Rounding up February 2012

February was pretty crazy. Another long roundup ahead! (I'm sure March will be slightly less busy. Fingers crossed.)

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1. READ

• Dear Canada: A Prairie as Wide as the Sea: The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall, Milorie, Saskatchewan, 1926 (Sophia)
• Dear Canada: That Fatal Night: The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1912 (Sophia)
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Madeline)

View of the South Saskatchewan River from Grandma's suite.

2. WATCHED & LISTENED

• TV (Neil and Kim):
  • Brad Meltzer's Decoded (Billy the Kid, UFOs, and 2012 end-of-the-world prophecies – scary!!!)
  • Mythbusters
  • Pawn Stars
  • Storage Wars
  • The Finder (from the creator of Bones)
  • Top Chef Texas
  • Hell on Wheels
  • You've Gotta Eat Here
• Podcasts (Kim):
  • This American Life: Mr. Daisey & The Apple Factory (very thought provoking)
  • The Digi Show
  • Paperclipping Roundtable
• DVDs/movies (the girls):
  • Scooby Doo – to and from Saskatoon (perennial favourite)
  • Gnomeo and Juliet – we invited Madeline's team to watch a movie in our hotel room in Saskatoon (the movie belonged to a teammate)
• YouTube: S**t Saskatchewanians Say (posted Feb 1 and surpassed 500K views this weekend - Mar 3-4)

3. EVENTS & OUTINGS

• 2 ringette tournaments:
  • Regina, Feb 3-4: Madeline (Spitfires; U10) and Sophia (Ice Angelz; U12)
    
    • 4 games each day – exhausting!
    • Madeline went to Ricky's for dinner with her team
    • Sophia (and Neil) went to Humpty's for breakfast with her team
  • Saskatoon, Feb 10-11: Madeline (Spitfires)
    • Mom and Dad came to M's first game and took Dash home with them - thanks!
    • the girls enjoyed swimming twice
    • visited (Great) Grandma Byrns at her Parkville suite
    • excellent complimentary breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express
    • we also ate at Subway, Chianti, Grandma Lee's, and Fuddruckers – yum!

• Sophia attended one birthday party
• Georgia attended three birthday parties
• we went skating at the flooded park near our house (while Georgia was skating at a birthday party)
• school field trips:
  • Georgia – Royal Saskatchewan Museum
  • Madeline – Science Centre & IMAX
  • Sophia – Provincial Court, Court of Queen's Bench, and Court of Appeal

• lunch at Applebee's with Mom/Grandma B
• I attended two Irish set dancing classes – learned Antrim Square and reviewed Connemara (learned in January)
• during our kitchen upheaval, we ate Domino's pizza, Extreme Pita, A&W, and Opa (yikes; very bad month for eating out/take out!)
• I attended a farewell at Bushwakker for a former Irish-dancing classmate who moved to Newfoundland
• Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at the Science Centre (my first time; third time for the girls and Neil – our family membership made this much more affordable)
• 12 Activities with Mom in 2012:
  • Georgia chose DQ and Urban Barn (as M had done in January)
  • Madeline chose tea and a treat at Le Macaron (conveniently, right after her hair cut at DAM Hair Company)
  • Sophia chose outdoor skating but it had snowed too much, so we went to DQ and Urban Barn (now she knows what the other two saw)

Madeline has the ring.

4. RECIPES TO REMEMBER

• Epicure's Chocolate Syrup (we enjoy it on ice cream)
• Pastitsio Pie (Canadian Living's Best: Pasta) (Neil uses ricotta cheese in place of cottage cheese)
• No-Fuss Stroganoff same recipe as >(Company's Coming Select Series: Ground Beef) (Neil omits mushrooms; adds celery, carrots, and peas; and uses Cream of Celery in place of Cream of Chicken soup)

Sophia's team celebrating a win.

5. GIFTS 

• flower bracelets and dancing hula doll from Grandma Byrns - from her trip to Hawaii
• sea-turtle keychains and Harry Potter jelly beans from Bronwyn - from her trip to Texas

I painted Madeline's nails blue-on-blue zebra stripes.

6. SPECIAL PURCHASES

• new eye glasses (frames and lenses) for Neil and Kim
• storage containers for kitchen
• hand towels for kitchen - replaced them all; they were awful (used for 12+ years)!

7. HEALTH

• some cold symptoms (most of us); nothing major
• bad cramps in my toes one evening
• left hip pain and lower back aches sent me to the chiropractor
• Neil and I had our eyes checked; we both have healthy eyes, and Neil just a slight change of prescription (mine hasn't changed in over two years)

These are the clothes we put away for later or donation.

8. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Madeline earned the title of Hardest Working Player in one of her games
• I completed a year of Picture Inspiration
• we cleaned and reorganized all three freezers (fridge freezer and two chest freezers) and the refrigerator
• Neil picked up and delivered bison meat for five customers and ourselves
• we purged the girls' clothing - removed about 250 items from current circulation, and didn't get anything "new" out for them - absolutely crazy
• following the Simplify 101 Organize Your Kitchen video workshop (which I had purchased in November, and highly recommend), we deep-cleaned and reorganized our kitchen and pantry spaces - HUGE project. Removed four large boxes of things for donation, plus lots of stuff went into the garbage and recycling – our kitchen is like new again!
• I completed (basically) my work for Bite-sized Scrapbooking (BSS Bundles continue to be available for purchase; three giveaways in Feb)
• I pulled all Irish dancing photos out of large chronological storage binders (photo albums) and put them into their own smaller theme album (about 300 pics) – love it!

9. DISAPPOINTMENTS

• didn't tackle even one stack, shelf, or box in our basement. AGAIN. I'm determined to do this in March.

10. GOALS

• processed January photos
• backed up my computer
• cleared my collection basket 4/4 weeks
• worked on my email inbox and computer 2/4 weeks
• made 3 scrapbook layouts; 2 digital/1 paper (my goal for February was 6)
• took our monthly family photo

11. NOTEWORTHY

• Sophia's team won a league game
• Madeline's team tied a league game and won a tournament game
• online classes: Ten Tips for Better Type, Twelve, and Picture Inspiration at BPC
• the mice are gone -- for sure this time!
• the kids had a week off school and I took the same week off work – fabulous!
• our freezers are full of bison meat again - hooray!
• Madeline had her hair cut quite short (still asymmetrical) – looks great!
• Madeline scored her first goal in ringette – she was SO determined!
• Georgia lost her top right incisor – super cute!
• very nice weather; just a few cold days
• L&B's car accident on February 28 - a police car responding to a 911 call hit them head on (squarely, in Laurel's lane) – they each have a broken collar bone and Laurel has a very injured foot (big toe was dislocated and ligaments torn) - we're thankful they're ALIVE; their 2010 Ford Edge performed extremely well.