I don't Scrapbook

and this is why: I would never be "done" and I would be hopelessly behind, and I certainly do not need one more thing in my life that is forever unfinished. I mean, I still have weekly dreams that I am in college, it's the end of a semester, and I've suddenly realized that I forgot to go to my 10 a.m. tuesday class for the last two months.

It seems that almost every scrapbooker frets that they are "way behind" in scrapbooking, which is no surprise, considering that moms who scrapbook about their life are too busy doing all the things recorded in their scrapbook to actually cut out pictures of it and paste it on a page with buttons and ric rac. sure, there are those Type-a's out there who are not behind; in fact, they have everything recorded up until yesterday, and they are pasted neatly and artistically to boot (or, better yet, digitally rendered). But I know just as many type-a's who would never even start a scrapbook in the first place. :-)

BUT.

I have this blog. and I am forever hopelessly behind with it.

And, well, I keep a blog for many of the very same reasons people keep a scrapbook. I want to show off pictures of my kids, I want to record (for my own memory) funny things my kids said or did. I want to put in words the thoughts and feelings I want to remember later, maybe because they were funny or poignant, or maybe because writing them down puts things in perspective. I like it as a creative outlet. But, deep down, I just want to put my life on a page, mostly for my own reading and reflection. I want to share it with other people, for sure, but I also want to see the page evolve over the years as life twists and turns and winds its own unique little path. And, like life, it's supposed to be unfinished. And sometimes I'm a little behind on life. and that's okay! Somehow I'll make it to that elusive Tuesday 10 a.m. class and I'll cram for a few days and get caught up and squeak by on the final, and then I'll realize that I had a 1 p.m. Wednesday class, too, and that class actually ended last year and I totally forgot to go.

But, somehow I will still manage to graduate life on earth someday, and what will be left behind is this little snippet of a messy, disorganized, forever-behind housewife's life, and it will be perfect. So, kudos to all you scrapbookers out there with all your works-in-progress. I might not glue things on pages, but like you, I get to see the beauty of life on a page, and I'm not going to feel guilty about being behind.

The Great Birthday Cake Fiasco

So, full disclosure on this post today.

I admit that I am no Martha Stewart. My bed doesn't have hospital corners (nor is it actually even made), I don't serve dinner on fine china with cloth napkins, I let paperwork pile up on the counter, I can never keep up with laundry and my kids have been known to go long periods with gunk all over their face from lunch. That's okay, I accept myself that way. I have lots of other, more positive, attributes, and my family likes me okay.

Still, you'd think I'd be able to make a simple birthday cake for Cole's fourth birthday. I mean, it was from a mix, not from scratch, so there's no way I could mess that up, right?

Um, wrong.

I tried to be fancy. I had my fancy-shmancy stoneware from Pampered Chef so I could bake my perfectly flat cake. Pulled the cake out, waited for it to cool, and cut it into thirds. Started frosting..realized maybe it's not quite cool enough, as the knife was tearing the cake. Plugged away anyhow, because that's how we impatient non-MarthaStewart types do things, and tried lifting the second layer on top of the bottom piece. that's when everything went downhill, and before I knew it, I had this:

Yes, folks, Martha Stewart I ain't.

I was able to salvage a decent-looking piece that was big enough to hold four candles:

I will say, in my defense, that while the cake looked like, well, that, it was a very tasty cake pile, and I have pictures to prove it.

In fact, during the writing of this entry, I was enjoying a very nutritious bowl of cake.

At any rate, Cole had a great birthday. He has been eagerly anticipating being FOUR for so long, and now he's finally there. Of course, he was disappointed to discover that he didn't magically appear in a classroom that very day, since, apparently, you go to school when you are four. I think that we found a good compromise, though, and instead spent the day at Jungle Java with his best buddy (and partner in crime), and IKEA later for an ice cream cone.

I will leave you today with a picture of my delightful four-year-old: