HOW TO GATHER JUNE MEMORIES:

• Review calendars, social media posts, journal entries, etc. - I use the Momento app to keep everything in one place and then look back through my online calendar.

• Make sure all your photos are uploaded and backed up to at least 3 places. If you use Google Photos, your photos will already be sorted by date. I like to search the month (June 2019) and then select all of those photos and create an album for them in Google Photos called June 2019. It’s not necessary, but I find it useful.

• Gather any memorabilia from the month such as ticket stubs, invitations, programs etc. Scan or photograph them if desired and then upload them with your photos for the month. And/or put them in a file marked June 2019 if you plan to save the physical copies for scrapbooking or memory boxes.

I recently watched an online lesson from Deepak Chopra about how to handle inner and external chaos. It was something that I wasn’t expecting to be so helpful and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much I have used these 4 sentences to get myself through chaotic situations.

What am I observing? (Non judgmentally) It’s important to simply identify what is happening without placing judgment on it. This is harder than it seems.

What am I feeling?

What do I need?

What is the best way to fulfill this need?

I used this new learning as inspiration for a 2 page art journaling spread.

For more than 13 years, I’ve kept a private blog just for my family. It’s been a place to share photos of my children with my parents and siblings. We used it to document our homeschool years and even though it’s been more than 7 years since anybody in the house has been homeschooled, we still tend to refer to it as “the homeschool blog” for some reason.

It’s a place to record vacations, school and work information, missions and church stuff, health progress, holidays, special events and more. I use a very similar format to my Creative Lady blog.

There are several events and venues that don’t allow photography. You can’t snap photos during performances like plays and symphonies. You also are not allowed to take pictures during a movie. If you love to document these events, you might want to use one of my favorite tricks. Just hold up a program or ticket for the performance and take a picture of it before it begins.

I’m so grateful that I started this layout early in the month and kept adding to my journaling cards as the month progressed because as I reached the end of May, I didn't feel like working on this project. I think it’s important to carve time for creative projects when you have the energy to work on them.

Here’s a little glimpse of my past month:

I think you know what I’m going to say here, right? It’s the last day of the month and that means I’m going to share my roundup prompt!

I don’t even have to think about doing a roundup at the end of the month anymore because it has just become part of my memory keeping routine. I can look back at any month since I started doing roundups in January of 2006 and find information on what our lives were like at any given time. It’s very useful for memory keeping and often helpful in many other ways as well. I’m excited to getting working on my April roundup! 🌷

I just realized that I never shared my March roundup page here. I posted it on Instagram right at the beginning of March but neglected to post it here. I love how it turned out!

My life has really been crazy this year. We’ve had some significant illnesses, injuries, challenges, changes, and just all sorts of random things that have popped up. It’s really always been that way (life usually keeps us on our toes) but it feels like it’s been a bit of a pile on lately. Even with all of that, we are all still OK and that’s what matters at the end of the day.