I am a scrapbooker. Do I love scrap booking? NO! However, because I do think it is a parent’s job to journal family life, I do scrapbook. A year ago I spoke with my friend Teri Cook, and decided to move exclusively to digital scrapbooking. It is so easy and brings no messiness with it. (I will write about my favorite digital scrapbooking CD’s in another post.) All that is necessary are my digital photos, my scrap-booking papers and elements (all digital and organized on my desktop) and Costco or Walmart’s photo print shop. I spend a few minutes creating my family memory page and with a mouse click, my page is sent to the print shop. 

   Now, the reason I am writing this post is because I want you to know that there is a great product now available for you to back up your digital photos with. I was made aware of this by Kelsey’s blog at www.vanillajoy.com and love the idea. The photo is a link. Click on it and take a minute to learn about Clickfree, it automatically backs up anything new.  Oh, and one last thing – it’s tiny, about the size of an MP3.  

Make the change to digital scrapbooking and organize those photos now. You can become Super MOM!

Today I organized my freezers. I have never taken on my frozen food before and decided today was the day.

I have two freezers, an upright in the garage and a side-by-side in my kitchen. The kitchen freezer is a frost-free variety and does not allow nearly the shelf life of the food stored in it, so…I categorized food items by type, use AND shelf life. Here is the process:

1. Clear the freezers out completely, placing the items in general categories as emptied. Get rid of the clutter and purge as you go.
2. Gather and label clear plastic boxes in the 6 quart and 15 quart varieties
3. Place food items in the labeled, categorized boxes and after completely defrosting (a fan really speeds up the process…it circulates the air quickly) and cleaning
4. Place the boxes back in the freezers

Today I realized again the happiness that comes to my clients when they get rid of the clutter and finish a newly organized area.  Wow! What a difference a few hours makes!

Five Grand Piano’s played at lightning speed and ALWAYS in sync is an organizing feat even I marveled at. Today my two daughters and I saw organized perfection in The 5 Browns.

   I have read about these young Juliard trained siblings and seen appearances on national TV shows and thought my 2 daughters, both piano teachers, whom I taught to play the piano for the first 3 years of their training, might enjoy the evening.

We were in the beautiful De Jong Concert Hall with each seat filled and marveled at the spectacular classical music provided by these young siblings who were also very entertaining.

Five Grand Piano’s played at lightning speed and ALWAYS in sync! What a fun Mother Daughter date!

I learned again yesterday the I am blessed with the gift of space design, better known as organizing stuff. Yesterday I worked with a client who received me as a “Christmas Gift” from her husband. She is a busy wife, mother of 4, care giver to 2 cats, and talented musician.

   I have met with her 3 times and each time I see the concern in her face lessen and hope for order return. (I see this often in my clients as we progress forward.)

In our initial analysis I toured the home to see and hear her needs. (2 hours together) In our second session we tackled the kitchen beginning to end and I talked her through the pantry which she completed alone. (7 hours together) Yesterday we took on the family control center, her action file, the family reference paper file and archived papers file. (3 hours together – this took so  little time because she had learned the session before how to delete and categorize & had become very good at it)

She was very proud of herself in that after two weeks time, her kitchen and pantry had remained organized. She had been very concerned at our first meeting that she would be able to begin, complete AND maintain the spaces we organized together.