There’s something so peaceful about being up north in the winter. You can stand on the lake and listen to the ice move. The cold air is so refreshing. Easy to find your calm. We drove up on Thursday and worked from the cottage Friday. It was the first day in a while that I didn’t close the rings on my Apple Watch but, f*ck it, I earned a break. On Saturday, I shovelled snow, played Nintendo, ate snacks, and finished watching Pieces of Her on Netflix. Good show, Toni Collette is one of my fav actors and does a great job playing this role. Sunday was pretty warm and the top layer of the lake started to melt. I don’t expect the ice will go out until sometime in April. Our lake group usually makes bets on when it will fully melt. I haven’t made a prediction yet! Things I love: long walks on frozen lakes, the smell of a cold winter day, carrying wood to make a fire, and being at the cottage with you. Been on a pretty good track record with the Calm app. I usually do a sleep meditation or Sleep Story at night and the 10 min Daily Calm before I get out of bed. I think it’s helping with sleep and focus. Working hard to keep that calm in my life. Something you might not know about me is that I always check the wind speed. Every day I ask Alexa about the weather and then I ask her about the wind. If it’s over 10 km/h that means no wide brim hats. If it’s 15 km/h + in the summer I’ll opt for shorts instead of a dress. I don’t like running when the wind is +25+ km/h but I love the…

I’ve developed a slight obsession with colourful cardigans and cute collars. Looking forward to switching over my closet this weekend and rediscovering fall/winter clothes. It’s been a pretty great summer, spent lots of time at the cottage, biking through the city, and meeting friends outside. I was reading an article this week about ‘cave syndrome’ that people are developing after bring home for so long. I’ve really learned to love being at the house and have no shortage of things to keep me busy. I don’t imagine I’ll be doing much over the next few months and tbh, not mad about it. I used to be out soooo much and can’t imagine going back to that life. I feel so much more at peace without the pressure to go places with people. I make time to see the people I care about and that’s about it. I do have a couple of events coming up but nothing like the large in-person events we used to frequent. Here’s to finding personal peace through this crazy time! Sending you flowers!

Today is Sean’s birthday and we lazed around the cottage all day. It’s been such a nice time and the internet is good so we’ve decided to stay an extra day. Gonna work from here tomorrow. Nothing quite like lazing on a Sunday afternoon!

You’re looking at the face of a Toronto woman who is fully vaccinated. Had the afternoon off work to get my 2nd dose of Pfizer and biked down to St. Joseph’s Hospital for my appointment. Pretty smooth process, everyone was nice, I wore a dress. On my ride home I stopped into my new favourite takeaway shop in Roncy, Sunnyside Provisions. It’s really cute, they have heaps of local food, soups, sandwiches, snacks, beer & wine. I got the roast beef sandwich (incredible!), local fish for dinner, a couple of cocktails, and a Flake bar for dessert. (As kids we used to get Cadbury Flake bars sent from our fam in New Zealand, they were so hard to find here!) Sean is still up at the cottage until tomorrow. I’ve got a half-day on Friday and plan to do next to nothing all weekend. My reaction to the first vaccine was brutal and I was sick for three days. Really hope that doesn’t happen again but if it does, I’m prepared. Please stay safe out there. This weekend we pass 500 days and the sooner we all get vaccinated, we can hopefully have some type of normal-ish life. Whatever that means, I’ve never been normal! Sending love,