There are so many thing in my heart I want to share here but I am literally swimming…

Swimming through the final weeks before our home is finished – following up on design details, checking installations, and coordinating paperwork…

Swimming through health issues with kids – nothing heart-stopping here – just coordinating some big appointments, finding primary care & specialist physicians closer to our new home, etc.

Swimming through the details I want to share in my new Lightroom class…mapping them out backwards and forwards so I can share them in a way that is easy to understand.

Swimming through a new work project that takes up as many hours a week as I can give it. This project works my left brain which ironically delivers me to a place where my right brain Lightroom creativity is flowing better than ever. Love that!

Swimming in details preparing for an ACS Summit this weekend in California.

About the only place I slow down is when I can catch a few moments with Troy and the kids.

It’s a busy current here in the Lamoreaux household and yet I find that I’m just swimming along – going with the flow and living without regret.

Sometimes I wonder if I can hold my breathe as long as I need to, and then something happens to keep me moving forward. For that I’m so grateful.

This is my busiest September ever – I can’t believe I’ve said “Yes!” to so many things right now – and yet I’ve never felt more grateful, blessed and energized.

Spraguefest/Scrapfest deserves a post or two of its own. Suffice it to say that it was the highlight of my month – spending time with Jessica and her team and the amazing tribe she has cultivated was a blessing to me.

There’s nothing that fuels the creative soul more than spending time with GREAT people – I just LOVE everyone I met at Spraguefest… seriously, I do! There’s also something about spending time in real life with people you work with online. I am so grateful for Jessica and her team and all they do to help me teach behind the scenes. They are the kindest, funnest and most generous group I’ve ever met – especially Jessica.

There are times on this blog when I feel that I’m not posting enough or sharing enough. However, I am beginning to realize that you all are swimming in your own currents of life, finding your flow with photos, housework and just life.

For the next few weeks I’ll be putting this segment of my newsletter on hold while I work on my classes and projects. In the meantime you can catch what’s up in real time via my Instagram feed (kaylajlamoreaux), Inspiration I’m finding on Pinterest and a tiny bit of microblogging via Facebook.

For the next few weeks “Just keep swimming” is going to be my mantra as I navigate a few BIG things in life. Thankfully the water is clear, the destinations are exciting and this piece of the journey is something I’ve been looking forward to for awhile…

I am writing this post from the airport – waiting for my flight to Minneapolis. The gate next to me is crowded with passengers waiting to board an overbooked flight to NYC. There are passengers with smiles on their faces, others frantically texting on their smartphones and others in animated conversation with airline personnel.

The airport is an interesting place to watch people. Just about everyone here is in transition – going,  coming, moving along. There’s ebb and flow as gates fill with passengers, move to their plane and then empty again. It’s a process, a constant cycle.

I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions lately. What do you do when where you are now isn’t quite where you want to be with your Creative Flow?

The reality is that life happens. Things change. Your organizational creative flow may not be what you think it SHOULD be – and yet as you continue in the transition of getting there you might feel like you are getting nowhere…

When you feel pain in the process. When things don’t work the way you think they should work. When no matter what you do it’s not getting better. Take a step back and evaluate.

A kink in the process – just last week they painted our home the wrong color…

As many of you know we are in the process of building a home. My life is in transition right now in so many different ways…A big part of this transition is living in a 1200 square foot town home with three floors. This place is so tiny that it pushes quite a few kinks into our life flow:

• Our family vehicle is too long for the garage.
• My washer holds about a third of the laundry it did before – using lots more soap and time to get things done.
• Seven of us share three tiny bedrooms – two of the three bedrooms are smaller than 10×10.
• The living room is so tiny that it can’t even hold seating enough for all of us to sit down and watch TV together.
• Two bathrooms means the seven of us really have to schedule things right to get ready in the mornings.

Yet we’ve found ways to adapt to all of these kinks. We park in front. I just schedule more time for laundry and try to be happy about how quickly I can fold the loads since they are so much smaller than before.

Being so close together all the time has really pushed us to become creative and get closer as a family. Last night as I walked pass the 10×8 bedroom on the main floor I glanced inside to see all five kids in one bedroom reading, playing Legos, laughing and giggling and just enjoying each other.

However, there’s one place that absolutely is driving us crazy – the kitchen. Troy and I both love to cook & bake. There’s something to be said about having everything in its place and a place for everything. There are spices, containers, fridge space, prep bowls and more.

