Tuesday, May 31, 2011

May 2011 Recap

[Added late - oops it really has come and gone! Time to recap our life!

So why do I do this? First of all my memory is terrible and often find myself wondering when such and such happened. Second of all I love lists and information. Third of all I believe I am a type A personality. Enough said.

Here's a look at our month:

Entertainment - what we’re looking at , listening to and going to!
Books, Magazines, Blogs read:
· ebook Simple Mom; listening to Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
· top 10 blogs plus new link to http://www.zerowastehome.blogspot.com/ – all consuming!
TV, Movies, Live Entertainment:
· Not a lot of Entertainment this month! - Being Erica, Arrested Development;
· Listening to - More Hip than Hippie podcast, Paperclipping podcasts;

Daily Happenings & Special Events:
· Watched church baseball team as a family (9th)
· Marlee to Carter’s birthday party (13th) – gave ‘doh’ gift
· MOPS finished up
· Cierra’s 21st birthday at Moose Winnoosky’s with family and friends (19th)(list for birthday gifts)
· Sean’s birthday (Drew gave golf balls at end of month)
· Ottawa trip for Drew and G’s half marathon run (28th-30th)

Travel (1 hr plus) - Ottawa

Financial/ changes to the house etc.:(gifts, renos, big purchases, household purchases)
· Not much this month (gifts see above)!

Health/ Development/ Exercise/ Extra Curricular Activities:
Drew: basketball; running, half marathon; 2 yr follow-up appointment – leg
Alison: *, elliptical, running, dentist
Cierra: dentist
Matt: ball hockey, baseball, church drama
Marlee: church dramaMitchell: doing well, sleep schedule still the same (down at 9, up a few times through the night with us, up at 7ish and down for 2-3 hour nap at 9:15); eating well; still creeping; happy-go-lucky!

Accomplishments/ Disappointments (Goals - Gotta Do’s, Wanna do’s; OLW, projects)
· LOAD211
· LOTS of purging!
· Trying new recipes – Butternut squash in the amish muffins – not a great hit especially when the loaf isn’t fully cooked!

All Around Us/ Other (News, Trends, Births, Deaths, World Events, City News Etc): nothing comes to mind!

Phew - glad to get that down!

Friday, May 20, 2011

LOAD1105 - Day 20 and all about today...

It was such an amazing day out today that I left scrapbooking until the very end, and I am tired so a few more quickies for the neighbourhood album were all I was inspired to do.





perhaps not a lot of scrapbooking but today I...


  • got 15 minutes of elliptical in before M3 woke up at 7:03 (PS - C was downstairs at 6:03 dressed, eating breakfast and I think there might have been dishes she put away - WHAT TIME DID SHE GET UP??? her alarm is supposed to go at 5:45!)

  • Got C off to school

  • took the kids to school (A-day)

  • went for a walk with M3 (30 minutes)

  • took out lots of dandelions in front and back yard

  • raked out dirt in back yard and added some to garden bed

  • got first ever harvest of asparagus (some had already bolted)

  • cleaned up the garage a bit more

  • set up the posts for the garden trellis

  • sat with M3 who fell asleep

  • M3 wouldn't transfer so I thought a drive would help

  • ended up at Bradford Greenhouse (still not asleep) and bought veggie plants for the garden (super busy there!)

  • forgot my gift card in my pants pocket but bought everything anyway ($115)

  • M3 still not asleep but in a good mood

  • logged C's birthday gifts

  • made lunch

  • ate most of lunch and read ZeroWaste blog

  • C came home and got her ready to go to mom's and snack ready for school

  • went to school and played at park until 4pm

  • dc kids picked up at school

  • walked home (M3 fell asleep)

  • made dinner for M2 who was going to bowling invite with a friend

  • drove M2 (with everyone) to bowling for 5:30 (M3 transferred and went back to sleep)

  • stopped at park with kids on way for 10 minutes

  • yelled at kids who were rude to kids at the park

  • cleaned up garage more and watched kids play baseball in driveway

  • missed DC kids mom when we got home

  • got pizza from kids mom

  • left my kids with DC kids mom while I went to get M2

  • took longer then I should of to get M2 (who looked SO CUTE bowling - stylin! outfit and COOL bowling shoes I might add!!!)

  • had to get gas since I was on empty

  • returned overdue book of Drew's to library

  • sat with friend and neighbour for a few minutes, friend left, neighbour stayed, played in back yard with kids

  • neighbours went home, kids went up to bath

  • bathed, quick hugs, prayers and into bed!

