kirstencan

Sketchnotes

So I recently got re-interested in 'sketchnoting'.  And I'm loving it!

I started trying to do this with my primary lessons a few years ago.

Sketchnotes just means highlighting the main ideas of a talk/speech/presentation in a graphic (and pleasing) way that will be more meaningful to you.

As a visual person - YES.

I have the book 'Sketchnotes', and it is great for motivation/inspiration.  Mostly interesting to get ideas as to how other people do it.

I've been trying it again while re-reading General Conference talks (LOVED this one!). 

Yeah, that way works for me.  Not only did I get more out of the talk as I read it, but I remember it way better than if I would have just read it AND I am more likely to go back and re-read notes because they look kinda cool.  And I wasn't taking notes so much that I was stressed out trying to record every detail, you know?

I tried taking 'live' notes during a lesson at church.  Again, I got more out of it!

At first I was just using what I had - gel or ball point pens, neon hi-liter.  For my bday, I got some nice highlighters and a micron02 pen.  Like those MUCH better!  Who would have thought I'd have such strong feelings about a grey highlighter... but it's my fave.

Another re-read - trying to get all of October's conference read before this one coming up! I often sketchnote at the library (that is also where I prepare Sunday School lessons) and it's working for me.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the women's session of conference at the conference center.  Instead of filling a page per talk, I filled one page for the whole session.

Not that there weren't as many awesome things said (there were!) but I tried harder (cuz live) to just focus on main points and not worry about filling the space.  By the way, Sister Oscarson killed it last week.  Wow, her talk was amazing.

We had REALLY good seats.

My daughter and her friend tried out sketchnoting as well while we were there.  While my daughter's brain doesn't work anything like mine, she found a way of sketchnoting that worked for her, and is excited to do more of it.

Last week in Sunday School I was talking to my 12yos about General Conference and taking meaningful notes, or finding a way to organize thoughts/impressions they had during the talks.  I am hoping they all try it!

You don't have to have fancy notebooks or pens, you don't have to be able to draw, but I think this method is so amazing, so I thought I'd put this out there if anyone wanted to look it up before this weekend (Easter PLUS conference - yay!).

Sketchbook book and site

Sketchbook army (submission blog)

My fave notebooks are moleskine cahiers (large, plain)

my fave highlighters (except mine is the set with the grey one)

My flickr set of sketchnotes

My notes are meaningful to me now.  They aren't book-worthy or anything ... though I hope I see them look cooler as I practice!

Random

The girl got the Beatrix Potter ballet dvd for her birthday.  It's super cute and got everyone interested in all things Beatrix Potter again.  Love when that happens.

Having a bad cold was a good excuse to chill out and watch some world cup games.  USA vs. Belgium was probably the best/most exciting game I've ever seen!

We had a visitor in our (fenced!) garden the other day.  I guess he jumped the fence?

Speaking of the garden, the poppies and irises are done, the hollyhocks not in full bloom yet, but we have daisies this year!

My boy can fly.

I was lucky enough to get to spend a day in the woods at a cub scout day camp.  It was beautiful.

While there, this is what Monkey bought at the 'trading post'.

Ew.

Pokemon Shrinky Dinks

Remember when my blog used to be filled with sewing projects?  My, how times have changed.

Another Simmer

Okay, tried a new simmer this morning. I just sliced up about half of a lemon and a lime.

Then I threw in some ginger.  We buy a big thing of ginger*, grate it all with the food processor, then freeze it.  So I just took out a hunk of it and threw it in the pot.

Then I poured in 1/2 tsp. of vanilla.  It was a good one!  So simple, and so fresh smelling, without smelling like Christmas.  The kids liked it, too.

 

*We process our garlic this way, too.  Buy a bunch, peel it all at once, process it, and then freeze it.  We freeze garlic and ginger in gallon size freezer bags, laying flat.  Then you can just break off what you need.  Works great!

Puppies

Puppies!

We love borrowing dogs or making playdates with them.  Some of us aren't as into having animals in our house...

And how often do you see six 4 week old puppies?  Or have one fall asleep in your lap?

Two bad they don't stay so small (these won't for sure!).

Cute Cookie Award

My brother, Karl, drew my name for Christmas - and he did good.

Totoro and Legend of Zelda cookie cutters!

Not only geeky and awesome, but made with a 3D printer!  Extra geek points!

Pre-sprinkles, post-sprinkles.  We did make some frosting for the top, too.

Can you even imagine if I would have had these for the Monkey's Miyazaki party (I don't think they existed then)?

I got out my Star Wars cookie cutters as well, since I made a double batch of cookie dough, but these little guys were just TOO cute, so we just made tons of them.

Thanks, Karl, we LOVE them!

Backstory

(Previously on Backstory)

Trouble is definitely brewing at the old post office.  It appears the yanks and rebs have joined forces in an attempt at better delivery times and customer service.

Little do they know, however, that the police have a plan and are taking their places.  Poor Jim there, is hanging on for dear life because he took so long getting his gear on.  Rookie. The other coppers had a good chuckle about that.

Will the standoff hold?  Did the yanks/rebs bring any ammo?  Will their getaway pirate ship work on land?  Will customer service improve?

Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, in (blurry!  Stupid night shots) space, barbarians have taken control of the space station.  Captain Koko looks to the sky, praying for help before laying down her sword in surrender.

Random

While recovering from my decent cold/cough situation, I got either a stomach virus or minor food poisoning.  So that's super awesome.

Still recovering, but the chills/sweats are over, thank goodness.

So today school looks like this (I call it a CHALLENGE day):

Because I am still trying to quarantine myself in my room in case it is a virus (no one else has it yet, knock on wood!), the kids come in my room, TOUCH NOTHING, and report for a challenge.

Like:

get dressed (totally challenging)

Reading time

Score at least 50 points hitting nerf gun targets (still up.  Also - math!)

Lego challenge (theme:  inventions)

Book report page

An episode of Magic School Bus (thank you netflix!)

Retire the Egypt library books and pull out the greek ones

Find Greece on the big map

Journal page

Find 3 portraits or landscapes in our art appreciation pages

... we'll see what else.  Probably video game time as well.

++++++++

Watching:

When I don't feel good, I can't concentrate on books, sadly.  So I've been watching tons of netflix.  Here's some recent watches (from before The Sickness, too):

Raising Hope

Jericho

Call the Midwife

The Bletchley Circle (AWESOME!)

Fringe

After  John Ratzenberger did an AMA on Reddit yesterday, I had to watch a couple Cheers - Cliff!

SNL

Life Unexpected (random find, I've never heard of it, but made it through the first 3 episodes)

Wonder Years

Hunger Games

And I got caught up on The Mindy Project, Castle, and Brooklyn 99 on Hulu.

So... yeah, lots of screen time.  Don't judge.

+++++++

Comments:  I have to say sorry about this, I don't know what the deal is, but I have replied to most of the comments lately (thank you!) and have realized that they're not actually getting sent/posted.  Weird.  I think it's when I do it from the iPad that's a problem.  I had noticed that replies sent from the iPad were somehow losing their punctuation when I hit send somehow, but now they're not getting sent at all?  Sorry! (Typepad?)

++++++

The Redhead's birthday is tomorrow.  Not sure I'll enjoy the eating out part of it, or be making his beloved Mud Pie personally, but he'll have a good day, I'm sure.  Better than mine, anyway. :)

Pretty much the best minifigure ever

Legoland

It's going to be Lego week here on the olde blog.  Because Lego =  awesome.

First up:  random awesomeness at Legoland.

 Life size x-wing.  Nuff said.