Life... One Step at a Time

A new Chicken Soup for the Soul call for stories!

I just received a new call for stories for Chicken Soup for the Soul - High School. Details are as follows:

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk High School to be published Fall 2008

We are looking for true stories and poems about your high school years.  We prefer stories written in the first person and no more than 1200 words.  We would like to include stories and poems on the following topics, among others:
. Regrets (lessons learned from making bad choices)
. Sports (making the team, or not.  Winning the game, or not.  Social aspects of sports).
. Clubs
. Music
. Religion and faith - its place in your life
. Dating and sex
. Embarrassing moments
. Humorous moments
. Issues, good and bad, with instant messaging, Facebook, texting, cell phones, emails, the web in general
. Self image, self acceptance - would include coming out, eating disorders, different body types
. College applications
. Grades, SATs, ACTs
. Military decision, trade school, or other non-college plans for after high school
. Family relationships - siblings, parents, other family members
. Puberty - early, late, being a short boy, being a tall girl, etc.
. Friends - best friends, losing friends, cliques, support of friends
. Tough issues - divorce, cancer, suicide of friend, death, drunk driving death, pregnancy
. Failures and rising above them

If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book.  You will also receive a check for $200 and ten free copies of your book, worth more than $100. 

If your story is published by us, we will copyright it in your name and you will retain your rights to resell the story to another publication.

SUBMISSIONS GO TO http://chickensoupforthesoul.com/form.asp?cid=submit_story
DEADLINE IS June 15, 2008 although we may accept stories after that date if we have room.

I have been published in a Chicken Soup book and the authors are a pleasure to work with! Best of luck!

Results

Ok, after giving some thought to my goals for 2008, I have determined that my "word for the year" is:

I will be doing everything in my power to achieve desired results; to get things done. To no longer procrastinate. To not be afraid to break out of my comfort zone and try something different or face the unknown. I will do everything in my power to conquer my own personal fear of failure and do whatever is necessary to get results.

Do you have a word for the new year?

I love Clark Color prints!

I guess I lied.

I really do have one resolution that I made, thanks to my dear friend Melody Ross at Chatterbox. Last February, when all the Chatterbox designers went to the Chatterbox retreat in Idaho, Melody really inspired me with her discussion about digital pictures. Many of us who are strictly digital (myself included) can probably identify with this, but she really hit home with me. She spoke about how it doesn't do us any good to have all these archives of photos sitting on our hard drive unless we get prints of them so that our kids can look through them. Now don't get me wrong, I realize that some of you may be superwomen and can scrap all of your photos, therefore eliminating the need to just have prints made, but I am not a fast scrapbooker, so I have literally thousands of digital images sitting on my hard drive, with no way for my family to really view them. So Melody inspired me to resolve to get prints of my images (even all the less than stellar ones!) and put them into simple acid-free photo albums so that I can leave them out for my kids to look through whenever they want to.

That being said, Clark Color online had a great sale last week on digital prints (and they send great sale offers periodically to their customers!) so I took advantage of the deal. I had several hundred photos printed (just of Christmas and New Year's alone!) and they came in yesterday. The quality of the prints is outstanding! I knew it was worth it when my kiddos came into my office and saw the stack of photos; immediately asking me if they could look at them! I saw smiles on their faces as they remembered the events from the photos. Priceless to me, to say the least!

So get some digital prints made and don't keep those pictures stashed away on your hard drive! To get you started, try Clark Color! Click here to register - New customers get 20 free prints! Shipping was fast and inexpensive, plus my photos came carefully enclosed in a sturdy box mailer to keep them safe during transit.

Thank you, Melody! You have changed my life in so many ways!

Color trends for 2007

Here are some colors that are predicted to be big in fashion for the upcoming 2007 Spring/Summer fashion lines. As most of you know, scrapbooking usually takes many color/style cues from fashion and home decor lines, so it will be interesting to see how many of these colors actually end up flooding our paper and embellishment lines! I am predicting lots of purples mixed with neutral colors, such as black, grey, and white. What are your predictions? I am loving the peachy-salmon colors - those are my favorites!

I hope that some of these colors inspire you!

Begin with the end in mind!

Lately I have done so much reflecting. Much reflecting on what I have learned from my past experiences, what I want for my family for the future, where my priorities lie (or where they SHOULD lie), and lots of other things. Next month I turn 33 and I guess that as I get older, I start to realize the blessings that I have and the things in life that are important to me. I realize that I have life goals that I want to achieve and that I need to be working every day to do something, even if small, to achieve those goals. I have goals for many things - personal relationships, business, family matters, and my faith. As I think about my goals and what I want to achieve, I am reminded of this quote:

• "Begin with the end in mind." - Stephen Covey

I know where I want to be in my life; now I start working from my end goal to make the decisions now that will lead me there.

Can you relate? Are there people in your life that you have taken for granted? Are there dreams that you have given up on because "life" got in the way? It is never too late to make changes.

I have made some phone calls and e-mails to some very important people in my life.  :) I have also begun to analyze exactly what I need to do to reach my "end result"; to put into motion my plan of action to achieve my goals. I hope you will, too!