My Favorite Things

These are a few of my favorite things:

1. My boys
2. Scrapbooking
3. Chocolate
4. Alone time

And my favorite of all of these favorites?? When I can combine all four into one!

After a particularly difficult day, when Drew won't stop saying "NO" and Reed won't stop crying, there's nothing quite as peaceful as retreating to my own little corner of the house, alone, to scrapbook. I love paper crafts. I love working with my hands, picking out fun color palettes, playing with stickers and other embellishments, and most of all, "remembering when" as I look through photos of my growing-much-too-fast boys. (Ahh, and don't forget about my candy jar, perched perfectly beside my pencil cup!) These moments are few and far between, as the demands of mothering have, well, doubled since Reed was born. But things are quieting down around here. Finally. Reed is maintaining a manageable schedule, and Drew is learning that sometimes playing without Mom is more fun than playing with her. I am getting more sleep, regaining some energy, and my creativity and motivation are in full swing. So finally, FINALLY, I was able to take a personal retreat two days ago to start, and actually finish, a page for Drew's scrapbook. I am almost a year behind in his book, and I have yet to start Reed's. For me, three quarters of my scrapbooking time is used to come up with the ideas and stories I want to tell in their books, as well as rummaging through all my goodies to come up with the perfect combination of color, paper, and bling. I admit, many of "my" ideas are "scraplifted" from one of my favorite magazines (Creating Keepsakes) so I can't claim them as my own creative genius. But I figure my brother couldn't have gotten all the artistic genes, right?!?! Something has to have rubbed off on me!!

I love this. I love putting pages together that share our stories, that showcase our family, and help us preserve some of our favorite moments. My hope is that, someday, my boys will appreciate it. (If not, I plan on being buried with these books!)

Here is the project I worked on a couple days ago. It's from Halloween last year.