Dear Mom, I admire your effort and believe that your dear children are being given a beautiful gift in the scrapbooks that you lovingly build for them. When we do nice things for people we actually do so for our own enjoyment and really for no other reason. If you are beginning to feel under appreciated in your efforts and the time involved seems too stressful, it may mean that the time has come for a different gift which you prepare for the children. I kept babybooks with diligence up until each of them were about 2 or 3 yrs. old. I believe that each mom has different priorities and desires when it comes to storing or keeping keepsakes. I have a binder with clear plastic page covers for each girl. I merely slip worthy or special papers, stories they've written and such in the plastic sleeves as the year progresses. Report cards and flat papers go in the binders as well. I suppose this is like a scrapbook, but there is absolutely no attention to the details of making a scrapbook. These binders are a record of the year's work. At the end of the year I put their planner in the binder and store the binders in the schoolroom.Each child has what we refer to as a 'special box'. The binders may end up in the special box. In that box are keepsakes that the children have wanted to keep through the years. Our 4th child, 27 yrs old, recently married. I will be packing up his special box in a couple of days and mailing it off to him. :) It is always amazing to me what the children have saved in their special box. My son's contains bird feathers, religious items, math homework, woodworking projects, yearbooks, silly pictures and much more. I think he and his new bride will have great fun going through the special box. The babybooks that I have put together stay with me. They are all stored in a box in the hall closet. I always go through the school room at the end of the year and throw out anything that I do not feel is worth keeping. I look at it critically and with scrutiny. My motto is 'less is more'. Less stuff is more room for people, projects, and priorities. I know that every woman has different priorities. I have a friend who can not part with any fabric or patterns. That would be fine except she is constantly buying more fabric. In fact she had a special closet built in her home to store the yards and yards of fabric. And sewing patterns are another weakness of hers. It is like going to a museum of sewing patterns and notions to look through the boxes and boxes of patterns she has squirreled away. :)
I can not part with yarn. I have skien after skien of all colors. Once in a great while I will take a notion and clear up the yarny mess. But as long as I can keep my yarn in a box in the closet where it doesn't bother anyone, I think that is just fine. For me the bottom line is this...'if your keepsakes can not be found and enjoyed with ease then they are not bringing you any comfort whatsoever.' We should find sanctuary in our homes not feel like slaves to our homes. I would so love to sit and page through the scrapbooks you have made. I have seen some of these creations in my travels to homeschooling events. They are truly works of art. Thank you for sharing your letter and story with me. I enjoyed thinking about you so lovingly working on such a worthy project for your dear children. They are truly blest to have you as a mom. Let us offer up our prayers this afternoon for those families who experienced the loss of property due to natural disasters. Let us help them through our prayers to begin anew to build traditions, keepsakes and memories despite the great losses they have suffered. Amen. Sending out a prayer,
Rita Munn |
