ruminations

there is much chitter and chatter about starting new projects and making resolutions, and as always (sigh) i am a bit late to the table. i sometimes just get overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of having to choose. there are so many really great ideas. and then part of me wants to come up with something incredibly unique. and well, that can be the most intimidating part of all. so instead, i am looking at what I do most naturally and what i want to do better and then making choices based upon that knowledge.

so here are my thoughts. project 365 has not worked for me. i end up taking random pictures of things that don't matter to me, in really bad light, and with bad energy, at 11:59 pm. but one month long ago I did may morning pictures. there were a handful of pictures that came from other days but represented our everydailies. i love looking back at that. so i am going to try 365+1 with the understanding that not all my photos are going in the day they were taken. i will just hope that by sunday i have 7 photos that represent our week.

i love the idea of project 52 with purpose. i might do the Two Scoopz. they have nifty little prompts for the kind of picture that you are taking. i think it will help me keep on track. and i am going to try to learn a little bit of technical stuff with each week in hopes of getting to manual. i read that to do it, you must just move the camera to manual and then refuse to move it off. forcing yourself. i am going to do just this. by feb 1st, i will be all manual. yikes!

but why all this talk about photography when what i really want is to scrapbook? and not little bits like project life, but whole layouts. :) i am going to maintain my current journaling/storage system and keep trying to improve on journaling as often as i take a photo. hopefully this will be easier with some afternoon activities opening chunks of time four times a week.

i will continue to scrapbook as i do so regularly. can't imagine life without it.

i was reminded this week that last year i broke my house projects into months. and it was wildly successful. thank you dear megan for remembering. here are this year's goals.
jan - the kitchen (wall shelving, two new wall arts)
feb - the scratchit room (bookshelves, desk)
march - the pantry (redo it entirely)
april - nigel's room
may - the kids' bathroom
june - month off
july - the garage (insulate, drywall, paint the walls)
aug - the hall closet (redo it entirely)
sept - month off (too busy!!)
october - our bathroom
november - month off
december - month off

see how easy it seems when you break it into a year?

so really not many changes. the year of maintenance and tweaking. as i was thinking ahead to this year, i realized that while we have faced many changes in the past few years, this year should be relatively calm. the kids' activities will be the same. perhaps different days and times, and maybe for a little longer per lesson come fall, but no great leaps. i have no partners to leave me in the middle of anniversary celebrations. the site has found a good stride. rich just moved up at work, so status quo there too. craving, needing, relying deeply upon routine, this year seems like a great time to take the energy usually reserved for adapting and place it into projects that usually get shoved to the back burner. scripture STUDY not just reading. keeping the cupboards clean. cleaning the basement out. paring down on old furniture and too small clothes. lightening and brightening. i hope it will be a great year.