2015-Live Outside the Jar

I'm going to admit something that is just not acceptable in Blogland-I didn't have a word for 2014.

Nope.

 I wasn't torn between words, I never picked one at all.

I even led a night with my prayer group where we all created little desktop reminders of our word and I never selected one for myself.

I can't say that I have chosen one for 2015 either.

Maybe I will, but as of now I have no idea what word should define this year.

Enter the memory jars.

I saw a pin on Pinterest and decided 2015 was the year of the jar.

I am not always known for being the most positive person. 

In fact, sometimes it is easier to complain or moan about how life isn't fair.

I'm not doing that this year.

This year I will seek out the goodness of life.

The simple delights.

The blessings we enjoy.

The beauty of simplicity.

People who make life exciting.

And I don't want to do this alone.

Jars are headed to friends, family, and coworkers. 

The hope is that we can live with more positivity and more joy. 

And that at the end of the year we can open the jars and read the blessings, gifts, and treasures that defined the year.

So what's been added to the jar thus far?

-The freezing cold night that I rushed under the covers and found that my husband slipped heating pads on my side of the bed to keep me warm.

-We have enough funds to pay for my next semester of graduate school thanks to an unexpected gift.

Want to join in?

You can download these printable tags for your own personal jar of goodness.

CLICK HERE to download the tags.

I used boring old card stock and inked the edges, but you could find some pretty scrapbook paper to jazz them up. 

So print up some tags, grab a jar and start living with joy this year. 

Yes, it's a bit fluffy, but gratitude sure has a wonderful ring to it, yes?

One Little Word 2013 - Trust

Another year, another word. Want to read more about it? Here's an archived post be Ali Edwards about the concept.

For 2012 I selected embrace as my word to reflect upon and I tried hard to go with the flow. For the most part, I think that happened. It was an attempt to be more accepting and I know that idea helped me to be less obsessed with the perceptions of others. I needed to just let their thoughts and ideas be theirs and not influence my own attitude. I noticed that I moved on a little easier and in some cases faster. And just when I released certain problems from my own power, the situations changed or opened up. I liked the word embrace so much and I think it gave me a slightly more free spirit.

But now it's on to this year.

For 2013 I am selecting a word that I think will be a real challenge: trust

By nature, I am not the most trusting person. I'm cynical and usually look for the loophole in a deal. I tend to think people are out to get me and I am the conspiracy theorist in our group (ask any of my friends, I am obsessed with the other side of any crime or wondering what we aren't being told). I just don't tend to trust the party line so to speak. As a result, it is hard for me to trust others.

So, what do I hope for this word trust?

-I want to deepen relationships with family and friends with trust and honesty. Less gossip, less chit chat and more intense conversations. This isn't for all friends obviously (I am a firm believer that one should never expose herself to those who will not appreciate sharing important stuff). I believe in sharing stories when they need to be told and with those whom I cherish, I want to do just that) but for those forever friends already in my life and those yet to come. You know them when you meet them, right?

-To be more trusting of others and believe in their motives for goodness and honesty.

-To be more trustworthy and to be a person of integrity.

-To be open to new ideas and not jump to conclusions.

-To trust my instincts (which I usually ignore) and go to God in moments of concern.

-I want to trust God and accept that God is fighting for good in this world and good in my world. To trust  God in all areas of my life by surrendering to Him even when it seems like I should be able to control the situation. This will be tough and I know it, but my faith needs a real awakening and I think it has to start with trust.

So, have you chosen a word? How do you hope to incorporate it into your life?

One Little Word 2012 - Embrace

It took me longer than usual to select my one little word for 2012. The end of the year was filled with celebrations and tragedies and I couldn't decide what word should be my driving force for the year.

Finally yesterday it came to me - EMBRACE.

Embrace faith and growth in community.

Embrace my husband - hug him daily, grow together.

Embrace changes at work.

Embrace where I am in life.

Embrace relationships - grow in friendships and be with family more often.

Embrace who I am and maybe even discover who that truly is.

Embrace what life brings and stop resisting changes and new paths.

I have grown so accustomed to being anxious and dreading the worst instead of hoping for the best. My desire for 2012 is to leave some of that worry behind and dwell on the moment, embracing whatever comes my way.

