Day 19: Marriage Tele-Retreat cont'd

The Dating Divas are hosting a free 2-day Marriage Tele-Retreat. You can also pay $1 for a two-week trial to their Dating Divas Community to hear all the recordings of the speaking events.

Parenting: Discipline vs. Punishment - Keith Hubbard

I was only able to catch the last two-thirds of this event. I thought I'd include a brief synopsis here for those people that might be interested in hearing a bit about it.

Most people live with the broken paradigm "I am my results". However, people innately love their children when they're born. Love you receive and give to your family should be given because they exist/their innate value is enough. Just like you aren't your results, you are you, and you have value.

The role of a parent is to understand and teach where you and your family members have agency or choice.

Learn to create respect and safety in your home. Don't create double standards between parents and children (ex. swearing).

Do not use your authority to get what you want - use your authority to teach.

Consider the difference between punishment and consequences. Wait until you're calm to discuss consequences. Ensure consequences are logical and based on the action.

_____________________________________________________________

I missed the last event in the Marriage Tele-Retreat because Andrew and I had tickets to see the musical 42nd St in Stratford last night. It was great!

Tomorrow's our 50km tandem bike RIDE 4 REFUGE. We're really excited and a little bit scared...

Day 18: Marriage Tele-Retreat Cont'd

The Dating Divas are hosting a free 2-day Marriage Tele-Retreat. You can also pay $1 for a two-week trial to their Dating Divas Community to hear all the recordings of the speaking events.

Emotional Foreplay - Laura Brotherson

Goal: Create a relationship based on love, trust, and acceptance that naturally leads to intimacy and lovemaking. Women require some warm-up; they need to be talked into it and touched into it. The 24/7 kind of emotional foreplay will make it easier for women to decide to have sex. Instead of going from 0-60km/hr (in an hour or two), they'll only have to go from 30 or 40km/hr to 60km/hr.

This is because sex is a decision for women. It is a gift a woman gives her husband that is motivated by love and trust. Even if a woman feels loved and supported they still need to make a decision to have sex before they will want to have sex.

Her two quotes/lines:

Good sex is a learned behaviour. 

From those lines stem 3 things for husbands to do and 3 things for wives to do to begin to create emotional foreplay.

Husbands:

1. Understand how vital the woman's emotions are. Read Ch 3, 4, & 5 from Laura's book And They Were Not Ashamed.


2. Learn what makes your wife feel loved. Consider Daddywork (being a good Dad) and Housework. Be attentive to when you make your wife feel "less than"... desirable, beautiful, thin enough etc. Identify and focus on your wife's strengths. Text/email what you like/appreciate about what she does and who she is, regularly.


3. Bridle passions so you don't seem needy/desperate sexually. Be non-chalant. The more men pursue sexually the more women retreat. The more women pursue emotionally the more men retreat. But the catch-22 is that men need sex to be emotionally intimate and women need emotional intimacy to have sex... So men communicate clearly and pursue your wife emotionally but don't overwhelm her. (Listen to Episode 58/59 Hungry Dog Syndrome on the Marital Intimacy Show)

Wives: 

1. Understand your own sexual wiring. Read Ch 3, 4, & 5 from Laura's book And They Were Not Ashamed.


2. Let go of anger/resentment (towards yourself and your spouse). Use Notebook Therapy: write letters to God and then thrown them out/shred them/burn them. This is meant as a processing and releasing of feelings.


3. Do the best you can to be fit and attractive, then surrender the rest. (Listen to Episode 33, 34, 35, 36, & 37 on the Marital Intimacy Show)

Another Action Item: On a date night, write to one another 10 specific things that make you feel loved. Give your spouse the key to your heart.

Day 17: Marriage Tele-Retreat

The Dating Divas are hosting a free 2-day Marriage Tele-Retreat. You can also pay $1 for a two-week trial to their Dating Divas Community to hear all the recordings of the speaking events.

