Week in the Life™ 2018 – Sunday

I am caught up and it feels so good. I am sharing my last day – Sunday. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mother’s who might be reading this. I hope your day was filled with love. I had a lovely day, doing all sorts of Sunday activities. I am happy that this week has come to a close and so happy with all the everyday life I was able to capture this week.

Next week I will begin to put my album together. I am going with the 3×8 album this year and using both the digital and physical Week in the Life kits. I will share more of my completed album once I get it started. If you are new to this project or just wanting to see more check out Ali Edwards site here and find tons of inspiration here.

 

Loving waking up with strict instructions from this girl to stay in bed. She brought her gifts up to me. I LOVE this age. She made me a book and filled out an all about Mom sheet and coloured me a picture and a painting and they planted some seeds at school. She was most excited about the plant – but was equally excited about all the other things she created. Her creativity is so awesome. Here she was reading one of the stories to me.

Loving being all together today and getting to do the things we love.

Loving this girl, always. She give the very best hugs. She was super excited that is was Mother’s Day at last.

Loving how she always wants to help. Pancakes again this morning for us all. She was happy to help with the pouring and stirring.

Loving being all together in the kitchen making a family breakfast.

Loving this face, pout and all. She was upset that she didn’t get all the pancakes, but her pout melted pretty fast when she realized we were making more.

Loving this slow Sunday breakfast together. (The focus was way off on this photo, but I like the blurred effect and am just going with it.)

Loving her. The smile has returned. I am so lucky to get to be her Mama.

Loving creative time. I spent some time uploading and editing photos to catch up on the last few days of this project and Stella did some creative crafting of her own.

Loving these flowers from work and the sweet little plant from Stella this morning.

Loving more play time for Stella. We got ready for a trip to see Grandparents this afternoon and Stella played while we finish getting ready for the day.

Loving the beautiful weather and the lovely afternoon. I dropped Jason and Stella off for a visit with Jason’s parents and went for a visit with my great-aunt, then came back for a short visit with them too, before we all headed back home.

Loving the convenience of where we live. We live about 1 minute away from the grocery store so it’s always easy to stop in for whatever we need. We’ve go into the habit of picking up a few things each Sunday afternoon.

Loving the light. We got back home and I started dinner prep and putting groceries and clean dishes away.

Loving naps. Stella fell asleep on the way home again today, so Jason carried her inside for a few more minutes of sleep. She didn’t have the best behaviour this afternoon, so we knew a few extra minutes of sleep might be just what was needed.

Loving meal prep that will last for a few days. I spent some time making a couple meals and enough for a few days of lunches so we’d be heading into the week prepared.

Loving this.

Loving facetime with Nanny and Grampie. We wanted to wish Nanny a Happy Mother’s Day and Stella wanted to chat to them. She told them about the dog show we went to yesterday and how much she misses them.

After that it was bedtime, more photo editing and early to bed to start the new week.

 

Thanks so much for following along with my week.

Week in the Life™ 2018 – Saturday

I’m playing catch up today so I am back again sharing my Saturday words and photos. I ended up taking more photos today – more happens on the weekend for sure. Today was a mix of phone photos and camera photos.

Saturdays are for sleeping in and making pancakes. The girls were up EARLY, and they went to the play room and played together for a few hours before we got up.

Saturdays are for making coffee and taking time to notice. I was admiring these happy daisies.

Saturdays are for pancakes (even though we just ate them for dinner the night before). Protein pancakes are my new favourite!

Saturdays are for play. They didn’t even want to come upstairs to eat this morning, they were having so much fun playing together.

Saturdays are for noticing, again. We got our stuff together to head home, get showered and ready for the day ahead.

Saturdays are for more play. Around here play = more play. After playing with her friend all morning as soon as we arrived home, she ran up to her bedroom to play some more. I could hear her singing and chatting away in here.

Saturdays are for chores, always something to be done.

Saturdays are for simple lunches, Stella chooses to make a jam sandwich today and wants to do it herself.

Saturdays are for treats. Stella has a coconut square after eating her sandwich.

Saturdays are for taking adventures. I drive as we go to Bedford today to visit a dog show.

