I did B’s entire baby book with laminated pages and came up with some cool ideas for how to do it. In this post I will share some of the tips, tricks and ideas I came up with while working on this laminator project.

Benefits of laminated baby book pages

First off, let me mention a few of the benefits to making laminated baby book pages.

• It ensures that you are creating something that will basically last forever.
• It also creates a format for consistently sized pages.
• Laminating the pages ensures that any photos or other additions stay in place- you don’t ever have to worry about glue getting old and things falling off.
• You can 3-hole punch everything and find a stylish binder to put the pages in.
• It’s also cheap and easy.
• Plus, laminating stuff is just cool!

As a new mom, I didn’t have the bandwidth to get too elaborate. My main goal with B’s baby book was just to preserve the memories. Most of what I used for it was just stuff I had collected like the cards people gave us. I also had some pictures printed and periodically took 10-15 minutes to make journal entries.

(Now that B is almost two, I can say that I am SO glad I put this together.)

Laminated baby book page ideas

Ultrasound pictures

I started my baby book off with a few of my journal entries from when I was pregnant and some of my favorite ultrasound photos.

A warning: some ultrasound photos are printed on heat-sensitive paper and do not fare well in a laminator. After I discovered that, I used some self-sealing laminated pouches that seal with adhesive instead of heat for my ultrasound photos and then I used scrapbook tape to stick them to a laminated sheet of black paper.

Hospital mementos

I stuck B’s hospital bracelets (cut and flattened) on the official letter from the hospital stating that he’d been born and laminated them together. It came out cute and also turned them into a page that was easy to stick into the book instead of a random thing I didn’t know what to do with.

I also made a page out of the footprints that they took at the hospital.

Cards

For cards, I still wanted to be able to open them and read what people had written. So I laminated solid colored sheets of paper. Then I used double-sided tape made for scrap-booking to stick the backs of the cards to the laminated sheets.

Postcards

For the postcards we got, I cut rectangular holes in the black paper and then carefully positioned the cards so that the backs lined up. Then I sent them through the laminator. This way I can still see both sides.

Related post: Laminator Projects: cool and unique things to make.

Pictures

I put lots of pages with pictures in B’s baby book. I know I have all these digital photos, but I just wanted something tangible.

Some of the photo pages I did were themed like pictures of B with his grandparents, summer playtime, or hiking.

Journal Entries

I made sure and occasionally journal about how things were going. I kept it simple- just a sheet of lined paper. It doesn’t make for the cutest, fanciest baby book pages, but now they are some of my favorite pages. I love the way my journal entries bring back memories.

Free Printables

If you browse around the internet, you can also find all sorts of cool printable baby book pages that would do super well in a laminated book.

The post Laminated baby book page ideas- fun & cute! appeared first on Live Hoppy.

Today, I got it back and it seems to be like new! Actually, I swear it’s better than it was when it was new. It used to be slow to respond when I hit the power button to turn it on or off and now it’s quicker to turn off and on which is nice. I’m so excited to have it back and really want to keep learning more about how to use it.

Despite the camera issues and not taking pictures every day, I was more mindful about taking pictures because of my goal. I know the every day stuff now will one day be the basis of my fond memories. It’s just easy to take it for granted now.

So, here are some of my favorites from this month.

B and I went to the zoo to do a bit of walking around one day. I’ve learned the hard way that zoo pictures normally don’t turn out that well. That cool animal just looks like a sad zoo animal in a cage in the pictures. But these rhinos about cracked me up. I think they’re both totally asleep and I love how the one is face-planted on a big tree stump for a pillow.

I made it out snowboarding for a day. After not going for a few years, it was totally exhausting. I snapped this picture while taking a bit of a rest.

Who doesn’t love a good cat picture?

January has been pretty snowy here. The roads are plowed eventually and the snow melts on them a bit anyway. Our driveway is another story. So far this winter, I’ve gotten my car stuck once, S’s car stuck once and once I drove S’s car into the snowbank. It’s a tricky balance between going fast enough not to get stuck and slow enough not to go sliding and I don’t seem to have mastered it yet.

The snow and the cold and the dark of winter have had me feeling a bit down lately. Especially since I know the people in Albuquerque only 20 minutes away have barely had any snow, it’s normally 10 degrees warmer there and more likely to be sunny. The whole comparison thing always gets me. But then I remember that it’s totally gorgeous here and come spring and summer and fall, we’ll have amazing weather… and those people in Albuquerque will still be 10 degrees warmer and sweltering.

