3 posts tagged “scrapbook”

Today, I am tired with no specific reason why, for I went to bed early, sleeping until the last possible minute before Thomas headed to work. I know I have perfect reasons to be tired—growing a baby, caring for a toddler, CEO of a household, and teaching 2 days a week, but it is not really one of those specifically impacting me today. I am, for the lack of better words,  "blah." And, to be honest, the blah has made me treat my son differently.  I, like most folks, have a shorter fuse when in a bad mood, and the things we might normally do to pep me or him up are not viable options on bad weather days (going to the park, playing in his new sandbox, blowing bubbles outside, etc.).  We, therefore, hobbled through the morning until naptime. With Daniel napping, I really wanted to sit on the couch and watch some brainless TV, but a huge storm front is currently coming through, and the only thing on my non-cable television is the local weatherman’s storm warnings, Doppler radar images, and pictures of hail and funnel clouds.

Alternatively, I decided to check my GoogleReader. After reading a few blog posts, I came across one from a family we use to attend church with before moving. In fact, Steven and his wife, Michelle, taught our SS class, and they had a second daughter just a few weeks before Daniel was born. They were truly a wonderful couple. Sadly, my use of past tense is correct, for Michelle passed away very suddenly just over a year ago. I watched Steven live out my worst nightmare. As he attempted to juggle sudden single parenthood, a job as a professor, and extreme grief, he somehow stayed in one piece. His post I read today told of how he made a digital photo book of ‘08, in attempts to keep with the tradition his wife set of constructing elaborate, heirloom worthy, scrapbooks. Briefly, he mentioned what was in the book. Next, he took a moment to say what wasn’t: “So what’s not there? Well, there are no pictures of the days in January I spent laying on the floor, crying uncontrollably. There are no pictures of the nights I lost my temper and threw cups down the hall. Nothing to show how dead to the world I was some days, and nothing to indicate how lonely some days were (and still are sometimes).”

If that does not touch your heart, you might want to go and get yours checked. Reading this entry after being in my blah, tired mood made me think of how humans, mommies especially, tend to leave out details of a crummy day, and we fill our photo albums, blogs, conversations, and status updates with the things that make us and our family look good: smiling faces, awards won, promotions earned, milestones reached, but rarely do we admit, as Steven did, to the bad moments, the times when we do not have it all together.Everything is always "good."

So, in a sort of confession mode (1 John 1:9), here are some things that occurred this morning, which are out of my norm and definitely not scrapbook worthy:

• I did not show the interest Daniel deserved when he kept trying to show me things.
• I gave him time-out for not listening when I should have given him more time to respond to/understand my request.
• I put in a Veggie movie and sat next to him reading a magazine because that was easier than having to interact and take my “turn momma” after he growled, hopped, or clapped.
• I served a less than well-balanced lunch of milk, peas, and mandarin oranges in an effort to not have to fix anything else.
• I did not read him a book before nap, even though he asked me to do so.
• I yelled at him “Go to sleep!” from downstairs when he cried for me to turn on his light during naptime.

There you go.

And although I know none of you ever thought it, I am not perfect. I get angry and frustrated. I totally miss the mark, and my excuses for doing so are much less respectable than Steven’s. It is, however, on days like today, that I am thankful for the forgiving nature of a toddler. He will wake up and remember nothing of the unfair time-out and the unnecessary yell. Instead, Daniel will wake up and love me so much, thinking I am the best mommy ever. Isn’t that a relief! And, for the people that do remember ill-treatment, I am forever grateful to be covered in Christ’s forgiveness.

My plan is not to blog only Debbie Downer posts, but I do think there is something to be said for showing humanness, and I am certain that others of you have less than scrapbook worthy moments, which just might need to be shared.

So, after a long time of not conforming, I took the plunge---I got a MySpace page. Let me tell you though, it is not very easy to figure out what is going on there. Too many ads and shiny, flashing things. I am still not sure what I've done or not done. And if I realize it is wrong, I sure as heck don't know how to fix it. A friend told me that you can get backgrounds for the site, so that helped to make it look a bit better. VOX is a complete breeze compared to MySpace......at least to me.

The only reason why I got one was because too many friends have a page and they are all set to private, and you can only see it if you have a page and you are friends with the person. Being that one of my goals for this year is to stay in better contact with folks, this served as a good way to do it. With VOX, I let others see what is going on with me, but I want to know what is going on with them, hence the recent creation of a page. I do not, however, think I will blog or use any of the features, mainly because they (at this point at least) are annoying to me. I will just be reading what friends and family have to say, along with the occasional comment.

Another goal for the new year: Scrapbook more. i got on a big roll with this activity and then- stalemate. I want to preserve things in a pretty fashion rather than just hoping to one day do something with all these pictures Thomas and I take. I often think of a scrapbook page in my head, but it just never comes to fruition. I am vowing to get more done. I have a friend from high school that is simply amazing at scrapbooking. Jen- you will have to give me hints! With the pending move, I will be close to some good friends that have this hobby. Hopefully Tina, Dawn, and I will get more crafty in 08.

Both of these things above are family/friend oriented. I have a personal goal as well. I want to get back into working out consistently. I always manage to stay in decent shape, but I want to get back to taking long runs and hopefully getting into some more sports. Thomas and I have played church league volleyball here, and we need to get playing again when we move. Also, I would like to run some more road races. I do not want to be competitive about it all again, I just want to be more consistent, as I said before. Usually for me it is about the competitiveness; I want to avoid that though and just feel even better than I already do.

So, there you have it: Summer's Resolutions. I typically do not make any, so this is a change. Now that I have made them public, you can call me out on it. And, if you have MySpace, you can hunt me down and make sure I stay in contact with you :o).

My....or should I say our....profile states: "Member since Aug 9, 2006."

Wow, has it really been a year? I toyed with the idea of blogging for quite a while before I actually took the plunge. Nation played a big role in me officially joining the blogging world and he gets all the credit for my blog being with VOX.

The whole reason I started this little gig was not to become famous in the blog world, believe it or not. I actually wanted to have a place to post pics of the baby when he entered the world. I also assumed it would work wonderfully for keeping friends and family updated. My assumptions have proved to be correct.

My first post was about weddings. My last post (before this one of course) was about weddings. This proves that there is not too much variety in my postings. Daniel this, weddings that.......... but it is enjoyable right? I do think of and experience things that are post-worthy, honestly I do; however, I have an infant who is full fledge crawling now and there is always something to be done, so my blogging is more sparse than I intend. Ahhhh....."ca sa ra sa ra."

Thomas's Grandpa asked me if I was keeping a baby book for Daniel. I told him "Yes," but that is not completely true. However, in my defense, I did not want to explain a digital accumulation of pictures, videos, and words to a 95 year old man. Although I have not scraped a scrapbook yet (and I will some day....promise). This blog serves as a good reminder of life, and being that I have videos and pictures to mark some momentous occasions as well as mundane ones, I feel like this will do for now. Plus, if I keep it up religiously, when Daniel runs for President, there will be lots of info floating around in cyberspace for people to hunt down.

Anyway, Happy VOXiversary to the V Family. :o)