Backpacking through the Years!

I love it when my personal and professional life crossover and I get some great information that are applicable to both.  Last weekend I was at a scrapbooking crop and I met a Close to My Heart sales consultant.  She taught an awesome project using 12 x12 file folders to keep track of your children's memorable school work (I'll show that in another post someday).  We started talking about preserving our children's work and she told me she had a closet full of their old backpacks that have all the "big projects" in them that don't fit into the file folder.

What a wonderful idea...save your child's backpack from each year and fill it with their best work.  Such nostalgic treasures they will have when they get older.

My daughter's backpack from preschool and jr. kindergarten is in the pile of donations to go to the church garage sale.  Thank goodness the donations aren't due until mid-October because that backpack is being picked from the pile.

Can't wait to start filling it full of memories...and continue to backpack through the next 13 years!

Airing My Dirty Laundry!

Laundry is probably one of my least favorite things to do...but I think my husband likes it less than I do.  I am blessed that he does his own, but I am the one that does mine, our daughter's, and all of the community laundry such as sheets, towels, and rugs.  Because of my health issues, this is an exhausting chore for me, so often times it will pile (and when I say pile I literally mean PILE) up in the laundry room in front of the dryer because I just don't feel like folding it.  Sometimes it sits for two weeks and each day my daughter (age 5) and I go digging through the pile for what to wear.  I am NOT proud of this...it is definitely one of my limitations. 

This past Sunday I took 2 hours to fold the mountain of laundry that had accumulated.  I placed it neatly into laundry baskets and my husband carried them to their appropriate destinations.  Of course, I didn't have the energy to put it away after spending 2 hours folding it.  So a basket of laundry sits on my daughter's floor in her room waiting to be put away.

Last night she was getting ready for bed and looking for some clean pajamas.  Of course she couldn't just open the drawer and get any old pair, she had to have this certain pair that was at the bottom of the neatly folded basket.  So out fly the neatly folded clothes...all over the floor.  I didn't yell at her, but I proceeded to comment on the disaster she created and told her she would clean it up tomorrow.  She could certainly sense my disdain, I'm sure. 

After I tucked her into bed, I walked downstairs into our bedroom...to the same sight...a pile of laundry all over the floor surrounding the laundry basket.  I remembered then that I was frantically looking for something to wear to church on Sunday...and it was at the bottom of my basket. 

Well, now I realize where she learned this nasty habit.  Kids are our mirrors, and so impressionable.  Our actions make their mark on them without us even realizing it.  As the old saying goes...The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

What are your limitations? 

Love Happens

Love Happens (Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, 2009) is a fabulous movie about resilience, release, recovery, and redemption.  Even though it focuses on grief recovery, anyone going through any kind of recovery should watch it.  I am going through health recovery and I still found it to be uplifting.  Thanks to my Counselor friend Santina Marshall for the recommendation.  If you are a counselor, you should certainly get a copy of this for your video therapy library!

Does anyone have any suggestions for other video therapy titles?

Design Changes!

I feel like I've finally moved into the 21st century!  I figured out how to link the site to my Facebook page, add a Like box, and a Twitter Follow Me button.  I also made some other simple cosmetic changes, but it seems a little more streamlined!  So excited about the new look!  What do you think?