Week 9: Maybe it's because the month is short, but February seemed to have flown by particularly fast. I can't say that I'm disappointed as that means we're just that much closer to spring.

I'm not a fan of winter. Trips to snow-covered trails don't hold any attraction for me, the wardrobe of sweaters and sweatshirts is growing old, and while I like the warm glow of a fireplace, I'd much prefer the sun's rays...as long as the temperature is on the upper side of 70 degrees. There's just not much about winter that appeals to me, especially after it's hung around for a while.

So this week I'm celebrating a hiatus from the cold temperatures. Blue skies, sunshine and warm weather have lifted my spirits and dashed the winter blahs, and I'm finding the renewed energy and improved outlook a very good thing. The warm temperatures won't last long but I'm appreciating them and their effect while they're here. You'll find my page recording this blessing in the gallery, and there's more about how I created it on my blog.

I doubt I'm the only one ready for spring at this point in the year. My prompt for the week is to ask whether you're feeling a seasonal slump and if so, what activity/event serves as your mental pick-me-up when the winter blahs set in? Do you move past the urge to hibernate and surround yourself with friends? Being in the company of sunny people is bound to generate some warm thoughts. Or instead of gray skies do you concentrate on gray matter and learn something new? The challenge of tackling a new skill can energize you and help shake the winter doldrums. Or maybe you embrace winter and all its snowy glory. Its days are numbered so if you haven't done so already, you may wish to record what it is about the season you're grateful for before spring bursts onto the scene.

We're wrapping up another month in our journey of a more grateful year. I'm looking forward to hearing how you shake the winter blues and being inspired by whatever blessings have come your way this week.




Week 8: I'm celebrating experimentation with my blessing this week. Late last spring I ditched the sad plant growing in a big container on my patio and replaced it with a Meyer lemon tree. They're small, fairly easy to grow (even indoors), and it was something I've always wanted to try. Each new stage, from bloom to fruit in hand, has been one of discovery and excitement. I feel very Mother Earth-y in my little tiny corner of the world.

There's something immensely satisfying about trying something new, especially if the results are good. It would be easy to say the fat, juicy lemons we're now pulling from the tree are the blessing...and they truly are. But the real blessing, I believe, is the experience of jumping in and doing something different and what you learn, about the project and yourself, along the way.

The page I created is in the gallery. It's an unusual shape...an experiment in itself...but I like how it turned out. My friend DonnaBriz had a new Slice machine and she generously sent me an assortment of things she'd cut with it; I used one of the artisan shapes as my starting point. And there's more experimenting with the photo. I recently purchased the new Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking 3, which I highly recommend along with the two previous editions, if you don't have them already. I was intrigued by clipping masks, something I've never tried, and thanks to the free download that accompanies the book and Jessica's excellent instructions, I've created a cool, grungy fell on the photo.

Life is full of experiments. Some turn out like we want and some don't, but if we learn something as a result, they can be blessings in our lives. My prompt this week is to examine your life and identify the experiments you have undertaken and what blessings came as a result. Did you dive into the deep end by heading up some big assignment at work, one you questioned whether you could handle, and found that you were more organized and resourceful than you expected? Or maybe you decided to take up a new hobby, acquire a foreign language or try a sport you've always wanted to play. How did you change as you moved along the learning curve in an effort to master these new skills? Sometimes the blessing comes simply in ending the experiment and admitting it wasn't for you. Perhaps you started your own business but found the going impossible and closed it, chalking it all up as a learning experience. Experiments like these all factor into who we are, and it's appropriate to look back at them and say "You know...doing that was a good thing in my life."

As always, the prompt is intended to get the creative wheels turning, not as an assignment for this week's blessing, I also encourage you to look at the pages being posted in the gallery. Not only is the work there outstanding but the subject matter recorded by other members may give you inspiration for finding the blessings in your life as well.

You'll find more thoughts on the blessings of experiments on my blog together with some discussion of the design of the page itself. I'm always happy to see you there, too.



