May Days

One month can make a difference in your life . It only takes 21 days to form a new good habit.

So our prompt today is to write down 3 things that we would like to accomplish or start in May.

Maybe you have a non fiction book that you have been wanting to read. Read it in May.
Maybe you have pounds to shed. Start shedding them in May.
Maybe you keep saying you are going to get into a fitness routine, have lunch with a friend, start a book club, tell some you are sorry, tell someone THANK YOU, remove clutter from your house. Do it in May!

You get the idea.
Write your thee things down. Share your three things here if you wish because statistics have proven that when you share your goals you are much more likely to follow through and stay committed.

You can do anything for a month..right?

Have a beautiful day.

Sending Love,
Susan

Felt With The Heart

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart...Helen Keller

Our Prompt today is to write this quote in our journal and then write what it means to you. What do you consider the best and most beautiful things in your world?

Have a blessed Thursday.

Sending Love,
Susan

Faith

Our prompt today is to define the word faith. What does it mean to you? Describe your faith in detail. What/Who do you have faith in?

This is great to have on paper, not only for yourself but for future generations.

Have a terrific day!

Sending Love,
Susan

Try A Little Tenderness

Our prompt today is to write in our journal what the phrase BE GOOD TO YOURSELF means to you. Does it mean eating healthy, exercising, buying the shoes you have been wanting, eating a candy bear that you have not allowed yourself to have, spending down time, taking a hot bubble bath, going to lunch with a friend, taking an hour out of your day to curl up with a book somewhere, not letting anyone walk all over you??? What does it mean to YOU?

Now ask yourself the question "when was the last time I was good to myself"? Reflect and write down a commitment to yourself that you will be good to yourself within the next few days.

Have a fantastic day.

Sending Love,
Susan

Mind Over Matter

Our prompt today is to write about a time that the phrase Mind Over Matter was a part of our life. A time you had to push yourself mentally to get through what was going on physically or literally in your life. It is important that we remember these times.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Sending Love,
Susan

Happy 101 Award

I am delighted to accept the Happy 101 Award award from my new friend Jennifer McIntyre over at the Blue Barn. http://atthebluebarn.blogspot.com/.

In accepting this award, I must list ten things that make me happy and pass the award along to ten other bloggers that I enjoy. In doing so I am personally recommending these blogs to all of my followers.

1. My Faith My Faith is strong and so much a part of who I am that it is impossible to think of living life any other way. I rely on daily communication with God and His Peace that transcends all understanding for the challenges that life brings. I can do all things through Christ who STRENGTHENS me.

2. My Husband I am married to my best friend. He is such a blessing from God. He lifts me up, stands by my side, applauds my success, mourns my losses, holds me when I need held, and pushes me when I need pushed. I a blessed among women because this man call me his wife.

3. My Children I have five of the most wonderful, beautiful children in the world. They range in age from 22 to 31. I am so pleased with the adults that they have become. I am so lucky to have a daughter that I share the love for art with and a son that I share the love of photography with. We have fun sharing our passions for the arts. One of the things in life that makes me the happiest is watching my children with their own children. This leads me right in to number four.

4. My Grandchildren My three darling grandchildren are responsible for at least half the smiles that run across my face. They are such a sweet blessing to me and to their Papa. I am fortunate to have them all living close and to see each of them at least once a week. Here they are. Tyler who is 4, Wyatt who just turned 2 this month and Aubrey who is 6 months old.

5. My Mother I am so lucky to still have my mother and even luckier to have MY mother. It's true, when I was growing up everyone wanted my mother to be theirs. I am almost 50 and my friends still love my mother.She is my mother and my friend. She knows EVERYTHING about me and adores me anyway. I aspire to be the kind of grandmother to my grandchildren as she was to my children.

6. Time Away With My Husband We travel the world on business (literally) but my favorite time with my husband is the times we go away to our place in West Palm. We often go there for our anniversary w=so I think I associate it with romance, relaxing, and just spending quiet time together to catch up, relax and love each other.

7. Scrap booking/ Art Journaling I LOVE creating. It is very therapeutic for me and I love the fact that I am chronicling for my children, grandchildren and future generations.I am happiest when I am doing this with my daughter or my mother.

8. Photography I see thing through my lens in a new way. I love to tell an entire story just through pictures. I always wanted to be a photo journalist . This pull is still strong as I ache to ask strangers "What's Your Story"?, "What Happened"? as I snap their photos. I love taking photos in the other Countries that we visit. I enjoy taking photos of people just living their life. Everybody has a story to tell..EVERYBODY!

9. Cooking/Baking Both have been a passion of mine since I was a little girl. I love to plan parties and enjoy hostessing tea parties.

10. Project Ed Bear Project Ed Bear is an all volunteer organization dedicated to providing comforts and needs for pediatric oncology patients. I am a Co Founded this not for profit with my son Ede 16 years ago(after he had be diagnosed with bone tumors). It is an all volunteer part time job for me. I love the children, their parents, knowing that I am doing something with my life that is helping others. My youngest grandson (2 years old) was just diagnosed with autism so I know I will jumping into raising money for that in the near future as well.

I can't believe I am at 10 already. I could go on and on. I guess I am pretty lucky that I have that many things that make me happy.

Your Life Spelled Out picks the following bloggers for this Happiness Award. It is hard to pick just ten that bring me happiness as there are so many. Thank you Jennifer for choosing Your Life Spelled Out as one of the blogs that bring you happiness. You made my day.

http://scrapthatbaby.blogspot.com/

http://www.gracioushospitality.com/

http://www.minetothine.com/

http://scrapitforward.blogspot.com/

http://blueyecicle.blogspot.com/

http://recipechick.blogspot.com/

http://happylovesrosie.blogspot.com/

http://bluebirdroses.blogspot.com/

http://southernbellescrapper.blogspot.com/

http://havejournalwilltravel.blogspot.com/

Mental Clutter

There are many things in life that can cause what I call " Mental Clutter". For example, schedule overload, deadlines, being pulled in many directions, illness, illness of a loved one, over commitment, worry, fear, resentment and lack of down time to name just a few. Often times mental clutter leads to depression. One of the reasons I recommend keeping a journal is that we can release some of the clutter simply by writing it down.

Our prompt today is to ask ourselves the question "Is there anything in my life that is overwhelming right now?" "Is there anything in my life that is occupying too much of my daily thoughts?" "Am I angry, fearful or worrying about something?"

Get the clutter out! Use as much paper as you wish. Let your thoughts flow from your pen. Don't hold back!

After you have everything down on paper read what you wrote. Monday's prompt will be the next step in this process.

Have a blessed Sunday.

Sending Love,
Susan

Role Play

Our prompt today is to think about and write about the number of roles we play in our own lives. For example, you may be a wife , an attorney, a mother...you get the drift. Write about the roles you have and what each role means to you.

Have a fantastic Saturday.

Sending Love,
Susan

Priorities defined!

Our journal prompt today is to define our priorities at this time in our lives. Our priorities change as life and circumstances change. Today we will concentrate on where we are right now in our lives and what are priorities are or perhaps what they should be. Only you know that answer.

Our ART JOURNAL PROMPT this week is the word FIXED.

Have a wonderful day.

Sending Love,
Susan

There is no place like home!

I left Singapore 25 hours ago and just arrived home. It is so Nice to be back home and back in my own bed tonight. I talked to a young solider that sat next to me on the flight who was also on his way home. He is stationed in Korea and has not been home for 11 months. He told his family that he was sending a gift home for his fathers birthday and that it would arrive on Thursday. No one in his family knows that the gift is HIM.. He was so excited to surprise his wife, mother and father. He talked about how homesick he was. Being homesick myself and listening to him describe how it felt to be back home reminded me of how often I take "home" for granted and everything and person that makes my home, well, my home.

Our prompt today is to write what home is to you and why. Is home where are are living now or is it in another State or another Country? Is it the place where you grew up or the place where you raised your own family? Or both? Write about a time that you have been homesick and the little things that you miss about home when you are not there.

I will write bright and early on Friday. Thanks for being understanding about the late post today.

Have a wonderful evening.

Sending Love,
Susan

Here comes the judge!

