Challenge #71—So Grateful

Today’s challenge is a little different…

A number of years ago, I was at a training and the speaker had us pull out a piece of paper and a pen.  Then he explained that we had to make a list of the things we were most grateful for—there was a catch though.  We had to pretend that whatever was on the list we got to keep forever—and anything not on that list, we would lose forever.  (This made us think about what was most important in our lives.)  Oh, and we had two minutes to do it in as well.  So…ready, set, go!

Set a timer for two minutes and write the things you are most thankful for.

You can do this on paper or type it up (I typed mine because I’m much faster at that than writing).  Then, you can be done with the challenge, or you can do something else with it if you like.  (Scrapbook it, make a video of it, or anything else you want to do!) 

Here’s what we did.

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What Laura did:

Things that I am Most Thankful For

My children

My husband

Family

Food

A house over my head

To be able to drive a car

A phone

That I have a job

Friends

Books

TV

Clothing

The sunshine

Coca Cola

Computer

A bed to sleep in

My health

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What I did:

I typed up my list in Photoshop and put it directly into a digi scrapbook page.  Simple and easy!  It’s kind of drab, so I may change it up a bit to something with more color.

Supplies: Kraft paper—Meredith Cardall, Fonts—Bombshell Pro, Pea MissStaker

Now I challenge you to do this fun little timed gratitude challenge!

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PS—I totally did not realize today was the day for the gift card drawings.  I should’ve done a reminder yesterday, so I’m extending it by 23.5 hours.  I will draw 3 lucky people tomorrow at noon, MST.    Be sure to hashtag your IG photos with #timc30days for a chance to win!

Challenge #56—Holiday Happenings

Happy New Year everyone!  It’s hard to believe that 2012 is over.  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and wish you the best year ever. 

While talking with my dad a few weeks ago, I remembered a fun story about myself as a kid and told him about it.  He said, “You need to record that!” and I took that to mean, “you could make a fun challenge that goes along with that”, so I did! 

What is one of your favorite holiday memories? 

You can focus this challenge on something you just did this season, or a fun little memory from when you were a kid.  You can focus on just one, or list a few that you’ll never forget.  To give you some help, here are some ideas!

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What Laura did:

Laura made a fun scrapbook layout of a time when Santa came to her house—something she’ll never forget!

Supplies: Cardstock – Bazzill; Patterned Paper – Echo Park and also unknown; Photo Corners, transparent words – Heidi Swapp; Sticker Words – 7 Gypsies; Snowflakes – Cricut (Home Accents cartridge); Font – Comic Sans; Title – Bella Blvd

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What Kim did:

Kim just wrote down one of her favorite childhood Christmas memories—when she got her very own dog!  Short, simple, easy.  And now, recorded!

One of my most memorable Holiday memories was when I got my very own dog for Christmas.  I was about 8 or 9 years old.  I remember my parents driving up in our big Dodge Ram Van on Christmas Eve.  I went out there to see what they had gotten and inside the van was the cutest black dog I had ever seen.  Everyone in my family said he was the ugliest dog they had ever seen, but I didn't care, to me he was the cutest dog ever because he was my very own dog. And he was my buddy!

Source

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What I did:

I made a digital scrap page of the story that inspired this challenge—my sister and I trying to sneak into the living room early on Christmas morning.  (I’m still not able to get to my old pictures, so yes, pictures will have to be put in later on this one too…if there even is one…sigh.) 

Credits:  Template, Scrapping With Liz.  Papers and candy cane embellishment, Carina Gardiner.  Fonts, Mom’s Typewriter, CK Daydream, Georgia. 

Now I challenge you to go record one (or a few) of your favorite holiday moments before it becomes lost! 

Holiday Traditions Celebration!

Last year during the month of December, I gave the challenge to record some of your holiday traditions.  (I decided to not do any regular challenges because December is usually insanely busy for everyone.) This year, I thought it would be fun to record some of your traditions and share them…and make a whole big celebration out of it!  