Our current kitchen is so tiny you really can’t fit two people in the kitchen working together. Even with most our kitchen items packed away in storage, our cabinets are overflowing. With our large family, the kitchen is truly the heart of the home – it’s where FLOW matters and it’s driving us crazy!

So what to do? Take a step back. Realize we are in transition – readjust, evaluate, make meals that require less tools, ingredients and prep time. Evaluate how long this is going to last to see if major changes are needed…

Just four more weeks of this and we will be in our home.  This is a transition where the end is in sight – we’ve already made it 13+ weeks – we can do this!

I’ve given up on the expectation that everything will be like I usually like it. There’s no way things can look mostly organized and clean all the time with as many people and things we have going on here. So I’m readjusting my expectations – eating out a little more and allowing a few more convenience items to find their way into my freezer.

If there’s one positive thing about flow – it’s that it is always moving somewhere – and I know that the wait won’t be that long before we can find creative flow in the kitchen again. Taking a step back to reevaluate helps me remember this is just a season of transition.

What life transitions are changing your creative flow lately? It could be a project, illness, a new baby, or even a new job. Give yourself the creative freedom to take a step back and readjust your expectations – I promise you won’t regret it.

Cheers,

Kayla

Sunday morning we went to help – we were just three people in a sea of volunteers. It was incredible and humbling to be a part of…

Volunteers just showed up – there were literally a thousand people plus there that day – large groups of people at each home, filling and passing buckets – cleaning the mud out into the street where the city could remove it. It was incredible…

After returning home Troy and I left our shoes in the garage that now smells like campfire. I’m thinking it was all the ash in the mud. I threw the first pair of shoes I used Sunday away as they were completely caked and unsalvageable.

The saddest part is homeowner’s insurance won’t cover mudslides so all the families affected are trying to rebuild their walls and electrical on their own. However, when we spoke with friends who had been affected, they just expressed gratitude that their children and families were ok. It could have been so different.

If you are interested in helping the families affected by this mudslide, you can find more information here.

I’m so looking forward to Spraguefest!! Just five days before I’m on my way… Will you be there? If so, I hope I get to meet you!

Highlights of The Week

#1 visiting the elk farm just a few streets away from our townhouse…

#2 A game of HORSE near our new home while the sunset last night…

I’m loving that this move has brought things closer to our home base. You should have seen all seven of us Monday night riding our bikes down the road… I forget what a spectacle a large family can be until we go somewhere all together without a car. I LOVE that we are spending less time in a car and more time walking and biking…

The longer I live the more I realize our lives are built around connections with family, friends and people we have the opportunity to serve. The busier life gets, the more I cherish the time I have with my kids and Troy – I am so grateful for my life.

I hope you all had a wonderful week!

One of the things I love about this new space is that it gives me the option to share things with only subscribers – so today I’m doing just that!

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes around here – I’m still working on moving content and creating a three part class in Lightroom. The first of which will be taught here, the second part in my organization classrooms here, and the third will be on my blog free of charge. It’s a lot of work but I’m loving it…

I’ve also said YES to a big work project. It’s all to do with marketing and is totally outside the scrapbooking industry – which is a fun change for me. Let’s just say I’m finding my way back to my previous corporate roots and it feels AWESOME…

Twelve years ago I kissed my career goodbye to become a full time mom – I don’t regret it for a second.  I feel so privileged and blessed for the time I’ve been able to be where I felt I needed to be. The past twelve years are rich with love, memories, growth and sweetness. With my youngest in second grade this year, it’s time. Time to spread my wings again and see if I can still fly.

I’m beginning to believe it’s like riding a bike – yesterday I spent a few hours getting up to speed – it felt a bit wobbly at first and then as I just kept pedaling eventually I was balanced and moving right along. I’m twelve years of life experience different and yet in many ways it feels better than before.

I’m sure many of you wonder what that means about this space. If anything it’s only going to get better. My posts will definitely be less frequent – like my students I’ll be in the trenches living a life, taking photos and improving my creative flow along the way.

I think you’ll find my posts in this space to be full of real life solutions to challenges we are all having in Creative Flow. This digital organization teaching is a part of me – I can’t just keep what I learn along my journey to myself. I’m looking forward to this new chapter…

Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Ciao,

Kayla