100 Buttons

Amelia's kindergartens class was celebrating their 100th day of school. Each student was to pick 100 of any one item they wanted to show their class. Amelia loved playing with Mimi's jar of buttons when she was little and wanted to use buttons for her project.

Later, Amelia decided she would rather sew the buttons on a shirt to wear to school and take 100 Skittles for her class to count. 100 buttons are a lot of buttons...so Amelia, her Mom, and Mimi took turns with the needle and thread.

Congratulations Amelia on 100 days of learning!

The Great Baby Book Snafu

Yesterday, was Matt's 26th Birthday. As part of celebrating Matt's or Andy's birthday, I look through their baby book and reminisce. So yesterday afternoon, I got out Matt's baby book, turned pages, and started oohing and aahing:

there was the copy of Matt's birth certificate with prints of his precious little feet...

there was the first pictures of Matt: the nurses cleaning him up, the first time I got to hold him, Tom rocking with him, the sweet expression on Andy's face when he first saw Matt...

there were the statistics of his birth:  weight 7 lbs 9 ozs,  height 19 3/4 inches, light brown hair, born at
1:44 pm...

there were pictures of his first Easter, his first 4th of July, his first Halloween, his first Thanksgiving, his first five Birthdays, his first five Christmases...

Wait! The picture for Matt's second Christmas (top left hand corner) didn't look quite right:

The picture was kind of blurry, but his hair seemed a little too dark and wavy... And I didn't think those were the curtains we had in the living room of the house on Jasper Way...And the tricycle is the one we got Andy not Matt....

Oh my gosh, the picture was of Andy's second Christmas not Matt's!  Then, I realized that the picture I had in the spot for his third Christmas was actually his second Christmas... and yes the other Christmas pictures were also off.

Now, here are the issues I have with this little snafu:

1.  How did I not notice all these things when I was putting the pictures in his book? And how did I miss the little date stamped in the corner that was read "1983", six years before Matt was born?  And how did I overlook the writing on the back of the picture that read "Andy, Christmas 1983"?

2.  How in the world have I looked at Matt's baby book at least once a year and never caught the mistakes? (Although really, I have been on some powerful drugs over the years for my depression!)

3.  How could Matt, Andy, Tom, family and friends have missed it all these years?

I guess the good news is that it was easy to remove the picture of Andy, move the other pictures into their correct places, and because I organized all my pictures last year...it was easy to find a picture of Matt on his fifth Christmas and to correct my mistake!

I Love January

I love January.  It's not the weather, although so far this year it hasn't been bad.  No, it's because in January I go into an organizing and cleaning frenzy.  I organize...my life, calendar, house.

I start by picking my word for the year.  This year it is "renewal," which goes along well with my organizing and cleaning frenzy.  I choose a system for reading the Bible through.  I start a new prayer journal.  I set some goals for the new year.

Next, I organize my new calendar.  I put in information...birthdays, anniversaries, and phone numbers.

Then comes the organizing and cleaning of our house.  This year I started in my office.  The closet in my office contains paperback books, Bible studies, photographs (which I organized last year!), sewing things, crafts, vases, wrapping paper, and miscellaneous things that gather over time.  I got rid of many paperback books since I now read my books on my IPad.  I organized my sewing things and craft boxes.  I organized my wrapping paper by putting the wrapping paper in a shoe rack that is turned on it's side to keep the paper from falling everywhere, put a nail in the wall to hang the gift bags, used baskets for ribbons and bows.  I removed a small file cabinet that I wasn't using.  Then I moved on to the rest of the room.  I have kept my desk fairly organized so I put away the clutter gathered on top and dusted.  I dusted the remaining furniture and baseboards. I then vacuumed.   Office finished!

The next room I tackled was the kitchen.  Our pantry is in need of cleaning and organizing, but I need to buy new containers...so I will work on the pantry later.  I put away clutter.  I wiped down the counters, cabinets, appliances, and baseboards.  I vacuumed the floors and then mopped.  Kitchen finished!

Next I will clean and organize the living room, dining room, and entry.  Followed by the guest rooms, bathrooms, and master bedroom.

I wish I could say that I keep our house organized and clean the rest of the year, but that never happens.  At least I start out right.  I love January!  



