according.to.kim

11 things to mark 11 years

1. I was lucky to see the lunar eclipse this morning. I didn't know about it until that moment.
2. I'm looking forward to Sophia's volleyball provincials in Saskatoon later this month. So glad to have a sub for papers lined up already.
3. The girls are super excited about the Easter bunny coming tonight.
4. A few days ago Facebook asked me if I wanted to publish a page I created 2 years ago. If not, I would lose the name/address. So I published it: Food Scraps.
5. Neil and I are both planning to play in the parents vs. U14 Inferno for Sophia's ringette wind-up 3 weeks from today.
6. Can't wait to get my hair cut on Tuesday. It's much too long!
7. I've been working on the books for Grocery Freedom. About 10 hours so far and I estimate another 30-40 hours before I can work on our taxes. Ugggh.
8. I went through a long-neglected box of papers today. Because I had to. I wish it was the only one.
9. Last weekend, I listened to Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up on Hoopla (borrowed using my library card!). I am SO doing this. As soon as our taxes are done.
10. Just 2 more weeks of driving the ring road to work! Which reminds me, I need to get a bus pass.
11. This blog was born 11 years ago today. I was hoping to post more often this year.

Daily pic: 30 Apr 14

A pretty sunrise is always uplifting for me. :) (CY365 prompt) 

Crazy day: papers (N/K), supervision at PSS (N), training course all day (K), track try-outs before school (S/M), school (S/M/G), Grocery Freedom run (N), Kingdom Kids captains' practice (M), city badminton tournament (S), confirmation class (all), dance class (M).

Nine years of blogging

To mark the occasion, I present...

A Venn diagram of this season (or decade) of my life - which I've come to realize, accept, and even embrace (I may as well!):

And, nine things I would be finished right now if I had a magic wand:

1. February photos
2. February roundup
3. March photos
4. March roundup
5. Half-finished 2012 Yearbook (scrapbook)
6. Blurb book of 2012 blog posts
7. Snow removed from our yard (flood prevention)
8. Clean and tidy basement
9. Clean and tidy main floor

Trying not to let these things weigh me down!

Although ringette season has ended, I'm neck deep in homework for my 8-week Dale Carnegie Course on Effective Communications and Human Relations (which involves practicing and reading three books and other materials).

One day at a time...

Where did February go?

• 25 ringette games - S/M
• 2 ringette practices - S/M
• 3 ringette tournaments - S/M/all
• 12 Irish dance classes - S/M/G
• 3 music classes - G/K
• 20 piano practices - G/K (up to 10 minutes each)
• 12 work days - K
• 12 school days - S/M/G
• 12 lunch supervision days - N
• 48 lunches packed - N
• 2 after-school improv meets - S
• 21 days of paper delivery - N/K
• 2 appointments - girls/N
• 1 sick day - K
• 4 weeks of almost-daily coursework - K (online nutrition class)
• 28 replies to OhLife emails - K
• 1 digital Project Life layout - K
• plus... LIFE in general!

...which may explain why this is my only blog post in February. (I just couldn't let a whole calendar month pass by without a single post!)

Here's my one layout. More to come, I hope!

Supplies: Project Life Clementine Edition; Pockets No. 3: The Basics by Valorie Wibbens; Pagekraft Papers by One Little Bird

Revisiting my 2012 plans

Last January, I posted My plans for 2012. How did I do?

Daily:

1. Reply to email from OhLife.com - YES (890 entries now); this feeds my monthly roundups - couldn't do them without doing this

Weekly:

1. Clear collection basket (mail, school papers, receipts, etc.) - Yes&No; I did pretty well the 1st half of the year; not so well after that
2. Clean up basement - clean/purge/organize one stack, box, or shelf per week - didn't do 1/week, but did accomplish a major overhaul over weekends in August and September, so YES, but not finished
3. Clean up email inbox and computer files - 30 minutes per week (in addition to regular reading, replying, and filing of new messages) - Yes&No; did well for part of the year, but email is now sitting around 150 (was over 250 two days ago) and my computer desktop is a mess

Monthly:

1. Back up computer to EHD (in addition to auto backups) - YES
2. Maintain photo organization (choose best, upload, print, share) - YES, but the basement overhaul took priority for awhile and then catching up on photos was difficult
3. Write and post roundup on my blog - YES
4. Do a one-on-one activity with each of my girls - YES
5. Complete 6 layouts - NO; I did 18 layouts in total
6. Use at least 1 Simple Scrapper template - Yes&No; I used a couple
7. Take an informal family photo - YES

Other:

1. Create and promote BSS Bundle #2 (January)- YES
2. Pare down clothing for all five of us (February) - YES
3. Purge and reorganize kitchen (February) - YES
4. Finish taking weekly photos for Picture Inspiration - YES
5. Complete unfinished layouts (5) - Yes&No; some are finished
6. Participate in Picture Black & White (30 photos; May & June) - YES
7. Clear 2004-2006 storage binders (distribute photos to category files, mini albums, photo albums, and cold storage) - NO
8. Create Photos I Love album - NO

I think I did pretty well: 12 YES, 3 NO, and 4 Yes&No (partial success) -- about 75%. That's fine; I used the other 25% for accomplishments such as keeping our family calendar up to date, doing yard work, learning set dancing, learning about food, and doing my December Daily photo project! In any case, looking back at my plans for 2012 helps me see what works for me and what doesn't.

