April 2015

Wow.

The response to Catherine’s post has been incredible.  So many people can relate to what she was saying.  We need to hear that we are enough.  Not matter what our job, our weight or our family status is, we are enough.

I now have Catherine’s voice echoing around in my head whenever I think negatively about myself.  I’ll start with having her tell me.  When I am doing better, I’ll tell myself I am enough. But for now, her voice.  It is easier coming from someone else right now.  I hope someday to be able to look myself in the mirror and say it.

She told me she sat down to write this after a lengthy, hearth-to-heart on the phone with me.  We may have shared this post with everyone else, but, really….it was for me.  I needed to hear it.  Do you ever feel that way?  That someone posts a scripture or a quote or something and it resonates so deeply within you, you know it was meant for you? Yeah….that post….me….yep.

I could tell you all about the numbers and the stats of the post but that isn’t what this is about at all, crazy as they were.  This about needing to know we are okay, where we are is okay and that the here and now isn’t carved in stone, because we change and grow as life changes and forces us to grow. It has been so interesting reading the comments and hearing the feedback from people on this post.  Complete strangers are messaging Catherine to tell her how much this meant to them and how much they needed to hear it.

So to everyone who shared, comments or read the post – thank you!!  Thank you for listening, thank you for hearing what she had to say.  And listen to the voice in your head, whoever’s voice it may be, when it says that “YOU ARE ENOUGH”.  And it is my hope and prayer that you get to the spot when you own it, believe it and look in the mirror and say to yourself in your own strong and powerful voice, “I AM ENOUGH!”

~Lori

I am so fortunate.  I have been blessed with the best of friends.

When Catherine asked if she could write a guest blog post, I said yes – why would I not?  Even though I had no idea what she would write, I knew it would be the right thing.  Well…..I’m glad I agreed.  I hope she speaks to your heart the way she spoke to mine.

First thing’s first, let me introduce myself.  My name is Catherine Cougias.  I am a stay at home mother of three beautiful children and married to the love of my life. My husband and I own a local business and were lucky enough to build the house of our dreams last year. 

Photo Credit to Christine of Wonkyeye Photography

Do you have a picture in your head?  I’m sure that you do.  Let me help you see it a little more clearly. 

My house is more often than not in complete disarray.  My children scream and yell and fight with each other.  They push ALL of my buttons, I have next to no patience and I end up yelling more often than I would like.  My marriage is far from perfect, I am late for just about everything, and I leave nearly everything to the last minute (which is something I am currently working on). 

I struggle daily with being a stay at home mom and am too scared to say anything because I know many wish they could stay home with their kids.  I love my children, my husband and my home.  I am incredibly grateful for them, but I constantly feel like I don’t contribute financially, like I am nothing more than a glorified maid and cook.  I feel like I am not the best mother I could be, or the best wife, friend and so on.  Furthermore, because I stay at home and don’t have a “real” job, I am constantly trying to over compensate by offering to volunteer my services, often at the detriment to my family.  I know, poor me, right? This is not a pity party, this is me sharing a part of my journey in the hopes that it may shine a light for one mother, one father, one wife or husband, one son or daughter, or whom ever happens to read this post. 

I am a fixer.  This is what I do.  If something is broken, if someone is broken, I want to fix it or help to make it all better.  I feel like there has been a lot of “fixing” to do lately, and the “fixing” had to start with me.  I have been trying for the better part of this last year to “fix” me. Quietly. On my own, without saying much to anyone.  It has been a very personal journey and one I’m not even sure I fully understood until I was part way through it. 

A very dear friend of mine posted a saying to my wall last week that said,  “You are enough”.  It struck me as kind of funny because although she knows me well and some of the struggles I have been through in the past, we don’t talk on a regular basis since she moved away.  We are still close, but our lives are busy, so she had no idea about the “fixing” I’ve been doing, and that this has become my mantra.

I am enough.

It took me a long time to say it to myself and even longer to say it out loud.  I  still don’t believe it every second of every day, but I am a work in progress.

I AM enough.  I am doing the very best that I can right now, at this moment in time.  I am trying to improve on many aspects, because let’s face it, there’s always room for improvement, but I am enough.  This is not where this story ends though.  I want everyone reading this to take very seriously the next three words I am about to say.

