Your Life As Art Photography by Pam

The FIRST Day Of School | Back To School 2015

Well today was the day, I feel like we were lucky and had an extra week of “summer break” and a fabulous end to summer holidays with a wicked hot weekend! Lucky for us we got to spend it with a whole lot of family at our family cottage swimming in the water and relaxing on the sand! I love our little impromptu “shoots” they seem to truly capture them, right down to their clothes, the way they stand or sit. Of course with a little direction from mommy ;) This is what I truly love about lifestyle photography – capturing them, in the now and everything beautiful around! The miss and I decided to go for a walk down the beach, the lil man came down and met us, completely impromptu, not perfect, but the perfect moment with two of the best kids I know.

Now that we’re back into our school routine – the first thing I did tonight when I got home (and the afternoon at work) was load up the diffuser with my On Guard Essential Oil Protective Blend! This blend gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling – yes even when its 30 C outside! When used in a diffuser it is excellent at cleansing the air – a must especially for fall and winter! This also protects against environmental threats and can also be very calming and relaxing. With kids back in school we all know how fast germs can travel – especially on their little hands! Add the On Guard Protective Blend to fractionated coconut oil or even water for a natural hand cleanser! Add the blend to some water and vinegar for a very effective all purpose cleaner! Our family has only been using water, vinegar and oils for cleaners for almost a year now and they’ve even stood up to raw chicken and have passed the test!~

Here is our little’s on their first day back… the nerves were already on edge. Mommy reassuring them that its OK – even I was nervous for back to school, or other days for that matter. The sun may not have been shining, but we were blessed with another warm day.

…and they are off!

I hope all of your little’s had a great day back! I was so excited to hear about their first day, who their teachers are, all the other exciting things that happened. Looking forward to a successful school year for them (and us!) :).

Homemade Multi-purpose Wipes

A must for back to school and in general to keep hands and surfaces clean!

Dog Days of Summer | August 28, 2015

This summer is flying by, soon the kids will be back to school and the cool fall evenings upon us – I just LOVE Fall! The colours, the temperatures… its my favourite season!

Even though the summer is flying by… we have had SO much fun!
Fun with our family, friends and especially our little family of 4 and fur babies! Not necessarily doing anything crazy spectacular, but spending time together, enjoying the moments and the fantastic weather we have been blessed with. A lot of use out of our family cottage which we are so amazingly blessed to have in the family as a fav summer vacation spot typically enjoyed by many!

So much in fact that I am WAY behind on my photos haha – typically not me BUT Im excited to process and upload once the summer craze is over ;) I can’t believe its been a month since my last blog post… time flies when you are having fun!

This is the first summer that I have truly been able to 100% enjoy life! I am feeling great and even tackling things around home!
Rearranging, major de-cluttering, tackling some “pinterest projects” even, more growth within myself and some well deserved R&R!

Some snaps from my phone – until I get all of the others processed and even more to come in the next few weeks :D

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#OilyPhotographer at the beach

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Our little girl is on the cover of the latest Butter Tart Trail Brochure!

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Our kiddos were even a part of a local drama club production Wizard of Oz as a part of their summer drama camp!
(More pics that still need to be processed :) )

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Hope you and yours are enjoying these last few days of summer – here’s to hoping the warm weather continues well into September and even October!
Hard to believe hockey starts NEXT week!!!

Mount Forest Fireworks Festival | 2015

My family and I had planned for months to go to the Mount Forest Fireworks Festival and when the day came we were in the midst of a major heat wave! We met up with my sister and took the kids downtown through the car show and out to the midway on cork street.

It was crazy humid hot, but we had a great time … and then bailed and went to the cottage LOL. No offence to anyone who worked so incredibly hard for the 15th Annual Fireworks Festival – its amazing not only as an attraction for our town but for those who call Mount Forest Home! An outstanding job as every year! :)

These kids <3 ! I am totally NOT a ride person, but they love them and I LOVE seeing the smiles on their faces, especially when it was as hot as it was, they still had a blast! We had fun watching them ;)

Why I needed a mom vacation… | Beach Vacation

Well first off Im going to say its not just about being a mom. Yes being a mom is the majority of my life.

