2018: The Year in Review

Twenty-eighteen was a hard year for me. Due to workplace stress and not being in a good place physically, mentally and emotionally, 2018 was the most difficult winter of my life. Things actually began to become better when the bottom fell out of my job and I came to the realization that work was something to do and not the thing to do! Thus began my change in outlook.

In the meantime, I had booked the first two weeks of July as vacation. The first week would be spent with my sister in the Regina area, and the second week would be spent with my friend Melinda and her two eldest nieces - ages 14 and 15 - at Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba.

Week 1 highlights involved Canada Day celebrations, a football game in the new stadium, learning to play disc golf, and visits to Regina Beach and Condie Nature Reserve. We ate well, rested, played games and completed puzzles, watched favourite old TV shows (now on DVD), window-shopped in malls, and generally hung out. It was just what the doctor ordered.

Week 2 began with driving through new territory as we took the north route into the national park. We stayed right in the park and had easy access to all sorts of fun including a swimming pool, shopping and restaurants. We searched for Parks Canada red chairs, did a kayak tour, tested multiple flavours of ice cream, explored the area on foot and by bike and vehicle, and enjoyed the sunsets.

The first night's sunset was the best!

In the summer and throughout the fall I began group tutoring (teaching English) with the Regina Public Library. It was a great opportunity to get some practice under my belt and see if this is what I might want to do overseas at some point. We'll see...

In August, I began a job search in earnest. A month later I accepted a new position that was a promotion and included a raise. I have been busy wrapping my head around another new position in a different ministry with the government ever since.

Also in August was The Drop Zone. It was an amazing experience, and I honestly feel I can do anything now! Talk about redemption - with my job and my life!

2017: The Year in Review

So how did my year of restoration go?

My position at the Court of Appeal was extended for an additional eight months to cover most of a second maternity leave. During this time, I worked for three different judges who kept me very busy and at times absolutely swamped!

Knowing my time in this job was short prompted a lot of soul-searching about what I should do with my life. Do I go back to my business full time? Do I look for another job? Do I go back to school? What would I take? Do I stay in Regina? In Saskatchewan? Is it time to spread my wings and fly? So many options...

Well, I chose to continue working full-time. At the end of July, I left the Court of Appeal and started a full-time permanent position with the Saskatchewan Municipal Board. And, my commute got shorter – now I only have to walk one block to work!

In November, I took TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) training through Oxford Seminars. I have wanted to do this for years, and it finally seemed to be the right time. The options are endless for tutoring or volunteering opportunities – or even teaching English overseas at some point!

Looking back, I can see that restoration took place with my job - going back to a full-time permanent position - and with a long-held desire to take the TESOL training. A long-time dream is to live overseas and perhaps this is the way I can do that!

What will the coming year bring?

2016: The Year in Review

My year of adventure was just that - being challenged at work and finding out I can do more than I thought I could, not one but two moves within the city including a house- and cat-sitting stint that all showed I could take more than I thought I could, and a whole lot of ground covered all over western Canada with my friend Melinda to celebrate her 40th birthday! Whew!

I wasn't able to get the sleep I needed with a new and demanding job due to noisy neighbours living below me, so I moved out of my apartment at the end of January. I moved into the basement of a house with a quiet family of four above me on the main floor. We operated on much the same schedule and got along well.

Around the three-month mark of working at the Court of Appeal, things started to click. My learning curve was steep, but I did well and was offered an extension because a second maternity leave was upcoming.

In the summer, I enjoyed living just half a block from the bike path. I walked and rode my bike quite a bit, mostly in preparation for… Melinda’s 40th Birthday Canadian Adventure Trip! I kept up to my active friend pretty well, and we both enjoyed the entire trip very much!

But I arrived home to an empty house! My quiet neighbours had left suddenly and I learned a family of six (yes, six!) was soon moving in.

On the November long weekend, Melinda and I joined approximately 100 others on a one-day charter flight to Churchill, MB to see the polar bears! This was Part 2 of her 40th Birthday Canadian Adventure Trip, and it has been a much-talked-about trip ever since. It was a pricey adventure but definitely an experience we will never forget!

My new neighbours forced a second move of the year, which was my return to downtown Regina. Economically, this was quite a beneficial move as I only had to walk two blocks to work.

It was quite a year! Adventure sounds fun, but it's exhausting. Can I take a break please?

