I'm Excited...and I just can't hide it

I'm excited because I think I just made my life a little easier!

I love to scrapbook, or rather I think I like the idea of scrapbooking! The one thing that always 'weighs me down' is first figuring out a place to start...you have to start somewhere! I while ago, I decided I would start scrapbooking pictures from the time Irish and I were married (and I will still do one album dedicated to just that)...it just seemed logical! But then I look at, and think about alllll the pictures I have not even touched! All the 'catching up' I would eventually have to do. The idea of possibly having multiple albums for ONE year!...as I currently have ONE album full of the first FOUR months of Marshall's life!!...Ya Once I realized that, I knew I had to get pretty particular on which pictures I would actually print!!

For the last little while I had kind of decided to go away from scrapbooking chronologically...and just pick what ever pictures I wanted to do...after all if you are not inspired by your pictures, you are not going to do a good job. In the back of your head you are always going to be thinking about those other pictures that you really really want to be scrapbooking!

Then came a time where I just didn't feel like scrapbooking...at all! I didn't get excited about it, I didn't think about it, in fact I tried not to think about it!

And then today, I found this. It is called Project life. I don't know who the 'first one' to come up with this idea was, nor does it really matter. I found this blog from Ali Edwards. She seems like such a fun and creative gal! On her blog she has explains and gives you a glimpse of her Project Life.

It is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. Something to simplify my scrapbooking dilemmas!!! A simple, but yet fun one or two page spread for an entire week. Something where everything comes together. Pictures, journaling, stories, postcards, souveniers, pamphlets, maps, wedding invites, Christmas letters from family...etc etc....they all get incorporated into this ONE book!

This ONE book is all I will have to work on. I now don't have to worry about whether or not I am going to scrapbook an individual book for each of my kids, what size it will be, and for how long I will do it. I'm excited to complete my first year of Project Life, and then sit down and reminisce about the past year with it!

This is the place where those pictures finally have a home. You know the ones you take, where there are maybe only one or two...so not enough for an entire scrapbook layout...just perfect for one spot in your weekly page, with a little journaling explaining it!

Sorry this is going on really long...but I'm just SO EXCITED!

The other thing I'm really excited about is my One Little Word for this year. I have never done this before, heard about it, but never really 'got into it'.

I was reading my SIL's blog (Kaly Court) and she inspired me to choose a word for this year. At first I was having a hard time, thinking it was going to take me f o r e v e r....as I wanted to find the perfect word.

When finally I decided I would think about it later, and that is when this word popped into my head.

INTUNE

I guess technically it's two words...but this year, for me...it will be my two word combined into one....so I am going to hyphenate it...to make it my ONE word.

First and foremost I want to be more in-tune with my Heavenly Father. I feel as though I have kinda let this one slip while trying to juggle being a mom...a working mom, being a wife, a cook, a 'maid', a disciplinary-er, a 'scrapbook-er', blogger, sew-er...just being ME...etc...etc...etc I have come to realize that this was NOT the thing to let slide. In fact if I put more time and effort into this one...so many other things in my life would fall into place! I can and will feel more 'on top of things' (One thing I am also focusing more specifically on this year is coming to a greater knowledge and understanding of the Atonement)

Second, I want to be more in-tune with my children. I need to slow down and enjoy them. Love them. Listen to them, be patient with them, and teach them. They are only completely 'mine' for a short little while. I need to take this time to instill in them the knowledge that I have, to better prepare them for this world they are about to be "thrown" into.

Third, I want to be more in-tune with my husband. I want to become more of a unit than we already are, so that we can stand united on every level...well most levels...it's okay to be different! I want to go on more dates with him, spend more quality time with him, get to know my husband better (I know this may sound weird...but we as human beings constantly change, grow and develop...catch my drift now?) and just love everything about him!

Fourth, I want to be more in-tune with ME. I want to be more aware of the way I, Karley Lilburn, feel about things. I want to be able to express those thoughts/feelings/desires more often without thinking of feeling that someone is going to think 'I'm dumb'. I want to like things be cause I like them, not because so-and-so likes it, or this person thinks this is really cool...etc. I want to be more in-tune with the things I want to do. I want to make more ME time. Just because I am married, doesn't mean i need to spend every waking minute (okay so maybe it's more like every waking minute AFTER the kids are in bed) doing something with my husband...we both need our ME time.

Well off the top of my head, those are the main things that my 'one word' makes me think about. I may add some more to it later...and I might just let you know about it! :)

Thanks for sticking with me through the loooong post!