Can't beat a hardcopy sometimes

One of the things I love and miss most about blogging is having a beautiful record of all the wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) things that have happened in our lives. For the better part of 3.5 years I kept a record of all the great things going on in our lives, which is part of the reason I've wanted to pick up blogging again. But also for the nearly 2.5 years in between I've been saying I'm going to print out my blog and yet I somehow never got around to it, and yet I've still always wanted to have a copy of it.

So here it is almost 3 years later and I finally took the time to set them up and ordered the books. Unfortunately they're not as cheap as say a shutterfly album is and there really is only one or two sites you can order a blog from that kept the formatting in tact. So when a 50% off coupon rolled around I knew it was too good to pass up so I bit the bullet and ordered them. I  created and ordered an additional 3 books to cover my whole original blog so I've got it all on paper now.

I'm hoping that one day when we have kids I'll be able to share the memories of our lives with them, and who knows maybe even our grandkids one day. I know I would have loved to have the same kind of record or stories about my grandparents. Heck I wish I even had pictures or recipes. I'm sure that won't be the case going forward with all the social media, and our whole lives being captured online.

I'm looking forward to getting the copies of the books in the mail, mostly so I can have them for my records and so they're not lost in the virtual world forever, sometimes you can't beat a good old fashioned hard copy book for some things! Can't wait to see how they turned out, I'm sure my Mom will want to read them at least.

I Keep Meaning To....

Well it's official, I suck at setting aside the time to get back into blogging again. Life just seems to get in the way. Call it lazy, call it other priorities, I'm not sure what to call it but I think it's because part of me didn't know where to start and jump back in, like in the back of my mind I somehow had to write about all the different things that have been going on in our life since the last time I wrote on my blog consistently 2.5 years ago. I've missed it. I miss having all the great records of the fun things we've done or places we've gone or just what life has had up it's sleeve. 

I know it's January and it's cliche but I'd love to say that my goal (I won't call it a resolution) is to focus on me, and try to at least attempt to start writing again and hopefully I will get back into the grove of it. Life has been busy, although I'd love to say it's been filled with all these super exciting things, while it's all good stuff, it's been much of the same, long days in the office, a long commute back and forth and spending the short weekends at the gym and catching up on errands. It seems that we spend so much of our days at work and there's such little time for ourselves, there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Sometimes I think I don't want to write because I want something to focus on rather than a hodge-podge or something more professional than just random musings or updates but I know that's not my goal. I love having writing as my creative outlet. I've loved to write since I was a little girl, it's amazing to think about the things that stick with you most throughout life. I can remember writing letters to pen pals, having all these journals and diaries growing up or even writing my own stories.

I know my goal when  I started my blog the first time was to focus on my experience of getting married and planning a wedding. I do certainly hope that maybe the focus of this blog will be the experience of being pregnant and starting a family. I would love to document that experience along the way. For now though I'll have to settle for having a creative outlet of my own to hold myself accountable of keeping better track of our lives, after all they go by so quickly.

Before I end my random musings for the night, I was stuck by an article I came across recently on the 10 things successful people do at night before bed. One of them was to "write down accomplishments for the day." The article went on to state:

What have you accomplished during the day? Some people will say none because they don’t think they are productive on the day. When you feel grateful that you have proper lunch, proper dinner and able to get home safely and able to spend great moments with your family, you will feel deep joy within. On the other hand, if you don’t feel thankful for all that you have, you will feel stressed, pressured and insufficient. You will have the feeling of “not enough” even if you already have everything. 

Therefore, write down at least three to five things that you appreciated and have accomplished during the day every night when you plan for the next day. Write down big and small successes you have done. Even if it is just a phone call, five minutes reading, etc. Write them down and practice the habit of appreciation.

With that context in mind I'll end my post for the evening with the three things I'm grateful right now, 1, is for finally sitting down at the computer and writing this post; 2, is for my handsome little pup who's keeping me company right now as I write this; 3, I am glad that I accomplished cleaning up the dishes and straightening up the house at a reasonable hour tonight and enjoy the peacefulness of the winter and the first snowflakes of the season.

Here's to starting 2016 off on the right foot, and hopefully using this as my journal and my outlet and once again start to document all that is going on in our little world!