The English Geek

Gift of Words Class Starts This Week

After talking to my uncle so much lately, I've found myself thinking about my grandma (my dad's mom). She and I weren't very close; I always had the feeling that I was just another grandkid to her. A dot in a mob. But I always had this sense of she's my grandma, she must care about me in that grandmotherly way. As I got older I assumed that she just didn't know how to express it when she was with me, but that she was writing down how she felt. So when she died, I was certain I'd find a journal somewhere, with her words in it, letting me know who she really is. I helped Dad sort through her stuff, my expectations turning to disappointment as the day wore on and no journal was ever discovered.

Since then, I've grown more and more certain of the power that written words have. Writing things down---thoughts, hopes, disappointments, whatever---with the idea of someday sharing with someone else is an intimate way of preserving a bit of yourself. But who says you have to wait until you're gone to share your words? Why not share them now?

That's the concept behind my Gift of Words class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It helps you start small, by writing little word gifts in your Christmas cards, so you can write something significant in just a few minutes. Then I goes big and helps you write a long word gift, a letter to a valuable person in your life that says something personal and important. 

The class starts on Thursday and is just two weeks long. Unlike the rest of my classes, it's not so much about scrapbooking as it is just learning how to express yourself a bit better. Which means no supplies, no project to stress you out; no stress at all, really. Just learning to write something significant. If you're interested, now's the time to sign up! Click here for more details. 

(I'm going to keep this post at the top of my blog until registration's closed, but you can scroll down for new entries!)

Present Moment Scrapbook

Back when my dad was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, one of my initial impulses was this pervasive desire to record more of my life. I’ve always kept a journal, of course, but up until then I’d never done a scrapbook layout about myself. Hundreds and hundreds for my kids? Of course. Put pairing photos, words, and pretty stuff just for me seemed sort of...redundant, maybe. (Who would want to read them?) Or selfish. (Because isn’t there a never-ending supply of photos of my kids to scrap? Don’t I have a responsibility to write down what they won’t remember?) But as I watched bits and pieces of Dad fall away, I couldn’t stop thinking: what if that happens to me? I need to have my memories recorded, too.

That’s when the scrapbooking muse started tickling my creativity bone. I bought an album just for me and made a few layouts—about myself. I confess: it does feel a little weird. But even three years later, it still feels important. At least every six months or so, I find a photo of myself (again; something highly uncomfortable, handing the camera over to someone else and actually being in the picture) and write journaling that focuses on my life right now. Some layouts read like a calendar, others like short stories. But I like getting down the little pieces and parts that combine to form my dreams, anxieties, desires, obsessions, and habits.

So when Stacy J. told me about her "present-moment" scrapbooking challenge, I was necessarily on board. While it feels strange, initially, focusing on yourself for a bit causes this unexpected reaction: you start to pay attention to your now even more. You realize that you won’t always be worrying over _____________, which puts it in perspective; you won’t always be experiencing _______________, which helps you savor it. You see that your life right this moment is extraordinary and special. Time you won’t ever get to revisit, experiences you’ll remember as the way things used to be—and suddenly you see your own value, the stuff that is inherent in you no matter what your title (mom, wife, employee, whatever).

So! Here’s the challenge:

• Sometime in the next two weeks, snap ten different photos of your life right now. Try to capture both the unique and the mundane. One must be a photo of you! (That’s not on the original challenge, by the way, but I’m being bossy and adding it.)
• Make a little scrapbook using your pictures. When I say "little" I mean: low stress.
• Keep it in your purse always. For one entire year!
• Whenever you see your little book, open it up and look at it.
• On October first, 2009, make an entire layout about the experience. (I’ll remind you!)

If you don’t scrapbook, that’s OK. Just try taking the ten pictures and writing about them, and then next year you can revisit them.

Two things to get you started:

1. Not sure where to get a "little" scrapbook? The first 20 people who leave me a comment about something they love in their life right now will get a little Bazzill album in the mail!

