My house maybe very umm out of sorts, but behind closed doors, in cabinets, and the filing system I use to store my files on my computer, I consider myself fairly organized. I’ll give you a few of the suggestions the speaker used today:

• Naming your file folders for pictures as YEAR #MONTH MONTH NAME (2012 01 JANUARY)
• Have a folder titled “Best of 2012” so that in 12 years when your child is graduating highschool and you want to make a memory book for them  you don’t have to search through all of the folders and you just have to look at the Best of
• GO AHEAD AND DELETE BAD PICTURES AND PIC THE BEST OF THE 20 SHOTS YOU TOOK OF THE SAME SUBJECT AT THE SAME TIME
• A tip from me: I have been scanning in all of the kid’s art projects so that I don’t have to keep them all
• Store clothes that don’t fit anymore, stuff you only use anually, and things you never use in well organized and labeled plastic containers.
• She brought up an awesome point (because she has 5 kids) that she has a checklist of things to pack for certain trips that she refers to every year and updates so she doesn’t have to reuse every time
• Pick a certain place to put your keys and purse
• Pick a certain place to open your mail and have a place where you put the things you will need to come back to and the things you don’t need to get to.
• I have yearly clear bins that I put all of the little momentous such as birthday invitations, Christmas cards, movie stubs, etc and I am going to burn DVDs with all the pictures and videos of that year and put them in there that way I have a back up

For those of you that know me, you know I am very passionate about my digital scrapbooks. I use the site www.mixbook.com because it is very easy to use and has a lot of preset layouts, backgrounds, and stickers. How I stay organized:

• I upload all of my pictures and videos off of my digital camera, video camera, and iphone to our external hard drive>Pictures By the Years>2012>2012 01 January that way I have ALL of the pictures in the same place.
• Then I have a folder on my desktop entitled Name’s Folder>Mixbook>Week 1 January 1-7 and in that folder I put all of the appropriate pictures for that time period. I also include scanned pictures I have of Name’s crafts, cards we have received  tickets to events, etc and a word document where I keep track of things that I’d like to include in that time period.
• So now that I have those pictures in that folder I can select my favorite pictures I’d like to include at that time or come back to it later.
• Then I log into Mixbook and upload a week at a time and just place it on the page how I’d like to group it.
• Now that I’m at the end of the year I’ve gone back through my Facebook to see if I have any important mile stones, funny quotes, or events that maybe I forgot my camera at and I am requesting pictures from my friends.
• Next, when I have time I just log in and do the decorating and I’m in no rush and don’t feel scatterbrained because it’s all right there in front of me.

The only thing I hope for is a tablet that I can work on my scrapbook on! Come on iPad all I need is for you to run flash!

Teaching our Children to Live a Life of Love.
The speakers name was Amber. She writes a blog on the whole topic of showing love.

“The cycle of love that God pours into our life is not complete until it is pouring out of ours into the lives of other.” -Joyce Meyer

The things she suggested were little things in our community:
-Start a “Giving Bucket”
-Host a playdate and have everyone bring an item for a specific charity
-When your child’s penny bank fills up, take it to Coinstar to count the change…divide up into spend, save, give. Brainstorm on ideas together how they can give their money to someone in need.
-Visit a retirement home and bring them flowers
-Bake goodies for your local schools
– Pay for the person in the drive thru behind you
– Plant a pot of flowers and place them on your neighbors’ porch as a pretty surprise
– Leave a bag of candy for the mailman
-Visit a DART station, buy some extra tickets and hand them out as people walk up
– Donate gently used books
– Go on a neighborhood walk and put everyone’s newspaper on the front porch
– Visit a Fire Station and thank them for what they do
– Make a card and take a sick friend a balloon
– Clean out your house and donate

The conversations are just as important as the act you are doing. Talk about why you’re doing it, who you’re doing it for, talk about how grateful your family is for the blessings you have. Remind them that God is so proud of them and happy when they think of others and show love to others.

Pray for God to open your eyes and theirs to the people and needs around us each day. And don’t just notice them but take the responsibility to do something for them.