Wednesday 1 August 2012

Am I Scrapbooking Enough?

I sometimes wonder if I am scrapbooking enough?  

I scrap the big events in the life of my family - birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the first day of school, vacations - because these events are full of incredible memories that I want to keep.      

I also try and scrap some of the everyday stuff - our routines, the girls huddled together reading a book, my garden, a renovation - so that I can look back and remember what my daily life was like at a particular point.

But even with all of that, I wonder if I am scrapping enough?  Am I doing enough to truly document the life of my family in my scrapbooks?

I take so many photos, as many of us do with digital cameras, and so many of these photos are simply filed on the computer. What about those memories? What about the funny thing that happened right before a certain picture was taken? Will I remember it if I don't scrap the photo?  I am not sure.

I know that it is impossible to scrap every photo.  And that even though some pictures will never be surrounded by pretty paper and journaling, they are still precious memories that were captured. Yet,  I still sometimes get the feeling that I am missing some important moment that should be documented in my scrapbook.    

Truth be told, I sometimes get a little frantic about this.

It is then, when I feel like I am coming up short, that I need to remember how much I have done.
  
I have a lovely album of our wedding; it is truly a treasure.  

Both my girls have albums of their first years.  

Our trips are documented in travel albums.

I make a family scrapbook every year, and it always takes up at least two albums.  

So I take a deep breath and relax. I try not to stress. I am doing plenty. My family's life is being documented. The memories are there, to be treasured forever, never forgotten. And those photos I did not scrap are organized on the computer.  

What about you?  Do you ever feel like you are leaving something out of your scrapbooks?  That some precious memory will be forgotten?  

Or do you look at what you have done, take a deep breath and know that you are doing enough to capture the memories?

2 comments:

  1. I try to look at it this way, my mother didn't do anything. Infact I don't even have a quarter of my childhood pictures, due to the family dividing. I am a 52 year old woman and it still affects me. But I am doing something about it by making treasures for my children so they can have their memories. If I don't get every little detail at least they have some and they have their own memories of each event. Enjoy what you are doing and don't sweat the small stuff.

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    1. Thank you for your lovely and encouraging response. It is so true that doing something is better than nothing, and that your family does have their own memories of each event regardless of whether you scrap every detail. Good luck with your albums; I'm sure your children will love them and treasure them always.

      Thank you for reading,

      Rachel

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