Project 365 and One Little Word

After a lot of deliberation, I've decided that my One Little Word for 2009 is Health. Sure, it's about physical well being. Everyone in the free world is resolving that this week and I'm no different. But I'd like my word to encompass more than that.  Mental health, financial health, emotional healthy, relationship health, keeping the whole family healthy... That's probably way too much for one little word to handle.  But I'll give it a go.

Have you heard of Project 365?  You take one photo a day for a year.  It sounded daunting until I realized that I carry the camera everywhere I go anyway.  I took 190 photos in September 2008 alone.  So 365 in a year should be pretty easy.  We'll see!  Click on the Flickr badge on the left to follow along.

Typical Monday

Here is May's 12 of 12 layout:

The journaling reads:
Just the usual weekday around here…
1. making P.’s vitamin mix
2. packing lunches
3. reading for half an hour over my own breakfast once the boys have gone to school
4. lots of errands: visit to the JCC to see if we
want to join, the library, grocery shopping
5. gotta have my Tim Horton’s tea. $1.65 may
seem a lot for some hot water and a tea bag,
but it is soooo good and since I’ve cut back
to one cup a day, I feel justified!
6. went to the BAC for the first time in 2 weeks and managed to stay on the Stairmaster for 15 minutes!
7. waiting for the school buses
8. P.’s school had a flower sale for Mother’s Day. We sent in the money and he brought home the red one on Friday. This morning the bus driver said they had one leftover and did I order 2? I said no, I didn’t think so. Well, apparently I did, so the yellow one came home today. Poor Teri, she babysat this flower the whole weekend and all of Monday, keeping it alive. I tried to give it to her but she wouldn’t take it.
9. Signed up for Stacy’s “Have More Fun” class at BPS starting in July. I can’t wait!
10. Made a quick playground visit after dinner. We’re finding the boys sleep better if we do this and now that it is light out longer, they want some outside activity.
11. laundry, it never ends
12. stayed up too late watching a movie (Unconditional Love with Kathy Bates) sometimes Netflix is a bad thing

I'm not totally happy with how it came out, I had some cropping and sizing issues and I think that big green space at the top is distracting... Maybe I'll slap a big 'ol flower there or something. Or maybe not.

This is What Saturdays Look Like Here

I just joined a scrap challenge entitled "Twelve of Twelve" started by Susan. I found out about it from reading Cathy's blog. The premise is simple. On the 12th of each month, take 12 pictures of your everyday life and scrap them. Sounds fun, yes?

This is the first one I've done and I'll admit I didn't remember to take any photos until around 1:00. We're pretty laid back here on Saturdays and I've been wanting to do a layout about that for awhile, so it all worked out. Here's the layout:



And the explanation: Saturdays are all about relaxing in our house. The boys are worn out from school and I'm just plain worn out. So we spend the day (from left top to right bottom) making art, playing on the computer, going to playgrounds, having ice cream treats at our favorite local place, dog piling with Dad, reading (Quilter's Homecoming by J. Chiaverini), watching tv (Finding Nemo), logging into SparkPeople (yikes, I've used more than half my daily calories before lunch!), getting dressed at 2:21 (usually when D. gets home from work and says "you're STILL in your pajamas?!") going to dinner for spaghetti at another favorite local place, drinking a lot of tea, and reading Simple Scrapbooks before bed.


Sounds like a pretty good Saturday to me.

The UPS Man Thinks I'm Psychic

A few months ago I pre-ordered this book, mostly so I wouldn't have to try and remember it later when it was actually ready to ship. Today I realized that it should be arriving soon. While I was standing in the driveway waiting for P.'s bus to arrive, the UPS truck came rumbling down the street. "Oh" I thought "here comes the UPS man now to bring me my new book." And wouldn't you know it, that is exactly what he was doing! He was a little freaked out that I was standing in the driveway though.

So if anybody would like me to predict their future, the sex of their unborn baby or what stock is going to hit it big next -- you know where to find me :-D

Six Things

Six Things About You @ Age 6

Your current favorite food is meatballs, with or without sauce

You come into the bedroom every morning to snuggle and you get mad if I'm already up

You like to call us continuously "Mom! Daddy!" for no real reason, just to make sure we're still there

Sometimes you just start singing out of happiness

Lately you have been shouting "NO!" really loud in your sleep. Or laughing.

You love swimming! You just went to no bubbles at swimming lessons.

