So I have a confession to make. I haven’t done any scrapbooks for the past six years. I feel a lot of mom-guilt about this because I used to give my own mother so much grief for completing my older sister’s baby book with captions and dates and details and two and a half years later when she had me, my baby book only had one week of my life documented -the rest you can find a jumbled mess in a drawer in her house. I vowed to document the moments, take gobs of pictures and tuck them away neatly in annual scapbooks so my children could watch themselves evolve year to year. I’ve failed miserably! I put together a book of Carter’s first week of life. That’s it! I actually caught up on my scrapbooks while I was on bedrest for the 13 weeks leading up to his arrival. But haven’t done a single scrapbook since then!!
This blog is serving as one tool to help document and capture the funny things that they do. I like to think of it as the story behind the pictures. The color commentary, if you will. I’ve also kept calendars for each child with significant growth milestones in it. And I’ve kept all of their artwork to date (they each have their own binders with their artwork in slipcovers. See ROYGBIV blog if you’re surprised at this!)
But the other day, I couldn’t help but realize that I actually carry around a scrapbook of sorts. My purse! I use this purse for ‘grown up occasions’ – date nights, dress up events, any time I’m going out and I won’t need a diaper bag with me, I carry this purse. Last week, I went along with Jim to a business conference for an overnight get away and as I was shuffling through my purse looking for lipstick, I came across every ticket stub to shows I’ve seen in the past six years including IRT, Wicked, Mama Mia, Symphony concert as well as a few funeral programs and wedding programs, and my 20th high school reunion program from this summer! There were a few matchbooks and a mint wrapper or two from restaurants where we’ve gone on dates. Digging for lipstick is like an archeological dig through my social life! I didn’t have the heart to clean it out. I just look forward to continuing to add points of interest to what could seem to the untrained eye to appear like an ordinary black bag.
