Encyclopedia of Your Ordinary Life - O

A few years ago I had the opportunity to complete this extraordinary scrapbook album designed by CathyZ and based on the book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal. While I still haven't read the book, I love the concept of this album - a random sampling of those ordinary facts about your life [my life.] The homework involves keeping a list, A to Z, of random memories for several weeks and then gathering photos [or not] to support these memories. Love it. The album is really very simple [a la Cathy Z] and easy to put together with only two square photos per page and two to four 'definitions.' Have I said I love this album? And I want to share some of my life with you so I've committed to do just that in 2009 [keep in mind this was completed during the summer of 2007.] I'm going backwards and today I present: O

ORGANIZER

People have made fun of me in the past for keeping my color-coordinated calendar. But I’ve done this long before palm pilots were around. Pink is for me, yellow is work, blue is family and Craig, green is for Matt, and orange for Drew. I can tell at a glance who has an activity scheduled for each day. It may be a little [?!] OCD, but it’s helped me keep my sanity in this crazy, chaotic [and wonderful] life I live.

OCEAN BREEZES

There’s just not many things better than sitting under a beach umbrella in the late afternoon sun [think ‘golden hour’] with a good book, on the sandy white shores of The Gulf, [or on the deck of a ship] and a soft wind blowing warmly from the water. We were blessed to live near The Gulf for a few years and love to visit as often as possible.

OMELET

A tasty meal of eggs filled with meat, cheese, and, on occasion, veggies. I learned to make an omelet from watching Julia Childs on television when I was in elementary school. I was lucky to have parents who didn’t mind my experimenting in the kitchen as long I cleaned up my messes. Gotta say – ‘ole Julia knew how to make a delicious looking omelet and mine turn out pretty good too. I’ve enjoyed teaching the boys how to make their own delicious egg – meat- and – cheese treat too!