METAL is IN and Apparently SO is SHREDDED Paper!

What is it about containers that fascinate us?  The material they’re made of can tell us something about our personal taste.  That being said, my personal taste has got to fit in the “eclectic” category. I have every kind of container under the sun, but as you know I am about to change that.  Cleaning up, throwing out, or is that throwing up and …..anyway – I’m getting the job done one day at a time and blogging about it!

My photo boxes are usually cream with some of kind of warm antique feel as if I’m gravitating towards my grandmother. But who really needs all their photo boxes to match?  I guess I do.

My storage boxes, no big deal, but usually plain cardboard.  I do like that raw quality, and a place to label what’s in the box.  Perhaps that means I’m an earthy anal combination?

What about the metal kind of container? It appeals to my sense of clean lines, looks professional, and did you know?  Metal is in.  I think it’s a classic type container, like navy and red in fashion.  Never goes out of style.  In actuality I believe we bought the metal containers for fireproof reasons to store important paperwork.  And indeed, I looked inside and found paperwork dated 2001.  I have heard from reliable sources that you can throw your personal paperwork out after seven years.  If I am wrong I apologize, to whom ever I need to apologize to – because I am shredding the paper as we speak.  I know, multitasking, two hands on the keyboard and big toe on the shredder power button.  Kidding.  Be careful using a shredder!

The shredding lasted for about five minutes.  It has got to be the most mundane chore in the world.  And what to do with it after it’s shredded?  We can use it to pack boxes, or recycle it.  I highly doubt any lurking criminals at the recycling station would want to piece my top-secret information together – but you never know.  So…. maybe a craft?

I betcha it wouldn’t take me long to find something on Pinterest,  handmade and spectacular, and out of shredded paper?

You may want to visit me at Pinterest and check out what I found!

http://www.pinterest.com/cindysouljourn

one of my own creations at http://www.pinterest.com/cindysouljourn

All For the Glory of Love

Alright, I must have an affinity for cardboard photo storage boxes.  But remember, I am trying to pick the most daunting things off the shelf to deal with first.  This cold February morning caught me reaching for fall leaves and red berries, the warm and inviting pattern on this specific photo box.  Unlike yesterday’s container, this one was heavy.

Inside, nine VHS tapes of Christmas Past.  Because I own a frame shop my first inclination was to call downtown Vistek in Calgary, http://www.vistek.ca.  We’ve gotten many of our video, and camera, as well as specialty photo needs, met there.  They don’t offer a service to convert VHS to DVD, but they gave me two names that do; Costco, and TR Communications Ltd., located in Calgary, Alberta.

As my calendar would have it, Lloyd and I are going to be in Calgary, the weekend of the 9th of March for a Chicago concert.  We listened to their music often, during the early stages of our dating relationship.  I found out just this morning that is was the early lead singer of Chicago, Peter Cetera who actually recorded “The Glory of Love”, which I purchased moments ago from iTunes.

Often we make the mistake to attribute a whole song to an artist/performer, only to find out that someone else wrote it.  In this case the vocalist is also part of the writing process.  “The Glory of Love” was written by Peter Cetera, Diane Nini and David Foster.  Although I don’t know for sure, it sounds like David Foster was the arranger as well.  Below are the lyrics from the chorus.

“I am the man who will fight for your honor, I’ll be the hero you’ve been dreaming of, we’ll live forever knowing together that we did it all for the Glory of Love”

To learn more about Chicago you may want to visit this link: http://www.chicagotheband.com

To learn more about Peter Cetera you may want to visit this link:  http://www.petercetera.com

FYI:  We are going to visit TR Communications Ltd. in Calgary for our VHS needs,  because their price was the best.  And they are located in the lovely artsy Inglewood Shopping area.

*Immediate Task:  to put box of VHS tapes in back of vehicle for March 9th.  This way I won’t forget them and they won’t get put back on the shelf or tripped over while we wait.

*Can hardly wait to view the DVDs when they are done.  Who doesn’t like to watch old home movies of their children when they were small?  I think we’ll make popcorn and make a party out of it.

And all for the glory of love!

The Witness

Little Laura reading

An ominous white storage box sat before me.  I wasn’t even going to try to guess what nightmare awaited me inside.  But… only a few stray books.  They weren’t mine.  Remnants of our daughter’s reading from her High School years, not that long ago.  Once she married she took some of her favorites with her, gave some away, put some in storage.  My guess, this box ended up on my shelf, on a day she was feeling overwhelmed.  Not one more decision could be made – so the book (buck) was passed. Oh that doesn’t happen often at your house does it?  How many things are you storing for your children, unawares?

