Works-for-Me: Prayer List

Our Sunday school class has a prayer time every week. While it's great to pray for people while we're in class, sometimes it's nice to have a reminder of the prayer requests in the middle of the week. I volunteered to take down the prayer requests during the Sunday school hour, and then sometime in the middle of the week, I send the prayer requests out to the members of the class via email, including any updates people have given me.

I've gotten lots of great feedback about the email list. People who miss Sunday school class can still pray specifically for fellow class members. When needs come up during the week, people just email me a request to send out to everyone. I know this is really basic, but it works for me!

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Tags: WFMW, Prayer

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Organizing Digital Photographs

When I made the switch from a film camera to a digital camera about a year and a half ago, I had no idea how quickly the digital photos would take over my computer! When I didn’t have to worry about running out of film, I found myself taking 5 times the number of pictures I had taken with my film camera. In no time I had a huge mess of pictures, with no good way of finding the pictures I needed without weeding through the entire bunch. I found a couple of free programs that have helped me immensely in my quest to organize my photos: Irfanview and Picasa. When I transfer my pictures from my camera to the computer, I put them in a folder labeled “Uploaded”. Then I use Irfanview’s “Batch Rename/Conversion” feature to rename my pictures in yyyy-mm-dd-event-## format. I set up Irfanview to automatically move my pictures to the appropriate month/year folder on my computer after the pictures are renamed. I like to organize my photos by the year. Then in the individual year folders, I have sub-folders for each month. Once that is done, I load up Picasa. Picasa scans my pictures folder for any new pictures and automatically imports them. I make minor adjustments to the pictures and add keywords. The keywords I usually use are the names of the people in the picture and the event. With the keywords, I can search for pictures when I’m making a gift calendar or album. If I need a picture of Liz and Sam together, I search for “Liz Sam”, and all the pictures featuring both kids pop up. Very convenient. Once all the pictures are tweaked to my liking, I use Picasa to upload them to the photo-printing company of my choice. I use Shutterfly, but there are many great companies out there, and Picasa supports most of them. When Shutterfly offers a free-shipping promotion, I order the prints. I also use Picasa to burn CDs of my pictures every 3 months, so I have a backup. And always, always, always make sure you backup your pictures. Our computer crashed a few months ago, and we only lost a few pictures, because I had backed them all up a week before. I know I could buy a great program to edit and organize my pictures, but the free programs work for me! For more Works-for-Me tips, head over to Rocks in My Dryer! Related Tags: organizing digital photos, WFMW, photography

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Activity Sticks

I read about this idea last summer, though I can’t remember where. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m going to give it a whirl this year. Write a bunch of different activities on popsicle sticks (the kind you buy in craft stores). Some ideas are playing a board game, running in the sprinkler, going to the park, reading a book, etc. You can also include chores, just to make things interesting. Put the popsicle sticks in a cup or jar, and when your kids come to you, saying they’re bored, have them close their eyes and pick a stick. Then they have to do the activity on the stick. Another variation is to have two cups of sticks, one for activities that include you (going to the park, library, etc), and one for activities they can do on their own. That way, if you’re busy and can’t participate, you can have them pick from the solo activities. If you have a little free time, have them pick something that you can all do together. For more great tips on what to do when the kids are bored, head over to Rocks in My Dryer! And if anyone knows where I read about this idea, let me know, so I can give proper credit! Related Tags: summer activities, boredom, kids

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Toy Storage

When you have small children, you know how quickly their little toys can get out of hand. You also know how frustrating it is when your 4 year old NEEDS to find his small Thomas the Tank Engine RIGHT NOW, and you have NO idea where it is! Frustrated with the disorganization of my kids' rooms, I came up with a toy storage system that works for me. I bought a wooden shelving unit and some plastic containers. Most are shoe-box sized, but I do have a few bigger containers for my kids' larger collections. I labeled each container with the type of toy it was to hold: Polly Pocket, Littlest Pet Shop, Small Balls, Little People, Cars, etc. For my son, who is not yet reading, I got out the digital camera and made photo labels. Then I put matching labels on the shelves, so my kids would know where each bin belongs. Viola! Everything has a place! I'm not saying we never have toy messes anymore, but at least cleanup is a snap! For more great Works-for-Me tips, head over to Rocks in My Dryer! Related Tags: WFMW, organization

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Laundry System

When my daughter was born 9 years ago, and my laundry quadrupled (why does that happen?), I found myself overwhelmed by the task of getting clothes washed, dried and put away. Over the years, I’ve come up with a system that works for me, and now I never get behind on laundry. I made a laundry schedule that looks like this: Monday: Adult clothes Tuesday: Kid sheets and all towels Wednesday: Kid clothes Thursday: Adult bed sheets Friday: All towels I start the first load before I bring the kids to school, and I always fold and put away the laundry before I go to bed at night, so the washing machine and dryer are ready to go the next morning. The best part about this schedule is that I rarely have to do laundry on weekends! Be sure to head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips!