It’s almost the last day of the month and that means it’s time to take a few minutes and gather up your memories. This is my single most useful memory keeping tool! I’ve been doing this EVERY month since January of 2006. Now if the perfect time to start!

I’ve been searching Pinterest and the internet to try to find pictures of several photobook albums displayed on a bookshelf. I’ve had a hard time finding what I’m looking for. Maybe nobody has completed that many? lol! Or maybe they just haven’t thought to take a picture of them on a shelf. Most online images of photo books seem to share what the inside looks like. Of course, I’m very interested in that too - but I have been trying to figure out what I want my bookshelf to look like when I have multiple albums finished because that will influence what I decide to use for the covers. It’s a way to scrap with the end in mind.

I’m always grateful for my monthly roundup habits and my favorite way to use these prompts is right on a scrapbook page. I love adding details to my THIS MONTH cards and putting them all on a page with photos and a few fun cards to make it complete. Here’s what July looked like:

I received a question the other day that I think is worth sharing. I imagine that several people have felt this same sort of apprehension about how to tackle the whole thing and make it cohesive. Here’s the actual comment:

Late to the game here, but...I bought a huge bunch of PL/pocket page protectors, and am having issues. I "thought" I'd like this form of scrapbooking, but...

HOW on Earth does one plan these pages? I've watched lots of videos about PL/pocket page scrapping, but none explain how to plan the pages. I can do one side, but then the next side... I'm seriously regretting making this purchase. :( Maybe you can explain how you plan both side of these pages!

I have a couple of ideas that I’m hoping will help this reader and others who feel this way as well.

For a long month, July sure did speed by! I’m getting ready to do my own personal roundup of the month’s events and I wanted to remind you that this is the perfect opportunity to take some time to document your own life. You can start this process at any time and you don’t have to do it every single month - although you will be glad if you are regular about it. Just look over the prompts and answer a few questions. Easy peasy!

Today is a holiday in the state of Utah. The 24th of July is known as Pioneer Day around here because that is the date that the Mormon Pioneers entered the Salt Lake valley (in 1847) and decided to call this home. The 24th is often just as big of a deal as the 4th of July around here. There is a big parade downtown + a marathon and many people gather for barbecues, picnics, and fireworks.

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.