*sigh*

Here’s the thing. The first word that I thought of when I was considering the possibilities was “create”, but one of the other bloggers who had talked about doing this challenge had already chosen the same word. I wanted to do something different. But as I try to come up with the sub-text for my word, to put it into little chunks of focus for the year, I get stuck.

So today I decided to change my word. My fellow One Little Word participants agree that it’s okay to have a do-over. One of my favorite people said “…shifting from one word to another means you’ve been thinking about it and it’s evolving for you, which seems to me to be the whole point of the journey anyway!” I’m so glad I have friends like that. (thanks Angie!!!)

So my word is now CREATE. But I’m going to have to get back to you with my plan and my intentions with this new word… stay tuned.

Joyful Moments:

• singing Christmas songs (in January) to an alarm
• family conversations at the dinner table
• my family’s inside jokes
• hearing my shutter open and close
• the sun coming through the curtains in my room each morning
• how I feel when my dog greets me
• snow falling
• coming across Psalm 16:11
• full days of crafting
• sun coming through stained glass to a beautiful church of women worshiping
• conversations with the people I love

These are just some of the things that have happened in the last couple of weeks. I am so excited to seek joy and see how having a different outlook on life changes the way I view things and changes my attitude about things that seem monotonous.

Over the last year I realized that one of the things I was missing most was telling the stories of our daily lives: the funny/infuriating/silly/crazy things that the kids do. The sweet moments that we have as a family. The fun stuff. The sad stuff. I just didn’t have much time to sit and write about it in 2012. I do now, so I want to make it more of a practice – practice writing our story.

I hope, that much like create did in 2012, that story becomes just a part of the fabric of our days. That telling stories becomes a habit and ingrains itself in our lives. And I hope that I remember to write down more of our stories!

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The One Little Word concept was started by Ali Edwards. You can read more about it on Ali’s Blog.

I like having a monthly prompt or at least trying to reflect on my word each month. I like trying my best to respond and capture my thoughts and feelings in a variety of creative ways.  I tend to set aside one weekend a month devoted to One Little Word – sometimes by myself, but usually in the company of Deanna.  We meet at her house, spread out fancy paper, scissors, photos and collage materials and make a mess together, sharing our pages at the end of the day.  Deanna, on the other hand, doesn’t mind collecting for her word over several months.   Sometimes she creates several pages from a whole quarter in one weekend.   While I didn’t feel I had to attend to the timeline, I like my OLW responses to be as close to the heart of the matter as possible.

We’re both taking different paths this year.  She is using the project/process as a way to respond to some work she’s doing with a faith formation group at her church.  I’ve decided to stick with the notebook idea and respond monthly.

Because of this intensity regarding the benefits of this project, I have been particularly hesitant about choosing a word. My 2011 word “notice” was a great word for looking forwards and backwards, paying attention to what I was anticipating as well as reflecting after the fact.  But with the word “delight” in 2012, I found myself mostly looking backwards, using my word as a sieve.

I didn’t want that kind of word this year.  I wanted a word that would capture action, be more forward looking. Throughout December and on into January I have been on the lookout for a word: listening, reading, attentive to any provocation that seemed fruitful.  Finally my word broke open in my head when a friend read this poem by Jan Richardson aloud:

For Those Who Have Far to Travel

If you could see
the journey whole
you might never
undertake it;
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.

Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping
step by
single step.

There is nothing
for it
but to go
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:

to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;

to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions
beyond fatigue
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.

There are vows
that only you
will know;
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.

Keep them, break them,
make them again:
each promise becomes
part of the path;
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel

to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.

Long poem but my new OLW just popped out of it for me: pilgrim – and especially the lines “take the vows  the pilgrim takes:  to be faithful to the next step; to rely on more than the map; to heed the signposts of intuition and dream; to follow the star that only you will recognize.”

My creative juices are running as I anticipate the first pages for my 2013 OLW book.

