This is something that I have been trying to keep up with for several years. I began this format of journaling in 2018 respectively, but didn’t really work it all out until about 2019. At first it was a way to organize photos and ephemera, but when I started using my Happy Planner as a journal it soon became the perfect place to document all my memories and ponderings.

I’m sharing some of the first half of 2022 with you to give you an idea of how I put this together. It’s still a work in progress and there are a few more tips and processes that I will be sharing in future blog posts.

Today’s post starts in March because January and February were journaling pages and I really wanted to share just the memory keeping pages today.

March: Two small pages of gratitude.

I keep my pages pretty simple because the point of this is to document what’s been going on so that when I finally get around to working in my pocket page albums, I have the thoughts and memories to write onto the journaling cards.

On the left is a memory of trying to cheer my grandson up, as you can see I was eventually successful. But on the previous page I was telling him not to smile “Whatever you do, don’t smile” while I was taking a photo of his grumpy face, when he started to smile I said “Stop smiling…” until he was laughing! So fun!

On the right, running Wes to school the next morning and then a screenshot of a text my son sent me of the bow he purchased with his birthday money. (He lives in South Korea, so he’s on his own with choosing his gifties) I use screenshots of texts quite a bit in my memory keeping, but I’ll share that in another blog post.

April: Wedding dress shopping.

We found the right dress, but it needs a lot of work.

Behind this photo you can see a gratitude list. After a while I figured out that this entire journal is a gratitude list, and that it isn’t necessary to write out a list everyday, but to just get the thoughts and memories down on paper.

A birthday memory, a car wash helper, and more wedding dress drama, it was not going to be ready for the wedding!

I wish I could say that all of the memories in this journal were positive, but that is just not realistic. One of the biggest reasons I’m slightly obsessed with documenting is because life seems to go by so fast, and I often wonder where the time went. Planning and journaling is a way for me to grasp where the day went…along with sweet photos of course!

May: Getting ready to leave for the wedding venue.

I got to spend a little time with Wesley before we left, actually a lot of time, we didn’t get on the road until 9:30pm and we got there at 1:am. Yikes that was a scary drive into the mountains in the middle of the night!

Chocolate bars on our pillows helped though. Pages of these journals may end up pulled out and put into a pocket page album later, so I’m not too worried about using any of my ephemera in these.

Wesley’s Birthday:

I don’t use all the photos I’ve taken in this journal, just the ones that I can tie into my journaling. I made a note on the left there to remind myself that there are a few more photos that go along with this memory. Sometimes I run out of time and space for documenting, so small notes work. I will be using a professional printer when I put my final album pages together, these are from my home printer.

This project is also a great way to use up years worth of stickers and memory keeping flotsam that will never make it into my albums. I have a lot of extras left over from scrapbook paper pad sets, I loved the paper, but the stickers…?

June: Taking walks and going to the park.

I’m happy to say that because my daughter was working, I was able to step in and help take care of my grandson quite a bit over the summer. At the time we didn’t know that by the end of the year they would be relocating, so I will be forever grateful that I had all this time with him!

Of course I wish I had taken more photos, but because this is also a journal, I was able to document small memories too. All of these things will eventually make it into our albums. That’s why I love the pocket page system so much, I plan on rewriting some of these memories onto journaling cards as keepsakes. Along with small collage art pieces and a few of my grandson’s (and children’s) masterpieces. There are so many ways to be creative with it!

I still love art journaling, I used to do all my memory keeping in them, but I really prefer this method more. For me, art journaling is more of a way to document my moods than memories, and I still have a lot of those!

So, until next time,

I hope you are looking forward to this new addition in content as much as I am,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Take Care,

~Patty