You are enough.

Stop and think about it for a moment.  Society today has put tremendous pressures on us and we, in turn, out those pressures on ourselves.  We constantly strive to be “perfect”.  We want to be more successful, make more money, lose more weight.  We need to cook organic meals with the organic food we grew in our own gardens, run 20 km, enroll our children in dozens of after school activities and take them to all of them. And the list goes on.  An over exaggeration?  Perhaps, but with the amount of information out there and the need to feel like we need to accomplish a  number of them, is astounding.  We are adding this stress on top of  everyday stresses such as , finances, jobs, children, marriage, etc.  There is no way on earth anyone could accomplish the number of things we think we should and be good at any or all of it.  Give yourself a break.

You are enough.

You had a bad day at work and have a meeting in the evening leaving little to no time for dinner prep.  You had to feed your family Kraft dinner and hotdogs for supper and feel like a failure for not preparing a full meal.  Did they eat?  Yes.  It’s ok. 

You are enough.

You don’t need to stay in an unhealthy, or abusive  relationship.  Don’t let anyone tear you down.  You deserve more.  Your children will understand one day, your grandparents will get over it.  You will find someone else. 

You are enough.

You don’t need to put half naked pictures of yourself on the internet to see how many likes or comments or shares you get.  Don’t lower yourself to this level.

You are enough.

You don’t need to have a model perfect body, because guess what?  Models don’t have a model perfect body.

 You are enough.

Whatever your struggles may be, you need to remember through it all to take extra special care of the person that should be the most important person in your life, you.  You are not doing yourself any favors by stretching yourself too thin and constantly adding to your own problems.  If you break down,  then so does everything else.  If you accept yourself, and love yourself, and finally begin to come to the realization that you are enough, amazing things will start to happen.  This is a concept that not everyone who reads this will be ready to accept.  It is a slow process, but one I assure you, is worth it.

You are enough.

Let me finish by saying I am a Christian.  I am a believer.  I do not push my beliefs on anyone or expect everyone to be a believer,  but if you believe on any level,  let me ask you this one question.  If God made you in His image and you are enough for Him, why in the world do you think you are not  enough for you?

You are enough.

Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us, Catherine.  You are amazing, beautiful and I am so thankful for you!!

~Lori

This weekend, I got to play host to my best friend from Cape Breton, Janice.  She drove down without any of her 4 boys or her husband. She took her time and did some shopping on her way down.  And then she was all mine!! She even brought me flowers…..at my request.  Plus a pretty bowl and candy for my children. And a chunky orange necklace! I’m spoiled, I know.

We sat down to a yummy chicken supper and then headed out for a short trip to Mission Madness, a fundraiser that my other bestie’s church puts on every year to fundraise for a certain Mission Project, this year for Vanuatu.  There are carnival style games, cookie decorating, face painting but most importantly, a cake walk.  Every year we go and try to win a cake.  And we almost never do.  We have been known to stop at the grocery store on our way home to buy one!  { We went home empty-handed, but one showed up at our door – Thanks, Rachel!! }

We stayed up late, chatting and looking at decorating magazines.  That is a common thing when we get together.  Its fun to bounce ideas off each other and get opinions on rooms, colours and furniture.  We’ve been doing it since we met way back when we studied interior decorating. We may have ate ice cream, too…..as per tradition.

We got up the next morning, and headed out the door for breakfast at Sugar Moon Farms.  Have I mentioned how much I love it at Sugar Moon?  Have you been?  I highly recommend it.  Highly.  Hannah wrote a note on her placemat for our friend, Dave, who helps boil, and left it for him at the front desk.  It was a tasty meal that carried us a lot further into the day.

We headed to Truro from there and spent some time wandering the streets of Truro, hitting some of my favourite places.  We hit the Truro Farmer’s Market and smelled all the yummy smells and looked at some adorable handmade goodies.  Then we went to Babbling Brook, and we each found some goodies to take home there.  { I got more spoons – surprised?? }  We stood outside the shop and talked about heading to Noveltea but we weren’t hungry yet and our caffeine levels were still up so we skipped that stop and headed down the street to Inglis.

Now, if you know Truro at all, you know Inglis has it going on.  That street is filled with awesome shops and businesses and we could’ve spent the entire day there.  But we hit my highlights, the first being Pearl & Daisy.  We smelled soaps and candles, deciding that some of them smelled good enough to eat.  I love the displays and how open and airy it feels.  Definitely a great place to shop and sniff!!

We ducked into Onslow Historic Lumber.  Janice has plans to paint her pine bed and so she needed some Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint….I may have highly recommended that option……  It was great to see Rosemary and poke around all the cool bits and pieces she has in the store.  I left with a Miss Mustard Seed Lookbook and two key holes plates.  Janice is armed for her first milk paint project!!  And Lena still says she’d like to work there…..a kid after my own heart!!

We decided a bathroom break and refreshments were in order by this time.  So we popped into Jimolly’s for treats and coffee.  { I may or may not have had some of those treats for breakfast….it had peanut butter in it, that’s breakfast food!! }  We sat and enjoyed a little rest and my girls snuggled in on a comfy couch there.  Janice took our picture…..

We continued our wander up the street, waved at Jaime at the Clay Cafe and decided to pop into Alderberry Village. There are two things I love about this shop.  The first being it always smells so good.  The second being that they have a vintage section in the back.  And I always find something.  Yesterday it was a table and a vase for me.  Janice took home a pitcher.  And they were nice enough to let me leave the table there until we were ready to head back to the car.  Score!!!

Our last stop was Above & Beyond Home Decor.  It was so springy and bright and very welcoming there! Lots of colourful spring accessories, awesome furniture and of course, fabulous staff!!  While we were there, a few friends walked in, too, so that was a nice surprise!!

We headed up back to the car, and up the road to another shop, The Reclaimed Cottage.  I had been following them on Facebook for a bit so it was neat to get to see the shop in person.  But we left empty handed.  In the car again, a quick bite for a very late lunch and then homeward bound.

When we got home, we unpacked all our goodies and gave Janice a quick tour of the studio and the projects I have on the go now.  Then, goodbyes 🙁 It is always so wonderful to see Janice, our visits are never often enough or long enough.  Is that how it is with your best friend, too?  We will be the crazy old ladies taking bus tours and barking at the the traffic.

To be continued,

Lori

Oh, I had fun with this!!  I went in to our local hairdressing shop to talk with the owner, Teri, about something { more on that in the near future 😉 } and she mentioned she wanted a bench for the waiting area.  I had my mission.

First stop – Pinterest, of course!!  I saw lots of different benches.  Some built-in, some solid and chunky and some just a plywood base with foam and legs and others were coffee tables transformed.  I wasn’t sure about sourcing legs so I thought I’d explore the coffee table avenue further.  Some were big and square, which would not work for the space and then others were long and rectangular.  Just want I wanted!!

That meant I had to find a good sturdy coffee table that could hold weight.  Hmmmm…..I wasn’t sure how tricky that could be.  I had a look on Kijiji and found lots of other stuff I wanted and even found a chair I was looking for.  But no coffee table that fit the bill.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been on a big kick of milk painting everything. Well, one day when I was out looking at Forbes New to You for stuff to paint, I came across this scene:

Just what I needed!!! A sturdy, solid coffee table that would turn into a bench very easily!  Sold!!

I had fabric picked out and I knew I wanted to milk paint the legs in Typewriter and distress them a bit.  So, I got to work.  I sanded down the legs and painted them with three coats of Typewriter and then sanded them again to distress them.  I gave them a coat of Tough Coat, a good durable sealer that would help the legs stand up to the abuse they may endure sitting in a waiting area of a hairdressing shop.  The top of the bench got 3″ foam to give it some height and then a layer of terylene followed by the fabric.

And then you put it all together and Ta-da!!!!

When it gets delivered in the next few days, I’ll take a few pictures to show you where it really belongs.  I’m pleased with how it turned out!!

And remember, if you have a project in mind that you need some help with, I’m your girl!

To be continued,

Lori

PS On another note completely, I’d love to find an old floor vent for this one in our living room, it drives me a little crazy… 😛