Best Friends

What is the deal with photographing layouts? For the past several weeks I can not seem to get a good enough picture of one of the layouts I have completed. I am lost. In fact when I tried to crop this one it is so dark it looks silly. Thus the background and the counter top. Any way, I just finished this layout on Sunday night. I used the new Line called Penny Lane from My Mind's Eye. The paper is from a group called My Friend.

I decided to to do a layout of the kids because I went to Religious Education Congress last Friday (I'll post some treats about Congress tomorrow), anyway one of the lectures I attended was Keri Krouts'. She was talking about a book titled Roxaboxen by Alice McClerran. In the story the children would spend ALL day playing and creating a street with houses made out of rocks. The story ends when the main character returns to the place fifty years later and the street they had created is still there. It is his Roxaboxen.

"Creating a childhood worth remembering," was the moral of the lecture. Keri spoke about the relationship between siblings. Sister and brother - for my kids. How important it is for them to have a "Roxaboxen." For them not to pass time in their seperate rooms on a computer, but to actually play together. Play games, play outside, ride bikes, make a mud city, go down to the rocks by our house... whatever it is. Do it together. Create a Roxaboxen. She told her audience about a story when she flew from New York into Las Vegas. She was in her seat on the plane and an old (er) gentleman was one of the last to get on the plane. He was having trouble walking and the flight attendant had to help him to his seat - which (of course) was next to hers. After the plane was in the air she asked him what brought him to Las Vegas? He told her he was going to get a connecting flight into California. She thought to herself this is alot of traveling for someone who has a hard time walking... "What is in California?" she asked out of curiousity. He told her he was going to California because his baby sister was having open heart surgery. "How old is your baby sister?" she asked. "She is 78" he told her proudly. "Does she have a husband who could be with her?" she inquired. "Yes," a pause and he added "but... I want to be there when she wakes up." He was traveling across country, taking two planes to get to a hospital to be with his sister and hold her hand, just because... Because she was his sister and they were "buddies." And you are there for your "buddy" no matter what it takes. As you guessed the room did not have adry eye. She had a bunch of "Aha" moments and stories to tell us. To help us remember that it is the little things that are most important to us. Our family. Our relationships.

"There can be no great things,

only small things done with great love."

- Mother Theresa

Thus, the reason for the layout. I want to remind my kids of the times they enjoyed being with each other, laughing and just hanging out. Best friends.