You are very sensitive

You love to create art

Your current favorites are Ben10 and Thunderbirds

You love Tim Horton's donuts, especially vanilla dip

You take dinosaur chicken nuggets to school for lunch every day

You like to wear all the same color: red shirt, red pants, red socks

Lots of Random

This will be a whole lot of unrelated random stuff ...

I never got around to sending Christmas cards since I didn't have a recent picture of all of us and whenever anyone was around to take one, someone was missing. So they have turned into New Year's cards. But I still need someone to take the photo. Anyone want to come over and hold the camera? It still counts as Happy New Year if I get them out before Valentine's Day right? Edited 1/26/08: The cards are out! I mailed the last batch today. So look in your mailboxes loved ones!

And speaking of Valentine's, we got all the Christmas decorations put away and while I was at it I took the opportunity to put the boys' special ornaments into their own boxes with labels saying when they received them and from who. They got a lot of ornaments before they were even born! Then I figured I may as well reorganize all the other holiday decorations. The basement was full of things I hadn't put away from autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving and Easter was mingled in with St. Patrick's -- in short, the kind of task I love. The kind that is relatively unnecessary in the large scheme of things and therefore must take precedence over everything else. So now every event has its own little home. And I see that for an irish girl I am pathetically deficient on St. Patrick's Day decorations, but if I even think about acquiring any more Easter stuff you should cut off my marshmallow peep supply. I put up the Valentine decorations yesterday (you know M. was happy!) and even found some nifty blinking heart lights to put in the front windows. They look really neat at night.

We still haven't figured out what to do for M&P's birthday which is fast approaching. They have been to a few birthday parties for classmates at bounce houses and those kinds of places and I know they really want to have a "friend" party rather than the big family party we usually do (which considering it's mostly our friends that come I can totally understand). Most of the places I've checked into are reasonable in price if you break it all out but still more expensive than I was expecting. Or they have a big minimum to meet, like 15 or 20 kids. We could easily meet that if we invited everyone in both classes but do I really want to be in close proximity to 30 six-year-olds on a sugar or adrenaline high? We could do something at home with fewer kids. Or take a few kids to an activity like bowling. They seem to be happy with either option so long as there is cake, ice cream and friends. What to do, what to do?

Still working on getting the blasted wallpaper off in the hallway. Scraping it with a razor blade is the only thing that is getting it off so it's slow going. Now I wonder if we should keep going or just put up 1/4" wallboard over the whole thing or wainscoting or something. And if I even mention putting wallpaper up in the next 50 years, you have permission to make me eat paste.

Have you heard about one little word? This is something that Ali Edwards started a few years ago on her blog and it has caught on with a lot of people. I was intrigued by it and thought about what my word for the year should be. Possible candidates were joy, love, share, create & simplify but I think my word is going to be BEGIN. Kind of a strange word to focus on for the year I know, but my reasoning is that a lot of what I want to accomplish doesn't get done because of my tendency towards procrastination. When I finally get started (wallpaper notwithstanding) I find the task I've been putting off takes a very short time and I'm left wondering what took me so long? So this year I am going to remind myself to just BEGIN. Even if something takes a long time to complete, it'll never get done unless I start. So whether it's laundry, losing 30 pounds or organizing the closets, this is the year that I am going to take a deep breath and just get started. Wish me luck!

There is also something called the 365 photo challenge, which is basically taking one photo a day for an entire year. I'm intrigued by this too, but not going to do it this year. Maybe I'll try and commit to doing a whole month first...

I've been participating in the Layout a Day (LOAD) Challenge over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Due to a bout of stomach flu and other stuff I haven't been posting or even doing a layout a day, but when I get going I scrap 8 or 9 at once so I'm still caught up. There are more than 2000 scrappers participating and 14,000 (yes you read that right!) layouts posted to the gallery. As a relatively new scrapper, I haven't done this many layouts ever, never mind all in one month. And I'm trying very hard to use the supplies I have already acquired and not buy anything new except adhesive. So far so good since I got a new goodie fix due to a Christmas gift from my niece. Thanks H! I'm having lots of fun with this and getting a lot of ideas and inspiration as well, so thanks to Lain for doing this for all of us! If I figure out how to post a separate photo album on here, I'll put up some photos. Edited: There is now a Flickr badge to the left! And here is a link to the photo album there if you want a closer look.

