Life After Returning to Work

As I might have mentioned I went back to work on January 5th full time. That in itself has been a challenge dealing with the mom guilt almost every day. I getting through it and learning more and more about myself. I keep reminding myself we get to choose our attitudes and that is half the battle. In the mean time what I've found myself doing is remaining in the house the entire week-end. I mean not even leaving it for the mail or anything. I told Ron last week-end I didn't have a problem, but I was aware that this was probably not the healthiest thing for me to do. The guilt was driving me to only stay home with my two boys (Ron and Matthew!) and do nothing else. I'm the first person to tell people to have "me" time in relationships and to have "couple" time and here I've pushed not just one of them to the curb, but both of them. Not healthy!! So I was invited to a crop this past week-end and I decided I should just go and push the what am I thinking thoughts out of my head. Matthew will still love me when I come home.... I met two girlfriends up there at 3pm and stayed until 10pm. It was terrific!!! It felt so good. I obviously need to be aware of my hermit like qualities and keep them in check. I met a couple other girls who actually attend the same church as we do. It was a very nice evening! They're going again in April and I already told Ron I really want to go. Hopefully I stay on this path. I'll scan in and post a couple of layouts from the crop soon!

First Kit Ever!

We were suppose to go and see Grandma and Grandpa today, but mother nature decided to send a snow storm. I'm disappointed we didn't get a chance to go, but oh how I'm enjoying a day at home with nothing scheduled. I LOVE these kind of days and crave them!!

Ron watched Matthew while I participated in the LOM chat this morning. That was terrific, but a bit too busy with that many people online. I don't think I'll do that again. I'll read the transcript afterwards and post my questions on the forum.

Being home today I've been cleaning up all my file structures online. That has been tedious and makes my eyes go cross! I know it's not necessary, but it makes me feel better. I also ordered 2 more of the storage binders from Costco.

Guess what arrived in the mail today????? My first ever "Kit of the Month"! I really liked Cocoa Daisy and Studio Calico. Unfortunately the most recent kit was sold out from SC, but not CD! I loved it! I was so excited. There are so many different things I wouldn't normally buy at the store. I figure this will be a good way for me to try new things and see what I like. I did my first layout today using everything from the kit, plus a journaling stamp...not sure who made that. Obviously I need to get better remembering manufacturers!

I also posted a question on the LOM forum regarding scanned layouts. Someone recommended a video tutorial on Jessica Sprague's website. It worked great!!! So much better than taking photographs of my 12x12 layouts. I do notice the right edge is missing a bit, but overall I'm very pleased with my first attempt!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! I'm a newer scrapbooker. I don't even have one album completed. Hope you have a great day!

Terrible Times

Just a brief post. Stressful day. We sure are in terrible times from an economic standpoint. I work in the automotive field and it's so sad how things have taken such a turn and so many people have lost their jobs. My husband and I work for the same company. We're both so nervous about what the future might bring. We're just keeping our heads down and working hard.

Young Love

Ron and I took a baby class before Matthew was born through church called "Raising Children God's Way", the book was by the Ezzo's. If you went to a book store it would be titled "Babywise". Well it was an amazing class and worked wonders for us with Matthew. Being an engineer (different post I'm sure how can an engineer even want to be creative?) I can be data driven at times. This class had data that showed 80% babies would be sleeping through the night, defined as 8 hours straight, by 7-9weeks old. Well it worked. The other two families in class with us followed it and had wonderful results. Very happy babies and they all slept early!! Matthew has been sleeping at least 8 hours since he was 6 weeks old. Yes there have been a few exceptions and we expect some when he starts teething. In fact last night was a rare exception where he woke up at 2am and didn't go back to sleep until 4:30am. However all and all it worked great for us!! We started the 5month-12 month portion of our class at our house last week-end and the other two girls were there! We took pictures of the three of them on our couch. It was absolutely funny. We put Matthew in the corner and he instantly grabbed Abbie's hand. No sooner had that happened when Ava hit him in the face. Who knew the drama of male/female relationships started so early? I currently have this photo as my background on my work computer. Matthew's smile cracks me up. You just wonder what he's thinking!

Worked on LOM folders tonight. Had a few questions on what to do with 30+ years of slides I scanned in from Ron's family. Still trying to figure out if I want to move some to a highlight folder or not. I will have to think about that, maybe after I get the recent years of digital photos first.

In the Beginning....

Well today is the first day I'm becoming a blogger. I have no idea yet what I want to share. How I'm going to share it. Who will ever read this. How to set this up to be attractive, crafty and creative. And whether or not I'm crazy for even spending time doing this. However, it feels good....Maybe I just need a place to capture life. Jot down my thoughts. Catch the everyday moments that I think so many people take for granted. Yes that includes me, unfortunately.

I've had full intentions of capturing my thoughts in journals and such and well that takes time....of which I can't seem to find enough of. So if I capture the stuff here that can be shared I'll be able to reflect and use it as some of the journaling on my scrapbook pages.

So if you have any advice on how to personalize this blog, lessons learned you've had through your journey or just plain old encouragement that I'm not completely crazy for wanting to do this. I would very much appreciate it!!

I'll have to figure out if this was a crazy idea starting a blog. I went back to work full time January 5th, four months after the birth of our son Matthew. That in itself has been interesting and difficult and keeps me guessing at what balance means in my life. I also signed up for Stacy Julian's class, Library of Memories (LOM). I'm so very excited about the class. Thankfully it began this past week! YEAHHHH! Hopefully I can add a few posts about my journey with that process as well. Hmmm am I biting off more than I can chew???? I guess we will see.


I added a picture of Matthew that makes me smile. I figure this will help me with motivation!!! This is the picture I have on my desk at work as well. I LOVE the smirk on his face.

Well here we go...... wish me luck!