Are you looking for the perfect mother of the bride dress? My mother and I have not always been close. I went through those teenage years too, where I slammed my door shut, and yelled at the top of my lungs in my bedroom. Then I always turned up the radio at full blast to drown out anything she was saying. Oh the teenage, rebellious years. They are not easy. I do not know how my parents did it. 

I can tell you, the experts are right. It is just a stage. It will eventually go away. I am now so close to my mother, that she is like my best friend.

Now I look forward to shopping with my mom and doing basically anything with her, just to be able to spend time with her. What is your most favorite thing you do with your mom?

It was going to be an all day shop till you drop day. We were not going to stop until we found the perfect mother of the bride dress for my wedding.

You know how it goes women, you always end up shopping at every store for the “one” item you need, only to return to the first store that had exact item that you needed. Well, that is exactly what happened to us. We went shopping in Indianapolis, Indiana at the local mall and a few other stores here.

Ways to Bond with your Mom

Not everyone is close to their mother, and I understand that, however there are always ways to improve your connection with her. I realize there are generations gaps, and sometimes respect can be hard, but do not wait until it is too late to connect closer with your mother. Sometimes you have to cut the ties, but when you do not have to, make the most of your time together.

Do you ever wonder where you get your style of shopping from? Are you a fast shopper, like you can eye a nice shirt from a distance and know it has to be yours, or are you a slow shopper and have to look at everything? It is amazing how you can see yourself in your mother, when you are shopping for the same thing together? I never realized how similar we were on color interests. I was having fall theme colors for my wedding, but we both fell in love with this deep dark eggplant purple, long dress. It was beautiful. But, we still had many other stores to go to and compare, so on with the shopping trip.

My mom was the one who taught me how to be frugal with my clothes and still look fashionable. I am forever grateful for that. She taught me how to make three outfits out of one pair of pants or shirt. It is amazing how creative you can become when you hang out with your mother shopping. We have shopped so much together now, that we can almost read each other’s minds when we just hold up an outfit. Shopping together now is almost a traditional ritual now. I know I will passing down this family fun of bonding time with my daughter in the future.

While shopping, you can bond using the following ideas:

• While you are exercising together by walking around, you can also spend the time learning what possible Christmas gifts each other may want. Pay attention and listen to what each other likes or does not like while shopping. Depending on your daughter’s age, you can use the clothes you see to talk about issues like self esteem and her image of herself.
• We all tend to open up more and communicate while we are doing something else, like shopping. This is especially true for teenage daughters, so use your shopping time to ask questions about each other’s life and find out how each other are doing in school, work, with the kids, etc.
• Keep a mother daughter journal of the activities you did for the day together. When we get older, we tend to forget about our daily memories we are making sometimes. What a great treasure to leave your daughter to read, years in the future. Leave this journal in a time capsule, so your daughter can open it and read it, when she has a daughter herself. Priceless.
• Find a common interest to talk about. Go shopping to stores that have your common interests in mind, like craft stores.

Do not take your time with each other for granted. Treasure your shopping bonding time. Save pictures from your trip and your special mother daughter journal in your own time capsule or in a decorative Wedding Time Capsule to give your daughter when she gets married. What a great day it will be for your daughter to open her Wedding Time Capsule 10 or 20 years later, and reminisce what it was like the first year of her marriage and all the wedding preparations you did with her, as she reads this sentimental journal.

It is now a joke between my mother and I about how many stores we went to, and still ended up coming back to the first store, Dillards, to buy her mother of the bride dress. Just wait till we tell you what happened to her dress during our wedding ceremony, in a future blog.

So what is your favorite bonding activity to do with your mom? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post Bonding through Shopping for Mother of the Bride Dress appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Time capsules are a great place to illustrate and save our spiritual and inward journey in an outward, physical way. Pass on your faith through a gift that lasts a lifetime. A time capsule can help you chronicle your introduction to faith. You can also store your questions and prayers, and then answers received, in this sacred place of the time capsule.

