Larger than life

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Change is sometimes only a 'click' away.  I've opted into something with blogger, which is supposed to be better for Macs, and since I am now a Mac (My brother-in-law says I became one the moment I contemplated buying one as it is a state of mind more than anything else.  He considers me a lost soul.) - anyhow, since I am now a Mac I clicked the recommended change, and here I am with extra-large photos.  Likely, the easy extra-large photos have been available to me for some time, but I hadn't investigated blogger upgrades until now.  So here's Jaclyn at her badminton meet last week.

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Also last week: Carmen and a friend took up a self-designed 7-day challenge to 'be' vegetarian.  She started off sneaky, opting out of meat without drawing attention to herself and requesting salad in her lunch claiming to be 'really in the mood' for salad.  She finally outed herself the night we had Tuscan Chicken Wraps because she felt it would be too obvious when she made a mozza, spinach, roasted red pepper wrap sans chicken.  After that her week went more smoothly because I cooked around her preferences with vegetable soups and Egyptian lentils.  (We were both a little relieved when she returned to our normal family meat eating.)

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Today I finished a little project I saw on Just Something I Made.  My plan is to copy down all the growth measurements penciled into Grandpa's den door frame, as well as a few from Ken's bike shop door frame and add them to our more portable, not tied to real estate, growth chart.  I Modpodge'd the poster onto the back of a 7' long piece of vinyl as recommended on JSIM to give it more of a tape measure feel, and I'm happy with the effect. (BTW:  I have enough vinyl for 3 more growth charts if anyone's interested.) I've only now noticed that the feet are divided into eighths, just like inches, which is less convenient for measuring.  We'll still have to get out Ken's carpenter tape measure to record the height in feet and inches.  Maybe I should have done the metric one?

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It occurs to me

That my to-do list may be a form of procrastination.  Instead of doing a task I write it down - which feels like doing something, but isn't.

And how many tasks get transferred from old to new lists?  Some things live perpetually on my list because the more unique items jump off the page and get my attention.

Five for Friday

1) I'm sitting here while Steven does the backboard for his science fair project. I'm consulting with him on font size from time to time, but that's about it. I haven't even seen his log book, (which he says is done) and it's killing me a little, but officially I believe in letting kids do their own work. I keep reminding myself I'm not going to college with him.

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2) Last week I made some little chairs (a la Design Sponge) from the wire cages on sparkling peach juice we bought for Carmen's birthday. Chloe thought I was about as brilliant as could be, but she was the one who came up with the muffin cup table.

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3) On Saturday I had a work friend and her daughter over to craft with me and my girls. While they made curled edge flowers and scrabble tile necklaces I made this satin peony fabric flower for little Jenna. It would have been cute on a headband, but Jenna doesn't like the feel of headbands behind her ears.

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4) This year I finally followed through on the much blogged about green lunch for St. Patrick's Day. Jaclyn came downstairs in the morning and saw what I was doing and just rolled her eyes. So fine, it was mostly for my own amusement.

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5) Tonight Jaclyn is going on a one night winter camp with YW's which I originally set on the calendar, but the new YW President has to follow through on. I'd feel bad about it except that on Wednesday I had to do the RS Party that the new YW President planned awhile back. We didn't quite trade callings. She was the RS counsellor responsible for weekday meetings and I am now the weekday meeting coordinator. Chloe clarified with me, "So it's like you do Activity Days for the grown up ladies?" Pretty much.

Carmen's Party

I almost wished we'd planned some kind of outdoor birthday party for Carmen this year. We've had such mild weather this winter - hello El Nino, wont' you stay awhile?

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We did welcome the guests outdoors with a mural of Carmen for her friends to sign before they came inside. Chloe did some filming of the guests as they signed the poster, and what the video reveals is that Chloe was busy getting the low-down on what the presents were before they had even handed the gifts to the birthday girl.

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First we made curled-edge flower hair accessories. I've mentioned this before, but I always start a birthday party with a craft to keep everyone busy while we wait for the other guests to come.

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By the time our Yogi arrived so had all the guests, and they got down to the main activity. The instructor was amazing (Can you pick your foot up off the ground and place it up that high on the other thigh?) (And then stay steady while all the children totter and blur in the picture?)

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Besides being amazing at yoga herself, Jan really understood kids and after she went through some yoga positions with them they played a game where a girl would choose a position they'd learned and then the other kids would place stones on the first child while she tried continue to balance. It was a little loud and giggly for yoga (I thought) but the instructor was great with it.

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When it was time, though, the girls quieted right down. I should hire this woman to come to my house every night at bedtime.

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Jan, our Yogi, brought a little gift for Carmen. At the beginning of the yoga session she asked each girl to think of a word that described Carmen and she reminded them to think of it throughout the session. At the end she presented Carmen with a canvas that had her name on it, to which each of the girls then added their words that for them describe Carmen. It was sweet.

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After the yoga instructor left the rest of the gifts were opened. The last one, of course, was unwrapped with her teeth.

Geni is plural for Genius

Sadly, I'm not one.

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But met a couple of them a bar this week. A Genius Bar. The first genius fixed my ipod which I haven't used in a year. The second sold me a 15" Macbook Pro. And now that I'm home I'm keenly aware of my own lack of status as a genius. For instance: I cropped this picture in iphoto, yet I can't find the cropped version to upload to blogger!

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So you're stuck with all that wall, when what you're supposed to look at is the new headband I made for a co-worker to wear to her son's wedding. It was made to order: this colour, two large flowers. Chloe thinks I could make a career of it. (Ken tried to explain how many headbands I'd have to make, to which Chloe replied she'd be happy to stay home and help me.)

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Feeling rather feeble-minded,

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