according.to.kim

PI 30/52: Hands on

A quick little shoot for this week's prompt.

We have much going on these days: work (intensely busy right now), housework, BSS work, school forms and fundraising, childcare (as in, Neil providing it), dog sitting, kids' activities (ringette camp, dance, piano, cross country), monthly photo tasks, Rams and Rider games, appointments, gathering supplies for Crop & Create Saskatoon... It's all good, but yes, rather tiring! And many things don't get done. C'est la vie.

I need an escape from the flurry once in awhile. Over the past week, Neil and I have watched the finale of Hell's Kitchen and a few videos from the Food & Culture Photography course we purchased. Love it!

I've been incredibly lucky lately! Yesterday, I won (via StacyMolter.com) a seat in Spawn of True Scrap -- which is a big prize! And in August, I won (via Lisa Truesdell's blog) the beautiful Boardwalk kit from Studio Calico. I haven't used it yet, but looking forward to it.

PLUS, I received a Smash Book and accessories for my birthday! I'm so excited to use it! I was very surprised when I received it in the mail. Thanks again, Shauna, Laurel and families! I will start smashing things in it tomorrow. :)

PI 21/52: From the heart

This heart-shaped pumpkin leaf seems a fitting symbol for my love of taking pictures in the garden. And, below, shooting from the heart... a scene from my life with three wonderful daughters. I'm so blessed to have them!

Our calendar was quite clear this weekend (except for the Rider game on TV, which only affects Neil's time -- and mood*), which allowed us to tackle a number of jobs around the house and yard. Lots of check marks on the to-do list!

On Friday, I worked for several hours on Sophia and Madeline's room. This was Part 2 of The Big Clean. I decluttered, cleaned, and reorganized every surface (they're lucky to have numerous shelves). Unfortunately, I ended with a box full of various things that still require decisions. I didn't really want the girls' help in the cleaning phase, but I need them to decide (with some guidance) what to do with their property, and we ran out of time to do that together.

Meanwhile, Neil gave the van and truck a thorough cleaning on the insides. As usual, the van cleaning was long overdue and therefore, quite a big job. It is clean now, but still full of toys, books, and shoes that need to be donated. There's no place to keep these things in our house so they have to stay in the van until we get rid of them. I didn't mind having them there for a few weeks because I have been adding to the bags and boxes, but now they need to go ASAP.

Saturday morning, Neil and I prepared our back-alley driveway to receive slag from a friend and neighbour. (Slag is a by- product of the metal smelting process and it's a good material for driveways. We have a local source.) We had to move some crusher dust into the yard and clear patches of dead moss (luckily, Neil had already killed all the weeds back there). Thursday evening, I said to Neil, we need to get some slag for behind the garage. I guess the universe overheard and decided to arrange things for us: Friday afternoon, my friend Lisa called and asked if we wanted 3 or 4 yards of slag because she had ordered 7 yards and only needed about half (it was the same price for 7 yards or less). She only lives a couple houses down the alley, so on Saturday and Sunday morning, we hauled slag from her driveway to ours with a wheelbarrow. We haven't spread it out yet, but we think there's enough to cover the area. Since we still need to order crusher dust and clay, we left lots of space for those to be dumped. We worked on this project about five hours total. We managed to avoid the highest temps for this heavy labour, but it was already quite hot out by the time we finished each morning.

Also on Saturday and Sunday, I worked on and completed my monthly photo tasks for June. Thank goodness I had started selecting and editing photos last Monday and worked on it several times through the week. With Mosaic, Picture Color, and other events, June was a huge photo month. Plus, sifting through a couple hundred poorly-lit Irish dance photos is time-consuming and not very fun. I'm glad I didn't have to sit down for a long grueling session (as I was determined to get this done in time to get 9-cent prints at Costco!).

On the weekend, we ate out on the patio twice. We love eating outside! Saturday evening, as we finished supper about 7:30 pm, I just sat there on the patio for awhile because it was gorgeous outside: not a breath of wind, no mosquitoes, and the temperature was perfect for me (about 25C). Also in the fun department, Laurel and Bronwyn took Sophia to see the final Harry Potter movie on Friday afternoon (which she loved!), and I took the girls and their new friend, Zoe, to the spray pad on Sunday afternoon. Sunday night, Neil and I started watching the CreativeLIVE course, Food & Culture Photography with Penny De Los Santos. Love it!

*I was very proud of Neil for deciding not to listen to the post-game show after this terribly disappointing game (and this is significant because he ALWAYS listens to it). I think avoiding it really reduced the amount of dwelling on the loss.

Family Day long weekend

The long weekend was fantastic! Family Day is my kind of holiday -- a day off work, totally free of obligations.

