Endings and Beginnings....

Everything changes and I am trying hard to learn to accept that. It is a struggle for me. Even good change (like the girls getting taller, losing teeth, etc) is hard for me to accept. I have loved the girls more at every single age, but I still long for the way they used to be. Maybe that is why I scrapbook - to try to make sure I never forget how it is exactly RIGHT NOW. Never thought about it like that, but I bet that has a lot to do with it.

OK, things ending..... Today (June 30th) is it. The very last day to place a Once Upon A Family order. Go here to order anything you want to have. After today, I can no longer place an order for you. And that makes me sad. I never made much money on OUAF, but I loved it. I loved their products and what they could mean to people.....  anyway, everything they make is 40% off for one last day. If you want the Wrought Iron Tree, there is no direct link to it....  so go HERE and at the top, select PRODUCTS and then select any catergory. In the left column there should be a SEARCH bar at the bottom. Type the word "tree" there and hit enter. Go to page two and it will be the last item you see listed. People have struggled with this and I have to work today, so I will not be around to talk you through it. Be patient, and you will find it on the site and be able to add it to your cart....  sorry for the trouble - this is the item I made people want most, and it is not an easy item to order....  but, it is only $21 with the 40% off discount, and it will make an incredible gift for someone! :)

OK, things starting. Tonight was the first night Busia (my Mom's 85 year old Mom) spent the night in her new room in our home. It will be a transition for all of us, but it is time, we are all ready, and it is a blessing for each one of us in its own way. In fact, tonight, the ever amazing Kalli choose to spend the night in my old room with her great grandma. She was so cool about it that it made me cry. How blessed are the girls to get to be around someone filled with SO MUCH love for them. I am transitioning our stuff (why do we all have so much stuff anyway?) to Dad's old room in the basement. It is a very nice space. A lot smaller than I had, which is encouraging me to purge (which is a very good thing). Moving is just hard. I loved our room. I need to get my dad to come over to hang up all my photos of the girls, then I know I will love our new space, too. And, I feel lucky to have the space to have Busia here with us. I pray she does OK with the transition. I love that lady.

Here are a couple photos of how I have quickly organized her new space as of today....  lots of work still left to do, but this is a good place to start, and I think she will be comfortable until I get her more settled...

An old thing I stopped hopefully starting again.....
I have been a lame blogger and an even lamer scrapbooker (is lamer even a word?). I used to do something called Make Something Monday and I loved it. I loved having one time each week where I made SOMETHING. Printed or uploaded photos, created one journal entry or finished one page. I have been asked to start this again, and I am going to try. I have a better shot this summer while I am not teaching....  so here it goes...  starting NEXT MONDAY, I am going to post SOMETHING I made. I am going to try to encourage some of you to do the same.....   we can do this. We can make things that matter. There is truly enough time in our lives to create simple, meaningful memories....  we just have to prioritize and DO IT. If you want to encourage yourself to remember to MAKE SOMETHING check out Shannon's new MAKE SOMETHING stuff on Cafe Press. Carrying this will remind me to just make something. Never make it harder than it needs to be, just think about a memory you desire to never forget, and get it on paper! Enjoy the process.

I am ending this super long post with a photo Kalli made me take today because Uncle Matt ran to Target and did not get to see all the candy dots she had in her mouth at one time.

She made me take a picture so she would be able to show him when she got back. I love being a mom to funky kids. I love every bit of it. :)

Looking forward to a new year....

Hi. I hope anyone that reads this blog had a happy new year. My girls were both ill, so we spend a peaceful night at home snuggled on the air mattress in the basement with a fire in the fireplace watching movies. It was peaceful and at 9 PM we pretended it was midnight..... did the countdown and everything. My friend (whose house we were supposed to go to with the kids) brought over hats and horns which was SO NICE! And sparkling grape juice. It was fun. And they are feeling much better today.

Ok, now for a work based thing (sort of work based...)  I want to MAKE SOMETHING this year. And I want to help anyone who needs motivation MAKE SOMETHING, too. There are so many people I know who REALLY REALLY want to MAKE SOMETHING, but they get too caught up in being super organized, being "caught up", or wanting everything to be perfect before they make anything. Please, get over that need with me and MAKE SOMETHING for your family this year. I will help you.

I am working on a newsletter I hope to mail out a newsletter (you can sign up for my newsletter on the right tool bar of this blog if you are not on my list already) which invites you to MAKE SOMETHING this year. If you want to get things made rather than worry about perfection, you should sign up for this (by commenting on this blog post). I will happily email you every Monday night in 2009 to see how you are doing. I am a big fan of "Make Something Monday" which I tried to do in 2008.  It does not have to be Monday, it does not have to be fancy, it can be anything at all. Printing one photo, writing one story, uploading photos, adding memories to a digital book, simply capturing one memory....  week by week, one at a time. No pressure, no big expense....  just people motivating each other to MAKE SOMETHING for their family.

If you want to join my little MAKE SOMETHING group, email me at klsb@comcast.net OR post a comment on this blog (PLEASE put your email address in the post because I cannot usually find your email otherwise). I am not exactly sure how I will be able to set it up yet, but I will figure that out this weekend. I just wanted to let you know I was planning this to start next Monday.  So be starting a list of little things you can make. Just one little thing every week and we will all have 52 little things by this time next year. Ahhhh, that idea makes me happy.

I think I had success (when I counted points and showed up for my weekly meetings) on weight watchers because someone KNEW I was supposed to be there weighing in at my meetings. Because someone wrote in a little book if I had a successful week or if I needed to try a little harder.  I loved it. It worked for me when I stuck with it. (by the way, when you STOP counting points, STOP working out, and begin eating everything in site, the weight comes RIGHT BACK ON!).  I want to be your check point...  I want you to let me know what you are working on and how I can help you MAKE SOMETHING this year.  I think I will ask a couple of friends if they can donate a couple of prizes that will be raffled off to those trying to MAKE SOMETHING.... I think I will try to create a pdf of a check box that allows you to print it out and then you can put a check mark or a small sticker into the boxes for every week you MAKE SOMETHING. I am not sure yet. If you have an idea of how I could help you get motivated, let me know. I just wanted to let you know what I was thinking about today and invite you to MAKE SOMETHING this year with me. I look forward to seeing what we all create together.

Happy 2009. It is full of potential and anything is possible.