According to Kinsey » A lifestyle blog of an ordinary Southern Alberta mom who wants to be amazing

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Halfway through last year, I purchased the 6-month version of Lara Casey’s PowerSheets. This booklet walks you through a goal-setting process that helps you align your goals with your values and what really matters to you, so you get closer to where you actually want to go. Sometimes I think we set goals based on what we think we should do or what others are doing. But this ensures that your goals are in line with who you really are. I liked this process and had success with it last year.

 

This year, I purchased the full year version of the PowerSheets, and what I didn’t realize is that the goal-setting process in the full version is even more in-depth! It’s taken me two weeks to finally work through it, because I didn’t rush it! So, after evaluating what areas I most want to improve, and what I want to look back on when I’m 80, these are my goals for 2018. Each goal or intention listed here has specific starting steps and sub-goals, because I believe goals have to be easy to check off a list when they’re done, but here is a brief overview:

 

 

  1.  Take care of Kinsey
    1. The less I take care of Kinsey (yes, that’s me in the third person), the crankier I am with everyone else. I have to fill the tank so I can serve my family. And I’m a person! It took me two weeks to make a chiropractor appointment for myself with nerve pain shooting down my leg making it difficult to lift, bend and walk at times. If my daughter had told me she was experiencing that, I would have called right away! How silly is that? I am committing to making Kinsey a priority.
  2. Create and maintain consistent routines
    1. I look up to my late grandmother as a role model. She had an organized home, she was on top of things, she was organized. And she stressed the importance of routines. When life gets crazy and hard, routines get you through because you still get the stuff done that needs to get done! So far I am implementing the Clean Mama weekly routine and making that a habit. I want to actually write out and post our morning routines and evening routines to help our whole family get into the habit of doing certain things that will help our home run more smoothly. The more organized we are, the easier it is to have peace in our home. And I believe that kids thrive with structure and routine, because they know what to expect and what they can count on.
  3. Declutter house
    1. I did a big purge last year and somehow I let too much stuff in again! Time for another wave.
  4. Increase family health
    1. My kids are averse to eating vegetables and I need to change that. I want to be more active as a family and ensure my kids move enough during the day. I also want to get outside at least once a day when the weather permits! I am guilty of hibernating and we all need that fresh air.
  5. Improve relationship with my kids and invest more of my time and effort into their childhood
    1. This includes establishing family traditions, scheduling and having one-one-one time with each of my kids during each week, and doing fun activities that we used to do but I have been slacking on. They don’t have to be big – we used to have a dance party every afternoon, and now I often get distracted or busy and forget about it for a week or two. Painting nails with my girls, doing crafts together, etc. Sometimes I get stuck in the rut of just getting through life and not making time for fun things!
  6. Save for Hawaii trip, and new vehicle (so we can pay for it with cash!)
    1. Clark and I will be married for 10 years soon, and I want to go to Hawaii! And we may need a new vehicle soon.
  7. Put on a mom conference
    1. A secret (and now not-so-secret) dream of mine has been to put on a mom conference in my little town. I recently confided in a friend, who told me she had the same dream! So, we have a facility booked and are making it happen in 2018!
  8. Document our life weekly for 2018, in a photobook
    1. I start each year really well and then slack off. I am determined to streamline my workflow for getting this done efficiently so I keep up with it!
  9. Attend the temple at least once per month.
    1. Life gets busy with young kids and my spirituality sometimes gets put on the back burner. But I want to feel close to God, and worshipping in His house is a great place to do so. As I make the effort and sometimes sacrifice to go, I know blessings come.
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I find when I am regularly documenting my family’s life together and making the effort to put photos and words into scrapbook pages, that I am a better mom. I have three children 6 and under, and I don’t feel amazing at this mom thing every day. Actually, most days I feel pretty tired! I often let things get by me when I’m not intentional about documenting. So, I use Project Life to help me feel like and actually be, a better mother.

 

Project Life helps me gain and keep perspective. As I put photos into digital scrapbook pages, I see the passage of time. And time, as we all know, flies. As I scroll through my album I see how quickly my precious babies have grown and changed, and it reminds me that I only get them this age for a short time! Keeping this perspective in mind, or at least reminding my self often by scrapbooking, helps me to be more patient, more involved and more attentive to the moments I have with them.

 

Project Life helps me appreciate my children. As I review the things that are so precious about them, the funny things they’ve said and the cute things they’ve done helps me to keep all of the things I love about them in the forefront of my mind. It helps me appreciate who they are as individuals, and how they enrich my life as their mother. Without reviewing that, I can forget so easily in the shuffle or hustle and bustle of everyday life.

