Year End 2017

It is December 31st and I have not written a post yet this month.  *sigh*  When I first started blogging (seven and a half years ago) I intended to write every day.   I soon realized that once or twice a week was sufficient.  Lately it has been only once or twice each month.  I really want to write more. I plan to write more. When I’m working out at the gym, outside hiking, or enjoying a hot steamy shower I create fantastic posts in my mind.  Sit down at the computer and….nope, got nothing now. Today I am adamant – I will write something to end the year.

I hosted our family Christmas dinner for nine on Christmas Eve.  The schedule was perfect – I had one full day for prep and cleaning before dinner day.  Stores were open so I didn’t fret about ‘what if I forgot something’. Of course I didn’t actually need to run out and get anything – that only happen’s when the stores are closed.  I made three vegetable dishes, two potato dishes, turkey, gravy, and a HUGE batch of stuffing.  Everyone loves stuffing so I make a separate roaster full of stuffing – used seven loaves of bread!

There were also the little extra snacky things like pickles and cheese and cranberry sauce etc that don’t require cooking.  I had done all my baking in the weeks before Christmas so dessert was covered (even now we still have dainties waiting to be eaten).  The whole dinner was completely stress free.  I had plenty of helpers available for the last minute ‘get everything on the table while it is hot’ rush and then everyone got to eat. 

I ran three full loads through the dishwasher that day and washed four sink-fulls of bulky items but the kitchen was clean by 9 pm.  All the leftovers were packed up and frozen for future meals.  There was nothing left to do on Christmas day except sit and relax.  I suppose I could have written this post then, but I didn’t.  The other thing I didn’t do was take ANY Christmas dinner photos.

So instead, I’ll include this one of the team that pulled our sleigh on MCCA’s Dashing Through the Snow event earlier this month;

I had a great time playing outdoors with other amazing ECE’s  that day but didn’t manage to write a blog post about it either.

So now, as 2017 nears its end, I’ll begin making some plans for what I want to do in 2018. I’m not one for making ‘resolutions’ but maybe, if I reorganized my office space I’d be more inclined to sit at my desk and be productive…

Inspired to Write

I’ve started to fret about writing a blog entry.  A lot has happened recently and I feel like I should be documenting it. I often have several posts ‘in progress’ – not all will be published but my goal is a minimum of one per week. It has been less than a week since my last entry but currently I have absolutely no posts ideas.  Hence the concern.

My biggest problem is the lack of photos.  So many of the observations I make about the children at play are difficult to explain without picture.  You know the phrase, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’.  Well, in my case probably far more than a thousand because I’m a visual person and the words are harder for me – almost impossible until they are on paper where I can see them.

So, why don’t I have any pictures to share?  Several reasons really – four of them are toddlers. Four toddlers in care means I’m already short at least a couple of hands even without the camera to hold.  Then there are their reactions when I do pick up the camera.  Two of them stop what they are doing and ‘pose’.  The other two run to my side of the camera to watch ‘TV’.  Even when I try to hide the camera from their view they recognize the beep it makes when I turn it on.  Sigh.

It is usually easier to take pictures of the children when we are outside because they are more deeply engaged in their activities and don’t notice the camera as much.  Unfortunately, my camera hates the cold and this has been a particularly harsh winter. Even on days like Monday, which was a balmy -14C when we were outside, my camera would probably refuse to take more than one or two photos before becoming completely useless.

Monday was an inservice day too so it was super busy and exciting when we were outside.  The older children were thrilled to be able to spend much of the morning outside instead of in an indoor classroom.  The little ones were overjoyed to have their mentors here for the whole day.  There were plenty of photo opportunities but sadly, no camera.

So, instead of looking through photos for inspiration I now look through my notes from last Saturday when I attended the M-Blog conference.  It was an amazing event – the pace was so much faster than what I am used to at Nature Summit.  Talk about information overload!  I’m still trying to process much of it.

Here are a few (not all) of my favourite quotes from the presentations;

Ian McCausland said;

• Write about something old, something new, something borrowed or something blue.
• Use at least two mediums – text/pictures/video

Maybe these quotes count as something borrowed. As for a picture, since I was too busy to take any pictures at M-Blog, here is one I took after I got home and checked out the items from the goodie bag;

Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, said;

• If no one hates what you write, no one will love it either.
• Pretend you’re good at it and one day you will be able to scratch off the pretend.

Thank you Jenny, without your tweet about coming to Winnipeg I never would have heard about this conference.  You are amazing.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I learned so much from all the presenters at M-Blog. I’m still feeling a little overwhelmed but I hope to put at least some of this new information into practice soon.

To start, I think I’ll head on over to my Pinterest page and follow the advice from Cynthia Sanchez and ‘organize my boards in order of importance’.  I’ll probably end up killing a huge chunk of time there but maybe I’ll find something inspirational to write about too.