Saturdays are for family time. We are visiting with a dog breeder today at the dog show. Jason has been doing some research into different dog breeds that would be a good fit for our family.

Saturdays are for seeing something new. None of us have ever been to a dog show before, so we enjoy seeing all the dogs and how they perform.

Saturdays are for making discoveries. This is a Manchester Terrier, the dog Jason wanted to meet. Jason talked with the breeders for a while, and Stella and I visited some of the other dogs.

Saturdays are for making new friends. Stella wanted to see all the dogs, and pat them and say hello. She was pretty excited to meet this St.Bernard, he loved having his belly rubbed.

Saturdays are for fun. After talking to the breeder, Jason wanted to see a bit of the show too.

Saturdays are for errands. After the show, we stopped to picked up things we needed from a supplement store we like.

Saturdays are for naps. Stella fell asleep on our way home in the car.

Saturdays are for movie nights. We all watched a movie together and let Stella stay up later than usual because of the car nap she had earlier, she liked being very still and quiet, so we might not realize she was still awake.

 

And that is a wrap for our Saturday. One more day to go!!

 

 

Week in the Life™ 2018 – Friday

I’m back sharing my words and photos from Friday, this week actually is going by faster that I thought it would. Bring on the weekend with slower days, less routine and more adventures.

I want to remember how light it is when I get back from my early morning runs now. I get up at 5:00 (on the days I get out of bed) , throw on my running clothes and head out the door. It’s still mostly dark when I first leave the house, this is my view from the front step when I got home.

I want to remember how great I feel when I complete a successful run in the early morning, it is such a great way to start the day.

I want to remember how much I love listening to music when I run, for a long time I have just ran without anything, listening to the sounds around me and my own head, but I was ready for a change up and a new playlist and I loved it.

I want to remember that almost everyday when Stella is getting ready for school she asks me if she can take a couple toys with her in her backpack that she will keep there until after school, and she can play with them at Jenna’s. Today she is choosing which LOL dolls to take with her.

I want to remember Fridays at work are a mix of good and slow. I love having days to get caught up with no out of office appointments, but on Fridays is does make for a slow day. This morning I spent some time getting my newly wiped computer set back up the way I am used to.

I want to remember lunch time with my work people. Today I lunched with Kim and Erin – we took a long Friday lunch and chatted about a lot of the roles in the office and who does what.

I want to remember the beautiful weather we’ve been having and how much I love getting out of the office for a walk when I have time. Also, casual Friday for the win!

I want to remember the commute home with this guy, I am so thankful he does the afternoon drive. I want to remember how he always has so much to tell me each day on the way home about his day.

I want to remember how much I love hugs. Today we got home, rushed around packing a few things up and then Stella and I headed out to go to the valley to spend the night with friends. Here we were saying goodbye for the night. Photo by Stella (photo idea from #weekinthelife on instagram).

I want to remember how much fun these two sweet friends have together. We are heading to a spring fling. Stella, clearly, was not super enthused about another photo – I wonder why? (ha!)

I want to remember these two running around, climbing on the rocks and picking dandelions. Stella was SO excited when we drove in their driveway and they had tons of dandelions in the yard.

I want to remember the simple joy that comes from free play on the playground. We arrived at the spring fling and it was held outdoors, the girls wanted to do one activity (bouncy castle) and spent the rest of the time just playing on the playground.

I want to remember this – time with my girl. I asked if we could take a quick picture. She decided to pose like this.

I want to remember how much fun we have together and how thankful I am for her friendship every day. We make time together a priority and I am thankful to have her in my life.

I want to remember how grateful we are when the girls are tucked in bed and we can get down to the business of catching up. After a whirlwind evening we finally get back to her place and make a late supper- pancakes are always a good idea!

And that wraps up Friday. Happy Weekend Friends!

 

Week in the Life™ 2018 – Thursday

Hello again,

I’m back today sharing Thursday words and photos. I most definitely took less photos today (and all but one photo are from my phone) but still soldiering on and I’m happy that I got what I got.

I am thankful for this warm cozy robe that makes getting up on the chilly mornings just a tiny bit easier.

I am thankful for morning routines. After showering, I came downstairs and Stella was eating her breakfast – toast this morning for her.

