Hi, January 2024. This is Elisabeth. I’m not loving your vibe. It’s me, not you. But can we both agree to hurry up and get to February?
Sigh. There was nothing objectively wrong about this week, just plenty of little “pebbles in my shoe.” I forget how much I hate January weather. Cold, dark, mostly grey skies. I am twinkle-lighting and heated-socks-wearing and candle-glowing and I’m still just so ready for sunshine.
The toilet that overflowed is plugged again, so we bought a toilet auger. A fun purchase, no?
My body feels full of complaints – a very sore shoulder (yoga? how I sleep?) and that “time of the month.” Somehow I feel like the female body should get a pass on menstrual cycles in the dead of winter – we’re dealing with enough discomfort with -30 degree windchills. Does that sound like a deal, uterus?
Enough discussion of shoe pebbles. On to Happy Things.
FRIDAY NIGHTS
I love Friday nights. Maybe even slightly more than Sunday mornings (though I adore Sunday mornings). There is so much possibility ahead – no more lunchboxes, everyone feels relaxed and, hopefully, we can all sleep in the next morning.
SUPPER + A FUNNY HALLMARK
My parents came by for supper on Friday evening and it was just…delightful. The candles were lit, supper was delicious (John’s famous whipped potatoes, Lemon Chicken – can’t stop/won’t stop – various veggies, coleslaw, and a smorgasbord of desserts).
We finished the evening watching the kids’ favourite Hallmark movie. John is not traditionally a fan of Hallmark movies and watches approximately one a year. He declared this to be, without doubt, the funniest Hallmark movie he has seen and it is funny. Three brothers have to take care of a baby left on their doorstep. Hijinks ensue. The romantic angles are much more subtle which the kids enjoyed!
LONG SHOWERS
I don’t shower every day and when I do, it tends to be relatively quick (quick being relative of course). Saturday afternoon I took a LONG, HOT shower and it was just glorious.
YOGA WITH A
My daughter did yoga with me twice last weekend and twice during the week. It was really fun to do this together. We moved to our home office which has lots of space to roll out two yoga mats.
STEADY PROGRESS AND UNEXPECTED COMPLETION
I have been feeling behind on taxes and our photobook and planning Barcelona. This week I made up my mind to focus on one project at a time (perhaps the stickiest piece of advice from Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks). I started plugging away at our photobook and I FINISHED IT. I am giddy with excitement. Usually, this project takes me weeks to finish; this year I did it in three days and in about 10 hours instead of 40. I think it was a combination of having well-organized folders ahead of time (making the picture selection process easier than normal), and just…not being as picky.
A few screenshots of spreads. The kids alternate being on the front cover; this time it was L’s year!
I tend to use the same 4-5 layouts over and over.
I rarely post pictures John takes from his work travels, but those make it into the photobook, too! (Um, sign me up for the heli-tour of the Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam, please.)
I love doing a mix of landscape + people shots.
Our headless Darth Vader is now memorialized in time forever.
TAXES
Speaking of progress and taxes…I made unintended progress in this category as well. Deciding to focus my flex time on the photobook (see above), I had pushed working on corporate taxes to another week…but then our accountant wrote with some questions and once I answered those, it just cascaded into getting a whole bunch of tax work completed; the best part was me asking about T4 preparation. I always, always, always prepare and submit these to the Canadian government and I always, always, always dread the process. It’s not hard work, but feels stressful making sure all the numbers line up and I have a hard time remembering the proper sequence of events. This year I asked our accountant to do it. Why have I not done this before?!! I also called the CRA and set up some new accounts we needed and navigated other little hurdles. But corporate taxes are, in essence, completed from my end and I wasn’t the one to initiate things this year.
BONUS ROUND:
- Leftovers. It means I don’t have to cook.
- Small group at church. We now have so many members we had to switch rooms. I love this space and time and these people. We laugh and cry and share and it’s just a beautiful part of our lives.
- A rare blue-sky morning and a windy – but invigorating – commute.
- Crossing lots of things off my to-do list: summer camp is booked and paid for x2, I have an interview scheduled for my Nexus application.