Our prompt today was inspired by my experience on my flight from Malaysia to Singapore just a few hours ago. Stay with me here..It was a steaming hot day at an older airport that you have to walk for a half a mile just to get to your airplane and then you climb up a flight of stairs just to get on board (no jetways here). The flight is delayed (but only sightly).Finally the flight is announced and we wait in line (well sort of a line with several people cutting in front of us) to walk the half mile to the plane. Finally you are on board and seated on the very small plane . You even are fortunate enough to have an empty seat beside you. They announce that the plane will be leaving soon and ask everyone to be seated. Then a man comes out of no where and pushes his little child into the empty middle seat between my husband and myself. My husband being the gentleman that he is moves over to the middle seat by me and so the little girl will be closer to her mother on the other side. The father yanks his child up and finds another empty seat by a window to put her in and comes back and seats in the now empty isle seat that really belongs to my husband. The middle seat never belonged to them but he had 10 family members and was placing them where he wanted. We did not speak the same language so this made it very difficult to communicate so we did not even try. We are buckled up and ready to go when the captain announces that one of the flight attendants was having difficulties making it to work but that we would wait on them to arrive because it was not safe to take off without the extra attendant. So, there we were, sitting on the jetway in crowded seats for over an hour for a 45 minute plane ride. The attendant finally made it on board and we went over the fasten your seat belts, emergency exit talk and were all ready to take off when the captain announced over the speaker that while we were waiting on the attendant the engine light had come on and we could not take off until they fixed the problem. So then we waited for another hour (while the child in back of my seat kicked it over and over again and a poor little baby in the front of the plane had a complete meltdown)when he finally announced that they could not fix the problem so would be moving to another plane (about a mile away). So we all got off the plane while people were running and stepping on feet and pushing and shoving ...UGH! We were at the bottom of the steps to board the new plane when I realize that I had left my purse on the first plane..My hero husband gave me the carry ons and ran back for my purse. When we were finally both back on the new plane and it was pushing back and the cool air conditioning was blowing on our now very hot and sweaty bodies I paused to think about how I had judged the entire experience as BAD..delayed flight BAD, someone taking our empty seat BAD, late flight attendant BAD, engine light problem BAD, leaving my purse on the plane BAD. When the reality was if the plane had not been delayed and the flight attendant would not have been late the engine light would have not come on until we were in the air and who knows what was wrong with the engine and what would have happened. If I had not left my purse on the other plane we would not have sit in a row with an empty seat in the middle as I stood in the row until my husband was on the plane to make sure they did not leave without him. Then I pondered how many times I have judged something as good or bad without really knowing if it is. We often times only see the little picture .

SO (and thanks for listening) our prompt today is to write about a time or times that you thought something was BAD or perhaps GOOD when it has turned out to be the opposite.

I leave Singapore for the Untied States at 7:10. I will be in the air for 18 hours total so I will not post on Thursday until the evening.

I will talk to you Thursday.

Have a blessed day.

Sending Love,
Your Jet Lagging Friend Susan

Spinning Wheels

We often spend our precious time trying to change things that we have no power to change. Did you know that YOU are the only person you can change? You have no power to change anyone else. You can;t change the way they act, respond, talk, think or feel. You can however change the way that you act, respond,talk, think and feel. Our prompt today is to make a list of things or people that you have been spinning your wheels trying to change. Just accepting that you can not change someone else is the first step to peace in the relationship.

You might not be able to change the fact that someone will not do what you want them to do but you can change the way you respond. Acceptance is key in peaceful relationships..

Have a peace filled day.

Sending Love,
Susan

Great Expectations

Our prompt today is to ask ourselves the question Am I living up to my own expectation of myself? MY OWN..not my mothers, children's, boss, mother, father, spouse or any other person..but MY OWN. What are my expectations of myself? Are they realistic or idealistic expectations?If you don't know, it is hard to live up to them or to reach for them. Get it down on paper. You will see things more clearly.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Sending Love,
Susan

Name that tune!

On a lighter note, our prompt today is to write down at least five songs that have meaning to you or that move you and why they do. This is the music of your life.

Have a blessed Sunday.

Sending Love,
Susan

First Impressions

Our prompt today is to remember one of your many first impressions and write about it? Was there a time when your first impressions of someone or someplace was dead on? Was there ever a time it was way off? Can you count on first impressions? Are they reliable? What kind of first impression do you think you make on others?

I hope this day is a great start of a wonderful weekend for you.

Sending Love,
Susan

stand by me

Our prompt this fine Friday is to write about a time someone stood by you and supported you through a difficult time. OR Write about a time when you were the one offering support. Is that person still in your life? What kind of impact did they make on you?

Our art journal prompt this week is the word DONE! Can't wait to see what you create.

I just arrived in Singapore. It is 1:17a.m. here so I am now on a different time zone than most of you. I will be posting daily but the post may be later than normal.

Have a blessed day.

Sending Love,
Susan

If I could go anywhere in the world!

Our prompt today is to finish the sentence "If I could go anywhere in the world it would be to _______________. Then write why that is your choice. Who would you like to take with you? What would you like to do while you are there?

I leave today on business for Asia. It will be a quick trip (7 days total) and it is all business. It takes a day to get there and a day to get back so we will only be working 5 days. For those of you that pray I would appreciate prayers for safe travel.

