Share the Love GIVEAWAY via Erin in Wonderland

One of my good friends (in real life, I might add!) writes one of my favourite blogs, Erin in Wonderland, and this week she is hosting a super-generous giveaway to mark her 50th post. At first I wanted to keep this all to myself so that I could increase my odds of winning, but then I figured good Karma is always the way to go! ;) Either way, it's really in your best interests to check out her blog.

The giveaway is open to Canadian residents only and closes Tuesday, March 5th at noon. You can head over to Erin's blog to read the simple rules for entering here.  What are you waiting for? Go enter now! If magazines, candles and Starbucks isn't your thing, then you can always give it to me if you win!

 Good luck!

Do it Now: Unpacking

Truth: I love to travel. Even if it's just an hour and half away to visit my nephews, I love packing up and taking off. Truth: I'm a horrible packer. I always over pack for fear of regretting leaving something behind. Even bigger truth: I despise unpacking when I get home. Despise it. So much so that I have been known, much to Jim's horror, to take up to a month to fully unpack my suitcase. Sure, I'll take my toiletry bag out, and I'll throw the dirty clothes into the hamper, but that's about as far as I get. From that point on, I just take things out of the open suitcase as I need it. Eventually it gets empty. Or, my husband will move the not-fully-unpacked suitcase out into the hall as if making some kind of "well then, I'll show you what I think of your unpacked suitcase" statement. Whoa, clearly I have a problem.

February's book club book for my Edmonton book club was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Once I started reading it I found myself super-motivated, flagging every second page with neon post-its, anxious to start on my own Happiness Project before I had even finished the book. Actually, I haven't finished it yet - I decided to slow the reading of it down so that I could better reflect on each chapter of the book, and think of ways to apply aspects of her book to my own life.

The Happiness Project is divided into chapters by month, with each month focusing on a new resolution while also continuing with the previous month's one. January is about all about boosting energy, and for many people, myself included, reducing clutter and living in an organized home boosts your overall energy, and well, happiness. And it's just damn satisfying. Gretchen also has a list of Commandment's for herself which she applies throughout each resolution. One of these Commandment's, which really struck home for me in this chapter, was "Do it now".  Then I turned the page and got to "Tackle a Nagging Task". Enter: unpacking my suitcase.

I don't love not unpacking my suitcase. I just don't love unpacking it. (I had to read that several times to see if there was a double negative in there somewhere - so if there is, I'm sorry, but you get my point.) But it's definitely a nagging task and one that affects both myself and my husband's sanity. This month, I went on two separate trips:  to visit my sister in Vancouver and then to Mexico for a week. Since I started reading The Happiness Project while I was in Vancouver, I was motivated to put some of what I had read in the book into practice in my own life: I would unpack my suitcase when I got home. And if you're thinking I would have had to anyway to pack for my next trip, well then you'd be wrong because I own more than one large suitcase.

{Saigon *loves* inspecting my suitcases when I come home}

When I arrived home from Vancouver, Jim was just arriving home from work. I had been gone for 5 days so I was excited to see my husband (and Saigon) and catch up in person about the time we had been apart. Usually this would occur in the kitchen or maybe over on the couch. But not that day! Nope, that day I made Jim come upstairs with me and while I unpacked my suitcase, he sat on the bed, (in shock I might add), and we talked about our week. So not only did I accomplish a "Do it now" and a "Tackle a Nagging Task" task, but I'm pretty sure Jim was relieved he wouldn't have to trip over my suitcase every morning for the next month! And I will admit, it felt SO good to zip up that unpacked suitcase and put it away.

{I did it!}

We arrived home from Mexico two days ago, and you better believe my suitcase is all unpacked!  Does this mean I foresee a bedroom, free of unpacked suitcases in my life for years to come? I sure hope so.

I'm pretty confident that I am alone in taking this long to unpack one's suitcase, but I'd love to know which you prefer: packing or unpacking? Why? Do you unpack as soon as you get home from somewhere?

"This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable, Harry."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Part II

So...I'm not doing to well with getting my Harry Potter Friday posts up on Friday...but better late than never, right? Right? I finished the book yesterday and HOLY SHIT. I still have so many feelings about everything that happened! I don't even know where to start. I'm also supposed to be packing for Mexico for tomorrow, but PRIORITIES. So for this post, I don't want to over-analyze and think too much about some of the things that I know don't make a whooooole lotta sense, I just want to keep all the feels that I'm feeling.  Because PoA is definitely my favourite book in the series so far.

Also, *spoiler warning* for the rest of this post! (You know, if you're one of those rare people who hasn't read Harry Potter yet.)

Sometimes I felt dumb while reading this book and not being able to predict what was going to happen, or who was going to end up actually being bad or actually being good, because, come on, I'm not a 12-year old reading this for the first time, but seriously guys, I don't think I saw anything that happened in the end coming. I knew in the first half of the book that there were some things/people that seemed up to something or just not right, but I just didn't know what these things were going to amount to.

Quick run-down on my thoughts:

-I didn't want to say it in my last post in case I ended up being wrong, but I really wanted Sirius Black to be good! When the truth about him came out, I was SO happy. Those moments between Black and Harry, where Harry discovers the truth about Sirius, Pettigrew, Lupin and his father were my favourite scenes this entire series so far. And when Black asks Harry if he might want to consider living with him during the summers since he's he rightful guardian, I honestly had tears in my eyes. Of course, it was all too good to be true (for now), but I'm certain we haven't seen the last of Black just yet.

-So Lupin wasn't being poisoned by Snape like I originally thought, but I still don't like him. And while I'm relieved that Lupin isn't dying, his being a werewolf doesn't seem all that much better to me seeing as how he can no longer teach at Hogwarts anyway. I'm disappointed Lupin has to leave - he was one of my favourite new characters this book! 

-I was so sure that Crookshanks wasn't really a cat - when actually it was Scabbers that wasn't really a rat. Crookshanks is one smart kitty. Although, if Harry, Ron and Hermione had been half as smart as Crookshanks, they would have listened to the sneakoscope back in Chapter 11 when it went off when Crookshanks and Scabbers were both near it.

-I know it seems a lot to expect a young boy like Harry to have killed Pettigrew when he had the chance, but I really wish someone had killed him. Why would they think he could be securely imprisoned in Azkaban if he's an Animagus? Wouldn't he be able to change into a rat and easily escape? That's how Black escaped after all.  Poor thinking on all of their behalves, I gotta say. Even if they catch him now, what's stopping Pettigrew from turning into a rat again? MAKES NO SENSE. Although, I did love the whole idea of an Animagus.

 

-I've always loved the idea of time-travel, but I find time-travel works best if you don't over think it. Over thinking time-travel = flaws galore.

Ok that's all I got off the top of my head! I really should go pack now before hubby loses it. Also, I apologize to any of you readalongers who are reading this - I don't have time to read anyone's posts for this week, but I will be back next week to make super-late comments on your posts! I also won't be having a post for the first part of Goblet of Fire as I will be in Mexico until the 26th, but I will do a double post the following Friday, promise!