Speaking of summer, yesterday was the first official day of summer, though it sure felt more like Spring. Today was much warmer and I spent a fair amount of my waking hours outdoors finishing up some more woodworking projects.

I finally finished all the bedroom baseboard trim!! What an odyssey that had been – almost a 7 month project! I actually felt incredibly satisfied once I stood back and admired the finished bedroom. Whoever said much pleasure is derived from the simplest of things was spot on.

My overall happiness carried into the early evening when I decided I would do my neighbour a favour and mow his lawn, since he was out of town. It definitely feels good when you’re doing good. And, the 15 minutes that it took me to mow and edge his lawn seemed effortless to boot. I really didn’t even realize how fast I had completed the work until I was putting away my mower and trimmer!

I had made a list of things I wanted to accomplish for the day, and I got a fair amount of them done, leaving just a few things for Sunday. ‘Twas a very productive but relaxing day! I’m definitely recognizing how I’m happier and more satisfied when I’m productive than when I sit around and wittle away my hours on meaningless tasks.

I wonder if that’s a personality trait of all business people and/or entrepreneurs… :)

Unfortunately, I had not the basil that one would need to create basil pesto. Ah, ha, fortunately though my wife was at Wegmans and was able to pick up not only the basil plants I needed but also a loaf a fresh, crusty bread. I’ve never made garlic bread by scratch, only the frozen kind. So, this would be somewhat of an experiment.

I took the bread and cut it length-wise, then cut individual pieces, buttered them and pressed a few slices of garlic into them. I then put them on the bottom rack of the oven and broiled them until the tops were browned, flipped them over and browned the other sides. Perfect!!

Meanwhile, I had prepared the pesto, getting the consistency juusssssssssst right. And, cooked the pasta til it was absolutely perfect. The meal really was fantastic, if I don’t say so myself. :) If I had thought about it then, I would have asked for my wife to purchase some strawberries for desert – oh well. :)

Overall, a fantastic night with a hearty meal and some wonderful company! :) Tomorrow, I’m going to explore my 2nd stress management relaxation technique. I’m not certain what it’s going to be yet, but I skimmed through some of my options and the one that I’m most interested in is mental imagery. I’m looking forward to trying that out or another one, if it should peak my curiosity. :)

After yesterday’s thunderstorms, the temperature cooled off considerably! It was perfect weather for at least one thing – reading in a hammock! My sister in law, Phoebe, bought me a hand-crafted hammock from Costa Rica when her and my 2 other sister in laws were off backpacking in Central America. I’ve made very good use of it so far this summer – when I’m not busy photographing wedding or taking other photos; I try to spend a few hours a week just laying in it and enjoying that time for myself. My stress management class textbook emphasizes the importance of taking time for oneself, to recognize when the body is being overworked and making sure time is given so the body can recoup.

Once I got all situated with my pillows and my iced tea, I carefully positioned myself in the hammock – hey, they can be tricky to execute sometimes! There is truly nothing like a nice “hammocking” on a perfect summer evening. And, there’s something poetic about relaxing in such an idyllic setting while reading a book on relaxing. :)

The only fly in my ointment was when I went to plug in my laptop to read the discussion posts there wasn’t any current flowing from the outside outlet. It took me 10 minutes to finally put things together and realize that the ground fault interrupt on the outlet had been tripped somehow – maybe from the storm the night before. Anyhow, that was frustrating because I had to get out of my comfy hammock!!! :)

We’re wrapping up the chapters about anger and humour which are great polar opposites! Humour is so subjective, as the text points out, and so is anger. So, you’d think they would be more closely related, though they are quite different from each other! I love that – a little duck and swerve.

I wish we could visit a comedy club as one of our lab assignments, actually I might be jumping the shark because I haven’t actually looked at what the lab assignment choices are – maybe I’ll get lucky and that will be one of them!! :)

I wonder if I could write that off as a required school expense… Hrrm. :)

For our first assignment, we had to breathe. No, seriously that was the assignment. Ok, perhaps I’m distilling down the work a bit. Specifically, the assignment was to practice diaphragmatic or deep breathing exercises. I have to admit, I’m very green when it comes to “breathing” – in the scope that we’re discussing here. :)

After a moderately stressful day at work, I decided to get a jump start on this course in an attempt to NOT be so stressed when I start my other accounting course in 2 weeks. Hopefully, this course will prevent future stress.

As I find myself most relaxed in the shower, and in the water in general, I decided to try my diaphragmatic breathing there. It took a few tries to engage my abdomen in my deep breathing, but once I got it, it was very easy – and very relaxing!

Breathing sounds easy, and somewhat involuntary, but deep breathing does take some concentration. Though, I imagine after a few weeks of regular breathing exercises, it will become quite effortless. As the exercises suggested, I envisioned inhaling clouds of clean, white air, and imagined exhaling nasty, putrescent clouds of black air. This took a few tries, concentrating on breathing through my diaphragm AND simultaneously focusing on visions of contrasting puffy clouds. This will be an interesting 5 weeks! :)

Once the weather warms up, I’ll try my deep breathing exercises laying down in a hammock that I bought just a few weeks ago. In April. When the temperature was 20 degrees warmer than it is now! :) This weekend will be a good time to try it.