Due to the enormous responsibility of parenting, the fleeting time that children are young, my own zest for life and adventure – I am personally in an interesting place right now.  I have such a passion for my practice and my patients.  I have a passion 
for parenting.  I have a passion for health – my own: reading about health, active living, exploring the mind and spirit.  I have a passion for the outdoors, at any time of the year.  I have a passion for deepening relationships: being more authentically connected to others – my husband, my parents, my friends. 

I recently read an article on a “condition” called FOMS (fear of missing something) and I related a little too much to what the article talked about.  I love life and my
growth has led me to a place where I even have a passion for the so called “bad” things in life as I truly believe that there is no “bad” or “good”, there just is.  So even if
something hard happens, if I meet a challenge, have something difficult come up – it is there so I can learn, grow, deepen my relationship with myself and develop more courage, strength, compassion and resiliency.  This leads me to fall in love with life
even more deeply.

And here is my pathology.  I like to do too much and my plate spills over.  I don’t want to drop anything and thus feeding into my “human doing” (vs. “human Being”) nature
that I have worked so hard in the past at overcoming.  It is interesting. 

Historically I have done too much for fear of saying no”, or as a way to  compensate for something inside me that I felt was lacking or missing.  Over time, this has shifted and this mindset of doing more because I am ‘less than’” has healed (I think?).  I believe in my heart that I am  Enough.  I am valuable and worthy as I am.  And now the over-doing seems to have more to do with passion and abundance than with low self-esteem and lack.  So I suppose it is a good problem to have, Though now remains to determine the solution. “Balance” is the catch-all word thrown around these days as the solution to this problem.  Recently I came across the concept of being in a “dance” with life instead and this resonated much more strongly as it implies that different days (or hours or moments) may necessitate a different dance move depending on the song playing.   So "balance” can and would look different from season to season, week to week, day to day, etc. thus giving it more an
appearance of a dance rather than some tightrope balancing act!. 
It makes it less scary, too, if we “fall off” our game – we risk only stepping  someone’s toes, rather than falling from a height!

Personally life is rich and full.  My incredibly supportive husband, Dr. Daniel Rutledge has recently purchased a new practice (Northgate Chiropractic and Massage).  He works in the city as a Chiropractor (my personal endorsement is that he is the
best in the city!)  and also provides acupuncture and Active Release
Technique (ART). 
It has been so neat to watch him grow into the role of clinic owner and operator – he’s really hitting his stride.  
 
Our two children are amazing. My daughter, now 4, is a beautiful open-hearted little girl.  Madelyn loves to read and create.  Her imagination leads her to many fun places and watching her and her friends play harmoniously all the varied “pretend” games they come up with keeps me in constant awe of the creativity that we are innately born  with. 
Madelyn has taught me the gift of spontaneous love – to love freely and wholeheartedly, something she does so well.  In our house,  I
have coined the term “crazy love” to capture the feeling of one’s heart bursting open with such love that you want to crawl inside the other’s skin in a deep deep hug. 
 
I can’t say I have truly parented, though, until we had our son.  What they say is true:
Boys and Girls are different!  Shea is so curious and his curiosity has led him to
move.  To move and not to stop! 
He is constantly on the go.  Climbing, running, tumbling, dancing, swimming – you name it, it’s an activity and he’s doing it.  And if it has wheels… he will sniff it out and  ride on it.  It  doesn’t matter if is a Barbie car, he will try to sit in (on) it and 
“drive”. 

Parenting is such a wild ride. Absolutely a blessing - there is nothing like bearing witness to the unfolding of another person. 
As parents I believe that our job is to  create a safe and loving place for our children (both in our homes and in our hearts) and allow their own wisdom and personalities to develop and grow, without too much interference from us.  That being said, we all learn more through example than through words, so to lead by example – rather than lecture – is imperative.  If I want my children to be healthy and make healthy food choices, I need to be responsible in my own food choices. 
If I want my children to be loving and kind and good listeners, then I have to practice this in my own life and work on being continually loving and kind and a good listener – to not only my children, but also my husband and anyone we might meet at
the playground or grocery store.  They are sponges for everything we do.