2. Here are my ten photos, with a few comments (hello, like I could post photos without also writing about them!), just to give you some ideas. I’ll post my little album in a few days. (I’m slightly embarrassed to be posting straight-out-of-the-camera photos, but we’re in the middle of a computer upgrade right now, and my version of Photoshop is just not happy with Vista!)

These kids! Being a wooth makes me want to become a better mom. They are all growing up and I feel like I'm in this weird stage---the dreaded post-baby days. I want them to have an unshakeable knowledge of how much I love them. A quick I-love-this about each of them: Haley's love of photo shoots, whether they involve her or one of her friends; Jake getting so involved in his Grandpa Kent's Edgar Rice Burroughs books (Tarzan etc); Nathan's desire to go to Target almost every day, just so he can look at all the swords and other grizzy weapons that crowd the shelves for Halloween; Kaleb's recent need to say "Mom? I love you, Mom!" and "Mom? What is your name again?" and then he laughs and says "oh yeah" when I tell him, as if he had forgotten. Whenever I take a picture of any of them, we have to start with a silly face, and then they'll smile.

Kendell is almost recuperated from his surgery. "Almost" meaning his right hip still hurts, and he's not 100%, but he is getting there. I'm still giving him nearly-every-night leg-and-scar massages. Things are slowly starting to return to normal around here!

 

I know that doesn't look like a photo of my dad, but it represents him. I still haven't brought myself to take a photo of him at his rest home, but I took this after we visited him for the first time. I left that home knowing that my dad doesn't know who I am---a strange feeling. We went for a short little hike in Rock Canyon after we visited him, and as I walked in the mountains I was filled with this feeling I am still struggling to explain---an even-stranger peace. I felt like I should try to savor and appreciate in his stead, as if me just enjoying my own life would be enough for him.

 

Fall is here! The leaves on the mountains make me want to go hiking. So far we've done a bit of Dry Canyon, Rock Canyon, and Payson Canyon. The Halloween decorations are up, the kids are in serious costume decision-making process, and I am loving all the color everywhere. I love, love, love the fall. Did I mention it's my favorite?

I'm an idiot. I've been training for my half-marathon. But I neglected to actually sign up for it. Now it's too late: it's full. DANG. But, I am still in love with running. I got new shoes a few weeks ago and my feet are much happier! I run anywhere from 35-50 minutes. Uphill is still my favorite!

Working at the library is having a serious impact on my piles of books. Translation: there are more piles. I seem to find something else I am dying to read every time I shelf read. I just finished Life of Pi and now I'm trying to decide what to read next; I have 18 items checked out!

One of my favorite fall things: the way the light is colored, and how it falls around and through the last of the flowers. I still have some roses blooming, a bunch of fushia-colored flowers I don't know the name of, and a few zinnias. I'm starting the fall garden clean out, digging out the spent sunflowers and trimming off perennials.

Creative projects are overtaking my desk. I'm about one-third the way through an autumn-colored rag quilt, and I've got flannel lined up for Christmas gifts, and another Christmas quilt I am dying to make. New BP class, various scrapbook layouts, a craft project for the young women. I want more time to work on everything!

Financial crisis, global warming, hurricanes, wild fires, nuclear weapons in Korea: seems like it is always bad news. But I still try to read the newspaper most days, even if it's just the headlines. I never miss the obituary pages, and the kids have discovered the comics page.

Haley took this picture of me in Dry Canyon. I am tempted to make a snide comment about my high forehead but instead I will say: I am happy in the mountains and I'm grateful to live near them.

You can also blog about this. Send the idea to your blogging friends—challenge your readers, too. Tons of other scrapbookers are blogging about it today, in fact—check out Stacy's blog for a list of links!

Journal Your Heart Out!

