Don't you just love the Saturday morning feeling - a whole weekend, ripe with possibilities? And, don't you just hate the Sunday evening feeling - devoid of possibilities? You just know that Monday morning, all of the responsibilities of the world come crowding around, robbing you of peace and quiet, time and peace of mind. That is how I feel today. Christmas holidays are over. Entertaining in the evening is out of the question, I'm way past tired. There isn't a half decent holiday coming up for months! All you have is work, work and more work. Over the Christmas season, you baked, you cleaned, you had guests over - life was easy. But, by mid January, the dust bunnies are back, the laundry is behind, bills need to be paid, errands ran and the ease and grace of "gentler" times has evaporated. Time is speeding up. There is more to do. Oh, how I long for Christmas again! Maybe I am just plain tired tonight, we got a lot accomplished today! The piles of boxes waiting for Canada Post correlated with the grouchy looks that Kayla got at the Post Office when the line was backed up because of "said boxes". Now, all of our square little friends are winging their way to happy scrapbookers tonight. We hope that they are going to good homes! Homes where they will be proudly displayed, with beaming children's faces and happy family photos adorning them. That is all they want - to be loved and cherished. So, please, if you get one of our babies, please design it and love it!

2013 is going to be the year of technology for me. I am tired of being made fun of, by my daughter and friends for the "slide phone" that I still operate, the fact that I have not mastered my MacBook, etc. etc. I have decided to enter this century and learn a few things, so over the weekend, I got together with some savvy friends and solved a few of my problems. My extreme gratitude to Myra, Jackie,Donna and Corinne for helping me out with my ITUNES issues, showing me how to take a screen shot, helping me to download a collage program, teaching me a few tricks about my MacBook (like you have to update them once in a while, not every three years) and a million other little details that will make my life run smoother (including that sweeeeet chocolate vodka and soda drink). I am gearing up for the arrival of my Project 365 binder and supplies, I should get them in the mail tomorrow. Because it is already a couple of weeks into January, I am feeling slight butterflies of panic starting to set in, as I am a "little" behind. I don't want to start off the whole project being behind, but the colour combination that I picked - Seafoam - was not available until mid January, and I loved it so much that I waited until I could get it. The technology that I spoke of is necessary to the design and completion of my Project 365. I need to be able to shoot, manipulate, size and print my daily photos with ease. Someone told me that I should just get an IPHONE and then I would be able to take pictures where ever I am at whatever time, but they don't understand my total lack of interest about carrying a cell phone. I think I will just take my photos the traditional way and hope for the best. After seeing the photos that Myra has been taking since January 1st, I am thinking that I am going to have to step it up a bit! So, armed with the fact that I have to take a photo a day, I went and purchased Photoshop Elements 11, new printer inks, photo paper and a speaker system for my Mac, so that I can take the online tutorials from Photoshop. I signed up for two online scrapbooking classes and downloaded the "collage" app from Turbo Collage. Now I wait! Tomorrow the big box should arrive and I am a Project Lifer! It feels like Christmas Eve, waiting for that postal delivery! The screen shot above testifies to the fact that it has shipped and should arrive today or tomorrow. I am so excited!!!!!

