I am so very excited to say that we are all caught up with our home school assignments!!!! It's been a very big worry for us because I did not want to have our school year run too much into the summer. It's all good though now as I have seen what and how our days get disrupted with errands/family visits/the odd emergency and last but not least by our monthly field trips and library days. Seriously though, it's just an UNBELIEVABLE feeling to know everything is back on track as it should be. 


I have not scrapped nor art journaled since October of last year. I am realizing now that I had a severe case of burn out and needed the break. In fact, I took a break from all my scrap forums and other favorite haunts. I just checked emails (barely) and posted on FB. So I am excited to share my new pages. The first I created for Project: Love, Me over at Scrap Orchard. I have linked the image to the gallery so that you can view the credits. I already have this one printed and in my album. I just LOVE how it turned out! 



This second page evolved from a prompt from the Art Journal Caravan 2012 over at Scrapbookgraphics. If you are remotely interested on in art journaling esp digital....I HIGHLY recommend this year long journey. This is my third year signing up and I can honestly say Tangie Baxter is the most generous teacher I have ever met and the work and passion she puts into the year long caravan is nothing short of amazing.  This page is also linked to the gallery so that you can view the credits if you so wish. It took me awhile to get my thoughts around how I wanted to journal this but I am more than pleased with it and now it's time to take another step forward in my life journey.

January has definitely been a whirlwind month. I have sorted, fixed, refiled, revamped and cleaned the entire house. The last bit left is my closet and the bathroom cabinets. I just wanted to start off 2012 with a literal feel of "out with the old and in with the new"----not that we got anything new but it is an amazing feeling to know everything is "in order."  


January has also been a month of getting back in the groove of exercising. I joined Weight Watchers online but to be honest I just can't get the hang of all that point counting. I don't think I will be renewing it after my membership runs out. On a more positive note I signed up for a family gym membership. I know it would be cheaper monthly to do a yearly contract I just didn't want to obligate myself to a monthly note on the just in case idea that I could not afford it one month.  


Many other major decisions have been made of which I won't bore you with the details but it's been all about keeping responsibilities that impact positively on our lives and tossing the ones that bring negatives into our lives. We are also praying heavily and visiting churches for a new church home. God is moving our hearts and we are doing our best to listen intently so that we choose the right direction.


Now that I have gotten the bulk of all that I wanted to accomplish completed for January, I will now have the time to devote to my art journaling, scrapbooking and of course blogging. :D

It has been a couple of crazy busy weeks. I have successfully went through every single bit of old mail, magazines etc and have gotten myself back organized where all incoming mail is to be sorted into bills or junk. I am still sorting through boxes of items still packed from my divorce from my ex 16 years ago. I am finding things long since thought lost and other items I am like....really...what did you save this for?!?!?!? In between all of that I have been playing catchup on home school studies with DD.  We have gotten behind with all the holiday running around we did and right when we were to start back I stayed sick a good 2 weeks. All in all January has been good to us so far.

Last Friday we took our first field trip of the year with our home school group. The first part of the day was spent at the
R.W. Norton Art Gallery. We could not view the gun nor the book exibitions because of remodeling. The curators were absolutely wonderful in interacting with us and all the kids. I will definitely be sure to go back in April when the remodeling is done to peek at the rest.
 
The second part of our day was spent at the 8th Air Force Museum on the Barksdale Airforce Base. It's one of those places I have seen the signs for it seems like forever but have never made time to go.  It's not a large museum, it's actually just more of a building that holds some pretty awesome pieces of history. Outdoors there were several different types of aircraft. I think that was the kids favorite part. It was especially nice with the weather being just perfect for an outing.
 

This week will start us out bright and early with some algebra fun. Wish us Luck!!!

In a lot of ways it's good to say Goodbye to 2011 and in other ways it is bittersweet. I tackled many new projects and succeeded and I won't say I failed at the others I tackled I wish I had done better. I learned a lot about time management for myself. I am not the best but at least I now know where I need to focus to do better. It's the one thing I cannot fail at doing with the added responsibility of homeschooling a 9th grader. 


In 2010 I joined Tangie Baxter's very first Art Journal Caravan. I completed a whopping TWO pages out of the 52 prompts given. That is actually 2 pages I never would have done~so I call it a success. This past year I did much better. My pages ranged from the very dark and sad to hopeful and thought provoking. I worked though many emotional issues that either I had long thought dealt with and the newer ones such as my Grandfather passing away. It was the one single project that has put my heart on a path of healing. This year marks year number 3. I would strive to do all 52 weekly prompts but what I am going to focus on more are the monthly adventure quests. It's the one thing I only did a couple of last year. 


I mentioned my Grandfather passed away last year. This January will mark the first anniversary of that date. I am not sure how I feel. I miss him terribly. I was his caregiver for a while and I still feel his presence here in my home. I know he was ready to go but even though I though I was ready to let go, I know now that I was not...even now...I am still working on that. 


In October I attended an Art Journal Retreat in the home of Tangie Baxter. I turned it into a road trip for me and my DD. I had the most fabulous time learning mixed media journaling techniques, meeting Tangie (along with her Mom, Studio Rebecca, and her sister, Molly, formerly DeCrow Designs), ladies from SBG's Art Journal Caravan 2011 and some of the fun crew from Scrap Orchard. I also initially took the month of October to "unplug" to help try to find the balance between the tech world and actively living life. 


As life happens or EXPLODES upon us sometimes, at least that's what it did to me,  I stayed "unplugged" for the most part until now. I crept silently back onto FB through my iPhone and through it all continued my addiction of playing Words with Friends. I have not created a scrapbook page, art journal page or even scribbled a doodle by hand. 


Today marks my new beginning. I have celebrated this by treating myself to a blog makeover. I want to Thank Sarah at Designs by Sarah Bryan for taking my vision and making it a reality for me. I also want to Thank Lor of Studio Rosey Posey for giving me permission to use her Finding Jenny kit. 


Kit is linked to her store at Scrapbookgraphics.



♥And on that note I wish you a wonderful day extend a huge thank you if you have read this horrendously long posting.♥