Mindful Kim Blogs!

My husband just texted me to ask how my day was going. My reply, "Good. But slow." with a disappointed feeling. As soon as I hit send I had another thought. Why am I disappointed?? This was exactly the life I intentionally crafted for myself! I'm sitting here with my dishes done, counters clear, listening to our rescue birds sing brightly, while eating my smoothie bowl and reading the newest edition to Simplify Magazine. This is 100% the life I intended to have 2-3 years ago when I started learning about the benefits of a simpler life. And in comes the sense of pride.  Calm, peaceful, pride. 

A last name can mean whatever  you want it to mean to you and what I want it to mean to me. Not that it needs explaining but... a last name, to me, means independence.  It also means joining.  It's public, private and individual.  And it's all about intention . When I was married, the first time around, I didn't change anything.  A piece of paper didn't change me so I didn't change my name.  I was proud to be the same person.  Proud of me . And I'm happy I made that decision. The second time I was married it was more complicated.  We had a child.  I'm a practical person so I decided not to change my last name but to add to it . I didn't want any confusion while my daughter was in school of which child was mine.  Haha  That was my sole intention... not to have any confusion while my daughter was still a child.   But, I did some research first... Service Canada Website Screenshot In Canada, t...

Food is a hot topic. What fuelled this blog post is frequently hearing that people who are in the food health industry are limiting people's fruit intake. People telling me that I'm eating "too much sugar" when it is fruit I'm eating.  "How many bananas?  Wow, that's a lot of sugar".  Newsflash... fruit is what we were designed to eat!!  I'm not professionally trained on food though and I don't have years of experience (YET) in being fruitarian.  So lets see some great information on the topic! One great one from VeganFitParenting is HERE . Another from NutritionFacts.org is HERE . (Thank you Rebecca for the recommend!) And from plant-powered.com, their common sense diet guide page HERE . There are two websites that helped me get started on raw Cronometer  (nutrition tracker - also can get in app form) and  proteinaholic  (helps you gauge what your protein intake should be). Proteinaholic is also a book ( kindle / paper...

Problem: People-pleasing.   I hate it.  But it seems like there are two options:  1 - don't live your own life, try constantly to please others and inevitably become miserable at your failure. Then blame those around you for your misery. 2 - live the happiest life you can imagine. A great role model and inspiration. But here's the catch... you get called selfish and unsupportive (or worse) by those who supposedly love you and should want you to be your best self. Right??    Here's where my annoyance kicks in.  Adults make their own choices.  Whether you choose #1 or #2 there are consequences.  I've seen  this in sooo many relationships like this.  But lets use my parents as examples... My mom blamed me for not being able to leave my father (who she claimed she hated) because she had me to raise, even though I was the one telling her to leave.  I wanted her to be her best self and be happy, after all. Since I lo...

Life has recently got a lot better. I believe I found the key to happiness. For me, anyway. And it's pretty simple! First, I decided on my core values. Things that are highly important to me. Things such as honesty, compassion, kindness, joyfulness, self care. The list keeps growing but as long as I keep alignment with these things I'm pretty happy but then comes step two, which is the mantra, " I am happy with myself. I love myself. I am enough." Three simple lines. The first, "I am happy with myself" is pretty simple and straight forward as long as I'm aligned with and following my core values. The second line, "I love myself" might be a little more difficult for some but, again, if you follow your core values what's not to love? And without self love you can't love others, really. So pretty important to work on. Now, the third line, "I am enough". This is my weak area. I now know I've held pretty high standard...

My husband and I are lucky enough to have our birthdays back to back, so we get to celebrate together each year.  This year we went to the movies and brought our daughter and a friend.  I hope we can make it a regular 'thing' because it was pretty special. **insert my face with heart eyes** Ready to go! Our kid is SOOO happy... her BFF beside her, snacks and a great movie We took the kids shopping at the dollar store after the movie  and the biggest kid seemed to have the most fun. HAHA!!!

I finally finished the upcycle t-shirt to dress I've been working on.  Well, I've been wearing it for a while but keep adding to it.   I added an embroidered flower and just yesterday a button inside the flower.  I think I'm done.  Anyway, I'm wearing it again to try to inspire creativity for Value Village shopping. And love it, of course.   It was so lame as a men's t-shirt.  I can't believe anyone actually wore it. Haha.. ;-)

I recently read an article where the author was told to introduce himself as being an expert in whatever he was doing. He was at a conference with others doing the same. It wasn't the point of the article but it got me thinking... my expertise jumped right out at me. Peace . I'm an expert in peace. Besides having certification in yoga, mediation, reiki and taking courses on various things, such as, essential oils and reflexology I've been studying peace my whole life. Most of the time spent with my parents there was a lack of peace and most of the time spent outdoors there was total peace (as I write this it's -26C outside, no peace there. Haha) as well as time spent doing reiki, yoga etc. I've spent most of my life trying to achieve peace at the same time adding so much to my plate that I couldn't hang on to peace. I see it like the mechanic who drives an old beater or the carpeter who's home is never complete. Perfection isn't the g...