Clean Slate

I've decided I need a do-over. Ever feel that way? Like it's just time to wipe the board and start fresh? The past 6 months have been teaching me that very lesson. Sometimes, we just struggle to give ourselves permission to forgive and forget ... especially when we need to forgive ourselves.

We are all imperfect, flawed, in need of praise, reassurance, love ... When we slip into sadness, self-pity, remorse, sometimes we need to forgive our "stinking thinking" and just move on. So today, I forgive myself.

• I forgive myself for turning to others when I was supposed to turn to God.
• I forgive myself for, in those times when God gave me the go-ahead to turn to others, turning to people who would only hurt the situation rather than turning to those who would help. What I did is tantamount to gossip and is wholly unproductive.
• I forgive myself for the days when I allowed myself to sink into the recliner with the remote in hand instead of handling issues that needed handling.
• I forgive myself for the moments when I allowed myself to be overwhelmed by circumstance.
• I forgive myself for the days when I ignored reason and ate piles of Little Debbie snacks, potato chips, and the like, knowing they weren't really what I was craving.
• I forgive myself for being too hard on myself and others.

In addition to forgiveness, of course, I also allow that I will be changing my ways.  In fact, I already am.  I started my day today with a quick prayer before my feet even hit the floor.  Then I started picking up.  I have done some laundry, sorted through some paperwork, and answered some correspondence.  I had string cheese for breakfast instead of buttered toast with strawberry preserves.  I chose tea instead of soda.

Will I mess up?  Of course I will.  We all do.  However, I know that I can always step back up on course.  How about you?  What could you do with a clean slate?  Why not find out?

Week 4 of GOBI

In answer to a question about who would be painting their scrapbook spaces ...

In my case, I don't yet have walls to paint. I have two walls framed in, and I've installed outlets along those and a light switch (though I've not yet connected them to the breaker box).

My plan (with the best of intentions, but little funding or time):

• Go to Home Depot on my lunch break to price out materials to make my own IKEA Expedit shelf unit and my own corner table (inspired by the one at ScrapNcube's web site).
• Start saving money for materials for a shelf unit and corner table or for ordering them online (depending on pricing run).
• Work this Saturday on finishing my rearrangement of the basement, including sorting all stored items according to a theme/category.
• Sunday: start pulling things out of my scrap room.
• Give the ceiling and walls a good sweeping in case the spiders have been in there.
• Make sure all the new outlets have electrical tape around the connections.
• Install my new lighting fixture that's been sitting in its box for over a year now waiting to be put up to replace the ugly bare bulb.
• Get the rolls of insulation from the garage and put them up in the exterior framed wall.
• Get what's left of the drywall we bought to redo the entryway and put it up on the exterior wall.
• Determine how much more lumber and drywall I need to finish the room.
• Finish the walls, including the closet wall that will separate my room from our older daughter's bedroom.
• Paint the wall opposite the door and the two side walls red.
• Paint inside the closet and the wall with the door white. (Playing with the idea of throwing in some red polka dots in the closet and maybe on the door wall. We'll see. Depends how it works with the rest of my vision.)
• Put everything into my room based on usage, love of the item, inspiration, and anything else we learn in this class.

I know it's a lot, but I intend to have a room that makes me want to come into my chilly basement instead of one that helps me avoid it. Once the basement's been rearranged, I still have to go through each and every box down there and start sorting and purging. If I have something to draw me down there, it will help encourage me to do that.

UPDATE (29January2009): There will be no closet. So The door wall will be white and the other 3 red. Also, I'm still working on finishing the basement, though I have pulled enough out of my scraproom to allow me to work on assignments. Oh, and no polka dots. I also will be building my own shelves, as it is a mere fraction of what it would cost to purchase them and have them shipped (only to still have to construct them).

Get Organized Be Inspired

I'm taking a new (to me) class at Big Picture Scrapbooking called Get Organized Be Inspired. I've decided that I will share on here some of my own feelings and progress to give me one more avenue for accountability ... and to make it easier for me to go back to see what I was thinking and feeling (hard for me to find stuff on the message boards sometimes). So, I'm actually posting this on 29January, but I've backdated it to the beginning of the class to explain all the (also backdated) posts I put up this morning. I promise to be better going forward.

My Joys

I've signed up for the online class "Cut the Crazy Out of Christmas" over at Big Picture Scrapbooking, and one of our pre-class assignments was to do a layout showing something that brings us joy. Here's mine:


I used "Christmas Magic" by Daniela Austen and Danielle Engebretson.

Homecoming 2008

This past weekend was a very busy one. I took Friday off to run errands with my husband. Friday evening, I went with Aaron to the bar where his band was playing that night and took a line dancing class while he did some last-minute tweaking on the sound board. That night, the girls marched in the marching band at halftime at the homecoming game.