Last night after Zumba and yoga, I had the chance to do a "Random Act of Kindness" and help Megan clean the gym. In all actuality, I believe that that little monkey planned to be limping around on her bad foot at the precise moment that I came downstairs from my yoga class! She was limping and looking pretty forlorn at the reality of cleaning that whole gym, while barely able to hobble around. What could I do? About the last thing that I felt like was working out more. One Zumba class and one yoga class, back to back, is in of itself enough exercise for any one day. Cleaning that gym is not an easy feat!! It doesn't look that big - until you look at all the equipment that has to be wiped down, the massive floors that have to be vacuumed and washed and the mirrors...oh, how Megan hates cleaning those mirrors! After checking out her toe (it has been over a week since the weight landed on it) and marvelling at just how many colours the human body can turn, I just knew that I had to help. I actually enjoy working with my daughter (when she isn't bossing me around). Megan comes to my rescue on a pretty regular basis when my shoulder acts up - the last go round this fall, Megan really had to have my back. I missed a lot of work, with the constant routine of doctor, massage, acupuncture, hospital, massage, chiropractor ...repeat, repeat, repeat. I think that is why health commitments is #2 this year on my resolution list. I have to make exercise class non-negotiable. It has to become as necessary as breathing, if I am going to keep on top of this inflammation. Simone gave me a quote yesterday that sort of went like this: "90% is a bitch. 100% is the only answer". I have to commit to work out at those classes 100% and the first time that I falter and reason that I am too tired, too sore, too anything, then I open the door for failure. It will just be too easy to back out at the last minute, the next time. I always feel so good afterwords, I don't know why it is so hard to get into a vehicle and drive to the gym - actually, I probably do know why, if I think about it. I hate winter!! I hate cold!!! I just want to be a bear and hibernate all winter long. But yoga calls. So, for now, and hopefully all winter, I will be stretching, twisting and creaking. I am waging war on that inflammation and I intend to win!

One of my New Year's resolutions is to record three "observations"each day - it might be things that I am thankful for, things that I noticed during the course of the day... things that I would otherwise pass by and not give a second thought. Next week, when we are back to prepping kits and shipping, ordering supplies and cleaning (aka. inventory) I might not get a chance to write them down every day, but I have committed to post them eventually, so that they will not be forgotten. So this is what my observations are so far: January 1st - I am thankful for all of the wonderful moose meat in my freezer. I appreciate my husband and our plumber friend, who gave up New Year's Eve Day to put in my new bathroom sink and taps and persevered through a series of unfortunate events! (I am sure that they wanted to give up many times!) I loved the feeling of a clean scrapbook room to start the year off. January 2nd - the smell of drywall mud and fresh paint to start the day (not to mention the coffee that Laressa made when she showed up to work). - the feeling of satisfaction as mouldings and trim started to go back up on the walls in the afternoon. - the contentment of spending the afternoon readings "Duck and Goose" to Peyton and soothing her when she started to get feverish from the shot she got at the health unit this morning. I have to add a fourth observation to the list for today - Peyton said her first swear word and we were all howling with laughter, the kind of laughter that makes tears squeeze out the sides of your eyes and your stomach hurt afterwords. I am sure that someday, this mirth will come back to haunt us, when Peyton says something bad at an inopportune time, but for right now, her innocent little voice saying "holy shit!" at lunch will make me chuckle for a month. Good times! Seriously good times!

Happy New Year! Noon is close approaching and that ends my time of scrapbooking and Food Network TV. I set a time deadline, as I am about 2/3rds the way through a bathroom renovation and if I don't draw a line in the sand, I will still be scrapbooking tonight and the touch up painting won't get done. I didn't quite get in the amount of time at my table that I wanted, but after a quick count as I was putting on page protectors, I completed 12 - 2 page layouts for Peyton's album, created 5 - 2 page layouts for my own album and basically cleaned my scrapbook room. I am happy with that. This week's scrappin' showed me that I lead a very boring life! If it was not for all the layouts of my granddaughter, I would hardly have any photos at all!!! It feels good to get all of the munchkin's photos in her albums, as Megan has not had any time this year to work on them. Maybe, she can add some pages in for herself, as yesterday at the gym, Megan dropped a great big disc weight on her big toe and she is now handicapped and sitting at home, hopefully with a bag of frozen peas on her foot (and calling me to complain). That would mean scrapbooking time to me!!! Mike and I went to town last night and had coffee with our friends, came home at 11:30, watched a National Geographic show on TV and went to bed. How boring is that? When did I get so old? So boring? Because of my lack of "family" photos, I have decided to participate in "Project Life" this year, in addition to the regular amount of scrapbooking that I usually do. With a twist. I am going to use Project Life to document the fulfillment (or lack thereof) my New Year's resolutions. Ha!! That ought to be a good one! Here is the treadmill (without me on it), here is the veggies that rotted in the fridge, here are the projects that I didn't complete... you get the picture. Speaking of projects - I had better get to painting. I need to take a picture of what I accomplished today. How is that for motivation?