Last month, I was working on a birthday calender to give to my aunts for Christmas. As I scrapped, I thought about all of the things I experienced in 2012. It was a difficult year for my family. We have dealt with some very serious medical issues, my husband started graduate school, we sold our home of 12 years and moved to a new community, our oldest child graduated and left for college, and we are raising three teenage daughters. I admit, I was so tired from everything that we dealt with last year, that I really wasn't into the commercial aspect of Christmas. I didn't want to shop, bake, or buy presents. I just felt too drained.
As I worked on the birthday calendars for my aunts, I felt like I didn't have enough energy to personalize their calendars. So I made one generic page per month, and then added different pictures to each calendar. I scrapped up until September, & still need to complete the last 3 months. Oh well, I guess they will be birthday presents instead. :)
But getting to the point, as I scrapped a generic page for each month, I reflected a lot about the things I was thinking about as I scrapped. Mainly, all of the hard times that we experienced over the last year. I realized that I needed to make an effort to look for the good things in our life, because surely life can not be all good or all bad. It then dawned on me that I need to write down at least one good thing, or blessing that happens each day so I can remind myself (and my family) that there is a lot of good in my our lives! I decided to use the calendar pages I was making for my aunts as a blessing journal for myself, with the goal to write down at least one blessing each day.
As I wrote a blessing for each day, I realized they will also serve as great journal prompts as I scrap, or help me remember what happened so I can go back & write in my journal later.
For example, here is my entry for January 1st (which I wrote this morning)
2013 started off with another difficult life challenge. We celebrated New Years in a Travel Lodge in Elko, Nevada. We had left two days before at 5 am to travel to San Francisco to help my sister and two kids move from their home to our home in UT so they could start a new life. We drove from San Francisco & arrived in Elko at exactly 12 am. The temperature was -9 degrees. As we left the hotel this morning, I knew the daunting task of blending two households, plus taking care of dad lie before me. But I am determined to make this a happy time. One that everyone will look back on and remember with fondness. Jen & the kids will move to their own home as soon as she is on her feet. The time we have together is but a small moment. They have a lot of adjusting to do, as do we, but if we stay positive and focus on loving one another, this challenge can bring us closer together. "O Lord, let thy tender mercies come upon us." Psalms 119: 3
I used Blue Heart Scraps
Birthday Calendars templates to create the page. Other than templates, my digi scrapping files are such a mess that it would take me hours to go through & find the kit I used to create the page. But that is post for another day! :)
I thought it flowed lovely with the photos, alternating. I used Hipster
Holiday by Mommyish to capture that adorable shirt my son was wearing
in these photos!
