March Lessons ...

Happy April Fool's Day!
Lorraine brought over cupcakes for the kids today and one of the treats is pictured above. Wow. Sweet and fun treat!

Wow, what a month! March was busy and brought winds of many kinds ...

... The Creativity Project which is a brilliant idea, and I didn’t keep up. But, it continues to rattle around in my head and I think I can pick it up at another time and do it justice.

... I chose to embrace authenticity thanks to the brilliant Brené Brown.

... Wordless Wednesday wasn’t working for me; I have too much to say! As a result, after reading about it, I started my Wellness Wednesday posts and I’m really enjoying finding them to share with you.

... I managed to read two inspiring books: Ordinary Sparkling Moments by Christine Mason Miller which made me cry, in a good way; Life Is A Verb by Patti Digh which taught me to write in the margins.

... I was privileged to receive three lovely blog awards.

... I moved further along on my journey to find my voice, my authentic voice.

... Stimulated the economy by purchasing my new baby: Mr. iMac

... Faced my fear of criticism and submitted my work for acknowledgment: here, here, here and here. After all, with no risk there is no return. One result: I was accepted as a Guest Design Team member for Feeling Scrappy! YAY!

... Miraculously survived what felt like a never ending Spring Break.

... Witnessed the joy of 17 boys coming together to win the Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship in three straight games. They came from behind (3-0 in the second) to win in overtime. On Stouffville ice. Home or away, it was just nice to win in three!

... I adopted a word: blateration. It has fit in my vocabulary (and the family) well.

... I started 37 days of walking: rain, shine, sleet, snow. I’ll make it to the harbour one of these days, but right now, I’m happy to be walking more than an hour each day.

... I discovered oodles of brilliant blogs, like: this, this and most especially this. All uplifting, inspiring, mindful and kind. That doesn’t mean I don’t still visit: here, here and here; just that I’m open to more!

... Signed up for two courses on Big Picture Scrapbooking: Everyone Can Write A Little with my fave Cathy Zielske, and Art That Happens To Be Your Life with Allison Tyler Jones both starting in April.

... After 3 1/2 years, we decided to close Frozen Ropes at the end of April. It was a brutally hard decision to make but one that was unavoidable given the current economic climate. A new adventure awaits.

... Enjoyed meeting friends for coffee and for lunch and have decided that Stoney’s is my favourite sandwich place, ever!

... Realizing after many trips to Toronto to pick up Cole’s sweetie how happy I am not to have to do that commute every day!

... Mourned the closure of my local scrapbook store and continue to mourn the closure of our favourite local restaurant. We still haven’t found a replacement; it really was one of a kind.

... Brought the convertible out of the garage. Gassed her up, cleaned her off, pumped up the tires and hit the road!

... Banned Louis from using the in-sink garbage disposal ever again.

... Participated, not enough though, in the Feeling Scrappy Sketchapalooza 3 and Got Sketch 103 as well as some other on-line challenges

... Realized that the flowers you buy for yourself are just as nice, and appreciated, as those bought by someone else. But it really is wonderful to receive flowers from friends.

... Started to buy tops AND bottoms at American Eagle for Cole. A new era has begun. He’s growing far to fast!

... Learning to give Claire a little rope, she’s been pulling really hard lately.

... Reorganized the summer schedule and decided to cut back on all camps. The kids are going for the first two weeks of holiday and then it’s a summer filled with play with each other and their friends. My job: make sure there is plenty of food and first aid supplies!

... Remembered that I really like volunteering, seeing the kids and their parents is always a fun way to spend a day. I also remembered that I don’t like spending time with volunteer martyrs: what a drag they are on the whole experience.

... Caden continues to struggle with his confidence: it’s tough to be the youngest and try to live up to the examples ahead of him in the sib chain.

... I participated in a whole Slice of Life challenge from March 1 to March 31. There is a story a day which you can find here.

My April Intention:

This month the one thing I must improve upon is responding to blog comments. I need a good consistent system. With Blogger I can’t send a direct e-mail response so I’ll have to leave them in the comments. Blogging is supposed to be about building a community and you can’t do that with stilted one way communication!

Have a wonderful April!