according.to.kim

PI 5/52: Infinity and beyond

A snow fence a few blocks from our house. It was snowing when I took this picture yesterday. For the end of March, it's still ridiculously wintery in my area!

Just a few things we did recently...

Friday evening, Georgia went to Laurel and Bronwyn's for a sleepover. She was so excited that it was her turn to go. Over the past five weeks, L&B have had each one of our girls over for a sleepover separately. They really enjoyed it!

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Bronwyn's bronze medal ringette game at the Coop. Her team didn't win, but they received medals for 4th place. B's team did extremely well to get 4th place because they ended the season at 7th out of eight teams and then played the 2nd place team for the bronze. We took one of Bronwyn's friends to the game as well (because she lives very close to us), and her little sister came along to play with Georgia. They had a lot of fun during the game. Also, Sophia's friend Meghan came to the rink to watch her older sister play a bronze medal ringette game (after B's game), so Sophia stayed with Meghan while we went home. It's great having friends to hang out with at the rink. :)

On Sunday afternoon, after we got some chores done at home, we went to London Drugs to try the Kinect video game. We are in the process of deciding between a Wii and Kinect. The kids were originally quite set on getting a Wii, but we parents were leaning toward Kinect. Now that they've tried the Kinect, I think they're on board. It's very cool! And I love how physical it is. Certainly not like the video games of yesteryear, or the computer games that the girls currently play (probably too much). The girls were going to buy a Wii with their own money, but I think we'll split it five ways if we get a Kinect.

Saturday afternoon treat

What could be better than some toasted artisan bread with butter and blackberry jam? I can't think of anything!

Credits: Birdseed Bread from Orange Boot Bakery; Blackberry Jam from Bonne Maman; Overlay from Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals: Story Overlays 6x4 Journalers Value Pack.

Don't leave home without it

Do you ever leave your phone at home? It's such a bummer when you realize you don't have it, isn't it!? This is where my phone sat while I was at work all day today. I was SO tempted to call Neil and ask him to bring it to me, but I didn't -- and I survived! I've only had a smartphone for about 15 months, but I think it's safe to say I'm hooked. (And my phone doesn't even have a camera! Just wait 'til I get one of those.)

I hit this photo with a double shot of the Pioneer Woman Lovely and Ethereal action in PSE. Much better!

PI 4/52: How things stack up

This week, Tracey encouraged us to actively create our image (rather than wait to discover something stacked). I had just made a scrapbook layout with a bunch of buttons on it, and I remembered a great photo of stacked buttons from one of the previous Picture classes. Plus, I like rainbows!

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Sophia (grade 4) and Madeline (grade 2) received their second report cards yesterday. They are both doing very well in school. Sophia "excels" in physical education, arts education, mathematics, and science (not every single point within these categories, but most of them). Sophia has always been very physical and active, and her artistic abilities amaze me, so it was nice (and not surprising) to see these things reflected on her report card. It's also great to see the math and science items! Madeline "excels" in almost every area except physical education (she's "meeting outcomes" in that area).

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I found this stack as is; I didn't touch a thing. (My dear husband deals with all of the lunch packing and unpacking. Yes, I'm very grateful!) Normally, I would hesitate to take a photo using the flash, but it was already dark and I wanted to capture this slice of our current life, so I took the photo and I'm glad I did. (The little one on top is used for Georgia's preschool snack.)

***

Last night, in the middle of the night, Georgia asked me what day spring starts. I said it started a couple days ago, to which she replied, "Okay, then what day is the snow going to be gone?" Other than being awakened at 4:00 a.m., I thought it was funny that she was thinking about this in the middle of the night. (What's not funny is that winter has returned! It's going to be -27 C with the wind chill tonight. Sheesh.)

***

When I put a hair net over Sophia's curly dance wig on the weekend, I was surprised and impressed with how the ringlets appeared. Only when I was looking through my photos on the computer did they strike me as looking like stacks of curls.

Blogging for Scrapbookers

I started a class called Blogging for Scrapbookers today. (Hello classmates!) Two weeks from today, on April 4, I will have been blogging for seven years. Yup! And this is my 2017th blog post (in 2007, I posted every single day). You might think I don't need any help in this department! Well, I've been going through the motions lately, and I haven't been posting as often as I'd like -- and then I end up writing these epic posts which take far too long to compose. Basically, I've been recording what's happening in our lives and posting photos I take for classes, but not much else. With this class, I'm hoping to be inspired to write more frequently, with more variety in topics, and perhaps more meaningful posts. I know this is going to be challenging for me because I'm not a fast writer (i.e., I spend a lot of time editing) and my spare time is very limited.