Here’s how you can help and get involved:

1.  Think of one of your favorite family traditions, no matter what holidays you celebrate.

2.  Record it in your own way.  (Write it down, video it, scrapbook it, etc.)

3.  Email me (emils24(at)gmail(dot)com), or leave a comment here with your recorded challenge or a link to your own post.

4.  Check back on the blog at least once a week during December to see how other families celebrate, and be inspired by the ideas of others, and maybe even try a few of them out!

5.  Spread the word to your family and friends, so they can benefit from this too!

We will do this for the whole month of December, 2012.

Simple as that, right?  

I can’t wait!

Challenge #47—This Is My Country

Today is one of my very favorite holidays—Independence Day!  And since it’s the USA’s birthday, I thought it’d be fun to focus on what you love about your country, wherever you live!

What do you love about your country?

Are there some specific things that you love about where you live?  Do you love a certain place?  A special tradition?  Something unique and special?  Record all about it, and let your family, friends, and posterity know why you love your country!

Here are a few examples from the TIMC team:

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What Kim did:

Well, to be completely honest, I've never lived outside of the United States. Unfortunately, because of this, I know I don't realize how good I have it.

Some things I love about my country:

I can choose to worship how/who I want.
I can choose to work if I want; or be a stay at home mom if I want. 
I can choose to have as many children as I want and to raise my family however I want. 
I can choose what education I want and what career I want to pursue.
I can vote for the leaders of our country.
I love that people in the armed services have devoted their lives and talents to keeping America safe and free.
I love how beautiful it is!

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What April did:

I love to travel. I have traveled all over the world. I lived in the third world country of Paraguay for a time and it was then that I truly found out what a blessing it is to be an American. There are so many things that I took for granted before I lived in Paraguay, such as the blessing of hot water at my fingertips, the blessing of having enough to eat - of never going to bed hungry, the blessing of having people who work to keep me safe at all times, the blessing of having a warm place to sleep that is better than a cardboard box, the blessing of having a clean hospital to deliver my children in. My eyes were truly opened and I am forever indebted to my God for the opportunity to live in this amazing country. I'm proud to be an American!

Credits: Fonts: LDJ Thankful. Photoshop Brushes: SS-Postage, Alex-Dukal Stamp-Brushes

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What I did:

I also made a digital scrapbook page.  I didn’t put any pictures on it yet, because I want to take some specific ones today during 4th of July festivities, but I will update this when I get them on.     I just wrote a few things down that I love about my country.  I have also had the chance to visit quite a few countries and even lived in France for awhile.  And though I have loved seeing so many beautiful things, I still have a lot of love for my country.  (And a special soft spot in my heart for France too!)

Credits: Papers and elements, Persnickety Prints.  Fonts, Marcelle Script, CK Higgins Handprint, Seeing Starts.  Template and grunge border, Jessica Sprague.

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Now I challenge you to record what you love about your country!

Fast Fact Friday #6

It's finally Friday!  I love Fridays!

We have a special edition of Fast Fact Friday this week--all to do with the up-coming holiday of love. TIMC reader, Katie, submitted the questions for us today.  (Remember you too can submit questions for a FFF!  Just email me emils24(at)gmail(dot)com to submit!)

Pin It

Here are this week's questions:
1.  Do you like Valentine's day?
2.  What is one Valentine tradition you have?
3.  Who do you want to be your valentine?
4.  What was the funniest valentine you ever received?
5. What do you want to get from your valentine this year?

If you want to share the "love" of Fast Fact Friday, I've moved the code over to the right sidebar--that way it's always there! Also, I added a "Pin It" if you want to put it on Pinterest!

Here's a look at my answers:
1. It's my favorite low-key holiday! I love spreading love!
2. Um, don't really have any at all, other than giving out valentines!
3. My hot hubby.
4. Before I met my hubby, this guy I'd gone on two dates with, gave me a dozen red roses, a giant box of chocolates and a stuffed animal. I didn't really care for him in a more than friends way, nor did I think that he felt anything for me, but I found out that day that he really liked me.  It was rather awkward. For both of us.
5. A "Happy Valentine's Day" and maybe a love note--that would beat last year's V-day. We were at Disneyland and I'm pretty sure he totally forgot all about V-day.

