On January 2, 2008 I challenged you all to take a photo a day for a year, a month, a week, or whatever worked with your life and schedule.
I have chosen to take a photo a day, everyday for the year 2008. While this is going to be a huge undertaking, I imagine it will be a window into my life, to the good, the bad and the mundane.
I will post the photos to the blog so you can all see what I have been up to. For my family, I am going to print off the pictures and keep them in an album. I have not yet decided how I am going to display them yet, so until I decide, I am not going to print anything.
Here goes:
January 19th - Today is a rough day for us all. You woke up in the middle of the night sick as a dog. My heart breaks to see you so sick. Feel better soon!
January 18th - I am on a mission! A mission to rid my life of Diet Coke with Lime. I know it is not good for me, but I have spent much of the last four years using it to help me stay awake as I work at night. I guess you could say I am hooked. I am proud to say that I am down to 2 cans a day now and will continue to move towards a life free of daily pop! Wish me luck!
January 17th - The three of you were having so much fun horsing around together. I love to see you all playing and enjoying each other. Take advantage of these winter days when daddy comes home early enough to hang out with us, as come summer he will be gone again.
January 16th - You are such a nut! You have a deep love for chocolate and sugar and everything sweet. You are always asking to make Smores, and today I finally gave in. I even made you wear a t-towel as a bib, but you didn’t care. I think you would have been happy to smear it all over your face. Yummy!
January 15th - The two of you asked for a treat after school. You decided to share a pack of mini easter eggs. When I came back into the room, I cracked up when I saw that the die was all over your lips and tongues. And, with your matching skidoo shirts, I just had to take a photo.
January 14th - These days you are falling asleep on the couch on a regular basis. You have just been so tired given that you are getting up around 4am most mornings. When you curl up and sleep, it reminds me of when you were a baby. Ah, the sweet slumber!
January 13th - Sundays with Daddy. You were tired, he was tired, he laid down on the big couch, so you forced him to share. Today turned into a day of the boys napping in between tickle fests. I tried to get a photo of the two of you in action, but the photos are all fuzzy. I love that I can see the smiles on both of your faces.
January 12th - It seems so strange to look out the back window and see this! All the snow has melted, the pool cover looks more like we should be opening the pool than waiting for more snow, and we have had so much rain and warm temperatures that the flowers look like they would be happy to bloom again.
January 11th - Our house was playdate central today. Ryan had Ben over and Courtney has Rebecca over. The kids played hard, ate lots of pizza and then decorated and ate cupcakes. These photos show Ben and Ryan playing Lego and Rebecca putting decorations into Courtney’s hair. A fun way to end a long week of school.
January 10th - Everyday I make lunches. Lunches for the kids to take to school and for Jeff to take to work. I make the kids lunches in the morning so they can decide what they want to take, and I make Jeff’s at night. Today, Jeff asked me to make him more, so here I am, making more sandwiches to take to Jeff for him to eat on his breaks. Although I do it everyday, I find making sandwiches to be a big challenge as we all have such different tastes.
January 9th - I spent the day today sitting in this waiting room. About 8 hours to be exact. Both of the kids are undergoing some private testing, and while the tests take place, I patiently sit in the waiting room. The morning belonged to Ryan and then we had lunch with Grandma and Courtney and then we switched. Grandma took Ryan home and it was Courtney’s turn. It made for a long day, but it gave me a chance to catch up on reading my scrapbooking magazines, and playing Soduko.
January 8th - Today the weather was record breaking again. I think it got above 14 degrees, which for January in Markham is just about unheard of. Ryan was telling me all about jumping in puddles at school. I told him that while it was not really appropriate at school, he was welcome to roll around in the mud and puddles on the front lawn as long as he took a shower as soon as he went inside. He took me up on my challenge.
January 7th - Jeff was commenting yesterday that he cannot believe how much we recycle. It has become such a way of life for the kids and I that it is totally second nature to make sure that our garbage ends up in the right place. Who would have thought that I would be raising my kids to think … green recycle, blue recycle, compost and garbage. They all go into different containers, and they have different pick up days. I am proud that our family is doing our part to help the environment.
January 6th - Courtney loves to cook, and to eat what she cooks.
For the last week or so, she has been asking me if we could make tea biscuits. When we were at the grocery store yesterday, we finally remembered to buy the buttermilk so she was able to make the biscuits for breakfast this morning. I am glad she enjoys cooking. I hope she always will.
January 5th - Ryan has a chest infection again, so he is back to using his inhalers twice a day everyday. I would never have believed that the little boy who used to need to adults to hold down in order to get his meds in, would one day happily use the inhalers all on his own. Way to go Ry!
January 4th - I absolutely love snowmen and santa decorations. It is always a sad time when I have to put them all away. This year when I was cleaning up, I stuck them all in the front window and left them there. I just want to be able to look at them for a few more days!
January 3rd - In December we found out that Timo is moving back to Holland. Lucky for us, he decided that he wanted to have his last playdate at our house. He spent yesterday and today with us, as the boys played hard for two full days, getting in every last bit of fun they had time for. This morning, Andrew joined in the playdate. This is the last photo taken of the boys together, just before Timo left to go to the hotel. Bye Timo. We will miss you!
January 2nd - Christmas this year was all about Lego. We are definitely living in a Lego world all our own. We have even moved the train table upstairs to the living room for the kids to play with the Lego. It is amazing how much Lego has changed since I was a kid. I am happy to work alongside the kids and build new places and embark on new adventures in our freshly created world.
January 1st - The weather in December was crazy this year, so by the time we went to cut down our Christmas tree, the poor trees all had drooping branches from recent ice storms. Even though the branches were aimed at the floor, the kids and I happily decorated the tree with all of our lighter ornaments.As I sat in the living room today, enjoying the peace and quiet with everyone playing outside in the snow, I could hear the ornaments dropping down from the branches that could no longer hold the weight of them anymore. It was as if the tree was asking me to put it to rest. This photo shows how some of the branches lost all the needles while the tree was still in the house. Thanks for a great Christmas little tree!
