Ali Edwards's Blog, page 47
May 19, 2023
In Case You Missed It | May 19
Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. So, let's get to it:
STORY PLAY PHOTOGRAPHY WEEK
Mark your calendars! Our Story Play Photography week is happening later this month, May 30th through June 2nd. Be on the lookout for more details as we get closer to those documenting dates. Looking for products to support your storytelling? There's still time to grab our Story Play Photography Mini Kit. Find it here.
TRAVEL RELEASE UPDATES
Earlier this week we shared a first look at our brand new 2023 Travel Collection coming Wednesday, June 14th! Stay tuned for more sneaks and details as we get closer to the launch. A preview post, including product videos, pricing, shipping and more will be shared on the blog in advance of the release. Digitals for this collection will be available as part of our July digital release, happening the first Friday of July. We're also excited to share that we have a brand new travel class with completed albums from Ali and other community members in progress. We can’t wait to share this collection with you!
NEW CLASS FROM ALI: STORYTELLING WITH WEEK IN THE LIFE™
Be sure to check out Ali's newest class: Storytelling With Week In The Life™, available now. Storytelling with Week In The Life™ is designed to get you in the mood for documenting a seven day period in your life. This workshop is modeled after the popular Storytelling With December Daily® and Storytelling With Project Life® workshops and is designed to walk you through all the facets of the project in an way that encourages and empowers you to be the boss of your own storytelling experience. We've recently addded bonus lessons from community members. You don't want to miss thhe great inspiration they are sharing. Register here.
NEW CLASS FROM ALI: STORYTELLING WITH WEEK IN THE LIFE™
Be sure to check out Ali's newest class: Storytelling With Week In The Life™, available now. Storytelling with Week In The Life™ is designed to get you in the mood for documenting a seven day period in your life. This workshop is modeled after the popular Storytelling With December Daily® and Storytelling With Project Life® workshops and is designed to walk you through all the facets of the project in an way that encourages and empowers you to be the boss of your own storytelling experience. Register here.
2023 WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PRODUCTS AVAILABLE
The all new Week In The Life™ products for 2023 are now available! We have two new albums, our journal, a gorgeous main kit, an incredibly fun themed mini kit, and a collection of coordinating Week in the Life™ products. All of the products are in the warehouse and ready to ship!
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DIGITALS
Our collection digitals for Week In The Life™ (including layered templates) are available now! We have 10x8 and 6x8 layered templates again this year. Layered templates are .PSD files. Design note: we are no longer grouping layers in Photoshop as we have learned PSE users cannot use elements that have been grouped. Main kit journal cards and papers will be available as separate file. The kraft pages will be available with a white and transparent background and we will also have album art available. SVG files, which can more easily be manipulated in CANVA, will be included when possible, consistent with previous digital releases. Shop them here.
IMPORTANT SUBSCRIPTION UPDATES
Since January, we’ve seen incredible growth in our subscriptions! As always, we are extremely grateful for your support and thrilled by your enthusiastic response to the changes we’ve implemented. As a result, we are currently on a waitlist for both new Stories By The Month™ and Story Kit™ subscribers. Now is the time to subscribe or jump on the waitlist if you’ve been considering a subscription to either of these products. If you are interested in receiving one of these subscriptions when they become available, it’s important to sign-up for our waitlist now as it helps our team anticipate future quantities.
As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!
May 18, 2023
Jumping In To Daily Pages
For a long time now my friend Kristin Tweedale of The Awesome Ladies Project has been doing a project called Daily Pages. I've watched her express her creativity and tell her story using this method for years and now feels like a good time and season for me to play in this format. She's got a free 5-day email intro into the project if you are interested here.
What I'm loving about this little weekday practice for myself is the simplicity and that they are basically short stories. It's a fun way to use up my stash and play around with items on my table and capture a story - getting something out of my head/heart and onto a page, regardless of the size, is something I have long loved about memory keeping + creativity. I also love how it feels like it frees me up creatively before I sit at my desk. I've felt this way before when I've done Morning Marks or art journaling too.
I'm following Kristin's lead and using small Field Notes notebooks.
