Personal mastery and more

Well, it has been a busy week (or thereabouts) since I posted last. Nasty drive for part of the way in today to work and a snowy, rainy, icy, freezing rain drive home tomorrow. Something to really look forward to eh? Dreams of Caribbean beaches sustain me, one of the benefits of waiting until the end of March, all winter to anticipate. For anyone even vaguely considering travel, this will be the year with the economy struggling, some of the best deals I've seen in years.

On the weekend I headed out to the first of the two part Personal Mastery course and it was excellent! Lead by a woman who is a great adult educator and an eclectic group of about 20 females of all ages and our male MLA who is sponsoring the program in part and participating. Did some visioning and was somewhat surprised at the results, amazing what will appear if you slow down long enough to consider it. Have some homework before the next session and looking forward to it. It was held in the former elementary school the two oldest daughters attended so that was sure a blast from the past. I learned about croning ceremonies (no - not crowning) just Google it or follow this book review which mentions it:

http://www.harbourpublishing.com/excerpt/OldandSmart/webonly/131

Croning holds some interest and I'm still researching the topic as well as stretching my brain with the new way of thinking so this has assisted in survival of this work week - is it only Tuesday yet? Speaking of work related new age thinking, I found an article about Dan Schawbel who is a 'personal branding' expert. You can check out his blog here:

http://personalbrandingblog.com/

I'm reminded of my mother's advice which stated "act and dress the way you want people to think about you" but I guess that wouldn't sell as well as his upcoming book entitled Me 2.0

I had a bit of look around to see if there were any Maritimes/New England cruises on the list for this fall and the pickins were slim. A couple of two week ventures which although a different cruise line are the same itinerary as last fall and the dates will interfere with a wedding I will not be missing and the visit of the first born daughter so... after briefly toying with the idea of a repositioning cruise from NY to Caribbean and return from Miami this thought was rejected in favor of waiting to see what patience will turn up. The repositioning jaunt involved five sea days in November on the eastern seaboard - not a good plan for the trial of a landlubber cruise travel mate and a lot more work for the presenter. Add to this only a reasonably interesting itinerary and two - one way air tickets and it became less exciting. Something much better will come up than trying to talk yourself into something.

Have been in Norway this week in my memories as I've been scrapping the Grand Princess photos. Since I'm heading into the third cruise within nine months, I should get my act together eh? Have about 20 pages completed and am only on the third port of call so this will be an epic record. The cats aren't pleased at having their space invaded as they've taken over the craft space but they'll get over it.

The oldest daughter is writing her mutual funds exam tomorrow evening so we shall all send positive thoughts (not that she'll need them as she's one smart chicky) out to Alberta. Those kind of big exams are always stressful of course. The second daughter is heavily into her BEd course work and the youngest is carrying a heavy course load and excitedly planning for her Sweden clinical. So all my young ladies are academically and stressfully engaged at the moment.

The prodigal son is fishing and it has been REALLY cold this week, plus a bit of wind as the weather forecast changed after they left so they're earning their money for sure. Hard way to make a living. Kind of weather that the dog gets permission to stay in the mud room for the night as the SPCA puts out warnings to bring your pets inside at night. Speaking of that, I made a promise of an early bedtime so I'm outta here.