Spring time in Oregon

I am enjoying spring. This week has been warm and dry! It's about time. As you can see from the photos above, there is mud involved. I previously posted about our first and only trip to the tulip field this year, late April. It had been wet and cold late winter and spring.
But that day was beautiful.
Photo of granddaughter Melody at tulip field with a bit of mud on her fingers since she slipped. We are comparing our boots in the next photo. Her bees eyes got dirty and got dirtier as time went on. But that's what boots are for. Right?

My hubby and I took a trip to wildlife safari in Winston, OR in late April. First stop on our way to coast. I caught a photo of Canadian Goose couple with their babies along the water. Yes, this was at the safari. Amazing all the birds I saw. But loved this scene since it was spring and new babies! Those were the only babies we saw there. There were young ostriches though. It was a fun drive through.

If you have a new baby,( non-feathered, non-four legged), you can create your own birth announcements through Shutterfly.

As most of you know, I love photography so I loved all the things we saw on our trip to Bandon. Saw two lighthouses and walked on the beach the morning before we drove home inland. I kept peeking into tide pools and rocks in search of starfish. I finally found a rock that looked promising and behold! Starfish! This is my favorite photo of it. I think there were about 5 starfish all total, but not in this photo.
Where is a good place to store photos besides photo albums and cds and dvds?
In a photo book! A great way to keep memories alive and share them with others. Makes a great gift as well.

Many people move in spring and summer. I've done my fair share of moving in my life. It's always nice to let your friends and family know your new address. I remember going to Hallmark and buying the moving cards with houses on them, filling out the information and mailing them. There was no internet then! Now there is a fun way to do it with
moving announcements .
Keep your camera handy so you can take a photo of your new place, your family and make the card! How easy is that?

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Do you have a blog? You can Sign up to have a chance at 50 free cards from Shutterfly. These are fun cards. Make some cards to share with your family and friends on any occasion. That is why I'm writing this post. I took up the offer on my daughter-in-law's blog.
I was selected by Shutterfly to participate in their blog promotion.

Desk Clean Up Part 1

I finally succumbed to cleaning part of my desk. The portion you see is mostly my mom's mail that I just tossed in a pile. "I'll get to it later" pile was no fun going through. But I was able to get rid of alot of envelopes and condense papers from her health insurance company into less envelopes. Every time she'd have something done, they'd send out one thing. Annoying to receive so much mail like that!

The plastic box now has all 2011 paper work in it. Box below has 2 years worth of papers. Box in garage with previous box.

These are a couple file folders that were my dad's. I couldn't bear to throw them away. They are still useful now at my home. He was a farmer and kept track of things. Photo below shows me in the midst of marking out bank statements with account numbers. Since I have to store them, I don't want someone coming upon them and heisting numbers. I used a special pin, Uni-ball by Signo,that is good for writing checks, as it can't be bleached out!


Here are some items from home schooling days. Books my kids made about Matter, from a field trip we did with other home schoolers. Note the date! Cards I got but didn't use much of, home school newsletter.

A bill of sale or loan papers for my dad. 30 lambs for $520 in Dec. 1955. It was in a file folder I went through. Only paper in there.

Fuzzy crayons, anyone? I threw those away and washed out the bucket. I could give bucket to granddaughter.

End of the project. Much better! I aim to keep it that way. All mail of mom's goes into blue lidded box. She is in a nursing home and I am in charge of her bills. Good thing life is are better than spring 2008 when there was a lot of papers and chaos!

Questions to Ponder: (from Laura at OrgJunkie.com)

1. Tell me one thing from your purge pile this week that you just can’t believe you were hanging on to. Home school newsletters and old signs that are still sitting and not hung. You do have a purge pile don’t you? :) What is purged is gone!
   
2. Do you have medication in your cabinet older than 1999? NO! Threw away meds awhile back. Anyone? Anyone?
3. What is on your organizing list for this week? Right now I'm just maintaining. I've been busy and a few things are sliding down hill and am keeping mess at bay!

Please Stop Whining!

I can identify with this post on whining. It's from Debt Proof Living by Mary Hunt. I think we all experience wanting whatever we desire. So we just need to be satisfied and keep on plugging in life to work ourselves out of debt. Be content with what the Lord has given us.


Please Stop Whining!