanagan and still think of some of the comments she made from time to time.

One of the things we discussed was why she felt drawn to the Republican party. She discussed how they were -- contrary to what one might read in the  press -- a very inclusive party. They offered what she described as "a big tent." Through the years, my tent has become small. When one is at home with small children, one tends to deal a lot with the same people: the moms on the playground, the moms at the school, and the few good friends who I made the effort to see even when I was exhausted. Over time, I tended to hang out with people with similar aged kids, who were in the same socio-economic situation as me, and who shared many of the same beliefs.

Small tent.

One of the keys to bliss, I have come to believe, is having a big tent. Over the past few months, I've been working to befriend (and re-friend) many different people. Whereas I used to say no to a lot of invitations, I now try to say yes. I talk to people more -- opting for the checkout line rather than self scan. It's not easy -- I'm naturally quite introverted -- but finding out how other people are walking their paths is fascinating and makes me happier.

This year, we are working on increasing the size of the tent.