I will post you prompt and the art journal prompt on Friday but it will not go up until much later than normal.

Have a FANTASTIC day!

Sending Love,
Susan

autism-2.jpg

Passionante

Passionate is a BIG word full of meaning. One of the dictionary definition that I looked up is

pas·sion·ate

–adjective 1. having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; fervid:

Today your prompt is to write about things you are passionate about. It's YOUR journal so write as many or as few as you wish. With little or a great deal of detail.

Those of you that know me know that I run a charity for children with cancer. My grandson was just diagnosed with autism. So as you can imagine I am an advocate and passionate about both illnesses.

I have several subjects and beliefs I am passionate about. How about you?

I also need to mention that I am leaving for Asia for business on Thursday and will be writing some of the prompts before I leave and sending them to my daughter Sarah..she will then post for me as she did the last time I was in Asia. I will still be on the blog daily checking but in order to get them to you in a timely manner she will be posting.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Sending you love,
Susan

Peace and Drama or is it Drama and Peace

One thing I am sure of is that Peace and Drama do not coexist. Did you know that some people are actually addicted to drama? It has been part of their life so long that they have difficulty functioning without it and if taken out of the drama will actually create more so they are comfortable. How dysfunctional is that?

I used to be a bit of a Drama queen myself at one time. EVERYTHING was SUCH a big deal. If I had a bad day, If someone didn't treat me right, If someone didn't act, say or do what I thought they should, If things didn't go the way I wanted them to, If I thought something was unfair or unjust and on and on and on! Oh and if their really was a CRISIS ... then you would really see the drama queen in me.

I lived a life void of peace.

Today I have made the decision that I would rather be at peace than most anything else. I have a level of acceptance and peace that I never thought possible. I don't try to change people or manipulate circumstances. I don't have to be right or be justified. I know that I am not sheltered from being treated badly , talked about, bad days, crisis, PMS (lol), illness or any other bad thing that is in the world.

Where are you in this drama called life? Are you a Drama Queen (always making a big deal out of EVERYTHING)? Are you at Peace? Do you accept others or try to change them? Do you have the why me attitude or the why not me attitude? After all what makes us think that we should be sheltered from life? Would you rather be RIGHT or rather be at peace?

Your prompt today is to look at the questions above and answer them honestly. Examine how you live your day to day life. Is it filled with strife?

If you are free from drama in your life write down why and what you do to maintain peace.

For me it is as simple as prayer and meditation each day. I pray daily for God's peace that transcends understanding. I accept and love people for who they are and do not try to change them. It is a daily decision. It does not always come naturally. I change the things I can change that bring strife, overload or stress into my life. Turn over in prayer the things I can not change.

Write down things you can do to remove strife, drama, overload and stress from your life.

Have a day filled with PEACE!

Sending Love,
Susan

Rainy Days and Mondays

Do you have a favorite and/or least favorite day of the week?
Our prompt today is to write down what the days are and why they are our favorites or least favorites.

Have a MARVELOUS Monday.

Sending Love,
Susan

Art Journal Spotlight by our own Sarah Elliott

What I admire about you!

Our prompt this fine Sunday is to think of one or more people that we admire. Write in your journal who they are and why you admire them. Have you ever told them? I challenge you to take this prompt a step further and tell them if you have not already.

Have a wonderful day!

Sending Love,
Susan

Headlines

Today our prompt is to take something that is making headlines in the news today (or even so far this year) and write about how you feel about it. What a great way to record history!

Have an amazing day.

Sending Love,
Susan

Feeling Good

Our prompt today is to fill in this blank.

When I _________ I feel good about myself. Write as little or as much as you want. This can be a very revealing prompt.

ART JOURNAL PROMPT
For those of you creating art journals, your prompt today is THE COLOR OF MY SOUL
I can not wait to see what this prompt looks like in Art.

Have a day filled with peace.

Sending Love,
Susan

The Color of your Soul

Marcus Aurelius said "The soul becomes dyed with the color of it's thoughts".

With this quote in mind, our prompt today is :What is the color of your soul?

To some of you this will come easy, to others it will be difficult. You must think outside the box. I know you can do it. This prompt will also help you boost your creativity!

Have an excellent day!

Sending Love,
Susan

Letter FROM my younger self!

