A photo of a container of cherry sauce with a heat made of steam visible on the right side of the cover.

Reciprocation

Today I was delighted to discover that my Chinese food loves me right back.

See what I mean?

A photo of a container of cherry sauce with a heat made of steam visible on the right side of the cover.
A top down photo of a covered plastic container of cherry sauce on a wooden table. The lights above the table are reflected on the plastic and to the right of those reflections on the cover is a small heart shape made of steam.
A drawing of a cartoonish gold star.

Gold Star!

In my coaching practice I award gold stars for effort (because you have much more control over your efforts than you have over your results.)

And I have gotten into the habit of awarding *myself* gold stars for sticking with a project, for putting in work on tricky task, or for getting around to something I was dreading.

So here’s my gold star to celebrate my hard work this week.

And it celebrates your hard work, too.

Go Team Us!

A drawing of a cartoonish gold star.
A drawing of a cartoonish gold star with a happy face on it. The drawing is on a piece of white index card and the background behind the star includes a bunch of small marks (some dots and some are a little more like lines) and five short lines that are near each point on the star like it is either glistening or in motion. The piece of index card is propped up between the keys on my computer keyboard which is black with white letters.
A photo of a yellow toadstool

Mild concerns about the Fae

I don’t know what combination of weather has produced the perfect conditions for fungi this year but I have seen so many different kinds of mushrooms this summer.

This is one of my favourites.

A photo of a yellow toadstool
A photo of a light yellow toadstool that’s about 6 inches tall with a rounded cap. It’s standing in some grass that is more than halfway up the stalk.

But the abundance of fungi has made me wonder if I should be on the lookout for the Fae.

I guess we should all just be careful not to give beautiful strangers our true names until we figure it out.

A photo of a black and yellow caterpillar with black tufts.

Instant Flashback

On Sunday, I was writing/drawing/doing yoga on my patio and suddenly noticed this fella on the edge of my mat.

A photo of a black and yellow caterpillar with black tufts.
A photo of a black and yellow caterpillar (is it still a caterpillar when it is going to turn into a moth?) with lots of black tufts crawling along the edge of my blue yoga mat on my patio.

I haven’t seen one of these guys in YEARS.

In fact, the last time I remember seeing them was when I was a kid. My friends and I collected them in glass jars with holes in the lids so the caterpillars could be pets.

I don’t remember them dying in the jars so either we included enough grass and leaves as food or we let them out in time.

They were all over the place when I was young but where have they been in the meantime?

I guess I must not have noticed them after a certain point but it’s kind of weird that I didn’t notice them again when my kids were small.

Perhaps they were hiding from me all this time? 😉

PS – On an opposite note, I remember there being way more slugs than snails when I was a kid. Were the snails just avoiding me?

A series of patterned circles in fall colours

September, hey? Sure!

(I just noticed that the last time I posted was exactly a year ago and my post was on the same theme but this year already feels like a success. Whoot!)

Usually I find that September attacks me out of nowhere but things feel a bit more manageable this year.

That’s partially because I was careful to minimize my extra commitments throughout August this year but it’s also because I have already done some planning for fall.

Doing advance planning might be automatic for you but I have to put in a lot of effort to convince my ADHD brain that a) there is any time besides right now and b) that is is possible to plan for that time.

So I don’t have EVERYTHINg planned but I do have a few anchor activities in place and that’s helping the fall seem more doable.

But no matter why or how it happened, I’m enjoying the feeling of being at ease on September 1.

🙂