* I was going to include some before and after pictures, but I haven't figured out how to download pictures with my IPad yet.

Pictures Organized

I finally finished my project of copying my pictures to my computer. Here is the results:

the pictures on my computer in folders by their years

the actual picture filed away in boxes!

*Well all except for those pesky years 2003, 2007, and 2008; who are still hiding somewhere!

first knitting project

Finished my first knitting project... a small scarf. Not good enough for outside wear, but not bad for my first scarf. Amelia will have fun playing dress up with it... after all it does match several pairs of ladies gloves that I have!






Learning to purl stitch now. Looking forward to taking some classes, joining a knitting club, or just finding someone to teach me.

copying pictures

I am spending this gloomy Sunday afternoon working on my photograph project. I am working on getting all of my photos copied onto my computer and put on flickr. So far I had years 1978-1997, 2009, 2010, and the pictures we've taken so far this year.Today, I copied year 1998. It's kind of a tedious project. I can only scan 4 pictures at one time. Then I have to put them in a folder and write a description for each one. Then I copy the whole bunch to flickr. The upside is looking at old photos and reliving fun memories. In 1998 we went on a Caribbean cruise with our good friends Randy and Cathie Stalter and their kids Aaron and Alex. It was quite an adventure. Alex broke his arm the day before we were to leave. We ran into a snow storm on the drive down to New Orleans and almost didn't make it it time. Cathie had arrange a private boat trip to swim with the sting rays in Grand Cayman that involved walking about a mile and waiting across from a bread company... I was sure that we would be kidnapped, but all was well and we had a great time!! That year was Andy's junior year, so there was prom and induction to Spanish honor society. We visited Tom's mom several times that year and she spent Christmas with us. This was also a year that we had our dog Tucker, so he made it into several pictures. Lot's of memories of family gatherings at Christmas time also. Here are a few pictures from that year:

Randy, Cathie, Aaron, Andy, Matt, Alex, Tom and I on cruise

swimming with sting rays

Tom, Tucker, Matt, and Grandma Faye at her house

Matt's 11th birthday

Andy and Dawn Coyne dressed for their junior prom

Ryan Burner, Andy, Dawn Coyne celebrating Andy's 17th birthday

Tom and his mom Faye

sitting around the table at Bob and Mom's on Christmas Day

Movie night: Dawn, Andy, Matt, and Tom

finished project

"Bask in the luxury of being fully understood and unconditionally loved. Dare to see yourself as I see you: radiant in My righteousness, cleansed by my blood. I view you as the one I created you to be, the one you will be in actuality when heaven becomes your home." Jesus Calling

Psalm 34:5 They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed.

II Corinthians 5:2 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we may

become the righteousness of God in Him.

*****

Projects are often tedious. In 2009, I got a digital camera and started storing pictures on my computer. Matt suggested that since our photo albums were starting to fall apart, it would be a good idea to scan all of our old pictures also. That winter I scanned years 1979-1997 and then put away the project for the summer. Of course, last year we were in the process of

getting settled in after our move to Indiana, so I didn't do any scanning.

On Sunday, I decided it was time to work on this project again. Unfortunately, I hit a snag

almost immediately. I located the scanner, but could not find the cords. Tom and I looked

everywhere, but couldn't find them. Tom went on line and ordered a

new set that will be here in a few weeks.

my office while I am working on photo project:

I decided to at least get my pictures organized so that when the cords arrive, I will be ready.

boxes of photos that are already scanned:

box of photos that need to be scanned:

Second snag... I found a box with years 1998-2006, but I couldn't find the years 2007 and 2008. Now those years were pretty hard ones for our family, but I know that we took some pictures. Time to search again.

I found a box of pictures. Next snag... these pictures that are not dated. I began to sort through the box. There were many duplicates of pictures that I knew I had already scanned. So I threw those out. Then I found several pictures that were from 2007, but there didn't seem to be enough for that year and the next. By that time, I was exhausted and frustrated and decided to put the box away. I will save it until after I have finished copying all the other pictures that are dated and then I will try to deal with it.

box to deal with later:

Makes me so thankful that even though I see my life as a work in progress, God sees me as complete, perfect.

one thousand gifts

293. Dora the explorer, Amelia's favorite show

294. photos that remind us of precious moments

295. the finished project of me!