Project Life: This stuff makes me so happy!

I've been quiet here during the first months of the year. Trying to really get a feel for the year and what needs to be done.

I have a theory that new year's resolutions ought not to be made until the beginning of February. That way, you have a whole month to think about what you need to do and even "try it on" before resolving.

I had known about Project 365 for some time, but the products sold out rather quickly and I never remembered to look at amazon at the right time. I finally started following Becky's blog, where she announces the product information. I got my Project Life materials ordered and I am working on it for this year.

I am not yet in the habit of doing this, so there will be some filling in for the photos and journaling I missed. Oh well. I'd rather do this poorly (even very poorly) than not all!

Project Life really makes me happy! This is what I have been wanting for my scrapbooks! I was never a very artistic scrapbooker, nor was I fast. Throw the tendency I have toward perfectionism (which comes from insecurity, because I am sure that I am not as good as all of you are) and I didn't get much done in my albums.

I just love this and so happy that Becky Higgins is having such success with it!

P.S. Just to be clear: Project Life is the current incarnation of something that started as Project 365. Becky has a lot of information on her blog about Project Life. It is very flexible! If you want an inspirational introduction, see this YouTube video. If you want a short and sweet intro to Project Life, maybe this Getting Started slideshow will help.

P.P.S. It is sold through amazon. Not through a multi-level marketing program. I love that is it sold this way because I have come to really dislike the MLM model. We have tried it with reluctantly with Creative Memories (still have too much stuff), Nikken and Melalueca over the last 20 or so years.

Ideas for a photo a day...

There is a list of 100 bits of life to consider adding to an album on The Mom Creative (Jessica Turner's) blog:
100 Bits of Life

And I think I saw a list of photo ideas. I searched and I don' t think this is it, but it a list of 365 photo ideas!
365ideas.pdf

Another list of photo ideas: Photo a day idea list.

And I just found this blog: CaptureYour365. They have a photo list for each month! that would be easy to visit and print out the list at the beginning of the month and try some of them.

A Different Bible Reading Plan....

Tim LaHaye's book, How to Study the Bible for Yourself, has a Bible reading plan that I find interesting. I have not followed it myself, but it does look very good.

I created a document that can be printed out and tucked into a Bible to help with tracking where you are in the plan. I uploaded the document to Scribd and it is here.

And it should embed here:

Bible Reading Plan LaHaye

(I only read one book in the Left Behind series. It really was not my cup of tea. But this book I found helpful and inspirational. Probably as much as any book, it encouraged me to read the Bible daily. Not that I always do that, but I do try.)

December 2011 Roundup

Doing a Roundup for the first time. Does this link? I think it does! Katie the Scrapbook Lady's blog. I have not done it all, but I have tried to answer a few questions.... Everything following is Katie the Scrapbook Lady's post, copied here for me to answer and to do. So the links in the Monthly Tasks are to her blog posts. (And I am thinking that maybe I am not supposed to do it this way.)

1. What books and/or magazines did I read this month? Just finished 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. Doing BSF and read some of Acts and all of Hebrews this month. Bought two books: What Women Fear and What Is It Like to Be Married To Me?.
2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month? No plays, not much television: An episode or two of Friday Night Lights, which I am recording, and Return to Cranford (Masterpiece Theater). No movies. We did go to see the King Tut exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Our family of five, plus three friends (one for each kid). Granddad and Lee. We also went to the Houston Symphony earlier this month to see Christoph Eschenbach conduct the orchestra in Mahler #5. Just our family of five and one friend.
3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends? Christmas!
4. What gifts did I give and/or receive? Lots of Christmas presents to give.
5. What special or unusual purchases did I make? Bought new bedroom comforter set. And a new purse.
6. What illnesses or health concerns did I have? 1) Only one migraine! 2) I'm not exercising enough. 3) And at Weight Watchers, I had to pay because I was more than two pounds over goal. (But that was after Christmas dinner, lots of pumpkin pie with whipped cream and a dinner at Sweet Tomatoes.) (Not all on the same day.)
7. What were my accomplishments this month? Hmm...
8. What were my disappointments this month? Maximize Your Mornings did not go well for me at all. 
9. How did I do on my goals for the month? (Or any current short or long term goals)
10. Anything else noteworthy to include? Yes, we had two visitors: Grandad and Lee.
11. Volunteer work: December 4th, Lanier Christmas Party. Was an all-day event, outside, on the Lanier grounds. Cold and wet, rained during the day. It was fun, but miserable, too.

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1. Upload all digital pictures to my hard drive and clear off memory cards in camera. Place all photos for the month in a computer folder labeled with the month and year. Make a backup copy of the photos from the month on my external hard drive and a dvd. I also upload all photos to my flickr account (you can use any offsite photo storage site, but here is why I love flickr). Ideally, these activities should be done every time you process any pictures through your computer so you don't lose any precious files, but if you have lapsed during the month, now's the time to get it done!
2. Choose photos or digital layouts to be printed out and get it done while I'm thinking about it.
3. Backup any other documents or files as needed. I use an external hard drive, I also upload many documents to Google docs. I don't like to lose stuff.
4. Backup my blog. It's easy to do if you have one, just use Typepad backup or blogger backup.
5. Clean off my work area, empty my inbox, and clean up my computer files. Here's a link to my digi organization post.

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This is a great way to finish off the current month and prepare yourself for a fresh start.I hope you will try it! If you post your roundup on your blog, it would be great if you could give a link back to me so others know where to find the roundup tool, but it's not a requirement or anything. LOL! Also, feel free to edit the questions and tasks however you want to make them useful for you.
The important thing is to just take a few minutes to record the memories of the month before they are forgotten!

The blog is the first thing to go....

When I get busy, writing here is the one of the first things to go.

Hoping to post more regularly in 2012.

A new year is a fresh start. Fresh starts are good!