The Power of Positive Thinking - Hilary Weeks

Hilary Weeks conducted an experiment by counting the number of positive thoughts she had in a day using a clicker. She found that by counting them, it encouraged her to try to have more of them. She found that by focusing on the positive thoughts you have, you end up having more.

"By feeding my mind, I'm feeding my soul." 

She started a website specifically devoted to clicking positive thoughts: www.billionclicks.org. Here you can purchase a clicker if you wish to, as well as enter in your number of positive clicks each day.

Change your mindset and your self-talk. Sometimes this is hard, everyone has bad days. She chose to repeat a phrase daily to herself "I am a courageous, healthy, beautiful, capable, dynamic woman". These were words that she struggled with.

If you're not feeling your phrase one day, repeat the phrase and think about what each word means and how you are those words. What is the definition of capable and in what ways are you capable.

Communication Transformation - Shannon & Dino Watt

They talked about a term radical transparency. There are 3 realms this needs to be present in: with yourself, your spouse and your God.

They discussed 5 areas of life to share with your spouse in particular:

1. Emotion - What is your emotion of the day? You don't need to share every feeling you had all day. But be aware of how your emotion is playing in your day and share that with your spouse. Warn your spouse when you're having an off day ("be gentle with me today"). Also, express gratitude for what your spouse does. Dino said that "Men like to feel like heroes" so if you tell them what you appreciate (even when you're having a bad day) will really help them feel appreciated.


2. Requests - Use a verbal sandwich to request things from your spouse: (bread) acknowledge what your spouse did right; (meat) your nice request; (bread) express gratitude. When you make the request, don't use criticism and sarcasm or negative behaviour or energy. Get your spouse on your side/team so they want to give what you request. Use language like "I'd really feel loved if... It would really make me happy if..." 


3. Dreams/Goals - Declare these to your spouse. Dreams and goals help our marriages grow and move forward over years. Share dreams both for yourself and for your marriage.


4. Finances - Don't hide purchases. Don't stash cash. Don't have secret credit cards. Share everything.


5. Intimacy - Ask for what you need in the bedroom. Suggest things to try the next time you have sex (ie. tomorrow let's try this). Again use a verbal sandwich so it doesn't sound like a criticism (because it shouldn't be). They suggest this book as a place to learn how to talk about intimacy: The Act of Marriage. 

There are 3 more speaking events so I'll update you on the rest tomorrow. So far it's been really interesting. I'm loving the positive thinking phrase and the verbal sandwich. Those are two things that I'm going to try to implement right away!

Day 16: A Quote

It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?

-- Henry David Thoreau

I thought I would start something new and share a quote now and then for my own inspiration and hopefully for yours as well. My sister pointed me to this one.

We were busy before starting this blog and we're busy now... the question is has the busyness changed? I think it has and I'm hopeful it will continue to change :)

So if you want to answer Henry's question I would love to hear the answer. I'd also love to hear if you want to change what you're busy about.

Day 15: Famine in the Sahel

Something we've been hearing about for a while (and sadly have done nothing about) is the famine in the Sahel region of Africa.

(Not sure how accurate this map from Wikipedia is)

This region has been in the international eye since May 2012 because of the risk and eventual famine in the area. You can learn a little bit about it here.

In a nutshell, an estimated 19 million people in the Sahel region of Western Africa are affected by a food and nutrition crisis due to drought, sporadic rains, poor harvests, soaring food prices and widespread displacement. As a result, more than 1 million children under the age of five are at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition.

For every eligible dollar donated by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities before September 30th 2012, Canada will set aside one dollar for the Sahel Crisis Matching Fund.

Some organizations that you can donate to online:
Oxfam Canada
Unicef Canada
Care
Presbyterian World Service & Development
Canadian Red Cross

I'm thankful that our contribution will be matched by the Canadian government and I hope that the world rallies to help these people.

Does anyone know more about this region? (Is the map at all accurate?)

