2017 Word of the Year

A few years back my friend Alayna introduced me to word of the year, and I figured sure why not give it a try.  The idea is to select a word for the year that represents what you want to focus on throughout the year.

So my word for 2017 hit me hard but then I started second guessing my choice for a word.  It was one of the simplest words I have ever choose and I didn't know if I felt it.  Then I had a truly ah ha moment after a friend posted a touching blog piece on her cousin fighting to take his daughter home with him because the surrogate had changed her mind.  All thankfully worked out for my friends cousins but the video she shared about his struggles reminded me why I choose my word in the first place.

So I have been doing word of the year since 2009 and my word Strong and because of the instant need in my life for that word it propelled me to continue doing it every year with Organize, Remember, Brave, Faith, Happy, Sparkle, Create and bring me to my 2017 pick

Much thought and dwelling was spent on picking this years word.  More so than any other year I have picked a word but deep in my soul this needed to be my word for 2017.  So no matter where 2017 feels the need to take me my word has a path for me and I know deep down that it's what my year will truly need.

What a fast two weeks

Wow we made it through another party for Kyrie.  I always feel like I have nine zillion things going on for her party that I don't get much else done.  Then I had a sick little guy so I'm finally getting around to blogging about my Crafty Minion Party Creation and then of course uploading pictures to FB and then updating here.  The little guy and I have been trying out different wraps with our woven and we are loving it. 

 I am trying to convince Seth that Calvin and I need this Natibaby Harry Potter Woven wrap.

Calvin seems to love our Kangaroo time and his face lights up whenever he sees our wrap.  Dance continues on and seems to be filling more of our time up.  Kyrie will be performing in a few short months at a basketball game.  And is getting in extra rehearsals for it.  She also has another band concert coming up so we hear lots of flute music around the house.  Good thing it's the flute and isn't too loud and that she is good at it.  Zee is looking for other activities to fill up her time she badly wants back into Girl Scouts (we told her in the fall because it is on dance night now) and she is also interested in bowling club.  We have to look into that today when we pick her up and make sure we don't have a time conflict.  My little babies are growing up and I'm not sure I'm as ready for it as they seem to be.

My Dearest Kyrie

My Dearest Kyrie,

               Today you turn 11, and I have to explain to you why this is so hard for me.  Every time I look at you I see this little girl.

The girl with the curly hair, the free spirit, the child who insisted that rain boots and shorts go on a day without a cloud in site.  My little 4 year old Kyrie adventurous, talkative heart full of love.  I know I hold you too close, give you hugs when you want to push me away and wish you would stop getting older.  I also know one day you will go off to college, have a career, get married and have a family of your own and every day puts us closer to that future.  I just want to keep you little, so the world won't jade you, so I can protect you from everything.  So please be patient with your mom as I hug you a little more than you like.  I'm just trying to hold you little as long as I can!

Rare Moments With Kyrie

Since Kyrie's birthday is coming up and clothes are the best gift ever for her at the moment, we went out and spent her birthday money from Nana.  We had just a Kyrie and Mommy day.  A rare event even before Calvin came along.  It took a little while but she warmed up to the idea of shopping with Mom and actually having to talk to me, so that by lunch she was just talking away about all kinds of things.  We ended up getting her party decorations with a gift card I found while I was cleaning up my scrapbook stuff.  I have some invitations to make up and some eyes to add to things to make them look like Minions but no big decorations this year.  She is going with a Movie Party, Minions and wants popcorn and cupcakes.  So not too much work for Mom.  We had a blast and hopefully it's something I can keep doing with her and she enjoyed it as much as I did.

We did a couple stores got all we needed and then we did lunch.  It was a blast!!!  Afterwards we came home and the kids and I watched the Minion movie.  Such a great way to spend the first couple days of the New Year.

2016 Word of the Year

Once again I'm doing a Word of the Year.  This has brought me so much peace and clarity since I started doing these.  As everyone around me focuses on Resolutions that end up getting forgotten or pushed to the side.  I choose in 2009 a different path I picked one word I wanted to achieve out of the year.  The idea came from Ali Edwards.  Since 2009 I've had Strong, Organize, Remember, Brave, Faith, Happy, and Sparkle last year.

So I held off posting my word till it was actually 2016 and of course I've had my word since before Christmas and have hashed it out with my good friend Alayna .  And after some self reflection and seeing how meaningful Sparkle was to me last year.  I have choosen   

I feel profoundly attached to Create.  I've fallen so far behind on my crafting of any type. Christmas made me notice the most when all I made for a gift was a mismatch sock snake for the dog.  So with a new little addition to our scrapbook collection I think I need to focus more on creating.  Creating scrapbook memories, creating memories with my children, creating a more (to steal a phrase from the Bloggess) Furiously Happy me.  I think this is the one that stands out to me the most especially after using Happy as one of my previous words of the year.  I need to Create in my the person I feel comfortable with all the time and not revert back into myself or feel like I have to shut down around people.  

After reading all of these "I'm so glad 2015 is over it was awful posts".  I have noticed a change in myself. I thought back at my year and all I could see was the memories I wanted to stick out the ones where I was Happy.  We were blessed with Calvin and even if being pregnant with him kept me sick at every turn that's not what I take away from it.  I take away this amazing boy who loves me unconditionally, who smells like baby soap and gives some of the best little heart squeeze type moments.  I have two AMAZING daughters who despite one being older than I wish she was I couldn't ask or more.  Little Moments stand out and make me realize the impact I make on them.  Being able to be there for them at every turn.  I was fortunate enough to see my Mom twice this year.  Once when I flew down to watch my little brother graduate and again when she flew up here after we had Calvin.  Yes I wish we all could have watched Austin graduate.  Yes I wish that would have been an option but instead of holding onto that negative I relished the time I got to spend with him and my Mom.  Don't get me wrong my year was probably anything but perfect we had our downs but I choose to focus on the ups when I reflect back at it.  Maybe all I needed was a little Sparkle to make me see that the littlest moments SPARKLE the most.