on writing your family's story

I will never admit to loving winter. I do, however, love seasons. And I love the season of winter for the activities, the routines, it prescribes. Winter is my time for reflecting on the year past, sorting through pictures, pulling stories and snippets from various journals I keep, and compiling it all in a book, er, two books, for us to remember the year for what it was: a gift.

I have just finished the first installment of 2012, {january~june}.

We are all enjoying it. I love that my boys love to sit and look at it. I love that they want to make their own. It sits on the table in front of our sofa, easy access for all, and serves to be an ever present reminder to me of how much I have been given. It reminds me that this life and these little lives I spend my life for are gifts. 

Anyhow, I think I might really put myself out there and do a little series of posts on writing your family's story in an effort to encourage you to slow down enough to pick up your pen or grab your camera and document these crazy days of life with exuberant kiddos. 

I have been taking pictures, scribbling words, and making picture books for as long as I can remember. Was introduced to Creative Memories when I was in 9th grade and enjoyed exercising my creativity in that scrapbook style of recording up until Josiah was born. I had braced myself for the reality that spending hours putting pictures together in that style was going to be unrealistic for me after I had a baby. (Thanks, Ali, for the heads-up.) I resorted to the simple slip-in-the-sleeve albums that you can get at Costco for $10. But, after more than a decade of producing fat photo albums, I now had the problem of where to store all those books. All lined up they took up more than seven feet of shelf space! That was when the idea of digital albums really appealed to me. 

Three years ago I made my first "year in review" family album through My Publisher. It is 100 pages and takes up a whopping one inch on my shelf. And, if it were ever to suffer the sad fate of having coffee spilled all over it, it is saved both online and on my computer so I could just order another. 

I love digital photo books. I love having the story of our lives in pictures and words easily accessible for me to flip back and remember what God was doing in us last year. Or three years ago. It is my hope that I would be able to give you a little inspiration to write your own family's story. And to save you some time by sharing what I have learned over the years.