Hello! Welcome back to our regularly scheduled programming! This week we resume our week-long author weeks, and I have the pleasure of starting us out!!
I love September! I grew up in a family filled with teachers and September is our January. It is the month of new shoes, new clothes, new pencils, new patterns. And new resolutions. For me, January is the middle of a year, the middle of a season, the middle of many things. Which doesn't make it conducive for making changes, for me. September, on the other hand, seems ripe with opportunity and promise. Even during those in between years with no school (finished college, no school age kids yet), I still felt the urge for change nudging me each September.
This year is especially wondrous in our home as Lavender began kindergarten. For the first time in 8 years, I am home alone for 4 hours every day. My scrapbooking life is thrilled! Three years ago when Nigel began football, my evenings suddenly disappeared. Add to that piano, gymnastics, ballet, homework, church activities, free play, eating, and bedtime routines, and well, my evenings have evaporated and my scrapbooking hours have dwindled increasingly.
But suddenly I am going to have a few stolen hours! It made for an exciting September brainstorm this year! As I sat with pen and notebook in hand brainstorming my lifeplans for this next year, including my scrapbooking goals, I had so much fun knowing that I had a guilt free silent period!!
When I sit to map out the year, I try to not only make plans for success, but to honestly, and frankly, write down some observations about life as it currently exists. I do this topic by topic, activity by activity. I find it helps me figure out my goals, and to recognize my limitations. Failed grand plans cause me extreme heartache--honest doable plans are much more likely to be successful, both for outcome and mental/emotional health!!
Here are a few observations about my upcoming year of scrapbooking:
I have limited time. I have many repeating events and therefore repeating photos. Lots of our activities are scheduled so I know in advance what I will be scrapbooking. (This is in direct contrast to the tiny baby years where we had NO schedule and no idea of the pages I wanted to create.) I want to maximize my success. (And for right or wrong, sometimes success for me means pages completed. Not always, but for some photos, absolutely.)
For the next four days, we are going to talk about ways to plan for those repeating events, and those scheduled events in our lives and scrapbooks. Hopefully, you will find some ways to get ahead of the calendar, so we can have a terrific year of scrapbooking! And if September is not your time for change, but January is, please bookmark our week together and return when the time is right for you!
I am looking forward to a wonderful week of planning and prepping! Until then, I will leave you with a little bit of printable love!
You may download it here! Enjoy! And I will see you tomorrow!
