Digging Deep

So I found myself in a familiar place yesterday, realizing that it's been an entire YEAR since I've touched my scrapbooking stuff.  Insert "sad face" here.  I'm going to chalk these last few years of scrapbook failure on having babies back to back and no time to do hobbies.  I can't believe there was a day when I was always caught up and current on my memory keeping.  How was that possible??  It's been a quick spiral into the abyss of falling behind.  Way, way behind. The only thing that makes me feel a little bit better about it, is that I've now joined the ranks of many Moms who also feel my pain. 

But, my annual scrapbook retreat is fast approaching and I've already spent the last week talking myself off the ledge of just giving up on all of it entirely.  It's just impossible for it not to be overwhelming but yesterday I decided to embrace the overwhelming and start somewhere.  Anywhere.

So I got all of my bins and took everything out.  I purged quite a few things and organized it all generally which was an immediate relief.  I still need to do a thorough sort, but at least I know where things are now and have seen once again, how much stuff I already have.

These two were happy to revel in my empty bin joy, too.

The sweetest part of my day however, was pulling out the baby book that I've been working on (for 2 years) for Ava's first year.  It's not finished but I have a lot done and it covers so much of her baby days.  I've never showed it to Ava, but after Carter went down for a nap, I pulled it out and asked her if she wanted to see a suprise I had for her.  Well let me tell you, she ate that book up like it was a new toy!  We looked long and hard on every page and she took it all in.  I explained most of what was happening on each page and she took great joy in recognizing lots of familiar faces who were holding "baby Ava."  I have a picture of her when she was about 2 minutes old, on the scale, all covered in "stuff" from the delivery and everytime we came to that page she looked intently on that picture and then said, "Ava's all dirty.  You need to clean me up, Mama."  It was hilarious :) She also recognized some of her stuffed animals that don't hold much interest for her now, but when she was tiny, they appear in quite a few pictures.  So she ran around her room and found them all and she slept with them last night.

When it was time for bed last night, she told Travis she wanted to see "her book" and it was precious to see her walk through it with him.  As I watched them I realized that I needed to keep this up for them, faithfully recording our memories.  It's so time consuming, it can be expensive and it's one of those projects that is never ending...BUT, it's also so worth the time and effort and I just hope that someday they will appreicate knowing what we were thinking when they were little, as they see how they spent some of their days.  I'm changing some things up as I move forward, I'd like to convert from a traditional book to a digital one in the future, but I don't think I'm totally ready to give up the handmade aspect either.  I like the artistry of that. 

So, while dealing with the everyday stuff of life, I'm also buried over here in the scrapbooks while I still have a week to prep and plan.  It always takes me awhile to get back in the groove but I'm hoping to make some serious progress in the next week! 

It's this kind of thinking that looms long in my head...

Who knows, maybe Ava will turn 1 and Carter will actually be born this year??

I can dream people, I can dream.