POTD

So let's talk about scrapbooking.  I'm a fan, but since I've started blogging I haven't made time for the other kind of memory keeping.  The thing I love about blogging is that I get to tell the story behind the picture. 

With scrapbooking, I always enjoyed designing the layouts.  It was fun to find the right colors and designs to match the picture.  It was a way to make the picture(s) look nice, but it was also a way to focus for a few moments on that specific memory.  On the other hand, with blogging, I get to throw up the picture and spend time thinking about what kinds of things I want to write about that picture.  Both tactics are ways of spending time making sense of the memory I'm preserving, but I'm finding writing suits me better.

It's the "throw up the picture" part that I need work on.  In case you don't know, there are other blogs out there.  And the pictures these bloggers post are gorgeous.  They make changing a diaper look like something you'd actually want to do.  One of these blogs is Becky's Blog.  I bought her book, Creative Lettering years ago at Micheals when I was scrapbooking, and still use it every now and then. I loved looking at her scrapbook layouts in Creating Keepsakes when I worked in a scrapbooking store one summer (that job didn't last long once I found out thatI am not nice to customers).

This week on her blog, she challenged her readers to put their camera down, take a picture, and see what happens.  Looking at the picture, you are to take notice of the details and perhaps the memory surrounding that picture.  I think it's called the "Picture of the Day" challenge (or POTD).  I thought this would be a great writing activity so I tried it.  Here's what I came up with.

First thing I notice?  Crumbs!  Yuck.  Why didn't I clean up my table after the girls and I had lunch?  And why is that sippy cup out?  Should've put that away too.  And while I'm at it, Hadley shouldn't be drinking out of a sippy cup anymore anyway.  Bad mother.  Oh, but I love my pantry wall.  The one with the word "summer" on it?  Can you see it back there?  I've been collecting little things this summer and putting them on the door.  I have wristbands from the splash park that the girls and I go to.  A picture of Monticello.  A little art project Hadley worked on.  I'll put all those things in a scrapbook I collect things like this in, and then start a new "pantry door dec" for the fall.

I never, ever watch news shows.  They freak me out.  But on Wednesday I had it on because there was a guy holding people hostage in the Discovery Building, and Jesse was working next door.  He called and told me what was going on.  I asked him if he was OK and he says, "Yea, I think so."  Not the right answer, Jesse.  Not. The. Right. Answer. Just stop at "Yea."  Never add, "I think so." I am thinking all kinds of horrible scenarios, texting him every 5 minutes to make sure his building hasn't been taken over, and of course, watching MSNBC because it's reporting every second of it. 

Here's my favorite.  Harper woke up from her nap and wanted to read books to Bear, Diego, and Uniqua (you know Uniqua, right?  From the Backyardigans?).  So she lined them all up and read them stories.  Bear looks like he's enjoying it, and apparently Diego has a little crush on Bear.  Maybe Diego's just making sure Bear is doing OK. He is an animal rescuer afterall.

I liked this exercise because it required no planning.  I just clicked away and then looked at what I came up with.  Completely opposite of the way I tend to approach life.  I kind of like it.