In our current age, we have access to endless resources of memory keeping.
So limitless that it can quickly become overwhelming to decide what and how to compile your memories. I am all about living in the moment, being present and not stuck behind a camera or cell phone, but I do want to balance that with making use of the abilities I have to preserve moments of our lives.
My daughter recently poured over family albums I had printed for hours. She told me all about her memories from when she was one year old. Ha.
My philosophy on memory keeping is simple: 鈥淪omething is better than nothing.鈥� Here are some simple ways I streamline this process.
Chatbooks: I鈥檓 not a sponsor for them but I can鈥檛 help but share how easy their system is to use. I snapped pictures of all of my kids鈥� favourite art pieces from the year and it took five minutes to load them to the Chatbooks app, pick a cover and order a 6x6 book for each of them. This also lets me recycle the originals (gasp) and cuts down on clutter. Keep your favourites obviously but when your kid draws 10 pictures a day we can鈥檛 keep them all.
One Second Every Day:This is an app that prompts you to record a one-second snippet of your day, every single day. It鈥檚 new to me but I鈥檓 excited to compile each month into a 30-second video of what our days held. Just think what five years will look like.
Lists:Keeping journals or writing memoirs can be overwhelming but surely a list is manageable. Think 鈥淭op 10 Meals in our Rotation,鈥� 鈥淧eople we saw over Christmas Holidays,鈥� or 鈥淕ames our family loves to play.鈥� Try and keep one spot where you record all of your lists 鈥� your own 鈥渓istography,鈥� if you will.
Those are my top three ways I stay on top of the memories I want to preserve. I also organize all photos by month to go into photo books, but I鈥檓 a good four years behind. Yikes!