 

Project Life helps me use my creativity. As I take time to sit down, and intentionally create something, I give my creative juices a little exercise. Taking time out for myself is not something I’m naturally good at – which surprised me! I am working on it, and documenting our lives is one way I can do that. And I don’t feel one bit selfish! Every mom needs to take time out to do something that fills them up. Sometimes for me, it’s a nap. Sometimes it’s watercolour painting, a girls’ night, or reading book. And sometimes it’s scrapbooking!

 

When I found Project Life, I actually started documenting my life with children. Prior to children, I had made traditional scrapbook pages, and I had also done a lot of nothing with my thousands of photos. I have always been a photo-taker. But with Project Life, I discovered a way to actually DO something with my photos without feeling behind and overwhelmed. And, Project Life has helped me to be a better mother by giving me that renewed perspective and helping me appreciate all the little things that make my kids so awesome.

 

 

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Snapchat is that popular app (made a little less popular by Instagram coming out with Instagram stories) where you can send your friends pictures that they only see for 3-10 seconds. And then they disappear. You can also post them to your “story” where anyone can see them. You can add captions, line drawings or little pictures to your images before you send them. I’m 30-something and I use Snapchat for my scrapbooks!

When you take a photo, or pick one from your camera roll to send, you can add a caption, add drawings, etc., and then you have the option to save it. My sisters (all cooler than me) and my mom are all on Snapchat, and we have group chats where we update each other on our everyday goings-on. So, I started saving all of the random photos I sent each day.

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When I showed them the first time my baby wore a ponytail (#baldbabies) I saved it to my camera roll. When I showed them how she brings me a book in the kitchen and sits on the floor waiting for me to read it, I saved it to my camera roll. When my daughter popped out her first tooth, even though I also took photos with my DSLR, I took a picture with my phone to send to them, so I saved that, too. I now have many “insignificant” (except to their doting mother) details of my kids’ lives saved on my camera roll, with a caption so I know just what they said or what was going on. And I can look at the date the picture was taken (or my software will categorize it for me) to ensure I put it in my scrapbooks in the right place. I don’t always use the photo – if I have a better one from my other camera I’ll use it, or if I just wanted the caption I’ll use the Snapchat save for reference. But it helps me write things down on a daily basis!

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All of these photos taken on my phone would be much better quality taken with my DSLR. I would prefer that for my scrapbooks. But, life is busy! Sometimes my hands are full, something I’m making dinner. Sometimes I’m out an appointment and I didn’t bring my big camera with me. But I take a picture, with a caption, and it’s saved. So, that is how I use Snapchat for my scrapbooks.

 

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If you haven’t heard of Project Life, it’s a simplified version of scrapbooking. You can find out more about it beckyhiggins.com! You should definitely check it out. 🙂

To make scrapbooks using Project Life, you have a few options. You can buy physical pocket pages and slip your photos and Project Life cards into them and place them in albums. You can purchase the app and make digital pages on your phone or tablet and print them in phonebooks, or as individual pages that slip into albums. Or, you can make pages on your desktop or laptop using Photoshop and the templates and cards available from their website, and print them as photobooks or albums. And, I have made up my own fourth option. 😉

I am a wedding photographer by trade and a few years ago I learned how to use InDesign so I could design client albums in a more efficient way, in a program that is designed for print layouts. I love the app, but I would get behind because I take so many photos with my digital SLR and they were on my desktop. I would have to transfer them to my phone or iPad to make pages, and I wouldn’t get around to it all of the time! So, I decided to try laying out pages in InDesign. Working with layers in Photoshop for print design can be a bit cumbersome, (unless you have Photoshop Elements and you buy the new photoshop templates at beckyhiggins.com! Wahoo!) but I love InDesign!

 

Photo Dump

I first download all of my photos off of my phone and memory cards. I try to do this once a week. I import them all into Lightroom, Adobe’s photo organizing and editing software, where I have a catalogue for all of my personal photos. I LOVE Lightroom! I can edit them all in one place and jump from one date to another so easily. I can flag, color code, add keywords and do searches, etc. I pay monthly to get Lightroom and Photoshop, as well as InDesign. I think the photographer package (Lightroom and Photoshop) is $15/month (Canadian $$).

  • I back up all of my photos using BackBlaze. I have it set to do this automatically every day.

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Cull

Once a week on Sundays I go through the last week’s photos and select the keepers (I usually take summers off, I’ll be honest! But I try to do it every Sunday night the rest of the year). I flag them with the “P” key on my keyboard as I scroll through. I organize each week in a Collection for that week and export them as JPGS since I shoot RAW files.

 

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Design

  • I open up my album in InDesign – I have an InDesign file for each year. I set my document up to be 24″ wide by 12″ tall in spreads so that each page is 12″ x 12″. I may not print them that large, but I have the option! I start with a few spreads and keep adding more as I need them.

 

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  • Next, I use templates that I have created, based on Project Life templates because I love them and want these to match my app pages, to design the layout. I save each page design in a Library. These are really easy to create! Once I have templates saved in this Library, I can access it via a side panel and simply drag and drop my chosen layout onto the page.

 

 

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This is Design A – the Photoshop versions are a free download and I used them as a model.

 

  • Once I have my layout created, I can drag and drop the photos and cards I want into each of the boxes.
  • Adobe has another program called Bridge which some people use to help organize their photos – you can open it up inside InDesign and access the files on your computer or external hard drives. So I open up “Mini Bridge” as it’s called, and then I can just locate and drag photos or cards onto my scrapbook page. When I’m done for the year, or want to print some pages, I simple export the pages as single JPGs.
  • I do a spread for each week and title them by the Week #. To add text to the Project Life cards, I simply select the Text tool and draw a text box right where I want it, then choose the font and size I would like.
  • I use Design A 90% of the time – it keeps things simple and that’s what I need! I use the Moonlight Edition 90% of the time, too, and I just tweak the colors. Done is better than perfectly not done!

 

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Print/Publish

Once I am ready to print pages or make a book, I simply use File->Export and export the document as JPGs, or image files. You can select to export only certain pages, or choose whether to export them as individual pages, or spreads.

 

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I love using InDesign to do my albums this way! This is a brief rundown – if you have questions or comments I’d love to hear them!

 

 

 

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When I was about 13 years old, maybe younger, I was a big picture-taker. I remember going to Costco with my mom and beelining for the photo pickup table to grab my photos that were shot on film and developed. And I paid for them with my own money. She had given me a Canon point and shoot camera and later on I remember going to the local camera store and picking out a new one, and paying for it with my own money.

I had no particular thing that I took pictures of, I just took pictures of everything going on in my life. I took my camera bag on horseback checking cows, rounding them up for branding, checking the pivots, etc. I took pictures of buildings on our ranch, the cows, the horses, the fences, the sagebrush, etc. I took pictures of family visiting and neighbours helping with branding. I took pictures of decorating the Christmas tree and birthdays and YW activities at my church. I took a lot of pictures!

I subscribed to Creating Keepsakes magazine,a scrapbooking magazine, when I was 13 or 14. My mom gave it to me for Christmas. As well as a Cropper Hopper, making all of my wildest scrapbooking dreams come true. If you don’t know what a Cropper Hopper is, you just won’t understand my level of nerd-ness. Which is ok. I bought Becky Higgins’ creative lettering books and made my own little titles and lettering. I bought books of scrapbook page ideas. I went to “crops” at a local scrapbooking store for my birthday present. I don’t know why, but I just wanted to document everything.

Fast forward a few years to high school. Scrapbooking wasn’t that cool. And I got busier. With homework and sports and other extracurricular activities, I slowed down a little (a lot) on the scrapbooking. This continued through university: I still took pictures, but I wasn’t the scrapbooking-crazed youth I once was. 😉

Fast forward a few more years and I graduated from university and got married. And I kept taking pictures. They sat on my computer, but I kept taking them. And then I discovered Project Life. And I started a baby book for my first baby, a girl. And then I had another baby, and another. And since the scrapbook frenzy of my youth, the only photos I have really done anything with are the ones in my Project Life albums! What made life even better was when they came out with their app and their digital products. I started out with Project Life before they had anything digital. I bought a box of printed cards, pocket pages, then printed my pictures and slipped everything into the pockets. I now make albums on my computer in InDesign using their layouts and their digital cards. I can print the pages and put them in my albums or make photobooks. Sometimes I use the app, too. And it is so simple and doable.

I no longer get to chase cows but I still feel the need to document everyday things and big things. I want my kids to have albums and see their mom in them. I’m not the mom who doesn’t appear in the photo album. Nope! I set up my camera with a timer or I take a good old selfie. Because I’m part of the story. And I want them to have it!

 

 

 

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