2015: The Year in Review

Another year come and gone, hey? Well, it's been a delightful year... Much of 2015 was spent getting my business off the ground; however, plenty of fun was interspersed.

In July, we took our first family vacation ever as adults - a cruise from Anchorage, Alaska to Vancouver, BC to celebrate my dad’s 75th and my brother-in-law’s 40th birthdays. The highlight for me was Nugget Falls that fell nearby to Mendenhall Glacier, which was a short drive from Juneau. A walk through the woods took you a sandbar very close to the base of the falls. I was in awe being that close to something so powerful and beautiful!

In August, I attended church camp in Hungry Horse, Montana with my friend Korin. As we were just outside Glacier National Park, it was easy to explore a few different areas of it. The highlight here for me was a mountaintop meadow walk. I have seen many pictures of wildflower meadows in the mountains, and it was a special memory-making experience to walk through that setting.

In December, I finally attended the Dickens’ Festival in Carlyle. It was their 13th annual festival but my first time attending after wanting to go for years! My friend Patti and I went and enjoyed the shopping, period costumes and great food!

Although my year was delightful, it was not overly profitable. I began working full-time again in mid-December – filling a maternity leave for a year at the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan. Hopefully I'll catch on fairly quickly.

On perseverance...

I have an addendum to my year in review. In the last couple of weeks I have been inspired by not one, but two amazing examples of perseverance.

The first comes in the form of an orphan girl from Africa - someone who was despised, rejected and unwanted. At the age of three, this little girl found a magazine with a picture of a ballerina on it and somehow that picture gave her hope that life could be good. Against all odds this girl was adopted and grew up in America with a supportive family who helped her achieve her dream of becoming a ballet dancer.

To learn more about Michaela DePrince's story, I encourage you to watch a documentary entitled First Position which follows the stories of four young dancers vying for coveted scholarships in the ballet world. You can also read Michaela's new book Taking Flight which was co-written with her adoptive mom Elaine DePrince. (Click on the video clip below to view a trailer for the book.)

The second example of perseverance comes from the life of a 13-year-old girl named Bethany Hamilton who also beat incredible odds after a shark attack left her with one arm. Itching to get back to the water after her attack, she didn't let anything stop her from her dream of becoming a pro surfer. (Bethany's story is chronicled in the movie Soul Surfer.)

Now over ten years later, not only has Bethany achieved her dream, she has inspired young and old worldwide to follow their passions and not give up on their dreams. I had heard of Bethany's story, but not until I saw her and her new husband compete on The Amazing Race did I really begin to learn more about her story. Bethany has allowed God to use her story to bless and encourage countless others. She is a true inspiration!

If you are needing encouragement to keep going in your journey or if you simply would like to be inspired, I highly recommend the stories of both of these young women!

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Here are a couple of quotes from Michaela...

"If you have a passion for something, go for it! Never let anybody tell you that you can't do something." -- Michaela DePrince

"Never be afraid to be a poppy in a field of daffodils because that is the only way you can make it." -- Michaela DePrince

And I also have to share Bethany's favourite Bible verse. Considering Bethany's life, the promise of this verse is absolutely amazing!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

The Year in Review

My word for 2014 has been perseverance, and what a fitting word it has been. It has been a year of continually pressing through to the next step — with my jobs, with searching for a new home and my move, and definitely with starting my own business. It hasn’t been easy but, as the saying goes, nothing worth having is.

This time last year, I had applied on 30+ jobs looking for additional part-time work as I knew my hours would be cut at Wascana for most of this year. Perhaps I was overqualified for the jobs I was applying on, but more than likely God was holding off and preparing the way for a great part-time job for me — the one I got at Hansard.

Even that wasn't easy though. As much as I wanted the job, there was the waiting for applications to be reviewed, then the call for an interview, an interview in three parts (actual interview, grammar/punctuation/spelling test, and a transcription test), the week-long wait for all the other applicants to be interviewed, the call that I was accepted for eight days of training, then the eight days of training during what seemed like the absolute coldest and wind-chilliest days of the year (I really thought they were trying to break us and see what we were made of!), the eight-hour days of learning the Hansard style for all things punctuation, and finally the wait to see if we were chosen to be new Hansardines... What a process! But what a rewarding position it has been.