I am thankful that she is willing to let me do her hair each morning, for a very long time it was a fight every morning to just get her hair brushed (some days that still happens). Today she requested a bun. She also likes when I take photos of the back of her hair so she can see what it looks like.

I am thankful for this sweet silly smiling 6 year old every single day.

I am thankful for slow mornings to get caught up on paperwork. I still had no computer this morning when I first arrived at work, but it was returned shortly after.

I am thankful for days that call for celebration. Today was a rainy overcast chilly day, but we were having a tea party for my seniors group and that called for dressing up.

I am thankful for this seniors group I get to come to each Thursday. I love the people, I love the relationships and I love our amazing volunteers.

I am thankful that Jason was driving home today. It was a fun, but tiring day and I was more than ready to relax for the commute home.

I am thankful for downtime. We made a quick dinner of leftovers and then both ended up relaxing on the couch for a little while.

I am thankful for this. At the end of the day, I love changing into my lounge clothes and getting to chill. I am thankful for slow evenings at home with no plans.

I am thankful for these two, who always like to have fun, and laugh and joke and play wrestle. Giggles can be heard all through our house when they are playing.

I am thankful for reading time and nightly practice.

After bedtime and tuck in, I spent the rest of the evening uploading and editing photos, working on this blog post and then a little reading before heading to bed.

 

Week in the Life™ 2018 – Wednesday

Hello! I am back sharing my Wednesday words and photos. Today was definitely a little harder for me. I don’t love my photos as much as the other two days. It wasn’t a very typical day and the day just did not lend itself to to taking as many photos, but there is always an ebb and flow with this project so I am rolling with it. Tomorrow I will try again.

Around here I did not set my alarm because I knew I was working from home today. Stella was my alarm when she came in to snuggle around 6:30 am.

Around here it was a shower day for Stella, Jason got the shower ready and I helped her get out and dried off. I love how much more she is able to do independently, but she still always asks for help drying off.

Around here these two ate breakfast together again. Stella loves to get “Daddy’s spot” at the table for breakfast.

Around here Stella is able to brush her teeth on her own, but still needs lots of prompting to do it. After brushing, I did her hair, she requested two pony tails again this morning.

Around here I took her to the bus stop again this morning. She allowed me to take another photo. LOVE this smiling face!

Around here I worked from home today which meant I had time for a run after taking Stella to the bus. Morning is my favourite time of day to get out for a run. Today was more of a walk/run. I’m slowly trying to build my distance back up.

Around here I am eating eggs (again) with salsa and toast and peanut butter for breakfast. I was hungry and more than ready to eat after my run.

Around here I finally make it to the shower after checking some e-mail and doing some planning for a program I am coordinating tomorrow.

Around here I am back at the computer. More work.

Around here I decide to eat lunch around 1:00. Lunch today is leftovers from last night – chicken and sweet potato.

Around here I finally get ready and leave the house. First I stop at the grocery store – protein bars and fish oil vitamins.

Around here I am attending a community consultation this afternoon as part of some volunteer work I do on my local community health board.

Around here after the community consultation, we go into our regular monthly board meeting. We eat dinner together and then meet for a few hours.

Around here I am happy to be heading home after what feels like a very long meeting. I am thankful for lots of daylight.

Around here Jason is watching a documentary and Stella is asleep in bed. I am happy to be back home.

I spend some time uploading and editing today’s photos and work on this blog post and then will be off to bed.

 

 

Week in the Life™ – Tuesday

Hello Friends I am back today sharing my words and photos for Tuesday. Today I tried to think about what I might have missed yesterday, but also just noticed what our day looked like.

Today I woke up with the alarm at 6:00, I didn’t really want to get up this morning. I eventually crawled out of bed and got in the shower.

Today I came downstairs and found these two at the table eating their breakfast (cereal for them both today) and I started making my breakfast.

Today I cooked scrambled eggs and turkey bacon. I usually always have eggs for breakfast.

Today I got to take Stella to the bus stop. I always like this few minutes of fresh air and time alone with my girl to start off the day. I’m so thankful she still enjoys having her picture taken.

