Welcome to the
Oh My Word! Blog Hop with Two Scrapbook Friends! You should have arrived here from
Christa's blog. (Wasn't her project fantabulous?!?!) If you didn’t, you might want to start at
Two Scrapbook Friends, so you can read all about it and you won’t miss any of the great inspiration along the way!
I'm sure you've read/heard about how people will choose a special word that captures what they would like to manifest in their lives in 2013. That's what this Hop is all about, sharing that word and a project about it. So, without futher aideu...
My word for 2013 is…......
bicycle.
Okay, so if you knew me well irl, you'd probably be snickering right now, thinking that I was just being my normal, smart-alecky, attempting to be funny self and kinda flaunting the whole, choose-a-powerful-word-that-will-provide-you-and-possibly-others-inspiration-for-2013 purpose of this Hop. But really, I'm not.
I have to admit, I've always balked a bit about choosing a special word to live by for a year. Not that I don't think it's a good idea, it's a wonderful idea, but I could never come up with one. There was never any word I felt so strongly about that I could use it for inspiration. All those rousing words like, hope, create, clarity or fearless, great words all of them, but I didn't feel I could use them as a focus for my life.
But, bicycle fits. It fits me because it fits my wackiness at feeling I have to pick a word "outside the box". It fits me because not only is it a word, it's also a thing, something you can touch, feel, get mad at and physically shove over if that's what I need to do. It fits me 'cause I love my bike. And, if you can bear with me, I'll
ramble on for awhile explain the other reasons why it fits.
First of all, every (well, maybe not
every but 99% of them) weekday morning I drag my butt out of bed at 5:50am and groggily stumble down to our basement, climb on my recumbent exercise bike and go nowhere fast. But my heart rate goes, and the grogginess goes, and I get to watch a fave pvr'ed tv show in private (well mostly, I do occasionally have an early morning visitor). So, because of this, to me,
bicycle means
health,
exercise and some
me-time.
When the weather is nice though, I sometimes trade those early morning biking-tv-watching sessions with a ride outdoors. I have a particular route I follow, and it's got some hills. And sometimes the wind is a bugger and somehow it's directly in my face, working against me, no matter which direction I'm biking. But I always push myself, and my legs might be tired and my butt might be sore but I've always made it. And, It. Feels. Good. So, because of this, to me,
bicycle means
strength,
perseverance, and
accomplishment.
Now, as my kids get older and can ride and keep up, we've been on bike rides together. There's so much more you can see when you're biking down the road as opposed to driving. My boys and I once stopped and had a ten minute conversation about a run-over snake that we spotted on the road. And, we're already planning some bike rides on our local trails for when summer comes. So, because of this, to me,
bicycle means
togetherness,
family and
fun.
And, I can't think about biking without remembering my childhood. We spent hours and hours and hours riding our bikes around town, no hands, no helmet (not that I'm condoning that now, I'm a mom, it's all get-your-helment-on-pull-it-down-properly-and-be-careful!! these days) and no cares. Wind in your hair, laughing, racing, teasing turning to flirting, visits to the convenience store for giant Freezies, or just plain getting from one person's house to another. So, because of this, to me,
bicycle means
memories,
friendships and
nostalgia.
Yep, I think I've pretty much covered all that
bicycle means to me. So much so that now my layout feels slightly inadequate. Like I couldn't convey all the above, all that's important to me about my word, in this project. Or maybe I'm just cheesed that I didn't have more black and gray paper so I could add more layers and such.
Anyhoo, this is what I created…
And here's a close up of the quote from Arthur Conan Doyle...
Now, if you've stuck with me this long, oh bravo!! And, thank you. The deets for the Hop are below, including the Hop list of participants. Next up is
Amanda. I know she'll have something spectaculariffic for you.
So remember, in order to be entered to win:
1. Leave a comment on all the blogs as you go and then go back to the Two Scrapbook Friends blog and leave a final comment there.
2. To have a second chance to win, send YOUR special word that inspires you in 2013 in an email to 2friends@execulink.com. Put "Blog Contest" in your subject line.
3. Create your own design based on your special word and upload it to our Gallery and Forum before February 28 at 11:58 pm, and receive 10 Forum Buttons towards gift certificates in the store!
4. Check back at the Two Scrapbook Friends Blog on January 22nd to see if you are the prize winner. (Winners will not be contacted personally.)
Be sure to stop be each on the following blogs and leave a comment! Enjoy the Hop :)
