Writing Motherhood & PL updates

Based on (I think) an Ali Edwards recommendation I ordered Lisa Garrigues' Writing Motherhood. It's a workbook/course designed to get you to start writing again, even if it's just a quick journal each day, despite all the other pressures that might be on you. Of course I ordered the print version and then saw on the jacket that it's available as an ebook (oh whatever!) and it's great. Full of starters that you could use to write or conversate with. Brilliant.

  Bran adapted it for Sunday night. It was his birthday and thankfully (as we lost power in the storms) he'd decided to eat out at Fortuna Sky City. We have a tradition when we eat out - everyone takes turns in my notebook to write down their current favourites - which might be anything from TV show to breakfast cereal to toy to car, depending on who helps generate the list. Bran decided that we would journal on our Project Life cards and also the topic, which clearly, was Bran. His categories?

• Favourite memory of Bran (mine is, I am reliably told, when he was born)
• Favourite Food to eat with Bran (he relaxed this somewhat and we were allowed to write down where we like to eat with Bran)
• Favourite TV show to watch with Bran (clearly some forward planning going on here) and lastly,
• Favourite Place to go with Bran

He was exactly right to choose to put these into our family PL album. I am finding more and more that we are looking back on these and it's a fantastic way to keep everything together. I know that the kids won't have their own albums, but when I die, they can copy these as needed. They'll have school reports, projects, awards, writing notes, tickets, postcards, letters - it's all in the one place and the pressure is off. I know that they will have the memories when I am gone. That's amazing peace of mind, considering how little I have. Altho Dad told me a tale on Christmas Day that I had to record - can't believe I did that! Well, in retrospect, maybe I can...

Promise - layouts will be up once I have the bucks to buy a printer cartridge. Those suckers are expensive.

And recieved an update from Jill. Back on the boat, making me jealous! And still dedicated to the Pirate Gag. Apparently the sword is an antique Iban head hunting sword (which runs me off into GoogleWorld). Awesome. I'd have that white one behind her (no, the BIG one). Bet I could get volunteers to crew it without too much hassle!

 

a little bit of awesome-ness

I sat down with Louise last night to view her NCEA results. She needed 80 credits (and had started the year off already with 19 art credits from 2009). Ploughed science, only passing chemistry but she’s passed everything else! 109 credits overall. We’re pretty chuffed.

One Little Word & Welcome 2011

Long time, no blog. I guess I allowed myself to get caught up in all the usual rush - Christmas, work, kids, work...I am happy that I kept relitively up-to-date with my Project Life 2010 (only have October and some photos to print and we are done!).

My One Little Word (an Ali Edwards thing) for 2011 is CONTROL. I want to have control at work, at home - keeping to deadlines ( I am pretty good at this anyway work-wise); keeping up to date with PL 2011 as I want this to be P365 and not have monthly highlights as I did for some of 2010; clean out my stash of unfinished projects and be realistic about what I might complete - this might be the time to be ruthless, especially on my stitching patterns; replace my paper books with eBooks - which is already underway; keep to a healthy diet despite the stresses; and any other goals that pop up along the way.

I think however I will be flexible with the PL thing. It is OK to do high-lights - the kids and Si have enjoyed looking back at what we have done, despite the fact that Simon is the biggest critic of the money I spent on that album (it's about $100 for all the components, with the additional outlay of an acid-free pen and photo priniting). Funny tho that he was the first one to tell me to pull it out on Saturday when we had guests over!

I have started to use the spare parts to get up-to-date on all the other digital photos - 2002 is complete apart from a print I am waiting on from Mum (hi Mum) - and 2003 is complete to August. It's amazing to see how much I can remember even before I get Si or the kids' input (gosh, Mase is going to be a mini-Bran all the way). This too is an album we're all getting a kick out of.

So anyway that's my goals. No resolutions, just Control. With a little bit of flex ;)