I was a wife before I was a mom. 51 weeks of the year we are 100% mom and dad THEN husband and wife… in what little time is left.

My mom, bless her heart, has the kids at the cottage. We had a fabulous week away leading up to the Sunday where our kids reminded us ALL day that we were going home that day!

Why did I need a mom vacation. Seriously mom’s out there do you feel you can ever truly “relax” or “get things done” when the kids are around. I get things done, in time. We lead a busy life – well as “busy” as we want to be.

When I get kid-less time I remember a “simpler life” – not in the “I want to go back” but in the, “this is how I want to raise my kids”.

A simpler life when we didn’t have the stress, we were newly married, not even knowing the struggles that were ahead. A reminder that I NEED time as a woman, as well as a wife. To enjoy being me and having no responsibilities. To re-connect with my hubby not on a physical level but emotional. To talk about what WE want to talk about. A big one for us… To get things done around the house. Many nights we rush home to get dinner on the table, enjoy time with the kids before getting them to bed and then are exhausted. Not having to eat early for a kids bedtime, we can do what we need to do, then relax and have a good home cooked supper, or lets be real some guilt free appetizer type dinners in front of the tv!

Reminds me I need to meal plan more with the kids.

I get to enjoy not only my husband’s company, but our pets and just simply be home.

Its ok for me to miss my kids, but completely enjoy being kidless, because we spent a fabulous week with our kids and other family at the cottage. I honestly can’t wait for them to come home, to see all that we have planned not only to make our life easier but also theirs. However while they are away, I also am loving this adult time not just with my hubby but to tackle some projects that have been on our to do list for far too long and am totally going to soak up every minute!

I am so very thankful that my passions in life (beyond my family) is photography and essential oils. It completely warms my heart going back through the photos during our vacation and seeing how much fun we had as a family and for the kids just being kids! This past weekend, a friend was dealing with a bee sting, it was sore, hard, raised and very red. After they were so impressed with my Repellant Blend in the diffuser keeping the bugs away, I offered some more oils. I am so happy to say that less and less people are responding with “ok witch doctor” haha. I applied the Cleansing Blend and then layered with Lavender. They were brilliantly impressed that not only did the ache go away, his skin cleared right up from the sting! Seriously amazing.

A few of my fav photos from our vaca!

Really?! They have a photographer as a mother… odd!?

Really does kind of blow my mind at how fast these kids of ours are growing up.

However focusing on my “adult” time, I was able to edit 260 photos from the past week! Hubby is working on my mud-rage and I made a fantastic home made dinner tonight. Feeling very blessed.

YUM!
Have you ever cooked with essential oils? I hadn’t either until tonight. I am making a warm potato salad with the potatoes and veggies cooking on the bbq, eggs cooking ready to be chopped and a fabulous potato salad dressing.

1 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of healthy cooking oil
1 cup of greek yogurt
Splash of vinegar
3 drops of lemon
2 drops of dill
1 drop of cumin

Hubby loved it!!! The flavour is just amazing! I am SO excited for dinner … AND leftovers for a few lunch’s! This made a HUGE salad :)

‪#‎CookingWithEssentialOils‬ ‪#‎EssentialOils‬ ‪#‎Cooking‬
‪#‎doTERRASummerEssentialOils‬

Kids Life | Beach Stream and Tadpoles

This boy of mine has his daddy’s keen sense of adventure for discovery of all things new, slimy and gross ;) The past few summers this small stream has been FULL of tadpoles, this year the stream was moving much more quickly so the kids were on tadpole duty rescuing them from flowing out to the lake.

Simple Beauty Of Nature

I just love the beauty of nature. So simple.

This little fella is growing under my deck. I happened to notice him when I was going up the stairs and had to capture the amazing perfect beauty.