  • dozed with M3

  • woke up at 10:16 - LOAD!

  • now sidetracked and time for bed.

and as for tomorrow? hopefully...



  • plants in garden with trellis and tunnels finished?

  • basketball net and tether ball set installed???

  • M2 to play date and then sleepover at DIL

  • scrapping for me?

That's enough for now!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

T's house - LOAD1105 - Day19

Another quickie tonight as we were out celebrating C's birthday. More will follow on that. Otherwise, here is another addition to my childhood neighbourhood memory album.




TFL!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Body for Life

Do you remember this book?


I bought it, I read it, I even followed it for quite a while.


And I bought the products.




This was about 9 - 10 years ago I think? and then I got pregnant and thought about putting those products in my body with a baby and decided it would wait.


So it has waited. And off and on I have been pregnant or nursing and still not wanting to put it into my body (most of the products had aspartame as well as too-hard-to-name ingredients). Through it all, I've had a box sitting in my pantry waiting to be used up. Because of course I paid good money and well...




The time came today. I dumped it all. And I almost cried when I saw how much I paid for this stuff. One was $39.99 on sale from $59.99


and one


was $99.99!!!!! It wasn't even opened!!!


All I have to say is WHAT WAS I THINKING? I spend how much?






Crazy! And all it really takes to take care of your body is to eat healthy foods - less (or better yet no) packaged foods, normal portion sizes (for me this means less than what I am currently eating) and regular exercise (again for me this means MORE).




Ahh the expensive lessons learned.

May Good Food Box

I picked up my May Good Food Box yesterday. As usual, a plethera of goodness for only $10.

We got:


  • 10lbs potatoes

  • 1 head of romaine lettuce

  • 2lb bag of carrots

  • 1 cucumber

  • 1 bunch of green onions

  • 1 bunch of asparagus

  • 1 tomato

  • 1 bulb of garlic

  • 1 pineapple

  • 1 lemon

  • 2 oranges

Yummy goodness! This goes along well with all the reading I've been doing lately about eating local, eating fresh and eating in season.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Greenfield Park - LOAD1105 - Day 15

An easy digital one today to add to our "New-to-us Parks Album". TFL!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Food from the USA - LOAD1105 - Day 11

Another day of not following the prompt (make a black & white LO or use a b&w photo) but I started this yesterday and wanted to finish... click for the journaling.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

the big snowball - LOAD1105 - Day10

I didn't follow the prompt today (using colour in nature...) but I did finish another on my to do list!

Monday, May 9, 2011

LOAD1105 Day 9


Just a quick and easy one today to add to my childhood neighbourhood album... the prompt was to use a colour from a colour swatch. My eye was drawn to the sage colour but I wasn't inspired with any of my photos to go in that direction.







Sunday, May 8, 2011

First day of school - LOAD1105 Day 8web

We were supposed to enhance your page topic/theme by careful selection of colors. FUN!
I went with shades of green for the grass, new and learning...

Friday, May 6, 2011

Summer Camp '06 - LOAD1105 - Day6

Today was all about alignment - even spaces between the parts.

Three down and just 2007 and 2010 to go for our summer camp book. So fun to see the changes over the years!

New shades

Buddy boy is sporting some new shades and actually keeping them on!


(these are a la Marlee since he threw his last ones out of the stroller and they got run over).


Somehow I think they kind of suit him!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

September 2010 - LOAD1105 - Day5



Using a visual triangle... This is fairly self explanatory. I'm trying to go back and do monthly layouts...that may eventually get into a book?
Tfl!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Hi Ya! LOAD1105 - Day4


Hi Ya! LOAD1105 - Day4
Originally uploaded by Alijoyc
The prompt today was to use white space - definitely something I do a lot of. This was a quick 15 minute layout from Scraphappy.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Glasses - LOAD1105 Day3


The Glasses - LOAD1105 Day3
Originally uploaded by Alijoyc
Today's prompt was about emphasis. I started off thinking about the flower cluster but just got going with it. It's not quite on task but hey, it's done!

Monday, May 2, 2011

2010 Technology faves - LOAD511 Day2

A little lift from my favourite ebook by Ella Publishing. I hope to get a few more done from their Year in the Life publication.
TFL!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Theresa Street - LOAD1105 Day1b


2011 05 01 Theresa Street
Originally uploaded by Alijoyc
I added another quickie since my post on flickr showed yesterday's date even though it was after midnight here. This is another addition to my childhood nighbourhood album.

