Storing Memories for When They are 92!

Now that most of my kids are grown, it’s funny the things they tell me they remember, those special days or outings that are their favorite memories, so many things that I don’t remember doing, things that were so simple.

So this morning I’m up, thinking through my to-do list and realized I need to do something *special* yet simple with the little ones, because today may be one of those days they will remember when they are 92, and they will tell their great-grandchildren about their growing up and how God had blessed them with a family that loved them.

Perhaps we can walk down to the lake with a quilt, PB&J’s and read a couple chapters of Little House in the Big Woods? Or go for a hike? Or maybe something so simple as singing hymns (which we do almost every day), or playing Bingo after the school work is done.

Surely we can all find an hour or two in our day to simply enjoy each other.

Let us not get so busy knocking out that to-do list that we don’t enjoy the simple pleasures of conversation, walks and laughter.

Take pictures, journal, blog, even just a little bit on a regular basis, because you will forget, but you can document, and help them remember later.

Make Them Remember

I use to do scrapbooking, now I just do Facebook. Someday I WILL get all my digital pictures into photo books.

When the children came to stay with us last January I had to throw together our curriculum rather quickly.

For our morning lessons I made each of us a binder with page protectors.

In the binder I put the words to the songs we were learning; each month we learn a new one.

I include our memory work (we started out with the 10 Commandments) and our catechism questions…

and a list of the 21 Rules for the House. These were really good in the beginning as the children had to get use to a new way of life. We now review them maybe once or twice a month.

Each month I add a new character trait, we go over this 2-3 times a week and review the previous traits once or twice a month.

All these things, the memory verses, the character traits, the 21 Rules, the catechism questions and the hymns are GREAT to have ready to use as copywork too!

And what binder would be complete without a chore chart?

For older kids it would be great to add a list of goals too!

But this is their favorite part:

In the back of the binder I let the kids scrapbook, which for them was just gluing pictures in. Remember, everything is in page protectors.

We are big picture-takers around here, so from day one we have LOTS of pictures… we’re kind of like first time parents again!

One thing I noticed quickly was something that I’ve noticed in my grown kids, they “remember” more based on the pictures in their scrapbooks than they do the actual memory it’s self.

The new kiddos are constantly going through their binders and studying the pictures, ‘remembering’ the day they came here, remembering when Olivia built fairy houses with them, remembering when we made cupcakes while it was storming outside, etc…

This forces them to think on the happy memories, to ‘remember’ the good times!

I’ve also used our binders to show our social worker and lawyers a little of what our life looks like. The kids LOVE showing them to everyone that comes to visit!

We are almost 7 months post the kid’s arrival and their binders are getting full.I hope to be able to start fresh binders at their 1 year mark and put these on the shelf as their keepsakes!

I also figured if they had to leave us they would have plenty of pictures to take with them…to remember their time with us.

In this age of everything being digital let’s be sure to give our kids some physical things to look at, to touch…to remember by!

Take LOTS of pictures, even of trivial things, make sure people are smiling…even laughing. They WILL remember these things, but you may have to help them. YOU are writing history… YOU are documenting it!

Mothers are Historians!

As we approach the end of 2010 it is good to be reflective of the year, remembering the good and bad times, and see how we grew from them. We can be thankful for the lives that are no longer with with us (Jeff lost an uncle this year).

We are on a school break for a couple of weeks…who can concentrate with so much excitement (Christmas) going on? ;o)

One of my goals this next week is to get ALL of my photos that are on both of my computers and put them on a flash drive AND a CD. I always need a back up of my back up. I also want to make a copy for each of the kids to take with them when they marry.

A couple of years I have gotten the year’s pictures burned onto a DVD as a slide show with music and subtitles, I’m hoping to find time to do that again. Windows Movie Maker is pretty simple to use, I also use Sony Vegas.

As easy as burning pictures to CDs and flash drives is, there is still something about a scrapbook! I have about 6 years worth of blogging and pictures online, which has taken place of most of my hand written journaling. So this next year I want to set aside a few hours a week and sloooowly, get my writings and pictures moved to SeeHere.com (I like their sale prices the best!). If I can get it all moved there, laid out and ready to print into a book I can save it until they run a big sale.

I have old fashion, cut and glue scrapbooks for my kids up until about 5-6 years ago. I want all my kids to have their own set of memory books to take with them when they get married.

As a mother I feel that is it part of my duty that I keep a good history of our family. As I get older and memories fade, and when the rough times hit I want to be able to remember God’s faithfulness…and I want my kids to remember!

This is actually Olivia taking pictures, it helps that both of my girls are always snapping pictures…just like their momma!

At the very least, you can buy a cheap digital camera, or borrow one and have the pictures put on a disc. You’ll never regret doing it, but you might regret not doing it!