Write more letters!

2012-01-25T21:50:00.002-05:00

This is something I love to do, but don't as often as I should. Here's some added motivation to get off the computer and send "real mail"!

PIE by Sarah Weeks

2012-01-20T15:59:00.000-05:00

Pie by Sarah Weeks is the second book I have finished this year. It was written up in the free book newspaper they have out at the library and I read it to preview it for my children. A lot of new literature is edgy or has topics, language, attitudes, or situations in it that I'm not ready for my children to consume in large quantities yet (or ever). This book, which seems suitable for middle elementary school-aged children, is blessedly free of undesirable (from my point of view) content, and is a heart-warming story.

Project Life and Finish Year

2012-01-07T14:11:00.000-05:00

There are a couple of other things I want to try this year.

Project Life (There are various takes on this idea on different blogs and websites and I'm not especially partial to one or another, but Becky Higgins' version is the one I've read the most about.)
Off and on I have kept a running log of the basic activities of our days. This is a glimpse of a week from 2011's version. One year I used a Mary Englebreit calendar, and have tried other forms. Prior to our move, I was pretty active in taking pictures of things we did, made, etc., on a regular basis, but kind of last the "mojo" for that, too (see previous post regarding bread), in the midst of the craziness of 2010.
If I can get going and keep on track with it, it will probably be an ever-changing process. Hopefully I can experiment with a little more digital memory keeping along the way, but will probably start off just printing a few pictures and typing up a summary of the week. I have taken thousands of pictures in the past several years, but written little down about the circumstances. And when I have written anything down, it's been in random notebooks, calendar pages, etc., to the point that I probably couldn't find it if I wanted to!
So my vision for this project is to let go of the idea of beautiful scrapbook pages and get the pictures printed and the stories told. Today the need for coming up with a plan to make this happen has been on my mind and other than doing something for the first week of 2012 now/today, I'm not sure what it's going to be yet.

Finish Year - Someone posted a link to this post on facebook just before we left for the Christmas holidays, and while I've started my list and have a pretty good idea of what will be on it, there hasn't been time to formally join in a follow through with the suggested actions in the related posts that have followed the one linked here. Hopefully that can still be accomplished this weekend and blogged about as well. And while picking a word for the year isn't something I'm officially doing in 2012 (haven't really done much with it in the past when I have chosen one), the idea of finishing some things - seeing ideas and/or already started projects through to completion - will be a similar concept for me.

The first thing I'm going to count as having finished this year, is the book The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman, which was recommended and loaned to me some time ago by my aunt.
Books where I learn something about a place or time period, as well as enjoy the story, are some of my favorites. This book about a family during WWII, was the first I've read much about Poland. It was interesting to have a peek into the lives of zookeepers, become more aware of what happened in Poland during WWII, and have my eyes opened to the history of a country that I'd never considered much or read about previously. I'd definitely recommend it!

Breakfast at Tiffani's (& lunch & dinner &...)

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PIE by Sarah Weeks

Project Life and Finish Year