Hello Monday

Hello ABC Books!

Is it really that time again?  Time for my little boy to turn eight.  This year I asked if he would like me to make his ABC book online, at Snapfish or Shutterfly, where it would have a really professional cover and pages.  He said, "No, Mommy, I like when you make it with your hands."  Priceless.  I remember Justin saying he thought I should make the books through the boys fifth birthdays.  How can I stop when they look forward to them so much, and it is a way for me to show them how much I love them, creating something just for them, with "my hands?"

It was like I was reliving Jonah's past year of triumphs and successes as I went through the last year of pictures on my computer.  I did things a little differently this year, and instead of going through the alphabet and trying to find a picture for each letter, I simply started with last year's birthday party, and went through the pictures throughout the year, picking the ones I felt captured the best memories of Jonah's twelve months as a seven year old. Baseball games, holidays, celebrations, firsts--it's all there.  When I look at the row of ABC books on the bookshelf in the hall upstairs, I feel a sense of peace, knowing I have captured important times from each year of Jonah's life.

Baby books and scrapbooks are great, but feel so overwhelming to me.  Yes, Bruce will definitely have a baby book (I'm even keeping up with the progression of the belly), but I will probably stop at one year this time, and do ABC books from there on out.  There is something so "do-able" about an ABC book.  It has a beginning and an end, and a due date.  When I told Jonah I was worried I would not get his ABC book done by his birthday, he acted like that might be the end of the world.  So, even if I have to pull an all nighter, it will get finished.  And the great part is, when it's done, it's done.

It's funny that I actually used the word, "do-able" in my last post about ABC books.
http://ourlittletinies.blogspot.com/2011/09/scrapbook-that-is-do-able.html

So, I have a little time this afternoon, before the boys get home and the craziness of Monday afternoon begins (homework, dinner and rush off to baseball), to work on Jonah's book.  And I can't wait!!!  Could I be (and maybe should I be) doing other things like laundry, cleaning, and organizing?  Sure, but this gift is important to Jonah, and I will do everything I can to make sure it is finished by his actual birthday.  I'd much rather be scrapbooking than houseworking anyway.

So, I made myself a Cafe Mocha with my handy Magic Bullet (because all projects like this one are more fun with a coffee drink) and got to work.

paper for background and letters

"scrappack" from AC Moore--love these because they are small scraps of coordinating colored paper that works perfectly to back my pictures

stack of pictures I printed at Costco

yummy cafe mocha

cutting surface

ready to go!

And I have one finished page--yay!