HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! Bring on 2013!

I'm sooooo excited about the NEW YEAR, cannot wait for a fresh start with new ideas, new projects, new classes, more pictures, PL 2013 IN MY HOUSE SOON I HOPE all of this and more. This year has been a growth for me and I hope to grow even more in this new year. Thank you for all your support and friendships, I say it all the time but I AM SOOOO THANKFUL TO HAVE YOU AS BLOG FRIENDS, HOW DID I GET SO LUCKY TO HAVE YOU!! Thank you for sharing with me and letting me be a part of your lives, you inspire me so much daily!! Wishing all of you a safe and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

 

WE GOT SNOW FINALLY!!

Well the snow finally came and we are loving it, or at least me and Sam and Lucky are. I loved walking around in the back with Lucky, exploring and jumping thru the deep snow. Sam and his friend built a fort which is still in process. The girls need new snow pants before they will go out. Sam has been out all day since it came, just loves it. I love the pretty yard all white and crunching snow under my boots. Can't believe it finally came, hoping our winter will be a mild one like last winter. Will be taking winter/outdoor photos all thru the season so I hope you won't get tired of seeing them. We don't even have a snowman yet or sledding so those will be fun to do.

Thank you soooooo much for all the comments and excitment in my OLW post. Looking forward to sharing more with you and following all of you in the New Year. Can't believe it's almost here. Oh and I did sign up for Ali Edward's OLW class, this should keep me motivated.

I did try doing text under the pictures but it won't let me still, not sure why. Will keep trying and I apoligize in advance for the amount of photos and not much words. Have a great last few days of the new year and I will be back with my caught up PL pages and maybe December Daily if done.

OLW (one little word) for 2013

Here are my ONE LITTLE WORDS (OLW) for 2013. This is a great idea for those who don't like making goals for the New Year, instead you just focus on a word. To read more about this idea go to Ali Edward's.com where she explains about it and shares about the OLW class based on this idea. Over the last few years my OLW has served me ok, for some reason I can't commit to it like I do PL. Not sure why that is but this year I'm hoping to grow and focus on these words and will sign up for her class. My last OLW words were TIME, ART, BELIEVE and I would say ART is the one I did the best on, fully bringing art into my daily life. I think BELIEVE did help me thru this year but could have had more chances to grow and I didn't let it. So now it's time for 2013 and what word(s) have been in my mind for a few months now. I did these pages last night to kick it off, will add some words to it later but for now I just like seeing them like this, BIG AND COLORFUL. I did the favorite masking tape to outline a word then pulling it off. LOVE LOVE THIS! Before ripping it off though I painted a color just around the letters and LOVE how it turned out. It was so fun to paint again and bring out my art journal, it's been weeks. So here is a little bit about why I chose these...

 

The word STORY has been on my mind a lot since the fall, I think doing my thankful leaves and PL in November really made it kick in though. I want to get back to scrapbooking our lives, seems that since PL is a major part of my life the scrapping gets further away from me. I want to bring this up in the front again and have more stories told about the kids, me, hubby, US, THEM, EVERYDAY, the big, the small, past, present, future all of it!!  To do this I will not only be scrapping but also doing more writing in my journals and by taking some classes. Some of them will be Ali Edward's newest announced class STORY , can't wait to see what this will be about. She also had a 31 days of stories class this year that I missed out on but will be sure to take next year. I have a couple more in mind that I'm checking out at BPS and by Cathy Z, will let you know about those when/if I take them. I am really looking forward to this word and what it will grow into this year. LOVE telling our story!!

 

My second word has been around for some time now but gets pushed aside/not acted on and it finally hit me hard after the tragedy in Newton. I WANT/NEED more PEACE in my life, my home, my heart, my world, my kids and family, EVERYWHERE! I do feel at peace most days but I can tell we need more and how to focus on it and hopefully spread it to others. Not sure what I will be doing with this word just yet but it's there and knocking on my heart pretty hard right now. This word is going to be the one that will change me/us the most this year and hopefully forever in a GOOD WAY.

 

I know that we are suppose to pick just one word but for me I like having two words, one for me and one that can be for my home, family life. Really there is NO RULES about this OLW so that's good since having two words works for me. Like I said this year I'm really hoping to stick with these words and DO things with them and stay committed to Ali's OLW class for this. I've also thought about bringing the "HAPPINESS PROJECT" into my life and into my words this year too. Somewhow I will work that into my OLW and PL and WRITING!! I might even think about a handwriting class, my writing can get kinda sloppy at times and it would be nice to read what I actually write.

 

Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading all of it if you did. Would LOVE to hear if you have a OLW or a goal or anything about plans for the new year. Please leave it in the comments for me to read or blog abou it. If you have any questions please also let me know. Check out Ali's blog if you haven't heard of this, lots of good stuff to read about it. She is so amazing and inspiring with this idea. I will come back soon with the Christmas pictures, we had a great day. As of last night we got our first BIG BIG snow also, Sam is over the moon about waking up to play in it today. So prepare for lots of SNOW pictures this coming up week. Hope all of you enjoyed the holidays and are now having some down time. I'm ready for the NEW YEAR!!

AROUND HERE & MERRY CHRISTMAS

SNOWFLAKES FOR THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY KIDS, PLEASE READ!!

Hello, I'm popping in for a minute to ask for your help. While going thru my emails this morning one caught my attention. The community at Newport Sandy Hook Elementary is offering a way we can help after the tragedy last Friday. They are getting a different school ready over the holiday break so when the kids come back next year they won't be going back to that school again. They have decided to decorate with SNOWFLAKES and we can help. They are asking you to make any form of a snowflake and provide the address to send it to. What a wonderful suprise for these kids to come back to a WINTER WONDERLAND theme and will feel all the love our nation has for them.

To read about this and get the address please visit www.iheartnaptime.net she also shows how to make snowflakes using coffee filters which is what we will do. I know most of my readers are very creative and also some that can sew or knit, crochet, anything goes and will add even more variety to the snowflakes that will fill their walls.

I hope you can take just a few minutes to make some and send some love and prayers for these families. THEY NEED IT.  Everyday there is a funeral and more sad stories coming out about these wonderful kids and the amazing teachers/principal/ janitor that helped to save these kids. My heart is still breaking and the kids and I have had some good talks about this and so have their teachers. Turns out that some of Sam's kids in his class were related to some of the kids, sadly it was the ones that didn't make it. So I'm helping him be a good friend and be there for those kids. Also boys are allowed to cry and show their emotions, it doesn't make them any less of a "COOL" boy.

Thank you for the comments on my last post, thank you for the prayers and thoughts and love your already sending to these families and for me. We are having the last day of school today so I will be running around crazy with last of wrapping and cleaning and hiding presents where they can't find them. HAHA so far hiding them in the empty Christmas tree/ornament/decoration boxes is working.

Thank you for any help with the snowflakes you can send to the community and please feel free to post it on your blog and spread the word. Sending you all love and hugs and PEACE and JOY for the holiday season.

My heart is breaking for this town, why again?

These are the things I want to remember this week and from yesterday. It's been a great month for me so far,  more calm and peaceful then most December's. Then another school tragedy hit yesterday, it feels like Chardon all over again. I can barely think straight to write this, my heart is broken for these poor families and community. These little ones who won't get the Merry Chritmsas they deserve and were dreaming of. The lives at Sandy Hook Elementary will be forever changed by a useless violent act, one that is happening far too often for me to handle. This isn't the conversation I want to have with my kids but it was and I have to be strong and brave for them, just keep moving forward with a heavy broken heart. My merry isn't so merry right now, all I want is to sit and hug my kids TIGHTLY and keep them safe. My mom talked with me last night about talking to the kids and what to do in this kind of situation. I was already thinking of it and talking to her just confirmed it. I want them to know how to react and not react if this happens to our schools, how to keep them safe since I'm not there to help. Schools are suppose to be a safe learning enviroment for children, they shouldn't have to fear that they will get hurt there. I am having a hard time with this one and my heart and prayers are going out to all of them. We are all hugging are kids tighter, can't wait for my oldest to get home next week so I can hug her too. I have decided to take a break from blogging to be with my family and stay focused on making this a nice Christmas for them. I want the memories from the pictures above to stay with me and not keep going back to the tragedy that has happened. I will be back after Christmas to share and talk about the New Year. Wishing everyone a joyful, peaceful, merry holidays with your loved ones. Thank you to each single one of you for being so awesome and supportive of me and everything I share here, HUGS and BLESSINGS AND PEACE FOR ALL OF YOU!! I will be checking my emails occassionaly so they don't overflow my computer, if you need to reach me. Thank you again and please ENJOY these pictures above and not the sad news that comes with them. We really have had some good times this week.

PROJECT LIFE.... CAUGHT UP !!

HELLO PROJECT LIFE!! Soooo good to be caught up again, love it when this happens. I'm still not sure about the texting with pictures so sorry for the long group of pictures only. THe first ones were of course from Thanksgiving, lots of YUMMY food and a trip to the Zoo for that day. I included one extra insert that week just to hold so many photos. The next two weeks are simple and no extras. I'm loving the color themes for each week, just kinda happened and I like them. Only a few more weeks left of the year and then HELLO PROJECT LIFE 2013!! Man, I cannot wait much longer to get that SEAFOAM KIT, SERIOUSLY I"M GOING CRAZY WAITING FOR THEM TO COME IN!!

My December Daily is a little behind now too, waiting for pictures and just being too lazy to get it done, hope to do that soon and post. My shopping is already started, yippee and tomorrow I will start wrapping them, YIPPEE!! Summer is counting down the days left till winter break, she is very excited this year. We are also counting down till Kristin comes home, MISS YOU!! I'm just taking it one day at a time, no stress this year and just enjoying. My decorating almost done, I forgot to include a tree picture in this last week of PL, will put it in next week. The decorating is just about done too and will post it all sometime this week or next week. So how is everyone's holiday planning coming along? Shopping? Decorating? Stress? baking? Hope it's all going well! Thanks for the visits on my last post, so glad you enjoyed seeing pictures again. Have a good week!

AROUND HERE.... IN PICTURES, YIPPPEEE

I miss posting pictures SOOOOO MUCH!! Feels so good to have these on here. Just a little bit of what's going on around here. Still not sure the pictures and these words will come out in order but for now I'm just enjoying posting pictures. Hope everyone is doing well and the holiday's are bringing you JOY and lots of PEACE and LOVE!! Will be back again with more updates and PICTURES!Thank you thank you for all those leaving comments and reading my pictureless posts, HUGS!!