Blah

So I am not feeling that great. Monkey had a friend over last week who sounded like he is going to cough up a lung any moment now. While we all tried to stay away, we just don't have that much space to stay away. And so on Saturday I woke up with a little bit of a sore throat that got worse as the day went on and worse still on Sunday. It's better today but today I'm a bit congested and I think my pregnancy symptoms are kicking in, or it might be the cold. But I'm feeling a little nauseated now that I ate. Eating seemed like a good idea, even though I am not hungry, but who knows. Now it's tea time and more rest.

Being sick is when being self-employed is not that fun. Not that it's fun when you work for someone else. I canceled my yoga class for tonight so I can take another day to rest, but I'm expecting to be back in full force for tomorrow when I have several classes. I am hoping to anyway.

Waiting game

I don't think I remember when the time seemed to pass this slowly before. It's only been a week, but it feels like forever. I need to switch my focus, but I'm not feeling very energetic right now. If you are not in the loop yet, we are expecting a new little one. I am so far 5 weeks along. I am feeling pretty good, but today I'm feeling lazy. Mostly I'm looking at a ton of cute baby stuff online with a full realization that we won't need most if not all of it and that we don't have room for most if not all of it :) But it's fun looking at little baby nurseries and such. I keep wanting to get something for the baby, but it's so way, way early to do something like that, it's not even funny. I did break down early in the week and got myself a pair of comfy pants and a belly rub. Again, don't necessarily need those at this point, but at least I'm using it now.

The main concern right now is the lack of space even though we are still ways away from needing the space. We have a general idea of where baby things will go and we need to figure out where other things that baby things will displace will go. I am thinking of getting a co-sleeper to start and found them on Craigslist, but again, too early to get it. To do at least something, I started cleaning out a bit of space in a bookshelf we have in a living room. It's not really related to baby, but I figured we might need to put something there to make room for baby.

On a more tangible note, I have my first prenatal appointment at a birthing clinic in Beverly on June 13. That's very excited even though I'm leaning heavily towards a home birth. Honey is not very excited about that, I don't think. My other exciting appointment after that is at the end of June when I will meet with an herbalist again where she can recommend stuff for healthy pregnancy. And now I'm ready for a nap.

Fun weekend

I am so excited, we are going away for the weekend! We are going to Hillsboro, NH to see Bhagavan Das and participate in his workshop and a kirtan. He is awesome! I've never done a workshop with him, so that will be interesting. Last year we went to NY, NY to see him, he's that good.

I am buzzing around, as usual. I was doing a registration for a mini yoga event next weekend when honey mentioned that I might actually want some down time. He says I have not had any since our Costa Rica trip, which is probably true. I don't know. I feel like I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I am certainly busy, much busier than I would have thought I would be. I'm not necessarily busy with clients, but there is all this life stuff :) So, for next weekend, I'm only going to take 2 classes and not 4. I'm compromising and listening to common sense :)

I got a cool program that let's you work on your client relationships but I have not had a chance to fully utilize it yet. I did pay for a year though which usually motivates me enough. The sticking point is that I need to enter all my clients info in it, for it to be truly worth something. Turns out, I have a lot of paperwork for that. I do want to get on it though, would be nice to reconnect with some folks.

Face time

Ever since I have recorded the welcome video for the studio I was thinking what will I do next. Welcome is great, but I want actual content! I was trying to figure it out, and trying, and trying... I couldn't really come up with anything that I thought would be good. Well, the other day I was trying to find a video of Sun Salutation sequence that I use in classes. I could not find exactly what I was looking for and most of the things I found just were not that great for beginners.