What about 2013? I'm working on setting goals for this year, but I'm not finished yet. This month has been crazy!

20/12/12

This happens every day about 5:15 am, except Sundays (and stat holidays). It wasn't much fun the first week when we didn't know the ropes, but now it's quick and easy to deliver the Leader-Post. (We started October 31.) I quite like doing it, actually! (Which is rather surprising because I would not go for a daily walk otherwise!) We don't even need our address lists any more. Neil and I split the route -- 24 for him and 22 for me, plus 2 more that we drop off on our way home. It only takes about 20-25 minutes for the actual walking delivery part -- and about the same amount of time to get up, get dressed, count the papers, fill our bags, gear up (iPods are essential), and get to our starting point.

Five weeks?!

It's been five weeks since I've posted here! I'm pretty sure this has been my longest break, by far, in the 8.5 years I've been blogging. In that time, I've been extremely preoccupied with our basement and getting rid of stuff, we went on a week-long road trip, and the girls have started school and all activities except ringette. The good news is: I have July's roundup and half of August's written (coming soon to the blog - I hope). The bad news is: I haven't looked at photos from July or August -- and I don't see a whole lotta spare time in my future. Well, I must squeeze it in somehow! While I'm still committed to our basement projects, I absolutely cannot start October with three months of unprocessed photos. Nope; gotta get it done.

What can I say?

We're deep in the throes of cleaning our overstuffed basement. And we just decided on Monday to have a yard sale this Saturday. So much to do before (and after) the sale! Good thing I'm off tomorrow. I'll be preparing for the sale tonight, too, but first, I wanted to pop in and write something; otherwise, there may be no blog post at all this month.

We're planning to sell children's clothing at our sale, which is something we've never done before. Up to now, we've given everything (up to size 5) away. But the massive pile of clothes (and shoes) we have to get rid of right now is just too much to handle the same way we have in the past. (Plus, we could use the money for school supplies.) We're only selling for six hours, and I'm sure we'll have lots of clothes left to send to Texas.

I don't know when I'll be able to do my monthly photo tasks or roundup for July, and this bothers me! Oh, how I loathe getting behind on these things. But I'm determined to get our house in order before ringette starts (October). (My hope was to do it before school starts, but I can see there's more to do than we have time for before September 4.) We've made some good progress and we can't stop now. Moving is not an option and continuing to live in this mess is not an option, either!

I'm still learning about food during the times when I'm not with other people or working (at work or at home): podcasts while driving; videos during work breaks; reading for a few minutes before bed. I've:

• finished reading Cure Tooth Decay
• listened to a couple more Dishing Up Nutrition podcasts:
  • May 19: Wheat Belly with Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly
  • June 2: Osteoporosis
• watched an inspiring video called Donna's Story on Cultured Food Life
• listened to the first hour (so far) of an Interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome (which my mom has read) (see also: Doctor-Natasha.com)

Aside from simply being interested in nutrition (which I've always been; although I didn't always have correct information), I've been fascinated, astonished, and saddened by what I've been learning lately. We now have access to "new" (in some cases, old, but forgotten) information about food's enormous impact on our health, and this information should be turning our world upside down, but I'm afraid mass acceptance is still a long way off.

I'll be reading Wheat Belly soon. Thanks to Neil for buying it for me at Costco today, unrequested, even though I know he has some reservations about me reading it. :) But I don't need to read the entire book to start making a change. All it took was one 42-minute radio show (see link above) to make me seriously consider giving up wheat -- with the possible exceptions of homemade pie (rare treat), homemade turkey dressing (rare treat), and spelt bread* (occasionally) -- and it's not even an issue of weight for me; the other health implications are enough.

*I think the jury is out on spelt; I can't be sure it's not as bad as modern wheat, but I'd like to keep it as an option for my family -- at least as another delivery vehicle for butter. Lucky for us, our friends at Orange Boot Bakery make an excellent 100% spelt bread (bonus: it's fermented/sourdough).

P.S. And, of course, we've been taking in as much of the Olympics as we can! These days are full.

2012 goals update

In January, I posted My plans for 2012. I'm keeping track of my progress using a spreadsheet in Google Documents. I enjoy my rainbow of colours!

Here's how I'm doing so far...

Daily:

1. Reply to email from OhLife.com -> CHECK. I'm finally in the habit of writing on a daily basis. Before this, I would sometimes let it go up to four days and then it was dreadful trying to remember that far back. Even two days was challenging. Daily is so much better!

