Word of the Week (52 in 52 2017)

Last night I was in the middle of creating a 52 in 52 list and I stalled. I had been struggling with the darn thing all week and wasn't getting anywhere. Nothing seemed new or exciting, it was quickly become a list comprised of the same things I did last year and some things that I didn't actually have any interest in doing. In other words I was wasting my time.

And then I had an 'Ah-Ha' moment. 

I'd already decided that the official One Little Word class wasn't for me but was still toying with the idea of picking a word and letting it lead me but there wasn't really one word sticking out to me. So I'm not choosing a word. I'm choosing 52. Conceivably, one for each week of the year. Or maybe I'll choose 4-5 each month. Either way, I'm excited. 

I'm still working on what exactly this will look like but right now I am planning on choosing a word each Sunday and incorporating it into my week. I'm thinking I will either use a Smash book or 8x6 Project Life album from my stash to document my words. Maybe I won't get through all 52 words, maybe there will be a couple that stick around a little longer or I'll revisit them as life dictates. I'm not going to use the words in any particular order, just whatever seems appropriate for the week. 

My words came to me pretty quickly, a few quick thesaurus searches but it took me less than 30 minutes to create this list. And have I mentioned yet I'm really excited about this plan?

1. Abide
2. And
3. Balance
4. Be
5. Bless
6. Begin
7. Clear
8. Do
9. Devote
10. Detail
11. Engage
12. Explore
13. Firm
14. Faith
15. Flow
16. Grace
17. Grow
18. Honour
19. Humble
20. Intention
21. Intrepid
22. Joy
23. Know
24. Kindness
25. Light
26. Little
27. Might/Mighty
28. Peace
29. Prayer
30. Plant
31. Psalm
32. Praise
33. Preserve
34. Produce
35. Play
36. Quiet
37. Reduce
38. Refresh
39. Relax
40. Ripple
41. Remember
42. Renew
43. Still
44. Savour
45. Soften
46. Spark
47. Shine
48. See
49. Selah
50. Thrive
51. Whole
52. Well

What do you think? Am I in over my head? Have you used any of these words as your One Little Word? 

Linking up with Mulling Over My Morning Coffee!

Warm and Fuzzy Friday Favourites

{one}

I got this e-mail from a parent on Monday evening and it made my day/week. Parents are often the hardest/worst part of working with kids. To a certain extent, I get it, you want your kids to be happy. Sometimes the 'helicopter' parent thing takes over and it's just not good. So getting this e-mail was the greatest. I like when parents are happy, when parents are happy their kids stay involved and that makes me happy. You know that saying "happy wife, happy life"? Well I'm a believer in "happy parents, happy program". You might not be able to please them all but life sure is easier when you can. 

{two}

Someone posted this verse on Instagram this week and it stuck with me. 

{three}

I had a bunch of photos of flowers and bees from this summer and I wasn't sure how to incorporate them into my album. They were too pretty not to use...but they also stuck out like a sore thumb next to action shots of soccer baseball and chaotic cabin photos. And then I happened to be searching my blog archives for something and came across a post from earlier in the summer when I shared the quote about the bees. And realized it worked perfectly because on the next page is a bunch of photos of people doing chores, moving furniture and working around camp. Memory keeping makes me happy. 

{four}

CBC

This article. I don't know either of these people but it's the cutest thing I've read all week. I'm rarely interested in elaborate wedding details and the process of how people begin their relationships is often kind of murky. Engagement stories are usually very clear cut, it's a moment in time when something very specific happens and is usually very unique. So this story gave me all the warm fuzzies this week. I hope they serve french fries at their wedding.  

I only have four favourites this week, I'm sure if I tried really hard I could come up with a fifth, but I don't want to and I'd rather choose four really awesome favourites opposed to four really awesome favourites and one thing that I kind of liked about this week. 

Somehow I've managed to find myself without any plans this weekend. I'm sure I'll figure out something but it's also nice to enter the weekend without any commitments! 

Linking up here & here with all of the other ladies in blogland celebrating Friday!

It's A Fine, Fine Life {3}

This week's edition of It's A Fine, Fine Life is brought to you by the letters A-Z.

Words.

Most of us have favourite words. 

Symmetry. Laundry. Grace. Butter. Rain. Summer. Prayer. Nap. Camp. Lime. A few of my personal favourites. 

I'm thankful for words that allow us to express our thoughts and opinions. Our dislikes and our desires. To share our feelings with others and to give encouragement when needed. As someone who is perpetually finding myself far away from my best friends, from family and in a short time from my boyfriend I rely on words a little more than your average person. 

The words I type in text messages, iMessages, e-mails and blog posts. The words I speak over FaceTime and telephone conversations. The words I write on scraps of paper, the margins of my Bible and the crisp pages of my journal. Some are chosen more carefully and some are hastily scribbled because it was the first thing that came to mind. I'm thankful for them all though and each one serves a purpose.

