Project Management

I LOVE projects. All kinds of projects. Cooking projects, cleaning projects, creative projects. Things with a specific goal in mind. I'm not so good at the day to day things. I load and unload the dishwasher because if I didn't there wouldn't be clean dishes, and that gets inconvenient fast. But projects give me a specific way to handle something that I want done.

Even better is when my creative projects help me with other projects I'm doing.

Nolan has been in our room since we brought him home from the hospital, and we're wanting to move him to his own room by his birthday (in June). Since he's been in there when he sleeps, which is also when I am best at getting things accomplished, our bedroom is lacking in organization. So, one of my on-going projects is to sort through the piles of clutter in our room. As I was going through the piles I realized why I never wear my jewelry - I can't ever FIND it! It's everywhere. Big boxes, little boxes, no boxes. Scattered through the room, our walk in closet, and the bathroom.

See, one of the reasons we have piles of clutter throughout the house is because I'm one of those people who does best when they can see what they have. If something gets put away in a drawer or closet, I don't think to look for it. Mostly, it ceases to exist. (You can ask Fisherpapa about when he came home from touring and kept putting my coats in the front closet. I was sure they were vanishing!)

So I decided that a creative solution would be best. I needed to have my jewelry where I could easily see what I have and what best fits what I'm wearing. So jewelry boxes were out, as well as armoires. I was thumbing through a magazine and found the perfect solution!

A corkboard. With pins.



It is pretty and fits all my criteria for organizational purposes, but is also a kind of art. It makes me happy.

Plus, it was a really easy project to check off my list!

FINALLY Transferring Photos

So, one of my biggest problems with all the things I want to do is how busy I constantly feel. Partly because my work schedule runs weird and partly because I have a toddler, I feel like I never have time to get the things done that I want to.

One of those things is moving photos from my digital cameras to my hard drives for backup. I have more than a year's worth of photos on my DSLR. Thousands of photos that sit on my camera waiting to be moved to my hard drive and then sorted for which photos will be used for projects and albums.

So I gave myself a little challenge this year. I found out about Becky Higgins' wonderful project 365 album. As awesome as that it, in reality, I can't keep up with that much. So i will be using her album and doing at least a monthly spread. At least 7 pictures from each month, with cards journaling about our life. A reminder about how life was when Nolan was little, about the blessings of my life, and about how we are growing and changing.

I'm super excited to get my album (it's being shipped here as we speak) and get to start on the first month. But as I was considering a nap today I realized that I could do some of the prep work, and move those photos. So here I sit, moving and backing up my photos to give my poor camera memory card a break.

What in your life would you want to look back on?

Passion

Webster says this about Passion:
4 a (1) : emotion (2) plural : the emotions as distinguished from reason b : intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction c : an outbreak of anger
5 a : ardent affection : love b : a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept c : sexual desire d : an object of desire or deep interest

When I hit upon something that I am passionate about, I have intense driving feeling or conviction about it. Where there is injustice, that passion comes out as an outbreak of anger. I have great affection, love, devotion to and am deeply interested by the things I am passionate about.

And my passion tends to sway others toward those things.

Recently, my passion for running (though I am currently battling a knee injury) has gotten several people interested in running a 5k with me. But had I not been passionate about it, greatly desiring the experience, I never would have told others about it and gotten them excited by the prospect of sharing that experience with me.

My passion for saving money through coupons and rebates and any way I can extend our budget has been inspiring others around us to want to do the same. It's helping them make their budgets go farther than they though possible.

Being a passionate person to me also means being a person who influences others. I hope that my passion influences others to live their lives with more purpose and allows them to really love and enjoy their lives in ways they never though possible.

Right now, my favorite blogs (the ones that are influencing me) are frugallivingnw.com, Hip2Save.com, and themomcreative.com. These wonderful ladies are all Moms like me sharing their lives and their passions. I hope you can enjoy them too.

Fisher Mama Beginings

I wasn't always a Fisher. I married into this life.

I couldn't have imagined the life I lead if I tried. As a little girl, I dreamed of being a dancer. Later, as social pressures came, it was more "prestigious" careers like Lawyer or Botanist. As a teen, I took on the desires of those around me. (At one point I wanted to live on a ranch in Montana - anyone who knows me knows this life path would have been disastrous considering how social I am!)

But the truth is that my greatest loves are not any of those things. I love my heavenly father, my amazing and wonderful (and patient, kind, loving, stable) husband, my adorable and precocious little boy, and music. I also love creating, though I would not label myself an artist.

I currently am a work at home mom, a worship leader, domestic engineer, and toddler wrangler.

I also have this passionate streak that shows up at odd times. I will completely immerse myself into whatever I am doing wholeheartedly. I read books with a passion, love to travel, and at the moment, am learning everything possible about couponing.

So that's me, at least right now. I will share my amazing finds, the things that make me passionate, and try to keep the mundane out as much as possible - since we have too much of that in our own everyday lives!