- A spontaneous lunch with my parents. Homecooked food that reminded me of childhood – fresh brown-bread rolls, cabbage soup, and the best apple crisp. Yum.
- On my digital Sabbath (last Sunday), sitting down to make some January notes on my Year of Shmita + reading Good Enough by Kate Bowler. Bonus points for doing both things IN BED WITH A MAGIC BAG AT MY FEET.
- L took a Whoopie Cushion (without my knowledge) to school and tried to get his teacher to sit down on it unaware. He failed in his mission, but she found the whole thing funny (thank goodness) and something about it just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
- These Morning Glory muffins; as per usual I played around with the recipe a bit. These muffins flew off the counter and I’m making a second batch later today. My only note is that I didn’t love the hint of ginger, so I’ll stick with just cinnamon this time around. And we’ve been using this Easy Overnight Oats recipe as a launch point. I have been doing a lot of overnight oats for myself lately, but now the kids are on the bandwagon. It takes some time to prep since we add a lot of ingredients (for example mine for today: oats, a dollop of drippy PB, chia seeds, ground flax, a sprinkle of protein powder, plain yogurt, cashew milk, raspberries, raisins, cinnamon, a sprinkle of salt, sometimes a dash of maple syrup – microwave for 45 seconds and then add a few chocolate chips + pumpkin seeds), but it’s a delight to wake up to a filling breakfast all ready for us in the morning!
- Also, smoothies.
Okay, I’m feeling happier already. Lots of wonderful things in my week, and I hope you can say the same. If not, feel free to complain about all the pebbles – or boulders – in your shoes.
Happy Weekending my friends.
Coree
Your photo book looks incredible! What a labour of love. I’ve never managed one yet – my husband has to have a (thankfully not serious but annoying) surgery in April, and I’m quite tempted to set him the task for choosing his 20 favourites from each of T’s 6 years for his recovery. He’s quite sentimental, likes looking at photos, so he’d probably be better at it than me.
I am mortifyingly behind on my US taxes. I got caught up a few years back but then just never did it again? And now that it looks like student loan forgiveness is off the table, I’m quite unmotivated to do it. If I’m never moving back to the US and make well under the threshold for having to pay double taxes, what are they going to do to me? Which is a terrible approach, but it’s stupid that I pay my UK taxes, am a British citizen, and have no assets in the US, AND still have to do the paperwork.
Elisabeth
It is a labour of love – but less of a labour this year. It was about 3x faster than normal, and I am NOT complaining about that.
I hope all goes smoothly with your husband’s surgery. I’m sure it requires extra logistics and moving pieces for all of you. But a great idea to have him handle some album work in his recovery time.
Doing paperwork for nothing sounds so frustrating!! And tax paperwork at that. Blergh.
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
I love the fresh start of the new year, but otherwise January and February are a bit much. Yes please to a fast forward button to get us to March.
4,000 Weeks is on my TBR, and I’m at the top of the Libby queue, so I should be starting it soon. I’ve heard a lot of great things about it. Congrats on finishing the photobook – that’s a double win because it’s a big project off your plate AND the finished project is pure joy. Taxes are a huge project too, but when you finish all you get is crossing them off your do list.
Elisabeth
Yeah. I’ll also press that button. I might even go all the way to mid-April. Winter is just not my thing. And neither are morning. Maybe I’m just not SUITED FOR LIVING?!
Not only does doing taxes only allow you to cross something off your list, for us this year it means two payouts both corporately and personally. So I cross off a to-do that is give a crap-ton of cash to the government. But then I’m grateful that we are able to contribute to the foundation of our social networks etc with those tax dollars. It still hurts to write the cheque, though.
Nicole MacPherson
Ahhhh I have so much to say, I hope I don’t forget some of it.
Kate Bowler! I have been listening to her podcast Everything Happens (I know you’re not a podcast person but if you WERE I would recommend her, she is very gentle and lovely and spiritual). It’s a new-to-me podcast, which is always fun.
I’m so happy you’re doing yoga, and with your daughter! This is so special!!
The photos – ahhhhh you are an amazing photographer. Those spreads all look amazing and again, you are inspiring me to do a photobook instead of resentfully printing off photos and shoving them into albums. Maybe I just need to tap into some creativity!
