A long time ago I realized that daily moments with my daughters… the little things like mini-milestones or special moments that brought joy to my day, were getting ‘lost’ in the day to day of life. The fact of the matter was this: Great moments turn into memories and if you don’t take the time to capture them properly, they can (and will) disappear with time. Also Known As — “I can’t remember.”
Big events in our lives and the lives of our children have staying power. We remember them because we’ve taken pictures or the event was profound enough to take root in our minds, but let’s face it…life isn’t made up of big events. Life is made up of the daily living we do leading up to the big event markers of our lives.
My letter writing/memory keeping to my daughters started innocent enough.
One of my daughters told me an entertaining story about how a swarm of bees got in her throat (we had just left the doctor who told us she had strep throat) and the story was so cute and creative I thought to myself — I don’t want to forget this and someday I want to tell my daughter about her outrageous story.
So that night I grabbed a piece of paper, wrote down the story in detail, tucked it into an envelope, dated the outside and addressed it my daughter. A few days later my other daughter did something adorable and again I thought to myself, we don’t want to forget this and I wrote her a quick note about that moment, stuffed it in an envelope, dated it and addressed it to her.
A tradition of memory keeping was born…
I started capturing those fleeting day to day moments when my daughters were 5 & 8 years old. I now have hundreds (and hundreds) of small memories captured neatly in envelopes addressed to each of my daughters. I try not to mentally chastise myself for not having the foresight to start when they were born because even today, 13 years later, my heart aches for all those early lost memories….
Memory Keeping System:
It’s EASY!
Unlike say a scrapbook, we aren’t trying to organize anything or dazzle anyone with our creativity. These types of memory keepers happen in the now so it’s not a task or chore you find you need to ‘catch up’ with. This is you simply writing down the details of a ‘moment’ and preserving it in an envelope for safekeeping.
The best part? These memory envelopes can take just a few minutes from start to completely done.
All you need is:
- Blank Stationery with envelopes
- Pen
- A memory you don’t want to forget
- A box or waterproof container to collect the memories/envelopes as they stack up
I did find that when I put a little basket next to my nightstand filled with blank stationery, I was motivated to write more often. After a day spent raising two little girls, there was usually a moment or two that I didn’t want to forget.
I would grab a blank notecard, pen a quick Dear Shelby….today you/we did this…Love Mom
Done. Finished. Memory captured.
My daughters are now 21 & 18 and I can’t tell you how much they appreciate the fact that so many of their memories are captured in envelopes for them to read, reminisce, remember or ask me questions about. If you think about it, their envelopes will last a lifetime and maybe someday their own children or grandchildren will get to read them…
I’ll follow up in the near future about extra things I’ve done and added in with the memory envelopes to preserve the memories of my kids childhood.
Now go capture some memories before they fade with time…
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