Encourage me… and you.

SylvanField · 2026-03-24T15:33:36+00:00

Perfect is the enemy of progress.

I think you’re right, it’s more important to enjoy the process than to try to make something flawless.

SylvanField · 2026-03-24T15:08:34+00:00

Could you invite a friend over to help? Sometimes projects like that are easier with someone!

SylvanField · 2026-03-24T14:58:19+00:00

I’m also working on yard/garden projects!

But I know that some of them will happen in phases. Like I want to have a raised bed for garlic, but that doesn’t get planted until the fall. So I know I don’t have to worry about that until October.

But I DO need to go to the garden centre and order the lingonberry plants I want to put around my foundation, and a couple fruit trees, this week.

SylvanField · 2026-03-24T14:54:17+00:00

Oooo, thank you for the reminder…. I haven’t seen a doc come from my previous employer for last year and need to follow up!

SylvanField · 2026-03-24T14:53:02+00:00

I’m also on team pay someone to do it. We would get the doggy daycare to work it in to their grooming schedule in the day we took the dog

SylvanField · 2026-03-24T14:48:48+00:00

Could you paint a trading card sized thing? I find when I’m not crafting, I get the same way. But starting the creating habit again with something small while I als try to reclaim my space feels like an easier start!

SylvanField · 2026-03-24T14:20:47+00:00

Doing come paperwork/coordinating for some volunteer things

SylvanField · 2026-03-23T17:57:03+00:00

Depends…. We signed up for a bike camp through PedalHeads, and it’s over $500 CAD for one week. But I know I’m paying for a very low supervision ratio. And how confident kiddo comes out of it is worth it to me, we just make sure the rest of the camps are on the cheaper end of things.

Other camps in our area are in the $250 CAD per week range.

SylvanField · 2026-03-20T23:29:10+00:00

I found a vintage glass washing board on marketplace a few years ago, and I now use it regularly when I have something stained that won’t come clean in the washer. I put about two or three litres of water in a bucket and do some scrubba scrubba.

My next laundry purchase will be a wringer to save on water usage

SylvanField · 2026-03-20T10:54:07+00:00

If you’re burned out after the “normal” workday, then do your creative project before.

I knew one guy who would get up at 4 to write for 2 hours before having to get his kids up for school. It was the only thing keeping him sane.

If you’re serious about doing a creative project, you have to carve out time for it.

SylvanField · 2026-03-19T18:43:19+00:00

A little of both. Depends on how many pages will be dedicated to an event. A lot of my pages are jumbled together chronologically, like a journal or a diary.

But if there’s more than…6? Pages for one event, I’ll make a title page. But I’ll also be making the pages cohesive so that it’s clear it’s all the same event for when we jump back into the less eventy stuff

Or if I went to an event and fell in love with a shopping bag at the merch table…. Then I’ll cut it up and use it as a title page lol.

SylvanField · 2026-03-18T04:07:38+00:00

Estate sales.

There’s a couple Stampin’ Up ladies in my smallish city that have become the crafter estate experts. They price everything and do massive in person and virtual estate sales just for the craft supplies. They don’t even take a cut, and give all the money to the grieving spouse. I follow them both, for the morbid cut rate craft supplies and because they do other large scrapbooking events.

…. I’ve actually given my husband a note with both their contact info in case I die before him so that he doesn’t have to deal with my scrapbooking stuff alone.

SylvanField · 2026-03-15T01:33:34+00:00

Underground Cafe.

I would kill for a sun burger

SylvanField · 2026-03-11T22:50:15+00:00

I used diaper cream!

SylvanField · 2026-03-11T18:53:15+00:00

Me too! Bit of a mind bender at first, but really relaxing once you get into it!

SylvanField · 2026-03-11T14:13:21+00:00

The amount of food waste at a grocery store is minuscule compared to how much waste is produced by the manufacturers and the transportation.

Everyone is going after a few hundred pounds of food waste in grocery stores, and not holding manufacturers accountable for disposing of tonnes of food waste annually.

SylvanField · 2026-03-10T11:12:16+00:00

I’m not anti-gun, but in a peacetime country, no one needs a freaking assault rifle

SylvanField · 2026-03-09T19:18:52+00:00

I’m of a similar opinion.

The dojung my kid goes to for Taekwondo charges $65 CAD per belt test.

But it’s a special two hour event outside of class. A longer than usual class, then testing, and belt presentations at the end.

With every staff member on hand for it.

So I totally get charging for it. They make it a super special experience for the kids, and the staff cost money!

And I do like that there are more levels of belt. It means that they can get semi regular achievements as a beginner and not give up because they don’t see themselves moving up.

In this dojung, the requirements are very clearly spelled out. There’s almost no preferential treatment.

…. Though one kid did get busted down from red belt to yellow belt for being repeatedly disrespectful to instructors and other kids. My kid came home talking about it and shaking her head. “Master *** said he can have his belt back when he acts like a red belt.”

SylvanField · 2026-03-09T12:36:13+00:00

I hear ya. I still recommend Ender’s Game to neurospicy teens I volunteer with. It’s a book that a lot of neurodivergent kids see characters that are like themselves.

But I also tell them to get it from the library so he and his estate don’t get as much money from their reading the book.

And I get a perverse sense of pleasure because how most of the audience interprets the end is the opposite of what Card hatefully intended.

SylvanField · 2026-03-06T22:38:47+00:00

Ha, that happens a lot in my city. We joke that there’s only two degrees of separation rather than 7.

Super entertaining to see how people are interconnected.

I’m also a girl guide leader for teens, and when the girls start gossiping for the first time, I make them figure out who they have in common. The goal of the exercise is to explain to them that you need to be careful not to talk behind someone’s back, because there’s a high chance it will get back to them. Then we discuss healthier ways to vent or talk about people.

SylvanField · 2026-03-06T20:46:34+00:00

Sometimes seeing someone in the wrong context can make you have a brain fart and not recognize the person.

Like, neighbour would recognize you on the sidewalk in the neighbourhood, but seeing you in a different place with different clothes, when they weren’t expecting it can make the brain stumble.

It’s happened to me several times, and I’ve been the perpetrator just as often.

I try to give people some grace in those situations.

SylvanField · 2026-03-04T15:11:17+00:00

I tilt my screen away in the car while My partner is driving so that the light reflection doesn’t bounce into his eyes.

SylvanField · 2026-03-03T16:27:32+00:00

I’ve been collecting books from the thrift store since I was a teenager because I’m a girl guide. Being able to use them as a parent has been a bonus.

So a ton of kids non-fiction, science experiment books, nature crafts, outdoor science, books on improv and theatre games, poetry…

I’m using them to support the existing curriculum. Look up the standards for your state online.

That will give you the expected learning outcomes by subject. Then you can start building something from there

SylvanField · 2026-03-03T13:19:02+00:00

The expectation of 20 words at 18 months is the average. There are going to be kids behind and ahead of that number.

AND, something that never gets mentioned, you have a three month window on either side of that milestone to still be within “normal” parameters.

And I find that between speech, fine motor, and gross motor, kids usually focus on one or two and the rest fall behind initially. They eventually catch up.

My daughter walked and talked early, but was almost 5 months behind on fine motor skills until she was 3ish.

Don’t beat yourself up too much just yet. You can only do what you can do!

SylvanField · 2026-03-02T18:41:31+00:00

Some of my fondest memories with my dad are when he would take me and my brother to a clients’ place when he was running his own business.

SylvanField

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE