Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

An oxymoron, no? It is near impossible to be a scrapper and to be up to date at the same time. There's always a side project, or an idea bouncing around your head, or the sheer volume of pictures to contend with. Last year I decided to forgo Project 365 and focus instead on "The Monthly": doing layouts by month. I can choose how many for each month, stick the shots in a template, and by the end of the month they are ready to be paged through. I also picked 8.5x11 size because it's easier to sit with it in your lap. It worked so well for 2010 that I am doing it again this year and am very pleased. I just finished April - take a look! It's a simple matter of digital photos sorted by date, templates purchased at Designer Digitals designed by Cathy Zielske , and the color-dropper in PSE. About one hour, & I had 4 layouts done. Hooray!

In January I chose the word "time" to reflect on this year. I've done a lot of reflecting - just haven't blogged about it! Today I thought I'd do a fun post on the time I spent cleaning up the kitchen & putting groceries away - the music playlist I listened to while I did it! Life's A Dance by John Michael Montgomery I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapin Carpenter Our Song by Taylor Swift Viva La Vida - Coldplay Don't Stop by Wade Hayes The Nations of the World - Animaniacs Rock of Ages by Def Leppard Take A Look At My Girlfriend - Supertramp American Woman by Lenny Kravitz Stupid Girls by Pink Fruits by Knee Deep Shag Doug caught me grooving & singing at Coldplay and just laughed at me. All were good sing-along songs and the kitchen now looks great!

In reflecting on my word of the year, TIME, and reflecting on my scrapbooking, of which I would like more TIME to do it (and cover more TIME in my albums), I remembered an album idea. Rather than a picture of the day, where I fall behind in my journaling, do an album on a monthly basis. So to expedite this process, I bought a template kit, learned my PSE8 a little better, and behold: I have done 8 pages already - 4 for January, 2 for February, and 2 for March. I am so much more enthusiastic for this - I can actually get a bunch of pictures in an album in a few hours, and then go back and scrap more in-depth pages at leisure (or on scrap weekends, which seems to be the only dedicated time I have anymore!). I also am playing around with the 8.5x11 layouts, because I don't take time to look at my 12x12 albums as often because they are awkward on the lap. So either I change size or buy a new coffee table. But that's a different post!

When I have free time, which isn't often, I cruise around the Internet to scrapbooking sites & blogs. There are certain people I like to "drop in" on. The other day I popped over to Ali Edwards' blog. I'm not a big fan of her style, but often she will provide some inspiration that gets me thinking. And so it was this day - her "one little word." The idea - to take a word and embrace it for the year. Let it guide your decisions, let it give you direction. I love this idea. So many words bounced around in my head, but it only took a couple days to settle on the one I will use. TIME. Spend it, squander it, find it, make it, it goes too fast, it goes too slow... so each month I plan to do a little page about how TIME is affecting me but more important, how I am using my TIME. I want to spend more with my kids without thinking of the zillion other things I have to do. I want to carve some out each week so I can be creative. I want to use my TIME better. ...