In Search of Myself

I love you . . . so delurk.

So a week ago I got a comment from Shannon D, on my "Why we paint" entry.  I e-mailed her back and thanked her for commenting, and she said "Ok, confession time: I have been reading your blog since iparenting days and I followed you here through Kelly. After all this time, I am starting to come out of lurkdom." Dude, that means she has been reading for like 2 or 3 years and never told me!  That's amazing to me.  I mean, I'm totally glad she de-lurked -- but I really thought that anyone who had been reading for that long had already let me know.  And of course, that has me wondering if I have any OTHER lurkers?!  (I know that all us bloggers go through this from time to time.)  I don't check my SiteMeter stats hardly at all (no time for that!), so I don't know who is here and who isn't.  Monica, do you still drop by from time to time?  Older sisters: Sara and Sheri?  Haven't heard from you all in a while.  Bonnie?  How the heck are you doing?  Lovely Melissa - what's up, girl?

What really got me excited about talking with Shannon, is that I have gotten her interested in digital scrapbooking!  (woo hoo!)  Nothing like spreading the love of a hobby that will quickly turn to obsession!  I decided that since Shannon was sweet enough to de-lurk and it's been so fun talking with her, she gets a $10 gift certificate to Shabby Princess' Shabby Shoppe (which has a grand re-opening today!).  I'm not saying I'm going to give EVERYONE who de-lurks a gift certificate, but I AM saying that you never know what I'm going to do!

To all my wonderful friends from the past several years: Happy Valentine's Day.  I'm sorry I don't come by more often.  You know I love you all.

Pages from today

I made this page for a good on-line friend who just adopted this beautiful baby girl!!!

And these are some I've made of Jake, trying to catch up a little on his chronological album.  (Click on each to view bigger -- and be sure to read the journaling on the 2nd one!  Jake is SO SMART!  hee hee.)

 

Best. Dog. Ever.

Now bear in mind, I'm still pretty neutral about Sadie -- like, I'm glad Jake likes her and I don't MIND her being around, but I have yet to go ga-ga over her like a dog-lover would.  She IS a good dog, I just don't treat her like a person like everyone else does.  LOL.  But I did still decide to make this page for Jake for his special scrapbook with just his favorite stuff in it.

Jake and daddy.

All elements by Janel Kretschman at www.thedigishoppe.com

Mom, 1950s

(this was a paper page, not digi.  The big pictures are copies, but the colored smaller picture is the original proof of the sitting -- when my grandma died, I got some of the old pictures.  We have other copies of this picture, so I felt ok about using the original.)

I had the photos laid out on this page quickly, but it literally took me months to finish the rest of the page.  I just couldn't figure out what to do, and the pictures are so special to me, I wanted the page to look great.  I finally came across the stamp images and that was the perfect finishing touch.

Monday

On Monday I stayed home from work because I've been a bit sick for over a week now, but I couldn't take a day off last week.  My boss is having to burn up her vacation days or lose them -- and she has been here 20 years and earns them super fast (about 3x as fast as me.)  So she is taking off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday -- the ENTIRE MONTH OF FEB!  Two day work weeks for 4 weeks?  Damn, sign me up.  So that leaves me pretty much running things and I HAVE to be here.  Anyway, after last week I NEEDED a day off.  So they said I could take Monday off.

So what does a working mom do on a day all to herself?
~ Slept in ALL THE WAY UNTIL 8 a.m.!
~ Took Jake to mom's at 10 (we lazed around and hung out for two hours before we left)
~ came home and finished up the 4 loads of laundry I'd been working on, on Sunday
~ folded the laundry and put it all away (takes FOREVER.)
~ realized a drawer of my dresser was literally falling apart.  Took it out, re-assembled it, glued it together and left out to dry.
~ emptied ALL THE TRASH in the whole house and took it out.
~ stripped the beds and remade them (this includes switching pillow cases on about 12 pillows!), then started another load of laundry
~ cleaned my bathroom -- REALLY cleaned it well
~ worked on Jake's closet a little (a never-ending struggle with a growing child)
~ attempted to clean the kitchen floor.  realized it was hopeless and gave up after a while.
~ did a bit of Mod-Podging (hey, gotta be a LITTLE selfish.  wanna see what I made?  Click here.)
~ actually took a shower.  (gasp.)
~ put away all Jake's living room toys, neatly where they go
~ organized some piano teaching materials
~ emptied the water heater overflow bucket from the garage (that thing is insane.)
~ went to the bank
~ finished up Christmas thank-yous and mailed them (better late than never)
~ stopped at Walgreens for random stuff
~ put gas in the car
~ went to the grocery store for my mother

