When I learned that I'd been selected to participate in Downtown Halifax's Big Day Downtown event again this summer, I was thrilled. Over the past few summers, I have been introduced to some of my new favourite downtown spots through this promotion: Biscuit General Store, Spirit Spa, and Sugah!, to name just a few. 

College Prepster published a great blog post recently about five lists you should be keeping. As a compulsive list-maker, this spoke to me. On any given day, I'm keeping a minimum of four lists: my daily to-do list, weekly meal planning, weekly outfit planning, and goals for the month. At holidays it's more like 10 lists! Any excuse to add another list to my rotation and I'm all ears.

According to that post, list number one that we should all be keeping is "shit I've done really well". I'm definitely into this. After all, how often do we toot our own horns and reflect on the things we're actually good at? Not very often, at least not in my case. I tend to focus too much energy on the things I don't do well at all, trying to get better at them, versus celebrating and honing in on the things I'm good at. We all could stand to take a step back and reflect on our strengths from time to time.



Here are five things I think I do pretty well:

Figuring out what I need to feel my best. It's different for everybody. For me, not eating after 7pm, avoiding too many carbs, drinking 3L+ of water, sleeping 8+ hours, and doing something active every day is the formula for feeling good. I don't always follow it, but at least I know that if I don't want to feel like crap upon waking up, this is my best plan. Now I need to get better at taking my own advice!

Raising a happy kid with good habits. Of course, this is a joint effort with Pete, Eli's sitter, and the rest of our family! Eli is good at saying please, thank you, and excuse me, and I'm happy about that. It means a lot when people comment that he has good manners or that he seems really happy all the time. And I love that he likes to be outside and be active instead of plunking in front of a screen. I like to think we are passing on some good, healthy habits. That's not to say he doesn't throw a shit fit, display horrible manners, or ask for TV time on occasion but luckily those are the exception versus the norm. (Bear in mind he's two, almost three, so this could allllllll change at the drop of a hat.)

Baking cookies. This is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. (Sea salt + chocolate makes my head spin it's so good). I have made these guys so many times I barely need to look at my recipe card any more and have played around with the consistency of the butter, the amount of mixing, etc. to get them just right. I love having these in our cookie jar.

Staying organized. I have a system: on Sundays I meal plan and outfit plan for the week. I do as much as I can to prepare for the next workday in the evenings (i.e. wash hair, pack gym bag and work bag, set coffeemaker), minimizing what I need to do every morning. I make a to-do list for the next day before I leave the office at night so I can get started as soon as I arrive in the morning. I would reaaaaally like to get our house organized better, but in terms of having a day-to-day plan for getting things done, I feel like I'm in good shape and never really get too frazzled or overwhelmed.

Staying true to what I love. Flashback time!! When I was a little tyke, I loved creating stories. I would spend all day, literally up to eight hours a day, riding my bike in our driveway and making up stories in my head. I'd do this all day long, and then the next day, I'd go out again and pick up where I left off and continue the story. All through school, I loved language arts and English classes, especially writing. I studied journalism, I worked as a reporter, and now, more years than I want to admit later, I still get to tell stories and get paid for it. Things are a bit different now, what with technology and the way those stories are shared, but the process is still the same - I still get to entertain and educate people, and I feel lucky to be able to earn a living by doing something I love so much!

Your turn! Give yourself a pat on the back for the things you do well. Let's hear it!

It may not feel much like September outside - hellooooo, heat and humidity! But the kiddos are back to school, #PSL is back on the Starbucks menu, and we finally got to flip our kitchen calendar and stop staring at the stunned kitten that was the August page. It can only mean one thing: September is here.

Yeah, I went school supply shopping. Never mind the fact I haven't been in school in 10+ years.