Photo from: https://www.facebook.com/UnionChapelMuncie/photos/a.10152257301876845.1073741836.131023046844/10152257303296845/?type=1&theater

Give a Baby Time Capsule as a Baptism or Christening Gift

After a baby dedication or baptism, ministers can give this timeless keepsake in the form of a decorative time capsule to the proud parents. You can get a Baby Time Capsule from http://www.timecapsule.com/product/babystimecapsule/.

The guests at the baptism ceremony can each write a note to the child using the “Message to the Future” letters included. This is a perfect for a Godmother to give away as a gift, let alone a gift from the parents of the child. The baptism of a baby is a joyful celebration, as many family members gather around taking photos. Use the photos as the first sentimental mementos to save in your baby’s time capsule.

Make sure to include a souvenir or item representing something from the religious belief or church. Also make sure to include things like a newspaper from the day of the baptism or christening. This is a timeless gift, for such a memorable milestone moment in your child’s life. Preserve this part of your baby’s history in a time capsule. Then store the decorative Baby Time Capsule in the nursery, or somewhere private for his or her 18th or 21st birthday or any other birthday or special occasion.

When the time capsule is opened, it will be interesting to see what life was like the year you baby was born, how things have changed, and all the nostalgic keepsakes inside which will probably create a few laughs and tears.

Youth Pastors can Use a Time Capsule

Youth pastors can also use a time capsule for lesson about saving yourself for marriage. You could have the youth each write a letter to their future selves about who they want to marry. You could also do a lesson about treasuring their days of youth, and using this time in their life to journal about their changes, challenges, and choices they are going through at this milestone moment of being a teenager.

The youth could do a lesson about putting away their old self, as they are trying to lose weight, get off drugs, learn how to avoid negativity, or bad company they hang around, by writing these things down, then putting them in the time capsule. It would be interesting as an adult, to open the time capsule years later to see how much you have grown or changed for the better as a teenager in youth group. This may be a great activity for a few of us as adults too, now that I think about it.

What one thing do you wish you knew as a teenager, now that you are older? What do you wish your parent’s had warned you about, encouraged you to do, or shared with you as a teenager? Have the parents of the teenagers, write out “Message to the Future” letters to the youth about predictions of where they see their son or daughter in the future, giving advice, or sharing funny stories of hope, encouragement, and life as an adult.

Photo from: https://www.facebook.com/UnionChapelMuncie/photos/a.10152257301876845.1073741836.131023046844/10152257304551845/?type=1&theater

There are many versatile uses for the time capsule. Just because it says Baby Time Capsule, does not mean you cannot buy it and collect items for your teenager now. I know you have a few spare photos of your teenager when he or she was a baby. Include those baby photos, along with a few mementos from your teenager’s life currently in the Baby Time Capsule.

Your teenager does not need to know when you purchased the time capsule. “It is the thought that counts.” After all, no matter how old your teenager is, they will always be your “baby.”So preserve your teenager’s story today, so he or she can reminisce tomorrow or years into the future. What a great Graduation gift.

What would you put in your child’s time capsule? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie
www.timecapsule.com

The post Who Can Use a Time Capsule – Church Time Capsule Ideas appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

Who Can Use a Time Capsule? – Parents

Although it is a morbid thought, the truth is we are all going to die someday. That is the bad news. The good news is, we all have a chance to leave a legacy to our friends, family, and children. We can leave a legacy in a tangible way with a time capsule.

Do not wait until you are the parent who has to send your child off to college, only to notice the adult size shoes and clothes you pull out of the suitcase, as you help him or her unpack for their new life adventure. Leave memories in a lasting way, with the use of a time capsule. A time capsule is more than just social media, saving photos on Facebook, or posting your Throw Back Thursday pictures. A time capsule is about collecting the memorabilia that will not keep online, or in a scrapbook, or in an old box where mice and moths can destroy your precious memories. Let’s discuss time capsule ideas for parents.

A Celebration of Life

Don’t wait until the end, when most people have a “celebration of life” at a funeral. Start today and save those tangible memorabilia, souvenirs, and keepsakes in a decorative Baby Time Capsule from http://www.timecapsule.com. Keep special items, in a time capsule, about everyday life and what matters most – your children and family memories together. When parents make a time capsule with their children, it helps them feel a sense of connectedness on a deeper level.

