Something Borrowed Quote

Interesting thought/quote:

"And suddenly, all at one, it is clear to me why I won't force Dex's hand. Why I say nothing. It all comes down to expectations... In short, I have no real faith in my own happiness. And then there is Darcy. She is a woman who believes that things should fall into her lap, and consequently, they do. They always have. She wins because she expects to win. I do not expect to get what I want, so I don't. And I don't even try."
-Rachel White (character in Something Borrowed, a novel by Emily Giffin)

This work I worked almost 60 hours. And I'm exhausted! About half of that was spent chasing after a 2-year old (and his two brothers, yikes!), who is super cute but has the energy levels of about five children. lol. Here are a few pics from this week. :)

^ Left: at the park, playing on the choo-choo;

Right: Peyton exclaimed, "Doggie!!" and sat on this little lamb in our kitchen.

^ how I'm relaxing tonight after work

Photo: March 12, 2013

This photo is from when I went up to visit Josh last week. :)

A Visit from some Family :D

Taking an early-morning Saturday walk with the dogs... these are my cousins, Vanessa and Jessica, visiting with my Uncle John & Aunt Char from the Toronto area. They stopped by for a visit on their way back from a Florida vacation for March Break. :)

This is the flag of Friesland, a province in northern Holland, where my dad's parents both grew up. I've been growing more interested in my Dutch roots and want to delve into the language and history of both sides of my family. Today I bought a book of Dutch phrases, which was been useful (and funny) to go through. I also looked up my grandfather's (my dad's dad) obituary today and researched his hometown in Friesland. It turns out that Drogeham is a village of 1,600 people (current population!). Wow! It's still a mostly agrarian place (my grandfather was a farmer) and the language spoken there is a dialect of West Frisian. Although most people in Holland can speak Dutch, the official language, the people in Friesland have their own language. So my father's parents, although from the same country as my mom's parents, can still converse in a Dutch dialect (Frisian) that isn't understood by my mother's parents.   Just an interesting tidbit today. :)

To This Day... TedTalk

Such an incredible talk & poem... I highly recommend watching this. It's inspiring, insightful, one part funny and one part tear-jerking. Well worth every second of watching. :)

~lol @ 2:37 of the talk

~wow: "I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean toward the opposite."

~quote: She was eight years old, our first day of grade three when she got called ugly ... To this day, despite a loving husband, she doesn't think she's beautiful because of a birthmark that takes up a little less than half her face. Kids used to say, "She looks like a wrong answer that someone tried to erase, but couldn't quite get the job done." And they'll never understand that she's raising two kids whose definition of beauty begins with the word "Mom," because they see her heart before they see her skin, because she's only ever always been amazing.

Happy International Women's Day! The best day of the year! :)

Taking a break from keto for a few days. I just need chocolate. :)

Quad Time ♫

Take an 8-minute break from whatever you're doing. Close your eyes, relax, and enjoy the music as it gradually builds into something wonderful. This song brings so much joy to my heart; I can't explain it.

I will not apologise for who I am and what I think. I'm sorry, I just can't.

The Perfect Sunday Afternoon

This past week has been a difficult one, so last night I resolved to have a great Sunday. I discovered that the city's art museum was hosting an exhibition called Frida & Diego and that a theatre just down the road was showing Oscar-nominated short films.

So, this morning, after making a delicious breakfast of Canadian bacon and eggs for everyone, I set off for my first stop: church. It's been a while since I've stepped foot into a church service, so I was a little (okay, a lot) apprehensive and worried that my cynicism would ruin my enjoyment of the morning... but I actually had a great time. Although I didn't know much of the music (yay for "modern worship" songs that all sound the same yet are different enough to not be able to sing along), the pastor's message was wonderfully inspiring and just what I needed to hear. He talked about great things coming from mustard seeds, and how we must be diligent in pursuing our dreams and goals. It was a stark reminder that our culture of IMMEDIACY will render us unable to accomplish anything, which is exactly what I'm afraid of in my own life. I have such high expectations of myself that I'm too afraid to move forward.

^ decorations for missions week

There were also two women --Maryam and Marziyeh-- from Iran who were interviewed at the end of the service. (I think it had been Missions Month at the church.) They had been in prison in Iran for distributing Bibles, and spoke about their experiences in one of Iran's most notorious prisons where most of the "free thinkers" (religious, political, medical, etc) were kept. They experienced loneliness, losing inmates to execution by the State, fear of rape and torture, and were constantly interrogated. Due to international support from Amnesty International, the United Nations, and several other organisations, these women were finally freed. The amazing thing is that they are still interested in missions work and human rights in their home country!

Read an interview on Elam / This was Amnesty's page on them / See their upcoming book.

My second stop was the High Museum of Art in Midtown. I had to go sans my museum-buddy Anna Rich, who, ever since our trip to Scotland (most notably Edinburgh and its endless amounts of museums, which I dreaded at the time) has been coaxing me into becoming more of an art enthusiast. I was really excited to see work by Frida Kahlo ever since we learned about her and Rivera in my Gr. 10 Spanish class. I spent all of last night researching and watching videos on them, re-familiarising myself with their stories. Kahlo's work intrigues me because not only was she entirely self-taught, she painted a lot of pieces that represented her personal suffering: her spinal injury, miscarriages, and tumultuous relationship with her husband Diego Rivera. Their political views are also deeply interesting to me.

Here were my two favourite paintings from the exhibit, one from each Diego and Rivera.

I'll tell you about my third stop, the Midtown Art Cinema, the next time I post. :)

Do We Value the Feminine?

"Thousands of years ago, that which was female, and all its manifestations, was honoured and revered. The female side of God, in the form of the Goddess, was worshipped. The spirit of the feminine was recognised as the creative life force of the earth (a nurturing Mother figure).

Women [now] live in a society where what is masculine, linear, rational, and logical is considered superior to what is feminine, circular, intuitive, and emotional. Today's woman is a round peg trying desperately to fit into a square hole in order to survive and flourish."

- Anita Johnston, PhD (Author of Eating in the Light of the Moon, which uses ancient myths and folktales to explore underlying issues of hunger, being a woman, and self confidence.)

★Cait's note: This is such a huge issue in society and there NEEDS to be more discussion about this. We are living in masculine world, where women are valued based on their physical appearance, sex appeal, and ability to fill multiple, diverse roles all at once. No wonder so many women struggle with self-confidence issues. Society needs balance between masculinity and femininity.

 

That wolf is such a badass. 

This song is the reason I got out of bed this morning.