Here's a video that compiles my first six little adventures:
And here's a look at the individual pages:
Labels Quarterly Scrapbook Kit Pattern Paper + March 2023 Stories By The Month Circles (from 6x4 card) + Pentel Touch Brush Pen + Micron .03 + Rolling Date Stamp + Tab Sticker (similar)
Dina Wakley Alpha Mask/Stencil + April 2023 Add On Canvas Phrases + Honeyman Ink + Neskowin Ink
Ampersand Story Kit Card + Seek Story Kit Card + Quote Cards from OLW release a few years ago + Wood Block Alpha Stamps
Rainbow Scrapbook Kit Pattern Paper + Now Story Kit Cards + Pentel Touch Brush Pen + Micron .03
Alphas Are Awesome Stamp Set #2 + Columbia Ink + May 2023 Stories By The Month Card + Pentel Touch Brush Pen + Micron .03
May 15, 2023
Week In The Life™ 2023 | Special Guest Kim Chaffin
Hello, crafty friends! This is Kim Chaffin or kimdocumentslife on Instagram and kimdocumentslife on Youtube. I documented Week In The Life April 24th through April 30th alongside many in this community. It’s one of my favorite memory keeping projects, and I love the record of life at this moment that we create in these scrapbooks. This was my sixth year playing along, and I’m very excited to have completed my album in record time. It took me only a week to put it together, which is often my goal but seldom accomplished. I’m sharing a few thoughts on what made the difference for me this time around.
I don’t normally do a lot of prep work prior to a project like this. I tend to think that the experience of the week will inform the way I want to scrapbook it. This year, however, I did do a minimal amount of album set-up in advance. I knew that I wanted to use the transparencies to begin each day. So I printed those, and I embellished them with large numbers as well as die cuts from the mini kit. I arranged those in my 10 x 8 scrapbook, with each day followed by one of each of the three types of page protectors included with that album. I knew that I would likely have more photos than this, but for now I simply wanted to get the basic structure of the book in place.
I also knew that I wanted to use the 10 x 4 Journal Cards for my daily journaling and the 4 x 6 day of the week cards to include the voices of my family members. I assigned each person to a day card, and I placed both types of cards in the page protectors corresponding to the correct day.
I spent the actual week documenting, taking photos and writing journaling for each day. I also made sure to get the appropriate person in my family to fill out a card on their day. After the week ended, I was excited to get busy!
I began with a few introductory pages, including a photo of my husband and me, a screenshot of a front page of the New York Times, and the Highlights page, summarizing our week.
I chose to follow each of the daily transparencies with a full page photo from the day. I normally work on these projects one day at a time. This year, I decided to try batch printing instead, so that I wouldn’t have to frequently change out paper size in my printer. I found that this went much more quickly, allowing me to keep my focus on the task at hand. I added a digital day of the week to each large photo and printed these at 11 x 8.5, because I planned for them to be placed outside the page protectors.
I also batch printed the journaling on the 10 x 4 Journal Cards. Finally, I batch printed templates, one for each day. The templates were adhered to the back sides of the large photo that begins each day.
From here, I only had to go back and fill in my page protectors with photos and embellish. I added additional page protectors for most days. I’ll share a sampling of the album below, and you can see all of the pages from my full week on Instagram, and a flip-through of the entire album will be on Youtube in the very near future.
Thank you for documenting with me! I love the inspiration we share in this community!
May 12, 2023
In Case You Missed It | May 12
Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. So, let's get to it:
HAPPY STORY KIT, JUNE STORIES BY THE MONTH + GO SCRAPBOOK KIT
This week we released a new Story Kit, Story Stamp, and Stories By The Month kit. For May, we are focusing on stories related to the theme of Happy. As we all know, life is a series of highs + lows and many moments in between. This month we are focusing on the happy stuff: the things that bring us joy and make us smile and brighten our world. Head to the blog now for all of the details.
STORY PLAY PHOTOGRAPHY WEEK
Mark your calendars! Our Story Play Photography week is happening later this month, May 30th through June 2nd. Be on the lookout for more details as we get closer to those documenting dates. Looking for products to support your storytelling? There's still time to grab our Story Play Photography Mini Kit. Find it here. TRAVEL RELEASE UPDATESWe're excited to share that our Travel Collection will release in mid-June. We hope to start sharing collection sneaks very soon. Stay tuned for all of the details!
MAY DIGITAL RELEASE IS LIVE
The first Friday of every month means new digitals hit the shop! Today's release includes digital versions of our newest stamps! Check them out here.