You are not just your child’s “mom” or “dad.” Use a time capsule to explain to your grown child, about who all you really are, as your child opens their time capsule at their high-school graduation or as you leave their dorm room at college, and he or she starts a new life.

You are a “mom” or “dad” who has:

• saved their childhood pictures drawn
• saved their proud moments of finally nailing the sound on their band instrument, in an audio recording
• been the one who has saved their sweet 16 napkin from her Birthday party
• been the one who still has the key to his or her first car
• been the one who has their best years of Report Cards saved
• saved their journal or diary, to remind him or her what life was like as a young teenager
• saved their favorite childhood toy
• saved their most embarrassing or funny videos
• continued to make their favorite recipes holiday after holiday
• saved their sentimental baby blanket
• saved every day timer planner (each year of their life) of the many scheduled events, you have taken them to. (How do you have all this energy?)

The countless list goes on, as I am sure you are now thinking of the many ways you have been there for your children. Remind them of how much you love them with a decorative Baby Time Capsule to give them at their graduation, or whenever you choose to have them open it. What a day that will be as he or she is able to relive life the year they were born, or the first few years of their lives. Help your child truly understand how you contributed to their world. From the tiny baby feel of size 3, to the adult feet of size 13, there are many memories with tangible objects involved that we all do not want to let go or lose. Capture and preserve them in a lasting gift of the Baby Time Capsule. It is when you have to leave your child at college that your child’s life really flashed before your eyes. Get a time capsule to slow down this time and remember it. That time capsule now is not just a price, it is worth so much more. Priceless, as you freeze that moment in time, in a time capsule. Reminisce over the items in the time capsule, as you feel those emotions of empty nest syndrome come upon you. The time capsule helps you connect, no matter how far apart you are. Pass on the legacy from your family, of what matters most, treasured memories.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

www.timecapsule.com

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21 Creative Ways to Use a Time Capsule to Connect with Teenagers

You know, I remember asking my mom and dad when I was a teenager, “If life is like this now, what is it going to be like when my children are teenagers?” It was a rhetorical question, one of the many that came from my random thoughts as a teenager. I have always been one of those kids who was told, “you are wise beyond your years.” My parents made it a goal to consistently make sure they were bonding with us in positive ways. When I worked as a counselor in my own private practice, I heard many different life stories from young kids and teenagers. It is vital, to find anything and everything you can to communicate to teenagers about their world, even if it is a time capsule.

This blog is a continuation about who can use a time capsule. These priceless and treasured gifts can also be used by teenagers. During a time of great confusion, a teenager is trying to discover his or her identity. The following is a list of 21 ways to use a teenage time capsule to connect with with adolescence on a deeper level.

1. Write a “Message to the Future” letter to yourself about where you see yourself after you graduate or get married.

2. Use the time capsule as an anonymous container in your youth group, for kids to put questions or comments on slips of paper to leave for staff to read once per week, or have teachers from your teenagers high-school, fill out a letter about predictions of where they see him or her in the future.

3. To put your nostalgic memorabilia in, from childhood, to open years later and reminisce about what life was like during that time in your life.

4. To save love letters from your first boyfriend, to review later when you meet “the one.” What a fun day that may be when you read those old letters from your “first” official boyfriend. A time capsule will help you remember this “first” or milestone moment in your life.

5. Adolescence is an adventure in of itself, of which includes many exciting events that need to be preserved in a profile book of yourself that you can include in your time capsule.

6. For a teenager, giving them the privacy they so desperately want, is connecting with them. Let them develop their independence, as they learn skills of how to make it in life on their own, by encouraging them to keep extra money in their time capsule like a savings bank with emergency money.

7. For a teenager, a time capsule is similar to diaries, journals, or saved emails to yourself. Time capsules can be a place to work out difficult life questions, as you write about your feelings and changing relationships.

8. Connect with your teenager by using the time capsule to teach them about what to hold on to and what to let go. Let them put those emotions on pieces of paper or in a letter, put their old favorite shirt or toy in a time capsule, to bury or put away for years, helping them forget about it and let go.

