School's Out

Looks like my weather pixie is, er, under the weather. That's a shame; she's one of my favorite things on my blog!

Well, school is officially out. Or at least it will be in about 25 minutes for the #1 and 81 minutes for the #2. :) Who doesn't love the last day of school? We have gorgeous weather, a half day, summertime plans... and it's been a wonderful first year of school for our kids here. I used Wanda's cookie recipe in chocolate and made these up for the kids' teachers (Chris has 7!) today.

Darn, I must've made too many cookies. Look at all the leftovers! ;)

Just what I needed, truly - chocolate - and lots of it. :) Mmmm... it's gonna be a great day!

I'm kind of excited about my scrapbooking. Fellow scrappers, listen up! After surfing the web for awhile yesterday and seeing different layouts and ideas, I was inspired by one site to issue a personal challenge for the summer: APAD. My goal this summer is to complete, using predominantly the supplies I have on hand, A Page A Day, through the whole summer, except on days I will be traveling.

Anyone interested in joining the challenge? I e-mailed my scrap buddy Kathy and she's in. The thing is, I know there are days that will be busy and I'll probably scrap zero. But I'm hoping that there will be days when I'll be motivated and I'll scrap 4 or 6. My goal is to average APAD for every day I'm not traveling, starting Monday and ending the Friday before the kids return to school. A quick glance at the calendar looks like that should yield 60 pages!!! That's a LOT! I probably haven't scrapped 60 pages in the past 3 years. I dabble and dawdle and lack direction.

On a serious note, one of the reasons I scrapbook is to preserve my family's memories and to count God's blessings on our lives. Should something happen to me, I'd be horrified for my husband to try to figure out the mess I have of half-done projects, various unfinished albums, piles of photos unlabeled, and etc. After reading Same Kind of Different as Me, I was reminded that we are not promised long lives on this earth. Of all the (physical) things I could leave behind for my family, I think my scrapbooks are among the most important. Therefore, I'm seeing the need to look at it a little differently, and stop dabbling and dawdling and get to work.

So today and throughout the weekend, I'm going through photos, planning and printing and preparing to begin on Monday. I'll only have just under a week before we head to CA, but a week is a week and should equal 6 pages! And 6 pages is 10% of my goal.

(In the back of my mind I keep hearing someone who used to being in my life saying, "Quality, not quantity, is what matters." I definitely agree. But I'm also the type of person who needs a quantitative goal to keep myself moving forward, whether it's for weight loss, reading books, or scrapbooking. If I don't have one, a year can go by without a thought toward my goal. That's just me, and that's why I decided to do APAD. I promise I won't kill myself if I only accomplish 50 pages. Or 30. Or 2.)

So... any scrappers out there who want to play? Leave a comment and let me know!

Happy Scrapping!