From a Fancy Word for Simple:
You can observe a lot just by watching.
-Yogi Berra
Watch carefully today. What do you see?
Before I even saw the quote, I had taken this picture of the sun rising outside our bedroom window. On a normal day, I wouldn’t have been in bed to watch, let alone get up to take a photo. One of the pleasures of a winter Sunday. Not as sharp as I would like but it captures the frosty window. Winter is definitely here.
Big Picture Scrapbooking has a new website and a new feature. Each week they post some color inspiration and each day there is a new quote. I’ve saved several of them but today’s quote speaks to my "mantra" for the year "Relax, don’t worry." I think I’ll start a collection of relaxation quotes.
Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers
along the way. ― Walter Hagen
January 19: Deep Thought (for a Friday)
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it.
-Andrew Jackson
I originally had a different quote picked out for today, a very serious quote about trusting in yourself to make tough choices. As appropriate as it would have been for today, I needed to be a little less serious.
I often catch myself with tons to do on Friday (the things I put off all week). It’s so difficult to get those things done when all I can think about is the end of the day.
Geez—I can’t even imagine having fun NOT doing what I need to do. There are plenty of times I don’t do what needs to be done, and some of those times I play, but there’s always a nagging sense of guilt that stays with me until the things that need to be done are done. How does someone get like this? What did my parents do that make me feel this way? Or was it my parents at all? I don’t think my younger brother has these problems. This is a quote that puzzles me. In fact, I can’t even imagine having nothing to do. What a concept!
Our holly bush is covered in ice. Fortunately, we–unlike many others–have not lost power and the roads here have not been too bad. We got out to see Dreamgirls with friends of ours this afternoon. A perfect ending to a three-day weekend.
Ali Edward’s challenge this week was to find the definition and perhaps a quotation to go with your word for 2007. I love the quotation I found on Inspiration Peak and made a card for my bulletin board. It hangs right over where I work every night.
Today’s journaling quote from A Fancy Word for Simple was so perfect:
Aaaahhhh. Sunday. A day for rest, family, quiet (and maybe a little laundry thrown in for good measure). Sundays are sacred at my house – and not only for religious reasons. For me, it is perfect to have a day devoted to your home, husband, and self. That brings me to today’s quote:
There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden, or even your bathtub.–Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
What are your relaxation rituals? Do you have any failure proof techniques? Will you allow yourself the time and space to relax?
Relax is the word I chose for my Ali Edward’s challenge to choose a word for 2007. It’s something I know HOW to do, but am not always successful at doing. I let work and other obligations consume me both in terms of time and psychologically. Last week was no exception. I spent almost all of my free time doing school work. I learned years ago that a teacher’s job is never done—there is always more you can do, but I continually forget to just STOP!
When I remember to stop, the two best ways for me to let the worries and work go is to get involved in a creative project—making a card, creating a scrapbook layout, taking photographs—or reading. They are truly my ways to escape!
I’ve been reading some great books I ordered recently to stimulate my creativity and take it and my journaling in some new directions. Living Out Loud by Keri Smith has been on my wish list at Amazon for over a year, The Creativity Book by Eric Maisel I read about on Ali’s blog, and How to Make a Journal of Your Life by d. price I found as I was wandering around Amazon. I’m reading bits of all of them and finding some inspiration in them all as well.
I took some time last night to create a layout for Ali’s challenge to choose a word for 2007. In the spirit of relaxation I chose some bright and funky colors–not my usual choice, but there are no photographs so the sky’s the limit. I’m using a new scanning program and getting a bit of a white line on the right hand side. This challenge has prompted hundreds of people to choose a word and create some kind of art to represent it. You can see the amazing list of words people have chosen here.
In the same spirit of relaxation, my friend Mary and I went to see Queen yesterday afternoon. It’s a wonderful movie and Helen Mirren is superb in her role as Queen Elizabeth 2. Off to grade a huge pile of papers–the antidote to relaxation!
Ever since I read Ali’s aezine newsletter this week, I’ve been thinking (and talking about) what word I could choose for 2007 that would help me leave my incessant “worrying” behind. I have been the family worrier for so many years, that to eliminate it from my life is probably not a realistic goal. But I would love to let a lot of it go. As both of my children can tell you, a lot of it is unnecessary and, perhaps even ridiculous. So the first word that popped to mind was CALM. But this word didn’t prompt action that would help me in reaching a calmer state. My daughter suggested PLAY, commenting that it is easier to do something than to try and be something. Hopefully, playing would bring calm. But that didn’t seem quite right either. Today, I looked through my collection of Making Memory definition stickers. I came upon RELAX: 1. To relase tension 2. to rest from work 3. to be at ease 4. to release physical or mental pressures from oneself, and I knew I had found my word. RELAX, enjoy, read, create, play. . . relax covers a lot of territory. If I relax more, hopefully, I will worry less. It’s a good goal. A page for my scrapbook to come later today. . .
Here’s the first prompt from a new site called “A Fancy Name for Simple.” I’ve decided I won’t put the pressure on to respond every day, but I have enjoyed the daily prompts for the Christmas Journal I participated in and thought I would give this a try as well.
January 1, 2007
I wanted a perfect ending. . . Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.
-Gilda Radner
Today is filled with “delicious ambiguity” as all of 2007 sits in the future. How do you approach a new year? What are your hopes, dreams, and plans for the year? What do you want to leave behind about last year?