 One thing I have learned, however, that has served me very well, is that we only need to get it “right” something like 50% of the time.  Which is a huge relief!  It means, as parents, we can put less pressure on ourselves to be “perfect” (ha! Good luck!) – and instead focus on being humble.  When we realize we have lost our
patience, acted out in anger, raised our voice or demonstrated a behavior we are not
proud of – the ability to “repair” the situation is more important than getting it right the first time.  When we can admit our mistakes, take responsibility for them, apologize to our children and dialogue what a more appropriate response would be – without
over-justification or excessive guilt – our children learn that it is okay to make mistakes and they also learn how to resolve difficult situations through personal accountability and right action.

I have moved my previous home page information to the blog section of my site, hopefully this works!  Seemed a more pertinent place for it.
It has been a full year since I returned to work after the birth of my son, 17 months old as of September 5th 2013, which also means we have been located in our current practice location for one year.  This year has been wonderFULL! From a clinic perspective we have an amazing team up in our offices at the Cathedral Centre for Wellness. 
Our Robinson and 13th Avenue location is a perfect one for us, and I adore my brilliant colleagues in naturopathic medicine: Drs. Marika Geis, Laura Stark and Allison Ziegler; as well as our incredible support staff: Michelle, Brittany and Kelsey.

 I continue to be blessed with many dedicated patients who have been very generous in their patience with me and my somewhat limited schedule as I continue to prioritize time with my young family.

As for my still rather limited schedule:
1)  Since I am a bumbling human, tripping and stumbling my way through life and  parenthood just like you – trying to find my right foot to replace my second left food in this dance of life I refer to in my "balance" post– I am choosing to take time to do this inner “work” in amongst the schedule of work and family.  Given the demands that require attention and my desire to give my daughter as many “mommy days” as I can before she goes off to school (next fall already!), I am still available only in clinic on a part-time basis.  
I am in the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Friday from about 10 to 4. 
The kids go to a wonderful home daycare that is really like a second family to them, given the wonderful healthy loving environment they are in, and it is great but it also means that Joanie has a strict pick-up time of “no later than 5pm” (and preference for
4:45).   This definitely has its challenges sometimes when trying to leave the office, however it is great as it adds to the time I can spend with my kids and preparing a
healthy supper for the family.
  
 2)  Though I am still working on creating “emergency” spots that my reception staff
can consistently book, this is a work in progress and for now I work these in at the beginning and end of my days as I can. 
If you need anything at all short notice please email me or better yet call the clinic
and leave them a message for me and I will do my absolute best to accommodate you in the “flex” time I have at 10 and at 3:45.

3)  I do have a cancellation list so, please, if you call the clinic and are unhappy with the date of your appointment being too far into the future, don’t hesitate to get on the list! 
Cancellations always come up and I find that the Universe will work it out perfectly.

4)  I am still not able to accommodate new patients into my practice.  Sorry! It already
feels so  difficult to ensure that existing patients have adequate access to me without having to wait too long.  Luckily I work with three absolutely wonderful fantastic women that I fully respect, trust and recommend and know that you will be in great (if not better!) hands with one  of them! www.cathedralwellness.ca for more details on their practice styles.

5) Ahh, email… while I still am willing to do email consults, I rarely save time in my days to attend to this and therefore you may be waiting awhile for me to read and
respond.  I much prefer phone consults or in-person 15-min. emergency appointments. So please consider calling the clinic to set something up or
talk with me.  I promise your wait will be less than with email!

6)  I do send out a quarterly email from our clinic docs. You can view past copies on the Newsletters section of my site and email me to subscribe. I love providing information, education and inspiration to my patients and the public so my newsletter list is the venue I use for this.

 Ultimately I will return to full-time practice within the next couple of years, as our family now feels “complete” and as my children grow older my re-commitment to work grows correspondingly.  
Please do keep in mind that I continue to keep my practice open to those patients whom have seen me previously, even though it may have been many years and I welcome you back at any time if and when you feel drawn to working with me again.

 Each day is such a rich experience for me, and I am ever grateful to have a job that I love so much that allows me to meet and get to know so many amazing people. 
I look forward to continuing to serve patients for many years to come!

one of my goals is to update my website and have been working on this for awhile
but it is a slow process!  Up until now I have had someone administrate my
account for me, but this gives me little control over updates.
Today I accidentally hit the "publish" button before my website was anywhere near ready for viewing.  However not being very techno-saavy I am unable to retrieve my lost site! and therefore will have to work to get my information back up in short order.
Thanks for your patience as I figure this out!  and if you are in need of any handouts or forms that USED to be on this site, please call the clinic at (306)757-4325 and the girls will get me the message!