3 X 12//January 2011

January 2011.

I find inspiration in a lot of things. I love a lot of things. I love new things. I love new ideas.

I am going to take on a personal project that a very inspirational photographer took on herself last year. Tara Whitney is that photographer I am talking about. Check her out because I love her work and her personal philosophy....perfectly imperfect. Last year she started a project she called six people twelve times, where she took or had taken a family picture every month for the whole year. Of course I am just taking on the challenge so I am not up to speed. Katy had to help me for the month of January because we don't have a picture of the three of us.

I honestly cant remember what we did in January. Oh and I love this picture that we drew above. Do you like how Chucks head is HUGE! Ha, I started drawing him and realized that I couldn't really draw us all in proportion so he just ended up with a huge head. It made Katy laugh. I guess January was cold, hence the snowflakes.

January was a month of starting fresh, starting new. I decided to take on a personal word or mantra for the year. I was having a hard time narrowing it down to just one word. So I came up with two. Do you want to know what they are? Well folks I will tell you, in no particular order....

Word one: COURAGE. What a strong word. I decided that I say that I am sorry a lot. I don't really give myself credit, when it's due sometime. I guess I sell myself short sometimes. I guess I am afraid sometimes to fail. You get what I'm getting at? Also on a side note when I went through my Substance Abuse Treatment Training with the Social Work department at the U we did a class all day on a Saturday. It was group work, so we had our own group. We were split up and we were all involved in a group. I found when it was my turn to go (and we were digging up some pretty deep stuff here) and I was crying....it was made known to me, by the teacher, that I was smiling as I was crying. He told me that it was okay to be sad sometimes...especially when we have good reason. I guess where I'm going with this is that sometimes I am just afraid. I am afraid to be sad, I am afraid to fail, I am afraid that people wont like me.....just afraid. Courage is a word that is so liberating to me because it will help me live my life in a way that I can just be. I am who I am, so let's embrace that. We will see what COURAGE shows to me this year.

Word two: CREATE. I like to think that this world could use a lot more of this. I remember when I was little I was always making things. I would make clothes for all my animals. I would make paper crafts. I would make costumes. Whatever. I guess I would like that opportunity to make more time to create. Draw a random stick figure picture of my family. Sew more. Craft more.

I also want to say that the month of January was a good time for me to reflect on the fact that I have an amazing family. We are not perfect by any means....but we are perfectly imperfect. Do you find truth in that statement? I do. Katy is learning and growing so much every day. Today she was convinced that she didn't need to go to bed because we needed to do jumping jacks! Chuck makes me laugh my head off when he freaks out because he wants to come with us, wherever we are going. Steve is incredible. I love him more today that I did when I first knew I loved him. I love that we are probably annoying to people because we talk all the time when we are not together. I love that my house is messy now because Katy and I were in fact doing jumping jacks and dancing before bed. Everything in it's place. Love!

Yes January was a great month and a great start to a new year!

Hello 2011.