Dirty little secrets about parenthood

So, after the first week of school I've just learned another "Dirty little secret about parenthood." You know those "secrets", like the one about babies and sleep? People tell you, "The first few months are hard but once they start sleeping through the night, it will get a lot easier." LIE. It doesn't get easier, you just slip into a new phase.... like teething or some other cruel phase. Sleep through the night? My kids are pretty good sleepers but in the last 5 1/2 years, I have never gotten more than 7 nights in a row of full sleep. Someone has a bad dream, or can't sleep, or needs a drink, or had an accident or something else... It's exhausting!

So here's the new lie people told me. "Once your kids are in school, you'll have so much more time to yourself." LIE. But I really believed it. It seemed so accurate that after being a stay-at-home mom that once Maddie started Kindergarten and Sam started pre-school (isn't he handsome in that photo above!), I could (dare I hope...) scrapbook and sew or maybe read a book for grown-ups. What a dirty secret! Here's the catch: I am the chauffeur. Most of my day is spent in the car driving, dropping kids off, picking kids up, and waiting for them. Yeah, I might be alone more but this time is certainly not leisure time to myself. It's exhausting!
I'll get off my rant now and show you my big Kindergartener on her first day of school. She really loved the first week and was a little mad when she couldn't go today (Saturday).

She seems to have grown up so quickly! I am starting to forget details about the night she was born so I did a layout about it. Its so different than most of my layouts because it is almost all journaling. Using my own handwriting too! I hate to see my writing on my pages but I felt this was an important story to tell.
One of my new goals is to start scrapbooking "THE STORIES." These are the concrete memories that bind our family together. The next ones I want to get down are about the other kids' birth and about how Brentt and I met. Also, the story about when Brentt ate "Tete a vouex" on a trip to Paris. For those who don't speak French, that is Calves Brain. That'll be a fun story! Here's a new 2-page layout from the fair this summer.
Every year I save the photo Christmas cards that people send us. I stitched a pocket onto the page so we could add it to our Christmas album.
This was a favorite picture from last Christmas so I finally got around to scrapping it.
Because I was in a Christmas mood already, I pre-made a page for 2009. Lord knows when Max arrives, I'll have a lot less time to scrapbook!I have pre-made some pages for Max's baby album too. I'll show them to you soon. But for now, we have some friends who are adopting twin girls so I made her this page:
My favorite detail is the Tim Holtz crackle paint around the edges. It added so much texture and interest. Anyway, thanks for checking in. Have a great weekend!
Christy