why I use My Publisher

 There are countless online photo sites to choose from to make a photo book. I have used a few different ones, including Shutterfly and Snapfish, for smaller projects but have always chosen My Publisher for my family books, my big books. And this is why:

My Publisher runs the best deal for books with lots of pages. About three times a year they will offer their "free extra pages" sale. Their classic book, with 20 pages, starts at $29.99. For each additional page over 20, you pay $0.99. That adds up when you have a 100 page book. So I make my book and then wait for that great sale that lets me buy my 100 page book for $30. I haven't found a better deal. {They actually run a lot of sales, but this one is the best, even better than a BOGO sale.}

My Publisher has software that you download for free onto your computer so that you are not online when making your book. Perhaps you have a speedy internet connection. Good for you. We do not. It saves me much frustration to not be dependent upon the internet when working on my projects.

A nine-photo layout example from the book I did for my brother's wedding. I mixed developing tints as sometimes lots of color on lots of pictures on the same page is over-stimulating. 

I kinda got stuck on "twelves" last year. It made for fun shooting goals throughout the months. This is a picture of one of the pages from my 2012 book, with a 12-photo layout option. 

Any photo book company is going to offer the option to "auto fill" your book for you or for you to manually choose the page layouts and placement of pictures. If you are wanting to try this family photo book thing but are a bit overwhelmed by it all, auto fill your book. You can then go back and tweak what you want, add text, move photos, but it essentially makes your book for you in a minute.  I, however, really like choosing page layouts, getting creative with texts and all that, and I think My Publisher has great manual options for letting you do whatever it is you want to do. Shutterfly seems a bit more restrictive in their templates.

Here is a screen shot of my desktop with My Publisher open. I made cover pages for each month with highlights and favorite memories journaled in. This picture background is of my kitchen window,
 a place a spend a large chunk of my time.

Another screen shot with MP open. See the little "My Style" at the bottom center of the page? With this turned on, your layout possibilities are endless. 

And lastly, MP has good customer service. I received a book once that was bound a little crooked, okay, it looked very crooked to me, but I called them, took a picture of the issue and emailed it over, and they sent me a code for replacement book just like that. No need to ship back the imperfect book (which is huge, because a trip to the post office with little boys to correct their error is no small thing).

Now, go poke around their site. I think next topic will be selecting pictures for your book,  as you can save yourself some work if you are choosy with your photos before importing them into the program.

free photo book from Shutterfly!

Two posts in one day. I guess that's what happens when you wake up at 4 AM on the second day of spring and it's a whopping 17 degrees outside. We've had more winter in this last week than we have all winter! More time for photo book making!

Just wanted to share a Shutterfly freebie. They are offering a free 8x8 hardcover photo book through next Tuesday, March 26th. This is usually a $29.99 book. Of course, shipping & handling fees apply (~$7 or $8). A good deal nonetheless.

I used a Groupon back in the fall and let Josiah make his own little book through Shutterfly and was very pleased with the quality. And he love, love, loved the process and has been asking me every time I sit down to pictures if he can start another book.

Just visit Shutterfly's website and at the checkout enter promo code: MYBOOK. Enjoy!

{It is very easy to share completed projects, so if you'd like some ideas, or to peek in this book, email me and I can send you the link.)

remembering Passover

"Now before the Feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."

John 13:1

A week from today we will celebrate Passover with our boys around our dinner table. We will reread and remember the story of the children of Israel as they prepared to make their exodus from the land of Egypt, out of the slavery and bondage they had known for four hundred years. We will make bread without leaven and roast lamb and imagine what it might have been like for those people, living more than a thousand years before Christ was ever born, to up and leave the land they called home, the oppression they had become so familiar with, and follow the deliverer God had sent to lead them to a better place, to freedom, to Him. 

We will remember that first Passover, that night in Egypt 3400 or so years ago, when the blood of a lamb without blemish, painted on the doorposts and the lintel of the houses, would act as a sign to the Lord, declaring "the sacrifice has been made in this home, no judgement need be executed here." 

