Easter Meltdown (and I ain't talking chocolate)

It's hilarious to me how parents (okay, I'm speaking of myself here) have these grand expectations for how children should respond to holidays. I expect my kids to sit happily on Santa's lap, to beam as they search for colored eggs at Easter time, etc. I'm almost always disappointed by my unrealistic expectations, not to mention the photos I get (or don't get, whatever the case may be). So this Easter, I prepared myself, and was actually amused by Grant's reaction to the Easter Egg Hunt at Nan's (Steve's mom) house.

We went outside and the kids found their baskets lined up in a row first. Grant got an Elmo movie in his basket (ironically, titled "What Makes You Happy?") and that was the end of it. He didn't want to search for eggs, even though his eggs were little Elmo-bunnies...so cute! He proceeded to throw himself down on the grass and cry hysterically. All he wanted to do was watch his new movie...which apparently, was too much to ask.




He did eventually end up inside, and once he heard the theme song to Elmo's World, immediately quit crying and was happy as could be.  

I continued the egg hunt in his place, and willingly ate the chocolates hidden inside each one. After all, in 85 degree heat, they were just going to melt if left outside much longer.  It was the least I could do.

My new obsession...and the perfect solution!

I've been a scrapbooker for several years. When Olivia was born, I wanted a fun, creative way to document her life, and scrapbooking seemed to be the perfect solution. It was great...for a while. Then Jack came along, and I wanted to document his life as well. Suddenly, keeping on top of it all started to feel a bit overwhelming. Sure, some of the events of their lives could be individually recorded with relative ease (birthdays, sports, school pictures, etc.). But what about the events that were shared, like holidays, vacations, etc? I would have to create duplicate pages - one for each child's album. Then Grant came along, and I freaked out completely. How could I possibly keep up with 3 albums, and have a complete album for each child when they leave home? It was hard enough to find time to do one page/event/etc, let alone three pages! It seemed virtually impossible...until recently!

About a year ago, a friend mentioned that she was starting to "digitally" scrapbook. At first, I was skeptical - it didn't seem like it could have the same creative impact. Then a few weeks ago, I was asked to team teach a class on digital scrapbooking to the Young Women at church. Perfect opportunity to learn! A couple of other women in the stake were teaching with me, and they showed me their albums, and I was hooked!

Two weeks ago, I went to a scrapbook bed & breakfast (I know, I'm a complete nerd for even wanting to go to something like that!) with a friend up in Washington. I took my "paper" stuff, and completed about 25 pages...not too shabby. I also dragged along my mom's laptop (a whole other story in and of itself...suffice it to say my mom rocks!) and completed another 14 pages digitally. And since I've been home, it's all I want to do! Steve is beginning to resent the computer a bit, as I am spending too much of our evening "alone time" working on scrapbook pages!

I've discovered that there are just as many adorable "digital" elements/paper/etc. as there are "paper" ones, and many are free online. I can easily crop or enlarge pictures to any size, add frames, cute journaling, stitching...the possibilities are endless. I can use and re-use elements as many times as I want, even changing their colors to suit my needs. It truly is amazing. And then, I can upload the finished pages to Costco, and in about an hour, pick up a completed 12x12 page, ready to slip into one of four albums (family, and 1 for each child).

It's turned out to be the perfect "happy medium" for me - it is still a creative outlet for me, and I can create the page just once, and print three copies of it...or more if I want to make gift albums, etc. I'm OBSESSED!!!!!

Here are a few pages I recently completed

What kind of life am I living?

I came across this lecture, given by Dr. Randy Pausch on the Oprah Winfrey show back in October.  It's about 10 minutes long, but well worth watching.  Makes me want to do better...hope you feel the same.