• Take a self portrait daily. Attempt to take one non-self portrait daily. Post a photo a day to daily photo group with explanation on the key points of the day.
• Take photos at FIRST, new places we visit, and around the house. Aim for 100 total non-self portraits this month.
• Make a scrapbook page of the efforts this month (ok, this is an every month thing, but it first got put on my list when I was thinking through this month’s intentions)
• Journal when in the mood but focus that journaling on the feelings of the day/time/event, not just what’s happening.
• Pick a day and fully document it. [I chose Saturday, January 19th because it's a non-work day and should be a pretty typical Saturday during FIRST season.]

Usually I won’t develop my intentions so late in the month but this one’s a bit different as I signed up for the class late and FIRST just started and name your excuse. At the end of the month I’ll come back and tell how it all went down.

Before I go, here’s those intention cards I promised before. First scan is of the front of the page, second of the back. The tan colored “paper” is actually cut up file folders and the colored paper is from a pack of 2″ strips of cardstock I picked up at Michaels last fall. I’ve really got to get my hands on some more supplies if I want to keep up with the paper scrapping!

Until next month…

Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to the Paperclipping Round Table show for a while. I have no recollection of how I found it, but I’ve listened to over 100 episodes. It gets me through my commute and running mileage.

Maybe it’s because I found Elise Blaha Cripe’s blog.

Maybe it’s because I want to capture and tell stories, and to use my free time to be creative.

Regardless, here I am at the start of week 3 of 2013 and I’ve completed 2 weeks of Project Life. (You can go here for more info). It’s awesome it’s finally here, that I’m taking photos daily and trying to work in bigger picture journaling here on the blog, with my very acute writing of morning pages in the AM, with the short stories & pictures of the PL spreads.

I’m aiming to find a balance, some type of niche for each that serves its purpose. I’m running my weeks Sunday to Saturday, and working on it on Monday evenings.

It’s all helping me focus on what matters. It’s allowing me to find a rhythm. And it’s giving me a sense of ease.

I don’t know if I’m obsessed or “so in love” with it, but I feel it in my gut as a year long project that I want to complete, even if it evolves. Last week I thought I didn’t have anything to tell, but I had more photos than I knew what to do with. It’s awesome.

In an effort to not go product crazy, I haven’t bought anything and am using only what my husband bought me for Christmas. I do want some stickers and tags, but saving money and capturing the stories is most important. I plan on printing my photos once a month and probably won’t share actual spreads as I can’t imagine doing anything crazy with mine.

If you’d like to see a few people who I’m digging check out: Elise Blaha Cripe, Ali Edwards, and Marcy Penner. Somehow this is all feeding into my One Little Word, which I haven’t written about here much yet, and my need to love what I love. Structure, classy, sparkly, clean and story. Yes.

So what will be here?  I knit so expect to hear about that, photos of random skeins of yarn, finished objects, or not so successful projects.  I set a goal to read 26 books this year, so I will probably do my own little reviews of them as I knock them off.  I also signed up for Ali Edward’s One Little Word workshop, so I’ll be spending the year chronicling that word in visual format – my word is “happy”.   I enjoy photography as well, and am sure we’ll be seeing some of those at various points as well.

I’m working on finding my bliss, becoming more “mindful”, and being pretty much living in a state of Zen all the time, I’m kind of like Cane in that regard though, Zen until I get angry so it will be a definte work in progress.

In addition to all this good and fun stuff, I decided to go back to school and get a law clerk certificate, as well as my university degree (probably a BA in Anthropology) and am working on both concurrently.  So expect a few nervous breakdowns along the way, unless I do manage to reach the Zen goal, and then it will all be good, right?

Right.

Oh, and I have cats.

I had this whole giant list of things that I wanted to focus on but, when I went to make my cards using the very little paper scrapbooking supplies I had, I only had enough of the same set of colors to make six cards. I took this as a sign that I only needed six, not the full twelve, and foraged ahead. I’ll be honest – the cards turned out a total mess and, to make things worse, I had this nagging feeling that I was cheating. And, really, I was. Having only six intentions meant I got to edit my list of twenty down to the six I thought were easiest. Didn’t have to face the ones that would be hard or uneasy.

