I am a Memory Keeper. I document our family stories through pictures and words and I LOVE it! I’ve shared ways to to record your memories. I even posted a list of 5 ways to document memories here, but what is the why? Why am I a memory keeper and why do I love it so much?
10 Reasons Why I Love Being a Memory Keeper
1. I love that my daughters will know my story, as a mother and before.
Many memory keepers start documenting once they have kids and I was the same. I took pictures before having kids but not half as many as I do now and I certainly never put words to the photos. In the past year I've gone back and created a photo album with highlights of my own life before I had kids so they know me before I was their Mom. This is important to me having lost my own Mother way too soon.
2. I love that my daughters will have a beautiful record of their own lives in photos AND words.
Kids are amazing, unique, individuals. On any given day mine say 100 different things that blow my mind. If I don’t write them down I will never remember. I want to tell the stories of the cute little personalities they have and how their personalities change and develop as they grow older.
3. I love that memory keeping has challenged and pushed me to embrace my creativity.
I always used to say, "I’m not really creative". I still feel that way some days but because I love this hobby I push through, and you know what, now when I finish a page I step back and feel really proud of what I’ve created. Even though some days I may not feel like it I know I am a creative person. I just have to embrace the vulnerability, make mistakes and make pages that I love.
4. I love that through my albums my daughters can know beloved family members who have passed on.
I lost my brother 11 years ago and my Mom 4 years ago. My daughters never got to meet my brother. My older daughter knew my Mom until she was almost 3. My youngest never got a chance to meet her.
When I write those words I do feel sad but I also know that through the albums I’ve created and will continue to create they will get to know both of these amazing people whom I loved so much. (Noell spoke beautifully about this on a recent espisode of her podcast, The Paperclipping Roundtable.)
5. I love that I can beautifully capture the memories of our travels.
I love to travel and hope to pass that love on to my kids. Vacations are such a special snapshot in time. I love the photos of all the places I’ve been, alone and with my family, and I love all the special little memories I have of each place. I often take a journal and my Fujifilm Instax camera on trips so I can start my scrapbook before we even get home.
6. I love that scrapbooking allows us to physically enjoy our family photos outside of a screen.
I currently have over 12,000 photos in my Photos library. 12,000!!! With the advent of digital cameras you probably have just as many if not more, am I right? After you take a picture does your family ever see it again? I want to encourage you to get some of your favorite photos off your computer and put them into an album.
Angie Lucas' idea of Our Best Days album is a great idea to record just the most important life milestones. Project Life is another great option. So easy for printing photos and adding a journaling card. There's even an app! Share your photos with your family in physical form. They will love it.
7. I love that I am documenting the magic of the holiday seasons.
Holidays are a magical time. Magic for kids, and amazing for parents to watch their kids experience that magic (see title photo). Print some of your favorite holiday photos and put them in an album. Dedicated holiday albums are a great way to see how time passes and how each family member has grown in the past year.
8. I love having a record of our everyday life.
Some of my most cherished moments are of something that was said as we drove to soccer practice or as we were all snuggled up together watching a movie or as we were playing outside. I am more mindful of those everyday moments now and if I want to remember how I felt in that moment I have to document it.
My favorite mindful memory keeper, Ali Edwards, leads a great memory keeping project called Day in the Life. She encourages you to to "document a single day in your life from the time you get up to the time you go to bed." The next day is coming up on May 12th so head over to her site and check it out!
9. I love the memory keeping community and the friends I’ve made there.
In the few short years that I’ve been scrapbooking, I’ve made many great friends (mostly online) who are just as dedicated to journaling, photos and pretty paper as I am. I've also learned so much about memory keeping through their blogs, Instagram feeds, and online learning websites. Thank you for all the inspiration!
10. I love that through memory keeping I have become a more creative, mindful, and strong, woman and mother.
Being a memory keeper has changed me. I look for the little moments. I've found the courage to tell my own story. I've embraced my artistic side. All of those things I want to pass on to my own children. I have memory keeping to thank for that.
This list is adapted from a scrapbooking layout I did in January as part of the Simple Scrapper event, Start Fresh. My list is hidden on the back of the hexagon (it flips up).
What is your why? Why do you take photos of your family? Why do you keep a journal? Why are you a memory keeper? Tell me your why in the comments!
Thank you for spending a moment with me. Have a wonderful weekend!
P.S. You can see a few more posts I found on memory keeping "whys" here, here, and here. Also, Wendy Smedley’s book, Start Scrapbooking, has a great first chapter on reasons why people scrapbook and includes a goal-setting worksheet for your beginning memory keeping projects.
This post was originally published at Mindful Memory Keeping