to explain the title of my blog: Ordinarily Extraordinary. It’s not titled this because I think I’m an extraordinary person. Believe me I am very, very ordinary. I’m a plain jane; I never wear make-up and nothing dramatic has ever really happened to me (believe me, I’m thankful for this). And now at almost 33 years of age I am very okay with this fact about myself.
There are two reasons I titled my blog Ordinarily Extraordinary. The first reason is that I have come to realize that everyone is extraordinary. Even though someone may seem like a plain jane or dull or downright annoying and aggravating they may be, they were created by God and that alone makes them extraordinary. I will admit that this is very easy for me to forget when the frustrations of life get to me.
The second reason is because I have come to realize that there is something so extraordinary about the ordinary in the everyday. I find the most amazing moments with my son in the very simple and everyday things we do. I want to be able to remember the funny things he says and does, the crazy way he acts sometimes. The ordinary things our family does. The ordinary things that are him and us.
And this probably all stems from my scrapbooking and the passion I have for it. Thanks to the Scrapbooking idea books of Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, and Stacy Julian, I have begun to see my "art" of scrapbooking in a different way. It’s so much more important to me now to remember the stories behind the photos and the stories of our everyday life.
When I first started scrapbooking it was all about getting photos on a page. Then I started catching myself going back through old photos (especially from my childhood) and wondering about the stories behind those photos. Growing up I loved to write. My major in college was all about reading and writing. I’m so thankful I picked up the books by the above mentioned ladies. They really helped bring my two passions, photography and writing, together in my scrapbooking -which truly is my art. I am so much more mindful each day to look for the tidbits of our ordinary life that make life extraordinary.
(This makes me think that I forgot to take a photo of my mom’s sausage balls at Christmas – something very ordinary that she does for us at Christmas that I look forward to every year. Maybe she’ll make them for me for my birthday – HINT HINT. Hmm…maybe I should learn how to make them myself one day, too.)
So there you have it. I hope you all find the extraordinary in your ordinary. As for me, it’s back to the very ordinary task of laundry.
