Weekend Retreats

I have been lucky enough this past month to have had two scrapbooking "get-aways". First was my Croptoberfest in Sunriver and the second was a beach weekend with a couple of my friends. These weekend trips have been invaluable for several reasons:
1- It's the only time I seem to get a big chunk of scrapbooking done
2- It's great to share ideas about albums, scrapbooking, etc. with others
3- I soooo badly need the "girl time" (grown-up girls, that is... I get enough of little girls every day!)

By the end of the year, I actually plan how I'm going to get "caught-up" in my albums, based on these weekend retreats. And, I'm realizing it's not just me. These seem to be so refreshing for everyone that I think we just need to plan more of them! I know it's hard to find weekends that you can get away from your families and work, so if enough of them are offered, hopefully you can find one or two that work for you. So my New Years Resolution (two months early!) will be to plan more of these in the future.

On another note, I've been thinking about the POWER that scrapbooks can have over us emotionally. Last week was my oldest daughter's 7th birthday. So, being a little reminiscent, I decide to take out her baby album and flip through it. Wow, those pictures did a number on me! I DO NOT want any more kids, but after looking back at her album I was reconsidering... (don't worry, haven't looked at it again for a week and I'm back to being fine with the two kids I've got!) But what power those pictures and stories had over me. I told my husband and he very quickly took the book away from me! However, he started looking through it and started feeling the same way.

We've got to lock these books up.

Okay, maybe not that drastic, but it certainly reminded me that what I'm doing is important, it stirs up emotion, it brings back memories and it's there whenever I need to look back.