Weekly:

1. Clear collection basket (mail, school papers, receipts, etc.) every weekend -> CHECK. I've done this for 14 weeks straight now, and I'm completely hooked on getting it done weekly. It's so much easier to tackle a small amount. I often wonder why I didn't do this before; I always knew I should, but couldn't make myself do it and then the pile would grow to a daunting 5 or 6-hour task. Never again! (Note: I've paid our bills on a weekly basis for years; these weren't neglected like the other papers.)
2. Clean up basement - clean/purge/organize one stack, box, or shelf per week -> NOT EVEN CLOSE. I've only done this twice in three months. Perhaps it's partly because I've been more focused on my email inbox, but I think it's also because I don't see much progress each time; it's all just the tip of the iceburg. And there's no immediate payoff like I have with the collection basket (i.e., doing it consistently means each session is brief). I'll just have to keep trying with this one. Or, change my plan to 4-hour sessions, so I can see some real progress each time. That might be more rewarding.
3. Clean up email inbox and computer files - 30 minutes per week -> CHECK. On April 20, I finished clearing my inbox from well over 800* messages to ZERO!!! (Plus, all new messages that arrived over the past three months; more than 2000 in my estimate.) And I didn't just sweep the old ones into an archive folder as recommended by Revive Your Inbox -- a free course I started when I was already down to about 50 messages. Nope; I did it the hard way. I dealt with each one (though some were tossed in batches) and I'm glad I did. This way, I know I haven't missed anything I needed or wanted to do, and most messages are deleted rather than sitting in a folder. Although I didn't follow that one instruction (because it was too late for me), I do recommend this course. The information is very useful and it will definitely help me stay in control of my email going forward.
   
   *I have to explain this number. The last time I emptied my inbox was in September 2010. The time between then and January 2012 is exactly the time I was developing and running Bite-sized Scrapbooking. BSS generated a lot of email and I always stayed on top of those messages, but then I was tapped when it came to the rest of my inbox. I couldn't keep up. Now, I have more free time and less email burn-out.

Monthly:

1. Back up computer to EHD (in addition to automatic Time Machine backups) -> CHECK. I've done this within the first week of each month this year.
2. Maintain photo organization (choose best, upload, print, share) -> CHECK. I was doing this consistently before, but now I'm trying to get it done within the first week so I can focus more on scrapbooking during the rest of the month.
3. Write and post roundup on my blog. -> CHECK. Although it's a bit time consuming, I'm very glad to be recording these details of our life. I'm trying to do this within the first week of each month, as well.
4. Do one-on-one activity with each of my girls -> CHECK. I love these dates with my girls, and I know they do, too. I highly recommed this!
5. Complete 6 layouts inspired by Twelve with Stacy Julian at BPC -> NOT QUITE. I made 1 in January, 3 in February, 6 in March, and only 2 so far in April; I'm not sure I'll get to six this month. While I haven't met my goals, I'm happy to have 12 layouts done! Plus, I have no shortage of layout ideas. I think I need to find a better time of day for scrapping. I used to be able to scrap late in the evening, but now I'm too tired at that time. Perhaps now that my inbox is clear, I could do something scrappy first thing in the morning.
6. Use at least one Simple Scrapper template in creating the layouts mentioned above -> NOT QUITE. I've only used one so far in 2012. I was thinking I'd use them as digital templates, but I should try using them as sketches instead. This year, I've been doing all types of layouts -- all digital, all paper, and hybrid -- and I'm finding that all digital is my least favourite. I don't mind the end result, but I don't enjoy the process as much. I like cutting and glueing, for real. :)
7. Take an informal family photo (5x12 - based on Tara Whitney's six-people-twelve-times project) -> CHECK. So far, so good. This takes a bit of planning and wrangling, and the photos aren't perfect, but I'm so happy to have them!

Other:

1. Create and promote BSS Bundle #2 (January) -> CHECK.
2. Pare down clothing for all five of us (February) -> NOT QUITE. We didn't tackle Neil's clothes, but I'll let it go for now. What we did do was a huge accomplishment!
3. Purge and reorganize kitchen (February) -> CHECK.
4. Finish taking weekly photos for Picture Inspiration with Tracey Clark at BPC (ends mid-February) -> CHECK.
5. Complete unfinished layouts (5) by the end of March -> NOT QUITE. I finished a couple of them.
6. Participate in Picture Black & White with Tracey Clark at BPC (30 photos in May and June) -> COMING SOON!
7. Clear 2004-2006 storage binders (distribute photos to category files, mini albums, photo albums, and cold storage) -> NOT YET. And I don't see this happening for quite some time. Perhaps I can look at these in the summer and/or fall.
8. Create Photos I Love album (year-long project in BPC class, Twelve) -> NOPE. I'm letting this one go. I would rather make other layouts right now, and it's challenging enough to get those done. I do want to create a Photos I Love album someday, but it won't be based on choosing a photo from each month.

Overall, I think I'm doing pretty well. The next two months will likely challenge my goals even further as I participate in Picture Black & White. At least I'll be blogging more often!

10 random thoughts & updates

Ringette ended on March 25 for both Sophia and Madeline. Both girls enjoyed the season even though their teams were at the bottom of the standings (in both divisions, Petite and Novice). Now they're looking forward to wind-ups with their teams. Madeline's team is going to make bath products at Bath Goddess, while Sophia's team is going to use the rock-climbing wall at the Science Centre. We parents enjoy ringette, too, so we weren't particularily anxious for the season to end, but will appreciate the free time on our calendar!

Sophia started playing badminton this week. Both Neil and I liked badminton very much when we were young.

The girls brought their report cards home on Tuesday. They're all doing very well. (Sophia just needs to put a little more work into long division. I found this game for her to practice, and she likes it: Snork's Long Division.)