Weekend Re-cap Day 13/14

So it's looks as if posting on the weekends will never happen. And I'm okay with that. I could just skip them entirely (and I may) but if there's something worthwhile sharing (yes, determined by me) than I'll try to post twice on Mondays.

Saturday September 22nd: Date Day!

Andrew planned a great day for us. We went on a practice tandem ride (~20km) that was half road/nice trail and half mountain-biking tiny trail.

View Mountain Tandem in a larger map

Andrew's quote of the day during the mountainous section of the trail "Most people would be divorced after mountain-tandeming a trail like this - we're just laughing and having a good time." So sweet!

What I now like about tandeming:
-it's definitely easier for me (still hard work, but easier)
-it's not considerably more difficult for Andrew (I asked repeatedly)
-you can talk the whole time and actually hear each other (regular biking you have to yell)
     -really you have to communicate the whole time about switching gears/braking/potholes      etc. but you also can talk about lots of other stuff along the way

For more photos click here!

We went out for dinner at the Raintree Cafe. We shared the Venus Dip, Soup of the Day, and Trail Mix Salad. Andrew had the Chickpea and Vegetable Curry and I had the Beef Special. Overall a great dinner!

We also got a piece of Turtle Cheesecake to go and enjoyed that a couple hours later while we played some Gin Rummy.

Sunday September 23rd:

Another busy day... we went to church and ended up staying a bit late because we wrote letters to our MP to urge him to help our refugee friends hear the results of their last application for refuge before they're deported on October 15th, or if possible delay deportation until they can hear the answer.

Then we grabbed Banner and went to Trail Fun Day where they raise money to maintain the Hydrocut Trail and the three bike shops have bike demos. Andrew's in the market for a new mountain bike so this was a perfect trial.

And finally we had some new friends from church over for dinner and games. They're vegan and one also has a gluten restriction so that meant we'd have to get creative and we were really happy with how dinner turned out :) Should have taken a picture of the whole meal!

We had a salad with apples, nuts, seeds, and raspberry vinegar dressing and an altered Curried Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup. Click here for recipe. They brought an amazing chocolatey dessert with berries.

Day 12: Meal plans for Andrew's birthday

We're inviting both of our families for Andrew's birthday at the end of the month. Likely there will be about 15 people coming.

There are a number of food restrictions:

• no lactose
• no peppers
• no pineapple
• vegetarian options are required

There are also food preferences:

• non-fruit options
• no mushrooms/onions/peas
• no white flour/bread/crackers

http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/bafoodist/2010/05/dear-ba-foodisti-love-hosting.html

This makes it seem like our families are really picky and maybe that has some truth to it, but mostly I just want to make sure that what I make or people bring will be liked by everyone. For this occasion it's especially important that Andrew eats what he likes.

So I think I've come up with a menu that should please most people and definitely will make Andrew happy .

Punch/Wine

Appetizers:
-veggies and dip
-crab dip
-shrimp ring

Dinner:
-BBQ chicken (will have to come up with a veg-friendly option)
-plain salad with raspberry vinaigrette and apples, walnuts, feta, and bacon on the side
-non-dairy mashed pototatoes
-asparagus

Dessert:
-non-dairy apple crisp with vanilla ice cream optional (or the crisp can be optional)

Day 11: Meeting of the Minds

So Andrew asked me a few days ago if we could have a board meeting. And I looked at him blankly... what are you talking about? He repeated himself, and I still didn't get it. Finally it dawned on me, he wanted the two of us to meet to talk about things (thankfully he wasn't looking for one of "those" kinds of talks, we're safe!). I said sure, that's a good idea.

Monday I get an email entitled "Agenda for tomorrow's meeting" with a list of things to talk about. I look at Andrew (who is by then sitting beside me) and say But tomorrow isn't free, we have Ultimate. I guess he thought we could do both, but I've learned if we want to have productive conversations we need to be well fed and well rested. So we pick today (Thursday) as the day and I change the title on our Google Calendar to Meeting of the Minds.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-meeting-of-the-minds-will-bullas.html

I also take the opportunity to explain to Andrew the concept of Due Notice. You can't just say today is the meeting or tomorrow is the meeting! Though at least he added an agenda.