My new-to-me tv find is Heroes. Love it! I could have done without the graphic violence in the first few episodes though. I love how with each episode there are twists & turns -- "he's a bad guy, no wait, is he a good guy, no, maybe he is a bad guy, just what is going on here?!" What super power would you like to have? I think I'd like to multiply myself to get more done and still be able to sleep 12 hours a night :-D

Speaking of sleeping, did you ever have one of those nights where you keep having bizarro dreams and end up awake imagining all kinds of scenarios that will never ever happen but that you now feel prepared to handle? It's not just me, right?

Swimming lessons started up again last week. P. is in his element, so excited when he realized where we were going. They are "lobsters" this go round which means that they are in the pool on their own with the instructors and Mom & Dad do not have to get in the pool. (Yay!) And they both did a very good job listening to the instructors so that was a big sigh of relief for us. We were running late (as usual) and halfway across the parking lot I realized that P. was missing a shoe. Ok, that's not uncommon, he takes his shoes off all the time. At least he kept the sock on. We go back to the car and I can't find the shoe. Thankfully there is no snow and it's relatively warm, and hey, we've already been across the parking lot once, so we just go in without it. Once D. arrives and they have started their lesson, I go back out to do a more thorough search. I find several empty Tim Horton bags, lots of broken crayons, a full juice box, some knights that have been missing from the castle playset and lots of dried up raisins. No shoe. Now I am panicking a bit. They are brand new and cost $55! Where is that shoe? Would Stride Right possibly let me buy a left shoe for half price? He couldn't have thrown it out the window because now that he's figured out what that button is for I have the parental window lock on. I search the cargo area of the car and find several dirty socks, some empty plastic bags, lots of emergency gear, and the container of dish detergent I forgot to bring in from the last trip to BJs. Now I am questioning my own sanity and powers of memory, did I even put the 2nd shoe on him? D. thinks I am a nut and volunteers to go look for the shoe since he often finds the thing I swear is lost forever. But he doesn't find it either. All the way home I am going a bit loopy thinking about the shoe. M. suggests I pray to "that saint guy." What the heck, we all say the poem and ask St. Tony to have a look-see around and get back to us. When we get home, there is the shoe, tangled up in the hallway rug. It must have come off as I herded everyone towards the garage. Where was it that I go to apply for the "most observant mother" award?

Twitterpated

A few new things I'm loving:

These have been heavily advertised in the scrapping magazines for months and I have been anxious to get a look at them. Finally, they are available and oh so cute! I've got a few of the "Believe" ones for Christmas projects but I can't tell you any more in case the recipients are listening...

How can a magazine junkie and organizing freak not love this?All kinds of tips, tricks, storage containers and interviews with organized people I aspire to be like. I'm putting a subscription on my wish list for Santa.

The two classes I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. One is gift projects that can be made in two hours or less. Lots of inspiration, doable projects and gifts that people will actually use! Just what I needed to get the holiday gift giving season rolling. The other class is on wellness. More inspiration, tips on exercise and nutrition, and the knowledge that lots of other women are struggling with the same things I am. I've renewed my commitment to getting healthy. My classmates are very inspiring and giving ladies, I am getting so much from visiting the galleries and message boards every day -- I've done more layouts this past two weeks than I've done in 6 months. Gotta love it when creativity and practicality merge. Thanks Kolette & Lisa!

And I'm very excited about these returning favorites:

I was a late convert to Project Runway since we don't have regular tv (long story). But once I found the DVDs on Netflix, I was hooked and having fashion marathons after the boys went to bed. (Isn't it every girl's dream at some point to be a fashion designer? It seems to be the natural evolution from ballerina.) The Season 3 DVD just came out last week and I'm halfway through (don't tell me who won). Season 4 starts tonight and I need to find someone with cable to go watch with because no way am I waiting a year to see it. D. doesn't get the whole attraction and keeps telling me to go to bed and get some sleep already. But then, but he's not a woman or a gay man (thank goodness). :-D May I say how much I adore Tim Gunn? I can?Ok. I absolutely adore Tim Gunn.

Victoria has returned! What a surprise that was at the magazine section of Wegman's. Oh, did I mourn this magazine's passing. I loved everything about it: the photography, the articles, the recipes, the gentility, the Victoria of it all. Now it's back and it looks exactly the same. It's like being in a time warp, but in a really good way. Maybe this should go on my Santa wish list too.

Command Central

M. stayed home from school today with a fever, so my plans of stripping wallpaper were pretty much shot (I was really heartbroken). As anyone with a sick child knows, they don't want you too far out of range. So we snuggled on the couch and watched a movie (Dreamer - really good!) and later we did some art projects.