Right away, I knew our public library would take some, but there were four novels that would be a great gift for the bedside drawer in our guest room.  Often times we enjoy having our children’s friends stay over.  Many of them are readers.  I knew for sure Hannah and Hailey would gobble these up!

I found a fleeting treasure in amongst the find, an old babysitting course notebook belonging to our eldest daughter.  Our youngest daughter wouldn’t have been caught dead babysitting.  Our son never had the time.

Inside the manual were handwritten notes by our twelve-year-old, what to do if someone is choking, how to dial 911.  I smiled, she didn’t know then she was going to become a registered nurse, although it had been her dream since she was eight, the same year she was diagnosed with Epilepsy.  For a time I wondered painfully if she would be able to babysit others’ children, or drive a car – ever?  I fingered through the book carefully and found an unexpected surprise.  A note to Laura, from someone at our church congratulating her decision to get baptized.  I pulled the note out and kept it.  One more reason to celebrate who she was then, and who she is now.  Completely healthy, nursing at a Hospital in Edmonton, happily married  and expecting their first child.  I think I’ll tuck the note in my Bible as a reminder to pray for their family.  Perhaps one day my grand-child will choose baptism?

All of the books I placed in the bedside drawer deserve a plug, but I’ll only mention one:  “The Witness” by Dee Henderson, Inspirational Romantic Suspense category.  I usually read only non-fiction, but I’m about to change that.  Can’t help but think of what this mother (me), has witnessed over the years, and all these thoughts from just one box on a disheveled downstairs shelf.

Got me thinking of how much I love books, why not learn a new related quote?

*Book Quote I found today:  “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Why not come up with a related design task?

*Design note: Reorganize your book shelves – visit this link for inspiration: http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/decorating/great-bookcase-ideas-00000000013601/index.html

And finally – a related project that anyone can tackle – but it will take time.

*Project:  Write a book on someone or something that is very important to you.                   I am presently writing a book on my site at Heritage Makers, http://www.onceuponadigitalstory.com, about my daughter’s journey with Epilepsy.  It is called; “Laura’s Badge of Courage”.  It will be finished just in time for her 25th birthday.

Beneath a Paper Lid

the “love man” performance

The past peers from beneath a paper lid.  Who I use to be sung by strangers, who I am today strangely lingers on my lips.  Melodies and messages a world apart.  Red rhinestones sewn by hand, nothing we wouldn’t do for our “skater man”.  Silver circles kept from dust reveal but just the start of us.  I gently keep and sort and weep for joy, we journey on.  I smile at God’s promise letters, for we’re getting better.

©CindyPalin Feb.25, 2014

The Temptation: to put the photo box on the shelf with my other photo boxes                                 The Taboo:  taking clutter from one place and moving it to another                                            The Problem:  Having to revisit the clutter at a later date “why put off tomorrow what we can do today?” Thomas Jefferson

The Contents:

• 10 new DVDs and 1 new CD-RW
• One Music Disc, Grad ’81, Compilation by “Turntable Terry”
• Four Music Discs with some of my past original compositions
• Two Discs with images belonging to our Son who figure skates.  Snapshots from a competition in Lethbridge, and from the World’s Figure Skating Championships – Opening Ceremonies in Calgary – 2006, of which our Son was a part of.
• One Promise Keepers Cassette called; Wise Choices

Plan of Attack:

•  throw out old software discs that are no longer compatible with computer
• download photos from the image discs
• post a few incriminating images to Facebook and hopefully live to tell the story
• create new album in i-photo to edit and use at a later date
• download songs onto iTunes and reminisce
• Keep and file software that contains license numbers you still need
• put empty photo box to use, or store where it can be used in the near future

The Challenge: What on earth do I write about?  So many memories in a half filled paper box.                                                                                                                                                                                                       The Question: Where were those pictures when I needed them?

The Key:  Make sure the next item I retrieve is bigger and heavier, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” Proverb, sometimes attributed to Knute Rockne.

Cindy Against the Closet: one down, how many more to go?

I held my breath, closed my eyes and reached.  My first object taken off the shelf, Sunday, February 23rd, 2014, according to my new project adventure.  An old beige photo album measuring 11 1/2 by 11 1/4 inches, the kind with sticky pages.  A far cry from any scrap-booker dream.  Simply pull back the plastic sheeting, position the photo on the adhesive background and wha-la. Approximately 42 pictures in all.  Try pulling them off that adhesive after 25 years.

The Temptation:  to put the album in a box.                                                                     The Taboo:  (taking an object that has been forgotten for years, from one shelf to another)   The Problem: only to revisit it in some other closet down the road.

1987

So instead, a trip down memory lane.