We got a bird book for Christmas. I think S said these are Siskins.

And… now for pictures of B!

My mom brought me a big tub of my old stuffed animals and after I snatched out Simba, B had a blast playing with them.

B has been into climbing into and on things this month. It totally freaks me out. Sometimes he gets stuck and sometimes he falls off of things like the coffee table. But also, I want him to learn how to climb and do stuff.

The workbench was one of the places he got stuck.

B got a camel for Christmas, so we built him a house.

B is also obsessed with stealing paper towels and shredding them into itty-bitty pieces and leaving them all over the house.

And camel went on a ride around the living room.

And look! He’s doing a kid thing instead of a baby thing! He’s really drawing!

Oh, wait… no, back to just sticking everything in his mouth.

All in all, January was a pretty good month. Except for the week we all got stomach flu, but I didn’t take any pictures of that.

The post Favorite January photos appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I do take a lot of pictures of B, but some days slip by and he changes so fast. I also want to challenge myself to find other things to take pictures of and to develop my skills as a photographer.

Ironically, I have been unable to get my new camera to work recently, but I’m hoping that it is just having trouble charging the battery and that an external battery charger will solve the problem. In the mean time, I’ll just use my phone.

I’m sure I won’t post my pictures from every day, but I’d like to share some of them. I’ll start by sharing the ones from the last two days.

We have had so much snow in the last week. Yesterday I dug out a path to the compost bin and then since it was the only clear path, it was the obvious place to take B. So here are S and B posing in the snow by the compost bin. This must seem like a lot of snow to B.

Here’s another canvas print that I made a frame for. This picture is from the trails a few miles from our house.

Today I paid somebody to plow our driveway since it’s really long and there was no way I was going to be able to get my car out otherwise. The plow got down to the ground in some places. B was unimpressed when I took him out into the snow today, but was quite happy when I plopped him down in the clear area.

I am sitting in the cold, pokey, slightly wet gravel and holding my hand out so that he can pile cold, pokey, slightly wet gravel in it. I am not sure why, but it was terribly important to him to do that which meant it was terribly important to me to be obliging. Part of my parenting philosophy is that things like this are very, very important.

This is the same path that leads to the compost bin. It snowed another inch or so after I shoveled the path and this morning there were lots of bird prints on the path. I was very amused that the birds had chosen to travel on my path.

The post 2019 – Picture a day challenge appeared first on Live Hoppy.

As I here writing this, I’ve been plagued by migraines the last three days.  I can feel the edge of one now, but I feel okayish- meaning that I put my computer to it’s dimmest setting and could navigate around enough to start typing.  But I’m typing not looking at the screen at all because the light bothers me. 

It’s funny how something like this makes ones really notice things.  For example, there are so many lights in my house- some of which turn on automatically- the pantry has a motion sensor light, the fridge has a light, even the dang freezer has a light which right now seems glaringly bright. 

I notice how much I like to be doing things.  Sitting around unable to do any of the things that I like sucks.  I would love an excuse to lay in bed and read all day, but no way that is happening.  Dark, quiet and searing pain is not a very entertaining combination. 

But also, I have trained myself to think of positive things- S has been great about watching B while I’ve been out of commission, B is in fact mostly easy and that makes it easier- right now I’m watching him slurp the last of the milk from his cereal bowl and thinking what a talented eater he has become.  I’m thankful for easy access to OTC meds- while they haven’t solved my problem, they’ve made it more bearable.  And I have a comfy warm bed to hide in. 

I am also thankful that even as I’m writing, the cocktail of drugs I took is kicking in and I’m feeling more OK.  I”m still paranoid that won’t last.  I know all too well that I get impatient wanting to feel better and get on my computer or phone or do too much too soon and then it triggers my migraines again. 

The joys of fall

I am also just appreciating the joys of fall.  We have a maple tree that is changing color.  It’s a nice contrast to our tall pine trees.  The weather has just turned cold enough to make us want to try out our pellet stove.  It’s by some Italian manufacturer and the translations are all weird.  It displays messages like ‘modulation’ and ‘depression’.  Whatever the heck those things mean in the context of a fiery apparatus.  It has an impossible to navigate menu and makes beepy noises anytime you press a button.  But also, once one can in fact get it to work, it makes amazing radiant heat and has the fire ambiance that is just so primal and amazing. 

B’s room has an electric heater and when I turned it on, it had that hot smell of a heater turned on for the first time in a while.  Like burning dust.  Somehow, a comforting smell to me. 

