The need to scrap.....

I confess. I love to scrapbook. I have put memorabilia and pictures in albums and scrapbooks since I was a little girl. My mom had a scrapbook from junior high and high school and she used to let us look at it. It was filled with dried corsages, invitations to dances, ticket stubs, letters and more. I thought that was so neat and couldn't wait to do that myself. Obviously my first attempts are a little less creative and lot messier than my more recent attempts, but they are precious to me.
I have a book by Dr. Seuss entitled, "My Little Book about Me". My grandmother gave it to me for my 5th birthday. I wrote in it myself, counting steps in my home, buttons in my closet, declaring what I wanted to be when I grew up, favorite foods and more. I love seeing it with my 5 year old handwriting and laugh at the things I thought and said then. My sister recently got the same book for my 6 year old and we have had a lot of fun filling it out. I have volumes of books from college full of pictures and road trips and memorabilia. I have every intention of putting pictures I have in boxes from special trips in an album. I have been working diligently on scrapbooks for each of my sons. Since becoming a mother, scrapbooking has taken on an entirely new meaning and purpose. It is not just to have a nostalgic book filled with firsts and pictures. It is an opportunity for me to pass on values, moments when we celebrated as a family, verses that are especially dear to me, trials we have overcome together and the ways that God continually remains faithful to us. I kind of like to think that if something were to happen to me that my words and influence would live on in my boys through these books. I try to impart wisdom and talk about my wishes and hopes for their lives. I want them to be part of their "legacy". Of course, having three little boys really keeps me busy and I don't get to spend as much time in my scrapbook room now as I did when they were smaller. But my need for it has not escaped me. It is an outlet for me creatively and a stress relief. I can always tell when I have not had enough time to devote to this because I think about it more and I have an "itch" to scrap. I have so many stories to tell and so many pictures to choose from it is hard to limit myself to just the best. Ordinary days and moments are my favorite to scrapbook - they tell our story the best.
Speaking of all of this.....I think it is time for me to go down there and put a couple of pages together. I am going to try to post some of the pages I have done in the past on here so you can see what I am talking about and really understand why I "need" to scrap!