Three years ago this week, my mother and I set out on a journey overseas, to spend eleven days in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland. Part adventure, part work, we went to do a little genealogy research and, heck, just to see these two great cities.
My mom’s grandfather was from Northern Ireland and he we know he was a school teacher in the village of Ballindrum (which no longer exists, but we know where it was). They left Ballindrum for Belfast and her father was born in Belfast. They then moved to Glasgow when he was about ten years old. His father joined the ship-building trade and I imagine my grandfather did as well before emigrating to the United States.
While we were there, I took—no joke—just over 700 pictures. I figured I may never go back (though I’d love to go back to Belfast), so I might as well take as many pictures as I can.
Why am I telling you this? Because, after three long years, I finally, FINALLY, finished my scrapbook of this trip!
Oh, relax, I’m not going to start preaching about the wonders and pleasures of scrapbooking. I might start preaching about the pleasures of getting over the procrastination bug and finishing a project, though. It gave me such a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that something I’d been thinking about and worrying about and fretting about for three years is finally done and I don’t have to think about it any more! Do you know what that’s like? It’s bliss, I tell you, bliss.
But here’s the funny part. I pushed myself to work on it every evening this week. Monday evening I gathered together everything I needed. Tuesday, I journaled the Belfast portion of the trip, Wednesday I journaled the Glasgow portion of the trip (adding a few embellishments to the pages each night), Thursday I put each page into page protector sleeves and Friday night I bound all the pages into two books, then put everything away. I was done around 10:15-10:30 each night, but Friday I was done around 8:30, tired, satisfied, and yet strangely, at loose ends. I wanted to keep working! I was glad I was done but I wanted to do more. But I forced myself to relax and just enjoy the evening…because Saturday I start a new project!
The pictures of my nephew’s wedding came in on Thursday, and I want to get those into an album as quickly as possible. Far fewer pictures—about 200—so it shouldn’t take me three years…hopefully only three weekends. I want these done because I still have all my South Carolina pictures (Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head), plus my trip to Chicago, not to mention all the pictures of my nieces and nephew that have been crowding numerous picture boxes for numerous years…
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