I received an email from Rosanna suggesting that we have a prompt that would reverse the order of the letter we wrote yesterday. Instead of a letter to our younger self, our prompt today will be to write a letter to ourselves FROM our younger self. You remember her or him..as Rosanna put it..the one that thought nothing of grabbing their hairbrush and singing into it because a song came on the radio that ROCKED and we were free to be ourselves. Free from the pressures of the adult world. What can our younger self teach us?

I am looking forward to writing this letter.

Have a GREAT day everyone!

Sending Love,
Susan

Dear Younger Self

Our prompt today is to write a letter to our younger self inside of our journal. What advise would you give? What words of encouragement or wisdom? I picked my younger self at 12 and plan to eventually create a scrapbook page out of it. I remember some of the things I was going through at 12 and addressed them.

Have a spectacular day!

Sending Love,
Susan

and the winners are

everyone that posted about their miracle..

send me via email your full name and address and your surprise will go out to you next Monday.

my email address for this blog is smsummerville@hotmail.com

Thank you for sharing about your miracles! You blessed my day!

Sorry seems to be the hardest word!

Our prompt today is to recall who in our lives we owe an apology or amends to. We all have at least one person. It may even be ourselves. Ponder this subject and then free style (write without thinking about what you are going to write) about it.

If you find there is someone you own an apology to ...write about how you could make that happen. If the person you owe an apology to has passed away, write them a letter and say everything you want or need to say in it. It will help you come to peace to get it out.

Thank you to all of you that posted yesterday about your miracles. Anyone that did not post and still wishes to please do. I will pick the winner tonight so be watching for that post!

Have an amazing day!

Sending Love,
Susan

Miracles all around us

Our journal prompt today is to journal about Miracles. Do you believe in them? or do you think they are pure fiction? Why? Have you ever witnessed a miracle?
What is your definition of a miracle?

Today I am going to do something I have never done before on this blog. I am going to call out a miracle call. If you have ever experienced a miracle of any kind..Please post it here. One person will be randomly picked to receive a special package of items I have put together just for you! I will pick the winner on Monday evening.

I am so looking forward to reading about your miracle.

Have a blessed day (Easter)!

Sending Love,
Susan

If you had an entire day

Our prompt today ...If you had an entire day to do what you wanted, what would it look like? I have found that that day for me has looked very different at different times in my life. So plot out your imaginary free day and have fun doing it.

Have a blessed day everyone!

Sending Love,
Susan

Art Journal Prompt

Our Art Journal Prompt this week is the word

FREE

so...show me what this prompt inspires you to create.
Make sure you upload into the Flickr gallery or if you would rather email me the link!

Get Out of Yourself!!

Get Out of Yourself sounds a bit harsh I guess. But take it from someone that finds every time I do and focus on someone else I feel so much better...no matter what is going on around me.

Those of you that have followed the blog from the beginning know that once a month we have a random acts of kindness day. We send a card, buy a stranger behind you in line a cup of coffee, give someone a sincere compliment , lighten someones load or any act that would qualify for a random act..we do the act anonymously and then we write about it in our journal. How did we feel? If you know how the other person responded write that down too.

Let this quote spur you on.

We wildly underestimate the power of the tiniest personal touch of kindness. —Anonymous!

Have a fantastic "out of yourself" kind of day!

Sending Love,
Susan

Are You True to Yourself?

Yesterday we wrote about Who we are. Today we will ponder and write about if we are being true to who we really are.

Do you dress, talk, act, act as if, belong to organizations or groups, listen to music, have a hair style, have the career or job that reflects who you really are?? OR are you trying to be someone else or even worse..people pleasing?

When I wrote this prompt it brought back a memory of a dress that I loved. It was ultra feminine but a bit old fashioned. When I put it on both my husband and my youngest son expressed how much they didn't like the dress. I never wore it again. I ended up giving it away. That was many years ago and I would like to think I would not do that now. I have worked through many of the issues I had that enabled me to people please instead of doing, or in this case wearing, what I loved.

I know someone that didn't pursue the career she wanted because certain members of her family didn't think it was an important enough position. She has a natural at this and would have been terrific at it..but she chooses to not be true to herself and I believe still regrets it to this day.

Do you still go along with the crowd even though you have not been a teenager for so many years you can't remember? Do you participate in events or talk to look a certain way (that you are not) or to please those around you?

I challenge you to wear your hair the way you want it, dress the way that reflects who you are, have courage of convictions...above all be yourself. Be true to you.

Now with pen in hand start thinking about any ways that you are not true to the true you and write in that journal. This is the first step in the journey of you!

Have a fabulous day!

Sending Love,
Susan