About the photo: These are my blog books which sit right next to my computer. I get all of my posts printed in books through Blurb and I love them! I decided to snap this photo today because this is one of the reasons I intend to continue blogging indefinitely. I love having this record of our lives, both on the computer and in books we can flip through. (The one with no text on the spine is the first blog book I made. It's called 9 states, 27 days, 8700 km, and it chronicles our road trip to the southern tip of Texas in December 2006.)

Last busy weekend (for now)

On Saturday afternoon, Sophia and Madeline performed at the William Booth Special Care Home. There were just 12 dancers and it was a long show (almost 40 minutes), so they each did three dances. One of the dance instructors, David, also played two songs on the flute. It was a really nice show, and the girls danced well. I enjoyed it! Plus, this was the first time the show was longer than the time I spent on the girls' hair! I think that made it even better for me. When Sophia and Madeline saw this photo, they both said they liked the man on the far left because he clapped while they were dancing. I thought that was cute and nice that they noticed.

On Sunday, we went to Spring Free From Racism at noon. Sophia's friend Meghan came with us. The girls danced at 1:00 p.m. (10-minute show) and then we stayed for another couple hours, eating some great food and watching other dance groups. For awhile, the girls sat on the floor in front of the first row of seats so they could have a good view. They also got their faces painted just before we left. We have been going to this event for many years now (I'm guessing 7 or 8 years) and I noticed that it's getting easier as the girls get older. I've always enjoyed this event, but it was never very easy to be there with little ones (as I think about diapers and spills and such). Now they can go to the washroom and peruse the vendors on their own. Amazing!

From Spring Free, we went straight to the Cooperators Centre for Sophia's fourth play-off game. Sophia had her heart set on not playing goal as she believed it was their last game and she wanted to "skate around," but the coach wanted her to play goal. She was quite unhappy as she got ready to play. I tried my best to cheer her up and explain that the team needed her to do this important job. It was tough. Plus, they were short three of their top players due to illness and travel, and that makes a huge difference. The Sticks of Fury lost 7-3. It was kind of a sad way to end the season. At least we have a good wind-up planned (three weeks away), so the girls will get to have some fun together once again.

PI 3/52: What's your motif?

This lovely star burst marks the spot where I fill my coffee cup every morning. I'm glad I found this motif during the week. I think it suits me -- I love circles. And coffee. :)

I've been wanting to post more frequently with shorter posts, but for some reason I'm having trouble doing that. I know it's partly because I'm doing more scrapbooking with BSS, but I still want to blog more often. I do so much better when I connect blogging to another commitment such as daily photos. The Picture Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter series were great for that, but I'm not prepared to do daily photos all year. I'm trying to come up with another device to help me write more regularly. Perhaps I'll take these classes. I'm intrigued!

Let's see, what has happened since the 10th?

Sophia has played three play-off games (ringette). They lost the first one, with Sophia in net. It was a pretty good game for the most part. The Sticks of Fury were down just 2-0 at the break, and it ended 9-4 with many of the goals happening near the end. Sophia's team won their second game, 10-7. Sophia scored two goals and had a nice assist in that one. That was a fun game to watch, and I was the scorekeeper. The third game was terrible. The Sticks of Fury lost badly to a team they had just defeated 10 days earlier (Mar 6). The final score was 13-6, but it was more like 20-6 (they only mark a 7-point difference during the play-offs, and it's only 5 during the regular season). Sophia's team was missing three players for that game, and two of them are top players. They play their fourth play-off game tomorrow on the 20th. Wish them luck!

Sophia and Madeline, and three other students at their school, performed a few Irish dances during assembly and later in their classrooms on March 16 (no school on the 17th or 18th). The girls were very excited to do this. They wore their Prairie Gael dresses, bubble socks, and gillies. Neil was there running the music for them. They're also performing at a nursing home this afternoon and at Spring Free From Racism tomorrow. We're always busy with performances the week of St.Patrick's Day and Spring Free (always near March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination).

Otherwise, it's been business as usual at work and home, with a sprinkling of scrapbooking excitement for me. I will write more about those things later. One thing I will mention, though, is that Bite-sized Scrapbooking now has subscribers in six countries: Australia, Canada, England, Japan, New Zealand, and United States. Isn't that cool?!

Spreading the word

One of the biggest challenges I face with Bite-sized Scrapbooking is getting the message out there. Promotion is a continual task with a business like this. I'm happy to say that news of BSS is spreading, slowly but surely (my One Little Word, patience, is certainly applicable here!).