NEW CLASS FROM ALI: STORYTELLING WITH WEEK IN THE LIFE™
Be sure to check out Ali's newest class: Storytelling With Week In The Life™, available now. Storytelling with Week In The Life™ is designed to get you in the mood for documenting a seven day period in your life. This workshop is modeled after the popular Storytelling With December Daily® and Storytelling With Project Life® workshops and is designed to walk you through all the facets of the project in an way that encourages and empowers you to be the boss of your own storytelling experience. Register here.
2023 WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PRODUCTS AVAILABLE
The all new Week In The Life™ products for 2023 are now available! We have two new albums, our journal, a gorgeous main kit, an incredibly fun themed mini kit, and a collection of coordinating Week in the Life™ products. All of the products are in the warehouse and ready to ship!
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DIGITALS
Our collection digitals for Week In The Life™ (including layered templates) are available now! We have 10x8 and 6x8 layered templates again this year. Layered templates are .PSD files. Design note: we are no longer grouping layers in Photoshop as we have learned PSE users cannot use elements that have been grouped. Main kit journal cards and papers will be available as separate file. The kraft pages will be available with a white and transparent background and we will also have album art available. SVG files, which can more easily be manipulated in CANVA, will be included when possible, consistent with previous digital releases. Shop them here.
IMPORTANT SUBSCRIPTION UPDATES
Since January, we’ve seen incredible growth in our subscriptions! As always, we are extremely grateful for your support and thrilled by your enthusiastic response to the changes we’ve implemented. As a result, we are currently on a waitlist for both new Stories By The Month™ and Story Kit™ subscribers. Now is the time to subscribe or jump on the waitlist if you’ve been considering a subscription to either of these products. If you are interested in receiving one of these subscriptions when they become available, it’s important to sign-up for our waitlist now as it helps our team anticipate future quantities.
As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!
May 10, 2023
Happy Story Kit, June Stories By The Month, + Go Scrapbook Kit
Today's the 10th of the month and that means a new
Story Kit, Story Stamp, and Stories By The Month kit.
This month we are focusing on stories related to the theme of Happy.
As we all know, life is a series of highs + lows and many moments in between. This month we are focusing on the happy stuff: the things that bring us joy and make us smile and brighten our world.
Initial story ideas for this theme include:
What's currently making you happy in your life right now? Make a list. Who is the person that makes you happiest? Why? What is it about them that brings you so much joy? When was the last time you felt overjoyed? What was the reason? Tell that story.STORY KIT
The
Story Kit™ includes:
Here's a video overview of the
Story Kit™ and Add-On options this month:
STORY STAMP™
The
Stamp Set:
Here's a video overview of the Story Stamp:
STORY CLASS // INCLUDES DIGITAL STORY KIT
Here's a look at what's included in the Digital Story Kit™:
Your digital kit and the classroom and any Add-Ons purchased will be available to you on the 12th once your card has been charged for the month.
This kit is also available to physical kit subscribers as an Add On each month.
Here are a few samples from Ali:
Again, thanks so much for subscribing and/or considering our
Story Subscription program! If you have any questions about this program please let us know below in the comments.
First and foremost we are excited to begin offering a classroom included with this subscription (called
Inspiration By The Month™). Each month Lisa Varshine, Krystal Iduante, and Jen Wong will share inspiration in a classroom using pieces from the Stories By The Month™ kit.
Here is a full look at the kit this month:
The kit now includes a sheet of vellum or transparency (sized outside the page protector in a 6 inch x 8 inch album), a pattern paper, a 3 inch x 8 inch (outside the page protector) journal card with the month at the top which will be repeated each month, a 3 inch x 4 inch stamp set, chipboard, 4, 3 inch x 4 inch journal cards, 3, 4 inch x 6 inch journal cards and an embellishment.
And a video overview:
This subscription is a great option for those who are looking to tell more calendar/everyday life sorts of stories.
Our Digital Stories By The Month™ kit is now called Inspiration By The Month™. With this subscription you receive access to the Inspiration By The Month™ classroom and the digital kit.
This kit is also available to physical Stories By The Month™ kit subscribers as an Add On each month.
Add On options are available to all Story Kit™, Story Stamp™, and Stories By The Month™ physical subscribers (this excludes Digital Story Kit/Story Class subscribers since you don't have any part of your subscription shipped already). Current and new subscribers can select + purchase Add-On's via your new drop-down menu access under your user name in the top right corner of the site: you need to do this before the 11th of the month in order for them to ship with your kit.
