Memory Keeping Thursdays-Weeks 1 & 2

I am terrible about memory keeping.  I always WANT to do it, but finding the time to do it has been challenging.  

That is going to change in 2014.  I will be testing the waters with some mini-books, traditional 12x12 pages and pocket pages.  I may even try out some digital media.  It's a year of experimenting on finding the best way to keep memories, so hang in there for what I expect to be a bumpy ride of exploration, creativity and fun!

Week 1

This week has been mostly about getting myself organized in my memory keeping.  Since my boys started school 5 years ago, we have been overrun with papers and artwork that I want to save. 

I briefly used artkive, which is a fantastic app where you photograph your child's artwork and store it online (in the app) by year, etc.  If you like digi media best, this is definitely an awesome and easy way to clear the clutter and save the memories.

At the end of the day, I am a tactile person.  I want to see the actual crayon strokes and know that my child held this paper in his hands.  So ultimately, I had to find a storage solution.

I gave myself an early Christmas gift of 30 flat storage boxes, 15 for each of my two children, one per year they are in school until they graduate.  They are big enough to store the oversized preschool artwork, but not big enough to keep everything.  I plan to save some room in each box for a small album for each child with photos from their year.  Limited space will help me teach my boys about prioritizing, as they still think that every broken toy should stay with them forever.  :-)

This was definitely not a budget solution, but it has already made life so EASY to sort, purge and start saving bits from their childhood.  And look how pretty they look on the shelf!

Week 2

This week, I am delving into the land of Project Life while trying to finish up my December Daily from 2012.  (Yes, 2012.  :-))

We spent our holidays running (doesn't everyone?!), so we went to the Nutcracker after the New Year.  It's a first for my kids, and I was worried about my 5 year old sitting through it.  Holy cow did he love it!  My seven year old is a little too cool for school when it comes to ballet (although if you ask him specifically, he lights up talking about various of the characters).  But my little guy sat enamored through the entire show,  clapping loudly every time they finished a piece (and sometimes before they were finished!).  It was an awesome day and something I was so grateful to share with them.


My first ever December Daily (2012) has been slow to complete, but once I got over feeling bad about how late it is, I have been able to enjoy the process completely!  This has been an experiment in letting go of my expectations for myself-- both in the timing and the design factors.  I have officially let go of doing it the "right" way (whatever that is!).

I learned that you don't actually have to do the daily part of a December Daily-- just as much as you can.  I have put very little design pressure on myself, which means I definitely like some pages better than others.  The lack of pressure, though, makes the process so enjoyable.  I am almost finished with it, so I will share as soon as I have more done.

Are you done with your December Daily???