
This next project is inspired by my mom. Her last Christmas with us was in 2006. She gave each of her daughters a clock along with some words of wisdom that she had learned over the years and wanted to pass along to us. I thought I understood what she was saying that Christmas morning, but now that I have a family of my own I am just now starting to really get it. And because I think this advice is so important I am going to share it with you today. But first, I just want to give a little background of where we were at the time, so you can maybe understand where she was coming from.
Back in 2006 my mom was undergoing chemotherapy treatments. The cancer had spread and pretty much overtaken her body. It was everywhere, just to list a few...ribs, sternum, lungs, forearm, the base of her skull, liver...like I said, everywhere. The most noticeable place was her arm, well really the cancer was in her Brachial Plexus which killed all the nerves in her right arm, basically paralyzing it She was in way more pain than any of us even realized. She very rarely complained and just dealt with it the best she could. Along with the cancer in her lungs she also had fluid collecting in her chest cavity which made it difficult to breathe, especially while laying down. As a result she had a hard time sleeping. She couldn't lay flat so her nights were spent in her lazy boy dozing in front of the TV while her family slept. There were so many things she wanted to do with her family, but couldn't because of the pain.
One thing that was always important to her, even in the end, when just a short ride around town was painful were family vacations. Making memories was at the top of her list. We had the cancer cloud of doom hanging over us for 11 years; half of my life, most of my little sister's life and my little brother's entire life. So we lived like any family trip could be our last. As a result we went on some pretty cool ones. Yellowstone, Disneyland a few times, Nauvoo, Palm Springs, Oregon Coast all with unique and wonderful memories.
Okay, I guess you have the gist of it. So Christmas morning comes along and she gives us this advice: Family is the most important thing. Make time for your family. But don't just make time for them, live so your time revolves around your family. Really, they are all we have. Make memories. As many as you can. ALWAYS make time to snuggle with your spouse. She then handed us the clocks and told us she got ones with chimes to help remind us hourly of the importance of family and how we are spending our time.
Back to the here and now. After years of my clock being in storage the clock face got warped and wrinkled so I haven't been able to use it. Before I married an amazing graphic designer I thought I would try to make my own clock face to replace it. I am so glad that I didn't even try! Jason sat down with his computer last weekend and designed a new face for my precious clock. Just watching him work amazed me. What he did in maybe an hour start to finish would have taken me all day at least and it wouldn't have looked near as good!

So confession time...the whole idea mom had with the clock was to have it chime each hour so we could think of her and the advice she gave. But lets be honest, who wants to have a clock wake you up at six in the morning, if you don't have to, especially a baby? Definitely not me! We decided to replace the chime reminder with a saying on the clock face itself to remind us that "Family Time is Sacred Time".

Here is the finished product. And to help you remember this advice I am sharing my clock face with you. It is made to fit a 7 3/4 inch clock surface. It was super easy to make the switch so click on the link, download the file, print it out and update an old (or new clock)!