This week I got to take my oldest boys to Sears for their “Birthday” photos.  It has been over 3 years since we have done this, since we used to have this done by a professional photographer (Pamela Dykstra Photography).  She is incredible, did the most wonderful photos of my boys, but this year she had a new baby and asked that we not contact her for at least a year to allow her to be with her new child.  Please note she is still doing infant photography and friends during this time, so check out her site if you are looking for a photographer in Chilliwack, BC.

After the photos on Sunday, I sat down on the computer and did my magic and photo-edited them to fix color and remove flaws, then headed off to the forum to see what kits would be available to highlight my handsome boys.  To my surprise one of our newest designers EDELINE MARTA, came out with the most perfect kit to highlight, my middle chid’s photos:

These layouts were made using her wonderful kit HELLOW HELLOW.

I had a little help from one of the best template designers out there Busy Bee Designs and Used her most recent collection:

It was a little harder to find a kit to work with that could highlight my oldest’s photos.  He had such a classic backdrop, I wanted something stunning.  The new release I chose to use was HeatherT’s newest Stichery Collection:

Picking a kit was harder than I thought, but then I remembered a great kit she had already in the shop, and that combined with another collection of Busy Bee Templates…

The perfect tribute to my oldest was created:

Its rich, its magical, and most importantly it is so HIM!!!

Well, to keep the traffic coming  to my blog I sat down and created an INSPIRED TIMELINE Template, inspired by Kay Int Veen’s Timeline :

Here is what the Template looks like:

You can grab it HERE.

Thanks for stopping by see you next time.

Enjoy… See you next week!

The last two challenges I took part in were… The NO PHOTO CHALLENGE:

I made this using the NO SUNSHINE kit by Designs by Helly.  Then I did the WHITE SPACE CHALLENGE.. I chose to use the A Mother’s Song Collab and make a layout about my Grandma:

If you want to see my Inspired Timeline.. Check out my Challenge.. at mScraps… For now I hope you had fun too!!

Remember your layouts are due by Saturday, 12th May 2012 – 23:59PM GMT

And Take a moment to check out our AWESOME Monthly Challenges!!

For the SCRAPLIFT CHAIN.. I scraplifted, this wonderful layout by ScrappyFish.

Then I took part in the MINIMALIST CHALLENGE… It really made me think about who I truly am…

It was a wonderful… Freeing activity… Of course I still have the WHITE SPACE and NON-PHOTO CHALLENGE to take part in…

And I am just minutes away from hosting my challenge.. Come play with me!!!

The first Challenge I jumped on was the Over the Edge Challenge:

This was a great challenge for me because I just grabbed the awesome iNSD Template Grab Bag by Amber Shaw!!  There were quite a few awesome templates that could for this challenge in this HUGE grab bag!  The kit I used was FRAGILITY by Designs by Helly.

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The next challenge that you MUST check out is the SIGNATURE CHALLENGE.  They have even create a template for you if you have never made a signature before.. Here is mine… I used the SECOND BLOG TRAIN FREEBIE.

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Last night my sister posted some adorable pictures of my nieces.. And then well, this mornings TEMPLATE CHALLENGE was calling me.  AgainI used the SECOND BLOG TRAIN FREEBIE.

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I am sure you noticed I am not much of a journaller, but I did take part in the JOURNALLING CHALLENGE.  I used an incredible template from Busy Bee Designs Cherry Blossom, and the beautiful kit Sunday Morning by Designs by Helly.

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If you don’t feel like scrapping but still want a chance to win.. Check out our WORD SCRAMBLE challenge.

And please sign up for PROGRESSIVE SCRAP CHALLENGE (this one is SOOO fun!!) and SCRAPLIFT CHAIN… I will be joining the chain soon.. Come join me!!

Stay tuned there are more challenges to come.. I will ensure I post my layouts so you can see too.

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It’s the official Mscraps iNSD 2012 Blog / Facebook Hop (Train) !!! 
For this train, our CT & Designers have decided to work with the same color scheme so that at the end of this hop (train ride), you will have collected a beautiful coordinated {huge!!} full kit!

