There is a new digital scrapbooking design on my drawing board called Sunny Side Up that is packed with more goodies then you would find at a Denny’s Breakfast Buffet– pancakes, waffles, eggs and bacon- and even a few cocktails for those decadent days of brunching.

The spark for the design was actually my grumpiness with the cold winter mornings of February- and a little bit of Spring fever.  “Sunnier days have to be ahead…” I found myself thinking as I poured my morning fuel of coffee. ” I just have to keep my sunny side up!” *ding* “That would make a fun design” – These internal monologues go on  throughout the day- please tell me I’m not alone in this!

Anyway, I set out designing happy little breakfast images in sunny colors and then, when all was said and done, I sat back and thought- “It’s pretty cool- but is it usable?“  How many stories of breakfast can I really tell? Without being repetitive- or, um, boring? lol!”

So I did a quick Google photo search in my library and just put in the work “breakfast”- JOY! I was surprised of all the photos the search picked up- and when I looked closely at them- almost every picture was about so much more than the good eats on the plate.

There’s this photo of the boys on Saint Paddy’s morning– I love how delighted they were at the sight of a totally green breakfast!

Then I found this long forgotten photo of a typical Saturday Morning– the stuffed animals, the bottle, the sweet PJs- it made my heart sigh.  This was a lazy Saturday that they got to have their breakfast “in bed” and watch cartoons. Ryan looks like he’s explaining a plot line, and little Liam looks absolutely  entranced. It’s role that’s been relayed 100’s of times in our home.  I don’t think I’ve told that story yet- and it’s one definitely worth telling.

Then I came across this photo. I smiled at the memory.  Each year before the first day of school, I would take the boys for a special breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.  Chocolate milk and a frosted donut.  It was ritual- until the mornings got busier and we lost the luxury of simple slow starts to the day. Now, the pace is a little faster, and Donut Days have been pushed to the weekends- I need to capture this moment in a layout for sure…

 

Finally, there’s this photo.  This one made my heart a ache a little.  It’s not, as you might think, a photo of the little guy enjoying pancakes at McDonalds. It’s more.  If you look at his smile, with a mama’s eyes,  you can see it’s not really a happy one.  We had just dropped his big brother off at the airport for a week long trip to Ireland.  Liam was heart broken. It was the longest the two would have been apart in their lives- they had a rushed goodbye because of airport security, and I know both had a few hugs and words left unsaid. We tried to cheer him up with his favorite breakfast- but this was beyond the power of pancakes. It was a hard morning.

 

There are so many photos that I have tagged as “breakfast”- Looking at each, and using the setting and time as a prompt- I am struck by how many “breakfast time” stories I have yet to tell!  I love that! Sometimes I think that my life is a little too routine to make for a good layout- but then, when you look closer at the routines and the everyday- you can see how many special stories there are to tell.