according.to.kim

PI 38/52: Delicate

I dipped into my archives for Picture Inspiration again this week. Time and daylight aren't on my side these days. I took this picture in early June this year, and I'm happy to share it now as I hadn't previously. It's the seed head of a pasque flower (with some spider webs, I assume) -- and a fascinating bit of nature, don't you think?

PI 26/52: Back to basics

I decided to share three photos for Picture Inspiration this week. I took the photo above specifically for the prompt (we have a wonderful crop of garden tomatoes this year -- yum!), and the other two are from our trip to Yellow Grass on Saturday. They struck me as "back to basics" as well.

A basic childhood pleasure. I love how you can really see the big weed seeds in the air. So much easier to photograph than dandelion seeds! And below, some of my parents' bison herd. I don't usually crop my photos into unusual dimensions, but I really wanted to zero in on the cow-calf pairs and eliminate the fence in the foreground. I also applied the Pioneer Woman Heartland action. I think it turned out pretty cool.

I got up a little earlier today. I was laying there wide awake anyway. I know it's because I have only two days left in Marketing at Head Office and it seems a bit surreal. I was thinking of all the things I need to do today and tomorrow at work, including getting my office completely packed up.

The past week or two have been full, and I'm feeling behind on my blog posts. I know it's not a life requirement but I do pressure myself to capture what's happening. I have a terrible memory for details and a very strong desire not to lose them. This is my record! Anyhow, I can't cover everything I've missed today, but I want to mention a few things.

Georgia had her ears pierced last Wednesday! She had been wanting this for a few months and I told her we'd do it when she was the same age Madeline was when she had her ears pierced -- right before kindergarten. Georgia chose cute Hello Kitty studs. You can see them in the picture above. She was very quiet and sat perfectly still while her ears were pierced one at a time. She has been great about making sure her ears get cleaned with the antiseptic three times a day, and they look very healthy. When I turn her earrings, I say her kitties are doing somersaults. :) I should mention also that shortly after her ears were pierced and while the Claire's lady was explaining the care routine to me, I started feeling faint. I had to sit down on the ear-piercing chair and take my jacket off. I don't know why this happened; I wasn't even thinking about it in detail, and there was no blood at all. Embarassing!

The girls are enjoying their last two free weeks before school starts. Madeline's friend Mattea has asked her over for a few playdates. Sophia had a sleepover at Meghan's house last night. All three are spending lots of time outdoors playing with Zoe and Nadia on our street. It has been very nice to have these playmates so close (sadly, Zoe is moving in a few days). Plus, the weather has been great. We were truly blessed with a beautiful summer this year. The girls have been able to run through the sprinkler the past two days.

Yesterday, all three girls went to the dentist for a cleaning and check up. Neil had to take them on his own this time. I usually go, but I was unable to get an appointment when the girls had no school and I was off. Neil and I are going next Friday morning when all the kids will be in school. Happily, Sophia and Madeline's teeth were free of cavities. I have to make an orthodontist appointment for Madeline as her top teeth are very misaligned. (Sophia will have her 4th or 5th ortho checkup in October, too.) Also, Georgia needs to go to the pediatric dentist because she has three cavities. Boo.

I'm bracing myself for the onslaught of school and activities, and anxious to get the new calendar updated for the school year. I have numerous messages in my inbox with date information, and I feel uncomfortable until it's out there where everyone can see it. This will be a top priority for this weekend, as well as labeling the girls' school supplies. I can't wait to get them out of our house! The girls drive me crazy with things like this because they can't stop touching them and spreading them all over the place.

Well, it's time to get going to work. I still want to write about the past two weekends, but it likely won't happen until this weekend. This evening, I'm planning to make Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake for my last "cookie club" coffee break tomorrow. Thanks to Pinterest, it took me about five seconds to decide what I want to make!

PI 24/52: Shoot for the stars

This is borage, also known as starflower (I learned on Wikipedia after taking this picture). We've had borage in our yard for years, originally from a wildflower seed mix. They're quite prolific and I weed most of them out, but always leave a few to grow. Thankfully, they're super easy to pull compared to most weeds because the roots are very small and shallow. Next are the stars that remain after sedum finishes blooming. I was delighted to find these examples of stars in my own back yard!