Week 7: Another week, another blessing. I hope you're feeling the rewards of focusing on the good things in your life. And if life has been busy and you're stressing instead of feeling blessings (as I know a few of you are), let it go. Developing an awareness of the blessings in our lives in the project here. While many of us set out to take weekly photos and create layouts to feature them, those are just the tangible evidence of our efforts. Growing gratitude is the priority; there is no way you can fall behind on that.

Valentine's Day made it easy to choose love as a theme for this week's blessing...but with a twist. I've focused on self-love because I believe that in order to be open to the blessings in your life, you need to recognize and appreciate what is good about you, too. That's hard for us as women as our primary role in life is to nurture others. Whether expressed or implied, we're taught it's self-centered to feel good about our talents and our strengths of character. But it isn't...so long as we don't stop caring about others and focus solely on ourselves. It's about balance; the good in us is as important as the good we see in our families, our friends, and our lives in general.

I'm appreciating my strengths as my blessing this week, and my layout is posted in the gallery. There are still plenty of weaknesses in my character too, and perhaps in a future week I'll be able to acknowledge my improvements in those shortcomings as a blessing as well. I am who I am...warts and all.

The prompt this week is to look inward to find new blessings. Are you the rock in the family...the one with the level head whom everyone turns to in times of crisis? Or do you have the sympathetic ear and soft shoulder, making it easy for family and friends to share their troubles and leave feeling better because of it. Perhaps you're warm and giving, always doing for others and making sure everyone's needs are met. These personal strengths are blessings, both for us and for those who rely on us, and we often fail to recognize them. I challenge you to take a personal inventory of your good character traits (you've probably already spent too much time dwelling on the bad ones), and then be grateful for them...without any guilt.

As always, there are more thoughts on this subject as well as more discussion about the layout on my blog.

Lavish a little love on the special people in your lives this Valentine's Day and then devote some to yourself as well. You deserve it.



Week 6: We had a lovely discussion on the message board a few weeks back. It centered on finding the good in bad situations, something not all of us are able to do or perhaps do in every situation. I relayed a particular incident involving a friend, and the responses from the community helped me see her behavior in a new light.

That discussion resurfaced in my mind earlier this week when we received an e-mail from a friend who has been battling cancer. He's had a rough go of it for several months but has finally gotten some good news. There wasn't a shred of self-pity in his message; rather he spoke of how grateful he was for the blessings that had come his way during this time: doctors who worked diligently in adjusting his treatment, a wife who never left his side and , with a touch of humor, the new wardrobe he now has a result of his weight loss. It's uncertain whether he will win this battle with cancer in the long run, but he was celebrating the small victories that he was achieving along the way.

His story made my choice for this week's blessing an easy one, and my page has been uploaded to the gallery. It contains a narrow strip of text, one of six I designed and have made available as a free download. You'll find it on the Downloads Page in the box on the left. Scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on the Attachment labeled "WordStrips." Each strip has a different series of words but all relate in some way to gratitude, and they're formatted to print on an 8.5x11 page. You'll need Acrobat Reader to view and print them, and make sure the box next to Auto Rotate and Center is check and Page Scaling is set to None when the print window pops up.

My prompt for the week is for you to look beyond some battle you're waging and find the small victories that should be celebrated along the way. Perhaps your New Year's resolution was to lose weight or get more exercise. Even if you haven't fully achieved your goal, celebrate the pounds you've lost or the strength you've gained to date. Or maybe the economy has meant you're forced to do more with less at work. What reward can you find in the mounting piles of work on your desk, especially when it seems the more you do the more you're expected to do? And raising children can try the patience of even the best of us. What lessons have final "stuck" so you can move on to new adventures in parenting?

There's more on this subject and some of the creative ideas behind the page on my blog. Feel free to swing by when it's convenient. And as always, I'm up for more discussion on this concept or any other aspect of gratitude you'd like to talk about. I'd love to see another meaningful exchange of ideas like the one that came to mind as I started my page this week.