Albums...Albums.. . Albums - FRIDAY

After produce co-op I was itching to get my hands on my new scrapping stuff. I had a brand new 12 x 12 album that I thought I could transfer photos from the broken PWOC album into. I decided NOT to go remove PWOC photos from past albums but to begin making a PWOC only album with the Elmendorf years. I thought I would get Elmendorf and our current group into one album. It is not to be. The Elmendorf years more than filled the album. Anyway, I thought this would be easy.....take the pages out of the pioneer, tape them to the CM book, add protectors. Get on with the day.

I found some photos in the album that weren't on a page. Hmmm....The other pages in this album are very frilly. I couldn't just put naked photos in. I got out some paper and covered the white pages, layered a bit...had to go find corner rounders, had to find tape, had to load the tape runner. Shew - got it done.

I went to journal and the pens were all dry. I had to sort through and throw out pens.

At this point I was still having fun but remembering WHY digiscrapping appeals to me. ::snort:: Every time I got up, I came back to this:

But then I remembered that I used to love to scrap with Bre and Krista, so I let her stay. I gave her discard photos and she was happy.

I noticed photos were missing.....and went looking....ARGH...I found THESE!

Two full boxes of photos that span the time period from leaving San Antonio - going Digital in AK. This is only two years of photos. Do you see why I'm so behind? It's only gotten worse with a DIGITAL camera. Oh my WORD. TWO BOXES. I thought I had the magnetic albums and the digital prints to go ...but NO....TWO FULL BOXES OF FILM PHOTOS! *

At this point I was getting very tired. I did one naked page for the album.

I realized I should fix dinner. The older boys and Mike were out working. I did this.

The kids think I should scrap more often.

I got out the back up discs from the great computer crash and found digital photos from 2004 and 2005. I did 16 digital layouts to add to the PWOC album.

I figured out how to put them all on a jump drive in case there were a place in Fredericksburg that could print them for me. There wasn't. However, I did get my CM Storybook Creator PLUS software on Saturday. Which I used to make the intro and farewell page for the PWOC album (posted Monday).

Last night, I got all the newly printed layouts into the album. This PWOC album has naked layouts, modest layouts, incredily frilly layouts and digital layouts. I like it. I enjoyed scrapping Friday...but what I thought would take less than an hour took me 12 hours to complete. I remembered why I like PWOC project nights and why I like digital scrapping. LOL

Cost wise...um....have you ever figured the cost for a complete album. If you aren't doing naked albums it will shock you if you add the cost of paper, stickers, embellishments, photo printing, pages, protectors etc. I was discussing this yesterday with the owner of our scrapbook store. I was cringing at $3.48 per page and she said that most spend that or more on traditional pages....I told her I've been doing naked albums. She was alarmed. ::snort:: She said she thinks the price of digital and traditional are pretty much the same. I bought stuff to do a two page PWOC page for my next book and it came to $11 - that is without album, protectors, pages, tape, photos....I bought two 12 x 12 papers, a sticker that says road trip, and a packet of embellishments from Fredericksburg.

*Mike made my weekend when he saw me fussing about the boxes of photos. He reminded me that there ARE photo discs with them. I said, "Yeah - I know." He replied, "Load them on the computer and use the digital layouts." YES. I may do just that.....and send the other photos to Bre to scrap (she likes traditional scrapping) or my Mom (she's so hopelessly behind whats two more boxes from my home?). ::snort::

I think Mike discovered faster than I that paying for the digital prints will be cheaper in the long run than me browsing in scrapbook stores... He also really likes to see an album DONE and when I spend 3 hours to find the right embellishment it slows me down. ::snort::

THIS DAY

I took three children to the doctors today. Of course, they couldn't be seen TOGETHER....though on the last appointment I asked about MY ears. Mine don't hurt. BUT for months - probably more than a year - they've had pressure behind them. They always need to be popped. It's gotten noticably bad as Mike mentions there is nothing wrong with his voice, the volume on the radio, the children's voice but my hearing is going. WELL NOW. I was QUITE sure that I wasn't losing my hearing...but as I watched all the kids be examined today I asked the doc about my ears. I explained that I don't have a fever. I don't have pain. I've had pressure for months and my ears always need to be popped but never quite clear.

