I love all sorts of holidays, especially those that give me the excuse to order Chinese food! Also, dragons are a BIG deal in our family. They have always been a favorite star of our stories, stuffed animal collections, and many books on our shelves. We are excited to be adding a little dragon to our family around the first of April since our daughter Riley is due with her second little boy soon. Hooray for the Year of the Dragon!

I started working on my January Roundup and ended up designing a new template set! I envisioned a framework that would allow me to easily change heading titles, as I don’t always report on the same categories each month. I’m excited about how this turned out! Not only can you swap the wording, but you can even change the color of each heading background. There’s plenty of room for written details and spaces for accompanying pocket cards and photos.

Roundups. Recaps. Reviews. You can call them whatever you like, but the general idea is the same. Just take some time to write down what has happened recently, add some pictures, and call it good! That’s what I do at the end of each month, and I plan to keep going strong with this practice as long as possible.

After choosing my word for 2024 (enjoy), I decided that creating a vision board would be a great way to get started on the new year. My daughter Riley has taught me the importance of this practice, and she has been really great about leading the way for me to get motivated.

After choosing my word for 2024 (enjoy), I decided that creating a vision board would be a great way to get started on the new year. My daughter Riley has taught me the importance of this practice, and she has been really great about leading the way for me to get motivated.

Do you pick a word for the year? Ali Edwards has inspired me to choose One Little Word every year since 2008. It’s become a really special tradition, and every member of our family chooses their own word as well.

My word for 2024 is enjoy.

Well, hello there. It's been a while. The longer I wait, the harder it gets to start this whole thing again. But I've been blogging since 2005, and I still love it. So I'm still here, and I'm glad you are too! Are you ready for a new year? I know I am.

The end of the month is here, and it's time to take a look back on all that has happened. I love to take a memory inventory at the end of each month and document it all in our family albums.

Here are some of the benefits of creating monthly roundups:

Here we are at the end of November! That means it's time to take a quick moment to pause and reflect on the past month. I love to take a few minutes at the end of each month to document my memories. 

You can use these prompts to write a journal entry, create a scrapbook, or make a list. Whatever you choose to do, I encourage you to take some time to document your memories. It's a great way to stay connected to your past and to appreciate all that you have.