Online publicity or word-of-mouth is definitely one of the best ways to increase awareness. I'm very grateful for every single RT (retweet) on Twitter and for these mentions on scrapbooking blogs/websites:

• Wendy Sue Anderson, who designed this week's inspiration layout (week 7), wrote about BSS on Monday: bite-sized...
• The Scrappy Jedi (Melissa Stinson, now a writer for Scrapbook Update!) wrote about BSS as one of her Friday Favorites: Friday Favorites: Bye-Bye, Boston!
• Francine Clouden, who designed the inspiration layout for week 5, included my announcement in her Scrapbooking column at Craft Gossip: New Scrapbooking Service Launched

If you have a public blog and would like to help me spread the word, I would appreciate it so much! You can also pick up a blog bladge on the BSS website, if you like.

A very easy and great way to spread the news is to simply Like the BSS page on Facebook (many thanks to all who have done this already!) and then comment or click Like on any of the status updates I post there. I post quotes, tips, and links to freebies occasionally, so if you like anything I post, please let me know with a quick click!

I have placed some inexpensive ads as well. This Facebook ad, which ended yesterday, had a good click-through rate. It was very targeted to people who "like" Big Picture Classes, Ella Publishing, or Write. Click. Scrapbook. on Facebook.

For the month of March, these ads (I updated it on the 20th) are running on Simple Scrapper, Simple Crafter, and FreeDigitalScrapbookingTemplates.com.

I also have a free listing on the new website, Scrapbooking Society.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas for spreading the word about Bite-sized Scrapbooking. Thanks!

PI 2/52: Finding a little rhythm

Rhythm: Harmonious sequences or patterns... I spotted these ones on Georgia's mitten on Saturday.

Last weekend was pretty busy, but not overly crazy. I'll start with Thursday evening since Sophia had a ringette game. They played one of the top teams and lost 9-4. Sophia played goal.

I had Friday off work (the last of a good long stretch of Fridays off) and the kids had no school. Neil took Sophia to her piano lesson at 2:15 (moved from Saturday to accommodate ringette practice) and all three girls went to K4J in the evening. I managed to get a few things done that day, including my monthly photo tasks for February pictures. Very good to have that done so early in the month!

On Saturday, I took photos every waking hour, starting at 7:00 a.m. Why? Ella Publishing had issued a page call for a photo-an-hour layout to be submitted by March 17. I've never submitted a layout for anything before, so that wasn't the impetus for me; I just thought, yeah, it would be good to document a whole day again, so I'll do it! (I have "one day in my life" layouts from May 2006 and Nov 2009, and both are very detailed in words but not photos.) I chose Saturday since I knew we had a variety of things going on, and I set my calendar to email me every hour. Even with reminders, this was challenging! I managed to take over 280 photos on Saturday, but there was one hour in which I only took two photos. Happily, they turned out well. I am now working on my layout (digital), bit by bit, hoping to complete it by the 17th. It's good to have a deadline and I may as well send it in!

In the morning, we went to the Farmer's Market in the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre to pick up eggs for my mom, and then to Sophia's ringette practice. I could have taken Sophia by myself, but the other girls really wanted to go, too, so we all went. Madeline and Georgia were bored the whole time. Why did they want to go? Why didn't we take something for them to do? Mysteries of the unexplained. The older sister of another player kindly let Georgia play games on her iPod Touch for a little while.

After lunch, we all went to my niece's ringette game. (This time, I grabbed two DSis on my way out the door and then learned they were both dead on the way to the game. Gah!) It was the Icebreaker's last regular season game (and B's last game since she'll be away during the play-offs) and it was a great one to watch. The Icebreakers came from behind and were up by one point with just a minute or two left, and then the other team tied the game with 5 seconds left on the clock!

After the game, we headed home and cleaned up the living room knowing our friend Steve and his dog, Chloe, were coming over at 4 p.m. for a doggie play date. Plus, all the girls showered or bathed to get ready for their evening dance performance. After supper, I spent some time getting the curly hair pieces attached to Sophia and Madeline's hair. With so much less hair on their heads now, it was quite a challenge! The hair pieces are designed to work with a bun, so I had to attach a fake bun (a doughnut-shaped form) to Madeline's head and then attach the curly hair piece to that. I used about 25 bobby pins in her hair alone, but it worked! The girls got dressed at home and we headed to Holy Trinity.

We arrived at 7:30 p.m. for the 8:00 p.m. dance performance. It was an Irish/St. Patrick's Day-themed fundraiser for the church. Sophia and Bronwyn performed three dances together (their new reel, single jig, and slip jig), and Madeline danced three times with various other students (light jig and beginner reel twice). The show was 30 minutes long which is very long for Irish dance because the dances are so short. Afterward, Sophia stayed overnight at L&B's.

Here's another photo representing rhythm (I distorted the girls' faces for public sharing). Madeline is on the far right.

