One Mom's Perspective

By:Margie M.

Being a stay at home mom with 6 children under the age of 12, my life consists almost entirely of repetitive, thankless chores. I do laundry, wipe up spills, do laundry, pick up toys, do laundry, prepare food, do laundry, drive carpools, do more laundry. At some point I fall into bed at night, only to get up to the same messes, meals to fix, and piles of laundry the next day. Scrapbooking is my sanity lifeline. It provides me a creative outlet, and offers me a unique perspective on my life.

I am lucky enough to have a corner of the house where I can leave my supplies out reasonably unmolested. Any chance I get I sneak down and work on a page or two for my books. It feels so wonderful to be able to look at a page that I have completed, feel the satisfaction of having done something creative, and know that it will stay that way for more than 5 minutes!

But more important than the small boosts to my self-esteem is the overall perspective I gain from looking back on my scrapbooks of the past 12 years. I find the picture of my oldest son at 9 months with dirt foaming from his mouth, and I know that my youngest daughter’s current penchant for emptying my potted plants will someday end. I come to a picture of my daughter at age 2 with her head thrown back, wailing at the top of her lungs because I cut her sandwich into squares instead of triangles, and I smile because at 5, she has now learned to politely say, “you know mom, I don’t really HATE sandwiches. I think I’ll just have my tuna on a plate”. I look back at all the outings, trips, vacations, parties and Christmases we’ve celebrated, and I realize we have really done a lot!

Motherhood is a job where progress is often intangible, and praise and acknowledgment almost non-existent. The recording of the struggles and triumphs of my family strengthens my conviction that I am doing the most important job in the world, and doing it with some measure of success. My scrapbooks give me the strength to keep on plugging along, to keep the minor tragedies in perspective and to enjoy my kids while I have them. Now if I could just get the laundry caught up…


Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: "Preserve your memories...they're all that's left you now" - (Simon and Garfunkel), by Jan F.