Our final Agenda:

- send an invitation for meeting T&R (new couple from church)
- P.C. moving Sept 21, can we help?
- Make a blood donor apt.
- confirm rsvp to H&G wedding / present idea
- L&M present
- birthday dinner plans
- update R4R sponsors
- Sahel region
- talk about who to donate stock to (unicef? unhcr? red cross?)
- N&D birthday present ideas

Plan for dinner (might as well enjoy ourselves!):

- sweet potato and bacon soup
- honey lime shrimp
- edamame
- Chapman's blueberry cheesecake ice cream

Day 10: Past "Dates"

There are many blogs/websites/professionals who give marriage advice. Our church has run a marriage initiative for the last two years called 8 cities that is an "eight-month journey into the heart of married life, using exotic tastes, sounds, and stories of global cities to explore what it means to pursue a life-giving and enduring marriage."

Something that has come out of all the resources we have accessed is the idea of quality time. Andrew and I are best friends and we spend a lot of time together. But we need to be intentional in putting in the time to further our relationship.

Guidelines for the dates:
     -go on one a date a month
     -alternate taking turns planning the date
     -limit the talk about what's going on at work/school kept to a minimum
     -encourage talk about personal plans for the future (not work/school), what we love about each other, etc.
     -no arguing
     -it should be fun!

We began our once-a-month date tradition in June, here is a re-cap of our past dates:

June 2012

I took on our first month, and had a plan ready for June 29th 2012.

Dinner at a New Restaurant:
     We had been to this restaurant in it's old location years ago but were excited to go to King St. Trio in Uptown Waterloo. We had a great dinner: soup of the day (one serving split into two bowls), I had Salmon Wellington and Andrew had Almond Crusted Pickerel.

Outdoor Movie:
     I purchased a projector (which we also used at my sister's wedding) for a great price - I love a deal! We watched We Bought a Zoo once it got dark and had popcorn and drinks out in the backyard.

July 2012

Following the rules, Andrew planned this date for July 22nd 2012 :)

Tour the Clay and Glass Museum:
     Canada's Clay and Glass Museum is housed in Waterloo and it's free admission (though we did leave a donation). When we visited they were showcasing The Work of Jack Sures and we were the only patrons at the time which meant we got to share our opinions openly with each other.

Part 2: Slurpees from 7-11
     We missed July (07) 11th Free Slurpee Day and so we decided to make up for it. They were great!

August 2012

My turn again. However, we had to cheat a bit... August was insane for my family (in a good way) - my sister got married on August 18th to my new brother-in-law :) so our August date was actually September 2nd 2012.

Picnic Lunch in Stratford, ON
     We had to rush somewhat from church to let the dog out before we left for Stratford so that meant that instead of a pre-packed lunch we stopped at the Subway in Stratford to pick our favourite subs up. We had a nice and relaxed lunch in Shakespeare Park.

The Pirates of Penzance
     Andrew played Frederic in his highschool version of the musical so it was extra-special for us to see this :) It played at the Avon Theatre as part of the Stratford Festival. We've been singing the songs from Pirates ever since! We completely encourage you to see it (before it ends Oct 27) if you can. Click here for more info.

Dinner at King St. Trio
     Seems like this is becoming a fast favourite! Had another great dinner here: I had the soup of the day and the salmon fillet, Andrew had the porcini chicken. Yum!

And no, I was in no way compensated for my review of King St. Trio (that would have been awesome though!).

Do you make regular time to 'date' your spouse? What was your best date ever?

Day 9: Chore Chart Tutorial

Andrew and I created a great chore chart to help us keep track of what needs to be done. I find that because I'm in school, having people ask how they can help is VERY irritating because my brain feels like mush half the time and I don't want to use any brain power thinking about how they can help me. It would more helpful not to ask... and now there is no asking :)

This design is especially great because we have the fun magnets but we can also use the dry-erase function of the board which is great when there are small home repair projects to do that won't be repeated often.

