Week 22: My layout this week focuses on the rewards of all my hard work in the garden. It's more than just the beautiful flowers that I see out my back door; it's the sense of accomplishment I feel from all the planting, weeding and nurturing I've invested to get it to this point. I'm savoring that self-satisfaction and appreciating the here-and-now.

This week's prompt centers on finding those rewards in your own hard work. Do you make it a habit to identify the fruits of your labor before moving on to the next task? When the housework is finished, do you really look around and appreciate how nice every room looks when it's all clean or do you immediately turn your attention to the next household chore? When you finish a big project at work, do you stop to mentally pat yourself on the back for your role in bringing it to a successful conclusion before looking to see what comes next? If you've broken some big goal down into several smaller ones, are you celebrating the accomplishment of reach each one of those small ones to give yourself the mental boost necessary to achieve the end result or just focused on the final outcome?

Life goes by in a hurry...take time this week to slow down and appreciate the rewards you'll find in your life if you only look for them. As always, my layout is in the gallery and you find an explanation on one of the techniques I used to create it as well as more on the subject of rewards on my blog.




Week 21: I've picked my sweet husband's time at the grill as my blessing this week. It would be easy to say I was motivated by my taste buds as he's become quite the cook or by the fact that it's Memorial Day weekend, the start of the summer grilling season. But the truth is I'm celebrating his willingness to share the meal preparation duties. It's just another aspect of us working together as a team and one I consider a blessing.

So my prompt this week is to ask who is on your team in this game of life? Do you have a grown son who shows up on the weekend to mow the lawn or fix the leaky sink because he knows doing so will lighten your burden? Or maybe your husband or child assumes responsibility for the laundry or some other household chore, not because they have to but because it's the right thing to do? Who do you call when you're stranded with a car that won't start or you need a calm voice and seasoned advice? We all have them...people we count on, people who make life better because they're on our team.

As usual, my layout is in the gallery and there's more about the idea of teamwork as a blessing in the post on my blog.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!



Week 20: I'm taking a less-than-serious look at blessings this week by choosing to be grateful for a new haircut. It's more carefree style so I'm enjoying a few extra minutes to do something else instead of drying my hair, and it's amazing how a fresh new "do" can influence your outlook on life. Selecting this light-weight blessing doesn't mean I'm discounting the weighty and monumental things I still want to acknowledge in my life; I'm simply recognizing that blessings come in all sizes, shapes and forms.

So my prompt this week is to look at the frivolous things in your life and the role they play in making your heart happy. Are you grateful that warmer weather has brought the ice cream truck rolling through your neighborhood again? Even if you don't indulge in the frozen treats, the clanging bell brings sweet memories to mind. Or will you count that pretty new blouse as your weekly blessing? If it makes you feel good about the way you look, isn't that worth recording? Perhaps your day is brightened at hearing your favorite song playing in the car on your way to work every morning. The good mood you get as a result certainly makes the work day more bearable. Gratitude is big things but it's little things, too. So today, how will you finish the sentence "I am grateful for ...?"

My layout is in the gallery, and there's a free download for the journaling block I used as much for a background as a home for text. You'll find it under Downloads...just scroll to the bottom for the attachments. It's marked with Week 19 as that's the page in my project on which it appears. You'll also find more about just what blessings are, especially in terms of light-hearted ones, on my blog.



Week 19: In honor of Mother's Day I'm celebrating my relationship with my mother-in-law as my blessing this week. Not only did I get a keeper when I married Wayne, but I think his mom is pretty special too. There's no turf wars between us...she's never criticized or interfered and has always been supportive.

This week's prompt relates to Mother's Day as well. What woman in your life other than your mother has had the greatest influence on you? Do you have a special aunt in whom you could confide all your troubles or count on for wise counsel? Or maybe you work with a woman who has taken you under her wing, both professionally and personally, to become much more than a co-worker. Perhaps, like me, your husband's mother is the antithesis of all those mother-in-law jokes and you're almost as close to her as you are to you own mother. Whoever this special woman is, I hope you'll express your gratitude for this relationship.

As always, my page is in the gallery and on my blog, along with some other tidbits about the page and the blessings these women are in our lives.



Week 18: Flip the calendar to a new month and the year is one-third gone. It's always a shock to me when I stop to think about how quickly time gets away.

Speaking of getting away, I'm off on a scrapbooking retreat this weekend, refilling my inspiration well with creative ideas from some talented teachers. Just being around 300 women (and maybe a man or two) who love and are dedicated to this hobby as much as I am is inspiring in itself. It's no wonder then that I've chosen inspiration as my blessing for this week.

Creativity is just one area in our life where inspiration can be a blessing, so my prompt to you this week is to examine what inspires you and how it influences your life. Have the mental or physical challenges battled by someone you know inspired you to do more with your talents and abilities? Or maybe you want to take a broad view of inspiration and evaluate how someone truly living their religion rather than just showing up on Sunday morning inspires you to look within yourself for a deeper and more meaningful faith. The narrow view is fine, too...where do you go to recharge your creative batteries and spur your imagination?

Like blessings, we could probably focus on a new source of inspiration weekly and still be finding new ones at the end of the year. We're blessed that inspiration is all around us so it seems only right that it deserves a place in our book of good things.

You'll find my page in the gallery and more about inspiration on my blog. I'm eager to see where you find your inspiration so I hope you'll share.