Sunday afternoon, Madeline had her friend, Mattea, over for a play date. Madeline was thrilled about this as she hadn't had anyone over for a very long time. We all went to Sophia's ringette game mid-afternoon. It was their last regular season game. Mom and Dad came to watch the game on their way home from North Battleford. Laurel and Bronwyn were there, too. The Sticks of Fury won 7-5 and Sophia scored a hat trick (her second this year)! Great game to have extra fans in attendance! Madeline, Mattea, and Georgia didn't watch the game, but they had fun sipping hot chocolate, sharing a slushy drink, and playing with some other ringette siblings. After the game, Mom and Dad picked up their dog, Buffy, who had been at our house since Friday morning.

Many repeating patterns inside the Cooperators Centre.

 

On Monday, Laurel called me after lunch and reminded me that she was taking me to see Sarah McLachlan that evening! I had forgotten completely, so that was a nice surprise. (Note to self: Always email important info to myself!) We ate supper at our house, then Neil took all the girls to Sophia and Bronwyn's dance class, while Laurel and I went to the concert. It was a great evening and concert. Sarah shared the stage with two other singers, Melissa McClelland and Butterfly Boucher, for nearly three hours. Rather than having a separate opening act, the three women sang and played back-up for each other throughout the entire concert. That was cool and they worked very well together. I also enjoyed Sarah's Q&A segments, in which she answered questions written down by audience members before the show and during intermission. My favourite part of the concert was Sarah's encore performance of Angel. (Surfacing is the only album of hers that I'm familiar with, and I listened to it a lot back in the day.)

I don't know why, but I was in a bit of funk over the past week. Nothing major; just feeling a little weary and lackluster. Perhaps it was a touch of the winter blues. While I'm not a fan of the cold weather (hot summer days are my favourite!), it usually doesn't bother me -- I have good warm clothes and I don't have to spend a lot of time outside -- but on Monday morning when I heard the wind chill was -37, I was totally disgusted. I thought, 'are you kidding me?! this winter is never going to end!' And I grumbled as I left the house.

Well, I'm already feeling better. Spring is just around the corner, right? Sophia has her first play-off game tonight, and I'm looking forward to this weekend with only one activity on the calendar (Sophia's piano lesson). Amazing!

State of the union

For the past five months (October through February), we have been extremely busy. The busiest time of our life -- so far. (I won't say it can't get busier because every year proves otherwise!) With ringette (plus other activities), Christmas season, birthday season, building and launching BSS, and two weekend trips to Alberta (Edmonton in November and Medicine Hat in February), we have not had much time for regular household chores or projects -- and it shows. Oh, does it show. I can hardly stand it. I'm really itching to get some things done around the house, and I'm hoping to have more time for that in the coming months. But will I? Let's see...

Ringette is winding down. Sophia's team has just one practice and six games left on the schedule at this point (2 regular season and 4 play-off games), and perhaps another game or two if they advance. In any case, ringette will end in March, and this will be a significant change. I really love watching ringette but it will be great to get that time back! (Both Sophia and Madeline will play next season. We absolutely must get some house projects completed before October!)

The girls have a couple dance performances scheduled in March, so those are extra things on the calendar. And they will probably have a couple more shows before Mosaic, as well. Speaking of Mosaic, Neil and I will need to do some work to prepare the Children's Program. This begins in March as we look for discounted St. Patrick's Day craft materials. Also, I should start going to my dance class again if I'm going to dance at Mosaic. I had thought I would participate in a group dance, but now I'm on the fence about it. I really could use those Tuesday evenings!

What else?

• Bite-sized Scrapbooking is moving along nicely. I have ongoing work to do for this, but it is not as time- consuming as the building phase. Plus, I'm making a layout every week. I love that!
• I'm going to have to set aside some time to do our taxes, aren't I? Boo.
• The girls only have ten piano lessons left! Their recital is in mid-May, and we need to do a lot more practicing over the next ten weeks. This has really been neglected the past few months.
• I'm planning to get the 20th volume of my blog (September-December 2010) printed in a Blurb book this month. This always takes a few hours. And before long, I'll have January-April 2011 to do. I want to get caught up on this!
• We have decided not to enroll the kids in any spring activities. We parents need a time and budget break, and I think the kids could use more spare time, too. I will put the girls in summer swimming lessons, though. Plus, we'll consider skating lessons or ringette camp, but maybe not until September.
• I am taking a week off work in May (the week of Victoria Day). This will be the first time EVER that I will have a week off that we're not going somewhere. Seriously, I have never been off work AND home for an entire week! I am determined to stay home during that week. All I want is to do is tackle some house projects. I can't wait!

So, it looks like our calendar will still be quite full for March, but then April, May, and June (except Mosaic week) are looking pretty good, time-wise. The summer months should be great! There's always more yard work to do, but no evening activities, and (like the past two years) I'm planning to have every Friday off from June to mid-October.