Project Joy 365 - The Details

So, what is this ‘Project Joy 365’? Well, it is my ‘plan’ for 2011 and a search to find the balance that has seemed to elude me for the past 3 years.

I started by making a list of different activities I want to do with the girls next year. The list contains lots of fun things – like a homemade day spa, and baking together, and a homemade restaurant (like this one), and also other things we as a family have always said we wanted to do – like volunteering at a soup kitchen.

Why do I need a list and a plan for these types of things? Well, for me, it seems things like this stir around in my brain a lot, but never seem to translate into action. Now, they are down on paper and I will pick an activity weekly, put it on the Calendar and make sure it gets done. I also plan to blog about our activities here, in hopes of inspiring others, as well as to have some accountability for myself.

In addition to the weekly activities, I am also working on my daily attitude. I am working on thinking before speaking. I am working on saying 'yes', unless there is a concrete reason to say 'no'. I'm working on not only taking the girls to the pool, but on swimming and playing with them and even being a 'seaweed monster' - despite the fact that I feel completely ridiculous doing it! :D I am working on living a daily life that I will not look back on with any regret. Everyone warns you to cease this time, saying it flies by quickly. I am working on heeding those warnings and trying to find, create and share as much joy as I can in our daily lives.

The other part of this project is the 365 component. I have always wanted to try the photo a day projects in the past, but was afraid of getting stuck in the middle of the year and failing. So, I made a plan for this as well! I spent some time making another list. This one contains photo prompts of things that I want to take pictures of throughout the year. The list contains a bit of everything, from our house during the different seasons, to a monthly photo of the kids to self portraits and so on. One of the bi-weekly prompts is ‘Who or what are you thankful for’ – as I thought it would be great to include a bit of a gratitude journal/photo as part of the project.

My oldest daughter is becoming interested in photography as well, so I am going to ask her if she would like to do the 365 part of the project with me. I think it will be really fun at the end of the year to compare her photos and mine, given the same prompts!! It will also be a great time for us to spend together. It might be hard to do a daily photo when she is in school, but I thought we could just play ‘catch up’ on the weekends.

In addition to the list, I have put together some great ‘tools’ to help me be successful at the 365 part of this project. Wanna hear more about the tools? Come back and visit tomorrow!! :D

Thanks for stopping by!