What's your word this year?

A Hopeful 2011

For the past few years I have selected one little word to be the focus/motivator/inspiration for the year. Past words for me have been joy, peace, change, simplify, and for 2011, hope.

When I selected this word in late December 2010, I was a sad little lady. Not to say that there weren't many happy moments spent with wonderful people - there were - but I was not joyful. I probably was a bit depressed but didn't want to admit that. And I didn't want 2011 to be the same way.

This is the first year that my word was focused on for the entire year in my heart. I've always chosen these catchy words that look great on a coffee mug or necklace and I just liked the word. I'm not so sure I was ever a peaceful person who accepted change gracefully while simplifying my life. But hope was big for me. And I kept it in the front of my mind all year long.

The results?

1.  Meaningful friendships. This will sound harsh and I am ok saying that I am very much against fluffy, small-talk friendships. I want to know people deeply (without it being weird of course!) and have friends who I treasure our time spent together. And in 2011 I enjoyed being with our closest friends and loving getting closer with them. And blogging friends SO count here! I have been blessed with new friendships I could never have with such inspirational women. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and lives with me. I look forward to reading your posts, comments and emails daily.

2. An enriched faith and building community within our church. Freddy and I joined a community group of five other young married couples and it has been incredible. We are growing in faith and being more involved in our church overall. Probably a 'duh' but when I'm closer to the Lord, hope and joy naturally seem to follow.

3. Contentment. This is something I thought would have flowed from simplify, but it didn't. Once I became hopeful about our present life and future, I began caring less about what we lack and became grateful for what we have. I'm ok with where we live, my car, my job. That's so huge for me.

4. Learning new things. Love that I am knitting now and look forward to learning to sew next year. My inlaws gave me a sewing machine for Christmas and needless to say, I am really excited to be able to hem my own jeans.

5. Buying less, appreciating more. We spent less this year on needless stuff. Thrifting has helped me not overspend on clothes like I did in the past. In fact, it caused me to be nearly unable to buy retail and pay high prices.

Hope has been my favorite word from any other I've selected. I've liked it so much that I don't even have a clue what I would like to select for my 2012 word. Hopefully on January 1st I will share a word to enjoy and embrace in the year to come.

What's Your Word?

So, in blog land there's lots of word selecting going on and I just love reading others' selections.  It so wonderful learning about the reasons why certain words were chosen and how the word will be lived throughout the year.

A couple of weeks ago my prayer group and I got together for our first meeting of the new year. We all shared about the words we had picked for 2010 and how we enjoyed them, loved them, and lived them.

Then we all selected our words for this year.

Our words for 2011 are:

Heal

Bloom

Joy

Hope

Inspire

Cherish

Rich

Plus we all made our word visible for the whole year (they'll go on vanities, window sills and shelves in our homes) to remind us to CHERISH the RICHness of a year filled with HOPE, HEALing, and JOY while we watch the year ahead BLOOM.

Here's to Hope in 2011

It's time to reveal my one little word for 2011. Ali Edwards (one of my favorite scrappers, bloggers, inspirational people ever) introduced this idea a few years ago and for the past four years I  have joined in the fun of selecting a word to make the year more focused, memorable, or meaningful.

Past words that I've posted on are Change for 2009 and Simplify for 2010. I also selected Peace in 2008 and Joy in 2007. Each of the words helped me to have a better perspective of the year and find purpose.

For 2011 I have selected HOPE as my one little word.

Hope for happiness in my life and in the lives of those I love.
Hope for less stress and more structure.
Hope for stability.
Hope for dreams coming true.
I hope to be a better wife, a kind and compassionate friend, and to deepen connections with those I love. I hope to break free from spending too much, being negative, and focusing on what I lack rather than being grateful for what I have.
I hope to practice patience and understanding.
Hope for deepened relationship in faith, to be led towards ministry.
Most of all, I hope to find joy and make it part of every day.
And to share the hope by celebrating the joy in each new morning.

Some little extras for your one little word:
Pick up your Lisa Leonard Word of the Year Necklace here.

Ali's One Little Word class for Big Picture Scrapbooking is something I am a part of this year. It should help me to constantly remember the word and keep it current each month.

