As with many projects in my world, I have grand intentions that get sidelined by life for indefinite stretches of time.  This unnatural Iowa heat wave and my sickness as of late (from which I am finally almost recovered… almost) has afforded me loads of time indoors to tackle said projects with abandon.  (I even organized my medicine cabinet!  Woohoo!)

So the taming of the paper monster is officially underway!  I loathe piles of paper.  And they are everywhere.  Bills.  Receipts.  Schedules.  Forms.  Mail.  School work.  Newsletters.  Art work.  And on… and on… and on.  At times, I have been slow to embrace certain technologies, but my scanner is my new best friend.  I am in the process of scanning everything (and backing it up, of course, because I am smart like that).  Even the IRS accepts digital copies of tax documents and receipts!

I am a sentimentalist and like most moms I know, throwing away anything my child has made with their sweet little hands is like ripping out a piece of me.  But who am I kidding?  At this rate, I will have to rent a storage unit to keep all the notes and art they make me everyday.  Perhaps my girls are unusually creative and crafty, but something’s gotta give.  So… I started scanning all of their memorable notes, artwork, and school work into .pdf and/or .jpg files. 

To be honest, at first, there were tears.  “Mom!  You’re throwing my monster picture away???  I made that!  For YOU!!!  Don’t you care anymore???”  Then, I showed my angels the technological wonder their fine mother had created.  As soon as they saw their work displayed on the computer screen and were informed that it could be printed out at any time or sent to Grandma through email or publicly posted to facebook at any time… they were more than thrilled.  Opportunities.  “We could be famous.” 

And then it happened.  The deluge.  A plethora really.  “Mommy, scan this picture.”  “Hey Mom.  I’ve got another one for you.”  “Mother, I’ve written a complete dissertation on the theory of relativity.”

I’m no longer certain if I have tamed a monster or created one because my “To Scan” pile seems significantly more daunting than it did a week ago. 

At any rate, here is a sampling: