January is flying by

More than halfway through already, it seems crazy but you cant argue with the calendar now can you. I guess perhaps being in holiday mode with the kids home and no real daily routine makes the days seem to run into each other.

So what's been happening? How's my "one little word" project going? Ummm, next question ... no, really, if I just had a printer attached to my brain I could produce a book. Lots of books! So yes I've been doing lots of thinking and have some ideas about how I will present my OLW for 2011 but haven't actually produced anything tangible ... yet. Stay with me though, wont you.

I have been creating though, a bit here and there over the festive season.

Since it is school holidays I thought I'd better do something "proper" with the kids (and perhaps because we were all going stir crazy at home) so we went berry picking over near Orange, at Huntley Berry Farm. We spent over an hour wandering around picking our own, fresh, delicious berries, oh and tasting along the way of course too.

We have not long returned from a very quick few days away at Batemans Bay for a little family holiday. The weather around here looked a little dodgy and since I was in desperate need of changing the scenery and catching a breath of fresh air, Marty agreed to duck away. I got a last minute cheap deal on a motel room so off we went. Cant say it was a fabulous holiday or anything, although it was defintely good to be somewhere different and not have to do any cooking or cleaning. We totally blew the budget on eating out but really enjoyed it and had something different every meal, every day. When the kids weren't whinging or fighting they did get to do a bit of paddling at the beach, we also went fishing and managed to catch one, and we enjoyed a drive down the coast, looking around for the day.

Of course the day we came home was the best weather but that's how it goes.
As it turned out the weather back home wasn't that bad so Marty launched straight back into work within half an hour of getting home.

We did feel rather weird though about going on holidays when my home town of Brisbane was under seige due to the floods. It's strange watching from afar, recognising places and thinking about all the people affected by such devastation. Thankfully none of my family and friends and mutual scrapping friends were not directly affected either in Brisbane or Toowoomba.
Watching such sad scenes and listening to the heartbreaking stories, especially about those who have lost loved ones, really makes you stop and think about your lot in life doesn't it. For us, having battled the drought and now, just when we might have started to dig our way out, a wet, downgraded harvest, it has made me realise that we're doing ok, we haven't lost the lot in one foul swoop, we haven't lost a loved one. We are still here. Working so very hard, but here nonetheless and trying and move on and move forward.
My heart goes out to each and every person effected in some way by the terrible events occurring not just in SE Queensland, but right around Australia in recent weeks.

Dorothea Mackellar was right, more than she ever could have known ...

One Little Word

This is a very popular thing in the scrapping world since Ali Edwards started it some years back. I've played along on the various scrapping sites I've been involved in but this year, this evening in fact, have decided to sign up for her class at Big Picture Classes. Thanks to my friend Moira for her Facebook post mentioning this, I think it was what I really needed.

So, that one little word ... doesn't sound like a big deal really does it. But it's got to be the right word, one that means something on many levels and is going to "stick" for the whole year.

I've been thinking and thinking of this WORD, struggling to come up with something suitable and appropriate ... and have just read a heap of old blog posts, looked at some projects I've done over the last year and thought about the things that are making me feel a bit down ATM ... so I think my word will be ...

FAMILY

At the heart of everything I do is family - my husband, my children and then all the others that make up my family unit. Our farm business is a "family farm" and so everything we strive for in business all comes back to family. Everything I strive for on a daily basis as a wife, mother, homemaker (read: domestic goddess some days, slave and maid on others) is all about family.

My crafting and scrapping is all about family.

I want 2011 to be a positive, engaging, uplifting, enjoyable, fun and loving year of being together, 

of being a family.

If I can keep everything in perspective, take it all just one day at a time, I'm sure I can embrace 2011.

Wish me luck ...