That’s what I’m searching for today…love my job, love being a mom, its rewarding, but chaotic at times for sure. Sometimes wish I could turn on the machine when people call my name:
“Mommy” pause, “Mommy” pause, “Mommy” pause,
“Hello, all Mommies are currently assisting other callers. Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line and your call will be answered by the next available Mommy. Thank you.” (enter muzak)
So a little bit about me today while my kids are holding on the line.
We’re thinking of homeschooling the kids. I’ve been praying about it for quite sometime, feeling called, just chicken I think. So I haven’t made the commitment just yet, but I have entered 137 pages of lesson plans and an A-Z letter recognition plan for my daughter into Homeschool Tracker. I’ve put up a world map, a calendar, a bulletin board, and a numbers chart in the play room. And am working on a weather chart as well. I just gave a bunch of stuff to my mom to laminate, and going to a curriculum fair this weekend…you know, just to test the waters. So I guess for not committing to homeschooling I’ve done quite a bit in that direction…hmmm interesting.
I’ve been thinking about scrapbooking too. Don’t like the feeling that I’m getting behind…then I found this wonderful book by Cathy Z. called “Clean & Simple Scrapbooking the Sequel”. She gives me freedom from all that! Wow, imagine that. So here’s the concepts I walked away with:
1. Photo Album meet Scrapbooker, Scrapbooker meet Photo Album. Now go and make nice. What? You mean I don’t have to scrap all the pictures I take? Wow…imagine the time I’ll have!
2. “When scrapbooking is a means to an end, instead of a process, its just not going to be as fun as it could be. When you decide you are behind from the get-go, you are actually buying yourself a one-way ticket to Stressville, and don’t you have enough stress in your life as it is?”
So dear friends I ask you this, just think about it… No organized activities, no scrapbooking weekends away, no overflowing boxes of photos, and *gasp* no scrapbooking supplies! Just rows and rows of completed albums…Sounds horrifying I know! So next time you think you need to get to this far off place called “caught up” where you imagine a bunch of other people are all having the time of their lives, remember these two words “INSANELY BORING” that’s where they are! So girls, let’s not worry about where we’re at, let’s just scrap.
3. It takes less time to scrap 1 picture as it does several. Why am I making this art form into a puzzle trying to fit a bunch of images on one sheet in the most attractive manner possible, when really I only like 1 or 2 of them? Why not just use the one’s I like and put the rest in a photo album? (See point number 1)
4. Single Page Layouts: Well, with all these thoughts running around in my head, I’ve made another command decision…I will no longer force myself to make double page layouts just so they match when next to each other in my albums. “What? Are you mad Erica? Maybe she’s just sick, that’s it, she’s got a fever”…Yeah PEOPLE, FREEDOM FEVER! I’m kickin’ butt and takin’ names! I’m doing what I want from here on out, with little to no explanation, and no need for “Awe, that’s a cute page” when we all show off our finished pages at crops. I’m not going for cute, so there.
5. I vow to scrap more of myself in my books. If you’re like me you’re rarely in your own albums. It may seem vain at first, but later on when people are looking at my albums, they’re going to wonder, who was this chic, we don’t even know what she looked like? And we definitely don’t know what the heck she was thinking. Anyhoo, I figure it would be nice to have something from my mom about herself, you know her as a wife, her as a mom, as an employee, as a sister, daughter, etc. So here I will try to include myself in my scrapbooking if at all possible. I haven’t exactly figured out logistics here as I’m typically the one holding the camera.
Well now, that was a lot about scrapbooking which is odd since I’ve been thinking more about homeschooling then scrapbooking, but whatever I can ramble on my own blog I think, don’t you?
So back to business…“Beeeeeeep” “Thank you for holding, this is Mommy, how can I help you?”