The Family Tree

One of the greatest gifts that I think we can give our children is the gift of knowing their extended family. For many of us in the military, this can be difficult. My young children sometimes only see their grandparents once a year, and they haven't seen their cousins since our last duty station, over two years ago. Since I am a scrapbooking/picture queen, I use pictures to help my kids supplement their memories of extended family members. It is amazing how well this works. Even when they are young, they immediately recognize and feel like they know people whom they haven't seen in a while. The older children can begin understanding simple family trees to see who is related to whom.

My oldest son absolutely loves his grandparents (not that all the children don't, but he is very exuberant about their relationship)! When he was about 3 and my husband returned from a deployment, my son introduced my husband to his own mother! My son didn't really understand how Grandma was related, and since Daddy had been gone for so long, Matthew didn't remember Daddy and Grandma ever meeting.

Recently, I have joined my mother-in-law in some research and album-making of the family history. One interesting thing we have discovered is the extensive involvement of the various branches of our family tree in the Church. Also, since I was adopted, when I was a child, I never knew anyone from whom I had actually inherited genes. Though this has never bothered me, it has been fascinating for me to see photographs from the 1800s of people in my husband's family who look eerily like my own children.

My mother-in-law and I worked off-and-on for two years scanning in her old pictures, with me typing in every detail she could tell me about them. Then after Christmas this past year, I spent a solid six months - countless hours - working very hard on this album. I made it digitally on my Mac, so now I can make copies for anyone in the family who wants one. I input all the family tree information we had into Reunion for Mac. I was able to make family trees of the different branches of the family from this software, and pull them right into my scrapbook, made with the iRemember program. I even have the family tree, complete with pictures, on my iPhone! This is so much better than the old paper way to record family data! Once I finished, I made a copy of the 187-page book for my mother-in-law, and one for myself. I use the term "finished" loosely, since now family members are helping me make corrections and possibly add some old pictures they've had tucked away. This could be a whole-extended-family-work-in-progress for years to come - another reason to make the project digitally, for ease in making changes and corrections! My mother-in-law loves the book, and I am glad I was able to make it for her. But the real reward for me? Seeing my children pour over the pages. They love looking at the pictures and reading the stories, and realizing that they have a connection to the people on these pages. They are learning about making family trees and preserving history. But more importantly, they are getting to know their roots. I plan to make corrections and additions to this book, and also to do one for my side of the family. Someday, I'll be looking at them with my grandchildren.

Even if you don't have extensive family research available, consider making your children some photo albums of extended family members. If you like to scrapbook, this could be a fun project to do with your children. If not, just purchase an inexpensive pocket-size photo album and fill it with pictures. You'll be giving your kids the gift of family. Not to mention the gift you are giving Grandma, when even young children act like they know her well after not seeing her for a year or more!

Happy Scrapping!

Awana Scrapbooking

If you digi-scrap and have kids in Awana, check out http://annies4corners.blogspot.com/. The 29 May post. I feel so privileged that Annie made the kit just for me!! :)

Don't We All Love PAPER DOLLS?

In case you are settling into that "there's-one-month-left-of summer-it's-too-hot-to-play-outside-and-my-kids-are-bored!" stage of summer - and you need some "new toys" that cost you nothing but the paper and ink to print them - check out the below websites:

 http://www.simplicity.com

Go to the very bottom right and click on "Patty Reed Designs" for paperdolls.  You will need to subscribe to their free newsletter.  I print all my paper dolls on plain white cardstock (in the office section at Wal-mart), which holds up a little better than plain paper.  You can also cut them out of regular paper and glue them to cardboard.

Also:

http://www.makingfriends.com/f_Friends.htm

http://www.paperdolls.org/

http://www.nativetech.org/games/paperdolls/index.html (these are Native American dolls & clothes)

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/paperdolls/Printable_Paper_Doll.htm  (About.com has wonderful craft, recipe, and educational ideas for all kinds of things)

http://karenswhimsy.com/free-printable-paper-dolls.shtm  (There are a ton of BEAUTIFUL ones on this site.)

http://www.bigideafun.com/penguins/activities/finger_puppets/info.htm  (finger puppets - the boys will like these, too!)

http://www.freekidcrafts.com/finger-puppets.html

Then just Google "paper dolls."  You'll get scads and scads of "Google Images" of pages of paper dolls and clothes you can print off in color or in B&W and let the kids color them.  My girls LOVE paper dolls!  Sometimes I wonder why we buy all these expensive toys and have them laying around to trip over, when the kids can occupy themselves for hours with the ones cut out of paper!!!

Whatever You Do

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."  Col 3:23 NIV

I LOVE to scrapbook.  Sometimes I think it may be a waste of time (and in fact, I have to budget my time so I don't scrapbook all the time and let my dirty house fall down around me!), but then my children eagerly sit down and devour each scrapbook as I finish it, and it's worth all the time and effort.  As we move from place to place with the military, what better way to help children remember family members they don't see often, houses they've lived in, and friends who've moved away?  Not to mention all the wonderful places we've seen on vacations and during PCS moves, such as Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone Park?  In addition, I believe that God created us to be creative beings, and we need outlets for our creativity.  It is true that the scrapbooks could be ruined by the movers during the next PCS, but in the end, why do we spend time in our various creative outlets?  What is the purpose of everything we do while we are on this earth?  To bring glory to God.  We sing, we paint, we play instruments to the Glory of God.  And even if we're not very talented, we still appreciate beauty and creativity, often exclaiming in awe over the beauty of a forest or a sunset.  The Scriptures tell us, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."  So, if you're like me and have kids, church, and a busy schedule, possibly an outside job, you may not get much time to be creative.  But when you do carve out a little piece of time for yourself, use it to praise God, and send us some pictures of your creative works.  We'd love to see them and all praise God together.  We'd also love some adult & kids' craft ideas to share!