I have pack rat/hoarder tendencies. You won’t ever find me keeping ketchup packets or barbecue sauce from restaurants. Those aren’t allowed in my house. Actually, between you and me, I don’t even like taking leftovers home unless it’s pizza. I’ll walk away from the table and if someone says, “Callie! Don’t forget your leftovers!” I make an extremely convincing act that I actually did forget them and oh my goodness THANK YOU for catching that! Phew!
But when it comes to Hadley and Harper’s artwork and the stuff they bring home from school, I have a terrible time throwing it away. I’ve explained here before how I organize it and put it in binders at the end of each school year, and so far that’s worked out well, but there are still some gems that I have a hard time getting rid of, so one thing I did about a year ago was make a journal out of stuff I didn’t want to throw away.
I used an empty cereal box (Gorilla Munch if you’re looking for specifics – yes, we allow our kids to eat sugar cereal. It gets them all fired up for the day and the teachers appreciate it), and binder rings, then just filled it up with their work. I left one side of paper blank so I could write on the pages.
This journal is my “30 Days of Lists” journal, which was a fun project I worked on last year. For those of you who like writing warm-ups, this is a great way to get the writing blood flowing, so to speak (although, I think it was Faulkner who said something about writing from the veins so maybe you should take that literally).
I love the tornado in this picture. Hadley drew that to show Harper what a tornado is while the three of us were huddled in the bathroom waiting for one to pass last year. So, good times.
Here’s the back. Those are some of Harper’s thumbprint guys. People with kids, and maybe some of you without kids, these thumbprint guys are so much fun. We have this one, and I love it. I mean, Hadley and Harper LOVE it.
I think you should make a journal. Then take it to Starbucks with you and write in it. You won’t get weird looks at all. Trust me.
think the girls are old enough to leave home alone while i’m journaling at starbucks? probably, right?
Oh, totally. 🙂
You have inspired me to keep a journal/scrapbook of grandkids’ artwork & letters from a certain great niece named Naomi. Today, I received one of the sweetest letters ever!
Here it is in Naomi’s words:
dear Ant Sarah
thank you for the girls doodle Book I’ve drawn butiful flowers to make a butiful boqet. I’ve looked in the book too it looks like it’l take the whole summer. and I love it allredy.
Priceless, isn’t it, Callie? Thanks, Alison, for training your girls to write such sweet, thoughtful notes!
Glad you liked it. She loves writing letters to people so I imagine she’ll give you lots to put in a scrapbook. 🙂 And that book you sent is *so* fun!