By Cathy Bennett, Founder of How Fast They Grow, LLC, a digital scrapbooking website and “Home of the 7 Minute Scrapbook Page”
If you are like most moms, you don’t have a shortage of great digital photos of your children. Most of us get to the point where we have them uploaded onto our computers, which is a great start. Here are some tips on where you can go from there…
Tip #1.
Delete the photos you’ll never use from your hard drive. We’re not talking about the ones where the expressions are slightly off, but the ones with obvious boo boos, like your hair blowing into the lens and the photos your 3 year old took when you weren’t looking. The process of deleting bad photos is actually very quick and will make things much easier when you are actually able to do something with them, in addition to freeing up storage space on your hard drive.
Tip #2.
Rename the photo files from their original default names. A file with the name ‘MAY_08_ZOO.jpeg’ will be much more relevant than “LD1002008.jpeg’, and you’ll instantly be able to do the math to your kids’ ages a few years from now. Both PCs and Macs have ‘batch’ renaming tools where you can select an entire folder and then rename the files in it, and it will automatically rename each of the files in the folder and assign a different number, e.g. “MAY-08-PARK(3).jpeg, MAY-08-PARK(4).jpeg,” and so on. Just remember to be consistent, either by date, or name, or both.
Tip #3
Create a logical folder structure for your photos. Unlike your individual photos, try to do everything by month and year, vs. by event name. Two years from now, when you are looking for a group of photos, you can narrow down by date vs. trying to remember an event name…. i.e. ‘Alaska Trip’ or ‘Trip to Alaska’? Trust me, you won’t remember. I have a folder for every month, e.g. 2008-JUNE, and it works well. Like files, you can rename folders by right-clicking on the folder and selecting ‘rename’
Tip #4
Share your Memories! One of the best things about digital images is they can be used over and over again. I’ve got three favorite products for sharing digital memories, and they all make you look like a genius. The first is a website called www.photoshow.com, where you can upload your photos and create a very fun slideshow with music and then order it on DVD. It’s fabulous for birthday parties to play in the background and you don’t have to know how to use editing tools, it does it for you. The second product is individual photo cards. For relatives that don’t live in the same city, I hardly ever buy cards at the store anymore. I order cards on www.KodakGallery.com because you can make individual cards for any occasion and put photos of your cute kids on them instead of tucking the photos in the envelope at the last minute. You don’t need a stamp, because Kodak will ship the card for you, so that saves you yet another trip! They even have accordian-style cards that hold up to 9 separate photographs. Finally, for a more lasting keepsake, I love of course recommend my website, www.howfasttheygrow.com. I have become my own best customer because the 12×12 pages are so beautiful and fun to make. You can create your pages individually instead of an entire book, so you can build your scrapbook over time.
Archive for August, 2008
4 Scrapbook Timesavers
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008Talk To Yourself
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008By Kimberly Gralnick, Special to The Well Mom
Take a moment and notice what you say to yourself throughout the day. These can be the things that you say out loud and the things that you say in your head. If you start saying, “I can’t do this,†you probably can’t. If you hear your baby crying and say “ARGH. I can’t handle this right now,†you probably will not be able to. If you tell your baby to “chill out,†you may need to tell yourself that. Take a notepad and write down all of the things that you say to yourself in a typical day. I bet there are a lot of them. Star the things that make you feel empowered and circle the things that make you feel disempowered. What are you saying about yourself both good and bad as a mother? You want to really notice these. Are you saying “I have the innate ability to be the best mom ever, I just have to check in†or are you saying “I have no idea how to do this.â€
Take all of the positive things that you say and reinforce them. Write them down in lots of places. Make a poster. Tell others how great you are. If you did not say anything positive, get started now. “I am doing the best I can. I am my baby’s mother and I only have to meet his or her needs. I am a caring, compassionate mom. My baby feels loved by me. Everything is happening to make my life and my baby’s life better.†The more you talk about something, the more it starts to show up in your life. If you notice where you are doing a great job, you are going to start doing a great job for a longer time and in more ways. You are also going to appreciate yourself.
Now take all of the negative words and phrases from your list and write down the opposite. “I am a good mother because I am trying my best.†“Even though I don’t know how to do this, I am learning a bit more every day.†You want to take your most negative beliefs and attack them. You do this by getting yourself to notice where you are already disproving them. Nothing is all black or white. If you don’t think you have enough patience, start noticing when you are patient. Congratulate yourself on your patience. It, too, will start to grow.
Ask yourself what you want to teach your little one? She (or he) is going to be affected by your unspoken beliefs, by the things that you say to yourself when no one is listening. So, take that notepad of things you say to yourself and ask some key questions. These questions will help you to gain clarity. By the way, questions are a great tool. Anytime you want to change the way you think, ask a better question.
- Is this what I want to say about myself? Would I want my daughter (or son) to say this about him or her self? I will bet you say “No!!â€
- If my son or daughter were saying this, what would I say to him or her?
- If this is a disempowering statement, what is the opposite of it?
- What is really true here?
- How can I handle this more easily?
You are well on your way. The last step is to let “perfect” go. You are not going to be perfect, but you are going to just keep getting a little better. Have some compassion for yourself. Also, believe that you have the ability to be a great mother. You have an innate knowledge that does not come from class, learning—it just comes from the fact that you are a mother, and you were given a knowledge of how to respond to your little one. Who are you? You are a great mother because you took the time to read this.
Good luck. I know that you are doing your best. And you are doing a great job.
Kimberly Gralnick is a personal coach, trainer, and mom. She likes to engage people in empowering conversations that help them to overcome their obstacles and create lives that match their highest visions. She can be reached at coachkym@earthlink.net.