My 2011 and 2012 mini books with monthly reviews - why I document life

Thank you, A, for your recipe on my last post. I drooled this morning when I read it - can't wait to give it a bash this weekend.

Then, I'm so excited since  at least two other people are trying out lots of new recipes this year. If there are a couple more, we can do a linky once a month or something???

Speaking of which, this Saturday is our photography challenge. Our theme is faces :)

But for now, I want to talk about mini books.

I've kept a mini book for the last two years. The first year, 2011, I received a little photo album with 24 sleeves from a friend.

Remember the Keep Calm trend? I loved it so much then - I also got a lovely red pencil from her which my son threw into the heater...

Immediately I decided to do a photo and a month-in-review card for 12 months.

Done.

Here is a little sample of my book. I'm not showing you everything because, well, I tell you almost everything and I want just a few things private :)

The photo I chose is from that month but one that shows what the month was generally about - e.g. Jan shows a pizza = lots of eating out for me and D (at that point my kids didn't eat pizza!) on holiday.

Oct 2011 was the month of doctors, hospitals and gall bladders for me. Lots of you were around at that time.

I actually tossed those pj's - they had such bad memories for me of 3 am emergency room visits, emergency surgeries, etc.

Here's an interesting (to me) fact which a work friend reminded me about. That 3 am visit was on Friday 7th Oct. On Sat 8th at 9 am we were in Newtown having our beautiful pics taken by Jeanette! I think I was running on adrenaline because I don't think I look bad at all. Julia said in those comments I looked thin (BFF!) :)

Kendra looking at my hospital and her hospital pics

The Dec pic is of Kendra in the hospital and on the back I put another pic of Nanny V and Connor  = Kendra at the doc means those two were together a lot.

And then last year's book.

beautifully imperfect :)

I went bigger last year - pic of month, journalling and then, because this was my "thing" for the year, I wanted pics of me with them every month.

I will show you all those pics in another post because you can see the improvement in me being more comfortable in front of the camera.

I read a Brene book in Jan last year so I have a personally autographed sticker :), and then my Jan pages

Dec pics with us in them

Connor looking through the Dec pic

My kids love looking through my little books.

Someone said to me today "who even looks at printed photos these days?" and of course, I made a lunch appt with her for Thursday so I can brainwash her to print her pics.

I said all that to say this: I am not a scrapbooker but just the process of writing down the monthly highlights has been so good for me, to quickly recap the year.

Remember in 2011 when I wrote my good, bad and ugly about 2011, I started off writing that it was a terrible year. It was.... BUT when I started writing down the good stuff too, there was a TON that I'd forgotten. I ended off that post and that year grateful for all the good things that happened.

I really want to strongly encourage you (!) to do a monthly review (just the highlights package) in a little book. I've made year in review books for some of you - if you haven't used them yet, now would be a great time because they're small and un-intimidating :)

I never plan to stop doing a version of these and I mentioned before that I've been drawn to Project Life. I've seen millions rave about it and some say that it's too sterile and plain and whatnot. That's exactly what I like.

However, for someone so unfussy like me, this weekly layout thing is overkill. Honestly, from one week to the next I sometimes don't even get a chance to menu plan (which takes 5 - 10 minutes); where will I get 4 hours to do a weekly layout?

I'm a big believer in setting yourself up for success so I've decided to do "my version" of Project Life.

A monthly version, of course. I can certainly carve out my 30 minutes like I used to do with my monthly reviews to do my PL little version.

I also like the period of a month. A week is too much like navel-gazing for me - I would become obsessed with the details (like I need more attention to detail!) so a month is just enough of a big picture view without losing a lot of detail.

Does that make sense?

I used journalling cards I downloaded for free on Monika Wright's blog. I can't find them quickly - they may not be free downloads anymore but have a squiz.

This is the Turquoise Edition of Project Life. I've been using all these lovely cards in a million (non-Project Life) ways.

Coming up...

how I've been using my cards
how I organise them
what I'll be using for an album

Will you be documenting your life in some way this year? How?
Have I convinced anyone out there to try doing a mini book?

{25 recipes in 2013} My first time making meatballs!

I mentioned briefly in my goals post (haha!) that I want to try 25 new recipes this year.

When I sorted through my stash on Christmas night, I tossed any "ambitious" ones because I'm really not an ambitious cook at all.

I'm a quick and easy cook.

