Thursday, April 17, 2008

Making Your Home A Haven

This week, Crystal suggested an Anti-Procrastination Day! I really needed this and started on Tuesday afternoon and carried it over all day on Wednesday! Wow - it feels great to get these things caught up - thanks, Crystal!

I started with a bigger project which was to sort out my files. Shred everything we no longer needed and file away the new things.

Here was my to file pile:
Here was my shred pile:Progress: shredding and filing are all done and everything is cleaned up and put away!

Next, I needed to put all the Easter stuff away:

Box packed up and put away:
Baskets hung until next year:
I had a rotisserie chicken that needed de-boning:

Wednesday, we started out by planting some sunflower seeds, I'm starting them indoors and will move them outside when they are starting to grow. This is all to prevent the squirrels from eating my seeds like they did last year!

Another thing I frequently put off is spending time just being with the little ladies. So, the next thing we did was have a tea party:
Then, I let the ladies watch a movie while I went out and planted some more green beans - I've been putting this off for about two weeks. The other row of green beans is doing great and I wanted to get a bunch more planted:
I've been wanting to make cookies for David's baseball team all season. Yesterday was their last game, so I made M&M cookies with orange and green M&M's:
While the cookies were baking, I wanted to finish up the hair bows I started a few weeks ago when we were on our trip. My friend, Grace, taught me how to make these and I had two to make and one to finish up:Next, I sat down at the computer to get caught up there. I downloaded all the pictures off of our camera, did the next round of newsletters that I send out periodically on each of our littles, and uploaded pictures with the intent of ordering to update each of their photo albums. But, I sat there while they were uploading questioning my method of pictures for them.

Here is what I currently do:
* Twice a month, e-mail out newsletters with pictures and what is new with each child. Here is a sample (click to enlarge):

My Mom prints these out and sends them to me, I put them in plastic sheet protectors and have a book for each child.

* I also have one photo album for each child with as many pictures as that will hold and then a photo box for when that is full. I have made an effort to ensure that each picture has a month, year and short description on the back.

* In addition to all this, we create a Year-In-Review DVD that includes a slide show of favorite pictures from the year and video.

However, today I was wondering if it would be better to do one photo book a year so the could easily look at the pictures? If I did that, I wouldn't get 4x6's printed anymore. Carrie, I think you mentioned th photo book recently and it got me to thinking.

So, here are my questions: Should I keep doing 4x6 prints for the photo boxes or do one photo book each year for each child? What would be easiest to enjoy in the future? Would they want prints or ease of enjoying the pictures?

Please vote or leave your opinion in the comments!


Whew - lots accomplished and it feels great!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

You had a busy day! Very productive (i love that feeling)too. I love that tea party with the little ladys-lovely time well spent. I can't wait to plant some veggies-such a wonderful thing to watch things grow :)!Thanks for sharin your day with us. tammyp

Edi said...

I like your newsletter idea...you have pictures and text all together - perfect.

I was so much better about doing stuff like that when the kids were younger...I guess one reason is that kids do change a lot when they are under 3...so many "firsts" and milestones that they meet...and a newborn baby looks so different from a 5 month old baby - so you need all the photos.

I originally had one photo album for each child and actually still do - but then once they hit a certain age there were so many photos that included both children, that I just started an album that had both of them in it. It's nice to have sep. ones also - especially for the baby years...

*carrie* said...

Great job on all those projects, Monica. Thinking of you.

Thanks for your prayers for us today as we travel!

love, me

Anonymous said...

Whew is right! You got a tremendous amount done -- great job! I will leave it to others to vote for the "best" method of keeping photos -- I think the main thing is to keep them in some kind of retrievable system so that later on when you are looking for a photo from a certain age, you'll have an idea where to look! I have found that is what I've done more than just browse through albums. Love you, Mom

GeonHui's Bakery said...

Wow! I'm amazed at everything you got done.

I'd love to know more about sunflower growing. This may be a silly question, but you can harvest the sunflower seeds out of the flower? I mean obviousely that's how they get sunflower seeds, but is it easy enough to do? Do you have to do anything to preserve them?

Great work!

It's a Mom Thing said...

I love the idea of a photo book each year for each child. What a collection they will have to share with their families one day. And you would think that the pictures would be preserved better that way, since they would be printed like a book, right?
Currently, I upload pics on Shutterfly to send out to family and friends every few months. I've heard of a few friends who have been pleased with Shutterfly's books. Maybe I'll look into that, too.

Amy said...

Wow! You accomplished a ton! Totally inspired me to get my rear in gear ;) Thank you!

Wendi said...

You were one busy lady yesterday! Doesn't it feel great?!

I love the idea of the newsletter with photos. Would you share what kind of program you use to create this?