I've been doing some scrapbooking. Hooray! This morning, I completed my ninth layout of 2012 (4 digital and 5 paper). Now I need to produce another one by Saturday night to reach my goal of six layouts in March.

I'm planning to file our income taxes tomorrow, start to finish. I hope I can do it in under 5 hours. I know it's taken longer in the past, but I'm counting on TurboTax to have saved a bunch of my data from last year.

I can't believe we have NO snow left at the end of March. At this time last year -- after a winter of unusually high snowfall -- we still had a huge amount of snow (see a photo from March 29, 2011). I like this year much better!

I registered all three girls for the QCM Mini Marathon in September. Madeline and I have already walked the 3 km route, and we're planning to walk it as a family on a weekly basis over the next five months.

I registered all three girls for swimming lessons at the university during the last two weeks of July. They'll be in levels 1, 4, and 6.

My current Irish set-dancing class concludes this Saturday, March 31. I was able to attend seven of the eight classes. I really enjoy it and have decided to participate in the next 8-week session -- Thursday evenings beginning April 12 at the Polish Club, I think. Who would like to join me?! (I have also agreed to do some set-dancing on stage at Mosaic!)

I'm fascinated by these genealogy indexing projects. I had no idea that anyone could help index data from old records. Digital images of the 1940 U.S. Census will be released to the public on April 2, 2012. Cool!

PI 47/52: Outside looking in

Taken last Sunday (Jan 15). It was 4:30 pm, I was losing daylight fast, and just wanted to get "something" for this prompt. I went outside to look in at my girls (through the front window) and ended up with a picture I LOVE. :)

Our days over the past week have been FULL. Full of various commitments and fun stuff; too full for blogging -- or any other hobby. But I'm still recording some details on a daily basis and I'll share highlights in my monthly roundup. I'm so glad to have that plan in place, as I can't do more than that these days. Okay, off to bed now. Another full week ahead!

My plans for 2012

This month, I've been doing a great deal of preparing, planning, cleaning, and catching up. I needed to do these things before I could mentally dive into 2012. Now I'm ready. And I have big plans for this year!

Here are my plans for 2012. Some are new, some are things I'll continue doing, and some are things I plan to do more consistently. I don't think I've created such a detailed list before, but this feels right for me, right now. I tried to be realistic, but also push myself to accomplish some things I really want to do -- such as scrapbooking, cleaning, reorganizing, and staying on top of things.

Daily:

1. Reply to email from OhLife.com (continue; I have over 500 entries so far)

Weekly:

1. Clear collection basket (mail, school papers, receipts, etc.) every weekend (more often and more consistent than before)
2. Clean up basement - clean/purge/organize one stack, box, or shelf per week
3. Clean up email inbox and computer files - 30 minutes per week (in addition to regular reading, replying, and filing of new messages)

Monthly:

1. Back up computer to EHD (in addition to automatic Time Machine backups) (more often and more consistent than before)
2. Maintain photo organization (choose best, upload, print, share) (continue; I'm up-to-date with this task)
3. Write and post roundup on my blog.
4. Do one-on-one activity with each of my girls (for their birthday this month, they each received "12 Activities with Mom in 2012;" these are scheduled on the calendar on their birthday day, or close to it)
5. Complete 6 layouts inspired by Twelve with Stacy Julian at BPC (this is only half of the class assignments, but still a big stretch for me)*
6. Use at least one Simple Scrapper template in creating the layouts mentioned above (I receive new templates each month as part of my premium membership at SimpleScrapper.com)**
7. Take an informal family photo (5x12 - based on Tara Whitney's six-people-twelve-times project)

Other:

1. Create and promote BSS Bundle #2 (January)
2. Pare down clothing for all five of us (February)***
3. Purge and reorganize kitchen (February)****
4. Finish taking weekly photos for Picture Inspiration with Tracey Clark at BPC (ends mid-February)
5. Complete unfinished layouts (5) (by the end of March)
6. Participate in Picture Black & White with Tracey Clark at BPC (daily photos in April)
7. Clear 2004-2006 storage binders (distribute photos to category files, mini albums, photo albums, and cold storage) (May-November? may be added to weekly list)
8. Create Photos I Love album (year-long project in BPC class, Twelve; may be added to monthly list)

*I'm aiming for 3 layouts in January since I haven't started yet, and my schedule is very full for the next two weeks.
**Affiliate link. I really enjoy the content Jennifer delivers every month as well as the private community on Facebook. Check it out!
***I've already donated about 1/3 of my own clothing this year.
****I'm taking a week off work in February.

It know it won't be easy for me to stay on top of this list, but I also know I'll be very happy if I can get these things done! I've set up a couple of tools to help me stay on track with my plans: Google Calendar and a spreadsheet in Google Docs. I may also look at Mindbloom as a way to stay motivated for certain projects. (It looks cool!)

PI 42/52: The picture within

This picture came to mind when I received last week's prompt. I took it in 2006 at my paternal grandmother's apartment. The baby in the framed picture is me, photographed by my uncle in 1971. Grandma gave this picture to me when we visited in 2010. It now sits in my scrapbooking area.

