A Legacy of Peace (Not Stress)

During the month of June, I attended 4 funerals in 4 weeks.  It's gotten me thinking quite a bit about life and death and all of the other BIG questions we tend to forget about on a day to day basis.

I'll probably have a few related posts, but in the meantime, I was reminded to tell you about my Legacy File.

A Legacy File is something for your family to have on hand should something happen to you.  It's a file to help them love you more and stress less.  Think about it.  How many different bills do you pay each month? In most families, there is a primary paper-worker, and an incredibly-grateful-to-them-spouse.  Does the grateful spouse know where to find stuff in case the paper-worker is suddenly unavailable to do his/her job?

Here are some things a legacy file should include:

• Bank information and account numbers
• Bill information
• Birth certificates (copies)
• Wills (notarized)
• Life insurance paperwork
•  Social Security cards (copies)
• Wedding certificates (copies)
• Etc.

As I began trying to get my files in order, I literally LONGED for the days of yesteryear when we weren't so connected with 3,000,572 different passwords.  Seriously.  It's crazy!

So, on the off chance that a loving relative would want to update my status, or check my e-mail, or whatever, I created a honkin' HUGE document for my family.  One copy is in our safe, and one copy is with trustworthy relatives who've promised not to open it unless necessary (after they oooo'd and ahhhhh'd over it first in my hearing).

Here's what mine ended up looking like (with personal information changed, of course!):

I know.  You're impressed.  Your mouth is actually hanging open, isn't it?  Yep.  Happens to me every time I look at this list, too.  :D

Go ahead.  Savor the moment.  Ahhhh.  

It took me several months to compile everything, so to save you the stress, I've uploaded the Word document here.  You can go in and change all of the fake (and slightly humorous) stuff and put in your own information instead.

Just save a copy of the Google Doc to your own Google Docs (you'll need a Google account), and then you can edit all of the info.

Remember, times of loss are difficult enough without wondering how to do basic things like logging into bank accounts to pay bills.  Leave a legacy of peace.  Not stress.

My new hair

This post is part of my New Year's Resolutions Post (#8, to be exact)

I cut my own hair today.  

You should know that this hasn't worked so well for me in the past...especially during middle school. Around Labor Day.  Just before family friends arrived for their yearly visit.  Two years in a row.  

Not one.  Two.  Sigh.

Sorry to say I don't have a photo on hand to show you.  Trust me.  It was bad.  

I never could get my bangs straight, so I just kept cutting.  

And cutting.  And cutting.  And cutting.

Moving right along...This was how my hair looked today before I cut it.  Not bad, but not much shape either.  And long.  Very, very long.  I wanted to keep most of the length, but add layers, re-cut bangs, and thin it out some.

I vaguely remembered my college roommate, Katie, said something once about cutting layers with a pony tail.  So...I scoured YouTube for tutorials.

This is my pony tail.  

Note the little hair band on the strand by my shoulder.  

That's where I marked the shortest layer before I put everything on top of my head.  

Wouldn't want a repeat 7th or 8th grade bangs incident, now would we?

I kind of felt like I Dream of Jeannie with my ponytail on my head.

To keep everything neat, I put a ponytail in place where my little marker had been before.

And...snip.

Well, that was fast...and easy.  Hmm...

I can't believe I just did this!  Hope it works. 

I took out the ponytail holder, and...

Not bad!  

The layers are a tad choppy, but since my hair is normally curly, it's not a huge deal.

I cut off this much for my shorter layers!

(Not pictured...I thinned out two handfuls of hair and added bangs back in.)

This is the picture I sent Matt.  

Try not to be jealous of my mad romantic skills.

Here's the finished, non-flirtatious product.  Not bad, huh?

I've never really been one for New Year's Resolutions.

Perhaps that's because I only ever think of the usual stuff like: "journal more" or "eat veggies".  Ick (to the veggies, not the journaling).  As it turns out, I've been resolving several areas of life for the last six months or so, and therefore I didn't really have any new and improved resolutions for 2012, just a continuation plan.

I'm going to share what I've been working on for the latter part of 2011, and then I'll elaborate over the next few posts...which will actually happen soon, because I'm going to type them now and post a little at a time, thus outwitting myself.  Hopefully.

1.  Be intentional with my time.  Don't waste it and then complain that there's not enough time to get things done.

2.  Simplify our stuff.  (Remove clutter...ugh!)

3.  Save money.  (Make Emily's food, for starters.)

4.  Do my job.  (Make meals each night, do laundry, and generally have a presentable house.)

5.  Deal with the little stuff in my life that's keeping me from being who God wants me to be.  (Ahem...Dr. Pepper.  Don't underestimate the power of addictions!)

6.  Raise Emily as well as I possibly can to know and love God, His Word, and His ways.

7.  Create traditions for our family. 

8.  Look nice for Matt and Little Bit.

9.  Make cute stuff.  (Crafting is important.  I'm a recent convert.  I'm still working through this one, but I will post cute things as I steal ideas from other people and make them.  Thanks primarily to Tara and my in-laws for sucking me in with your adorable-ness and making me say, "I can do that."  Sigh.)

So, that's what we'll be discussing over the next few posts.  Stay tuned.