What will we remember?

I had recently picked up the Autobiography of Agatha Christie, the famed mystery writer, and am enjoying it very much, especially her recollections of her childhood in victorian times. The memoirs was written when she was between her fifties to her seventies, and in one chapter she talked about what one remembers: "It is curious to look back over life, over all the varying incidents and scenes - such a multitude of odds and ends. Out of them all what has mattered? What makes us choose the things we have remembered? "

Hhmm, I think as scrapbookers, this is an interesting question to ponder! When I look back into my childhood and younger days, I remember moments here and there, happy ones mostly, fascinating and funny ones, an embarassing one, and a few that I think stems from what others told me. A big part of the reason I'm scrapbooking is to remember for myself and dh, and a big part is also for my boys (and their wives and children, one day, I hope :) . So although my scrapbooks are filtered through my 'lens', I will keep going, keep capturing the big and small, funny and fun, happy and disappointing (this is harder to do) moments of our everyday life, and hope my scrapbooks help them remember and bask in the memories of their growing up years and our family life, as much as I do!

In the first page of my August PL, I have captured the following: a day of cycling at the beach, Jared reading a fiction book again after a long break, Ryan's hilarious school video, Ryan's screen background, and the latest recipes we tried - to me, great slices of everyday life :)

Next page captures a lot of Jared's excursions to the Art and Science museum, the Singapore Art Museum, and his painting of Ryan

Here is a copy of the Museum gallery brochure he brought back, included in PL with stationery store-bought plastic pocket.

On the flip side of the pocket, I put in a copy of Jared's weekly school and weekend timetable - we will always have a record of how long his days are at 13! 

My birthday was in August, and that takes up a lot of this next page, including two anecdotes:

What Day Is It?

On the morning of my birthdady...  

Me: "Do you know what day is it today?"

Ryan: "Teachers day?... Mothers day?... Fathers day?"

(vigorous shaking of head from me and knowing glances)

Ryan: "Your birthday? Your real birthday? Oh!"

(yes he forgot, it's okay, I know he would unless dh reminds him, 

I am cool with that, he's a teenager :D) 

(after hugs and kisses) Ryan: "I will name a star system in 'SPORE' (the computer game) after you"

I am now a star system - lol!

Isn't he a darling :)

For the Record: KEEP CALM

When I opened the card that DH gave me for my birthday, I immediately took out from my drawer and showed him the EXACT same card that I'd bought and was saving to give to him for his birthday!! How cool is that? The card said "KEEP CALM IT'S JUST YOUR BIRTHDAY" 

And here are my August digital 365 pages.

More daily life shots of time in the pool, Mario-karting, bedtime devotions, movie night, homework, chinese spelling, and so on!

In the second half of August were lots of shots of various meals and celebrations I had with my family, friends and colleagues for my birthday, I'm so blessed!

Up next: 11 more pages for our Vietnam pages completed!! All of them continuing in the one big photo + multiple small photos format - you can find them in the store, thank you for your interest!

Here we were visiting the Hanoi History Museum - so good to learn about the rich and long history of this amazing land and people.

Then we visited the Opera House (well, the outside of it) that was apparently built in the style of the Paris Opera House - the most fun part was enjoying the atmosphere of all the young couples taking their bridal/wedding photo shoots.

Here was an experience for the boys especially at the Hoa Lo Prison. Previously used during the French colonisation to house Vietnamese political prisoners and later by the Vietnamese to hold American POWs. Ryan who loves history was really interested in the exhibits.

In the night the central lake Hoan Kiem area was transformed, bathing and glowing in lights and people everywhere. I love the shots of Jared very seriously setting up his camera to take the shot of the lake with the lit up temple.

Ah this was the greatest thrill of the trip, lol. We had been terrorised (at first) of the way traffic haphazardly moves in Hanoi, then gradually mastered the art of walking and crossing the roads, and then bravely took a spin on their trishaws. They went at breakneck speed! Weaving through traffic among cars, motorbikes, throngs of crowds, going in and out, left and right, haha, the boys loved it and asked for one more round the very next day. 

Next we went on a 2D1N boat trip on the famed Halong Bay. Our lodging was on one of the Chinese Junk style boats, which surprisingly can take 8 rooms of guests, plus lots of crew, providing all our meals on board. It was beautiful!

Once we set off, on board there is little to do except to relax and spend time with each other, while admiring the endless sccenery of limestone islands and monoliths passing us by. Great bonding time :)

From our boat, we did some island hopping, visiting limestone caves, climbing up some peaks for this beautiful view of the Bay

And making our own fun on board

Back in Hanoi, a layout to capture the bits and pieces of our time there, wandering their streets, eating at quaint local eateries, getting shoes mended at a road side store, we really love 'getting local' in the foreign land we visit!

I have one more layout from Halong Bay, amazingly there are openings in the huge limestone 'islands' where we were 'rowed' under and into the inner 'hidden' world - awesome! I cropped and enlarge the photo to fit along the bottom of the double page - makes for a new layout template style :)

And here's the template for you to try

This template is now available as Template Pack 8 in the Store. Thanks for your interest!

