better late than never, right?!

i apologise, in advance, for the long post

yesterday was one of those days where i relished the art of just kicking back and doing nothing. well, i did do some laundry in the morning and i did make two large pots of soup in the late afternoon...one was corned beef and vegetable, the other was cabbage and bacon. the corned beef and vegetable soup has been a family favourite for many years, however, i've been making mostly vegetable soups for myself since i stopped eating meat five years ago. yesterday, i thought i'd try this cabbage soup recipe that i found over on bumblevee's cooking blog and it was absolutely delicious!!! thanks, bumblevee!! i used vegetarian bacon, omitted the sausage altogether and used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. i also chose to add the optional choices of corn and milk. i'm having it again for dinner tonight with some fresh bread and i can hardly wait....YUMMY!!! soups are just perfect right now with our cooler weather making an entrance....winter is only weeks away.

today, i started teaching class again after a six month break. prior to that, i had been teaching for five years but, in the latter years, had reached a point where i did not look forward to the weekly art lessons at all. i'd had three students at different times who really made teaching difficult with their negative attitudes. they wanted instant results with no effort and made negative comments continuously when i tried to teach them even the simplest of techniques and skills. i truly wondered why on earth they would even be in an art class if they had no interest in actually learning anything. as time went on, instead of looking forward to teaching classes, i was stressing over them and dreading their arrival each week. i guess a stronger person would have coped better but i just don't deal well with negativity in my life and i found it suffocating. i finally made the decision to stop teaching altogether as i felt like i'd lost all confidence as a teacher.

that said, i must admit that i thoroughly enjoyed teaching barbara again today. the six month break must have been just what i needed to release all the emotional 'baggage' from dealing with those negative-minded students. barbara was thrilled to be back too even though it is a temporary arrangement. i will continue to teach until barb finishes her current project though i think she is secretly hoping i will just continue on teaching regardless......time will tell, i guess. barbara has been a loyal and eager student over the past five years and, today, it reminded me of old times. barbara was my first student for two years before i ventured into teaching other classes and workshops. she also witnessed a lot of the negativity i had to deal with in classes and i was very appreciative that she was there for me. i am already looking forward to next week's class.

MANTRA MONDAY

i was talking to michelle earlier this afternoon and, at that stage, I still had not done my mantra monday card. i was debating whether or not to just leave it for this week but a part of me didn't like that idea. i thought about how, lately, i've been feeling on a high despite battling flu and the usual daily dramas. i truly am enjoying just being. so i quickly painted this card up to reflect that feeling. my heart soars in the joy of being. i used one of my 'soul coaching' canvas pieces for inspiration which you can see in the right column of this blog.

acrylics on 5"x3½" CANSON acrylic paper© serena lewisclick on any image to enlarge

MONDAY PHOTO OF THE WEEK
i found this little guy peeking out from inside a leaf which he appears to have made his home

worth clicking to enlarge this one as you will see the reflective light in his eyes

once a month, cody enjoys (yeah, right!) salon treatment in our laundry room. here are pics of him at various stages of his pampering...though he would probably prefer to call it torture. he truly hates his bath-time and, when he sees the preparations under way, he cowers down hoping he's invisible to us. bless his little heart.

after the shampoo and conditioning

hair-drying


PLEASE....tell me it's over!!!


the treat at the end makes it all worthwhile
cody is super fast when it comes to food.....hehehe

sharing his ordeal with the neighbour's dog


....and that about catches me up for this week

love, light and peace