More journal pages

Here are a couple more pages for the baby journal:

LOVE your SMiLE

Another layout for the week!



So far I've been able to scrap here and there. During naps I'm always asking myself, "What should I do for this nap time?" And then I try to prioritize things, like cleaning a bathroom, making dinner, etc. But sometimes I just want to sit and relax, so I find myself scrapping.

It's amazing how many philosophies there are out there are on all aspects of raising children. From sleep to potty training, from bottle feeding vs. breastfeeding to when to start feeding solids. For every subject you can find countless information and different ways of what works. I'm one of those people that doesn't like to be surprised. I'm not always good at flying by the seat of my pants. I'm not spontaneous. I read books while I was pregnant about baby stuff. It was a good and bad thing. It's good to be informed, but babies don't come with a manual. Jeralyn didn't read the books I read. So guess what I've been doing?--learning to be flexible--learning to 'fly by the seat of my pants'. It's not always easy for me. But I am learning. I'm adjusting. We find our groove, we lose the groove, we find another groove, we lose that groove, and then we make more adjustments. I can see that smile on some of your faces. Yeah...

I'm really enjoying Jeralyn's smiles! The interaction is just so sweet!

J

Have you ever had one of those days where you are really confused about what day it is? I felt like that all day today since Quent had today off of work due to Columbus Day. Anyway...last week I created this page. I'm finding time here and there to be creative, so I'm thankful for that. I'm having so much fun scrapbooking Jeralyn! And of course creating those memories!



I have Bubble Talk for 50% off at MScraps for Tuesday!

Goodnight!

Baby Weekly Journal

Hello! How are you this fine Saturday? It's raining here...gasp...I know, big surprise for Southeast Alaska in October. *wink* But that's ok! I kind of like knowing it's that time of year to get cozy indoors. Plus it's a good excuse to scrapbook. *smile*

So onto the subject of baby books and documentation...

I bought a bright pink 12x12 We R Memory Keepers ring binder scrapbook album for Jeralyn months ago. So far it's filled with stuff like our hospital bracelets, some cards she received with gifts, and other such things. For a few weeks I've been thinking about how I want to document her first year. I decided to do a weekly documentation. From her first week I've kept a journal through my Hotmail account. Babies grow so much and change so much in the first year. I wanted to do more than just document monthly. Maybe when Baby Smith #2 comes along (in at least a couple of years--don't worry--I'm not thinking about that yet. Whew!) I will only have time to document monthly, but weekly is what will work best for our first. (On a side note, have you ever read The Birth Order book by Kevin Leman? There's some interesting stuff in there! He teases middle children about not having many photos in the family photo album. I think it's quite true!)

In the beginning of this week I started to play around with some ideas of what I would want the weekly pages to look like. Knowing myself, it has to be something I won't get bored with too quickly since it's going to be a year of journaling/documenting. I know that I need to leave room for creativity. One of my favorite scrapbookers is Kayleigh Wiles. I am drawn to her collage style and I never seem to grow tired of it, so that's what I'm aiming for.



So each week I'm planning on having the photo frame collages. And then I like to draw the color out of the photos using a bit of color from paper and elements. Some weeks I will use more circles, some weeks more squares. It will just depend. Like I said, I want to leave plenty of room for creativity and flexibility for myself. I'm picking my favorite pictures from the week. Some weeks there will be more pictures than others. Maybe for some weeks it will just be one picture. It will just depend.

I'm not really into the traditional baby books. I think they are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but right now, for me, I wanted something more, something different. I really hope Jeralyn will appreciate this some day. I know I would. I struggled with what I should do for her baby book because I didn't know how I should go about it. I really like what I have come up with--I just hope I stick to it. I think the format I am using will keep me motivated though, so that will be good!

For our regular scrapbook album, I will scrap the pictures that mean the most to me, just like I normally would. I struggled with that too. I wondered if I should print 2 pages, one for her book, and one for ours. But again, I think what I have come up with will take care of that.

I will update this project more in the future.

Have a blessed weekend!

Don't Waste It

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. --Steve Jobs

I was watching The View yesterday morning when they played a clip of Steve Jobs giving a speech, and this is what he said in the clip. When he said, "don't waste it living someone else's life" I started to get choked up. It's exactly what my heart has been feeling in these last few years. For so long I felt like it wasn't safe to be me, and so I wasted some time trying to cover up the real me. But now I feel free! Free to be me! I still am challenged by some things. I still feel nervous at times. I'm still a pretty private person and won't share everything, but that's just who I am. But I'm glad I know that I can be the best person that I am--that God has created me to be!