Today (and everyday that I take Stella to the bus) I cross the street to walk back home and Stella always waves to me as the bus drives away.

Today my computer is being fixed (it has a virus and needs to be completely wiped) so I am out of the office most of the day. I went in for a bit in the morning, then was out for a community meeting. I went back for a quick lunch and now I am at Costco, picking up a couple things for a work program on Thursday and the rest groceries for us.

Today I have two home visits this afternoon, I arrive early to meet a volunteer and spend the time waiting reading my book – I try to always bring a book with me in case I get a few extra minutes in my day to read.

Today Jenna sends me this photo of Stella and all the other daycare kids getting off the bus, I love this little glimpse in her day.

Today I drive home early (no computer at work) after two visits in the community. It is so great to have the sun shining.

Today I stop to check the mail before going home, nothing too exciting- mostly junk mail and bank statements.

Today I gave up my morning tea, this is very likely why I ended up with a huge headache most of the day. I decided to try to get a quick nap before picking up Stella.

Today I picked up Stella from Jenna’s. I felt 100x better after a nap and ready for our evening adventures. She is always happy to see us, and usually has one of two drawings to share with me. Today she gave me a drawing of a shooting star.

Today I prep and cook dinner while waiting for Jason to get home from work. He is a little late today because he had an errand to run after work.

Today Stella eats ahead of us, she is usually hungry and very ready to eat when we pick her up. I take this photo of her eating and talking and imagining.

Today she is super happy.

Today Jason gets home and looks through the mail and we chat about our days.

Today Stella and I read on the couch right after we clear up from dinner. She has a couple new books she wants to share with me today. She has been working really hard with her reading and we are so proud of her.

Today Jason has boxing class, he comes and chats with me for a few minutes before he has to leave. Love him.

Today while we are chatting, Stella comes down to play. They have the best relationship and I love capturing them together.

Today I tuck Stella into bed, she always asks for a song and she usually asks to snuggle. I agree to both and she tells me a story about her day. She falls asleep in no time.

Today I head down to the basement for a home workout. I play some music to keep me going.

After that I upload and edit my photos, and when Jason gets home we watch a documentary together about Crossfit while I am editing.

 

Week in the Life™ 2018 Monday

Hello friends,

I have been MIA from this space for a while, but happy to be back here this week recording Week in the Life™. I am participating in this week long documentary project created by Ali Edwards this week along with her and this whole amazing rich abundant community of like minded story tellers and I am so happy to be right here, right now.

Today I am sharing my Monday words and photos.

 

Some days start with showers for all three of us. This morning Jason went first, then me and then Stella. A clean start to the week.

Most days I eat the same thing for breakfast – two pieces of back bacon and two hard boiled eggs. Jason has fried eggs and bacon and Stella eats cereal. Jason and I take turns making breakfast – who ever gets to the kitchen first gets things started.

Some days we need gas, when we do I run in to Tim Horton’s for a tea and Jason pumps gas.

Most days we travel to and from work together. I usually drive in and he drives home. Some days he needs the car and other days I do. This morning he takes the car after we arrive at my office.

Most days I save my tea to drink when I get to work – this is one of my favourite parts of the day.

Most days include some paper work at my desk, checking e-mails, voice mails and planning. Today is a mixture of all of these.

Some days I make a second tea to get me through the afternoon. Today called for a cup after lunch.

Most days lately have been getting so much nicer. Jenna sent me this photo of Stella playing outside after school.

Most days Jason fills me in on his day, while he drives us home from work.

Most days we pick up Stella from Jenna’s her after school care and she is excited to see us and tell us all about her daily adventures. Today she tells us about the pizza she had for lunch on our short drive from Jenna’s to our house.

Some evenings I get home and then turn around and leave again. Tonight I am starting a new yoga class with Jenna and have to get ready and head back out shortly after we get home. I take time for some hugs and a selfie before heading out the door again.

Most days I move my body. Tonight I loved this new yoga practice.

Some days I get to hang out with friends. Jenna and I went to yoga together and loved getting to do this with her.

Some nights I make dinner late. After I get home from yoga I make a late dinner- egg roll bowl with leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Jason and Stella have gone to visit friends while I was out.