Materials:

• 2 dry-erase magnet boards (came with markers)
• ribbon
• E-6000 glue
• magnet tops (can be anything)
• sticker letters
• magnets
• something to space out the two boards evenly when glueing (we used a deck of UNO cards)

We started with the magnets before completing the board.

Step 1: Remove anything from the back of your magnet top. In our case we removed the little clothes pins. We found these at Michaels, a pack of 6 for $1.

Step 2: Decide on the words and keep them small! Use the sticker letters (glitter makes for a good look) to create the finished magnet top.

Step 3: Glue the magnets to the back. We learned the hard way that if you buy good magnets, not to take them out of the package at the same time and not to place still-drying magnets near each other... they move and attach to each other!

Step 4: Cut two pieces of ribbon the length you want to join the 2 boards. Cut a third ribbon to hang the finished chore chart from. It doesn't need to be as long as the one I used. We used a deck of UNO cards to keep the 2 boards equidistant so that the lower board would hang evenly from the top one.

Step 5: Hang the chore chart using a 3M removable Command Hook.

Do you find a chore chart or list helps you complete them with minimal fuss? Does it stop arguments from happening?

Day 8: Cottage by the Sea

So I read this entire book last night "Cottage by the Sea" by Robin Jones Gunn. I have enjoyed her series of books since I was young teenager, starting with the Christy Miller series.

This book had a number of great lessons. I think the major thing I learned was to say the important things to people you love.

Page 199:
"You are blessed more than you know, and you don't want to die an old fool who never took the opportunity to say to his son words that could change his life. Words such as 'I'm proud of you. I think you turned out great.' And most important, 'I love you.' "

I think some families and people are better at this than others. But I think if you start saying these things to children when they're young and continue saying them as they grow it will just become a wonderful family tradition and the child will always know that you support them.

That being said we also need to realize that some expressions of love come with no words:

Page  235:
Dolores had expressed her kindness to Erin in the only way she seemed to know how: she did a project - a beautiful project.

Sometimes people aren't able to offer us words of love, kindness or encouragement but they try to express that in other ways. While often we need and want words, we need to recognize that this is still love.

So the challenge for today comes from the Discussion Questions Page 253:
What is the one thing you wish you could hear from your father? Your mother? What is the one thing you would like to say to them? What is the one thing you would like to say to your children? If it is still possible, would you be willing to tell them?

Day 6/7: Wedding!

Sorry for the late post. This being the first weekend of my blog-life, I've realized that blogging over the weekends will likely not happen consistently.

We had the privilege of attending our friends' wedding yesterday.

We met them both at St. Paul's United College (SPUC) where we lived in residence during the beginning of our undergraduate years.

Their ceremony was beautiful! They incorporated a number of Filipino wedding traditions, listed below are a few I particularly liked:

Principal Sponsors:
"These Principal Sponsors act as Godparents to the newlywed couple and commit themselves to be a source of encouragement and guidance through married life."

Veil:
"The Veil Sponsors place a white veils over the bride's head and the groom's shoulders, a symbol of two people united as one."

Cord:
"The Cord Sponsors entwine loosely a decorative cord around the shoulders of both the bride and groom in a figure eight configuration. The cord symbolizes the infinity of the bond of marriage, a new life as a couple in a union to last a lifetime."

I love the idea that there are 4 people that will encourage the couple and help them throughout married life! This is a tradition that should be more widespread. We all need people who will intentionally ask us the hard questions about how life is going, where we need support, and also to be with us to celebrate "marital victories".

The Veil and the Cord are great visuals of the 'bonds' of marriage. They pledged themselves to each other in the "infinity of marriage", just as Andrew and I did almost 4 years ago. Weddings are always a reminder of the commitment we made to one another, how special it is, how important it is, how much work it can be, and how much we love each other.

