Day Five: Ready

Last summer I was fiddling with my camera and took a super close-up of my youngest son's face. It is one of my favorite photos of 2008. I printed it right away, and have had it hanging in various places in my stUdio. Most recently it made its way over to the magnetic strip over my desk (a sure sign I'm harnessing the energy to scrap it). Once I found the OLW (One Little Word) challenge through a blog I frequent, I knew I had the perfect inspiration (the challenge and designer Revlie's layout) to get this page put together. I dabbled on the page all day, adding a bit here and a snip there. Sometimes this really works for me in putting a page together, especially when the day doesn't allow me to sit for any length of time to work. It worked great today because there were lots of small chunks that went into this layout (and the boys had friends over to keep them occupied)."Time" is an underlying theme on this page, so this Heidi Swapp ghost clock face was perfect:

The cutout flowers are from Basic Grey's Romani line. And the felt flower was die cut with the Sizzix Flower Charms die. Felt accents have been a trend for some time, and it was fun to create my own. A bit of mini pom-pom fringe, snips of ribbon, and floss stitches create the stems on the flowers.

The word for OLW this week is "Ready". My journaling conveys my mixed emotions as I await my youngest starting school in the fall.

I'm not ready. To let this baby go. To release him to the care of someone else. To not know what he’s doing or how he’s feeling. I’m not ready. To be without him. To not kiss his little cheeks whenever I feel like it just because. To not have him by my side. I’m not ready. To see him cry because he doesn’t want to go. To feel empty after dropping him off. To miss him like crazy. I’m just not ready to let this little baby go.

But yet, I am ready. To enter the next phase of my life. To have quiet time for my own thoughts. To accomplish things without interruption. I am ready. To see if I can succeed at my own business. To have time to reach my goals. To embark on a new endeavor. I am ready. To do the things I want to do. To set goals and work to achieve them. To focus energies on things outside of Motherhood. I am ready. To create more. To dream bigger. To be more. But, I just don’t know if I’m ready to let this little baby go. It’s time to get ready.