Life is Fun

It is so often the "little things" that I remember..... the smile on my son's face when he just can't help but show his feelings, the touch of my husband's hand on mine, the way my daughter wears different colors of nail polish on each finger.

I think it is for this reason that I love scrapbooking. A single page can be my opportunity to document those little things and why they mean so much to me. Each page is a 12 by 12 freeze frame of my thoughts, my feelings, and my life.

Take for example, my latest page.....

I realize that my daughter won't be so carefree forever. As she continues to age, the weight of schoolwork, adulthood, and life's little problems will begin to weigh on her, just as they do on me. Yet she will always have this page documenting a time in her life when she could focus on just enjoying life and maybe being a little bit silly. Hopefully that will encourage her to continue to live her life with just a little bit of laughter and fun. Maybe I need to remember that too!

Scrapping With an Empty Nest

Last night I reached a realization.

One of the reasons that I am not scrapping much anymore is that I am not taking pictures much anymore. With my oldest child away at college and my other child a busy teen, I have lost two of my major subjects. Kari is busy with track and field or cross country, both of which are very difficult events to photograph well. The few pictures that I do get are the same images over and over. I get a few photos that Keenan's college pals post on Facebook, but they are usually the typical staged group shots.

With no photos of them, what do I scrap? I know that there are some people out there who scrap about themselves. I tried that for a while. I don't have many photos of myself and I can only do so many pages about my hopes and dreams.

I love my scrapbooking hobby. It has always been a personal release- allowing me to throw my creative energy into telling a story with photos, papers, embellishments, and journaling. It also allowed me a stress release. Alone in my scraproom with all of my "toys" I could create without fear of someone coming by to evaluate the outcome.

I don't really know what my future is, as far as scrapbooking. I don't see grandchildren in my future for quite a few years, but I don't think I can give it up either. I would love to hear from some of you scrapbookers out there who are like me- working women who have or soon will have an empty nest. What do you scrapbook? Where can I go for motivation?