This morning, I tossed those old cards and started a more complete set. I don’t have the cards themselves to show off – haven’t had time to scan them in and photos don’t work due to the shiny page protector they’re in – but I do have a written list of those intentions.

Jan: WORTHY documentation – Record life. Good and bad. As much as possible.

Feb: WORTHY friendship – Reach out to old friends. Attract new ones.

Mar: WORHTY mentoring – Identify a mentor. Find place at FIRST. (FIRST is the robotics program where I mentor HS students)

Apr: WORTHY exploration – See a new part of DC. Walk around the neighborhood.

May: WORTHY intellect – Learn somethign entirely new. Take the GRE.

Jun: WORHTY photography – Read the manual. Participate in challenges.

Jul: WORTHY appearance – Start running again. Accentuate the positive.

Aug: WORTHY culinary skills – Help Matt make meals. Cook a whole meal.

Sep: WORTHY organizing skills – Closets. Basements. Offices. Digital life.

Oct: WORTHY writing – Write everyday. Blog.

Nov: WORTHY creativity – Try painting. Don’t force it.

Dec: WORTHY kindness – Knit hats, give time, say hello to everyone.

I should have been random with my alignment of my intentions to each month but, let’s be real, that just isn’t my style. I’m too controlling. January and February are my two craziest months, with robotics after work two days a week and all day Saturday. In June we’re going to Spain so lots of photo opportunities. I am not going to start running again until it’s at least a bit warm out (though hopefully July isn’t *too* warm). So, I fiddled with the timing of each until it made the most sense.

Each month, I’ll (1) watch the video and do the exercise for the OLW online class, (2) expand on my intentions for that month, (3) create at least one scrapbooking page about how I implemented (successfully or not) those intentions and (4) attempt to remember to blog about all of that.

I’ll be back in a few days with my intentions for this month and the intention cards themselves, this month’s assignment.

Since 2007, I have been choosing a word every year as inspired by Ali Edwards.  I am taking an online course from her with prompts every month to remind me of my word and to look at life  through the lens of my word.  This year is PROSPER.  A word that means:

• to be successful
• thrive
• flourish
• to make happy
• to favour
• to grow
• to increase

Such great definitions I think!!! She challenged us to consider some intentions for our word this year.  Here are some of the areas in my life that I want to PROSPER in:

• finances
• parenting
• health
• marriage
• friendships
• my relationship with God
• aviation
• my home
• love

It’s going to be a good year.  I’m excited about my word and about where it will take me!

Psalm 1:1-3

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
not stands in the path of sinners, not sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that brings forth it’s fruit in it’s season,
whose leaf also shall not wither;
and whatever he does shall prosper.

I’m going to try to tell this next story with honesty, without being hurtful, although it’s a fine line. For the past four years, my dad had been living with us out of necessity. When he moved in, I had high hopes for a positive experience and was excited about our Girlies really getting to know their grandpa (and vice versa). Within a short period of time, it was obvious my hopes were unrealistic. Even though I love my dad, he is a difficult person to live with. It’s very hard to parent your own parent and that’s what I felt like I was doing, except he is an adult and not my child. I thought I was doing a good thing, by inviting my dad to live with us, but it created a negative home environment for our family. This is a difficult truth to admit. I was miserable and so was my dad. I felt empty. My usually happy disposition was unhappy. I hated coming home to my own home.  I put up a good front…or at least I tried.  And yet, I knew things had to change…for me, for our Rosey family and for my dad. Fortunately, in August my dad was able to move into his own apartment and I felt like a weight had been lifted off my heart. It was huge. I’m still processing everything that happened over the last four years and living with all my feelings – sadness, guilt, disappointment, anger, relief.

