Sweet Shoppe Designs – The Sweetest Digital Scrapbooking Site on the Web

So, here is how it went for me –

I volunteered to do “meaningful Monday” here on the sweet shoppe blog – only to not take into consideration WHEN Monday was… this morning when I woke up, it occurred to me – TODAY IS MONDAY! And of course I hadn’t created my meaningful cathartic page (or even decided what to do it on) so I was pageless and postless, and totally running behind.

That is when it started for me – I do this to myself all the time, I’m a terrible planner and a huge procrastinator, so of course this is something that I run into a lot – where I’m behind and unplanned, and uncertain about what I’m doing.

So deep sigh, and feelings of frustration start to surface – why do I do this to myself? what is the matter with me? why can’t I even focus for the little bit of time it would take for me to get with it and plan my time better. Ick! I hate this about myself….. I’m such an idiot… I can’t stand myself…
Sigh – isn’t it funny, how the mind can go there so fast – often times, I run into this place, where I’m feeling frustrated, and irritated with myself, and I just need to find a way to cope – cope with myself.

Well, isn’t it perfect, that I would get here in my head on the day that I’m supposed to be writing about cathartic scrapbooking. I grabbed Lauren’s super cool new “Punky Girl” kit, and this page basically made itself:

Journaling Says: sometimes i wonder what is wrong with me. who is actually so confused about what she is doing, and what she wants that she can’t really even tell you what way is up…. there are days when i wonder what god was thinking when he made me responsible not only for my own self, but actually responsible for three little lives. there are moments like these, when i look around and realize – i am over my head!! why can’t i figure it all out?

Now, yuck, that isn’t a pretty sequence of thoughts, but the truth is, it is real, I’m not always happy with myself, and sometimes I just feel SO FRUSTERATED – yet how often as a woman, as a mom, as a wife, do I try to swallow it all back inside? How often do we all take a deep breath and ignore our own feelings, just so that we can focus on what ever it is that we think we should be thinking or feeling? How often do we open up a new document in photoshop and distract ourselves with a page about our sweet babies instead of really being real with ourselves just for a second.

When we were in Jr. High, we all had that top secret little diary you know the pink one with the teeny tiny lock, and the top secret hiding place under our mattress. The perfect place to confide a fear, or a secret crush, or to vent some serious angst against our parents and try on a few cuss words for size. But now that we are all grown up, what happend to that little pink book? I really truly believe that we would all be so much better off, if we just let ourselves let it out every once in a while.

So, now I challenge all of you: let yourselves use some of that scrap time, atleast once, to poor a little of your emotions out. Let yourself loose, and feel free to just be honest with your frustrations, your fears, your anger – let yourself just be.

In the end, when the page is saved, and you can see it right there in front of you for what it is – I promise, you will feel better.

Today there it is for me, and although it isn’t pretty, it is real – and i’m feeling like I have a little more perspective. I’m feeling proud of myself for facing my frustration, and in a way, taking that first step toward making change.

So DO IT! Next time you start to feel something serious, let it out! And post your link here if you dare – or, print it right out and hide it under the mattress right next to the little pink journal, where it belongs.