- Spending time with family
- Working on 12 projects for Simple Crafter
- Reflecting on the last year
- Taking LOTS of photos (one day at Grammy & Grampy's gave me over 400!)
- Finishing up last minute holiday gifts and projects
- Visiting with friends I haven't seen in a long time
- Holding lots of babies (my friend's and my 2 month old niece!)
- Cuddling and watching Christmas movies
- Planning, planning, planning to make sure we use our time at home the best we can
- Quoting ELF
- Eating Christmas cookies like they are going out of style (which they kind of are, until next year.) :)
In an effort to catch up on posting, I'm going to go ahead and post a a series of posts reflecting on the last year and preparing myself for the next. I always get in my head that the next year will be MY YEAR, but I'm pretty sure I'm right this time. :)
Reverb 10 is a fun project which is very flexible. There is a prompt for each day of December to help you along. A lot of people use this as their blog posts for the month, posting once each day and answering each prompt however they want. I am going to go ahead and post a few of the prompts from the month at a time. I love this idea and love that I am able to adapt it to fit into my schedule this month.
December 1 – One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
Well, my One Little Word for 2010 was BALANCE. I'm not sure it worked out quite as I wanted, but thinking back, it served me much differently than I anticipated, and it was still pretty great. I anticipated a lot of yoga and finding a good work/life balance that worked really well for me. Instead I focused on finding the balance that made me the happiest I could be. This included quitting my job (which I started off enjoying and had a hard time admitting to myself that I was not enjoying it anymore.) It included being open to new things, which is how Simple Crafter came to be, and it included trusting that all the decisions I have made are leading me to the place I want to be.
I have essentially eliminated the opportunities that have arisen by taking them and implementing new great things to come. I now have 2011 to focus on all the projects I have taken on and how to make them amazing. It's such a great feeling to know exactly what I am working towards and to brainstorm how to make it happen.
My One Little Word for 2011? Well, I haven't chosen it yet, but I have a short list and I'm getting closer to picking one. I will certainly post when I do. :)
December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
Well, you're reading it. :) I blog. If it weren't for blogging I'm not sure I would write at all or really find so much joy in it. When I leave my blog for too long (like I have been!) I feel a loss in my day-to-day because I haven't gotten a chance to write. Even if it's about nothing in particular, it's good for my soul. Something that gets in the way of this? A busy schedule and being distracted. I really think I need to plan to write each day at the same time. If I had a routine of stopping everything I'm doing at a certain time to write and make the effort I know I would get a lot more out of it.
December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).
Oh, the concept of a moment. I have done a lot of thinking lately about this word in particular. I tend to do a lot of picture taking, especially on trips and during the holidays, and it's sometimes hard to work on getting that perfect shot while still staying IN the moment. Enjoying myself and savoring the moment I am experiencing is very important to me and I try to make as much effort as I can to really focus on capturing and remembering the moment both with photos and in my memory. So, the moment? Well, a lot happened this year. A lot. As it does every year really. There are a lot of moments, and none that really stick out as THE one that was spectacular. So, I'm going to go with the one that was most life-changing, and though it seems that it wouldn't be, it really was, for me especially.
If you've ever lived in a place you didn't like, you can likely relate to this moment. We had lived in an apartment that was fine at first. Not exceptional, but not awful either. Then, a series of instances basically built up to me disliking living there so much that it was causing me anxiety. Living in a place you are not comfortable in and which makes you constantly on edge is very difficult. I couldn't let my guard down and just be comfortable there. So, the moment that sticks out to me is the first morning I woke up in our new house. I slept badly in a new place and on a piece of foam on the floor. My cat kept me up a lot of the time because she was caught between being frightened and wanting to sleep on my head. We had no curtains and so the BRIGHT light was streaming into my eyes while I was trying to actually get some rest after Jason left for work. But this moment, the one where the biggest worry was not whether I was safe or whether the neighbors would be incredibly disruptive today, or how anxious I was to live where I was but it was the fact that I couldn't wait to get the rest of our furniture moved in and get a good night's sleep in our new, stress free house. A house with noise that only we make, a new relaxing tub, neighbors that introduce themselves in a friendly way, and beautiful cathedral ceilings. A place where I can actually be comfortable. And regardless of the crick in my neck from sleeping on the floor, it was perfect.
December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?
The first thing that comes to mind is travel. I hold traveling and seeing new things so high in my life and this is the reason. No matter where I go or what I do I always have that sense of wonder in a new place. Whether I am just visiting or moving there, I love the new feeling of a place I have never been. What will we do? What will we see? Who will we meet? What stories will we have to tell when it is over? It's an amazing feeling and one that I will never tire of.
December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?
This is a tough one to think about, as I'm sure it is for a lot of people, but it's an easy one to think of. I quit my job. I let go of the expectations surrounding it when I started and I just let it go. I miss it, a lot. I miss what I loved about it. But when the bad outweighed the good and I was sacrificing too much to make it work, I had to let it go. It was hard when it happened, but I now know for sure that it was the right decision. Let this be a reminder for you to look at what is not contributing to your happiness and to let it go.
More prompts to come in the next few days leading up to 2011!
1 amazing people left comments:
So Ed and I drove past a megabucks sign last night. He asked, "What would I do with 225 million dollars?" It got me thinking.... I asked him if he would continue going to school and he said, yes, he thinks he would. I would most definitely continue working at the school even if I never had to work another day in my life. He said he would write a blank check to the church. It made me think about all the things I do in my life. Would I continue to clip coupons if I had 225 million dollars? Would I splurge and shop at Shaws instead of Hannafords every now and then? Would I buy dessert or eat at Olive Garden? All these thoughts made me think of my word for 2011. I'm not sure what my word is but I think I am going to start thinking more about how I am living my life. Is this something I would be doing if I had 225 million dollars? If not then perhaps I don't love it and shouldn't be stressing about it so much....just a thought!
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