Fridays are my favourite day of the week, and I have so many special things happening today – because we are going to Mexico! I’m in that fun pre-trip part, and because J is not working right now (for some reason the golf course is closed? No idea why) he’s just going to look after Rexie all week, so I don’t even have stressful kennel dropoffs to deal with! Yay!
Elisabeth
I have heard her interviews on Happier with Gretchen Rubin but I don’t think I knew she had a podcast. She wrote two other books; this is very short faith snippets. I was pretty surprised how heavy it is on the faith side of things. I am loving it, but VERY Biblical and reads like a Bible devotion, as an FYI to anyone who might want to read it.
I’m so glad you’re so happy about me doing yoga with A! I was just thinking about how powerful I felt in a deep twist yesterday and my mind immediately flashed to you and I thought: Nicole would be so proud of me <3
Enjoy the final prep stages. That is AMAZING that you don't have to take Rex to a kennel. Win, win for everyone. I hope the sunshine and beach time are just fabulous.
Colleen Martin
Your photobook is just beautiful! When you take photos that nice, I’m glad you take the time to create a book. Also, thanks for the reminder on summer camps, I gotta get on that.
Elisabeth
I cannot believe how early you have to register for summer camps. It JUST opened, and L ended up on a waitlist for our preferred week. The good news is booking so early means I got an early bird discount + I pay by e-transfer and get a $10 credit for that AND this is the first year L is going and there is a $50 discount for the second child. Still, IT’S SIX MONTHS AWAY. I don’t know what I’m doing next week let alone 6 months from now.
Moving on…it makes me a bit hot under the proverbial collar.
Thanks for the kind words. I give all credit to John for the best of the best photos; he is a natural. It’s such a delight to showcase them in a book each year and the kids absolutely LOVE flipping through these books. I have over a decades worth now.
Jenny
You’re doing much better than I did in January when I lived up north. Those gray skies just make everything harder. But you had some great happy things this week! I also love Friday nights- although I do work Saturday mornings (ugh) it feels way more relaxed, AND it’s our takeout night so I don’t have to cook!
I like how “more naps” is on your shmita to-do list. Yes, I can get on board with that! I love naps.
Your overnight oats sounds AMAZING. So you put it all together the night before and then microwave it in the morning- brilliant. I’m going to have to try this.
Your photos are so, so beautiful. Putting together the photobook must be such a pleasure. Oh, and I also want to have a heli-tour of the grand canyon- that looks incredible.
Elisabeth
Jenny, it is SO grey. I was just thinking of you the other day when it was cold and bleak and thought: Jenny would hate this weather today.
Yay for takeout!
I really need to take a nap this weekend. I ended up waking up at 3:15 am one morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, and haven’t managed to feel caught up since.
The oats are so delicious. I put it all together in a dish the night before, stir it up, and then microwave for 45 seconds and stir in the morning. They’re great cold, too, but just a bit better warm.
Suzanne
Oh wow, Elisabeth – no wonder you make your photo books a priority. They are stunning. What a fantastic gift for now and for the future.
Congrats on making progress with taxes and for crossing summer camp off the list! That reminds me that I need to get my kiddo signed up… but fortunately I think she’s decided to do a repeat from last year and I don’t think registration is open quite yet.
Your Friday family dinner sounds so beautiful and delicious. Love it when those family events work out so well!
Elisabeth
I’m a bit miffed by how early in the year we have to register for camp but such is life. I have made a note for NEXT JANUARY to register as soon as it opens so we don’t play the WaitList game…again.
NGS
Honestly I don’t mind snow and cold in January. I’m doing okay. But come March when people in other places start talking about their flowers and it’s still cold and snowy, I will be unable to cope. So March is rough for me. But I will get through it, right? And you’ll get through January! It’s been bitterly cold here for the last week and there’s so much snow (it snowed again last night!), but the skies are pretty blue during the day, so I am still enjoying life and feeling like 2024 is new and shiny still.
No, thank you to the heli-tour. That sounds terrifying to me.
Elisabeth
I feel like March is when I finally start to feel quasi-human again. It’s the cold more than the dark that bothers me, and Jan – March is just…COLD. I am so glad you’ve had pretty blue skies and are enjoying life and 2024 so far. I am to, but I could do with more sun and less gloom.
