29
January
Wordless wednesday – broken bubbles
16
January
Wordless wednesday – the rest of my favourites
9
December
Letting go
I’ve become one of those people who rarely hangs on to things for sentimental reasons. Stuff gets passed on, recycled, trashed… and the memories live on in my mind, or as increasingly happens with my mind being less reliable, in my photos. There are a few things, mostly items that remind me of someone who is no longer here, but the rest gets dealt with pretty quickly. I am especially brutal with the lils artwork and Willy’s huge collection of twenty year old concert t-shirts that he never wears, but they seem to have bought into the system, and occasionally ask me to take pictures of stuff so that they can get rid of it.
This week reminded me that I’ve become attached to a thing. Ironically, I am attached to it because of a photo, one I took when Woo was a wee boy. It was a snowy day, and he was propped up in the yard, keeping me company as I shovelled. I love this photo.
I’ve hung onto the snowsuit that he wore that day, even though I have had opportunity to sell it, to donate it, to give it away. It reminded me of that day, that first winter with my lil boy, my first year as a mom. I didn’t need a snowsuit to remind me of those times, the pictures worked too. But I couldn’t let it go. As time passed, and it became apparent to me that this was becoming a thing, I tried to let go, but failed repeatedly, thinking that I would be ready in a year’s time.
This year, when we were searching for snowsuits for the Snowsuit Fund, Woo found this old suit and I let him bring it out. It went to the donation pile, got washed and packed away, then sat on the floor by the door for a few days before I found the time to drop the items off. Each time I looked at it, I fought the urge to hide it away for “just one more year”. Knowing that my resolve was weakening, I made a quick trip out today, dropped off the bag and then drove away fast, before I could change my mind.
As I helped the lils go through their toys looking for donations tonight, I was glad that I had successfully dropped off the snowsuit today. They were struggling with letting go of some toys that they no longer play with, and my struggle this week allowed me to be more understanding to their perspective. Instead we talked about why they wanted to keep the stuff and why they might want to give them away. In the end, they kept most of the items that they were on the fence about, but did donate some. I let them know that it is even hard for Mommy to part with things that she loves but doesn’t need anymore. I didn’t let them know that I am still a little sad that it is gone.
19
November
High five!
Dear Goose:
Happy Birthday! This morning I lay in bed willing you to awaken, so that I could give you your birthday kisses. When you finally woke up you told me that today is your “high five” birthday, then offered your hand for a smack. Today started with a smile, as do most days with my little sunshine.
Watching you grow and develop over the last year has been a treat for your dad and me. You have settled right back into life in Canada, even though you weren’t so sure about the snow and cold at first. You love school and learning with your friends, and are eager to practice with us at home. It is such a joy to watch how much you want to learn, and enjoy mastering new things. Math is your current favourite, followed closely by practicing your writing and reading.
Your best friend and partner in crime is still your big brother. It is great to see you two have so much fun together, “adventuring” your way through the days. You are very much an independent girl, one who likes to both hang back and observe what goes on around her, but who will also dive in and lead her peers or her parents!! One of your defining traits is your fearless nature, evidenced by the way that you boldly wander into caves, run full speed into fields of sunflowers that tower over top of you, and call for the boat to go faster, faster as you zoom around a lake on an inner tube! I love to see it, even if it does make my hair turn gray! You are also a very loving and giving little girl, which makes me so proud of you!
Your joy for life is infectious, regardless of whether you are skipping down the street to soccer practice, laughing hysterically at your own jokes, chanting encouragements to your hockey team on the ice, or riding downhill as fast as you can on your bike. I can’t help but smile when I am with you.
Hope that this day and the coming year are wonderful for you!
Love,
Mama
A year of Goose
First snow in a long time!
Learning to skate
Fun at the sugarbush
There was a little bit of dandelion picking
Morning cuddles with the hockey highlights
Bike riding!
They call her Rapunzel
Rockin’!
“go faster!”
Dance like no one is watching. Od like everyone is watching!
Hockey player!
Fall fun
28
October
Math IS hard
When I started my current 365, I vowed that I would be better. I didn’t mean that I would take better pictures, that the subjects of my pictures would be more interesting, or that I would really change the way that I approached the 365. What I meant was that I would be better at posting the pictures that I took in a timely manner. No more falling weeks behind for this gal.
Four months in, and I can say that I have failed miserably at this vow. Instead of falling days and weeks behind, I regularly find myself over a month behind. It’s gotten to the point where it has started to stress me out. Sure, I have been faithfully taking photos daily, and quite often have selected “the” photo for the day, but when I don’t upload them I start to worry that I somehow missed a day, or deleted a picture that I wanted to keep, and I worry.
Last night I decided to face the task head on, and upload at least some of the fifty or so pictures that had not made it to Flickr yet. I had fun looking through last seven weeks or so as I was uploading, so I decided to review some of the older photos of the collection. In doing this, I noticed that there was an error in my count, and that I had accidentally marked two shots as number eighty-five. Grumbling to myself, I went and edited the descriptions on fifty pictures, the bulk of which I had just uploaded and incorrectly captioned.
With that task done, I decided to move them all into the set (or album) that I had created when I started the project; a set that was also way out of date. It was then that I noticed that there were too many pictures in the set. I had uploaded to day 135, but the set contained 136. Now annoyed that I had made yet another error, I went to the beginning to check all of the descriptions. I had just corrected the most recent shots, so I was confident that the error must be in the earlier uploads. They were all correct and sequential, so I checked to the end and found no error. That was impossible, so I checked again with the same result. Confused, I counted all of the thumbnails in the set and still had one fewer picture than what Flickr was telling me.
I started this post ready to tell the world that Flickr can’t count either, but something made me check just one more time. I found my error pretty quickly tonight. I bet this would not happen if I uploaded daily…
UPDATE – it turns out that Flickr CANNOT add, either.
