Being Close Without Being a Parent

By:Elizabeth B.

I love scrapbooking because it's my time to be alone and REALLY appreciate my children. I have four children ... and many times it's them against me. My alone time with my photographs reminds me why we have all these beautiful children, besides the ultimate gift in which we originally received them! I like to sit in a comfortable chair surrounded by all my supplies and a stack of photographs.

The majority of the time these photos are about two years old, as I'm always just about a year behind, unless I'm working on a special project. Right now it's my daughter's baby album and our 2002 family album. I'm in a race against myself to get them all done to be caught up and up-to-date. And then I slow down as I pick up a photo and a flood of memories come over me and I chuckle, pick up another photo and gaze at it, letting those memories flood over me, and then picking up the next ... you get the idea. I find I am able to bond with my children and family when I sit and look at these photos and disappear into the near past.

I remember the giggle that went with the funny look, or the tears that appeared right after the shot ... amazing how little things drift back after a glance at a an old photo. I even made simple ABC albums for my older children and they LOVE to look at them and say how they remember when. Do you really? Sometimes the shots of when they were infants, and yet they claim to remember. I think that's the most important thing about the entire process ... remembering. Whether you're a child looking at your baby photos, or a mom looking at the very same photos, you each have your own memories. What a treasure we have, and what a legacy we leave behind!

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Scrapbooking is my therapy, by Sadie Lankord