Yesterday I also dug out my electronic blanket- it made me feel ridiculously spoiled and amazing.  It fixed my cold feet so quickly and made me feel so snuggly. 

I’m excited for B to see the fall and winter.  Having him makes me re-appreciate so many wonders of the world. 

A schedule for B

I have also been working at getting B on more of a schedule the last few days.  I’ve had him on a consistent bedtime routine since he was about three months old.  But I never really got consistent about everything else.  Naps and meals tend to be at random times.  But I thought it would help all of us to try to get things on a more rigid schedule, especially as B is turning into a toddler. 

It has helped me a lot psychologically to be able to think, ‘OK, I have 45 minutes until his morning nap.  I can figure out something to do for that long.’  The challenge is going to be to really get S on board- he’s not really the schedule type, but I think maybe as he sees the benefits he will convert. 

Of course, I already screwed up his schedule for today by putting him down for his nap an hour and a half early.  He was patting the top of his head with one hand and sucking the thumb of his other hand.  That is his tell-tale sleepy sign, so I couldn’t resist putting him down for a nap so I could have a few quiet minutes and then head off for a nap of my own…

The post N things of the week – #17 (migraines, celebrating fall & a schedule for B) appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I recently found these life calendars for sale.  I have to say that I just think they are the coolest thing ever.  They’re basically just a huge poster-sized grid of squares with numbers across the top for the week of the year and numbers down the side for the year of your life.  There is just enough space in each square to write a word or two. 

I bought one for B and one for me.  (Actually I bought a 3-pack to get free shipping so I still have an extra.)  I also put grommets in the top corners so that it would be easy to hang them. 

I think that this is the gift that I would pick to give at a baby shower from now on.  (Actually, I’ve never been invited to a baby shower other than my own, but if I was, this is at least one of the gifts I would pick.)  It’s so perfect to be able to just record a few words per week as baby gets bigger. 

I love the idea of writing in a word or two for B each week.  I’ve kept a baby book for him which has been really cool, but I know that I’m unlikely to stay up on documenting his whole childhood in the same detail.  A couple of words a week is perfect.

I figure I can make short notes on when his ‘firsts’ happen, the toys he likes, the words he’s saying, the cool things we do, trips we take, etc.  It’s a super quick thing to do each week, but over time will grow to be a cool record of his childhood and perhaps even his adulthood.

I flipped back through B’s baby book to help me fill in his calendar until present day.  This is one of those things that I wish I had sooner. 

I love my life calendar too, although it is not nearly as filled out as B’s (yet).  It makes me think about how I spend my time, the life ahead of me, and what I want to accomplish.  It makes me think back on my accomplishments and appreciate all of the things that I have done. 

It’s interesting to notice the dates that I actually remember by heart from my life.  It’s surprisingly hard to fill in things from my life.  What year was it that I graduated from high school?  When did I start my job?  Some day soon, I am going to sit down and spend some more time filling my calendar in a bit.  I guess I want something to show for my life. 

A few years ago, I went through and shredded all of my old journals.  Mostly, they weren’t full of all that much great stuff, but I do sort of wish now that I had saved them to help me fill in my life calendar first.  I’ll have to see how much of my past I can really piece together based on old pics, etc. 

I do want to use my life calendar as a tool to appreciate and remember my past, but mostly, I want to use it as motivation to live this week to the fullest so I have a cool word or two to put in the current box.   I want to fill B’s life calendar (really his life) with cool stuff too!

Check out the Wait But Why store if you’d like to get a life calendar for yourself or someone you know.  (Not an affiliate link, just something I think is cool.)

The post Life Calendars appeared first on Live Hoppy.

That said, I don’t know that I’ve found any one phase so far more or less difficult than the others.  They all offer challenges and rewards mixed in.

It can be hard to adapt.  I finally figure out how to best deal with the challenges of one phase before we’re on to the next.  Recently, I’ve come to this realization that it’s time to figure out how to deal with a new phase.

My problem lately has just been trying to keep B busy.  I’m home pretty much all the time with him, but I work from home too which makes it even more challenging.  Sometimes I really just want to focus on the things that I need to get done. 

There are so many cool things about where he’s at developmentally right now.  He is so curious.  He spends lots of time trying to figure things out.  I’m seeing real signs that he’s starting to understand some of the things that I say.  He’s way more interactive and fun than a newborn.  He’s learning to stack blocks and push toy cars around the house. 