Some nights I look around and see what I see. Tonight I dug out my big camera and looked around our house. I loved seeing it exactly the way it is, in this season.

Most nights we read with Stella in the evening. Tonight we do this in her bedroom right before bed. Stella reads me a book that she has been working on learning at school. At first she said it was too hard, but I encouraged her to try by agreeing to read every other page.

Most days she also practices putting together a sentence that she worked on at school.

Most days we end the evening with teeth brushing right before bed.

We ended the evening with some tv for Jason and photo editing and uploading for me.

 

Thanks for checking out my words and photos for today. Tomorrow I hope to focus more on relationships and getting some of the routines I missed today and the ways our lives are different and the same from day to day.

 

February Stories

I’m been trying to take lots of opportunities to scrapbook this month and am slowly plugging away at the last few weeks of Project Life I have to finish for 2017 and then slowly working on 2018. I think I have about 8 weeks total to complete, but I will take my time on those and do it when I can.

Full page scrapbook layouts and stories have always had my heart, so it’s easy for me to prioritize those. I used the February digital Stories by the month kit™, the (March Themed) physical Stories by the Month™ kit and the Fabric digital story kit™ to tell my stories this month all from Ali Edwards Design Inc.

 

First up I created this double page 12×12 spread documenting a recent mountain climb I did with friends on a trip to Arizona at the end of January. I am so happy I took the time to write out this story soon after we returned so I would remember more of the details and how I felt. Most of the embellishments are from the (March themed) physical Stories by the Month™ kit. 

Next, following along with another story from that trip I documented our adventure and some of the highlights. For this hybrid layout I used a digital stamp for the title from the February digital Stories by the Month™ kit and for the right side I used a layered template, found here. This simple page came together fast and now I won’t forget any of my favourite memories from the trip.

These last three layouts are all story ideas that came from the story classroom for the Fabric story theme. I absolutely did not think I would have many ideas for this theme when I first read it, but I ended up making three layouts and have a few more ideas on my list, yet. I cannot recommend highly enough the story classroom – it is a highlight for me on the 15th of each month. I generally download the audio file for the main presentation and listen to it on my commute to or from work. I jot down my ideas when I have a chance. I also like to print out the story idea portion of the handout and read that over as well.

I am still waiting for my physical kit to arrive, so all these layouts used elements from the digital story kit™.

The first idea I got from Ali’s main presentation was about story threads – she had the idea to do a page with all the different parallel story threads that are happening concurrently in your life and documenting them. I loved this idea and took the opportunity to do a brain dump of all the little stories of life right now.

The second story idea was to photograph a sleeper I had saved of my daughter’s when she was a baby, and pair it with a photo of her wearing it and tell the story of why it is meaningful to me. I LOVE how this page turned out!

Lastly, I made these super fun 6×8 pages that will go in my ‘All about me’ album. I collected up a bunch of outfit photos I had taken over the last year with some of my favourite clothing pieces and told the story of my love for second hand clothing shopping. I never would have thought to tell this story, but it’s totally a piece of who I am, and I love having it as part of my album.

I hope these pages give you some ideas to get to work on some stories you want to tell this month. Happy crafting!

 

January Stories

Hello Friends,

I always have the best intentions to get back here to this space to share what I am working on,  but rarely take the time. Today I will be sharing a round up of projects that I have completed over the last month or so as part of my work for Ali Edwards creative team. I am a huge fan of Ali’s intentional story-focused products and I love the invitation to tell more stories.

Here is a look at what I was working on this month.

I actually completed this page in December but hadn’t shared it here yet. Did you guys see the the new Stories by the Month™ subscription from Ali Edwards? If you haven’t I strongly encourage you to go check it out. She has taken all the digital monthly kits she designed in 2017 and is now having them produced physically. I am in love. This page used products from the first kit – (January themed products, released the month prior).

I have a 6×8 album that I have dedicated to pages I make about me. This page will get slipped into that album – it’s not something I work on every month but just add pages to it, as I create them.  All products used are from the Stories by month kit™.

 

 

Next up is a project I made with this year’s 2018 DIGITAL stories by month kit™ (which will become next year’s physical kit).

