Monday, December 23, 2013

Merry Minton Christmas!

I thought I'd do a little Christmas post this Christmas Eve as we begin to wrap up 2013. To see a sort-of scrapbook of my year on facebook, check out my facebook Year In Review Then check out our Christmas card from this year! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

2013 Christmas card
View the entire collection of cards.


Sunday, December 22, 2013

Our time capsule - Book of Me: Prompt 8

I love the idea of this prompt. I considered making a time capsule about our houses history and our remodel/addition and our family in it and leaving it in the attic for a future owner to find. (I love house history, so I'm not ruling this out for a later project!) I considered a family time capsule of who each of us is and what we like right now, maybe with a letter or video to our future selves, that we could bury and plant a tree over to be dug up in 10 or even 20 years. (Also still a fun potential project.) I considered doing a yearly time-capsule-in-a-mason-jar as seen on this pinterest post here.

Right now I am leaning toward a decade time capsule. Working with timelines and scrapbooking has really gotten me thinking about how a person's life splits into decades. Just hitting the highlights of a decade with records, pictures, and personal items would paint such a unique picture of a person or family's evolution. For Dave and I a 2000s decade time capsule would probably include my high school diploma and senior pictures, a band picture of me and my drum major manual, a picture of me singing in my high school show choir, church choir, and with my band Soul Vacation, possibly a cd of a few of the very first digital pictures dad and I took with our very first digital camera, a circuit city shirt to remember my 1st (and only "real" job, and my college diploma. For Dave we would probably have a folder full of newspaper clippings from his high school sports, his green Fury t-shirt from rec soccer, some Saint Louis HS memorabilia, a picture of his Granny perming his bleached-blond hair, a picture of his station wagon and his broken arm, his high school diploma and senior picture of him at the piano, his bachelor's degree diploma, and some of the early brochures Dave made for Lonnie Harper & Assoc where he works. For "us" I think we would include a photo or maybe a recording of us playing in our friends Corey and Eric Tarver's praise band for 1st Church of the Nazarene, called Joshua's House; a picture of us at my senior prom; the video and maybe the silk flowers from our wedding and our marriage license; pictures from our trips to Disney World, Chicago, & New York; pictures or newspaper articles from Hurricane Rita; birth certificates and baby pics for Isaac and Zoe; pictures from the Curry and Chambers reunions in Arkansas; a Christmas or family portrait from each year; a picture of our 1st apartment; and the sales agreement for our home.

OK... that's a lot. I'll have to do research and find out what sizes and types of boxes are available. Should I get fireproof? Waterproof? Archival? Just a cardboard paper box for now? Before we finish and publish this Book of Me project by our 10th anniversary in May 2015, I'm going to make one of these time capsule things happen.

I'll keep you posted.

Journaling - Book of Me: Prompt 6

I'm behind on my entries AND going out of order, but I suppose as long as I'm still plugging away that's alright...

I have kept various journals and diaries since I was pretty young. When I was in elementary school, I loved those pre-made, fill-in-the-blank "about me" books. I'm sure mom still has at least one of them. I remember we made black and white photocopies of all the pages of one that had teddy bears on it, so I could fill it out again at a different age. Mom just gave me the blank copies recently so that Zoe could fill it out when she's a little older. I also remember having a pink, electronic diary with a password, although I never really had to hide anything since I didn't have brothers or sisters to spy on me.

Most of my middle school journals were about various crushes and got chunked when I got married along with a boot-sized shoe box of notes from boys and friends. As I got toward the end of high school and beyond, my journaling because more self-help-ish: to do lists, goals, projects, exercise and food journals, etc.

If a notebook is more than half full and mostly memory-worthy, then I usually keep it. My journals vary from beautiful store-bought journals to spiral notebooks and everything in between. I have at least a few entries in almost every notebook I've ever owned. I have a fair number of saved files from old computers, too.

These days my 2 most common forms of journaling are facebook/blogging and prayer journaling. My ADD leads me to really struggle during my prayer time with "being still" to listen to God. If I write as I pray, it keeps me from getting distracted. It's often much more clear when and how God is answering me.

At this exact moment I have 4 journals and a daily planner within arms reach of my bed. I'm sure I will continue to journal and keep my notebooks. I believe it is good for my soul.