Here's to hope for 2011!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Simplify: Springing Forward

Continuing with the simplify challenge has been a bit tough for March. I think it is the busy-ness that seems to creep up this month each year. Lots of celebrations, work is intense, cleaning a little deeper, and changing out clothes. I also find that spring fever starts to hit me and I am ready to throw my winter coat away for good. As soon as we had a warm day this year, I stuffed all the coats in space bags and sent them to my mother's attic for safekeeping and now sport my lightweight spring jackets.

And simplifying unfortunately got pushed to the side. In fact, I think I have to admit that March was a tough one to feel simplistic in.

But these were the steps I took to simplify for March:

1. Cleaned out my closet and dressers. This was a huuuuge undertaking, but I got rid of any clothes that didn't fit perfectly or didn't make me feel great while wearing them. I found that by selecting the pieces that were beautiful and comfortable, it is easier to get ready in the morning and I now feel a new sense of confidence.

2. Continued taking Simplify 101's Organization 101 online class. This was a wonderful course that helped me streamline lots of spaces in our apartment. And the philosophy of tackling one organization project each day has stuck.

3. Attended a time management and multiple priorities seminar. Learned some wonderful tips about utilizing the time I have to do the things I enjoy the most or need to complete. And my favorite tip: When you think it, ink it. Which brings me to...

4. I have a to-do list book. For the very first time in my life, I have been listing all the tasks I need to complete for each day of the week and I check them off as I go along. And it has been a success. It helps me keep track of what I actually need to accomplish and I seem to have more time to spend scrapbooking and reading.

Remember to check in with your word, see if you can put it into practice in a new way. And if it doesn't still fit, you can always change it.

Simplify: February Update

As per Ali Edwards's influence, I will be checking in with my word here each month. It's a good way for me to see how I have put the word into action.

For the month of January I:

-Purged my ginormous pen collection keeping only those I will really use

-Went through all my clothes and pared my wardrobe down to those pieces that I am truly happy wearing. They have to feel good and look good.

-Set up online bill pay for most of my expenses

-Kept things out of my car. If it doesn't belong there, it gets outta there

-Writing in my gratitude journal daily.

-started Zumba classes

-Worked on organizing the kitchen with my Organized for Life book. It was a lot of work and required some journaling, but now all the drawers have a purpose and I know where everything is.

-and got the Lisa Leonard necklace with my word. And I love it>

How is your word doing?

Simplify scrapped

So I usually get around to scrapping my word of the year in June. And it is usually long after the word has had its effect. And it is usually just to have it scrapped.

So this year, I scrapped it first thing at a private crop in Sandra's new scrap room.

In a sense it is a journal moment for my word with a photo of Freddy and me on New Year's Eve.

Th journaling reads:

Simplify - my ford for 2010. Need less, want less, keep less. Love more, learn more, organize more. Be "ok," be grateful, be me. Make goals, make a schedule, make time for what is important. Keep it simple.

This was definitely a fun way to get back into scrapping this year. And it made for a reflective moment.

Seeing your word

One way to remind yourself of your word daily is to have it as a visual reminder. It's easy to find some words on plaques or wall art if you go and search online or in stores and having the word in a special, highly visible place helps to keep it on your mind. It may even spark conversation with those you love who can help you live your word.

I made a couple of framed SIMPLIFY pieces for me to display.

One will go on my desk at work (since I am there most of the time) and the other will find a place in the apartment. I used paper that made me happy and whimsical stamps to make them fun to look at. The frames were really cheap from Michael's and fit with most decor. I also whipped one together for a dear friend who is living a very vibrant word.

So, find a cool way to see the word you want to live in 2010.

Thoughts on my 365 2010

So I don't know what really made me want to shoot a 365 again, but I was very motivated and am really enjoying it. The photos can be found here or on a straight calendar view here. I think this project gives me a chance to search for what made my day meaningful.

I noticed that in 2009 I really didn't take very many every day photos and I missed that. When it came to scrapbooking, I was missing those moments that captured who I am and why I do the things I do. I resorted to scrapping just the big events or not scrapping at all. I want to change that (maybe go digital? not yet sure).

I have my 366 photo in an album at home and I look through it every now and then just to check out what was cool about that year.