H's House - LOAD1105 - Day1


2011 05 01 H's house
Originally uploaded by Alijoyc
Day1 for May 2011 LOAD! I'm hoping to finish up my album on my childhood neighbourhood and all the memories that come to mind. Thanks to an easy formula, these can be used when I need to do a quick layout and upload.

April 2011 Recap

It’s time to recap all that has happened during the month of April. Hopefully I'll get a page or an update on specifics somewhere along the line as well.

Why do I do this? First of all my memory is terrible and often find myself wondering when such and such happened. Second of all I love lists and information. Third of all I believe I am a type A personality. Enough said.

Here's a look at our month:
Books, Magazines, Blogs read:
· Poisonwood Bible (audio book) – very interesting book. I have to say that I had no idea of the premise of the book and was therefore quite shocked by the end of it. I find it similar to our own nations treatment of Native Canadians.
· Happiness Project (book) – LOVED this. So much of what she said rang true with me. I believe we are of a similar temperament. This was extremely timely for me with my “One Little Word” being joy as the two are often used interchangeably. I found lots of things that I can use for this journey. Her website is also a great source of information. The biggest thing that she learned and I happen to believe works for me as well is the accountability – lists, charts, check-offs. If I want to set a goal I need to have a daily, visual reminder of it and check off my accomplishments.
· Life Artist by Ali Edwards (book) – LOVED this too. I love her vision of instead of just being a scrapbooker, we are life artists. That works with me. She has an amazing outlook on life and a lot of incredible projects that will be put on my someday list. I love her clean and simple style that usually celebrates everyday life.
· I found time of course for my top 10 blogs and am always getting rerouted to new interesting ones too.

TV, Movies, Live Entertainment:
· Not a lot of TV this month – Being Erica, Arrested Development
· Blue Jays game – Rogers Stadium with small group families (3rd)
· Fashion Show/ Silent Auction for work (28th)

Special Events:
· Blue Jays game (3rd)
· Out for dinner with G’s (Tattingers) (5th)
· Cierra attended a bday party at Retro Planet (8th)
· Matt had a craft bee and barn dance at school (12th)
· Adult Drama at church (16th weekend)
· Travel to see Sarah, John and Macy (22nd – 27th)

Travel:
· Travelled to see Sarah, John and Macy in South Carolina (went through PA, OH, VA, WV, TE, NC, SC, Maryland****). We had a great time although it was way too short. We are obviously not good at predicting travelling distances. 2 days to get there, 2 days there and 2 days to get back. Next time we'll have to stay longer. The travelling was great - lots to see and do - travel BINGO was a huge hit. We also tried to stay at restaurants rather than fast food places and also allow for some down time in the evening at nicer hotels with pools and fitness rooms, sot his all added to our travel time. While we were there we celebrated Easter at their church with a big pancake breakfast, took in a boat ride with John's relatives, explored their neighbourhood and relaxed. The drive home was a tad more rushed as we took larger motorways but it was still scenic and the kids tolerated it well. With a little more organization around home daycare I could see this becoming a yearly event??? The weather was certainly more inviting to say nothing about the chance to visit with family.

Financial/ changes to the house etc.: (gifts, renos, big purchases, household purchases)
· Cierra gave a movie gift certificate for her friends birthday
· Made a dinner for parents for the 3rd time P’s
· Money towards hockey equipment for Samantha’s 9th birthday

Health/ Exercise: (health, extra curricular activities, development)
Drew: running and basketball
Alison: exercise, *
Cierra: *
Matt: power skating; ball hockey; baseball
Marlee: n/a
Mitchell: 22lbs-6oz; 2 needles (no crying!)(12th); standing independently, not making steps though; EC – exerting his independence – not wanting to sit still much so we are in diapers much more right now – using about 40/wk; making a lot of grunting noises for communicating – very little signs although we do understand him; sleeping fairly similar to last month; did very well on travel – generally a 3-4hr schedule for us all.

Accomplishments/ Disappointments (Goals): (Gotta Do’s, Wanna do’s; Projects - OLW etc)
Gotta Do’s
· #33 - Restaurants – Tattingers (5th); West Wing (12th)
· #100 - New USA states – West Virginia;
· #62 - Collect faucet “run-off”
OLW – trying to get caught up on the prompts and actually put them together


All Around Us/ Other (News, Trends Etc): births, deaths, world events, city news,
P family had their healthy baby girl!