Bits for Sunday, June 28, 2009

In two days, I will complete my June summary scrapbook page. This is a new method I’ve developed this year. I should share it for you scrapper people. Allow me to interrupt my own story long enough to do that.

At the beginning of the year, I bought 12x12 calendar pages at Hobby Lobby. The pages are plain white with calendar boxes on them. I stamp the dates into the boxes each month and decorate the top of the page with the name of the month and stamps that correspond with the month’s theme. Then, throughout the month, I list in the boxes any events that seem noteworthy. I write down everything…births…dinners with friends…the Super Bowl score…holidays…church activities…the first mowing of the season…American Idol winners…free root beer at the Sonic…and even the day my house was struck by lightning, frying my phone line. Nothing escapes importance on the calendar pages of Bekah.

On the page opposite this running tally of events is the summary page. This came about as the result of a wall calendar my sister gave me for Christmas. The “top” page (where the picture should be) is actually a 12x12 background page for a scrapbook. When each month ends, I take the page down, add random pictures from the month that either didn’t fit onto a scrapped event page or didn’t have any other pictures to warrant a page of that event, and I journal about the highlights of the month.

When I do the June page, I will begin with “June was the most disorganized month ever.” Because it truly was. I don’t know if it was so disorganized because I came sailing into the month straight from an away-from-home vacation, and I didn’t have time to think about what needed to be done…or because I was tired from five other months of organization…or if evil daylight savings finally caught up with me…I’m not sure.

All I know is that all month, I have run from event to event, barely showing up on time, barely able to remember my next move (despite the pink day planner ever at my side), and often declaring a lack of interest.

As a result, I stayed home this weekend. I slept. I caught up on some scrapping. I did some cleaning. I planned ahead. And it was beautiful.

I would like to say, however, that there are some pitfalls to being home too much. When I’m home, doing chores of any sort, my mind has entirely too much time to wander here and there. By the end of the time at home, I’m mentally half a million in debt and bummed that I’m not a real life half-a-millionaire to allow my dreams to become reality.

Let me just give you some examples.

I was informed by someone at church that anyone who was getting married, did so yesterday. Apparently it was the day in 2009 to exchange vows. I knew of three couples tying the knot. I lucked out of all three weddings and scrapped instead. But in honor of their nuptials, I spent some time online searching for the perfect wedding dress. I didn’t find it. But of the dresses I saw that I would have deemed tolerable, I learned that I have a much richer taste than budget.

Sorry, Mom and Dad.

Once I declared that a pointless waste of time – since I am not even remotely on track to get married – I moved on to plan B. The scrapping of my vacation pictures so enthralled me that I began thinking of future vacation destinations. Truth be told, I already have two in mind, but a new one came to me, so I hopped online to look at pictures of the location. After twenty minutes, I was ready to pack my suitcase. Then I looked up the price of plane tickets. The low end was $800. Maybe I’ll go back to preplanned destinations and hope that someday, if I ever get married, I can go to my dream location for my honeymoon. I’d even be willing to give up the dress.

So today, I quarantined myself in my office to write a Bible study. After spending several hours poring over the stack of Bibles and my trusty reference sites, I found myself wondering how things would look if I would just change the furniture this way. By 8:00 tonight I’d been through 75 pages of home offices on HGTV’s Rate my Space page and had bookmarked several affordable pieces of accent furniture on store sites.

STOP THINKING, BEKAH. In fact, just go ahead and leave for a bit. You can’t afford to stay home.