On scrapbooking...

It is nice to be scrapbooking again. I have tons and tons of photos stacking up in my Picasa, and I am just not getting any closer to finishing many pages. Tomorrow night our Bible Study group is cropping together. Most of the ladies are new to this hobby, so I have been debating whether to bring along some of my magazines. But honestly, I think that sometimes the MMM, CK and and BHG mags really scare new scrappers. It is sort of intimidating to see the beautiful pages made by the creative teams. I remember my first day of art class in college. My professor was a wonderful artist and teacher (his daughter is the Jane from the JANE magazine). And the first day, he showed us a slideshow of some of the greatest art works of all time. And then he asked us to sketch a still life. Um, okay. That was HARD since we were totally overwhelmed by our lack of talent relative to those great masters. I found out later that my professor was killed in a hit and run doing what he loved -- biking on the backroads. But today, I still think fondly of how he really challenged me to think about art differently. I am a decent sketcher, a terrible painter, and just generally an okay visual artist. But he really taught me to look at life as art. It is not about a pretty picture, but something that is meaningful to you. I remember reading All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham when I was in high school. And one story struck me. He said when you ask a room full of children, "Who can sing? Who can dance? Who can draw?" They all say "Me! Me! Me!" But ask a group of adults, and a few may tentatively raise their hands. He says this points to how we lose our sense of wonder and faith as adults. We learn to judge ourselves harshly. I say that we should be the same way with our scrapbooks. Our scrapbooks are not meant for others to judge. They are meant for our families to love. Everyone can scrapbook! I was scrapbooking with my mother for the first time a few weeks ago. I sat with her for the day and showed her how to make a mini album with our 6x6 binder. My mother is a talented painter, but she never took the time to scrapbook. In fact, she was not sure how to use an adhesive runner. :) But it was wonderful to spend the day with her. We chatted and I helped her make a cute book of her grandbabies for my father. She used just paper, stickers, and adhesive, but it was perfect. You do not need a lot of "doodads" (that is what David joking calls embellishments) to make a treasured memory book. Jonathan has been sort of grumpy due to teething and the related fever it has been causing, so we do not have a ton of photos from this week. But since I know my mother in law reads my blog religiously to catch glimpses of her precious grandbaby, here he is! At 19.5 lbs, he is a whopper. A killer on our backs as we lift him up and down. He has his bangs trimmed this week so he can see. Like it?