WITL - Monday - Photos + Words

This is the week Ali Edwards is documenting A Week in the Life.

An intense look at the every day of one entire week. I have always participated and looked forward to this week. I have physically documented a week in the life, since 2008. I might have missed one year between 2008 and now. But this year, I just can't seem to get my head wrapped around it.

Having all these past 'year in the life' weeks documented, I can go through previous years and see how my kids have grown. I can see which things remain the same, and the things that differ. I can flip through pages in an album and watch my family grow up.

This week of documenting, is a HUGE job, and I've always welcomed doing it. But this year I just can't seem to get into the head space needed to compose pages. So, for the first time ever, I'm going to document photos here on my blog. I'm simply going to have photos + words. I'm not going to feel guilty about not preparing layouts and albums.

I do know that if this week comes and goes, and if I don't take any photos. If I don't jot anything down, I'll be very disappointed. I will regret it for sure. So, here simply are my photos + words:

Mad at the kitchen table, eating her porridge for breakfast. Which is her breakfast of choice 8-10 months of the year. Always for school, a bowl of porridge. This morning she was reading an article from Barry's 'Survival Edition' of Popular Mechanics. This girl reads anything and everything. [And yes, she does scare herself on occasion] But when the zombies come, I definitely want to have her around...

Mace was waiting for a ride to school this morning. Barry had to take our vehicle in for service, so was able to drop Mason off on the way. I have to say, Grade 8 has this boy taking city transit, getting up on his own, most mornings, and out the door without much help. He's become very responsible. 

The boys heading out the door. I'm not sure when or how Mason has become so tall. When I told him the other day, that I couldn't see the top of his head anymore, he said back to me, "Well, now I'm looking at your forehead." He's just a little bit shorter than his Dad, but I suspect that will change.

Doing Mad's hair. Every day. Still. And honestly, I love it. I love that it looks so nice and tidy. I love that she still let's me do it. I wonder how much longer that will last. She told me last week, "All my friends tell me what a good job you do on my hair, Mummy." [She still calls me Mummy...]

Driving Miss Mad to school. Today she decided to wear her cat ears to school. She's always deciding something. There's certainly never a dull moment.



After the drive to school. I come home, pour a cup of coffee and enjoy reading through the blogs I keep up with.

Chores that I don't photograph. Cleaning bathrooms. Doing laundry. It was a very unpleasant day today, so rather than put clothes outside to dry, and put them on the rack over our furnace. Because yes, it was on a lot this Monday.

Always so much laundry. And speaking of laundry, this little dog is sure I put a warm pile of to-be-folded laundry on the couch just for her.

 

Spending time checking email and doing some 'work'. I also am in the midst of figuring out Dropbox... I didn't find it very intuitive, but I was finally able to upload and share photos from when our student from France was here. And yes, we do have a Mac, and yes, I'm still attached to my PC.

 Lunch time. Peanut butter and honey.

A little snuggle on the couch after-school. It was cold enough that I put slippers on and covered up with a cozy blanket. It seems criminal that our temperatures can fluctuate so much. Saturday was 30° and today was about 8°. Seriously. No wonder we never know what to wear. 

The bright side of the cooler temperatures, although the wildfire in northern Alberta is still burning out of control [the size of the fire is as big as the city of Calgary] it has helped fire crews get into the city of Fort McMurry and evaluate the devastation. The areas in red were communities hit the hardest. Some of the communities are simply gone. We're still all watching the news and doing whatever it is we can, to help out. The best thing you can do to help, is donate money to the Red Cross.

There was just 3 of us around the dinner table tonight. Barry had dinner time appointments. We had chicken and salad. I thought I'd taken a photo, but I guess I didn't. I just got a dessert photo:

Fugcicles and Revello's. Favourite around our house. Mason looked through flyers with me a few weeks ago, found out where the ice cream novelties were on sale and insisted we buy them. 

Something new, since the start of the school year. The kids make their own school lunches. I couldn't be happier about it. It was one of the chores I disliked the most. Then I got grumpy when things came back home un-touched. I decided to let them make their own. It's been great so far. Here, Madelyn is getting a container for the pickles she cut up.

Barry came home just in time to help with Mason's math homework. I had just looked up on the iPad,  how to calculate volumes, when Barry walked in the door. [Thank heavens] Mason has a project due for school, he's making a robot and has to calculate the volume and surface area of all the pieces of the robot. The 3 of them also attached googly eyes to their foreheads. I love these guys so much.

We moved Libby's kennel and no longer crate her during the day. So this little spot in our house is a welcome sight. She still chews things, and loves to be sneaky. But she just turned 2 and thankfully we're finally able to leave her out when we go out. [Of course, all bedroom doors need to be closed and the basement needs to be blocked off] But it's nice.

I'm also loving how our days are getting noticeably longer. This photo was taken at nearly 9 pm. I love spring.

So, there's a quick look at Monday's words + photos.