This past year has certainly been a doozy for me. I turned 50, fell and tore 4 ligaments in my right foot and tore my rotator cuff. I have traveled more in 12 months than I have in my entire life. My oldest daughter bought her first house and my youngest daughter started high school. Three of my siblings who I have been estranged from for more than 5 years, came back into my life. And right before Christmas, my mom passed away at the age of 80. After mom died, I did a lot of reflection, especially on my life and my family. I realized how precious life is and how crucial my kids and husband, family and friends are to me. In addition to enjoying time with my family and friends, I made a commitment to find ways to celebrate life everyday. Here are just a few ideas for you to do the same:
- Paying It Forward: In my opinion, there is no better way to celebrate life than to pay kindness and good deeds forward. I believe in the treating others as you would want to be treated. I donate to charities whenever I can and give to families in my area who have kids who are home schooled and have special needs.
- Getting Back To Nature: When I get outside on a gorgeous day, I pay attention to the beauty of nature. I love flowers, the greenery and even watching bugs do their thing. I enjoy having picnics, hiking, walking and biking to celebrate nature and the outdoors.
- Documentation: One of the ways I personally celebrate life is to document it. I have a book for each of my kids with all of their milestones as well as popular news stories which happened at the time. I have tons of videos and pictures of the kids, family get togethers and other celebrations of life. One of my favorite things to do is give photos in frames and albums as gifts. I actually had two photo books made from Mixbook, which would have been mom’s Christmas gift from the kids. Instead, I get to enjoy them and think of her when I look at them.
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” — Oprah Winfrey
If you are looking for a unique gift or a way to commemorate life for yourself, Mixbook has a ton of options for you. You can make photo books, calendars and cards for just about any occasion. You just upload your photos and choose the path you want to take and get creative! You can choose from the Mini Photo Book which starts at just $7 to the larger Square Photo Books which starts at $20. You can choose from several themes including Everyday, Wedding, Birthday and more or you can create your own. You can add 1-2 pictures per page or sometimes 4 or more to the 20 pages each book includes.
I had one of the Mini and one Square book made and I really had fun putting it together. I love flowers and so does mom, so the theme for the larger book was the Whimsy Floral. I filed the book with pictures of the kids at different ages. The book has well over 30 pictures as does the smaller book. For the Mini Book, I chose the Moments In Time theme and filled it with pictures of the whole family. I was quite pleased with the way they look, the quality of the paper and the uber fast production and shipment of the books. I am planning to make a calendar of the kids for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day and am really looking forward to it! You can follow Mixbook on Twitter, Pinterest and their blog.
How will you celebrate life today?
