I want MORE out of 2014

So I was suppose to blog yesterday... but I didn't... so here I am today, getting it done. No MORE procrastination!

As many of you know the past few years i have picked a word for the year. This process is called "One Little Word", and came about from a wonderfully amazingly talented woman Ali Edwards. You can read more about the projects on her blog. She offers a year long workshop, which is amazing! I have loved it! This will be my second year doing the workshop, and it is so worth it.

Anyway, this years word was very hard to come by, I thought about it for MONTHS. I needed a word that was going to help me get back to a point that I could flourish again (flourish was my word f or 2013, and it was great, but I lost my ability to flourish somewhere along the way). There was so much in my head, and nothing was coming up as THE word. I made lists and lists and lists, I would get there, and then cross everything off and start again. I finally decided on a word that could encompass many of my words, but it took me a while to share it, because it felt really selfish. The word I chose was "MORE". It took a while for me to be able to explain why that was my word, and I am still kind of learning why. I want more of a lot of things right now, I want more shenanigans, more devotion, more creativity, to be more conscious, more happiness, to complete more and be more complete, more sharing, more learning, more loveliness, more purpose, more community, and more abundance, just to name a few. And the reason I want more, is because I am worth more. I've been in a pretty bad depression lately because I have felt worthless, and I'm hoping telling myself I am worth more, and having more to work towards will help me get to the other side of this depression. 

Anyway, On to the pretty stuff.
I got to work on some of this month's prompt. I still need to finish up some of it, but I love what I have so far. I decided to incorporate my one little word into project life this year, to help give myself momentum on both projects. Here is what I've got.

 The top left card says "Hello There More One Little Word 2014", the top right card is a definition and thesaurus entry. The middle row has a fold out journaling card, with a bit more about why I chose my word, then a photo of me (thank you Disney photopass photographers for getting at least one good shot of me!), the "make your word visible" graphic that Ali shared as part of the workshop, and a little card with an Ampersand. I choose an ampersand as a symbol for my word this year, as one of the synonyms for more is "and". The bottom row has two quotes that contain my word.

I really love how it turned out! It has me excited to continue! I've got a second "Intentions" page I am still working on that will be opposite this page.

I also picked up some little wooden letters that I covered with Washi tape that spell out "MORE". My intent is to put them on a wall, and each month add a quote that corresponds with what I want from my word that month on the wall as well. It's my way of trying to "Make My Word Visible".

So there you have it folks! A new blog post, a new word, and a new year!

December Daily 2013- And the end of a hiatus

So, I have not posted anything since May, and had hardly posted before then. Life has been pretty cruel to our family the last few months, and I just have not been in a good mind set to be posting. Being forced from our home, moving in with my parents, job loss, my mom having cancer, issues with school for Ryan, deaths, impending deaths, impending surgeries... yeah. So I took some time off.

But I am back, and I have a few pictures of my latest project to share with you. Once again I am trying to participate in Ali Edwards "December Daily" project. This has been a beast of a project in the past, and I am ashamed to say I have wasted a lot of time and energy on it over the years only to fall flat after a few days. But here it is, December 5th, and I am still at it. I haven't printed photos, waiting to do that at the end of each week for convenience sake, but here is a little peek into my album so far. Can't wait to get my pictures and put it all together for the week!

My Cover. I just love how it turned out! So bright and happy! I used a plastic snowflake Ornament, and layered on some thicker's in Glittery White and Red, then added a few random baubles from a jar of plastic snowflakes and candies. Oh, and there are some washi tape strips added as well. The green is from American Crafts, and the Blue is from My Mind's Eye.

A closer look at the cover.

The spine. This i might redo. I am not really happy with it. Think I will pull the label out of the spine and start again.

Inside cover and title page. I got the fabric covered wood "merry" in the discount bins at Micheal's, and love it! Not sure where the "december" word came from, plus more of the previous washi's. The Title page numbers are Tim Holtz (I believe) grunge board numbers, I sprayed them with some red glimmer paint.