• I felt much better all weekend (after having the flu).
• Neil took the girls to the Science Centre and they really enjoyed the new exhibit, Maze-A-Palooza.
• I accomplished some long-overdue tasks: went through my paper collection basket until I reached the bottom, thoroughly cleaned the upstairs bathroom, and Neil helped me purge and clean the inside of the fridge--a job that took a full three hours.
• Neil went out with some of his friends he hadn't seen for a long time. They went to a steak night fundraiser for a Taekwondo club sending members to New Zealand for world competition. It's the club our friends' son (and national champion) belongs to, and the one Madeline went to in the fall. Madeline's teacher, Ms. Stone, 16x national champion, is going to NZ to compete.
• I did some work on BSS and a few more people signed up (28 now!). I really enjoy working on this!
• We only had three things on the calendar: Sophia's piano lesson, ringette practice, and a game. The Sticks of Fury won despite having only eight players, and Sophia scored one goal.
• I made a scrapbook layout I love about Sophia's favourite songs right now.
• All five of us watched E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, which I rented from Blockbuster (along with Barbie - A Fashion Fairytale, Backyardigans - Singing Sensation, and Jonas Brothers -The Concert Experience -- quite reflective of my girls' ages and tastes right now). The girls weren't very enthusiastic prior to watching E.T., but they were riveted soon after it started. They didn't like the sad parts (tears were shed twice), but they liked the movie. I didn't even remember the sad parts! I saw E.T. in a movie theatre in July 1982 in Federal Way, Washington, with my brother and my uncle's girlfriend.

Louis CK on turning 40

I have to share this video. I think it's hilarious! And perfect for today. :) (Note: There is some mild profanity, so you may not want to have your children around when watching it.)

Avonlea for Riderville!

Please vote for Avonlea in the Where is Riderville? contest! Vote once a day from August 13-31.

Check out Avonlea's video to see how deserving they are:
http://www.riderville.com/video/index/id/13357

Avonlea is the smallest community by far to make the final five in this contest. My husband was raised there, his parents and other relatives still live there, and I know first hand that Avonlea is full of community spirit in many ways. I think they have earned the title of Riderville!

Go Avonlea!

All Washed Up!

I love this video! I've been meaning to post it for awhile.

To read some background and/or see a larger video screen, go to http://www.crucialskills.com/2009/09/all-washed-up/

Too cute not to share

Hope you had a great Saint Patrick's Day!

On creativity and genius

I really enjoyed this 20-minute video of Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, speaking on creativity:

The Beckoning of Lovely

Check out this short film about a cool project started by Amy Krause Rosenthal, author of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. I might participate. How about you?

Georgia, before & after

Neil took the dance part of the video only minutes before Georgia hurt her leg. I'm not really sure what her "Penny Kay" dance is, but Madeline calls it cheerleading. When she's finished that, I think she's trying to do a bit of Irish dancing. Then the video shows Georgia walking with her cast today.

The Story of Stuff

Please watch The Story of Stuff with Annie Leondard.

"From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns."

It's a very quick 20 minutes. I promise. And then take a look at the 10 Little and Big Things You Can Do. Great information!

Saskatchewan!

During the First Session of the Twenty-Sixth Legislature of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, the Swift Current Comp Chamber Singers, under the direction of Ms. Marcia McLean, sang two selections:  Saskatchewan and Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel. The first one is entirely comprised of the names of Saskatchewan towns and cities in alphabetical order. It's really neat! Of course, I must note that Neil's hometown, Avonlea, is mentioned in the first few seconds, and my hometown, Yellow Grass, is mentioned in the last few seconds.

You can watch and listen to this wonderful performance by going to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan website (www.legassembly.sk.ca). On the Multimedia page, click on the video archive for December 10, 2007. The Saskatchewan performance runs for about eight minutes between minutes 44 and 53 on the video (just in case you want to skip ahead!).

Interesting insights, life lessons

This is Steve Jobs delivering a commencement speech at Stanford University. I think it's worth watching. (14:33 sec)

Movie tag lines

One of the most fun things about my job right now is looking up (and in some cases, creating) tag lines for movies that are coming out on Max the following month. (It's just a small fraction of my job!) Well, I came across this movie tag line last week: "Fatigue. Hypothermia. Death." Seriously! Would you want to see that movie!? What kind of person feels drawn to a movie about fatigue, hypothermia, and death? Perhaps "a nail-biting tale of survival" or something along those lines, but fatigue, hypothermia, and death? No, no, no! In any case, poor tag line or not, I will never ever watch that movie! 