I cannot resist...

The echinacea. Or the bee. The best of many shots tonight...

PI 23/52: Organic lines

A stalk of corn in our back yard. Before this, I hadn't really noticed how wavy corn leaves are. And below, horizon and shore lines. This is Katepwa Lake where Sophia and Madeline spent three days and nights at Camp Monahan.

Photos & tidbits from the week

Our Shasta daisies are lovely, but they were getting a bit unruly so I've trimmed them a little (after this picture).

On Tuesday, we celebrated Laurel's birthday with cake and ice cream out on our patio. It was very hot and humid outside.

The girls are enjoying their swimming lessons at the Lawson. Sophia's in level 5, Madeline in level 4, and Georgia in Sunfish.

Sophia and Bronwyn stayed overnight with their grandparents in Avonlea last night. I think they had plans to go golfing.

Madeline is looking forward to going to a "Luau" birthday party for her friend, Kaitlin, this afternoon.

The mint on our back step is thriving. Perfect for Mojitos! Neil makes them for me occasionally. Mmmm.

Our new double echinacea is just starting to bloom. I look forward to seeing the "double" part when it comes out.

PI 20/52: Excavation

Nature, colour, and light. These are the things I am most eager to capture -- besides my children. I took this photo last Sunday morning and have had this post in draft for six days. That's the kind of week it's been. Spare time is scarce!

Last weekend, we were worried about Neil's dad. He went to hospital by ambulance Saturday morning after feeling extremely dizzy and clammy. He didn't have a heart attack, but was admitted to the Cardiac Surveillance Unit where he stayed overnight. On Sunday, he was discharged with the plan to have a stress test on Wednesday. His test results were great, so his heart has been ruled out.

On Saturday afternoon, Sophia and Georgia had their hair cut at D.A.M. Hair Company (great prices for children!). Sophia asked to have more layers. The length at the back is still about the same as before, but her hair is much more layered around her face, with a shorter section on one side (like very long bangs). Sophia loves her hair cut and it looks great (though sweeping it all into a pony tail, as she's fond of doing, is much more challenging now; and she knew it would be).

Georgia asked to have her hair cut like mine. :) Her hair is significantly shorter than before. Now it's shoulder length with some soft layers around her face. It looks awesome and is SO much easier to brush (we only brush her hair slathered in conditioner while she's bathing). Surprisingly, it doesn't appear to be curlier than before. I thought with so much length off, it would bounce right up, but it's about the same.

While Neil was at the Rider game on Saturday, the girls and I went over to L&B's to see Shauna and Wayne and the boys. The older kids went to the park to play, while Georgia and Rian stayed home with the grown ups. Bronwyn, Sophia, Madeline, and Cole were enjoying looking at the ducks and snails in the lake when I picked up Sophia.

I took Sophia home to pack a bag and then over to Meghan's for a sleepover. I also picked up Neil after the Rider game, and it was close to 6 pm by the time we got to the hospital to visit Lou. After a short visit, we went to Laurel's house for pizza and Neil's mom came with us. Later, we took Georgia home to bed while Madeline stayed overnight with Bronwyn (and the Pilgrims went back to Avonlea).

Sunday morning, I enjoyed taking some photos in the garden. (And I took photos throughout the day for 10 things on the 10th.) Meghan and her dad dropped off Sophia mid morning. In the afternoon, I spent several hours cleaning Sophia and Madeline's room while Neil prepared bison ribs and pork ribs, plus classic barbecue sauce, to take to Weisshaar's (Neil's aunt and uncle's place) for supper. They were very tasty.

The original plan had been to go to Avonlea for supper and to visit with Pilgrims before they left SK, but the location was changed to Weisshaar's since Lou was in the hospital until mid afternoon. We're so lucky he was discharged, though, as the doctor had planned to keep him in until Monday and then changed his mind. Since the entire family on Neil's side was able to be together Sunday evening, and this is a pretty rare occurance, we took some quick informal family photos in the back yard at Weisshaar's. We also got a few shots of the six cousins together. Shauna and her family left for MB the next day. We're so glad they could visit us in SK this summer!