I noticed the following:

-I liked my face that year (in terms of makeup)

-I get lots of different hair cuts

-When in doubt, I photographed me feeling whatever it was that day

-I am lazy on the weekends

-I like getting new things

-I love celebrations in life

-I seem to have lived in clutter for a long while

-Freddy sends me flowers all the time

-I love reading and creating

-I do my own nails and it shows (they looked pretty ugly in lots of the photos)

I want to get more photos like this:

Watching, dancing, being like a child. I want my 365 to reflect the good, the bad, and the incredible.

Some things I hope to capture this year:

-What is making my new life special

-People I cherish

-Moments, things, people that I love

-The little things that I do but think as unimportant (cleaning, paying bills, walking through the front door)

-Discovering new hobbies

-Embracing my word SIMPLIFY.

Make it simple

And the word for 2010 is SIMPLIFY.

This is an all-encompassing word for my life in 2010. I want so much to de-clutter. De-clutter my mind, my stuff, my attitude. I just want to be happy with what I have and embrace it. I want to literally get rid of those things that make my life complicated. I want to be happy with life as it is and focus less on how it should ideally be.

And thus, the reasoning for selecting simplify for this year.

I have a couple of books to help me with the organizing side of the word. They have layouts for the week to keep me on-track with my goal to live an ordered life. I selected Organize Now, The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Year, and One Year to an Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized for Good. If the books become a burden and make life less-simple, they'll be out, but I have really enjoyed reading their perspectives about organizing and how it is a life-long process.

I am going to be journaling a bit more on paper this year in the hopes of getting to the core principles and values that I care about and to de-clutter my mind, get the stuff on paper.

And I am going to take the challenge of another 365 photo project on flickr. I loved doing this in 2008 and I enjoy looking through the album I made. If this becomes a hassle, I will bring it down to a weekly photo, but it wasn't a hassle the last time, it was something I truly embraced and I hope it can remind me to find the beauty in the simplicity of each day. I also think I will use Ali's soon-to-be-released digital templates to scrap this. I have much less room to scrap and a fabulous mac, so this may be my turn to dive into digital scrapping.

So cheers to 2010 and happy new word!

Blog changes and the word

Being that I actually seem to be posting a bit, I have decided the blog will undergo some aesthetic changes. So, the next few days you may notice new photos and a different layout. It may be weird, but being that change is my word for 2009, this one should be easy to implement.

Speaking of the word...time to start thinking of a word for 2010. Selecting a word to immerse in for a year has been something I have tried for the past three years. In 2007 it was JOY, 2008 was PEACE, and 2009 is CHANGE.

Each year, focusing on the selected word has allowed me to think about where I can improve, how the sentiment or experience exists in my life and how to be grateful for it. I have some thoughts for 2010 and will share the selection on January 1st.

The idea for the word came from Ali's blog. She has several posts on this that may help you to select a word for your new year found here, here, and here.

New Year, New Word, New Life

And so 2008 comes to a close. I was trying to think about the past year and reflect upon my successes and exciting moments and I started getting a little weepy (it can happen sometimes). Here are my favorite 2008 happenings:
-meeting wonderful women who are accepting and inspiring. oh, and they are true friends.
-Paying off a HUGE credit card balance by myself and not incurring interest
-singing my concert (and preparing for it, making arrangements for it, etc). This was big for me and something I never thought would actually happen. It built my self esteem and I felt so amazing after it.
-Reading just to read - this was something I previously stopped doing. For a while I was reading just to get better arguments for "my side" and now I am embracing knowledge and relaxing with a good story
-Preparing for my wedding and having fun with it
-fostering a fulfilling relationship with Freddy
-sticking with my 366 photo project

In 2008 my word of the year was peace. And I do feel that I was happier, full of a sense of being ok with me and my life. It was a good word and I thank it.

And now I introduce to you (drum roll please) my word for 2009: CHANGE. There are lots of changes going on in my life this upcoming year. I am getting married. I will be moving out and starting my own life in my own place (wherever that will be), I will need to change how I think about money, food, my lifestyle. I'm not going to lie, I am nervous. This will be a momentous year. And I just have to say to myself that change is good and I will enjoy the ride.

Happy 2009 filled with lots of blessings.