After my lovely day of lazing around doing nothing (ha), I picked up Jake, we drove to M'boro for Alexis' piano lesson, then we went to Panera and met Priscilla and the girls for a late dinner.  THEN we went back to my mom's and I walked on her treadmill (oh yeah -- my mom got a treadmill!  yay!) and then it was 8:30 p.m.  Then I came home, talked with my friends at the Shabby Princess Monday Night Chat (all the while answering e-mails and I think I made a scrapbook page in the midst of all that), then went to bed at 11.

And people wonder why I'm always tired.

Why We Paint

The 6 words THIS mother doesn't want to hear

.  .  .

.  .  .

"I do it all by myself!!!"

Why don't I want to hear them?  Because while I don't mind taking the extra time to let Jake indeed do something on his own, and I do encourage independence whenever possible (in fact, I think if a child is able to do something on their own -- like putting away clothes, making their bed, putting away toys, etc -- they absolutely should.  I think we coddle children too much but doing everything FOR them), sometimes when Jake gets on the "I do it all by myself" kick, that means we're in for a power struggle that isn't quite appropriate.  He doesn't get that there's still a line between things he can and can't do.  And sometimes I try to let him, only to have it blow up in our faces.

Like what?  Well last night after piano lessons, we met Priscilla and the girls for a late dinner at Panera.  (Mmmmmm . . . Panera.)  Jake wanted to get his drink by himself.  I had to help him reach things, which made him totally mad.  (He's 41 inches tall, which for almost three and a half is tall, but still not tall enough to reach grown-up stuff . . . and I think he's somehow mad at ME for this.)  Then he wanted to CARRY the drink by himself.  Fine, whatever.  Carry the stupid drink yourself.  But then he dropped it.  And it spilled EVERYWHERE.  And trying to help him, I almost dropped my soup.  (SO not cool.)  (But I didn't yell, and I didn't nearly have an asthma attack trying to stay calm -- I actually didn't get mad at all, and I nicely asked someone who worked there to help me clean it up, and I stood there with the mess so no one would slip on it -- so I know God's still workin' on me.  LOL.)

At home, Jake has insisted on washing his hands himself, then gets mad when the water's too hot and he drops the soap.  He tried to get a bottle of Sprite from the fridge himself and dropped the whole bottle (and it nearly exploded with the pressure of the bubbles and fizz.)  He tried to get his own jamas and about knocked his entire dresser over.  When he brings me the phone, he insists on turning it on himself.  He wants to be the one to push the play button on the remote (he's actually getting good at that.)  If I hand him something he wanted to get himself, he'll put it back where I got it from, wait half a second, then pick it back up so he did it without help.  He kept sneaking to plug in the Christmas tree himself in December, despite me telling him again and again he wasn't allowed to play with outlets.

But on the plus side, it's nice to have someone I can send on errands -- he's good at fetching a Kleenex, throwing things in the trash, and turning on the living room fan (with a light switch) when I don't feel like getting up. ;o)  He's even rescued me from a no toilet paper situation before.  LOL.  So I guess SOME independence is a good thing.

Photogenic? the truth.

So that page I just posted, I really like.  Like, it just might be my favorite ever.  (Or my favorite of the moment.)  But I wanted to make a layout that also tells the whole story about what happens when I get out the camera.  'Cause it's not all smiles and sunshine!  It's more like complete eye contact avoidance, chasing him around the house, and finally resorting to bribery!

I've always been a letter-paper-sized scrapper (8.5x11), but since switching to digi, I've been making 8x8 pages a lot -- simply because the format is so much easier.  So I've decided that the 8x8 pages are for an album just for me -- a  book of pages with my favorite pictures of him.  Then I'll keep doing the letter size for Jake's albums.  (You know, all that info just in case you care.  LOL.)

(click on each image to view larger and read the text.  All elements on this layout and the layout below are from Jen Wilson, who is a freaking genius.)

Be yourself.