It's STILL Monday!! :)

okay - so i promised a weekly "challenge" of sorts throughout the summer - today is the first!! never fear - i'm here BEFORE midnight - so technically i'm still ON TIME!! hee hee!!! i HATE letting people down, so needless to say - it's 10:30pm and i'm up at the store working on this challenge for you!!


when i was running some ideas by mom - and asking her opinions and ideas, she said "i don't really know any ""challenges"".."......so i thought - maybe i'm making this harder for people than i want to!


i don't want this to be something that YOU feel pressured to do - like if you don't do one, then you're "out of the club" !! ha ha!!! but rather, something that you can look forward to and either say - oh, i'm already doing that,,,,,oh that sounds like a good idea.......oh, i've never thought of that.......get what i mean!?!? something that will HOPEFULLY continue to keep SCRAPBOOKING in the forefront of your mind through this busy summer!!!!


the reason behind THIS weeks "idea"...lets call it that,,,,,IDEA MONDAY!!!.....the reason behind this weeks idea is something that i had happen to me last summer, and i see it already happening to me THIS summer.....my oldest son is 8 (almost 9), and LOVES LOVES LOVES my dad - WORSHIPS my dad - the sun sets and rises IN MY DAD for kord.....so LAST summer, he spent quite a bit of time with him. Well this summer, all he's been looking forward to is LIVING WITH POPPIE!!! We're calling it the "summer of poppie!" I'm even going to make him his OWN little mini album TITLED your summer with poppie!! BUT - he's out there SO much (only been home ONCE since school let out two weeks ago!) that I am not SEEING for myself just WHAT he's doing. He's done some really cool things....things MOST 8/9 year olds don't get to do - some things for the FIRST time!! So - i've decided to do something that i've been TELLING myself i was going to do for over a year now.

i'm keeping a RECORD of his DAILY activities.......DAILY!! i recently bought and altered the new Heidi Swapp Memory Binder and have made it my personal planner, address book,budget book, coupon holding, note taking, to do list making and memory recording binder!!!



i'm asking him DAILY what he's done, what has been the coolest thing he's heard, seen, done or been to!?!?! and writing it down verbatim to what he's saying!! i don't write novels, but even just a sentence or two. sure, i may not use alllll of it - but WHEN i am ready to scrap it i will be able to have a reference guide of what he did, and HOW he felt in that moment!!!



with me not being WITH him, comes the fact that i can't have my CAMERA in his face at all times....(something i'm sure he's THRILLED about!).......so i'm having to rely on WHAT pictures there are being taken. one of his friends has a camera on her AT ALL TIMES, and i hope to get some copies of her photos. but for the most part, i'm relying on CELL PHONE photos!??! at this point i do not CARE how they turn out....just that i have SOME record of his summer of poppie, or that HE has SOME record!!!


on MOST of my layouts i am a TITLE-ER...(is that a word!?) I am one of those people that will sit and sit and sit for EVER staring at my pages and photos and wonder WHAT the title is going to be....i don't really like to 'steal' titles, like i do when i scraplift...that seems reallllly personal to me. so i've found what has been working for me, is to use something that was SAID or REFERRED to DURING the incident or occasion of the photos. for example, in this layout that krusty did of ella....this layout needs NO JOURNALING - you need NOT explain to me what this picture and title are saying.....I LOVE THIS!!! this has worked WONDERFULLY for me lately......AND for those of you that don't enjoy the journaling part of scrapbooking (i can't IMAGINE that, but okay) this makes your part easy!!

in this one, hayden CALLS his dinosaurs - "my bucket o'dino's"!! (even when he is carrying them by themselves!!


So - my "idea/challenge/thought" for you this week is to make a record of your/children/families/grandchildren/etc.etc..... whether it's daily like i am, weekly or whatever works for you - so that when you're life finally settles down long enough for you to dig out these memories, you'll still have them fresh and recorded!!!