New perennials & record keeping

These are the new perennials we've put in this week:

• Boltonia latisquama nana 'Jim Crockett' (Star Aster)
• Campanula 'Deep Blue Clips' & 'White Clips' (Bellflower)
• Echinacea 'PowWow White' (Coneflower)
• Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' (Coneflower)
• Echinops ritro 'Veitch's Blue' (Globe Thistle)
• Lamium 'Beacon Silver'
• Lupine 'Gallery Blue'
• Monarda 'Petite Delight' (Bee Balm)
• Monarda didyma 'Panorama Mix' (Bee Balm)
• Salvia x sylvestris 'Blue Queen'  (Meadow Sage)
• Sedum 'John Creech', 'Alpine Blue Spruce', 'Voodoo', 'Angelina', and 'Golden Acre' (Stonecrop)
• Thrift 'Splendens' (Sea Pink)

I took some time this morning to snap pictures and then add text to the photos as a visual record of the perennials in our yard. Here are two of the six pictures with labels. I'm just showing the best-looking areas right now! The first photo is in the back yard (if you'd like to read it, click the photo to enlarge). You can see what I mean by needing to eliminate grass and weeds from the pathways. I didn't label the poppies or the volunteer Lupine that we're going to move. The second photo is in the front yard. I didn't label the annuals which are: Torenia Hybrid Summer Wave Bouquet 'Gold' (front), and Coleus 'Chocolate Drop' (middle). The others are wild violas.

PI 19/52: Dig in

These are Madeline's hands, but my hands were getting plenty dirty, too, as I was weeding the veg garden last evening. We didn't see many earthworms yesterday and I suppose it's because of the hot weather. Perhaps they're further down in the soil. Just guessing. I'll never forget the time, a couple years ago, when I was weeding the same garden bed and there were dozens of earthworms all coming up out of the soil and moving along the ground surface at the same time. It was bizarre and I've never seen such a thing before or after that.

The back yard doesn't look great right now, but I think I'm on the verge of being able to spend more time working on it. I don't mean just this summer, but in the years to come. Our yard always looked better before we had kids. I was able to keep up with it. I think it's just very difficult to get yard work done when you're pregnant and exhausted, have babies and toddlers, and also when you take trips in the summer. I have none of those things to contend with this year! Hey, it's only July 6 and I have the four centre beds weeded already (still need to do the pumpkin patch by the garage). Getting the grass and weeds out of the paths will be my next task. Also, we need to order some clay, dirt, and crusher dust, and build up the problem areas and paths in our yard. We already have a pile of wood chips ready to spread (from last year's tinsel mulch program). I'm determined to get these things done this year so we can avoid having a slough in the spring again. I look forward to getting the yard shaped up. As it is, I enjoy going out to check the plants in the morning and after work. I will love it even more when the yard is looking tip top!

Also, this morning, Neil and the girls went to a greenhouse because I had spotted a big sign off the Lewvan that said Perennials $2. They got 16 perennials for less than $40! (15 were $2 each and a Globe Thistle was $6). Woohoo! I can't wait to fill more garden beds with them, and cut back on annual flowers which are rarely successful in our yard. They bought some Lupine, Sedum, Monarda, Campanula... not sure what else. Can't wait to see them when I get home!

P.S. I just learned a bunch of interesting things about earthworms here (and I was right about the hot weather): http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/WormNotes3.html

Inspired by colour

Inspired by Holly {Soupatraveler}, one of my classmates in the Picture series at BPC, and all of her lovely garden images. Plus, I love tomato plants and I frequently go out to check on our garden, so it seems a fitting subject for me. I just wish I had had a little more time to spend on my photo today. After work, Neil and the girls picked me up and we went to Costco. Laurel had told me they had indoor/outdoor bean bag chairs (from outbagg.com). We bought three (and may get a 4th). They're huge and comfy and fit my criteria perfectly! (i.e., unbreakable, dog hair won't stick to them, won't stain or soak up spills, and no crevices where stuff can get trapped.)

Playful pause

This happy little finger puppet from a preschool music lesson (Georgia's MYC class in fall 2009) normally sits on a shelf above my computer. I decided to take him outside to play today -- a "playful pause" to mark the halfway point of Picture Color. Also shown is one of our new perennials, the Russian Stonecrop (Sedum). Love, love, love my perennials!

P.S. This evening, I made a double batch of Banana Oatmeal Muffins (from Company's Coming, with chocolate chips added and 50% whole wheat flour) for my Cookie Club the next day (and for us). They turned out very well!

The best of both worlds

Pink and red (and orange). I took this opportunity to capture a favourite hat that all three of my girls have worn.

We were pretty busy today. First, Madeline had a hair cut at 9:00 a.m. She is now sporting an assymetrical bob which is very cute! Everyone tagged along so we could all visit a greenhouse afterward (WP Garden Centre, for which I had bought a couple vouchers through SwarmJam). We picked up a few more perennials and annuals to fill in some open spots in our garden. (A few of our annuals have died already.)

Perennials:

• False Spirea 'Cattleya'
• Sedum kamtschaticum (Russian Stonecrop)
• Winter Glow Bergenia 'Winterglut'

Annuals (all single plants):

• Coleus 'Chocolate Drop'
• Torenia hybrid (Summer Wave Bouquet) 'Gold'
• Calibrachoa hybrid (Superbells) 'Blackberry Punch'
• Bracteantha bracteata (Strawflower) 'Jumbo Yellow'
• Spreading Petunia 'Double Wave Rose',
• Spreading Petunia 'Wave Misty Lilac'

The girls selected all of the annuals. We also bought some perennial Viola seeds to scatter. As soon as we got home, I went to work putting all of the plants into the garden. I'm quite excited about my new patch of perennials! We continued doing yard work until the last possible minute before we had to shower and be ready to go.

We went to Connaught Library for its 80th birthday celebration from 2:00-4:00 p.m. My cousin, Richy Roy, was there to make balloon creations and perform a magic show. The girls enjoyed Richy's balloons and show, as well as the bean bag toss, sack race, egg race, and making ice cream. We also went there to see Melinda and Bailey. The girls adore their second cousin, Bailey, who is two years old. After the celebration, it was fun to watch our girls reading library books to her.

When we got home, I resumed yard work while Neil made supper. There is still much to do, mostly with weed control, but the yard is really shaping up nicely. I'm hopeful that we'll have it looking better than ever this year. I love seeing a beautiful and tidy yard, especially when it's ours!

Punctuation mark

We have this one volunteer giant pansy in our yard. I think it qualifies as a "punch of color that cannot be denied." Right now, it's by far the most successful thing growing in our patch of annual flowers.

I was very happy to clear some stuff out of our house today. The Diabetes Association picked up a couple bags of clothes and shoes of mine, and I donated a number of household items and toys to a garage sale fundraiser being held by Georgia's preschool tomorrow. I probably could have tripled our donations if I had had more time to gather things over the past couple weeks. I will continue to purge and donate through the summer. It feels so great to get rid of stuff! That reminds me, I'm reading Organized Simplicity: A Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living by Tsh Oxenreider. I'm only on the 3rd chapter, but I really like it so far.

White on white

It seems I don't have many white things around here, so I looked to my scrapbooking supplies. This was a tough shot! I found it very difficult to get the exposure right. After taking a bunch of pictures that were much too dark, I was forced to re-learn how to change the exposure bias on my camera. I hadn't done that for a very long time. Now that I remember how to do this, it might come in handy!

I took this morning as a half-day vacation, and it was awesome! I was so tired last night that I didn't get up again after reading a book to Madeline. As a result, I practically sprang out of bed at 5:30 a.m. which maximized my time at home. I was able to check a bunch of things off my to-do list. One of the things I'm very happy to have finished today is planting the garden. I planted a couple perennials and 10 pepper plants morning, Neil and the kids planted seeds in the garden after school, and when I got home from work, I helped Madeline plant her seeds (12 different seeds from a school project) into pots. Just in time for another inch of rain.