I think my youngest daughter (soon-to-be 6) resembles my maternal grandmother, so I had her pose with a picture of Grandma, taken when she was about 2 or 3 years old. I almost managed to capture the same expression. After this, Georgia gave me some great smiles to photograph, but I thought this worked better with the picture she was holding.

I've had this blog post in draft for a week, but couldn't find time to finish it. The past week was a doozy -- perhaps my least favourite week of 2011. Glad it's behind me!

• Sunday evening, Georgia came down with a terrible stomach bug -- the worst I've ever seen in any of my children. I was up with her for much of the night. She stayed home from school for two days. I stayed home from work Monday morning so I could get some sleep.
• Monday evening, I went shopping for specific-coloured clothing for the girls to wear in their Christmas concert (deep purple for Sophia; dark green for Madeline -- not easy to find!). Thankfully, we were able to borrow some items from my niece, as well. Of course, I wish I had dealt with this sooner. #notetoself
• Tuesday, I came down with the dreadful stomach bug and had to leave work about 10:30 am. I went back to work Wednesday afternoon, worked all day Thursday, then had a relapse Thursday evening -- while my children were performing in their school Christmas concert, of all times. I felt increasingly ill through the 2-hour concert, but managed to stay seated on a wish and a prayer. The ginger Gravol I took may have helped, too. We arrived home just in the nick of time.
• While I was ill at home Tuesday evening, Neil took Sophia and Madeline to their back-to-back ringette practices (same location, luckily). Neil also had to help on ice for Madeline's practice. Thankfully, Georgia was a very good girl at home while I slept on and off.
• On Wednesday (when I was feeling perfectly fine), I attended a work appreciation event that included supper, drinks, and a Pats hockey game at the Brandt Centre. I stayed for the whole game as it was a close one. Unfortunately, the game ended with an overtime goal for the other team (Kelowna). In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have gone. Why have an event like this on December 14? Yeesh.
• After I got home from the Pats game, and after reading to the girls, I decided to go to Walmart. Madeline was tremendously upset over the pants and dress options we had given her for the Christmas concert, so I went to get her some black pants. I should really know better than to insist she wear something she hates; she's always been very particular. I didn't get home until after 11:30 pm, but I made Madeline VERY happy.
• Thursday morning, I noticed the oil light was flickering intermittently on the van. When I got to work, there was a burning smell. I checked the oil and there was NONE! So I had the van towed to Toyota (glad to have my CAA membership!) and hoped for the best. Toyota fixed it the next day (even though they were "booking into next week") and there was no engine damage. We just had to replace a sensor that had failed and released all of the oil. Phew! Close call.
• My work group (Customer Self Serve) had a great potluck lunch on Thursday. Neil made Bison Short Rib Stew for me to take (his own recipe; I'll post it sometime). He made it Wednesday evening and then I re-heated it in a crock pot at work on Thursday morning. I'm very lucky Neil will prepare food for me!
• The girls' Christmas concert was delightful (of course!). It was held at the Orr Centre, a fantastic venue with theatre seating. The school's music teacher always does an amazing job of planning the entire concert which only happens once every three years (this is just our second one in six years at the school). I'm very glad we can get a DVD of this year's concert. I'll certainly enjoy it more the next time I see it!
• Friday, after working almost all day (I slept an extra 90 minutes to recover from my second round of illness) and supper at home, we all went to the Cornwall Centre so the girls could get Christmas gifts for each other. They had been asking to go for weeks. We came out with five out of six gifts purchased. I had set their budget at $6 per gift, but quickly realized there's very little you can buy for less than $6 (at Claire's, anyway). I let them spend $10 per gift. Sophia also got three out of four Secret Santa gifts for one of her classmates.
• Among numerous household chores, Saturday included Sophia's piano lesson and ringette practice (Neil took her to both), and Madeline's ringette game (which we all attended; as well as my Mom). We also managed to get started on gift wrapping (just the girls' gifts to each other). The girls were wondering if we'd ever have gifts under our tree. They feel better now.
• Today was quite full with lots of dishes, Sophia baking muffins, Madeline's dance class, lots of Christmas shopping (Neil was armed with a list and his efforts brought us into the range of 3/4 complete. Yay!), and Sophia's piano recital at 4:30 pm. It's been a major struggle trying to get Sophia to practice piano this fall (she won't return after this year). Thankfully, she decided a couple days ago that she didn't want to mess up her recital song so she practiced quite a bit yesterday and today, and succeeded in playing Jingle Bells very nicely at the recital. :)

And Picture the Holidays? I've missed six days now. Momentum. Lost. :( I will try to start again tomorrow (I was enjoying it!), but I won't even try to do the missed prompts until I'm off work. Just four more work days (and much to do in the evenings) and then I have 11 days off! Oh, how I need it.

PI 39/52: Leaving textures

For last week's prompt, I'm glad I was able to step out and take some pictures while the sun was shining. It makes all the difference in a picture like this.

No posts for 10 days. Yeesh. It just wasn't possible, though. We've been extra busy and I've been sleeping more thanks to a very nasty cold. Here's a brief recap of the non-ordinary happenings over the past week and a half.

• Georgia went to a friend's birthday party at the Science Centre where they watched Cinderella. She wore Madeline's fancy princess dress from Mexico.
• Sophia went to Laser Quest and Boston Pizza with her ringette team. Neil, Madeline, and I also went to BP to visit with other parents (M sat with the team).
• Sophia scored a hat trick in one of her ringette games. She has a great shot and has scored every time she's played forward this year (all but the first two games).
• Sophia enjoyed going to Robin Hood at The Globe Theatre with her school class.
• Madeline's ringette team earned their first win of the season (their 8th game). They were very excited. Madeline and Georgia's teachers came to this game.
• We all went to the CCA Finals Rodeo. Always fun to watch the girls have a new experience. Barrel racing and dogs herding sheep were the highlights for us.
• I took the van to Toyota to get the back door handle fixed. Rather essential for us. And not cheap. Boo.
• Madeline enjoyed spending an entire school day at Agribition with her school class.
• Neil and I attended parent-teacher meetings with all three teachers. (The girls are doing well.)
• We all went to Sophia's ringette tournament in Brandon. We stayed at the brand new Best Western which was nice. The Ice Angelz won 2 of their 3 games (only defeated by Chaos, our niece's team!). In the second game (vs. Winnipeg), Sophia was voted Player of the Game by the opposing team's coaches. She received a nice medal for her efforts. It was very exciting for her and a proud moment for us parents.

First half of November

I haven't had time to blog very much this month, so I took everything I sent to Ohlife.com for the first 15 days of November and created this Wordle. I think it sums up the past couple of weeks pretty well.

Halloween festivities + Nov 1

October 29: This year's Halloween festivities included a party at Madeline's friend Lauren's farm on Saturday night. (The same farm where the girls and I attended a Halloween party last year.) All three girls were invited, so after a bottle drive for Sophia's ringette team, the home Rider game (Neil attended), Sophia's ringette practice, and Madeline's ringette game (Madeline is playing very well!), we all returned to our house briefly so the girls could put on costumes for the party. (I should mention that Georgia and Dash were in Laurel and Bronwyn's care for the whole afternoon.) Sophia dressed as a fashionable shadow (more on that later), Madeline as a gypsy (a costume from my childhood), and Georgia as a cowgirl (pink hat, plaid shirt, jeans, boots, and a rope). Arriving about 7:30, we had missed most of the party, but we stayed for a couple of hours and had a good time.

October 30: Sunday evening, Neil spent a few hours carving pumpkins with some help from the girls. We were lucky to get three big pumpkins for free this year. They were grown by a family friend at Avonlea. Meanwhile, I washed and cut fruit for Madeline's classroom Halloween party, and Sophia (with a little help from me) made cookies for her class: Monster's Toes. The recipe was on the back of the Maynard's candy box. I don't think they're great tasting cookies, but they did look neat and Sophia enjoyed making them and sharing them with her class.

October 31: The girls' school is one of very few that still allow costumes at school, so they had their annual costume parade at 1:00 pm. I'm glad Neil and Georgia were able to go and take some pictures as I wasn't able to go this year. Madeline dressed as a veterinarian. She wore a very old (and much too large) lab coat, her real stethoscope, and carried some stuffed animals that she had bandaged up.

The girls had a great evening of trick or treating. They were out for about 90 minutes and brought home a ridiculous amount of candy, of course. As usual, Neil stayed home to hand out treats (and try to keep Dash calm), while I went out with the girls. Sophia's friend, Meghan, and Madeline's friend, Mattea, joined us. Mattea's dad also supervised with me. The weather was great -- about 4 or 5 C, and best of all, no snow! For trick or treating, Madeline dressed as a skeleton pirate (a great costume I purchased on discount at The Children's Place several years ago). The girls ran from house to house, with the older two and Georgia in the lead (G had no problem keeping up with Sophia and Meghan, even with cowboy boots on!), and Madeline and Mattea trailing by one or two houses.

Madeline only decided to be a pirate about an hour before trick or treating. Mostly, she had wanted to be a zombie ringette player this year, but we weren't in favour of her wearing her ringette equipment for Halloween (and, besides, she IS a ringette player). Georgia had wanted to be a vampire until Saturday when she came up with the cowgirl idea. Sophia, too, had had some costume plan changes. Originally, she wanted to be a glass of water but we didn't do anything about it soon enough. On Tuesday, I asked her to think of a plan B. After some thought and negotiating, she agreed to be Cleopatra using a costume I made years ago. We bought a black wig for her to wear with it. A couple days later, she came up with the idea of a fashionable shadow which I thought was cute and clever. She wore all black clothes, black wig, black cap, and carried a black cat (Webkinz) in a black purse.

November 1: The kids had no school today, and Neil had another four children in his care (Bronwyn, Ainsley, Henry, and Jimmy). After Jimmy went home mid-afternoon, Neil took the remaining kids to the Science Centre to see the Titanic Exhibit. (He can't transport more than 6.) Our girls had already been there but they wanted to see it again. Our family membership for the Science Centre really helps!

This evening, Neil and Madeline took Georgia to her dance class, while I took Sophia to her ringette game. Sophia scored the first goal and had a nice assist for her team, but they lost 10-5 (vs BP White). She was extra happy tonight because I finally broke down and bought her ringette pants on the weekend. She was the only one left on her team wearing hockey pants and socks (which were full of holes), so I couldn't hold out any longer. Immediately after the game, Neil and all three girls went to the Pats game because they received four free tickets today. And I was able to go home alone, which is what made this blog post possible!

