One Little Word for 2014

(I found these notecards at Michaels today...I thought the message was appropriate! 

Thanks Mary Engelbreit...you always know the right thing to say!)

Read on...

I can't believe that it's January 8th and I haven't told you my 

One Little Word for 2014!

(I know you have been waiting breathlessly for me to reveal the word!! Ha!)

Choosing a word is always an interesting process. This is my 6th year participating in this exercise. It all started with a post on the blog of Ali Edwards. She chooses a word every year to focus on and let it inspire her into learning more about herself and take some chances. You can read her post for this year right here, which has links to previous years. This doesn't have to be a difficult process, just one that makes you more conscious of who you are and where you are going.

My former Little Words have been

2009-FOCUS

2010-MANAGE

2011-SIMPLIFY

2012-CELEBRATE

2013-LEARN

Now I'm not going to rehash the successes and failures with these words and there have been some of both every year. I will only say that while I LEARNed lots of things this past year, I didn't LEARN some specifics that I really wanted to. I wanted to LEARN how to use David's fancy Olympus camera...I'm still plodding a long with my little one. I wanted to finally install and LEARN Photoshop Elements 10 which I have now had for 3 years!! I'm still limping along with my Barney Rubble publishing program. I wanted to LEARN to use my super duper Ninja Blender/Food Processor without amputating a limb...I gave my Cuisinart to my daughter when I bought the Ninja so I'm back to hand chopping. I wanted to LEARN to make bread...from scratch. Nope, haven't done that either. I'm only writing about this publicly on my blog to shame encourage me to LEARN these things even though 2013 has ended. I almost kept LEARN as my word for this year but I must move on.

I thought for a long time about my One Little Word for this year.

I couldn't seem to make up my mind, and then, in writing a message to my good friend Marie,

it suddenly appeared!

DECIDE !

There it is! 

There are a number of rather big decisions David and I have to make this year....

do we stay where we are or do we move. We've been talking about if for a long time. It is not an easy decision to make by any means. Either way we decide, there will be other decisions that go along with the BIG decision. I need to be strong and decisive this year. I have to let go of a lot of "stuff" that I've been hanging on to even though it's in my way. (I'm not being vague here...I'm talking about tangible "stuff") I need to clean out and tidy up. But first I (we) need to decide. 

I'll let you know how things are going...

I'll fill you in as I attempt to LEARN the things this year that I didn't last year.

Feel free to nudge me if I'm not reporting in.

I will leave you with a photo of the little scraggly amaryllis I wrote about in my last post

In less than a week....this little plant went from being almost dead to this!

There are even 2 more flowers coming along...

Thank you for stopping by. I love when you visit and I am thrilled when you leave a comment!

xoxo

Joyce

One Little (but it's really BIG) Word and The Planners

OK-it's time to develop a new routine.

I want to get a bunch of things completed around the house (like cleaning-hahaha) but I also want to be diligent about my blog. Let's start with my

One Little Word for 2013

I went back and looked at previous posts about the words I've chosen over the years...

Focus

Simplify

 (that was a real failure)

Manage

Celebrate

(this one was easy..so much to celebrate and be grateful for this past year)

My word for 2013 came to me very easily

LEARN

Now that I'm fully retired, I want to work on keeping my mind sharp and my health in check.

There is a lot I can and should LEARN to accomplish these goals.

Plus, there are tons of fun things I want to learn, too.

First of all, for the first time, I am actually doing Ali Edward's on-line class entitled

One Little Word.

(read her blog post about this activity here, and know that you don't have to take the class to participate in this challenge...it's just an interesting goal)

The class goes on for the whole year and at the beginning of each month, you're given prompts to get you thinking about how your word is impacting your life and you keep a journal/photo book.

The class is available through Big Picture Classes

I will write more about my "bucket" learning list as time goes on.

Now, I can never start a new year without some kind of planner. Last year I used this one...

which featured my word for 2012...Celebrate

I found some really nice planners at Target this year and actually decorated 2 of them for friends for Christmas. Both of these friends are experiencing some difficult challenges in their lives right now and I wanted to give them a place to write important appointments and also a place to journal. The planners  have a very sturdy outer acrylic cover and then the cover of the journal is patterned but there is no writing on it. They were a dream to alter.

Mary Ellen's planner...

(the paper label just rips off)

and Jacqueline's...

and my planner...

A work in progress!

This is what the planners look like inside...

Plenty of places to write

OK-off to do some cleaning and organizing and  Planner cover planning...:D

Have a warm and toasty day!

xoxo

Joyce