Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A Unique Way To Help Someone Who Is Grieving

Scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of a scrapbook. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journaling. Scrapbooking is a widely practiced pastime in the United States. (from Wikipedia)

Scrapbooking and designing scrapbooks are a huge part of some people's lives. After a devastating loss, some people do not know what to do to show comfort to the grieving.
Why not help to build a lovely scrapbook for the person or family who is grieving. For more information on Sympathy Gifts, read this article about Scrapbooking.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

When You Grow Apart, Your Heart Can Hurt.


Sister for always................
Growing up in a close knit family is something I want to recreate for my children. Mom, Dad, my sister and I were like the four musketeers. I know. There are only three, but you know what I mean. One for all and all for one. We did everything together.
I have great memories of my childhood. We had a pool. Every Tuesday my Mom put a red flag up and that let the neighbor kids know that it was open swim. Sometimes mom would cook hot dogs or one of the other mothers would bring over peanut butter and jelly. I can still picture my sister on an air mattress while I swam behind her kicking, pretending like I was the propeller. Good times for sure.
Hiking was what my dad loved. He knew every trail in the southern part of our state. Saturday mornings we were usually up early and ready to go on a new adventure. We were the wilderness family.
My favorite time of the year was Christmas. Dad got on the roof the day after Thanksgiving and hung the lights and then we had hot chocolate together and thought how beautiful the house looked. Shopping, caroling, baking, we did it all and made beautiful and new memories every year.
But then all that changed. My sisters freshman year of college she met the love of her life. At first things were great, but over time she began to change. Over the years it because clear that my sister’s now husband did not want to be any part of our family. I never really can figure out why... It broke our hearts because he did not encourage her to see us either.
Every Christmas the same problem comes up. What to do for my sister and her family?  It hurts to think about.  It would break my heart to do nothing and yet I want to be sensitive also.
Holiday gift baskets the article read.  It told how I could pick out the items I wanted to send and they would be packaged in a Christmas theme and sent right to the house. And so I ordered my basket and had it sent. Somewhere in the bottom on my heart I still believe that my sister remembers all our adventures we had growing up and in her heart she is still part of the four musketeers. I have to believe…..