Project Life...a revelation

So here it is...week 7 of Project life and I have successfully completed:

2 full weeks of layouts.

At first I wanted to beat myself up over this reality.

I wanted to fill myself with all these thoughts like:

You are such a failure at documenting your life.

You are such a failure at finishing what you start.

You can't use pregnancy as an excuse, it's your hobby, you should enjoy this process.

I stink at life.

Pretty intense thinking, huh?

So instead of pushing through these thoughts and spending hours upstairs trying to figure out exactly which piece of coordinated paper, or which scrap of ribbon would look best with this picture, I did what I do best; I gave up.

Which brings us to today...7 weeks into this year and 4 weeks behind.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what caused me to get into this rut so early.

I have two gorgeous albums on my shelf documenting last year, so I know that I can do it.

What is stopping me from doing it now?

Expectations.

 I have placed so many expectations on myself and my album this year.

I spend so much time looking at beautiful layouts on blogs that have incorporated the latest scrapbooking gadget or trendy sticker.

I have spent money at scrapbooking websites trying to buy the latest product hoping that it will spark some kind of motivation.

I have spent hours on Pinterest comparing my layouts to other professional scrapbookers.

I have let myself believe that "If I only had the time to put forth 3 hours on one layout, maybe I'd be happy", which leads to discontentment in other areas of my life.

And I have convinced myself into believing that if I don't have layouts as beautiful, or textured, or creative as these, than I am failing at the process.

So.not.true.

I have forgotten what this process is all about.

It's about enjoying piecing photos and words together in a way that flows, shows my own creative style {not someone elses} and is simple!

I have forgotten that I am creative.

I am ambitious.

and most importantly

I am documenting our life.

I am successful at this process!

So I am going to go back to doing what I do best.

Simple, basic layouts, that document where we are in our life right now.

There are so many interesting things going on that I want to make sure I don't miss out on.

I'm going to pick myself up out of this rut, dust myself off, waddle up the stairs (as only a 9 month pregnant woman can) and document, document, document.

And whatever it looks like in the end will be perfectly fine with me.

After all, it's our life, and it doesn't get much better than that!

*If you haven't heard of Project Life make sure you check out Becky Higgins' amazing products here. She has created such a simple approach to scrapbooking and I honestly believe that anyone can do it!