9. Leave your teenager a letter, in the time capsule, about what life was like when you were a teenager. Then have your teenager open the time capsule with the letter in it and other significant items you saved from his or her life so far.

10. In the time capsule, leave a list of positive words that describe your teenager. Make it look nice on special paper, that maybe he or she will want to frame and hang on the wall.

11. Show you listen to your teenager, and put something significant in the time capsule and then give it to them to open as if a present. For example, put a favorite book, movie, or music, etc in the time capsule.

12. When you feel your daughter is of age to wear make-up, put a set of different colors of eye shadow, lipstick, nail polish, etc in a time capsule and have a special party as she enters adulthood. You could even invite her friends over for a make-up party.

13. Write a love letter to your teenager, and say how proud of them you are. Leave it in their time capsule, telling them when they can open it, for their special surprise.

14. Let your teenager use the time capsule as a place to write out the full story of what happened (during a problem in their life or if he or she made a bad life decision). This helps your teenager get the whole story out, before you react or jump to conclusions.

15. Create a favorite, new, recipe together and save it in their time capsule for years so they have it for when they get married.

16. Keep a souvenir from your fun vacation together, in their time capsule.

17. Take great photos of moments with your teenager, or their friends, and preserve them in a time capsule for years. Then, at their graduation, open the time capsule and reminisce about the “good old days.”

18. Keep a gift or memorabilia from a shared hobby or passion, you have spent time doing with your teenager, in the time capsule. None of us really truly understand what a special time in our lives meant, until it is gone or your teenager has left for college far away.

19. Put the keys to their first car, in the time capsule, then let them open the time capsule when they receive their driver’s license.

20. Make a college survival gift basket kit, with the time capsule holding many significant items from their childhood, you feel he or she would want to preserve and take to college.

21. Make a bucket list to keep in your time capsule, to see what all you have accomplished by the time you open the time capsule.

I hope this list of ideas is just a start for you to connect better with your teenager. A time capsule is a gift that keeps on giving and giving. Pass on your life lessons, and preserve your teenager’s milestone moments in a time capsule. Help your adolescent tell his or her own children what life was like when he or she was a teenager, with the use of a decorative time capsule from http://www.timecapsule.com. For other ideas of what to put in a teenage time capsule, check out http://www.education.com/activity/article/Make_High_School_Time_Capsule/

What is one thing you would put in your teenager’s time capsule? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

www.timecapsule.com

The post 21 Creative Ways to Use a Teenage Time Capsule to Build Relationships and Bond appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

A Continuation of Milestone Moment: The Secret to Preserving Memories (How I Met My Wife). Read the previous blogs in the category called: Meeting the Love of your Life.

My time with my nieces is precious!  I never seem to have enough.  When I am with them, the time flies by and it is over too soon.  This time was a little different though.  I was actually spending 9 days with them, so it seemed like it went slower.  On Sunday morning, they were all getting ready for church, and I decided to check my email.  It had been several days and I really wanted to know if FaithfulGodChaser had sent me an email.  To be honest, I really didn’t expect it.  In my mind, I was thinking about all the reasons that I had given her not to email me.  You see, I had told the truth about my life. . . I told her about being divorced and expected that a “good girl” like her would not be interested in even a friendship with someone like me.  I was shocked when I opened my email . . . There it was.

I had butterflies in my stomach as I opened it up.  What would it say?  Would she be kind?  Would she tell me to go away?  I began to read her email.  I didn’t even realize until later that I was biting my bottom lip with anticipation.  After reading a paragraph, I looked to see if this was a short or a long email . . . To my pleasant surprise, it was huge!  It took me about 30 minutes to finish reading the email.  As I was closing it down, my youngest niece, Sydni, (Spelled, S-Y-D-N-I-With a dot!  You do not forget her dot, or she will not be happy with you!) asked me what I was doing.  I told her that I was reading an email from a girl I just met online.  Even at the age of 4, she understood what this meant and she made sure the whole house knew!  Uncle Mark has a girlfriend! Uncle Mark has a girlfriend!

While my relationship with the girl I now knew as Marcie was far from being a “real relationship” the taunts from the children in the house went on all day.  “Mark and Marcie, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”  We all know the song.  We have all sung it at one point in our lives.  I must admit, it is a little different when you are a grown man, hearing these childhood taunts.  It had been 6 or 7 years since I had been in any kind of relationship, and it felt good to know that this was even a possibility.