My husband makes a yearly DVD. He makes it for the anniversary of the day we received Megan. Very meaningful to us.

Anonymous said...

two questions... 1st where did you get your labels for the garden? and what program do you use to do the newsletters... that is a great idea! I have 3 girls ages 1, 3, and 5 it is hard to keep up with who is doing what... thanks suzanne
mroper1069@yahoo.com

Tammy said...

You go girl!
I would love to see a tutorial on those adorable bows!

Anonymous said...

What an excellent day you've had! Congratulations! I think for the next year I need every day to be an Anti-Proscrastination day, I'm just terrible for it!!

As for how to collect the photos, I would personally go for a photo box of sorts - that way when you're child is all grown up they can quickly go through them all. Personally it's lovely to be able to handle photographs - and then they can decide how they want to organise them. They could use the photos for all sorts of things for their own children etc.

You could use a box for study aids, recipe cards that kind of thing - and even organise them! That way you have an easy reference if ever you are looking for a young photo of them in pjs or something.

I also saw this and thought of you! Please look!!!

Homemade crayons and personalised colouring pages!!

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=190245.0

http://fototiller.com/blog/2006/06/26/coloring-pages-from-your-photos-3-easy-photoshop-steps/


Mags, UK

Kellie said...

I only have one daughter, but here's how I do it. I do one scrapbook per year just for her. That's where I scrap events and milestones on separate pages, etc. It's kind of like the story of her life, so to speak. It lasts the calendar year.

Then I do another "family" book per year. The family book has two facing pages per month, and I just scrap things that happened that month. If we go on a trip, or it's Easter or Christmas, I do two extra facing pages for that event. The family book is where I also put all the photos sent at the holiays of friends and family. It's nice to have a book to put things in just for that year -- I also include info on things that happened, like if a family member had an accomplishment or if there was a death or birth or wedding, etc., in the extended family or something like that, that might not be appropriate to scrap a whole page for.

That's how I handle it! But with three kids, it might be a little harder.

Have a nice day!

Michelle-ozark crafter said...

You have been a busy girl! Good for you! I just know those sweet young ladies enjoyed tea time with you!

Anonymous said...

You were one busy gal today! I love those flower shaped plates, which I remember seeing in another post. Where did you get them?
I hope you plan to post a tutorial on how to make those hair bows! So feminine!
I see you are putting those plant markers to use. Hope your harvest is bountiful.
Angie

rohanknitter said...

Here's what I do: I have a baby book for each child, and I inserted extra photo pages for the years between babyhood and preschool. Starting with preschool, I have a "school" album for them. (even though we homeschool) Each year gets a 2-4 (6 max) page spread in these books, hitting the highlights. When my oldest had his 8th grade graduation a couple years ago, I had both books out and guest could look at the highlights throughout his life. I try to do one family photo album per year, so there's NO WAY I could do another whole album per year for each boy, lol!
They are each doing their own album on their 4-H experiences and livestock showing (they are 9, 13, & 16). I am having them do a small album on the Florida trip we took this winter. : )

Jessica said...

You've accomplished more in one day than I have in a week. Very productive! I love the idea of putting the newsletters in page protectors in a scrapbook, very clever! I'd probably keep a photo box or album for each as well though!

Anonymous said...

I would suggest if you do place your pictures in photo boxes to save for future looking at that you make sure the boxes are archival safe, such as the ones Creative Memories have. If the boxes are not safe they could turn your pictures colors after years of storage.
I store most of my pictures on CDs and then I chose the ones I want to place on my photo albums. I decided I would do a first year book and then a book for each year after. I enjoy now the albums my mother put together for me when I was a child. I can now compare my kids to myself as a child because I have this albums. My mother also keep the extra pictures and gave them to me in a photo box.
I hope this will give a few ideas of how you would like to save your precious pictures for the future. Monica

Kimberly said...

Wow! I'm impressed! Great job!

Melody said...

Wow! I wish I could get that much done in a day. I suppose if I was more organized I could. Great job. The hair bows are adorable and the newsletters are a great idea.

blessedmommie said...

I LOVE your newsletters. What a wonderful idea! Those are priceless.
As for ideas for photo saving, I have three children (so far!) as well. I am doing a baby album for each, then an album of the toddler years (1-2), then preschool (3-5), and then school age (6-12). After that when they are teenagers, I will probably do one for those years too, but I hope that when they are getting older it will be something we can work on together. Another thing I started with my oldest and have done pretty well keeping up on, is to do a two page collage (12 x 12)of each year of his life with my favorite pictures. I really crop them as much as I can and put as many of my favorites as I can get on the pages. So by the end there will be two pages of each year, from his first to his 18th.