Lord, I want to be a Minimalist in my heart.

We had a very inspiring Bible Study and message from our Pastor yesterday at church.  The Bible Study was on The Power of the Tongue - OUCH!  (from various Proverbs) and the message was about Overcoming Obstacles.  So fitting for this ole gal in both arenas.  I love it when God’s Word is so applicable to my life.  The way I see it, He was saying to me yesterday... “Shut up ... get ahold of yourself!”

After all afternoon of meditation on what I’d heard straight from the Messengers, a thought came to my mind.  I decided I really need to consider Minimalism.  Although I am not quite ready to take out the appliances and eat only cold vegetables or move into a mini camper van, I’d love to think of some creative ways of minimally downsizing my golden years.

I am working to get all my photos into album to preserve the family history.  I am going to create digital albums for travel (making them about 1/8 of the size of my normal travel books).  Does that count?

Do you consider yourself to be a Minimal person?  What are some ways you consider yourself a Minimalist?  I’d love to hear your ideas.  Believe me, I need all the help I can get.

Just a few of the albums.  Think of how many boxes of pictures these used to be... !

Birthdays

Now that my taxes are almost ready, it’s FUN TIME.  

How are your weekend plans?

My weekend will consist of spending some time with three of the darlings and the D.  (And of course my favorite son-in-law.)  The littlest darling of this particular bunch will be celebrating her four year birthday.  A few friends and some of the family will be helping her celebrate.  Her birthday is not until next week, but the weekend seems to work the best.

As children’s parties go, I can’t remember making a big deal about my children’s birthdays the way people do in this new generation.  I guess it is always a good thing to celebrate births; new births or the anniversary of the same.  

The anniversaries I most like to celebrate are the new lives in my life instead of this OLD life of mine.  I know that life will pass away soon enough for all of us, and having experienced it myself, (well, not death of course, but death of loved ones) sometimes it passes away too soon.  (Or so we think.)  

Instead of thinking of how fun life is, we sometimes think of how much we will miss our stuff.  Some people obsess about it and worry about what will happen to their stuff when their time is done.  Some people DON’T obsess about it although they probably should, at least a little bit!

Would it put your mind at ease to think about dealing with your stuff before someone else has to?  For instance, if you had a chance to look through your family photos (but only if they were all organized) you could relay some facts to your loved ones about events they did not know, wouldn’t that be a good thing?

Think about it and let me know.

Sometimes you just need a shot in the arm

The past few weeks I’ve been suffering from inflammation of the rotator cuff.  I am not quite sure how it happened.  It’s just one of those things that happen when you get old.  I was told yesterday, “Women in your age bracket can experience a frozen shoulder; if you notice increased limitation on your range, call me or your physical therapist as soon as you can.”

What’s that supposed to mean?  Women in my age bracket?  As my research reveals, menopausal women are more likely to suffer a frozen shoulder than just about anybody.  Since I am post-menopausal, I figure I am out of the woods.  

From my best guess it happened while shifting boxes and crates in storage.  Since it is my right arm, perhaps I was favoring my right side at the time.  Now it turns out to be menopause that is the culprit.  LOL.

After four weeks of physical therapy without much change I finally gave in and decided to have a cortisone shot.  I’ve had these bad boys while suffering from tennis elbow many years ago so you might guess I was not really excited about this concept.  But after disturbing my sleep for so many nights (I can’t sleep on my stomach anymore) I called the PA and scheduled the shot.

I must say the pain in my shoulder today is not as bad as it was yesterday.  But it is still not 100%.  All it took was a little shot in the arm to give me hope for a quicker recovery.  I know that if I follow through with my home therapy and rest it some, my chances are greater that it will heal completely.  

All this said, I was thinking about how I might could be a shot in your arm.  I could help you organize your photo chaos and enjoy your photos again.  Even though you’ve been putting it off for a long time, you could feel much better the day after I come in with the injection.

What’s your excuse for putting it off?

(The red area is your photos and please note that they are “frozen”.)

  

Too much stuff

There are days like today you wonder why you do what you do. 

Today I “inventoried” products on hand for my business.  I am thinking that it is not as BAD as it was last year.  That’s only because the photo solutions company I represented over the past 17 years is no longer in business.  

I spent the better part of the afternoon going through products for album making and displaying and organizing photos and wondering if I would have enough stuff to handle my needs for the rest of my life.

Are you kidding me?   There will definitely be enough for a while.

This is just the new stuff.  The old stuff is a whole different story.

How much stuff do you have?  Is there one thing that you could move along out of your home every day?  Is there one thing, big or small, that you could part with?  Or if, at least, I brought something in, maybe I could take one thing out.  

This is very hard for me.  I need your encouragement by just telling me what YOU have done or could do... with YOUR too much stuff!

Let’s Pack it out!

(I could help you decide which photos to keep.)

It all started with a name

Inspiration?  I wonder how many authors begin their novels with the title.  I wonder if you start with the title that tells the world something about your personality.  Perhaps you are the creative mind, never being able to finish anything, but always dreaming up the next great idea.  Before you finish your creation, you have a new title ready for the next one.

Amid?  Yeah, how about during the process?  Maybe you are a person whose mind that methodical, rhythmic.  You march to a steady drum.  You commit to a project and somewhere during the process you exclaim, “I think I should call this... but I am not sure...I need to think about it some more...”

Perfection?  Maybe when you are complete?  After all is said and done, written, complete, every “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed, you name your project.  “It shall be called ______.”  It was.  And it was good. 

My inspiration for SHOOT A MONKEE came from my sister-in-law.  Instead of the “S” four-letter word she uses the expression, “Well, shoot a monkey!”  I must admit I’d never heard it until I joined the Edwards family.

As a photo organizer and one who loves to help others achieve control over their photo chaos, I offer advice, toppled with that expression.  “Gather your photos all together in one place.”  (They do that: from frames and boxes under the bed and old suitcases and from drawers and nightstands and all over the house.)  When I arrive and see one room full of photos I then exclaim, “Well, shoot a monk-ey!”  

Another inspiration for me (you might guess that I was the very first example given) were my 12 granddarlings, a/k/a the little Monkeys.   Their existence, coupled with the word “shoot” (which is sometimes used when taking a photograph and I do a LOT of that) the expression is deemed, “Shoot a Monkey!”

Lastly, the spelling of the name.  The domain name Shoot a Monkey! was already taken.  So I compromised with more emphasis on the last syllable which makes it easier to remember (hopefully). 

Thus the name of the venture you are taking by this following.

And these are my little “Monkees”.

(Content used is Lettering Delights’ Knit Wits.  Don’t ya just love em?)

Photo Solutions for YOUR Photos, your way

Do you need help?  Do you have old slides, negatives, old photos that you don’t know what to do with?  Do you have digital photos on your computer, your cell phone, your tablet or even on camera memory cards or jump drives?  You might be surprised to learn that you are not alone in your present situation.  I am here to be 

Your Photo Solutions Specialist.  

You might think to yourself... “What are photo solutions?”

It is what it sounds like.  Imagine having all the photos throughout your home completely organized so that you might actually find them at the touch of a hand (or a mouse click away)?  

 I can help you with that.

If you can remember the year or a subject (or however it works for you to remember your photographs), you will be able to file them all away.  I will help you with 

Once organized, I can help you with the options for enjoying your photos once again.  

Let me know what you need.  E-mail me @ shootamonkee@gmail.com.  I am here to help you!

Lunch with friends.