On Saturday, I drove the girls to the high school EARLY in the morning to practice for a marching competition later that morning. Then Cassidy caught a ride with a friend to go from the marching competition to a volleyball tournament. (Nancy stayed behind to march in a parade.) I drove to the volleyball tournament to watch the last game and to pick Cassidy up. Then, with my window stuck all the way down and the heat blasting to keep us from freezing, we drove home. Aaron ran to the school to get Nancy, and the girls took showers and did their chores before getting ready for the homecoming dance. Once they were ready, I took pictures out in the front yard before dropping them at the school and then going with Aaron to his gig. Whew!



Used: Love Always (kit from the May Doodle Challenge) by Danielle Engebretson

Cassidy at Age 2 Years & 2 Weeks

This is one of my favorite pictures of my daughter from her early childhood. There's a second that was taken the same day that ranks second. I'll have to eventually put a page together with it, too, but for now, I've just done this one in response to a template challenge.

I really love the simplicity of the page, and I love I was able to showcase this picture in this way.

Austin's Haircut

Every year, Austin has requested to have his head shaved for summer, because he gets so hot. Last year was the only exception. This summer, after 2 years of wearing his hair long and being mistaken for a third daughter on family outings, he's decided to go back to his old ways.



I used Erica Hite's "Up At The Villa" kit to put this together.

My Drive Home

I decided I couldn't be happy with myself unless I figured out a way to use the template in its original orientation. So, I decided to do a new page with the photos I took on my way home from work one night (12July2007) after it had rained. All the colors are taken directly from the photos with the eyedropper tool.

2007-2008 School Pictures

I decided it was about time I did something with the kids' school pictures from this year, you know, since they were taken back in October. This template challenge was perfect ... three photo spots ... three kids. I just had to turn the template a quarter-turn to make it work.

Ping Pong Princess

Cassidy went with me to my most recent scrapbooking retreat. This one was in Tustin at Center Lake Bible Camp. One of the gals in one of the Yahoo! groups I'm in does a fabulous job putting this thing together TWICE every year (love you, Annie!).

As it turns out, there's a game room downstairs from where we were cropping. Cassidy and my friend Theresa's daughter Meagan found it and pried Theresa and I away from scrapbooking to go downstairs for some friendly mother-daughter competition. We watched the girls play air hockey, then played pool, and then played no-holds-barred EXTREME ping-pong.

When we were wrapping it up, Cassidy was bouncing the ball on her paddles, and it landed in the crook of the ping-pong table. Photo finish.



I submitted this layout in the Template Challenge on retrodiva's site.
Used: "Bohemian Love Affair Bonus" & "Another Boho Love Affair"

Congratulatory Flowers

I recently (first day was today) was promoted off of the floor at the call center to the position of Quality Monitoring Specialist. A few days ago, when I came in to work, there was a box on my desk. I thought my husband had done something sweet to surprise me. It turns out it was my new supervisor.



The flowers are beautiful, and I took all the colors for the paper, ribbon, and journaling right from them with the eyedropper tool.

My Hotness

Well, that's what it says on my cell phone when he calls anyway. I decided to go without journaling on this page. The pictures are all from separate events, and the page is more a celebration of the quiet, crazy, awesome man I love than a story of any kind.

Missing Nancy

In case you can't read it, I'm just going to post the journaling from the page. I think it speaks for itself ...



It's been one week since we dropped Nancy off at military school. Saying goodbye to her was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do.

We've received a few letters from her so far, but what we're really looking forward to is the chance to see her again next Sunday at her Pre-Challenge Completion Ceremony.

Pretty Flowers

Aaron surprised me with a beautiful bouquet on Valentine's Day last year, and I allowed them to dry, hoping to be able to use them somehow. Then I remembered the clear, plastic paint cans I'd bought at Arnie's when I went to the scrapbook retreat in Houghton Lake.

I really like how the page turned out. I love this paper.

Down with Metal!

Austin was so happy to have his braces removed. Of course, he still has to get another set once his mouth is ready, but he's loving the freedom for now.

My Drive Home

I just happened to have the camera in the car as I was driving home from work, and couldn't help but notice all the beautiful colors and lighting after a rainstorm. I had to capture some of what I saw. I even pulled off the freeway to get pictures of the rainbow.

What's the Matter with Misfits?

As the page explains, these are the ornaments for which we could neither find nor remember creation or receipt dates.



Used: "Christmas Magic" by Daniela Austen and Danielle Engebretson

2006 Cassidy's Fifteenth Christmas

Cassidy and I learned how to make these paper pinecones at a Christmas crop. (Thanks, Annie!) We ended up making them as Christmas presents for just about everyone we could think of. I'm seriously considering making them up to use on the tree once the kids have moved out and taken their ornaments with them. They look gorgeous on the tree.



Used: "Christmas Magic" by Daniela Austen and Danielle Engebretson

2005 Cassidy's Fourteenth Christmas

Cassidy became a teenager this year ... scary stuff.



Used: "Christmas Magic" by Daniela Austen and Danielle Engebretson

2004 Cassidy's Thirteenth Christmas

Used: "Christmas Magic" by Daniela Austen and Danielle Engebretson
Can I just say that I love these trees?