Giving Thanks for Saying Yes to Scrapbooking

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?  I wrote a whole list last week, but today I wanted to share something that recently happened at my son’s preschool.  I have told a very similar story in the past (why is it that now feel like my entire blog is centered around my son’s preschool?), but felt like I also had to share this one.  It underscored the importance of opening myself to new experiences.  Even when they seem scary.  And yes, even when they involve crafts.

It was Parent Scrapbooking Day.  The idea is that some of the parents would take a bunch of supplies and work on putting together individual scrapbooks for all the kids so they each have one to take home at the end of the year.  If you know me at all, you understand this would definitely NOT be my idea of fun.  The thought of crafting makes me want to run and hide in the corner, a very dark corner.  And I am the queen of sucking at small talk with people I don’t know.  Throw in my very active young toddler daughter, and I was not envisioning this going down well.  To put it mildly, I was anticipating hell-on-earth, but wanted to do my part to help out.

As it turns out, it was only me and one other mom who stayed.  We gathered up the goods and settled down to work.  Managing the daunting craft supplies, conversation with the other mom and my daughter’s attempts at self destruction with safety scissors was going brilliantly.  (Feel free to be generous with the amount of sarcasm you read here.)  While I was skillfully wrestling some very large pieces of construction paper and my daughter was helpfully “sorting” through a basket of markers, mortification officially set in.  Clearly I was acing this whole situation out.   But then, in the midst of my big “What the heck was I thinking by coming here?!” moment, the other mom made a comment about how I shouldn’t worry because she herself was so “a mom of the year”.  My head snapped up.  Whoa! (“That’s me!”, I wanted to shout!)

It was at that moment I knew she got it.  Other moms can be so very scary, but they can also end up being so very much a kindred spirit.  We ended up having a really good chat.  As I left that day, with some serious scrapbooking experience now under my belt, I felt grateful that I had gone.  It ended up not being totally hellacious, my daughter survived (clearly thanks to my amazing supervision skills), and the thing is, I made a new friend.  I’m simply thankful I said yes.

Don’t get me wrong, I will not be heading up the Scrapbooking Committee any time soon, but on this Thanksgiving, I’m glad I didn’t let the glue stick scene scare me off, and I found a blessing in the process.

I’m thankful that there is good in things than can seem bad, that things don’t go exactly as planned, and that life can surprise you.

Happy Thanskgiving, my dear readers.  Hoping you have loads to celebrate and be thankful for.