Next week during staff training words will be a central topic in many of our sessions. With our head counsellors we'll talk about choosing words how to teach new counsellors and correct them by using their words and not belittling them. With all the counsellors we'll discuss how to re-direct homesick campers using words that ensures they know their fears are heard and legitimate while not dwelling on those moments of homesickness. We'll talk about using respectful language including a lot of information on the 'r' word. Words are powerful.

So today, I'm taking a minute to celebrate all the words that surround us in this fine life. 

Show Love

Long before I started blogging myself I read blogs so I know that this time of year it's pretty common for bloggers to choose a word for the upcoming year. Focus on that word and make it a theme for the 12 months ahead. I knew it was something I wanted to do in 2014 and I've been thinking about which word to choose for over a month now. I narrowed it down to five and carefully considered each one before making a decision. 

Humility 

Grace

Joy

Love

Peace

Humility. For awhile this was the word I was stuck on, but then I also wanted to be more confident. That led me down a very confusing train of thought about balancing being confident and being humble. For a few days I thought that I'd made a decision and in 2014 I would spend time discerning how to improve my humility and also improve my confidence. Then I thought about it some more and decided that challenge may be a little advanced so I moved on to the next option.

Grace. It's part of my blog name, it's one of my favourite words, I would totally use it as a name for if it wasn't for every third kid being named Grace/Gracie. It seemed like a good choice, until it seemed too easy. Not challenging enough. Still one of my favourite words and concepts but I wasn't sure how to really make it into a theme for the whole year.

Joy. Focus on finding joy in the little things, being joyful in all situations and circumstances. It's pretty straight forward. I wasn't feeling it though, it seemed like a word I had to consider because it "make sense" but when I really thought about it I couldn't get myself excited about making it my word.

Love. There aren't many things in this world that are better than love. God's love, romantic love, love between friends, family, loving the little things. Lots of options for love. But again, it just didn't feel right. Somehow declaring that my word of the year would be Love felt flat and boring. 

Peace. I'm a worrier by nature. Anxiety is something I am extremely familiar with. I could use some more peace in my life. I couldn't sell myself on it though, like love, it felt like a word I was only considering because it I should be, so I moved on.

Which left me with all the words on my list crossed off for one reason or another. So I looked at all the words I had originally written down and tried to find a commonality between everything. After a few minutes something jumped out at me and I knew almost instantly without having to spend days mulling it over that my 'word' for 2014 would be a (short) phrase.

What I like about this phrase is that it's short enough to be easily remembered, vague enough that it can apply to all situations and yet specific enough that there's no questions about the focus. Show Love. I think it does a good job of encompassing a lot of the aspects I was trying to focus on with each of the words I was originally considering. I can show love by bringing joy to others, by being gracious, by being peaceful, praising God, by being humble, there are so many ways to show love. To myself, God, friends, strangers, the planet. I'm really looking forward to challenging myself to showing love over the next twelve months. 

How will you 'Show Love' in 2014? I'd love to know what word you chose for this year!

Motivation Affirmation

I find inspiration and motivation in all the usual places; friends, family, Pinterest. The thing that motivates me the most though is words of affirmation. I love getting handwritten notes, sweet texts, blog comments, e-mails...words are my love language. 

We have a tradition at camp called "Warm Fuzzies", each staff member has a 'mailbox' that hangs on the wall as you go up the stairs to the counsellors' sleeping quarters. During the summer everyone writes encouraging notes to each other and drops them in the mailbox resulting in little pick me ups and acknowledgment of jobs well done randomly throughout the summer. Warm Fuzzies is one of my favourite camp traditions, I save everyone I've ever gotten. At the camp I grew up at we did Warm Fuzzies even as campers and even those are tucked away neatly in my closet. I fully admit to dumping out my envelope from time to time during the year and reading through the notes to give myself a bit of a pick me up. 

Everyday we do something called Cabin Inspection, an intense friendly competition between the cabins to keep their space neat & tidy and earn points towards Cabin of the Week. Occasionally Cabin Inspection also includes some bribery in the form of chocolate & "love notes". I proudly display most of those on the bulletin board behind my desk in the office and then they come home with me to be added to the summer's scrapbook. The note above is from one of the sweetest campers who comes to our camp for adults with intellectual disabilities. The list below was made by an entire cabin of adult campers with a physical disabilities and is a Top 10 List of reasons why the director and myself are awesome. My favourite is #7, because matching clothes are fun!

I'm so thankful for my job and the opportunity to work with so many wonderful staff and campers. And for these reminders to keep me motivated and inspired to work hard and help make camp a magical place. 

I'm linking up today with Christina who? and I Have A Messy Bun!