I’ll admit it, loooong ago I gave up on Scrapbooking.
And for an extensive period of time, the fact that I hadn’t compiled a scrapbook of my kids’ births became a point of guilt and contention in me. Because, when I found out I was expecting our first child, one of the very first things I decided to do was start a scrapbook.
I had unsuccessfully tried to scrapbook once before as a newly-engaged woman.
During this first declared attempt at scrapbooking my own engagement and wedding, I was fortunate to have one of my friends (who obviously knew me all too well!) buy me a great fill-in-the-blank scrapbook specifically for this purpose. And almost before our first wedding anniversary within a timely manner I did manage to complete most all of the fill-in-the-blank memory pages.
It was this first “mini” scrapbooking project that gave me the false hope that I could complete a real, one-of-a-kind, completely from scratch, baby scrapbook highlighting the milestones of my first pregnancy, the birth of my daughter, and then (of course!) the stages and development of her first year of life.
- I saved all the congratulatory note cards from friends, co-workers and family members
- I managed to ship each roll of film out for development (back when film was still used)
- I then painstakingly sorted through mountains of useless photos for the few exceptional ones to feature (again, back when everything had to be developed and there was no delete button)
- And finally, I visited numerous scrapbooking stores to find the perfect paper and embellishments for my masterpiece.
And about 4 weeks before my daughter was due (also know as the nesting period) I started my scrapbook creation.
The Masterpiece
I began it with a gorgeous page titled “Before You Were Born” - that contains a copy of the Memo sent out to the staff of my old advertising firm announcing my resignation.
Next are the “Look at Me Grow” pages - the pages with shots of my pregnant belly swelling and then ultrasound photos highlighting the stages of our first child’s growth within me.
Then (of course!) is an adorable page highlighting the soon-to-be grandparents followed by our certificate of Lamaze completion and my THREE (yes, count them, 1-2-3!) baby showers and my husband’s diaper party. (I know… ridiculous!)
Doesn’t it look pretty?
And finally (because we ALL know what comes next!), it’s that time in the book for photos showing the arrival of our new baby…
Welcome Baby #1!
Except… yes, you may have guessed…
NOTHING.
Because this is where it all stops.
My Excuse: My daughter was born nearly 3 weeks early and I just never found the time (nor had the energy) to complete my masterpiece scrapbook. And years later (during those times in my life where I might have had a few moments here and there to add to the book) the thought of finishing a book highlighting the birth of my first child (when I was already on baby #3) just seemed too overwhelming.
So, alas, my memory masterpiece was never completed and instead it laid covered in dust within a partially open box down in my basement. (Along with hundreds of developed photos still waiting to be sorted through and added!)
Thus, is the confession of a wannabe scrapbooker…
Except this confession has a happy ending, because this wannabe scrapbooker became a real life blogger, and my new career as a blogger has managed to resurrect that dusty old box in my basement! Maybe the scrapbook was never complete… but I am happy to say, my memories are now being sorted through again.
In the same way that some mothers capture life’s moments in a scrapbook, blogging has become that and more for me.
So, in celebration of my past year blogging for the National Association of Mothers’ Centers (and also in celebration of the removal of “shame” that I once had as a wannabe scrapbooker!) I thought I would resurrect some of my favorite posts of the last year.
My Top 6 (because I had a hard time keeping it to 5!)
Favorite Posts from Mothers Central in 2011
(in order from oldest to newest)
- Redefining Friendship as a Mom
- Fasten Your Seat Belts, There May be Some Turbulence… Flying Family-Style
- The Dining Battleground: War Stories of a Hungry Mom
- The Daily Tattle Battle
- A Fan Letter to My Children
- Moments that Define Gratitude
So relax, grab a cozy spot, and enjoy re-reading some of my favorite posts linked to above.
I confess, scrapbooking might not be my thing, but blogging… well, so far so good! Here’s to a new year, full of new posts, recalling new memories, and sharing new stories of a wannabe scrapbooker turned blogger!
My Challenge to You!