• Our apple tree in full bloom in the front yard of our first home together.  It got cut down after we moved.  No, I couldn’t talk the new owners into building their front porch around it
• Dating pictures of me, when perms were still in, one word – “fried”
• Me, pregnant with our first child
• Lloyd’s 30th birthday in the backyard
• Russ Nelson, and Lloyd Palin up to their hips in Gull Lake,  waiting to be baptized by Pastor George, 1990
• One of our last birthdays together, my sister and I.  Born on the same day, the same minute, two years apart.  With marriage, little people and homes quite a distance apart, we stopped celebrating them together, 1988

And now the task of sorting and deciding what pics to send whom.

The Plan of Attack:

• Scan them.
• Save them to a labeled desktop folder
• Post your favorites to Facebook.
• Send some nostalgia to friends via email.
• Optional – upload the entire bunch to i-photo for editing and possible future projects
• Post a couple hard copies to your bulletin board or fridge

The Challenge:  come up with some sort of photo project, and throw all the extra hard copies out.  When you can save them to a hard drive – why let them take up space on a shelf*(&^%$##?

The Question?  When was the last time I looked at that album?  Oh the silly things we hang onto.

The Key:  to make sure the next item I take off the shelf is slightly different.  Gotta keep it interesting.  And now I have a formula – so to speak.

Are you ready to take on a similar project?  Use my formula and let’s compare notes:)

Julie & Julia or Cindy & the Closet? An Introduction

I like the kind of mornings when I hear him speak to me before my eyes are even open.  I was dreaming, getting baptized, again?  The church I was in resembled more of a water slide circus.  I was waiting in line for my turn and questioning if I had used the first half of my life in a positive way, and if I was going to be able to accomplish anything worth while in the second half?  Then I heard his voice, “it isn’t about making a name for yourself, but getting to know me”. There it was.  We spend so much time doing things for the wrong reasons, worrying about stuff that doesn’t even matter.  Regardless of what I have or have not accomplished back then, or now – I am getting to know God more every day.

Speaking of accomplishing things.  I have this idea.  Down under the stairs are three or four shelves chalk full of stuff, kind of like a junk drawer or the proverbial forbidden closet.  I’ve been wanting to tackle those shelves for years.  It seems wanting to do something and actually doing something about it are two different things.  Today, I decided to  approach my dilemma like Julie Powell approached her passion.  You know – the 2009 movie about the young writer and aspiring chef who cooked a recipe a day, inspired by Julia Child’s first cookbook? My project doesn’t have anything to do with cooking, but it is a day-to-day commitment much like Julie’s was.  I am going to take one object off of the shelf per day and write about it, and then deal with the object, throw it away, or recycle it.

The challenge will definitely be in the writing.  Julie Powell’s blogging about her daily cooking adventures was superb!  If I’m really ambitious and not too embarrassed I might even include photos – maybe.

My timeline?  I have no idea how long it will take, but I have a feeling it won’t be the 365 days it took Julie.  I’ll feel so much better when the shelves are empty.  I will then tear them down and my carpenter husband and I will come up with a more efficient use of the space, AND this project has no extra calories involved!  It’s a win – win!

They both begin with the letter ‘F’ but…

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

Is it any wonder they both start with the letter ‘F’?  Fear and Faith, they are in some ways –  exact opposites.  I am not speaking of the (fear of the Lord).  I am referring to a “spirit of fear”.  The Bible tells us that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV).

I have been experiencing a wave of negativity around me.  First of all, I am not alone.  I am sure everyone experiences those waves of negativity from time to time.  Secondly, It is important that we don’t take it personally.  Although analyzing everything can be exhausting, taking a step back to analyze the situation with prayer – helps.

If you have an idea and it doesn’t go over well, often times – fear is the culprit.  We human beings are naturally fearful.  We get use to things a certain way, and are afraid that if we change anything it won’t work.  If it doesn’t look like we think it is supposed to, then it must be a bad thing.  Often times we forget that situations don’t have to look the way we expect them to look, that is called control.  There’s another one – fear of losing control.  But do we really want to be in control?

What are we really saying when we’re afraid?  It could be we’re afraid of what other people will think.  We’re afraid of the work that it is going to cost us.  We’re afraid of doing something stupid.  We’re afraid to trust new people.  We’re afraid to love because we’ve been hurt before.  The list goes on and on.

But let us never be afraid to let God usher us into something new that He is doing.  Check your spirit.  Are you bucking at God’s divine intervention?  Is God trying to show us something and we’re too afraid to give him the reins?  Or we could ask it this way, are we too afraid to let him reign.

If you’re feeling frustrated and wanting to complain, or perhaps you have a panic inside you can’t explain, these are often the tell-tale signs of fear.  Be silent and still and recite       2 Timothy 1:7 out loud and ask God for new eyes to see what He is doing.  Ask Him to show you how to move forward in faith.

“But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved” (Hebrews 10:39).

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).