Katie
Can you remind me what photobook company you use? I did one with Chatbooks last year (very quickly- I did not put much time or effort into it!) and the pictures came out really blurry! (It was only about $15 though). I’d love to make a better one for 2023!
Elisabeth
Blurb. I’ve been very happy with the quality. When Shutterfly took over MyPublisher, I immediately made the move to Blurb because Shutterfly is all online and I LOVE having a program on my computer where I can drag and drop.
In terms of price point, I just ordered a hard cover image wrap on Standard paper (I’ve used all their papers and Standard is fine for me and it the cheapest); it was 202 pages long and with taxes and shipping it came to $124 (after a 20% discount).
Ally Bean
Fascinating. One project at a time, eh? I can see the sense in that but also know that the minute I get into one project an idea pops up in my brain for another project, and I feel compelled to stop the first project briefly to make notes about the second project. Is there a way around that according to Oliver Burkeman? Or do you just muscle your way through the first project and let the idea go?
Elisabeth
One of his points in the book is sometimes we SHOULD let projects go (and I did just that the first time I read his book). I don’t always struggle with having multiple projects on the go; like with books, sometimes it’s more enjoyable to be able to take a break and move back and forth. But lately I just felt too stretched by too many different competing interests and was like: Oh, right. I could just focus on the one thing for now. And it really helped hone my focus.
Lindsay
Your photobook is beautiful! What a win (both for you and monotasking)! I felt so connected to that story about L and his teacher; perhaps because I have a mischievous child, as well. When reading before bed the other night, my girl asked me if we could do pranks on her dad on Feb 1 because he’d never see it coming – AND, that it would be a double prank because it’s not April 1. SUCH STRATEGIC THINKING (even if I had to remind her that we don’t do April Fool’s in the house because I think it’s mean).
Elisabeth
The kids loooove to prank me on April Fool’s (I did it to them a few times; the best being freezing a bowl of cereal in the milk with the spoon frozen in, too – I’ve done that trick twice and they love it). What a hilarious thought to do it on Feb 1st when no one would suspect a thing. The element of surprise is important in a prank 🙂
Jan Coates
Love the Whoopie cushion visual. When he was in grade 2, Liam wore his favourite T-shirt but he took a clip on tie for picture day, without me knowing. It’s my fave of his school pics with his little smirk for pulling a fast one on us🙃
Elisabeth
Awww. That is CUTE. Those school pictures are quite something 🙂
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I love your photo book! I think it is a great tradition and will be a great thing to look back on every year, plus for years to come. My parents have so many photo books from over the years and it is so fun to peruse them when I am at their house. Of course, theirs are actual photos, which was a lot more difficult, I think!! So, yay them.
I don’t mind January…sorry! The only downside here is that it is the rainy month, so I am waiting for that to stop so I can do some outdoor home projects. Otherwise, it is not too bad. I know you cold weather people have it worse, but I like skiing and don’t even mind shoveling snow, although I am not a huge fan of driving in it. However, I obviously live in a non-snowy place for now, so that is easy for me to say!
Elisabeth
My parents (spearheaded by my dad) have SO many photo albums. It’s great fun to look back through them.
M
I’m sure it feels great to have those things checked off your “To Do” list! Oh, I love your photobooks! I told myself when I was working that photos/photobooks will be my one “fun at home” project — but 6months later, I haven’t made a dent yet. But we need to look through the photos to submit for my son’s yearbook (graduating students dedication page) this weekend so it might kick me into gear.
Those helicopter pics over the Grand Canyon look so awesome! We did a Cessna tour ourselves when I wanted to drive from SoCal to the Grand Canyon (my plan included a few states) but my husband wasn’t in the mood for all that driving in such a short period of time (we only had 5days, before Thanksgiving) so he booked us a flight over instead, and invited our family friends. I still want to be down there…touching, communing with nature and feel like an ant next to these GRAND canyons…so that’s on tap later this year.