Please take a peek at this HUGE kit
(not all shown!! templates and quickpages not shown!!):

You can grab freebie here. 
A simple and playful Template created by Yours Truly!!

:: DOWNLOAD HERE ::



Here is my layout:

Now, continue on and collect all of the other beautiful, gorgeous and yummy treats!!

Your next stop is: Tinci’s Blog.

HAVE FUN, everyone!!!   Thanks for popping By….

You don’t want to miss it!!!

what happened).

And with the magic of photoediting:

Today She wrote (edited to fit my blog):

I confess that I don’t feel like I’m working to my potential. And it makes me feel sick. I know the signs. It starts with me not being able to cope with my to-do list. It all looks too overwhelming. So I scale things back: I take out everything that has to do with …

The next stage of not living up to my potential is that I can’t read anything. I tried to read the New York Times magazine cover story about fixing a marriage. I can’t open it, though. The woman who is the author wrote about her own experience. F*^&. I should have posted about that.

Elizabeth Weil, from the New York Times magazine, will get a book deal from her piece. I will get a lot of comments from my paragraph. The comments will be: You should write more about that.

It’s true. I should. I should have a book deal, right? Don’t tell me that, okay? Because first of all I make way more from this blog than I would from a book, and I hated writing my last book. But I worry that maybe I should have another book because I won’t feel like I’m a real writer until I have a book New York Times book reviewers fawn over.

Should is a dangerous word. Someone once told me there is no word for should in Spanish. Is this right? Surely, though, there is a Spanish way to say I feel like crap because I’m not living up to my potential. After all, Spanish is the language of Catholic guilt. Should is the American way of putting ourselves down in the name of the need to impress other people.

I should be starting another company. Here’s why: I can’t stop thinking of companies.
I have a community that is always receptive to my ventures, and I have tons of connections into mainstream media where I could market whatever I come up with.
Instead of all of that, I am homeschooling.

Oh. Please. Please God of Editorial Decisions stop me right now from writing about how sick I am of my kids. Let me write something poetic about the joys of parenting.

As a whole, the job is enthralling and rewarding and full of joy. But day to day I could cry. Day to day I think, “All my interesting friends are sending interesting emails today and having interesting meetings.”

My kids have such fun days. They are my dream days. Private lessons in everything they are interested in. Reading for hours each day. Wake up with mooing cows, go to bed with star-filled skies.

If I really hated this life, I’d be changing it.

But all I want to do is write. I don’t feel like I should write, I feel like I have to write or I will die.

So the stuff I think I should do. I’m not doing it because I don’t need to, I guess. I guess I’m blogging because I need to.

So this is what I’m telling you: There is no should. There is no living up to your potential. There is just doing your life. You can’t do someone else’s life.

If we know our goal, and we know our life, and we are working toward it, then we never talk about our shoulds.

So maybe I can just focus on a single goal. And maybe all I need to do is write this.

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I would be truly surprised if this post does not ring true with many of us. Sure we don’t all want to be writers, but if you changed the wording, put some of your idols, some of your passions in there, could this actually be you speaking?

Maybe you think you SHOULD be a better photographer?

How about a better manager? I can assure you there are a lot of SHOULDS out there that relate to managing people, engagement, etc.

How did our lives become work? Last night I was reading DRIVE by Dan Pink. And he described this situation as a Sawyerism… (from the book about Tom Sawyer).. Remember when Tom had to paint the fence? That “work” did not appeal to him, he didn’t want to do it… Suddenly he was inspired, when his friend came down the street… “What ya Doing?” asked his friend. “Painting the fence, I enjoy it but you wouldn’t like it”… By the end of the conversation, Tom had his friend painting the fence and giving him an apple for the “privilege” of doing it. By the end of the afternoon the entire neighbourhood of kids had painted the stretch of fence three times over. Funny…

When you read books about motivation, the author always looks at this story as a demonstration of intrinsic drive. How if you make something “look” fun or inviting, people will be willing to challenge themselves to do it. But if you add a monetary value to it, or a reward.. People start looking at the activity as work. Artists who are paid, create work that is less inspiring. Advertising teams, create less effective advertising and marketing schemes when the outcome is more reward based…

How come no one notices the sweet simple truth that….