Just goes to show you, everything isn’t always as it seems. Who would have thought this beautiful flower would be under my deck where its dark, hardly gets any sun. But it is and its just beautiful and very hearty. Even in tough conditions pure beauty can shine through. Some of the toughest times, take us to the most beautiful places.

My Gardening Friend | Grasshopper

While weeding the garden this morning I noticed out of the corner of my eye something very tiny moving in the grass. What I found was a tiny little grasshopper happily jumping through the grass. Lucky for me he was quite photogenic! :)

He looks big here, but in reality he was merely 1″ long – if that actually! So tiny! Our grass is only about 3-4″ long.

Taken with my Canon Macro 100L f2.8 lens.

One Day At A Time To Better Health | May 2015

Am I ever glad to see May, the sun is brighter, the days longer and as my previous post mentioned the other day I am feeling amazing!

Lets be real though, feeling amazing with ups and downs – no day or person is perfect. Ive truly committed to bettering my health and last night I began to see results that I haven’t seen in a very very long time. I stepped on the scale…

HOLY CRAP ITS WORKING!!!

Over the years I have had various reactions and ways of dealing with my health, at first it was denial – What!? Im 23 I cant be dealing with infertility and what the hell is PCOS!? Then it was, if I ignore it, it will just go away. Or this is how my body is I just need to deal with the pain and suffering I am going through, thats life – this is my life. If I eat this I’ll feel this way… I thank god everyday that our wee Madison was a true surprise and miracle because I honestly do not think I could have went through another year plus of trying to get pregnant to have a 2nd child. Mix in the craziness of being a mom with two kids under 18 months apart – my health got put to the back burner for a lot of years.

In November 2011 I actually began the journey to better health by putting me and my health first – which is very hard for a mom to do. At the end of this month I had a hysterectomy and I honestly felt like a brand new woman… BUT I also knew this wasn’t the magic fix that was going to make everything better. Yes PCOS doesn’t go away just because your uterus does ;)

These past couple weeks have been normal for me yet at the same time life changing. Ive had energy, as my previous post said, and I am actually accomplishing things at home… not just things but projects that before now there is NO way I would have even attempted to do because I know my energy wouldn’t have lasted and my hubby would have to take over.

So yes, last night I took the step onto the scale… and couldn’t believe my eyes. Yes my clothes have been fitting better, Ive had more energy but its been freaking years since Ive seen the scale budge – even when I was going to the gym and eating healthy.

I now get excited for what projects Im going to tackle at home after work or on the weekends – along with the normal boring tasks that is like laundry and dishes haha. This month Im even more stoked because my FAV Metabolic Oil is on sale YAY!

Mothers Day and Spring Apple Blossoms | May 2015

Mothers Day with my little family – we had a FABULOUS weekend together with each sides of our family. It was so wonderful, especially with the gorgeous weather! I am truly blessed. I couldn’t have chosen a better way to spend the weekend celebrating being a MOM! One of THE toughest jobs in the world, at times wearing my heart on my sleeve, putting my wants and needs aside to ensure my kids have everything they need and helping them grow into the amazing people they are already becoming. Its tough – so tough some days. But these happy, full of love, amazing weekends like this one makes all these tough times worth it! Life is good and its true you’ve gotta get through the worst before it can ever get better – so very true in each and every aspect of your life. Seems to be a darn ongoing thing too LOL!

I am so thankful for this family of mine <3! So thankful for each of our families – they’ve helped us grow into the woman and man we both are today. Thanks to all the wonderful women in our lives they’ve showed us strength, love, hard work, tears of sadness as well as tears of joy, happiness, weakness, vulnerability, exhaustion, messy homes, home cooking, FUN!, knowledge, forgiveness, frustration, unconditional love, caring, respect, laughs, promises, value of money, its ok to make mistakes, I love you, always tell the truth… you’ve gotta take the good with the bad and nothing in this life is free!

All of you ladies who are in our lives are cherished so much – are all of these words above. You’ve made us all stronger because of these words – because you live real lives with alot of hard work, love and forgiveness!