Lookee What I Can Do!!!

Lookee what I can do!!! Do you remember one of the last scenes of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer when Yukon Cornelius walks into Santa’s workshop with the Abominable Snowman? Everyone gasps with fright at first but then Yukon says, “Lookee what he can do!” and then puts the star on the top of the Christmas tree. Well, that phrase was in my head all last night.

Yesterday, after posting my first blog post, I went to The Apple Store to ask some questions about how to make collages with my pictures. Is there something in iphoto that I don’t know about? Do I need photoshop? Is there an apple program that can do this for me? I came prepared. I brought my new iphone with blogs that I liked with collages of pictures and said, “This is what I want to do.” The guy understood what I wanted but after just a few sentences…he was over my head. He showed me his own blog and all the things he did…again, over my head. He told me I could do it in photoshop but I would have to make all the templates for the collage…again, over my head. And then it happened. He started showing me apps in the apps store and there is an app for collages with lots of templates and all I would have to do is drop my pictures into place. So simple! I can do this. And so I left the store, went home and it worked! I was so proud of myself! What an awesome feeling! I was overwhelmed and then I “got it!”

I started to think about my kids. They are in school all day and are constantly learning new things…algebra, long division, the phases of the moon, ancient civilizations. They have these opportunities to learn new things everyday. Even outside of school, there is learning. Molly started taking horseback riding lessons. Shannon has been practicing a new song on the piano. Timmy and Ryan are constantly trying to fine-tune their basketball skills. But as a stay-at-home-mom, I feel that I don’t have as many learning opportunities as I did in the past. I get caught-up in the everyday stuff of laundry and food shopping and scheduling and their homework, that I don’t remember the last time I learned a new skill for myself. I loved the feeling yesterday of knowing what I wanted to do, seeking out the information, and then getting it done. So now I must remember to seek out to learn new skills so I can say again… “Lookee what I can do!!!”