December Daily 2010 | Thoughts

It's done! My very first December Daily album. :) Here's my thoughts on the process:

1. Having a premade foundation is definitely a good thing. I don't know that I could have finished this project if I'd had to create each page from scratch during the holidays.
2. I loved the 6x8 format! It was just enough space for my photos and journaling, and a little bit of something fun.
3. I liked having all the main pages the same size. It created a nice boundary between the days and a nice home for the odd-size pages I added in extra (photos, tickets, etc).
4. I liked the ease of the digital templates but I'm definitely happier with the hybrid pages over the pure digital versions.
5. It is totally ok not to finish until the end of January - or even the end of February. :)
6. Just taking the daily photos and doing the daily writing is enough to do during the holidays! The fact that I was able to keep up with the photos and journaling is what allowed me to finish the album so quickly. And I never would have remembered all those stories in so much detail had I not written about them that day (or the next morning).
7. It was hard to keep up with creating the pages during December. Partly this was simply because that month is so busy, but it also had a lot to do with the fact that I don't print my photos at home, yet I like to handwrite on my photos and layer scrapbooking product over the edges.
8. I need more patterned paper next year; I liked each day having its own design.
9. I loved that I had a place for ticket stubs and such.
10. I will do it again next year for sure, so that we can capture Christmas as we celebrate with my side of the family. But after that? I'm not so sure that I want or even need to do it every year. Right now I'm thinking every 3-5 years.

I'm in the process of adding photos of my album pages to the respective blog posts, but you can see the entire album here on Flickr.


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Diagnosis: Autism.

We knew it was coming, really. After all, his sister is autistic, and that meant it was 6% more likely that he would be too. And in a way (in a big way, actually), that foreknowledge is a blessing, because it has made the news we got today much easier to accept. I had such a hard time with that with Hannah.

All things considered, though, it could be worse. It could be much worse. Overall, he is just fine - he tended to test right in the center of the "average" score range. When he decided to cooperate with the test, that is. His major area of deficiency is with pragmatic language (which is the application of his acquired language skills to social situations). They also identified a delay in his fine motor skills - though I'm certain that that's something that would naturally improve as he gets older, anyway, even without intervention. He also has major problems with compliance and self-care (read: potty-training).

So now it is up to us to decide the next course of action. He will likely be enrolled in the pre-K class at the public elementary school (thankfully, the same one Hannah attends). It's unclear right now if he will continue attending Mother's Day Out at the church.

Book Review | Be Happy Without Being Perfect

Be Happy Without Being Perfect: How to Break Free from the Perfection Deception by Alice D. Domar

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was an interesting book. I have a lot of issues with perfectionism, so it definitely applied to me. I liked how the author presented examples of how her solutions would be applied in a variety of situations. Although I don't think it's strong enough to be the *only* book of its kind that I rely on, it will be a valuable tool in my arsenal against perfectionism.



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Book Review | A Reliable Wife

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was fantastic, in fact when I finished it I was tempted to dive right in again. I found myself sympathizing with the main male character, Ralph, and hoping for a happy ending.



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Book review | Praying with Katie: God, My Cat, and Me

Praying With Katie God, My Cat, And Me by Don Holt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I thought this book had an interesting take on the God/human relationship. Definitely a perspective that hadn't occurred to me before, and that was refreshing.



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One Little Word | January + Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog.

Today I'm participating in a blog hop as part of the One Little Word class at Big Picture Classes. So if you're new to my blog, welcome! :) Although I've had this blog for a number of years, unfortunately I've had a bad habit in the past of forgetting to update it... So not too many posts. I also don't post a ton of pictures (mostly laziness lol), though I've made an exception for y'all today. ;) If you're looking for more photos and projects, you can check out my work on 2Peas and Flickr.

One Little Word: Faith in Action.

My One Little Word for 2011 is Faith. (Check out this post if you'd like to read more about my word and what I hope to achieve with it in 2011.)



Title page for my OLW album.
Click image to enlarge.

One thing I did while I was researching my word was look up the definitions for all of the synonyms. This is something I learned in French class in high school: various words can all mean vaguely the same thing, but can often have very different connotations, and ultimately, different meanings. Sure enough, some of the synonyms didn't end up making it onto my layout, because I didn't feel that the meanings they embodied were really what I wanted to convey. On the plus side, I was pleasantly surprised by several of the words, being so specifically related to the non-religious side of what Faith means to me. I will likely print out these extra words (and their definitions) and slip them into my album in an 8.5x11" page protector.


Exploring my word. Click image to enlarge.

I'm still waiting for my word to "surprise me," as they say, although I see it nearly everyday, mostly in the many churches I pass on the road. Only a few entries in my "Acting on Faith" log this month:

January 4, 2011: Today I am being inspired by reading through passages in the Bible as I search for relevant quotes. I especially like the book of Romans. I also signed up on About.com for a Bible verse to be emailed to me each day.


January 7, 2011: Today I bought some songs about faith on iTunes. Then I added a book to my list in Goodreads. I intend to go to the library and read some books on faith throughout the year.

January 23, 2011: Today I finished reading After the Baby Boomers by Robert Wuthnow. A disappointment, given that I am generally fascinated by sociology, and especially if you’re talking about my own generation. I gave it only 1 star on Goodreads: “The last chapter was everything that I needed to know about this book. Of course, I didn't get there until I had waded through the previous 213 pages. The concept of the book was interesting, but the text of the book itself, I felt, was exceedingly dry. Waaaaay too many statistics in the actual text for me. I was sucked in at the library by the subject, and the catchy chapter titles. Too bad the chapter contents didn't live up to the character of their titles, because this could have been a really interesting book.”

You'll notice (if you are a classmate) that my self-portrait is conspicuously absent from this post. That's because I procrastinated taking it until just a few days ago. I have randomly uploaded one to have printed for my album (at my favorite developer, Mpix). I may change it out at some point during the year, and I may decide to just go with it. No commitment.


Well I guess that's it for January! Thanks for stopping by! :) I can't wait to see what Ali has in store for us in February, and throughout the coming year...

Next blog: Life on Lilypad Lane

This post is part of a series. Click here to see all posts relating to my One Little Word.