I've discovered that most movie tag lines are pretty cheesy, regardless of the movie genre or calibre. I think it's the nature of the beast because trying to capture the spirit of a movie in just a few words is not easy. It's even more difficult when you haven't seen the movie and the people who made the movie couldn't even think of a decent tag line!

Spider baby!

Georgia was a big hit at the church Halloween party this afternoon. I took a couple of short videos, put them together, and posted it on YouTube. It took me a little while to figure out how to do this, but I think it was worth it!

Sophia and Madeline are busy eating all of the candy they received at the party -- and they got plenty. I think they're going to be sick later, but I've decided not to fight it. As long as there's candy in our house, the girls (especially Sophia) will be obsessed with it. The sooner it's gone, the better!

Update: The girls ate candy for three hours straight and didn't get sick. Go figure. They didn't eat supper, but that's okay; I'd rather have their supper ruined one day (or a few), rather than every day for a month.

Added, Oct 31: Just in case anyone's interested, I found the instructions for Georgia's spider costume online: Sock baby spider costume (I followed the same instructions from a magazine five years ago and it was pretty easy.)

Beautiful story

Thanks, Maureen, for sending this to me!

***

From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution.'' But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way,'' Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad,'' he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. "No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it,'' Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century.'' And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. "The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, "is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.''

***

Here's the video. You may want to grab a tissue if you're anything like me.

Real beauty & real skin

Watch this short film from Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. So SO true. I couldn't agree more.

I still think the spot healing brush tool in Adobe Photoshop Elements is one of the greatest technological advances ever -- and not just for erasing facial blemishes (though that's certainly one of my favourite uses!).

Say you've snapped a brilliant photo of your child except for that unsightly food or marker that happens to be gracing her face. Or perhaps a baby fingernail scratch or glistening drool? How about those crumbs or stains upon her clothes? Spots on walls, floors... The uses are endless. A couple of clicks or scribbles with the healing brush tool and voila! your brilliant photo is now even more fabulous. The spot healing brush has saved the day, er, photo, many times for me.

Unfortunately, my real skin is not so easily fixed. My real skin (as opposed to my blemish-free digital skin) is driving me nuts! It's just so bad right now. I'm tempted to go to my doctor and ask for antibiotics because I know that works for me. I took Erythromycin for about seven months before I was pregnant with Georgia and my skin had never been better. I just figured I'd quit for pregnancy and breastfeeding. I can hardly stand it though. I was actually quite delighted when my doctor prescribed Erythromycin for my pneumonia in August. Sure enough, my face was almost completely clear in just two weeks on antibiotics. But then they were gone. ***sigh***

On the subject of a#%e treatments (oh, how I hate that four-letter word!), I tried Proactiv a few years ago, but it didn't work for me. I sent it back and got a complete refund. I would never try Accutane or anything that causes birth defects. Never. Ever. I don't care about my skin that much. Pregnancy was good for my skin -- well, the second and third trimesters, not the first -- but I'm not willing to go there again!

Sheesh, it's kind of embarassing talking about my skin like this. Oh well, I guess it's appropriate on my blog -- it's me, exposed.

Movies based on reality

I've been thinking about the movie United 93 that opened today. There was a lot of talk about it on the radio this morning. It's supposed to be very well done, but I'm not sure I want to see it--not anytime soon anyway. I think it would affect me pretty deeply. I actually got a little choked up just listening to John Gormley (local radio personality) talking about it (the flight, the circumstances, the people) today.

The only way I really cope with movies of tragic or disturbing content is to keep reminding myself that it isn't real, but of course, that's not gonna work with United 93. I'm sure I'd keep thinking about it and replaying it in my mind, in spite of myself, for a long time after seeing it. Monster affected me that way and it's based on a true story too. There's also a tragic scene in Walk the Line that kept sneaking into my thoughts for quite awhile after I saw that movie. I must say though that both of those movies were excellent. In fact, I'd like to see Walk the Line again and it's extremely rare for me to want to watch a movie more than once.