That's when I thought, hey, would not that be nice then if I made a little video of the sequence? It took me a while to record this! First, I recorded it but it was during the day and the light coming through windows was too much contrast. Then I was making another little trial video with a thought that I will record voice separately and overlay it on the video. That just didn't work that great. Not necessarily technically didn't work, but I just didn't like how it was coming out. Finally, yesterday, I did a recording with an ongoing instruction. I like the video, I think it came out pretty good. It's almost 15 minutes so I'm pushing YouTube limits there :) The only thing now is that it would be really lovely to clean up the sound on it. Honey said he'll help me. I just need to strip the audio from the video and he'll work his magic on it. I am so hoping I'll be ready to post it next week.

During this whole process I found that I really need some yoga clothes, namely tops! I think it's all fine when I teach a class because I can always adjust, but during a recording I just don't feel like fussing with a shirt. Perfectionism rears its ugly head :)

I also made another little video yesterday, about catching your breath. That should be faster to post, I am not going to do any fancy audio on it.

Fanciest cats ever

We have come to the conclusion that we have the fanciest cats around. This conclusion is not based on any research or study, we just think so :) We did have a reason though, namely that our three cats now have five litter boxes. Yep, you read that right, five litter boxes for three cats. Surprisingly, I am not actually annoyed with it. I am shocked at that, personally.

There is of course, a story of how we got to possess so many boxes...

When honey's kitties moved in, so did their litter boxes and we had three boxes right then and there. I was not happy with this, but it was a compromise from having four boxes as honey suggested. The boys had two boxes in one closet and then my girl had her box that traveled for a bit as we were all settling into the new way of life. It was in my son's room for the longest time until not so long ago we took it out. My son's room is now cat-free zone and he keeps the door closed, always, even when he's not home. My cat's box traveled to another closet in the hallway and that's where it is now. Of course, designations such as 'boys box' and 'girl's box' are arbitrary as they all use all the boxes. Loosing my son's room as their territory has upset the cats and my girl started using the bathtub as her personal litter box at night. So the morning routine started to include cleaning up the tab, which really wasn't a big deal. The last straw, however, came when one of the cats (assumption is on the girl) peed on the stove! That's when we decided to get another box which somehow led to two more boxes. One now lives in the bathroom and travels into the tub at night and the other box is in the living room by the cat tree. What makes this very fancy is that the new litter boxes are stainless steel! They are very cute and stylish too!

So far the cats haven't used the box in the living room so it might eventually replace one of the plastic boxes in the closets. Then we'll be down to four :) I do hope the boxes last much longer. It seems they are more durable and more hygienic since stainless steel is not as porous as plastic. They were only $10 more than plastic ones, so this might be a good long term investment since I'm pretty sure we'll always have cats.

Happy Earth Day!

And for today's post, I'm copying from my new blog. Yes, now I have another one. If you have landed here because you googled Eternal Balance, you are probably looking for the other one. The new blog is going to be for business use versus this one which is all about my personal life.
Here is a link to the new blog: http://eternal-balance.com/blog/

There is not much there now and I have not announced it officially yet. I'm thinking it will be nice to have a little more content there, but I will probably announce it in the next newsletter.

Here is a little tidbit for Earth Day:

Both at home and at the studio I try to make environmentally conscious decisions. You might not know this, but Eternal Balance strives to be a green and eco-responsible studio. This was important to me when I started the studio couple of years ago and I evaluate every purchase I make with the environment in mind.

Some of the examples of how I try to stay ec0-friendly are:

• All the paint used for the walls is Benjamin Moore Natura Paint. It is zero VOC and virtually odorless.
• The yoga blocks are cork from Gaiam.
• The yoga straps are organic cotton, also from Gaiam.
• There is filtered water available and mugs.
• Any plastic cups that you might use instead of the mugs are recycled.
• All the tea that is provided is organic.
• The cold drinks in the fridge are also organic.
• We recycle all the plastic, aluminum and paper.
• The candles used at the studio are beeswax or soy.
• All the handouts and schedules are printed on 100% recycled paper.

I hope that you find this information useful and maybe it will motivate you to evaluate your choices from an eco perspective as well. You can also check out Earth Day Network for tips, motivation and information.