Scrapbooking Legacy

I am going to my sister Valerie's place for a scrapbooking weekend. There will be a lot of talking and laughing, staying up late and maybe actually getting some scrapbooking done along the way.  For those not familiar with the term,

scrap·book  (skrpbk) n. A book with blank pages used for the mounting and preserving of pictures, clippings, or other mementos.

In other words, scrapbooking is the art of filling a scrapbook. 

When we lived in Louisville KY, I was introduced to scrapbooking by way of Creative Memories. The pastor's daughter, Candi, would hold Scrapbooking Events, or Crops, at the church and I was invited. All it took was one evening and I was hooked. This was an outlet that I needed for that creative side of me that had been shoved into a corner. I looked forward to these evenings out with other women, doing something that felt permanent, unlike the dishes and laundry. I felt, and still do, that it was a way for me to tell a story for my family using all the photos we loved to take. A legacy captured in an album. 

(And believe me when I say, I have a lot of photos to scrapbook.) 

One memory from those evenings at the church was when the pastor's wife Myrna turned over a page she had just completed and realized she had put it all on upside-down when compared to the rest of the pages. She let out a loud shout of exclamation, then lots of laughter. I remember thinking that I liked her response. She didn't take herself so seriously that when she had messed up (and remember, everything was stuck to the page in a rather permanent way!), she didn't let it define the rest of her evening. She moved on and continued with the story she was weaving together for her family. 

I want to be like that; able to laugh at myself and be able to move on even when I don't have a perfect day. I tend to get stuck in the moment, like a pig in mud. I need to shake off the mud and move forward. 

Scrapbooking has continued to be a enjoyable, albeit time-consuming, hobby for me. I enjoy it when I can get time to do it here, but that doesn't happen very often. I usually have 10 other things on my to-do list first. The best way for me to get more pages added to the story is to make time for it. Schedule it in. And that is why I am headed to Valerie's house. It is a pain to organize what I'll need, what I think I'll want to work on, the supplies, the photos, etc. Then I agonize over "what if I forget something?" So, once again, I have put off getting it together before the last minute. 

Maybe I could scrapbook about it. 

Or blog about it! Which is kinda like a scrapbook of words on the computer. A legacy of who I am, what I think, what I feel. 

I think that is why I do what I do in trying to write something everyday (well, almost everyday). I am, in a small way, making a mark, leaving some history, telling a story. 

I am going to go get organized now. After all, I haven't really unpacked everything from the last time I went away for a scrapbooking weekend, si it shouldn't be all that hard. 

Happy Weekend! Make a memory, take a picture and scrapbook it!

Dianne