Five posts in one

I won an auction on eBay for the first time this evening. (I feel so 21st century now!) I bought a set of 29 used books called Help Me Be Good by Joy Berry. The last time we were at Public Health, Sophia picked up a book called "Being Selfish" and asked me to read to her. I thought it was a great way to teach her about that subject, so decided to track down a set. The series covers a myriad of behaviours (such as disobeying, being a bad sport, whining, tattling...) that all children need to learn about sooner or later. Looking forward to getting these books. We have a few issues to tackle.
***
I watched some of the Academy Awards this evening. It's the only award show I ever watch (or half watch). I don't see many movies, so I like to see what's nominated and then try to watch some of those movies over the following year. Not surprisingly, I haven't yet seen any of the movies nominated this year. And looking back at last year's nominees, the only ones I've seen are Million Dollar Baby, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Incredibles, Shark Tale, Shrek 2, The Polar Express, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. There are several I still want to see, so I'm a little behind.
***
I really miss having the Olympics on TV. Other than a few shows on the Food Network, there's very little I like to watch (probably because I'm just really out-of-touch with what's on, plus we don't have all of the channels upstairs). On the upside though, I've read an entire book while nursing Georgia since Monday: I'm Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown. Neil gave it to me for Christmas. Gotta love Alton. Neil and I are both fans of his show, Good Eats. He's also on Iron Chef America, another show we both like to watch.
***
Neil and Sophia completed their solar system project yesterday. It's from the Childcraft book, The Universe, which we've been reading to Sophia at bedtime for the past week. Neil crafted the mobile structure, I cut the circles from bristol board, and Sophia coloured the planets and the sun. It's now hanging in a corner of her room. Sophia loves stuff like this and we think it's great! I've been enjoying reading about the universe too. It's so completely mindboggling and fascinating! Listen to Read this: "They believe there are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Each galaxy may hold billions of stars...The Milky Way is made up of billions of stars that are trillions of kilometres apart." How about that to put things into perspective?
***
Back to our little speck of the universe... We took the girls to a new indoor playground called It's a Blast today. It cost a small fortune, but the kids definitely had a blast. We won't be doing that very often, but it was a good reward for the girls getting 20+ magnets on their 'responsibility charts'. We've been using these wooden Melissa & Doug charts since about mid-January and the girls have earned more magnets each week since we started. It really seems to work as an incentive. Their goals right now are to share, brush/floss teeth (an automatic seven per week because it's not optional), get ready for bed (quickly and cooperatively), bath (without crying and complaining), say please and thank you (without being prompted), help mom, and put toys away. They have to do some of them pretty well all day to earn a magnet. A couple of weeks ago, we took them to Dairy Queen for supper when they achieved 15 magnets in one week. They'll have to earn 30 in a week to earn the next big reward. (Yes, we have one for Georgia too.)

Weekend highlights

I really enjoyed this weekend. Three free days. My favourite kind. Here are a few of my highlights:

• Being together (all four of us) the entire weekend (unless you count the three hours Neil was glued to the Rider game on TV in the basement, but I can live with that).
• Having supper at Poverino's on Friday evening. The girls had ants in their pants as usual, but nothing too serious. My pizza was delicious!
• Getting my glasses back from being repaired. They're as good as new and I like them so much better than my old old pair.
• Organizing my digital photos, saving them all on CDs, then deleting more than half a gig from my hard drive. Mission accomplished!
• Seeing the girls have so much fun with our "swimming pool".
• Feeling really well and not very tired all weekend. (Maybe a little too well; see, I have to worry about something...I cannot wait for my appointment tomorrow!)
• Buying 20 x 56 L bags of pine bark mulch for a total of $77, taxes included. Superstore. Some of the bags were discounted because they had holes in them.
• Taking the girls to see the Imax movie "Bugs!" They both enjoyed it very much, except Sophia was a little upset when the praying mantis ate the butterfly near the end.
• Eating Grilled Yams (or are they sweet potatoes? I have a book that's confusing me). Neil made them for me (he even ate some), and they were heavenly!
• Sophia falling asleep just as I finished singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her this evening. I didn't fall asleep first!

A couple of other things I don't consider highlights:

• Madeline did pretty well not wearing Pull-Ups but had a few accidents--no big deal--mostly in the backyard when she was naked or wearing her swimming suit (clean up was easy!), but this afternoon when I wanted to take off her Pull-Up (she wore one to go to the movie), she absolutely refused to take it off. I let it go. I don't want to push too hard because I know that can backfire.
• We bought a package of Goodnights (Pull-Ups for bigger kids) for Sophia today. When I saw them in the store and thought about how Sophia's sheets were in the wash again, I just couldn't help myself. We've been washing her sheets at least two or three times a week for the past couple of months. Earlier this week, she went to the bathroom at 8:00 and 11:00 pm, and still wet the bed before morning, so I don't know what else to do. Right now, I'm just tired of dealing with it. Sophia was actually happy to wear these Goodnights because they have bugs all over them. I'll still take her to the bathroom before I go to bed.
• I found slugs in the back yard today. Yuck! I hadn't seen any for at least a couple of years (we had a terrible infestation about four years ago, I think). I'm not surprised though considering how moist it has been. Sophia just had to hold some and was tickled pink! That slime is hard to get off too. I had to scrub her hands to remove it. Ew.