I truly believe that each day we are alive changes our life somehow. Some days are big changes and other days, little changes. 14 years ago this morning our sweet Brianna Lynne was born and later that evening we said Goodbye.
For me this was one of those big change days. For me that day tore me apart and made me a new person, a better person. I think with each struggle, pain, upset we go through we have the opportunity to grow and become someone better or we have the opportunity to do just the very opposite. I promise you that I did not wake up that next morning feeling like a better person, or wanting to be one. I woke up instead a very angry person and I felt that way for quite some time.
Those next few months I have never prayed so much in all of…
After driving through some of the more boring states and provinces on our way out west I decided I was going to have something to do while sitting in the passenger seat on the way home.
For a while now Noah has wanted a Rubik’s Cube so we finally got him one. I remembered as a kid wanting badly to figure out how to solve one but never putting in the time to do it. There was going to be lots of time on this drive home, so I picked one up for myself as well.
Thanks to the internet I was able to figure it out and can now solve one pretty quickly! I’ll not be going to competitions, but I’m just happy to solve one.
This the first time in a while I learned something not useful to me but it was still fun to do. Who knows, maybe someday knowing how to solve a Rubik’s Cube will come in handy for something.
So far we are having a wonderful trip. Getting work done while exploring some of a new area to us. The one downfall has been a lack of coffee.
Before we left I came very close to packing my aeropress coffee maker which is what I use at home. It packs up small and would have been easy to bring, but I figured hotels aren't going to have a kettle and our Airbnb is likely to have a coffee maker.
The second part was wrong. There is a kettle here at the Airbnb but not a coffee maker. There was instant coffee and I've been drinking it for days. I've been spoiled to be able to work at home and make a decent coffee just about when ever I want, And I've been missing that.
Yesterday when everyone went into one store I ran across the street to Bed Bath & Beyond and bought a single cup pour over device. This morning was so much nicer! The $3.99 has made a huge difference.
The hotels will still likely either provide coffee, or have coffee makers, but this is small and easy to pack. I'll have decent coffee the rest of the trip now. Speaking of which, I think I could use one right now.
We started out on our trip this morning for a month long trip across most of the USA/Canada. We're going, in a large part, to visit my sister, her husband, and new Nephew in Alberta. Old enough we just left them in Nova Scotia! They were down visiting but will fly back before we make it there.
The first part of our trip involved taking the ferry from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick. Ella gets motion sickness in cars but on boats as well. So last night I stopped to pick her up some Gravol, anti nausea medicine. When we were a little bit from the ferry I pulled them out to give her some and started laughing pretty hard. I have her the package to read and she got pretty mad at me. I may have had some tears from the situation.
Since I was a teenager I have thought about getting a tattoo of some sort. In the end I always ended up not going through with it as I could never decide something I would be happy with having on my body forever. I’m thankful that I held off as some of the ideas I had back then wouldn’t be choices I made today.
A while back I found the perfect thing to get, something that I knew I’d be happy with long term and yesterday I had it done. It’s the first sentence of the Automattic creed: I will never stop learning.
I reference the creed quite often, whether it is while I am working, or in posts I have written here, but the first sentence is what has always struck me most. Friends and family already poke fun at me because so much of my wardrobe is either WordPress or Automattic themed, but this goes beyond that. Even though Automattic is a fantastic employer I’m not naive enough to think that nothing could happen in the future to make me not feel the same way about it. Long before I joined Automattic I had told people if I could be a professional student for the rest of my life I’d be happy.
It wasn’t always that way though. High school was a rough time and I wanted to do anything but be there. Not that I didn’t learn anything during that time. I learned lots about life, how to have fun, and hard times. It wasn’t the learning I should be doing, but that was a lesson within itself. I won’t make that mistake again and won’t pass up opportunities to learn.
Going forward this tattoo will be a reminder to not let myself become stagnant but to keep moving and learning new things. Accept challenges and use them to learn. When things get frustrating to remember there are answers to be found. Also, no matter what the future brings, to remember the great opportunity I’ve been given and the amazing people I’ve met because of Automattic.
Today I had a few errands to run. On the way home I decided to grab a coffee and take a short break. It is a beautiful spring day so I pulled off the highway and spent a few minutes drinking my coffee with one of the best views around.
There’s a little park in Grand Pre which looks over the National Historic site and out to Blomidon.
I think TAN should give me some free coffee or swag for such good product placement 😆☕️
The first day of spring was technically a couple weeks ago, but today was the day Mother Nature seemed to get on board as well. It made a great day the sun was out and it was just about 20℃.
The drive to pick up the kids from school was enjoyable, it made good break from work and I could go with the windows down, wearing a t-shirt and sunglasses. Had the 90’s alternative radio station on. It was far from my favourite song but it still brought me back to teenage summertime driving around with friends.
Later on after dinner Noah had karate and was graded to his second yellow stripes on his way to a yellow belt. He was very proud and excited. Master Jim Maloney was visiting tonight as well which made it even more special.
It was still nice enough out at dusk for Jen and I to go for a walk while I was still in a t-shirt! We also got to see an owl in a tree right above us in a tree. Just after we were past it took off soaring away. The phone didn’t take the best picture but it was still fun to see.
