Who needs a little “Me Time”?

:: raising hand :: I do! I do!

If you follow me on Twitter you would have noticed that my random outbursts had a fairly specific trend for about two weeks. It went something like “Can school start today? How about today? WHEN WILL IT START? I can’t take it anymore!” This may paint me in a really bad light, but Jimmy Crack Corn – I just don’t care. I like being a mom a lot better when school is in session. There, I said it! If I’m being completely honest (and when aren’t I?), my child is way more interesting when he’s in school. He comes home with stories, he shows enthusiasm for upcoming events, he has a new appreciation for just laying around the house. I don’t have to hear how booooooooooooored he is anymore. And after spending the whole day with a class of 25+ other kids, he’s sort of “peopled out” at the end of the day and the two of us can sit quietly next to each other feeling no need to speak or poke at one another, we can just be near each other and breathe in the sweet silence for a while.

Over the summer we don’t work on any summer work, no workbooks or gap activities – it’s not what I feel summer is for, I just want him to be a kid doing summer things. But it seems like by the end of the summer we’re both a little bit dumber – does anyone else feel like that? We’ll sit here staring off into nowhere trying to think of a word. What’s that word I’m looking for? Think .. let’s think about this. Breakfast! That’s it!

When school is in session we’re on our game. We have a routine (ROUTINE!) and predictable patterns (PATTERNS!). And most selfishly of all – I have a bit more “me time”. I have that time in the morning just after I drop him off at school where I can plan out my day and go through yesterday’s mail. I have the 20 minutes in the car after school while I wait for him – time I often spend reading my most current book obsession (right now it’s Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Series which I can’t say enough great things about). I still have to work every day, that doesn’t change, but those stolen moments where I’m a slave to the school routine are sacred.

I could do without the lunch packing, though. Turns out I hate packing lunches, something I never would have known if I weren’t a parent.

Amy Martin and Crystal Livesay teamed up to create a GINORMOUS pack of 20 templates that are inspired by the empty houses (sweet, sweet empty quiet houses) that a  lot of us have now that school is back in session. I adore Amy and Crystal’s templates, it’s like they create them with me in mind. I open them up and everything makes sense to me, I can visualize where all of my items are going to go and it all comes together effortlessly.

I created a little mini-kit for them to include in their collaboration, and for a limited time you’ll receive it for free when you buy the template set – which is 20% off, so you get a lot for your money. Twenty templates, a mini kit, this cool preview:

It’s available at OScraps and The Lilypad

Layout by Me:

Additional Supplies: Chunky Chip Alpha (retired) by Amber Clegg, Suzy Q Alpha by CD Muckosky

It took me about ten minutes to put this page together, I’m not even exaggerating a little. It’s like they’re IN MY HEAD, along with the unicorns and the cotton candy. I spent more time picking the two alphas than I did creating the page. Now that’s good. And I don’t know how much you all scrap, but 20 templates can get me through half a year’s worth of pages. So I’m definitely pumped that these two combined forces.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I’ll be back on Saturday with a sneak peek of an upcoming collaboration with a designer I absolutely adore. I think you’re going to freak over this collaboration, it turned out absolutely amazing. And you’ll have the chance to win it by commenting – so keep an eye out!

Also you only have until the end of the day on Friday to use the exclusive savings coupon for Bird Seeds – Back To School that was included in my newsletter this week. Don’t forget!