Tom missed out! Yes, he had his grin on and walked away knowing he didn’t have to do a stitch of “work”, but was it really work?? Or was it really fun?? Afterall, 12 kids did the job no complaints, heck some even paid him for the privilege.

What are we missing out on because we think everything in our life is a “SHOULD”?
Why can we not look at what we have with pure joy?

In actuality, I have what many people would view as a multitude of “jobs” in my life:

* Wife
* Mother
* HACCP Specialist
* Western Area Synapse Co-Chair
* BC Regional Synapse Chair
* Creative Team Member for Digital Scrapbooking Site
* Advertising Manager for a Digital Scrapbook Designer
* Sister, Daughter
* Christian/Anglican/Catholic

The list grows daily. But when I sit back and think it through most of those things are not really jobs.

Yet sadly, like Penelope, there are days when I can honestly say “As a whole, my life is enthralling and rewarding and full of joy. But day to day I could cry. Day to day I think, “All my interesting friends are sending interesting emails today and having interesting lives.”

Why can I not be content with what I have? I know I have friends and relatives that look at my life and wish theirs could be as interesting… I have people sending me messages saying they wished they would take their kids on as many outings, or scrapbooked as wonderfully as I do, or baked yummy food, or loved their job as much as I profess to, or be as outgoing as I pretend to be, or as organized as I manage to fool people into thinking I am… So why do I need to feel the need to motivate myself to strive for more?

Maybe Penelope is right:

If I really hated this life, I’d be changing it.

Maybe I need to change my thoughts and realize that: There is no should. There is no living up to your potential. There is just doing your life. You can’t do someone else’s life.

Clare Booth Loose says “A great man is a sentence”. Ask yourself what is your sentence. (Look up the You Tube Video: Drive, Daniel Pink – 9781594488849).
Having that one sentence focus statement may help to convince you that your life is not all work. That what you are doing right now is good enough. Maybe, if we know our goal, and we know our life, and we are working toward it, then maybe we may not feel the need to continually talk about our SHOULDs. All a SHOULD can do is discourage us from reaching our true potential, and convert those items we truly love into work.

And in the end who wants to miss out on all the fun, like Tom did?

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I bet you thought I would start right away with me and my leadership journey.  Originally, I was going to do that, but I have learned some new things about life and myself that I think will help you on your career path.   So here are three special stories, to help trigger conversation and thought.

Which one do you fit into?

More importantly, which one do you want to fit to?

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Have you ever heard the story about the Monkeys??  This story was passed on to me from a direct supervisor at one point during my career in the public service.  The source has been lost throughout the years, but the message still rings loud and clear.

 Start with a cage containing five (5) monkeys.  Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.  Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.  As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.  After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.  Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

 Now, put away the cold water.  Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.  The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs.  To his surprise and horror, all the other monkeys attack him.  After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

 Next remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one.  The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.  The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm!  Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the last original monkey.  Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.  Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

 After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water.  Nevertheless, no monkey every again approaches the stairs to try for a banana.

 Why not??  Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done around here…

 Is this how you view your job?  Is this how you want to go through your career?  What if there was another attitude you could mimic??

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 One of my favourite blogs to follow is Gail VazOxlade (gailvazoxlade.com).  She is a wonderful woman who teaches people how to appropriately manage their finances and get out of debt.  She currently has 3 TV shows (Till Debt Do Us Part, Till Debt Do Us Part: Home Edition, and Princess).  And her blog is both insightful and encouraging.  Recently, she did a blog post that brought my thoughts back to the story of the monkeys.  In this post she discussed the story of a VERY famous turtle.  The following is directly from her blog:

 So many people think they are powerless.  Life just happens to them and they are pushed along in the current of a river that’s too strong to escape…. They are peons in someone else’s major drama.

 Too bad.  And NOT TRUE.