It took me a couple of days to find the time to email her back.  I stayed up late on the last night that I was there in order to send a response.  I needed to think without all the tormenting from my favorite girls in the world.  I carefully answered her questions and posed a few of my own.  This girl seemed to have a lot of things in common with me.  She was not interested in a romantic relationship, and frankly, neither was I.  This was my first attempt after being divorced.  There was still a lot of hurt there.  While emailing with her was fun, it also brought up a lot of hurt and pain.

I drove home in quiet reflection of the email I had received while there.  I thought about who this person is and what she had said.  I knew in my heart that we would be good friends.  I knew that God had brought her into my life for a reason.  I knew that my life would never be the same just because we had talked.  But I didn’t know how true those thoughts really were . . .

It would be interesting to journal about my anxiety levels (as they were very high at this point in our relationship), and watch them fall as I got to know my future wife better. Now that is a journal that would be helpful to read to my future child, to explain what it is like meeting “the one” you will marry eventually. What a fun journal to save in a time capsule. Let’s face it, it can be scary meeting someone we do not know, let alone someone online. Here is a helpful website to help you write your first (milestone moment) email back to that special someone, like I did. Check out these tips at http://www.match.com/magazine/article/8753/Send-A-Standout-Email/.

Have fun getting to know each other. Remember it is important to be friends first. Start your life story of how you met with a journal like this at https://www.etsy.com/listing/130915450/memories-from-the-day-we-met-5-x-7?ref=market. Save this journal in your Wedding Time Capsule, to open up years later (like at your 25th Anniversary) to read again, and cry or laugh together as you reminisce. Save your emails you write back and forth together, as you get to know each other, then read them years later after you get married. What a milestone moment that day will be for you both, as you reminisce and reflect on what life was like the year you first met or emailed each other.

Where did you first meet your spouse? Comment below. We love to hear your stories too.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

www.timecapsule.com

The post Keep your Personal Journals & Save your Emails – Priceless Moments appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

She was scared to take baths as a three year old. Until, one day her aunt showed her how the doggy takes baths too. When you make things more fun, children are more likely to listen and imitate. My niece and I gave the dog a bath after playing fetch with the hose and the dog. Cinnamon, our dog, is a Chocolate Lab and Australian Shepherd mix. She is full of energy and a great life lesson teacher. After playing in the water, Cinnamon shook, which splattered all her water onto my niece and I. My niece, Skylar, laughed and realized taking a bath could be fun. Then a few hours later, Skylar gladly took her own bath, had fun, and shook herself when she was done. I laughed so much at her. I was happy she had fun, changed her perspective about a daily skill, and she and I had a great bonding moment to last for years to come.

What special milestone moments would you like to relive again?

There are many different benefits of a time capsule. A time capsule has the ability to transport both you and your loved one to a different place and time. It can be an activity to break up your daily worries or activities in life. Most people enjoy hearing stories behind mementos. So why not start making your time capsule today? It will be a legacy keepsake for your future generations to enjoy.

Benefits of a Time Capsule

1. It is a great bonding activity to do with other family members or friends.

2. It is a great way to get others communicating about their thoughts and feelings (can be very therapeutic).

3. It can be a form of meditation, as you are reflecting back on your life or where you want to be in the future. We all need to have goals in life.

4. It can be a way for you to bury your past (so-to-speak), and start a new life of freedom. This would be a time capsule I do not know if I would want to reopen in the future though, unless you completely feel healthy and want to see how far you have grown spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or physically. For example put a picture of how you look now in the time capsule, then lose weight, and see how far you have come years later.

5. Creating a time capsule can be a fun, rewarding hobby, like scrapbooking.

6. Similar to a classic movie or song bringing back great memories, creating a time capsule can do the same. This is especially important for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. It is like reminiscence therapy. What is a classic movie you have not seen for a while? A time capsule improves memory and creates a family heirloom.

