:: hello may ::

Hello drinking more water.
Hello taking care of my body.

Hello craft re-organization.
Hello purging the old.
Hello sorting by color (awesome).

Hello LOAD514.

Hello May flowers (please?!).
Hello celebrating My One True Love.

:: my why ::

Today, I would like to share "my why". The difficult part is, there really is more than one reason for my obsession with memory keeping. There is all of that surface stuff; I love paper, I love playing with paper, scissors, glue, paint, etc.  I love getting crafty! And that is definitely important. It's one of the ways that I get the stress out, calm down, relax. And that is definitely enough of a reason. This post is meant to put into words all that other stuff; the other whys. 

My Why is because I want to remember everything. There are so many things in my life that I have already forgotten about. So. Many. I can't tell you how many times someone from my childhood as told a story, and I don't remember it at all. So, writing stuff down; capturing the everyday with photos and words is important to me. I could just journal or write it down in some way -- but scrapbooking and Project Life lets me get that "crafty" in, too.  Win, win!

My Why is because time & life moves too fast. This year I will turn 44. Yep, that's MID-FORTIES if you are keeping track. ;-)  I feel 22, maybe 23, most of the time. Whoosh, all that time as gone by and my daughter grew up, my parents grew older, I met my One True Love, I had another child. There are so many things that have happened in the last 20+ years, and I want to be able to see it, and sometimes feel it again. Over and over.  And I want my daughters to be able to do the same, see it and feel it.

My Why is because people die. I could've said that softer. I could've said, "life it short" or something like that, but truth be told, I don't feel soft about it, people die.  It seems like our family has had it's share (and then some) of people dying suddenly, and way too young. Keeping memories doesn't stop that or make it go away. However, for me, it helps me slow down, remember, appreciate. It helps me capture people and events in photos and words and keep them safe. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone except me and it doesn't really matter. That doesn't mean that I only do this for me…

My Why is is getting it all down for myself, for my family right now, and anyone coming down the road that might find it interesting.  I think it would be so cool to have something 'like this' created by my mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother.

I'm passionate about memory keeping. I keep exploring all kinds of different ways to make that happen and keep it fresh for me. What is your why? Please share, I'm totally interested!

:: i want to remember ::

I want to remember how much Bea loves to dye Easter eggs.

I want to remember that she dyes them all at least once, and usually twice.

I want to remember her bypassing the Easter basket and going straight to egg hunting when she woke up Easter morning.

I want to remember that we were all together on Easter at my mom and dad's house.

I want to remember there was an egg hunt there, too.

I want to remember that Brycen cut his second tooth while we were at Grandma and Grandpas!

I want to remember that Bea fell asleep on the way to G'ma and G'pa Braun's house, while still holding the flower that she had picked for her grandmother.

I want to remember that she woke up just in time for a third egg hunt when we arrived at the Braun's.