This photo of my daughter and me is from Christmas day. We spent some time in the afternoon playing outside in the snow- I adore it. And it is exactly what I want to invite more of into my life in 2018.

All products used are from January digital stories by month kit™ (2018) or from past story kits.

 

 

This page I created using physical products from the January release of the Stories by month kit™ (February themed).

I put together a bunch of photos of my daughter and me together all from the bus stop – this is a fun thing we like to do when waiting for her bus. Then I added a letter to her- a favourite way to share love through scrapbooking.

 

 

Lastly, is a page I created using this month’s digital story kit™– this theme is Change.

It took me awhile to decide on a story to tell this month, some months I have so many ideas and other months I have to dig a bit deeper. I always enjoy listening to Ali’s main presentation in the story classroom for ideas. I eventually decided to talk about some of the ways my husband and I have changed (more like grew up, ha!) since we started dating 15 years ago. I loved digging out this photo of us, I think it may be the first photo we have of us together, and it’s always been a favourtie of my husbands.

Stories, always, for the win!

December Stories

Hello Friends!

Well, December came and is nearly gone. I LOVE December and this one did not disappoint. It was certainly a busy one, but I still made sure to take the time to enjoy all the things I love.

I have been taking part in the December Daily® project with Ali Edwards for the past 9 years (so hard to believe) and as Ali has said before and I couldn’t agree more, it has become part of the way I celebrate and experience the season- through the memory keeping and crafting my album. And I love it oh so much. I am not finished at all, but I’ve got lots of pages done, and lots in progress.

Today I am sharing a few pages (totally out of order) that I created with the December Digital Kit  by Ali Edwards ( if you haven’t heard these are being made in physical product!!! – check out Ali’s new Stories by Month™ subscription here).

First up is this page I created for day 6. The photo is of my daughter playing with some advent toys I saved from her advent calendar last year – she had so much fun playing with these toys – love her imagination. I used a journal card from the December digital kit that I just printed out and hand wrote my journaling on.

Then I just added an embellishment on the the photo and called it good. The large chipboard number 6 is from last year’s December Daily® kit – I stamped and embossed on it, then I printed out one of the stamps from the December kit and punched it with a circle and added one of those awesome felt hearts from this year’s December Daily® kit.

I added one chipboard piece and some numbers to the journal card. Simple, but fun!

The next page I made was for day 9. My daughter had a recital on this day for her music class. I used on of the digital layered templates for the base of this page and paired it with the pocket page from the December Daily® main kit.

I used two of the journal cards from the December digital kit to tell this story. I loved that quote card and had to add that in and then I used the grey remember this card to add my story.

I printed out that stories digital chipboard piece and added it to the outside of the pocket. Inside the pocket I added the program from her recital and the card her music teacher gave to her.

On the left side I printed the page out and then added a circle chipboard piece and small star – both from the December Daily® chipboard bundle and a cork number 9 from the main kit.

 

The last page I want to share is one of my favourites – from day 17. For this page I used the For the Love digital story kit and I love it SO much. I can’t wait for my physical kit to arrive!!

I was working on the back of a half circle shape for the beginning of day 17, so the first thing I did was print out the large ‘For the love of’ digital stamp. I printed it on glossy photo paper (because I love how much more vibrant the colours are) and then stamped the word skating with staz on ink. I added a chipboard star to the bottom.

Here is a look at the whole spread outside of the album:

I like adding the date to each of my pages in this album, but I didn’t want to add it to the right or left side I was working on, so I decided to add in a vellum page in the middle. I cut the vellum to the size of the full page protector. The I stamped a star all over the page and heat embossed it with white. I added the number 17 chipboard number (from last year’s December daily® main kit).

For the left side I printed my photo 6×8 (so much love for this photo) and then added the awesome ‘big love for this’ digital stamp on the bottom and added my story beside it. I finished it off with a small chipboard star.

Lastly I had one photo of the three of us (proof I was there too!) I wanted to add in, so I decided to use a tab, and stick it behind the main photo, so it just lifts out and then tucks back in. I was happy with this solution to get in in the story as well.

That wraps up a few of my pages so far, I hope to get back here soon with my completely album. Hope you are all enjoying this holiday season!