The first of many...

This summer has been a whirlwind. Several trips, a hospital stay, and learning to live with Elijah's diabetes have made for a very draining and uncreative season in my life. My scrapping has been limited, sometimes forced, and not what I wanted it to be at all.

Last week we went to Missouri to visit my folks and then spend a few days at Silver Dollar City in Branson. It was the first trip to Branson we have taken without planning to camp. It was our first vacation experience in a motel instead of a camper or tent. We have to have two rooms, you see, and we thought the cost would be prohibitive, plus we didn't like the idea of having a room without an adult.

But Naomi is 17 now, and very responsible.That, added to the fact that we sold our camper this summer and have no plans to buy another one, made us a little more comfortable with the idea of trying the whole motel thing. It worked great. Four people to a room, two TVs, free WiFi, adjoining rooms, all combined for a restful trip. A bonus was that since I no longer had the means to cook we got to eat out every night (woohoo!)

We had two days at Silver Dollar City with cool temps which made wandering around and going on rides much nicer than the 100 degree temperatures earlier this summer. Plus, since most kids were in school, there were virtually no lines for any of the rides. The show lines were still longish, but I know when to get there to get good seats and don't mind the waiting in line for a good musical.

This time the Harvest Festival was in full swing so we got to see lots of craftspeople making their wares. Theodore found someone making the moccasins he has been looking for and scooped up a pair. We watched coopers, and woodworkers, glass blowers, weavers and basketmakers. Fall Decor was everywhere and I got lots of photos of everyone. Now if only I can get the time and inspiration to scrap them we will be in business.

Which brings us to the title of this post. Yesterday Phrona had a two hour dentist appointment in Jackson, so I took my laptop and had some uninterrupted scrap time. With a few tweaks once we got home I managed to actually finish a layout. Hopefully it will be the first of many.

Today I ...

Today I am tackling a mountain of laundry. When you take eight people on vacation and are gone for eight days the end result is a TON of dirty laundry. And some great memories, but you can't really get to enjoying the memories until you get that pile of clothes churning and tossing in the washer and dryer. And THEN you have to fold it all. I can handle all of that. Until I hit the load with 56 pairs of white socks in seven different sizes that have to be sorted, matched and put away. (At this time I would like to sincerely thank my daughter, Naomi, for refusing to wear anything but flip flops year round, thus saving me from having to deal with yet another eight pairs of white socks. Thank you, darling. And, yes, you may bring this blog post up when I start ranting and raving about you wearing flip flops to town in the dead of winter.)

Today I had a little boy just wiggling with joy because he was getting to do school.

                 We did A's and B's,
                  big and small,
                  coloring pages, dot-to-dots.
                  We did it all.

Then he turned the page
and what did he see?
A big smiling cat,
with a new letter,
'C.'

                 Can I do this one, too?
                 I'm afraid not, dear.
                 We've done A and B
                 And done them quite well.

Let's rest on our laurels
It's time for a break.
We can do C's tomorrow
And maybe a D.

               Why not play your nintendo,
               or watch some TV?
               Sure thing, he said,
               That's okay by me.

So not only am I a bad mother (because I really did encourage the boy to go play video games or watch brain deadening TV) but I have also just revealed that I am no Dr Suess.
sigh.

But  we did A's and B's, I got another load of laundry done, and he is excited to see what tomorrow's school work will bring. I'm good with that.

Today I uploaded my August photos to my Flickr account for safe keeping.
ALL of my August 2011 photos.
In one day,
actually in just over half a day.

That is a little sad. Why? Because I only took 246 photographs in the whole month. And half of those I took in ONE day. Usually I have a good thousand to two thousand pictures each month that I have to upload to Flickr. Maybe I was depressed. Maybe I was tired of all the sparkling blue pool pix. Whatever.

Did the realization that I took so few pictures to document the precious moments of our life last month spur me on to pick up my camera and snap away at the everyday things of life today?
Nope.

Maybe tomorrow.
Today I have to do laundry.
I already have pictures of that from other months, even pix of mounds of those horrid white socks.
Not that I am that sure I want to remember it anyway.

In My Time

In My Time is the title of the new book by former Vice President Dick Cheney. I haven't read the book. I probably won't read the book since it is not a favorite genre of mine, nor is it one of the books my children have to read for school this year. I do try to read most of the books required by their curricula. This year, between my five students all in different grades, I have a good two hundred books to read, give or take a few. So Dick Cheney's new book won't make it into my cart or onto my nightstand (not that I have a nightstand, but that's beside the point.)

But,
I love the title of his book.

In My Time.

It makes me think of all the gadgets that have come or gone in my time.

I remember phongraph records, 45s and long-playing 33s. Now my children see a 45 and they ask what kind of computer used a CD like that. Or how about 8 track tapes? In my house 8 tracks were usually country music, whereas albums were classic country (the old stuff) or rock n roll (again, the old stuff.)
Then tapes were deposed by cassettes, and cassettes by CDs.

I remember typewriters. And writing things out long-hand, in cursive no less. Cursive apparently is on its way out in most school districts. Soon no one will be able to read the letters of the past. And no letters are written in the present anymore, its all just email, or instant messaging.

I remember when a nook was a cozy place where you could read a book, not the actual contents of the book in a digitally downloaded form.

I remember delivering newspapers every morning as a kid. Now if the local paper comes in newsprint form to your house it is brought by the mailman. But lots of people just opt for the online version instead, to eliminate the paper clutter that has to be dealt with eventually.

So much has changed, just in my relatively short lifetime. I wonder what things my children will reminisce about when it comes time for them to acknowledge that they, too, can begin a monologue with the words "In my time..."