Day 30 - Story Time

Again, a book is the answer. Maybe I read to much?!

This particular book was actually a gift to my sisters and me when we were young children back in 1978. I have held on to it, because well I consider the book mine although the inscription clearly says it is for all three of us. I love fairy tales - another reason I love romances - grown up fairy tales.

I enjoy researching some of them sometimes and seeing the different versions out there like the common ones we know. I have held on to an old English text book because it has a section comparing different Cinderella stories. I love watching the Sci-Fi channel when they show stories that are similar to fairy tales, horror movies made based on the fairy tales (I can recall one about Snow White).

I have started to pass this love on to my daughter as she likes me to read the stories from this book to her. I often have to alter the story as some of them are just a bit to graphic for her right now at the age of four; or I try to read a different story to her because several of the stories are very long. I am glad that I am passing on a joy of reading and writing to my daughter though.

This book has been so well loved that a group of pages at the beginning of the book are loose and you have to handle the book with care so that the pages are not lost, something my daughter learned quickly when she handled the book roughly and almost lost the pages.

Day 27 - Sentimental

I find most photos sentimental even though I have several scrapbooks full of items. I've been evaluating my life over the past couple of years anyway, and have slowly been giving things away, throwing them away, or realizing that I just don't need them.

What I find I am never able to get rid of are the two pieces of jewelry that I cannot wear currently because the rings are broken. The heart shaped one was given to me by my mother and had once belonged to her mother, a grandmother I never knew. I have never worn it because it was broken when it was given to me when I was eighteen and I have always intended to get it fixed but have never done so.

The other braided ring was a gift from my parents for my sixteenth birthday, I wore this ring on my wedding finger from the day I got it until it broke - several years later. My Dad made the comment when we were leaving the store that it even cost more then my Mom's original wedding ring - I think that increased it's value to me only more because my parents were willing to still spend that amount on me.

Whenever I look at these rings I just feel the love my parents had for me and I never feel alone when I have them in my possession.

Day 24 - Togetherness

I've mentioned before that I love taking photos, this is just a small sampling of my photos before I went digital. One box are my panoramic pictures while the other box is sorted by various subjects. Each mini album contains one type of subject and makes locating my photos a lot easier. Although you cannot see it in the photo, the two boxes are sitting on a file box which contains older photos sorted by subject as well.

Most of these photos are photos of my family and I cannot think of anything else that represents togetherness more than that. I have always believed that family comes first and that spending time with my daughter - be it just watching tv or creating art projects is more important then cleaning the house or doing laundry. I try to balance this out since the birth of my daughter so that she can learn good habits - as my habits are not the greatest ones and I want her to be a better person than I am.

Although I am not the neatest person, when it comes to finally putting something where it goes or organizing my papers I am borderline - ok no border I am downright anal about how it goes. As I mentioned, each mini album has one subject inside, the front of the album carries a title (ex. Caves, Towns, Sisters, names of the individual pictured inside). The file box below has one section where I store the negatives in file folders labeled with the date and subject and then another section with the actual photos with their date and subject matching the negative folders. Even my photos on the computer are organized in a manner similar to this. I once came across a hint (and it may have very well been on Gotta Pixel) about labeling my photos with the YEARMONTHDAY_SUBJECT_ORIGINALFILENAME.JPG/GIF/BMP - I go farther then that and often have file names that look like this 2010January20_365Challenge_Day20_picture1.jpg --- if I have the time I am even known to fill out the properties including comments I have about the photo... how anal is that??