I challenge you to leave a comment! What are some of your favorite Mothers Central posts from this past year? Leave the name of your favorite Mothers Central blog post in a comment.*
*Hint: You can search for old posts on the blog by going to the right hand column on this blog and typing key words in the “search box” or scrolling down to the Blog Archives to view posts by month. If you receive this post via email, just click on the post title to take you to the blog site!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Love it, Kate! I went one step further and became a creative memories consultant thinking it would motivate me to get the baby book done. Are they? No but there are several vacations albums done and lots of pages of accomplishments that the kids get incredibly proud about. Still when I introduce myself as a consultant one of the first questions I get is “So are your pictures all organized in beautiful albums?” No it’s a work in progress but the reason I’ve been a consultant for 15 years is the stories. I love hearing other peoples stories and helping them tell them! Blogging and things like facebook have become such a great venue for stories as well. All these things are the diaries of our time. So much of what we know about history is because someone kept a diary or wrote a letter and soon it will be because someone kept a blog. Ofcourse now I keep thinking this is something I should be doing….Oh well I’ll keep at the scrapbooking for now
( though I have gone digital for that)
Too funny that becoming a consultant was instigated for you by hoping for motivation to get your baby book done! In theory it sounds like a great idea… reality though… not so much?
Time. Time can get in the way… can’t it? I treasure that I have memories on my blogs now… but secretly, I still long to complete the scrapbook… One day maybe???
Great post - that’s why God invented Shutterfly, right?
Another thing on my “scrapbook” to-do list > Photo album… Hmmm… one of these days… Shutterfly is calling my name!
I love to scrapbook and was an avid one for years. I even became a Creative Memories consultant to support my “habit” and went on several of the weekend crops with my friends and siblings. It’s a lot of fun and since I love taking pictures, scrapping was the next logical step!
When I discovered we were pregnant, I had big plans to scrap my entire pregnancy and then the life of our child. Lord knows, I have a GAZILLION pictures! Unfortunately, lack of time become a big issue and I’m ashamed to admit I have half finished albums. More shamefully, I have a half finished baby book as well
Several years ago, a friend and fellow co-worker started sending me “monthly updates” of her family. Detailing all the fun activities and accomplishments of her family along with a link to pictures she’d taken for the month. I adopted that tradition as well and hope to someday get those pictures into albums and use the “monthly updates” as a reminder of what we did.
I keep telling myself that I’m documenting it all, just not quite the way I had hoped. I do also hope to take make the weekend crops a Mother/Daughter thing when Tessa’s old enough
What a great idea to do monthly digital photo updates to friends and family who are interested?! That seems SO much less time consuming Tatum. I guess Facebook can kind of be like that too?
My only problem with digital photos is that I internally have a rough time not having a “hard copy” of memories… The nice thing about blogging, is that I am signed up to receive all my post via email, so even if the site crashes, I will always have an exact carbon copy memory of each post. I keep thinking it would be fun to print them out and bind them someday???
I love the one about tattle battles! I was just thinking about that issue the other day. And how annoying it is.
And my basement’s full of scrapbook stuff too. Sigh.
Does the tattling ever stop Missy?
Glad you enjoyed that one! I LOVED the title of that post and was actually inspired to write it from a Facebook conversation that I was involved in with another friend/mom of three!
P.S. At least you also have your blog as a digital scrapbook? Right?
I admire people who can scrapbook, but undone/unfinished scrapbooks make me feel guilty. So I’ve decided to do ONE baby book for each kid and that’s it! Isn’t taking photos and recording videos enough for the kid???? I mean, I’m documenting his life, right?
Certainly you are documenting his life with just that one book, photos and videos Abby!
Sometimes I wish I would have made it more of a priority to finish at least each child’s first book. About 8 years after my husband and I got married I took the raw footage of our wedding (that a friend of the family did) and edited a complete video memory of our wedding. I am so glad I took the time to do it because we LOVE watching it now… maybe scrapbooking just isn’t my thing and I should try putting family videos together (in my free time?! - yea right!)