For March, PBC host PJ challenged participants to make their month full of fun. Regular readers will notice this is the third Photo Blogging Challenge theme for 2026 that starts with “Make Your…” I finally read PJ’s January post more closely, and he’s encouraging personal agency with “Make Your…” themes all year.
Of note, had we been going with the traditional theme for March, I would be trying to figure out how to photograph Thirteen, in honour of the thirteenth anniversary of the Photo Blogging Challenge. Thank you, PJ, for continuing to organize our small PBC community. And to my fellow participants, please know that I appreciate and value each of you. I welcome the monthly excuse to blog hop and catch up with what’s going on in each of your lives. Through good times and sad times, everyone is always supportive and kind – things the world can use more of these days! 🙂
Getting back to this month’s actual theme, did you know that there are two types of fun? I learned about this when doing a little research early in the month. Apparently Type 1 fun is when you’re enjoying the moment. Whereas Type 2 fun is challenging in the moment, but fun to remember. What’s fun to one person may not be fun to another. But when something is fun, it’s usually characterized by feelings of connection (shared experiences), playfulness (enjoyment, amusement or pleasure) and flow (feeling totally engrossed and actively focused on the activity/experience).
Thinking about those three ingredients for fun makes me realize that with a bit of an attitude adjustment and a little more interaction, most of us have daily opportunities to add more fun to our lives. Here are some examples of how we made March full of fun:
1. Family Board Game Night
I’ve written about family board game night in several PBC posts. We (Mr GeoK and I) continue to enjoy Wingspan. Our 26 y.o. goes along with our choice, and beats us by a wide margin just about every time. We changed it up this month, incorporating the last expansion: Wingspan Americas. It brings in a completely new game mechanic, a large stack of new birds, new round end goals, new bonus cards and more. Mr GeoK snapped this picture, so I opted to use his rather than further disrupt game play to take another.
2. Part of the Art
We spent a few days in Seattle, WA this month. It was time for my annual round of tests for the Parkinson’s study I volunteered for right after my Dad was diagnosed. We always plan our flights so we have time to do a bit of exploration before / between / after my appointments. This trip, we opted to visited Exquisite Creatures (amazing); the Seattle Asian Art Museum; the National Nordic Museum (a bit pricey IMO); and the Frye (always free).
We chose the Seattle Asian Art Museum for two reasons: 1) a 650,000 Lego brick Monet-style mural (unfortunately that exhibit closed 3 days before our visit); and 2) Geometry of Light by Pakistani American artist Anila Quayyum Agha. We found it to be very immersive and spent about an hour studying the various shadows, colours, how the space framed the pieces and vice versa and doing our best to come up with photo compositions that adequately convey what her work is like.
Of course we toured the permanent exhibits, including beautiful statues, kimonos, scrolls and more.
Bonus photos, from the National Nordic Museum (where Mr GeoK had a bit of fun with Freddie Feetsplinters) and Exquisite Creatures exhibition (the latter taken with my LensBaby tilt-shift lens, always fun to use):
3. That’s Punny
My brother and sister-in-law are always coming up with puns. They’ve been doing it for so many years that for them, it’s a natural aspect to their conversations. I can sometimes get in the pun zone. And I sure appreciate puns when I hear / see them, even if some do make me groan out loud!
Mr GeoK and I stopped in a neighbourhood Italian restaurant for lunch one day in Seattle. I quickly settled on the house lasagne. But Mr GeoK had a harder time finding something on the menu that appealed. In the end, he opted for the kids meal (pasta with tomato sauce) with a side order of Italian sausage on top. The meal came with a juice box that he offered to me. I still get a smile when I think about what they named the flavor – Appley Ever After. Other flavours in the line include Goodness Grapeness and Berry Good Lemonade. 🙂
4. At Home Camping Adventure
After some unplanned home renovations that started in November, we’re finally at the stage of putting everything back together. But after 4+ months of drywall dust everywhere, we thought we’d better get the carpets cleaned – everywhere but one of the rooms that was renovated, which has new carpeting. While the carpets dried overnight, we ended up “camping” in the TV room on the box spring and mattress from our guest bedroom, emptied for the carpet cleaning. We slept very well.
5. Family Time
In addition to family board game night and lots of great mealtime conversations at home, we are now blessed to have all four (grand)parents in Calgary. After our return from Seattle, I dedicated a day to visiting the two sets of parents. I joined Mom and Dad for breakfast, a tour of the residents’ art exhibition and a good long visit. Then I continued to Mr GeoKs’ parents for another visit, where I changed a light bulb, helped with a couple of iPad-related questions and enjoyed a long chat. I made sure to come away with the two photos I’d planned for last month but wasn’t able to get for reasons you can read about here.
Those are my five photos (plus a few bonus pics) for this month. As for the Photo Blogging Challenge, we started 2026 with Make Your Month Colouful, followed by Make Your Month Loving, and now Make Your Month Full of Fun. I wonder what April will bring? To find out – and also to see what other participants did to make March fun – head over to host PJ’s blog post.
PSA – April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. Estimates suggest that Parkinson’s affects nearly 1 million people in the United States and more than 6 million people worldwide. It’s widely considered the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world, in terms of prevalence, disability and deaths. Cases doubled from 1990 to 2015, with projections suggesting they will double again to over 12–17 million by 2040. While a charitable donation is the easiest way to support Parkinson’s research (US here, Canada here), there are also opportunities to join research studies. I’ve joined the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) and they are continuously recruiting new participants, including anyone aged 18+ in the US and anyone over aged 40 around the world. For those aged 40+, participation is as simple as doing an at-home, free scratch and sniff test. Details here.