 

I'm doing well so far - I've made three new recipes.

Meatballs

I'd never made meatballs before - ever.

I know they're easy but it's the part where you have to use your hands to roll the little meatballs. Do you know I don't touch meat at all?

I use a ziplock over my hand if I have to touch anything...

Also, my mother makes the best meatballs ever (Connor's favourite meal is my mother's meatballs)

This recipe is a definite winner - it was amazing - and I was left wondering why I hadn't done this before. 

From the April 2011 ToysRUs magazine :)

500 g lean beef mince (ground beef)

2 rashers rindless bacon, finely chopped - I left this out totally

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1 tablespoon chutney/ BBQ sauce (I used sweet chilli sauce)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 small onion, diced (about 80g)

1 cup breadcrumbs (I used oats)

1 egg

Fry bacon and onion, add other ingredients, dust a surface with flour and roll into 20 mini meatballs.

Fry in a small amount of oil.

My way

I used Spray and Cook (Pam) on a baking sheet. Added my mini meatballs without any flour and baked in the oven for about 25 - 30 mins at 180 degrees Celsius.

That's it! Easy-peasy.

We had some with rolls for lunch one day and then I made a tomato and onion sauce and we had the rest with rice and carrots for a main meal.

DIVINE!

Let me know if you try it, either the original way or my way.

The Chinese fried rice was okay, but really not great (about a 5 out of 10) so I chucked the recipe straight afterwards.

Mind you, the kids and D ate without complaint so there was some success.

Shayne's sausage and bean stew

I've had this recipe printed for at least a year if not longer!

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

8 pork sausages (I used Renown cheese bangers)

2 tins chopped tomato

1 Tsp brown sugar

1 tin butter beans

1 tin chickpeas

1 tin lentils

salt and pepper to taste

Ina Paarman rosemary and olive spice (I just threw in anything on my spice rack)

seasoning

1 Tbs paprika (I don't cook with paprika so I left it out too)

1 410 g tin yields about 240 g drained mass of beans so I just cooked up 1 cup white and 1 cup red kidney beans. That was 750 g.

By the way, I must tell you this. Ever since I moaned on the blog about how I can't find red kidney beans (or black beans for that matter), the lovely Mrs FF brings me beans every time I see her. I LOVE IT!!!! I still have not found red kidney beans in the shops. Mrs FF told me last time that I don't have to ration myself with the black beans (I still have half the pack she gave me in Aug last year) - she will be my supplier :) I'm going to take her up on that! But isn't it hilarious?! Like my other friend Kirsten who always buys me lovely vanilla tea (SUCH a treat!).

This is how I did it. Differs a bit from Shayne's method but I don't like fussing with meat (see above!).

I grilled my sausages in the oven til done, cut them each into 5 little pieces and then started the recipe.

Fry onion and garlic, add sausages. Toss in tomatoes, brown sugar and stir. Add the beans, lentils and chickpeas (I only used kidney beans, remember). Season with salt and pepper, and all the other herbs and spices.

Cook over low heat for 45 mins. Serve with crusty bread.

It was very tasty but a little too salty for me (I don't eat very much salt at all) because I think I went too heavy on all the spices. It's also very bean-heavy. I love legumes but if you don't, then maybe only use 2 cans instead of 3.

It would be perfect for winter - of course I made it last night :) - and we had ours with pita bread.

The kids will have some this week. Remind me to tell you if they eat it.

What have you cooked that was new recently?

Do you have any quick and easy, healthy summer recipes?

PS forgot to take any pics so using an old food pic but I'll do my best to be a proper food blogger next time.

Three and a half!

Happy birthday to A & B, Mandy E's babies, who are 4 today! Mandy, today Connor finally identified your kids correctly :)

These are the only kids who call me Miss Marcia! I do love well-mannered little Southern ladies :)

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So I decided to do it. Have a half-birthday celebration.

However I did things a little bit differently this year.

I asked the babies who they wanted to invite and only invited those people plus one other that I haven't seen for a long time. Turns out two couldn't come and so we had 6 babies, all born within 4 months of one another plus all the parents.

I feel so blessed that all our husbands get on - it just makes things so much easier.

we didn't plan the blue thing...

My kids will be going to school for the first time on Wed so I decided on a back-to-school theme.

 

A banner, some straw flags, "school snacks" and the activity was crafting, of course.

