Friday, September 27, 2013

Scrapping!!

Wow it sure does feel good to be here. Visiting with friends and looking at the memories. I am working on my son's book (dob 6-15-06) better late than never I always say (about everything lol). It's been an emotional week for me with life's worries and this is bringing me back to center. Writing about my pregnancy and my son having hiccups in my belly makes me smile and think of a new life and all its wonders. On the flip side as we age it's a different love that centers us. A calm we've known for years of voices known to us and the memories that are known and not forgotten. Both stages of life make me smile and both stages make me cry, but love is present. Enjoy the laughter and the tears, the good times and the bad, life IS a journey, let's all take one heck of a ride!!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

What our children teach us......

A situation happen yesterday that got me thinking how much we learn from our children. A mom of my daughter's friend called me asking questions about something that came up. Something happened at recess that left her daughter sad thinking she was being left out.  My daughter commented something to her that she needed to go since what they were going to talk about would hurt her feelings.  Well my first thought was, WHAT!!  Thinking my daughter was being "one of those girls" and then I thought, that just doesn't sound right.  As we talked it came up who was all in the group and I remembered one of the girls was having a birthday and I bet they were planning it and talking about it.  Since this friend didn't run with the group of friends for as long, she wasn't on this invite list to the overnight birthday party.  My daughter although being thoughtful, wasn't thinking about how this would be taken, because now this friend assumed they were talking "ABOUT" her :(  Well I'm glad we got down to it and when I asked her in the morning if she recalled saying that to anyone she started talking about how she didn't want her friend to be upset not going to the party.  I told her a better way to handle it the next time and how she needs to trust this friend can handle knowing others have a life that may not include her sometimes.  I have tried to let my daughter know she won't always be invited to everything and it's OK.  She has friends from her first daycare and they are still friends, and I think always will be. They all met in the infant room and have been BFFs since. They all go to different schools now, but pick up right where they left off.  She said she would talk to the friend and let her know she didn't want to hurt her feelings because she "IS" a good friend.

As I talked with her about this and how she "should" have handled it, it makes me as the mom start to think.....do I walk the same as I talk?  Do I feel OK when I'm not invited?  I think it is human nature to feel left out of the crowd at times.  I have many friends, yes some are closer to me than others but my heart holds a special place with each of them.  I may spend more time with some, but others we pick up where we leave off.  Some are friends I have made through my children, others through work, and some I have found along my way.  I think I can honestly say sometimes I have done what my daughter did and left some out of my life for some reason.  I think my church family was overlooked for years since I was worried people might think I would preach to them and make them come to church.  I am sure also I don't talk to my church friends about some of my "other" friends, lol......I won't name any names ladies :)  I think this is life and I know I would like to do as I say to my daughter as well.  It always comes round circle, as we teach our children it confirms your beliefs and makes you stronger in this life.  It makes me think of my parents and I do hope they feel they too have learned from their children since they are the strongest people I know.

Here are a couple things that came to mind thinking on this topic of friends, ENJOY!!

This is the song from one of my daughter's daycare songs she performed with her friends in PreK:

Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, the other is gold.
A circle is round, it has no end.
That's how long, I will be your friend.

I do hope as the years go, she remembers this little song.  

I had a similar one that I bought from Home Interiors many many moons ago for my BFF, it said:

Whether by
strange coincidence
or divine guidance
in the course of our life
we cross paths with
many people.

Some move towards us,
others move away.
Some we choose to remember,
others to forget.

But with a special few
we seem to have no choice,
for each has made an impact
on the other, and their
memory will live on forever.

These people we call friends.
You, to me, are such a one.
– Dick Innes
Wow this one hits home every time I see it, since I now have it hanging in my house and the memory of my friend Becky will live on forever in my heart <3   1974-2003  

These friendships they make today can last a lifetime, it did for me......

Monday, September 23, 2013

Where's Mom?

Today's post won't be 100% my thoughts since I know I read somewhere about this, but can't be sure where, magazine or blog....so I am giving credit somewhere!!

We went to the apple orchard this weekend and as always I got some wonderful pictures of the kids picking away. Then I thought... for the past couple years I have not been in any apple picking pictures :( this lead me to think about the article I once read about Mom always being behind the camera or, "don't take my pic, my hair/makeup isn't done" or my thoughts lately "wonder how fat that pic will make me look!", etc. I read this and thought WOW did that hit home! It went on to talk about how this person didn't have many pics of her mom and due to illness won't have a chance to. 
I now try to make an effort to take pics of myself here and there, even if only goofy pics,in my lazy clothes or when dressed up for a special occasion. Kids don't care if you are perfectly put together and nor should you. I read your children will probably remember you best in your worst pics (because that is life)!! Imagine this..ponytail and sweats with a baggy sweatshirt or oversized tee, now that is the real me.  I should have the kids take a picture of me doing dishes and cleaning toilets, since that is also REAL life documenting :) I'm a pretty simple gal, but why is it that I am still not in many photos? So with that said I am trying to make more of an effort to do so. 

This weekend I used the wonderful little flip around camera on the phone and staged this photo. I don't care if it isn't "action" but it is me smiling and I hope the kids remember me doing that often, smiling at them as they do for me  in so many pictures :) Nope it's not perfect, but nor am I.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Scrap or not to scrap, that is the question..

Well I wanted to get something done and here is the progress. I started with the 6 drawer unit and emptied 3 of them. I have been working with the scraprack system so I am sorting by color, the strips are in the triple play pages, and anything 3x4 or 4x6 will be used in the project life album. The little green container is full of stuff that will be passed on to bless someone else. The other stuff was found in my scraps but will be put in my scraprack also.  Well I do hope I can get to doing a little more, but I am very happy in my heart with the progress I made :) night night!!
~Crystal

A weekend to look forward to

I have been trying to get my scrapbooking stuff organized for quite some time and I am hoping to get some of it done this weekend.  It seems to be the story of my life, a day late and a dollar short, but right now it's more about time.  I feel that I am always out of time each day and I run around doing what needs to be done and at the end of the day I'm just tired!!  I am not sure if it is the cold that I caught or just too much going on.  I think it could be both and probably is.  I wish we had the summer months back for a redo which would allow me to get caught up more before the homework each night and the demands of dinner, baths and bedtimes.  I will post on Monday how all that went and if I am brave maybe I'll post a status picture ....we'll see :)  Signing off for now, have a safe fun filled weekend and make sure you count each blessing along the way.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Yay me!

Happy 1st blog day to me!! This has been something I have been wanting to do and I finally decided to get it started. Actually I couldn't think of a blog name that fit what I wanted, but since I was looking at blank paper trying to decide, it kind of hit me like a bug to the windshield. DUH!! I can now check the box on this bucket list line item :) Hope you will join me as I progress in the bloggers life.