One Little Word for 2026

I started scrapbooking in 2004 and it changed who I was. Yes, that sounds hokey and goofy and just silly but until then, I didn't think I had a creative bone in my body. I had never taken an art class, couldn't draw a straight line, and wouldn't even attempt to draw or create anything with my hands.

But scrapbooking opened up a part of me that I didn't know existed. It created a way for me to have something that was JUST FOR ME as I was in the throes of having three kids in five years, trying to manage a career, and moving to a new town. Plus, it allowed me to combine that newfound creativity with my love and need to write. I was a trained writer and legal writing professor but I hadn't done any personal writing. The more I scrapbooked and then started blogging, the more that part of me flourished and I became known as a journaler in the scrapbooking world - my focus was the story I was telling and the page design and photographs were secondary to what I was writing about. I loved every single bit of it but as my kids grew into teenagers and I went back to work full-time, the stories I was documenting weren't truly my own anymore and I also didn't have time for it anymore.

As I was thinking about this blog and learning to create a new life for myself with grown kids and not working, I came back to creating. And so I'm going back to those creative roots with scrapbooking and blogging. I've joined Ali Edwards' One Little Word Workshop and am so excited. I've done this project many times over the past 20 years but I'm hoping that posting it here will keep me accountable while also helping me write and create more in 2026.

The word that I've chosen for this year is breathe and I'll expand on that a bit more this week. Feel free to follow along!