One of my favorite-ever photos is a black and white of me as a newborn. My mother—her hair perfectly coiffed in a modified beehive, despite her recent 36-hours, posterior-baby, back-labor-without-drugs delivery of me—is sitting in a hospital bed with me bundled up in one of those perfect baby-burrito wraps the nurses manage. She’s holding me up, our cheeks pressed together; everything is quiet and peaceful.

I love this photo. It might even be the only picture of me as a newborn that exists. It makes me think about my mom on the day I was born, especially in light of how much I loved the days my babies were born. That exhausted euphoria, the absolute magic of a person who previously wasn’t there and then: here; the examining of body parts and counting of toes. But there I go, putting my own experiences on top of my mother’s. Because honestly: I’ve no idea how she felt on the day I was born. I wonder: how did she feel at having her third girl—did she wish I was a boy? or: did she know what to name me when she saw me, or did it take awhile? or: did anyone bring her a gift or some flowers? or: what was her favorite part of me? (Personally, I have a thing for the backs of babies’ necks.) or even: who took the picture? And that’s why the picture I love also frustrates me: I want to know more than it can tell. I want to know what she thought, what she felt.

But my mom is just not the write-down-your-feelings sort of person. And the longer I go about my life, the more I realize that most people aren’t write-down-your-feelings sort of people. Which is a realization that makes me sad, because I think that most people want to know more of their own stories. It’s the impetus (or, at least one of them) behind a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking I am offering right now: Write Now! A Speedy Journaling Workshop. 

Honestly: this is my favorite class I’ve taught. As I developed it, my goal was to help those I-don’t-write-down-my-feelings sort of people be able to write down their feelings—well, and the stories they want to tell on their layouts. It is all about knowing that it doesn’t have to take forever to write well; I share tons of techniques for writing quickly. It’s about knowing how to get to the point without any sort of writerly agony. And it’s about overcoming that fear we all have (writers, quite honestly, probably have it the worst!) of sounding dumb or pointless or silly or whatever in our writing, meaning I also teach ways to overcome that it-has-to-be-perfect attitude. Of course, you all know that I love anything to do with words, so of course I’d love this class, right?

But it’s more than just my geekiness that makes Write Now! my favorite. It’s that I get the opportunity to help people get their stories on their layouts—real, interesting, significant stories. Because I know that people are taking more pictures now than ever, and the thought of all those storyless pictures gives me hives.

SO! Over the next four weeks on my blog, I’m going to be doing some random journaling challenges, tips-and-tricks, and ideas to tickle your writerly self into action, all in conjunction with Write Now! If you’re interested in getting the whole Write Now! shebang, you can learn more and sign up here. (Through July 30.) (The class started yesterday, but it would be no big deal to get caught up.)

Your first challenge? Choose a picture from your childhood that you wish you had the story behind—and then ask someone to tell it to you. I know—brilliant, right? Because seriously: my mom’s still here. Even though the details won’t ever be fresh in her memory like they were on the day my newborn photo was taken, I’m sure she remembers some things. And even though communicating with my mom isn’t one of my strongest points, I’m still up for the challenge, because I want to know the story more than I struggle with actually asking the questions. If you take the challenge and blog about it, make sure to tell me because I want to read your newly-found story, too!

Happy writing!

Don't Forget!

If you're in my Write Now! class, don't forget the chat is tonight! 6:00 p.m. PST. See you there!

Write Now!

OK, so, if you know my scrapbooking style at all, you know I tend to write a lot of journaling---a lot. But lately I've been a bit obsessed with a sort of sparsity of words, of packing as much meaning into as few words as possible. It's sort of like writing poetry, only with more freedom and connections. Or like prose poems. [Completely unrelated side note: there's a quiz on that link to help you discover if you're an Emo or not; made me giggle a bit as sitting at a computer taking an on line quiz seems totally non-emo to me in the first place!]