Also, Neil took our broken couch and broken blinds to the dump this afternoon. I'm so glad they're outta here! The kids keep asking what they're going to sit on. I honestly don't know. The ultimate furnishing would be something unbreakable, that dog hair can't stick to, that won't stain or soak up spills, and with no crevices where stuff can get trapped. I have no plans to get another sofa anytime soon. (Laurel suggested bean bag chairs, and I like that idea if I can find the right ones.)

This evening, I attended the kindergarten orientation for parents. The numbers are huge this year. With just a few more registrations, they may have to add a fourth kindergarten class. Also, the school principal delivered the entire orientation because none of the kindergarten teachers are here yet (one is coming from Switzerland). After the girls were in bed and Neil finished watching the hockey game, we watched Top Chef Canada. I can't wait to see it each week!

PI 12/52: Mysterious ways

Just look at all that wonderful vibrant colour! Ahhhh. I love it! Many of my Picture Inspiration photos have been quite drab, especially the last two. This is much more to my liking. And that reminds me: I'm looking forward to Picture Color! With that, I'll be trying to post daily in June.

We visited a greenhouse last Friday, and this mysterious beauty caught my eye (perfect for the prompt!). It's called a Pocketbook Plant, and of course we had to buy one. Here are the other plants we bought, plus a few that were given to us:

Edibles

• Basil
• Cabbage (purple)**
• Celery**
• Pepper 'Guajillo chili'
• Pepper 'Habanero chili'*
• Pepper 'Hot Super chili'*
• Pepper 'Jalepeno'
• Physalis 'Tomato Groundcherry'
• Physalis 'Peruvian Gold' (Cape Gooseberry)
• Potato 'Banana' (yellow fingerling)
• Potato 'Caribe' (purple skin, white flesh)
• Potato 'Russian Blue' (all purple)
• Potato 'All Red'
• Purple sage
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Tomato 'Christmas Grape'*
• Tomato 'Golden Honeybush'
• Tomato 'Health Kick'*
• Tomato 'Manitoba'*
• Tomato 'San Marzano'*

Annuals

• Calibrachoa 'Noa Sunset'
• Celosia (Plume Celosia)
• Coleus 'Kong Mosaic'
• Gazania 'Daybreak Mix'
• Marigold 'Janie Bright Yellow'
• Petunia 'Easy Wave Pink'
• Portulaca 'Sundial Peppermint'
• Salvia 'Salsa Burgundy'
• Snapdragon
• Mystery flower (we have no idea!) [eta: Mimulus (Monkey Face Flower)]

Perennials

• Artemesia (Silver Mound)
• Chelone obliqua 'Alba' (White Turtlehead)
• Dicentra 'Candy Hearts' (Bleeding Heart) Sophia's choice
• Echinacea purpurea 'Doubledecker' (Cone Flower)
• Pulsatilla vulgaris (Pasque Flower)
• Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Alba' (Pasque Flower)
• Tradescantia andersoniana 'Sweet Kate' (Spiderwort)
• Veronica spicata 'Red Fox' (Speedwell)

Seeds

• Carrot 'Imperator'
• Corn 'Peaches & Cream'
• Morning Glory 'Picotee Blue'
• Pumpkin 'Jack O' Lantern'
• Sunflower 'Mammoth Russian'
• Tomato 'Ace 55 Heirloom'

As I was searching for a few plant varieties, I came across a website, Perennial Gardening on the Prairies, which is run by a couple in my city (Regina). The site includes an extensive listing of plants they grow in their garden. I thought it may be of interest to others in this area. Gorgeous photos, too!

 *from Shelley -- thanks!
**from Laurel -- thanks!

Mid-May weekend + Monday

Last Friday, I had the day off work (my work as an employee, that is), and I woke up with a cold. Not how I wanted to start my three-day weekend! At least it's just me; the rest of my family is cold-free.

Friday, I spent much of day preparing a new free sampler for Bite-sized Scrapbooking. It includes the first three layouts issued for BSS in February. In those early weeks, I wasn't providing a sneak peek or a sketch, so I needed to create those elements for the sampler. Please go and download the sampler if you're interested! It will give you three inspiration layouts and a good idea of what subscribers receive.