In late March I began the process of searching for a new place to call home. And again, what an interesting journey it was. It's truly amazing to see some of the offerings available and the price tags attached to them. I had five basic criteria:

1) quiet!
2) top floor
3) balcony
4) off-street parking
5) away from a busy street

God met three of the five criteria when I viewed a 2nd floor apartment at my current building. It was almost all I wanted it to be, but the timing wasn't right. We were up to our ears in work hours at Hansard and I just didn't see when I'd have time to pack, clean and move. So I let the chance go and half-hoped, half-assumed God would hold the apartment for me (it had been available since January!) or provide something even better. When I followed up with the landlord the next month, an apartment was still available, but it wasn't the same one. It was better! I got a top-floor apartment and it was at the back of the building — all five criteria were met!

And up next was leaving my job at Wascana and starting my own business... Again, perseverance was needed. Mostly that was due to the fact that I had originally planned to leave my job at Wascana at the end of the previous year (2013).  When we found out that the renovation work would be going ahead and I wouldn't be doing much in the way of bookings (75 to 95% of my job), I decided to continue a bit longer.

After the cruise this summer, I came back to work planning to give my notice within a few weeks, but SURPRISE! My boss gave her notice first! She left near the end of August and with September being a busy month, I persevered on. I felt that the absolute longest I was supposed to stay working at Wascana was Thanksgiving (mid-October) and it turns out I did stay right up until that time. It was hard to leave, but I needed to leave. It's hard (if not almost impossible) to chase your dreams part-time.

So, onto starting a business! I went into this a bit naively thinking that all I had to do was hang a shingle and my customers would form a line. Awesome, but unrealistic. Thankfully, I became a member of Women Entrepreneurs and learned quite a bit from a 8-week business planning course. It's taken longer than I thought it would to get going, but I am starting off on the right foot and am thankful for that.

These verses are very fitting: “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”—Romans 5:3-4 (NKJV) Bring on the character and hope!

I wonder what the next year will hold for me...

Looking back on my year of joy...

It's been quite a year, 2013 has - full of fun, new things and plenty of joy!

Here are some of the lessons learned, things that challenged me, and joyful experiences this year brought:

January 1, 2013 - I began the day by watching the 124th Rose Parade from Pasadena, California. This year's theme was, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" based on the Dr. Seuss book. What a great theme for the parade and for my year! I went to several places: Cuba, southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana/Wyoming/Idaho, and all over Europe!

Another plus to today was the temperature - right around zero and sunny. My friend Melinda and I went for our first cross-country ski of the season, and it was quite enjoyable! Finally, in the evening I watched a special presentation of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra that takes place each year at the Golden Hall in Vienna, Austria. I visited this beautiful concert venue during my first trip to Europe and it was such a treat to be part of the audience once again!

March 2013 - The movie playing on my flight to Cuba was called Chasing Mavericks. I had never heard of it before, and less than enthusiastically began watching it only to be sucked into a drama about an average boy who had a very big dream: to surf mavericks - the largest waves in the world. This boy continued to dream, grow, and train to relentlessly pursue his goal. He wouldn't settle, wouldn't be dissuaded by anyone, and kept his eye on the prize - eventually achieving his goal and conquering many more. I was quite amazed by this rather unassuming movie about surfing, cried tears of joy and sadness, and continue to be challenged to dream big!

September/October 2013 - I traveled to Italy for my dream 40th birthday trip, and it truly was a dream come true! While in Italy I heard over and over again, "Live!", "Live Life!", "Enjoy Life!", "Carpe Diem! (Seize the Day!)" It's so simple really, but we don't do it. We get bogged down in the shoulda, coulda, woulda's and only every seem to mire in the mundane. Well, no more. I'm going to live life and enjoy life!

December 2013 - In the days leading up to Christmas, I watched another movie that really made an impact on me: Secondhand Lions. In this movie we meet two older men who didn't want to stop living, but had nothing to live for anymore. Nothing, until a great-nephew who needed them showed up at their door. The men began to live again, if only in the stories of their adventure they told to young Walt. And, wouldn't you know, Walt had an affect on them too - they had lived their lives to the full in their youth, and Walt challenged them to keep living (after all, their lives weren't over yet!). The last two lines of the movie are very special:

Sheik's Grandson to Adult Walter: "They really lived?"

Adult Walter to Sheik's Grandson: "They REALLY lived!"

Wow! What a challenge to drink deeply of life, live life to the full, and live life out loud. John 10:10 has been my favourite verse for the last decade. In the Amplified Version it says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)." That's my goal! That's what I want!