The Left side of this page will have a picture of our christmas tree, with a story of how it took us six hours of work to get up! The filler card is from the Project Life Merry & Bright mini edition.

This is day 2 and 3. Love my little sequin pocket!

Couldn't figure out how to turn this one, but it is the backside of day 3.

Had to take a close-up of this beautiful sequin/glitter pocket. Isn't is just so much fun! I love it!

So there you go! My first few days of my December daily. Later this week I will post the rest, plus repost these ones with photos! So excited to be doing this this year. It is a welcome distraction from everything that has been going on lately, and it is turning out just so beautiful so far!

Do or Do Not

Lately I feel like I just can't get motivated to post on the blog. It's not that I haven't been doing things that are blog worthy, I just haven't slowed down and taken the pictures, and written anything up. I am a doer, not a writer, and that makes blogging a little more difficult sometimes. I'd rather be out there doing things and thinking up things than putting the things I have already done down for others to see. I need to get better about it!
My blog has a lot of potential! The little I do have has attracted a number of offers that still have my head spinning a bit, I haven't followed through with any of them though, because I feel like I am not a blogger yet. Gotta post at least once a week to make me feel like a blogger!

Kind of feel like life has just been super crazy from one thing to the next lately, with family visiting, Dominic graduating, vacation plans changing and going back to the planning stages, an oven fire and subsequent lack of an oven for the last two weeks (and subsequent meal creativity, how many meals can you come up with that do not use the stove or oven at all?), trying to get my oldest registered and ready for school n the fall... and that was just this month! I haven't even looked at the One Little Word stuff for April yet, let alone May, and it's almost June!
I've been enjoying the craziness for the most part though. My boys are growing so much. Ryan is finally starting to get interested in learning, thankfully. Apparently backing off and giving him space on the issue was a good thing. He is excited to start doing some kindergarten prep books and games. SCORE!

Anyway, I guess what I am saying is I should be writing more, but that I'm not because I am busy enjoying what life is right now. Enjoying having my husband around more, enjoying family adventures (like a horse drawn carriage ride from one bus stop to the next), lots of snuggle time, really listening to my crazy kids imaginative ramblings, and taking in this last summer before my babies start moving on to being kids and starting school. Maybe someday I will get back to blogging more, but for now I am happy with the way things are. Maybe I will push myself for once a week posting something, but I don't think you can expect much more than that!

It's Been Two Months!

Just realized it has been two months since I last posted! Ahhh!
I have several things in the works that need to be posted. I've got a Project Life mini-album project I am working on, a review of Old Navy T-shirts, a Woolite sampling, even a post about toilet paper! (I know, strange, right?!) Just kind of got out of the habit of posting and need to get back into it!

So expect a few posts soon, most likely starting with the Old Navy T-shirt review.

Keep Moving Forward

Yesterday my boys and I watched "Meet the Robinsons" and I was reminded of the quote I based the title of my blog off of. It is a Walt Disney Quote (He really has the best quotes!), and it really helped me through some rough times. You can see it above, all decked out in the latest trend of chalkboard art.

I decided that I needed to have it up in my home somewhere, so I got in illustrator and began playing around and came up with the above printable to put up in my home and to share with you guys! I think it's going to go in my newly decked out Mickey bathroom (my boys got to pick the theme!) where I can see it every morning! You can download it HERE, or by clicking on the image above.

Hope you enjoy it!

Mickey Helper Ticket System

As many of you know our little family has been planning a trip to Disney World for a while now. We put a deposit down about nine months ago and have slowly been paying it off and it is going to be an amazing trip! I've done so much research, and we've talked about everything we want to do and how much fun we are going to have, and the boys are SO EXCITED!
With that being said I don't want my kids growing up thinking we are just going to give them whatever they want without them working for it. This trip is going to cost us a lot of money, and I feel like they need to do their part to "earn" the trip.

Enter the Mickey Helper tickets.

I sat down with the boys and explained to them that going to Disney world was a privilege and that privileges need to be earned. We talked about how they needed to do their part around the house and be "Mickey's Helpers" so they could earn their trip. They seemed to understand and we moved on to developing the ticket system.