He also still sticks everything he can in his mouth.  He is happy to sit and play with a toy.  For a while.  As long as he knows somebody is nearby watching him.  And that the somebody is not focusing on something else that they want to do. 

He doesn’t want to go too long without my attention.  Once I quit whatever I’m doing and go sit on the floor to play with him, it only takes a minute or two before he gets distracted and crawls off to play with something else leaving me abandoned sitting on the floor holding a picture book about dancing dinosaurs.  They are very cute dinosaurs. 

There are some times when I really wish I could find something just to entertain him for a bit so I could do some stuff.  There are also a lot of times where I really want to find fun activities for us to do together.  It can just be really hard to gauge what is right for his abilities. 

The activities that I remember from childhood all happened when I was older – riding bikes, making troll houses, going down the slide, playing make believe, trying cooking experiments, drawing, etc.  None of us remember our baby/toddler years making it that much harder to figure out what the heck one is supposed to do with a baby or toddler.  This is made harder for those of us that didn’t have younger siblings or ever spend a lot of time with kids that age. 

Another aspect of the challenge is just that it’s so constant.  B needs something to be doing all the time.  It’s not that I try to provide him with too much stimulation or entertainment.  We don’t watch TV and I believe in the power of boredom to inspire creativity.  But a child that age needs a little guidance with the creativity aspect.  He can’t go find his own cardboard box.  I have to provide it to him.  Once he’s played with the box for five or ten minutes, he’s ready for something else.  It’s not hard to keep him busy for a while, but when it’s an all day every day job, it’s easy to run out of things to do. 

I also need a bit of mental stimulation.  There are only so many times that I can read the same books.  There is only so much fun that I can get out of building block buildings- a fortress for Octavia the Octopus, a course for the golf ball to roll down, a bridge for the blue blocks to flow under. . . I need things that entertain me too sometimes. 

Part of it is just that it’s hard to come up with things on the spot.  If I had a quiet fifteen minutes to myself, I could probably come up with some good activities.  But when he’s tugging on my pants making those high-pitched groan noises to get my attention, my mind goes blank. 

I want to interact with him.  I want to create an environment for him where he has things to explore and to do.  I want him to have new things to check out and learn about.  I want to create the opportunity for him to exercise his incredible curiosity. 

So none of this is to complain (OK, maybe just a little tiny bit of it is to vent a little).  Really, it’s for me to identify the challenges and then find solutions.  I figure I have the opportunity to rise to the occasion.  I want to try new things, find books and websites for inspiration, do my own experiments and see what I can find that B likes.

I also want to work on my planning skills (or just implement the planning skills I already have).  I need to pre-plan some of my activities so that I have something ready when I need something to do with him and I feel tired and dazed.  I need to work a little harder on having pre-defined goals for each day.  It’s so easy for the whole day to slip by when I’m just reacting to everything that is happening.  It’s easy to slip into survival mode and just focus on making it until B’s bedtime.

I feel optimistic.  I think problems are always so much easier when we take the time to identify what we’re really struggling with and then think about how to fix the problem.  It seems like a simple process, but it’s so effective. 

As I try out some different activities, I have plans to post about some of them.  (When I found out I was pregnant, I swore I wouldn’t have a mommy blog.  But then again, when I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t have a one year old!  My blog will still feature lots of random topics because I have way too many interests to focus on a narrow area.)

If you’ve made it through the baby/toddler years, feel free to leave comments with suggestions on cool stuff to do with a 1 year-old.  I could use all the ideas I can get my hands on. 

The post The challenges of entertaining a 1 year old appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I have been taking tons of pictures with my new camera and trying to get used to it.  I am really loving it.  There are still a ton of settings that I need to figure out, but so far I am just blown away by the image quality.  I just wish I’d had this camera a year ago.

Of course, baby B has been my number one text subject.

I love the way I can get pictures of him with the background blurred out.  There is an official photography term for that.

Baby B is happy most of the time… but I also caught a few expressive faces.

Poor guy… I don’t really know what he was upset about though.

We tried taking some selfies, but that was before I figured out how to turn off the three second delay on selfies.  Three seconds is waaaaay too long to wait to catch that split second when a baby is smiling and looking at the camera.  Maybe we’ll try again sometime.

Here’s his mischievous look:

And some more pics (click on the thumbnails for larger versions).

I am really looking forward to learning more about this camera and taking lots more pictures.  I feel totally inspired.  There is just so much that this camera does that my phone doesn’t: real optical zoom, super fast focus, incredible detail, the ability to set a zillion different settings, a real shutter button, 4k video, up to 24 frames per second when shooting still photos… and the list goes on and on.