And the Lord declared it a memorial day. A day to be remembered, throughout all generations, a holy day, a feast to the Lord, a day to bow one's head and worship. Teach to your children the mercy the Lord has shown this night, remember His goodness toward you.            {exodus 12} 

It was three years ago that we first celebrated Passover with a traditional seder meal in our home. Josiah had just turned three. I was reading an assortment of books and they all converged together with enough force to push me to move past wanting  to create "being there" opportunities for our family to actually doing it. 

A little book, Celebrating Biblical Feasts by Martha Zimmerman, had intrigued me. I wanted to know more about the holidays Jesus observed. I wanted to understand the people in the Old Testament in a deeper way by understanding the rhythm of their years. I wanted to try to alter the rhythm of my year to be more centered on Christ. The Christmas season, for a Christian, is all about Christ. {Well, it should be.} The whole month of December is lived in anticipation of Christmas Day. Easter, however, seemed more like just a day. Even a day that could sneak up on you. Why so much less fanfare and anticipation? We're talking about the day we celebrate our risen Lord! 

I am in no way a Bible scholar, so bear with me. But as I've read a little about the celebration feasts that were observed in the Bible before Christ came and then by him as he lived on this earth, it is striking to see how Christ fulfilled those celebrations and altered them for the rest of history. So much so that it makes me want to continue celebrating them, to use them as teaching opportunities to point my children to the Lord. And I want to encourage you to consider doing this for your family too. 

The book I mentioned above is a good resource but the Haggadah, the text they give for the narration of the story of the Exodus, is long for little ones. I found a child-friendly version here. The author of this text makes the meal super simple too, so if this is something that you think you would like to try but are just a bit overwhelmed, take a look at her script. It is very doable. Start small and then you can grow with it. We now take a day before Passover to make matzah together but  we've grown into that. 

The script is for a Messianic seder, meaning it is written for those of us who believe Christ was the Messiah, and whose reason for observing this holiday is not to fulfill the command given in Exodus 12 but to remember and celebrate Christ as our Passover lamb. We remember what He commanded His disciples as He shared this Passover meal with them, that night before He went to the cross, how He bent low and washed their feet and said, 

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; 

even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34

We symbolically wash each others' feet, around the dinner table. I love this part. I love to watch my boys bend low and wash the feet of their brothers, learning as little boys that they are called to lead by serving. I appreciate the opportunity to physically go through the motions my Lord went through, on knees with water and towel, the night before He became my sacrifice. Reflecting on His gift of salvation and remembering this great story that we've been invited into while sharing a traditional meal with my family, as people have been doing for thousands of years before me, connects me to that story in a very real way. It is a holy thing and it leads my heart to worship. 

How thankful I am that He loves us to the end. 

And again, in case you missed it: a link to a printable script for a Messianic seder dinner for families with young children. 

on writing your family's story

I will never admit to loving winter. I do, however, love seasons. And I love the season of winter for the activities, the routines, it prescribes. Winter is my time for reflecting on the year past, sorting through pictures, pulling stories and snippets from various journals I keep, and compiling it all in a book, er, two books, for us to remember the year for what it was: a gift.

I have just finished the first installment of 2012, {january~june}.

We are all enjoying it. I love that my boys love to sit and look at it. I love that they want to make their own. It sits on the table in front of our sofa, easy access for all, and serves to be an ever present reminder to me of how much I have been given. It reminds me that this life and these little lives I spend my life for are gifts. 

Anyhow, I think I might really put myself out there and do a little series of posts on writing your family's story in an effort to encourage you to slow down enough to pick up your pen or grab your camera and document these crazy days of life with exuberant kiddos. 

I have been taking pictures, scribbling words, and making picture books for as long as I can remember. Was introduced to Creative Memories when I was in 9th grade and enjoyed exercising my creativity in that scrapbook style of recording up until Josiah was born. I had braced myself for the reality that spending hours putting pictures together in that style was going to be unrealistic for me after I had a baby. (Thanks, Ali, for the heads-up.) I resorted to the simple slip-in-the-sleeve albums that you can get at Costco for $10. But, after more than a decade of producing fat photo albums, I now had the problem of where to store all those books. All lined up they took up more than seven feet of shelf space! That was when the idea of digital albums really appealed to me. 

Three years ago I made my first "year in review" family album through My Publisher. It is 100 pages and takes up a whopping one inch on my shelf. And, if it were ever to suffer the sad fate of having coffee spilled all over it, it is saved both online and on my computer so I could just order another. 