When the kids were out of school, we all went to Cherrylane Greenhouse near Grand Coulee to shop for plants. Laurel came with us, too, while Bronwyn stayed at a friend's house. We all LOVE going to greenhouses. This is one of my very favourite things to do every spring. We hadn't been to this place before, and we went because I had purchased vouchers on SwarmJam. It was a lovely greenhouse and the people running it are super nice and eager to help. We had fun picking out a bunch of plants. I let the girls get whatever they wanted, so we'll have an eclectic variety of flowers! I'm very excited that I picked out seven perennials for our yard (one was Sophia's request, actually). I love perennials, but we don't have many. I decided it's time to start investing in perennials. I will write more about the plants we purchased in another post.

Saturday, I took Sophia to her piano lesson, then shopping for dressy sandals (for her piano recital) and a birthday gift for her friend. (She went to Haley's party later in the day.) The shopping took much too long but we came home with good purchases. Sophia's feet are the same size as mine and it was challenging to find sandals that weren't too high or too expensive. We found some at Walmart for $15.

It was mid-afternoon by the time I started working on Madeline's clothes -- my real plan for the day. Clothes, clothes, clothes. There's no end to them, it seems. Madeline is quite particular about her clothing, so she easily rejected about half of the clothes that were available to her (and those were separated into two piles: donate and keep for Georgia). The remaining third is still more than enough. Madeline's dresser and closet are full and we didn't even open any of the other three bins of 7/8 clothes in our basement. I'm still going to have to go through these soon because I would rather get rid of at least half of those clothes NOW, than have to go through six bins of 7/8 when Georgia gets to that size. Can you feel my pain? At least the job of going through Sophia's clothes will be much easier. She actually doesn't have that many clothes that fit her any more. I hope she has enough but we'll see about that next weekend.

*Okay, I need to insert here that we did not buy all of these clothes! In fact, we have purchased very little. In addition to a few gifts of new clothes (which the girls LOVE), we have received hand me downs from three families. Our girls are always overjoyed to receive these clothes and I am very thankful for them because we can't spend much money on children's clothing, but the price we pay is the considerable space they take up in our house and the time I spend sorting through them. I am not ungrateful; just slightly frustrated.*

I continued dealing with children's clothing on Sunday because we had a bunch of bags and piles and bins that contained a mixture of sizes. This photo shows just some of the 10s (which are too small for Sophia), 7/8s, 6X/7s, and 6/6Xs I sorted that day. But here's the best part: While I worked on this, I had the laptop set up so I could watch Penny De Los Santos teaching Food & Culture Photography on creativeLIVE. The course was three days long (May 13-15) and I only caught about 20% of the live broadcast over the weekend, but what I saw was absolutely riveting! Neil and I both wished we could see all of it, so we purchased the course for $99, which I think is incredibly inexpensive for 24 hours of video. Certainly a bit of a splurge, but now we can watch the whole thing on the TV downstairs whenever we want. I'm so glad I noticed a tweet from @thepioneerwoman about this course. After seeing Penny's short video, The Power of Food Photography, I just had to register. I don't really aspire to BE a food photographer; I'm just fascinated by Penny's photos and her approach to food and culture photography.

Meanwhile, Neil started cleaning the incredible disaster of a place we call Sophia and Madeline's room. (Neil got possession of the laptop when I had to spend some time dealing with the clothing/toy storage room downstairs.) We had not seen the floor in their room for quite some time, and he made some good progress on it before we all had to stop and get ready for the girls' piano recital. After the recital and supper, I continued working on the floor until it was finished, but I wasn't able to get to all the surfaces in their room before the girls' bedtime. I will try to squeeze this into my vacation week (next week) because it simply has to get done.

And where were the girls during all of this bedroom cleaning? Playing elsewhere and that's fine with me. In fact, I prefer they stay away; it's much easier to throw things out when they're not there to protest! Madeline did show up at one point and rescued several silly bands before they were swept into the dust pan. (I can't even imagine what it would be like to have carpet in the girls' bedrooms. Scary!) Although it seems easier to declutter without the kids' help right now, I know they need to learn how to do this -- and I'm not sure how to teach them -- so I am considering signing up for this class at Simplify 101: Organizing with your kids.

