Kass Tomany, May, A Picture-a-Day Blog

(I'm supposed to post on the 9th-but here it is.  Sorry I'm out of order!)
A few years ago my sister did a 365 blog where she took a picture (or more) every day for a year.  The goal was to improve her photography skills & capture both the candid & planned/posed moments in her life.  At the end of the year she just slurped it all into a book & there was her beautiful creation & family record for the year.  It was awesome!

This year, she was ready to take on the picture-a-day challenge again & she invited me to join her.  At first, I was going to turn her down because I don't have a fancy camera, but...she has Noralike persuasion skills so I let go of the excuses (& some of my perfectionist tendencies) & just committed to do it.

Here are the 3 easy steps I took to get started...
1. I created a new blog on blogger
2. I threw together a quick design for my blog header using Picassa.
 
3. Then, I took at least one picture every day, edited it a bit using Picassa, added the day, & then posted it on my blog along with a little caption (or a longer memory) for the day. (This step takes me between 5-10 min.)

It really was & is that simple.  It is part of my daily routine now & if I get a day or two behind it's not too overwhelming to catch up.  I can't believe it's almost halfway through the year! 

Some of the benefits I've noticed working on this goal are that my perspective has greater depth & I tend to look at life through a more grateful lens.  I find myself looking  for the beautiful, the memorable & the funny creations & moments that are right in front of me.  I am a little more aware of how I spend my time, the degree of effort I'm putting into making memories with my family, & putting first things first.  We love to look back at the beginning of the year and see how many things have changed in just a few months.  I only have a small handful of family & close friends who know my blog address & it is not available on search engines, so I record freely.  This has probably been my favorite goal so far, and I hope to be able to keep it up through the years!

Kass Tomany, March, Book Time

This month I wanted to read a whole chapter book out loud to all of my kids.  The main stipulation was I wanted to make sure it was one none of us, including me, had read yet & I wanted to be consistent every weeknight.  This was trickier than I thought, but we did it!

For some reason, after the kids do their reading for school, I read picture books to/with the littles, and we plow through family scriptures, even though reading together at bedtime is something that I really want to do, it always gets taken off the schedule when we run out of time, and we run out of time almost every.single.night.

(Anyone else need a few more "freebie" hours thrown into their 24 hr. day?)  

The days turn into weeks, that turn into months, & my visions and good intentions of reading quality books together with the fam become nonexistent. 

I checked Pinterest first for ideas and lists of great read alouds.

I talked with the kids about the list I complied from those lists and we came up with Mrs. Piggle Wiggle & Tuesdays at the Castle for our books to read together during March.  

 

So...it turns out that the reviews were right, and they are both awesome books, but Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was published in 1947 so it had a few things-or a whole chapter-that made us giggle, like the crazy use of words that have new, contemporary meanings now.  (I'm sure you can only imagine.)  It surprised me how much my older kids (ages 13 & 11) really loved the book, though, about a silly lady who lives in an upside-down house and has all the answers to the undesirable behaviors of the kids in town.  We referred to her frequently during the month when dealing with some of those same behaviors!

Tuesdays at the Castle was a great read, well written, and is also a series.  Now we are starting the second book, Wednesdays in the Tower because we loved the first book so much.

Even though bedtime was pushed back around 30 min. later on many nights, I loved this time just relaxing and reading to my little team.  

We had 2 "rules" for listening...1. you had to stay still & 2. you had to be quiet so everyone could enjoy the story.  

My husband set up our tent in the loft towards the beginning of the month & we read in there on many nights.  This was a pretty fun effect & gave it a little campfire story feel.
 Have a great April!

April's goal is to create family photo books for 2012 & 2013 & I may have overdone it on that goal, but we'll give it a shot!

Kass Tomany, February, Heart Attacks

This month I wanted to focus on expressing my love in detail to my family...so I decided I would "heart attack" a door for my husband & each of the kids.  My plan was to put up a new heart every day during the month of February with something I love about each person.   (note to self for next year-do not use the floppy doilies, but get a bunch of cute patterned scrapbook paper instead-I was retaping up these babies all month!)
Just one of my favorite quotes that helped motivate this goal-
"Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know.... We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us." President Monson 

Each day as I worked on this goal, I would find myself looking closer at the people in my life who mean the most to me.  This way I hoped the heart-for-the-day would be specific, genuine, & meaningful.  I spent more time focusing on what I love about my little family, rather than what I want them to change or improve.  (BEST perspective to live by EVER!)  

The hearts included a variety of things like physical traits..."I love your darling freckles!" to talents, personality traits, and values they demonstrate well.

