Week #1 "List and Browse Week" Nov 1-8th Quick get some Thanksgiving into it! Decorate your home for Thanksgiving asap because November flies by doesn't it? . Quick grab a sheet of paper. Make your lists of gift recipients, Christmas cards, menus for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, goodies to share or to give, favorite meals to prepare ahead, decorations needed, and gifts to make. I reuse my main gift giving list from last year and consult it to make sure I am giving something different to each person than what I did the last two years. Develop and record ideas for gifts and decorations. PLAN and ask yourself the following questions: * Do we put any emphasis on the spiritual side of holiday/Christmas? Can we improve that? * What would our ideal holiday/Christmas be like? How can we make it so? * What ongoing events or activities are particularly important to our family at this holiday? Do we go to The Nutcracker every year? See Santa? Go on a ski trip?...

"How can we find more time for our hobby?" I hear it all the time from scrappers of all types: "I need more hours in my day," "I can't find time to scrap," "If only I could have a whole week to myself to get organized," "I can't seem to get going on my books," "I haven't done a page in months," and "I shop more than I scrap!" Common complaints, right? Have you ever said similar things? I must admit I have often felt pressed for time and my hobby is the first thing to flex. But if it flexes too often, we don't get very far finishing pages do we? Let's figure out a way to have more TIME to scrapbook. The Problem: Our resources and time is limited. Not only by our busy schedules, but also by the unexpected aspects of life--like job stress, carpools, children's events, sickness, etc. Sometimes I hear scrappers joke about "never getting caught up" "working on my books from now to for...

You have heard of a microscope....You can use it to look in giant detail at a tiny bit of something. Our society tends to encourage us to do this with our science, our education, our politics, and even our hobbies and lifestyles. Everyone is a specialist. One expert will even try to out-expert the other.... But today I was reading about turning our thinking around a bit when we solve problems. It is often better to take a MACRO-scope view instead of a microscope view. We can use this kind of 'overview thinking' not only in our jobs --but at home. That concept got me thinking. The bigger picture of life and a sense of prioritizing on a bigger scale are often left behind in lieu of pursuing the specific immediate goodies of life. Taking a bigger view was brought to my attention this week as I am helping a friend organize her entire home. I empathized with her when she said she had lost sight of what it must look like to other people coming in to her home. She has been overlo...