Elisabeth
Photobooks are a labour of love, but I do think they’re getting a bit easier as I come up with more of a failproof system for organizing pictures. If I just left them on our computer/phones I don’t think we’d look at them very often, but photobooks get A LOT of use in our house.
John is the one who got to do the helicopter ride (as part of a work event) and now I WANT TO DO IT TO!! Bucket list 🙂
Lisa’s Yarns
Your photo book looks gorgeous! And to have it done is the best feeling. I am about 3/4 done. I need to finish it soon so I can order it when Shutterfly has an unlimited free pages coupon deal. Paul and I looked through our 2018, 2019 and 2021 books last week. Not sure why we looked at those ones in particular and didn’t pull out 2020 or 2022. I will have to do that another night. I was wondering if the photo books were worth the effort but he loved looking at them so now it does feel worth the effort.
My happiest thing was getting together with another mom that I met through my blog! She lives in my neighborhood and is just a delightful person. We mostly text as it can be hard to get together but we finally made it happen after having to cancel for illnesses and such this fall.
Elisabeth
They ARE a lot of effort, but I think it really pays off long-term. We use our photobooks A LOT. I also get a PDF copy of the books (it’s 4.99 – not sure if that’s an option with Shutterfly?) and I love having a backup on my computer, too.
Oh, yay for IRL meetups with people you’ve met via blogging. That’s so fun and I’m glad things worked out to finally get to meet in person.
Diane
I’ve been listening to Kate Bowler’s podcast too and she is so funny and caring. I first heard her on an episode of On Being when she talked about having cancer with such humour and honesty that I immediately wanted to hear more of her thoughts. Bowler did a podcast episode last year (?) where she talked with the Catherine Price, author of the book “How to Break Up With your Phone” and I thought of you, Elisabeth, because Price decided to have a digital Sabbath as well and she talks about it and about how it took her a while to get used to having the time back and live with the quiet, which is such intriguing prospect to me.
I loved Three Wise Men and a Baby as well! I thought it was really cute and different, but also at the same time still very much a Hallmark holiday movie.
Elisabeth
I’ve read that book by Price. It was GREAT. I think I actually might have a copy of it and that reminds me: what a perfect read for my digital Sabbath!!
It’s Three Wise Men so fun! I can definitely see us watching that every Christmas moving forward.
San
Oh wonderful, thanks for sharing some of the photobook pages. These are some great photos and to have them printed in a book is just delightful! I am glad you found some highlights in your week, despite the pebbles in your shoe.
We had a couple of cold nights but no big storms and obviously no snow (where I live), so weatherwise, I cannot really complain in January. I just always feel like I am a few weeks behind… how is it already the 20th?
Elisabeth
I am SO glad it’s the 20th. January is just…not my fave.
Kate
I had to google Magic Bag and I’m assuming the one you used is a warm/cold pack, not a vehicle for growing mushrooms… ha! It’s amazing to me how much better I feel when my feet are toasty warm. My mother-in-law gifted me some buttery soft socks for Christmas and I just love wiggling my toes around in them. Weird, maybe, but these small sensory comforts really do matter!
Your photobook spreads look amazing. As always, I’m blown away by John’s photography.
And good job on getting summer camp squared away! I don’t know how quickly camps tend to fill up in your area but around here, lots of them are filled by the end of February so I try to at least have a rough plan in place this month. Plus it’s something fun to think about during the dreary cold days.
Elisabeth
Ha – yes, a warm/cold pack.
L is on the waitlist for his preferred week, so it was already full. By like the 15th of January. What now? Sigh. Oh well. I did get him into another week of camp so at least he has a spot and we can just transfer things over to the waitlisted week if spots open up.
Stephany
Congrats on getting the photobook done! I know that’s something that hangs over your head, and now it’s DONE and so gorgeous. You take great photos!
It’s crazy how early you have to sign up for summer camps. It’s January!!
December-April is when living in Florida feels so good. The weather is mild and while we have had some gray days lately, it all evens out with the mild temps. Gray and in the 60s is much easier to handle, haha.
Elisabeth
I love my weather…9 months of the year, but this is the time I HATE it. Oh well, it can’t be a perfect climate or everyone would live here!
And I know – January just feels waaayyyy too early to be planning summer camp. Right?