Depending on product availability subscribers may be able to purchase the Add-On's after the Add-On period has ended and regular shop shipping rates will apply because they will ship separately from the kit.
This stamp set is available to subscribers to add to their box during the Add On period and
also offered in the shop for anyone else!
Ali used the new stamp to create a background for one of her projects this month:
Our Quarterly Scrapbook Kit subscription continues this month with the theme of go. It's a fun collection of arrows and travel/adventure themes.
Here's a video overview:
May 5, 2023
Week In The Life™ | Ali Album Update
Just a quick little video overview as we head into the weekend sharing my photos + typed words for Monday in my Week In The Life™ album. My current plan is to continue getting all my photos printed and journaling added in for each day and then I'll go back in and do some stamping/light embellishing.
For my journaling this year I'm copying + pasting what I included in each blog post and pairing that with either a collage of photos (using one of the layered templates in this set as the jumping off point) and/or using the 10x4 journaling cards. I am loving the contrast between all the full page photos and the collage of smaller photos spread across two pages.
I hope you have a good weekend!
SUPPLIESWeek In The Life™ KitWeek In The Life™ 10x8 Album10x4 Journal CardsDay Of The Week DividersNumber + Journaling Inserts10x8 Layered Templates
In Case You Missed It | May 5
Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. So, let's get to it:
The Digital Summer Stories Revisited Event is here! This event is meant to inspire summer storytelling in digital or hybrid formats. Now is your chance to shop past digital Story Kit™, Stories By The Month™, Story Stamp, Just Write, and Story classes outside of a subscription. And back by popular demand is our 2022 Just Write Bundle! Head to the link in our bio and enjoy past kits, components, add-ons, and $10 Story Classes from now until May 7th. Shop the event here.
MAY DIGITAL RELEASE IS LIVE
The first Friday of every month means new digitals hit the shop! Today's release includes digital versions of our newest stamps! Check them out here.
NEW CLASS FROM ALI: STORYTELLING WITH WEEK IN THE LIFE™
Be sure to check out Ali's newest class: Storytelling With Week In The Life™, available now. Storytelling with Week In The Life™ is designed to get you in the mood for documenting a seven day period in your life. This workshop is modeled after the popular Storytelling With December Daily® and Storytelling With Project Life® workshops and is designed to walk you through all the facets of the project in an way that encourages and empowers you to be the boss of your own storytelling experience. Register here.
2023 WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PRODUCTS AVAILABLE
The all new Week In The Life™ products for 2023 are now available! We have two new albums, our journal, a gorgeous main kit, an incredibly fun themed mini kit, and a collection of coordinating Week in the Life™ products. All of the products are in the warehouse and ready to ship!
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DIGITALS
Our collection digitals for Week In The Life™ (including layered templates) are available now! We have 10x8 and 6x8 layered templates again this year. Layered templates are .PSD files. Design note: we are no longer grouping layers in Photoshop as we have learned PSE users cannot use elements that have been grouped. Main kit journal cards and papers will be available as separate file. The kraft pages will be available with a white and transparent background and we will also have album art available. SVG files, which can more easily be manipulated in CANVA, will be included when possible, consistent with previous digital releases. Shop them here.
IMPORTANT SUBSCRIPTION UPDATES
Since January, we’ve seen incredible growth in our subscriptions! As always, we are extremely grateful for your support and thrilled by your enthusiastic response to the changes we’ve implemented. As a result, we are currently on a waitlist for both new Stories By The Month™ and Story Kit™ subscribers. Now is the time to subscribe or jump on the waitlist if you’ve been considering a subscription to either of these products. If you are interested in receiving one of these subscriptions when they become available, it’s important to sign-up for our waitlist now as it helps our team anticipate future quantities.
As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!
May 1, 2023
Week In The Life™ 2023 | Ali's Sunday
Welcome to Sunday in Week In The Life™ 2023.
As I sit her and look back through the photos I did take on Sunday, I'm reminded that this is "my" Sunday story. I want to say things like "not all Sunday's look like this" but I could probably say that every Sunday even when I'm at home. Ebbs and flows and seasons and the stuff of life just keeps happening all around us.
This is what it is. And I'm documenting + celebrating it for simply being that.
Also, thank you for joining me on this adventure this year. I hope you enjoyed your experience of documenting your week! I'll be taking a couple days off and then start the process of bringing my photos and words in my album. I'll share more on that here once I get started. If you'd like a deeper dive into the processes related to Week In The Life™ make sure to check out our Storytelling With Week In The Life™ workshop here.
