Handling Memories and Sentimental Items

 I have little time these days to post, but I am moving right along with life. My days are filled with Palmer, Gus, Mother and then preparing for Jeff to get home from work. It is not a bad life at all. It is filled with the ordinary of life, but I couldn't love the ordinary more to be honest. Palmer and I go through my cleaning routines while he plays or pulls things out of cabinets. We check in on Mom to make sure she is eating and taking care of herself. We get outside for walks with Gus and water flowers. Then when he naps, I try to do something on my long to do list of things that need concentration OR I nap as well depending on how tired I am.

We made a trip to Auburn for the weekend of the 4th. We got there early afternoon on Friday and stayed until Monday morning. Our good friends were there as well. You may remember these friends have been our friends forever. The men have been buds since Junior High and roomed together in Auburn. We all actually lived in the same apartment complex. They lived here in Fort Walton Beach until our youngest children graduated from high school. We made many trips to Auburn together and did life together. When they had to move from FWB to Tennessee after their children were all in college, we were sad. They are now in north Alabama which is good for the female friend since she is near her aging mother and can see about her. We both now have a second home on the same street in Auburn, so we get together as often as we can.

This weekend we ate out one night, and cooked out at our house one night. Jeff grilled pork loin and we celebrated the 4th together on the 3rd. Mother went with us this time. I think she knew she would be by herself all weekend and decided to go. I think she halfway enjoyed herself. On the way, Paul Allen called and was asking if she was staying home because he was going to check on her. I think that made her feel good too. Gotta keep her spirits up and me as well. When she gets down it wears on me mentally; not gonna lie.

But all that is not really the topic of this post!

I have been working on emptying closets and dealing with "the stuff" for 8 years. I can't even believe I have been retired from teaching that long or blogging for that matter.

I thought I would share how I dealt with home movies, photos, etc.

I have been working on the home movies for awhile. I have sent them off in waves to Legacy Box. I would wait until they had a good sale and send off 8-10 at a time. That was affordable. I caught a 65% sale once during a Super Bowl. I was surfing the computer while Jeff was watching and it was only available during the game. I never sent them off for less than 50% off. 

I now have two boxes to store the originals in. I know many would just toss them, but that is not in my DNA. 

After looking at them to take a picture, I could probably consolidate to one box if I packed carefully:)

There are multiple options from Legacy Box. I chose a flash drive (USB plug-in). This way I could easily make copies to give to different family members. I have a MacBook Air and there is an adaptor that allows for more than one flash drive to be in at a time. You pay extra for a flash drive; the digital option is part of the regular plan.

MacBook Air USB adaptor.

I have taken each flash drive and made an index card with the list of videos/movies on them and stored in a snack size bag. A snack size is perfectly sized for 3X5 index cards. I then placed all of them in one larger bag. I have made copies of flash drives for different people. 

That weird looking thing on the side is a flash drive. Believe it or not.

All those movies are right here in a smaller footprint.

One interesting note on home movies. A long time ago when it became popular to put all your reeled movies onto a VHS tape, my great uncle Earl discovered some footage of my dad, me and mom taken at his home. I think it was when he was stationed at Warner Robbins and we were at Fort Benning. It is only about 10-15 seconds of footage, but it the only moving movie of Dad I have. He died before we all got the new stuff. Uncle Earl is gone now too, but he could never have known how much it meant to me.

Anywho, now I have it where I can look at often and know the time stamp to get to it without having to fast forward and rewind and fear the tape will tear up.

I also sent a cousin of mine a copy of my uncle on video that I knew she didn't have. 

Copies I have made on something that looks a lot more like a flash drive:)

It has been so much fun to watch the old movies of all family members ---some really old and some not that terribly old.

I don't watch much Flosstube, but one I ALWAYS watch is Marlene from Stitching by the Lake. I just love Marlene and her videos are not all that long so that is a plus for me. She has stated many times she makes these videos for her kids because she would love to be able to hear her mother talk again. Now, I don't plan to start a Flosstube, but I do know what she means. I am trying to do more taping again with my cell phone.

To save them, I have been copying them to a flash drive at the end of each month and labeling by the month on the flash drive. I know there is a cloud and all, but I am a tad bit old school.

One thing that I have noted on all these movies is the approach to taking them. I always just did mine chronologically. A VHS tape for me might have gone from March 1989 to April 1990. My mother-in-law however had a tape and it would be labeled birthdays. She would film birthday celebrations of the family, so you might have one for Kristan in March, Mr. P in May, Jeff in June, Danny in September, etc. Then she would have one for Christmas. She would always set it up on a tripod in the kitchen or dining room and just film us. Those videos are quite funny. A true glimpse into our behaviors, conversation. Not much has changed in us. I laughed at one where Jeff and his dad are going about something Jeff didn't do and it sounds like a present day Jeff and Paul Allen. Like father/ like son.

I did throw away about 5 videos of hers that were nothing but vacation scenery. I don't even know how she could have concentrated to film all of it, but she did. We all agreed, no one was ever going to watch those.

If you are still with me, I redid my photographs too. Well, sort of. I had started putting them into these really large albums and I may even have a post on that, but after doing that for some time, I hated those albums. We all love to pull them out and look through them. The large ones were so big and bulky and not fun at all to look through. 

I changed them all out to a much more manageable photo album. I have two rows on this shelf. 

The bottom row in this picture is 2 rows of albums. They are easy to pull out and look at and I have them labeled with a date.

There are some behind. I like to pull one out every week and leave it out to look through. When I finish the last two albums that are not labeled,  I plan to no longer put my photos in albums. I am going to just put them in the floral photo box. I think it will be time to let the kids take over the recording in albums in they choose. I will print family  photos and some of Jeff and me to keep in there. I have shared this with the kids. Paul Allen especially loves the albums. Poor Katie will have to deal with that one day.

I also have some notebooks with sheet protectors in the closet. Many of those are the sports, school, family portraits, etc. in them. 

All that said, I have really tried to pare down sentimental items. It has been a process of letting go. One such item I pulled out to let go of was the cuckoo clock that doesn't work. It is 60 years old and came from Germany. IT is in pictures of our various homes, but it has been in a box since at least 2000. I will never display it. I have many things from Germany displayed that mean more, so I am going to let it go. The kids will not ever use it or hang it up, so it is time to let it go. It is process for me.

For those of you who are minimalists, you are just shaking your head at me.

The photo closet you have seen in these pictures is upstairs and easy to access by all. There is another small closet at the bottom of the stairs of photos from Jeff's mom.. I have left them there over the years. I have organized some of them that were loose and labeled. There are some photo albums that she took of vacations and I suspect most of those could be gone through and disposed of as well. I plan to tackle that at some point. There are also a bunch of slide cartridges. I think they are all empty. I may seen if I can sell those. Always more to do. 

This is an unexpected post from me because this is one of those days when I a bit too tired to do anything while Palmer naps.

We are headed to the Blue Angels show in Pensacola on Saturday if the weather cooperates. The plan is to take the kids for the first time. I know Tucker will love it. Then it will be staying close to home since Katie will be delivering Miles soon.

My other big project that I have been working on is a family ancestry notebook. My dad's cousin posted some pictures I have never seen before this past weekend. I am so excited to print and add them to the notebook. She had one of my paternal grandmother when she was young that I have never seen. It is fun to look back, but also fun to look forward. A good blend is what I alway say.

So long for now,

Sandy