PI 35/52: Oh my gourd!

This week, Tracey challenged us to feature the pumpkin in a new light or create a story. Our pumpkins wanted to play. :)

I seem to be having a problem getting any blogging done! Last week and weekend were full with a 5-day work week and several activities -- three ringette practices, three ringette games, and four dance classes since I last wrote. Neil also took the girls to see a Rams game on Saturday night.

P.S. Sunday morning, I machine-sewed name patches on four ringette jerseys and it went amazingly well! Both Sophia and Madeline had games in the afternoon.

PI 34/52: Hand-held

Since we're having hard frosts night after night now, Sophia was collecting all of the remaining tomatoes from their vines (so we won't have to cover the plants with sheets any longer). I love it when I can capture something real (not staged) for the weekly prompt.

What else is happening around here these days?

• Sophia and Madeline's ringette evaluations ended last week and the season started on Saturday with two practices, two parent meetings, and two very different coaches. M's coach (her friend's dad) suggested attending one out-of-town tourney in Saskatoon, and S's coach is insisting on two out-of-province tourneys and at least one more in province. Egad.
• Sophia prepared (with help from her parents) a good little report on the Red Baron -- in French. Thank goodness for Google Translate.
• Sophia is enjoying Pippi Longstocking. She was really struggling to find something she wanted to read after finishing Harry Potter several weeks ago, so Neil went looking for something in our basement a couple days ago, and emerged with a yellowed, musty-smelling Pippi Longstocking book (it was mine) -- with a pellet lodged in the pages! Rob?
• Sophia is into making eggs with the microwave egg cooker she received at school. Always with cheddar cheese mixed in and sometimes ham, too. Great snack!
• Madeline has been whipping up some excellent fruit smoothies. I love that the girls are interested in making food for themselves. (Too bad they're not so keen on the clean up.)
• The girls have been playing on the iPad: Fruit Ninja, Zombie Farm, Zombie Life, Pac-Man, Angry Birds, My Horse, Cut the Rope, Pictureka, StickWars, Yummy Burger, RacePenguin, Boggle, GarageBand, Drawing Pad, My Sketch, WEcam, and WaterMyPhoto. (Neil also plays Boggle and Angry Birds.)
• Sophia and I played a game of Scrabble on the iPad that stretched over several different times and places (at the rink, for example), and Madeline and I have played Boggle together several times. I LOVE that we're playing word games together!
• Georgia and Madeline insisted that I make a "snuggle calendar" so we could be sure whose turn it was to snuggle with me at bedtime. :)
• Georgia is enjoying kindergarten. She says her favourite part is recess.
• I completed the Blurb books I wanted to get done (January to August 2011), which is mostly what kept me from blogging over the past week. I can't believe how much I blogged the first eight months of this year.
• Neil and I have both read and watched all of the lessons for The Art of Composition. I especially loved the week 3 video lesson. I really wish we still had good light in the evening; I need to take pictures!
• I haven't done a single thing about Halloween! The girls decorated last weekend, but we need to do something about costumes, don't we? Eek.

P.S. Neil called Delta about our kitchen faucet on Friday morning, and on Monday, we received a new hose in the mail, completely free. He installed it that day and there's no more leaking. We've had a bucket under the sink for months! Why do we wait so long?

P.P.S. Also in the past couple of weeks, the girls had some appointments. On Oct 7, Neil took all three to have their eyes checked. They all have good vision and healthy eyes. On Oct 14, I took Sophia to her orthodontist. We were very happy to hear she won't be starting treatment any time soon. He feels he can correct everything with braces after she has grown some more. She'll have another checkup in one year. Sophia learned that she has lost all of her baby teeth. The last one just came out 3 or 4 days before her appointment.

10 things on the 10th (October)

Ten things I wish I could do all in one day -- today! (Today is Thanksgiving, a stat holiday.)

1. Clean our house from top to bottom
2. Fix the drainage problem on the east side of the house
3. Get a new faucet for the kitchen sink (it's leaking)
4. Create Blurb books of my blog posts, Jan-Aug 2011
5. Take care of September photos (monthly photo tasks)
6. Complete the layouts I started at Crop & Create
7. Complete a few other layouts started months ago
8. Photograph layouts for the BSS Flickr gallery
9. Do 1st couple assignments for The Art of Composition
10. Take a photo for Picture Inspiration week 33

Hmmm, what will I actually be able to do today? Just a small fraction of this list, and right now I'm leaning toward some items on the second half of my list. Decisions, decisions.

For a listing of this month's participants, see 10 Things at Shimelle.com.

Bite-sized Scrapbooking changes

A couple weeks ago, I decided to discontinue my Bite-sized Scrapbooking email subscription service* -- it will end after 52 weeks of layouts (January 27, 2012), and the service is now free. There were several factors in my decision, but the bottom line is this: It requires a lot of time and I'm short on time. For more explanation (much more!), read on.

