Photo Stockings

When my oldest child was small, I decided to make photo stockings. I got some red gingham (for my daughter) and some green gingham (for the boys), made Christmas stockings, and cross stitched their names near the top. Then I found photos of them from birth on, applied rick-rack around the edges, and whip-stitched them onto the stockings. I have pictures of them from their first Christmas through high school graduation. As each child graduated, I made them a cross stitched stocking to take with them. It’s fun to hang their stockings each year and see how they looked throughout the years.

Here is a photo stocking for Gabe, our new grandson. The first photo is always edged in gold.


Here is Alex's stocking (our 2 yr. old grandson), so you can get an idea of how it looks with photos added each year.

Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking had become a burden and was not a joy anymore … but then I came across digital scrapbooking several months ago and the fun was restored! I hadn’t even known that such a thing existed! I bought some software that was fairly easy to use and never looked back. Here are some pages I just made of Gabriel’s birth and first two weeks of life. With the last page, I decided to print out the basics and attach a photo myself, instead of inserting it using my computer. I also enhanced it with stickers. Easy and cute!

Here are some pictures of a few of the pages.

eBay is Fun!

I waited months and months before listing an item on eBay for the first time - because it was something new and I was afraid of doing it wrong. They make it so easy that there is hardly any margin for error! And it's loads of fun to watch people "watching" or bidding on your item! It has helped me to have low expectations. I list almost every item with a starting price of $.99 which seems to serve to encourage bids. I have listed 25 items since the end of September and have sold all but 3. I think I've made close to $100 so far. Most of the items have been cross stitch, either completed designs or kits, but I'm beginning to branch out now.

I currently have 4 items listed under my user name: dianejh. Here are the item numbers in case anybody wants to look:

180308449143
180308451667
180308452900
180308453700

My Wonderful Spreadsheet

My daughter, Eva, helped me design a money flow spreadsheet based on her wonderful spreadsheets but tailored for my needs. I wanted to be able to look at the general flow of money in and out, see what our monthly income and expenses are, see what we are spending in certain categories such as gas and medical, and keep track of how much is in certain categories that need to build up over time and then be spent infrequently for things such as insurance.

My first sheet is for the categories that need to build up, such as car insurance, house insurance, Christmas, etc. My next sheet starts with January, with a separate sheet for each month. The columns are labeled: Date, Money Flow (where the money was spent - i.e. Walmart), Category (such as Medical, Gas, Food), Expense (the actual amount spent), and Income (for paychecks, etc.) Off to the side of each month's sheet, I listed the categories that I want to track (Medical, Food, Gas, etc.) and as I enter the expenses into the main part of the sheet, I copy and paste amounts into those categories I want to track. At the end of the month, I can easily use the spreadsheet to total them and to total the month's income and expenses.

I love my spreadsheet!

Church

Church was great. It was good to get out of the house and God spoke to me, which is always wonderful. It would be good for me to listen to a sermon every day. Gabriel did very well - he seems like a very calm, undemanding baby so far - and Alex loves church.

The sermon was about “detours” that God takes us on throughout our life and how we can’t see the purpose but He does. I feel like I’ve been on a huge detour the past few years. One thing that jumped out at me was: “I have ruined you for My purposes.” I can relate to that on so many levels. We must make a decision to believe that God sees things we can’t see and is leading us accordingly.

When you go down a familiar path, you zone out, but when the path becomes challenging, you have to focus back on God. It also challenges your perspective and you have to see that this thing you’re afraid of is something that God is walking above. God is using this to bring you to where He wants you and He is protecting you all along and will never leave you. He sees things you don’t see and didn’t bring you this far only to leave you.

O God, give me the ability to believe that You will take care of me no matter what!

The Joys of Technology

Kevin, my SIL, has expanded my way of thinking about my laptop. I have discovered the joy of watching DVDs on it and even TV shows online whenever I want to. I LOVE the Internet! Who needs TV? Speaking of TV, Cox Communication (which is the cable provider here in Rogers) is now going to make you pay $12/month above the basic cable fee to watch a Christian channel - ANY Christian channel. Figures. I wonder if SuddenLink (the Russellville provider) is going to follow suit.

Beginning

I need to write and have wanted to start a blog for some time. I tried Xanga and MySpace but they just didn't work for me. I also tried Facebook but it wasn't what I wanted either because on one level, it's too much communication (I don't really care that so-and-so is about to eat lunch) and on another level, it isn't enough.

My daughter gave birth to our second grandson last Sunday and I am currently staying with her family to help out, since she also has an active, wonderful 2 yr. old. It's been a lot of fun and a privilege. Being invited to the birth was incredible - I'll never forget watching Gabriel's head come out, seeing him turn pink as he took his first breath, or hearing his first cry.