About four years ago, after seven years of faithful scrapbooking, I quit. Packed it all up and quit. I even felt a little bit sheepish, honestly, about that row of scrapbooks on my shelf.
But last night one of the boys wanted to know what time of day he was born. He got down his book, which precipitated all the kids getting down their personal books, family books, all the books. They wanted to know if reading scrapbooks counted for homework reading and spent the next hour immersed in the details of their own younger selves.
I don't remember writing those things. I don't remember those things–at all. I don't remember the spilled milk, the smashed fingers, the stray dogs.
Cheesy embellishments aside, I am so grateful I made those books. So grateful I took the time when I had it. So grateful that I don't really even have room for guilt over the past few years which have gone undone. I got the important years of new babies, new changes, new homes, teeth, schools and time. All that time I was blessed to spend at home with my children before they started school
Thank you. To everyone who made, in any way, that possible. To M, for working fifteen, sixteen, eighteen hour days to pay the bills. To his sister for getting me started with my very first album and keeping me supplied all those years. To M for shelling out for film and developing and a new camera when the old one worked perfectly fine. To God for giving me the years, the people and the patience.
Thank you.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:20 am
My children are 24, 22 and 19 and they love looking at the albums where I documented their lives into high school. Maybe eventually their children will enjoy looking also.
March 26th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Thank you for sharing this because it is somthing that I seriously need to start doing. I am the nanny to 4 children who are being raised by their grandparents. No one is going to have the time to make a memory book for them. I am the one who will have to do it. Thank you for this gentle reminder. beautiful!
March 26th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I wish I could get back into it–my books stop when my youngest was four and my oldest I think got up to maybe nine or ten? Anyway, This blog is about the only history I'm still keeping. For better or worse, I'm not sure I could handle anything more complex than mere mental dumping ground at this stage of my life!