What am I good at, Mum?

One of the things that really tickles me about scrapbooking is that you then have a tangible memory prompt of an occasion to return to again and again. Sure we have photos of the big occasions, the weddings and birthdays etc. But sometimes its the little moments that only seem to be significant when you look back on them and mark them as milestones;turns in the road that take you and yours into uncharted waters.

My class that I'm teaching this week is using photos of Alex as a ten year old boy. Its the year Santa Clause bought him a guitar for Christmas. Its the year he discovered what it was that God had written as his purpose into his DNA, and where we as Mum and Dad saw our youngest start to shine.

The boys as they were growing up would always ask their Dad and I "What are we good at?" And we'd list through the family...Dad is really good at building things, and fixing things and teaching things to people. Mum is really good at arty things and shopping and talking to people and finding jobs for Dad to do. Ben has got a "Sciencey" Mind and loves to know the how and why of things. Jake is the artist, can draw, and write and understand weird things like hypertext markup language and 01000101001010111110 lol. And the last little voice would pipe up and ask " and what am i good at?

And his Dad and I would look at each other and wonder where our Knobby-kneed seven year old was going to shine.
"...and your a mixture of both your brothers, sciencey and arty.." we'd tell him and he'd beam a big grin at us.

Then the guitar arrived and everything fell into place.

Where Russell and Ben see the order and logic; and Jake and I see the colour and light; Alex hears differently to us.
"Can you hear that Mum...? it (the guitar)sounds like crying"
or when selling a guitar at work when asked whats the difference in two guitars "Well this one sounds big and fat and filling like a bowl of hot chips and gravy (he plays it)...and this one sounds tight and crisp and fresh like a salad thats just come out of the fridge...Can you hear it?"
And all the musicians can...and we mere mortals just smile and nod and delight in his passion.

So the class this week will feature photos from when Alex first fell in love with music. There is stamping and distressing and also making our own embellishments which can really keep the prices down which we love! Also some more of my favourite embellishment...good old kitchen string. Be sure to book a place as there are limited seats.

And finally Alex at the end of last year. We were in Brisbane and he was auditioning to get into the Conservatory of Music. Not successful this time, but a great experience and since school has finished a whole world of opportunity has arisen for him. The world really is his oyster. I'm very proud as you can tell.