7. A time capsule would be a great, unique centerpiece for a Wedding or Baby Shower. Make a game out of it, and have guests bring things to put in it for the future couple or baby to see or read years later. What are your predictions of where the couple or baby will be in life, in the future?

8. A time capsule can make you use all of your senses to create and preserve your nostalgic moments.

9. It can help close the gap of generations. For example, explain how to use technological things like the latest cell phone (if we even have cell phones in the future).

10. It can help military families (especially those who are gone when their child is born), not forget any moments or memories (as you can write each day what is happening in a journal). Memories can fade easily, so help preserve those smaller, and seemingly less significant events that happened during your separation, while one of you is in the military.

11. Your family history is important, so include small notes on each item in the time capsule. Decades from now, your descendants can learn all about what life was like when you were born or alive. A time capsule is the best tangible history book around.

12. For an adopted child or someone in foster care, a time capsule can be like their beginning “life story,” so he or she feels some attachment to their biological family and has a sense of belonging.

13. A time capsule can be like a memorial, to help with grief and bereavement of a past loved one.

14. A time capsule helps preserve your favorite memories, in a safe place.

15. It can be a creative way to share wisdom, from adults or grandparents to children or grandchildren.

16. It helps you prioritize and organized which favorite baby items to keep or give away.

17. It is a tangible scrapbook, for those things that do not fit in a scrapbook.

18. It protects your items better than a scrapbook (if you do not bury it).

19. A time capsule can be a great classroom activity to unify students for a single, positive purpose.

20. A time capsule can help restore marriages, by opening the Wedding Time Capsule, when you have an argument together in the future, to remind you why you got married.

If you want to read more information or research on the benefits of a time capsule or memory box, check out http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1363&context=honors St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital even understands the benefits of creating a time capsule or scrapbook. Check out why at http://www.memorychestmemorials.com/Blogs/Memory-Chest-Memorials/February-2013/Therapeutic-Scrapbooking-A-Technique-to-Promote-Po

I am sure there are many other benefits of creating a time capsule. What benefits can you think of? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

www.timecapsule.com

The post 20 Key Benefits of a Time Capsule appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

We all get so busy with life, school, and work that we forget how quickly the world changes. We also take many things for granted and forget or neglect to not important times in our lives. World events, milestone moments, and memories are defining moments in our lives we need to always make sure we preserve for years into the future.

Many important and historical events define the times we live in. Where were you when 9/11 happened? Ask any baby-boomer where he or she was when John F. Kennedy was shot, and they will know immediately. What about where they were when they heard Michael Jackson died? These tragic and milestone moments in our lives are impressed on our consciousness, yet many times we forget about them too quickly.

Journal for your Homeschool History Lessons

It is important to journal observations about the times you live in. Learn from your history, so we do not repeat it. That is why for all you home school parents, it is important to teach about history. What is a fun way to do that? How do you help your child put themselves in a person’s shoes from the past? Help your child note how he or she sees or experiences events, and how they have touched their lives.

The fun part – Using a Time Capsule

What child does not eventually ask about where they came from? We all are usually interested in our own genealogy or family history. You could make a family scrapbook together, create your family tree, but what is something more tangible to save our history lessons in?

A time capsule helps you keep 3D type objects or memorabilia in it. You can save things, that you cannot necessarily keep in a scrapbook and close the pages. History is filled with tangible objects to collect, write stories about, or recreate updated versions of these objects. Have your children talk and even interview grandparents, aunts and uncles, or other significant people of the past, to find out what life was like when they grew up as a child. Capture these discussions on audio or have the kids learn to journal about what they learn. Then, save these treasured conversations in a time capsule, while teaching about the importance of history, and passing on a legacy. You could even create a timeline of your own family events showing history on a long paper or banner strung throughout your house for fun. Have the kids create other crafts, and act out a scene in history. Record this event on video and save this in a time capsule, for your child to watch years later when he or she opens the time capsule like at their high-school graduation. What an event in history that will be. For an example to get your kids started on a time capsule lesson about medieval times, check out http://www.homeschool-your-boys.com/unitstudies.html

What is your favorite, memorable moment in history? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

www.timecapsule.com

The post How to use a Time Capsule for Homeschool History Lessons appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.