My Bare Necessities - Log Your Memory

Well it is Log Your Memory time for this week. It has been a busy week at my house with my daughter having her tonsils and adenoids removed so if this post seems disjointed - it just might be due to lack of sleep and/or interruptions by the patient!

What Are Your Bare Necessities? The things you just can't live without . . .

(I am going to put a little dislaimer here that I am taking this question to mean the things that make each day complete for me - not the literal necessities of my existance)

1) My Coffee - be it homebrewed cup or my Starbucks - no morning is complete without at least one cup. On Wednesday and Friday mornings my day involves a coffee stop at Starbucks with my girlfriends.

2) My Bible - At some point in each day, my Bible and the guidance God gives me in it are part of my routine.

3) My Car - rarely is there a day that goes by that I am not in the car multiple times for trips to school, the store, my BFF house or some other thing or another

4) My portable DVD player at my bedside - I ALWAYS go to bed with a movie or a re-run of Beverly Hills 90210 in the DVD player by my bed.

5) My Family - even if I am away from home I make time to talk to them and especially to tuck the kids in over the phone with their requested number of night night kisses

6) My Cell phone - as much as I hate to admit it, I am lost without it! My BFF and I can be found on our phones to one another a lot. My kids find me on the phone and say "oh, it must be Jill"

7) My computer - be it email, Facebook, bill paying, news reading or research, I am on the computer several times every day!

8) Chocolate - I very, very rarely go a day without something chocolate (no matter how small) passing my lips (just don't tell my doctor as my high triglycerides I am sure have NOTHING to do with chocolate consumption)

9) Music - I love to make monthly collection CDs from my ipod and listen to music in the car and around the house - my kids are both known to sing along as the CD of the month is usually on whenever we are in the car

10) My neck pillow - though it may seem weird, the contour neck pillow is a life saver after neck surgery - I have bought a new one on more than one occasion when I have left for out of town without mine - my night of sleep is never the same without it!

Take a moment to thing about your necessities in life and if you blog - share those things. I tried to do a "Top 10" approach to mine - how will you do yours?

Log Your Memory - Family's Favorite Pastimes

As I started last week, I am posting from the weekly challenges in my Log Your Memory book. This week's challenge has to do with pastimes are your house. Thankfully my kids are now at reading age so that opens a whoel new bunch of games and pastimes from the non-reading Candy Land and such.

The kids love, love, love to play games and will find any spare moment ro rope one of us into a game. The current favorites at our house are checkers, Twister, Don't Tip The Waiter, Disney DVD Bingo, Uno and the newest is Phase 10 for Kids. It is so fun to see them using their minds for good stuff like that.

Reading is also a frequent pastime at our house. Chase is hooked on the Magic Treehouse Books and reads usually 2 of them a week. I loves to read them to us and it is so great to hear how well he is reading. I have always read to the kids a lot and they love to have me read to them, in fact anything less than 45 minutes of reading is not enough for them. Mackenzie is starting to read too and loves to sit with her Number 1 readers and practice whenever given an opportunity.

We are also a big puzzle family. Quite often in the winter months, there is a large puzzle (500-1000 pieces) on our dining room table. Chase is a natural at puzzles and neither of the kids are afraid of helping out on a big puzzle. If the puzzle is a pretty one that we really like, we use puzzle glue and Papa makes us a frame to put them in and we use them for art around our house (the picture above is one that hangs in Chase's room).

We have an evening ritual that is part of our "bedtime routine" that makes it all go smoothly (most of the time). The kids love to have movie time so after dinner, we all get in PJs and congregate in the living room for movie time. On odd days Chase pics and on even days Mackenzie pics the movie. For a long time we have done Disney cartoons over and over and over but in the last few months, the kids have started to enjoy movies with real people in them. Having Netflix helps to keep a variety of good kid movies available instantly or by mail. The kids currently love any movie about dogs and recently discovered Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.

During the summer months, our family spends a lot of time at the lake or in the pool as we all love water. The kids would exist in swimsuits all summer if we would let them. It doesn't hurt that we live in such a great area for summer fun in the sun and water.

What are your family's favorite pastimes? Are they the same or different than a year ago? Are there things you would like to add to the pastimes you enjoy?

Log My Memory - My January Soundtrack

In early December I ran across a neat website and book www.logyourmemory.com that is a great day planner type book for scrapbookers and mothers alike who are trying to keep track of where they are to be and when but also where they have been and the memories of the year. I personally bought the downloadable version and had it printed at my local print shop and comb bound. I love that it will stay together and include memories that I want to keep. The book also include little prompts and challenges weekly, monthly and for holidays. It is a nice way to remember the details and keep track of what we have done as a family. I am going to use some of those challenges as blog prompts to help keep me in more of a blogging routine. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Every month I make a new playlist on my ipod of songs that are big with me that month. I usually make a CD of them and that is in each car as well. I kind of think of them as the soundtrack of my month. I plan to share my monthly soundtrack sometime during each month in 2010 as I strive to make my blogging more routine and something that logs my memories for future use.

January 2010 Soundtrack

1. Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man - Carrie Underwood & Brad Paisley

2. Need You Now - Lady Antebellum

3. Cryin' For Me - Toby Keith

4. Hillbilly Bone - Blake Shelton & Trace Adkins

5. Why Don't We Just Dance - Josh Turner

6. American Honey - Lady Antebellum

7. Alright - Darius Rucker

8. How Far Do You Want To Go - Gloriana

9. Keep On Lovin' You - Steel Magnolia

10. Take Me There - Rascal Flatts

11. The Truth - Jason Aldean

12. Twang - George Strait

13. History In The Making - Darius Rucker

14. You're Gonna Miss This - Trace Adkins

15. Stay - Sugarland

16. Highway 20 Ride - Zac Brown Band

17. Love This Pain - Lady Antebellum

18. Sara Smile - Jimmy Wayne

19. Red Light - David Nail

20. The Man I Want To Be - Chris Young

21. Living For The Night - George Strait

I hope you too will take the time to Log Your Memories in whatever form you choose and time flies and we never know what tomorrow holds. Our written memories will be treasures for our family after we are gone and are completely irreplaceable.