Embracing Who They are Made To Be

Last Thursday I worked late, and when I got home, both boys were clamoring for my attention, both excited for me to hear their ideas, wow, I thought, this is a special moment! Guess what they were trying to share with me? Their latest adventures in their respective computer games, Civilization 5 and Spore! Now in the past I would have brushed them aside but now I listen, try to understand and try to get as excited as them, and now they actually want to share with me!!! (Guess what, the games are actually quite fascinating). I'm really learning to embrace them and their interests and quirkiness and teenage-ness, fighting against my mom-instincts of trying to influence (or coerce, lol!) them to embrace what I know is good for them. It's currently my parenting-thing, to discover them, help them find their own path.

I subscribe to daily devotionals from Daily Hope by Rick Warren (you can subscribe here) and there was one entitled Accept Your Kid's Uniqueness that really spoke to my heart. Here is an except:

"The same God produces every gift in every person." (1 Corinthians 12:6b GW)

As a parent, you have to recognize and value each child's individuality.

How can you tell when you've accepted your kid's uniqueness? It's simple: You stop insisting that they be like you. God made us in his image, and now, as parents, we want to make our kids in our image. So we say either overtly or covertly, "You need to be like me. You need to think like I think. You need to like the things I like.The things I was good at in school, you should be good at in school." The message comes through loud and clear to the kids: "You can't be yourself. The only way to get .. approval is to be like Mom and Dad."

Kids are not things to be moulded; they're people to be unfolded. Your goal in life should not be to mold your kids in your image. Your goal in life should be to help them discover who God made them to be.

I saw that I was unconsciously expecting my kids to be like me! No wonder it was getting harder to connect with them as they became teenagers. So now I'm learning to let go, but not just letting go, but giving them over in prayer to God. I'm on an adventure to help them discover who God made them to be!

Discovering Jared

Now he only ever took art classes when he was four, and though he has always been creative, I did not know that Jared had a real interest, until last year, when he told me he wants to apply to the School of the Arts. He didn't, but happily, is able to pursue his interest in his school's Art Elective Program. It is such a joy to see him actually taking to painting, learning art history, trying different genres, so happy he is enjoying it! He is not satisfied with these first tries, but I'm so proud and want to show of his painting of Ryan, and of himself (half portrait), so cool, aren't they?

Discovering Ryan

I can't post photos here, but we are really impressed of late, of how Ryan can be a fantastic host to Jared's friends. Jared has lots of friends over for projects and for fun, and it has been so nice to see Ryan serving them drinks and snacks, making sure all of them are having fun, or helping them when they need ideas for their projects. Considering how shy he can be, we are truly proud of the effort he is making, and how much he is winning over the lot of them :D  !!

Project Life:
Life in July is back to school, to more everyday-ness. Less of the fun and excursions of June, but no less of excitement, like the day we left soup cooking on the stove and it burnt the pot dry and blackened and smoke started billowing out of the kitchen. And we thought some neighbor was having barbeque!

Other fun stuff: Jared is taking Astronomy as an elective in school, and we all downloaded this cool app that shows and names all the stars and planets wherever you are! Try it - The Night Sky (Lite)

I didn't feel the need to print out more photos for highlighting in this month's physical PL, so instead I made a page of just words and stories!

Vietnam

Here are 5 more pages for the album. I've planned out the entire album, by sorting out all my photos into 25 photoshop files, there will be 25 double pages, and all of them will be in the 'One large photo' format! 

Here we were at the History and the Revolutionary Museums. Both are informative and very interesting. Quite inspiring and helps us to understand the people and their history, how hard they fought for what they believed in, and how that made them so resilient and strong. 

Here we are at the House on Stilts, which is where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked when he was prime minister and president.To us it really showed the mark of a true national hero in that he served the country selflessly, even insisted to live in the humble (but oh so lovely) house.

This is the Ho Chi Minh Museum, dedicated to the great leader. It was especially interesting to see war veterans and minority people visiting too.

Now this was where the boys loved most - all the military stuff were here, from both sides from the war. It was definitely fascinating for them!

Then here we are at the Temple of Literature, of Confucius, which has been associated with learning for centuries. On this day, a group of lovely young girls were there taking picture, we think they might be celebrating their graduation!

And here are the 5 templates in a set - find them in the store here!

Inspiration

And now I'm going to share with you all the most amazing layouts my lovely friends have made with Yin templates! They have different styles and it's so great to see how they have worked magic into creating their layouts. There were so beautiful I have to show you this huge bumper of layouts. Enjoy! 

By Christie Stearns - of her trip to Big Island of Hawaii. I'm sure this will be great inspiration for your summer pages :) Notice how lovely and coordinated and themed her backgrounds are!

By Kim. Like me, Kim also loves to put tonnes of photos of her beautiful family on layouts, and she is able to fit more elements in, more color, and more patterns, and still make it look balanced and beautiful :)

By Tawn of Homemakin' Girl - the super talented Tawn also has a photography business, that's why her photos are so stunning, no less the stunningly simple way she lays-out them!

THANK YOU LADIES FOR SHARING!

And here's the template for P365 for you!

download here