Latin: et (and) + cetera (the other… things)

So. I have been trying to get my head focused on the one million and one things that need to be done (is your to-do list any shorter? Fancy trading yours with mine?), and I figured the best way to get my motors revved is to … procrastinate! bwahahaha. 😆 just kidding. Of course, what I really meant is: the best way to get me energized to do the ton that needs to be done is to sit on this porch, have a little chat with you, and when it’s over, I’d have amassed the energy and inspiration I need to go and attack that workload!

Let’s play catch-up, why don’t we? Here we go! 🙂

Something to look at:

Last week I got the biggest surprise of the year. See, there was a thread on our Spraground forum with a cryptic message from my friend Dawn who said something about “great seeing you ladies on p. 37!” (not verbatim, but you get the picture). It was a fabulous way to trigger the curiosity antennae… so I soon found out that my dearest friend Jes had done a layout of our beta Spragfest held in Chicago last year (lots of happy memories, that one) and it came out in her column in the June issue of the Creating Keepsakes magazine!

How awesome was that!

Of course I found out about this close to midnight. Of course I got out of bed in my pajamas, drove to the house of my regular magazine-stand girl, and demanded that she check the most recent shipment of CK for the June issue so I could get my hands on p.37 and savor the sweetness myself!

Well, not really. But I came close to it (ask Jes, she’ll vouch for it). 😆

So… a day or two after the thread came up, I got my own copy of the mag, and yippee! There we were, the Chicago babes! And there was Jessica’s AWESOME layout! Never mind if I looked like a dorky kid. To be a glue dot on Jessica’s layout is honor enough! ROFL. So here’s the page:

And here’s a close up of the fab layout that Jes made:

And here’s a funny:

I showed the page to my nanny. She took one look at it and said, eyes peering closely at the photo, “Oh, it looks like you, Ma’am.” I said, “Yep, cos that’s me!” Her response: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

No, she still doesn’t believe it’s me. To this day.

Something to marvel at:

My 7-year-old son J, who loves drawing so much that he’s going to make trees quiver in their roots once he’s done recycling all our paper at home, has just recently discovered that broken crayons can be taped together so they don’t go to waste. And he’s been using that discovery to mend all his little colored friends.

One day last week, he came to me all excited. “Mom! Look! I found triplets!” he said, holding up a crayon broken into three. “This crayon is going to the crayon hospital!”

Five minutes later, he comes to me and says, “Look, Mom! All better!”

Voila. Crayon Operation, folks. Who’da thunk you could actually staple a crayon together? Did you? I didn’t either.

Amazing, kids are. Makes you wonder just how much we could achieve if we adopted the same kind of brave, nothing-is-impossible attitude toward all that life throws our way, doesn’t it?

Something to be grateful for:

Remember that whole post about multitasking a few days back?

A friend of mine emailed me with this question: Can you download two or more things at the same time? (Cute, isn’t it, the innocence in that question? 😀 )

This is my answer:

Oh yes, my friend, you can. And boy, do I thank high technology all the time that indeed, we CAN!

Something to think about:

I keep this guy on my desk (among other “guys” 😉 ).

First of all, I love that my teenage son thinks I’m a cool mom because I have this… this creature… on my desk. (He has about 5 of his own. It’s apparently the in-thing with kids these days. )

Secondly, I love that it says 23:59. In fact, that’s what made me take it on its short journey from shop shelf to cash register. Initially, I loved that the time and all those (what are those anyway, veins? 😆 ) spindly things seem to empathize with me when I’m rushing against deadlines (which I seem to get a lot of in regular doses).

But this little thing has evolved, and today I found that 23:59 stands for more than just deadlines. It makes me think about time running out (one minute left, lady!). It makes me think about how this life is temporary, how we really are just travelers passing through, making our way to our final destination. It makes me think about how all we really have is now, and how we need to grab Now by the collar and do all the good that we can and give all the love that we have… NOW.

Amazing. Little did I think when I picked up this little guy in the store that day, that he would stand for so much more than four numbers on his little face.

Something too precious for words:

I hope I never run out of love letters like this:

Something to laugh about:

Okay, so I think it’s been established that google reads our emails (or at least their robots do). My friend Jes and her carrot cake addiction will attest to that.

But nothing prepared me for finding this in my spam folder when I went to clean it up…

I mean, seriously? French Fry SPAM Casserole.

Right.

And yes, I fell off my chair. Rolled on the floor, in fact. Laughing out loud.

Have a wonderful, laugh-out-loud day too, my sweeties! Over and out!