 We each have the ability to create a life that works for us.  When we feel helpless and incapable of changing our circumstances, we’re letting YERTLE have the last say.

 Yertle the Turtle likes his pond and he rules it well, at first.  But power corrupts and Yertle’s desire to rise higher and higher makes him build up his throne… on the backs of his fellow turtles.

 People see this as a story about tyranny and social justice.  I like to look at it as the store about how one guy – the turtle on the bottom, a fellow named MACK – decides to take control and change his life.  Tired of being squashed in the mud by Yertle’s obsessions, the little Atlas shrugs.  Actually, Mack BURPS.

 …

 Like the turtle on the bottom of the stack, you have the option of staying in the game and just being a stepping stone to someone else’s dream-come-true, or shaking off the yoke of complacency and creating a new reality for yourself.

 ….

 Not everyone is cut out to be a king.  Not everyone wants to be a king. But not being a king doesn’t mean you have to be someone else’s pawn.  You can be king of your own world, master of your own future….

 If you want to have a different life, you must do something different.  Go ahead, BURP!!!

The last piece of the puzzle is the bumblebee.  Ok, originally, this post had nothing in it about bumblebees, but funny thing is my kids have a huge impact on me and this is their small contribution.

At the beginning of the movie THE BEE is the following quote:

 According to all known laws of aviation, there’s no way a bee should be able to fly.

Its wings are too small to lift its fat little body off the ground.

 The bee, of course, flies anyway – because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.

So a week has passed.  And my growth has been limited.  I finally got my hands on THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE by Kouzes Posner (http://ca.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA/Section/index.html).  I haven’t been able to read more than the first chapter or two.  But while waiting for this book to be received, I also grabbed the book WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE by Marshall Goldsmith (http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/) and of course managed to read a chapter or two from this book.  The results of my reading have led me to re-examine my Initial Goal Statement.  If you recall I wrote:

I am interested in learning more about leadership, not because I want to be in a management position one day, but because I want to be a person that helps lead others to attaining their goals.  I believe my primary motivation is to be of service to others.

This goal statement is interesting because most of the leadership books I have been able to find are written on the premise that you (the reader) want to succeed, advance, manage people, earn lots of money and be big in the world.  I think my vision of being big in the world would more closely resemble MOTHER THERESA than DONALD TRUMP, but I know I will still gain some insight from reading the materials.  Therefore, I plan on continuing on in this process because I know even if I am never Regional Director the advice given and information gained from these materials will make me a better person. So as a result, I have edited my Goal Statement Slightly.

My goals for this leadership development program is to improve myself, not because I want to be in a management position one day, but because I want to be a person that helps lead others to attaining their goals.  I believe my primary motivation is to be of service to others. With this in mind, I need to learn to LISTEN more effectively, ACCEPT FEEDBACK and grow from it, LEARN TO MORE APPROPRIATELY COMMUNICATE by analyzing the impact of my actions and words on others, and SET AN EXAMPLE.

More than likely this Goal Statement will shift slightly as I continue on with this process, but I think this one more clearly defines where I am headed from here.  During this past week I have also been able to identify that I currently can relate more closely to MACK the Turtle than a monkey.  I would rather make a BURP that causes great change for many, than go along with the crowd, blindly without understanding the reasoning behind the culture.  I know I am not quite yet ready to be a bumblebee, and fly in the face of what the culture of the public service has told me to be truth.  I am not ready to walk away from concerning myself with what others think about me, but my steps in this journey have definitely taken me off the beaten path.

For the next week I will continue reading the two leadership books that I have and jot down my notes and thoughts.  I look forward to see where you have headed over the past week, and your goal statements and direction you have set for yourself for the week ahead.

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A self-study leadership development program for aspiring leaders

Designed by Dan McCarthy, author of Great Leadership

JUST LISTEN by Mark Goulston

This book will change your life!  It will change how you view your role in the communication process, and most importantly how you interact with those around you.

Over the next few hours or days I will post the remainder of my leadership journey blog posts from my work blog.. Join in comment, and lets see where we go from here.  And remember:

EVERYONE has a leadership job.  Where will you take yours?