I put markers, crayons, scissors & glue, stickers/ paper/ board in four little buckets, plus I had an exercise book for each child. Some didn't even notice the exercise books :)

And then I let them loose.

The place was full of paper snippets when everyone left but it was a success. Mostly the kids got on with playing and didn't need too much intervention.

It really was a lovely day.

 

Roz brought a quiche and Caren brought a cake so everything was really easy for me. Of course, I asked Nanny S to work just so I could socialise a bit. That was a brilliant idea.

And then I bribed all the kids with Smarties so I could get some pics :)

two

three

four

five

finally - all 6!

cutey patooties

Because there were only going to be 6 kids, I could give nice little presents for both the littles and the moms.



And that was our half-year celebration.

Once everybody left, I fed the kids lunch, put them down for a nap and de-Christmas-ified the house.

I just have to do my Christmas card binder ring mini book and then I'm all done!

Is your tree down yet?

Guess what? On Friday I ordered the kids' 4th birthday party printables from my favourite etsy printables store.

I've been wanting to do this theme for about two years. I won't really kick into gear til a month before but I like to have my vision very clear, hence the lead time.

Can you guess the theme? :)
How far in advance do you plan?

A tiny bit of {Friendship Friday} plus a new little feature

Can I just say how it warmed my heart to see all of your 3 goals for January in the comments over here?

People are embracing the New Year. I so hope we can continue this throughout the year. I'll be here blogging away but it will be nice if others join me besides my faithful goals sidekick, Mandy.

Are you starting with your 3 goals this weekend?

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I know I've officially stopped the regular Friendship Friday BUT I actually have two friend things to talk about this week.

I went back to work on Wednesday and it was a beautifully grey and overcast day.

While driving, I thought to myself, "oh God, you know just how to cheer me up with the grey skies" and so when I was at work, I took a pic and Instagram/ Facebooked it. (I don't post all my instagrams to FB by the way).

And then dear Lesley sent me the most awesome scripture in a FB comment which I made into a little print :)

Beautiful! I was on a HIGH! Thanks again, Lesley, for listening to God and encouraging me accordingly.

And then later that day the messenger brought me a package they'd been keeping for me.

A gift from MandyE.

When I opened the card and looked through everything, I cried. Seriously, I cried. Thank goodness there was no-one in the office.

You see, Mandy made me magnets with each of the places we'd been together - the hotel, two places we ate at, my word for 2011, and maps of Charlotte and NYC.

She also got an ornament made for me which I will treasure forever.

Everytime I think about it, I get all teary.

Isn't it the most special thing ever?

(I wrote her a very soppy email too once I could hold it together :))


Did anything special friend-wise happen to you this week?

(I loved being at work these 3 days - quiet, lots of parking, and my phone only rang 3 times the whole time, one of them being SIL)

Charlotte skyline

This is a new little something I'm starting on the blog.

It's not going to be every week, only if I have some good stuff to share.

People often tell me I find the best links. I honestly do! I read a big variety of great blogs and I declutter regularly to keep my inspiration fresh.

Here are some links I loved reading this week:

a New Year's ritual

There was a time

The most awesome gift for a kid (Mandy can do this)

She gets my thing about the New Year

I've ordered some of these business cards... just for the heck of it :)
Let me know if any of those links resonated with you.
What are you up to this weekend?

I want to finish my year-in-review book tonight so I can take pics tomorrow. Yay!

Whoop-whoop - it's time for January goals

I realised I didn't officially tell you Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! May 2013 be filled with health and happiness and words of the year coming to life.

is this not the cutest picture ever?!

So December recap.

I managed to get 88% of my goals done - amazing really considering the craziness of Christmas. We had 7 socials and only 1 of those was just me (Mrs FF).

Last year was a productive but still meaningful year.

The areas I am obviously not skippy happy about are weight/ fitness and job. Thank God I love the company and the people and my beautiful view......

For 2013, I have 30 personal goals (some of which are continuous like a monthly date with a friend and some are once-off) and I have 18 business goals.

3 things I think you may find interesting: plan next overseas trip,  go on a weekend away with D, go on a girls weekend away and have a tea party for my birthday - girls only.

Yes, hefty but you know me - I thrive on a challenge.

Without further ado, here are my January goals, and yes, most of them are Ballito-related, since we're there for 11 days.

