Monday, April 11, 2011

An Elephant Never Forgets and Neither Do Scrapbooks

Your history is important. The history of your family is important. If you are a scrapbooker you are THE historian for your family. Over this past month my family have been watching the HBO miniseries on John Adams. As direct descendants of his we were especially thrilled to see how he and the other founding fathers started this great country. It made me appreciate history even more and wish that someone had made scrapbooks going all the way back to the beginnings of our country. I sure would have loved to see the lives of each generation of the Adams family laid out in a scrapbook of photos and journaling.

We are lucky because now we can write down that history for our descendants in not only an accurate way but also using our creativity to make it beautiful too. Don't ever estimate the importance of scrapbooking. Preserving the memories of your family is one of the best gifts you'll ever give them. Don't worry if you are "behind" or if your pages aren't quite perfect. Don't be concerned about not having the right embellishment or that you can't remember the exact date the photo was taken. Those trivial items won't even be noticed by the generations after you. What they will notice is that you took the time to share your life and the lives of your family members in a way that would last for years. They'll notice that you cared enough to make sure that they would know who you and your family were, how you lived, what you ate, how you played.

No matter how much or how few pages you've done so far, pat yourself on the back and KNOW that it' so much more than a hobby, you are truly capturing memories.

5 comments:

  1. I still struggle to remember to journal my pages in an effective way. I've been trying to at least add a tag behind a photo with journaling if I've forgotten to include a journal spot on the page.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I whole heartedly agree with you. My Grandma Minnie took lots of ppictures and wrote on the backs of them. She was my maternal grandmother., but on the other side I have nothing and we were related to Jessie James and Charles Dickens, or so I've been told. But I have no records to go to. So I am happy to put my two cents worth down for my grandkids and beyound! Thanks for the encouraging words, I look forward to your posts everyday. Hope you are feeling in tip-top shape again. Vicki

    ReplyDelete
  3. Journaling is always a task for everyone. I was anti-journaling at first. Even worried my handwriting wasnt good enough! But now I tell a story on every page, because it TRUELY is important to those that read our books to know what in the world we were thinking when we created that page!! LOL Past or present pictures the story is what it is all about!

    ReplyDelete
  4. John Adams was an incredible series. The Revolution is my favorite time period. Abigail Adams was such a wonderful woman and he quite genius. My favorite is Thomas Jefferson, though. I could go on and on - heck - I could make an entire scrapbook!

    ReplyDelete