Life is full around here. So full, in fact, that some changes and choices need to be made. You may have noticed that I've not produced many layouts or templates recently. One of the main changes is that since last January, I have moved back to full time work after 11 hours on part-time basis. Those 11 years are a great blessing, allowing me to keep up my career, bring in some income, yet have time with the boys as they were growing up. The last few years my work responsibilities had increased greatly and the boys need me around less, so I agreed to switch back. It is stressful, but so far so good. He has sustained me.
Of course this leaves me with significantly less spare time for everything I want to do.
Also, my word for 2016 is Deeper. I decided prayerfully that I want to devote more time towards deepening relationships. Deeper relationship with my God, with my family, my mom, my parents-in-laws, and friends and people I meet too. I am glad to report that so far I'm pretty on track. Been accepting more social engagements, and intentionally planning my lunch breaks to catch up with folks. Also am back attending BSF (bible study fellowship) and being really blessed.
Thirdly, for many years I found it so fun and rewarding sharing about our family's adventures, the cute things the boys were up to, and so on. But as they have grown up, it became important to respect their wish for privacy.
So I have decided I will cut down on blogging, and will not be keeping up any schedule of putting out templates in the store. Whatever I do get done will be up on the store whenever!
Be sure I will still be scrapbooking my life and travels, so some of it will still make it here! I'm in my tenth year of blogging, and I do love it, my own space on the world wide web to share and say what I want. I guess I won't completely go away, I am just giving myself permission to not be obligated to keep posting regularly.
I greatly appreciate anyone who is still reading here, and to all of you wonderful readers who have been following me, thank you so much! I hope to still come back here with interesting stuff now and then. Like when I get my 30 Lists printed as 5x5 Persnickety books (wink) (in the works!)
If you wish to be notified of any posts here and in the store, you can follow me on Bloglovin', or you can sign up for my email newsletter. In fact, I have put together a gift for subscribers, further down this post. It's my way of keeping in touch :)
And I might sometimes post on my Yin_Dgs Instagram account. Right now I'm listing my 30 lists there! Very welcome to follow me there too.
And with all that said and done, I do have some latest layouts for February to share, hope they inspire you some :)
February Half-Monthly layouts
February Project Life
I always like to add fun stories - like how we set up our family group chat :)
and how family games help encourage great conversations
And family means a lot to me!
12x12 Layouts
A date night outing to our National Gallery that was so wonderful, and had so many photos I decided to make into a layout. Played with lots of paints and art journaling suplies!
And these are photos from our recent staycation, it was a great excuse to get the boys out with us for a bit, again too many photos so a layout it is, with plenty of messy art embellishing. Seems I'm in for this style lately!
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Blessings in all your new endeavors! I hope you have a wonderful time using your lunches to catch up with people you love, and are blessed by your work too. It is hard to believe your boys are nearly all grown. Time flies by so quickly! I have been inspired by you in lots of ways over the years (not just scrapbooking!). :) I was just telling David this past weekend about "my friend, Yin, in Singapore." I've mentioned you before, but we were discussing our house and whether or not we need or want to buy a bigger house now that we have 3 boys. I told him about how you try to live simply, without more space or stuff than you need so that you can be free to travel to all the places you want to visit. We would love to be able to travel more (even if it's just to Disney World every couple of years), but there's always a sacrifice to be made somewhere. Life is always changing. I'll look forward to seeing your new posts whenever they pop up. :)
ReplyDeletethanks Jenny - that might be the loveliest comment ever! I love how you told David about "my friend, Yin, from Singapore"! I feel the same!
DeleteYes, life is always changing, and our life stages and circumstances are similar but different, that's how we inspire each other! As long as we made our choices prayerfully and we will be blessed!
Good luck to you going back to work full time. I wanted to thank you again for all the freebies you provided over the years before you opened your own store. Your designs enabled me to scrapbook so many pages easily and beautifully. That's why I am so distressed to see two of your freebies being sold on another website. I wasn't sure how to send you a private email so I'm leaving you a comment here. It's template 157 & 204 on Signature Scrapbooks.
ReplyDeletebefore they have a chance to take them down, if they are still in business, here are the links. My email address is melissakier@hotmail.com if you wish to contact me. I tried to sign up for your newsletter tonight but didn't get the email to verify.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.signaturescrapbooks.com/digital-scrapbooking/product_info.php?products_id=366
http://www.signaturescrapbooks.com/digital-scrapbooking/product_info.php?products_id=359
Thanks Melissa for your wonderful words and for the heads up. I have written to them and hope they take it down. It is the second time this has happened (at least that I have known) - still a shock, but I guess on the internet this can happen. Thanks so much again!
DeleteYes, life does change. Now that my boys are in their mid twenties I don't scrapbook as much but I have made several wedding books for new young couples we know. Thank you so much for all the inspiration and freebies all these years! I follow you on IG and in a way feel we're friends.
ReplyDeleteI love what you said! Indeed!
DeleteThank you Carey.
Congratulations on your new commitments. And I am glad to see that you are not totally leaving us (BG). I know that after mom died, I pretty much quit blogging, since I did it for her anyway. Then got into genealogy in a big way once I was accepted into DAR. Life changes and we must make room for those changes while still keeping those who have been a part of our lives. I am so glad that I gotten to know you through the years and look forward to hearing more as the years progress. Keep the faith and good luck in your endeavors.
ReplyDeleteHi Tink! I miss your blog and your daily prompts memory keeping! Oh nice that you are into genealogy! I see myself going there and into more heritage stories and scrapbooking in a few years time too. I guess each life stage makes us want to do different things - and all good too!
DeleteTake care too and keep in touch!
How fabulous Yin! Ten years oh my your blog is great and I love your word of the year, wow what a great goal. I should have a therapy sesssion with you. Lol. Ehat fun layouts i have so much to learn. Hope to be reading more of your blog regularly. Hugs. Elaine from #30lists
ReplyDeleteThanks Elaine and how nice to meet on 30 Lists and expand our world!
DeleteYin I too find myself in a similar situation with my older sons (22 and 20) and having work filling up the time that they used to need. I love every time I see your work or a newsletter pop into my mailbox! I find your templates just my style especially for travel layouts. I love your stories and look forward to seeing you whenever you have time to share!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I will definitely share when I can. Especially how I continue memory keeping for a family of nearly grown up kids - a whole new frontier I'm navigating! :)
DeleteI totally understand your need to pull back from a schedule. I have followed you for YEARS and this is my first comment, I think. I'd like to thank you for all you've done for the scrapbooking community. You have produced a plethora of inspiration both Biblically and creatively. I appreciate you very much! Good luck with your new endeavors and we'll see you online when you are able. :)
ReplyDeleteDear Ashley, I just saw your comment (sorry!) and just want to say thank you. I really appreciate what you said!
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