Here's a look at my Sunday:
Sunday started with an early wake up in our hotel room for Day Two of the volleyball tournament.
Club volleyball around here starts with try outs in November/December and then runs from January to May. It's a big commitment for kids + families and the higher level that you play the more commitment is required. It takes time for teams to gel together and it's been really cool watching Anna's team coming together.
This tournament for her was similar to others this year: some awesome wins and some tough losses.
The thing I loved the most watching Anna this weekend is simply how much she's improved her strength and stamina over the last year. It's a combination of getting older, hard work, and training.
It's also a lot.
A lot of noise. A lot of energy. A lot of emotions. A lot of expectations (self-imposed and whatever you think other's are expecting of you). A lot of fun. A lot of laughter. A lot of sitting around and waiting for the next match. There are 25 volleyball matches happening simultaneously in two giant rooms in an expo center.
Audrey's team played in the afternoon wave so she and her Mom (who took this photo) came over to catch one of Anna's last matches. I braided her hair similar to how I did Anna's with half French braids.
This photo is us: a blended family that all shows up for the kids when we can. Continually thankful for our relationships with one another.
The girls are our only kids playing a competitive sport. I tend to get really into it. I love watching them play. I love seeing them make connections between their bodies and their mental fitness. I love seeing them cheer each other on through the highs + lows.
I had so much fun bringing my Canon 6D with me. Most of the time recently I've just been taking photos with my phone for almost everything. I loved getting to play with my camera this past week and weekend, especially using the burst mode with these sports photos.
I'm pretty sure I want to start using this camera again more for everyday life photos.
So many thoughts about competition. So many thoughts about relationships. So many thoughts about the mental game that co-exists right alongside the physical game.
If you interact with teens in any way I'd love to invite you to take time to look them in the eye + tell them what you see they are good at in their life right now. Let them know, out loud, that you see them. You see them doing the thing. You see them showing up. You see them working hard. You see their creativity. You see how they are learning. You see them being a good friend. You see them saying a kindness. You see them put that dish in the dishwasher. You see them making a good choice. You see them not getting to do what they might want to do + still having a good attitude. You see them picking themself up and trying again.
There's a lot of corrections in this season of life for these kids: some necessary + some that really needs to be said alongside things that build them up and acknowledge the pieces that are positive. Constantly correcting without acknowledging the good stuff (verbally telling them you see them doing the things) can easily lead to the creation of stories that don't reflect the totality of each individual person. We are all more than the mistakes we make or the things/skills we simply haven't learned yet.
Let's help them write internal stories (the stories they tell themselves about themselves) that include that the things they do "right" and not just the things they might need to work on.
My Mom was always really good at this.
Everyone wants to be seen for the totality of who they are.
I seriously feel so lucky that I get to overlap chapters of life with these two.
Anna and I hit the road after her team completed their matches. We were both pretty exhausted and ready to get home.
THE PHOTOS I DIDN'T TAKEMe being the hype person for Anna's team. 14 year old girls can be really hard on themselves and I'm on a mission to pump them up + remind them that they are out there because they actually like volleyball. Audrey got her first ace (her Mom got it on video) which we all celebrated. Pulling over on to get a coffee at 4pm on the drive home from Portland because I was getting so tired. Coming home and basically getting straight into the tub and then straight into bed (I did do a quick walk around the yard with Betty to see what was happening out there while I was away). I was exhausted with a raging sore throat (could be the cheering + could be the cold that the kids have started passing around). We watched the newest episode of Succession and then I was out.
It's likely I'll fill in a few holes for Sunday with some general shots around the house. We'll see how I feel once I get to Sunday in my album.
OTHER VOICESAnna:
Simon:
April 30, 2023
Week In The Life™ 2023 | Ali's Saturday
Welcome to Saturday in Week In The Life 2023.
The story of today is that I was in Portland (a couple hours away from my house) with Anna and Audrey for a regional volleyball tournament. We don't travel for volleyball every weekend but it's very much a part of this season of life. As you might imagine, most of my photos from today were taken during the tournament and surrounding activities.
Let's dive in to my photos and words:
The story of today includes waking up at 6:15am in a hotel room in north Portland that is near the Civic Center in order to get Anna over there for the morning matches. Audrey's team was part of the afternoon wave so she got to sleep in and then connected with her teammates before coming over in the afternoon.