It was an awesome experience!  I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed it, including me.  Midmonth, as I observed that the hearts were impacting some more than others, this project led me to the library to check out the book, The 5 Love Languages of Children (an easy read that I highly recommend) by Gary Chapman & Ross Campbell.  We also had a Family Home Evening on love and learning our primary love language.  We went online to 5lovelanguages.com & everyone took the survey to discover the ways they understand love best.  It was lots of fun & I have lots of work ahead of me to remember & implement what I've learned this month.  I sincerely hope to live every day with no regrets with how I treat others, especially this crazy crew I am lucky enough to call my family!  

I love reading about your goals/projects.  I am so out of my league here with all of you incredible ladies!  Thanks for sharing!  Until next month, when I am reading a chapter book out loud to the kids.

Kass Tomany, January, Print & Hang Family Pictures

Hello!  My name is Kass or Kathryn Tomany.  My family and I recently moved to Henderson, Nevada, but we spent most of our life in Utah before this & I grew up in Boise, Idaho.  I have 5 children-Abby, Cade, Brigg, Bree, & Cal, & a husband who keeps me laughing & smiling.  I'm grateful he is sharing this adventure of life by my side.  I love running, reading, boating, skiing, sports, See's chocolates, Salt & Vinegar Chips, eating out, traveling, & people.  Things are usually crazy & always busy, but I've learned that life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful!  

Back in the day, Nora and I taught elementary school together and became instant friends.  We started a fun, little TSG (Teacher's Support Group) with a few other teachers at our school that bonded all of us forever.  I also have a special connection with Nora as we were pregnant with our first babies at the same time.  We had a blast being first time pregos together,  held and attended showers for our highly anticipated, sweet baby girls, & then were devastated when the Lord had a different plan in store for Nora's angel, little Charlotte.  I think of her always watching my Abby grow up & have loved her advice & support through the years.  

My January goal was to print & hang some favorite family pictures.  It has been over 8 years & 2 more kids since I've changed out or updated pictures even though we have taken bazillions of pictures every year.  In 2005, my third child, Brigham, was diagnosed with a devastating terminal disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA Type 1) when he was 6 weeks old.  He passed away when he was 6 months old.  We experienced countless tender mercies through it all, and still do, but changing the pictures of our family from when he was here was a really hard thing for me.  It stinks taking family pictures with someone always missing.  It feels really incomplete.  So...this goal was more than just physically doing something-a lot of emotion was attached to it.  

Once I made a plan and got going, it went great.  I decided on the pictures of Briggers that I wanted to include, & then just kept the other pictures in the frames behind the new ones.  I went through & edited the most recent family pictures my sister had taken over Thanksgiving, then printed them (with the auto correction set to off) at Costco.  I also went through the years and picked some of my favorite shots & important ones like baptism pictures & printed them too.  It has been fun listening to the kids comments & is an awesome feeling having everyone in the family represented around the house.

Here is a sample of some of the finished product.  (Wow! Taking pictures of pictures is tricky...I tried a million different lighting options & angles & this is the best I could come up with!)

 

Having pictures of the people I love everywhere I go in my house makes me happy! 
I look forward to getting to know each of you better!
Thanks again, Nora!  Project Coordinator of The Year.

Kass Tomany's Goals & Projects 2014

January

·         Print & hang favorite family pictures in my living room & throughout the house.

February

·         “Heart Attack” Mick & the kids’ doors every day with one thing I love about them. 

March

·         Read & discuss a chapter book out loud to all the kids.

April

·         Design & print 2012 & 2013 family photo books.  Although I have always used Snapfish, this time I will do a little research about different sites, program design abilities, quality, & cost.  (I have pinned a few things that should help!) 

May

·         In honor of my sweet little angel boy Brigham’s 9^th birthday, plan & hold a fundraiser for FSMA (Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy.)  This organization was an immense support to our family in so many ways and I have always wanted to give back to them.  They do incredible work to help families affected with this devastating disease. 

June

·         Finish reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families & as a family write our family mission statement.  Make a cool design for the mission & post it in the house somewhere.

July

·         Organize, label, & convert all our family home videos to DVDs & thumb drives.  Take more videos of my family to remember the moments!

August

·         Go on a memorable family vacation to celebrate our 15^th Anniversary! 

September

·         Run the Saints & Sinners Half Marathon.  (saintsandsinnershalf.com) (All downhill, beautiful, fun tunnels to run through & 100 % of reg. fee goes to the General Missionary Fund of the LDS church.  Cool!)

October

·         Read & study the Old Testament.  Become more familiar with the stories & people & give a FHE lesson on one of them.

November

·         Practice having a more grateful heart.  Start a new gratitude tradition with the family (thankful tree, etc.)  Express thanks to 41 different people & keep a record of it. (41 for the 41 years I will have been alive-yikers!)

December

·         Go with my husband and two oldest kids to The Forgotten Carols.  Pray about & invite another family or individual(s) to go with us.  (Surprise them & pay for their dinner and tickets to the show!)