Memory Keeping

Do you journal or do any kind of memory keeping?  Sometimes I wonder if journaling is a lost art- the act of sitting down and physically writing your thoughts on paper.  I used to journal a lot years ago, but sometimes, I would find myself using the computer to get it all out because it was faster.  I have a fascination with documenting things and always keep my paper calendars from years past.  I've got calendars dating back to when I was a college waitress and bartender and every week wrote down how much I made in tips.  I even found an old journal entry the other day from 13 years ago, the first week of law school when I was lamenting how hard it was.  Funny how I made sure to put that it was 12:41 a.m. at the time. 

Seems like so long ago now, but I'm glad I have those memories recorded.  Do you remember when Oprah encouraged us to keep a gratitude journal?  I did that too, writing down 5 things I was grateful for each day.  I'm still grateful for some of the same things now- a comfy bed, my health, long sleeps . . .  and of course new things like my son and family, a nice home, and recent tight friendships.

I think this is part of why I enjoy blogging so much- it's a log of what's been going on in my life and around my house over the years.  It will be 4 years I've been blogging in June.  Now, I seem to be drawn to other types of journals, like the DIY 5-Year Notecard Journal.  The idea is to create 365 notecards, one for each day, and jot just one thing down on each card, continuing over the years.  This is great for a low time-commitment type of memory keeping.  I like this idea for chronicling things with your kids since they grow so fast and say the funniest things that we want to remember. 

via Whit & Whistle

I've also been hearing a lot about Project Life, which is more like a journaling/scrapbooking combo.  Seems like I would like this, I certainly have a lot of crafty supplies I could use!  It would take a lot more time, but be something I think I would enjoy doing.  I'm just not sure how often I'd really do it.  

via Finding Nana

I love how Neena prints out her Instagram photos to make them into her memory book.  I take a ton of photos with my iPhone- I have 6,220 right now- totally need to start deleting some.  

via Finding Nana

via Finding Nana

I was also considering putting together a Shutterfly album.  Have y'all done that?  I hear it's pretty easy.  I think I'm just craving something more intimate to store personal thoughts and precious memories than FB and Instagram.  

While browsing Finding Nana's blog, I found this free app, COLLECT.  It's the cooling thing, a photo journal app for Project 365 (committing to taking one photo a day for a year).  Although it's been out for  a long time, I'm new to it and I'm still playing around with it, but look what it can do- 

via

I already take one photo a day (at least), but I'm going to start putting them in this calendar format for sure.  I can easily commit to that!  

All this talk about journaling reminds me of the SMASH book I shared in jr. high with two other girls.  We took turns passing it back and forth all year and it was chock full of opinions, cutouts, songs, poems, crushes, and inside jokes- completely awesome.  Until it got stolen. :(

source unknown

Do you do anything special to store your memories?