Sunday, March 29 - Tuesday, March 31: Junk Journaling Begins

Throughout our time in Iceland, the girls and I were intent on collecting ephemera to use for junk journaling, a new craft we planned to begin after our trip. Maps, brochures, food wrappers, business cards, packaging, napkins, placemats, boarding passes, luggage tags--we saved it all, usually asking Andrew to carry it in his backpack as we went about our days. You probably don't have to work very hard to imagine how Andrew felt about this, or how he felt when we gathered everything up in a big, messy stack to take home at the end of our trip. One man's trash etc; except this time it really IS trash. Trash that would be transformed into artful, visually interesting pages of our junk journals.

On Sunday, a fully free day, we set ourselves up at the table in the Long Room and began. We'd purchased journals at a Flying Tiger in Rekjavik, and we got out all of our collected garbage components as well as patterned papers, stickers, and other stationery items we already had. Lucia set up her computer so we could watch My Little Pony episodes while we journaled (the rediscovery of MLP is confusing, but they're both enjoying this nostalgic return). We all made pages with our Iceland materials.

Unfortunately I had to go to work on Mondy and Tuesday, but the kids continued to work on pages, and I did as well when I got home each day. I have to say that this is an incredibly fun and engaging activity. Yesterday I pulled a bunch of snack and cereal boxes out of the recycling bag and made a food spread. Lucia made an intricate, interactive spread using old Unicorno boxes. Greta got engrossed in watching MLP on Sunday but has been creating pages when she isn't digging through her old bin of pony figurines.

I love Spring Break. I love having the kids at home. I love crafting together. This is just the sort of peaceful activity that--yes!--makes me lose my mind and think maybe we should homeschool for the remainder of the high school years. Should we pull the kids out of formal education? Can I devise a curriculum that revolves around junk journaling? YES I CAN.

Anyway. The mess from this activity is epic, more so because we keep everything out; we are a family that keeps our art projects set up for days on end. Weeks, maybe. Junk journaling definitely isn't for everyone. But we love it.