(1) Running and promoting BSS was/is very time consuming -- much more than I anticipated when I was developing the service. For one thing, I offer quite a bit more content each week than I had originally planned. From lining up layouts to preparing weekly content to promoting and advertising the service, plus customer service and other administrative tasks, I work on BSS several hours per week. I have spent many an evening and weekend day in front of the computer working on these things -- when I really needed to be doing other things. With a full-time job, three active children, and a home that needs constant attention due to a high level of daily activity (my husband provides child and dog care in our home), I simply cannot keep up. Not even close. And it shows.

(2) I started a new job six weeks ago which is much more satisfying to me than the job I had when I was developing BSS. I love my new job, but it also wears me out. When I'm at my office, I'm completely consumed; I can't even manage to write a personal (or BSS) to-do list on my lunch break. And when I get home from work, it's tough to do even more "thinking" work because I'm mentally exhausted (same reason it took me so long to write this post!). This change is not a bad thing! I am so much happier at my job these days.

(3) It was challenging to find inspiration layouts and it seemed increasingly difficult each time I searched for them. I was not looking forward to finding layouts for February and beyond (thankfully, I have all of the remaining layouts lined up, so I don't have to do this again). I have specific parameters for the layouts I choose, and they're just not very easy to find online -- and many that do fit my parameters were based on someone else's sketch (which typically doesn't work for my business model, but there were a few exceptions), or the copyright is owned by large entities such as CK or Two Peas. I would often look at hundreds of layouts before finding one to pursue.

(4) Despite spending quite a bit of time and money on advertising and promotional activities, I saw very little net subscriber growth (I had 24 subscribers after the first week; eight months later, I had 36). This part of the business was my least favourite part, and I knew it would be a never-ending task. I would always have to be working to gain new subscribers, and I wasn't sure BSS would ever grow large enough to make up for the time I was spending on it -- and, more importantly, all of the things I was trading for it. Honestly, it would have taken a significantly larger number of paying subscribers to keep me going. I would have had to earn enough to hire weekly housekeeping help, and then some.

(5) Except for a few pages I finished this summer, I could not find time to scrapbook and I really wondered if I'd ever have time again. Oh, the irony! It brings to mind the old cliches of the shoemaker's children having no shoes and the carpenter's house needing repair. And it certainly wasn't for lack of desire to scrapbook. Very much the opposite! But I could not squeeze it in on top of my BSS work. It's frustrating. There are so many pages and projects I want to do. There are other things I enjoy doing that I haven't been able to do, either. For example, I've barely looked at my Google Reader or Pinterest for months. It may seem trivial, but I equate the loss of those pastimes with a loss of down time.

I'm glad that for the next 16 weeks I will only be producing the weekly content -- which is my favourite part of the business -- and I won't have to do any advertising or searching for future layouts. This will free up some time and feel less daunting as my family gets into the full swing of fall and winter activities.

When I decided to end the email service, I also decided to make it free for everyone. It may seem like an odd thing to do. Not only did I forfeit future income from the service, I gave refunds to all six-month subscribers for the time left on their subscriptions. Why would I do that?

Basically, since I knew the service would end at a certain time -- and it's the same amount of work for me on a weekly basis whether I have 30 subscribers or 300 -- I thought, why not open it up? I had always hoped a couple hundred people would sign up, and I wanted to see what that would be like. The more, the merrier! I also thought that giving the service for free might lead to more sales of my BSS Bundle #1. I would only find out if I tried it.

Pricing was always an area of uncertainty. At $5 a month, I don't believe BSS was over priced and I know the service was valuable to many of my subscribers, but I also know that free scrapbooking ideas and inspiration are widely available. Plus, there are a great many ways to spend money in this hobby. Many of us have to choose carefully. At the same time, I always thought that charging for the service was not only right for me, but for subscribers. Many people tend to be more committed to classes or memberships they pay for (I know I am) and I really wanted people to take action on the email messages they received from me. Getting layouts done is the whole point! But it was very challenging to reach those who would be interested in this type of service and convince them to pay for it. I am very grateful for those who did choose to spend their hard-earned money on BSS!

In many ways, BSS has been a big experiment all along. I didn't know of any other service like it and I didn't know anything about running an online business. I've learned so much over the past year, I couldn't even begin to explain it. I'm very happy to have learned all that I have, and now I'm truly delighted to offer the service for free until it ends.

It has been incredibly fun to see hundreds of people sign up for the email service! As of this moment, there are 492 on the mailing list. Wow! The vast majority of new sign-ups are the result of Stacy Julian mentioning BSS on her blog. How exciting is that?! Many thanks to my friend, Tracy (LOM coach), for bringing it to Stacy's attention. Also, I found it very interesting that within a week of making the service free, much of the income I had given up came back to me in other ways -- I won a 50-50 cash prize at Crop & Create last weekend and have sold a few more bundles. It makes me think of the quote:

"Life is like a boomerang; what you give, you get back." Acad

***

*To clarify, BSS isn't going away entirely; just the email subscription service. I still have BSS Bundle #1 for sale and will have Bundle #2 for sale after the service ends. Also, I wonder if I could reinvent the service in some way that would allow me to do scrapbooking for myself as well as deliver bite-sized prompts. I'll be thinking about this over the next few months. I don't know if it's possible, but we'll see!