The story of today is that Anna's first match of three was rough. It was simply one of those matches when everyone was off.
The story of today is also that their second match was probably one of the best games I've seen her team play this season. I likely won't have any voice left tomorrow.
The story of today includes being so proud of how Anna has developed as a player. Her serves were awesome today.
The story of today is a lot about friendship and working together as a team. I loved being there to cheer them on loudly.
The story of today includes high highs + some low lows in a very, very loud venue. Ah, competition.
The story of today includes a lot of sitting and a lot of standing as we watched and waited and watched and waited some more.
The story of today includes opportunities to catch up with old friends and meet new people too. I laughed a lot today and I try to not take that for granted.
The story of today includes getting to watch one of Audrey's matches. I also loved getting to spend time with her Mom and Grandparents while we watched her first match.
I'm so glad that she decided to play this year. She's built skills and put herself out there to do something new.
The story of today includes me heading back to meet up with Anna and her crew after watching Audrey play.
The story of today included this super cute little scene across the way from one of the team hotels.
The story of today includes dinner outside in the early evening sunshine surrounded by volleyball players and their families.
The story of today includes a swim in a hotel pool which is still a very fun part of any travel.
The story of today includes this. It was a very full, very fun day. So thankful for these experiences with these people.
OTHER VOICESSimon:
Elliott:
Audrey:
Anna:
April 29, 2023
Week In The Life™ 2023 | Ali's Friday
Welcome to Friday in Week In The Life™ 2023.
Today I took a deep breath in + let a big breath out for this project and life in this season. I've been feeling a lot of gratitude this week so I decided I'd use that lens to tell the story of my Friday.
Let's dive in to the photos + words:
Thankful that this kid has masted making his own coffee drinks (usually iced with a lot of oat milk) + does a darn good job with the clean up.
Thankful for these guys opening up (this was the bouquet I picked up yesterday at a local flower farm).
Thankful for this space. I originally was sitting out there but it was actually too hot so I moved to a chair across the yard. Sam seemed to like the sun under the couch. At 2pm today it was 81 degrees - that's very hot for pre-May (and it's going back down again after today).
Thankful for a little fence I have to put up when I'm tending to the hanging baskets on the porch so Betty can come out there without and I don't have to worry about her bolting away.
Thankful for all the ways he plays with her.
Thankful for this space and the mess and the stories and the creativity and the colors and the photos and the community and that this is what I get to do everyday.
While I was chatting with Jill + Jess on yesterday's Instagram live about this project I decided to go into the girls rooms and take a few photos. So yeah, thankful for the reminder to go in and capture what's real in their rooms.
Love Audrey's little window collection.
Thankful for a weekend adventure that starts today with Anna + Audrey and their regional volleyball tournament.
Thankful for curiosity and new views.
Thankful for the internet and all the cool stuff I can learn about things in my yard.
I really like having mini-goals out there. Today my goal was to replant the daffodils I removed from the porch pots yesterday. Mission accomplished.
Thankful for my constant companion who loves being outside.
Thankful in advance for the lilac explosion coming soon.
Thankful that she asks me to French braid her hair. The truth is that I'm not great at it (decent, yes) and I've never much been into doing hairstyles but some point along the way in my life I did learn how to French braid. When she was younger she was never really into braids but volleyball has made it cool.
Thankful for simple packing for a couple days and nights of watching volleyball. Betty was not super excited that I was packing.
Thankful for a car full of these beauties. We headed out of town after school and headed north, stopping at outlets in Woodburn.
Thankful for a safe drive. We encountered a big slow down on the freeway and Anna decided it was a great time to stick her feet out the window. I actually learned a lot from the girls today about how no one in their generation likes to see bare feet. Lots of talk about their "dogs" being out. They proudly wear socks with their Birkenstocks (that's a no for me).
Thankful for dressing room messaging that is empowering and inclusive.
Thankful for their fun vibe. We don't go shopping like this very often any more (so much of our clothing is purchased online) but it was a good time going shopping all together today. I did more listening than talking and simply enjoyed observing and saying yes when possible.
Thankful that we took a wrong turn on the way to the hotel and came across this scene. We stopped the car and all got out so we could take some photos.
Thankful for these two. So much. They are just so fun and creative and full of life.
Thankful that we made it safely to our hotel. Bring on the volleyball.
OTHER VOICESFrom Simon:
From Isaac:
From Elliott:
From the girls:
