Brene Brown's Parenting Manifesto

Though this week has measured up as one of the busiest weeks ever (when is it not, right?), I've been totally inspired in the midst of the chaos. In some ways, all the inspiration has fueled my tank to move on to the next task, check off the next item on the to-do list and despite how physically tired I feel, I keep moving forward.

One of the life-charging (not a typo, I got all charged up!) inspirations I came across is a free download from Dr. Brene Brown's website. "The Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto".



I LOVE this so much, I printed out a few copies. At first, I taped this to the hall wall where I would see it daily.  I thought about that and asked how likely would it be that I would stand in the hall reading it?  So I framed it and placed it on my desk, thinking I'll definitely read this every day where it's in my line of sight.

Then BAM! Inspiration hit like a lightening flash.  I wanted to read this out-loud to Nathan, every day.  I want to speak these words in the form of a promise. Promises about my commitment in parenting.  The irony in this is that it's less about what Nathan thinks, he's only 6- he's not really gonna 'get it'. But later, after I've spoken these words over him a million times....he will.  For now, it's about me, my intentions and the power of my speaking them out loud and after having done that, remaining steadfast in them.  Is it self-accountability?  I don't really know, I just thought it was a good idea!

Mindful of my audience, I divided up the 12 intentions and added them to a little jar that I quickly sticker-ed as the "Promise Jar".  I explained to him, that each day he gets to pick a promise for me to read out loud to him.  He seemed to like the idea and we put it into practice right then.  He picked one and I verbally made my promise to him.

"I promise the greatest gift I can give you is to live and love with my whole heart and to dare greatly."
Then he asked me what that meant and we talked about it. A good moment.  In a crazy busy week.

The Promise Jar is now waiting on his nightstand, amidst all his boyish treasures, waiting for tomorrow's selection. :-)

Good stuff for my soul. In a crazy busy week. :-)
How I found time to post to my blog, God only knows.
Truth be known, ain't nobody got time for that!

We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Though there were thank you cards to write, laundry to fold and grocery shopping to do, I didn't feel like doing any of that this weekend.  Instead I snagged some down time to work on 2 videos that will be incorporated into this years family scrapbook.

There was a weekend in January when Greg was called into work for a server that went down.  It was a Saturday, so I offered for Nathan and I to tag along to keep Greg company. Luckily, I had my camera so I pounced on the opportunity to take footage of Greg at work. Since it's my perpetual goal to document every day life, capturing Greg at work was brilliant because it's something we rarely get to see!




The next video is from Nathan's birthday party.  Since I threw this party together in about a week, I didn't have as many details as I would have liked but in the end, the kids had fun and that is all that really matters to me. Typically, I forget something the day of the party, it's just bound to happen and this year I forgot to take pictures of the cakes - doh!  I just had one to many parties on my mind, hahaha!

Here's the video for Nathan's Birthday Party:



Guess I'll work on that grocery list now - BLEH! ;-)

Christmas 2012

Somehow, I captured almost all of our Texas Christmas in video and compiled all the footage into a single video for our 2012 scrapbook.  Taking 7 days and consolidating down to 6 minutes is no easy task, though finding a 6 min Christmas song for the background music proved more challenging.  I had a song to use already in mind but its time was shorter than my video.  I had to tag on another song.  This is the issue I wrestled the longest with - Not compiling the video footage!  I'm much to obstinate (read anal-retentive)  and hated tagging on another song and half a song, at that.  In the end, I just had to let it go.  Besides, it was 3:30am when my resolve was weakest.. :-)

Enjoy. Oh and happy new year tomorrow. :-)



Music: You're Here and Heaven Everywhere by Francesca Battistelli

The Hull-idays Family Pictures Behind the Scenes Video

Since I've discovered integrating pictures with audio & video to fully document life events, I have so enjoyed the end-results.  So why wouldn't I infuse our 2012 family pictures with behind the scenes video?  Exactly.

So here it is:


This will be one of the last videos that will make it into our 2012 family scrapbook.
Of which, I am thrilled to be wrapping up very soon! Woot, woot!!

My Best Day. Ever.

We just returned from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where Greg was in a friends wedding.  The wedding was so special in its own right, it's impossible to describe the depth of heartfelt sentiment that was shared by all who attended.

In conjunction with such a special event, I just happened to experience the Best Day. Ever. Of my life. (so far). I unashamedly admit this day surpassed the day I married my husband and the day I gave birth to my son, both of whom I equally love with all my heart.  The heart of the matter though is that the events of this day connected to my soul and spirit in a way I rarely get to enjoy. Simply because...I'm a responsible adult. A wife.  A mom. An employee. A homemaker, etc.  I am not to often the Adventurist but the Adventurists heart always, always beats beneath my surface, which Greg knows all to well. hahaha! The only redeeming point I can make is that I shared this experience with Greg, my Best Friend of all time. : )

Without further ado, here is a video I made of  My Best Day. Ever.:

Pictures, Videos & Audio = Together FINALLY!

I could not be more EXCITED or HAPPY! Over the moon-Squeal like a kid-Pee my pants EXCITED. I'm not even kidding.

I have finally found a way to pull my pictures, videos and even music all together in one unified approach to scrapbooking. This has been a goal of mine for at least 15 years and finally, the technology has arrived to make it all possible. Here is how it works.

In this example, I have designed a layout of two, 12 x 12, facing pages. The subject matter; my favorite pictures of Nathan playing Fall T-ball.

 Left Page:

 Right Page:

As you can see in my right page, I have a QRC (Quick Response Code) image included in my page.  Later, when I am looking back at my 2012 scrapbook, I can use a QRC reader to play the accompanying video included in my page.  Watch below to see how it works:

Revolutionary, right?  I know.  It's so exciting to be able to incorporate pictures, videos and even music all together for scrapbooking purposes. YAYYYYY!!!

If your interested in watching the Tball video in it's entirety, here ya go. :-)


By the way, the background music to my video was not random by any means.  It's the Forest Gump theme which we played at our wedding.  So even that detail in this page will bring back good memories. :-)
LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

Every Day Life

I am mildly obsessed about documenting life.  I am adamant about capturing and recording the details of life.  Real life.  Not just the vacations, not just the grand moments but the good, bad and ordinary.  Because that's what real life is about. Good moments.  Bad moments.  And every ordinary moment in between.

That being said, back in January, I made a series of videos to capture just a regular day in my life.  I just finished working on this video because I want to incorporate into our 2012 family scrapbook by means of a Quick Response video Code (more on this at another time).

So I'm just sharing the video, that's all. :-)