It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it

Last week I traveled to California for work. I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton at Laguna Niguel. What can I say...it's tough to complain about the long days, stress and jet lag when you're staying at the Ritz. Along with the Montage at Laguna Beach, which is just a couple miles up the coast, this is one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever stayed at.

The public spaces are full of beautiful details. 

Every window has a view of the ocean

The rooms are absolutely gorgeous

And the views are magnificent

That's the hotel up on the cliff. The Salt Creek Beach is a known surfer spot. There were numerous surfers out every day, and various schools' surf teams came out to surf early in the morning. The surfers were out there from morning dawn to sunset, waiting for that perfect wave. 

Life on the Fast Lane

A month has whizzed by just like that. Because I'm at that point where there's so much to do all the time, and so many things constantly buzzing in my head, it's sometimes really hard to let it all go for a moment. But that's exactly what you need to do when the going gets crazy. Literally just grab a moment and enjoy it, like this sunshiny moment with a friend that I shared last Saturday.

I want to post more often because I feel like posting helps me slow down and process my life. There's just so many competing time requirements (work, kids, husband, volunteer work, friends) that I literally don't have any time left. But I'll try to squeeze in a post here and there.

Lookback

Here's a look back to some of the things that filled my time in October. I'm so behind in my posts for the simple reason that it's just been super busy and life has been crazy. October and then November just whizzed by. Sometimes I wonder how I find the time to hold a full time job in addition to all this other stuff that goes on in my life. Somehow I make it work, and even though it's been really busy lately, it's also been good. I've been stressed out of course, but maybe a little less than usual. Or maybe I've just learned to deal with the stress better. I have enjoyed this beautiful fall and been a little kinder to myself too in the process.

We went to a lovely wedding at the De Seversky mansion at NYIT.

I wore my new Samuji dress for the first time. I saw the dress in the Samuji store in Helsinki last summer, tried it on, but it was too tight. After I came home from that trip, I searched for the dress on the internet, and found it in a store in Canada. A couple of clicks, a little wait, and the dress arrived and I am super happy with it.

At some point in October, I started a new easy scarf project. Knitting is the best meditation and so relaxing. But the project has to be super easy where you can just "go with the flow". This is exactly the case knitting this scarf. 

 We had play dates, and baked Halloween cup cakes.

 The softball season ended and basketball season began. Sundays are still busy!

We carved our pumpkins on the eve of Halloween. 

And of course we went trick or treating! 

The yellows were so amazing this fall. They're almost gone now, but I enjoyed looking at them blaze in the sun. 

I agreed to chair the Finnish School parent board. I've been involved for many years, and helping out with a lot of stuff, but this kind of took the job to another level... Like I didn't have enough on my plate already. But I guess I never quite managed the "less is more" lifestyle. Anyway, there's been a lot of fundraising bake-sales, and here are the yummy cinnamon buns we baked for the school. 

And of course, October is the birthday celebration month. This one turned 14 and we celebrated  few times. The above picture is from the celebration with the friends, a dinner at Maggiano's with her squad.

And this is from the family celebration that took place at Eataly. 

Oh yeah, we baked Karelian pastries a few times at the school too. 

There was a lot of horsing around and having a general good time with the fam.