And I still thought about one little word for me and words like joy, joyful, joyous kept resonating with me. I want joy in my life, except… I couldn’t use the word joy. I’ve always loved the word joy. I have an engraved rock doorstop with the word joy. I have wood blocks that spell joy, joy, joy. Big Sis M’s middle name is Joy. And that is the problem. Little Miss C always asks “Why isn’t there a doorstop with Jane on it?” Jane is her middle name. “How come you don’t have blocks with Jane on it? Or Christmas stuff with Jane on it?” You understand. I love joy. I couldn’t pick joy. Now what little word do I choose?

At the beginning of Advent, during a reading at Mass, the word rejoice was said. Aha! That could be my word. R-e-j-o-i-c-e! I like it. A verb – to be glad, to take great delight in, to make joyful, to feel joy or to give joy to. Yes! I think I found it. It fits. This is the one. Rejoice!

And that’s how my one little word found me or I found it. Not sure which. I was certainly looking. I continued to think about my word throughout December and I know it’s the perfect word for me, for my family, for this new year. It encapsulates how I want to live… rejoice in my heart! I can’t wait to experience my one little word, learn about my one little word and see how I grow with my one little word. So over the next twelve months I will…

• rejoice with my family.
• rejoice in the simple, everyday things.
• rejoice in creative stuff.
• rejoice in friendship.
• rejoice in quiet, peaceful moments.
• live my life AND rejoice.

I’m excited to begin my journey with rejoice. If you’re interested in learning more about the One Little Word 2013 workshop, click here.  I’d love to have you join me.  If you picked one little word for yourself this year, what would it be?

After going back and forth for a few days, I decided to participate this year. In a way, I participated last year by choosing to focus on recording my life. Sure, I wasn’t very successful in that I blogged less and took fewer photos but I did think about it more often and got quite a few scrapbook pages under my belt.

But, this year, I really want to focus on living out my word. And, you guessed it, I chose WORTHY.

All my life, I’ve never really been convinced I’m worth it. I get glimmers that maybe I’m smart of I’m pretty or I’m creative. But I let myself forget all that as soon as I see someone who’s better than me at whatever it is. And, you know what, there will most always be someone better at me than whatever that thing of the moment is. But, I am WORTHY because I’m the best person out there at being Angela Leese. I’m cynical and dorky and passionate and ungraceful and talk too much and too fast. But, that’s who I am.

I did sign up for that online class associated with OLW, as the cool kids call it, and hope to post each month about my response to the assignments. I’ll be back tomorrow, at least – well, the WordPress widget that auto-posts at an assigned time will be – to talk about my intentions for the next year. And, maybe after that, I’ll talk about how I’m actually implementing them. For now, I’m off to sit and think about this whole one word thing and all it will hold for me in 2013.

view full image

“My one little word #BE”

Sometimes when inspiration strikes you just gotta go with it.

At first, I was going to go with the word LEARN, but that’s only part of what I would like to try to accomplish in 2013. I want to learn and grow; see and accomplish, and many more things that I will STRIVE to do more of. It would be unrealistic for me to expect myself to actually meet every goal I have, therefore I will do my best to strive to work on these goals. For January’s assignment, we are asked to stamp our word onto 12 cards, expand a bit on our chosen word, and put the cards into divided page protectors. I copied a lot of what Ali did with her cards because I like her style.

These are my hopes and intentions, what I strive for in 2013. Here’s to a great year, and thanks for stopping by!

I am all about healing and peaceful this year. So I picked up another Feng Shui book – Feng Shui That Makes Sense by Cathleen McCandless. Right. I hope so. Because I’ve done this before and shelved them – my house is all wrong, it’s in the wrong location, the layout is all wrong, the rooms are arse backwards and my chi doesn’t know if it’s coming or going. Or I have to go through so much astrological algebra my brain explodes.

One of the first things McCandless does is imply a promise that the book is not full of “complicated, contradictory, and … ridiculous concepts.” What?! No three-legged frogs,  red tassels, or crystals? It can’t be! But yes, she insists this is “unfortunate.”

… the system of feng shui can transform an ordinary space into an environment that relaxes our bodies, inspires our minds, and lifts our spirits.