I’m excited to grow as a photographer and also just to have some great pictures of baby B as he grows up.  (Someday soon, I will have to drop the ‘baby’ part from that.  He is starting to look so grown-up!  When I see him standing around dressed in pants and tennis shoes, he just looks like such a big boy!  But then he goes back to sucking his thumb and wanting to snuggle on my lap and he’s a little baby again.)

The post Trying out the new camera – some pictures of B appeared first on Live Hoppy.

Well, it has been a whole year since baby B was born!

It has been amazing to see how he has grown and changed.  He learns new things each day.  It’s exciting and cool and scary.

He knows how to pull himself to standing now.  He knows that if he throws food on the floor it gets his mom to pay attention to him.  He knows how to stack blocks and nest cups of different sizes.

He sort of knew what to do with a piece of chocolate cake.

The first year has been so tough and so rewarding.  Being a mom is such a blessing.

Here’s a few pictures from year 1.  He looks like such a baby in some of them!  Now, he is so rapidly turning into a little boy.

The post Baby B is 1! appeared first on Live Hoppy.

I have exciting news this week!  We have a contract on a house and are planning on moving in two or three weeks!!  I love the house and the area that it’s in is gorgeous.  And it comes with a playground for the little guy!

It is basically my dream home.  It’s in the forest and super close to biking and hiking trails in the National Forest.  It’s basically in the middle of nowhere.  There are other houses close by and one little locally owned store that sells a few groceries.  Otherwise, there is nothing.  There is no gas station or post office.

It’s also only about 20 minutes out of Albuquerque, so when the need for civilization strikes, there is a city nearby.  I feel like the combination of being out in nature and yet being close to a city is ideal.  It is the sort of location I’ve long craved.

I have to admit though that I won’t quite relax until I have the keys in my hand.

I am so excited to be moving on to this next phase.

Moderate Minimalism

Preparing to move does mean that I am forced to think about all of my stuff.  I am trying to start packing now to be able to sort through things as much as possible.  I do not want to move things that I don’t need or want.

I realize that minimalism for me may be an unattainable goal.  It may be more accurate to say that I’m a recovering hoarder!  I do find that keeping some of the principles of minimalism in mind and working towards it really does help me a lot.

For example, I just sorted through all of my books.  This is the third or fourth time I’ve culled my book collection since encountering minimalism.  The first time I probably got rid of 40% or so.  This time, I’d say I put about 30% of them in the pile to get rid of.  (Of course, my book collection somehow grows in between the times I sort through it.)

The remainder still filled several small boxes.  The thing is that I have this mindset where I try to be aware of the things that I’m ready to let go of.  Instead of keeping all books because I love books, I have this feeling about some of them that I’m just ready to pass them on to somebody that will love them more.

The things is that I feel like I’m approaching the right amount of stuff for me.  I still have quite a bit of stuff, but I’m not buried in crap.

When I go on walks, sometimes people have their garage doors open.  It’s amazing how many of their garages are just filled with stuff!  Boxes and stacks and shelves and furniture and kid stuff and bikes and even God probably does not know what all else.  There is no possible way a go-cart would fit inside, much less a car.

Once upon a time, that was my garage (minus the kid stuff because that was before I had a kid).  Now, I do have shelves along one wall of the garage and sometimes I feel like I have entirely too much crap on them.  But it’s all sort of organized and the car fits in there too!

Now when I walk past those over-flowing garages, I feel this smug sort of moral superiority that only strikes when past me can relate to whomever present me is feeling morally superior to.

Baby B is still the cutest thing ever!

B is definitely becoming a little boy instead of a baby.  He is curious and on-the-go all the time.  He has a funny lopsided army crawl but he can really get around!  He wants to explore everything.

It is so amazing to watch.  He’s a happy guy and it’s contagious.  He laughs a lot, sometimes at things that I have no clue why they’re funny.  Then I laugh too just because he is laughing.

He brings so much joy into my life!

I have to admit that sometimes he strikes me as a very strange creature.  He might be crying on moment and then suddenly be happy again just because I hand him a spoon.  I am pretty sure that a spoon would not make me happy if I was having a melt-down.

Also, he is not to be trusted.

The post N things of the week – #15 appeared first on Live Hoppy.

The last week has been filled with lots of great stuff for me!  Here’s a few of the highlights.

