Happy New Year!

I hope that all of you had a nice New Years Eve. We kept it simple & stayed in. The kids stayed up a bit past their bedtime as a treat & we just hung out and relaxed.

2008 was quite a year for our family. We had a lot of changes - lots of ups & lots of downs. But, what is exciting for me as I look back - we are certainly in a better place today than we were a year ago today. And I have no doubt that 2009 will bring great things for us all!

I've decided to not have 'resolutions' this year but instead focus on one word to take me through 2009. To keep me focused & guide my actions. Sound silly? Well, maybe it does but I think its a perfect way for me to stay focused on what I want to accomplish in 2009. So ... my word for the next year will be ....

SIMPLIFY

I want to focus on what matters to me in the coming year - Paul, the kids, our home, our families - and get rid of the noise that often keeps us distracted from what matters to us. I want to get rid of the clutter - buy less of stuff we don't need - focus on saving instead of spending. I want to get to know our new home - visit all the places we have nearby that can help enrich our lives. Explore the mid west and all that it offers. I want to focus on my health & taking care of myself by simplifying my life. I want to focus on getting myself as organized at home as I am at work. Maybe approaching home life as a project manager like I do at work will help me stay focused on what I want to focus on ...

Another project that I'm going to work on this year is something that I'm really looking forward to - A Project 365 for 2009. What is that? Well, it's committing to take a photo a day for the next year & document our lives in more detail on a daily basis. What a wonderful way to document our lives & end up with a visual history of our family. I'm doing this for a number of reasons - 1. it just fits right into my personal commitment to scrapbooking & documenting our lives 2. it will help me improve my photography skills 3. it will help me remember what we do all year - big and small, important and not important - time is flying by and it will be nice to have a record of our family this year and 4. the idea just makes me HAPPY. So, you'll be seeing me post each day's photo here on the blog (although I may end up doing a weekly post with the week's daily photos depending on how it goes). But, I think it will be a great supplement to my scrapbooking as well as a way for me to be better about getting our photos onto the blog on a regular basis. Now, I warn you that sometimes the photos will not be of us but of the places we went, food we ate, people we met, etc. They will document our LIVES not just us.

For those of you who also scrapbook, I wanted to encourage you to do this as well ... Here are some resources to help you decide if its something you'd like to pursue as well as some resources for digital items that will help you create pages to document your daily photos.

Forums/Groups/Blogs you might want to check out ...

• Scrapbook Graphics' Project 365 Forum
• An example of all of someone else's photos from her 365 day project in 2008
• Project 365: Digi Scrappers Edition Group over at Flickr
  
• Facebook Group: 2009 Project 365
• CK Magazine List of Photo Prompts for a Project 365
  
• Another list of photo prompts posted at DST
• A resource that provides an overview of the project & tips for when you start
  

A couple of products you might want to check out ... I'll add more as I become aware of them!

Traci Murphy's Project 365: Templates 1 (Rumor has it there may be more forthcoming ...)

Deb Fisher's Photo A Day Album Templates at Pickleberry Pop

Okay, I'm heading off to bed. I'm up way too late & I have a lot to accomplish tomorrow! Have a happy new year! I'll be back soon with my first photos ...