The Rear-View Mirror

The rear-view mirror is an essential tool when driving. It enables us to keep an eye on vehicles or objects behind us, as well as give us a mini-view of where we've been When planning a fun trip, part of the package is the excitement and anticipation in planning and waiting for the big day to arrive. Unfortunately, the fun trip usually whizzes by much faster than the days leading up to it. Once we're back home again, and after the icky post-vacation chores are complete, it's time to check out the rear-view mirror, and take a look at what's behind us. Hopefully, the view will include lots of fun memories, such as is the case of our scrapbook retreat week before last. I must say, though, the atmosphere of this year's trip was quite different from previous years. There are six of us gals who are scrappers, and in years past, we've had different tag-along friends who would join us. I don't think we've ever had one make a second trip with us though, because we stay so focused on our craft that a non-scrapper gets bored rather quickly. This year there were no takers, though, and it was just us scrap-nuts. Now you must understand, that in order to be away from home for several days, and create hundreds of magnificent pages of memories, it is necessary to take numerous tote bags, rolling bags, shoulder bags, boxes, plastic crates, folding tables, crafting lights, and hundreds of pounds of card stock and pretty printed paper. The aforementioned items must be loaded into our vehicles, driven up long, curvy mountain roads, then unloaded from our vehicles and carted into the house. Then this precious cargo must be hauled down a flight of stairs into our work area. When the trip is over, the process repeats itself in reverse. Just wanted to be sure you understand the physical labor that is involved in carrying the tools of our craft. And it is totally worth it!! However, this particular trip was not as productive, layout wise if you will, as our trips in the past. For some reason or another, we had a bad case of the lazies, and all we wanted to do was nap. Then we'd snack a bit, then we'd rest a bit. At first I felt a little guilty about not staying at my table 20 hours of the day, however, I was soon able to chill out a bit and just enjoy the down time. Yes, it was a fabulous trip, and though I only completed half the amount of work I normally do, I truly enjoyed being indulgent with the lazies.