I found this quiz the other day on one of my favorite organizing websites. Fun, but a bit disconcerting when I realized that I am essentially all of these except The Rebel. Hoarder - yup, that's my craft area(s)! Deferrer - yup, I can procrastinate with the best of 'em. Perfectionist - well, I am a Virgo. And the blog title says it all. Sentimentalist - uh huh!

So with that in mind, and since I wasn't going to get much done today otherwise, I decided to tidy up and reorganize the "command central" area of the kitchen. There was so much stuff stuck to the refrigerator I had no idea what any of it was anymore and every time you walked by something would fall off it. I took everything off and organized the papers into folders: M's school handbook and papers, P's school handbook and papers (they go to different schools in different districts), separate homework folders for both boys, appointments and events (that little pocket on the calendar wasn't big enough), & all the papers I need for Room Mom duties. That all got organized in a nifty super-strong magnetic holder next to the calendar. Then I redid two little photo calendars: one for P. so he knows whether today is a school day or a pajama-weekend day and one so we can remember what to bring to school on what day (library book, show & tell, etc).

I had revamped my Tea Towel Cleaning Schedule a bit and printed it onto cardstock last week, so I made that into little cards for each day, as well as lists of monthly and seasonal cleaning chores (with input from the same organizing site and this one. I lost my shopping lists when the old hard drive croaked so I redid those too. And my menu lists. I put all of it in plastic envelopes that I put sticky magnets on and dressed up with some stickers from my scrapbooking stash.

Why yes, I do have too much time on my hands, why do you ask?

Obsession, you are my Obsession...

I just got the way fun issue of Scrapbook Play. One of the prompts is to do a page about one of your obsessions. Great idea! But which one? Over the years, there have been the celebrity obsessions (Shaun Cassidy, Adrian Paul), the food obsessions (Oregon Chai Cider, Nutella, Cadbury Dairy Milk -- why haven't I got an exercise obsession to go with this?), the tv show obsessions (Highlander, Dark Knight, Days of our Lives), the book/author obsessions (Margaret George, Maeve Binchy, Diana Gabaldon), the hobby obsession (cross stitch, crazy quilting, scrapbooking), the shoe obsession, and so on and so forth. But I think I have to go with the big one, the one that started it all:

When I was 11 or 12 I had a huge crush on the Bay City Rollers. They were five guys from Scotland doing remakes of "Bye Bye Baby" and "Saturday Night" (though I didn't know they were remakes at the time). I loved to hear them talk even though I only understood about one word in ten. I subscribed to Tiger Beat magazine to read all about them. I bought all their albums, including the special order European releases. I hung posters (from Tiger Beat) on every square inch of my half of the bedroom even though my sister said that she couldn’t get dressed in there because of all the eyes looking down at her (love ya, D!). I knew all the words to the “B” side songs. My friends and I would stay up 'til 1:00 a.m. to see them on the music show that came on after Saturday Night Live (what was the name of that show?) And most embarrassing of all, I convinced Mom to sew me an outfit like theirs. It consisted of white denim capris (before capris existed, when they were called "highwaters" or "flood pants") hemmed in red plaid with a jacket to match. Completing this lovely ensemble were striped socks, high-top sneakers and a scarf in a contrasting green plaid. I actually walked around town like that. I’m surprised I didn’t cause car accidents.

Alan Longmuir was my favorite Roller. He was the oldest in the band, 26. Besides being very cute, he had that older man allure and as I said, there was the accent thing. I remember thinking that when we were older no one would even mention the 14 years age difference. As if. This crush/obsession lasted much longer for me than it did for my classmates. I think I finally realized they were uncool in ninth grade. By then I was into Shaun Cassidy and fighting my brother for the tv on Sunday nights to watch Hardy Boys. (Are you starting to see a pattern here?) I remember overhearing my grandmother ask Mom when I was going to grow out of all this and thinking “Grow out of it? I will feel this way FOREVER.” Well, thank god that particular forever was short-lived.

So now on the far far far end of that obsession, I wonder how it must have felt for them? Was it hard to walk around in those bizarre clothes, belting out songs to screaming 12 year olds? As men in their mid-20's I have to think (hope!) it was just a little too creepifying. Or were they just riding the gravy train as long as possible so they had enough money to do what they *really* wanted to do? My beloved Alan would be about 58 now and I was right: no one would comment on the age difference at all. I wonder if he still has all his hair?