Going to the gym (almost) daily

I have been going to the gym pretty much every day for the last two weeks.  I’d gotten in a slump about it in December because I was sick for several weeks and then I just never got back to it.  I decided that it was time to either use my membership or cancel it.  There is nothing like the guilt of an unused gym membership.  Working out every day has been great.  Even if I just put in half an hour I feel so much better afterward.

I have lots of ideas about how I’d rather be active outside hiking and biking.  I do fit in some hiking these days.  The truth of it is though that on a daily basis, it is easier to make it to the gym.  It’s two minutes away, has  a great child care center and is a nice facility.  Plus I have no excuse not to go on days when the weather is bad.

Baked oatmeal

My culinary accomplishment for the week was trying out baked oatmeal.  I found the recipe for it in the newspaper and instead of just clipping it and saving it for later, I actually just made it right then.  It had little apple pieces and raisins in it that made it absolutely delicious.  It calls for a small amount of maple syrup and I had just enough left to make the recipe.  I think the apples and raisins made it sweet enough that I’ll try an entirely sugar-free version next.

Baby B

Baby B is 8 months old now!  He is turning from a baby into a little boy.  He babbles all day long, which is just adorable.  He rolls or slithers all over the floor and can now get up on his hands and knees.  Crawling is imminent.  He can feed himself small chunks of bread or cheese and prefers this to waiting for me to spoon feed him.  He is adorable and fun.  I feel so lucky to have him in my life.  Also, he’s happy the majority of the time which is something I am perpetually grateful for.

And… I love his hairdo!  It just does this… not that I spend any time trying to change it.

Taking care of the things I have

I have been trying to sort through some of my stuff and ditch more stuff that I don’t need.  This process seems to be a some-what continual one.  Also, I want to take care of and enjoy the stuff that I do have.  Part of getting rid of the stuff that I don’t need is to make more time and space for the things that I love.

Sorting through stuff from my Grandma

My grandma was a bit of a pack-rat.  Rather than renting storage units, she bought a whole storage unit complex under the guise of an investment.  It was in part an investment, but there were several of the units packed with her stuff.  A lot of it was nice stuff, but it was unorganized and mixed in with not-so-nice stuff.  After she died, I spent a lot of time helping my mom go through the storage units.

This was one of the experiences that has really impacted how I think about things and how I want my approach to it to be.  There was so much nice stuff in there that my grandma didn’t even get to enjoy because the task of sorting through it all was too overwhelming for her to tackle.

Anyway, almost ten years later, I still had a box of stuff from my grandma that I had never sorted through.  It had a couple of those little storage boxes with a zillion little drawers.  They had paper clips and disintegrated rubber bands mixed in with cool old trinkets and jewelry.

It seemed like a bit of a task to sort through it all, but also, the whole box just seemed so much like my grandma exactly as it was.  Cool things and mostly useless things all jumbled up together.  Leaving it as it was meant that it was just a box that sat in my closet.  I couldn’t really enjoy any of the stuff.

So I’ve started the process of organizing it all.  I’ve emptied out all of the drawers, tossed the obvious trash, grouped the paper clips and safety pins together, put all the earrings together in another box, untangled the dozens of chains and necklaces, and sorted out other piles of various miscellaneous things.

At times, this process has felt overwhelming.  A little box has exploded to take up much more space.  There was so much crammed in there!

I am grateful that I’ve been working on my own brand of ‘moderate minimalism’ for a while.  At one point, I would have wanted to keep everything for sentimental value!  (A couple of tops to salt shakers that I certainly don’t own, earrings with no mates, a single candle, and jewelry that is not remotely my style.)

Now, I am very sure that I need to keep my very favorite items, and pass the rest on to the rest of my family to pick through or get rid of.

I am so looking forward to the end of the project when I have a small box of cool things I love that I can really enjoy!

My violin

Along these same line, I have a couple of violins that I hadn’t played in many years.  The bows needed to be re-haired, so I actually couldn’t play them.  I brought them both to a violin repair shop.  One of them had some other issues and the shop suggested that the repairs wouldn’t be worth it.  The other one, I had them fix up for me.

Now, I am actually able to play it.  Well, the violin is playable anyway.  I was never particularly talented at it and years of not playing haven’t helped.  I did manage to squeak out Twinkle Twinkle Little Start for baby B though.

It’s work having things and really taking care of them right.  And something like my violin not only wants taken care of, it wants to be played!  It is so much more rewarding to properly care for a few items than to have tons of stuff lying around neglected and unused.

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