Let’s see… it’s that day of the year when I should think over the past year and take inventory. Time to make a plan for the new year. I’m pretty pleased with how much I learned about taking better pictures. I’m delighted that in all the experiments, I managed to take a few that really are treasures to me. I’ve come a long way. What you’ve seen here is a lot more documentation of experiments. An online journal of my test shots. I’m glad I didn’t hold myself to only publishing the best of the best. If I had, this blog would be even more bare! LOL.
Now that we’re starting a new year, I’m looking forward to getting back to my studies. I plan to watch more of my videos, read more of my books and take more pictures. I plan to do another 365 blog. It will be more private this year. The reason for it being private is that I found I had a lot of people coming to see it last year that would offer me encouragement and comments. This lead to me wanting to return the favor and visit their blog to see what they are up to and leave them comments and encouragement. This got very time consuming and frankly overwhelmed me. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate comments and encouragement but I don’t have the time to devote to the 365 blog like I’d like to focus here. My point here is to grow and learn… That is the focus of this blog. The other one is just a photo journal of my daily life. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes there are pictures I just want to have for my private enjoyment but I want them in a journal that is easy for me to review – like a blog.
Another thing I’ve discovered recently is that there have been times that I’ve resisted bringing out the camera because there was just too much clutter in the background and I didn’t want it in my photograph but it was more than I could remove quickly for the photo. This brings me to my next goal… to PURGE, PURGE, PURGE all this crap in my house. I’ve been a packrat my entire life and only in adulthood have I learned to release things from my life. They frequently require more of a price than I’m willing to pay for owning them. My husband gave me a wonderful book by Peter Walsh for Christmas (that I asked for) called It’s all too much. This is a battle I’ve been waging for some time. Between Flylady (flylady.net), shows like Clean Sweep (on TLC) and books like this one, I’ve come a long way toward a more peaceful home with less junk in it. This is the year I’m going to get to a platau in my life where I can do my daily battle with the influx of clutter without it requiring a massive and overwhelming undertaking when I can’t take the condition of my home anymore. (Can you tell that I get overwhelmed a lot when I find myself unequiped to handle something?!)
One final thing I have to admit. My children have been introduced to Webkinz this past year – back in August. I hate to admit it, but I find it to be a guilty pleasure for me too. I find myself playing it much more than I should. Now there is nothing really wrong with Webkinz, but it has the possibility to distract me from my real goals. SO, I find myself in a position where I must limit my consumption of that guilty pleasure.
So… I guess those are my three goals – as of 11AM on New Year’s Eve.
1) More photographic learning, experimenting, growth, risk. Two methods to document this – my I Wish blog and my 365 blog.
2) Purge, purge, purge my house. Ruthless elimination of clutter and all objects that do not bring usefulness or beauty to my home.
3) Limit my Webkinz addiction.