The man too PITY on me! He said, "Since you are here" and grabbed the otoscope. I had been told over a year ago at this time that everyone here develops new allergies and to take decongestant. I told the doc that that is probably what it was but that I've had it since this time last year. Turns out that I have lots of fluid behind my ear. Lots. He said that there is no way decongestants will help. He also said that this would explain my loss of hearing. I have meds too.

FOUR unexpected doctor appointments. My PLAN was to stay home and get some things caught up around here, play with kids....and I need to do a girls date with Arielle SOON.....

I also want to take some prints in locally to be printed. I don't know WHY but on Friday I decided this Elmendorf PWOC album needed doing...and now I simply need to print out 19 layouts.

While sitting in waiting room today I decided to redo two of the layouts I did yesterday - because I wanted to make give them a tad bit more zing, now that I discovered how late last night. I did that and Arielle and I are heading to the Scrapbook Store....then we'll crash tonight and plan the rest of week to be what we wanted to do the last two days. ::snort::

I'm not sure if you can see the big difference online...but in life it's noticeable.

Original layout - notice that CM shadows the little dotty elements...


I added shadows around the photos - as they would stand out in a real album. I think it makes the page look more 3D and less "flat".....


Now.....off we go again. Oh yeah, I had to fill up my van. $108.68. YIKES! But in ALASKA CNN reports gas at $4.50 a gal - could it be?

Summer Projects

I love the summer. It is a great time to “tie up loose ends”. I have a bit more time for personal Bible study. There is a bit more time for play. We spend a bit of time honing up on subjects that in which we are lagging behind. It’s a fantastic season to spend some extra time, prayer and effort on summer projects.

In our home, “Projects” are not solely building a bird house, compiling a scrapbook, FINALLY working on that Greek temple made from toilet paper rolls, or finishing a math text.

“Projects” in our home are a mentoring/discipling/parenting tool. We’ve discovered the shotgun approach doesn’t work well for us. We can’t change all areas in all of our children’s lives at once. We can, however, be intentional in our focus. Projects are specific areas of focus for each of our children’s lives. These are prayed over and I believe Holy Spirit impressed. I write these down in my Tryst Journal. At any given point, if confidentiality were not an issue, I could tell you each current project for each of our children. Our projects are a tool that allows us to actively partner with what we believe God is working in each individual family member. This has been very effective.

We make “Projects” a matter of prayer and observation. We notice which character traits or personality issues or discipleship/doctrinal issues God would have us work on - and we focus on those. The key words are: intentional and focus. We may suggest books or Bible passages to our older children, complete a topical study with our child, we bathe each project in prayer and we look for Holy Spirit moments when we can speak to the issue. We evaluate and pray about each project quarterly. Many projects run for several quarters.

Here is one example from YEARS ago to illustrate our family home projects. With one of our darlings we attacked “deception – lying/cheating”. First, the issue became a focus during my family fasts and prayer times. Second, we did a topical study on deception during family circle. Third, I was aware of the opportunities the Holy Spirit opened for me to speak to that area. Fourth, as Mike and I are in agreement he also looks for those God-ordained teachable moments. God was faithful. Conviction, repentance and growth followed. This is currently not a project for any of our children.

Projects are a wonderful tool for individually mentoring each of our children. They take a bit of time and energy, but we’ve seen time and again lasting maturity and heart change when we, as parents, put our efforts where God is working in our child. For our older three, all adults now, this is matter of prayer and the occasional comment, rather than daily training. For the very young ones there are never-ending topics for new projects. ::snort::
We try hard not to ONLY look at behavior but on the heart issue behind the behavior.....this is one tool we use in our endeavor to be a pastor's family that doesn't raise children who are inoculated to the gospel or practicing Pharisees.

©2008 D.R.G.

Other Places

Jamin has been interviewed at Novelist's Cafe.

I have published an article on Summer Projects , a parenting tool, at HSBA.

Monday

I need to catch you up on my Friday and Saturday....but I'm jumping to today or I'll never catch up. LOL

Today we enjoyed having Josiah home. He went out and bought two chairs to go with the dining room table that he rescued. He said that he'll find two more chairs that match to coordinate "sometime".