Today I spent a lot of time reflecting on the wedding ceremony and reception (it was an 11 course meal!). I wish I could remember which Bible verses they had chosen, it's driving me crazy that I can't remember... but I can remember all the great conversation we had with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. Unfortunately you're never able to talk to the bride and groom as much as you'd like too! It would have been great to spend more time talking to both of them.

I'm so grateful that we were able to reconnect with a number of people though. I love the relationships that even though it's been a while, still feel the same. Each person is equally excited to see each other and catch up, they're genuinely interested in your life and vice versa. It seems that truly connecting with people can be easier when it's been a while. I'm more intentional about asking questions, listening and sharing. With people I see regularly, it can seem awkward to ask those same questions and to have those deeper conversations... maybe it's just me!

Please let me know what wedding traditions you used or have seen that really seemed to reinforce and support the intention of the bride and groom in creating a successful marriage.

Please also let me know what you think about this notion of connecting with people after a span of time has passed.

Day 5: Celtic Thunder

Andrew's birthday is coming up at the end of the month and my parents bought the 4 of us tickets to see Celtic Thunder playing at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener.

This month will be VERY full of "cultural" events (more to come), but this was an amazing evening. The music was great and we had a nice afternoon and dinner too!

Celtic Thunder does covers of songs (Celtic/Gaelic as well as North American hits too). A few of the songs had messages I want to share.

The first is Cats in the Cradle. Andrew and I were talking to someone (we can't remember who) this week about this song and about how sad a sentiment it is. And tonight Celtic Thunder covered it. I like how the Youtube version I've linked to starts, Harry Chapin: "It's about my boy Josh, and frankly this song scares me to death." I think listening to this song is a GREAT reminder that being busy means we will miss important milestones in our own lives and that the impact we have on people is not always a positive one.

The second song is Friends in Low Places. Listening to this song tonight reminded me about that "social graces" can be barriers to really knowing some great people. Being "right" can mean being lonely...

Garth Brooks:
I'm not big on social graces Think I'll slip on down To the oasis Oh, I've got friends In low places
Well, I'll be as high As that ivory tower That you're livin' in 'Cause I've got friends In low places


Would I rather be in the oasis, or have social graces?

The third and final song I want to share is Caledonia.


[Chorus]:
Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm going home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had


These lyrics (while about a place) makes me think about the people, who at one time in our lives, were very important to us. And that sometimes, these important people become strangers to us... so for me, more than ever, this means that we need to really treasure the time we have with people when we have it. Don't put things off or push people away because we're busy (that means you too Harry Chapin!).

We want to make sure that we're sharing our lives, in today's case with my parents, and also spending time hearing about their lives.

What are some songs that tell you to smarten up and to be more present?

Day 4: Ride for Refuge

We have participated in the RIDE FOR REFUGE for the last three years. The RIDE is a family-friendly cycling fundraiser that supports the displaced, vulnerable and exploited. Today's challenge was to begin our successful fundraising campaign: sign-up for the RIDE, create a fundraising page with picture, and send out an effective email to friends, family and co-workers.

This year we also decided to do something new: ride a tandem bike! We've already reserved it for the day of the RIDE :)

Our email campaign:

-try to make the subject fun and enticing:

Ride for Refuge 2012 - the Double Double Multiplier plus a new twist!(the twist is riding the Tandem bike for 50 km) 

-include a link to the main webpage Ride for Refuge
-include a description of each project the money raised will go to:

• Welcome Home 
• Mission partners, Gord and Sharon Skopnik. 
• Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support (MCRS)
• Elevation's refugee initiatives, including sponsoring a Congolese refugee

-explain the multiplier:

To make things more enticing - Courtney & I will match every dollar that you sponsor us for.

To make things even more enticing - Andrew's work will match our sponsorship total.

For every $1 you give, we will give $1, and work will give $2. Magic!

