Revisiting the word I have selected for the year…LIVE.
It is okay to live with change and what might be interpreted as failure. This is always something that comes hard to me. I am such a creature of habit and high expectation. We have decided that Ava is going to take a break from gymnastics. It is getting to be a little too much for her at this time with school. She is great at it but it doesn’t seem to be adding fun to her life and Corey and I agreed that if we enrolled the girls into extracurricular activities it would always be with the understanding that it would never be pressure. It is starting to feel that way to Ava…for whatever reason. So she is taking a break. At first I was upset. Cause I want her to succeed! And because I see so much of myself in her. And I want her to figure it all out. And I don’t want her to struggle like me. But the longer I’ve thought about it and the more I’ve talked to Corey the more I realize it's ok. Its ok to live with change. Its good for Ava at this time.
Live your goals. I wanted to learn to play the guitar this year. I have finally started lessons. It is fun and frustrating at the same time. I took piano lessons as a kid so I have an understanding of music in general; reading music and all that. Playing guitar is obviously very different but having that basic knowledge helps. That said…my fingers are killing me!!! It hurts to even type!!!
It’s okay to live different aspects of your life as they need living. Right now my creative juices have taken a little dip…but my kids have been sick and life has gotten “in the way”. Other things have needed attention and I’ve learned…although this is so difficult for me, I think it's why it keeps coming up over and over again…that it is ok to have periods of time when I’m not “being creative” and scrapbooking or taking hundreds of photos or designing and creating things in photoshop. I find it frustrating when going thru it, but I find that when I take a break…even if it's not planned by me…that when it's over I end up needing the break and am able to be more creative than if I had just kept going and burned myself out.
And then my last thought about live is stretch yourself a little bit and live your life for growth. I never want to be stuck in the same place for too long. I understand stages of life are what they are and sometimes there's nothing you can do about that. But there are aspects of my life that I want to be working on and growing with. One of those that I can control is in the area of scrapbooking...which is one of the reasons I started this blog. So I was reading Jessica Sprague's blog recently and she is talking about her upcoming Photo Editing Class. I was thinking about the questions she was posing in her posts...and this one in particular, "What percentage of photos make it out into the real world and what pics are sort of digital-for-life?" I admit I am guilty of this. I do post a fair amount on my blog. I do put a fair amount together in digital layouts. BUT the majority of these never make it off the computer or if they do they do not make it into the scrapbook! Ugh! So I decided that with an upcoming crop weekend I have in April I'm going to make it a goal of mine to print some of these photos that have been too long on my computer and get them on to layouts and into scrapbooks!!! I've been uploading to Shutterfly and am about ready to place an order. Yay me! The entire month of March I intend to spend time everyday planning what I'm going to do for that weekend...if it KILLS me...so that when I get there I know what I'm doing and I'll get some stuff done!!!
And since I cannot post without a photo...how boring would THAT be...hehe...I'll answer another one of Jessica's questions, "What is one of your very FAVORITE photos of a person that you've ever taken?" Mine has got to be this one...
And the reason it is a favorite is because this is what Corey, Ava and Laney look like to me all the time and I can't believe I caught them all with their natural expressions all at the same time. Also this photo was in Moab last year on our vacation which we all had an absolute blast on...maybe that's why the expressions were all so relaxed! ;D