Valentine’s Day Cards {Free Printables!}

So last night I had this idea to make some fill in the blank valentine’s cards for my kids to give to their grandparents this year.  
Pin It


Then, I thought, why not make some to share with my wonderful readers at the TIMC too?  Then I figured I’d cover all the bases for any type of person (male or female) who would like a simple, fun card.  There’s room at the bottom to sign it, and I didn’t put anything about v-day on it, so you can use it for birthday, sympathy, just because, etc!

There’s “Girlie” and “Outdoorsman/woman”:


There’s “Sporty” and “Techie”.


T(w)een boys and girls:


And there’s “Kiddie” too—shown first above and then below.
Plus boy and girl specific, in case you want to give dad a variety.  The kiddie ones all have the same cover.



These are quite easy to do, just download the kind of card(s) you want, open up any program that takes jpgs, print on cardstock, cut in half horizontally, and fold vertically.   Then fill it in!



TIP*** Make sure you pay close attention to the direction your printer prints.  In fact, I’d do a test run on plain paper so you know how your printer works doing two sides.
You can also cut the parts out you want and glue to another piece of paper, and add more to it like so:



There are two of every kind on one piece of paper, so you’ll get two of each card you print (unless you know how to put one on top of the other kind of like I did in the examples).  This is what the download will look like, front and back:

     

I do ask, pretty please with a cherry on top, that you follow the blog via Google Friend Connect on the right or top of the blog.  Think of it as payment for my time!   Plus, I promise the more followers TIMC gets, the more freebies YOU get!  (Like the Winter Wonderland Kit when we reach 100 followers.) If you’d like to download these cards, all you have to do is go here. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Challenge #35—One Little Word

Happy New Year!  I’m not the only one to think it, I’m sure, but seriously how did 2012 creep up on us?  Time flies by too fast…

As I’ve read some blogs in the last few days, I’ve noticed quite a few people who choose one word to improve on for the whole year—they pick one word and that word is their goal for the year.  So, with some switching things around with my fabulous team members, Laura and Rachel, who were generous enough to follow my whim of changing challenges, I’m issuing this challenge to you!

What is one word that you want to improve on in 2012?

I know, this is not a normal challenge question, but as I thought about it, I came to realize that setting a one word goal can tell a lot about a person in that moment of time. 

You can complete this challenge any way you like, though I recommend doing something that you can put out as a constant visual reminder throughout the year.  Write your main word down, and then record some things you’re going to do to accomplish that goal!

Here’s a look at what we did.

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What Laura did:

Even though I slacked on my "One Little Word" project last year. My word last year was patience (which should be my word for every day of my life), I am picking a new word for 2012.  My word for 2012 is SIMPLIFY.

In 2011, I planned on taking on so many creative projects.  I really had my hopes set high in completing all that I set out for, but I fell short on so many things.  The only thing I did keep up with was taking a photo every day for my Project Life book.  Yes, I still have journaling to do, but all pictures were taken, and my album is coming along beautifully.

So to SIMPLIFY in 2012, I am still going to do a Project Life book, but I will be creating a Shutterfly Project Life album instead of putting a manual album together.  I will most likely still be taking a photo a day in 2012, but the album that I will be creating will be a two-page spread for each month (seven or more photos on the two-page spread) instead of having a photo for every day in the album.  It will be a lot SIMPLER.

Here is a sample page of the digital album.

Another thing I am going to start doing again in 2012 is keep a journal.  I have been keeping a book for the past two years that I have felt obligated to write in every single day.  Keeping a journal with no dates takes the obligation and stress away for having to write something every day (again ... trying to lead a SIMPLE life).

I also found a great idea that I want to start doing in 2012.  I want to start to take a weekly picture of our family (not sure how I'm going to work that yet), but I found the idea here.

One other way I'm going to SIMPLIFY in 2012 is to cut down on the TV shows that I watch.  The shows start to accumulate on my DVR and there have been times when I get stressed over all the shows I need to catch up on.  That has to STOP.  I want to spend more time reading, and I'm hoping my new Nook Tablet will help me accomplish that.

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What Rachel did:

Rachel’s word this year is “Health”.  She made a digital layout with her 15 fitness goals for 2012.

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What I did:

I pondered about what my word for 2012 would be for quite awhile.  I had many words pass through my head, then all the sudden I remembered a talk I heard last April by Lynn G. Robbins (a male Lynn, not female).  (You can read the whole talk here.) My favorite paragraph says:

“Many of us create to do lists to remind us of things we want to accomplish. But people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do’s are activities or events that can be checked off the list when done. To be, however, is never done. You can’t earn checkmarks with to be’s. I can take my wife out for a lovely evening this Friday, which is a to do. But being a good husband is not an event; it needs to be part of my nature—my character, or who I am.”

It hit me that my word for 2012 should be, “BE”!  Now, since it’s kind of an abstract word, I decided to break it down into things I want to be and then set goals for those things.  Of course, I wanted to keep it simple and attainable, so I am choosing one thing I want to “be” each month and setting 3 small goals for each. I will choose a new “Be” every month, but I won’t stop working on the previous be’s.  So by the end of the year, I hope to “be” improved in 36 small ways—so I can “be” a better person in 12 months than I am now! 

To help me visualize this, I added some vinyl, a large “BE”, to my dry-erase board.  I wrote “Healthy” on the top, since that is my goal for January (too many treats and not enough exercise for me during the holidays).  I made three small goals of how I’m going to be healthier this month.  This is in my office where I will see it constantly. 

In addition to this, I’m writing all my goals in a Word document and at the end of each month I will do a little write-up of how I did on my goals.  I’m also going to be posting my goals on my personal blog so my family and friends will know my goals and can help keep me in line!  I need all the help I can get…!

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And just a little announcement—there have been so many downloads on the free Christmas paper pack and elements, that I decided to give you some new digital goodies when we reach 100 blog followers and 300 fans on FB—we are really close! (Think winter color scheme and glitter!)  So, please share with your friends if you are liking the challenges here at TIMC, or even just the freebies!   And since there are no freebies this week, I’m keeping the Christmas papers and elements available for another week, so go grab them if you haven’t already!  (2 and 3 posts back.)

Now, I challenge you to come up with one little word for 2012! 

Challenge #34 (Part 3)—Traditions

This month has been super busy!  I meant to get this post up on Tuesday, but here it is now Friday and I’m finally getting around to it…

As I mentioned in the previous post, I decided to put all my Christmas scrapbook pages together and make one album just of Christmas memories.  I was only going to put traditions in there, but then I figured I’d put everything Christmas-y in it: traditions and events.  This way we can look in it every year at Christmas time and remember our traditions as well as what we’ve done differently each year.  I don’t always record every tradition we do each year, so I thought this album would give a good overview.  (If you celebrate Hanukah, Kwanza, or any other holiday, you can make an album of just that.  It’s not limited to Christmas only—I’m just writing about Christmas because that’s what we celebrate.)

And if you are not a scrapbooker, I think a traditions album could be made in many ways!  If you like to write, you can write a list of all the things you did each season, or write stories about it.  If you like to take photos, but don’t scrapbook, you can put them all in one holiday album.  If you are a blogger, you can make a page or a post on your blog that links to every post you’ve written on your holiday. 

So, here’s a look at my album.  I bought this simple red linen album at Michael’s a couple weeks ago.  I used a coupon and it came out to like $12.  It has a small window in the front that I just used some scrapbook supplies to fancy it up.  When the album is full, I think I will use some of the white space to write the years that are included on the front of it.