Sophia and Madeline's piano recital was at 4:45 p.m. on Sunday. It was a nice event, as always. This was our fourth one. Madeline (pictured below) played a solo on the piano (Autumn), played sand blocks in the rhythm ensemble (Waltz), and sang with several other children (MYC Theme Song). Sophia played a solo on the piano (The Greatest Show on Earth). She played so clearly and enthusiastically! It was great to hear! Unfortunately, she got stuck about 2/3 of the way through and couldn't finish. She got up, visibly upset, and came straight to me. Sadly, we hadn't brought her book along, so she couldn't refer to it.

The recital continued with another couple private students, and then Sophia's teacher asked if she wanted to try again. Sophia agreed. She played just as enthusiastically as the first time, and then... got stuck in the same spot again. :( Mrs. Young tried to help, but without the music for reference, they were both unsure what came next. What a bummer. We all learned a hard lesson about taking the book. We should have had it with us even though Sophia didn't think she needed it. Well, it won't happen again! It's over, and she's okay. (I think this helped a tiny bit: another private student had the same problem and he didn't have his book there either.) The thing is, she knew the song at home when no one was paying attention, but she was nervous about the audience. And the entire song wasn't quite etched in her brain. At the end of the recital, her teacher praised her for trying again, and several parents patted her on the back afterward, saying she was very brave. She is, and I'm proud of her, too!

On Monday (yesterday), Sophia participated in the track & field day at her school. She competed against other girls in grades 4 and 5, and came home with a fist full of ribbons: five 2nds, a 6th, and an 8th. The 2nds were in high jump, and the 60m, 80m, 200m, and 400m races. The 6th was in triple jump (she claims she thought it was a practice jump), and the 8th was in shotput. (A very determined and trained runner in grade 5 won 1st place in all the races.) Our niece, who's in grade 5, won 1st place in triple jump, 4th in high jump, and 7th in the 60m race. Sophia (and B) also had a 90-minute dance class Monday evening and she said her legs were burning in class. Not surprising, huh?!

Scrapbook layout: Grow

"I love growing flowers in our garden. It makes me so very happy to see their beauty, observe their changes, and take pictures of them all summer long. I am thankful for flowers!"

I love this layout. It came together very quickly for me and I adore the subject. The design is based on "80" by Angie Lucas, which was the inspiration layout for Week 11 of Bite-sized Scrapbooking. Also, my colour scheme was inspired by a few pictures on my Colour Combos board on Pinterest. Thanks to this photo and a couple others, I had purple, green, and white on my mind, so I looked through my printed pictures until I found three flowers in shades of purple. I take a lot of flower photos, so it wasn't difficult!

Oct 17: Bounty

I took this picture three weeks ago. I would have preferred to take a new photo today with the prompt in mind, but decided to cut myself some slack. A literal interpretation (like this one) was out of the question today since our own garden harvest was finished weeks ago and grocery shopping was not on the agenda. And a more creative interpretation would have taken more time and brain cells than I could devote to it. Could I have used a photo of Sophia playing ringette and called it a bounty (or abundance) of energy? Perhaps. But I'm happy with my choice anyway. After all, it does represent this year's (meagre) bounty and I did take this photo in the fall. Besides, I'll use that photo of Sophia on my October daily layout!

Our first broccoli harvest!

Georgia is our little broccoli lover (as always; see Dec 2006), and we bought a six pack of seedlings at her request this spring. It was the first time we planted broccoli in our garden. I wasn't sure the plants were going to produce anything since the leaves were so full of holes, but they did! This bouquet of broccoli is the first harvest from five of the plants. There was so little on the sixth plant, I didn't bother to cut it today. We ate fresh broccoli with hummus for lunch, and Georgia ate one whole stalk by herself!

July 27: Getting the giggles

(1) Monkey bar giggles.

(2) Dahlias are the best annuals in our garden right now.

(3) Little Blue peppers. I wonder what they'll taste like.

(4-5) Yum!

My throat still hurts when the ibuprofen wears off, and I'm still coughing a bit, but I am feeling quite a bit better now. I have some energy back. I stayed home today, but will definitely be going to work tomorrow. Lots of meetings. Must get to bed!