J is for...journaling!

In keeping with yesterday's theme, I thought I'd use today's letter to expand on how I go about writing the journaling for my layouts.  I've been told that journaling is my strong suit, and I'm glad that it is.  When I look back on layouts from years ago that I've done, I'm immediately drawn to the story. I often write in great detail about the event, location, emotions and activities portrayed by the pictures.  I love being able to capture these details that I would surely forget in a few weeks, months or years.  Even my girls love to read  about when they went somewhere, what they saw, how they reacted, what they felt.  They may not remember actually being there, but they have a chance to relive it by reading the scrapbook.  Writing comes easily for me because I enjoy it.  I often write in a stream of consciousness format.  This means I don't edit what I'm writing and that I might not even have full sentences...but I DO HAVE DETAILS.  I focus on what I would tell a good friend if I were sitting with here going over the pictures.  I write about how something smelled, or about how it felt to do whatever it was that I was doing.  I focus on the senses and on the emotion, and that comes across in my writing.

Of course, not every layout is a novel (although my friends would beg to differ), but I make sure to write about things that matter.  Well, that matter to me, anyway.  I enjoy writing about things that will make me smile when I look back on them in the future.  Things that maybe will tell the next generation a little something about my life here and now.  About how our family spent its days, about things that we cared about.  Sometimes, the "what, where & when" aren't as important as the how and why.  When I'm having a difficult time getting words down on paper, I sometimes take a different approach to writing.  I've used interviews, bullet style lists, captions and even blog entries (imagine THAT!) to fill in for my journaling when I can.  Here are a few examples of layouts I've done using alternate styles of journaling...capturing a little of the everyday that matters to us...and one layout that really could stand in for a novel :-)

use of a bulleted list:

screenshot of my inbox:

captions and small phrases that capture what we're up to:

questionnaire:

and for the mother-load of all journaling...

Hope you find your voice and become more comfortable every day getting your thoughts, feelings and life down on paper (or up on a blog)! Happy writing.

G is for...Geocaching!

It's been a year this past month that I officially started geocaching.  For those of you not familiar with this popular pastime, it is usually described as a worldwide treasure hunt using GPS technology.  Not sure how I initially became involved with it, but after hearing about a friend of ours who had been "taking walks in the woods" to find "boxes", my curiosity kicked into overdrive.  I read everything I could about it and visited the most widely recognized website for the hobby here. This website is chock-full of information about getting started with geocaching and even has reviews on the best GPS units out there.  I quickly bought a handheld GPS and told my family I'd discovered a way for us to have fun and get exercise in the process, and that it didn't cost anything to participate (after the initial GPS expense).  My oldest was on board from the get-go.  It took a little more coaxing for my youngest daughter, Leena, and Mohammed to give it a shot.  Neither is what you would call "outdoorsy" and Leena has the added issue of hating bugs. This past year, they have both gone along with it, though, and Mohammed has really helped a bunch by carrying Adam in a backpack carrier on our adventures.  I have even told a few buddies about it, and gotten one person in particular to go on weekday adventures with me while the girls are at school and Mohammed is working (you know who you are!). It's really worth checking out if you like to hike.  In fact, you don't even really have to like to hike because many of the hidden caches are in urban areas hidden in plain site.  Caches are rated according to difficulty of the hide, as well as difficulty of the terrain.  Ratings go from 1(wheelchair accessible and easy to find) all the way to 5 (nearly impossible on both fronts).  Our family outings are usually a cache difficulty of 1-3 and a terrain difficulty of no more than 2.  It's a great family/couple/individual activity and you should check it out! Here are some photos from several of our adventures:

Leena's first find all on her own!

 Adam getting a free ride:

 Yasmeen's first find on her own:

 Adam napping in the distance while we made the find:

 They pop up in unexpected places:

 The goods inside:

 One of Mohammed's recent finds--this one was hard!

 An urban cache near home:

 My caching pal, Brenda and I with the neatest cache container yet--a tree branch!

Finding a travelbug-and I don't mean my napping son!

 Well-hidden:

 On our way:

 Caches are EVERYWHERE:

 Sometimes you have to reach up high and savor the sweet taste of success:

Thanks for stopping by...now get out and geocache!!