Link to fundraising page (Andrew's so that work will match the sponsorship):

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=3164146&langPref=en-CA

What kind of information do you want to have before you support a cause??

Day 3: Win-Win-Win

A new tradition in our household: spend one evening a week in a win-win-win situation.

Win 1 - Banner (our dog) gets a long-ish walk with our friend's dog.

Banner!

Win 2 - Our friend and I get to spend the time sharing our lives with each other.
Win 3 - Andrew gets to stay at her house catching up on a bit of work while her 2-year-old is in bed.

It might sound like Win 3 is less of a win than # 1 & 2, but this means that he can come home a bit earlier in the day and we can have dinner together.

This is one of those things that I've been loving lately! Honest listening to people's (and dog's) needs and solving them in a way that everyone comes out ahead!

Day 2: Ultimate Exercise

Andrew and I have played Ultimate (frisbee) for ~5 years and today is our first full game of the Fall 2012 league.

                                                                                              picture from Summer 2012

So I'm going to back up a bit and explain what Ultimate has to do with living intentionally. A major part of it is the exercise needed to maintain healthy bodies, but really, couldn't we do just any exercise??

http://physicaltherapydatabase.blogspot.ca/2011/08/patellofemural-pain-syndrome-home.html

Here is how we became dedicated Ultimate players.

We wanted a sport we could play together on a weekly basis. In order to get me out there when my back was hurting or I had a headache we had to have a sport where you pay a season at a time (I'm too cheap to miss a day I've already paid for). It had to be mixed (obviously, for both of us to play), but more importantly it had to be a sport where the mixed-ness was embraced. Men throw to women and vice versa, none of that macho crap!

So on top of all that, Ultimate is a fun game. The people are amazing!! And, I love the strategy involved in creating plays and setting up the offence/defence. In our league (WODS), 7 people on each team play at a time (3 women, 4 men) and games are ~2 hours long or up to 15 points (win by 2).

I really like this particular Fall league. Called a hat-league, teams are made up of players (who can request one person to be on their team) of all levels of abilities. We spend the first 30 minutes working on skills taught by a touring team member, and then play a game for 1.5 hours. So, if you're interested in giving Ultimate a try, a hat-league with a teaching component is the perfect place to start! They'll teach you to throw and catch and everything else you'll need to know!

Let me know what sport you're passionate about or if you've found a great way to exercise with someone on a regular basis.

Day 1: Support a Cause and Your Friend

I had a different post in mind (which I will share with you soon) but saw this post on a friend's blog:

Good Grief Guru: 
September 10th is WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION day

And we made a decision, support a worthwhile cause but even more importantly, support a friend. Shawna has shared her story on her blog, Good Grief Guru and I encourage you to follow her. She's an amazing person! Her honesty is refreshing. What I love most is the realization that we are worthy of love and respect no matter what our emotions/opinions/experiences - we don't have to have it together all the time (or ever!).

We're serious about suicide prevention and the mobilization of the government to acknowledge it as a public health issue. If you're interested in signing a petition print this, or contact me (I'll have one in my purse) and together we can make a difference.
As you can see, living intentionally involves knowing what's going on in the world around you. In this case it was an enjoyable evening as you can see from the pictures below. 

Leave me a comment telling me about an important cause or how you've supported a friend!

The Year of Living Intentionally

As preparations for fall begin, my husband and I have decided to begin a new journey ourselves. The impetus for this was a realization that busyness rules our lives but inspiration came from another blog:  

And while their rules/mandate are exceptional I've found that how we spend our time is the crux of the issue for us and I expect aspects of living simply will emerge from this process!

The Mandate:

Spend 365 days being present in our own lives including a focus on our home and each other, as well as planned interactions with people we know (family, work, church, school) as well as with those who are currently unknown to us :)

The Aspects of the Challenge:

Each day we will focus on one of the following (click here for more info):

1. Each Other

2. Our Home

3. Family (and Dog)

4. Friends and Acquaintances

5. Everyone Else