Where We Are

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In a few weeks, it will have been a year since I got divorced. There are still some days I struggle with it, and I've learned that that is okay. The life Cameron and I live now is very different than the life we were living then. Accepting and adapting to our new life was not something that could have happened overnight, or even a few months. It took months, but I no longer look at families together and think of my broken dream. Instead, I think "that will happen for us one day". The days that I struggle are very rare now. Being divorced does not define me. Actually, people I meet are usually surprised to hear that I was ever married.

Being a single (and obviously working) mom is hard. Being a single mom who is also a student is harder. There are days I wish for an extra set of hands and eyes to play with and watch Cam so I can start homework a few hours earlier. But they aren't there. I have no family where I live, and my parents live an hour away. It's just me here. For the past 3 or 4 months, I used that as an excuse. I played the victim, even to myself. I claimed there just wasn't time to do homework. I was tired after I got home from work, and after Cam went to bed. Blah, blah, blah. It was all excuses. Excuses to be lazy and pity myself. I had a wake up call recently when I was put on academic probation. School starts again on Monday, and I am more than ready to focus on finishing my degree. It is so easy to lose focus with everything that goes on in life. I just keep envisioning myself walking up there to receive my degree. Only 22 more months!

There is one last thing I will just barely touch on in this post - dating. Oh, dating. Meeting genuine people is so, impossibly hard. I've been hurt more times than I care to admit this year. Thank God for my friends. They keep me going with their "don't give up" and "you're better off" speeches. You know what? They have always been right so far.

All in all, we are in a good place right now.

Project Life: Weeks 1 & 2

Things have been hectic and busy here! As usual. :) Here are my first two weeks of Project Life! Ran out of ink so I'll have to get more before I can do weeks 3 & 4.You can click on the photos to see a more detailed image. :)

Week 1...

And week 2...

Have to be better about posting these as soon as they're done, rather than waiting 2 weeks! :)

One Little Word

My word for 2012 is mindful.

At times last year, I found it hard to focus on how blessed we were amidst the chaos. I really want to be mindful of the blessings we have. In being mindful of what we have, I hope to be more content with what we have. When we moved, I did a big clean out of all of our stuff, I would really like to keep this apartment as clutter free as possible so that the next time we move (which won't be for some time!) there won't be as much. Of course, I know we are bound to collect as we go on. I just hope we are able to shed the things we don't need as we have new things. I took so much stuff to Goodwill.

I also want to be mindful that although we are still in an adjustment period here and that this single mom thing is rough, we really do have so very much to be thankful for. When something seems like it is not going to work out, something else happens and it does. God always provides. I really believe that it is only because of Him that we have made it.

My 2011 word, faith, really brought me through and kept me going. Now I feel like it's time to reflect and be thankful. For all of the struggles, for all of the lessons learned. We will come out ahead. It will get better. We just have to keep going.

Project Life

As 2011 came to a close, I thought a lot about our Project Life album and what it means to us. Cameron, surprisingly, has taken an interest in our scrapbooks lately and really likes looking through them. It is hilarious to listen to his comments on the pages. Overall, I feel like our album really gives a great glimpse at our life in 2011. Someone asked me if I took out pictures and information from earlier in the year, before I was divorced. I laughed and said no. That was our life then, our life changed, and this is our life now. Although I would love to forget some things, we had a lot of good times while we were together as a family and I feel like that is really important for Cameron to know. I am trying harder to take away what was good, and forget the bad.



Going into 2012 there are things I will be doing just the same and there will be things I want to do differently. I want to the journaling cards differently. I want to be able to see them all better, rather than having to flip through them each time. I want to use the day and number stickers more. I loved using the arrow stickers and will continue to use those. I love how customized some people make the albums, but realistically, it's not something I will make time to do and I need to accept that. I'm still working on our cover page - it definitely needs some more personalization. The Instax camera I received as a gift for Christmas is going to be invaluable. I am using the heck out of that thing already. However, I really do need to make an effort to get Daphne out more. Love those DSLR photos. :)



I feel really accomplished, having finished our 2011 album. Obviously, there are many photos I want to make pages with, but I'm getting so much recorded. I am hoping to post our layouts weekly on here, but I'm not making any promises. :)

If you want to see some photos of the beginning of our 2011 Project Life you can do so here.