I asked them what things they wanted to do when we went to Disney and we built a list of activities like swimming in the pool at the hotel, going to Magic Kingdom, eating lots of desserts, and going to Mickey's Halloween party. All in all we had about 20 things make the list! We then asked them how many tickets they thought they should have to earn to do each thing. They did a really good job assigning the values to things, swimming in the pool got just one ticket, while Mickey's Halloween Party they gave a value of 25 tickets!

Once we had assigned how many points each thing cost we talked about what they needed to do to earn those tickets. We discussed chores and good behavior, made a list, and assigned the tasks and chores ticket values from 1 ticket to 3 tickets. For example putting 5 dishes in the sink earns 1 ticket. helping mop the floor earns 2, and getting through an entire outing without a fuss earns 3 tickets! There were a few things they tried to lobby for more tickets on, such as taking medicine without a fuss which my oldest deemed worth 15 tickets (and the way he fights it it just might be worth it!!). But for the most part I felt they did a good job choosing how many tickets each chore would be worth.

We made little jars for them to house their tickets in during the week, and every Sunday we will count the tickets and fill in the correct number on their goal charts. 45 days before our trip if they haven't earned enough tickets to cover the cost of the trip we will discuss what they have to give up or change to make our trip fit their "budget" and finalize our plans. the last 45 days before the trip they will earn tickets for souvenirs and such. They can redeem them for specials treats, desserts, pressed pennies, disney dollars and standing in character lines (we are doing many character meals, so they will meet a lot of characters doing that, so they decided they had to spend tickets to see others).

They valued the overall trip we have planned at about 250 tickets, and there are 224 days until our trip, so they only have to earn a little over 1 ticket a day to "pay" for the trip, which I think is more than doable for them. We told them that if they have extra tickets left over after the trip they can use them to start earning our next family vacation.

If you are planning a trip to Disney and would like to adopt the "Mickey Helper Tickets" System you can print out the PDF's here: It includes a blank chore chart to fill out (with space on the bottom to put each child's name), labels for Helper jars, and the charts to fill in.

All you need to get started is a Mason Jar for each kid, and a roll of tickets! We are using these ones http://www.amazon.com/2000-Blank-White-Raffle-Tickets/dp/B005NBQ0FK/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1359400253&sr=8-16&keywords=blank+tickets

I still have to put some of our stuff together, but I will update this with a picture of our jars, the chore chart, and the canvas I am mounting the helper meters on as soon as they are finished. It has been fun developing it, especially since the boys have been so eager to help with it!

Be on the lookout for more Disney printables and projects as we start diving into the real planning! We've got a planning night planned for this next month, and you better believe we will be having some fun stuff with that!

Flourish & Fly: Babystep 3

Today we will go over Baby step Three! I know it has been three days since baby step number two, but with all the sickness in our house I just didn't get around to posting. Instead of skipping ahead I am just going to move on to step 3 today on the blog.

Step 3 is mostly to do what you have already done, so let's review! We should be:

• Shining our Sink!
• Getting dressed to shoes!

On top of those we should be visiting the Flylady's big tent group and reading our e-mails, that is easy peasy! I think we can all do that! You never know what is going to be the topic, and sometimes they might even make you tear up.

So today I have a shiny sink, and I am fully dressed! My husband even helped me shine the sink last night! I was so thankful for that little help. :) He is awesome!

Today I am also adding something else to my personal agenda that you guys might want to follow along with! I'm starting the couch to 5k program with a friend of mine! I have "Run a 5k" on my 30 x 30 list, so I have got to get going, and since she has been on hiatus from running due to an injury I figured starting while she restarts at the beginning will be a great way to stay motivated!

Today is my first planned run, and I am already dressed and ready to go! Of course I won't be actually running until my husband gets home from school and work this afternoon, but the fact that i am prepared should make it so I don't come up with an excuse to not go out and run. Removing obstacles in our way makes everything easier!