And that's just what my new class at Big Picture, Write Now!, is about---how to write good, strong journaling that's also quick. I am excited for the class to start---it begins on Thursday---because I hope it will help more people want to journal. So many people seem to think that journaling takes too long, but it doesn't really have to. Don't get me wrong, I still do layouts with lots of journaling. But I'm starting to see more clearly, now, which photos demand a lot of words, and which want just a few really good words.

Sign ups last until June 10 if you're interested!

My Word! Starts Today!

Did I share this? I don't think I did. My Word! (my Big Picture Scrapbooking class) starts today, March first. What a great way to start the month that brings spring and flowers and green grass! Wondering what My Word! is? Well, it's six weeks dedicated to the art of journaling. It's full of ideas to get you writing---and to get you writing well! I really and truly believe that EVERYONE can journal well, given the right tools---and the class gives you just that. OK, I know that sounds a little bit cheesy, but I am SO passionate about this subject.

If you're new to the class, welcome! And if you're curious about the class, there are still a few days left (and a few spots!) to sign up. Click here to find out more.

This is BIG! (More BIG news!)

So, last night, the long-anticipated date arrived: my Big Picture Scrapbooking class opened up!

You can sign up for my class here.

It's something. I'm putting the finishing touches on this six-week class that's all about using words and making your journaling come to life. But I don't have a word that says how I feel about it. I remember the first time I ever saw a scrapbook. My friend Teresa brought her new Creative Memories album into work (we worked together at WordPerfect) to show me the layouts she'd done about her daughter, Sydney. When I saw those layouts, I was of course amazed at the cute little stickers (yep, sneezed all over the place) and the creative photo treatments (so glad we've moved past the cut-your-photos-into-whatever-shape-matches-your-theme thing). But what was a revelation to me was the pairing of pictures with words. Seeing it laid out like that gave me somewhere to pin the nebulous ideas I was having about how to keep my memories intact. Plus, even then, I loved words. Scrapbooking seemed like the perfect craft. It was another two years after I saw her scrapbook that I started scrapping, too. But for me, the original intent was always that same revelation. Not that, as the cliche goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But that a picture deserves a thousand words---or at least twenty or so. At least some.

Writing down the words---the stories and the little details that make up our lives---matters. The pictures can't say everything. And YOUR voice telling the story matters, too. Because only you can tell your story. And that's what I'm trying to teach in this Big Picture workshop. Yes, it's all about word choice and sensory details and how to make your writing "flow." But more than that, deep down, the identity of my little class is that YOUR voice matters.

And I can't tell you how much I hope people will sign up to learn that!

(ps, kudos to my friend James who was able to get a semi-flattering photo of me...not an easy thing to do with this material!)

Live BIG, Blog BIG

How exciting is this:  Stacy Julian is featuring me on her blog this week, and asked me to share a little insight into me and my life!

What is one of your BIG dreams? Writing successful novels

What's the biggest dessert you've ever eaten? 1/2 of a panful of Brownies from Hell...you know the ones, with caramel and chocolate chips on top? I don't make them very often because I CAN'T stop eating them!

What's the biggest scrapbooking project you have tackled to date? My kids' albums.

List three BIG-hearted people in your life:  my husband Kendell, my sister Becky, my best friend Chris

What BIG idea are you glad you acted on? Finishing college, becoming a mom, trying out teaching

What scrapbooking product/product category do you have the biggest stash of? Definitely paper! I can't help it...the urge to buy it is overwhelming!!!

What superstar or celebrity would you pay BIG money to see in person?  I'd pay BIG money to have a nice, quiet dinner with my favorite writer, Margaret Atwood.

What BIG plans are you making for the near future (vacation, accomplishment or other milestone event?) Haley and I are heading off for a little mother-daughter trip to Las Vegas this week---if I can get over my strep throat quickly!

How BIG are your feet? 8.5

A few blog entries ago, I wrote about my ice cream obsession. Be the first to guess how much ice cream I have in my stash (hint: it was on sale last week!) and you'll win a little package from my BIG stash of pattern paper! (Post your guess in your reply.)