That’s what I’m talking about! And I know that is true, because we experienced that feeling at the Meadow Villas at Warm Springs. I couldn’t guarantee it was intentional feng shui, but the “feeling” was incredible, and that’s what I crave.

I’ve only read through Part II of the book, but McCandless has captured me with her “reality checks” and explanations of common myths – symbolism or practices that had practical roots in the environmental hardships of ancient China, but no longer apply in today’s modernized world.

Well, bless her heart.

She’s also given me a “Gibbs Slap” on the back of the head. I seem to have developed an inexplicable obsession with my front porch. I spend hours upon hours clearing it, cleaning it, and rearranging it. It’s become a battle ground of sorts. Thomas dumps crap there, I move it, I find containers for it, I try to ignore it. It makes me crazy, I don’t even have to see it to feel frustrated by it.

When the front of the home looks good and feels good, you experience a sense of pride, order, and accomplishment, rather than frustration and annoyance. These positive feelings influence your overall experience of your home and result in a much better attitude toward tackling whatever it is that awaits you on the other side of the front door.

Well duh. Guess it’s time to get serious about finding him a storage shed for his tools and climbing gear.

We were prompted to come up with our one word of course. Mine is “celebrate”. Next we had to create a page reflecting our goals associated with that word. Here is what I came up with:

Photo by author and used with permission.

Towards the beginning of the month, I posted about my monthly aspirations for January.  You can read it here.  In this post, I talk about registering for One Little Word presented by Ali Edwards.  Well I have taken the plunge and registered for it!

I had a small list of words that I was contemplating on using for this project but I have narrowed it down and finally picked CREATE.  This word is meaning full to me and has been jumping out at me since October of last year.  Little did I know then that it would be for a reason!  I have downloaded all of the materials, seen the video, and read the handout.  I followed what Ali suggested in that I went through my personal stash of scrapbooking supplies and I did not have an available 8 1/2 x 11 3-ring album.  All of my albums are post and except for one they are all 12 x 12.  This will be my first official 8 1/2 x11 project.  I do have tons of paper however for the color scheme that I am planning, I don’t have enough for this project.  So, I have gone online (I have no local scrapbooking stores that sell these items) and purchased my album, protector sleeves listed in the supply list and some washi tape.  Now I know that I don’t need to buy washi tape for this project, but I have never used it before and I am really excited to try it.  Also, when I went to Target yesterday, I purchased a journal just for my OLW project and a small package of paper that is pink.  I am waiting for my album, protector sheets, and washi tape to arrive in the mail.  I am hoping it is soon!!!  I have already starting writing my thoughts in my OLW journal.

Photo by author and used with permission.

Are you joining the One Little Word project with me?  If so, what word did you pick?  Let me know in the comments below.

Have a very crafty day! 

Tricia

Project Life!

I’ve actually been thinking about trying Project Life for awhile now. It just seems like an easy way to document your life instead of doing whole pages about certain events. Everyday life is just as important as the big stuff. Plenty of the people who’s blogs I follow did Project Life in 2012 and I thought it was awesome. If they have a bigger event that comes along that deserves more than just a picture they dedicate the whole week to that event or add in extras. It is pretty darn cool.

So when Becky Higgins was posting all over Facebook/Twitter/Instagram this week about the new Project Life products hitting amazon I started thinking about it again. I finally decided to pull the trigger last night and ordered the kit and pages I would need to get started. One of the releases from this year was called Clementine (aka ORANGE) so I had to order that one. 

I all ready have an album that these pages will fit in and I spent the morning searching Pinterest for free Project Life printables. Man there are a lot of those out there! I’ve been making notes of things that have happened over the last week and a half so that I can have last week be “week 1″ and get things started. 

I am so excited about this new project for 2013! Just thinking about scrapbooking again makes me smile. And since I have that boy I told you about yesterday, it will give me even more pictures and things to add to my album. It won’t end up all being pictures of Pepper. Tee hee.