1. Go for a walk every day in Ballito
2. Take beautiful pics with my zoom lens (last time I left it at home - why, Marcia, why? I think I was scared of it)
3. Go on a beach photo walk all by myself. That's photo walk 1 of the 6 I have challenged myself to do
4. Get D to take beautiful photos of me with the kids. I'm still debating whether to pay R2000 for a beach photo shoot. What do you think?
5. Stay up to date with photos (this is going to be a challenge as I normally don't take hundreds daily, only on the weekends). Be at least up to date with half of the holiday, preferably all of it, by the end of Jan.
6. Go on three dates with D, two on holiday
7. Read 7 books, 4 on holiday
8. Order and start my version of Project Life... yes, something to blog about.
9. Half birthday celebration
10. Braai at Marleen's
11. Lunch with Caroline 
12. Lunch and a photo walk with Louisa in the CBD (I can't WAIT!) - photo walk 2
13. Sort all school stuff (my study looks like a nightmare with all the piles - I can't wait for school to open so I can drop it all off and not worry the rest of the year - yay!)
14. Blog on kids' blog at least 5 times
15. Start weigh-less *sigh*
16. Get back to gym and go 5 times
17. Finish off my 2012 year in review book and blog with pics both this one and the 2011 (I want to inspire all of you!!!)
18. Try 4 new recipes (I'm on leave that's why this is so ambitious - my yearly goal is 25 recipes), make a little badge and start blogging these on a regular basis. I do like a nice project.
19. Set up my photo printer
20. Take down Christmas :)
21. Tidy my messy study and put away all new books (I caved at a sale! but I took two bags to a bookshop to sell to them)
22. Set up monthly product email and automate for the whole year
23. Do an organising checklist for the year
24. Re-format goals product

And that's me for the month.

What are the top 3 things on your list for January?

Brazilians, bras and a work bash

Here are some pics of our work Christmas lunch - I'm only putting a pic of one person... from the side... because I love her bored expression :)

Enjoy and keep reading because I'd love to know what you think.

What's your favourite pic?

I know I haven't posted Jan goals yet... tomorrow, I promise, but I really need to talk about some very important things:

my hair and my lady garments.

To date, I've had 6 Brazilian Blowwaves.

Normally they last about 3 months before I need to have them done again.

I had the last one on 14 November and it barely lasted a month. The back of my head is still fine but the front (where it matters!) has been looking horrible for at least 3 weeks now.

At Christmas my SIL told D to go buy me a Brazilian! I politely said, "actually, I have them regularly and I've had 6 over the last 18 months."  Aren't you amazed at my composure in these sorts of circumstances?

The product used was the same one as they normally use and I've been using the same recommended shampoo. I've not been near sea water or done anything to damage my hair.

Anyway, I'm thinking of actually phoning them up and asking them if this is normal. I'm well prepared to pay the money IF it lasts the 3 months as its meant to. Strange thing is I actually felt this last treatment was done beautifully - she took her time and did it properly.

Do you think it's possible for one's hair to get used to something such that it no longer works effectively?

Then the bra issue.

Confession 1 - I hadn't bought bras since just after I had the babies (3 years). Well, you know me and decluttering and one too many times after I was irritated by a loose-fitting bra, I threw most of them out.

I had some new padded ones in the drawer but when I fitted them they irritated me just being in the bedroom so I couldn't have that (I think they're the wrong size).

Also, padded bras make me sweat too much in summer.... TMI? 

Confession 2 - I don't know what my actual size is.

So off I went to the shops on Sunday.

Mr Price had nothing except super sexy bras and who on earth wears hot pink and bright blue bras? (don't tell me)

They used to sell sets of 2 bras which I loved.

Well, they don't sell them anymore, only these weird and very sexy bras.

Off I went to Edgars where I was even more disappointed.

I wanted underwire but not padded.

Racks and racks and still more racks of bras and there were only about 8 sets of suitable Triumph bras.

The rest were the teenage-girl bras (the little cotton triangles), underwire padded bras and those grandmother-type bras with lots of lace and the big cross on the chest, super-hefty straps.

Packed it in for Sunday and set out again on Monday for the Great Bra Search.

I found some bras at Jet - not great, but at least "normal" (flesh-coloured, underwire but non padded), bought a set but I'm taking them back tomorrow morning because I then went to Woolies and the stars started twinkling brightly.

They had just the bras I wanted, in cotton, with underwire support. And in packs of 2 for R160.

I fitted on a couple of sizes and it seems I'm a 36B (how is this possible?).

I bought 4 just in case Woolies decides not to stock normal bras in the near future :) While I was at it, I also bought some lovely panties and I was this close to buying control underwear (!) til I remembered I sweat! They wouldn't work for me for even 1 hour.

Last night I happened upon a really lovely fashion blog and I must admit, I'm kind-of addicted. I think I'm even convinced that I need to go out and SHOP for work clothes even though I'm 6 - 7 kg overweight.

Here are her two posts on bras.

A proper bra-fitting
This is not a bra (confession 3 - I do all of those no-nos except the lacy number - you all know I don't do lacy anything)

I also read everything about work clothes.

Question for those who work outside the home.

What do you wear to work?

Do you buy the sizes as is, or do you get them altered?

I used to be perfectly fine with anything on the top but needed to always get my pants hemmed. These days my whole body is out of whack so if anything fits properly, it's a miracle!

This is why I buy bags :)

PS Woolies/ Woolworths is Marks and Spencer, South Africanised :)
PPS I also bought the babies rain boots and they LOVE them. They wore their boots the whole day today (in the heat of summer...). They were so cute I took about 50 pics!

My word for 2013

So you know how well CREATE worked for me last year.

I actually really thought and thought and over analysed (well, as much as someone like me can actually do) this word for 2013.

You see, by nature I'm a take charge kind of person.

Aside - I was on Pinterest about two days ago and I did a search on my profile, ESTJ. Do you know what it says? "take charge". My business name also has take charge in it and a book I want to write this year will have those words as part of the title.

And while those things talk to most of my awesomeness, I've been delving a bit into the letting go.

That started in 2010. One thing on my 36 things list was to let go and Claudia commented and said something like "am I the only one who noticed how you have let go and doing all these things all in the same breath?" I laughed.

But it's true.



I'm MUCH better at letting go and yet I still battle. God's been drawing me into a lot more of the letting go which is SO hard for me. Or maybe because it's so hard for me.

I was trying to find a word that was about letting go, surrendering, etc. that started with a c if possible, but nothing felt right.

(The C was just a nice-to-have actually)

Then one day I was driving to work, whizzing up Oxford Road (still within the speed limit), listening and worshipping God.

And one of the lyrics was about trust.

I was enjoying myself and suddenly it hit me.

TRUST!



That's the perfect word for me.

It's about letting go and surrendering, while still taking some of my take charge personality into account.

Right?

It takes some effort and action to TRUST.

So that's my word, people.

Trust.



I was working through Susannah Conway's unravelling 2013 workbook the other day (fellow instagrammers and facebookers saw my pic) and she has a nice way of doing this word of the year thing.

Choose one word but then pick 4 that support it too.

My four supporting little words are brave (similar to courage), surrender, connect and grace.

I didn't overthink it and except for the first two which have been bouncing around in me for a month or so, the other two just came to me when I was doing the exercise on Thursday.

What does this mean to me?

1. trust that all my networking, intents and desires will result in the perfect job for me, both personality-wise and for my skill set
2. trust that I will be fearless and brave to keep putting myself out there both with job but generally with people (I feel like I should be slightly scared to be vulnerable with friends because what if I get friend-dumped again?)
3. trust my intuition more especially because I've been quite bruised in the job-seeking process. Everybody thinks I'm awesome but a lower grade of awesome (!) than what I think I'm destined for. I've seen the evidence that when I just DO my thing, I am still great. Now to remember that.
4. trust that my family will have a good year starting with me and D connecting better but also with the babies (!) starting pre-school and us falling into a new routine
5. trust that by doing the basics as I know to do, some of this weight will fall off me, and last but not least,
6. keep trusting God in both the big and the little things, and with a Love Languages ministry

And the amazing thing is... I was thinking I actually don't want to buy more "word" jewellery and then I cleaned and organised my jewellery (I've organised this place like mad these 12 days) and I found this pendant!

Word absolutely confirmed!

 

I would love to know what you think of my word and what your word is.

Louisa, Julia, Lesley and MandyE - I already know your words unless you've changed them since you told me.

As for the rest, let's hear those words.

If you need a resource to help you unravel 2013, download this one from Susannah Conway. This year, I used this one together with the form I made for my newsletter readers (again, you can subscribe, download the form and then unsubscribe from my list)