I think three of the kids have swimmer's ear. I went online as this is the STRANGEST ear infection I've ever seen. We usually self-treat...but I'm wondering if we'd best go in. Anyone ever dealt with this?

I did make it to the gym.

I played with new digiscrapping software. I learned all sorts of new things.

Mike made reservations at campgrounds for our August trip to Colorado - THE GIRLS WILL MEET US THERE! I'M A TAD BIT EXCITED TO SEE THEM AGAIN!

We had dinner. Burned some steaks, added rolls, artichokes, fruit plate and a salad.

Josiah told us about his awesome trip and showed us photos. Zander wants to go see the Natural History Museum.

I bought a new Tim Hawkins DVD and we enjoyed it for the second time tonight. Poor Jamin has still not seen it. He's working LOTS of hours now that he is done with school.

Jamin got a .75 raise and Josiah got a .50 raise....way to go guys!

I talked with Krista. Who would have guessed when she said she wanted to be a pirate when she grew up.......who knows....

There - that's what we did today.

CM STORYBOOK PLUS Software

My first two layouts with CM Storybook PLUS software. Just for Linda....I could save them as individual pages. I was given the option to use a local printer. These are with Gazebo templates which come with the software. There are supposed to be some of the digital kits. I haven't found them yet. I did find a button to import and I think the way you would save a template from say Shabby Princess is to save it to your harddrive and then hit the import template button in CM software. I'll try that next if I have a bit more time.

This is the first page of the PWOC album.

Below is the final page in the PWOC album. I had tried several smilebox templates trying to fit all my text into the design. My only option was the very plain one and I wanted a bit more punch. This worked well. I wanted to summarize my thoughts on the PWOC ministry at Elmendorf...and remind myself of the lessons I learned. I need SPACE.

I loved that I could use various fonts, change sizes of the font, manipulate text box size, move photos and such around.

I found the button to add shadows but it was grayed out. I'm going to have to figure out WHY because I want to add shadows by the 3 D type things so the layout will look more 3 D than flat. Anyone familiar with the program care to tell me what's up? I THINK it may be locked because these are templates. I can't FIND the design kits that would have allowed me to build my own. The top layout doesn't look real flat but I think the bottom one could have benefitted from putting shadows around the photos. LOL

I really LIKE these two pages...they have a bit of fluff but aren't overpowering with frippery. This is a pack of paper I was looking to buy for my "modest albums" and now I can make layouts for it right on the computer.

If I can find the time to go to the local scrapbook shop to print them out I will be DONE with the PWOC album for 2002 - 2005. They are saved as jpg Linda, so I see no reason why I can't print them in other places. Hope that helps.

*WE* ARE That Old Couple ...you know the one stalking unsuspecting young parents.....

I admit that I've been emotional.

Today we were sitting in Arbys (because we had planned to pick Josiah up at the airport and the plane was late but not late enough to cook a meal before chapel). Alright, already.....Today we were sitting in Arbys and a young couple walked in with a newborn.

I remember old couples smiling and watching our little ones. This actually still happens to us quite a bit. We'll notice someone is paying attention to us. Often as they leave they'll give us a compliment on our large family, or comment on how our children remind them of theirs and several times they've even paid for our meal. We've been good natured about this, especially the paying for the meal part. ::snort:: It's actually been nice to know that we have been able to resurrect fond memories for others.

Today we were sitting in Arbys and I couldn't keep my eyes off the young couple. They seemed SO young but a reality check revealed they were no younger than I was when Bre was born. They were visiting with each other but it was so OBVIOUS this baby was the center of their focus. The baby did this little snake thing with his tongue and both looked at each other and did it. ::snort:: They ate with a hand jiggling the carseat or leaning in to smile at Jr.

Memories flooded back. Our days of being so young with a newborn. It seems like yesterday but its been 23 years since BreAnne was born. Wow. Where does the time go?

I teared up. I CRIED. Mike said, "What's wrong" and then he got emotional too. I love that about my husband - there is no doubt that family is so very important to him. We discussed how quickly the years had passed, how we'd like to have held on to them a bit longer and how blessed they really were...and now I'm tearing up again.

Oh yes, Josiah DID get home today on a later plane.