I put all of my Christmas pages in the album: Christmas day, preparations, gingerbread houses, going to see the lights, parties, etc.  Anything that related to Christmas.  I put sticker tabs on the first page of each year and labeled the years since I didn’t write the year on every layout—because I do my family’s album by year.  Yes, it took some time, but I pulled all of the Christmas pages out of my family scrapbooks.  I figure that we’ll know we did stuff for Christmas, because all we need to do is look in this album, right? Some years (like 2003 and 2004), I only have one page for the whole season.  Other years I have multiple layouts, so the tabs are necessary for our album!  I also thought about using the scrapbook dividers that Becky Higgins sells, but they aren’t available until January, and I wanted to get this done.  But that’s another option if you are more patient than me! 

The tabs are an idea to add if you want to just do a simple photo album.  Also, you can grab a 4x6 piece of paper and quickly jot about some of your pictures on it if there’s not room for journaling in the album.

Another idea:  along with the layouts of things we did, I decided to start making a layout of our Christmas card and letter we sent out to everyone.  It’s a great summary of our whole year and what went on for the year.  (I started this in 2008, and it’s fine that I don’t have it for previous years, so don’t fret if you haven’t kept track of these kinds of things!)

See, I’ve already gotten this year’s card and letter done!  

One thing I really love about this album, is it’s fun to see how we’ve grown and changed from year to year.  This is something you don’t notice as much in a regular album from a whole year. 

(Supplies: It just so happens that all of the papers, stickers, etc. that I’ve shown you are from SEI.  Glitter glue on front cover, Studio G.  Album, Michael’s.)

Now I challenge you to get recording your own holiday memories and traditions—and making some as well!   Happy holidays!

Gifts to Jesus

We did something in our home on Monday night that turned out so well, I thought I’d share it with any of you who celebrate the birth of Christ. 

In Church on Sunday, a sister in our congregation talked about how her dad wrapped a box up at Christmas time, and whenever the kids did something Christ-like, they would write it on a paper and put it into the present for Jesus. 

Well, I thought this sounded fabulous, and decided to make it a new Christmas tradition in our home!

I found a box that already had a small opening in the bottom, taped up the top, wrapped it really pretty, then cut the paper where the small opening was.  Then I wrote “To Jesus” on the top, and taped a card that has baby Jesus on it. 

I also cut 3 or 4 blank pieces of paper into rectangles (2 1/2 inches by 4 1/4), put them along with a couple of pens into a small can I had.  I tied a big red bow on it for fun.

 To start the lesson, I had my two older boys read the quote by Thomas S. Monson that says, “What will you and I give for Christmas this year?  Let us in our lives give to our Lord and Savior the gift of gratitude by living his teachings and following in His footsteps.” (I printed off the free quote found on Becky Higgins’ blog—go about half way down the page and look on the right side bar for it.)

We then talked about what that meant in little kid terms, “What IS the best thing YOU can give for Christmas?, “What is the gift of gratitude?”,  “What are some of the things that Jesus taught us?”, “What are some things we can give to Jesus this year for Christmas?”. 

After we talked about what the quote meant, I showed the kids the present I had made, explained what we were going to be doing, and then showed them the can and they loved the idea!!!  We made the rule that we can fill out a paper for something you did for someone else, or if someone does something for you.

A few days later, we are hearing a lot of, “Mom, I did_____, can I fill out a paper?”, or “_____ did ______ for me, can I write that down?”.  Even my 2 year old twins love doing this!  When I see them do something nice for someone, I tell them thank you and say that we should write it and give it to Jesus.  They run to the box and love to put their paper in! 

It’s even helping me too…today when I got stuck in line at the store with a new cashier who was going SLOW, I decided I’d be patient instead of getting all annoyed that I got in the slow line.  And yes, I wrote that down and gave it to Jesus! 

I’m seriously loving this, and so excited to make it a yearly tradition.  I’m planning on doing something with the papers—either keeping them and putting them in something, taking pictures of them, or at least typing up our gifts to Christ.  I think it will be so fun to look back on our gifts to Jesus Christ!