I love digital photo books. I love having the story of our lives in pictures and words easily accessible for me to flip back and remember what God was doing in us last year. Or three years ago. It is my hope that I would be able to give you a little inspiration to write your own family's story. And to save you some time by sharing what I have learned over the years. 

rest, an attitude of the heart

 I am tired. We are tired. {And you probably are too, eh?} Visions of a quiet cottage on a remote beach, me living there all by myself for a whole week with just my Bible and a stack of blank books, have been tempting me. Tempting me to be discontent with this place God has us in, this hard place of deciding whether to continue or abandon this adoption.

I felt full enough before this very big and pressing decision was thrust upon us. I was not emotionally prepared to think about adoption right now. I was trusting that when the time came for us to travel to meet our little girl, God would have me ready. He would come through for me, like He always does. I wasn’t anticipating needing Him, in this way, right now.

I am tired of thinking. I am tired of trying on different scenarios, trying to guess what God is up to and how He wants us to move, trying to figure out what is best for our family, what is wisdom, what is fear, what does it mean to build our kingdom here versus living for eternity.

So instead of thinking about all the thinking I needed to do, I started thinking about that quiet beach house that I wanted to run to so I could do all my thinking. Let me just walk away from all these pulls on my time, demands on my emotions and thoughts, and let me find rest in solitude.

Ah, solitude. 

I am thankful my God is jealous and didn't let me worship my god of solitude for too long. 

I am also thankful that we have friends that pray. On Sunday, as we gathered to celebrate communion together, we asked those friends to petition the throne of God on our behalf. I was convicted by what they prayed. They prayed for what I most want: rest.

And the Holy Spirit whispered soft that I can find rest now. In Him. Rest is a condition of the heart. It is the sweet state one enters into when they follow the Spirit’s leading to repentance, when they quit striving and working to figure it all out and instead lean back on the truth that God knows. We don’t always know what He is doing, but we know who He is. We know that He is trustworthy, and all powerful, all knowing, and all good. And in His word, He bids us come and find rest in Him.

Isaiah 30:18 

“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’”

Jeremiah 6:16

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.’”

Both of these passages, spoken to the children of Israel by two different prophets, come after a call to repentance, a call to return to the Lord, is not heeded. He calls us to find rest in Him, to find exactly what we most need, by laying down all our own efforts and work, and coming to him, contrite and broken.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…” This bidding from the book of Matthew is preceded by Jesus denouncing the cities in which he had done great works because the people did not repent.

Nothing need change in my situation for me to find rest. Only my heart need be changed. I could find myself on that beach, secluded and still, with nothing but the lull of rolling waves to disturb my thoughts, and still not be at rest.

Or I could awake to another day, feeling not quite fully rested, knowing that this day will require my all- yet again- and have a heart at peace with this season our Father has given us, resting in the truth of His goodness and compassionate, crazy love for us, His kids.

May we both accept His invitation today.  

chicken enchiladas

This is a much lighter post than the last. We are still working through what we think God has for our family at this time regarding adoption and, perhaps, if I quit feeling lazy about thinking I might be able to string together a few coherent sentences and share what God has been teaching me through all this. He has been good. I have enjoyed the opportunity, the invitation, to know Him better.

Anyhow, I sat down to type up this recipe for a friend and thought I might as well type it up here, for ya'll. And that got me thinking, I should share more recipes here. I like cooking and I like recipe-collecting. I started my collection when I was in PA school and moving around the country, living with different families for six weeks at a time. Over the past decade I've lived in six different states and collected who knows how many recipes from the lovely ladies that welcomed me into their homes and taught me how to cook. My recipes are happy memories of those friends.

So, without further adieu, here is Rebecca Hainline's recipe for chicken enchiladas.


Chicken Enchiladas

3 chicken breasts, cooked & chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups pepper jack cheese, shredded plus extra for on top
12 tortillas
1 can green enchilada sauce or salsa verde

Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray or cover bottom of dish lightly with enchilada sauce.
Combine first seven ingredients in large bowl. Place a spoonful in each tortilla and roll up. Place in baking dish. Pour enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.