I would love to leave worrying behind. I am a compulsive worry wart—drive everyone in my family crazy with it. I have analyzed it and I understand it, but I haven’t been able to drop it! I worry no matter how well things are going. 2006 was a very good year for our family. Sarah married a great guy, the wedding was beautiful, Matt was incredibly successful in school, and we all had good health, We have jobs we like, though we’d like jobs we could leave at the workplace.
I am a goal setter and a list maker—probably goes with the compulsive worrying. The last couple of years I made little books with my goals for the year. I did pretty well in meeting my goals this year—especially in the area of fitness. I’ve been getting to the gym 4-5 times a week since August and for the first time in my life, I go because it makes me feel better instead of dragging myself there because I “ought to.” I wrote in my journal almost every day until October, but then had a two month spell of no interest. I’m anxious to get back to it this year. There are still areas to work on and I’m trying to decide it I’ll write them in my journal or do another little book. I do like the idea of a fresh start and as a school teacher always feel like I get two of them—one in September and another one on New Year’s.
Happy New Year!! It’s always hard to me to believe how fast the last year has gone. But here we are–2007–and this is the last day of vacation. It’s been a wonderful break and I am not quite ready to return to the demands of test prep and stacks of papers to grade. The planning and the teaching I enjoy! One of the greatest enjoyments of December was the Christmas Journal project. I have enjoyed every minute of this project–thinking about what our traditions and customs mean to me, observing the incredible creativity of others who were involved in the project, and the creation of each page. Loved it all. Thanks to everyone who visited the blog, commented, or sent me email. Your kind comments were so appreciated. I didn’t always make use of Shimelle’s artistic ideas, but glitter seemed appropriate for New Year’s Eve so this page has a lot more bling than I am accustomed to. Here’s the final page:
As one of my resolutions for 2006, I kept a little calendar I made with a Sweetwater kit and recorded the cards, layouts, and projects I completed during the year. A few months ago, Ali Edwards suggested in one of her newsletters to recap a month in a layout and I started an 8X8 album with a page for each month. For the last 20 years I have kept a record of the books I read each year. So Shimelle’s suggestion to play “the numbers game” appealed to me. Here’s my version for December 30th:
Despite efforts to correct it, the scan is a bit crooked. It’s better IRL. The tag on the left side of the page lists the specific movies we saw and the names of all the BPS classes I took and how I did with each of them.
I really thought I’d be able to do a page a day during vacation, but we’ve been too busy for me to work on the Christmas Journal. Sarah and Adam left about noon today to start their drive back to Atlanta. I finished up another project and spent the afternoon finishing the last five pages for the Christmas Journal. I’m planning to do two more. Then my book is out of pages and the New Year will begin. I may decide to journal after I read the prompts, but they won’t make it into the book. Here are the last five pages.
My new MacBook rates as the most unexpected gift I’ve received in years–but not unwanted or unappreciated!
My goal was to be caught up with my Christmas Journal by Christmas and I am. Finally decorated the cover of the journal. It took me a long time to decide what to do, but I’m happy with it.
Also did the title page. I’ve always known that I wanted to do squares of all the Basic Grey paper but didn’t know quite what to do with the title.
And here are Days 20-24. I cheated a little on Day 24 as it’s still a couple of hours before church, but I know this is my last chance to post!
Have a Merry Christmas!
Only one more day of school–can’t wait to be on vacation. But I gave myself an early gift of time tonight and finished three more pages of my Christmas Journal. This project has turned out to be so much fun, and is one of the few projects I know I will finish.
Clearly 21 people don’t quite fit around one table. There’s always at least one more table in the living room. This year we’re considering doing several smaller tables. We’ll do a trial run on Saturday and see what we think.
The photograph is one of the first really nice Christmas decorations I ever bought. It seemed expensive at the time, but has lasted for years and is still one of my favorites.
On Friday, Dawg arrived (see the Christmas Journal entry below). Today Matt brought his new pet, Mya, to dinner. She had a great time exploring the new surroundings, and especially liked the presents under the tree. Cute!
Sarah and Adam were here for just one night before flying out to the west coast to visit Adam’s family. It wasn’t long enough!! The last time we saw them was in July–and yes, they will be back in a week to celebrate Christmas with us, for which I am truly grateful.
Tracy and I managed to finish five kinds of cookies today in a baking marathon. Tomorrow we’ll be frosting sugar cookies and gingerbread teddy bears. There are still several varieties to go, but the time-consuming ones are out of the way.
I took a break this afternoon and finished two pages for the Christmas journal and did another two tonight, so I am caught up until tomorrow. I still have to do my title page and I finally decided on how I wanted to decorate the cover of the album. Perhaps tomorrow . . .
Day 13–used an old photograph from 1994 on this page of Matthew and his Aunt Susan.
Having a stash of supplies is a good thing. None of the Basic Grey papers really worked for this page and I have no photographs, but in my patterned paper stash was this 7Gypsy paper–just perfect.
Another page where the stash came in handy. I love these 7Gypsy’s stickers. This was supposed to be the prompt for Day 16, but I mixed them up. No one except the members of the journal class will ever know.
This page was a lot of fun. When I first read the prompt, I thought “We have no visitors at Christmas.” And then Dawg arrived.
